History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 1

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1390

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HISTORY

YORK COUNTY

PENNSYLVANIA

BIOGRAPHICAL

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II

4720

CHICAGO J. H. BEERS & CO. 1907

YORK JUNIOR COLLEGE LIBRARY YORK, PENNA.

Ref F 157 Y6P92

BIOGRAPHICAL

CAPT. WILLIAM HENRY LANIUS, soldier, banker, and for many years president of various corporate institutions of York, was born at Flushing, Long Island, Nov. 26, 1843. He is the son of Henry and Angeline ( Miller ) Lanius. His father's ancestors were prominent in the history of the Moravian Church and were among the earliest German settlers west of the Susquehanna. For several generations they were active and influential in the affairs of the city and county of York, of which Cap- tain Lanius has been one of the foremost citi- zens for nearly a third of a century. During the rapid growth and development of York in recent years he has lent his varied accomplish- ments and best energies to advancing every cause and enterprise intended to promote the public good, and develop the resources and the possibilities of the city of York. His mother's ancestors were of English and French Hugue- not descent, and first settled in the State of New York, residing on Long Island.

Captain Lanius grew to manhood in the borough of York. He obtained his early edu- cation in the private schools of York and then entered the York County Academy, where he excelled as a student, acquiring a compre- hensive knowledge of the English branches of an education, and also pursued the study of the classics. He spent several years in this institution, during which time he took an active part in debating societies then existing in the academy and the town of York. At the age of seventeen he entered the office of his father, a prominent lumber merchant at York and Wrightsville.

He was seventeen years old when the Civil war opened. The enlistment of soldiers and the movement of troops to the front during the early months of the war aroused his military ardor, and he then resolved to offer his services to his country, to aid in defending it when it

was threatened with disunion. Different com- panies were being recruited in the town and throughout the county. Drums were beating in the streets, recruiting offices were opened at various places in the town, and on Aug. 25, 1861, William H. Lanius became a private in. Company A (commanded by Capt. James A. Stahle), of the 87th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, organized at York under command of Col. George Hay, with John W. Schall as. lieutenant-colonel. Soon after his enlistment Private Lanius was promoted to orderly ser- geant of Company I, which had been largely . recruited at New Oxford and vicinity, int Adams county. Sergeant Lanius served with! his company and regiment on the marches over the mountains and through the valleys of West: Virginia with the purpose of driving the Con- federates from that region. After the close of the winter encampment at Winchester, Va., he was promoted to second lieutenant of his company, being then the youngest commis- sioned officer of the regiment. Up to this

period the 87th had had a romantic career, but had not taken part in any engagements. Their real experience as soldiers began on June 12, 1863, in a lively affair at Newtown, near Win- chester, where the regiment distinguished itself for courage in a sharp conflict with the enemy. The 87th at this time was in Milroy's com- mand. The defeat of the Union army at Chancellorsville induced General Lee to march northward on the eventful Gettysburg cam- paign. In the attack upon Milroy's forces at Carter's Woods, a few miles east of Win- chester, Lieutenant Lanius led his men in line of battle almost to the enemy's guns. Being overpowered by the large number of the oppos- ing forces, Milroy's Division was driven back, and Lieutenant Lanius marched with that part of the regiment under Colonel Schall that reached Harper's Ferry. While stationed at

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

this post, he acted as adjutant of the regiment, which after the battle of Gettysburg was placed in the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, 3d Army Corps. During the summer and fall of 1863, Lieutenant Lanius participated with his com- mand in the engagements at Manassas Gap, July 23d; Bealton Station, Oct. 26th; Kelly's Ford, Nov. 7th; and Brandy Station, Nov. 8th. During the absence of Captain Pfeiffer on division staff, Lieutenant Lanius com- manded Company I in the engagement at Locust Grove, on Nov. 27th. He was also in command of his company when the 3d Divi- sion was to lead the assault on the Confederate works at Mine Run, Nov. 30th, but owing to the impregnable position of the enemy the as- sault was not made. On Dec. 7th, while in winter quarters at Brandy Station, Va., he was promoted to first lieutenant, succeeding An- thony M. Martin, who had been made adjutant. When General Morris was wounded, on May 9, 1864, at Spottsylvania, and Colonel Schall succeeded to the command of the Ist Brigade, 3d Division, 6th Army Corps, in which the 87th was then serving, Lieutenant Lanius was placed on the brigade staff as an aide. When Colonel Truex, the senior officer, assumed 'command of the Ist Brigade, he was continued on the latter's staff, and was with the regiment and brigade in all the engagements of Grant's campaign of 1864, in the movement of the army from the Rapidan to Petersburg, includ- ing the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsyl- vania, Laurel Hill, Po River, North Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor and Weldon Rail- road. He carried the orders along the line for the movement of the Ist Brigade, at the open- ing charge on the enemy's works at Cold Har- bor, June Ist. When Captain Pfeiffer was killed at Cold Harbor he was commissioned captain of Company I, on June 25th, still re- taining his position as an aide on brigade staff.

