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974.801 L43b 1252539
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01181 5997 m
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket00biog
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.
THE VOLUME CONTAINS
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LEADING CITIZENS
OF
LAWRENCE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
" BIOGRAPHY IS THE ONLY TRUE HISTORY."-EMERSON.
BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, BUFFALO, N. Y. 1897.
1252539
PREFACE.
AVING brought to a successful termination our labors in Lawrence County in compiling and editing the sketches herein contained, we desire, in presenting this Book of Biographies to our patrons, to make a few remarks, necessarily brief, in regard to the value and importance of local works of this nature. We agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson that "Biography is the only true History," and also are of the opinion that a collection of the biographies of the leading men of a nation. would give a more interesting, as well as authentic, history of their country than any other that could be written. The value of such a production as this cannot be too highly estimated. With each succeeding year the haze of Obscurity removes more and more from our view the fast disappearing landmarks of the past, Oblivion sprinkles her dust of forgetfulness on men and their deeds, effectually concealing them from the public eye, and because of the many living objects which claim our attention, few of those who have been removed from the busy world linger long in our memory. Even the glorious achieve- ments of the present age may not insure it from being lost in the glare of greater things to come, and so it is manifestly a duty to posterity for the men of the present time to preserve a record of their lives and a story of their progress from low and humble begin- nings to great and noble deeds, in order that future generations may read the account of their successful struggles, and profit by their example. A local history affords the best means of preserving ancestral history, and it also becomes, immediately upon its publica- tion, a ready book of reference for those who have occasion to seek biographical data of the leading and early-settled families. Names, dates and events are not easily remem- bered by the average man, so it behooves the generations now living, who wish to live in the memory of their descendants, to write their own records, making them full and broad in scope, and minute in detail, and insure their preservation by having them put in printed form. We firmly believe that in these collated personal memoirs will be found as true and as faithful a record of Lawrence County as may be obtained anywhere, for the very sufficient reason that its growth and development are identified with that of
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PREFACE.
the men who have made her what she is to-day-the representative, leading men, whose personal sketches it has been a pleasure to us to write and give a place in this volume. From the time when the hand of civilized man had not yet violated the virgin soil with desecrating plough, nor with the ever-ready frontiersman's ax felled the noble, almost limitless, forests, to the present period of activity in all branches of industry, we may read in the histories of the county's leading men and of their ancestors the steady growth and development which has been going on here for a century and a half, and bids fair to continue for centuries to come. A hundred years from now, whatever records of the present time are then extant, having withstood the ravages of time and the ceaseless war of the elements, will be viewed with an absorbing interest, equalling, if not surpassing, that which is taken to-day in the history of the early settlements of America.
It has been our purpose in the preparation of this work to pass over no phase or portion of it slightingly, but to give attention to the smallest points, and thus invest it with an air of accuracy, to be obtained in no other way. The result has amply justified the care that has been taken, for it is our honest belief that no more reliable production, under the circumstances, could have been compiled.
One feature of this work, to which we have given special prominence, and which we are sure will prove of extraordinary interest, is the collection of portraits of the represen- tative and leading citizens, which appear throughout the volume. We have tried to represent the different spheres of industrial and professional activity as well as we might. To those who have been so uniformly obliging and have kindly interested themselves in the success of this work, volunteering information and data, which have been very helpful to us in preparing this Book of Biographies of Lawrence County, we desire to express our grateful and profound acknowledgment of their valued services.
BUFFALO, N. Y., 1897.
THE PUBLISHERS.
NOTE.
All the biographical sketches published in this volume were sub- mitted to their respective subjects, or to the subscribers, from whom the facts were primarily obtained, for their approval or correction before going to press; and a reasonable time was allowed in each case for the return of the type-written copies. Most of them were returned to us within the time allotted, or before the work was printed, after being corrected or revised; and these may therefore be regarded as reasonably accurate.
A few, however, were not returned to us; and, as we have no means of knowing whether they contain errors or not, we cannot vouch for their accuracy. In justice to our readers, and to render this work more valuable for reference purposes, we have indicated these uncorrected sketches by a small asterisk (*), placed imme- diately after the name of the subject. They will all be found on the last pages of the book.
BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING CO.
-
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES LAWRENCE COUNTY, PA.
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COL. OSCAR L. JACKSON.
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES
LAWRENCE COUNTY.
OLONEL JACKSON. Oscar Lawrence Jackson, of New Cas- tle, a distinguished soldier, lawyer and Member of Congress, was born in Lawrence County, Pa. (at that time a part of Beaver County), Sept. 2, 1840. His an- cestors were Scotch-Irish and early settlers in the State. His great-grandfather, Samuel Jackson, was born in the Highlands of Scotland, resided some years in the North of Ireland, emigrated to the United States, and after living a short time in some other places, settled in 1797 on a farm two miles south of the present city of New Castle. A large part of this farm has ever since remained in the possession of the family and is now (1897) owned by Colonel Jackson's father.
His great-grandmother Jackson's maiden name was Janet Stewart. She was a sister of John Carlyle Stewart, who laid out the town of New Castle in 1798, and built there a few years later the old forge on the Neshannock Creek, where the first bar iron was made in Western Pennsylvania. His grandfather, James Jackson, was a soldier in the American Army during the War of 1812. His mother's maiden name was Nancy Mitchell, a native of Indiana County, Pa.
She was a grandchild of a Scotch-Irish im- migrant, who settled in the Susquehanna Val- ley, Pennsylvania, where her father, Matthew Mitchell, was born in 1785. Our subject's father, Samuel S. Jackson, born Aug. 15, 1815, is still living, a resident of this county. He has two brothers, Dr. David P. Jackson of this county, and Hon. Edwin W. Jackson, an attorney of Harrisburg, Pa .; also a sister, Mary, and two half-sisters, Anna and Jane.
Colonel Jackson was reared on a farm; was educated in the common schools, at Tansy Hill Select School, and at Darlington Academy; and when a boy clerked for a short time in a coun- try store.
He was teaching school near Logan, Hock- ing County, Ohio, the winter before the out- break of the Civil War. On the call for soldiers in 1861 to defend the government and suppress the rebellion, he volunteered and recruited a company in that vicinity for the three years' service. It became Company H, Sixty-third Ohio Vol. Inf., and with the regiment at the end of the three years re-enlisted as veterans and served to the close of the war. He entered the army as captain of the company he recruited,
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BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES, LAWRENCE COUNTY.
was afterwards, promoted in the regiment, and served continuously during the war from Au- gust, 1861, to July, 1865, a term of four years. He was present with his regiment and on duty nearly all the time of its service, except some three months, when disabled by wounds received in battle. After some time spent in camp, per- fecting the organization, equipping and drilling, his regiment took the field with the Army of the West. His first active service was in Missouri under General Pope, including the actions at New Madrid, taking of Fort Thompson, and the later operations that resulted in the capture of Island No. 10, with a large number of prisoners. His regiment was a part of the force afterward sent down the Mississippi River, which landed on the Arkansas shore, and began preparations for the investment of Fort Pillow. In the latter part of April, 1862, the regiment was ordered to join Gen. Halleck's army at Pittsburg Landing, and took part in all the operations that made up the siege of Corinth. It was engaged in the actions at Farmington, on both the 8th and 28th of May. The regiment was in General Grant's operations in September, 1862, which resulted in the battle of Iuka, being in Stanley's Division, which had the principal part of the fighting to do in that engagement.
In the battle of Corinth, Mississippi, Oct. 3 and 4, 1862, the Sixty-third Ohio, under Gen. Rosecrans' command, gained very distinguished credit for continued hard fighting in the open field long after it had sustained very great loss, and the regiment is prominently mentioned in Greeley's History of the Rebellion. In this bat- tle on the 4th, Colonel Jackson, then a captain in command of his company, received a severe
gunshot wound in the face, the bullet entering near the right eye, where it yet remains. He is mentioned in the official report of the battle, which is now published in volume 17 of Govern- ment Records of the Rebellion, as "A young officer of great promise, who is severely and it is feared mortally wounded, who held his com- pany in perfect order until two-thirds of his men were killed and wounded." The regiment lost 42 per cent. in killed and wounded of the entire number taken into action, he being among the very last wounded. This severe fighting was mostly in support of Robinett's Regular Battery, which was repeatedly charged by the enemy's infantry, and the rebel general was killed within a few yards of the guns.
