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 79
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In addition to his military affiliations, Mr. Evans is very prominent in fraternal circles. He is an active mem- ber of Fidelity Lodge, No. 655, Free and Accepted Masons; of Keystone Consistory of Scranton, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masons; and of Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Irem Country Club, which was organized by the Nobles of Irem Temple, and of Wyo- ming Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as well as the local Rotary Club and the Franklin Club of Wilkes-Barre. He is very prominent in all community movements, being a member of the board of directors of the Central Poor District of Luzerne County, and at one time its treasurer ; and one of the Advisory Board of the Luzerne County Red Cross Society. He is, of course, a member of the American Legion, being affiliated with the Wilkes-Barre Post, having held numerous offices. He is vice-president of the Crippled Children's Association of Wyoming Valley. Mr. Evans is president of the Wilkes- Barre Association of Credit Men and is an active mem- ber of the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce, and in every way aids and assists in all movements having for their object the progress and advancement of his com- munity.
The military record of Mr. Evans is a most brilliant one. On January 9. 1908, he became a private in Com- pany F, of the 9th Infantry, National Guard of Penn- sylvania, and in June of the same year was appointed Battalion Sergeant Major. He received his honorable discharge from this post on January 30, 1910, and the next day, January 31, 1910, was appointed second lieu- tenant. He was appointed first lieutenant on December 9, 1910, and received his captainey, January 28, 1913, being assigned as regimental adjutant. On August 16, 1916, he was transferred, as captain, to the 3d Field Artillery, National Guard of Pennsylvania, when the 9th Infantry was transferred into a regiment of light field artillery. From September 8, 1916, to March 29, 1917, Captain Evans was stationed at El Paso, Texas, doing duty with his regiment on the Mexican Border. On July 15, 1917, Captain Evans, as a member of the 3d Pennsylvania Field Artillery, responded to the call of the president for service in the Great War. This regiment was later re-numbered the 100th Field Artillery, as a unit of the 28th Division, American Expeditionary Force. and Captain Evans was appointed major on March 30. 1919, before his return from overseas service. He sailed for France on May 18. 1918, and returned to the United States a year later, May 9, 1919. During this year of service in France he took part in the Oise-Aisne ()ffensive, in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in the Ypres-Lys Offensive, Belgium, and in combats in the Fismes Sector and in the Clermont Sector, France. As stated, he received his majority on March 30, 1919. and among other honors he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. On January 15, 1921, Major Evans was ap- pointed major of the Quartermaster Corps. State Staff
Corps, Pennsylvania National Guard, and was trans- ferred to the National Guard Reserve, June 30, 1923. He was appointed as major of Field Artillery and as- signed to the 53d Field Artillery Brigade as executive officer on March 14, 1927, which post he now holds. He is also a member of the Wilkes-Barre Advisory Board.
On October 10, 1909, Mr. Evans married Minnie Guyler, of Wilkes-Barre, the daughter of John and Martha Guyler, the former one of Wyoming Valley's prominent business operatives. Mr. and Mrs. Evans are the parents of four children, as follows: Faith M., Ben- jamin F., Jr., Martha, and Edith.
OLIVER KNIGHT GRIER, M. D .- Widely known as a skillful physician and surgeon of the homeopathic school, Dr. Oliver K. Grier, of Wilkes-Barre, has a large following in that city and vicinity, where he has prac- ticed for more than twenty years. He also enjoys very high standing in the organized bodies of his profession, having local, county, State and National significance, and in the progressive life of his city he is rated as one of the most helpful of the citizenry.
Dr. Oliver Knight Grier was born in Frederica, Kent County, Delaware, March 1, 1878, the son of James W. and Sara (Knight) Grier. His father, born in Frederica, in 1842, was a successful farmer, who was postmaster of that town for a number of years. He died December 29, 1915. His wife, who was Sara Knight, of Kenton, Dela- ware, born in 1840, died in March, 1913. The son, Oliver, had a progressive educational career, interrupted by seasons of employment while he was accumulating funds with which to pay his way to the goal of his chosen pro- fession. Having passed through the grade schools of Frederica, Delaware, into the high school of that city, from which he was graduated in 1896, he taught school in Delaware for four years and at the Millersville (Penn- sylvania) State Normal School for one year. For the following year he worked as a traveling salesman. Then it was that he was enabled to take up the study of medi- cine, on which all along he had pinned his hope, andl entered Hahnemann Medical College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1906 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. His term as interne was served at the Homeopathic Hospital, Pittsburgh, in 1906-07. In the latter year he established his office in Wilkes- Barre, and has ever since conducted with marked favor and success a general practice of medicine and surgery. He is a surgeon to the Wyoming Valley Homeopathie Hospital, of which he is a director also. His professional associations include membership in the American Insti- tute of Homeopathy, the Homeopathie Medical Society of Pennsylvania, the Luzerne County Homeopathic Medical Society, the Northeastern Homeopathic Medical Society and the Lehigh Medical Society.
