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 53
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Sunday School and assistant superintendent of the latter.
Mr. Rowe was married (first), May 29, 1907, to Maude Davis of Nanticoke, who died March 26, 1911. By this marriage he was the father of one daughter, Minnie Rowe. He was married (second), June 28, 1916, to Maude A. Morgan of Nanticoke, a daughter of Wil- liam A. and Mary Morgan. By this marriage he is the father of two daughters, Ruth A. and Gladys Rowe, The family residence is located at No. 808 East Main Strect, Nanticoke.
ABRAM NESBITT, whose name is interwoven with the commercial, elcemosynary, and educational institutions of Wyoming Valley during the period of most striking growth in population and resources, was born in Ply- mouth, Pennsylvania, December 2, 1831, and died in Kingston, September 26, 1920. His parents were James Nesbitt (born in Plymouth, 1790, died in Wilkes-Barre, in 1840) and Mary Shupp (1791-1864). They were mar- ried in Plymouth, November 12, 1818. The children were: Abram, of present record; and Mary Ann (1825- 1857), who married Samuel Hoyt, September 9, 1845. Mr. Hoyt was descended from New England stock that came to these shores from England in Colonial days. Samuel Hoyt of this line was one of the founders of Windsor, Connecticut, about the middle of the seven- teenth century.
James Nesbit acquired business interests that neces- sitated his removal from Plymouth to Wilkes-Barre. He built a home on East Market Street and removed his family when Abram was but a year old. Eight years later James Nesbitt died, and in 1849 the remaining fam- ily moved to Kingston, where Abram made his home until his death.
Much that was characteristic of Abram Nesbitt seems in the light of his ancestry, to have been naturally acquired therefrom. The Nesbitt family settled on these shores. in early days, and seems through the following generations to have had a liberal share in important matters. James Nesbitt, the father of Abram Nes- bitt, was a member of the first directorate of the Wyom- ing Bank of Wilkes-Barre. From 1836 to 1840, he was in partnership with James B. Drake, and had farming and coal interests besides. He was in turn tax collector, township assessor and county sheriff, elected in 1832 on the Anti-Masonic ticket. Later he was elected a mem- ber of the State Legislature. Following an ancestral bent he was active in military affairs, and was for some time captain of a company in the 2d Regiment Pennsyl- vania Militia. His wife. Sarah Shupp, was a daughter of Colonel Philip and Catherine (Everitt) Shupp. Colonel Shupp was of German ancestry, born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and came to the Wyoming Val- ley in 1806. His gristmill in Plymouth served for many years a large area of the valley population.
Thus as to the immediate ancestors of Abram Nes- bitt. The family line further back had its striking per- sonalities and had part in stirring pioneer experiences. The name was originally Nisbit. No less than five of that name fell in Scotland in the religious wars incident to the Tudor and the Stuart reigns. James Nisbit sailed from Leith, Scotland, and landed at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, December 10, 1685, the year that James II came to the troubled throne of England and Scotland, and when a Scottish rebellion was draining the country of its manhood, and exhausting its resources otherwise. James Nisbit married, in 1690, at Perth Amboy, and died in 1720, in Newark, New Jersey. His son, Samuel, who began to write the name Nesbitt, was born in 1697, and married, in 1717, Abigail Harrison, daughter of Samuel and Mary Ward Harrison. He died in Newark in 1735.
James, eldest son of Samuel and Abigail ( Harrison) Nesbitt, was born in Newark, in 1718, died in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, in 1792. He was the first of the name to settle in the Wyoming Valley, in 1769. He was one of the one hundred and ninety-six settlers who entered upon ground afterward severely disputed, and their pur- pose in thus entering in force was to "man their rights" under the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut. He married Sarah Phoebe Harrison (1728-1802). At the time these Yankee settlers appeared, the Wyoming Val- ley was the scene of frequent Indian raids, and just before that the savages had attacked and destroyed the Mill Creek settlement, and had taken many lives. James Nesbitt did not remain in the valley at that time, but in 1773 his name appears in local records. In 1778 he was listed among the five hundred and sixty-five taxables. He became conspicuous among the Yankee defenders of the soil against the Pennamites, in the first bitter struggle
between them, and he also saw service in the Revolu- tionary War. He was one of the first justices of the peace appointed for Westmoreland County of Connect- icut (which included the Wyoming Valley), and he also became one of the first judges of the Common Pleas under Connecticut jurisdiction.
