Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Lucy WHARTON
Lucy Wharton, eldest daughter of Thomas Lloyd and Sarah Ann Howell (Smith) Wharton, born May 13, 1841, married, April 18, 1865, Joseph W. Drexel, of the well known firm of Drexel & Company, bankers, New York. He was a son of Francis M. Drexel, a native of Austria, who in early life was an artist and portrait painter. He located for a time in South America, where he attracted the attention of Gen. Simon Bolivar, the distinguished hero and patriot of South American independence, whose portrait he painted. The firm as first established consisted of Francis M. Drexel and his son Francis, but soon after its establishment two other sons, Anthony and Joseph W., were admitted to the firm. In 1871 Joseph W. Drexel was placed in charge of a branch banking house in New York City, with which he was associated actively for five years, when he retired from its active management and thereafter devoted his attention to various philanthropic schemes for the betterment of the condition of the poorer classes. One of his successful projects was the incorporation of Klej Grange, upon a large tract of land in Maryland, where he induced poor families to settle by keeping them without charge for one year, and then selling them the land on easy payments. He also owned a large plantation in New Jersey, known as Cedar Hill Farm, where hordes of unemployed poor were fed and clothed until remunerative employment could be found for them elsewhere. Many other projects for the employment and alleviation of the wants and sufferings of the poor were carried into effect by him in Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere. Mr. Drexel was a musician of talent and a patron of the higher arts. He was a member of the Philharmonic Society and its president at the time of his death and member of a number of other musical organizations, and a life member of the Metropolitan Art Museum. For many years prior to his death a musical quartette was entertained at his house on Thursday of each week. He died March 25, 1888.
Mrs. Drexel has for several years made her home at Penn Rhyn, on the Delaware river, part of a plantation of two hundred and fifty acres known as "Belle Voir," purchased by Abraham Bickley, a native of Sussex county, England, 1804, and named by him Penn Rhyn after the home of his ancestors in Wales. The old mansion house located on the historic Bristol pike, occupied by the Bickley family for nearly a century, descended to Lloyd Wharton, an uncle of Mrs. Drexel, who thereupon took the name of Lloyd Wharton Bickley. After his death, it was occupied for some years by his widow, at whose death it passed to her son, Dr. Lloyd Wharton Bickley, who in 1899 conveyed it to Mrs. Drexel. It commands a fine view of the Delaware river and the surrounding country, and is now, as it has been for centuries, the scene of a generous hospitality. Mrs. Drexel has enlarged the house and made extensive improvements in the grounds. She lives here all the year, making occasional visits to her Philadelphia house.
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