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LEWIS BRINTON (deceased), a worthy representative of a family that has been well and favorably known in Lancaster county and vicinity for two centuries, was born on a part of the present home of the family May 19, 1829, and there he died May 26, 1883, aged fifty-four years and seven days. He was a son of Samuel and Lydia P. Brinton, and a brother of William P. Brinton, whose sketch appears elsewhere. On April 17, 1856, in Beaver county, Pa., Lewis Brinton was married, by the Rev. B. T. Critzlow, a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, to Mary Bradley Boak, of New Brighton, of that county. To this union were born: (1) Rilla W., born Jan. 10, 1857, was a cultured and noble woman, who died April 18, 1892. (2) Charles Edgar, born March 25, 1860, is a printer by trade, and lives in Philadelphia; he married Leah Conard, and has two daughters, Edna Harvey and Mabel Boak. (3) Walter, born Sept. 28, 1863, is a manufacturer of Manganese steel, with the Taylor Iron and Steel Co., at High Bridge, N. J. He is a highly skilled worker in iron and two kinds of steel, having medals and diplomas from several European countries, and is much esteemed in business circles. He is now serving his second term as mayor of High Bridge. He married Elizabeth Ewing, of Chester, Pa., and has had five children, Elizabeth Ewing (deceased), Rilla Crothers and Agnes Ewing (twins), Helen Erskine and John Taylor. (4) Lydia Suseanna Rigby, born Jan. 26, 1869, married Thomas W. Jopson, of Germantown, Pa., a lawyer of considerable ability, living at No. 523 Chestnut street, Philadelphia; they have four children, William Sidney, Arthur Brinton, John Marshall and Elizabeth Thomas.
Mrs. Mary Bradley (Boak) Brinton was born in Boalsville, Beaver county, Oct. 29, 1839, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Eldridge) Boak. John Boak was a fire-brick, clay and iron manufacturer, and died Oct. 28, 1847, at the age of forty-five years. His widow passed to her rest in February, 1890, at the age of seventy-two years. They were members of the Presbyterian Church and Society of Friends, respectively. To them were born: William, died at the age of eleven years and two months; Mary Bradley; Robert, a groceryman at Foster Brook, Pa., married Annie Powers, of Boston, Mass.; Martha, deceased, was twice married, her first husband being John McPherson, and her second, J. Shepler, of Greensburg, Pa.; Samuel, a farmer and lumberman, died in Center county; Elizabeth, deceased, married George Kamey, of Pittsburg, Pa. Both Samuel and Robert served three years in the Union army during the Civil war, and hold honorable discharges.
The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Brinton were William and Martha (Bradley) Boak, natives of Ireland, though married in Scotland. William Boak carried on a distillery in Beaver county, and was a large landowner in his day. He belonged to the Presbyterian Church, and was a man of much prominence in the community. Lewis Brinton was reared on the farm where his family still reside, until the age of twenty-five, when he went to New Brighton, Beaver county, where for three years he was engaged in the making of tubs, buckets and wash boards. At the end of that period he married, and located in Johnson county, Iowa, where he was farming four years, when he sold his farm and returned to the old homestead, and spent the remainder of his life on the farm that had been in the possession of the Brinton family for over 200 years, and which has now passed to his children as the family estate.
Mr. Brinton was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and in religion was a member of the Orthodox Friends. In Sadsbury township, during his active years, he was called upon to fill various local offices, and was a deputy internal revenue collector, township tax collector, and justice of the peace, receiving his commission from Governor Curtin. The present family farm consists of nineteen acres, though it consisted at one time of 180 acres. The site of Christiana takes in the most of it.