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 81
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Robert Augustus Quin married, July 16, 1887, Minnie Thickins, of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Their children are: 1. Herbert T., a mechanical engineer with the Phil- adelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company of Pottsville, married and has two . sons, George Stites and Robert Augustus. 2. Margaret, married B. E. Holifield, of South Walnut Street, Kingston, and has three sons, Robert E., James Mccutcheon, and Richard Quin. 3. Robert D., of Hazleton, real estate and insurance operator. 4. William R., general contractor of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania.
Robert Augustus Quin was an ideal representative of that class of American business men who do things as much for the sake of doing them as for personal reward, His first thought was for the success of the enterprise hecause of the faith given him by those who entrusted him with the work, his second was to make it succeed for the sake of industrial progress, his third was to make contented operatives through just emolument and fair treatment. In all of them he was successful and left a name for achievement that will long stand high in the progressive history of Pennsylvania and the Wyo- ming Valley in which he did most of his labor.
CHARLES PARRISH HUNT-The Hunt family is of English origin. For many generations, and perhaps for centuries it has been identified with the ancient town of York. Thomas Hunt ( 1770-1832) was a barrister there. His office was located almost within the shadow of the Minster, and the Hunt name is still seen on offices on the same site. Aside from this historical association it is known that one of a former generation, when a boy of nine, was held on the shoulders of his grandfather, and watched the troops march past the Minster to join the Duke of Wellington's Army, before the Battle of Water- loo. Thomas Hunt married Rachel Bell of York, a Quak- eress, and they had seven children. Of these, Dr. Elwood Hunt was a surgeon in the British Army and died in Australia. Of the Bell family, Dr. Frederick was a phy- sician in York, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Francis William Hunt ( Mr. Charles Hunt's father) was born in the city of York, May 17, 1806. He came to America in 1835, and resided in Cincinnati for a short time, but was afterward attracted by the opportunities of the largely developed lumber operations at Meshoppen, Pa. Mr. Hunt was for a time post master at Meshoppen. Accumulated real estate and coal interests induced his removal to Wilkes-Barre. In the rapidly growing com- munity he became known as one of the prominent and successful men of the generation. He was director in the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre. He married, May 6, 1840, Sarah Althea Parrish, born May 17, 1817; died October 24, 1893. She was a daughter of Archipus and Phoebe ( Miller ) Parrish, of Wilkes-Barre, and sister of Charles Parrish, whose name has long been recognized as the master mind of earlier coal operations in the Wyo- ming Valley and vicinity. The children of Francis Wil- liam and Sarah Althea Hunt were: I. Elwood Herring, born in Meshoppen, February 14, 1841, and who saw long service in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was afterward identified with the business of Wilkes- Barre. 2. Charles Parrish, born in Meshoppen, July 31, 1843. of whom further. 3. Francis William, Jr. 4. Anna Mercy. Francis William Hunt died in Wilkes-Barre, November 6, 1871.
Charles Parrish Hunt attended the public schools of Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Seminary. On leaving the
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seminary, 1859, he went into business with the firm of Rutter and Reading, at that time a leading hardware concern, and in 1866 he became a partner of the firm Rutter, Reading & Company. In 1869 he formed a part- nership with Mr. Reading under the name of Reading and Hunt. In 1876 Mr. Hunt became sole proprietor, and so continued until 1880. In 1893 he retired from that business, and gave his attention to other and more extended concerns. He became associated with the or- ganization of the Hillman Vein Coal Company in 1882, and was manager and treasurer until it was sold in 1902. He was one of the organizers of the Langcliffe Coal Company of Avoca, and was treasurer until its sale to other interests. He was also for a long period treasurer and director of the Parrish Coal Company, and a. mem- ber of the firm of Parrish Phillips and Company, sales agents for coal and operating from New York . City. Other business affiliations have been: President of the Wilkes-Barre Iron Manufacturing Company, director of the Vulcan Iron Works, director and many years vice- president of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre; director of the Hazard Manufacturing Company, and director of the Franklin Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, the oldest insurance company in America. He has always been known as a man of sound poise, business judgment, clear vision, incorruptible integrity and of warm human sympathy. He has always borne an active part in broader community concerns. In his earlier years together with other prominent citizens he served as a member of the Neptune Fire Company. He was trustee of Memorial Church, and later and for many years trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, director of the Wilkes-Barre Institute, of the Children's Home and of the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital; aº member of the Westmoreland Club, of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, of the Country Club of Scran- ton, and he was in 1896 one of the organizers and a charter member of the Wyoming Valley Country Club.
