USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 6
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He received his education in private schools and at an academy near Doyles- town of which Thomas J. Clark, a gentleman of thorough classical attainments, was the principal. From 1847 to 1853 he was engaged in teaching school, the latter part of the time at the Fox Chase, Philadelphia. He then commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. William Hunt, late de- monstrator of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated in medicine at that institution in the spring of 1856.
He commenced the practice of medicine at Applebachville in his native county, where he remained until the breaking out of the great rebellion in 1861. About two years before the war he organized a military company called the Applebach- ville Guards and was commissioned Captain. In the spring of 1861 he tendered the services of his company to the Governor of the State. The offer was accepted and the organization became Company "H," Third Regiment of the famous Pennsylvania Reserves. He participated in the Peninsula campaign and in the engagements in front of Richmond during the celebrated seven days' re- treat to Harrison's Landing on the James river. At Charles City Cross Roads Captain Thomas was seriously wounded in the breast, his life only being saved by the fact that the ball struck a memorandum book in his coat pocket, which, although perforated by the missile, effectually stayed its force, so that the wound was not fatal.
He resigned his commission at Harrison's Landing on July 7, 1862. After recovering from his wound he was; on August 15, 1862, commissioned as surgeon of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, known as the Corn Exchange Regiment, and served with that command as chief medical officer and as surgeon of the Second Brigade, and of the Field Hos- pital of the First Division, Fifth Corps. He was Surgeon in charge from its organization in March, 1864, until the close of the war, and displayed great energy and ability in organizing this new branch of the medical service. His
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attainments as a surgeon commanded wide recognition. He added to this a reputation for true courage which was well deserved. Probably no officer of that famous regiment commanded a wider measure of respect and confidence or was better entitled to such.
He was mustered out with the regiment June 1, 1865, and then re-entered the service for a short time as Surgeon .of the Eighty-Second Pennsylvania Volun- teers. After finally resigning he was appointed Assessor of Internal Revenue and continued in that position for five years. During this time he moved to Quakertown and resumed the practice of medicine and established in connection therewith a retail drug store at that place. In 1870 he organized the Quakertown Savings Bank and was selected as its Cashier. The institution was eminently successful, for, in 1877, when it closed business and a National Bank took its place, the Savings Bank paid all its obligations, and a dividend from the profits of over three hundred per centum was made to the stockholders in addition to having paid annually a dividend of twelve per cent. while it was in operation.
In 1877, when the Quakertown National Bank was organized, he was chosen as its President and has continued in that capacity to the present date (1888). The institution has flourished under his management and it is to-day one of the most successful and reliable banking institutions in the county, having nearly doubled its capital ($100,000) in a surplus accumulated during the eleven years of its existence.
In 1878 he was elected to the State Senate as a Republican in a district which was strongly Democratic, and in this position he made an honorable and dis- tinguished record. When he was in that body he presented and had charge of a bill for the registration of the physicians of the Commonwealth, and defining who shall practise medicine. The bill passed the Legislature against a strong oppo- sition, received the sanction of the Governor, and became a law. It was the first legislation upon the subject, and it has proven very satisfactory and a most useful and beneficial statute. Its passage through the Senate was mainly due to his influence and efforts. During his term a bill was introduced in the Legislature to reimburse those who had suffered loss in the Pittsburgh riots engendered by the railroad strikes, known as the Pittsburgh Riot Bill. Although it did not reach the Senate on account of its having failed to pass the House, yet Senator Thomas was active in his opposition to it, and by his advice and influence aided to prevent its passage in the lower branch. It was while he was a member that the memorable struggle for the United States Senatorship occurred in which the ยท chief Republican candidates were Hon. Galusha A. Grow and Henry W. Oliver. The contest waxed very bitter and lasted nearly three months, but it resulted finally in a withdrawal of both the opponents, and by a compromise Hon. John I. Mitchell was chosen. Senator Thomas supported Mr. Grow throughout the contest, and was the teller on behalf of the Senate in the joint meeting of the two houses while the balloting was in progress. He served on the Committees of Education and Library, and was Chairman of the Committee on Printing. He
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was a candidate for election a second time, receiving the unanimous nomination of the delegates to the convention, but the canvass occurred while the party was divided, and two Republican candidates were in the field for governor-General Beaver as the nominee of the regulars, and Hon. John Stewart as the standard- bearer of the Independents-and in consequence of the existing demoralization and division he was defeated. He was chosen and elected a Presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1876, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884 at Chicago.
