USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Lodge no. 61, F. and A. M., Wilkesbarr?, Pa. with a collection of masonic addresses > Part 43
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He was a liberal contributor to charitable objects, and identified with every movement in the city of Reading calculated to relieve distress. He was President of the Reading Benevolent Society for a number of years, and pre- sided over the annual meetings. He was a Director of the
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Reading Dispensary up to the time of the reorganization of the institution. He was also a liberal contributor to the Reading Relief Society. He took a prominent part in the reorganization of the Reading Library Company, and was one of the founders of the Reading Room Association.
Judge Woodward died on his farm at Hamden, Delaware county, N. Y., September 23d, 1879. On the 26th of Sep- tember there was a large meeting of the members of the Luzerne Bar at Wilkesbarré, to take action regarding the Judge's death. Judge G. M. Harding presided, and eulo- giums of the deceased were pronounced by former Judge Dana, Hon. H. B. Wright, A. T. McClintock, Esq., and others, and the following resolutions were adopted :
"Resolved, That by the death of the Hon. WARREN J. WOODWARD the community has lost an honest, able, and exemplary citizen, the profession of the law a representative member, and the Bench a learned, patient, and impartial Judge.
"Resolved, That the integrity, diligence, industry, and singleness of purpose, which marked his whole professional and official career, are commended by his example as the only sure and legitimate means of success at the Bar, and of honor and usefulness upon the Bench.
"Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with his family in their bereavement, and extend to them the assurance that his name, ability, and virtues will be treasured as a precious legacy by his brethren of the Luzerne county Bar.
" Resolved, That the Bench and Bar attend his funeral, wearing the usual badge of mourning, and that an invitation is hereby respectfully extended to our brethren of other districts, and especially of those wherein he presided as Judge, to unite with us in these last offices to the deceased.
"Resolved, That the Secretary of the meeting be instructed to pre- sent a duly attested copy of these proceedings to the family of our de- parted friend and brother, and also to secure their publication in one or more of the newspapers of this city, and of Bloomsburg, Reading, Honesdale, and Philadelphia; and that the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas and of the Orphans' Court of the county be respectfully requested to direct the entry of the same upon their records, by their proper officers."
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On the same day that the Luzerne Bar met, the members of the Bar of Berks county held a memorial meeting at Reading. Resolutions were adopted, and speeches made by many of the gentlemen present. George F. Baer, Esq., said : "Judge Woodward's eulogium must not be pro- nounced in the high-sounding sentences of extravagant praise, in which the profession is wont to formulate its tribute to the dead. * * No man ever tried harder or came nearer filling the full measure of a perfect Judge, than Judge Woodward. He gave his whole mind and body to the discharge of his duties. He subordinated all personal comforts and wishes to the office he held. His reputation will be lasting, because he performed his work honestly, conscientiously, and with the wisdom that long years of study brings, and his life was pure and without reproach among his fellow men. He leaves us all an example worthy of all imitation."
Hon. Daniel Ermentrout said: "His death is a great public loss, and as such must be regretted. It is an especial loss to us, his fellow-citizens, who were in the habit of meet- ing him in daily intercourse. Of all the men born outside our borders, on whom Berks county has showered her honors, he was the greatest, the noblest, the truest to her traditions, and the most grateful to her peo- ple !"
Daniel R. Clymer, Esq., said : "He was distinguished in life as a citizen, as a lawyer, as a Judge, and, above all, as one who feared and served the Judge .Eternal."
At the session of the Supreme Court at Pittsburg Octo- ber 6th, 1879, Judge Woodward's death having been form- ally announced, Chief Justice Sharswood said : "The Court receive with deep feeling this announcement. To all that has been said as to the character, attainments, and qualifi- cations of our lamented brother, we add our cordial con- currence. The community has suffered a loss in his early
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removal from us which it is difficult properly to estimate. To thorough mastery of the general principles of law, inti- mate acquaintance with practice and precedence in all its details, he added a sound judgment, inflexible integrity and untiring industry. He always stood by the ancient land- marks, and it was with him a matter of conscience not to make, but to administer the laws as settled by adjudged cases. We may be permitted, as our especial testimony, to mention his unvarying gentleness, courtesy, amiability and forbearance, which endeared him to his colleagues and made them all his personal friends. In the whole period of their association with him no instance of unpleasant collision can be recalled. His fame as a Judge will rest upon opinions exhibiting independent research, expressed in a clear and forcible style, without pretensions to eloquence, models of judicial composition. His memory will long be cherished by all who knew him, and by all who know how to appreci- ate the character and services of a faithful and learned Judge."