James and .Sarah Phoebe ( Harrison) Nesbitt had twelve children. Abram, the eighth child, was ten years of age when his parents came to the valley. As a boy of fourteen he was one of the garrison at Plymouth at the time of the Battle of Wyoming. Immediately follow- ing that disaster, Indian marauders swept over the val- ley, and Abram with his mother and others made their escape down the river. He returned here the following year, and in 1780 enrolled in Captain John F. Jenkin's Company, Connecticut Militia, and served a year. As his father had done, so Abram championed the cause of the Yankees against the Pennarnites, and he endured in that second Pennamitc War his share of the suffering that came upon the opposers of Pennsylvania. He lived to be eighty-four, and died in Plymouth, January 2, 1847. He had married May 25, 1787, Bethiah Wheeler, born in Plymouth, 1770. She lived until January, 1851. The Wheeler family had been Connecticut people before coming to the valley. Their son James, father of Abram Nesbitt, has been referred to heretofore.
Thus the line is brought to the subject of this writ- ing. Abram Nesbitt went to school at Deacon Dana's Academy in Wilkes-Barre and also attended Wyoming Seminary in the first decade of its establishment. He studied surveying with his brother-in-law, Samuel Hoyt, and after three years of this association, he set up for himself, in 1852. as surveyor, and was thus engaged for twelve years. Meantime he had assumed other busi- ness interests. He was among the coterie that in 1863 organized the Second National Bank of Wilkes-Barre. After eight years as director he became vice-president. and from 1877 until his death he was president. In this epoch coal and other industrial development offered large opportunities for men of vision. In 1884 Mr. Nesbitt helped organize, became director, and afterward vice- president of the Wyoming Valley Coal Company. In 1887 came the organization of the Spring Brook Water Company, of which he was director and treasurer until 1896, when the concern was merged with the Wilkes- Barre Water Company and the Spring Brook Water Company. The product of this merger took the name of the Spring Brook Water Supply Company, and Mr. Nesbitt remained a director therein until his death. When the Gas Company of Luzerne was formed in 1898, by the combination of the Wilkes-Barre Gas Company, and the Consumers Gas Company, and with Charter privi- leges extending widely through the county area, Mr. Nesbitt was chosen president. Later came the Wilkes- Barre Electric Company, of which he also became presi- dent, and the Wilkes-Barre Theatre Company which he also headed. Among other interests were the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and the Wilkes-Barre Cutlery Company, in both of which he was director, and he was president of the People's Telephone Company.
In 1909, when the various traction systems of the Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley were leased to the Wilkes-Barre Railway Company, Mr. Nesbitt, who was a large stockholder of the latter, became its president and served in that capacity as long as he lived. In 1914-15 came dark days and a prolonged strikc. This proved one of the greatest disasters ever experienced by the business of the valley. At the outset of the struggle, and after failure to agree on a wage scale the difficulty was referred to five arbitrators, variously chosen to protect all interests involved. The first award of that body was refused by the operatives and in the months that followed Mr. Nesbitt and F. M. Kirby consider- ing that in the refusal to accept arbitration a crucial principle of business and ethics was put in hazard, them- selves advanced a total of a million and a half dollars to defend that principle. Then came burdens connected. with altruistic endeavor. Mr. Nesbitt was for more than twenty-five years either director, treasurer or presi- dent of the Central Poor District. During that time the huge plant at Retreat, capable of caring for many hundreds of unfortunates, was practically completed.
From 1863 to the close of his days Mr. Nesbitt was a trustee of Wyoming Seminary, and for a time presi- dent of the board. He gave to the seminary the building which has long housed the science and fine arts depart- ments. For many years he was trustee of the Kingston Methodist Episcopal Church, and he gave of his time and of his means to promote its interests. The borough of Kingston also claimed his attention and he was for years following its incorporation in 1887, member of the
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council. Hc was a life member of the Wyoming His- torical and Geological Society.
At this period a problem presented itself, that of a hospital for the rapidly growing west side. Wilkes-Barre hospitals were far removed for efficient emergency aid, and were themselves embarrassed for accommodation. A group headed by Dr. D. H. Lake laid the matter before him, completely presenting through maps and otherwise, the needs of the section involved. Mr. Nes- bitt responded immediately by purchase of the Jacob Sharps property located on Wyoming Avenue, Kingston, and soon added a greater avenue frontage. With gifts aggregating many thousands the large residence was adapted, and the hospital started functioning. Further purchases of adjoining land provided ample room for a heating plant and nurses' training school. Later, as will be seen, came the modern and new plant.
