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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 2650
١
Say Cooke
Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania BIOGRAPHY
BY
JOHN W. JORDAN, LL. D.
Librarian Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Author of "Colonia! Families of Philadelphia," "Revolutionary History of Bethlehem," and various other works.
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME X
NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918
1607140
BIOGRAPHICAL
9006. Howas
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
THOMAS, George C.,
Master of Finance, Philanthropist.
Among those sterling business men who, during the latter half of the nine- teenth century, aided in strengthening and upholding the most vital interests of Philadelphia, not one stood higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens than the late George C. Thomas, member of the bank- ing house of Drexel & Company, and who as banker, philanthropist and churchman, won for himself a place all his own.
(I) John Thomas, grandfather of George C. Thomas, came to Pennsylvania from Wales. He married Martha Taylor, and among his children were George C., who died, May 2, 1907, in the ninetieth year of his age; and John W. Thomas, of whom below.
(II) John W. Thomas, son of John and Martha (Taylor) Thomas, was born in Philadelphia, November 11, 1816, and re- ceived his education in the schools of that city. For many years he was one of Philadelphia's most prominent drygoods merchants. His first mercantile estab- lishment was located at Second and Cal- · lowhill streets; later he removed to Chestnut street, occupying the site of the present store of Joseph G. Darlington & Company, Mr. Darlington having been in his employ, and later succeeding him, January 1, 1874, when Mr. Thomas retired. John W. Thomas was officially connected with various banks of his city. He was one of the original members of the Chel- ten Hills Company. In politics he was a Whig, and later a Republican. He was for many years a member and warden of old St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia, and
he took a very active interest in organiz- ing the parish of St. Paul's, Cheltenhanı (suburb of Philadelphia), of which he was a member and senior warden till death. John W. Thomas married Sophia Kezia Atkinson, born January 26, 1819, daugh- ter of Judge John and Mary (Bigelow) Atkinson, of Burlington, New Jersey, of which county John Atkinson was judge of the circuit court. Judge John Atkin- son was a son of Joseph and Catherine (Vaughan) Atkinson. The Atkinson fam- ily came from Eastern Pennsylvania, a lower county, which formerly, it was said, belonged to Maryland. The Mary- land Atkinsons came with the colony of Lord Baltimore, and of this Maryland branch was the late Bishop Atkinson, of North Carolina. John W. and Sophia Kezia (Atkinson) Thomas were the par- ents of the following children: I. George Clifford, of whom below. 2. Ella, wife of George H. Leonard, of Boston, Mas- sachusetts. 3. Rev. Richard Newton Thomas, deceased; clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal church, Philadel- phia ; married Clara Horstmann, daugh- ter of William J. Horstmann, Philadel- phia,».and they had children: Walter Horstmann Thomas, of Philadelphia ; and Emma, wife of Norman Ellison, of Phil- adelphia. 4. Ida, deceased; became the wife of Charles B. Newcomb, of Bos- ton, Massachusetts. 5. Virginia, wife of James Day Rowland, Philadelphia. 6. Laura Cooke, died in girlhood. The death of John W. Thomas occurred March 18, 1882, at his home, Chelten Hills, Pennsylvania, where he had resided since 1854, and the death of his wife occurred July 5, 1895. At the time of the
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
death of John W. Thomas a Philadelphia paper said: "He was a Christian gentle- man of the highest and purest type, and as such will be remembered by all who knew him."
(III) George Clifford Thomas, son of John W. and Sophia Kezia (Atkinson) Thomas, was born in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, October 28, 1839. He attended and graduated from the Episcopal Acad- emy, and at an early age assumed man- agement of his father's commercial inter- ests, for which he displayed marked apti- tude. His ability soon won recognition from Jay Cooke, who offered him a posi- tion in his banking house, and admitted him to partnership in 1861. In 1863 and throughout the period of the Civil War, when the great financial operations of the government were conducted by the firm, George C. Thomas was one of the active partners. He took a prominent part in the work accomplished by the firm which strengthened the finances of the govern- ment so that it was enabled to carry on the war, which cost from three hundred to eight hundred million dollars annually. The great part which Jay Cooke & Com- pany took in popularizing the government loans has never been fully told. Mr. Thomas was actively instrumental with Mr. Cooke in promoting and carrying on the largest and most successful money operations that any government ever un- dertook.