As soon as he was sufficiently recovered from his wounds, Colonel Jackson rejoined his regi- ment, and in 1863 was with the division of in- fantry which escorted Straight's Cavalry through the enemy's lines as far as Tuscumbia, Alabama, when they started on their famous raid. The infantry afterwards engaged the ene- my sufficiently to divert attention from the movement. Our subject subsequently took part in the summer of 1863 in the various operations of Gen. Dodge's command in northern Alabama and Mississippi, and along the Mississippi River from Memphis to Vicksburg, during the siege of the latter city. His regiment at this time be- longed to the Sixteenth Army Corps, and had a full share in all the movements of that organi- zation. After the fall of Vicksburg, he was with that part of the army which marched overland with Gen. Sherman from the Mississippi River to the relief of Chattanooga and Knoxville. His division was detached from the main column and
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BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES, LAWRENCE COUNTY.
sent to the right to secure the line of railroad at Elk River, then much needed to supply the arniv at Chattanooga. In this movement they made, by crossing the Tennessee River in the face of the enemy and the capturing of Decatur, one of the few successful night attacks attempted dur- ing the war.
In Sherman's great Atlanta Campaign of 1864, the division in which Colonel Jackson served was at first in the Sixteenth Corps, and afterwards in the Seventeenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Gen. McPherson, who was killed before Atlanta. After this it was commanded by Generals Logan and Howard. Colonel Jackson was constantly with his regiment during the campaign and engaged in the battles of Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Dal- las, Kenesaw Mountain, and the Siege of Atlan- ta. He was with that part of the army which made the movement south of Atlanta, fought the battle of Jonesboro, drove the enemy off the Macon Railroad, and thus secured the fall of Atlanta. When the enemy under Gen. Hood afterward moved in the rear of the Union Army, Colonel Jackson took part in the operations to develop the extent of the movement, and also to drive the enemy out of Snake Creek Gap and off the railroad, following him to Galesburg, Ala. In this part of the campaign, he was in command of his regiment, as he had been on different occasions before that. Colonel Jack- son was with Sherman on the "March to the Sea," was engaged in the capture of Savannah, and took part in the campaign through the Carolinas. He commanded his regiment when it moved from Savannah by way of Hilton Head to Beaufort, and also in all the operations from
Goldsborough to Raleigh, including those im- mediately preceding the surrender of Johnston's Army. During the operations near Raleigh, Colonel Jackson was sent with a large army train back to Goldsborough for supplies. He had command of his own regiment, and other details reporting to him as guard and escort, and had entire charge of the train. He marched, going and coming, about 100 miles through the enemy's country, had a bridge burned ahead of him and with difficulty found passable roads and streams that could be safely forded. But the war was now nearing to a close, and the most remarkable feature of the expedition was the large number of rebel soldiers that came in and surrendered. At night he had quite a camp of these prisoners, who required, however, very little guarding, and who got plenty to eat from the Union soldiers, who cheerfully divided ra- tions with them.
After the surrender of Johnston's Army, he marched to Washington, commanded his regi- ment at the Grand Review, and then conducted it to Louisville, Ky., where it remained until or- dered mustered out in July, 1865. He then moved the regiment to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where, under his directions, the survivors of four years' service in the field were discharged, paid off, and sent to their homes.
Colonel Jackson was successively promoted and commissioned major and lieutenant-colonel, and was on recommendation of his brigade, divi- sion and corps commanders commissioned by the President, Colonel of U. S. Volunteers by brevet, for gallant and meritorious services in the field during the war. The former command-
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BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES, LAWRENCE COUNTY.
er of the regiment lost a leg in the Atlanta Cam- paign, and was never able to rejoin his com- mand, leaving Colonel Jackson for a long time its permanent commander in the latter part of its service. It is worthy of notice that there were but a few officers of volunteers in the army who served as long a term as a commissioned officer as he did.
