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 45
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CHARLES ALBERT STINSON-Since graduation from high school Charles Albert Stinson has been engaged in the retail furniture business, as clerk and later as store manager. For the past nine years he has been asso- ciated with the Strauss Furniture Store, of Nanticoke and Plymouth, and since the opening of the Plymouth store at No. 138 East Main Street, he has been located here.
Charles Albert Stinson was born in Stillwater, Min- nesota, January 29, 1881, son of Charles A. Mendum, a native of Newfield, New Jersey, who was engaged in business as a retail grocer, but is now retired, and of Mary (Stinson) Mendum. The mother died when he was about two years of age, however, and he was adopted by his maternal grandparents, whose name he bears. As a boy he attended the public schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from high school with the class of 1901. When his school training was com- pleted, he became a clerk in a retail furniture concern, and he has always followed this line of business activity. After a time he was made store manager, and in March, 1919, he became associated with Philip Strauss, head of the Strauss Furniture Store, as manager of the Strauss retail furniture store in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. There he remained until the store was opened in Ply- mouth, when he came here, where he has since continued his association with Mr. Strauss. Mr. Stinson gives his support to the Democratic party. He is a member of Landmark Lodge, No. 442, Frec and Accepted Masons, of Wilkes-Barre; Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, Royal Arch Masons, Dieu le Veut Commandery, Knights Temp- lar ; and Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of Lodge No. 123, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Scran- ton. As a member of the Plymouth Chamber of Com- merce he is active in promoting the general business conditions of the place, and he is a member also of the Kiwanis Club.
Charles Albert Stinson was married, in 1904, to Ada E. Briggs, of Wilkes-Barre, daughter of William A. and Elizabeth Briggs, and they have three children: Wil- liam A., whose sketch accompanies this; Marion, and Mildred. They make their home at No. 120 Church Street, in Plymouth.
WILLIAM ALBERT STINSON-When he was nineteen years old William Albert Stinson became asso- ciated with the Strauss Furniture Store of Nanticoke and Plymouth, and he has maintained that connection to the present time (1928). He is the able manager of the Plymouth store, located at No. 138 East Main Street, and is well known among the business men of the town. He is vice-president of the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, and is well liked by his associates in business and social life.
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, July 24, 1905, Mr. Stinson attended the public schools there and then entered the Nanticoke High School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1922. He then continued his studies in Temple University, at Philadelphia, class of 1924, and when his course was finished associated him- self with the Strauss Furniture Store of Nanticoke and Plymouth, as manager of the Plymouth store, in which capacity he has served efficiently to the present time. As vice-president of the local Chamber of Commerce he is contributing to the general advancement of economic and trade conditions in the community, and he is active in all civic projects which promise betterment, support- ing generously all plans which seem to him to be adapted to the furtherance of the general welfare. Fraternally, he is identified with Lodge No. 332, Free and Accepted
Masons; with Keystone Consistory, at Scranton; and with Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; also with the Junior Order United Ameri- can Mechanics. His religious membership is with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Stinson is unmarried.
RICHARD SHARPE, 4th, of Langham, Rutland- shire, England, came to the United States with his sec- ond wife and two sons, Richard and William, by his first wife, sailing from Liverpool in December, 1826, cabin passengers in the ship "Sarah Ralston," arriving in Phil- adelphia in January, 1827. Soon after their arrival, the family came to the Wyoming Valley, where they bought a farm and made their home. Articles of personal prop- erty and inventories still are in possession of the family which show it to be a family of ancient lineage. Mr, Sharpe, 4th, made a short visit to England for the purpose of selling some lands which he held there in fee and copyhold. He became identified with St. Stephen's Church of Wilkes-Barre of which the Rev. James May was then rector, and in 1834 was chosen a member of the vestry. Other members at this time were Judge David Scott, Judge John N. Conyngham, Judge William S. Ross, Henry F. Lamb, Nathaniel Rutter, William B. Norton, Thomas H. Morgan, Houghton B. Robinson, Hendrick B. Wright, E. W. Sturdevant, Judge George W. Woodward. The son, Richard Sharpe, the fifth, in after years became a vestryman and warden of the same period, and the other son, William, became one of the founders, a vestryman and warden of St. Clement's par- ish. . The latter died in Wilkes-Barre in August, 1872, leaving a widow, a son, William, and four daughters. Richard Sharpe, the fourth, died September 16, 1836, his second wife and five daughters surviving him.
