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 85
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The children of George and Mary Bowman (Stevens) Rhone are as follows: I. Permelia Stevens, born April 22, 1836, aforementioned as the wife of Miller Barton Trescott. 2. Daniel LaPorte, born January 19, 1838, for many years a successful lawyer at Wilkes-Barre, and for twenty years judge of the Orphans' Court of Luzerne County ; he married (first), December 6, 1861, Emma Hale Kinsey, daughter of John Kinsey, of Montgomery Station, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. She died Feb- ruary 18, 1878. They had one daughter, Mary Panthea, wife of Harry G. Marcy. Daniel LaPorte Rhone married (second), December 31, 1879, Rosamond L. Dodson, born in Downieville, Sierra County, California, daughter of Osborne and Lucy (Wadsworth) Dodson, of Pennsyl- vania. Judge and Mrs. Rhone are the parents of two daughters : Alice Buckalew, born November 15, 1880. and Helen Wadsworth, born November 5, 1884. Judge Rhone died in 1908, at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 3. Susan Bowman, born January 8, 1840, became the wife of Alfred T. Creveling, born September 25, 1833, died at Plymouth, Pennsylvania, February 2, 1906. Mrs. Creveling is living in 1925, and is the mother of Daryl LaPorte and John Quincy Creveling, prominent attorney of the Luzerne County Bar: George Rhone Creveling of Carhondale ; Laura M., wife of G. A. Hinterleitner, of West Virginia, and Drusilla, first wife of Mr. Hinterleitner, who died in West Virginia. 4. John Crawford, born January 29, 1842, married Maria Baker, died in 1894. 5. Zebulon Stratton, born September 2, 1845, married Jennie Crosth-
waite, of. Williamsport, Pennsylvania; he died in Neb- raska, February 5, 1887 ; was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 6. Minerva, born March 23, 1847, died in 1892. 7. Aristo Caroline, born January 10, 1850, died in infancy. 8. Samuel Matthias, born September 25, 1852, married Amanda Waltman, of Montgomery, Penn- sylvania, died in 1914. He was a lawyer of Luzerne County for many years. 9. Freas Brown, born August 19, 1860, married Lillian Grover, of Rupert, Pennsylvania.
The children of Miller Barton and Permelia Stevens (Rhone) Trescott are: 1. Sylvester Boyd, married Anna Potter ; they have one child, Paul Henry. 2. Mary Luella, hereinafter mentioned. 3. George Rhone, married Emma Harrison ;_ they have two children: Leroy, married Hazel Nixon, and Liva Permelia, married Fred W. Blencoe, of England. 4. Minerva Patterson, wife of Charles W. Snyder, a journalist, of Williamsport; they have five children : Martha, Barton, Russell, Richard, and Harold, who died at the age of ten years. 5. Josephine, married Harry H. Davenport, of Huntington Township ; they have five children : Herman, Robert, Frances, Irene and Mary. 6. Rush, attorney-at-law, of Wilkes-Barre, married Eliza- beth May Wilbur; they have one child, Wilbur. 7. Emma, unmarried; engaged in missionary work among the foreign speaking people, founded the Anthracite Mis- sion at Hazleton, and was a welfare worker for the Phila- delphia and Reading Coal Company at Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. She died, September 9, 1927. 8. Robert, married Eliza Dreisbach, great-great-granddaughter of Luther Trescott, and great-granddaughter of Susan Dod- son, hereinbefore mentioned; they had one child, Barton, born June 8, 1914. Eliza (Dreisbach) Trescott died at the old homestead at Huntington, December 4, 1918.
Miller Barton Trescott, the father of these children, died December 22, 1897. His wife died May 12, 1905. She was a devout member and indefatigable worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. She reared her family in the nurture and admonition of God. She was an omnivorous reader of the best in literature and was a 1 eady and informative conversationalist. Her life was a blessing to her family and to her fellow-members and pastors of the church. She was buried beside her hus- band at Southdale, Huntington Valley.