Upon the failure of Jay Cooke & Com- pany, in September, 1873, George C. Thomas gave every dollar of his fortune for the benefit of his creditors. For sev- eral months he was compelled to give his personal attention to the work of straight- ening out the firm's affairs. Undaunted by his experience, he began business anew before the close of the same year, entering into partnership with Joseph M. Shoemaker, under the style of Joseph M.
Shoemaker & Company, which later be- came Thomas & Shoemaker. Within a few years the firm had gained an influ- ential clientage, the business being recog- nized as hardly second to any controlled by the banking and brokerage firms on Third street.
Again the personal ability of George C. Thomas won recognition when Anthony J. Drexel invited him in 1883 to become a partner in the well-known Drexel house. From that time until his death there were few large financial transactions of Phila- delphia in which Mr. Thomas did not fig- ure. He was concerned in the Reading Railroad reorganization and the North- ern Pacific reorganization, and all the large operations of the Drexel & Morgan firms before his retirement. For twenty- one years he ranked among the first of Philadelphia's international bankers. Be- cause of ill health, he retired from busi- ness in January, 1905. His financial in- terests were in part represented by mem- bership in the Stock Exchange, a direc- torship in the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank and the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities. He was also a direc- tor of the Philadelphia Savings Fund So- ciety and an invester in many other finan- cial institutions.
A man of deeply religious nature, George C. Thomas gave largely of his fortune to all forms of religion and char- ity. He was a truly great churchman, giving himself with equal devotion to the far and the near. Missions gave outlet and expression to his world-wide sym- pathies ; his own parish furnished abun- dant opportunity for close personal con- tact and individual helpfulness. He was treasurer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church for thirteen years, and was deputy to general conventions repre-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
senting his diocese for twenty-one years. Reared in old St. Paul's Protestant Epis- copal Church, under the Rev. Richard Newton, D. D., its rector, Mr. Thomas was always interested in church work. When the Rev. Phillips Brooks, Rev. Samuel Appleton, D. D., and others, or- ganized the Church of the Holy Apostles, at Twenty-first and Christian streets, Philadelphia, Mr. Thomas was elected accounting warden, and was asked to take charge of the Sunday school until "a reg- ular superintendent could be found." Mr. Thomas entered into the Sunday school work with zeal, and "the regular superin- tendent" was found, for in the forty-one years which elapsed ere he passed from this life, he was seldom away from the school at its regular sessions and only when necessity obliged him to be absent. The little Sunday school of the Church of the Holy Apostles became one of the strongest in the city, and Mr. Thomas be- came one of the noted Sunday school workers in the country. Among the mu- nificent gifts made by Mr. Thomas to the church was the Chapel of the Holy Communion, at Twenty-first and Whar- ton streets, as a thank offering for the recovery of his son, George C. Thomas, Jr ..; the Richard Newton Memorial Building to the Church of the Holy Apostles, Twenty-first and Christian streets, and Cooper Hall and Gymnasium, Twenty-third and Christian streets. He also gave the large piece of ground for the nurses' home of the Hahnemann Hos- pital to that institution. With Mrs. Thomas he gave a large parish house to the Chapel of the Holy Communion, and also donated twelve thousand dollars toward erecting the parish house of the Chapel of the Mediator at Fifty-first and Spruce streets. His last gift was given on Palm Sunday, when he gave five thou- sand dollars to the Chapel of the Media-
tor. But what was greater than his gifts of money was that he gave himself, gave of his time, his energy and his thought, to the work of the church, and was a leader in all its movements. In addition to being superintendent of Holy Apostles Sunday school, he maintained for more than forty years a Friday Evening Teach- ers' Lesson Study, and for five years a normal class for intending teachers, which brought the instruction of the school to the highest standard. Many of Mr. Thomas' friends frequently wondered how he could so successfully direct so many departments of the church and keep them so thoroughly abreast of the times. His absolute sincerity in everything he attempted is believed to have been the basis of his success. Often after a strenu- ous day or night in his religious work, Mr. Thomas sought relaxation in music. He was organist for his church for many years. He spent many of his quiet moments with the old masters at his pipe organ. He was an accomplished musi- cian, but played chiefly for his own amusement. In the year 1870 he orig- inated and organized the Sunday School Association of the Diocese of Pennsyl- vania, of which from the year 1875 to the date of his death he was a vice-president. and by his splendid enthusiasm, his earn- est consecration, and his unostentatious generosity, did very much to make it the efficient organization it is to-day
There were many quiet charities in which George C. Thomas was concerned that were practically unknown. In addi- tion to helping many young men over the rough edges of life, he also enabled many young women to accomplish their ambi- tion by providing for their education. Next to the charities which Mr. Thomas fostered, was his collection of books, pic- tures, priceless relics and art treasures, which form a collection probably un-
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
equaled in any other private collection in America.
