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A BIOGRAPHICAL
ALBUM of PROMINENT PENNSYLVANIANS
Gc 974.8 B513 v.1 1324618
GENC
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01177 3097
GENEALOGY 974.8 B513 v.1
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
PROPERTY OF AUSTIN BOYER WEISSPORT. CARBON CO. PA ..
PROPERTY OF -
T
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/biographicalalbu01phil
A BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM
OF
PROMINENT PENNSYLVANIANS.
VIRTUE
LIBERT
DEPENDENCE
NON MULTA, SED MULTUM.
THERE IS NO LIFE OF A MAN, FAITHFULLY RECORDED, BUT IS A HEROIC POEM OF ITS SORT, RHYMED OR UNRHYMED .- Carlyle.
FIRST SERIES.
STATESMEN, MILITARY OFFICERS, JOURNALISTS, EDUCATORS
AND PROMINENT PERSONS RECENTLY DECEASED.
PHILADELPHIA : THE AMERICAN BIOGRAPIHCAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. (CHARLES R. DEACON, MANAGER .;
1888. > This book belongs to * AUSTIN BOYERR. WEILLFORT, PA. Please ReJuin
COPYRIGHTED BY CHARLES RIDGWAY DEACON, ISSS.
·
FEROUSON BROS. & CO. PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS. PHILADELPHIA.
1324618
PREFACE.
GREAT the State and great her sons,
Greater still than mightier ones Who rule their realms with purse and sword,
Whose every act is stained with fraud. Stamp their fame on history's page, Place their names amongst the sage
Who've served the Nation and the State,
Whose every act has made them great- Men of Pennsylvania. -Hon. Samuel G. King.
T HIS work had its inception in newspaper enterprise which, it must be admitted, is now the dominant factor in American civiliza- tion. If History, as Carlyle says, "is the essence of innumerable biographies," the nineteenth century is making history very rapidly ; for biography is a leading feature in modern journalism. Probably the most notable series of biographies that have appeared in late years were those published in the weekly issues of the Philadelphia Press under the caption of "State Celebrities;" and which induced some young journalists to undertake the preparation of a work that would, as they announced, "put into enduring form so much of the history of Pennsylvania as a few of her active citizens have helped to make." This was the origin of the "Biographical Album of Prominent Penn- sylvanians" now offered to the public, but which was not carried very far toward completion by its originators, who, meeting with unexpected obstacles and perplexities, allowed their zeal to flag, and the under- taking was suspended for a time until it passed into the hands of its present publishers.
In presenting these volumes of "Prominent Pennsylvanians " we may claim that we are following in the footsteps of the most enlight- ened and progressive of our sister States. New England has pub- lished the genealogy of nearly every one of her leading families ; Ohio has devoted four ponderous volumes to recording the lives and doings of her prominent men ; while Pennsylvania, although she has citizens who have adorned every department of life, has thus far failed to
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4
PREFACE.
" cherish the story " of her sons who have rendered important service in many ways to the State and mankind. Why should not honor be given during life, as well as after death, to those to whom honor is due ? No doubt the predominance of the Quaker and German elements in our population is, in part, chargeable with this neglect, which has sub- jected us to the reproach of being "without State pride," but the publication of this work, we trust, heralds the promise of better days for Pennsylvanians, and affords encouragement to our young men to press forward in well-doing in the confidence that their merits will be recognized as they deserve.
It is but justice to those whose personal histories are recorded in these volumes, to state that no one of them solicited a place in the work, and they furnished data for their sketches and photographs for their portraits, only in response to a pressing invitation given after a careful consideration of their merit ; and it is also just to other prominent men, whose life-records will not be found in these volumes, to admit that many of them are equally worthy of the distinction; but this book is in no sense an encyclopædia, and the subjects selected must be con- sidered as representative of many others "now living or recently deceased."
To guard against the fault common to works of this class, of being too unwieldy for convenient reference, the contents have been sub- divided into three parts or series : the first, as will be seen, embracing biographical sketches of men distinguished in political and military life, journalists, professors, and men recently deceased ; the second, composed largely of representative professional men-lawyers, physi- cians and artists ; while the third is devoted principally to the active men of the present day, who are prominent in industrial enterprises, commerce, inventions and railroad management.
The publishers extend their thanks to all who have aided them in their arduous enterprise, and desire to express their acknowledgments to Hox. WM. D. KELLEY, GEORGE W. CHILDS, JOHN Y. HUBER, and particularly to EDWIN T. FREEDLEY, whose co-operation has been earnest and effective.
C. R. D.
PHILADELPHIA, 1888.
This book belongs to k AUSTIN BOYER, WEISSPORI, PA. Please Recuin
INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES.