Mr. Hunt married in New Orleans, April 6, 1875, Grace Stanton Lea, daughter of Judge James Neilson and Hetty McNair Lea. They had three children; Fran- cis William, born December, 1875, who died in infancy ; Lea, concerning whom further; and Charles P. Hunt, Jr., born 1880, died January 28, 1883.
LEA HUNT, son of Charles Parrish and Grace Stanton (Lea) Hunt was born in Wilkes-Barre, Sep- tember 19, 1878. He was a student at Hillman Academy, and at Taft School, Waterbury, Connecticut. From Taft he entered Yale University. After college he be- came associated in business with his father, and later became a member of the firm of Parrish Phillips & Company, coal dealers of New York City. He was for a time director and president of the Association of Penn- sylvania Constructors. He is director of the First Na- tional Bank of Wilkes-Barre, of the Wilkes-Barre Iron Manufacturing Company, of the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, and was director and afterward president of the Wilkes-Barre Branch of Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind, and an officer of the State corporation affiliated therewith.
He married, December 8, 1908, Kathleen, third daugh- ter of Dr. Joseph and Frances Parrish Murphy, the former many years a prominent physician in Wilkes- Barre.
Lea Hunt's ancestral line on the paternal side has already been indicated. The maternal line is closely asso- ciated from colonial times with the South. His mother, Grace Stanton Lea, was a daughter of a distinguished Louisiana jurist, Judge James Neilson Lea, born in Ba- ton Rouge, November 26, 1815, and died In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1884. He married Hetty Hart McNair, daughter of John McNair, of a fine old Scotch family, who were of the MacFarlane clan, and descend- ants from the third Earl of Lennox. A split in the an- cient clan, one part following the heir, and the other part the brother, explains the name MacNair. Buchanan of Auchman whose history of the Scottish clans is re- garded as highest in authority names various estated gentlemen and families who assumed and yet bear clan names "among them the MacNairs who are pure Mac- Farlanes." This he states is the only clan except possibly the Donnachis whose descent from the Earl of the dis- trict in which his possessions lay, can be proved by charter. The MacNairs were among the earliest in Scotland to adhere to the Presbyterian kirk. Later the family left their home on the banks of the River Dee, and emigrated to Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
James Neilson Lea, grandfather of Lea Hunt, read law with his uncle, Judge Harper, a member of the Supreme
Court of Louisiana, and later became judge of the Sec- ond District Court of New Orleans. In 1847 he went upon the Supreme Bench of Louisiana as Associate Justice. He received in 1877 the degree of Doctor of Laws from Washington and Lee University. The family had been instant in public service from colony days, both in the crises of war and of legislation. The name appears in Virginia records as early as 1654. The particular line here recounted is traced to John Lea of Lea Hall, Che- shire, England. James Lea came from England in 1740, accompanied by a brother, and other relatives. Soon after they moved to North Carolina and Tennessee.
Rev. Luke Lea, of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, married Elizabeth Wilson, whose father, Zaccheus Wil- son, was proponent and signer of the famous Mecklen- burg Declaration, which preceded by a year the other instrument, the Declaration of Independence, signed in Philadelphia in 1776, and the former has always been considered as having been a model for the latter. Zac- cheus Wilson was also a member of the provincial Con- gress of South Carolina in 1776, and of the later con- vention of that State, summoned in 1787 to consider the proposed Federal Constitution.
Judge Lea was among those of the Lea family who participated in momentous happenings of the Civil War. of 1861-65. It is a page of unwritten history that in the darkest days of the Confederacy he undertook a secret mission to England. This mission might have been suc- cessful had not Russia's stand at that time shown plainly that if England intervened she would defend the North, and she actually sent a fleet to New York Harbor, in gratitude for which, Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for seven and a half million dollars.
JONATHAN R. DAVIS-Typical of the character. and all-round achievements of Jonathan R. Davis, presi- dent of the Wilkes-Barre Deposit and Savings Bank, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is the slogan of that insti- tution -- "The Savings Bank on the Square." Mr. Davis has carved out a career successful for himself and bene- ficial to the whole community, where he has served as a business, civic, and religious leader.
