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 57
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
Arthur O. Kleemann, of whom this is a record, re- ceived his early education in the public schools of Wilkes-Barre, his birthplace, and later studied in the local high school, from which he was graduated in the class of 1903. He then became a student at Diekinson Law School, from which he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar on September 23, 1908, and immediately began the practice of law in Wilkes-Barre. Here he has been en- gaged in the same line of activity ever since, and has been eminently successful. With a personality readily adaptable to the winning of friends, Mr. Kleemann offers a thorough knowledge of his profession which places him in an enviable position among his legal colleagues.
In addition to his work as lawyer, he is closely asso- ciated with several organizations, including the Luzerne County Bar Association. In his political views he is a staunch Republican, having become a supporter of this' party's policies and candidates early in life. At one time he was solicitor for Parsons Borough, as well as solicitor for the school board there; and it is in that borough still that he makes his home. At one time he was also attorney for the Shickshinny School Board. Mr. Klee- mann belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is affiliated with the Prospect Lodge; the Junior Order of United States American Mechanics, in which he is a member of the Anthracite Lodge; and the Loyal Order of Moose. His religious faith is that of the Lutheran Church, his parish being St. John's.
Arthur O. Kleemann married, on June 26, 1912, Flor- ence A. Broadt, of Nescopeek, Pennsylvania, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Broadt. By this marriage there has been one son, Ralph U., who was born May I, 1913, and is now a student in the high school in Parsons.
MICHAEL H. McANIFF-Half a century has passed since Michael H. MeAniff began a career in Wilkes- Barre that has never ceased to be active and which has resulted in many contributions to the general progress of the community, and to his own esteem in the hearts of
.
256
the people who have benefited by his labors. When he was a boy he handled the first newspaper that came off the press of the "Evening Leader," published by Joseph K. Bogert, then Register of Wills, a property which is now the "Times-Leader" of this city. Later his decision was for other activities and to that end he acquired an education that has fitted him in large measure for his profession of the law, in which he has achieved a distinct success and reached a high level among his fellow prac- titioners. He has shown himself to be an able advocate and a citizen of limitless interest in the civic affairs of the district, while his personal attributes are a magnet that draws a legion of friends and provides a large clientele for his professional industry.
He was born September 21, 1863, in Plains Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and was educated there. For the first three years of his working life he taught school, saved his money and with his capital . attended the State Normal School at Bloomsbury, graduating with the class of 1884, when he resumed teaching and continued that occupation for a number of years. He also had the advantage of some tutelage under the Rev. C. H. Rodney, a Princeton University graduate, and began the serious study of the law while he continued his teaching for nine years. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania State Bar, January 1I, 1892, and at once established himself in practice. Under the Democratic banner he was chosen assistant district attorney in 1910 and served until 1912, having failed of election to the office of district attorney in 1903. He is a member of the County Bar Association and of the Lawyers' Club, of the Knights of Columbus and the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society and attends St. Mary's Roman Cath- olic Church.
Michael H. McAniff married, in 1894, Mary A. Dough- erty, of Pittston, Pennsylvania, daughter of John J. and Mary A. (Phillips) Dougherty, the last named being a sister of the Rev. Edward S. Phillips, who is well known and highly respected in this district of the State. Their children are: I. Mary R., a graduate of New Rochelle College, New York, present head of the French and Latin departments of the G. A. R. High School of Wilkes-Barre. 2. Philip F., born in Wilkes-Barre, April 20, 1896, a graduate of Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, Bachelor of Arts, class of 1917, at present associated with General Motors Corporation in its loss adjustment department in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for which specialty he was trained at the Thomas A. Mc- Andrews agency in Wilkes-Barre.
The parents of Michael H. McAniff were Philip Mc- Aniff, born in Ireland in 1833, who came to America in his youth and became engaged in mining, later entering the real estate business, in which he was successful. His death occurred in Wilkes-Barre, July 3, 1916. His wife, mother of Michael H., was also a native of Ireland, born in 1834, deceased in 1924. She was Ellen ( McGuire) McAniff, a woman of deep religious convictions and highly esteemed throughout this region of Pennsylvania.