command of Lieut .- Col. James A. Stahle. At the battle of Monocacy, near Frederick, on July 9th, this regiment fought with heroic valor. Captain Lanius, in this battle, was serving on the staff of Colonel Truex, commanding the Ist Brigade, and was entrusted with the duty of carrying dispatches for the movement of the troops into the fight. It was a hard-fought battle, in which Captain Lanius displayed both courage and daring.

"In the afternoon of that day," says Colonel Stahle in a description of the battle, "when the Confederates were reforming their line in a woods in our front, with the intention of turning our left, Captain Lanius came rid- ing gallantly along our lines, bringing an order from Gen. Lew Wallace for the 87th Pennsyl- vania and the 14th New Jersey to charge across a field, and take position by the Thomas House." This charge was successfully exe- cuted, but soon afterward Captain Lanius, while passing through a shower of balls, was wounded in the arm, which disabled him for about two months, when he returned to the regiment, then under Sheridan in the Shenan- doah Valley, and took command of Company I, participating with it in the battles of Opequon and Fisher's Hill.

The three years' term of service for which he enlisted had now expired. He then re- turned with the regiment and was mustered out of service, at York, Oct. 13, 1864. After Captain Lanius had received his discharge from the army he was appointed an agent for a special bureau of the United States Treasury Department to receive and dispose of captured, abandoned and confiscated property. On Nov. Ist he began the performance of his duties by collecting rents on abandoned properties at Harper's Ferry, W. Va. After remaining there a short time he opened an office at Win- chester, where all persons living within the Union lines who desired to purchase supplies at government trade stores were required to get permits. After the permits had been granted individuals receiving them procured the supplies at the trade stores and obtained duplicate bills on which, when approved by the post provost marshal, the purchaser paid three per cent. of the face of the bill at the govern- ment office of Captain Lanius. He performed these responsible duties at Winchester until March, 1865, when he was appointed to a posi-

During the summer of 1864, when Grant was laying siege to Petersburg and was threat- ening Richmond, the capital of the Con- federacy, Ricketts's Division of the 6th Army Corps, in which the Ist Brigade served, was de- tached from the main army under Grant and sent to Frederick, Md., to meet a Confederate army of nearly twenty-three thousand men, under General Early, who was then threaten- ing Washington City. While leading the charge at Cold Harbor Colonel Schall had been wounded. The regiment was then placed in tion in the Baltimore custom house, where he

BIOGRAPHICAL

remained about one month, when he resigned Sedgwick Post, No. 37, G. A. R., at York, and and returned to his home in York.

Captain Lanius now entered upon his pros- perous business career, engaging in the lumber trade at York, which he continued for a period of seven years. From 1871 to 1878 he carried on the same business at Wrightsville, and from 1880 to 1886 he conducted a large wholesale lumber business at Williamsport. In 1884 he organized the West End Improvement Com- pany, a land company that opened up and de- veloped the western part of York. In Decem- ber, 1888, he was chosen president of the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway (Eastern Extension), a line built from York to Porters and later controlled by the Western Maryland. This railroad when opened for traffic in 1893 gave an important impetus to the growth and development of York. It was a competing line to Baltimore. The time of its completion dates a new era in the business and manufacturing interests of the city. A large number of in- dustrial plants were at once established in York, and the financial institutions and the business interests began to grow rapidly. Cap- tain Lanius remained as the president of the railroad from 1888 until 1906. Feeling the necessity for rapid transit in York about the time it was to be incorporated into a city, Cap- tain Lanius organized the York Street Rail- way Company. of which he served as president and the active head until the various lines were constructed through the leading streets of the city. This project met with so much encour- agement that in 1900 the York County Trac- tion Company was organized, which extended trolley lines to various centers of population in York county. He remained as the active pro- moter and head of this enterprising company until 1906, when its interests were disposed of to other parties.

