USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
The life of Mr. Weyand covers a period of greater improvements in the art of printing than were made before since the days of Guttenburg. When he first went to the printing business the old Ramage wooden, double-pull hand press was in vogue, the pressure of which was increased by putting in layers of old shoe-leather and remnants of old hats. The type forms were inked by round hand balls, stuffed with wool or cotton and covered with buckskin. It took two persons nearly a whole day to work off an edition of three or four hundred, and, when they got through their hard day's work, the hands of one would be full of blisters, and the right arm of the other would feel as if nearly wrenched out of the socket. Little attention was then paid to editorial matter in the rural press, and not much even to local matters. The country paper was filled up with "news" items sometimes two months old; political communications after the style of the Old Testament Chronicles; marriages and deaths ; advertisements made up largely of " six and a quarter cents reward " for runaway apprentices, oi namented with cuts representing a negro with a bundle on his back-a " stock cut " gotten up for the Southern papers to use in advertising runaway slaves. It required three months to get news from the Old World, and over a month to get information of anything transpiring in places away from the larger cities. The silver dollar was the unit of value, and the only dollar then known in the affairs of the Government. There were no postage stamps at that day. Letter
(415)
416
MICHAEL WEYAND.
postage had to be paid on delivery with silver quarters, levies or " fips." It cost eighteen and three-quarter cents to carry a letter from Washington, D. C., to New Castle, Pa., and twenty-five cents from New Orleans to the same point.
In politics Mr. Weyand was an old line Whig during the existence of that party, and on the formation of the Republican party he joined its ranks and has remained a member of it ever since. He has passed through and taken part in many exciting political struggles. He resisted the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise Act and the attempted introduction of slavery into the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, both with pen and tongue, with all the ability and power which he possessed. The only public offices he has ever held were Pro- thonotary of Beaver county and Presidential Elector for the Twenty-fourth Dis- trict. The former position he held for two terms of three years each, succeeding in the office Hon. Matthew S. Quay, now United States Senator. He was elected a Presidential Elector in 1884, the ticket receiving an average majority of eighty thousand votes ; and, in consideration of his representing Mr. Blaine's native county, it was deemed appropriate by the Electoral College to select him as messenger to take the certified vote to the National Capital.
During his long connection with journalism, although he has had numberless heated and acrimonious newspaper controversies, and has not hesitated to criticise the acts of public men and measures, he has thus far escaped the institution of a single libel suit against him, though frequently waited on by lawyers and often threatened by them with legal proceedings. This he attributes to the fact that he is careful not to make misstatements, and to his ability to prove the justice of his criticisms.
At the time he finished his apprenticeship in Beaver he was very frail physi- cally, and it was predicted by many at that time that he would not live the year out. He has, however, outlived nearly all the prophets, for at the present time there are but six men now living in the town of Beaver who were residents of the place at that distant date, among them being ex-Chief Justice Agnew, who is still a vigorous and honored citizen of the town.
The semi-centennial of his advent to " Saints Rest" occurred in May, 1888, and was made the occasion of many kindly notices on the part of local papers and journals throughout the State. They stated in substance that, as he was the oldest printer within the limits of the " State of Beaver," he was, in all probability, also the oldest living journalist in continuous service in Pennsylvania. An amusing notice of the event in the Boston Post declared that an editor who could pass through the newspaper fights of fifty years without incurring a libel suit deserved a monument. To this Mr. Weyand responded in the Times that if the Post really believed what it said, and would send on the monument C. O. D., it would be set up in "toploftical style."
In 1851 Mr. Weyand was married to Amanda, daughter of David Somers, former Sheriff and County Commissioner of Beaver county, long since deceased. The fruits of the marriage are two sons and two daughters, all now grown up.
WILLIAM M. BUNN.
WILLIAM MALCOLM BUNN.
