USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 38
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was projected he threw his enthusiasm and energy into the new enterprise, where he carried out a theory that he has always held in common with Bishop Stevens and other thoughtful churchmen, which is, that the strength of a church rests with the children who are growing up in it, and that a vigorous Sunday-school will build up a living and working church. Hence, the Sunday-school of the Memorial Chapel, which Mr. Redner started with fifty children, increased in the course of twenty years, under his superintendence, to a membership of over 1,000.
During the late civil war Mr. Redner, with a number of ladies and gentlemen, organized the Soldiers' Reading Room on Twentieth street above Chestnut. When its usefulness ended with the war, and it was formally incorporated as a Home for Soldiers' Orphans, under the title of " The Lincoln Institution," he was an active spirit in obtaining money for the purchase of the large building on Eleventh street below Spruce, which is now used as a school for Indian children. As one of the appointed speakers of the Sunday services at Girard College he is always acceptable, doing his part of the important work of instructing the boys of the college on religious subjects, which duty devolves upon devout laymen, as no clergymen are permitted within its gates.
Mr. Redner was several years ago one of the Vice-Presidents of the Young Men's Christian Association, and still retains a deep interest in the organization as a member of the Advisory Board of the Association. He was one of the organizers of the Church Home for Children at Angora station over thirty years ago, and has been Secretary of the Board of Council of the Home during all that period. He is also a Director of the Sheltering Arms; a Trustee and member of the Sunday Breakfast Association; a delegate to the Convention of the Episcopal Church ; and one of the Trustees of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, elected by the Convention. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Epis- copal Hospital Mission appointed by the Bishop, and for a whole year conducted public service in the new mission building of the hospital until a proper minister could be obtained. At times he has served in the vestries of numerous feeble and struggling parishes, and is now a member of the vestry of the Church of the Holy Trinity, and also of the Church of the Holy Apostles. Thus, although rendering efficient service in the established lines of church and philanthropic work, those who know Mr. Redner best realize that the field of labor for which he is peculiarly fitted by his broad humanity and gift of sympathy is outside of these lines-among the poor and afflicted, and especially among those who shrink from the ministrations of a clergyman. He has recently been made President of the Midnight Mission of Philadelphia, into whose noble work of raising the fallen and establishing them in some useful position in life he has entered with zeal and enthusiasm. His experiences during the Moody and Sankey revival in Philadelphia would form an interesting volume in them- selves. He was not only in full accord with the work of these evangelists but organized and conducted evening and midnight services among the employés of the Philadelphia Gas Works, where these hard-working men often
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took their hour of leisure to listen to what Mr. Redner had to say to them. What he said was always expressed in so kind and friendly a manner that more than one remained after the service to talk to him, and confide their troubles to him as to a brother.
In the University Hospital, where Mr. Redner has held Sunday afternoon ser- vices for several years, he has brought hope and comfort to many sorrowful hearts. His cheerful face and pleasant voice seem to bring sunshine into the wards, and many of the patients look forward eagerly to his coming with the return of Sunday. Not only by the service of prayer and song and exhortation does he interest them, but by approaching them individually and talking to them as to brothers-sons of one Father-and thus by his warm and affectionate interest in each one, leading him up to believe in "God's possible by His world's loving."
About three years ago a young man in the last stages of consumption en- tered the hospital. An orphaned son of a soldier, neglected by friends and dependent upon charity, he was dispirited and indifferent about the future, fearing that the dissecting table, and not the grave, would receive his emaci- ated body. Into this young man's life Mr. Redner brought a new light. With his magnetic powers, with the promise that he would see that Christian burial was vouchsafed the poor boy, he at once became his spiritual guide. After several weeks of faithful service, on asking the invalid whether he would like to see a clergyman, he replied : "No, you meet all my wants. You have made the way of salvation so clear to me that I cannot help understanding and embracing it." Mr. Redner kept vigil during the last night on earth of the invalid, and after his death followed his remains to a suburban cemetery.