Captain Lanius has been president of the York Trust Company since it was organized through his efforts in 1890. This institution has done a large and prosperous business. He was the first president of the York Board of Trade, in 1886, and is a trustee of the York County Academy. He was one of the charter members of the York County Historical So- ciety and has always lent his best efforts in promoting the welfare of that institution, of which he is vice-president, a trustee and a life member. In 1867 he was one of the charter members, and became the first commander, of

was its representative a number of times at State and National encampments. He is a member of the Loyal Legion and of the Masonic Fraternity. In 1866, when he was twenty-two years old, Captain Lanius organ- ized the Boys in Blue at York. He represented this organization at the State Convention held in Pittsburg the same year. In that year also Gen. John W. Geary was nominated by the Republican party for governor of Pennsyl- vania. The State campaign opened at York by a parade of the Boys in Blue from Harris- burg, Carlisle, Lancaster, Reading and York. After the parade a public meeting was held in Baumgardner's woods, a short distance south- east of the city. This meeting was presided over by Captain Lanius and addressed by Gen- eral Geary, Governor Curtin and other dis- tinguished men. Four thousand persons were fed at a table in the form of a hollow square. It was the largest political meeting ever held in York county. For eight years Captain Lanius served in the borough and city councils of York. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Re- publican National Convention which nominated James G. Blaine for President of the United States.

Captain Lanius is a descendant of a sturdy and honorable German stock. His first Amer- ican ancestor came to this country and settled in eastern Pennsylvania about the year 173I. This ancestor was Jacob Lanius, who was born at Meckenheim, in the Palatinate, Germany, May 12, 1708. He married June 13, 1730, Julianna Kreamer, who was born in Eisen- heim Jan. 2, 1712, and in 1731 came to Phila- delphia by way of Rotterdam, in the ship "Pennsylvania Merchant." Afterward he re- moved to Kreutz Creek, where his name is found among the taxables of Hellam township as possessed of 150 acres of land. In 1763 he removed to York, although, together with his wife, he had been, from 1752, connected with the Moravian Church, and his name appears in the lengthy document in Latin deposited in the cornerstone of the first church built in York in 1755. He died in York, March I, 1778. Henry, his fifth child, continued to live in Hellam township, where he died Sept. 15, 1808. He also was connected with the Moravian Church in York. His brother, Will- iam, came to York with his father and formed part of the guard that escorted the Continental

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Congress on its return to Philadelphia, June 27, 1778. Christian, the first child of Henry by his second wife, Elizabeth Kuenzly, of Mt. Joy, was born at Kreutz Creek Sept. 16, 1773, and baptized in the Moravian Church. He was a wagonmaker by trade and resided in York, where by industry and thrift, combined with good business judgment, he accumulated con- siderable property and was highly respected as a public-spirited citizen. He was prominent in the movement in 1815 to introduce water into the borough and was one of the first board of nine managers that met March 18, 1816, for that purpose. In 1837 he was one of the organizers of the movement for the founding of the York County Savings Institution, now the York County National Bank, and was elected its first president, but declined to serve in that position. He was married Sept. 17, 1797, to Anna, daughter of Jacob and Barbara Von Updegraff, born in York March 16, 1774. They had eight children who reached mature age : Elizabeth, wife of Michael Smyser ; Susan A., wife of Jacob Weiser ; Benjamin; Amelia, wife of John Fahnestock; Sarah, wife of Henry Kauffelt; Henry; Magdalen, wife of William D. Himes; and Eleanora, wife of E. C. Parkhurst.

