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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 2569
4092
Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania
BIOGRAPHY
BY JOHN W. JORDAN, LL.D.
Librarian Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Author of "Colonial Families of Philadelphia;" "Revolutionary History of Bethlehem," and various other works.
PENNSYLVANIA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
V. 1
NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914
79 8749 6
2053958
PaulS
John It. Jordan.
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$ 15 do ( 4 meals)
FOREWORD
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P ENNSYLVANIA, as a Colony and one of the principal original States, from the outset occupied a commanding position. Its people have written large deeds into American history from the very first chapter, and are still making history. The past two decades have added materially to the population of the State. There have also been wrought great changes in the character of the community. Evolution has been more rapid and important in the past ten years than in any similar preceding period. Growth Nin things material has been great; development along educational, archi- tectural and artistic lines has been noted. New forces have become powerful. The time seems fit for an historical reckoning.
The present work, "Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography," pre- sents in the aggregate an amount and variety of information concerning representative Pennsylvanians-men of character and standing, and promi- nent in their various spheres-unequalled by any kindred publication; indeed, no similar work has ever before been presented.
There are numerous histories of the State. What has been published, however, relates principally to the people in the aggregate; that is, as a body politic. The amplification necessary to complete the picture is what has been sought in the present work. In other words, it is a chronicle of the lives and achievements of individuals who are recognized as large factors in the active life of the community-a community not merely an industrial and commercial centre, but one with a splendid past and magnificent pros- pects. Its people have a character, an individuality, as strongly marked as the features of a friend. They have solved problems of the utmost importance, and are determinedly engaged in the solution of others growing out of new and unprecedented conditions. In their midst are strangers from every clime, speaking many languages, and all the problems of human life are presented in every phase. Now, as heretofore, are fortunately com- mingled the conservativeness that wisely regards the past, and the enterprise that courageously faces the future-expressions of the best type of man in his perpetual strife for the betterment of civilization.
Unique in conception and treatment, this work constitutes one of the most original and permanently valuable contributions ever made to the social history of an American community. It presents in a lucid and digni- fied manner all the important facts concerning very many who hold or have held leading positions in the social, professional and business life of Pennsyl-
vania. Nor has it been based upon, neither does it minister to, class prejudices and assumptions. On the contrary, its fundamental ideas are thoroughly American. The work everywhere conveys the lesson that distinction has been gained only by honorable public service or by usefulness in private station, and that the development and prosperity of the Common- wealth has been dependent upon the character of its citizens, and in the stim- ulus which they have given to commerce, to industry, to the arts and sciences, to education and religion-to all that is comprised in the highest civilization of the present day-through a continual progressive development.
Pennsylvania affords a peculiarly interesting field for such research. Its sons have attained distinction in every field of human effort. This work approaches the dignity of a national epitome of biography. Owing to the wide dispersion throughout the country of the old families of the State, the authentic account here presented of the constituent elements of her social life is of far more than merely local value. In its special field it is, in an appreciable degree, a reflection of the development of the country at large, since hence went out representatives of historical families, in various genera- tions, who in far remote places-beyond the Mississippi and in the Far West-were with the vanguard of civilization, building up communities, creating new commonwealths, planting, wherever they went, the church, the school house and the printing press, leading into channels of thrift and enterprise all who gathered about them, and proving a power for ideal citizenship and good government.
