USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 9
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JAMES S. NEGLEY.
A correspondent, in describing the assault on Friday afternoon, wrote as follows : :
" It was a trying situation for Negley's men. Hugging close to the ground they lay, eight regiments and remnants saved out of Wednesday's fight, viz. : Stanley's brigade-the Eighteenth and Sixty-ninth Ohio, Eleventh Michigan and the Nineteenth Illinois (the ' Bloody Nineteenth '); Miller's brigade- the Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania, Thirty-seventh Indiana, Seventy-fourth Ohio, Parson Moody's ' Boys' and the Twenty-first Ohio (Neibling's ' Twenty-onesters'). Before their eyes, coming down the slope, the foe was driving the beaten left in confusion and with great loss. The disorganized troops plunging into the stream came on, stepping over the men of Negley's line, and on to the rear. The Twenty-first Ohio lay directly abreast of the ford in the most trying position. But not a man flinched, either from the shot now pouring down the slope upon them or from the disorganizing influence of the routed troops. But they eagerly awaited the order to charge. It came, but not until the victorious enemy had reached the opposite bank, some getting even into the water. Such perished in the murderous fire Negley suddenly opened, for from a point below I saw several rebel bodies floating. Following the volley, Negley's whole line sprang over the bank into the stream, and fell upon the foe. Nothing could have withstood that onset. The rebels first halted, then staggered, then slowly settled back, and, as Negley's men gained the other side, they sullenly shrank back up the slope, but most stubbornly resisting every step. I went to the spot the other day where the commander of this brave division was much of that afternoon. It was not only under the rebel Napoleon guns, but was where the wave of Vancleve's broken ranks struck against the high bank, flying across the stream. I was making my way to the massed artillery on the hill when I first saw him. He was attempting to rally these men. I shall never forget his anxious, earnest face, nor his cheering words. 'Fall in, men,' he would say. 'Do you not see that my men have stopped the enemy? Fall in here, and we shall shortly win a glorious victory.'"
For valor and gallantry displayed in this signal victory General Negley was promoted to the rank of Major-General of Volunteers. General Rosecrans, in his special recommendation for this promotion, referred to General Negley in the following words :
" Brigadier-General James S. Negley has commanded a division nearly a year, always maintaining strict discipline and keeping his command in excellent condition. As commander of the post at Nash- ville, he fortified and protected the city in a most judicious manner. While cut off from communication, without support from our forces in Kentucky and surrounded by a diligent enemy, he subsisted upon their country and made successful sorties upon them, at one time routing a large force at Lavergne, Tenn. At the battle of Stone River he fought his troops obstinately, and handled them with consummate skill, winning a high reputation for courage and generalship and contributing largely to the success of our arms."
In planning the Georgia campaign which followed he was consulted, and his views were largely adopted. He led the advance at Lookout Mountain, and drove the enemy from their position, and most skilfully saved General Thomas' corps from an overwhelming defeat at Davis' Cross Roads. He rendered con- spicuous and gallant service in the first day's battle of Chickamauga. On Sunday, when ordered to take charge of the artillery massed in front of the line of battle, he showed great coolness and energy in defending and saving upwards of fifty pieces from capture. When Generals Rosecrans, McCook and Crittenden left the field, General Negley reorganized the scattered troops at Rossville, and formed a much-needed reserve for General Thomas and assisted in covering the retreat to Chattanooga.
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JAMES S. NEGLEY.
The following excerpts, from a description of the battle written at the time for the Cincinnati Gasette by Captain Bickham, of General Rosecrans' staff, are interesting and show the important part taken by General Negley in the battle :
" Negley was in the thick darkness with his noble Eighth Division beating back the relentless tide. Johnson appeared, too, with the remnant of his command. Rousseau was sent into the fiery cauldron to extricate his struggling division comrade.
" The lines had been broken at every point on the right. The centre under Negley, struggling fiercely, must be swallowed up; the left and all would be gone unless the destroying tide could be stayed. No one could do it save he, though all were fighting manfully.
"Negley, unprotected on his right, was fighting an overwhelming enemy on three sides of him, and he was holding them stubbornly; Rousseau was receding.
