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 56

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 734


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 56


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At the close of the war Sergeant Rutter returned to his home in Wilkes-Barre. He was appointed May 27, 1874, to service on the Geological Survey west of the one hundredth meridian, under Lieutenant Wheeler, United States Army, in the interest of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, District of Columbia, which serv- ice occupied his time for the remainder of that year. He then engaged in the hardware business in Wilkes- Barre, and retired in 1888. He was a charter member of Conyngham Post, No. 97, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and its Past Junior Vice-Commander, and a charter member of Encampment No. 135, Union Veteran Legion, of which he was colonel at one time; a charter member of Landmark Lodge, No. 442, Free and Accepted Masons, Wilkes-Barre; was president of the Wilkes-Barre School Board; the first assistant engineer of the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department; also a member of the Westmoreland Club.


James May Rutter married (first), October 16, 1866, Martha C. Burdett, daughter of Jacob Burdett, of New York, died September 5, 1883. He married (second), April 24, 1886, Alvaretta Wildoner. Alvaretta Wildoner was born in Shickshinny, January 30, 1856, a daughter of George and Lydia (Joslin) Wildoner ; she died January 8, 1910. George was born in Luzerne County, and was son of George Wildoner, who was of Holland Dutch parentage and probably was himself a native-born Hol- lander. Lydia Joslin came of an old Connecticut fam- ily, one of her ancestors being Ephraim. White, who fought nobly through the Revolution but soon afterward allied himself to Daniel Shays, leader of what is known in history as "Shays' Rebellion," and by his part in this ill-advised uprising, Ephraim White almost forfeited his Revolutionary pension, which, however, was subsequently granted him. Another of Mrs. Rutter's ancestors was Nathaniel Joslin, of an old Connecticut family. Her father served during the Civil War as a private in Com- pany F, 143d Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, the same regiment in which Mr. Rutter served. He was honorably discharged after serving the full term of three years. He lived the greater part of his life in Shick- shinny. The children of Mr. Rutter by his first marriage : 1. Ellen, married (first), January 20, 1892, John Urqu- hart Paine, who died June 18, 1892. She married (sec- ond), November 8, 1899, William H. McFadden, of Germantown, then engaged with the street engineering department of Philadelphia. She had by her first mar- riage, Emily Urquhart Paine, and by her second mar- riage, Eleanor E. McFadden. 2. Frances M. 3. Nathan- iel Burdett, born August 17, 1871, was educated in the public schools and Harry Hillman Academy. He was a well-known civil and mining engineer and served three terms as county surveyor of Luzerne County, elected for the second term of four years, 1904. He married, April 25, 1899, Stella Gertrude Hann. One son born, died in infancy. Nathaniel Burdett Rutter died January 8, 1907. 4. Augusta L., married, October 12, 1898, Harry Meyer Seitzinger, manufacturer of screens, Wilkes- Barre. They had Martha Rutter, and Josephine G. Chil- dren of Mr. Rutter by second marriage: 5. Miriam Alvaretta, born April 5, 1887, married George Reuling Davis. 6. James May, Jr., born in Wilkes-Barre, Decem- ber 30, 1888; married October 15, 1913, Marion Dough- erty, daughter of Major-General and Mrs. Charles Bow- man Dougherty. He is a portrait painter in Wilkes- Barre.


MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES BOWMAN DOUGHERTY-While his position of prominence as a community leader is dominant in the history of Wyoming


Valley, the late Major-General Charles Bowman Dough- erty of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, will best be remem- bered for his unusually long and brilliant career as military man. He was one of those men whose double service as citizen and as soldier has left its mark on the history of the Nation. He was a native of Pennsyl- vania, a scion of families that earnestly aided in the mak- ing of this Republic and whose history is filled with acts of civic and military duty to which any man might justly point with pride.