Another incident, known to the writer, also illustrates this phase of Mr. Redner's work. Not long since a man in deep poverty and distress called to see him. On asking the man how he knew his name and how he came to him, the man replied by asking him if he remembered a conversation with a sick man, at the Philadelphia Hospital, one evening during the previous summer. Mr. Redner recalled the circumstance, and the man added : "I was in the next bed to that man. I received comfort on hearing your words, and I tried to remember your name because I thought, if you were so good to him, you might be good to me some day."
These incidents show into what a network of interests those are drawn who are enlisted in works of this character.
Although engaged in so much active work, Mr. Redner finds time to enter into the pleasures of social life, and his is a welcome presence in many circles.
A. H. W.
+. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA
THOMAS P. TWIBILL.
THOMAS P. TWIBILL.
TN a "City of Homes" like Philadelphia, it is an important matter to the great 4 majority of the inhabitants to know that they have clear titles to the prop- erties they own, and therefore it is that conveyancing occupies so important a position among the professions, and that those engaged in it, who have estab- lished a reputation for carefulness and reliability, rapidly acquire prominence in the community. . One of the most successful members of this profession in Philadelphia is THOMAS P. TWIBILL, who was born in that city April 27, 1858. His father, George A. Twibill, is one of the leading and most philanthropic residents of the city, where his extensive shipping interests and large real-estate holdings have made his name well known in the community for many years past.
Thomas P. Twibill, who is one of the leading conveyancers and real-estate operators in Philadelphia, received his early education in the public schools and then at La Salle College in his native city. At the age of seventeen he entered the large furniture house of Swan, Clark & Co., where he spent over a year in the capacity of a general accountant. After leaving the employ of this firm he took charge of large real-estate interests throughout the city, and by his close attention to the same acquired a measure of success in that business and laid the foundation of a knowledge which has been of great value to him since in his profession. Finding that his business of real-estate and conveyancing would be greatly facilitated by a thorough knowledge of the law, he entered as a student in the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he was graduated in 1881, and on October 15th of that year was admitted to the bar.
Mr. Twibill devoted his attention, however, almost exclusively to the convey- ancing business and real-estate matters. His first large venture in this line was the purchase of the old Merchants' Hotel on Fourth street above Market, at one time one of the most popular and best patronized hotels in the city, and noted as the head-quarters of James Buchanan whenever that statesman visited the city prior to his election to the Presidency of the United States, and later as the residence of Hon. Samuel J. Randall. After altering this vast building of some three hundred rooms into apartments for offices and manufacturing purposes, he disposed of it to a syndicate and it has been used ever since as a business building.
He then purchased the tract of land formerly occupied by Barnum's circus, on South Broad street, extending along that thoroughfare from Dickinson to Morris and from Broad to Seventeenth streets. This valuable tract was purchased from the estate of John J. Ridgway, deceased, late of Europe, who was one of Philadelphia's most honored citizens during his lifetime. He cut it up into some five hundred building lots, ran streets through the property with all the necessary municipal improvements, and what had been for years an unimproved, unproductive open tract, blocking the way to the city's progress in
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that direction, was changed to an improved district, yielding to the city's treasury a large sum in taxes on an assessment of over one million dollars and marking the way for further improvements in that direction.
The acquisition and disposition of this large tract took over two years to accomplish, and at the time the undertaking was considered to be the largest transaction of retailing real-estate in one operation that had then taken place in Philadelphia. At the end of the time mentioned not one lot remained unsold in all this large undertaking. Over three hundred men were constantly employed on the division of this property, and the cost in street improvements, together with the expense of granite curbing surrounding the entire tract, amounted to nearly sixty thousand dollars.
After this property was disposed of he turned his attention to country and suburban homes, and at Radnor Station and Devon, on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, he acquired various large tracts aggregating over one hundred acres of fine building sites, which are being plotted and will be offered to purchasers with extra inducements for the building of fine homes and looking to the gathering together of a community similar to what was done by him in the operation above described, but on a much larger scale.
Mr. Twibill has also in charge the large plot of ground formerly belonging to the Eisenbrey estate, bounded by Twelfth and Thirteenth and Dauphin and York streets, known as " Renwood Park," containing over two hundred building lots, and upon which there have been already erected a large number of houses, the greater part of them being already occupied.