(VIII) Mary Luella Trescott, the second child and eldest daughter of Miller Barton and Permelia Stevens (Rhone) Trescott, was born in Huntington, Luzerne County, and was a pupil of the public schools in her native district. She next became a student at the New Columbus Academy, New Columbus, Pennsylvania, after- ward following the profession of teaching with marked success in the schools of Ashley, White Haven, West Pittston and Wilkes-Barre. Being desirous of supple- menting her education, she entered Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York, whence she was grad- uated in the class of 1893. For two years she was a law student in the office of Henry W. Palmer, former attorney-general and member of Congress, and a lead- ing lawyer of Wilkes-Barre. She was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County, October 14, 1895, and had the distinction of being the first woman upon whom that rank was conferred. She was first appointed referee in bank- ruptcy, December 1, 1921, and was reappointed in 1923, 1925, and 1927, she also being the first woman in the country to be the recipient of such an honor. She has since been engaged in the administration of her official duties and in the general practice of law. She has made the Orphans' Court and corporation law her specialty, and she is considered remarkably well furnished in those two departments of practice. She was admitted to prac- tice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1899, and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, April 16, 1906, having been spon- sored by Solicitor-General Henry M. Hoyt. Ex-Attorney General Henry W. Palmer died in 1913, and as his suc-, cessor Miss Trescott became a member of the board of executors of the Handley Estate in Scranton, Pennsyl- vania. Upon the foundation of the Boys' Industrial Asso- ciation, she was chosen its treasurer and secretary. She became president of the Florence Crittenton Circle of Wilkes-Barre, and is one of the founders of the Shelter and Day Nurseries of Wilkes-Barre. She was the first president of the Quota Club of Wilkes-Barre, a business women's organizations.
During the World War, she was exceedingly active in behalf of the Federal Government. She served as chair- man of registration of women for Luzerne County, in which work she was ably assisted by the school teachers. She was chairman of the women's section in the Liberty Loan and bond drives, and was chairman of the various school drives, which enterprises netted the government
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one and one-half millions of dollars. She was once a candidate for Judge of the Orphans' Court, but was defeated by a small plurality. In 1911 she was elected a member of the Wilkes-Barre City School Board for four years and was reelected in 1915 for six years. During her tenure of office she has been responsible for the introduction of domestic science and art for the girls and of manual training for the boys.
Miss Trescott is vice-president of the Women's Law Association, a national organization; in 1916 she was vice-president of the Wilkes-Barre City School Board and vice-president of the School Directors' Association of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association, the Women's Christian Association, the Wilkes-Barre Civic League, Luzerne County Woman Suffrage League, Wyoming Valley His- torical Society, Florence Crittenton Circle of Wilkes- Barre, the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce and the Luzerne County Farm Bureau, and president of Luzerne County Council of Republican Women, an organization having a membership of twelve hundred.
Miss Trescott now owns the old homestead. near Hunt- ington Mills, on the State Highway, Shickshinny and Benton, which was purchased by her grandfather. Peter Sylvester Trescott, in 1814, where her father, she and her brothers and sisters were born and grew to manhood and womanhood.