Major-General Dougherty was one of a family of six children, whose parents were the Hon. Charles and Julia B. (Collins) Dougherty. His paternal grandfather was born in Donegal County, Ireland, and was later ex- patriated owing to his activity in the "Young Ireland Movement." This was in the early part of the nineteenth century. He emigrated to this country and located at Albany, New York, where Charles Dougherty, his son, and the father of Major-General Dougherty was born in 1833. When Charles Dougherty was in his youth, he and his father came to Wyoming Valley and settled at Nanticoke. They continued to live in the thriving canal port town for some time, then moved to the county seat, where Charles Dougherty married Julia Beaumont Collings, daughter of Daniel and Melinda (Blackman) Collings. Charles Dougherty was consul-general to Lon- donderry, Ireland, in 1866-67, serving in the administra- tion of President Andrew Johnson. This honor of appoint- ment was awarded in recognition by Washington author- ities for his peerless leadership in behalf of the struggling Irish Nation.


On his maternal side, General Dougherty was a descendant of John Blackman, a native of England, who came to this country prior to 1640. He took up land at Dorchester, Massachusetts, now a part of Boston. His third son, Joseph Blackman, married at Dorchester, November 12, 1685, Elizabeth Church, daughter of Joseph Church, of Little Compton. He was a brother of the redoubtable Captain Church who captured King Philip, son of Massasoit, a well-known event in the history of New England. Joseph and Benjamin Church were sons of Richard Church, who held a record of service in the Pequot Indian War which exterminated the Pequot Indians with their depredations on the early settlers. Elizabeth Warren, the wife of Richard Church, was a daughter of Richard Warren who was one of the signers of the Compact drawn up on the "Mayflower," which is claimed to be the first constitutional covenant written by man for the government of a people.


Elisha Blackman was one of the nine sons of Joseph and Elizabeth (Church) Blackman, and was the father of Elisha Blackman, Jr., who emigrated to the Wyoming Valley in 1772, and was a lieutenant in the company commanded by Captain William Hooker Smith, of the 24th Continental Line, stationed at Fort Wilkes-Barre in the Public Square at the time of the Wyoming Mas- sacre. His son, Elisha Blackman was in the Battle of Wyoming, escaped the massacre, swam the river and fled to the old Public Square Fort. There he joined his father, the only man left, the others having gone to show the women and children the way to Stroudsburg and Connecticut. In the afternoon of that fateful July 3d, father and son followed the others. A month later, in August, young Blackman returned to Wyoming with Captain Spalding's company. In October, he helped to bury the dead of Wyoming.


A younger brother, Eleazar Blackman served with the militia throughout the Revolutionary War, becoming prominent. After that, in September, 1800, he was elected and commissioned captain of the "First Troop of Horse," 2d Brigade, 8th Division Pennsylvania. In 1812, he attained the rank of major. From 1801 to 1803, he was one of the commissioners of Luzerne County. From 1808 to 1810, he was treasurer of the county. He lived at Wilkes-Barre Township on a site where the Franklin inine of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company is now located. He opened a mine here even in that early day known as Blackman's mine. He died September 10. 1843, at the age of seventy-seven years. He was promi- nent as a Mason, being Worshipiul Master oi Lodge No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons, irom 1804 to 1809. His daughter, Melinda Blackman, married Daniel Collings who was born in England. at Easton, in 1793. His mar- riage occurred October 7, 1813. He was a ciock-maker by trade and moved to Wilkes-Barre. where he engaged in his trade; he was a large landholder and specialized in the development of city property especially in the center of the city where, at one time he owned the northerly side of The Square now occupied by McWil- liams Stores up to the Benesch store in the Bennett Build-


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ing. A piece of his craftsmanship, known for years as "the town clock" is still preserved in the museum of Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. The sons of Daniel and Melinda (Blackman) Collings were all noble men who held records of service in military and civic duty, holding positions of rank in the army during the Mexican War, and the Civil War. These men were the uncles of Major-General Charles Bowman Dougherty, whose mother was Julia Beaumont Collings, daughter of Daniel and Melinda ( Blackman) Collings.


