USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume V > Part 36
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RIDGWAY BOWERS ESPY, a prominent member of the Luzcrne County Bar, and the trust officer and a director of the Wyoming National Bank at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was born in this city, September 2, 1881. Mr. Espy is a son of Barnett Miller and Caroline ( Wood) Espy, both of whom are now deceased. Barnett Miller Espy, the father, was a well-known attorney of Luzerne County, having been a member of the bar for more than fifty years. He was born May 16, 1846, in Nanti- coke, and he died in Wilkes-Barre, August 29, 1926. He was a descendant of George Espy who was born in Hanover Township, Lancaster County (now Dauphin County ), Pennsylvania, during the year 1749, and who, with the Poxtang Rangers, removed to Luzerne County prior to the Wyoming Massacre in 1778. He located upon a tract of land not far from the present city of Nanticoke, and there he built himself a log house where he resided up until the time of his death, 1814. He was commissioned a justice of the peace on May 30, 1800, and his district included all of Hanover Township and Wilkes-Barre. Barnett Miller Espy was educated at the old Wilkes-Barre Academy, and, later, at the Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, graduating from the latter in 1869. He then began his legal training under tlie com- petent preceptorship of the late Edwin S. Osborne of Wilkes-Barre, and he was admitted to practice at the Bar of Luzerne County on September 20, 1873. He had married, September 23, 1873, Caroline Wood, and they became the parents of six children, four of whom grew to maturity : Blanche W., who is now deceased ; Ridg- way Bowers, of whom further ; Bruce M., a real estate dealer of Wilkes-Barre; and Carl W., a physician and surgeon of Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
Ridgway Bowers Espy received his early education in the public schools of the community in which he was born, and he later attended the Wilkes-Barre High School, graduating from there with the class of 1898. He then attended the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, and he graduated with the class of 1899. In the fall of that same year he entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and graduated with the class of 1903, when he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to Wilkes-Barre and there hegan his study of the law, in his father's office. In the mean- time he filled various public offices, including that of clerk in the recorder's office and, later, in the county clerk's office. Then, in the year 1909, Mr. Espy was formally admitted to practice at the Bar of Luzerne County. In 1919 he was also chosen trust officer for the Wyoming National Bank at Wilkes-Barre, and he has held this office ever since. He is also a director of
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this well known financial institution; and he is serving as a member of the board of directors of the Wilkes- Barre General Hospital, and as a member of the board of trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Academy.
Mr. Espy has always evidenced a keen interest in the civic and general affairs of his community. In his poiit- ical views he is a staunch supporter of. the Republican party ; and as such he is noted for the excellent manner in which he stands behind any movement designed for the welfare or advancement of Wilkes-Barre. He is now a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Luzerne County Bar Association, and he is spoken of as one of the very brilliant lawyers in this part of the State. He holds active membership in the college fraternity of Alpha Delta Phi; he is a member and the secretary of the Wyoming Valley Country Club; and a member of the Franklin Club.
Ridgway Bowers Espy married, April 23, 1914, Au- gusta Baird Halberstadt, a daughter of Dr. George H. and Edith ( Moore) Halberstadt of Pottsville, Penn- sylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Espy have become the parents of three children, all of whom are sons: Bowers W., George H., and Ridgway Bowers, Jr. Mr. Espy and his family maintain their residence at No. 199 James Street, Kingston, and attend the First Methodist Episco- pal Church, Wilkes-Barre, of which Mr. Espy is one of the stewards.
SAMUEL COGSWELL CHASE-Among the enter- prises which have claimed the time and attention of the leading business men throughout this country is the real estate profession, and one who has gained substan- tial and distinguished success in this particular field in his community of Wilkes-Barre, is Samuel C. Chase, who for more than a quarter of a century has been identified with the prominent members of the real estate business. Few other lines of endeavor have offered such wide and varied opportunities as real estate. In a country of the size of America, with vast areas, north, east, south and west covered with forests, swamps and arid lands, lim- itedly cultivated, there is much room for the labors of the pioneers, roadmakers, lumbermen, builders and kindred workmen which go toward making the earth's crust and this country habitable for mankind and Ameri- cans. The importance of the realtor immediately im- presses itself upon the minds of people, for he appears on the scene when the surrounding country is ripe for human settlement and is ready for community growth and expansion. A thriving and popular center in Penn- sylvania is Wilkes-Barre where Mr. Chase has created a flourishing field for his activities and civic contribu- tions. The first ancestor of the Chase family in America was Aquilla Chase who emigrated from Cornwall, Eng- land, and settled in Massachusetts in 1640. From him have descended many honorable and patriotic citizens. During the war for independence, Benjamin Chase in the line, whose record is traced herein, was a musician and a well-known resident of Newbury, Massachusetts. 1 Iis son, Samuel Chase, was a native of Hampstead, New Hampshire, and later removed to Haverhill, Massachu- setts.