In 1838, the second year after his father's death, the son, Richard Sharpe, fifth, went to Summit Hill, Car- bon County, where later, he embarked in an active career as one of the pioneers of the anthracite coal trade. He formed a partnership in 1845 with Ira Courtright, George Belford and John Leisenring, and some time later Fran- cis Weiss was taken into the firm. This firm in 1853 undertook the mining of coal in Foster Township, Lu- zerne County, on lands leased from the Tench Coxe estate. Their colliery was named "Council Ridge," from a tradition that Indian Tribes had held their councils there, and the village which grew up was called Eckley. The lease under which this firm was operating expired in December, 1874, Mr. Sharpe having then been identi- fied with the coal mining business for twenty-five years. This period of primitive methods in an industry which became later so enormously developed would furnish a story of unusual interest. After closing the business at Eckley in 1874, Mr. Sharpe made his home in Wilkes- Barre, where he continued to live until his death, April 21, 1895. Having had a successful career, he was minded to retire from active business. In 1881, however, Mr. Sharpe and his former partner, Francis Weiss, deemed it advisable to lease certain lands purchased by them in 1863, to the proposed Alden Coal Company. The tract was situated in Newport Township, Luzerne County, and in this operating-company, Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Weiss took a large share of the capital stock as well as an active interest in the management of its affairs. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Sharpe's experience in the con- duct of matters connected with the development and mining of anthracite coal extended over half a century, from the early beginning to the time of his death. He was the president of the Alden Coal Company and of the Wyoming Valley Manufacturing Company, a direc- tor of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre, director of the Vulcan Iron Works, vice-president of the City Hospital, trustee of the Home for the Friendless, life member of the Wyoming Valley Historical and Geologi- cal Society.
His extended experience in methods of coal mining, his ready mind, his impressive personality that gained confidence and held respect, naturally made Mr. Sharpe's counsel much sought and the kindness and readiness with which he responded gained him many a life-long friend. He was a business man of fine attainments and large sagacity. His path was not a royal road to wealth. In his earlier experience the wilderness had to be con- quered, and the methods then used in coal mining were necessarily primitive. He possessed, to a remarkable de- gree, the qualities of patience, industry, perseverance and courage, and these stood him in good stead in times when he, with the business world in general, had reason to feel apprehensive as to results. His business career throughout shows his fine traits of faithfulness and deter-
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mination. It also shows a healthy, fair, upright spirit, regardful always of the rights of others, with a resolute purpose never swayed by trick or scheme or flimsy methods or creation of fictitious values. Whatever Richard Sharpe engaged in was undertaken honestly and carried through with an unsullied personal integrity. Though his business career was a successful one, the acquisition of a fortune was never to him a controlling ambition. His horizon was widened by culture and a philanthropic spirit. His generous inclination to befriend needy individuals and to contribute to benevolent enter- prises went hand in hand with his increasing ability to exercise the same. Alive to the spiritual and social as well as the material welfare of his employees, he was largely instrumental in the erection of church edifices and buildings for their recreation. So strong was his personal following that after the operation of the Alden Coal Company had begun, in 1881, there were among the employees, the children and even the grandchildren of former Summit Hill and Eckley operatives.
He was baptized in infancy in the ancient church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Langham, England, in shadow of which his forefathers for generations lie buried. It was at the suggestion of Mr. Sharpe and with his liberal assistance that this church, a fine specimen of ecclesias- tical architecture dating from the twelfth century, was restored in 1874-75. A tablet upon its walls bears record to this fact. After taking up his residence at Wilkes- Barre he became actively interested and identified with St. Stephen's parish, Rev. Henry L. Jones, S.T.D., rector, and like his father he became a vestryman, as already noted, afterward a warden, this close relationship con- tinuing until his death. His identification with the Epis- copal Church was throughout his life strongly marked. He loved his church and showed this in many ways by taking his share of the burdens of maintenance, by sit- ting in its councils, by faithful, markedly faithful, at- tendance at its services. More than this, he was familiar with the church's history and with history and signifi- cance of its liturgy and doctrine. As a sequence of this churchmanship, there was revealed one of the finest traits of his character, his giving, which was generous and timely always, and yet utterly without ostentation. Here was exemplified the true spirit of charity. It is to such like examples of honor and industry, of open handed generosity, wide comprehension of the duties of the citi- zen of the husband and father and churchnian, that we must look for the inspiration of generations to follow. At the time of his death his rector, Rev. Dr. Henry L. Jones, who had known him long and intimately, re- marked: "Throughout a long life, whose duties have been performed with conscientious, but with unostenta- tious fidelity, he has been found worthy of love and honor. We celebrate a triumph, not a defeat-a life per- fected. In the relations of business marked by strict integrity and kindly interest in those employed by him, in all efforts for the good of the community prompt and generous in response-all these he was."
