USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 22
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In the fall of 1886 Mr. Adams was a candidate for renomination, but owing to the enmity of certain party leaders, incurred by his support of the Reform Charter of Philadelphia, and to the treachery of others, he found it impossible of accom- plishment, and voluntarily retired from the contest. Mr. Adams was supported for re-election by every Republican and Independent newspaper in Philadelphia, and his course and work as a legislator was highly commended. On his failure to secure the nomination, he was asked to run on an Independent ticket, but declined.
Mr. Adams' other public services have been numerous and varied in character.
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ROBERT ADAMS, JR.
He is descended from a military family. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was a Captain in the First Pennsylvania Infantry, and served through the Revo- lutionary War, and from him he inherits the Eagle of the Society of the Cincin- nati. Ilis mother's father, Captain Hart, served in the War of 1812, and after- wards was for sixteen years Captain of the famous City Troop. In 1874 Mr. Adams joined this last-named organization and served until 1882, when he was appointed Judge Advocate of the First Brigade, National Guards of Pennsylvania, with rank of Major, which position he filled with credit until 1887, when he was appointed on Governor Beaver's staff with rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, thus making nearly fifteen years of continued service in the National Guard.
Colonel Adams' only experience of active military service was in the West in 1872, when at Fort Hall, Idaho Territory, he accompanied a detachment of the Sixteenth United States Infantry as a volunteer in an expedition against the Indians, and in 1875 when, with the United States Geological Survey in Utah, the party was attacked by the Pi-Ute Indians, and only escaped after a fight of nineteen hours. Prof. James T. Gardner, in his official report, says: " I cannot bestow too much praise upon Robert Adams, S. Madeira, Charles Kelsey and Cuthbert Mills for the aggressive energy that they showed in the fight. To the first two I was constantly indebted for excellent advice."
Mr. Adams' literary work has been of rather a desultory character, and mostly on topics that interested him personally, or which he was advocating for the public good. In 1875, at the invitation of the Ladies' Centennial Committee, he delivered a lecture at the Academy of Music to a large audience on " The Won- ders of the Yellowstone Park," which netted a handsome sum for the National celebration. He wrote for the Century an article on the " State in Schuylkill," being an account of the oldest social club in the world. In 1883 he was elected Biennial Orator of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania, and read a paper on " Must the Classics Go?" During the winter of 1884, there being no session of the Legislature, he returned to his Alma Mater and entered the Wharton School of Finance and Political Economy, in order to further fit himself for his public duties, and took his degree of Ph. B. The following winter, by invitation of the Faculty, he lectured to the students on " Legislative Procedure," and on invitation of the Social Science Association he prepared and read before it a paper on " Wife Beating as a Crime," and its relation to taxation. Senator Adams has participated in every political campaign since his entrance into political life in 1882, and his services have been much in demand by both the State and City Committees as a speaker on the hustings.
Many societies have been benefited by Mr. Adams' active membership. In his college days he belonged to and became Moderator of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania; he also joined the Delta Psi Fraternity, and presided over the great meeting of the Brotherhood held in Philadelphia in 1876, and recently was elected President of the Wharton School Association. He is an active member of the Hibernian Society, which his grandfather joined
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ROBERT ADAMS, JR.
in 1806; also of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Franklin Insti- tute. Mr. Adams has always taken a lively interest in all social and society matters, and is a prominent member of the Union League, the Philadelphia, the Penn, the Rabbit and the Fish House Clubs of Philadelphia, and of the Union and St. Anthony Clubs of New York.
Mr. Adams, since his retirement from the Senate, has held no political office. His name is frequently mentioned in connection with the Congressional nomina- tion for his district. He is still a young man, and, with his Legislative record, his ability and special education, should have a successful career before him.
C. R. D.
HON. BOIES PENROSE
BOIES PENROSE.