As a staunchly'loyal member of the Republican party. Dr. Grier renders invaluable service; apart from ambition to hold public office, to his local, county and State organi- zations. His fraternal relations are with Lodge No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons; Shekinah Chapter. Royal Arch Masons; Dieu Le Veut Commandery, No. 45. Knights Templar ; Caldwell Consistory of the Scottish Rite, of Bloomsburg : Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 109. His religious fellowship is with the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Wilkes-Barre.
Dr. Oliver Knight Grier married, in 1915, Elizabeth Carey, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Carey. of Seranton, and they are the parents of a daughter. Sara Elizabeth, born May 11, 1922. An older child died in infancy.
VICTOR LEE DODSON-For the past seventeen years Victor Lee Dodson has been the owner and man- ager, also an instructor, in the Wilkes-Barre Business College, with which he became identified as instructor in charge of a department in 1908. Mr. Dodson has re- moved the college to its present fine new building, espe- cially designed for its use, at Nos. 29-31 West Northamp- ton Street, in Wilkes-Barre, and is developing the college to a usefulness which is steadily increasing. It is inter- esting to note that Mr. Dodson graduated from this college in 1907, only three years before he became its owner.
The Dodson family is an old and honored one in the history of Eastern Pennsylvania, dating back to colonial times. The progenitor of the Luzerne County branch of the family was Thomas Dodson, who, with his wife, Mary (Prigg) Dodson, and two young sons, removed, about 1723. from Philadelphia to Chester County. Penn-
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sylvania. There in the course of the ensuing twenty years, ten other children were born, four of these being John, born April 10, 1720; Richard, born June 26, 1731 ; Thomas, born in 1732; and James, born in 1734.
John Dodson, mentioned above, removed with his wite and two sons, Thomas and James, from Chester County to Northampton County about 1765, and twelve years later, the male members of the family had settled on the Susquehanna River, within the bounds of what was then the township of Salem, Plymouth District, in the County of Westmoreland, Connecticut, which county comprehended what was more commonly known as the Wyoming region of Pennsylvania, the title to which was bitterly contested for a number of years by the New England settlers and the Pennsylvania land claimers. The names of John, Thomas, and James appear in the tax lists of Plymouth District for the years 1777 and 1778, but after the Wyoming Massacre, July 3, 1778, the whole region was deserted. the Dodsons, with the other in- habitants of Salem, fleeing across the rivers and mountains to their old homes near the Delaware River in Northampton County. When peaceful times came again John Dodson, his son, Thomas, with other mem- bers of their respective families, returned to the Wyo- ming region and reestablished themselves on the lands which they had formerly occupied, and the names of John, Thomas, and James appear in the list of Salem Township taxables for 1796. About 1797 or 1798 John and Thomas Dodson removed their families to the ad- joining township of Huntington, Luzerne County, where John Dodson died, March 10, 1818.
Thomas Dodson, mentioned above, was the great- great-grandfather of Victor Lee Dodson. He seems to have been a farmer, a mill-wright, and a miller, and in 1798, in association with Nathan Beach of Salem, he built the second gristmill, on Marsh Creek, in Huntington County. He married, in 1778, Mehetabel, or Mabel Bixby, born in 1760, died in 1804, and both were ardent Metho- dists. "Their hospitable home was, during his life, the place for general worship, the home of the itinerant ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the place where all Christian people were warmly welcomed." Thomas Dodson died April 29, 1818, seven weeks after the death of his father, and was survived by five sons and five daughters, the second of these being Elias Dod- son, born in 1781, died in 1859, who became an extensive landowner on Huntington Township, and operated saw and gristmills. In later years he became a Baptist preacher, and it was largely through his efforts that the first Baptist meetinghouse in his township was built. The third child of Elias Dodson and his wife, Mary (Long) Dodson. was Nathan Long Dodson, grandfather of Victor Lee Dodson. Born in 1808, died in 1882, he spent his seventy-four years in Huntington Township, engaged in farming, and he and his wife, Susan Stevens, born in 1811, died in 1882, to whom he was married June 2, 1831, were the parents of four sons and five daugh- ters, the youngest of whom was William Egbert Dodson, of whom further.