F ROM an humble boyhood and the merely comfortable surroundings that so often serve to fasten mediocrity upon those who, with either the advantage of wealth or the spur of poverty, would develop into leading and distinguished men, William Malcolm Bunn forced his way to the successful minority among men and attained a position which attracted attention and secured his selection by President Arthur to fill the Gubernatorial chair of Idaho Territory. One of those bold natures who believe that triumph or failure is equally and only chargeable to the man, his success is the result of natural ability incited by boundless ambition and sustained by an audacious courage which regards obstacles as something to be overturned rather than avoided. Few men in the unaided and unpromising position of his early life would have aspired to what he did, fewer would have succeeded in realizing these aspirations. Ile is an ex- ample of the bright and hopeful privilege of American life, which bars no way to pluck and brains and declares that no lack of advantage in youth shall mar the prospects of manhood's achievement.
William Malcolm Bunn was born in Philadelphia on the first day of January, 1842, in the neighborhood of Third and Poplar streets, and was the seventli of eleven sons. His education commenced in the public schools of the vicinity and . was interrupted in his eleventh year, when he had reached the second division of the Jefferson Grammar School, by his entering the cotton mills in which his father was employed as a spinner. Here he remained for three years, when he was sent for by an uncle who lived at Havana, New York, and who found leisure from his duties as an Episcopal minister to conduct an academical institute for young men and boys. In the time spent here he laid the foundation of a good, useful education, upon which he subsequently built by extensive and varied reading and his happy faculty of quick acquirement. At the age of sixteen his prudent and thrifty father, who was a firm believer in the old-fashioned doc- trine that every boy should learn a trade, secured him a place with John Frost, a wood engraver, then established at the corner of Sixth and Minor streets. Al- though there was no formal indenture to that effect, it was contemplated that he was to learn the art and remain until he had attained his majority. At the end of a year, however, he became dissatisfied with the place and its meagre pay, and left it to join an older brother who had established himself as a wood carver. Here he soon became quite proficient, and that his hand has retained the cunning then acquired was shown in a number of admirable cartoons that appeared in his paper, the Sunday Transcript, when he was conducting a vigorous fight against the political bosses' assumption of the rights of the people.
The war breaking out after he had been thus occupied for a little more than two years, he promptly enlisted, though not yet twenty years of age, and went out as a private in Company F, 72d Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. Ile was
(417)
53
418
WILLIAM M. BUNN.
severely wounded at Savage Station, Virginia, June 29th, 1862, and was subse- quently taken prisoner and carried to Richmond, where he was confined several months. Released by exchange when convalescent, he returned to Philadelphia, where, suffering a relapse, the patriotism of his family was attested in the fact that he and two of his brothers lay ill at the same time of wounds received in the defence of the Northern cause. After his honorable discharge he returned to the army as sutler's clerk, in which position many amusing stories are told of his ingenuity in preparing cheap and harmless beverages to the great delight of the soldiers and the profit of his employer. Here, also, he was remarkable for his studiousness, and it is related of him that he greedily devoured every book that found its way into the camp. He had an appetite for all kinds of reading, and, amid lighter literature, would feed his higher taste with such works as those of Emerson, Carlyle and Reid's "Intellectual Powers of Man." He re- turned, therefore, to the paths of peace with a well-stored and well-trained mind that naturally aroused the ambition to rise in the world.
After leaving the army he returned to the work-bench he had quitted at the call for volunteers, and, becoming a partner with his brother, prospered with him in the business. In the meantime his restless ambition found partial occupation in politics, and in 1866 he was elected in the Sixteenth ward-the ward in which his father and he had been born-as a delegate to the City Convention. The same year he was nominated for School Director, but failed of election, the ward being Democratic by a formidable majority. The following year he was nom- inated for Common Council, but, feuds existing among the members of his party, he turned his attention to them rather than to his candidacy, really sacrificing his prospects to heal them. Even under these circumstances, however, he reduced the average Democratic majority of about 600 to less than 200, although his op- ponent was a popular and justly esteemed gentleman. In the era of good feel- ing, re-established by his efforts, he effected an organization of a politico-social nature which retained harmony in the party and remained a potent influence in the politics of the ward for many years.