Dr. Thomas is a member of the Masonic fraternity and was the originator and one of the Charter members of Quakertown Lodge, No. 512, A. Y. M., of which he was the first elected Master. He is also a member of Zinzendorf Royal Arch Chapter of Bethlehem and of Allen Commandery, Masonic Knights Templar, Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is also a member in good standing of Quakertown Lodge, No. 714, I. O. of O. F., and of Sellersville Encampment. He is a member (No. 77) of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He also holds membership in the Bucks County Medical Society, the Lehigh Valley Medical Society and the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania. He is also a Director in the Bucks County Trust Company.
Dr. Thomas is quite a student of natural history and prepared the articles on the "Birds of Bucks County " and the "Quadrupeds of Bucks County," which appeared in Davis' history of the county. . At a Farmers' Institute, held under the auspices of the Agricultural Society of Pennsylvania at Newtown, Bucks county, in December, 1887, he prepared and read a paper entitled " Birds, Benefi- cial and Injurious to Agriculture." He defended the crow and blackbird, but had little else than reprobation for that imported pest, the English sparrow.
At a meeting of the Bucks County Medical Society, held at Doylestown, November 22, 1888, in commemoration of its fortieth anniversary, he was selected to prepare a paper on one of the subjects designated on the programme as ""Some of the Prominent Physicians Deceased of Bucks County." The paper consisted of a series of biographical sketches of medical men who were eminent as practitioners in their profession in the county from the early colonial days to the present time. He pretty thoroughly covered the period named, and gave descriptions and related anecdotes of the doctors of Bucks county who have, by meritorious deeds and faithful services rendered in their efforts to alleviate suffer- ing humanity, deserved to have their names written upon the scroll of fame. His sketches were most interesting to the members, and the paper was a suitable tribute paid by a competent authority to the worth of those heroes of peace, whose acts are too often overlooked and too seldom appreciated at their true value. His sketches were entirely confined to those who had at that time ended their work on earth and gone to their reward beyond.
Dr. Thomas is a good example of what the free institutions of America are capable of doing for the youth of the country. Though commencing life with
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but few advantages and in a poor and humble way, he has, by industry, energy, perseverance and probity, attained an honorable position and the respect of the community in which he lives, and has secured for himself at the same time a comfortable home and financial competency. He is a well-preserved man of fifty-eight with every prospect of many years of usefulness yet before him; enjoying excellent health and the esteem of his neighbors to a marked degree. He divides his time between attending to his duty at the bank, visiting the sick and afflicted and indulging his literary tastes by extensive reading in the classics, natural history, and general literature.
In 1860 Dr. Thomas was married to Sarah Ott and they have one child, Byron Thomas, who is now teller in the Quakertown National Bank. Dr. Thomas has one brother and two sisters living. The former, Mr. John Thomas, is a citizen of Detroit, but the sisters reside in Philadelphia.
C. R. D.
1
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C
FOTO FELTING1.
JASPER M THOMPSON.
JASPER MARKLE THOMPSON.