The following eulogium is from the pen of the late Hon. E. L. Dana, a former Judge of the Courts of Luzerne county, and a Past Master of LODGE 61 :
"Whilst he was engaged as a clerk in a store on Main street, in this city, some forty-eight years ago, Warren Woodward was introduced to me one afternoon by a mutual friend, who described him as a young man of studious habits, who forgot nothing that he had ever read.
"After his uncle was appointed to the Bench he continued his studies under my direction, and after his admission to the Bar was associated with me in practice. I was, therefore, favored with special opportunities of noting his habits of study, and of business, and the prominent mental characteristics he developed. To speak of him appropriately and truthfully will be to speak in eulogy. To my elder brethren who knew him at the Bar I can present nothing new. His character was so marked, that his portraiture is indelibly impressed on their memories. For those, however, whose acquaintance with him was more recent, it will be interesting and instructive to recall, even briefly, the process and the studies by which the foundations were
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laid, and the finished superstructure of legal attainment and of judicial prominence was reared.
"His career as a lawyer was marked by no startling incidents. His professional success, whilst early assured, and of rapid growth, was attained through persistent effort. He possessed unusual power of concentration, and all the energies of an active and vigorous mind, and all the accumulations stored up in a retentive memory were directed to the mastery of his favorite science. His steady devotion to the Law left her no occasion for jealousy. Whilst he kept well up with the intellectual progress of the age, and was always a diligent student of history, he deemed life too short for mere discursive read- ing, indulged himself in no mental dissipation, and gave to the law his studies, his reading, and even his recreations.
"Too earnest to be trivial, too clear to be verbose, too exact and practical to be imaginative, he never aspired to oratorical display, or attained to eminence as an advocate. His forensic eloquence was of that more effective nature, which combined an orderly and a concise statement of the essential facts, with thorough understanding and lucid application of the law.
"No one ever observed more conscientiously than he did, both in letter and spirit, the oath administered upon admission to the Bar, of keeping 'all good fidelity as well to the Court as to the client.' The interests of his client became his own; their maintenance with all diligence and fidelity, a trust. No item of business, however small, was neglected ; no question was so great or intricate as to escape his mastery. Possessing peculiar aptitude for details, and to habits of order adding untiring industry, a large office business was conducted with accuracy and dispatch ; his cases in Court were thoroughly pre- pared, every emergency was anticipated, and all risk of surprise re- moved.
"Labor with him seemed a pleasure, and to be followed by neither weariness nor exhaustion, although his mental absorption at times extended to the neglect of the requirements essential to health. This concentration of his energies in one direction-not in spasmodic efforts, but with persistent, unceasing industry-was the secret of his success. 'This one thing I do !' was the motto of his life-the banner under which he conquered. He achieved success by deserving it. With these habits of business and of study, he mingled but little in society, and had few intimates. His affections, however, were the warmer because less diffused, and the friends he admitted to his con- fidence will attest the strength, the prominence, and fervor of his at- tachments."
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The funeral of Judge Woodward took place in Wilkes- barré September 29th, 1879, from the residence of the Hon. Stanley Woodward, and the remains were deposited in the family vault in the Hollenback Cemetery. There was a large attendance of members of the Bars of Luzerne, Lacka- wanna, Columbia and Berks counties, and of the Brethren of LODGE No. 61 and other Lodges of F. and A. M. Among the many gentlemen of prominence present were the follow- ing : Governor Hoyt; Supreme Court Judges Paxson, Trunkey and Mercur; Common Pleas Judges Hagenman, Sassaman, Elwell, Albright, Hand and Harding; former U. S. Senators Cameron and Buckalew.
WARREN J. WOODWARD was married by the Rev. R. Bethel Claxton, S. T. D., at Wilkesbarré, Sunday, May 23d, 1847, to Catharine Scott, third daughter and fourth child of the late Judge David and Catharine (Hancock) Scott .* She was born at Wilkesbarre July 6th, 1823, and died at Blooms- burg, Penn'a, May 28th, 1857. They were the parents of three children :
HENRY WOODWARD, born February 11th, 1852; died February 27th, 1878.
WARREN WOODWARD, born October 23d, 1854; died De- cember 4th, 1887.