JOHN MacLUSKIE-As sheriff of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, John MacLuskie, one of the leading men of Wilkes-Barre, holds a position that not only is a responsible one but he is also highly respected by members of the community in which he lives and carries on his official duties. An indication of his popularity in this section of Pennsylvania is contained in the fact that in the last elections he was chosen by both the Democratic and Republican parties as candidate for the office of sheriff. He was first elected to this office in 1920 on the Republican ticket for a term of four years; but he filled his position so creditably that after four years in 1927. both parties selected him as their candidate. Never before in the history of Luzerne County had the same man heen elected to the office of sheriff to serve two terms of four years each. Mr. MacLuskie is a thoroughly public-spirited man, and is ready at all times to devote his energies to the task of improving conditions in Wilkes- Barre and in Luzerne County. He is active in a number of fraternal orders and organizations of different sorts,
A native of Scotland. he is a son of Alexander and Margaret ( Harrison ) MacLuskie, the latter of whom is still living. His parents came to America and settled in Luzerne County as early as 1882. Here the father, Alexander MacLuskie, was a miner for many years ; and he and his wife were the parents of four children : Annie, who married William Curnow, of Wilkes-Barre : John, of further mention in this article; Alexander, who is a miner in Plains, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania ; and Margaret, who is the wife of the Rev. R. J. Curnow, a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Shickshinny, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
John MacLuskie, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, August 14, 1873, was only nine years old when his par- ents came to the United States and settled in Plains, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania ; and while a boy, he attended the public schools of this county. When he was eleven years of age, he became a breaker boy at the old Mill Creek Mine, in Plains. At the age of four- teen years, he went into the mines as a mule driver and doorkeeper, and subsequently became a coal miner. But las principal interest, all through childhood, had been in music. a field in which he showed considerable talent while still very young. So he became a member of the old Thistle Band, in Plains; and it was not long before he played the cornet with skill. Later he became the leader of the Plains Band, a position which he continued to hold for several years; then he joined the famous Alexander's Band, in Wilkes-Barre, of which he remained a member for many years. In the meantime, he had joined Oppenheim's Orchestra, and later Luft's Orch- estra, and did a great amount of playing in the theaters of Wilkes-Barre. In 1917, he organized MaeLuskie's Band, of which he became the conductor. When the United States entered the World War, he joined the 109th Field Artillery under the command of the late Colonel Asher Miner. Not long after his enlistment this company was sent to Franec, where he served for nearly two years in his country's military forces on the French front and took part in five major offensive move- ments. He returned to the United States in May, 1910. and in 1920 he was elected sheriff on the Republican
ticket. Since that time he has continued to fill the office of sheriff efficiently and courageously. Always extremely interested in political matters, he has aligned himself with the Republican party, in whose principles he is a firm believer. He is a member of many fraternal socie- ties, having unusually strong connections in this respect. He belongs to the Free and Accepted Masons, in which order he is identified with the Fidelity Lodge, No. 655. of Wilkes-Barre; the Chapter, No. 182, of Royal Arch Masons ; the Dieu le Veut Commandery, No. 45, Knights Templar ; the Keystone Consistory of Scranton, the An- cient Accepted Scottish Rite Masons of the thirty-second degree ; and Irem Temple of the Ancient Arabie Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and the Irem Country Club, and is the leader of the Irem Temple Band; the Inde- Pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is affiliated with the Wyoming Lodge, and is leader of the Shalmir Band of the order, in which capacity he won a prize in August, 1927, at the organization's convention in To- ronto, Province of Ontario, Canada ; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he is a member of Lodge No. 109 of Wilkes-Barre; the Knights of Malta, in which his connection is with the John Knox Com- mandery : the Loyal Order of Moose; and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
John MacLuskie, on October 25, 1893, married Marie Hooper, a daughter of Thomas and Jane ( Nankehill) Hooper, of Plains, Luzerne County. John and Marie ( Hooper) MacLuskie are the parents of four children : Frederick Arnold, who is now deceased; Donald Alex- ander : Janet ; and John, Jr.
GEORGE W. WALBORN, contractor and builder of Wilkes-Barre, was horn in Schuylkill County, Pennsyl- vania, April 17. 1865. the son of Jacob J. and Anna ( Faust ) Walborn. His father, native of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, was a farmer in Locust Valley, and died in 1902. His mother, native of Locust Valley, Schuylkill County, also died in that year.
On his father's farm in Locust County, Mr. Walborn worked until he was eighteen years of age, meanwhile having attended the schools of that neighborhood. There- after he secured a varied experience in work, and in 1887. when he was twenty-two, came to Wilkes-Barre. He learned the trade of carpenter in Mahanoy City and followed it for eighteen years in Wilkes-Barre. In 1905, joining in partnership with Stanley Barney, they formed the firm of Walborn and Barney, building contractors. This firm has flourished with angmented prosperity through the years that have passed, being the oldest firm of its kind in Wyoming Valley, and for over a quarter of a century they have worked hand in hand without a ripple of disagreement. Aside from his career as builder. Mr. Walborn has interested himself in other ventures financially, and is now a director of the Dime Bank Title and Trust Company, of Wilkes-Barre, having held this post since July, 1919. He is a Republican, a commmicant of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, and fraternally is affiliated with Lodge No. 442, Free and Accepted Masons: Shekinah Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Cald- well Consistory, at Bloomsburg. Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, and Irem Temple, Ancient Arabie Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also being affiliated with the Sons of America, one of the members of this latter order since 1883.