Charles B. (C. Bowman) Dougherty was born at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, September 3, 1860. The home site was on North Main Street near West Union Street. As a youth he attended the public schools of this city, and then entered Emerson Institute at Washington, District of Columbia, from which he was graduated. Hc returned to this city on August 1, 1879, and entered the employ of the Susquehanna Coal Company as a clerk in the office of the superintendent. In the summer of 1885 he was made chief clerk in the general manager's office, and while in this position he organized the pur- chasing department of the company. In July, 1906, he was advanced to the position of assistant manager of the company and was continued in this position when the M. A. Hanna Company, of Cleveland, purchased the Susquehanna Coal Company. At the same time he was designated as one of the three purchasing agents for the Mark Hanna interests with activities in fuel and power plants throughout the United States. He remained with the Susquehanna Collieries Company, as the company became known later, until the time of his death, and gave nearly all of his time when not actually required by business matters to military affairs. He was truly the exponent of his military ancestors and from August 1, 1881, when he enlisted as a private in Company B, 9th Regiment of Infantry, Pennsylvania National Guard, he never once lessened his activity as a soldier. His rise in military rank was to attain the highest rank in Ameri- can military forces obtainable for a non-West Pointer. For his first duty after enlistment, he was detailed as regimental clerk, August 12, 1881. In July of the fol- lowing year, he was appointed principal musician; the next year he was raised to the rank of sergeant-major ; April 28, 1887, he was first lieutenant and inspector of rifle practice; November 3, 1892, he was made major of the regiment ; in June, 1894, he was made lieutenant- colonel, and colonel on July 14, 1897.


At the outbreak of the war with Spain, Colonel Dough- erty received telegraphic orders from General J. P. S. Gobin, commanding the 3d Brigade, to assemble the 9th Regiment and proceed to Mount Gretna. On May 12, Colonel Dougherty reported to the adjutant-general of the army that his regiment was properly mustered into service. The regiment proceeded to Chickamauga, Georgia, and upon its arrival Colonel Dougherty was put in command of the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, Ist Army Corps. He served in that post until relieved by Brigadier-General John N. Andrews, United States Army. The regiment served throughout the war. After the Spanish-American . War, the 9th Regiment was re- organized and Colonel Dougherty was unanimously reelected to its command. He was promoted to brigadier- general by Governor Pennypacker, April 9, 1906, and on September 30, 1910, Governor Edwin S. Stuart, assigned him to the head of the National Guard of Pennsylvania with the rank of major-general. Thus appointed, he was the youngest man ever to serve in this position in the history of the National Guard. General Dougherty served in this high post until compelled to retire by a State law which provided that the head of the National Guard should serve only for five years. General Dough- erty's friends believe that had it not been for this bill that the noble general would have without doubt, com- manded Pennsylvania's volunteer forces in their special service to the government during the World War. Although retired, when the country's call to arms was heard, General Dougherty was quick to offer his services. General Hugh L. Scott, chief of staff ; General Leonard Wood, and others, knowing General Dougherty's proven qualifications urged his appointment as head of a division to the President. A board of officers, however, ruled that General Dougherty was over the age limit and so his services were not accepted. Unable to literally follow the flag into action, General Dougherty put all of his patriotic energy into the service of civilian-soldicr. There are more tributes to General Dougherty's great value to the country, and records of his deeds of valor than space for this sketch allows, yet a quotation of the consensus of thought of ranking army officers on this point is fitting to epitomize the high estcem with which


he was regarded by those who had worked with him and knew of his ability: "General Dougherty is the man who taught Americans how to fight. He is the first man who ever succeeded in moving bodies of men as large as a division, and maneuvering them into place at the appointed time without failure. This was done first at Mount Gretna in an encampment of the State division. General Dougherty astonished the regular army men when he first put his plan for this maneuver into action, and it was our misfortune that he was not on the general staff during the World War." This opinion is echoed and reechoed through numerous press notices, private statements, and public utterances at different times throughout the career of General Dougherty. His head- was too well set to the front to ever be turned by flattery and his sense of duty was so high, no praise could vary its quality.