KATHARINE SCOTT WOODWARD, born at Wilkesbarre May 6th, 1857. May 12th, 1881, she was married at Reading, Penn'a, to Frank Perley Howe, son of the late Rt. Rev. M. A. De Wolfe Howe, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Howe was graduated from Brown University, Rhode Island, and from Lehigh University, Penn'a. He now resides in Philadelphia, and is President of the North Branch Steel Company, and Vice President of the Wharton Steel Works of Philadelphia.
* See page 512, ante.
HON. HENDRICK B. WRIGHT.
[The brief account herein given of the ancestors of the subject of this sketch, was prepared mainly from data fur- nished the writer by the late Harrison Wright, Ph. D., a few months before his death.]
John Wright came from England with William Penn's colony of Quaker immigrants in 1681, and became the founder of the village of Wrightstown, Burlington county, New Jersey. He was Justice of the Peace, and Captain in the militia. His wife was Abigail, daughter of Silas and Hester (Holmes) Crispin, and they had a son Samuel Wright, who was born at Wrightstown in 1719, was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Caleb Haines of Evesham, and died in 1781.
Caleb Wright, born at Wrightstown January 14th, 1754, was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Haines) Wright. In 1779 he was married to Catharine, daughter of John Gar- diner, and in 1795 he, his wife, and their children removed from Wrightstown to Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where they settled upon a farm in Union township, about two miles from the present borough of Shickshinny. There they re- mained until 1811, when, with the exception of a daughter, Amy, who died in September, 1804, at the age of thirteen years, and a son, Joseph, who had married and established himself in business, the family returned to New Jersey.
Joseph Wright, the son above referred to, was born in Wrightstown May 2d, 1785, and was, therefore, a boy of only ten years when he accompanied his parents Caleb and Catharine to Luzerne county. In 1805-'6 he taught a small school not far from his father's home. In 1807 he removed to Plymouth, Luzerne county, where, in February, 1808, he opened a small retail store in his dwelling-house in the lower
Hendrick B Might
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end of the village. According to Wright's " Historical Sketches of Plymouth" the first store in Plymouth was opened in 1774 by Benjamin Harvey, Jr.,* who kept it until the Fall of 1776, when he enlisted in the army, and the busi- ness was closed out by his father shortly thereafter; and from that time until Joseph Wright began business there seems to have been no store kept in Plymouth. Mr. Wright carried on this business for several years, and then formed a partnership with Joseph Rogers and Benjamin Reynolds, of Plymouth, when a more extensive business was carried · on under the firm name of Wright, Rogers and Co. This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent May 6th, 1814, and soon thereafter Mr. Wright turned his attention to the more active and congenial occupation of farming, in which he continued for the remainder of his life.
At a meeting of LODGE 61 held November 7th, 1814, the following petition was received and acted upon favorably :
" To the master officers and Brethring of the Lodge no. 61 held at Wilkesbarre
"Jentlemen haveing for some time Past had a high opinion of your Anseant and honourable Sosiety and Believeing it to be a Good In- stitution I now offer my self a Candidate to become a member of said Lodge. If you think me worthy you will confur a favour on
"your obt and humble servant
" Wilkesbarre JOSEPH WRIGHT."
" Nov 3 1814 .
Candidate Wright received his first degree in Free Ma- sonry at this same meeting, and two days later (Nov. 9th) the second and third degrees were conferred upon him.t The reason for doing the "work" in this hasty and unusual manner is found in the fact that Joseph Wright was Third Sergeant in Capt. Stephen Van Loon's company of infantry in the 45th Reg't Penn'a Militia, commanded by Col. Isaac
* See page 313, ante.
t See page 46, ante.
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Bowman, and the company had been ordered to rendezvous at the inn of Jonathan Hancock in Wilkesbarré November 9th, prepared "to march when required." The city of Washington had been captured and partially burned by the British August 25th, 1814, and then Baltimore had been attacked. As it was believed that more troops were needed to oppose the enemy, a draft had been ordered by the Gen- eral Government.