Henry Lanius, father of Captain Lanius, was born Sept. 20, 1809, at York, and died June 26, 1879. For many years he was a prominent lumber merchant at York and Wrightsville, which business he continued until 1871, when he retired. Early in life he belonged to the Whig party and in 1856 be- came one of the original Republicans in York county. He took an active part in the public affairs of the borough and served as chief burgess of York in 1860 and 1861, during the stirring times at the beginning of the Civil war. When the Columbia bridge was burned, June 28, 1863, by the Union forces, to pre- vent the Confederates from crossing the river, the entire lumberyard of Henry Lanius at Wrightsville was destroyed. It was a heavy loss, from which he never recovered anything from the United States government. Mr.

Lanius served several years as a member of the school board of York. He was a consistent member of the Moravian Church and possessed many excellent qualities of mind and heart. He married Angeline Miller, by whom he had ten children, eight of whom grew to maturity : Marcus C., deceased; Anna L., deceased,

widow of Thomas Myers; Captain William Henry; Ellen A .; Rev. Charles C., deceased, late principal of the Moravian school at Naza- reth, Pa .; Sarah F .; Paul, a resident of Den- ver, Colo .; and Susan H., deceased.

ARTHUR B. FARQUHAR, LL. D., president of the A. B. Farquhar Company, of York, is not only prominent as the head of an important manufacturing concern, but also as a writer of distinctive ability on economic questions. He is a citizen of whom Pennsyl- vania has every reason to be proud. It is un- usual for the characteristics found in Mr. Far- quhar to be combined in one personality. The man of mechanical taste and practical experi- ence often rises to a position of eminence in the manufacturing world. The man of theories, not blinded by the fear of risking the success of his own enterprises, may conceive fair- minded plans for the wise administration of business affairs; but the man who has the me- chanical and business ability to make a success in a commercial way, and the habits of study which lead him into the questions of public economy involved, is rare indeed. As in Mr. Farquhar's case, his opinions are not listened to indulgently, or accepted grudgingly. They are looked upon as authoritative, and as such are influential in guiding the actions of those into whose hands the reins of public adminis- tration have fallen. Mr. Farquhar has been characterized in a recent interview of his career as "a man of distinctive and forceful in- dividuality ; of broad mentality and most ma- ture judgment, who has left and is leaving his impress upon the industrial world, while his study of economic questions and matters of public polity has been so close, practical, and . comprehensive that his judgment is relied upon, and his utterances have weight in those circles where the material progress of the Union is centered, as well as among those who guide the destinies of the nation."

The following sketch of Mr. Farquhar has been for the most part compiled from an article in "Illustrated American Biography":

Arthur B. Farquhar is of Scotch, English and German ancestry, whose history has been long and prominently identified with the his- tory of the section of America in which its members are found. On the paternal side his first American ancestor was William F. Far- quhar, his great-great-great-grandfather, who

FACTORY OF A. B. FARQUHAR COMPANY, LIMITED, YORK, PENNSYLVANIA

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EDGECOMBE COUNTRY RESIDENCE OF A. B. FARQUHAR, YORK, PENNSYLVANIA

BIOGRAPHICAL

emigrated hither from Scotland about the year 1700, being accompanied by a number of re- ligious refugees who sought in the New World freedom of thought and an opportunity to bet- ter their condition in life. The little band of emigrants settled in Frederick county, Md. The Farquhar family had been prominent in Scotland, song and story telling of the deeds of the noble chiefs of the Clan Farquhar.

In the maternal line Mr. Farquhar traces his ancestry back to Robert Brook, of the house of Warwick, who was born in the year 1602, and married Mary Baker, daughter of Roger Mainwaring, Dean of Worcester. In 1650 Robert Brook emigrated to America, accompanied by his wife and their ten children and by a retinue of twenty-eight servants. He took up his abode in Charles county, Md., and that he was a man of prominence and influence in the Colony is manifest from the fact that he was made commandant of Maryland, and eventually president of the Council of Mary- land. His children and grandchildren settled in what is now known as Montgomery county, that State, whence their descendants have be- come scattered throughout the various States of the Union.

Amos Farquhar, grandfather of Arthur B., . removed in 1812 to York county, Pa., where he erected a cotton factory, conducting the enterprise with a due measure of success until after the close of the war with England, when its prosperity abruptly declined, and he thereafter turned his attention to farming and school teaching.

