USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 5
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" I have only one thing to add. It will always be my earnest prayer and the height of my ambition to carry with me into private life the same esteem and confidence which I have enjoyed as a member of the noblest profession known among men."
Mr. Reynolds enjoyed his relief from the cares of his professional duties for but a comparatively brief period. His health was not good during the summer following, and early in the fall he was taken seriously ill, and on September 10, 1889, the attack terminated fatally at 3 A. M. His death was caused by hem- orrhage of the stomach, superinduced by indigestion and a general collapse of the vital powers. The daily papers all over the State contained notices of his death, which were tributes to the high estimation in which he was held in his profession and by the community at large.
Mr. Reynolds resided in a handsome marble front dwelling on Duke street, in Lancaster. He was a member of and long had been a vestryman in the St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, and was frequently a lay delegate to the church councils. 4
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SAMUEL H. REYNOLDS.
Mr. Reynolds was married in 1858 to Miss Mary Fordney, a daughter of the late Colonel William B. Fordney, of Lancaster, Pa., and there were five children born to the union, two sons and three daughters, all of whom, with their mother, survive him. His eldest son, W. Fred, is engaged with his uncle in an extensive banking business in Bellefonte.
C. R. D.
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VIAKUNST
SAMUEL SHOCH.
SAMUEL SHOCH.
C OLONEL SAMUEL SHOCH, who died Friday, May 24, 1889, was a leading and prominent citizen of Columbia, Pa., and said to be the oldest Bank Presi- dent then living in this country. He was born in Harrisburg, May 28, 1797. His career covered some of the most eventful periods in our National history, and was so closely identified with the progress and events of his locality, that it formed an inseparable part of them.
His grandfather, Michael Shoch, was a native of Germany, who emigrated to America and settled near Philadelphia. He had several children, among whom was John, whose birth occurred at the paternal home, near Philadelphia, and who, in 1792, removed to Harrisburg, Dauphin county, and there remained until his death, in 1842. He married Miss Salome Gilbert, of Philadelphia, and they had nine children-Mary, Sarah, Eliza, Rebecca, Cassandra, Samuel, John, Jacob, and one who died at birth.
Samuel Shoch's early education was commenced at the preparatory schools which existed before the establishment of the present common school system, and continued at the Nottingham Academy, Cecil county, Md. His further education and preparation for professional life was the result of personal applica- tion directed by himself.
As early as 1812 he was Recorder of Patents under John Cochran, Secretary of the Land Office, and Recorder of Surveys in the office of Andrew Porter, then Surveyor-General. In September, 1814, he joined the Harrisburg Artillerists, a company formed within twenty-four hours after the British had burned the Capitol at Washington, and he was the youngest man in the four companies that volunteered from Harrisburg at that time. The company marched to York, and thence to Baltimore, remaining on duty there until the British withdrew and abandoned their contemplated attack on that city. For his services on that occasion he was rewarded by the Government with one hundred and sixty acres of land and an annual pension of ninety-six dollars.
In May, 1817, he began the study of law under Amos Ellmaker, Attorney- General, and was admitted to the Dauphin county bar in 1820. He was always aggressive, and as a young lawyer displayed great energy, skill and fearlessness in prosecuting what he believed to be wrong. In 1835 he was elected Clerk of the House of Representatives by a union of the Whig and anti-Masonic members, defeating Francis R. Shunk, the Democratic candidate. In 1837, again defeat- ing Francis R. Shunk, he was elected Secretary to the Convention which framed the Constitution under which Pennsylvania was governed from 1838 to 1873. At the adjournment of that body he was the recipient of the unanimous thanks of the members for the efficient and satisfactory manner in which he had per- formed the duties of his position. The recollections of his services and connec- tion with the convention were always a pleasant memory to him, and one to
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SAMUEL SHOCH.
which he always referred with gratification, and reminiscences of which he recounted with just pride.