From the various organized bodies of Pennsylvania militia located in the northern counties of the State, enough men to form five companies were drafted. Fourteen officers and men, including Sergeant Wright and Lieut. Noah Wad- hams,* were drawn from Plymouth, and all, or nearly all
* NOAH WADHAMS, the third of the name, was the third of the four sons of the Rev. Noah Wadham (for thus he wrote his name), one of the early settlers of Plymouth township, Penn'a. The names of the other sons were Ingersoll, Calvin, and Moses. The Rev. Noah Wad- ham, who was the son of Noah, Ist, was born in Connecticut May 17th, 1726, and was a descendant, of the fourth generation, of John Wadham who came from Somersetshire, England, as early as 1650, and settled in Wethersfield, Conn., where he died in 1676. Noah, 2d, was graduated (A. B.) from Princeton College in 1754, and then studied theology at New Haven, Conn. In 1764 he received from Yale College the honorary degree of A. M. November 8th, 1758, he was married to Elizabeth Ingersoll of New Haven. For a number of years prior to removing to Plymouth he was pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in New Preston, Litchfield county, Conn. He came to the Wyoming Valley first in the Spring of 1772, but only remained a few weeks and then returned to New Preston. In the Summer or Autumn of 1773 he came to Plymouth to serve as minister to the peo- ple of that town ; but he did not bring his family on from Connecticut until 1779. He continued to perform the duties of his calling in Ply- mouth and adjacent towns until his death, May 22d, 1806.
Noah Wadhams, Jr. (the 3d), was born June 6th, 1770, at New Preston, Conn., and came to Plymouth with his father in 1779. Some years later he returned to Connecticut, studied law at the famous Litch- field Law School, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State. He returned to Plymouth in 1793 or '4, and in the latter
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of them, were assigned to a company commanded by Capt. Peter Hallock. About the 12th of November they marched from Wilkesbarré to Danville, Penn'a, the northern rendez- vous, where they were attached to the 36th Regiment Penn- sylvania Militia and mustered into the service of the United States. Before the 25th of November "news came of the gallant defence of Fort McHenry, and the expulsion of the British from the Chesapeake, and the regiment was dis- charged-the men of the northern companies returning to their homes." For his services at what was afterwards laughingly termed "the siege of Danville," Sergeant Wright
year was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne county. For a number of years he was a Justice of the Peace in Plymouth. He died at Ply- mouth September 30th, 1846.
Moses Wadhams, the sixth child and fourth son of the Rev. Noah, was born at New Preston, Conn., February 8th, 1773, and came to Plymouth, Penn'a, with his parents in 1779. He was married Janu- ary 11th, 1801, to Ellen Hendrick, and died at Plymouth September 25th, 1804, of the yellow fever which was epidemic that year in the Wyoming Valley. He was survived by his wife and two daughters. The younger of these daughters, Lydia (born October 23d, 1803 ; died January 2d, 1890), was married May 21st, 1829, to Samuel French, of Plymouth.
Calvin Wadhams, the second son of the Rev. Noah, was born in Connecticut December 22d, 1765. Coming to Plymouth with his parents he lived there until his death, April 22d, 1845. His son, Samuel Wadhams, was born August 21st, 1806. He resided in Ply- mouth all his life, and was a man of much influence and of large wealth. When Plymouth Lodge No. 332, F. and A. M., was consti- tuted April 27th, 1859, he was made a Mason by dispensation of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to membership in the Lodge. He remained a member until his death, December 15th, 1868. His eldest son was the late Hon. Elijah C. Wadhams of Wilkesbarré, who was born at Plymouth July 17th, 1825. He was edu- cated at Dickinson College, Penn'a, and the University of New York. He was a successful merchant in Plymouth for twenty-five years and also held various public offices of importance. From 1876 to '80 he was a member of the State Senate from Luzerne county. October
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received from the United States Government years later a land warrant for one hundred and forty acres of the public domain.
At the time of the admission of Joseph Wright and Noah Wadhams to LODGE 61, and during a period of several years thereafter, Plymouth township had numerous other representatives in the Lodge, among whom were : Benjamin Reynolds, Jonah Rogers, Daniel Davenport, Henderson Gaylord, Freeman Thomas, John Turner and Stephen Van Loon-all prominent citizens and good Masons. Joseph Wright remained a member of the Lodge until its Warrant was vacated in 1837.
A resident of the township of Plymouth for nearly half a century, and during that long period intimately connected with the business affairs of the town, Joseph Wright was one of its representative men. As the annual assessor and
7th, 1851, he was married to Esther Taylor, a daughter of Samuel and Lydia (Wadhams) French, previously mentioned. Senator Wadhams was initiated into LODGE 61 April 16th, 1855. He withdrew in 1859 and became a charter member of Plymouth Lodge No. 332. He was the third Worshipful Master of that Lodge, of which he continued an active and earnest member as long as he lived. He was a charter member and the second High Priest of Valley R. A. Chapter No. 214 (Plymouth), instituted August 8th, 1867, and a charter member and the first T. I. G. M. of Mt. Horeb Council No. 34, R. S-E. and S. M., constituted April 6th, 1868. He was also a Knight Templar, and was for years an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Senator Wadhams died at Wilkesbarre January 18th, 1889, and was survived by his wife, three sons, and four daughters.
