USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 14
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HARRY CONRAD.
devote his time and means to any project which promised to advance the inter- ests of the church.
Mr. Conrad had two children-one a daughter, who died in infancy; the other a son, the Rev. Thomas K. Conrad, D. D., who still survives.
The association of Mr. Harry Conrad with church work, and his close friendship with Bishop Potter, naturally directed his son's attention to the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Bishop Potter encouraged this thought, and, as there was no theological training school at that time in Pennsylvania, received young Conrad as a private pupil ; and, after giving him a full course of instruction, ordained him deacon in 1857, and priest in 1860. During Dr. Conrad's diacon- ate Calvary Church, Germantown, was built, mainly by Mr. Conrad's influence and energy, and an invitation was given to his son to become its first rector.
Upon Mr. Harry Conrad's removal to New York his son became rector of St. John's Church, Clifton, Staten Island, and in 1866 the father and son were active in the establishment of the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York city. When Mr. Conrad returned to Philadelphia his energy in church work suggested the erection of the Church of the Transfiguration in West Philadelphia, built mainly by his contributions and under his direction.
On November 8, 1885, Mr. Conrad met with a most painful loss in the sudden death of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, and with whom he had lived for more than half a century. Like him, she had been earnestly devoted to the Christian faith, and was generous in her gifts to the church and to the poor. Soon after her decease Mr. Conrad determined to build another sacred edifice, which should be consecrated to her memory. A fund was at once put aside to carry out this plan, and efforts were made to find a location where the proposed church would be most effective in its mission for good. Mr. Conrad was not to live, however, to realize his pious purpose. Various plans were in discussion until his sudden death, on August 19, 1888, and the church was destined to be a monument, not only of his loving memory of his wife, but of his own faithful- ness as a Christian man. The fund which he had set apart remained intact at his death, and, with additions made to it from his estate, the beautiful Church of St. Mary, at Wayne, in Delaware county, Pa., has been erected-a joint memorial to Mr. and Mrs. Conrad. There could scarcely be a better monument than this to commemorate two closely associated lives, both of which were rich in piety and usefulness.
C. R. D.
.It-u .- 7
LEWIS EVERY. JR.
LEWIS EMERY, JR.
O NE of the most thoroughly representative of American business men with their varying fortunes is ex-State Senator LEWIS EMERY, JR., of Bradford, Pa. His life is full of vicissitudes, crowned with remarkable success. He was born about two miles from the pleasant little village of Cherry Creek, Chautauqua county, N. Y., August 10, 1839. During 1841 his father was engaged as a con- tractor near Olean, N. Y., in building the old Erie Railroad, now the New York, Lake Erie and Western, and lost considerable money through the failure of that corporation. He afterwards took a contract on the Genesee Canal, and when that company defaulted he became disgusted with the business, and in January, 1842, started with his family to drive overland to Jaynesville, Wis. He was an excellent mechanic, thoroughly versed in all the various branches and details of woollen cloth-making. Upon his arrival in Jonesville, Mich., the people of the surrounding country, having learned of his mechanical skill and ability, and desiring the establishment of a woollen manufactory in their midst, persuaded him to stop there ; and they combined and built a mill for him, agreeing to allow him to pay for it out of the profits of the enterprise.
After spending his early youth in learning the trade of his father, and acquiring what rudimentary education the country schools afforded, Lewis Emery, Jr., finished his tuition in Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan. After completing his apprenticeship in the mill, when nineteen years of age, he engaged in teach- ing in the district school of Wheatland township, near his home, and continued to do so for two seasons. He then resigned charge of the school and resumed work in his father's mill, and remained in Hillsdale until he left the State.
Besides conducting his woollen mill, his father had also engaged in manufac- turing flour, and in 1859 Lewis and his two brothers took charge of the flour- mill, which they conducted with varying success for several years.
When the war of the rebellion broke out Mr. Emery made an effort to enlist in the Eighteenth Michigan Regiment, but was rejected by the examining sur- geon on account of a physical disability. He remained at his business of milling, and on December 29, 1863, he was married, at the residence of her parents, to Miss Elizabeth Caldwell, of Vistula, Elkhart county, Indiana, whom he had met while he was a student at the Hillsdale College.