In 1839 he removed to Columbia and cast his fortune with that place, having been elected a Cashier of the Columbia Bank and Bridge Company. The com- pany had a nominal capital of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but an actual working capital not exceeding one hundred thousand, as a bridge owned by the company, and costing more than a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, had been swept away by the breaking of an ice-gorge in 1832, and the loss had not been fully made up. The capital was afterwards increased, first to two hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, and again in 1857 to three hundred and twenty- two thousand five hundred dollars, with a change of title to Columbia Bank. In 1865 the bank accepted the National Bank Law, and became the Columbia National Bank, with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars, at which it still remains with a surplus of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, having in the meantime erected a splendid banking house that stands unrivalled by any bank building in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He maintained official relations with the corporation, first as Cashier and later as President (to which position he was elected in December, 1878) during a period of forty-six years, the events of which are of the greatest interest to that institution.
Colonel Shoch was married in 1842 to Mrs. Hannah Evans, daughter of Amos Slaymaker, of Lancaster county, who was the leading manager of the line of stages between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Her death having occurred in March, 1860, he contracted a second marriage in August, 1865, with Miss Anna E. Barber, daughter of Robert Barber, Esq., of Columbia, who survives him.
In 1845 Colonel Shoch was appointed an aide on the staff of Gov. William F. Johnston, which, by courtesy, conferred upon him the title of Colonel, a desig- nation by which he was better known than by his Christian name.
In 1860 he was a member of the State Committee of the Republican party, and a delegate to the National Convention at Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. During the war he was among the foremost in acts of charity and patriotism, and presented to the first volunteer company formed in Columbia a beautiful and costly silk flag. He always took a warm interest in the public schools, and through his active exertions and liberal donations the "Shoch Library " of Columbia, named in honor of its patron, was established.
Colonel Shoch also took an active interest in local enterprises, and was at one and the same time President of the Columbia Gas and Water Companies, the Old Columbia Public Ground Company, the Marietta, Chestnut Hill and Wash- ington Turnpike Companies. He was also Treasurer of the Reading and Columbia Railroad Company, but resigned in 1862 previous to going abroad on a Continental tour. He was for ten years President of the School Board of Columbia, during which period a spacious edifice devoted to the interest of the public schools was erected. He served a term as Director of the Poor in Lan- caster county, two terms as County Auditor, was a Trustee of the Millersville
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SAMUEL SHOCH.
Normal School, and Director of the Wrightsville, York and Gettysburg Rail- road. If responsible official positions are a measure of public confidence, then Colonel Shoch was surely favored above all of his fellow-citizens.
Colonel Shoch was always an active worker in the Sunday-school cause. In the early part of his professional career he was both a teacher and superintendent of a Sunday-school of the Lutheran Church at Harrisburg, and aided largely towards the erection of a school-house for that congregation, which was unfor- tunately destroyed at the same time the church was burned. Within the last ten years of his life the enthusiasm displayed in his younger days for the cause was especially reawakened, and his active services as a teacher of a Bible class in the Columbia Fifth Street Presbyterian Sunday-school, together with his gratuitous erection and furnishing of a beautiful chapel (named Salome, in honor of his mother), attested his deep and sincere interest. About four years prior to his death the chapel was abandoned by the Presbyterian congregation, and was then given by the Colonel to the United Brethren denomination, who razed it and built a handsome structure with portions of the material. The new church is known as Salome United Brethren, and this building stands as one of the many monuments to his memory. In 1854, and for several years thereafter, he sus- tained, at his own expense, a public night-school, employed teachers, furnished books, etc., for the benefit of apprentices and other young persons who could not attend school during the day, and was happily rewarded by the knowledge that the school was well attended. Many of the pupils, since grown up, have become prominent and well-to-do citizens, who gratefully acknowledge the advantages derived from the institution. He always took a warm interest in the public schools of Columbia, and through his active exertions and liberal dona- tions the Shoch Library, named in honor of its patron, was established. His contributions to the library fund formed a nucleus from which has grown a flour- ishing circulating library of several thousand volumes. It occupies a place in the public school building, and is under the immediate control of the Columbia School Board, which body annually appoints a librarian and also contributes to its support. At his death he bequeathed the greater portion of his valuable pri- vate library, numbering about five thousand volumes, to the Shoch Library.