Samuel F. Wadhams, an attorney at law and now a resident of Duluth, Minn., is the eldest son of Elijah C. and Esther T. (French) Wadhams, and was born at Plymouth May 21st, 1854. He was initiated into LODGE 61 November 5th, 1877, and was Worshipful Master of the Lodge in 1883. Ralph H. Wadhams, attorney at law, Wilkesbarré, the youngest son of E. C. and E. T. (French) Wadhams, was born at Plymouth January 15th, 1866, and was initiated into LODGE 61 June Ist, 1896.
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auditor of the public accounts, he probably served much longer than any other citizen of his time, and his duties were faithfully, honestly, and correctly discharged. "His ances- tors for two hundred years having belonged to the Society of Friends, he steadily adhered to the faith of that people to the hour of his death. Hospitable in his house, moderately indulgent only to his children, economical in his apparel, he may be classed as a man of the strictest econo- my, and governed by the most rigid rules of frugality ; not parsimonious, but prudent and close in his management. To all this, however, he made one grand exception-in the education of his sons. In this he was liberal to a fault. The ruling and absorbing passion of his early life to become rich, became merged in the nobler and more exalted sentiment of education, and in that moving idea he was most generously seconded by his wife. In the fulfilment of his engagements he was exact, and up to the hour. No man ever had more horror of debt. In the set- tlement of his estate, which was large and valuable, the whole amount of his indebtedness, of his own contracting, did not amount to ten dollars."
Joseph Wright was married June 15th, 1807, to Mrs. Ellen (Hendrick) Wadhams, of Plymouth. She was born January 12th, 1877, and was the daughter of John Hendrick and his wife Eunice Bradley, daughter of David and Dama- ris Bradley, of Fairfield, Conn. John Hendrick was a de- scendant, of the fourth generation, of Daniel Hendrick (who was of Haverhill, Mass., in 1645) and his wife Dorothy, daughter of John Pike of Newbury. Ellen Hendrick was married first, January 11th, 1801, to Moses Wadhams, mentioned in the note on page 549, ante. She died August 6th, 1872, in the ninety-seventh year of her age ; and Joseph Wright died August 14th, 1855, in the seventy-first year of his age.
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The children of Joseph and Ellen (Hendrick) Wright were as follows :
I. Hendrick Bradley Wright, born April 24th, 1808 ; died September 2d, 1881.
II. Caleb Earl Wright,* born February 4th, 1810; died December 2d, 1889.
* CALEB EARL WRIGHT was born in Plymouth, and was educated at a school there, and at the Wilkesbarré Academy. He then studied law with John G. Montgomery, of Danville, Pa., and with Chester Butler, Wilkesbarré, and was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne county August 6th, 1833. Soon thereafter he removed to Doylestown, Bucks county, Penn'a, where he was admitted to the Bar and began the practice of law. April 30th, 1838, he was married to Phobe Ann, daughter of William Fell of Doylestown. In 1838 he was President of the first Borough Council of Doylestown, and in January, 1839, he was appointed by Attorney General O. F. Johnson of Pennsylvania Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Bucks county.
In June, 1853, he returned to Wilkesbarré, and continued to prac- tice his profession. In February, 1858, he was one of the organizers of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. He was also a member of the Wilkesbarré Law and Library Association, and for a number of years a Trustee of the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston. He was United States Collector of Internal Revenue for the counties of Luzerne and Susquehanna from 1866 to April, 1869, when he was succeeded by the Hon. H. M. Hoyt. In 1873 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention. For a number of years Mr. Wright was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. March 26th, 1876, he preached a "farewell sermon" in the First M. E. Church, Wilkesbarré, in the course of which he stated that he had been connected with the Church for thirteen years, and during that time had preached 473 sermons in 107 different pulpits. In 1876 he determined to remove once more to Doylestown, there to spend his remaining years. The members of the Luzerne Bar tendered him a banquet, which took place at the Wyoming Valley Hotel, Wilkesbarré, March 31st, 1876. After his return to Doylestown he gave up the practice of law, and devoted a portion of his time to literary pursuits. He was a man of fine literary attainments. Of the books written and published by Mr. Wright the following titles may be named : "Wyo- ming ; a Tale" (1864) ; "Marcus Blair ; a Story of Provincial Times"
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