"THE character and remarkable career of the late JASPER M. THOMPSON, for many years President of the First National Bank of Uniontown, Pa., may perhaps be best illustrated by a brief recital of the history of his immediate pro- genitors, from whom he evidently inherited the elements of the vigorous but modest character which he manifested throughout his career in life. He came of an ancestry on both the maternal and paternal sides-the one Scotch-Irish; the other Pennsylvania Dutch-who were driven from the lands of their birth because of their religious convictions, and found a refuge in the Colonies of America, in the province of Pennsylvania, early in the eighteenth century. His paternal grandfather, like many other Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Cumberland Val- ley, desiring to stand upon the frontiers of civilization, drifted westward to West- moreland county, prior to the Revolutionary War, and took up a tract of land in the vicinity of Mt. Pleasant. His wife was Mary Jack, a daughter of John Jack, a gentleman who was prominent, with others of his family, in drafting and utter- ing the Hannastown Declaration of Independence in 1775. A new field of operations was about that time opened to men of strong arms and unflinching courage, and he determined to meet the red man on his own battle-field. Incli- nation, if not duty, pointed to the choice soil of Kentucky, and Mr. Thompson's grandfather, together with his wife and about a half dozen families, nearly all immediate relatives, pushed their way through the wilderness and joined Daniel Boone in his aggressive conflict, and continued companions in the struggle until possession was established. There the grandfather of Mr. Thompson passed the remainder of his life, dying in Mason county, Ky., where his youngest son, Andrew Finley Thompson, father of Jasper Markle Thompson, was born in 1791. Andrew and his three older brothers served through the war of 1812. Andrew was taken prisoner on the occasion of Hull's surrender, but escaped near the present site of Detroit, Mich. He travelled on foot to his relatives in West- moreland county, Pa. Here he married Leah Markle, the youngest of twenty- two children of Caspar Markle, who settled in Westmoreland prior to 1760, coming from Berks county, Pa., where his father had settled in 1703, having, upon the revocation of the "Edict of Nantes," fled from Alsace, in 1686, to Amsterdam, where he engaged in business until he took ship for America. After his marriage A. F. Thompson returned with his wife to his Kentucky home, where his youngest son, Jasper Markle Thompson, was born, near Wash- ington, Mason county, Ky., August 30, 1822. Mr. Thompson's father and mother both dying before he was three years old, he was taken to Mill Grove, Westmoreland county, Pa., and lived several years with his grandmother, Mary Markle, whose maiden name was Rothermel, of which family is P. F. Rothermel, who has achieved a national reputation as an artist through his painting, "The
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Battle of Gettysburg." After her death, in 1832, he lived with his cousin, General Cyrus P. Markle, a number of years. While with General Markle he worked on the farm, at the paper mills, in the store, kept the general's books, etc., until April, 1850, when he moved to Redstone Township, Fayette county, Pa., and purchased part of "the Walters' farm," two miles from New Salem, and lived there until September of the same year. He then removed to the farm ou which he ever afterwards lived, and where he died, two miles and a half from Uniontown, in Menallen township, where he farmed, delivered coal by wagon to Uniontown, dealt in live-stock, etc., until 1862, when he was appointed Col- lector of Internal Revenue for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania-the largest district in the State, except those of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. He was afterwards appointed Receiver of commutation money for the same district, and in this capacity collected and paid over to the government over $450,000, in addition to some $2,000,000 collected as internal revenue, having collected over $100,000 tax on whiskey in one day. He held two commissions as Collector of Internal Revenue from President Lincoln, and resigned the place after holding the last commission for over four years, and during the administration of President Johnson.
Mr. Thompson was twice chosen by Fayette county as a candidate for Con- gress : . once when the district (Twenty-first) was composed of Fayette, West- moreland and Indiana counties, and again, in 1886, when Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties composed the district; but failed to secure the nomina- tion, it going to one of the other counties. In 1872 he was one of the successful Presidential Electors on the Republican ticket, resulting in General Grant's second election. In 1873 he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Representative to the Legislature, but hesitated to accept the nomination, as it was generally thought there was no chance of electing a Republican candidate in a county which gave over 1,000 Democratic majority ; but finally consenting, was elected by 1,031 majority. He received every vote polled in one township, an honor that no candidate ever received in that county before; his opponent on the Democratic ticket being Col. A. J. Hill, the son of ex-State Senator Alex- ander M. Hill, and a gentleman who stood well with his party and the people generally.
Mr. Thompson was one of the original stockholders of the First National Bank of Uniontown, Pa., of which he became President in 1870. He held the office for over seventeen years, and was a Director from the organization of that institution. He was one of the first Directors of the Uniontown and West Vir- . ginia Railroad Company, and, after the resignation of George A. Thomson, was elected President. He was also President of the Uniontown Building and Loan Association from its organization until its business was all closed up, it having a capital of $280,000. He was one of the originators of the Fayette County Agri- cultural Association, and its President (with the exception of two years) from the time of its organization. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church of
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Uniontown for over thirty-seven years; was Commissioner from Redstone Pres- bytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which met in Albany, N. Y., in 1868, and again at Madison, Wis., in 1880. He was for a number of years Director in the Western Theological Seminary of the Presby- terian Church at Allegheny City, Pa., and also a Trustee of Washington and Jefferson College at Washington, Pa.