In politics he was uniformly and radically anti-Democratic, and in full accord with the Republican party. He was a warm admirer and disciple of Thaddeus Stevens, the "Old Commoner," whose teachings and principles he ardently sup- : ported and advocated. Colonel Shoch's life was an eventful and a busy one, and even in his ninety-second year his mind was fresh and vigorous, and he possessed a remarkable activity of body.
The prominence of Colonel Shoch in religious, social, political and financial affairs for a full half century invested his life with peculiar interest, and his fellow- townspeople watched his declining years, and especially the last days of his life, with loving tenderness and anxiety. The newspapers throughout the State con- tained daily bulletins of the condition of his health, and upon his death bore tribute to the esteem in which he was held by the public at large. W. U. BARR.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA
JOHN SLINGLUFF.
JOHN SLINGLUFF.
J OHN SLINGLUFF, President of the Montgomery National Bank, Norristown, Pa., was born August 3, 1839, in the borough of Norristown, Montgomery county, Pa., and is the oldest son of the late William H. Slingluff and of Mary Knorr Slingluff, and is descended from a line of ancestors dating in this country on the maternal side from 1688. On the paternal side the first of the name was Henry Slingluff, who came to this country in 1727, purchasing and settling upon a tract of land now situated in Salford Township, Montgomery county. Henry Slingluff came from England, but was descended from the Waldenses who went to England to escape religious proscription, and, still flying from church per- secution, finally crossed the Atlantic and settled in America.
The oldest ancestor in this country on the mother's side was Dirck Keyser, a friend and partner of Pastorius in the purchase and settlement of Germantown, now a suburb of Philadelphia. Dirck Keyser was descended from an ancient Holland family, and one of his immediate ancestors suffered death at the stake in the cause of his religion. Many marriages were contracted among the settlers of the vicinity, and consequently the Slingluffs are more or less connected with many of the older families of the sturdy Germans of eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Slingluff's ancestors, like most of the German settlers of the State, were con- nected with the Mennonites and Tunkers, or Dunkards, who were, and are still, noted for plain, unassuming manners and the strictest integrity, combined with great firmness of character and earnestness of purpose.
Mr. Slingluff's father, William H. Slingluff, connected himself with the institu- tion then known as the Bank of Montgomery County in 1825, and remained in its service until his death, in 1880, having obtained the record of the longest continuous service as a bank officer in the State-a period of fifty years-and the reputation of having been one of the ablest financiers the State has ever pro- duced. He was teller of the bank for about ten years, and then filled the office of cashier until 1868, when he was chosen president, and his son John succeeded him as Cashier. In 1875 he resigned the presidency of the bank and was elected vice-president, John succeeding him as President, and his other son, William F. Slingluff, being appointed cashier. Thus there has been an unbroken connec- tion between this bank and the family for almost sixty-five years.
The Bank of Montgomery County, directly after the failure of the United States Bank, was chartered by the State of Pennyslvania, in 1814, simultaneously with all of the older banks in Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania, excepting only the Bank of North America, which derived its authority directly from the Con- gress of the United States. The bank had an authorized capital of $400,000, with the privilege of increasing it to $600,000. Of this privilege it never availed itself, however, and was rechartered by the State at periods of twenty years' intervals until, in May, 1865, it took advantage of the enabling act of
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JOHN SLINGLUFF.
Congress and became a national bank, under the title of the Montgomery National Bank of Norristown.
The bank has always been conservatively managed, and did not call in its entire capital until about 1856; and at the time of its conversion to the national bank system had acquired a surplus of $85,000, and built for itself one of the finest banking buildings in the State outside of the larger cities. It passed through the dark days of 1837 and 1857 with its capital unimpaired, securing and maintaining its position as one of the strongest banks in the country. Up to 1857 it was the only bank in Montgomery county, and its circulation having always been kept at par its notes were favorites all over the United States, and its circulation was for years equal to any of its contemporaries. But one run was ever made upon the bank, and that was in 1857. It lasted for some three days, during all of which time its doors were open day and night, and every note pre- sented was paid in gold or silver. During this run proffers of assistance were made by many of the Philadelphia banks, and by the well-known house of · Drexel & Co., the latter offering $400,000-an amount equal to the entire cap- ital of the bank. All of these offers were respectfully declined, and the bank gained a still higher standing in the community.