H ON. BOIES PENROSE, State Senator for the Sixth District of Pennsylvania, was born at his present residence in the Eighth Ward, Philadelphia, on November 1, 1860. He is the son of Professor R. A. F. Penrose, M. D., LL. D., of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and a nephew of Judge Clement Biddle Penrose, of the Orphans' Court of Philadelphia county. Mr. Penrose is a direct descendant of William Biddle, one of the proprietors of the province of New Jersey, a friend of William Penn, and the founder of the Biddle family of Philadelphia. Nicholas Scull, Surveyor-General of Pennsylva- nia in the old Colonial days, was also one of his immediate ancestors. Philip Thomas, private Secretary to Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, and founder of the Thomas family of Maryland, was a direct ancestor on his maternal side, and he is descended from some of the best stock in New England. His great-grand- father, J. S. Boies, of Boston, Mass., when a mere lad assisted in erecting the breastworks on Bunker Hill the night before the famous battle.
Mr. Penrose was educated at the Episcopal Academy, located at the corner of Juniper and Locust streets, Philadelphia, and by private tutors. He entered Harvard College at the early age of sixteen, and graduated in 1881, being one of five out of a class of nearly 250 members selected by a competitive examina- tion to deliver an oration on commencement day, his subject being " Martin Van Buren as a Politician." He also received " honorable mention " for his studies in political economy.
He studied law with Wayne Mac Veagh, United States Attorney General under President Garfield, and George Tucker Bispham, Professor in the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar in December, 1883, and soon afterwards entered into partnership with S. Davis Page, Esq., who was appointed United States sub-Treasurer at Philadelphia by President Cleveland, and Edward P. Allinson, Esq., the firm being Page, Allinson & Penrose.
In 1884 he was nominated on the Republican ticket and elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the Eighth Ward of Philadel- phia, succeeding the Hon. William C. Bullitt, a Democrat. In the session of 1885 he voted for Hon. J. Donald Cameron for United States Senator. He also took a prominent part in the passage of the " Bullitt Bill," the reform charter for Philadelphia, and other important measures.
In November, 1886, he was elected to the State Senate from the Sixth District, composed of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Wards of Philadelphia, a district which, embracing as it does the heart of the city, is the richest and most influen- tial in the State. He succeeded Hon. Robert Adams. Mr. Penrose's grand- father, Hon. Charles Bingham Penrose, formerly represented a portion of the same district in the State Senate, and, dying during his term of service, was suc-
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BOLES PENROSE.
ceeded by the Hon. Samuel J. Randall. Col. A. K. McClure recalled some inter- esting reminiscences in the Times, upon the occasion of Mr. Penrose's nomination to the House in the following language :
" The nomination of Mr. Boies Penrose for the Legislature in the Eighth Ward recalls the fact that the name he bears is illustrious in the legislative annals of the State. His grandfather, the late Charles B. Penrose, was a Senator from the Cumberland District nearly half a century ago, and he was one of the central figures of the only Anti-Masonic State Administration. Elected to the Senate originally as a Democrat, he severed his connection with his party on the issue of rechartering the old United States Bank as a State institution, and he was one of the most trusted advisers of the Ritner reign. He subse- quently became a resident of Philadelphia, and was returned to the Senate by the Republicans, or the People's party, as it was then called, and he was the one man who, more than any dozen, compassed the defeat of Colonel Forney and the election of General Cameron to the Senate in the Democratic Legisla- ture of 1857. The Democrats had three majority on joint ballot, and they had nominated Colonel Forney as their candidate with the active approval of Buchanan, then President-elect. The Republicans had no love for Cameron, but they were smarting under the defeat Colonel Forney had given them, as they alleged, by frauds in this city, and they were willing to accept Cameron to defeat Forney, but they refused to make Cameron their candidate unless positively assured of his election. Senator Penrose pressed Cameron upon the Republican caucus on the ground that he could be elected, but they were slow to believe that the Democratic majority could be broken in the President's own State just on the threshold of his power. The caucus finally so far yielded to Senator Penrose's importunities as to appoint himself and two other trusted members to inquire into the matter, and commanded them to report favor- ably only on the pledge of Democratic members personally given to the committee, but conceding that the names of the bolting Democrats need not be given. Penrose and his committee retired and met Lebo, Maneer and Wagonseller, three Democratic members of the House who gave their pledge to vote for Cameron on the first ballot. The committee reported that they had seen three Democratic members and had their pledge to vote for Cameron, whereupon the Republican caucus agreed to give a unanimous vote for Cameron on one ballot. They so voted, Lebo, Maneer and Wagonseller fulfilled their pledge, and Cameron was elected. Mr. Penrose died before his term expired, and the lapse of a quarter of a century since his death leaves his name unfamiliar to the active politicians of the present. His sons have well maintained the distinction of the elder Penrose, although they have not become legislators. One of them graces the Orphans' Court of this city, and now the grandson, in the freshness of youth, is about to take up the legislative mantle of his distinguished grandsire."