" The division lost heavily. The regiments composing it robed themselves with honor. When Neg- ley came out the enemy followed him fiercely, but he turned at bay, and, with Rousseau, gave them a bitter repulse. . . . When the glorious Eighth Division retired from the forest its ammunition was exhausted, a third of its original force was hors du combat, and most of the artillery horses were killed.
. Every inch of ground over which it retreated was strewn with the dead and mangled. Like Sheridan's division it waded through fire without breaking, and the men marched proudly among their companions in arms to take a new position.
Soon afterwards General Negley resigned his commission, took leave of his command, and returned to Pennsylvania, but he was by no means an inactive or disinterested spectator of the struggle for the preservation of the Union; for he was continuously exerting himself in assisting the cause. He took an active part in politics, and in 1868 was nominated and elected by the Republicans of the Twenty-second District to the Forty-first Congress by a majority of nearly five thousand votes, was re-elected to the Forty-second Congress by a handsome majority, and again to the Forty-third Congress by a majority of about seven thousand. At the convention of his party, held in 1874, he was nominated by acclamation, and was duly elected at the polls and served throughout the term of the Forty-fourth Congress. At the end of this term he retired from Congress until the Forty-ninth Congress, to which he was again elected by his constitu- ents. On the expiration of this term he removed to New York city, where he has since resided, and where he is engaged in various railroad enterprises.
General Negley conceived the idea of creating a deep-water harbor at Pitts- burgh, and obtained the first appropriation for the purpose. He also earnestly supported measures for the improvement of the Ohio and other western rivers. For many years he was an active and influential member of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Volunteers, two of which were established through his efforts. He was at the same time President of the National Union League of America, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Scott Legion, Masonic fraternity, National Board of Steam Navigation, Shipping League, etc., holding official positions in each. Latterly he has been prominently identified with railway and other enterprises in Mexico. He has been twice married. His first wife was a Miss DeLosey, niece of Commodore Van Vorris. His second wife was Miss Grace Ashton, of Philadelphia, who with three daughters constitutes his family. C. R. D.
JOHN B. PARSONS.
JOHN BENJAMIN PARSONS.
A MONG the young men who have won an enviable reputation as managers of street railways, the most successful is probably JOHN B. PARSONS, late of Philadelphia, now having the general management of the West Chicago Street Railway Company, and representing the large Philadelphia interests which have control of that system. He was born on May 17, 1850, in the southern part of Delaware, at a place now known as Whitesville. At that time the settlement consisted of only about six houses, including a country store, post-office and lumber-mill. Mr. Parsons' father was a farmer, and when his son was about six years old he moved with his family to Salisbury, in Maryland, and there engaged in mercantile business, at which he continued for over twenty years.
Mr. Parsons was educated at the Salisbury Academy, leaving it when he was about sixteen years of age with the intention of entering Princeton College, but afterwards abandoned the idea and engaged in steam railroading as Assistant Station Agent at Salisbury on the Delaware Railroad. But he soon tired of the quiet country town and longed for the bustle and active life of a great city ; so, in 1870, he went to Philadelphia, and at once entered the service of the Philadel- phia City Passenger Railway Company, better known as the Chestnut and Walnut streets line, as a clerk in the office at a salary of $12 per week. Two years' work at the desk was sufficient to satisfy the Colkets, who were the virtual owners of the road, that there was excellent material for a railroader in the young man ; so they handed over to him the management of a branch line which intersected the main stem at Thirty-third and Chestnut streets and extended into the suburbs some five miles, ending at the village of Darby. Mr. Parsons was faithful and efficient in this position, and earned and won the praise of his employers, with whom he continued until 1881. In that year Robert N. Carson, a relative of Mr. Parsons by marriage, William H. Shelmerdine, William Wharton, Jr., and others, purchased the Lombard and South streets line. It was a poor concern, running through a bad section of the city, and, because the cars were so exten- sively used by the market people, was nicknamed the "fish and produce line." The general public preferred to walk rather than to ride upon it. The company was in debt, the rolling and live stock run down, and financial men almost unani- mously agreed that the purchase was a wild and most unwise speculation. Money, however, was put into the road, and Mr. Carson, through his influence, had his young relative placed in charge as President. Soon after assuming control of the almost bankrupt company Mr. Parsons announced that five cents was the proper fare for people to pay, and in spite of the protests and threats of his associates in the Board of Street Railway Presidents, he reduced the fare to that sum on his cars. In three years' time the Lombard and South streets road was made a dividend-paying line.