These records are presented in a series of independent personal narra- tives relating to the most conspicuous representatives of the present gener- ation. There is entire avoidance of the stereotyped and unattractive manner in which such data is usually presented. Leaders in every field of progress receive appropriate notice-those whose life and work have been factors in the advancement of the State, and without whose influence and labors its history would be incomplete. That these ends have been conscientiously and faithfully conserved is assured by the cordial personal interest and recognized capability of the compiler, John W. Jordan, LL.D., and the hearty co-operation of many representative Pennsylvanians, all well versed in the history of the commonwealth. In this connection the publishers desire to express their especial thanks to the following named gentlemen for valuable assistance in various directions: Rev. Horace E. Hayden, M.A., Corresponding Secretary and Librarian of Wyoming Historical and Geo- logical Society, Wilkes-Barre; Prof. M. G. Brumbaugh, Ph.D., LL.D., Superintendent of Public Schools, Philadelphia; Hon. Charles B. Staples, Judge of Forty-third Judicial District, Stroudsburg; Hon. W. S. Kirkpatrick, former Attorney General of Pennsylvania and Member of Congress, Easton; Hon. Thomas L. Montgomery, Librarian of State Library, Harrisburg; Hon. Boyd Crumrine, author, Washington; Mr. Louis Richards, President of Berks County Historical Society, Reading; Rev. Andrew A. Lambing,
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LL.D., author of various standard historical works, Pittsburgh; Mr. John Kennedy Lacock, A.M., author and antiquarian, Amity; Prof. George T. Ettinger, Dean of Muhlenberg College, Allentown; Gen. Harry White, former State Senator, Member of Congress, Indiana; Mr. H. M. M. Richards, author, former Secretary of Pennsylvania German Society, Lebanon; Mr. John Thomson, Librarian of Free Library, Philadelphia; Hon Rufus Barrett Stone, President Carnegie Public Library, Bradford; Mr. James Hadden, antiquarian and author of various historical works, Uniontown; Prof. George Morris Philips, A.M., Ph.D., author, Principal of Pennsylvania State Normal School, West Chester; Prof. Charles F. Himes, Ph.D., LL.D., long time pro- fessor in Dickinson College, Carlisle; Mr. George R. Prowell, proprietor School of Business, author, York; Rev. Joseph H. Bausman, D.D., author, professor in Washington and Jefferson College; Rev. William J. Holland, Sc.D., author, Managing Director of Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; Mr. Burd Shippen Patterson, Secretary of Historical Society of Western Pennsyl- vania, etc., Pittsburgh; Mr. Warren S. Ely, Librarian and Curator Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown.
THE PUBLISHERS.
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WAYNE, Gen. Anthony,
Distinguished Soldier.
General Anthony Wayne was born in Eastown, Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1745, the only son of Isaac Wayne, of English-Irish ancestry.
He attended the Philadelphia Academy, became a land surveyor, and upon the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin was employed by a land company in Nova Scotia. In 1769 he was married, and became a farmer and surveyor in Chester county. He was a member of the Provincial Convention of 1774; as- sembled to devise a means of settlement of the difficulties between England and the colonies; and of the Pennsylvania Convention of the same year ; was a dele- gate to the Colonial Legislature, 1774-75, and a member of the Committee of Safety in 1775.
On the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he recruited among his neighbors a company which was enlarged into the Fourth Battalion of Pennsylvania Troops, was elected its colonel, Jan- uary 3, 1776, and was assigned to Gen- eral John Thomas' brigade of the North- ern Army, January 3, 1776. He attacked the British at Three Rivers, where he was wounded, and obliged to withdraw his troops to Ticonderoga, which place he commanded. He was commissioned brigadier-general February 21, 1777; joined General Washington's army in New Jersey ; commanded a division at Brandywine; and opposed the passage of
the river at Chadd's Ford by Knyp- hausen, and at the close of the day safely withdrew his troops. He was attacked by a superior force at Paoli, September 20, 1777, and effected a successful sortie which enabled him practically to hold his ground, but subjected him to a court of inquiry, which acquitted him with the highest honors. At the battle of Ger- mantown he drove the enemy before him, and wintered at Valley Forge. He took part in the battle of Monmouth, under Lee, and after being ordered to re- treat by Lee, Washington assumed com- mand, and Wayne brought his troops into position and repulsed a bayonet charge by Colonel Henry Monckton, se- curing victory to Washington's army and the death of every British officer en- gaged in the charge. He commanded a corps of light infantry organized by Washington in 1779, and on July 15th marched toward the garrison at Stony Point, on the Hudson, advanced in two columns at midnight, surprised the Brit- ish pickets, gained the center of the fort, and, though he was wounded, entered the fort, supported by his aides, and re- ceived the surrender of the garrison. For this a gold medal was presented him by Congress, and he received the thanks of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania and of Congress. He failed to capture the "Block House," in 1780, and on Jan- uary 1, 1781, he succeeded in amicably quelling the mutiny in the Pennsylvania line. He jointed Lafayette in Virginia and took part in the battle at James-
