Bio: Samuel PENNOCK, (1893); Chester County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** From the 'Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Comprising a Historical Sketch of the County', by Samuel T. Wiley, revised and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, published by the Gresham Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1893, pp. 665-667: "SAMUEL PENNOCK, one of the leading inventors of agricultural machinery in the United States, and a respected citizen of Kennett Square, with whose prosperity he has been prominently identified for nearly half a century, is a son of Moses and Mary J. (Lamborn) Pennock, and was born in East Marlborough township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1816. The ancestor of the Pennock family in Pennsylvania was Christopher Pennock, who married Mary, daughter of George Collett, of Ireland. He came in 1685 to Philadelphia, where he died in 1701. His son, Joseph Pennock, was born in 1677, in Ireland, and came with his father to Philadelphia, where he was engaged in the mercantile business until 1714, when he settled in West Marlborough township. He married Mary Levis, and their son, William Pennock (great-grandfather), was born in 1707. He married Alice Mendenhall, and of the nine children born to them, one was Samuel Pennock (grandfather), who was born November 23, 1754. He was a chair, reel and 'little wheel' manufacturer, and married Mary Hadley, by whom he had nine children: Margaret, Simon, Phebe, Moses, Elizabeth, John, Amy, Hannah and Mary. Moses Pennock (father), the second son, was born November 14, 1786, in East Marlborough township, near Kennett Square. He became interested at an early age in agricultural inventions, and in 1822 invented and patented the first practical revolving horse rake. In 1824 he secured a patent on a discharging rake, and six years later invented and patented a vibrating grain thresher. He was a democrat and a Friend, and married Mary Jones Lamborn, who was a daughter of Robert and Martha (Townsend) Lamborn, and who died aged seventy-four years. They had nine children: Thomazine, Jesse, Samuel, Hannah, Barclay, Morton, Edith, Joanna, and Sarah. Of these children Morton and Samuel Pennock established a warehouse at Wilmington, Delaware. He died at Kennett Square in 1864. Barclay Pennock, who died March 9, 1858, was one of Bayard Taylor's companions in his travels through Europe, that are recorded in 'Views Afoot.' Barclay Pennock was a scholar and a man of literary ability, and his 'Folk Lore' of ancient Scandinavia, and his descriptions of his travels through northern Europe, are interesting and entertaining. Samuel Pennock was reared on his father's farm, received his education in the schools of his neighborhood, and then learned the trade of carriage maker. Later he went to Wilmington and for one year was engaged with the firm of Harlan & Hollingsworth. Leaving Delaware he returned to the farm to study the agricultural machinery then in use, and soon made improvements on a rude grain drill which his father had patented. This improved drill, which he patented, contained the idea upon which all the modern grain drills are constructed. In 1859 Mr. Pennock invented and patented the 'Iron Harvester,' the first mowing machine in America that was equipped with a cutter-bar that could be raised and lowered without the driver leaving his seat. Fifteen years later, in 1873, he invented, patented, and introduced into use, the 'Pennock Road Machine,' the first practical machine in this country for the construction and repair of roads. Mr. Pennock came in 1844 to Kennett Square, when it contained but thirty houses, and during his residence here, has seen it grow from a place of one hundred and fifty population to a borough with fifteen hundred inhabitants. He was originally a republican, but is now rather independent in politics. He is a Friend in religion, and a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been a strict temperance man for over fifty years. He has never used tobacco, and has always opposed the use of tobacco and intoxicating drinks." In September, 1853, Mr. Pennock married Deborah A. Yerkes, a daughter of John Yerkes. They have three children: Frederick M., Charles J. and Theodore. Frederick M. Pennock was graduated from Cornell university in 1877, married Cora W. Webster, of New York, and is now engaged in the manufacture of road machines and steel bridges in Charleston, West Virginia. Charles J. Pennock received his education at Cornell university, was assistant curator of the museum at Princeton college for some time, and with his wife Mary, nee Scarlet, lives near Kennett Square, where he is now a florist. Theodore Pennock received his education at Cornell university, married M. Louisa Sharp, and is the general eastern agent for the Western Wheel Scraper Company."