Undaunted by his two political failures, he was the next year a candidate and received the nomination for Representative in the State Legislature, his opponent being Daniel Witham, who had beaten Charles Eager the previous year. By the most unblushing frauds committed in his behalf, although he was not accused of being accessory to them, Witham was returned as elected by a majority of thirty-five votes. Firmly believing that he was fairly elected, and not being of the nature that tamely suffers under a wrong, Mr. Bunn successfully contested the election and took his seat. Renominated the following year, he was re- clected by a majority of more than four hundred. His ambition for law-making was sated by these two terms, and he now addressed himself to securing some position by which his worldly affairs would be advanced. The office of Register of Wills was at that time a very lucrative one legitimately. Upon that the youthful politician fixed his ambition, and with his usual daring announced his candidacy and with his habitual energy entered upon the contest to secure it.
419
WILLIAM M. BUNN.
It seemed a rash and almost hopeless undertaking, as he had little to hope for from the political powers of that day and was, moreover, antagonized by William Y. Campbell, a popular favorite of the "fire-boys," who were not disposed to be over-scrupulous in the means employed to force their favorite on the Convention. lle was also opposed by William Moran, Gideon Clarke, Joseph A. Bonham, William Smyth and Charles Dixey, all of whom had strong fol- lowings in the Convention, and each felt that the prize was within his reach. Buoyed by his own self-confidence and courage, and encouraged by his friend, Hamilton Disston, he entered upon the fight with all the intensity of his nature, and, winning the nomination, was elected with his ticket by a majority of nearly five thousand. The emoluments of the office allowed him to retire at the end of his term with a competency, and he has since held no office of profit in the city government. In 1875 he was elected a Guardian of the Poor, and was re- elected in 1878, at the end of which term he declined to submit his name again for the position. He has repeatedly been a delegate to National, State and County Conventions, where he always thought for himself.
In the meantime he had entered a new field, having purchased a con- trolling interest in the Sunday Transcript in 1878, of which paper he became, and has since remained, the editor-save for a period of two years between June, 1884, and 1886. Lifting it out of the well-worn grooves of the Sun- day publications of the day, he soon impressed upon it an attractive individuality. The paper brightened and, brightening, flourished. Its new editor's exhaustive knowledge of politics and politicians attracted wide attention to it, and led to a largely increased perusal of its columns by those who were watching the drift of politics from near and afar. His keen, epigrammatic paragraphs have con- stantly been reprinted in Monday's issue of the principal daily papers, and the Transcript became a power in the interests of the Republican party. But, though an uncompromising Republican, ever alert to advance the interests of his party with pen and personal influence, he was among the first to foresee the danger threatening it from the rapacity of the men who had installed themselves as leaders and who were prostituting it by trickery and trading to their personal aggrandizement. Finding all appeals to let the people have a voice in the selec- tion of men to fill the offices of government treated with contemptuous disdain, he boldly declared war against Boss dictation and Boss methods and fearlessly confronted the leaders with their actions and designs. Against the then Seventh street political hierarchy, which was formidably intrenched behind the extraor- dinary powers of the Gas Trust, he was particularly severe, and his constant on- slaught with pen and pencil upon this body was the commencement of the crusade which drove its leader from position and power and led to its reorganization. This bold advocacy of the people's cause against their oppressors led to his se- lection for a seat in the State Senate, a contest upon which he entered with char- acteristic vigor and entered the Convention with a majority of the delegates elected to vote for him. But against him was concentrated the opposition of every department of the city government, inspired by the great Boss, McManes,
420
WILLIAM M. BUNN.
who was yet in power, and he was defeated by the Committee on Contests and other influences. In the meantime he had waged unceasing war against the ring of Bosses, and the battle grew fiercer with his added personal wrong. On the Sunday following his defeat in the Convention he published the cartoon, "Obeying Orders," which had an enormous circulation and is credited with having excited the people more against the corrupt leaders than all that had been written.
