USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 36
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The circumstances were these : In a charge at the battle of Spottsylvania, on May.12th, the left wing of his regiment, the Fiftieth Pennsylvania, having to pass through a thick underbrush, became separated from the right wing, which had open ground and advanced more rapidly. The brigade commander was wounded, and five regiments, including a portion of Captain Schwenk's, were outflanked and virtually cut off from the main body of the troops. During a temporary lull in the fighting Captain Schwenk was active in urging different officers to reform their regiments, and supply the cartridge-boxes of the living from those of the dead and wounded. The enemy was in close sight behind rifle-pits in front and in open woods on the left, and was also reforming his lines apparently to charge. At this crisis Captain Schwenk urged his superior field-officer to assume command, and make a charge to drive the enemy from their front; but he declined, and all of the five field-officers present united in requesting Captain Schwenk to take command, pledging themselves to obey his orders. This he did, and, speedily reforming the line, led a charge that drove the enemy back into his rifle-pits. In reforming the First Michigan Sharpshooters the color- bearer was shot, when Captain Schwenk picked up the colors and carried them until the staff was shot out of his hands. Later in the day, when he and the troops with him had been reported at the corps head-quarters as captured by the enemy, in answer to a message sent by him for ammunition, reinforcements and orders, the lieutenant-colonel of his own regiment reported to him with six companies of the regiment, asking where he should place them; and when Cap- tain Schwenk requested him to take the command to which he was entitled, he answered : " No, you have won it ; please keep it."
At the North Anna and at Shady Grove he was alike conspicuous, always upon the advanced line when danger threatened and peril was most imminent. At the battle of Cold Harbor, after thirteen bullets had passed through his clothes harmlessly, he was struck in the side by one which passed through the vertebra, and he was carried from the field, as it was supposed, mortally wounded. He had, however, the benefit of eminent medical skill, the case being regarded as a remarkable one, and he survived, though many months elapsed before he was able to move about. In the meantime an examining board had pronounced him permanently disabled, and the order for his discharge on account of "physical
35İ
SAMUEL K. SCHWENK.
disability from wounds received in action " had been issued. On the day follow- ing that on which this was promulgated Governor Curtin had ordered his pro- motion to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On six several occasions he went before the examining board to induce them to recommend a revocation of the order of discharge, and as soon as he had succeeded, though the wounds were still open, he proceeded immediately to the field and assumed command of his regiment, with the rank of Major. At the retaking of Fort Steadman, and at the final capture of Petersburg, he was engaged at the head of his troops, who, under his lead, performed prodigies of valor. For "conspicuous gallantry before Petersburg and in the assault on Fort Steadman, Virginia," he was brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteers, March 25, 1865. On July 24th of the same year he was brevetted Colonel, and on the same day Brigadier-General of Vol- unteers for " gallant and meritorious services during the war."
Upon the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone of the National Monument at Gettysburg, in July, 1865, Colonel Schwenk's regiment was selected, upon the recommendation of General Grant, to represent the infantry of the army. At the muster-out of the troops on the 30th of July, 1865, only one hundred and thirty-four men and two officers remained out of nine hundred and forty who originally went forth with the regiment. In his farewell order to his men he said : "The story of the old regiment, with the incidents of the past four years, will always be remembered and cherished with the memory and virtues of our noble comrades whose remains are mouldering in ten different States. Your deeds of valor and trials of endurance with the achievements of thirty-two battles will brighten many pages in the annals of your country's fame."
