Details
Title Chillas, David
Alternate title Chilles, David
Date ca. 1817-1880
Description David Chillas, born ca. 1817 in Scotland, worked as a lithographer in Philadelphia from 1852 to 1858. Chillas immigrated to Philadelphia by 1842 where he was naturalized on April 18, 1842. A lithographer of "labels, illustrations, maps, charts &c., executed in the best and most expeditious manner," Chillas entered the trade in 1852 when he partnered with Alphonse Brett (A. Brett & Co.) at Goldsmiths' Hall on Library Street near Fifth Street. Following the dissolution of the partnership in February 1853 and public auction of A. Brett & Co.'s stock, including lithographic plates, Chillas established his own firm at 50 (i.e., 112-114) South Third Street, later known as the Bulletin Building. He operated at the location producing advertisements, cityscapes, and certificates until 1858 when he left the trade and relocated to Delaware to farm.
After Chillas arrived in Philadelphia in 1842 and before entering lithography, he worked as a merchant at the North American Coal Company (99 South Front Street) with his older brother Arthur (b. ca. 1810), president of the firm since 1839. After marrying Philadelphia-native Mary F. B. de la Roche in the fall of 1842, David relocated to Pottsville as an assignee, resident agent, and coal operator for the coal company. By 1850 he still resided at the Pottsville South Ward with his family, including two children, Louisa (b. ca. 1843) and Arthur (b. ca. 1849). By 1853 he resided at 7 South Penn Square in Philadelphia when he established his own lithographic firm. Chillas and his wife, while living in Philadelphia, had two more children, Emma (b. 1853) and Richard (b. 1855). Additional children Frances (b. 1858) and David W. (b. 1859) would be born in Delaware.
Following his relocation to Delaware, the December 6, 1859 edition of the "Baltimore Sun" noted the sale of Chilas's 131-acre farm near Newark, Delaware to Thomas Lum of Philadelphia for $11,250. He remained as a Delaware farmer as of the 1860 census when listed at Mill Creek Hundred with real estate valued at $67,000 and a personal estate worth $5,000. During the Civil War, he earned enough income to be taxed by the I.R.S. (1862-1863) and published several advertisements for "water power to rent" from his Newark, Delaware location in 1864 in Philadelphia, New York and Delaware newspapers. Although still listed in the 1870 census at Mill Creek Hundred, New Castle, Delaware, with real estate valued at $25,000 and a personal estate worth $2,640, he possibly was the David Chillas who worked as a retail dealer in Burning Springs, West Virginia as noted in the 1865 I.R.S. tax assessments. According to the Federal census mortality schedule index lists, Chillas died at the age of sixty-three as a farmer in New Castle County, Delaware in 1880.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
References See Brett, Alphonse
Has format Smithsonian-GraphicArts-Chillas.jpg
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Census 1850, 1860, 1870
Equity Proceedings of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Philadelphia, September Term, no. 13, David Chillas v. Alphonse Brett, Philadelphia City Archives
Groce & Wallace, 125-126
Last, 174
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
North American, February 18, 1853
Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
Peters, 140
Philadelphia, 1789-1880 Naturalization Records
Philadelphia Business and City Directories, 1843; 1853-1857
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 8, 1842
U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index
WWWAA, 637
Image file Smithsonian-GraphicArts-Chillas