In May, 1864, he moved to Southern Illinois, where he built a saw-mill, and opened a general merchandise store. The close of the war shortly afterwards caused a stringency of money, and the sluggishness of business, combined with a large amount of uncollectable accounts upon his ledger, forced him to close up its affairs. Owing to the great confidence reposed in him by his creditors, he was permitted to dispose of the goods without hindrance upon promising to pay his debts when able to do so. He devoted the proceeds of the sale to a partial
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liquidation of his indebtedness, and in August, 1865, he moved from Illinois and proceeded to the oil fields of Pennsylvania for the first time, stopping temporarily at Pithole, Venango county, in the midst of the memorable excitement there at that time. He made his first venture at Pioneer, Venango county, where he shared the trials and disappointments then experienced by most of the oil producers of that locality. This venture proved a failure, but his straightforward integrity and earnestness of purpose inspired so much confidence among those with whom he had business relations that he had little trouble in obtaining the necessary credit and sufficient ready funds to commence drilling a second well. This proved very successful, and enabled him to redeem all of his obligations and placed him fairly on the road to wealth.
In 1870 he went to Titusville, Crawford county, Pa., and conducted an increasing business from that point. As was the case with many other pros- perous men in the oil region at that period, the financial panic, precipitated by the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., caught him with floating obligations that could not be protected quickly enough to save him from the wide ruin which followed that great calamity, and he was compelled to succumb. With a recorded indebt- edness against him that would have driven a less intrepid and energetic man to lunacy or perhaps suicide, but true to his characteristic self-confidence and determination, he commenced to look about for a pathway to recovery. He had often looked upon the deep valleys and forbidding crags of the Alleghenies in McKean county with a suspicion that they domed a broad lake of petroleum and great volumes of natural gas, and now, almost in desperation, without a cent in the world, with nothing, in fact, but his natural determination and a good name, he determined to delve into these rocks and prove the truth or fallacy of his theory. Previous to this time several wells had been drilled in this section, but they had not developed anything startlingly encouraging. In July, 1875, he went to Bradford, and going almost five miles south of any previous develop- ments, commenced to lease and purchase land at a startling rate until he had acquired oil privileges and leases on over fourteen thousand acres. He opened his first well in a place known as Toad Hollow, on the Tibbitts' farm, about two miles south of Bradford. He followed this up with the purchase of the great Quintuple tract. In all of these transactions he dealt without ready money, the people having so much confidence in him that his word was all they required in their negotiations. They believed in him, and he repaid their confidence by meeting every promise and every penny of monetary obligation.
This venture opened up the great Bradford oil field to the world, and not only proved of great financial benefit to him, enabling him to pay off all indebtedness and making him a wealthy man, but it proved of untold importance to the State and country. Though he had most extensive lease privileges in this vast field he needed machinery and materials to utilize them. He had the experience and mechanical knowledge required to intelligently conduct the operations necessary to the successful development of the territory he controlled ; but he needed more
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than that. The same confidence in his ability and integrity that had induced the people of the district to trust him with their lands also led that great firm-the Eaton, Cole, Burnham Company, of New York-to give him unlimited credit. This generous and timely accommodation enabled him to push his business, and develop his valuable rights with success and profit.
Although Mr. Emery has several times in his life been forced to suspend payment of his debts, he never took advantage of the bankrupt laws, and was always enabled to rise again through his indomitable perseverance, and by reason of the confidence he inspired in those with whom he came in contact by his record of integrity and good faith.
In 1878, after a period of great business success, he was elected to the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania from Mckean county. During his term in the House of Representatives he manifested the same independence in dealing with public questions that he always exercised in his private business transactions. While he did not object to the party caucus rule he would not be bound by the dicta- tion of some leader who would not scruple at dishonesty and coercion to secure the control of a majority of the caucus. He was always willing to abide by the real will of the party majority, but obstinately refused to recognize a majority, or obey behests secured by dishonest means or high-handed coercion. It was for this reason that he refused to go into the Senatorial caucus of 1879. At that time the party reins were being handled by a few so-called leaders. The con- tinuation of this sort of political practice led to the bitter Senatorial revolt in 1881, when fifty-six Republicans refused to go into the caucus, and Hon. John I. Mitchell was chosen as the compromise candidate for the United States Senate, and to the three-cornered contest for the Governorship in 1882, which resulted in the election of Robert E. Pattison.