PROMINENT PENNSYLVANIANS .- FIRST SERIES.
ADAMS, ROBERT, JR.
191
ADAMSON, THOMAS
203
AFRICA, J. SIMPSON
211
AGNEW, DANIEL
101
ALLEN, HARRISON
265
ALLEN, ROBERT P.
167
BAIRD, ABSALOM
231
BAKER, ALFRED G.
437
BARR, JAMES P.
383
BATES, STOCKTON
421
BINGHAM, HENRY H.
23
BISHOP, JOHN S.
309
BREWSTER, BENJAMIN H.
97
BROOKE, H. JONES
149
BROOKE, JOHN R.
247
BUNN, WILLIAM M.
417
BUNNELL, FRANK C.
43
CAMERON, SIMON
89
CAMPBELL, JAMES H.
69
CATTELL, WILLIAM C.
323
CHILDS, GEORGE W.
357
COHEN, HENRY
423
COOPER, THOMAS V.
183
CRAWFORD, SAMUEL W.
253
CURTIN, ANDREW G.
61
DAVIS, ROBERT S.
397
DEMMING, HENRY C.
297
DICK, SAMUEL B.
77
DRAVO, JOHN F.
187
ELLIOTT, WASHINGTON L.
245
EVERHART, JAMES B.
27
FAUNCE, JOHN E.
179
FETTEROLF, ADAM H.
343
FITLER, EDWIN H. .
223
GABLE, WILLIAM
199
GARRETSON, JAMES E.
349
GAZZAM, JOSEPH M.
169
GRADY, JOHN C.
175
GRUBB, EDWARD BURD
261
GUSKY, JACOB M.
443
HANCOCK, WINFIELD S.
227
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INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES.
HANDY, MOSES P.
. 401
HEYL, EDWARD M.
289
HORNE, ABRAHAM R.
345
HOWSON, HENRY
445
HOYT, HENRY M.
125
HUGHES, FRANCIS W.
141
KELLEY, WILLIAM D.
7
KING, SAMUEL G.
217
KNOX, JAMES H. M.
335
KOONTZ, WILLIAM H.
73
LILLY, WILLIAM
285
MACFARLANE, JOHN J.
161
MACKELLAR, THOMAS
355
MARCH, FRANCIS A.
339
MACCALLA, CLIFFORD P.
405
MCCLURE, ALEXANDER K.
363
MELVILLE, GEORGE W.
321
MERCUR, ULYSSES
III
MITCHELL, JOHN H.
57
MORWITZ, EDWARD .
379
MURDOCH, SAMUEL K.
431
OSBORNE, EDWIN H. .
37
OWEN, JOSHUA T.
281
PATTON, JOHN .
47
PENROSE, BOIES .
195
PORTER, HORACE
269
POLLOCK, OTIS W.
313
QUAY, MATTHEW S.
49
RANDALL, SAMUEL J.
15
REYBURN, JOHN E.
165
SAILER, JOSEPH
4II
SHARSWOOD, GEORGE
115
SINGERLY, WILLIAM M.
371
' SMEDLEY, SAMUEL L.
439
SMITH, A. HERR
83
SMITH, CHARLES EMORY
387
SOWER, CHARLES G.
425
STARK, SAMUEL. H. .
293
STURGIS, SAMUEL D.
237
TAGGART, JOHN H. . 409
WALLACE, WILLIAM A.
133
WEYAND, MICHAEL .
415
WISTAR, ISAAC J.
277
WOLFE, CHARLES S.
151
WOLVERTON, SIMON P.
139
YOUNG, SAMUEL B. M.
303
الد
HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY.
A BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF
PROMINENT PENNSYLVANIANS.
WILLIAM DARRAH KELLEY.
W ILLIAM DARRAH KELLEY, lawyer and statesman, was born in Philadelphia, April 12th, 1814. His ancestors were among the pioneers of American civilization. Among the earliest settlers of West Jersey was a small colony of French Huguenots and Irish Presbyterians. Among the Huguenots was a family bearing the name of Casteau and of the Irish stock there were Kelleys ; a Kelley married a Casteau, and these were paternal ancestors of "the gentle- man from Pennsylvania." Judge Kelley's maternal ancestors, the Darrahs, were among the early comers into Bucks county, settling on the banks of the Neshaminy. The Philadelphia Directory for 1814, in the April of which year Judge Kelley was born, records that his father, David Kelley, was in business as a watchmaker and jeweler, and lived at No. 227 North Second street. The War of 1812, through the financial crisis which followed and culminated in 1816-21, ruined many of Philadelphia's best people. David Kelley might have survived the shock to his own business, but, unhappily, he had endorsed for a considerable amount the paper of the husband of his wife's sister. The sheriff came swift on the heels of the principal's default. Not long after David Kelley fell dead on the street. Hannah Kelley found herself with four children to support, of whom William Darrah was the youngest and the only son. She had courage and capacity, and everybody admitted that she was an excellent house- keeper. With borrowed money she opened a boarding-house. The common school had not come yet, and the four Kelley children were sent to the con- gregational school of the Second Presbyterian Church, then at the northwest corner of Third and Arch streets, where the late Morton McMichael and his gifted brother Isaac were also pupils. Here, under the tuition of Daniel L. Peck, they completed their schooling.