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town Ford, where he fell back after a he defeated them at Fallen Timbers, desperate charge in which he succeeded laying their country waste. On August 3, 1795, he signed a treaty with twelve tribes of Indians. It is not easy to over- rate the importance of this victory from a national point of view, for it opened the West to emigrants, and secured in their life liberty and prosperity, by laws of their own making. While on his tri- umphal visit to Pennsylvania he was ap- pointed United States commissioner to treat with the Northwestern Indians, but while descending Lake Erie to take pos- session of the forts previously held by the British, he fell ill with the gout, was landed at Presque Isle, and soon after died. A marble monument to his mem- ory was erected in St. David's church- yard, Chester county, Pennsylvania, by the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati, July 4, 1809, his son, Hon. Isaac Wayne, having removed his re- mains to that churchyard early that year. He died in Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1796. in relieving Lafayette, who was in dang- er from a projected manoeuvre of the enemy, thus saving the entire army from defeat. He served at Green Springs, and at Yorktown, where he opened the first parallel, covered the advance of the sec- ond parallel on the 11th, and supported the French allies on the 14th. He joined General Nathanael Greene in the south after the surrender, and on June 23, 1782, he was attacked by a body of Creek In- dians who gained possession of his ar- tillery, but by a bayonet charge he put them to rout. He took possession of Savannah, Georgia, July 4, and Charles- ton, South Carolina, December 14, 1782, after their evacuation by the British. He was brevetted major-general, Octo- ber 10, 1783, when he returned to Penn- sylvania, was chosen a member of the Board of Censors, 1783, to the General Assembly, 1784-85, and was a member of the convention that ratified the Constitu- tion of the United States. He removed to Georgia, where he took possession of PENNYPACKER, Samuel Whitaker, Statesman, Lawyer, Litterateur. a tract of land granted him for his serv- ices in the Revolution; and was elected a representative in the Second Congress, The career of the Hon. Samuel Whita- ker Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania bears out the contention of those adherents of the doctrine of heredity who believe that a man's character is the immediate out- come of ancestral traits. His life has followed the tradition of all the genera- tions of his house in its dignity, industry and integrity, and by its unswerving de- votion to the highest ideals in private life and in political service. To natural endowments of an unusual order he has added, by laborious pains, the enormous fund of learning in all matters pertain- ing to the law that has put him in the front rank of authorities in jurispru- dence. His judicial opinions, character- ized as they are by excellent common 1791-92, but his seat was contested by James Jackson, and declared vacant March 21, 1792, and he refused to be a candidate for re-election. He was ap- pointed by President Washington gen- eral-in-chief of the United States army with the rank of major-general, and the Senate confirmed the appointment April 3, 1793. He organized a body of troops which he drilled and trained in Indian warfare, and in 1793, he marched against the hostile tribes in the northwest. He built Fort Recovery near Greenville, Ohio, and Fort Defiance, at the junction of the Miami and La Glaize rivers, and offered the Indians peace if they would lay down their arms. On their refusal
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sense, sound reasoning, and an enlight- their settlement, which later became ened knowledge of the principles and application of the law, have given uni- versal satisfaction to the community he served. His work as a practical states- man has been of no less importance, and has been marked by the same unswerv- ing patriotism and sense of duty to the people. It is through the production of men of this caliber that republican insti- tutions in this country have continued for generations to justify themselves to the impartial observer, and confirm the belief that "government for the people and by the people will not perish from the earth."
The ancestry of Governor Penny- packer is of distinguished Dutch origin on his father's side, and also traces back through maternal ancestors to a line prominent by reason of high position in the community and important service to the state. The first American ancestor of the family now generally bearing the name of Pennypacker was Hendrick Pannebecker, a Dutch patroon. This family has produced a United States sen- ator from Virginia, a major-general from Tennessee of the United States army, a state agent from Kentucky, a canal com- missioner and a governor from Pennsyl- vania; and has furnished to the Civil War two generals, four colonels, twenty- two other commissioned officers, in all one hundred and forty-eight men, the largest ascertained contribution of any single family to that war.
