Upper Darby Township.
ton-mill, he became proficient in the trade of a weaver, and at sixteen was made foreman, which responsible position he filled acceptably for a period of three years, when he learned the art of silk weaving. He continued thus engaged until 1839, when, having determined to emigrate to America, he landed in Philadelphia, and repaired at once to Clifton, Delaware Co., where he became associated with his brother-in-law in the spinning of carpet-yarns. Mr. Kent remained thus employed until 1843, when a copartnership was formed with his brother John, under the firm-name of J. & T. Kent. They continued the manufacture of carpet-yarns, renting for the purpose the mill which had formerly been operated by James Wild. A disastrous fire and freshet the same year destroyed both mill and machinery, but, nothing daunted, the same fall another mill was rented, fully equipped with machinery, and in active operation during the beginning of the following year. The copartnership which existed until 1852 ended in the purchase by Thomas Kent of the entire interest. The same year he introduced the weaving of Kentucky jeans, and continued to supply the market with this article until 1861, when the mill was devoted to the manufacture of products for the government. In 1867 the old mill was demolished, and the present spacious and convenient structure erected in its stead. The production of cloths was continued until 1877, when flannels were made a specialty, and are still the product of the looms.
Mr. Kent was married, in 1852, to Miss Fannie Leonard, daughter of Simeon and Bodicea Leonard. Their children are Hannah (Mrs. Frederick Schoff), Henry L., Louisa, Francis L. (deceased), Samuel L., and Mary A. Mr. Kent was early a Whig in his political predilections, and subsequently indorsed the platform and principles of the Republican party. The engrossing cares of a very prosperous business have, however, precluded an active interest in public affairs, and debarred him from political associations, which are little to his taste. In his religious faith he is a Swedenborgian, and a member of the New Jerusalem Church in Upper Darby.
Clifton Mills. - A paper-mill was in operation on the site of these mills in 1782, then owned by Samuel Levis and conducted by William Levis, to whom it was devised by his father's will Aug. 22, 1793. William Levis, in December, 1795, purchased of John Lungren a paper-mill on Ridley Creek, which in 1822 was changed to a cotton-factory. The latter property is now owned by Samuel Bancroft. The mill on Darby Creek, after the death of William Levis, was sold by Oborn and William Levis on Feb. 24, 1825, to Samuel Eckstein, together with eighteen acres of land and the use of water in the creek from the dam and race of the upper mills, now Glenwood Mills. The new owner rented the mills to William Amies & Co. The estate came into the ownership of the Pennsylvania Hospital in October, 1842, and shortly after was sold to Oborn Levis. At that time it was a two-vate paper-mill ninety by thirty-two feet, three stories in height, and was known as the Lamb Mill. Oborn Levis operated this mill until his death, when by his will it became the property of his son Oborn, who in 1867 changed it to a cotton-factory. The latter continued to operate the mills until his death, and in 1881 his administrators sold it to William Longstreth, who died soon after, and the Clifton Mills are now owned by his estate. The main mill is one hundred and eighty by fifty-two feet, and is partly two and partly three stories in height. The machinery consists of seventeen hundred woolen-spindles, four sets of cards, one hundred and eight looms, five thousand cotton-spindles, and nine cards. One hundred and thirty-five persons are employed in these mills, and thirty bales of cotton are used weekly in manufacturing goods.
Glenwood Mills. - Samuel Levis, a maltster of Leicester, England, with William Garrett, before leaving England, purchased one thousand acres of land from William Penn. Levis, Garrett, and others emigrated to the province in 1684, landing at Chester, and shortly after settled on Darby Creek in Upper Darby, and built the house where Samuel G. Levis now lives. At the death of Samuel Levis, the real estate in the bend of Darby Creek, just south of the Garrettford road, descended to Samuel Levis, the younger. The latter is said to have erected at this location the first mill ever built by the Levis family, and as it was a scythe or tilt-mill, it certainly was not erected prior to the middle of the last century. In 1779, Levis had a grist-mill and an oil-mill at this site. The tilt-mill could not have proved successful, for several years prior to the Revolution the building had been changed to a paper-mill. Samuel Levis (2d) had several sons; among the number were Samuel, William, and Isaac Levis. The latter removed in 1775 to Ridley Creek, where now are the Media Water-Works; William had other mills near the Glenwood site which belonged to his father Samuel (3), died in 1793, and this mill descended to Samuel (4), who died in 1813, and the estate passed to his sons, Samuel, William. and Oborn Levis. To William the mills which later became the Eckstein Mills descended, to Samuel the present mills came, and to Oborn the Oborn Garrett Mills. Samuel and Oborn subsequently exchanged properties, and Oborn Levis came into possession of the Glenwood Mills. They were operated by Thomas Amies & Son from 1828 to 1838, later by Israel Ames and Benjamin Gaskill to 1840. From that time Oborn and Samuel G. Levis owned and conducted the mills to the death of Oborn, since which time they have been managed by Samuel G. Levis. In 1862 the paper-mill was torn down and a cotton- and woolen-factory built, one hundred and ten by fifty-four feet, three stories high, with annex one hundred and five by twenty-seven feet, two stories high. The factory at present contains four thousand spindles, nine sets of cards, one hundred and sixty-two looms; one hundred and forty opera-