Although one whose civic, military and business duties occupied much of his time, General Dougherty was one who loved his home, and the comforts and true recrea- tion which he found there were always a great joy to him. He was very fond of books, and his chief joy was in his library which he began to collect when a young man, and his sense of literary discrimination was such that all books he put into his library are worthy of being read. He continued this habit of selecting with discriminating taste until his library in his late home on Riverside Drive is one of the most valuable private libraries in the State. As a diversion from busi- ness thoughts, General Dougherty enjoyed writing poetry, and many of his poems have found publication in metro- politian journals as well as in local papers. This exercise of "the language of the soul" indicates the high thoughts of General Dougherty and shows that his understand- ing of duty to home and country did not make of him a materialist, as some would have us believe of our great military men. He was a most companionable man whose friends were legion. He revered his ancestry and took lively interest in the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society ; the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolu- tion ; Order of the Cincinnati; Society of Mayflower Descendants; New England Society ; Pennsylvania So- ciety ; Military Order of Foreign Wars, and particularly the Naval and Military Order of the Spanish-American War. He was three times president of the National Guard Association of the United States; a member of the Engineers Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania ; the Westmoreland Club; the Franklin Club; the Scran- ton Club; the Wyoming Valley Country Club; the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick; Lodge No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons; for many years he was vice-president of the State Armory Board, and treasurer of the Wyo- ming Valley Sand and Stone Company; a member of the board of directors of the Wilkes-Barre City Hos- pital, and also of the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company.


Charles Bowman Dougherty was married on February 6, 1883, to Anna D. Posten, daughter of M. Brown and Anna M. (Palmer) Posten, of Wilkes-Barre. They had four children, all daughters, two of whom died in infancy, Helen, born in 1886, married, September 6, 1916, Colonel Stephen Elliott, and died September 6, 1925; he is sur- vived by Marion, born November 3, 1888, who is the wife of James M. Rutter, Jr., (see Rutter Family which precedes). Major-General Dougherty died in August, 1924, after a long illness following a collapse soon after his strenuous work during the epidemic of influenza that scourged the Wyoming Valley shortly after the World War. It is believed that he overtaxed his strength at this time. He stands in the history of his State as one. of her greatest men and in the history of the Nation as a great military leader.


BRUCE PAYNE, as president of the Payne Coal Company, Inc., is at the head of one of the well-known and thoroughly well established coal concerns of this State. He is an independent operator, with central offices in the Mmers Bank Building, and conducts a wholesale business in both anthracite and bituminous coal. He has branch offices in Buffalo, New York; New York City ; Baltimore, Maryland; and Syracuse, New York; and is very well known to the trade.


Both Mr. Payne and his wife are members of old families of the Wyoming Valley, his father being Edward Franklin Payne, who died in 1910, at the age of sixty- four years. Edward Franklin Payne was for many years identified with the coal mining industry of Luzerne County and was well known throughout this district. He mar- ried Elsie Reith, and they were the parents of four chil- dren, three of whom lived to maturity: Edith, who mar-


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ried Edgar M. Haupt, of Wilkes-Barre; Arline, married to Paul S. Sterling, of Wilkes-Barre; and Bruce of further mention.


Bruce .Payne, son of Edward Franklin and Elsie (Reith) Payne, was born in Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1889, and as a boy attended the Harry Hillman Academy, in Wilkes-Barre. Later, he prepared for college at the Lawrenceville School, at Law- renceville, New Jersey, and then entered Princeton Uni- versity at Princeton, New Jersey, from which he was graduated with the class of 1911, receiving at that time the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1915 he became identified with the anthracite coal industry as an inde- pendent operator, with offices in the Miners Bank Build- ing, at Wilkes-Barre, and during the fourteen years which have passed since that time he has been conducting a large and important enterprise under the name of the Payne Coal Company, Inc. Under Mr. Payne's direc- tion, his company was the first to merchandise anthracite as a trade marked and identified product. Starting in May, 1927, every ton loaded at the mines contains a liberal quantity of orange pasteboard dises, giving to this coal its trade name of "Orange Disc Anthracite." This was the first application of modern merchandising methods to the anthracite industry. As miners and ship- pers, the corporation handles both bituminous and anthra- cite coal in wholesale quantities, and with four branch offices in three different States, as mentioned above, the corporation is handling a very large output. Mr. Payne is a veteran of the World War with an honorable rec- ord of service. He was among the first to enlist after the entrance of the United States into the conflict, enlist- ing in April, 1917. He was sent to Madison Barracks, an officers' training camp, where he was commissioned a captain in the 308th Field Artillery, 78th Division of the United States Army. : In May, 1918, he was sent overseas, where he saw active service on the Western Front for the three months preceding the Armistice. At the end of one year, in May, 1919, he returned to this country, and was mustered out of service, having been promoted to the rank of major. Upon his return to civilian life he resumed his business as a coal operator and shipper, and has continued at the head of the Payne Coal Company, Inc., to the present time (1929). He is a director of Blue Creek Coal and Land Company ; direc- tor and treasurer of Shamokin Anthracite Coal Company and of the Northumberland Mining Company ; trustee of Wyoming Valley Historical and Geological Society and president of the board of trustees of Wilkes-Barre Institute. Mr. Payne is a member of the Westmoreland Club, the Wyoming Valley Country Club, American Legion, the Princeton Club, of New York City, and of other organizations, and his religious affiliation is with the First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre.