His son, Edward H. Chase, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, February 28, 1835. He received a liberal education for that period and was duly graduated from U'nion College in New York State in the year 1855. For a short time thereafter he taught school, and in 1857, he came to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he began the study of law in the office of the Hon. Edmund L. Danna. Two years later, in 1859, after diligent and con- scientious application, he was admitted to the bar of the State of Pennsylvania, and established himself in the active practice. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Chase was a member of the Wyoming Light Brigade. and soon left with his company for the scene of the fighting. About April of that year, his organization was reformed as Company E, of the 8th Pennsylvania Regi- ment. Thrown into battle almost immediately, he was one of the first thirteen prisoners taken in the war and detained in Raleigh, Salisbury and Libby prisons eleven months, at which time he was exchanged. At the close of the war, Mr. Chase returned to Wilkes-Barre and was for many years an able practitioner in the law and one of the representative citizens of the town. On June 18. 1863, he married Elizabeth Taylor, a daughter of the late Hon. Edmund Taylor and Mary Ann ( Wilson) Taylor, of Wilkes-Barre, and they were the parents of the following children: 1. Harold Taylor, for more than forty years the editor of the "Topeka Capital." a lead- ing Kansas newspaper. 2. Ethel H., deceased. 3. Samuel
C., of whom further. 4. Frances Brooks, residing in Wilkes-Barre.
Samuel C. Chase was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsyl- vania, November 6, 1868. He attended the local public schools in his boyhood and then went to the Harry Hillman Academy. Upon the completion of his studies, he obtained employment in the clerical department of the Hazard Manufacturing Company of Wilkes-Barre, and continued with that concern for ten years. In 1909, he became the private secretary for John Hollenback, which position he held until Mr. Hollenback's death in 1923, and he was appointed one of the executors of the latter's will associated with Dr. Lewis H. Taylor of Wilkes-Barre. At the same time since last year, Mr. Chase has been developing a real estate business on his own account, and owing to his knowledge of local con- ditions, and business acumen, together with the spirit in which he engages in the work and his popularity among his fellows, he is recognized as one of the highly suc- cessful realtors of the city. He is active in various enterprises throughout the social and fraternal and civic circles of the city. In 1908, he joined the 9th Pennsyl- vania Regiment of the National Guard and served as quarter-master sergeant for a number of years, having served through the Spanish-American War. He also supported all the patriotic drives and campaigns carried on during the World War. He is a member of the board of directors of the General Hospital of Wilkes-Barre, treasurer of the Luzerne County Bible Association, sec- retary of the United Charities Association of Wilkes- Barre and he is likewise a member of the Wyoming His- torical and Geological Society of which he is secretary, and a member of the Westmoreland and the Wyoming Valley clubs. In politics, he favors the Republican party. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre.
JOHN QUINCY CREVELING, a prominent mem- ber of the Luzerne County Bar, and one of the very substantial citizens of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was born June 6, 1861, upon a farm in Fishing Creek Town- ship. Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Creveling is a son of Alfred T. and Susan B. ( Rhone) Crevel- ing, the latter of whom still survives in the nine- tieth year of her age. The late Alfred T. Creveling, the father, spent all of his life as a farmer. He was a son of John and Lowley (Tubbs) Creveling of Colum- bia County, one of the older and best known Pennsyl- vania families. Alfred T. Creveling was the father of six children: I. Darryl L., of Wapwallopan, Luzerne County, who for more than thirty-five years was asso- ciated with his brother, John Q. Creveling, in the prac- tice of the law at the Bar of Luzerne County ; he mar- ried Katherine Hice, of Huntington Township, Luzerne County, and to them were born three children: Esther, who married James J. Brennan, of Wapwallopan, Lu- zerne County ; Alfred H., of Columbus, Ohio; and Helen, who married Charles Brennan, of McAdoo, Pennsylvania. 2. John Q., of whom more follows. 3. Laura M., who married G. A. Hinterleitner of Charleston, West Virginia. 4. George R., of Binghamton, New York; he married Cora Bulgin, of Vienna, New Jersey, and they have a son, John Edwin. 5. Emma, who is now deceased; she married G. A. Hinterleitner, who after her death, mar- ried her sister, Laura M. G. A. and Emma (Creveling) Hinterleitner had a daughter, Ruth. 6. Forrester, who died in childhood. Alfred T. Creveling, the father of the foregoing children, came to Luzerne County with his family during the year 1882, settling near Plymouth. He was a staunch Democrat ; and an ardent supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died in the sev- enty-third year of his age.