THE CARPENTER FAMILY-William Carpenter was the ancestor of the Carpenters of Wyoming Valley. He came to America in the ship "Bevis," with his son, William and his wife, Abigail, in 1638, but the elder William went back to England in the same vessel on the return voyage, and the son was the founder of this line of the family in America.
In England the family claims to trace directly to the Tyrconnel Carpenters, beginning with John, in 1303, the head of the ancient line in Herefordshire, in the parish of Dilwyne. This Hereford family of Carpenters was very prominent, and took an active part in.affairs of the crown; one of the most famous of them was John, Town Clerk of London, died 1442; but the English line from John of 1303 became extinct in 1853, although the Ameri- can line is traced directly to the beginning of the twelfth century. Playfair's "British Antiquities" (London, 1810) says: "The noble family of Carpenters from which the Earl of Tyrconnel is descended, is of great antiquity in the County of Hereford and other parts of England. In 1303 John Carpenter appeared. He was a member of Parliament in 1323 for the borough of Leskard, in Cornwall, as two years after was Stephen Carpenter for Crediton, in the County of Devon, in 1325 (the nineteenth year of the reign of Edward II). Henry Carpenter served in 1418 for the town of Derby, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry V." According to "Burke's Peerage," the Tyrconnel branch descended from William Carpenter, of Homme, in the parish of Dilwyne, who died in 1520, and who had a son James, who had a son John, who left a son William, who died in 1550, and from whom the
William of Weymouth and Rehoboth in the New England colony is said to have descended.
Arms: Argent, a greyhound passant, and chief sable ; Crest : A greyhound's head, erased per fesse sable and argent. This coat-of-arms was granted to William Car- penter, of Cobham in Surrey as appears by the records of the Herald's College, London 1663, subsequently found on the tombstone of Deanile Carpenter, of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, who was born in 1763.
Captain William Carpenter, son of William Carpenter, who returned to England, was born in England, in 1605, died February 7, 1659; his wife, Abigail died February. 22, 1687. He was admitted a freeman of Weymouth, in 1640; was representative in 1641 and 1643; was admitted a freeman of Rehoboth in 1645, and elected representative there the same year. Governor Bradford married a cousin of William, and was his near friend, and there is little doubt that the influence of Bradford and his wife, Alice induced William to settle in America. He was a man of consequence and means, and served as proprietors' clerk and town clerk from 1643 to 1649, and from 1642 was captain by appointment of the general court. The first three of William's children were born in England, the next three in Weymouth, and the youngest in Reho- both.
From William, of Weymouth, and Abigail his wife, the line of descent followed to John, I, who lived at Jamaica, Long Island; to Samuel, 2, to Benjamin, 3, "a tailor"; to Samuel, 4-
Samuel Carpenter, son of William and Abigail Carpen- ter, married his cousin, Nancy Gardner, who lived in Goshen, Orange County, New York, and removed thence to the Wyoming Valley and settled in Plains Township, Luzerne County, in the early part of the last century. Samuel and Nancy were the pioneers of the family in the Wyoming Valley, and from them have descended sub- stantial, thrifty and progressive business men; men of high character and unquestioned integrity. Among the children were: Benjamin Gardner, born in Plains, Penn- sylvania, July 2, 1827, of whom later; Emory W., deceased; Kate, married Charles O. Robertson; Alice, married Albert H. Phillips, of Wilkes-Barre.
Benjamin G. Carpenter, son of Samuel and Nancy Carpenter, was for many years identified with the busi- ness history of Wilkes-Barre. He was a descendant of the seventh generation of William Carpenter, the immi- grant ancestor of the family in America. He was born in Plains Township, July 2, 1827, died in Wilkes-Barre, November II, 1889. When four years old he removed with his parents to the town of Afton, Chenango County, New York, where he remained until the death of his father about 1841. He then moved to Carbondale, where he learned the tinsmith's trade, for the young man after the death of his father was obliged to make his own way in life. That he succeeded in his business endeavors can be readily attested by hundreds of Wilkes-Barre's most representative citizens, for he was among them and one of them for a period of almost forty years.
