1882.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



279 



of Alan, was the son of the above-named Benja- 

 min and Sarah (Diingan) Corson, and was born 

 in Bucks County. We have thus tracgd his 

 lineage from the Huguenots of France and the 

 Baptists of England, who for conscience' sake 

 had left homes and kindred. 



The Dickinsons were members of the Estab- 

 lished Church until near the time of Wm. Penn, 

 when some of them embraced the faith of 

 Friend-!. As early as 1659 three brothers oame 

 to Ann-Arundel Count} , Maryland, with Colonel 

 Stone, who brought a large number of Episco- 

 palians. In 1680, Wm. Dickinson, then a mem- 

 ber of Friends came to Plymouth and settled on 

 two hundred acres of land, now the estates of 

 Morton and Joseph Albertson, adjoining Ply- 

 mouth Friends' Meeting. This Wm. Dickinson 

 was the great-grandfather of Hannah Dickinson, 

 who married Joseph Corson, the father of Alan 

 W^. She was married from the old Plymouth 

 homestead ; but as her husband was not a mem- 

 iier of the Society of Friends, she was expelled 

 in accordance with the then custom. Her hus- 

 band and herself always afterwards attended the 

 meeting and reared their children in accordance 

 with their habits and principles. The Dickinson 

 family has an unbroken record from the fifteenth 

 century, time of Henry VII. 

 A. W. Corson s oivn account of his life wntlen in 



1871: 



" Was born 21st February, 1788, and remained 

 in my father's family until the time of mj^ mar- 

 riage with Mary Eglent, and till June, 1812, ex- 

 cept that I was with Samuel Livezey a few 

 months as store-boy. I went to school a few 

 months in the summer that I was six years old, 

 and in the two succeeding summers, and a few 

 months in the winters of the three succeeding 

 3'ears ending in the spring of 1800. Worked on 

 the farm or in the store, as wanted, till about 

 1812. Married in 1811 ; rented the store of 

 father in June and remained there till March, 

 1814, when 1 bought a house and foity-five acres 

 of land in Whilemarsh, along the Plymouth 

 line ; farmed and kept store then till 1823. I 

 commenced surveying, too, in 1816, and contin- 

 ued it, when wanted, nearly forty years; and 

 also tauglit school in Plymouth Meeting some- 

 times, and a few winters — five or six — at home. 

 Was much engaged in S3itling estates until 1844; 

 continued the farm all this time and till 1848, 

 when it was ' put out on shares,' I still residing 

 in the house. I had been at times raising fruit 

 and ornamental trefs and shrubs before I quit 



farming; but after that time gave more atten- 

 tion to it, doing little else to the present time, 

 1871. Conveyancing was also resorted to while 

 I followed surveying." 



The above is his own account of his business 

 life until 1871. He was engaged in botany as 

 early as the time when his daughter Hannah (now 

 Mrs. James Ritchie) was at West Town school, 

 1828. There is an incident connected with his 

 visit to her at that time which is interesting, as 

 it led to a great change in the life of another 

 man of local celebrity. 



Alan had been to West Town Friends' School 

 to see his daughter, and on returning called to 

 see his first cousin, John Evans, of Delaware 

 County, with whom, until that time, he had not 

 had much acquaintance. Our mother and 

 John's mother were sisters ; but as both died 

 while their children were yet young, and as, the 

 families lived in different counties, but little in- 

 tercourse was had. On the next morning, after 

 a night spent at John's house, Alan rose early 

 and walked along the creek gathering and ex- 

 aming planis. It was a place abounding in wild 

 plants. When John found him thus employed, 

 he wanted to know what he was doing. Alan 

 told him he was studying plants and explained 

 to him the systems of Jussieu and of Linnseus. 

 There was at once a new field open to John 

 Evans, who up to this time had been an ardent 

 fox hunter, keeping a number of hounds, and 

 riding a splendid horse over the hills and val- 

 leys of Delaware County in winter time, abreast 

 of the best of the many who in that region at 

 that time participated in the sport. His in- 

 terest in the sport was gone ; the kennel was 

 broken up. With Darlington's Botany of Ches- 

 ter County in hand, he went over the hills and 

 valleys of his native county again; but it was in 

 search of plants, not of foxes. And now the two 

 cousins who had'been so long almost strangers to 

 each other, became intimate friends, whose daily 

 companions were Jussieu, Linnteus, Darlington 

 and Eaton. It was a friendship and a com- 

 panionship in which selfishness was unknown 

 and which terminated only with life. Both 

 busy men, engaged in industries for a livelihood, 

 they still found time to traverse the counties of 

 Montgomery, Chester and Delaware; the coal 

 regions and the Alleghanies of Pennsyl- 

 vania; the pine woods and sea shores of 

 New Jersey; the Adirondacks of New York and 

 the low-lands of Delaware and Maryland, to 

 gather specimens of plants and minerals and 