~ His son, John Q. Creveling, received his early edu- cation in the public schools of the community in which he was reared, and he later attended the New Colum- bus Academy in Luzerne County. He then taught school for four years in Huntington Township, and also in Plymouth, after which he pursued his legal training, and was admitted to practice at the bar of Luzerne County during the carly part of the year 1886. Mr. Crevel- ing at once began the practice of his profession in Wilkes- Barre, and such has been the success with which he has met that today, at the date of the writing of this biographical history (1929), he is considered one of the foremost lawyers at the Luzerne County Bar. He is now a member of the Luzerne County Bar Association, and other learned organizations pertaining to his profession.
In his political views Mr. Creveling is a staunch sup- porter of the Democratic party ; and as such he is noted for the excellent manner in which he stands behind any
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movement designed for the welfare or advancement of Wilkes-Barre. He has been equally active in his club and social life, for he is affiliated, fraternally, with the Plymouth Lodge, No. 332, Free and Accepted Masons ; for many years he was treasurer of the United Sports- men's Association of Pennsylvania, and is now its presi- (lent, and in a like cause he served as president of the Conservation Council of Pennsylvania; is a member of the Craftsmen's Club and other local organizations of this city.
John Q. Creveling married, in June, 1889, Annie M. Pressler, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Creveling died in 1918, without issue. The family is perpetuated, however, in the children of Darryl Laport Creveling, of George R. Creveling, and their sister Emma. The family are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Plymouth, of which John Q. Creveling has for a great many years served as a trustee.
CHARLES E. ASH-Among those associated with the anthracite industry, who started at the bottom and rose to an important position with his company, is Charles E. Ash, vice-president and secretary of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. He is the son of Tilghman Henry, and Alice Grace ( MacDonald) Ash, both deceased.
Charles E. Ash was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsyl- vania, August 9. 1874. He entered the employ of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, at the age of nine years, as a slate picker at their Empire Colliery. By successive promotion, he was advanced to the posi- tions of supply clerk, colliery clerk, clerk in the general office, and, in 1901, was appointed auditor of the Honey Brook division. In 1912, he was made paymaster of the Wyoming division, and, in 1921, was elected secretary and treasurer of the company. In January, 1928, he was Elected vice-president and secretary of the company, and, in March of the same year, was elected a director of the company. He is also vice-president and secretary . of the Lchigh and Wilkes-Barre Corporation, and a director of the Wyoming National Bank of Wilkes-Barre.
Mr. Ash is a Republican in politics and is affiliated with Lodge No. 109, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Wilkes-Barre, and a member of the West- moreland Club.
Charles E. Ash was married, June 24, 1902, to Hen- rietta Blaum, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. They have four children: Charles E. Jr., Kingston, Pennsylvania ; Philip L., Chicago, Illinois; Edward T., Kingston, Penn- sylvania ; and Gertrude E., Kingston, Pennsylvania. Mr. Ash resides at No. 29 Hedge Place, Kingston, Pennsyl- vania, and his office is located in the Lehigh and Wilkes- Barre Coal Company building, on South River Street, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
ISAAC PLATT HAND-The family of Hand, of which Isaac Platt Hand, Wilkes-Barre attorney, is a dis- tinguished member, originated in England, and its mem- bers have played a highly important role in American affairs, particularly at the law, in the States of Pennsyl- vania and New York.