George C. Thomas was a member of various clubs, among them the Union League, Art, Corinthian Yacht, Merion Cricket, Germantown Cricket, Philadel- phia Country, Racquet and Church clubs. He made frequent cruises on his yacht "Allegro" or his schooner "Ednada," and thus won recreation from business cares.
On November 26, 1867, Mr. Thomas married, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Holy Trinity Church, the Rev. Phillips Brooks officiating, Ada Elizabeth, daugh- ter of the late J. Barlow and Elizabeth (Hirons) Moorhead, of Philadelphia. The biography of J. Barlow Moorhead, to- gether with his portrait and the Moor- head arms, appears in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were the parents of the following children: 1. Elizabeth Moor- head, born October 24, 1869, died March 31, 1875. 2. George Clifford, Jr., born October 3, 1873; educated at Episcopal Academy, University of Pennsylvania, and for a number of years connected with Drexel & Company, bankers, Philadel- phia ; has written "The Practical Book of Outdoor Rose Growing," now in its fourth edition ; married, July 6, 1901, Edna H. Ridge, daughter of Joseph Bet- ney and Annie (Campbell) Ridge, of Phil- adelphia, and has two children: George Clifford (3rd), born April 13, 1905; and Josephine Moorhead, born April 14, 1907. George C. Thomas, Jr., is now enrolled in the United States army, being captain in the Aviation Corps. 3. Sophie, born February 7, 1876, wife of Major Walter Schuyler Volkmar, United States army, of California ; by a former marriage Mrs. Volkmar has a son: George Clifford Thomas Remington, born July 19, 1899. 4. Leonard Moorhead, born March 27, 1878; educated in Episcopal Academy, St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire,
graduated from Yale, 1901 ; appointed sec- retary to the United States Embassy in Rome, Italy, for five years, then became First Secretary of the United States Le- gation, Madrid, Spain, resigning from this post after one year ; has composed a num- ber of pieces of music; now first lieuten- ant, Interpreters' Corps, United States army ; married, January 26, 1910, Blanche Oelrichs, daughter of Charles M. and Blanche (DeLoosey) Oelrichs, of New York, and they have two children: Leon- ard Moorhead, Jr., born May 2, 1911 ; and Robin May, born April 26, 1915.
The death of George C. Thomas, which occurred April 21, 1909, deprived Phila- delphia of one of her most valued citi- zens. Among the many hundreds of tri- butes paid to his memory, we. quote the following editorial from a Philadelphia paper :
Banker, philanthropist and churchman, George C. Thomas has enriched far more than himself during a long, busy and successful life. He be- gan with the advantages of fortune and he used them wisely, shrewdly and with high success, but he did far more than merely make money in business and in banking. He held high stand- ards of personal integrity and business honor. When reverses came he pleaded no legal bar to his liabilities and his success through life was measured by no man's losses. He continued the sound, careful, conservative tradition of the banking of this city and he did his work as a banker by the wise and fruitful use of personal honor, credit and resources and not through banking corporations or their manipulation. Such men by example and by achievement strengthen every good impulse in their callings, lessen the force and peril of temptation for others and by rendering investments more se- cure and credit more stable, stimulate thrift, encourage saving and give hope and security to multitudes. The whole level of business transactions, of care in contracts and of dili- gence and prudence in dealing with the invest- ment of others, is raised and advanced by a banker like George C. Thomas. Through his honesty, honor and prescience other. men profit and the community gains. He added to his
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Marlow Moorhead
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
large gifts and he gave with a banker's far-see- ing system. He understood that men immeasur- ably increase the value of their benefactions when they build into institutions and aid and endow organizations that live after them. The Church for which he did so much, the Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church and a wide range of personal charities, profit for all years to come by his generosity. Still more, he gave himself. He was a conspicuous example of the many American laymen to whom wealth is re- sponsibility and not privilege and who give to the service, the services and the institutions of the communion to which they belong, a daily diligent labor, more valuable than all their gifts. Lives were lit by his timely aid, men and women in need, in perplexity and in temptation had from him the wise counsel, whose worth his own lavish success proved. As he went in and out among men, in all his ways and work, his acts, his utterances, his optimism and his con- sistent life made all who knew and met him more awake and more likely to lead the life which fills the earth with good deeds because of the belief that better than this earth gives lies beyond, secure and steadfast.