In the session of 1887 Mr. Penrose voted for the election of Hon. Matthew S. Quay for United States Senator, having seconded his nomination in the Repub- lican caucus. He took an active part in the debates of that session on the various bills relative to railroad discriminations and upon other matters of importance to the city of Philadelphia.
He has always taken a great interest in questions of municipal reform, and was a member of the convention of the Republican party that nominated Edwin H. Fitler, who was subsequently elected the first Mayor under the new city charter known as the " Bullitt Bill." In 1886, at the request of the Faculty of the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore, he, in connection with his partner, Mr. Allin- son, wrote a history of the government of the city of Philadelphia. This work is the second volume in a series of similar subjects published by the University and edited by Professor Herbert Adams, and is entitled, "The Second Extra Volume of Studies in Historical and Political Science." The work traces the development of the municipality from its beginning to the adoption of the
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BOIES PENROSE.
" Bullitt Bill" in the broad, scientific manner first applied to American local institutions by Professor Freeman, the famous English historian, upon his visit to this country a few years ago, and subsequently carried out in the series of historical investigations instituted by the Johns Hopkins University. It was in the preparation of this work that Allinson and Penrose discovered the first charter of Philadelphia, probably the most interesting and important discovery of an original document relative to local history that has been made for many years. Previously the charter of 1701 had been considered the first charter of the city, and Edward Shippen the first Mayor. Allinson and Penrose, however, after laborious research, discovered a charter granted by Penn in 1699, under which Humphrey Murray was Mayor. This charter was in the possession of Col. Alexander Biddle, in whose family it had been for over a hundred years.
Mr. Penrose and his partner have also contributed all the articles upon muni- cipal subjects to the American and English Encyclopedia of Law, and among their more recent contributions may be mentioned an article on "Ground Rents in Philadelphia as Affecting the Growth of Small Freehold Tenures," which appeared in the Harvard Economic Review for 1888.
Mr. Penrose is a member of the Union League, the Union Republican Club, the Young Republican Club, and other social and political organizations, and possesses the warm, personal regard of his friends and associates.
C. R. D.
HON. WILLIAM GABLE
WILLIAM GABLE.
H ON. WILLIAM GABLE, ex-Representative from Northumberland county, was born in Schuylkill county, near the present city of Pottsville, June 26, 1837. His ancestry for three generations are descended from the hardy, consci- entious inhabitants of the Fatherland, devoted to duty and sterling in their honesty, who migrated to this country and helped to found the State. John Gable, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came to this country from Hesse-Castle with his parents, a boy in years, and settled in Berks county, Penn- sylvania. The news from Lexington found him a youth budding into vigorous manhood, and awakened within him the latent spark of patriotism that Bunker Hill kindled into a flame. John Gable entered the patriot army, and followed its varying fortunes from the beginning of the Revolutionary war until its close at Yorktown. He raised a family, and the same spirit that inspired the father to do battle for the cause of liberty and independence, sent his son forth to battle against the British in 1812. When the war was over he married, and later in life moved to Schuylkill county. He was the father of William Gable, who in turn has laid aside the implements of peace to take up the weapons of war and assist in preserving the nation his grandfather helped to found, and in defence of which his father fought.
In the enjoyment of the stupendous improvements of the half century that has passed since the birth of William Gable, it is difficult to survey in retrospect the privations, the hardships, the meagre advantages that fell to the lot of the Schuyl- kill county lads in early days. Free schools were a luxury scarcely dreamed of, and when they came forth from shadow into substance, the teachers themselves had scarcely the rudiments to impart imperfectly to the taught. Private schools, where they existed in the mountains of Pennsylvania, were little better. It was in the midst of these discouraging conditions that young Gable passed his youth until he attained his sixteenth year. He then engaged in mechanical engineer- ing, for which he had developed an aptness.