Mr. Carpenter came to Wilkes-Barre in 1847, and worked as journeyman in the employ of Theron Burnet. A year later, when he attained his majority, he was taken into partnership with Mr. Burnet, a relation which was continued with fair profit for both for nine years, when Mr. Carpenter purchased his partner's interest, and at once took another partner, his younger brother, Emory Carpenter, with whom he was associated in business for about fifteen years under the firm style of B. G. Carpen- ter and Brother. Mr. Carpenter then purchased his brother's interest, and the business was materially changed ; the tinsmithing branch was continued, but the stock in trade was largely increased in other directions until the business of B. G. Carpenter became recognized as one of the largest concerns in the city, doing a gen- eral hardware, contracting, steam heating, plumbing, and metal business. B. G. Carpenter erected a large build- ing on West Market Street, just off the square, in 1872-73, and later A. H. Mulford and Frank Dunsmore entered the firm, the name of B. G. Carpenter & Company, being retained. Walter S. Carpenter, son of Benjamin G. Car- penter, succeeded to the Mulford interest, in 1875, but there was no further change in the proprietorship until after the death of the senior partner in 1889, when Mr. Carpenter's other sons Benjamin Harold and Edmund Nel- son Carpenter, became members of the firm; but the old style of B. G. Carpenter Company has been preserved to the present day. On January 3, 1911 the company was incorporated under the name of B. G. Carpenter Company.
Aside from the affairs of personal business, Benjamin G. Carpenter always was deeply interested in the welfare
Edmund b. Carpenter
Henry thugand
257
of Wilkes-Barre as a city and its institutions. He became a trustee of the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, in March, 1862, and served in that capacity until his death. He was made one of the managers of the Wilkes-Barre Water Company, in May, 1864, and its president in 1881, filling this office until his death. He was one of the origi- nal directors of the Scranton Stove Works, established in 1870. He was an earnest devoted member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church from early youth and a trustee at the time of his death.
It was written of Mr. Carpenter by one of his biog- raphers that :
He possessed much energy In business affairs and the fundamental principles of honesty and strict integ- rity had been so ingrained in his nature that they made him invaluable in every relation among his fel- lows. He saw the probable effect of proposed move- ments very clearly, and whenever he came to a con- clusion as to the course to pursue, he was able from comprehensive study of the situation to surround his position with arguments that carried great weight. It was always thus, so that his advice came generally to be regarded as safe and eminently reliable. .
His christianity was of a practical sort; it shone out through deeds rather than words. He had a great heart of benevolence, and always gave as his means allowed toward the numerous charities of the church and outside of it. Those who knew him intimately understood his kindness of heart, the close affection of family ties, and the permanent concern for the wel- fare and happiness of those dear to him.
Benjamin Gardner Carpenter married in Wilkes-Barre, March 24, 1852, Salley Ann Fell, born November 26, 1827, daughter of Samuel Fell and his wife, Mary Dingman Kyte. They had five children : 1. Walter Samuel, born in Wilkes-Barre, April 5, 1853; married, April 5, 1876 Belle Morgan, born August 28, 1855, daughter of Robert Ruliph Morgan and his wife, Mary Catherine Barnet. Their children were: i. Robert Ruliph Morgan, born July 30, 1877, vice-president, director, and member of Executive Committee of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Com- pany ; he is also chairman of the board of directors of the Krebs Pigment and Chemical Company, du Pont Building Corporation, du Pont Playhouse Company, du Pont Hotel Company; member of the board of directors of the Equitable Trust Company, the Philadelphia Na- tional Bank, the Crassilli Chemical Company of Cleveland, Ohio; trustee of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia; member of the executive committee of the Philadelphia National Bank. ii. An infant, born January 21, 1879, died January 23, 1879. iii. Mary Bella, born February 15, 1881, died August 5, 1881. iv. Walter Bruce, born August 28, 1882, died February 16, 1884. v. Madge, born February 2, 1885. vi. Benjamin Gard- ner, born January 28, 1886. vii. Walter Samuel, Jr., born January 8, 1888, vice president in charge of finances and director of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company ; president of the Rokeby Realty Company, the American Nitrogen Company, Ltd. ; treasurer of du Pont securities Company ; director and member of the finance committee of the General Motor Corporation; director of the Wil- mington Trust Company, Wilmington, Delaware, the Equitable Trust Company, New York, the Anglo-South American Trust Company, New York, the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, the Diamond State Tele- phone Company, Wilmington, Delaware, the du Pont Rayon Company, and du Pont Cellophane Company. Wal- ter S. Carpenter is a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. 2. Charles Drake, born in Wilkes-Barre, May 6, 1855, died by drowning, May 14, 1864. 3. Jesse Gardner, born in Wilkes-Barre, October 6, 1857, died July 21, 1891. He was educated at Wyo- ming Seminary. At the time of his death he was book- keeper for B. G. Carpenter and Company. 4. Benjamin Harold, of whom further. 5. Edmund Nelson, of whom further.