Jonathan R. Davis was born at Danville, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1864, son of John J. and Ann ( Rogers) Davis, the former deceased and the latter still alive and hearty at the age of eighty-five. The father was brought to the United States by his parents when he was five years of age, and he became a music dealer in Wilkes-Barre, to which he moved when his son was a year old. His wife was a daughter of William Rogers, one of the early settlers of Plymouth, Luzerne County. Ten children were born to them.
Jonathan R. Davis was educated in the public schools of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania, in 1883. He began as a worker in the mines at Plymouth and later employed in a wholesale grocery house. After two years in the grocery business in Monrovia, California, 1887-89. he returned to Wilkes-Barre, and was representative for the wholesale grocery firm of Gennerich and Von Bremen, of New York, for Northeastern Pennsylvania territory for a period of twenty years.
It was in 1905 that Mr. Davis began to become a part of the larger public life. He was elected sheriff of Lu- zerne County and held office in 1906-07-08. In 1912 came his appointment by the court to the first Luzerne County Board of Assessors, which he served for three years as president. In 1915 he engaged in real estate transactions which have resulted so advantageously for him that he is recognized as a leading realtor of Wilkes-Barre, and with his son, John Allen Davis, have their offices in the new Wilkes-Barre Deposit and Savings Bank Building. On July 1, 1918, the directors of the Wilkes-Barre De- posit and Savings Bank elected this resourceful and able man as president, and have, like the entire clientele of the bank, been eminently satisfied with Mr. Davis' eleven years incumbency. Director of the bank he heads, Mr. Davis is president and treasurer of the Mount Green- wood Cemetery Association, director of the Royer Foundry and Machine Company of Wilkes-Barre, vice- president and director of the Jones Oil Company, and vice-president of the Finch Manufacturing Company of Scranton. Pennsylvania. He is also prominent in other than business phases of local affairs. A Republican, he served for four years as county chairman of his party. and was elected a delegate to the National Convention, which nominated Herbert Hoover for the Presidency, at Kansas City. in June, 1928. A member of the Kingston Presbyterian Church, he has been president of its board of trustees for many years. His fraternal associations
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Fouthan R. Davis
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are with Plymouth Lodge, No. 332, Free and Accepted Masons ; Dieu le Veut Commandery, No. 45, Knights Templar, of Wilkes-Barre ; Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His cluhs are the Westmoreland, the Irem Temple Country, the Franklin, and Craftsmen's of Wilkes-Barre.
On October 10. 1894. Jonathan R. Davis married Mollie Cogswell, of Los Angeles, California. They reside in a beautiful home at No. 145 South Maple Avenue, Kingston, and have a summer home at the elevation overlooking Harvey's Lake, fifteen hundred feet above sea-level, which has been given the descriptive name of "Pen Bryn," meaning "top of the hill." Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis: John Allen; Albert Gordon ; Helen Cogswell, wife of Herbert Clerk, who reside in England ; and Elizabeth Armena, wife of Reed Whitsell, of Philadelphia.
MARTIN E. MOORE-Among the substantial and representative citizens of Luzerne County, Martin E. Moore, real estate operator and insurance agent with offices in the Simon Long Building, at Wilkes-Barre, is counted by his associates in the commercial life of the city to be outstanding. He has had a widely diver- sified business experience, having been a telegraph opera- tor, a bookkeeper and city assessor for the city of Wilkes- Barre before engaging in real estate and insurance; and he is now ( 1929) vice-president of the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company of Wilkes-Barre, a director of the board of the Keystone Building and Loan Asso- ciation at Wilkes-Barre, director of the Wilkes-Barre Industrial Loan Corporation, vice-president of the United Charities and director and treasurer of the Mercy Hos- pital, at Wilkes-Barre. Resident in Wilkes-Barre and vigorously concerned in its civic and commercial wel- fare since :884, Mr. Moore is held in most sincere regard by the people of Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County, in whose interests he has served in manifold capacity.