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JOHN B. PARSONS.
Having thus demonstrated to his friends and the public that no mistake had been made in his having been called to a position of responsibility, Mr. Parsons naturally attracted the attention of railroad men. In January, 1886, Messrs. Carson and Shelmerdine secured the control of the People's Railway Company, better known as the Callowhill street road, another line in hard luck and bad shape. They then, to the astonishment of business men, caused the People's line to lease the entire system of the powerful and dividend-paying Germantown Passenger Railway Company, which included the Fourth and Eighth streets and the Girard avenue lines. This latter corporation had been in possession of the Singerly party for years, and had been purchased from Mr. W. M. Singerly a few years previously for $1,700,000 cash, the purchasers, of course, assuming all bonded and floating indebtedness. The syndicate also leased the Green and Coates streets line. All these roads were consolidated under one management, and Mr. Parsons was called to the charge of the system. He thus found himself at the head of a street railway combination representing sixty-five miles of road, prop- erty valued at $12,000,000, and having in its employ some two thousand men.
In the latter part of 1887 Messrs. Elkins, Widener and Kemble, the triumvi- rate of Philadelphia street railway magnates who had astonished the citizens of Chicago by quietly purchasing a controlling interest in the street railways of the West Division of that city, and who were desirous of securing the services of a manager in whom they had confidence, made Mr. Parsons such a tempting offer to take control of the system that he accepted it, and in November of that year proceeded to the Lake City. They needed the services of a reliable, honest, capable man who would be true to their interests, and who would take hold of their roads and manage them with the same ability and judgment that they themselves would exercise. Having crossed swords with Mr. Parsons and tested his quality they believed he was the proper man for the place, and the result has demonstrated the correctness of their judgment.
Personally Mr. Parsons is quiet in demeanor, pleasant in manner, and without ostentation. His life has been too busy to allow him to devote much time to social matters, but he is a well-known member of the Masonic fraternity and an active Knight Templar. He is one of the most faithful members of the American Street Railway Association, attending all the meetings and taking part in the discussions whenever he has anything to say, and when he does speak he is worth listening to. At the annual meeting of the association, held in St. Louis in 1885, he made a notable address in relation to the strikes which were then only threatened and beginning to trouble the companies, and although little heed was paid to his warning at the time, he predicted, in a measure, what unfortu- nately soon afterwards came to pass.
Mr. Parsons was married on the 17th day of November, 1886, to Miss Fleck- inger, a daughter of Isaac Fleckinger. They reside in Chicago, in which city Mr. Parsons has cast his lot, and which will in all probability be his home for the future.
F GUTEMUNST
CHILA
IRVING A. STEARNS.
IRVING ARIEL STEARNS.