After the war, Colonel Jackson studied law, was admitted to the bar, opened an office in New Castle in April, 1868, and has since been in ac- tive practice. He was elected and served a full term as district attorney from 1868 to 1871, and was county solicitor from 1874 to 1880. He was appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature, a member of a commission to codify laws, and served on it in 1877 and 1878.
He was elected in 1884 as a Republican Mem- ber of Congress of the United States to repre- sent the Twenty-fourth Pennsylvania Congres- sional District. His district was composed of the counties of Beaver, Lawrence and Washing- ton, and he received at the election the largest majority ever given a candidate in it. He was re-elected and served in Congress until March 4, 1889, when by a re-apportionment of the State, his county was attached to another dis- trict, and he retired. In Congress he was a member of the Committee on Public Lands, and favored a policy of disposing of Government lands principally to actual settlers, and a strict construction of grants previously made for other purposes. He was especially interested in the subject of tariff legislation, taking an active part in the hearings before the Ways and Means Committee, and in the House proceedings, in
favor of a protective tariff, and against the pro- posed Morrison and Mills bills. He was one of the members selected to deliver memorial ad- dresses in Congress on the life and services of Gen. John A .Logan. His speeches in favor of a liberal appropriation for a building for a Na- tional Library at Washington, also for a better government for Alaska, and against President Cleveland's vetoes of pension bills, commanded attention, and were largely circulated, being republished in newspapers in different parts of the country. His address in the Fiftieth Con- gress in favor of restoring Gen. Rosecrans to a commission in the army, in order that he might be retired on it as a means of support in his old age, was considered worthy of being quoted at some length in the American Encyclopedia.
After leaving Congress, he resumed the prac- tice of law, in which he is now engaged and as a lawyer is widely and favorably known. In church matters he is a United Presbyterian. The portrait of no citizen of Lawrence County will be received with greater favor than that of Colonel Jackson, which we present on a preced- ing page.
ISRAEL VAN GORDER, a retired farmer of Lawrence County, and Perry township, now a resident of the city of New Castle, was born in Perry township, this county, April 7, 1829, and is a son of Jacob and Nancy (Elliott) Van Gor- der, and grandson of Jacob Van Gorder, Sr., who was born in Holland and came to America when a young man. Our subject's grandfather
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BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES, LAWRENCE COUNTY.
was taken prisoner at the Massacre of Wyoming and was to be killed, but his life was providen- tially saved by one of the squaws adopting him as her son. He lived with the Indians some five years, and then making his escape went to Pitts- burg, where he followed farming principally as a means of livelihood. Later on, he bought a small tract of new land in the southern part of Lawrence County; and built a log-house there- on, cleared the land, married and raised six children: Jacob, Betsy, Tena, Margaret, Sarah, and one whose name is not given. Two daugh- ters married two brothers by the name of Allen.
Jacob Van Gorder, the oldest child, and only son, cared for his parents, who died at quite an advanced age, the father when about eighty years old, and the mother when not quite so old by a few years. The farm was left to our subject's father, who added to it until he owned 250 acres; he also owned a saw and grist-mill, which he built and thereafter operated; he also built a large stone house, and the buildings are all standing to-day and are owned by his son Alvi. He held many offices of the township, and lived to enjoy seventy-eight pleasant years. His wife lived to the age of seventy-five. Their chil- dren were: Andrew E .; Israel; Louisa; Almira; Alvi; James; Isabelle; and two more, who died young.
Our subject worked in his father's mills until . 1876, when he bought 96 acres of land in Perry township, and built a new house and barn, and carried on general farming until 1891, when he had accumulated enough property to enable him to retire; leaving the farm in charge of his only son and child, Jacob E., Mr. Van Gorder came to New Castle, and bought a house on County
Line Street, which he enlarged and remodeled and now rents as a tenement, building another for his own use.
His first wife was Isabelle Evans, daughter of Jonathan Evans; she was born in 1829, and died in 1875, leaving one child, Jacob E., who married Harriet Morrison, and has a child named Verna. Our subject married as his second wife Miss Nancy Vance, daughter of James Vance. For many years Mr. Van Gorder supported the Re- publican ticket and served as supervisor, asses- sor, and as overseer of the poor; he is now a member of the National Prohibition Party. He is a member of the United Presbyterian Church.