His first vote in a Presidential election was given to the candidates of the Republican party in 1860, and when the issue came, and with it its dreadful realizations, he was among the first to go to the rescue of the imperilled nation. Hle enlisted as a private in Captain Jenning's company at St. Clair for three months. The company was assigned to the Fourteenth Regiment, and went into Camp Curtin, Harrisburg. The regiment received its baptism of fire at Falling Waters, which, at the time, was considered a momentous event, but as the war progressed it sunk into the insignificance of a skirmish. The regiment made an unimportant tour of the " sacred soil of Virginia " to Martinsburg, Bunker Hill and Ifarper's Ferry, from which place, the term of service having expired, it was sent to Carlisle, Pa., and mustered out. Gable returned to St. Clair.
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WILLIAM GABLE.
About this time Captain William J. Palmer, who was in command of the Anderson Troop in the Southwest, received permission to recruit a regiment of cavalry in Pennsylvania to act as body-guard to General Buell. This was the Fifteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania Cavalry, better known as the Anderson Cavalry, named in honor of Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter. In its formation, in order that it might be a picked body of men, each county in the State was to be allowed to furnish eight men, and their acceptance depended on the candidates being not only perfect in their physique, but they must possess the qualities that go to make up the gentleman. William Gable applied for admission from Schuylkill county, and was accepted. The company was sent to Carlisle Barracks, where it was drilled by officers detailed for the purpose from the regular army. When General Pope was defeated at the second battle of Bull Run, and the battle of Antietam was in prospective, the Anderson Cavalry went to Chambersburg, pressed into service a sufficient number of horses, and took part in that memorable conflict. Here, at the very outset, its colonel was taken prisoner, and did not rejoin the regiment for more than a year. The bat- tle fought and won, the regiment went back to Carlisle, and shortly afterwards was transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was supplied with horses and marched to Nashville, arriving in time to participate in the battle of Stone river, in which it lost seventy men in killed and wounded, including two acting majors-Rosengarten, of Philadelphia, and Ward, of Pittsburgh. It may be well to state here that owing to the peculiarity of regimental organization, by tacit agreement, both these officers, equally efficient and worthy, remained with the regiment with but one exercising priority right to the command. The Anderson Cavalry participated in the battle of Chickamauga, at the close of which William Gable was promoted from a private to a Sergeant for services on the field. The regiment then joined the Army of the Cumberland, and participated in its 'prin- cipal engagements under General Thomas. In 1864 Gable went before the Examining Board at Nashville, Tenn., received a commission as First Lieutenant, was assigned to the One Hundred and First United States Colored Infantry, and sent to Gallatin, Tennessee, to recruit a company. This accomplished, he joined the regiment at Clarksville, was sent to Nashville, and was there doing guard duty until the regiment was mustered out January 21, 1866.
At the close of the war Mr. Gable engaged in raising cotton in Arkansas, but the surroundings not being congenial, he gave it up after a six months' trial and went to Washington. His object was to appear before the Examining Board as a candidate for a commission in the regular army. He called on General Grant, who gave him a cordial reception, and lent his influence to secure a position to prepare him for the examination. In the meantime Congress passed an act reducing the army, which effectually put a quietus on Mr. Gable's military aspirations.
In November, 1869, he came to Shamokin and engaged with his brother in operating the Lancaster Colliery, and later, when the Mineral Railroad and
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WILLIAM GABLE.