In the early days of 1861, when the Government was unable to pay the Penn- sylvania soldiers, then in the field in large numbers, the bank joined with some of the capitalists and financial institutions of Philadelphia in offering to advance to the State Government sufficient gold coin to pay the troops. The loan was accepted promptly by Governor Curtin, and the crisis passed. When the Gov- ernment issued its first bonds the bank at once subscribed for them to the extent of its available funds. This aided largely in increasing confidence in the Gov- ernment among its patrons, and eventually, as agent for the Treasury of the United States, it succeeded in placing millions of the bonds in its vicinity. The bank continued to hold large amounts of these securities, and, as the credit of the Government strengthened and bonds carrying lower rates of interest, drop- ping from seven and three-tenths per cent. to finally four per cent., were offered, the bank wisely sold the higher-rate bonds and bought those bearing lower interest, and continued the operation until its capital had been invested in the four per cent. United States bonds. Through these changes large profits were made, and in 1880 the surplus of the bank had grown to an amount equal to its capital-$400,000. By this time numerous other banks had been opened in the small towns of the county, and the amount of its capital thus invested had become too large to be profitably and safely handled. The President, John Slingluff, conceived the idea of reducing the capital, and, after great opposition on the part of some of its stockholders, succeeded in getting the necessary three- fourths vote in favor of the measure. The proper form being complied with, the idea was carried out and at the same time the surplus fund was also reduced to $200,000, and $200,000 of its capital and $200,000 of its surplus were divided among the shareholders, thus returning to each stockholder the whole par value of his shares, equal to a dividend of one hundred per cent. New shares of the
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JOHN SLINGLUFF.
par value of $100 each were issued to the stockholders to the amount of $200,000, the present capital. The $200,000 of the surplus fund was, by success- ful management, increased to $300,000, and dividends amounting to sixteen per cent. per annum have since been declared on the par value of the capital stock, resulting in the advance of the price to over $400 per share. This exhibit is not excelled by any bank in the State, and is only equalled by three or four.
Mr. Slingluff's education was acquired partly in the public schools of Norris- town, and partly at the Elmwood Institute, under the charge of Rev. G. D. Wolf; and at the early age of sixteen he entered the office of J. Morton Albertson, then a rising conveyancer and civil engineer, with whom he remained about one year, acquiring the rudiments of engineering-a profession for which he has always retained a liking. At the earnest solicitation of his father, however, he at this time (1856) abandoned engineering and entered the bank as note clerk, and has continued in its service ever since, having been elected Cashier in 1868, and, as before stated, President in 1875, upon the retirement of his father from the latter position.
Besides being President of the leading bank in Montgomery county, Mr. Sling- luff is connected with so many other enterprises in which he holds important posi- tions that space will only permit us to enumerate them .. He is President of the Montgomery Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Company; President of the Nor- ristown Water-works; Treasurer of the Norristown Gas Company ; President of the Economy Mutual Insurance Company; President of the Norristown Junc- tion Railroad, which he was instrumental in building; and President of the Board of Inspectors of the Montgomery County Prison, in which he has intro- duced many reforms by which the cost to the county has been reduced one-half and the health and comfort of the prisoners largely increased. He has for many years been Treasurer of the Montgomery Cemetery Company, in whose grounds lie the remains of General Hancock, Hon. John Freedley, and many others once prominent in the State and nation. He is Treasurer of his Masonic Lodge, and of the Second National Saving Fund and Loan Association, which has enabled hundreds of the citizens of the borough to become owners of their homes. He is also Treasurer of the Montgomery Lead and Zinc Company, which owns and profitably works large mines in Jasper county, Missouri. He is a Director of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown, the Plymouth, the Stony Creek, the Perkiomen, and the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroads ; and a Manager and Vice-President of the Citizen's Passenger Railway of Norristown, and is also interested in the management of the King of Prussia Turnpike Com- pany and the Swedes' Ford Bridge Company.