William Egbert Dodson, son of Nathan Long and Susan (Stevens) Dodson, was born in Huntington Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, August 21, 1853, received his education in the public schools of his native district, and remained on the home farm of his parents until some time after his marriage, working on his father's farm in the summer time, as a youth, and attending school in the winter months. About 1889 he removed to Wilkes-Barre, where, during the next fifteen years, he was engaged in business as a dyer and cleaner. He then returned to the homestead farm in Huntington Township, where he was again engaged in farming. Since 1910 he has resided in Philadelphia. William E. Dodson was married, December 31, 1877, to Alice Rhone Chapin, and they became the parents of four children: Victor Lee, of further mention; Bessie Ethel; Clarence Fur- man ; and Blanche Margaret, who is the wife of William Aston, of Wilkes-Barre.
Victor Lee Dodson was born on the Dodson Homestead in Huntington Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1879, and as a boy attended the public school near his home. After the removal of his parents to Wilkes-Barre, he continued his studies in the public schools of that city, but before he had completed the course leading to graduation left school, at the age of seventeen years and obtained a clerical position. Later, realizing that more education than he possessed would be of advantage to him, he became a student in the Wilkes-Barre Business College, from which he was graduated in 1907. Immediately after graduation he received an appointment as stenographer in the offices of
the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which position he resigned a few months later in order to accept a similar position in the employ of the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre. In the autumn of 1908 he left the employ of this company to become an instructor in charge of a department, in the Wilkes-Barre Business College, and in 1910, by purchase, he became the owner of the institu- tion. He continued for some time in the Savoy Building and then removed to the Anthracite Building, where he continued until May 1, 1925, when the Wilkes-Barre Business College was removed to its present especially designed three-story, fire-proof building at Nos. 2931 West Northampton Street, where its enrollment is stead- ily growing and its efficiency has been greatly increased. Politically, Mr. Dodson gives his support to the principles and the candidates of the Republican party. He is a member of Lodge No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons ; Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, Royal Arch Masons; Dieu le Veut Commandery, No. 45, Knights Templar ; and Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Wilkes-Barre. He is also a member of the Irem Country Club, of the Westmoreland Club, and of the Rotary Club, and his religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Victor Lee Dodson was married ( first) to Martha Watt Morgan, of Wilkes-Barre, the ceremony taking place June 8, 1904. She died November 30, 1919, and he married (second), April 9, 1921, Grace Ethel Shoemaker. There are no children.
HAROLD DAVENPORT DEEMER-Accounted one of the foremost business men in that section of the State of which Wilkes-Barre is a flourishing center, Harold Davenport Deemer is associated as official and director with concerns that are among the most sub- stantial in this city, and that largely represent its most constructive and progressive mercantile interests. Other institutions, financial, general business, and benevolent, are honored in having Mr. Deemer as an advisor and secretary-treasurer ; while whatsoever has to do with the prosperity and advancement of the community has in him a dependable friend and co-worker.
Harold Davenport Deemer was born December 16, 1873, in Wilkes-Barre, a son of Francis J. and Annie M. ( Harris) Deemer. Francis J. Deemer was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Their children were eight in num- ber, four of whom grew to maturity: Harold D., of whom further ; Annie Vaughan; Mabel Albright, and Francis Joseph, all of whom reside in Kingston.