Mr. Thompson was married, in 1846, to Eliza Caruthers, youngest daughter of Samuel Caruthers, of Sewickly township, Westmoreland county, Pa., a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of Sewickly, and whose mother, Catharine Potter, was the daughter of Lieutenant John Potter, and sister of General James Potter, the intimate and trusted friend of General Washington in Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. Mr. Thompson left two daughters, who received their education at the Female Seminary in Washington, Pa. The eldest, Ruth A., was married, in 1875, to Dr. Joseph T. Shepler, now of Dunbar, Pa. The second, Leonora M., was married, in 1873, to John A. Nicholls, a merchant in Uniontown, Pa. He left two sons also, William M. and Josiah V., who gradu- ated together from Washington and Jefferson College at Washington, Pa., in 1871. William is married, and lives on and manages the home farm of over six hundred and fifty acres. The younger, Josiah V., was chosen teller in the First National Bank of Uniontown, April 3, 1872 ; elected cashier in 1877 when but twenty-three years of age, and held the position until after his father's death, being considered one of the best cashiers in the State. On April 2, 1889, he was elected president, to succeed his father, and still holds that position, which his experience and training eminently qualify him to fill. The institution is doing the largest banking business in the county, and has been one of the most successful.
In his youth Jasper M. Thompson attended only the common schools, but, with a sagacity and foresight commendable to the consideration of the youth of the present day, as his success in life demonstrated, improved his spare hours of daylight, and occupied most of that portion of his nights not devoted to sleep in diligent study, until he acquired a very general knowledge of men and things, and fitted himself for every position in life in which he was called to act. A kind Providence favored him, as everything he undertook prospered. He was very public spirited, and no person did more, if as much, to build up the place in which he lived. It was largely through his instrumentality and liberality that the Pennsylvania Construction Company, and also the Columbia Iron and Steel Company, were induced to locate at Uniontown. The president of these com- panies informed the writer that, had it not been for Mr. Thompson, they would never have gone to Uniontown. In ISSS he was also so conspicuous and assidu- ous in securing the location at Uniontown of one of the largest glass-works in the county that the stockholders named the concern in honor of him, calling it the Thompson Glass Company, although he had not a dollar of stock in it. Mr. Thompson was easily approached, and all classes went to him for advice and
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assistance. Reason was his strong intellectual faculty. He had good judgment and a large amount of common-sense. He was good to the poor, and had charity for all. He had many friends, and very few, if any, enemies. He was a man of peace, and was never sued by or sued any person in his life, although he transacted millions of dollars worth of business. Intelligent, virtuous, public spirited and pious, he filled, with honor to himself and usefulness to society, the various stations to which he was called.
Mr. Thompson was strictly temperate, never using intoxicating liquors of any . kind; did not even drink tea or coffee, and never used tobacco in any form. Owing to this abstemiousness he enjoyed the best of health, never even having had a headache during his life. He was a fine specimen of physical manhood, being five feet eleven inches in height, and weighing two hundred and ten pounds. To his excellent health was largely due the energy which won for him the reputation of being one of the best and most successful business men in the county.
Mr. Thompson was interested in some iron furnaces at Birmingham, Ala., and early in 1889 he started South to visit them. On his way he stopped to attend a sale of blooded stock in Kentucky, at which he purchased some cattle, leaving them there to be called for by him on his return home from the South. He contracted a cold at the sale, but continued on his trip to Alabama. Not getting rid of the cold he visited De Funiak, Fla., for relief, but there symptoms of pneumonia were developed. Upon experiencing some relief he determined to immediately return home, stopping, however, in Kentucky on his way, and having the cattle he had purchased shipped to Pennsylvania. He then continued his journey, although suffering excruciating pain. He reached his home Friday, March 15, 1889, but his death occurred during the evening within six hours after his arrival. He was conscious of his condition, and expressed thankfulness that he had succeeded in getting back to his loved ones before the end. The news- papers throughout the State contained articles announcing his death, in which they paid warm and sincere tribute to his high character and useful life.