Hendrick Pannebecker, though of im- mediate Dutch origin, was born on the Rhine, not far from the city of Worms, March 21, 1674. The name Pannebecker is of Hollandic origin, being the Dutch word meaning a maker of tiles. Panne- becker was one of those who sought re- ligious freedom and a new field for ad- vancement in Penn's colony in Pennsyl- vania soon after the first thirteen fam- ilies of Dutch and Germans had formed
known as Germantown. An approxi- mate date for his arrival may be gained by the record of his marriage in Ger- mantown to Eve Umstat in 1699. By virtue of extensive purchases of land and of his practical sagacity and linguistic and business ability, he soon occupied a leading position in the colony. He owned about seven thousand acres of land, including the lands of Bebbers' township, and was usually the principal spokesman in all matters that came up between the Dutch population and the proprietary and provincial government. He was on terms of intimacy with such prominent men as Edward Shippen, Richard Hill, James Logan and Isaac Norris, and is referred to in a number of recorded instruments as a "Gentle- man." He was the owner of a library of books upon the flyleaf of one of which, now in the possession of one of his de- scendants, some latinist of the time had written, "Henrich Pannebecker 'habet virtuosam uxorem.'" Hendrick Panne- becker died in 1754, and his large landed estate was divided among his children. The old homestead at Pennypacker's Mills, which was used as headquarters by Washington for a time during the Revolution, is now owned and occupied by his great-great-great-grandson, Hon. Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker.
Jacob Pannebecker, the fourth son of Hendrick and Eve (Umstat) Panne- becker, was born in 1715. He married Margaret, daughter of Matthias and Bar- bara (Sellen) Tyson, who were of those Dutch and Germans from the lower Rhine, who had formed the original colony at Germantown. Their son, Matthias, was born on the "Skippack," October 14, 1742, and died February 12, 1808. He purchased a mill and a tract of land on Pickering creek, Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1774, and set- tled there. He became a bishop of the
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Mennonite church and preached in Phoe- the theory and practice of medicine at nixville, Skippack and Germantown. By his first wife, Mary Kuster, he had a son, also Matthias, by whom the name began now to be spelled Pennypacker.
Matthias Pennypacker was born Aug- ust 15, 1786, in Chester county, Penn- sylvania, and died there after a life of more than ordinary public activity. He was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention in 1837; for a number of years was a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and was president of the organization which eventually be- came the Philadelphia & Reading Rail- road Company, being one of the incor- porators of the company. He married Sarah, daughter of the Hon. Isaac An- derson, a lieutenant of militia during the Revolutionary War, and a member of the House of Representatives of the United States. The family of Sarah (Ander- son) Pennypacker boasts a lineage as ancient and honorable as any in Amer- ica. Not only in this country has the family been represented by men who have contributed an important part in the upbuilding of the Commonwealth, but is to be traced through more than one line to Dierck, Count of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland, A.D. 863, and to Edward III. of England, and his wife Philippa.
Dr. Isaac Anderson Pennypacker, son of Matthias and Sarah (Anderson) Pennypacker, born July 9, 1812, in Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, was the father of Governor Samuel Whitaker Penny- packer. He studied medicine and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1833. Entering upon the practice of his profession at Phoenixville, Chester county, he became an eminent and suc- cessful physician. He was the first chief burgess of Phoenixville in its organiza- tion as a borough in 1849. In 1854 Dr. Pennypacker was appointed professor of
the Philadelphia College of Medicine and removed to that city, residing there until his death in 1856. He was a founder and the first president of the Philadelphia City Institute and, together with the late Dr. James L. Tyson, or- ganized the Howard Hospital. Dr. Pennypacker married, May 9, 1839, Anna Maria, daughter of Joseph Whitaker, a wealthy iron-master of Phoenixville, one of the firm of Reeves & Whitaker, and at one time owner of the Durham Iron Works at Durham, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, as well as of extensive iron works in Maryland and elsewhere, and a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1843.