The warm interest which Mr. Emery took in the needs of the oil country while in the House elicited for him the confidence and trust of his constituents, so that, in 1880, he was elected to the Senate from the Twenty-fifth District, and returned to that body in 1884 with a handsomely increased majority. He was named as a candidate for Congress in 1886 from the Sixteenth District, and again, in 1888, from the Twenty-fourth District; but both times was compelled to forego the nomination because of the strong adherence to the rotation system in that part of the State.
During his public career of ten years he always opposed the tendency of cor- porate monopolies and trusts to prostitute the rights, given them for public purposes, to private gain and the destruction of private competitors. In this direction he was the recognized leader of the anti-monopolists of the State, and, though often tempted to join their ranks by prospects of ample financial returns in the way of business opportunities, he steadfastly adhered to his principles of right and justice, and consistently remained the avowed antagonist of combined trusts and monopolies of every character.
In 1879 he went to Europe, crossed through Asia Minor, and made a thorough
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investigation of the Baku oil regions of Russia, to learn, if possible, to what extent their production would be likely to compete with American petroleum. In 1881 he made a second visit to Europe, travelling through France, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Greece; thence visiting Palestine, and voyaging up the Nile as far as the second cataract-a distance of one thousand miles. He has also travelled extensively on this continent, having visited the Pacific coast and the Canadian provinces, and has thoroughly equipped himself with general infor- mation as to the needs and prospects of the country. While travelling he has always been a close observer and an intelligent investigator.
Mr. Emery resides in Bradford, Mckean county, Pa., where he is at present engaged in the production and refining of petroleum, and also manages a large general store and establishment for oil well supplies. During his extensive travels at home and abroad he collected a great variety of bric-a-brac, archaeo- logical and entomological specimens. These, with a fine collection of sculpture and pictures, he has formed into a very interesting private museum and art gallery at his residence. He is extensively interested in merchant flour-milling at Three Rivers, Mich., has large interests in wheat-growing lands in Northern Dakota, and is also engaged in lumbering at Farmers, in Kentucky.
He has four children-a daughter and three sons. The eldest son, Delevan, is a student at Lehigh University, in the class of 1890. The daughter and two younger sons are attending the public schools in Bradford.
E. C. J.
. :
CLARKE MERCHANT.
F. GUTEKUNST
PHILA.
RICHARD PENN SMITH.
RICHARD PENN SMITH.
C OLONEL RICHARD PENN SMITH, distinguished as the gallant successor to the brave Colonel E. D. Baker in the command of the valiant Seventy-first Pennsylvania Regiment during the war of the Rebellion, and after the war well known as a successful coal merchant in New York, was born in Philadelphia May 9, 1837. His family and ancestors for several generations were noted citi- zens of Pennsylvania's metropolis, and several of them were famous for their literary and artistic abilities. Colonel Smith's great-grandfather, Rev. William Smith, D. D., was the first Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. He was a man of great culture and rare talents, who had enjoyed the unusual advantage at that time of a highly-finished European education. For twenty-five years Dr. Smith stood in the front rank of the eminent educators and learned men of his time. He was a ripe and varied scholar, a profound thinker, and a writer of uncommon vigor and great beauty of expression, many of his literary productions being compared by British reviewers to those of Massillon and Bossuet. He was prominent in all the aggressive and progressive movements of his day, and was among the first to recognize the artistic talents of Benjamin West and assist him to attain the emi- nence he afterwards achieved. Dr. Smith's writings have been collected into several volumes, edited by Horace Wemyss Smith, a half-brother of the Colonel, and have met with such marked approbation that numerous editions of them have been issued.