Mr. Deemer attended private schools in Wilkes-Barre, and he chose the career of a merchant, in which he has become a leader. In political matters, he is a Republican, but has never sought political preferment. He holds the secretaryship of the Conyngham Company, a concern that is connected with many of the business interests of this city and the county itself ; he is treasurer of the firm of Deemer and Company. the largest retail stationers in the northeastern part of the State; secretary of the Eastern Pennsylvania Supply Company; member of the board of directors of the Union Savings Bank and Trust Com- pany; trustee, member of the Executive Committee, and chairman of the Budget Committee of the Community Welfare Federation ; treasurer of the United Charities ; assistant treasurer of the Wilkes-Barre General Hos- pital; and member of the Wyoming Valley Country Club; and the Westmoreland Club.
Harold Davenport Deemer married, April 16, 1906, Anna C. Lewis, daughter of George C. and Mary P. ( Squires) Lewis. Their children: Lewis Davenport, deceased February 27, 1922, aged fifteen years; Helen Mary Deemer. Mr. Deemer is a vestryman of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church, and secretary of the Diocese of Bethlehem.
MARSHALL C. RUMBAUGH, M. D .- Conducting a thoroughly equipped up-to-date clinic along with his regular medical and surgical practice, Marshall C. Rum- baugh, M. D., is one of the physicians of Luzerne County who has attracted widespread notice for his work in behalf of his profession and the people of Kingston, Pennsylvania, where he has his offices. Both in his own practice and in his hospital work, Dr. Rumbaugh has demonstrated his skill and complete knowledge of medi- cine, which, combined with his gentleness of personality and his ever kindly attitude toward everyone whom he encounters, render him an almost ideal physician and surgeon.
He was born in Thompsontown, Pennsylvania, a town situated in Juniata County, on December 1, 1881, a son of Cleophas and Elizabeth (Auker) Rumbaugh. His
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father and mother were both born in Perry County, Pennsylvania, in 1859, and his mother died October 23, 1923. Cleophas Rumbaugh was, throughout the produc- tive years of his life, a farmer, although he is now retired from active endeavor. The son, Marshall C., received his early education in the public schools of Perry County, Pennsylvania, near the dwelling-place of his parents, and subsequently he became a student at the State Normal School, in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania. For a time he attended the Lebanon Business College, and then was associated with the Lackawanna Steel Com- pany, in Buffalo, New York, in the capacity of stenog- rapher and bookkeeper. From boyhood he had desired, however, to take up the study of medicine, foreseeing perhaps the greatest possible outlet for his talents in this profession and visualizing in a more or less vague way the work for good that he might accomplish as a physi- cian.
So it was that he became a student at Jefferson Medi- cal College, in Philadelphia, from which he was gradu- ated in the class of 1908 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For two years he served as an interne at Jefferson Hospital, and for two more years as chief resident physician at the Episcopal Hospital in Philadel- phia. Then, in 1911, he came to Kingston, Pennsylvania, where since that time he has conducted a general medical and surgical practice. He has been, since 1912, a member of the staff of the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, and from 1914 until 1917 served as clinical surgical assistant in the "out-patient department." From 1917 he has acted as chief of the surgical service at this hospital during July, August and September of each year.
His medical work was somewhat interrupted for a time by the entrance of the United States into the World War. On May 15, 1917, he was commissioned first lieu- tenant in the United States Army, and on October I of that year reported at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He spent three months in the United States Army Neurosurgical School in New York City, and was then stationed at the General Hospital No. 2, in Baltimore, Maryland, and sub- sequently at Camp Crane, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. On May 15, 1918, he was commissioned a captain in the Army Medical Corps, and on July 4, 1918, sailed for France, where he saw active service in the Marne sector at Chateau Thierry, as well as in the Jouy. Soissons and Argonne sectors. He returned to the United States on August 1, 1919, when he was discharged from the Army at Camp Dix.
Resuming his work in Kingston, Pennsylvania, he brought about some years later, in 1924, the erection of a modern clinic building on North Dorrance Street, No. Io, in which he has conducted his practice since that time and has so benefited a large number of people who have utilized his clinic for their medical and surgical needs. In addition to his activities in his own profession, Dr. Rumbaugh is one of the most public-spirited of Lu- zerne County's citizens, being affiliated with a number of his county's most important organizations. He is active, of course, in the societies of his own profession, being a member of the Luzerne County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, the American Medi- cal Association, and Interstate Post Graduate Association. In his political views he is identified with the Republican party, whose policies and candidates he regularly sup- ports. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which order he belongs to Lodge No. 305: the Key- stone Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Scranton; and Irem Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Wilkes-Barre. His religious affiliation is with the Dorranceton Metho- dist Episcopal Church, in which he is a member of the board of trustees and the teacher of a large and thriving men's Bible class.