William Henry Farquhar, father of Arthur B., was born at York, Pa., June 14, 1813. He was a learned man, a student from childhood, being a thorough and well advanced Latin and Greek scholar at the age of thirteen years. Though he was a man of fine literary attain- ments, his intellectuality did not confine itself to the classics and allied lines, for he became a mathematician of high reputation. At an early age he accompanied his father to Mont -. gomery county, Md., where they established a seminary for young women, the institution gaining marked prestige in the educational field of the State.

connected with agricultural pursuits, and after leaving school Arthur B. acted as manager of the paternal farmstead for the period of one year. However, he had early manifested a predilection for mechanics, in which his father wisely encouraged him, affording him every possible advantage for improving his practical mechanical education. The young man was alert and self-reliant, and he has consistently maintained the highest respect and regard for the dignity of honest toil and for those who devote themselves to it. His practical mind showed him that success depends upon the thorough mastering of even the simplest de- tails of any business or mechanical art, and that "here is the master key : skilled hands and industry." Thus he was content to begin at the bottom round, and in 1856 he came to York, Pa., to learn the machinist's trade. Here he has remained ever since, and the record of his brilliant achievements makes a worthy page in the history of the city of his adoption.

At the expiration of two years he secured a partnership interest in the establishment in which he had labored so effectively and with such marked enthusiasm. The concern pros- pered until the dark cloud of civil war ob- scured the national horizon, depressing all lines of commercial activity, at which critical period the business of the firm flagged apprecia- bly, and a further loss, by a disastrous fire, practically completed the overthrow of the en- terprise. The assets were barely sufficient to render possible the payment of twenty-five cents on the dollar in liquidating the indebted- ness, and to one of Mr. Farquhar's principles such a settlement was more a matter of per- sonal grief than the loss of his own accumula- tions. His first ambition was to seek some means of retrieving his stranded fortunes and re-establishing his capital. To this end he con- ferred with his creditors and persuaded them to effect a radically different settlement, by which he could resume his business operations, and by careful management and well-directed efforts he was enabled, at the expiration of three years, to liquidate his obligations in full.

From this period the record of the growth and expansion of the business, until it de- veloped into the present magnificent industry of the A. B. Farquhar Company, is one of

Arthur B. Farquhar was born in Mont- gomery county, Md., Sept. 28, 1838, and his early educational training was received in Benjamin Hallowell's select school for boys, progress. The successful management of an at Alexandria, Va. His father had become

enterprise of such magnitude is indubitable

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

evidence of Mr. Farquhar's capacity for af- fairs of breadth, and his own standing testifies to his unswerving honor as a man among men. The enterprise had its inception in a modest establishment, a .small frame shop, in which employment was afforded to a few workmen. In 1889 the A. B. Farquhar Company, Lim- ited, was organized and duly incorporated, with a capital stock of $500,000, all of which stock is owned by the Farquhar family. Of this company, whose constantly increasing business has now reached an annual aggregate of more than one million dollars, Arthur B. Farquhar is president, and to him is due in a large measure the wonderful success of the business. The products of the establishment not only find sale in the most diverse sections of the Union, but are also exported to the Argentine Confederation, Brazil, Chili and South Africa, and to Mexico and Russia, where the concern has a large trade-prac- tically to all parts of the civilized world.

Mr. Farquhar has shown the value of actual familiarity with every detail of manu- facturing and has displayed especial wisdom in furthering the success of the enterprise by his careful discrimination in the selection of foremen for the various departments of the establishment, all being men who are masters of the various mechanical operations con- ducted under their superintendency. The characteristic motto of the concern is: "Per- fection attained, success assured." This has been adhered to in the smallest details, and its promises of cause and effect fully realized.

From the time of Mr. Farquhar's removal to York his name has always been synonymous with progress, and the present conspicuous position the place holds as a manufacturing center is in no small degree owing to his efforts in the line of general progress, to which he may be said to have devoted as much time as he has to the furthering of his personal inter- ests. For though a thorough business man, Mr. Farquhar is best known throughout the nation and among the statesmen of foreign lands as a student of and authority upon ques- tions of political economy, with special refer- ence to finance and tariff legislation. Perhaps this has been the result of intimate association with business affairs upon a man of his tenden- cies. At any rate, with a mind thoroughly practical and well disciplined, and evidencing highest intellectuality, he has brought his

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 1

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1390