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WILLIAM D. KELLEY.
William D. Kelley had now reached the age of eleven years. He was ambi- tious and impatient. He felt that he could do something to lighten his mother's burden, and he wanted to be about it. He refused longer to attend school, and went in search of his first "job." In those days a good shop or errand boy commanded a dollar a week, and at that rate the young fortune-seeker found employment in a lottery office on Fourth street above Market. Half a century ago lottery had a better standing than now, but the boy noted the anguish of the more desperate of the disappointed players, and he felt that he could not remain in that business. He found harder work for a time with an umbrella maker, and shortly after became copy-reader in the printing-office of the late Jesper Harding, father of George Harding, the eminent patent lawyer, and of William W. Harding, proprietor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He had no thought of becoming a printer. It was his father's intention that he should be a good watchmaker and jeweler, and that was the son's desire. Harsh as the law was, it had left him his father's tools, and he only waited to be old enough to enter upon his apprenticeship. Judge Kelley never wearies of recounting to young people the benefits he derived from his employment in the printing- office. It fell to his lot to read aloud, with such distinctness as would satisfy a careful proof-reader, several volumes of history and high-class fiction. Here was a schooling which not only opened to young Kelley a treasury of delight and profit, but developed a clearness of enunciation for which the man is noted, and which is not the least part of his power as a public speaker. To this period of his life Judge Kelley ascribes his intellectual awakening. It was then that he laid the foundation of a copious vocabulary and a marvellously facile use of language. At that time Jesper Harding was printing also the journal of the Franklin Institute, then recently established, and through this the boy's atten- tion was directed to many branches of mechanics. This led to the gradual acquisition of a special knowledge which in after years stood him in good stead in his tariff inquiries and discussions.
Before his thirteenth birthday William apprenticed himself, with his mother's consent, to Rickards & Dubosq, jewelers. The apprenticeship was to expire April 12th, 1834, his twentieth birthday. Besides sticking close to his bench in the working-hours, and in the evening indulging his keen appetite for books, he sought active recreation in Colonel James Page's State Fencibles. At the age of seventeen he was an active member of the Niagara Hose Company, though the Constitution of the company forbade the admission of any person under twenty years of age.
The Youth's Library Company was an association of apprentice boys in which the lad seems to have been a leading spirit. When he was but sixteen years of age he was selected as one of three members to deliver public addresses in the hall of the Franklin Institute as a means of bringing the Library Com- pany into notice. The venerable manuscript of this juvenile discourse holds a high place in the Judge's recollections of his youth.
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WILLIAM D. KELLEY.
April of 1834 came at last. The apprentice was free and a journeyman jeweler. The bitter war between President Jackson and the United States Bank disturbed the country, so that business was suffering universal and ex- treme depression, and there was no work for jewelers.
In 1835 there came such a revival of trade as enabled him to get employment in Boston, where a former shopmate had found work and opened a way for him. His stay in Boston had a marked effect upon the broader career which ability, industry and perseverance were to open to him. It was his good fortune to come into contact with men of high attainments, whose influence and example fired his ambition and directed it into profitable preparatory channels. The Faneuil Hall meeting, which he attended and captured, offered a favorable opportunity for a dramatic and taking debut. Nathaniel Green, Postmaster of Boston, who had heard the speech, offered the young orator a night clerkship, with small duties, in the post-office. George Bancroft, then Collector of the Port, invited him to the use of his fine library and tendered him a position under the government, which would enable him to prepare for college, and advised him to seek a scholarship in llarvard. In each instance his response was sub- stantially that he did not wish to give up his independence and individuality and become a waiter on the tide of affairs.