General Schwenk entered the civil war as First Lieutenant, and came out of it a Brigadier-General by brevet. He participated in thirty-two battles, was wounded nine times, and received in all five brevets. Soon after his discharge he entered General Hancock's First Army Corps, and served for a time at Camp Blair, in Michigan. On July 28, 1866, he was appointed First Lieutenant in the Forty-first Regular Infantry, which he joined at Baton Rouge, La., in March, following, and was shortly afterwards made Adjutant. He was in succession brevetted Captain, Major and Lieutenant-Colonel in the regular army " for con- spicuous gallantry and skilful and meritorious services at Ny River, Spottsyl- vania and Cold Harbor." He was stationed at Brownsville, Texas, in 1867, and was Assistant Adjutant-General to General Mackenzie, who was in command of the Department of the Rio Grande. During the prevalence of the yellow fever he also performed the duties of Regimental and Post Adjutant until he was him- self stricken with the disease, and, after having nearly recovered, suffered a relapse which came near terminating fatally. He was promoted to be Captain in December, 1867, and stationed at various forts along the Texas frontier, where he had several encounters with the Indians. In July, 1868, he was President of the First Military Commission for Texas, under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. A year later he was sent to Nashville, Tenn., in charge of recruiting
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SAMUEL K. SCHWENK.
service, with offices in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. When the army was reduced, in 1871, he was assigned to the Eighth Cavalry; but, in consequence of disability from the wounds which he had received during the war, he was compelled to give up active service, and on May 17, 1876, was placed upon the retired list of the army.
After his retirement from the army, General Schwenk became interested in the improvement of stock, especially the Jersey breed of cattle. In 1885 he pur- chased from John I. Holly, President of the American Jersey Cattle Club, his famous farm near Plainfield, N. J., with its stock of imported Jerseys, and is now managing it. A local journal remarks : "The spirit that placed him first in war has now incited his ambition to be even first in the peaceful profession of a gentleman dairyman. Butter from his cows has won the gold medals in all competitions of note wherever it has been entered. It is a treat to visit Holly grove dairy and farm. The most celebrated buttermakers oversee the manipula- tion of its products, and every appurtenance and process is gilt-edged, and of the most approved modern form. The herd are fed on only the best of wholesome food, and no brewers' grains are used. It is indeed a model place in every way."
On December 24, 1879, General Schwenk was married to Miss Emma Mai Marconnier, daughter of Alexander Marconnier, a prominent merchant of Evans- ville, Ind. She is a lady of great artistic talent, and while a pupil in the School of Design for Women in Philadelphia received the first gold medal awarded by that institution.
E. T. F.
,
F GUTEKUNST.
PHILA.
HENRY E. DAVIS.
HENRY EYRE DAVIS.
J UDGING by results there seems to be something in the atmosphere of Pennsyl- vania which develops talent for practical affairs. In every section of the Commonwealth there are to be found young men who have disclosed tact and capacity for business enterprises, and without the class schooling, which is applied elsewhere, they master the details and conquer the intricacies of com- mercial life.
Among those who have conspicuously achieved this distinction is HENRY E. DAVIS, of Sunbury, Pa. He was born in Selinsgrove, Snyder county, on June 7, 1845. His father, James K. Davis, is President of the First National Bank of Selinsgrove. His mother was one of those prudent, careful and good women who impart correct ideas to their offspring. She is also living.
Harry E. Davis was always a bright and industrious boy. He received his rudimentary education in the public schools, and took a course in the Selinsgrove Missionary Institute, a modest but efficient institution of learning which won deserved praise in the State in its time.
At the age of twenty years young Davis began his business career, and has been active in affairs ever since. His first experience was as clerk in a store in his native town, in which position he served one year. Then he removed to Meadville, Pa., where he obtained a position in a large retail dry-goods store, and remained a year. In 1867 he entered the First National Bank of Sunbury, Pa., the most extensive institution of its kind in that section. He remained there some years and mastered every detail of the business. But the arduous nature of the work impaired his health, and he was compelled to relinquish the position and seek employment of a less confining character.
In 1871 he became the representative of Hall Brothers & Co., a Baltimore firm, which was the sole agent for the sale of anthracite coal mined by the Min- eral Railroad and Mining Company and the Lykens Valley Coal Company. His district embraced Pennsylvania and the West, and his office was located in Sunbury. He held this important relation to the business interests of his com- munity for ten years. At the expiration of that time he severed his connection with the firm which he had served so long, so faithfully and so well, and went into the business of buying and shipping anthracite coal on his own account. The venture met with gratifying success from the outset, and has been prosecuted with characteristic energy ever since. Some years ago he added to his business the industry of mining and shipping bituminous coal from mines which he acquired in Somerset county, Pa.