T HE Stearns family is one of the oldest of the Puritan stock, which has done so much to impress their characters on the people of this country. The paternal ancestor of IRVING A. STEARNS came to this country from England in 1630 in the same ship with Gov. Winthrop and Sir Richard Saltonstall, and set- tled in Watertown, Mass., where he was admitted freeman May 18, 1631, which is the earliest date on record of any such admission. Royal Stearns, grandfather of Irving A., and of the sixth generation of the family in this country, was born in Upton, Mass., July 28, 1766, and went to Gorham, Ontario county, New York, where he bought a large tract of land, which at that time was a virgin forest. There he married Annaline Mapes, of that place, May 10, 1809, and died No- vember 27, 1827. His second son, Geo. W. Stearns, was born May 14, 1821, and married Miranda, daughter of Thomas and Clarissa (Hatfield) Tufts, of Gor- ham, New York, October 13, 1841. He devoted most of his time, prior to 1867, to agricultural pursuits, although he served two terms as associate judge of On- tario county, New York. In 1867 he sold out his possession in New York State and moved to Coldwater, Mich., where he still resides. He is associated with Mr. A. J. Aldrich, his son-in-law, as joint editor and proprietor of the Cold- water Republican, which is the leading paper of Branch county, and one of the leading journals of Southern Michigan. His only son, Irving A. Stearns, was born at Rushville, Ontario county, New York, September 12, 1845. He re- ceived his early education at the district school and the Rushville Academy, and was one year at Benedict's Collegiate Institute, Rochester, New York, and en- tered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, September, 1864, and graduated therefrom June, 1868. During the entire course of four years he was a member of the first section, which was composed of those mem- bers of the class having the highest scholastic standing. After graduation he was tendered and accepted the position of Assistant Professor in Chemistry and Natural Science at the Institute, as assistant to Prof. H. B. Nason, whose ability as a chemist and author of several scientific works has given him an enviable reputation, not only in the United States but in Europe as well. He resigned his professorship in October, 1869, to accept a position in the office of Mr. R. P. Rothwell, a distinguished mining and civil engineer, who was at that time located at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and is now the editor of The Engineering and Mining Fournal, of New York city. Although upon first entering Mr. Rothwell's office he occupied quite a subordinate position, he was rapidly promoted until he be- came principal assistant to Mr. Rothwell, which post he gave up in August, 1871, in order to accept the position of superintendent and engineer of the McNeal Coal & Iron Company, in Schuylkill county, Pa. This he held until August, 1872, when he resigned it and returned to Wilkes-Barre, to succeed Mr. Roth- well, who had decided to remove to New York to take charge of The Engineer-
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IRVING A. STEARNS.
ing and Mining Fournal, and retire from the active practice of his profession, ex- cept as a consulting engineer. From August, 1872, to June, 1885, Mr. Stearns conducted a general engineering business, including the building of a railroad and wagon bridge across the Susquehanna river at Shickshinny, Pa., an iron high- way bridge across the Susquehanna river at Pittston, Pa., and another highway bridge across the same river at Catawissa, Pa. He also made the plans for and was in charge of the construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company's Tifft Farm Improvements at Buffalo, New York, consisting of ship canals, docks, coal-stocking plant, etc. Besides having charge of the above undertakings, he was engineer of a large number of collieries in the anthracite coal fields of Penn- sylvania, which included the surveys and maps of the underground workings, and in many cases the supervision of the mining operations, together with the making of plans for the colliery plant and the supervision of their construction. He also made numerous examinations and reports upon mining properties and mining enterprises in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Colo- rado, Nevada, California, Wyoming Territory, Idaho Territory and Utah Terri- tory. In June, 1885, he was tendered and accepted the position of manager of the various coal companies owned and controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, comprising the Susquehanna Coal Company; Mineral Railroad and Mining Company ; Summit Branch Railroad Company ; Lykens Valley Coal Com- pany and Broad Mountain Coal Company, and including also the Nanticoke Water Company and Lykens Water Company. This position he still holds. The aggregate capacity of these coal companies is upwards of three million tons per annum, or about one-tenth of the total anthracite production of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Stearns is one of the original members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, which was organized in Wilkes-Barre, May 16, 1871, in pur- suance of the prospectus contained in a circular issued by Eckley B. Coxe, R. P. Rothwell and Martin Coryell, and he is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia, the Western Society of Engineers, the Franklin Institute and the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. . He was a member of the National Guard of Pennsylvania for five years as Quartermaster and afterwards as Major of the Ninth Regiment, which latter commission he resigned in April, 1885, owing to the pressure of business, which would not allow him to devote to it the time necessary to properly per- form the duties of the position.
Mr. Stearns takes an active interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the city of Wilkes-Barre, in which he resides. He is one of the trustees of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital, of the Harry Hillman Academy, and is a member of the Board of Control of the Wilkes-Barre Armory Association, but has never been a candidate for any public office or taken any active part in politics.
On November 20, 1872, he was married to Clorinda W., daughter of Hon. L. D. Shoemaker and Esther (Wadhams) Shoemaker, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. They have two children living-Lazarus Denison Stearns, born December 27, 1875, and Esther Shoemaker Stearns, born March 4, 1885. C. R. D.