C. R. D.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA,
THOMAS MAY PEIRCE.
THOMAS MAY PEIRCE.
THOMAS MAY PEIRCE, M. A., widely known and honored throughout the United States by those who are alive to the advantages of a business education based upon scientific principles and approved methods, was born at Chester, Delaware county, this State, December 10, 1837. He is of English ancestry, being a lineal descendant of George Perce, as the family name was originally spelled, who came to this country with William Penn, and settled on an exten- sive grant of land which covered the present township of Thornbury, in Dela- ware county, as well as the township of the same name in Chester county. Mr. Peirce's genealogy is well worth noting, as it serves to illustrate the theory that talents of a peculiar nature and adaptability for a position are inherited. His father was the late Caleb Peirce, a well-known and highly respected citizen of Philadelphia, who was for a quarter of a century a successful teacher in Chester and Delaware counties. His grandfather, on his mother's side, was Rev. Thomas Potts May, who, after teaching school at Norristown for a time, became a theologian of note. His maternal great-uncle was Rev. Dr. James May, at one time a member of the faculty of the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Fairfax, Va., and later of the Episcopal Divinity School of West Philadelphia. Thus it will be seen that he inherits a talent for teaching from both sides of the family.
Mr. Peirce was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, and graduated from the Boys' Central High School at the age of sixteen. Between that time and the attainment of his twenty-first year he travelled extensively, supplement- ing his education by observation and practical work in business pursuits. Upon reaching the age of majority, in accordance with the wishes of his father, he took charge of a district school in Springfield township, Montgomery county, Pa., and thus began the career of an educator, which he has since followed with such marked success, and for which he has developed a remarkable talent. He made decided progress in his chosen field from the outset, and was soon called to the Norristown High School as a teacher. From there he went to the Manayunk Grammar School, and in rapid succession to the Monroe and Mt. Vernon Gram- mar Schools of Philadelphia, thus doing yoeman service in the cause of popular education. With this ample experience he established Peirce College of Busi- ness in 1865, and became its principal. Commending itself in the beginning to the business community by the high character of its principal, the ability of the faculty and the excellence of its curriculum, this institution has grown steadily in its efficiency, popularity and prosperity from year to year, and is now the model business college of the country, with an annual enrolment of over a thou- sand students, and with an equipment and resources unequalled.
Though Mr. Peirce is not a pioneer in the field of commercial education, he
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has probably done more than any other man to make it possible for the young men of America who propose to devote their attention to business to obtain an education as liberal and thorough in its way as the conventional college offers to the student of law, medicine or theology. In his hands the commercial school has had its evolution into the college of business.
The commencement exercises of the institution are always events of public in- terest and social importance, and on these occasions Mr. Peirce has the counte- nance and moral and personal support of the most prominent citizens of Phila- delphia, as well as those of the State at large. This fact is attributable to the splendid reputation and exalted character of the college on one hand, and the admirable methods that have always been observed at the anniversaries on the other. 'With the view of elevating the standard of his work, Mr. Peirce laid down at the outset plans which have always since been adhered to : that is, the exhibitions incident to the commencements of the institution have had four defi- nite features, and the aim was to excel in each. The first was that an eminent citizen of the State, or a business man of Philadelphia, should preside ; the second, that the annual address should be delivered by a gentleman prominent in educa- tional work ; the third, that the address to graduates should be delivered by some one distinguished as a popular public speaker; and the fourth, that the divine who invoked the blessings of the Great Throne upon the work should be eminent among the Christian teachers of the land. Such an arrangement could not fail of public approval, and, in an intelligent community, the propriety of the pro- gramme must necessarily command recognition. The presence of the business man in the chair is substantial testimony to the utility of commercial education ; the educator who makes the annual address discusses the philosophy of techni- cal business education and its influence on one's success in after life, and the other features are equally useful in their lessons to the student and their effect upon the public.
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