Mr. Davis has always been one of the most progressive citizens of his adopted home, and every enterprise which promises the promotion of the business and the development of the material interests of the community has found in him a willing promoter. He is President of the Sunbury and Northumberland Street
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HENRY E. DAVIS.
Railway, an enterprise just approaching completion which promises the most important results in facilitating the business and adding to the convenience of the community. He is Vice-President and General Manager of the Bethel Coal Company of Somerset county, Pa .; a Director in the Shamokin, Sunbury and Lewisburg Railroad, and Director in the First National Bank of Sunbury, the institution in which he spent several years of his early life. He is also a Director and was one of the foremost promoters of the Sunbury Electric Light Company, which was among the first and is now among the most perfectly equipped electric plants in the Commonwealth. In addition to that he has always been among the first and most active men in the community to advocate progressive ideas and improvements in the affairs of the town, and many of the advanced steps which mark Sunbury as among the leading towns in the interior of the State are traceable to his enterprise and foresight.
Mr. Davis is an active and earnest Democrat. Naturally a man of his pro- gressive spirit would be called on by his party to serve in official capacity, and he has proved himself not only useful, but faithful, in the discharge of municipal functions imposed on him in the town council, the school board and other hon- orary capacities. He has frequently been delegate to State and county conven- tions, and has discharged every trust which he has accepted with scrupulous fidelity and notable intelligence. But he has never consented to take an office of emolument, and to those who have suggested such compliment his invariable answer has been that he had too much business to attend to to sacrifice his time in the discharge of public duties which there were plenty of competent persons willing to assume. But while he thus abstained from political aspirations on his own account, he has always been zealous and active in the advancement of his friends, and thus exercised an important influence in the affairs of the county.
Of honorary offices, however, he has had a full share, and in 1876 the Demo- crats of Northumberland county named him for State Senator, but he readily yielded the district nomination to his friend, Hon. A. H. Dill. When Mr. Dill resigned to become the Democratic candidate for Governor two years later, the eyes of the party naturally turned to Mr. Davis, but he was among the most earnest advocates of the nomination of Hon. S. P. Wolverton. In 1878 he was a member of the State Committee, and, in 1880, during the Hancock campaign for the Presidency, was on the Electoral ticket for the Twenty-seventh Congressional District. In 1886 he was one of the Secretaries of the Democratic State Con- vention, and was an earnest advocate of the nomination of Hon. William A. Wallace for Governor. He has always been a liberal contributor to the party campaign funds, and is regarded by the Democratic leaders of the State as one of the safest party counsellors and most sagacious political advisers.
On October 18, 1869, Mr. Davis was married to Miss Kate C. Haas, a member of one of the most respected families in Sunbury. The fruit of the union is two accomplished daughters. Mr. Davis lives with his family in a beautiful and comfortable home in Sunbury, the hospitalities of which he takes delight in dispensing to strangers visiting the town. G. D. H.
6. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA.
WILLIAM NOLEN.
WILLIAM NOLEN.
N better illustration of the opportunities which are open in this country to pluck, ability, hard work and square dealing can be found than in the career of the Nolen Brothers, of Reading, Pa., who are among the leading and foremost railroad contractors and bridge builders of the country, as is evidenced by hundreds of symmetrical arches, majestic spans and solid piers which can be seen throughout the United States, and which will stand for many generations as monuments to their skill and thorough workmanship.