It would be difficult to imagine one interested in so many of the avenues of religious, charitable and business matters, who could maintain throughout the years a more absolutely unobtrusive spirit. He was endowed with great personal force, and not less remarkable because so quiet, self-contained and perfectly under control. His face, which could shine with rare sweetness, was an in- dex to much of his character-a character eminently noble and dignified. These qualities were recognized by his casual as well as his closest friends, as indicated in their attitude of deference and respect. Possessed of familiar knowledge of the Bible and carefully nurtured love of good books, he gradually stored his library with books of literary value. He delighted in the English classics, was familiar with them and from a well stored mind he could recite many a gem of prose and verse. He had a true sense of humor, and the merry twinkling of his eye and the lighting up of his face revealed his appreciation of pure wholesome merriment, but his quiet dignity never unbent to innuendo or expletive or un- seemly jest. He had, moreover, a keen appreciation of the beautiful in nature and found great diversion in the cultivation of trees and flowers, and frequently sought recreation and entertainment in travel.
On September 22, 1847, Richard Sharpe married Sally Patterson, born in Huntington Township, Luzerne County, June 27, 1819. She died in Princeton, New Jersey, June 14, 1905. She was the daughter of Thomas Patterson, born near Londonderry, Ireland, July 7, 1775, and died April 24, 1844, he was the son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth (Smiley) Patterson, and grandson of Archi-
bald and Martha (Colbert) Patterson and also a grandson of Archibald and Alleveah ( Montgomery) Smiley. On January 2, 1802, he married Mary Denison, who was born January 2, 1779, and was the daughter of Colonel Nathan Denison and Elizabeth (Sill) Denison. Colonel Nathan Denison commanded the left wing of the patriot forces at Wyoming, July 3, 1778; born September 17, 1740, died January 25, 1809, member of the committee of cor- respondence, 1775; member Connecticut Assembly, 1776, 1778, 1779 and 1780; member executive council, Phila- dephia, 1787; associate judge, 1798; married Eliza- bet1. Sill, of Wyoming Valley who was born November 22, 1759, died April 27, 1812. Mary Denison, eighth in descent from Elder William Brewster, of Cambridge University, England, who drafted in the cabin of the "Mayflower" the first written constitution of the English settlers in America; also eighth in descent from John and Agnes Denison of Stratford, England, through Cap- tain George Denison and Anna Borodaile.
There were born to Richard and Sally ( Patterson) Sharpe, one son, Richard (of whom further), Ph. B. Yale, 1875; and six daughters: Mary A .; Elizabeth Montgomery ; Emily; Sallie; a daughter who died in infancy, October 29, 1857; and Martha. Of these Richard married Margaret W. Johnston; Martha married Henry St. George Tucker, LL. D., son of Hon. John Randolph Tucker, LL. D., of Virginia.
Richard Sharpe, 6th, was born in Carbon County, Penn- sylvania, in 1852. He came to Wilkes-Barre in 1874, and the next year he finished his work at Yale University which graduated him with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He has, to a great degree, followed in the footsteps of his late father in business affairs in this city, and also in his active interest in St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a director of the Vulcan Iron Works and a director of the First National Bank, both of Wilkes-Barre. He is a Republican in his political affiliations, a member of the Westmoreland Club and a vestryman of the St. Stephen's Church.