This is the description of a true life -a life of quiet force, high-minded en- deavor and large benevolence, a life that left the world better than it found it. Such was the life of George Clifford Thomas.
MOORHEAD, Joel Barlow, Leader in Important Enterprises.
The Moorhead family, from which the late J. Barlow Moorhead, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was descended, was long established in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The name in the early period was spelled many ways: Muirhead, Muirehed, Moor- head, and Morehead, being some of them. The family seat (or free barony) in Lan- ark was known as "Lauchop."
Sir William Muirhead, of Lauchop, by his wife, Lady Jane Hay, daughter of Hay of Lacharret, direct ancestor of the Marquise of Tweeddale, was most famous through the beauty of his daughter
Janet, who was known in all the west as the "Bonnie Lass of Lechbruanch." Sir William lived prior to 1450. In 1469, An- drew Muirhead, of this family, was Lord Bishop of Glasgow, and bore as cogniz- ance three acorns on a bend.
A branch of this family was settled at Herbertshire, County Stirling, and registered their arms in the Court of the Lord of Lyon, in 1718. It is this branch which began to spell the name Morehead, and from which were descended three brothers who settled in the North of Ire- land after the "Plantations of Ulster." Before that time, in the seventeenth cen- tury, several members of the family had entered England, when the union of the Crown of Scotland and England was con- summated by the annexation by a Scottish king of the English throne to his own pa- ternal throne of Scotland. Among the descendants of the three Moorhead broth- ers who entered Ireland as gentlemen col- onists was a William Moorhead, a friend of Lord Marserene. In 1710 that noble- man mentions him in a letter as one of the subscribers to the Antrim racing plate. The arms of the family are:
Arms-Argent, on a bend azure, three acorns or. In chief a man's heart proper within a fet- ter-lock, sable.
Crest-Two hands conjoined grasping a two- handed sword proper.
Motto-Auxilio Deo.
(I) William Moorhead, the founder of the Moorhead family in Pennsylvania, was a member of this family. He was born in County Down, near Belfast, in 1774, and remained in Ireland until 1798, when he emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in Lancaster county. After resid- ing there a few years he removed to Dauphin county, where in 1806 he pur- chased a property on the banks of the Susquehanna river, about twenty miles above Harrisburg. For many years this
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
place, now called Halifax, was known as Moorhead's Ferry, and, as the main road from the East to the settlement on the Upper Susquehanna crossed the river at this place, it soon became a point of considerable importance. Here William Moorhead continued to reside until 1815, being widely known not only as a successful farmer and an enterprising business man, but as a gentleman of more than ordinary education and refinement. He took an active interest in the politi- cal affairs of his day, and was one of the most ardent supporters of the adminis- tration of President Madison, by whom in 1814 he was appointed Collector of In- ternal Revenues for the Tenth District of Pennsylvania to collect the direct tax im- posed to meet the expenses incurred on account of the second war with Great Britain. As the duties of this office com- pelled him to spend most of his time at Harrisburg, he removed with his family to the State Capital in 1815, and it was there that he died suddenly two years later. In the spring following his death, the widow, with her six surviving chil- dren, returned to the farm at Moorhead's Ferry, but as the estate had been left in a most unsettled condition, even this property had to be sold. Mrs. Moorhead was enabled to remain as a tenant, her eldest son, James Kennedy Moorhead, acting as manager for her.
William Moorhead married, March 18, 1802, Elizabeth (Kennedy) Young, relict of John Young, and daughter of James and Jane (Maxwell) Kennedy, of Lancas- ter county, Pennsylvania. She died, July 24, 1847, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (See Kennedy line). Issue of Wil- liam Moorhead and Elizabeth (Kennedy- Young) Moorhead: 1. Ann Moorhead, born October 24, 1804, died February 24, 1808. 2. Eliza Moorhead, born March 15, 1805, died August 29, 1858; married,
January 24, 1826, William Montgomery, born in 1791, died in 1858. 3. James Ken- nedy Moorhead, born September 7, 1806, died March 6, 1884. 4. William Garro- way Moorhead, born July 7, 1811, died January 13, 1895. 5. Joel Barlow Moor- head (see below). 6. Adeline Moorhead, died unmarried. 7. Henry Clay Moor- head, born March 19, 1815; died unmar- ried, April 15, 1861 ; he was a graduate of West Point Military Academy and served in the United States army. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He practised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until invalided.