The founder and head of the firm is WILLIAM NOLEN. He was born in Queen's county, Ireland, on St. Patrick's day, 1840, and is the son of James Nolen, who emigrated to this country about the year 1846 and engaged in the business of contracting. Among the undertakings which he carried to a suc- cessful issue was the building of a portion of the Lebanon Valley Railroad in the vicinity of Reading, and the branch of the Philadelphia and Reading system running from Auburn to Dauphin. He died in 1858, and William went with his mother to New York city, where they had previously resided, returning in a short time, however, to Reading, when he entered the employment of Henry Jacobs, the master mason of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, for whom he worked at his trade of stone-cutter. He had the reputation of being an excellent workman when he was but eighteen years of age, and when but a very young man he was foreman for Riley, McGrann & Co., the well-known firm of contractors of Lancaster, Pa., on some of their largest contracts for the Lehigh Navigation Company. He was a thorough master of his trade, a young man of extraordinary energy and ambition, and his nature was such that he chafed at having to work as a subordinate. Consequently, when but twenty-two years of age, he went into business for himself, having nothing but his trade, his brains and his ambition for capital. He worked that combination, however, to excel- lent purpose, and in 1862 secured a contract for building a waste weir at a place called Bland's Turn on the Schuylkill river. His partner in this venture was John Jacobs, and they did all the mason work and stone-cutting themselves, employing only tenders. But they made some money, and Mr. Nolen shortly afterwards went to Easton, where he secured contracts for the erection of a por- tion of the stone work along the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad. His work proved very successful and remunerative considering the size of the contracts, and, returning to Reading with the reputation of being a successful contractor, he built the askew bridge for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at Eighth street in that city under a sub-contract from Harry Hawman.
The building of this bridge, which is an admirable piece of work, established his reputation, and placed him in the front rank of contractors in that section. His services were asked for, work poured in upon him, and it was but a short time
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WILLIAM NOLEN.
until the firm of William Nolen & Co., consisting of himself, his brother, Charles Nolen, and John Dunn, was formed. The firm did a great amount of work in different sections of this and other States, a portion of which may be found along the line of the Lebanon and Pine Grove Railroad, on which, in 1869, they erected six bridges.
· Some time afterward the firm of Nolen Brothers was formed (the firm now consists of William, Charles, James and Thomas Nolen), and they commenced operations in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, with head-quarters at Oil City. There they built all the stone bridges on the Oil Creek and Allegheny Railroad, leaving in their wake a series of structures that are the admiration of all who have seen them. From 1871 to 1873 the firm, among other contracts, executed all the mason work on the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad from Renova to Driftwood, including the large stone viaducts at Hemlock and St. Mary's; erected thousands of feet of masonry on the "low grade" division of the Penn- sylvania Railroad from Driftwood, on the Susquehanna river, to Redbank, on the Allegheny ; built the "Linden Line" around Williamsport, Pa., for the Pennsylvania Railroad; and erected the bridge across the Schuylkill river at Port Clinton for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company.
The year of 1873, notwithstanding the prevailing stagnation of business and manufacturing in most quarters, was a busy one for the firm of Nolen Brothers, who during that time, among much other work, built the Richmond street bridge at Philadelphia, with its twenty-three tracks, for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. After completing this undertaking William Nolen visited Europe, and, besides making a pleasure trip over his native land, critically examined many of the finest stone bridges and similar structures in Great Britain and on the continent. Immediately upon his return in 1874 he secured the contract for all the mason work on the Bound Brook Railroad from Bound Brook, N. J., to a point near the Delaware river in the same State. It was an immense undertaking, which would have occupied most contractors for several years, but was accomplished by the firm in eighteen months, and the road was open for traffic in time for the Centennial Exposition of 1876.
From 1876 to 1880, inclusive, the firm built the connecting links between the New York City and Northern and the Sixth Avenue Electric Rail- ways; erected the askew arch over the Fairmount Park drive of the west . bank of the Schuylkill river at the Falls of Schuylkill bridge of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad; double-tracked the main line of the New York and Erie Railway from Callicoon, N. Y., to Hawkins, in the same State; and also built several bridges on the same line, notably the drawbridge across the Hackensack, the bridge over the Susquehanna at Susquehanna, and the bridge over the Chemung river at Corning, N. Y.
One of the finest monuments to the energy and thoroughness of the work- manship of the firm is the bridge over the mouth of the Wissahickon on the Norristown branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. This structure
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WILLIAM NOLEN.
consists of about fifteen thousand five hundred cubic yards of stone. The time consumed in erecting it was but about eighteen months, and the cost approxi- mated $170,000. It is considered one of the best examples of its kind in America.