The revealment here is that Abram Nesbitt was a prod- uct of ancestors of active life, progressive instinct, peo- ple alive to duty, not fearing responsibility, inured through carlier privation and struggle. It would be difficult to find a name which connotes more the fortunate com- bination of progress, with safe conservatism and skill in management, than that of Abram Nesbitt. Building so much toward the future, he was careful to insure firm foundations.
Only those close to him ever knew his many thought- ful deeds and timely gifts that gave courage to the unfortunate, though the public generally recognized the scope and the intelligent purposes of his larger benefac- tions. A large number of the concerns he helped to shape have grown into dimensional importance. Mr. Nesbitt had a strong community loyalty, and he earnestly desired the future weal of the valley into which his ancestors had fared. This was shown at the time that foreign concerns were endeavoring to secure control of the Adder Machine Company. Here he found himself arrayed against a class that sought immediate personal profit at the expense of the locality. He disproved in his manner of life the idea that men of large affairs must be ruthless. He could be firm, but he was gentle, conciliatory and winning. He was capable of search- ing analysis that cut through to the truth, and in him there was both a will and a conscience. And that quality that rests more largely on instinct than on analysis, and which develops into business acumen of high type, he himself possessed.
He married September 2, 1862, in Kingston, Sarah Myers Goodwin ( 1832-1894). She was the third and youngest daughter of Abram and Sarah ( Myers) Good- win. Her father was descended from Abraham Goodwin, the first to bring the family name into the Wyoming Val- ley. He married, 1783, Catherine King, and they settled in Kingston Township in 1784. After ten years they moved to Exeter Township, where Abraham Goodwin died July 18, 1822: The son, Abram, as he wrote his name, father of Mrs. Nesbitt, was a merchant and farmer in Kingston. He moved to Bradford County, where he served as associate judge from 1841 to 1844. In the latter year he returned to Kingston, and died there in May, 1880. He married Sarah Myers ( 1792-1887), daughter of Philip and Martha ( Bennett ) Myers. Philip Myers came to America with his parents, from Germany in 1759, and settled at Frederick, Maryland. He served as private in the Maryland line, Continental Army, and together with his brother Lawrence, an officer, partici- pated in the Battle of Germantown. Philip Myers settled in the Wyoming Valley and married a daughter of Thomas and Martha (Jackson) Bennett, a family rep- resented in the valley from early days.
Abram and Sarah Myers (Goodwin) Nesbitt were par- ents of the following named children : 1. Walter J., who died in infancy. 2. George Francis, of whom fur- ther mention is made. 3. Abram G., of whom further. 4. Ralph, born January 9, 1869, died February 8, 1875. 5. Sara, of whom further 6. Frederick, of whom fur- ther.
George Francis Nesbitt, the second child, was born in Kingston, January 24, 1865. He was graduated from Wyoming Seminary in 1883, and from Yale University in 1887; studied law with E. P. and J. Vaughn Darl- ing, and was admitted to the Luzerne County Bar in 1890. He was director of the Second National Bank. of the Spring Brook Water Company, and was a mem- ber of the Westmoreland Club. Mr. Nesbitt presented to Wyoming Seminary a large athletic field, corner of Chestnut and Pringle streets, Kingston, and this was for- mally opened in May, 1804. He also established a fund from the interest of which cash prizes are annually awarded at the seminary for excellence in oratory. He
was a great lover of nature, and spent much of his leisure in the open places. His death which shocked and deeply grieved the community, and which cut off one destined in all probability to take a responsible place among men, was the result of a hunting accident in the South, November 12, 1900. Here was a man of delightful personality and of winning graces and who had already shown much of the best in ancestral traits.
Abram G. Nesbitt, the third and second son of his parents to survive infancy, was born November 18, 1866. He was educated at Wyoming Seminary, and in prefer- ence for a business career he followed his father's example. He also seemed to share his father's poise in business and community concerns. Even before death had reduced the family to only his father and himself, he had begun to share coordinate responsibility in sev- eral important corporations. As his business acumen and high sense of honor revealed themselves, he became a man of large value in collaboration. When the father was called from life's concerns, the son naturally carried on, and took up the additional burdens. He succeeded to the presidency of the Second National Bank. He showed a disposition to further humanitarian projects. He gave with a generous hand to education. He assisted in raising the endowments of several institutions, and added gitts to welfare and general charities. He made the Wyoming Seminary athletic field to which his brother George had initially given, a finished and well equipped enterprise, comparing well in equipment with such resources in the best preparatory schools. Though his last years were marked by ill health, matters of wide concern absorbed his interest. Through a gift of very large proportion he made possible an entire new set of buildings for Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, and saw to it that an endowment fund was created. Before that he had, refusing State aid, made up a substantial deficit in current hospital expenses. He also contrived land pur- chases adjoining, and for the heating plants and nurses' training school.