Mining Company was organized, he was made outside Superintendent at the Luke Fiddler Colliery, in which position he remained until 1874, when he became General Manager for the Enterprise Coal Company. Ilere he remained until 1884, passing through all the troublous times incident to " Molly Maguire- ism." In IS85 he was nominated by the Republicans of Northumberland county for the Assembly, and, although the county was hopelessly Democratic, he suc- ceeded in overcoming the majority of upward of one thousand, and secured an election, being the second Republican up to that time who had been successful in the history of the county. As a legislator he was untiring in his zeal in the interests of his constituency as well as the general welfare of the Commonwealth at large. He was Chairman of the Committee on Pensions and Gratuities, and, under the rules which apply to the second member, was Secretary of the Com- mittees on Mines and Mining and of Geological Surveys. The duties involved in this alone were enough to monopolize the time of a less energetic man. Not- withstanding this he took an active part in the proceedings on the floor, and was closely identified with a large amount of very important legislation. Among other things he succeeded in securing the passage of a bill creating an additional law judge for Northumberland county, which was, however, vetoed by the Governor.
He had charge of the Geological Survey Bill, and only by the most untiring effort did he succeed in securing its enactment into a law. Ilall's Island, in the Susquehanna opposite Georgetown, up to this time, although a very valuable property, was enjoying immunity from certain taxes by reason of its being an independent school district. Through Mr. Gable's exertion the law so exempting it was repealed.
He was one of the committee of fifteen Republican members of the Legislature appointed by the party caucus to draft an Apportionment Bill, and was earnest in his opposition to the measure which was finally passed, and was vetoed by Gov- ernor Pattison. Mr. Gable was a delegate to the State Convention that nominated Gen. James A. Beaver for Governor for the first time.
At the expiration of his term as Representative, he assumed the proprietorship and management of the National Hotel at Shamokin, which he still continues. In IS87 he ran for the Assembly a second time, but, owing to complications arising from the presence of a ticket placed in the field by the Knights of Labor, he was defeated.
Mr. Gable is a member of the Masonic Order, of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Grand Army of the Republic and Union Veterans' Association. He was also Captain in and Commissary of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, of Pennsylvania, from its organization until mustered out of service.
In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary J. Bloom, of Pottsville.
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HON. THOMAS ADAMSON.
THOMAS ADAMSON.
H ON. THOMAS ADAMSON, now Consul-General at Panama, and one of the most experienced and popular officers in the Consular service, is the son of Charles and Mary Corson Adamson, and was born in Schuylkill township, Chester county, Pa., April 5, 1827. He is of the fifth generation in descent from John and Ann Adamson, who emigrated from London, England, in 1691, as followers of William Penn. His ancestors on the paternal side for many genera- tions belonged to the religious Society of Friends, and were noted for their firm adherence to what they considered to be the right, without regard to any result- ing unpopularity. On the maternal side he belongs to three important families of Pennsylvania, the Corsons, the Dickinsons and the Dungans. The Corsons of Pennsylvania trace their descent from a Huguenot family, who fled from France in 1675 to seek religious liberty in the new world. The head of that family in Montgomery county was Joseph Corson, who settled near Plymouth Meeting in 1786, and was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Joseph Corson's mother was a descendant of the Rev. Thomas Dungan, a Baptist clergyman, who fled from Ireland on account of the persecution of his sect during the reign of Charles II. His wife was Hannah Dickinson, whose family trace their origin to Walter de Caen, of Kenson, one of the Norman companions of William the Conqueror.
The author of " Biographies of Men of Montgomery County" says he has no knowledge of any man of the county from whom are descended so large a number of cultivated and distinguished offspring, both in the male and female branches, as are descended from Joseph Corson.
The parents of Thomas Adamson were among the earliest Abolitionists of Pennsylvania, and their son was imbued with their sentiments on the subject of slavery from his early youth. The daily discussion of the subject to which he listened, or in which he took part, tended to develop his reasoning powers, and the odium which attached to the friends of the oppressed negro only served to strengthen his convictions, and to make him perfectly indifferent to any argument which his conscience could not approve.
His scholastic education was acquired in the common schools and at Tree- mount Seminary, Norristown, then in charge of Rev. Samuel Aaron, a man of remarkable intellectual force and marvellous eloquence.
On leaving school young Adamson entered upon a mercantile career, the training for which subsequently proved of great value to him in his official life, which commenced on the 25th of November, 1861, when, on the recommenda- tion of the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens and other distinguished Pennsylvanians, he was appointed by President Lincoln as Consul of the United States at Pernam- buco, Brazil. When this appointment was made the post did not appear to be
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