Colonel Smith's grandfather, William Moore Smith, the eldest son of Rev. Dr. 'Smith, was also a man of note and marked literary ability. Early in life he published a volume of poems which were characterized by brilliancy of fancy, ease of versification, nervous power, justness of sentiment, chasteness and purity of diction. These poems were reprinted in England, where they received much favorable comment, a matter at that time of such unfrequent occurrence that the fact deserves to be recorded. After extensive travel abroad, which greatly broadened and enlarged his views, Mr. Smith returned to Phila- delphia and settled down to the profession of the law. He rapidly rose to prominence at the bar, but gave up practice at an early age, and lived in retire- ment the balance of his life at the family mansion on the Schuylkill river.
Richard Penn Smith, the elder, son of the last-named gentleman and the father of Col. Richard Penn Smith was, like his father and grandfather, a man of dis- tinguished ability as a writer. He was noted both as a literateur and dramatist. He followed in the literary footsteps of both of his progenitors, and is remembered as being one of the best magazine writers of his day. He was for five years the proprietor of the Aurora, a well-known Philadelphia paper, and, though its editor, found leisure at the same time to contribute many articles to the periodical litera-
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COL. RICHARD PENN SMITH.
ture of the day, besides producing several dramatic pieces, some of which were not only cordially received when first presented, but still continue to retain their place on the stage. Among his earlier plays were "The Disowned, or the Prodigal," and " Deformed, or Woman's Trial." These plays were first produced at the old Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, after which they were taken to London, where their performance created a most favorable impression, the former being the first play written by an American author to be presented on the Lon- don stage. Besides these dramas Mr. Smith wrote tragedy, and was the author of numerous petite comedies and farces. At the request of Edwin Forrest, the famous tragedian, he wrote the tragedy of " Caius Marius," which was produced by that actor at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and was retained in his repertoire. While quite young Mr. Smith composed a work of fiction, which was published in two volumes under the title of "The Actress of Padua and Other Tales," which had an extensive sale. In the same year he gave to the public " Colonel Crockett's Tour in Texas," a pseudo autobiography which was purported to have been written by the gallant Tennesseean prior to the massacre of the Alamo. In the course of a single year upwards of ten thousand copies were sold in the United States, besides an extensive circulation which the work reached in England. At that time this was an unusual success. The book was the most popular of all the writings of Mr. Smith, and is still sold by a Philadel- phia publishing house under a slightly altered title. Mr. Smith died at Phila- delphia in August, 1854.
Richard Penn Smith, Jr., of whom this sketch particularly treats, was the eldest son of Richard Penn Smith, above referred to, and his second wife, Isabella Stratton Smith. Much of his childhood was passed under the care of his paternal grandmother, Mrs. Ann Smith, at the family seat at the Falls of Schuylkill, to which place his father's family had moved in the year 1843. Here he remained under the care and education of his father until the latter's death in August, 1854. He was then placed under the charge of Mr. Bolmar at the West Chester Academy, West Chester, Pa., with whom he finished his schooling.
Leaving there in 1857, and filled with a wild spirit of adventure, he journeyed westward and settled in the then new Territory of Kansas. Here he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and developed a talent for business which won for him remarkable success, notwithstanding the fact that the territory at that time was overrun with a rough class of men, some of whom were emigrants in search of homes, though the majority were mere adventurers of the most lawless char- acter. To add to the difficulties of the situation, Kansas was then engaged in the bloody "Border Ruffian " struggle between the "Free Soil" emigrants from the Northern and Western States and the Pro-Slavery partisans from Missouri and Arkansas, a contest in which there was no middle ground and which almost paralyzed business. Full of the spirit of adventure Mr. Smith became at this time one of a party of ten selected to march across the prairies to Frazier's river and the extreme northwestern portion of the republic in search
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COL. RICHARD PENN SMITH.
of gold. In 1859 he located at Denver City, then a rude hamlet of a few houses built mostly of adobe, there being but six frame structures in the town. He started from Denver with a party of six into the wild and unexplored interior of the Rocky Mountains, but they were finally compelled to abandon the search and return owing to the hostile attitude of the Indian tribes.