During the life of his father, and when both father and son had espoused the cause, financial and senti- mental, of the Wales Adder Machine Company, he assisted materially in keeping that concern independent of outside control. To further secure the future he together with other interests bought control of the Powers Accounting and Tabulating Corporation, and merged the two as the Wales-Powers Corporation. After his death this concern was purchased by the Remington-Rand peo- ple, and its operation thereafter was made part of the output of the larger concern, and operating from the original plant in Kingston. The crux of all this was the retention of an important industrial concern in the valley.
Abram G. Nesbitt never married. He died May 3, 1926. Though the regret at his passing was widespread, yet the community realized that the results of his vision and wisdom would accrue for years, and promote the happiness of the people among whom he had lived.
Sara Nesbitt, fifth child of Abram and Sarah Myers (Goodwin) Nesbitt, was born in Kingston, September 12, 1872, and died there, January 4. 1919, of influenza. She married March 8, 1904, Hugh Clayton Smythe, member of the Luzerne County Bar. They had two sons: Abram Nesbitt Smythe, born March 3, 1905, and Samuel Nes- bitt Smythe. In May 1919, the sons were legally adopted by their maternal grandfather, and their names changed to Abram Nesbitt, Jr., and Samuel Nesbitt, born April 8. 1908. Mrs. Smythe's humanitarian interests were wide, but chiefest among them was the Nesbitt Hos- pital, the establishment and maintenance of which had been so largely furthered by her father and brother. Resolutions of the hospital directors at her death bore testimony to her continual and unselfish ministrations, her unfailing courtesy and amiability, naturally emanat- ing from one who was kindness personified; to her quality as a devoted daughter and sister, and as a kind and loving mother.
Frederick Nesbitt, youngest of the children of Abram and Sarah Mycrs (Goodwin) Nesbitt, was born January 23, 1875, in Kingston, and died June 24, 1911, in Easton, Pennsylvania, aged thirty-six. He entered Lafayette Col- lege, class of 1896, but left in his senior year to assume the treasurership of the Easton Foundry and Machine Company. His health had never been rugged and death came as a result of heart trouble. He married, Novem- ber 20, 1900, Margaret Lachenour (1876-1917), daughter of Dr. Henry Daniel and Margaret Stewart Lachenour, both of Easton. One daughter Fredrika, born July 1, 1908 survived. Frederick Nesbitt was prominent in college affairs both as undergraduate and as an alumnus. He
Abram G. Nesbit
HBSchoolen.
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was among the men who laid the foundations for Lafay- ette's unusual athletic prowess, and was in his senior year manager of the football association. His frater- nity was Zeta Psi. He was attached to the Republican party, and was elected on that ticket to the Select Coun- cil of Easton, and was in 1902 nominated for Congress. He was a charter member of Easton Lodge of Elks, and became Past Exalted Ruler of the lodge. He and his wife were prominently associated with Trinity Epis- copal Church, of Easton.
HARRY BARNUM SCHOOLEY, born at Wyo- mning, Luzerne County, October 5, 1869, represents in himself descent from ancestors of intimate connections with stirring events of American history, colonial and later periods. On both sides the line is clearly traced to England and early New England. The father, Joseph J. Schooley, was born at Wyoming, May 17, 1846, one of eight children of Jesse Barber and Eliza J. (Brees) Schooley. He received his carly education in the public schools and was afterward graduated from the commer- cial school of Wyoming Seminary. For many years he was engaged in the insurance business at Pittston, Penn- sylvania. In 1900, he removed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsyl- vania, where he died April 24, 1918. He was a member of St. Stephen's Church, the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, and the Westmoreland Club.
Mr. Schooley's ancestry was English. The first of the name to come to these shores was John .Schooley, who settled in New Jersey about 1680. In the years imme- diately following, his descendants had peopled the region around Burlington and Northern New Jersey. . Schooley's Mountain once a famous summer resort, has in later years been known among motor tourists as a landmark of Sussex County, and it was named after the family which had extensive holdings in the vicinity.
