Rash's Surname Index
Notes for John Jr. LARKIN
JOHN LARKIN JR. was born in Concord township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, October 3d, 1804, and is a son of John Larkin, a farmer. After a limited education in the common schools, he labored on his father's place until-he was twenty-one years of age. Then he rented a farm in Lower Chichester Township, and worked it for two years. In 1827, he married Charlotte, daughter of Captain Erasmus Morton. After keeping a store at Chichester Cross Roads for one year he removed to Marcus Hook, where he engaged in the same business for three years. Having purchased a freight vessel in 1832 he established a packet line between Marcus Hook and Philadelphia, which he continued until 1839, when he sold his vessel, wharf, and business interests. He was elected sheriff of Delaware County for three years in 1840, and after the expiration of his term removed to a farm of 155 acres in Lower Chichester. He was elected to the Legislature in 1844, and re-elected in 1845. In 1848 he built two vessels to establish a daily line of packets between Chester and Philadelphia. In the autumn of the same year he purchased a property in Chester, and having erected a dwelling removed thither. He then engaged in business with William Booth, forming in March 1849, the co-partnership of Booth & Larkin, to run a daily line of packets between Chester and Philadelphia in connection with the lumber and coal business. The firm enjoyed a prosperous career until March 1852, when the partnership was dissolved, and he gave his time and attention to real estate operations. This was consequent upon the exchange, in 1850, of his farm for eighty-three acres in the north ward of Chester, belonging to John Cochran, which had been previously occupied as a racecourse. In 1854 he proposed to erect a mill for Abraham Blakeley of any dimensions, and to finish it before October 1st of that year. His offer was accepted, and he erected a handsome three-story brick structure, l00 by 45 feet, completing it two months before the specified time. He also built during the same year twenty-two dwelling houses, and by the large sale of lots and strenuous efforts was enabled to carry out to the full extent his beneficent enterprise. This movement gave the first impetus to manufactures in Chester, and he has followed it by the erection of a total of one hundred and thirty-eight dwellings in Chester, and forty-two in Marcus Hook, beside thirteen manufacturing establishments. He was for eleven years a member of the Borough Council, and for six years was President of that body. Chester having been incorporated in 1866, he was the first mayor, and was re-elected for three years in 1869. He is (1874) president of the Chester Rural Cemetery Company, of which he was an originator, as well as of the First National Bank, to the presidency of which he was elected in 1871. He has long been prominent in the settlement of estates, and is now (1874) engaged in extensive real estate operations at Marcus Hook.
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