George W. Walhorn married. in 1891. Catherine Klingeman, of East Mahancy, Pennsylvania, daughter of Charles Klingeman. Mr. and Mrs. Walborn are the par- ents of four children : Stanley K., married; Grace, wife of W. A. Collitt: Katherine L., wife of I. Forrester Labagh ; and Charles F., married Elizabeth Hughes.
ANDREW V. KOZAK, one of the most prominent and able business men of Wilkes-Barre, is president of the Pennsylvania Bank and Trust Company of this city. and organizer and owner of the A. V. Kozak Company, designers and manufacturers of granite, marble, and I ronze memorials, statuary, and mausoleums, and marble church furnishings. Mr. Kozak has served as Supreme Officer of the First Slovak Union of America for twenty years, and is prominently identified with the State and national Slovak unions.
Andrew Kozak, father of Mr. Kozak, came to this country from that part of Austria Hungary which is now Czecho-Slovakia, in 1800, bringing his family. with him. He settled in lessup, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. lle and his wife, Mary, who is now deceased, were the parents of five children: Anna. Catherine, Marv. Ve- ronica all living and residing in Jessup: and Andrew V .. of further mention.
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Andrew V. Kozak was born in that part of Austria- Hungary which is now Czecho-Slovakia, September 5, 1877, and came to this country with his parents in 1890. The remainder of his boyhood was spent in Jessup, Lack- awanna County, Pennsylvania, where as a boy he found work as a coal picker, and later worked around the mines in the day time and at night attended the evening schools. He was also a mule driver at the mines for a time, but when he was seventeen years of age he went to Scranton and became a student in St. Thomas College, where he continued his studies for a period of four years. After leaving college he became a teacher in the parochial schools and also organist in the Sacred Heart Slovak Church at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, continuing as teacher and as organist in this church for fifteen years. While still engaged in teaching, however, he was engaged in the embalming and funeral directing business in Wilkes-Barre, and in 1905, while still continuing the undertaking business, he also engaged in the monument, marble. and memorial business, both of which he con- tinued until 1925, when he sold out the undertaking business. Since that time he has continued the monu- ment and memorial business under the name of the A. V. Kozak Company, and at the present time ( 1929) is oper- ating, under that name, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the State of Pennsylvania. He is also a large importer of marbles and of finished memorials, and has added to his already large line of cemetery memorials of all kinds, the importation and manufacture of all kinds of marble and bronze equipment for churches, baptismal fonts, statuary, altars, pulpits, etc.
But even these varied interests represent but a portion of Mr. Kozak's successful achievements. In 1912 Mr. Kozak organized the Slavonic Deposit Bank of Wilkes- Barre, now known as the Pennsylvania Bank and Trust Company, located at Nos. 42-44 East Market Street in Wilkes-Barre, and which now has a capital stock of $200,000; surplus of $2,500,000, deposits of $2,500,000, making total resources of $3,000,000, At the time of the organization of this institution Mr. Kozak was made secretary and treasurer, later he was secretary of the board of directors, and in 1922 he was chosen president of the bank, which responsible position he is still filling. Politically, Mr. Kozak is a supporter of the principles and the candidates of the Republican party. He is very active among his countrymen, and besides serving as Supreme Officer of the first Slovak Union of America, has also served that body as secretary, as treasurer, and as president, and is a member of the Pennsylvania Slovak Union, and the National Slovak Society of America. He is a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus of Wilkes-Barre; a member of Wilkes-Barre Lodge, No. 109, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and is a member of the board of directors of Mercy Hospital of Wilkes-Barre. His religious affiliation is with the Slovak Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, and with St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, both of Wilkes-Barre. Thus, one man has overcome the handi- caps of limited means, and of meagre opportunities in his youth, and by hard work and perseverance has achieved for himself all the advantages of a college education, business success, not in one line only but in several different fields of activity, and is also serving well his fellow-countrymen and the community and State in which he lives. He is a man of whom any nation may well be proud, and is held in very high esteem in this city.