The formation of the Montgomery Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Com- pany is entirely owing to Mr. Slingluff's business foresight and acumen. A few years since, after settling several of the largest estates in the county, he perceived the necessity for a company that could more properly transact such business, and he at once set to work to organize an institution of the kind. The stock was so rapidly taken that many subscriptions that were offered had to be
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JOHN SLINGLUFF.
declined, and the above-named company was chartered by the State of Pennsyl- vania and came into being with a capital of $250,000. The company is in suc- cessful operation, and is doing an excellent business; and, while paying its stockholders a satisfactory dividend annually, it is building up a surplus fund that will assure its perpetuation, and the confidence it has obtained in the com- munity is such that the shares readily sell for more than one hundred per cent. premium on the amount paid in.
Although pretty closely employed with the many business interests with which he is connected, he has yet found it possible to devote a portion of his time to Free Masonry, and has been honored with the highest offices in the gift of Charity Lodge, No. 190, A. Y. M .; Norristown Royal Arch Chapter, No. 190; Hutchinson Commandery, No. 32, Knights Templar; and Palestine Coun- cil, No. 8, Royal and Select Masters. He is Treasurer and Trustee of his lodge, and its representative in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and represents his chapter in the Grand Chapter of the State. He is a member of the Finance Committee of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and representative therein of the R. W. Grand Lodges of West Virginia and Georgia; and for several years served as District Deputy Grand High Priest for the counties of Bucks and Montgomery, which position he was compelled to relinquish on account of the pressure of his private business.
Politically Mr. Slingluff has never made himself prominent, and, though raised in the tenets of the old line Whig faith, that party had become disintegrated when he cast his first vote in 1860, and he voted for the national candidates of the American party and for the Democratic candidate for Governor of the State. He then attached himself to the Democratic party, and was its nominee for Con- gress in the Seventh District in 1880, and, though defeated by a small majority, he ran largely ahead of the rest of his ticket. He is, and has always been, how- ever, a strong protectionist, and when, in 1888, the Democratic party, following the lead of President Cleveland, placed itself upon the platform of free trade, Mr. Slingluff openly threw off his allegiance and united himself with the Republican party. The only public offices he ever held were Treasurer of Norristown for several years, and a membership in the School Board of the borough; the last year of his connection with the latter he served as President of the Board.
Mr. Slingluff was united in marriage, September 3, 1862, to Wilhelmina, youngest daughter of Frederick Gilbert, Esq., of Norristown, who is descended from an old English family which settled among the Germans in the vicinity of Pottstown, Montgomery county, about 1727. By this marriage there are three children-Mary, now the wife of Howard Boyd, the only child of Hon. James Boyd, of Norristown; William H. Slingluff, named after his grandfather, and employed as corresponding clerk of the bank ; and Helen G. Slingluff.
Mr. Slingluff resides with his family in a comfortable and attractive cottage in the west end of his native town, where he dispenses a warm hospitality, and enjoys the society of his many friends and those near and dear to him.
E. T. F.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHIL4
J. WESLEY SUPPLEE.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA.
JOSEPH THOMAS.
JOSEPH THOMAS.
OSEPH THOMAS, M. D., President of the Quakertown National Bank and one of the most prominent citizens of that place, was born near Doylestown in New Britain township, Bucks county, Penna., June 15, 1830. He is a son of Elias Thomas, whose grandfather came from Wales and settled near Danborough, in the vicinity of Doylestown. The place receives its name from Daniel Thomas, who was his granduncle. His mother was of German origin. Her maiden name was Sarah Snyder, a family whose ancestors emigrated from Germany, near Threi Brücken, over a century and a quarter ago, and settled in the upper portion of Bucks county in Richland township. Both his father and mother are deceased, the latter having died in 1886 at the ripe age of eighty- three years. His father died in 1855, when nearly seventy years of age. J
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