Martin E. Moore was born at Minersville, Schuylkill County, October 30, 1861, a son of Michael and Mary (Purcell) Moore, deceased. Michael Moore and his wife Mary, were the parents of nine children, of whom seven reached maturity : Mary, wife of Charles A. Dorn- bach: Patrick, deceased ; Ellen, deceased; James F., of Minersville; Veronica, wife of John F. O'Neill, of Moline, Illinois ; Margaret, wife of C. Gaffney of Wilkes- Barre; Anastasia, wife of James Burke of Wilkes-Barre ; Joseph A., deceased; and Martin E., of further mention. Michael Moore, the father, was a native of Queens County, Ireland.
Martin E. Moore was educated in the public schools of the place of his birth, and became a telegraph operator for the Philadelphia, Reading Coal and Iron Company, at Minersville; and at the age of twenty-four years he removed to Wilkes-Barre to become a bookkeeper for the Dickson Manufacturing Company, remaining with this company for a period of thirteen years. In 1890 his circle of friends had increased to such an extent that when he was urged to run for the office of city assessor, he entered the race, and was elected. He held the office three years, and during that time became acquainted with practically every important business man in Wilkes- Barre. When he opened his real estate and insurance office in 1898 his success was apparent at once and has been amply proved in succeeding years. Now (1929) with offices 50-52-54 in the Simon Long Building, his business is one of the most important of its kind in Wilkes-Barre, and in point of time of operation, Mr. Moore is one of the oldest operators in real estate and insurance in the city. As with other affairs of the com- munity, he has always taken an interest in politics, in which he holds considerable influence locally ; and nation- ally he is regarded as a well informed and thinking observer. He is a Democrat, a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church, and affiliated with Council No. 302 of the Knights of Columbus at Wilkes-Barre.
Martin E. Moore married, May 22, 1880, Anna E. Harter, daughter of Francis and Bridget (King) Harter, of Wilkes-Barre. Mr. and Mrs. Moore are the parents of six children: 1. Joseph A., a member of the real estate and insurance firm of M. E. Moore and Son. 2. Florence M., wife of Frederick W. Kulicke of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, mother of three children, Francis, Frederick W., Jr., and Robert. 3. Frances H., wife of John H. Neafie, of Freehold, New Jersey, mother of one son, John. 4. Harvey M., a dentist, at Pottsville ; married Loretta Little of Pottsville, and they have one child, Winifred Anna. 5. Howard F., of Florida. 6. Anne .M., unmarried, living with her parents.
GEORGE H. HORST, vice-president and treasurer of Isaac Benesch & Sons Company, Inc., with general offices in Baltimore, Maryland, and doing business in Pennsylvania as Benesch & Sons, has won his present place through forty years of hard work. He is the son of John and Catherine ( Yeager) Horst, of Balti- more, Maryland, and was born there September 26, 1875. His father died when he was only one month old, leav- ing him to be reared by a widowed mother. He had few advantages of school education and has gained his knowledge from the broad school of experience. At the age of fourteen years he went to work, his first job being with the firm of which he is now one of the executives. He started cut in the position of office boy and earned his advancements by application to duty and promotion of the good of the organization. This busi- ness, one of the largest in Baltimore, known as Isaac Benesch and Sons handles a full line of furniture and house-furnishing goods and operates stores in a number of Pennsylvania cities. When he had been with the Baltimore house for several years, he was transferred from one department to another, going even into the shipping department where horse-drawn vehicles were then in use for delivering goods, and where he drove horses and handled hoxcs and was recognized as a gen- cral all-around hustler without bothering about his hours of labor.
After twelve years of faithful service, and at the age of only twenty-six, Mr. Horst was sent to Wilkes- Barre where he was appointed credit manager, a position that he capably filled. In 1904, he was created manager of the local store and in 1923 he became treasurer of the corporation. acting manager of the Wilkes-Barre store and supervising manager of the Allentown and Pottsville stores. In January, 1927, he was elected vice- president and treasurer of the corporation. The organiza- tion of Benesch and Sons is considered the largest organ- ization of its kind in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
In politics, Mr. Horst is a Republican and he is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church of Wilkes- Barre. He is a member of Lodge No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons ; Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, Royal Arch Masons; Dieu le Vent Commandery. No. 45. Knights Templar ; Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Wilkes-Barre; Irem Temple Country Club : Craftsmen's Club: Wilkes-Barre Rotary Club of which he is a past president; and a member of the Franklin and the Westmoreland clubs. He is also a member of the Concordia Society.