His triumph over the powerful bosses largely increased the circulation and influence of the Transcript, and, devoting himself entirely to its interests, he placed it upon a plane of unprecedented prosperity. While thus engaged, his name was presented to the President for the position of Governor of Arizona, but as that position was destined to go to the Pacific, he remained at the editorial desk until his selection by President Arthur to fill the Gubernatorial chair of the Territory of Idaho. Upon his confirmation by the United States Senate-which was unanimous-he, with his usual promptitude, sold out at public sale his beau- tiful home, leased his paper to Thomas M. Jackson for a period of two years, and departed, within a month after receiving the appointment, for his new field of labor. His record in Idaho is a part of the history of the great West. The active journals of that country lauded his work and conceded him to be " one of the ablest and bravest Federal officials ever sent west of the Rockies," while all, -even the Mormons, whom he fought most bitterly-acknowledged his ability and the good work he did for the advancement and improvement of the Territory. When he resigned he was presented with many testimonials and laudatory reso- lutions, which he had well deserved. Returning to Philadelphia, he waited for the expiration of Mr. Jackson's lease, to resume his old place on the Transcript. His paper is to-day breezier and more influential than ever and evinces marked signs of progress and prosperity.
In an unusually wide circle of friends and acquaintances his brilliant and at- tractive social qualities have made him one of the most popular of men. Ilis quick wit and clever repartee are notable, and bear him victoriously through the verbal encounters he is fond of provoking. He is well equipped and unusually effective in recitation, song and story, and most entertaining as an after-dinner speaker. He is a member of the Lotos Club of New York and one of the bright lights of the Clover Club of Philadelphia. He is princely in entertainment, and is cver ready to join in the reception of distinguished visitors to the city, many of whom he has entertained in his charming residence. In appearance he looks ten years younger than is recorded on the leaf of the family Bible, having a youthful face and slight, though well-knit, figure, which is always scrupulously and nattily attired, but without a suggestisn of foppishness. He is free, kind and gracious in his manner, a strong friend and not an ungenerous foe. The friends of his youth are the friends of his manhood, and no one has ever charged him with affectation or ingratitude. A fair field for ambition and achievement lies before him, and it will be strange if, with his ability and energy, another chapter, recording higher accomplishments, is not yet to be added to his life.
STOCKTON BATES.
STOCKTON BATES.
Tr is not at all usual to find combined in the same person the divine afflatus of
the poet and the practical attributes of the successful man of business. There are notable instances, however, in which it does occur, and one of them is in the person of STOCKTON BATES, who is President of the most extensive manu- factory of textile machinery in this country, if not in the world, and who is also the author of many poems which indicate more than average literary merit, and a volume of which, entitled "Dream Life," has been issued with a profitable result to both author and publisher.
Mr. Bates was born in an unpretentious house on Seventh street below But- tonwood, in the Thirteenth Ward of the city of Philadelphia, on the 4th of February, 1843. ITis parents, both natives of the United States, were respectively of English and Welsh descent. On the father's side the blood was English ; the mother, who was a Cavender, was of Welsh descent. Of the three brothers Bates who sought success in the New World, one settled in New England, one in New Jersey, and the third went West. From the Western branch of this family came David Bates, who was born at Indian Hill, Hamilton county, Ohio, on March 6, 1809. Of the father's life, from farmer's boy to an honored position as a member of the Philadelphia Board of Brokers and an almost world-wide fame as the author of those two beautiful poems, "Speak Gently " and " Childhood," the son Stockton has filially written in his preface to the " Poetical Works of David Bates," published by Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger in 1870. The mother was one of a large family of daughters born to one of Philadelphia's old- time merchants, who carried on a large dry-goods business at the southwest corner of Second and South streets.