A better suggestion came from the late Colonel James Page, long known as one of the most active of Philadelphians. "Why don't you study law?" "Why don't I go to Congress, sir?" replied Kelley, the one thing seeming to him as practicable as the other. "Perhaps you may some day, but first come and read law with me." March 9th, 1839, Colonel Page registered William D. Kelley, who had now returned to Philadelphia, as a student at law in his office, and April 17th, 1841, on Colonel Page's motion, the jeweler became a full-fledged limb of the law. The young lawyer's force as a public speaker attracted atten- tion and brought him business, if not enough at once to turn his head, at least sufficient to keep him fairly employed and supply his wants. In 1845 he was made Prosecutor of the Pleas for Philadelphia, to which place he was twice appointed. The acceptance of this office devolved upon the young lawyer the prosecution of all persons arraigned for participation in the bloody riots of 1844, and afforded rare opportunities for Kelley to display his independence of char- acter and forensic ability.
He continued to perform the duties of prosecutor until he was nominated by Governor Shunk to a seat on the bench of the Common Pleas, Oyer and Terminer and Quarter Sessions. Judge Kelley's commission bore date March 13th, 1847, eight years, less one day, from the date of his registration as a law- student, and about a month before he had reached his thirty-third year. By constitutional amendment, ratified in 1850, the judicial office was made elective. The change was to take effect in March, 1851, when but half of Judge Kelley's term would have expired. Meanwhile there occurred an election for District- Attorney. The late Horn R. Kneass was the Democratic candidate, and the
2
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WILLIAM D. KELLEY.
late William B. Reed stood for the Whigs. The return was granted to Mr. Kneass, but Mr. Reed and his friends came to the front with a prompt and vigorous attack on its validity, making distinct allegations of fraud.
After the most protracted investigation of an election case that had ever occurred in Philadelphia, Judge King, supported by Parsons and Kelley, deliv- ered an exhaustive opinion, which gave the office to the Whig contestant. Judge Kelley was known to be largely responsible for this opinion, and the vitupera- tion now heaped upon him served the better to emphasize the public service he had rendered. The Evening Bulletin, then under the charge of the late Alex- ander Cummings, proposed a people's ticket, naming for President Judge Oswald Thompson, and for Associates William D. Kelley and Joseph Allison. Neither the Whigs nor the American party made nominations, and the People's Judicial ticket was elected, Judge Kelley leading in the vote. He was now recommis- sioned for ten years.
Though a Democrat, Judge Kelley had always been hostile to slavery. In deference to judicial propriety, he avoided open political demonstrations, but in social intercourse and correspondence he devoted much time to the discussion of this grave question, and, when the Missouri Compromise was repealed, made open declaration of his purpose to unite with whomsoever might stand ready to resist the extension of slavery beyond the Missouri Compromise line. He was thus committed in advance to the Republican party, and while he did not appear at the Convention of 1854, which was held in this city, he consorted freely with such of the leaders from the interior of this and other States as were known per- sonally to him.
In August of 1856 Samuel V. Merrick, General Hector Tyndale, Judge Kelley, and other gentlemen interested in the long dormant Sunbury and Erie railroad enterprise, set out to locate a route. There were not even stage lines through the wild region, and it was necessary to hire wagons at Lock Haven. When the party reached Williamsport on the way back, they found the first Philadelphia newspapers that had been seen for several days, and from these Judge Kelley learned that the Republican Convention of the Fourth Congres- sional District had placed him in nomination. He had not been consulted by anybody about making such use of his name. In determining to accept the nomination, he also determined to throw himself actively into the campaign against slavery and then to leave the bench. He could not hope for an election, nor was he willing to remain on the bench after having borne an active part in a campaign as hcated as that was likely to be. This was the year of the Fremont campaign, not a very good one for the young Republican party, except as it scored a good beginning. Of course Judge Kelley was defeated in the race for Congress, and of course he resigned his seat on the bench, having held it for ten ycars, and made an honorable record as a learned, fearless and impartial Judge.
Judge Kelley was now thoroughly identified with the Republican party. He was a delegate in the Chicago Convention of 1860, and when Lincoln was chosen
1I
WILLIAM D. KELLEY.