Richard Sharpe married Margaret W. Johnston, of New Orleans, daughter of Colonel William Preston Johnston and his wife, Rosa Duncan; she was a granddaughter of General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed at the battle of Shiloh. Mr. and Mrs. Sharpe have had five chil- dren : 1. Rosa D., who married Yale Stevens, of New York City. 2. Elizabeth M., who died when four years old. 3. Caroline J., who married Marion S. Sanders, of Bristol, Virginia. 4. Margaret J. 5. Richard, Jr. Mrs. Sharpe died February 6, 1922. Mr. Sharpe maintains his offices in the Miners' Bank Building at Wilkes-Barre, and resides at No. 80 River Street, Wilkes-Barre, Penn- sylvania .
LEWIS HARLOW TAYLOR, M. D .- For almost half a century one of the outstanding physicians of Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Lewis Harlow Taylor, M. D., was widely known throughout this region of the State, and was highly esteemed for his contribution to the medical profession, through his active practice and his studies of the science and his part in the creation of medical literature. In the course of a more than ordinarily busy career, Dr. Taylor acquired numerous friends and acquaintances in Wilkes-Barre and nearby municipalities, and was keenly interested in the promotion of every cause which he considered useful in his community or valuable to his fellowmen. His death was a cause of widespread sorrow and bereave- ment, not only because the people of the Wyoming Valley knew him and his excellent work, but also as a result of his genial personality and the kindliness of his disposition.
Dr. Taylor was descended from an old family, whose lineage went back six generations to Philip Taylor and his wife, Julianna Taylor, both of Oxford Township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and both members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and settlers on the present site of Tacony in this State. From them, the line of de- scent is through their son, Benjamin Taylor, born in Oxford Township in 1695, died in Upper Wakefield Township, Bucks County, December 19, 1780, who mar- ried, in 1719, Hannah Towne, born in 1697, died De- cember 25. 1780, daughter of John and Deborah ( Booth) Towne. For sixty years Benjamin Taylor was a farmer and blacksmith, and was one of a committee which erected a meeting-house for the Society of Friends, a structure which was used as a hospital by the troops of George Washington when they held the Delaware River in December, 1776.
Bernard Taylor, son of Benjamin and Hannah
Levis H. Taylor.
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(Towne) Taylor, was born in Newtown Township, December 21, 1724, died there in November, 1789; he married, at Falls Meeting, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, December 31, 1746, Mary Kirkbride, daughter of Mah- lon and Mary (Sotcher) Kirkbride, and was a farmer and landowner by occupation.
Benjamin Taylor, son of Bernard and Mary. (Kirk- bride) Taylor was born October 24, 1751, and died in Newtown Township in August or September, 1832; he married (first), at Falls Meeting, August 22, 1772, Elizabeth Burroughs, born March 27, 1751, dicd January 14, 1811, and (second) December 17, 1812, Ann Beans, daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Paxon) Beans, of Sole- bury, who died without issue.
Samuel Taylor, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Bur- roughs ) Taylor, was born November 5, 1776, at Taylors- ville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died before 1831 ; he was a large landowner in Bucks County, and he married, in 1799, Eliza Hutchinson.
Samuel Buell Taylor, son of Samuel and Eliza (Hutchinson) Taylor, was born May 7, 1809, died Feb- ruary 25, 1870; he married, March 29, 1833, Margaret Head Baker, born January 19, 1812, died May 23, 1880, daughter of Henry and Mary Brown (Ustick) Baker. Mary Brown (Ustick) Baker was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Ustick, M. A., and his wife, Hannah ( Whitear ) Ustick, the former of whom was a son of Stephen and Jane (Ruland) Ustick, and grandson of Thomas Ustick, of Cornwall, England, and his wife, Elizabeth (Shackerly) Ustick, of New York. Samuel Buell Taylor and Margaret Head (Baker) Taylor had nine children, one of them Dr. Lewis H. Taylor, of whom further.