In 1860 he returned to Philadelphia on a visit to his home, and while there became greatly interested in the political outlook. Soon afterward Fort Sumter was fired upon, and he immediately decided to offer his services to the United States Government. Accordingly, on the 28th of May, 1861, he was mustered in as First Lieutenant of Company "F," Seventy-first Pennsylvania, better known as Baker's California Regiment. The recruiting for this was under the immediate charge of Isaac J. Wistar, afterwards a brigadier-general of volunteers, who had been a trapper in the Hudson Bay Company, and was inured to the wild life and warfare incident to the early settlement of the Pacific Coast. In one month's time eleven hundred men were enlisted and sent to Fort Schuyler, near New York city, to be drilled and organized. Here the command remained, acquiring discipline, until July 1, 1861, when it proceeded to Fortress Monroe via Phila- delphia, through whose streets the regiment paraded amid the greatest enthusi- asm. Upon arriving at Fortress Monroe it was assigned to arduous picket and scouting duty, and rendered important service in obtaining valuable information of the movements of the enemy while in the vicinity of Big Bethel.
Colonel Smith's army career is well known to the American public. His pro- motion was rapid. On February 15, 1862, he was made Adjutant of the regi- ment. In August of that year he was promoted to the Captaincy of Company A, and on November Ist following to the position of Major. On May 1, 1863, he was commissioned Colonel of the regiment, and remained as such until mus- tered out with his command, July 2, 1864, with but one hundred and fifty-three of the twenty-two hundred men who had served in the ranks. When Colonel Smith assumed command, after Colonel Baker's death at Ball's Bluff, he was be- lieved to be the youngest officer in either army, acting as regimental and brigade commander. He participated in many of the most important engagements of the war, among which were the following : Falls Church reconnoissance and action at Lewinsville, advance on Munson's Hill, action at Ball's Bluff, relief of Gen- eral Banks, battles of Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Charles City Cross Roads and Malvern Hill, the siege of Yorktown, battles of Fair Oaks and Seven Pines, and the actions at Fair Oaks and Peach Orchard. He covered the retreat at Second Bull Run, and took a prominent part in the battles and engagements at Hyattstown, South Mountain, Antietam, Cold Harbor, Dundee Church, Fredericksburg, Bank's Ford, Thoroughfare Gap, Gettysburg, Auburn Mills, Bristoe Station and the actions at Bull Run, Mine Run, Robertson's Tavern and Morton's Ford.
At Fair Oaks as Lieutenant he led the regiment into battle, a movement which was witnessed by General Sedgwick, who recommended him for promotion
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COL. RICHARD PENN SMITH.
as a field-officer. At Antietam he was severely wounded, and was con- fined in the hospital until just before the battle of Cold Harbor, when he rejoined his regiment. His services at the battle of Gettysburg won for him the highest encomiums of his commanding officers and military men, correspondents and citizens throughout the country, it having been stated by more than one wit- ness of the affair that the action of Colonel Smith and his men on the eventful 3d of July was the means of turning the tide of victory. The position occupied by him at this battle is known as the " Bloody Angle," where Pickett made his : charge and where the backbone of the rebellion was broken. Colonel Smith succeeded in bringing into use the guns recovered from the field of battle on the 2d of July, and with these he poured into the advancing columns of Pickett an enfilading fire which so effectually broke the force of his charge that it was repulsed when it reached the Union lines.
Immediately after being mustered out he at once engaged in the manufacturing business with General McCandless, the gallant commander of the Pennsylvania Reserves during the latter part of the war. At length, however, he gave up his partnership with McCandless and went to New York, taking up his residence on Staten Island. Almost immediately he engaged in the wholesale coal busi- ness, at which he rapidly accumulated a fortune. After a survey of the prominent points of the trade he saw that immense quantities of small coal, amounting to millions of tons, available in the making of steam, were being thrown away and wasted. He succeeded in surmounting many prejudices against its introduc- tion as a fuel, and at last obtained the consent of the railroads to carry it, and from that time until his death devoted himself entirely to its sale. Largely through the influence and indefatigable efforts of Colonel Smith small coal has become the accepted fuel for steam-power.
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