Benjamin Harold Carpenter was born in Wilkes-Barre, July 16, 1860, and there attended the public schools and the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania, Lu- zerne County. In 1882, at the age of twenty-two years, he went into the employ of B. G. Carpenter and Com- pany, where he served in all departments, learning the business from every angle ; and in 1889, with his brother, Edmund, attained a partnership. In addition to the prin- cipal office building at No. 6 West Market Street, the company maintains a factory at No. 508 South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre. Mr. Carpenter is president of the B. G. Carpenter Company, is a member and trustee of the First Methodist Church of Wilkes-Barre, a Repub- lican, and is affiliated with a number of fraternal societies, including membership in Lodge No. 61 of the Free and Accepted Masons, Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, Roval Arch Masons, Dieu le Veut Commandery, No. 45, Knights
Templar, Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; a member of the Wyoming His- torical and Geological Society, the Westmoreland Club, Society of American Heating and Ventilating Engineers.
Benjamin H. Carpenter married Georgiana C. Taylor, June 18, 1896. Georgiana C. (Taylor) Carpenter is the daughter of Rev. George Lansing Taylor, D. D., LL. D., and his wife, Eliza Minerva French. Mr. and Mrs. Car- penter are the parents of three children: I. Lansing Taylor, born September 12, 1897, associated with his father in the B. G. Carpenter Company. 2. Donald Fell, born September 24, 1899, with the du Pont de Nemours Company at Leominster, Massachusetts; married Louise Coolidge, May 31, 1928. 3. Lucile, born August 10, 1902, wife of Mahlon K. Jacobs, of Wilkes-Barre, who is also associated with the Carpenter Company ; they have one son, Charles Henry, 2d., born April 7, 1928. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter and their family reside at No. 65 West Union Street, Wilkes-Barre.
Edmund Nelson Carpenter was educated at Wyoming Seminary, and until his father died in 1889, was a clerk for B. G. Carpenter and Company, and then became junior partner in the firm, of which he is now vice- president. He was a first lieutenant and quartermaster of the gth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, stationed at Camp George H. Thomas, Chicka- mauga, Georgia, during the Spanish-American War ; later Major N. G. P. and in civilian life, aside from mercantile interests, he has engaged in mining and prospecting in Western States and Central and South America and Alaska ; is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, of the Foreign Wars, the Spanish-American War Veterans, the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, the Westmoreland Club, and the Wyoming Vailey Country Club, the New York Yacht Club, Metropolitan Club of Washington, District of Columbia, the Santa Barbara Club of Santa Barbara, California. He was chairman of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross during the World War. He is also a member of the Republican party. In November, 1924, Mr. Carpen- ter was clected on the Republican ticket from Luzerne County to the Sixty-ninth Congress, and served on the committee of Claims Merchant Marine, Roads, and Mines. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
HENRY WEIGAND-As an apprentice boy in the Lorillard Tobacco factory in Jersey City, New Jersey, then rising step by step, to more responsible positions, until he became an assistant superintendent of the fine cut and smoking tobacco department, Mr. Weigand worked steadily for eighteen years learning the business of tobacco manufacture. He then came to Wilkes-Barre, in 1900, and on the following New Year's Day assumed the position of superintendent of the Penn Tobacco Com- pany, Inc., of which he became president, following the death of its founder, the late Russell Uhl, in 1914. In this important and responsible position he continued for four- teen years, until he voluntarily and much against the desire of his associates resigned in 1928. Though Mr. Uhl had laid a very solid foundation for this enter- prise, one of the outstanding industries of Wilkes-Barre. its growth and prosperity in more recent years was largely attributable to Mr. Weigand's exceptional business and executive ability, untiring energy, broad vision, and con- rageous enterprise. Though naturally his large and important business responsibilities made heavy demands upon his time and received the major share of his atten- tion, Mr. Weigand has always belonged to that type of business man, who do not limit their abilities and energies to their own business affairs, but freely place them at the command of their fellow-citizens and gen- erously participate in all worth-while civic movements. Naturally his position and reputation are of the highest, not only in business circles, but in respect to many other phases of the community's life.