In 1911 Dr. Rumbaugh married Daisy May Strunk, of Kingston, daughter of Moses and Louise Strunk. By this union there have been two children : 1. Erma Louise, horn September 21, 1913. 2. Marshall Ulrich, born February 13, 1922.
HORACE G. COOK, JR .- A prominent architect in Wilkes-Barre, Horace G. Cook, Jr., maintains his offices at No. 716 Miners' Bank Building, where he has been situated since he established his own business here in 1921. Before he was engaged in business for himself he worked with a number of firms in different cities, where he gained a variety of experience in his profession, and took a course of university study to fit himself for his career. Now he is not only important as a registered architect, but takes a leading part in the civic, social, and fraternal affairs of Wilkes-Barre and vicinity.
He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 3, 1888, a son of Horace G. and Minnie A. ( Mills) Cook, who now reside in Spokane, Washington. The Cook family is of English origin. Horace G. and Minnie A. (Mills) Cook are the parents of four children: Edith Mills, who is the wife of Henry Jeklin, of Everett, Washington ; Hor- ace G., Jr., of further mention; Jennie Lee, who married W. H. Hathaway, of Spokane, Washington; and Clar- ence Hugh, of Spokane, Washington.
Horace G. Cook, Jr., was only three years of age when his parents removed from Fort Worth, Texas, to Spo- kane, Washington. As a boy he went to the public schools and the high school there, and was graduated from the Spokane High School in the class of 1907. Then he took up the study of architecture in the office of Preusse and Zittle, in Spokane, where he remained unti! 1911. In that year he came East, and entered Columbia University, where he took special studies in architecture. In 1914 he came to Wilkes-Barre, where he became engaged in the office of Sturdevant and Poggi. In 1916 he entered the office of George S. Welsh, in which he worked until 1917, when he went to Philadelphia to take a position with the United States Shipping Board, which then was under the management of Charles M. Schwab. He remained in Philadelphia until May, 1919, when he took a position with the Du Pont Engineering Company, in Wilmington, Delaware. In May, 1921, he returned to Wilkes-Barre, where he opened an office in his present quarters, then No. 716 (now No. 1123) Miners' Bank Building, and engaged in business for himself. His work constantly has met with success, and his achievements are those of a man of ability who set out to build for himself a definite career in a fixed line of endeavor.
Keenly interested in political matters, Mr. Cook holds the opinions of the Republican party. In his religious views he professes the Protestant faith. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he is affiliated with the Wilkes-Barre Lodge, No. 109; and a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which order he is affiliated with and is a charter member of King Hiram Lodge, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ; St. John's Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons; Dien le Veut Commandery, No. 45, Knights Templar, of Wilkes- Barre; and Irem Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and the Irem Country Club. He is a charter member and a past president of the Exchange Club ; a member of the Wharton School Greek letter fraternity, Pi Delta Epsilon; a director of the Kingston Bank and Trust Company, of Kingston, Pennsylvania ; a director of the West Side Building and Loan Association ; and a member of the Columbia Hose Company, of Kingston, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Cook married Marie Folsom Hartman, of Blooms- burg, Pennsylvania, on September 15, 1915. She is a daughter of John Hervy and Lydia ( Moore) Hartman. Horace G. and Marie Folsom ( Hartman) Cook are the parents of one daughter, Barbara Marie.
WILLIAM E. DOW-Since 1919 William E. Dow has been general agent for the Wilkes-Barre district in the employ of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in this capacity he has given most efficient service. He has his office in Room 304, in the Second National Bank Building of Wilkes-Barre, and during the eight years which have passed since he took this position he has written a record number of policies.
John C. Dow, father of Mr. Dow, was a merchant of Demopolis, Alabama, for many years. He was a son of Rev. John R. Dow, a native of Scotland who came to America while he was a young man and was for many vears a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Aiken, South Carolina. John C. Dow married Irene Kohler, and they became the parents of three children: Robert B., who is engaged in the cotton business in New Orleans, Louisiana ; John C., Jr., who is a planter at Demopolis, Alabama : and William E., of further mention.
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