Dr. Lewis Harlow Taylor, the youngest of the children of Samuel B. and Margaret H. (Baker) Taylor, was born at Taylorsville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on July 29, 1850, and for nearly fifty years was one of the leaders in the medical profession in Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County. He received his early education in the public schools of Bucks County, and then matriculated at the State Normal School, at Millersville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from which institution he was graduated in July, 1871. In the autumn of that year he removed to Wilkes-Barre, and was elected principal of the Franklin Street Grammar School. After three years he was elected principal of the Third District High School in Wilkes-Barre, and in this position served from 1874 to 1877. In 1877, he entered the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1880 with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine, the subject of his thesis for the doctorate having been "The Microscope and the Busy Practitioner." In the summer of 1880 he took a post-graduate course in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in diseases of the eye and ear, and returned to Wilkes-Barre to enter the practice of his profession. In 1883 and 1884 he pursued additional studies in the noted schools of Vienna, Austria, and re- turned home in 1884. In 1885 he was appointed medical inspector of the Pennsylvania State Board of Health. At the same time he continued his private practice, which grew so considerably that, after nine years, in 1894, he was obliged to give up his position with the Board of Health. Part of his duties were taken from his shoulders when he accepted his nephew, Dr. E. U. Buckman, as his assistant. In all of his work Dr. Taylor exercised a skill such as is possessed by few men in his profession, and at all times he was interested in the broad general aspects of medicine and a student of the newest scientific developments.
Although from the beginning of his practice he was a busy man, he found time to devote his pen to scientific papers, which were published in the different medical journals and in the reports of the State Board of Health. In 1891, Dr. Taylor received from Lafayette College, at Easton, the honorary degree of Master of Arts in recognition of his distinguished achievements. Also active in the social life of Luzerne County, he was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which he was affiliated with Landmark Lodge, No. 442; Sheki- nah Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Dieu le Veut Com- mandery, No. 45. Knights Templar : Caldwell Consistory, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he held the thirty-second degree: Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. of Wilkes-Barre; and the Irem Temple Country Club. Dr. Taylor also was a member of the Wyoming Valley Motor Club, the Wyoming Valley Country Club. the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Wilkes-Barre. and the Young Men's Christian Association. In his
church he was a trustee, as he also was in the Young Men's Christian Association. He belonged to the Lu- zerne County Medical Society, the Lehigh Valley Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society (in which he was president in 1913), the American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons, the American Ophthalmological Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology, and the American Otological Society. He also was an hon- orary member of the Philadelphia Pathological Society and the Philadelphia County Medical Society. He was a member of the staff of the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and was president of its board of directors for twelve years; a trustee of the Osterhout Free Library and president of its board of directors; a trustee of the Wyoming Seminary, of Kingston, Pennsylvania; and a member and vice-president of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, of Wilkes-Barre.
Dr. Taylor married, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on June 4, 1884. Emily Beard Hollenback, daughter of John Welles and Anna Elizabeth (Beard) Hollenback, and granddaughter of Charles F. and Eleanor Jones (Hollenback) Welles, Mrs. Welles having been a daugh- ter of Colonel Matthias Hollenback, of Wilkes-Barre. Dr. and Mrs. Taylor became the parents of two children : Anna Hollenback Taylor and Margaret Taylor, the latter of whom died in her seventh year.
The death of this important physician of Wyoming Valley, which occurred on November 5, 1928, was a cause of widespread sorrow. The respect with which he was regarded in his city and county was reflected in the tribute paid him and his work in the editorial columns of the "Times-Leader," of Wilkes-Barre.
Again this community, with deep sorrow, is witness to the passing of a beloved citizen, a man of wide and deep human sympathy, a man known throughout the State, and far beyond the State, among his professional brethren, both for his own high standing in the frater- nity and for his unusual and splendid endowment of personal quality. Dr. Lewis H. Taylor was a rare man. He had the gifts of mind and heart that made him of inestimable value as a physician, as citizen, and as friend.
The testimony of grief at his death is universal and permeates every nook of the valley where he was best known and sincerely respected and beloved, and it ex- tended as already said to those wider friendships and associations which have known his name and fame these decades.
It was not merely the length of his privilege for work and for human association that had strengthened and made beautiful these earthly ties. It was more than that. It was the quality of the man himself, his outlook on life, his invariable and kindly humor, his capacity for friendship and his wisdom as to affairs of men. He was ever useful and active. A great privi- lege was his to work, and continue his usefulness through all his days, with faculties practically unim- paired and which failed suddenly and just before the end. Optimistic, a radiation of cheer to those around, one who was himself example of what we mean in exalted citizenship, he wrought for good a decade or more beyond the time when most men of engrossing routine have to give over.
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