Dr. Isaac Anderson and Anna Maria (Whitaker) Pennypacker had four sons, of whom Governor Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was the eldest. The sec- ond son was Henry Clay Pennypacker, a prominent Philadelphia business man and a large landowner in Chester county ; his residence is "Moore Hall," Chester county, one of the historic colonial places of the state. Dr. Pennypacker's third son was Isaac Rustling Pennypacker, who has filled important editorial posi- tions on the leading newspapers of Wil- mington, Delaware, and Philadelphia. He is also an author and poet of no slight reputation. His historical and en- cyclopedic work and his occasional and patriotic poems have elicited the highest commendation. He has followed the cus- tom of his family in identifying himself with all the important public movements of the community. The fourth and youngest son of Dr. Pennypacker was James Lane Pennypacker, who is further mentioned on a following page.
Hon. Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, LL.D., Governor of Pennsylvania, 1903-07, was born at Phoenixville, Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1843. When he was a child his parents re-
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moved to Philadelphia, and he received his elementary education in the schools of that city. He entered the Northwest Grammar School and later obtained a scholarship at the Saunders Institute, West Philadelphia. When his father died in 1856 he returned with his mother to Phoenixville, and there attended the Grovemont Seminary. In 1862 he taught school at Mont Clare, Montgomery county.
In 1863 he enlisted in Company F, Twenty-sixth (Emergency) Regiment, the first force to encounter the Confeder- ate army at Gettysburg. At the expira- tion of his term of service Mr. Penny- packer took up the study of law in the office of Hon. Peter McCall, of Phila- delphia, and entered the Law Depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1866. In the same year he was ad- mitted to the Philadelphia bar, and began practice in that city. In 1868 he was elected president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia, and in 1887 was ad- mitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed in 1889 to fill a vacancy on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, and in November of the same year was elected to the same position for the full term of ten years. He was unanimously re- elected to this position in 1889 for an- other term of ten years, being then the president judge of the court. Before his term expired he resigned his judicial position to accept, in 1902, the Republi- can nomination to the office of governor. His election had the character of a triumph, receiving, as he did, a majority of 156,000 votes over his Democratic op- ponent, ex-Governor Robert E. Pattison, who had twice held the position.
The work of Governor Pennypacker in the administration of the Commonwealth was marked by advance in many direc- tions. The agitation for good roads took
such shape that practical work was be- gun, the Health Department was estab- lished, the State Constabulary was created, a great coal miners' strike was averted, the Forestry Reserve was doubled, Valley Forge was made a state park, Greater Pittsburgh was incorpo- rated, a new capitol completed and dedi- cated, the state apportioned into sena- torial and representative districts for the first time in thirty years; the volume of new laws was cut down one-third; the power of corporations to seize the sources of the water supply was taken away ; legislation was enacted that was charac- terized as making an epoch in the better- ment of political conditions ; $375,000 was appropriated for deepening the channel of the Delaware river, and over $11,000,- 000 left in the treasury.
Governor Pennypacker has always taken the keenest interest in all the af- fairs of the city of his adoption. The cause of popular education has always found in him a firm friend and champion, and for a time he served as a member of the Board of Education. Intensely proud of his native state and all that concerned her origin, he has made him- self an authority upon her history and institutions. A careful and thorough student, his logical mind, his conserva- tive exactness in the marshalling of ma- terial, and his scholarly presentation of the subject, combine to make his his- torical publications models of accuracy and authenticity. Among the more prominent of his publications are: "The Settlement of Germantown," "Hendrick Pannebecker," "Historical and Biograph- ical Sketches," "Bebber's Township," "The Annals of Phoenixville" and "Con- gress Hall." He has also published a number of legal text books of merit, among them being "Pennsylvania Colonial Cases," "Digest of Common Law Reports," and "Pennypacker's Supreme Court Reports."
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Governor Pennypacker has not only been an industrious historical writer, but has been an active member of the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania, and has greatly aided research by promoting in every way the usefulness of that institu- tion. After having served it for many years as vice-president, he has been since 1900 its president. It was largely through his instrumentality that the state ap- propriation was secured that enabled the society to erect its present large and handsome building. He was one of the founders and is now the vice-president of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and fills the same posi- tion in the Colonial Society; has been president of the Netherlands Society and of the Pennsylvania German Society; is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of the War of 1812, and of the Pennsylvania History Club. He is president of the Philobiblion Club, and connected with other historical, edu- cational and social organizations. He has been for a number of years a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and is a past commander of Frederick Taylor Post, No. 19, Grand Army of the Re- public.
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