The paternal American ancestor who was the progeni- tor of Mr. Hand's branch of the connection was eight generations removed; he was John Hand, of Maidstone, County Kent, England, a landowner in two parishes of his county in the old country, and upon reaching America i11 1635, settled first in Massachusetts and then on Long Island prior to March, 1614. In 1648 he joined others in founding the town of East Hampton, where he re- ceived grants of land; his will, dated January 24, 1660, shows him to have been a man of wealth and promi- nence ; he married Alice Stanbrough, and died at East Hampton in 1663. The descent from him to Isaac Platt Hand is through his son, Stephen, who died in 1693; his son, Stephen (2), born in 1661, died in 1740: his son John, baptized in 1701, died in 1755, and his wife Hannah ; their son, John (3), born January 31, 1725, and his wife, Rebecca ; their son, Aaron, horn April 27, 1773, died October 27, 1832, who married Tamar Platt, of New Milford, Connecticut, born in 1773, died January 16, 1854, daughter of Epenetus and Anna ( Bostwick) Platt, the ceremony having been solemnized August 17, 1795, at Kingsbury, New York; their son, Aaron Hicks Hand, the father of Isaac Platt Hand, of Wilkes-Barre, of whom additional.
Rev. Dr. Aaron Hicks Hand was born in Albany, New York, December 3, 1811, and attended the Albany Academy of that place. At the end of his period of preparation he matriculated at Williams College, Wil- liamstown, Massachusetts, from which institution he was
graduated in the class of 1831. He thereupon entered the Princeton Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, and was graduated from this institution in 1837. He was immediately ordained in the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, and in 1842 he became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Berwick, Columbia County, Penn- sylvania, which position he filled with ability until 1845, when ill health caused him to withdraw from the ministry and remove with his family- to Florida. After six years his health was restored, so he returned North and was assigned to the Greenwich Presbyterian Church near Stewartsville, Warren County, New Jersey, where he ministered for twenty years. He served as a member of the board of trustees of Lafayette College at Easton, whose forward-looking program he did much to advance ; and was the recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from this institution. He married, in Nor- wich, Connecticut, August 13, 1838, Elizabeth Coit Bos- well, whom he had met in 1837, after graduating from the Princeton Theological Seminary, while visiting a brother, Bayard Hand, a prominent lawyer of Savannah, Georgia. Mrs. Hand was a daughter of John L. Bos- well, who, after following the sea until his thirtieth year, left the sea, became a ship-owner, and attained wealth and prominence. The part played by the progenitors of the families to which Mrs. Hand belonged, stands out in the early history of New England, Connecticut espe- cially, and compares well with the records of the best families of that State.
Isaac Platt Hand, son of the Rev. Dr. Aaron Hicks and Elizabeth Coit (Boswell) Hand, was born at Ber- wick, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, April 5, 1843. He undertook preparatory studies at Media, Pennsylvania, after which he entered the institution of which his father was a trustee, Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsyl- vania. His study at this institution was interrupted by a term of enlistment in Company D, 38th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Emergency Militia, mustered June 29, 1863, at Reading, for service in defense of the Union during the Civil War, and which was mustered out August 7, 1863, at the same place. Mr. Hand then resumed his studies at Lafayette College, and finished in the class of 1865. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. He then accepted a position with the Hyde Park School at Scranton as principal, an office he filled for two years; he spent two more years as clerk of the Scranton City Council. While teaching, and serving in public office, he studied law with the late Judge Alfred Hand, and on November 15, 1869, was admitted to the bar. Until December, 1870, he con- tinued the practice of his profession at Scranton, at which time he removed to Wilkes-Barre, where for six years he was junior member of the firm of Wright &
Hand, and has since engaged in independent practice, with a large measure of success, recognition and admira- tion from his associates and gratitude from a wide clientele. Although Mr. Hand has been a student of politics, he has never offered for high office. For nine years he served as a member of the Wilkes-Barre Board of Education, and one term as its president, and he has been numerous times chairman of the Luzerne County Republican Committee since 1884. His political influence, exerted in a quiet way, has been of great value to the Republican organization in each local, State and National contest, and he is in close touch with many of the key men whose decisions affect the policy of the entire body. For twenty years he acted as secretary of the board of trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Institute, and in 1880 he became a director of the Harry Hillman Academy, and held this office many years. Lafayette College and the Hand family have been in close relationship continuously for nearly seventy-five years, counting the trusteeship of his father before him, and no alumnus of the Easton institution has had no more devoted or loyal sentiments for his alma mater. His business interests have been somewhat overshadowed by his professional activities, yet lie has found time to devote to the People's Bank as a director and later the Miners' Bank, and the Dolph Coal Company as its treasurer. For many years he was a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of which he is a member.