Though Mr. Twibill is but about thirty years old his knowledge of real-estate matters in Philadelphia and elsewhere is as complete as that of men twice his age. He has built up a business unexcelled by any one else in the city and established a reputation as one of the best posted men in his profession. Though his specialty is real-estate, law and conveyancing, his services as an expert have been called for in some of the important cases recently arising from the entrance into the city of steam railroads, notably in the damage suits of the Schuylkill East Side Railroad and the Philadelphia extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He has also frequently been called upon to act as an expert in damage cases before road juries in the matter of paying for the opening of streets in various parts of the city. He is one of the active members and also one of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Real Estate Exchange, having taken a prominent part in the formation of that organization, which is composed of the leading real-estate operators in the city.
Mr. Twibill gives every promise of attaining a high position as an authority in real-estate law. His interests are varied and the success he has already attained is the result of unquestioned ability and unusual thoroughness, and his well- established reputation for integrity and reliability cannot fail to bring him still greater fortune and an enviable name among those who uphold the city's fame for the stability and commercial honor of her business men. C. R. D.
WILLIAM T. B. ROBERTS.
WILLIAM TAYLOR BLAKE ROBERTS.
T HERE are so few persons in Pennsylvania, or any other State, who have been concerned in the erection of even one thousand edifices of any sort that the man who, in the course of a short life, has supervised the building of nearly two thousand dwelling-houses, some of them large and costly structures, may fairly be called prominent in his calling. Such a man is WILLIAM T. B. ROBERTS, now a master-builder in Philadelphia. He is of English ancestry, but his parents and grandparents were natives of this country.
Mr. Roberts was born in Philadelphia, June 15, 1850, and received all the education he has had in the public schools of his native city. When about fourteen years of age his parents moved to Venango county, near the town of Franklin, where his father was engaged in the management of the Asher Petro- leum Company and in farming, the son assisting him in his agricultural labors during the planting and harvesting seasons, and being engaged in the fall and winter months in cutting timber in the forests.
After remaining about three years in Venango county the family returned to Philadelphia, and young Roberts was apprenticed to learn the trade of carpenter and builder, for which occupation he had a liking, and at which he served until he was of age. After finishing his apprenticeship he became associated with his father in building operations, and when this connection was dissolved by mutual consent he continued the business on his own account, both as a speculative builder and as contractor for capitalists who wished to improve tracts of ground which they owned. He soon won an enviable reputation for the superior character of the work done by him, and for the conscientious manner in which he carried out his contracts; and, as a result, houses that are known to have been erected under his supervision always command a ready sale and good prices.
Mr. Roberts has erected in Tioga, Germantown, the northern section of Phila- delphia proper, and in the city of Scranton, in all about two thousand houses. One of the most important and extensive structures erected by him was the Aubrey Hotel, built as a speculation for the purpose of accommodating visitors during the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. It fronted on Walnut street, and extended from Thirty-third to Thirty-fourth street, and cost about $250,000. Mr. Roberts also built the imposing private residence of Mr. Peter A. B. Widener, the well-known capitalist, at the north-west corner of Broad street and Girard avenue, which is unquestionably one of the handsomest, most costly and ornate private residences in the country. He also built the two houses immediately adjoining it on Broad street, which are the residences of Mr. Widener's son, George D., and the latter's brother-in-law, Mr. George W. Elkins, Jr. These three mansions are splendid specimens of architectural taste and of the builder's
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skill, and are great improvements to that section of the city, and ornaments to the handsome street upon which they are located.