Joseph Park Schooley was the great-grandson of John, born in 1785, in Greenwich, Warren County, New Jer- sey. He married in 1809, Margaret Barber, daughter of Jesse and Joanna (Shipman) Barber. They came to Exeter Township, now Wyoming Borough, lived on their own farm and died there. Mr. Shooley survived until the age of ninety. They had these children: 1. Jesse Barber. 2. Jedediah. 3. Mary Ann. 4. William. 5. Elizabeth. 6. Mehitabel. 7. Johanna. 8. Joseph. 9. Margaret.
The eldest son, Jesse Barber Schooley, was born in Warren County, New Jersey, April 1, 1811, and came with the family to the Wyoming Valley. He had a sound public school education. While in his early twen- ties he was in the business of shipping coal and general merchandise by the Morris and Essex Canal. Later, he was in business in Wyoming, a part of the time with Thomas F. Atherton who became first president of the Second National Bank of Wilkes-Barre. Among his successes not realized until years later was the purchase among other coal tracts of the land on which the Mount Lookout breaker stood for many years. While in the coal business Mr. Schooley conducted a general store. He was appointed postmaster at Wyoming, and was inter- ested in multiplied business matters, among them a directorship in the Second National Bank at Wilkes- Barre. He died at Wyoming, December 15, 1884. Jesse Barber Schooley married at Wyoming, February 20, 1838, Eliza Jane Brees, daughter of John and Jerusha (Johnston) Brees.
The Brees family line is traced from John Brees, born in Holland, who in 1713 came to Somerset County, New Jersey. He married Dorothy Riggs (1713-1803) ; served as minute-man in the Revolution, and died in Somerset County. His son Samuel, born in Somerset County in 1758, was a captain in the Continental Army ; he married in 1780, Hannan Pierson ( 1760-1817). Samuel Brees moved from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and settled in the Wyoming Valley, arriving here June 11, 1789. They lived for a time in Kingston and thence bought and removed to a farm in New Troy. Captain Brees was for some years an inn keeper. He died at New Troy, July 21, 1837.
The children of Jesse Barber and Eliza Jane ( Brees) Schooley were: I. Fannie. 2. Margaret. 3. Elizabeth. 4. Joseph J. 5. Jennie E. 6. Kate. 7. Jesse. 8. James M1. Joseph J. Schooley, the fourth child and mentioned heretofore, married November 29, 1866, Evelyn M. Jen- kins, born in Pittston, May 26, 1849, died Wilkes-Barre, April 28, 1913, fourth child of Jabez Hyde and Mary ( Larned ) Jenkins ( q. v. ).
The Jenkins' line had close association with the stren- vous pioneer life of the Wyoming Valley as noted from the earliest land operations of the Susquehanna Company,
through the Revolution, and the storied Battle of Wyo -. ming ; and it has had connection also with the courts and the legislative bodies of both Connecticut and Penn- sylvania.
John Jenkins, the first of this family line definitely located was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Feb- ruary 6, 1728. In 1750 he taught school in Colchester, New London County, Connecticut. He was one of the original members of the Susquehanna Company of Con- necticut, which sponsored the extensive emigration of Connecticut families to the Wyoming Valley. He was of a group that came here in 1762-63, and planted a small colony at the mouth of Mill Creek, adjoining the northern boundary of Wilkes-Barre. He was among those who escaped the Indian attack of October 15, 1763, and who made their toilsome and dangerous way back to Connecticut. In 1769 he came to the valley again. To him the Susquehanna Company awarded a portion of what is now the township of Kingston. The same group of Connecticut people had laid out the township of Exeter in 1762, and there John Jenkins settled with his fam- ily. This ancient tract is now within the borough limits of West Pittston. He was the type of man to lead. Evidently large responsibilities were laid upon him and were borne in a manner unexceptionable. He was sent as representative from Westmoreland town, meaning the Wyoming region, to the General Assembly of Con- necticut, in 1776, and again the following year. Con- necticut made him chief judge of the Westmoreland courts, 1777-78. During 1778 and 1779 he was probate clerk of Westmoreland. Then came the second and more determined Pennamite assertion, and the cruel ruthless- ness of Patterson and Armstrong. Among Yankee settlers dispossessed was John Jenkins, who went north to Goshen, Orange County, New York. This was in 1784. He died there the following year at the age of fifty-seven, after a life filled with privation and yet with usefulness, and during which suffering and foreboding were never entirely absent. He had married, August 1, 1750, Lydia Gardner, daughter of Stephen and Frances (Congdon) Gardner, of Colchester, Connecticut. Stephen Gardner was an active member of the Susquehanna Company. He became resident in Exeter Township, Wyoming Valley, and Lydia his wife died at Exeter, October 22, 1804.
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