Mr. Hand married, May 3, 1871, Mary Lyman Richard- son, daughter of John Lyman and Catherine ( Heermans) Richardson; her father, a native of Vermont, and of distinguished New England ancestry, was the first super- intendent of the Luzerne County school system and a well-known educator. Mrs. Hand is prominent in the philanthropic and educational work of Wyoming Valley and the social life of Wilkes-Barre; she is a devoted member of the First Presbyterian Church; the Wyoming
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Valley Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution ; the Society of Colonial Dames ; and the Wyoming His- torical and Geological Society. Mr. and Mrs. Hand have become the parents of the following seven children: 1. Kathleen, at home. 2. Bayard, of whom further. 3. Laura, wife of Judge Albert E. Campbell, of Canastota, New York. 4. Richardson, well known Wilkes-Barre engineering contractor. 5. Joseph H., of Dolgeville, New York. 6. Emily, who married Olin Derr, of Wilkes- Barre. 7. Philip L., of Chicago, Illinois.
Bayard Hand was born at Wilkes-Barre, July 21, 1878, and attended the public schools. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1899, and studied law in the office of his father, after which he was admitted to the bar July 22, 1901, since which time he has been associated with his father in the practice of the law. He married, May 25, 1912, Margaret Barclay Colton, of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and they have three children: 1. J. M. Colton Hand, born September 6, 1913. 2. Bayard Rich- ardson Hand, born April 15, 1917. 3. Barclay Lyman Hand, born August 3, 1924. Mr. Hand is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia; the Pennsylvania Bar Association; the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association; the Westmoreland and Wyoming Valley Country clubs ; and the Zeta Psi Fraternity.
JOHN EVAN JENKINS, senior member of the law firm of Jenkins, Turner & Jenkins, of Wilkes-Barre, and a prominent citizen of that community, was born June 17, 1862, in Coal Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, son of Morgan C. and Maria (Coban) Jenkins, both of whom are now deceased. Morgan C. Jenkins was born in Llauwrtyd, Breconshire, Wales, while Maria (Coban) Jenkins was a native of Dorstone, Herfordshire, England. Morgan C. and faria (Coban) Jenkins came from England in 1852, ettling at Minersville, Pennsylvania. In 1857, however, they moved to Northumberland County, where most of their children were born. They were the parents of two sons and four daughters: Mary, who married Isaac Hobbs; Catherine, who married William Falconbridge; Margaret, who married Herbert S. Hobbs; Charles C., now deceased, who married Emma Rodman ; John Evan, of whom further ; and Ada, who married Warren Reed. John Evan Jenkins, son of Morgan C. and Maria (Coban) Jenkins, received his early education in the public schools of the county in which he was born and in the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Luzerne County. He then attended Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, graduating from there with the class of 1891, with the degree of Bachelor of. Philosophy. He spent the following year, 1892, as city editor of the Middletown "Daily Herald," of Middletown, Connecti- cut. In the fall of 1892, however, he removed to Wilkes- Barre, and began his study of the law in the office of the Hon. Henry Amzi Fuller for twenty-one years, present judge of Luzerne County. On September 17, 1894, Mr. Jenkins was admitted to the bar of Luzerne County, since which time he has carried on an increasingly suc- cessful practice of the law. He is senior member of the law firm of Jenkins, Turner & Jenkins, the other mem- hers being Arthur L. Turner, Mitchell Jenkins and Hugh Coban Jenkins, the last two of whom are sons of John Evan Jenkins. The firm are attorneys for the Hanover Bank and Trust Company, the Luzerne County Insur- ance Exchange; also for the Borough Council and the School Board, Dallas Borough, and several other cor- porations. Mr. Jenkins is president of the Valmont Development Company, of Kingston and Hazleton, Lu- zerne County, which has been a very important factor in the development in those communities, and is presi- dent of the Dorrance Realty Corporation of Kingston.
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