+. . TEMUN'.1
FRANK THOMSON.
FRANK THOMSON.
F RANK THOMSON, First Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, was born at Chambersburg, July 5, 1841. He is of Scotch descent, and possesses the best attributes of that shrewd and energetic people. His great-grandfather, Alexander Thomson, was one of the first settlers in the Cum- berland Valley, Pa., who, " conceiving a distaste for the lairds of Scotland," emi- grated from Greenock with his wife and twelve children in 1771, and settled on a farm near Chambersburg, which he called "Corkerhill," after the name of his ancestral home. Frank Thomson's father, Hon. Alexander Thomson, LL. D., represented his district in Congress from 1824 to 1826, was President Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District of this State for many years, and filled a professorship in the Law School connected with Marshall College, where the Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, Hon. John Scott, Hon. T. B. Kennedy and others, who subsequently became eminent, shared the benefit of his instruction, and were the recipients of his paternal care and interest.
Frank Thomson received his preliminary and classical education at the Cham- bersburg Academy, at that period one of the most noted seats of learning in Pennsylvania. When seventeen years of age he determined to acquire a knowl- edge of the railway business, and for that purpose entered the shops of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company at Altoona. There he attracted the attention of Thomas A. Scott, then the general manager of the line, who recognized his ability, and by valuable advice directed his studies toward the administration as well as the construction and equipment of railroads.
At the commencement of the rebellion Mr. Scott was summoned to the aid of the Government, and immediately after the attack upon the Massachusetts soldiers, who were on their way to the defence of the capital, in the streets of Baltimore, on the 19th of April, 1861, Mr. Thomson was detailed for duty by Mr. Scott in the military railroad department, which was then being organized, and the efficiency of which contributed so materially to the success of the Gov- ernment in the final overthrow of the rebellion.
In Alexandria, Va., previous to the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Thomson was taking those practical lessons in railroad administration which fitted him for the higher duties he now discharges. They consisted largely of restoring shops, repairing machinery and rolling stock which were disabled by the retreating Southern forces; in rebuilding bridges and shovelling out cuts which had been filled in; in constructing new roads and telegraph lines, in order to keep pace with the advancing forces; in transporting troops, wounded men, munitions of war and the various material required for an army over lines having no fixed organization or schedules, and in repairing the damages inflicted upon them by unexpected retreats and raids. To such training Mr. Thomson owes the self-
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FRANK THOMSON.
confidence and fertility of resource which were used recently with such signal result in repairing the injury to the railroad of which he is now First Vice- President, caused by the flood that destroyed Johnstown. He was thus em- ployed in the Department of the Potomac until July 1, 1862, when he was or- dered to the West and assigned to duty on the military routes south of Nash- ville which were used by General Buell's army operating on the line of the De- catur, Huntsville and Stevenson Railroad. During this campaign the Military Railway Service played an important part, since it was requisite, to accomplish the necessary concentration of troops, that the men, munitions of war, supplies, etc., from the various lines south of Nashville should be safely transported over three hundred miles of road in the enemy's country.
Having accompanied the army during its famous march through Kentucky, Mr. Thomson was directed to return to the Army of the Potomac, which he did, and took a notably useful part in the railway achievements of the Antietam cam- paign. Afterwards he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the lines south of Acquia creek, which were used for the supply of the Army of the Potomac during the period in which Burnside and Hooker commanded it, and on the oc- casions of the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.
He was subsequently recalled to the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and assigned to a position which he held for one month only, being again honored at the expiration of that time by a request from Colonel Thomas A. Scott, then especially detailed by the Secretary of War, to aid him in the greatest transportation movement of the war, which was that of transferring two entire corps, the Eleventh and Twelfth, with their full equipment of artillery, horses, wagons, camp utensils, tents, hospital supplies and baggage, from the . front of the Army of the Potomac, near Washington, to the Army of the Cum- berland, at Chattanooga. This difficult undertaking was deemed necessary for the salvation of the Army of the Cumberland, and was successfully accomplished in the short period of fourteen days.
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