to be President Kelley was elected to represent the Fourth District of Pennsyl- vania in the famous Thirty-seventh Congress. Judge Kellcy has held this seat without intermission for twenty-two years, and is now serving his twelfth term. A few months before the time comes around again to nominate him an opposi- tion of more noise than strength is developed, but the Convention invariably an- ticipates the action of the people by declaring in favor of "the father of the House." Judge Kelley will represent the Fourth District of Pennsylvania as long as he shall consent to serve. It is not necessary to follow the details of Judge Kelley's career in Congress. They are knit in with the history of the Republican party, and are better known than the story of his early struggle and the record of his early achievements, which it is thought well to give, not only as a key to a public character, but as a stimulus and an encouragement to American lads of small opportunities and honorable ambition. It is enough to say of Judge Kelley's record in the House that he at once took rank beside the most earnest and able of the defenders of the Union ; that he favored the most vigorous con- duct of the war, and interested himself personally for the comfort of the soldiers ; that he was in favor of emancipation and manhood suffrage, and so early as 1862 advocated the arming of the negro; that he took an advanced Republican posi- tion on the question of reconstruction ; that he advocated the Morrill tariff of 1861, and has since stood valiantly by the protective principle, and has defended the greenback as a good and lawful money, no less serviceable in peace than in war. Judge Kelley is always busy, though not always in the best of health, and understands better than most men how to economize time. He conducts an immense correspondence, to which he is able to attend promptly with the aid of an accomplished short-hand secretary, whom he keeps busy writing at his dicta- tion. The secretary writes a comely hand, but the Judge cannot boast much of his. One of his constituents, who had received a letter penned by the secretary and signed by the Judge, said: " Judge Kelley writes first-rate until he has said ' Yours truly,' and then he writes his name as though he was tired." The " William D." is open to recognition, but the " Kelley " might be anything.
While Mr. Fernando Wood's Ways and Means Committee was in the agony of bringing forth that grotesque monstrosity known as the Wood Tariff Bill, and while it was being knocked about in the House, to the Judge's private rooms in Washington came everybody who visited Washington on business in any way connected with the protective side of the tariff question. Forty gentlemen, rep- resenting more than half as many interests, gathered there at one time, and a bushel of letters and telegrams was waiting to be looked into, the Judge giving audience and going over his mail as he lay upon his back suffering from a serious fall. A gentleman who came to instruct the tariff champion on the drug list had his audience, and was passing out when he met a tin-plate man, to whom he said, " I came to tell Judge Kelley about our business and how the Wood bill will affect it, but he knows more about it than I do." "Is that so? Well, I've just found that I can't tell him anything about tin-plate, and he has given me some
12
WILLIAM D. KELLEY.
good suggestions which had never occurred to me." It is one of the secrets of Judge Kelley's strength on the tariff question that he has explored it to the bot- tom and through all its ramifications, so that he knows it in practical as well as theoretical detail. . He never forgets. What he once learns he knows always, and he has his knowledge so methodically stored away in his mind that he has only to want it for use and instantly it is upon the tongue. This readiness he never exhibited to better advantage than in his speech against the Wood bill, which old stagers declared to be the greatest speech on the tariff question ever delivered in the American Congress. The notes of that speech had been care- fully but hurriedly prepared, and the preparation was more for the purpose of arrangement than to evolve and fortify an argument. Judge Kelley is always prepared to answer a question or make a three-hour speech, always master of his ample resources, never disconcerted, ever entertaining, instructive and forceful. When he rises to speak the House listens, and his splendid voice reaches the remotest corner of the hall. On a certain occasion, when the Judge was on the floor and rolling out his tones to the best advantage, one of those fellow-citizens who post themselves in the gallery because it is a nice, warm place for a com- fortable nap on a cold day, suddenly awaking from his slumber, shouted in a voice almost as strong as the Judge's : "Oh, h-11! a fellow can't sleep when Kelley's talkin'!" In a volume of his speeches, letters and addresses, published by Henry Carey Baird in 1872, and which he dedicated to his life-long friend and revered teacher, the late Henry C. Carey, Judge Kelley tells the story of his con- version from the doctrine of free-trade to the principle of protection to Ameri- can industries. He had been charmed by the taking phrases and abstract theories of the free-traders ; he had looked with confidence on the Walker revenue tariff of 1846; but the commercial panic and industrial ruin that followed started a new line of thought, and that led to close investigation, and that to conversion. The story is told at length in the book, and is worth reading as a tariff primer, which completely puts the case in language that everybody can understand. Notwithstanding the public demands upon him Judge Kelley has twice visited Europe and found time to make a thorough acquaintance with his own country. In 1867 he made an extended tour of the South, delivering spceches in the chief cities and towns. At Mobile, while he was addressing a large audience, a mur- derous assault was made upon him; shot-guns, muskets and pistols were used freely, the meeting was broken up, and several persons were killed and wounded. Judge Kelley defied the rioters, but his friends took possession of him and hur- ried him off to his hotel. During the excitement of reconstruction times, one Judge Field, a Louisiana fire-cater, attacked Judge Kelley with a knife in Wil- lard's Hotel and severely wounded him in the hand, which he threw up to pro- tect his body. The Judge has often been threatened for opinion's sake, but that kind of argument has not modified his opinions. It is Judge Kelley's boast that he has never held an office which he has not resigned. Though still in Congress, he has more than once declined to be a candidate for re-election, finally yielding
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