Bruce Payne was married, March 16, 1918, to Marion H. Woodward, daughter of the late Judge J. B. Wood- ward, of the Eleventh Judicial District, comprising Lu- zerne County, and Marion (Hillard) Woodward, and member of one of the old pioneer families of the Wyo- ming Valley. Mr. and Mrs. Payne are the parents of three children : Marion Woodward, Barbara Standish, and Elizabeth Woodward Scott Payne. The family home is at No. 158 South River Street, in Wilkes-Barre.


FREDERICK HILLMAN-Both as lawyer and as an investment security expert, Frederick Hillman has been eminently successful in Wilkes-Barre, and here has many friends who hold him in the highest esteem, both because of his achievements in the business and profes- sional world and as a result of his own likable character. There is no phase of the public life of Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County in which he is not much interested, and here he belongs to a number of organizations which play leading parts in the city's social and fraternal affairs. His present business connection is with a Wall Street firm, of New York City, for he holds the local manager- ship in Wilkes-Barre of the offices of Field, Glore and Company, of No. 38 Wall Street, New York.


Mr. Hillman was born in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1872, son of H. Baker and Josephine A. Hillman and grandson on the paternal side of his house of Colonel Henry B. Hillman, father of H. Baker Hillman. H. Baker Hillman was born in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, in 1836, and was a coal operator in Wilkes-Barre, having been in the coal business with his father, Colonel Henry B. Hillman ; he died in January, 1899. The mother of Frederick Hillman, Josephine A. Hillman, was born in Nazareth, Pennsyl- vania, in 1838, and died in February, 1896.


Frederick Hillman received his early education in the


public schools of Wilkes-Barre, and later studied at the Harry Hillman Academy. He then read law in the offices of Dickson and Atherton, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1893. For several years he was engaged here in the practice of his profession, but after a time he saw broader opportunities for development of his abilities in another field, and so entered the investment security business. At the present time he is manager of Field, Glore and Company, of No. 38 Wall Street, New York City. To this work he is especially well adapted, and in this community he fulfills a useful purpose by the part that he plays in the investment security business, lending as he does a ready intelligence and knowledge that it took him years to acquire to a type of work about which the average man is all too little informed.


Mr. Hillman is, in addition to his business activities, actively interested in the affairs of his community. He is a member of the Republican party, of whose policies and candidates he is a staunch supporter, and he also be- longs to several organizations which lead in civic and social activities here. He is a member of the Westmore- land Club, the Wyoming Valley Country Club, the Chamber of Commerce of Wilkes-Barre, the Wilkes- Barre Motor Club, and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church,


Frederick Hillman married, May 27, 1905, Mabel Mur- phy, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, daughter of Dr. Joseph A. and Frances ( Parish) Murphy, of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania. Dr. Murphy, her father, was a na- tive of Wilkes-Barre and a practitioner in the medical profession here for many years; he was graduated from Jefferson Medical College, and for many years took an active part in the affairs of his profession in this com- munity ; he died in 1896. Frances ( Parrish) Murphy, mother of Mabel (Murphy) Hillman, also was born in Wilkes-Barre, and died in July, 1920. Frederick and Mabel ( Murphy) Hillman became the parents of two children : France's Parrish and Doris.


ARTHUR O. KLEEMANN-One of the prominent members of the legal profession in Wilkes-Barre is Arthur O. Kleemann, who, since he began his practice in 1908, forged rapidly to the fore among the leaders of the bar in Luzerne County. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 1885, son of Peter and Susan (Karrach) Kleemann; his father was a native of Ger- many, where he was born in 1849, and he came to the United States in 1871, became a hotel owner in Wilkes- Barre, and died in August, 1923, while the mother was born in Larksville, Pennsylvania, and has spent the greater part of her life in Luzerne County.




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