DAVID P. FULKERSON is a member of the firm of Wick & Fulkerson, proprietors of the leading restaurant of New Castle, located at No. 10 Apple Alley. He was born in New Castle July 8, 1869, and is a son of J. Smith and Jennett (Pattison) Fulkerson, grandson of William and Margaret (Tidball) Fulkerson, and a great- grandson of John and Mary (Alky) Fulkerson. John Fulkerson was descended from German forefathers, and we find him first as a resident of Virginia, living near Rappahannock, Fredericks County, where his son William, our subject's grandfather, was born. As he was neither a slave owner, nor a sympathizer in that practice which permitted the greatest inhumanities and out- rages to be performed upon a down-trodden and enslaved race, he set out in 1810 with his wife. and traveled three hundred miles on horseback to New Castle, where he secured a farm of 200
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BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES, LAWRENCE COUNTY.
acres, lying between the present farm of the Hon. Robert J. Fulkerson, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work, and the city of New Castle. He then returned to Virginia, and with horses and wagons transported his personal effects and household furniture, and all the chil- dren but two, who chose to remain in Virginia. The farm was slightly improved, there being a small log-cabin and a few acres cleared of the original timber land, which made a very fertile garden plot. So it was with comparatively little trouble, after reaching the destined spot, to install his family, and accustom himself to the strange surroundings; there he reared his family and with the assistance of his sons cleared the land. Both he and his good wife were over eighty years of age at their death. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and helped to construct the first religious edifice. There were eight children born to him, as follows: Lewis; John; Roger; James; Eliza, the wife of Thomas Gillespie; William; Richard; and Margaret, the wife of William Cox.
William Fulkerson, our subject's grandfather, was born in the old State of Virginia, and with , his parents came to New Castle, and helped to establish the new home on the frontier. He inherited a part of the large tract his father bought, and followed farming in New Castle all his life, dying at the age of seventy-five years. His wife, who was a daughter of David Tidball, never lived to pass the half-century mark. Their children were: Isabella; Harry; Rose; William; David; J. Smith; and Margaret.
Our subject's father was born in New Castle, Feb. 19, 1833, and when thirteen years of age became a workman in the nail manufactory, and
later went into oil speculation. In 1862 he en- listed in Co. C, of the Ioth Pa. Reserve, and served three years, and is to-day a member of the U. V. L. Lodge. He was wounded at Charles City Cross Road, losing by the fortune of war the end of one finger, and having his collar-bone and three ribs broken. After being discharged from the hospital, he returned to his regiment, and soon after experienced a sun- stroke, from which he has never fully recovered. When the war was over, and he once more made New Castle his home, he indulged in gardening some, and also assisted his son in the restaurant. He has a fine home on West Washington Street, which he bought some years ago and enlarged and beautified. His wife was born Sept. 3, 1836, and died Aug. 23, 1891. His children were: Agnes M., born Feb. 20, 1858, the wife of Revil- lian T. Wick; David P., our subject; Jennie A., born Aug. 28, 1872; and Samuel J. R., born Sept. 21, 1877, a designer and engraver.
Our subject at sixteen years of age entered the Shenango Glass Factory, and worked four years as a gatherer, but was compelled to for- sake that occupation by reason of an injury to his hand. In 1891, in company with R. T. Wick, he bought the Maitland restaurant, and refitted it throughout and put in a fine range; the res- taurant occupies two floors. It was started as the second restaurant in New Castle, and although many have come into the inviting field, it easily heads the procession with the largest and best trade of any that run day and night. Their patronage is very select, and they take pride in keeping up their reputation by cater- ing in the most satisfactory manner to the wants of the inner man.
ROBERT AUDLEY BROWNE, D. D.
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BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES, LAWRENCE COUNTY.
Mr. Fulkerson married, Oct. 13, 1892, Miss Anna Dean, daughter of Hanson Dean of Brighton, Pa., and has one child, Verna, born Oct. 19, 1895. Like every Fulkerson in the county, in his political views he countenances no candidate for public office who is not of the Re- publican complexion.
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