In 1882 the firm, in connection with Thomas A. Riley, of Pottsville, con- structed the branch railroad running from Shamokin to Milton, Pa., for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, doing all the grading, mason work and everything else, including the erection of the large bridge across the Susque- . hanna at Sunbury. A considerable portion of the Schuylkill Valley branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Reading and Pottsville was also constructed by the firm, and the Perkiomen bridge of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad is their handiwork.
The Tom Hicken branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, nine miles long, was constructed by them and Mr. J. N. DuBarry. To make but bare mention of the contracts fulfilled by the Nolens would require far more space than can be allotted in this sketch, and no attempt has been made in this article to more than give an idea of the extent of the business in their line that has been transacted by them. In the latter part of 1889 they finished the Allentown Terminal Rail- road, which includes a number of massive bridges, and among the contracts on hand at the present writing are the erection of a railroad bridge at Port Jarvis, N. Y., another across the Delaware river at Hancock, N. Y., and still another at Hornellsville, N. Y., all for the New York and Erie Railway; a bridge across the Schuylkill river at the Falls, another at Willow avenue, Germantown, and still another at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
Owing to the large amount of work they have done over so wide an extent of territory, the successful carrying out of so many undertakings, and the superior manner in which they have always performed their contracts, the firm has a reputation second to none in the country, and there is no one east of the Mis- sissippi river interested in railroads, bridges or public works who does not know the Nolens, and few but who can refer to some of the many enduring monuments which attest their skill and the honesty and efficiency of their work.
The firm has a very large amount of money invested in machinery and rig- ging necessary to their business, including engines, derricks, locomotives, cars and all sorts of tools and appliances for grading and masonry. Owing to this fact, to their large capital, and to the administrative and executive ability of the members of the firm, they are able, at the shortest notice, to take hold of gigantic undertakings, and to push them to successful completion. They also own and lease extensive quarries of building stone, thereby greatly facilitating their operations in bridge work.
William, James and Charles Nolen are all practical masons and stone-cutters, and in their bridge work there is scarcely a single stone placed except under the personal supervision of one of them, and their care and skill is attested, not only by the many handsome, substantial and enduring structures that they have
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WILLIAM NOLEN.
erected, but by the testimonials which they have received from the leading engineers and railroad men of the country.
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William, James and Thomas are residents of Reading, and are among its most valued, esteemed and enterprising citizens. William is a Director of the First National Bank and of the Citizens' Bank, and is largely interested in the Reading Electric Light Company, the Reading Steam Heating Company, the Pennsyl- vania Trust Company, and the Mount Penn Gravity Railroad Company. He is one of the principal stockholders in and a Director of the Academy of Music Company, one of the incorporators and a Director of the Reading Rolling Mill, and is a promoter of many other public enterprises. He has never held any public position other than that of Trustee of the Huntingdon Reformatory, a place to which no compensation is attached; but he is a liberal contributor to the funds of the Democratic party. He is not, however, blindly partisan, but believes in his friends, and most of the leading men in the State in either political party are proud to number him as one of theirs. He takes a great interest in the drama, and there are but few of the prominent actors in the country who are not his intimate personal friends, and who have not partaken of his hospitality when they have visited Reading. He attends mostly to the administrative part of the business of the firm. His head-quarters in New York city are at the Westminster Hotel, and in Philadelphia at the Hotel Lafayette. He is frequently found at either house conferring with men of large affairs, or entertaining a choice circle of friends. Though he is a thorough American, and sometimes jocularly claims to be a Pennsylvania Dutchman, he has a warm spot in his heart for the cause of his native country, and has been a liberal contributor thereto, as he is to all others which he considers worthy. He is a member of the Hibernia Society or Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, of Philadelphia, and his face is a familiar one, and his presence always welcome, at the annual dinners of the organization botlı in Philadelphia and New York.
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