PAPERS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE. XXXIX. PENNOCK PUSEY. A MEMOIR OF PENNOCK PUSEY, LATE HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE, BY HON. CHARLES B. LORE, PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. ALSO "RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CORNER OF MARKET AND THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE, WILMINGTON. At the regular meeting of the Society held on Monday evening, February 16th, 1903, the announcement was made of the death of Pennock Pusey, which had occurred at his residence in this city on the morning of that day. Formal resolutions were adopted and the society resolved to attend the funeral services in a body. Mr. Pusey had been actively interested in the Society since its organization. He had always cherished a warm attachment for the City of Wilmington, where his boyhood and youth were spent. After an absence in the West for a period of thirty years, where by dint of good judgment and business integrity he succeeded in accumulating a modest fortune, he retired from active business pursuits and returned to the scenes of youthful days. To him it was like coming home. No man ever had a deeper love for nature. For him the notes of the soaring bird were the sweetest music, and the ripple of the waters of his beloved Brandywine was truly "Symphony and Song," to him. In close communion with nature, and enthusiastically devoted to local history he spent his latter days in recalling the incidents, and preserving the history and traditions of the past. He was undoubtedly the best versed man in this locality on all matters touching the early settlements in this region, and no one took a greater interest in the work of the Society. Acting for six years as the Historiographer of the society, his yearly reports, as such, proved always the most interesting feature of the annual meetings, and were an embodiment of the painstaking research that invariably marked his literary work. No one will be able to fill exactly the niche he occupied. There has been but one Pennock Pusey in this community. To some of us who came in close touch with his life the kindly greeting and the genial presence will be long remembered as the days go on. "His mute dust I honor, and his living worth." HENRY C. CONRAD. |