Henry Weigand was born in the borough of the Bronx, New York City, a son of Philip and Katherine ( Her- mann) Weigand. His father, who died in 1896, was an architect and builder and for many years was affiliated with the large interests of Pierre Lorillard and the Loril- lard family and more particularly with Mr. Lorillard's stock farm at Jobstown, New Jersey. Mr. Weigand's mother died in April, 1921. Having graduated from the public schools of Westchester County, New York, Mr. Weigand worked for a year as a carpenter apprentice for his father on the Lorillard stock farm. In the spring of 1880, at Mr. Lorillard's suggestion, he came to New York City as an office boy in the private real estate office of the Lorillard family. This opportunity was offered to him, because Mr. Lorillard, one of the lead-
258
ing business men and financiers of that period, early perceived and appreciated the exceptional ahility of his young protégé. Two years later, when Mr. Weigand was only seventeen years old, again at the suggestion of Mr. Lorillard, he left the real estate office and accepted a position in the Lorillard Tobacco factory in Jersey City, New Jersey. There he applied himself to sucli good purpose to the acquisition of a very thorough knowl- edge of the tobacco manufacturing business, that after two years, at the age of nineteen years, he was made assistant superintendent of the fine cut and smoking department of this factory, one of the outstanding tobacco manufacturing concerns in the country. He continued to hold this position until November, 1900, when he severed his connections with the Lorillard Company. January 1, 1901, he became superintendent of manufactur- ing operations of the Penn Tobacco Company, Wilkes- Barre, with which he has been connected ever since then. Together with the founder of this company, the late Russell Uhl, he made the enterprise not only into one of the leading industries of Wilkes-Barre, but also into one of the most successful tobacco manufacturing concerns of the East. After the death of Mr. Uhl in 1914, Mr. Weigand was elected president and director, positions he continued to hold until his resignation was reluctantly accepted by his fellow directors, October 26, 1928. Though at that time Mr. Weigand had contemplated complete withdrawal from business responsibilities, he reconsidered this step and at the urgent request of his business associates consented to continue his connections with the company in the capacity of technical advisor. This step brought great satisfaction to the entire per- sonnel of the Penn Tobacco Company, with which Mr. Weigand had always been very popular. . That he enjoyed the entire confidence and the highest respect and the most sincere liking of his associates and employees was only the natural result of his successful management of the company and of his unvarying fairness. Under his able and aggressive direction the business has enjoyed a con- stant growth and its products are favorably known throughout a wide section of the country. Some one hundred and thirty men and women were employed at the time of Mr. Weigand's resignation, and their loyalty to him throughout all the years of his connection with the company has been an important factor in its pros- perity. Of course, Mr. Weigand is widely known in the tobacco industry, but even beyond its limit his standing in the business world in general is very high, a fact proven by his appointment, in June, 1929, as a member of the national panel of arbitrators of the American Arbi- tration Association. In this capacity he will serve, to- gether with some other six thousand prominent business men as an arbitrator in commercial disputes and he will have jurisdiction in such cases arising in the Wilkes- Barre District, if they have been submitted to both sides of the Board of Arbitration of the American Arbitration Association. In politics Mr. Weigand is a supporter of the Republican party, while his religious affiliations are with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and more par- ticularly with St. Clement's Protestant Episcopal Church, of Wilkes-Barre, of which he is senior warden. He is a member of Landmark Lodge, No. 442, Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Shekinah Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Dieu le Veut Commandery, No. 45, Knights Templar ; Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; and the Shrine Country Club. He also belongs to the Wilkes-Barre Rotary Club of which he was at one time one of the governors; the St. Stephen's Men's Club, the Neighborhood Club, the Craftsmen's Club ; and the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce. Since its organization he has been president of the Wyoming Val- ley Building and Loan Association, which owes its exist- ence and prosperity largely to his efforts. He is a direc- tor of the Hanover Bank & Trust Company of Wilkes- Barre and a director of the Industrial Loan Corporation of Wilkes-Barre, as well as a member of the executive committee of the Community Welfare Federation.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.