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Note: John Hodgson - Obituary John Hodgson, who was at one time editor and proprietor of The Jeffersonian, died at his home in Chester, Delaware county, on Friday evening at 6:30 o'clock, after a protracted illness, occasioned by hemorrhages of the lungs, in the 74th year of his age. Deceased was born on the 18th day of March, 1808, in Burton-Agnes, England, and came to the United Sates when he was but nine years of age, accompanied by his parents, brothers and sisters ten in all. After a long and tedious passage of seven weeks and three days in an old-fashioned sailship, the emigrant Hodgson family landed in the New World to seek a home and a livelihood. The settled in the adjoining State of Delaware, where they lived for a few months only. Leaving Delaware they came to West Chester. Some time after this, the subject of this sketch was apprenticed to learn the art of printing. He was placed in the office of the Village Record, then under the management of Charles A. Miner. He remained in the above office a few years, where, by industrious application, acquired the rudiments of the trade. At the age of seventeen he went to Doylestown, Bucks County, where he found employment in the Intelligencer office. The paper issued from this establishment was then edited and published by James Kelly, a brother-in-law, Whilst living there he married Mary, daughter of Samuel Hall. After living in Doylestown several years, he moved to Norristown for the purpose of engaging in a newspaper enterprise. For three or four years he was the publisher of the Herald, then one of those old-time weekly journals, devoted to the general news, poetry, literature, etc. From Norristown, he went to Philadelphia to engage in mercantile business, as a dry goods merchant, his storeroom being located on Market, above Tenth. This life not appealing to his tastes, his journalistic instincts naturally sought a field for a renewal of action. He accordingly came to West Chester and established The Jeffersonian, which he, for nearly thirty years, conducted with tact and ability, his labors being attended with success. In 1857 deceased was elected to the State Legislature on the Democratic ticket. Morton Garret, of East Brandywine, and Eber W. Sharpe, of New Garden, were upon the same ticket as candidates for Assembly, and both were also elected. Deceased, at one time of his life, took an active interest in the military affairs of Chester and Delaware counties. In recognition of his interest he was made Quartermaster of the old National Guards, and subsequently Major of the State militia on General Trimble's staff. He was also a member of long standing in the order of Odd Fellows' and was a charter member of Pocahontas Lodge, of this borough. Mr. Hodgson was essentially a newspaperman; one who loved the duties pertaining to a newspaper office, and consequently was no seeker for public official positions. He was a man who thoroughly understood the mechanical department of a printing office. He looked after and controlled the weekly make-up of his paper, and it was no uncommon occurrence for him to take up a printer's "stick" and rule and without much previous thought go to a case of type and "set up" an editorial or an item with an ease scarcely to be expected. This sort of composition he preferred to that composed of copy prepared by the use of pen and ink. As a writer he was forcible and pointed, and his readers always understood the meaning of his articles. He was a man by nature of a kind and forbearing disposition, which trait of character was known and appreciated by his intimate friends. Mr. Hodgson belonged to a family remarkable for its longevity and exceptional physical health. Of a family of eight children, four of whom are yet living, not one up to the present time had died under the age of seventy three years. The long life of the deceased, he having attained the good old age of over three score and ten, showed that he had inherited at least a characteristic of his family. The same, however, cannot be said with regard to his physical health. For years he had been an invalid, his affection being one peculiar to the lungs, which often caused hemorrhage of a violent nature. But notwithstanding these visitations he showed a power of industry and attention to business, which, had he possessed a weaker constitution, would have disabled him for the active, every-day affairs of it.
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