Stockton Bates was educated in the public grammar schools of Philadelphia and at the Central High School, leaving the latter, after a two years' course, at the beginning of the troublous times incident to the war of the Rebellion. Denied a college education by reason of business reverses caused by the war he was obliged to seek employment for self-support and has subsequently followed a practical business career. As a clerk in a broker's office, and later as a member of the Board of Brokers, he acquired that knowledge of business rules and prac- tical finance, that quickness of perception and promptness of action so necessary to that calling, and which in after life fitted him to take charge of and manage one of the largest manufactories of textile machinery in this country.
During the periodl spent among the "Bulls and Bears," he found time to pursue his studies in general literature, of which he was exceedingly fond, and, following in his father's footsteps, to compose and publish many poems that went the rounds of the newspaper press. Naturally of a sensitive and retiring disposi- tion, the business of the Stock Exchange was to him exceedingly distasteful, and
(421)
422
STOCKTON BATES.
he finally left "the street," and turned his attention to commercial affairs and manufacturing. After varied experiences in several business ventures, he was solicited to take a subordinate position in the office of The Bridesburg Manu- facturing Company.
It was in this new capacity that his energies were to be tried to the utmost. He was rapidly advanced to the successive offices of Secretary and Treasurer, and finally, in 1883, was elected President of the company. His habits as a student stood him in good stead; for, early seeing that to successfully perform the duties that would devolve upon him an intimate knowledge of the principles of machinery and their application in the varied mechanical appliances would be necessary, he at once applied himself to the study of mechanics. With such persistence and success has he pursued these studies that he is credited with being master of his business. He is the inventor of several useful improvements in the branch of textile machinery, and is a clear and foreible writer on mechan- ical subjects as well as in the field of general knowledge.
Mr. Bates has been a close student of the principles of a protective tariff, par- ticularly as affecting the interests of the corporation and line of business with which he is connected. While yet Treasurer of the company he replied to a paper from the pen of Mr. Henry V. Meigs, of Atlanta, Ga., published in the New York Herald of December 6, 1880. The reply appeared in the same paper on December 23d following, and attracted much attention. It was republished in the annual volume of " The National Association of Wool Manufacturers," and secured for its author the appointment as one of the committee of that body on Textile Machinery. He was also selected as one of a committee to visit Wash- ington and urge upon Congress the necessity of maintaining the tariff on textile and other machinery.
In 1866 Mr. Bates married the only daughter of Mr. Jonathan Heston, and has four children, the oldest and youngest being boys. The eldest boy is assist- ing his father as a mill and mechanical draughitsman, having taken a partial course at the University of Pennsylvania in the Towne Scientifie School.
Mr. Bates is essentially domestic in his tastes, and finds his chief enjoyment in being with his family ; and yet he is prominent in many of the beneficial and charitable societies of the city, is a member of the Art Club and Manufacturers' Club, and is always ready with his pen or his voice to work in any good causc. lle is quite prominent in Masonry, is Past-Master of his lodge, and was largely instrumental in establishing the Masonic Home, of which institution he is now the Secretary. He seems to possess, in an eminent degree, the happy faculty of concentration, and when attending to business is all business, but never obtrudes its cares in social life. Amidst varied concerns he finds time to keep alive his early love of literature, and is never happier than when in sympathetic discussion of some loved author. His own poetic tastes are keen, and the favorable reception of his first volume of poems should encourage him to gather the fugitive crea- tions of his pen and present them to the world in enduring form.
HENRY COHEN.
HENRY COHEN.
H ENRY COHEN, whose graphie and interesting letters from Europe, which have been published, entitle him to a place among literary men, was born in London, July 19, 1810, but for nearly a half century was a resident of Phila- delphia. In his eighteenth year he left home on an extensive tour, visiting Africa, Australia and South America, and remained abroad for nearly five years. Shortly after his return to London, in 1833, he took up his residence in Paris, where he lived for three years during an eventful period in French history. He was in that city when the attempt was made on the life of Louis Philippe by Fieschi, and in after years often referred to the exciting scenes he had then witnessed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.