(II) Joel Barlow Moorhead, son of William and Elizabeth (Kennedy-Young) Moorhead, was born at Moorhead's Ferry, Pennsylvania, April 13, 1813. Associated with his brother, James Kennedy Moor- head, he joined in the work of construct- ing the Pennsylvania canal, and was also connected with the building of the Phila- delphia & Columbia and the Portage rail- ways, the development of the Mononga- hela Slack Water Navigation Company, and the building of the earliest bridges over great waterways. In 1843 J. Barlow Moorhead became interested in the im- provement of the navigation of the Mon- ongahela river by a series of pools, dams and locks, popularly known as "slack- water navigation," a work which he com- pleted in 1844. He opened up a vast extent of territory to the advantage of navigation, the locks being of sufficient capacity to transport great steamships; and he was one of the largest stockhold- ers of the enterprise which is now owned by the Monongahela Navigation Com- pany. In 1850 he effected a contract with the Sunbury & Erie Railway Company for the construction of a line from Sun- bury to Williamsport, which was finished in 1855.
In 1856 J. Barlow Moorhead moved to
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AUXILIO DEO
Moorhead
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in the year following became interested in the iron business at Conshohocken, purchas- ing the Merion blast furnace from Ste- phen (Merion) Caldwell. In 1872 he added a new furnace and in this business he became very successful, acquiring a large fortune. He was vestryman of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Philadel- phia, and was one of the founders and builders of the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, in Spring Lake, New Jersey, where was his summer home. A Demo- crat until 1861, he became a Union Re- publican when the Civil War broke out, and remained attached to the Republican party during the remainder of his life. His death occurred in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, October 25, 1889.
J. Barlow Moorhead married. Febru- ary 7, 1837, Elizabeth Hirons, who was born April 4, 1813, and died February 7, 1890; she was the eldest child of John and Ann Ferris (Gilpin) Hirons. (See Gilpin line). Issue of J. Barlow and Eliz- abeth (Hirons) Moorhead: I. Charles Hirons Moorhead, born January 31, 1840, died January 7, 1905; married Lucy Phelps Hickman ; issue : J. Barlow Moor- head, Jr., died aged twenty-one years. 2. Ada Elizabeth Moorhead, born December 10, 1843; married, November 26, 1867, George Clifford Thomas; (see biography of George C. Thomas, in this work). 3. Clara Alice Moorhead, born March 13, 1846: married, April 23, 1868, Jay Cooke, Jr., of Philadelphia ; died December 16, 1912; banker. 4. Caroline Frances Moor- head, born March 13, 1846; married Jo- seph Earlston Thropp, of Philadelphia.
At the time of the death of J. Barlow Moorhead, his friend, the late Colonel Alexander K. McClure, wrote the follow- ing tribute to his memory, in the columns of the "Philadelphia Times ."
A Family of Mark .- The death of Joel Barlow Moorhead, one of the leading iron manufac- turers of this city and state, recalls the record of one of the most noted families in Pennsyl- vania in the great progress achieved by our people during the last half century. The father of Mr. Moorhead was a man of prominence, as is evidenced by his appointment as Internal Revenue Collector by President Madison in 1815. Three of his sons have made their names memorable as imposing factors in the material advancement of the State. Joel B. Moorhead, whose death is now lamented in this city, James K. Moorhead, who died several years ago in Pittsburgh, and William G. Moorhead, yet lives in West Philadelphia, all came to early man- hood just when the era of public improvements had dawned that developed our Canal System.
The construction of a, line of railroad and canal from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh over sixty years ago, required more breadth of grasp and more courage than did the construction of the Pacific railways nearly forty years later, and the young Moorheads were in the forefront not only in conceiving and perfecting the system of these improvements but also in constructing them. They were large contractors in the con- struction of both the Philadelphia & Columbia and the Portage Railroads and also of the canal; and the Monongahela slack-water navigation and the earliest advanced bridges over great rivers are inseparably connected with the skill, energy, and courage of the Moorheads. The present generation knows little of the achieve- ments of the men who inspired and led in prog- ress three-score years ago, and all that was done in the early days is now accepted as only the logical and inevitable, while only the pres- ent is credited with truly great advancement ; but those who can yet recall the struggle of some sixty years ago to develop great highways as arteries of trade, well apprecate the fact that no undertaking of modern times, colossal as many of them have been, equalled the courage and skill in utilizing resources which were nec- essary to bring Pennsylvania up to the plane of a liberal system of internal improvements.
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