Mr. Roberts does not, however, confine himself to the building of such struc- tures as have been enumerated above. He is prepared to undertake the erection of any style of public edifice or buildings for industrial purposes, and, as an evidence of his ability to carry out any work that may be placed in his hands, in the last-named line may be cited the extensive buildings, comprising the . offices, machine shops, draughting-rooms, pattern shops, foundry, etc., which he built for the Pennsylvania Iron Works at Fiftieth street and Merion avenue. Messrs. Widener and Elkins, the wealthy members of the Traction syndicate of Philadelphia street passenger railway magnates, when they determined to engage in the extensive building operations in the north-western section of the city of Philadelphia at points reached by the various lines of their street railroads, gave to Mr. Roberts the entire management of the work of building the dwellings they had determined upon erecting ; and an evidence of the satisfaction they had in his performance of the duty is the fact that they placed in his hands the build- ing of their own private residences, and that there has never arisen any difference between the contracting parties. He has at present (July, 1889) under con- struction one hundred and fourteen dwelling-houses in the north-western section of the city, and has secured the ground on which to erect four hundred more in the immediate future.
Mr. Roberts' entire attention is given to his business. He has never taken any part in politics nor held public office of any kind. His leisure hours are devoted solely to the companionship of his family, consequently he is not a member of any social organization or club. He was married on the 15th day of June, 1871, to Miss Emma J. Britton. They have two children, a son about seventeen years of age and a daughter three years younger, both of whom are attending school.
C. R. D.
.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA.
ALLEN B. RORKE.
ALLEN BEARLY RORKE.
T 'HE just pride which the city of Philadelphia takes in her deserving sons serves alike to inspire them to effort and infuse others with that laudable ambition which produces a spirit of emulation and leads to good results. While adopted citizens of the Quaker City are welcomed to the highest honors, and invited to share the richest fruits of her progress, those " native and to the manner born" are held high in public esteem and private regard when they disclose those qualities of head and heart that entitle them to such consideration. Thus in physics and mechanics, as in the fields of law and literature, there are in the front ranks in the army of progress native Philadelphians who have reaped the harvest of genius, zeal and integrity, which is abundant in material results, and who have won the respect and confidence of the public. Among this number stands conspicuously and deservedly ALLEN B. RORKE, Chairman of the Repub- lican City Committee, and one of the most enterprising and extensive building contractors in the city. He was born in Philadelphia, March 21, 1846. His lineage is a mixture of Irish, German and Welsh. His paternal great-grand- father, John Rorke, was born in Dublin, Ireland, but came to America in early manhood and located at Reading, where he married a wife of German extraction. They settled in Reading when the country thereabouts was in a most primitive condition, and their habitation was a log-cabin. His son John, grandfather of Allen B., was born in Reading, where he lived all his life. He also took a wife from among the German-American residents by the name of Bearly. Their son, James Rorke, father of Allen, was also a native of Reading; but when eighteen years of age he came to Philadelphia, where he apprenticed himself to Robert Reeves, then a well-known builder in the old Spring Garden district. He was a skilled mechanic and master of his trade, but, being of a speculative turn, was not successful in accumulating wealth. He married Rachel Kitchen, a daughter of James Kitchen, also a master-builder in Philadelphia, although a native of Clearfield county, who had resided for a time in Wilmington, where his daughter was born, but shortly afterwards moved to Philadelphia. It will thus be seen that his skill in his line of business is to a large extent hereditary.
Mr. Rorke attended the public schools until he was fourteen years of age, when, following his natural bent and inclination, he apprenticed himself to a carpenter and builder and thoroughly learned the trade-that in Philadelphia is the one whose members usually obtain the contracts for the erection of buildings, and sublet the work of other trades on such operations. He soon showed his aptitude for the business he had chosen, and when but twenty-two years of age was placed by his employer in charge of important work; and it was under his supervision that were constructed the Pardee Scientific School at Easton, the buildings of the Girard Estate, occupied for several years by the Board of
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Brokers at the rear of the Girard Bank on Third street, and Horticultural Hall, erected in Fairmount Park for the Centennial Exhibition.