On September 4, 1901, George H. Horst married Lulu M. Lumberson, of Baltimore, Maryland, daughter of John and Lydia ( Pope) Lumberson. Mr. and Mrs. Horst have two children : Lillian M., the wife of Dr. Wilson C. Marsden of Wilkes-Barre ; Willard MI., assist- ant manager of Benesch and Sons at Wilkes-Barre.
WILLIAM W. SMITH-In the business life of Nan- ticoke, William W. Smith is one of the most prominent young men and has achieved a position of importance in commercial and financial circles throughout the State in his activities as president of the Peoples Savings & Trust Company, and general manager of the Scouton- Lee Lumber Company, both of this city. He also is vice-president of John M. Lee, Inc., Brooklyn, New York. Mr. Smith began his career as a member of the teach- ing profession, but soon relinquished his connection with this field of endeavor and entered the realm of commerce in which he has since continued. His popularity in civic and fraternal affairs is attested by his membership in the leading clubs and fraternal orders of his community. while in the interests of public welfare and progress, he has always given his support and aid.
Mr. Smith was born in West Nanticoke, Jannary 22, 1893. son of William W. and Lillian H. ( Yingst) Smith, both of whom reside in West Nanticoke. William W. Smith is a member of one of the oldest and most promi- nent families of this vicinity, being a direct descendant of the carliest settlers of the Wyoming Valley.
William W. Smith was educated in the public schools of Plymouth Township, and graduated from the Broad- way High School with the class of 1900, being then only sixteen years of age. Receiving a teacher's certi- ficate the same year, he lacked a year of the required age to teach, and he therefore substituted for a year, and at the age of seventeen, was appointed to the Cease- town School in Jackson Township and was occupied in teaching at that school until February 15, 1911. Resign- ing from his position, he gave up the educational profes- sion and accepted a position with George F. Lee Coal
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Company as weighmaster and clerk at the Chauncey Col- liery in Avondale. On February 25, 1912, he was trans- ferred to the Lee & Scouton Lumber Company as book- keeper, in which capacity he was engaged until April 1, 1914, when he purchased an enterprise at Sweet Valley and engaged in the mercantile business, continuing it suc- cessfully until 1916, when he returned to the employ of the Lee & Scouton Lumber Company as bookkeeper. His thorough knowledge of business details and his ear- nest application to his work caused him to advance steadily until, on October 15, 1916, Mr. Smith was ap- pointed manager of the Lee & Scouton Lumber Company at Nanticoke and ably directed the affairs of this large concern until January 1, 1925, when the Lee & Scouton Lumber Company and the Scouton & Lee Company of Parsons were both incorporated under the name of Scouton-Lee Lumber Company, and at this time, Mr. Smith was elected general manager of the entire cor- poration and also became one of the three directors of this concern, in company with George F. Lee and George P. Schaad. This corporation was formed with a paid- up capitalization of $250,000 and is engaged in han- dling and distributing a complete line of building mate- rials. The large yard at Nanticoke is located in the Eighth Ward, while the Parsons yard is now within the city limits of Wilkes-Barre.
In 1923, Mr. Smith was one of the organizers of the Peoples Savings & Trust Company at Nanticoke of which institution he is now president, and in this capacity, has done much to aid the development of his city. His frater- nal affiliations are with Sylvania Lodge, No. 354, Free and Accepted Masons, of Shiekshinny: Caldwell Con- sistory ; Irem Temple, Ancient Arabie Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Nanticoke Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a Past Noble Grand; Junior Order United American Mechanies, and probably the youngest l'ast Councillor in Pennsylvania. His social activities are confined chiefly to the Franklin Cluh, of Wilkes- Barre, and the Craftsmen's Club of Nanticoke. In his religious adherence, he is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Smith has always maintained a deep inter- est in educational and cultural progress, and he supple- mented his high school training with a course in archi- tecture at the International Correspondence Schools, of Seranton, and later was a member of the first class of the Wharton School of Wilkes-Barre.
William W. Smith married, October 31, 1916, Anna May Thomas, daughter of Stephen C. and Letitia Thomas, both descendants of Welsh ancestors. To this union were born three children: Catherine Reba, Marian Wanda, and Kenneth William. The family residence is located at No. 88 Old River Road. Wilkes-Barre. Mrs. Smith is prominently active in all local affairs and is influential in various church and women's organizations, taking a leading part in the affairs of the Order of the Eastern Star.
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