About 1879 Mr. Rorke started in business for himself, and almost immediately took a front place in the ranks of the builders of the city. His promptness and thoroughness in carrying out his contracts, and his disposition to do more rather than less than the agreement called for, soon attracted attention to him, and when once he obtained the business of his patrons they had no desire nor incli- nation to try elsewhere. Among the many buildings that he has erected since entering business on his own account may be mentioned the handsome residence of Thomas Dolan on Walnut street above Eighteenth; the extensive cordage works of Edwin H. Fitler & Co. at Bridesburg; the carpet mills of McCallum, Crease & Sloan at Wayne Junction ; the armory of the State Fencibles on North Broad street; Thomas Dolan & Co.'s mill; the smoke-house, packing-house and stables of John H. Michener & Co .; John T. Bailey & Co.'s cordage works; the depot and stables of the Second and Third Street Passenger Railway Company ; Hensel, Colladay & Co.'s large building on Seventh street, below Arch; Justice, Bateman & Co.'s warehouse on Gothic street; John T. Bailey's residence on Master street, near Fifteenth; the building of the Brush Electric Light Company on Johnson street, above Twentieth ; the office of the Traction Company at 423 Walnut street; the spice warehouse of O. S. Janney & Co. on Letitia street; · Sichel & Meyer's store on Arch street, below Eighth; the granite annex of the Bank of Northern Liberties; Frank Thompson's mill on Lehigh avenue; the Lennox Mills at Bridesburg; Dornan Bros. & Co.'s Monitor Mills; Leedom's mills at Bristol; the Fidelity Storage Warehouse on Market street; Jacob Reed's Sons' new store at Second and Spruce streets ; Merchant & Co.'s new warehouse; Building No. 8 at Girard College, the dining-room of which will seat one thou- sand boys, and also Building No. 9 in the same grounds; the unique and attrac- tive Manufacturers' Club building on Walnut street, west of Broad ; the massive- looking and artistically designed edifice of the Western Saving Fund at Tenth and Walnut streets; the immense store on the Girard estate at Eleventh and Market streets, occupied by Hood, Bonbright & Co .; and the six roomy stores which cover the rest of the block to Twelfth street, and which are so designed and constructed as to give the appearance of but one building. These stores and the immense Hood-Bonbright structure give an idea, at the first glance, of but two imposing buildings filling the entire block. Mr. Rorke had also the contract for the erection of the immense sugar-refining plant of Mr. Claus Spreckles. So well pleased was that gentleman with the manner in which the first portion of the work was accomplished, that he directed his engineers and superintendents to arrange the details for the construction of the other buildings with Mr. Rorke, and give him the work without the formality of bidding for the contract. These are the largest buildings ever erected in Philadelphia in so short a space of time as was occupied in completing them-only twelve months.
Mr. Rorke's career is a splendid illustration of what skill and ability, backed
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by energy and pluck, can accomplish. Although he has been in business for himself for only about a decade, he is unquestionably the most widely known and successful of the builders of Philadelphia. The rapid progress made by him, and the energy displayed in completing the various immense operations he has undertaken, have made his name known and respected among builders in all parts of the country. He is regarded by those engaged in the profession as the embodiment of sagacity, courage and energy. It is seldom that he fails to obtain any contract which he especially desires to secure; nor has he ever neg- lected to promptly and honestly fulfil any that he has ever made. Before under- taking to perform any large piece of work, he has a habit of taking a compre- hensive view of the whole case, weighing every detail of cost and figuring so closely that there is no room left for a shade of difference. Then he furnishes his estimates. He proceeds, too, with a boldness and vim that astounds his more timid competitors. But his style of doing business is thoroughly intelligible, if , one but stops to consider that he knows exactly what he is about, and that he is safer and surer in his quick conclusions than less mathematically gifted men are in their slow and halting methods. An illustration of his modus operandi in busi- ness is afforded in the course followed by him in obtaining the contract for the erection of the building of the Western Saving Fund. There were several com- petitors for the work, and, as the contract was considered a particularly desirable one by the builders, the figuring was very close. One of the most important points necessary in the calculation was the original cost of the granite and the expense of transporting it. While his competitors were slowly making up their estimates in their offices, Mr. Rorke quietly and promptly went over to New England, where the quarries are located, and, by reason of his established repu- tation, large capital and special business facilities, was enabled to make a very advantageous contract for the stone. That, of course, settled the business in his favor, and the trustees of the saving fund realized that it was to their advantage to have their building erected by the enterprising builder.
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