Andrew V. Kozak was married, May 16, 1900, to Mary S. Mirmak, of Jessup, Lackawanna County, Pennsyl- vania, daughter of John and Anna Mirmak, and they are the parents of ten children, eight of whom are living (1929) : Scholastica, married to Stephen Baloga, of Wilkes-Barre; Marie Antoinette, unmarried, lives at home; John Augustin, a practicing dentist ; Joseph A., a law student at the University of Pennsylvania; Olga Cieily ; Viera Angela ; Helen Hope, and Therese Sylvia. Mr. Kozak has three grandchildren, Regina, Stephen and Marie Louise Baloga.
JOHN J. CASEY-From the humble duties of a breaker-boy in the coal mines to one of the highest posi- tion within the gift of his fellow-citizens, this, in a very few words, tells the story of John J. Casev, member of the United States Congress, having been elected to that body from the Eleventh Pennsylvania Congressional Dis- trict, comprising Luzerne County, and who was born in a miner's shack near Wilkes-Barre. It does not, however, relate how this goal was attained, through constant study, hard work, and ambition that was unquenchable, irre- spective of obstacles that often appeared insurmountable.
Mr. Casey was born in Empire, Wilkes-Barre Town- ship, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1875, a son of Andrew Peter and Mary Catherine ( McGrath ) Casey, both of whom are now deceased. Andrew P. Casey was the son of Lawrence and Mary Casey, who came from Ireland to Luzerne County about 1855, when the son was a young child, and here he followed mining for all of his days. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Casey were the parents of five children: 1. John J., of whom further. 2. William Edward, now deceased. 3. Frank, who resides in Wyo- ming Township, Luzerne County. 4. James, now de- ceased. 5. Lawrence, of Forty Fort, Luzerne County.
John J. Casey attended the public schools and St. Mary's Parochial School until he was eight years of age, after which he became a breaker-boy, or slate picker, at the Empire Breaker for the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Mines. Here he remained, working as a slate picker, until he was fourteen years of age, when he entered the bits as a coal miner. He remained thus for two years, and then, apprenticed himself to the plumbers' trade. Throughout these years, however, he was assiduously studying at night school, seeking in every possible way to improve his fertile young brain. After working as a plumber for some time, he became a fireman on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, an occupation he followed until 1902. At this time his talents as a leader were becoming recognized and he was chosen business agent for the Building Trades Council of Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County. In 1909, he resigned this post to form a partner- ship with John Brady, and they entered into business contracts for plumbing, heating and sheet-metal work. This enterprise was beginning to meet with well-merited success when Mr. Casey disposed of his interests therein and was elected as an International Officer of the Plumbers and Steam Fitters Union of the United States and the Dominion of Canada. In 1906 Mr. Casey was clected to the Pennsylvania Legislature, and during the 1907 session he prepared, introduced and had passed what is known as the Casey Employers Liability Law ; in 1908 he refused the nomination to succeed himself, and in 1910 Colonel Ernest G. Smith, of the "Times-Leader" of Wilkes-Barre, was responsible for his nomination as candidate for secretary of internal affairs on the Key- stone Independent ticket. Two years later, in 1912, Mr. Casey was the nominee of the Democratic party as a candidate for Congress, from the Eleventh Pennsylvania Congressional District, but which was later changed to the Twelfth Pennsylvania Congressional District. In the November elections of that year he was elected a mem- ber of the Sixty-third United States Congress. He was reelected in 1914; defeated in 1916; again elected in 1918; defeated in 1920; elected again in 1922; defeated in 1924, and in :1926 was elected to Congress almost without opposition, having been nominated by the Demo- cratic and Republican parties, and also by the Labor and Socialist party. Mr. Casey was again elected to Congress on November 6, 1928, but his death, which occurred May 5. 1929, prevented his serving his term in the Seventy- first Congress. He was the only Democratic candidate to be elected in the State of Pennsylvania. This was one of the most hotly contested elections that ever took place in Luzerne County. During Mr. Casey's Congressional terms of office he was a member of the Labor Committee of the Sixty-third Congress and a member of the Ways and Means Committee during the Sixty-third, Sixty- fourth and Sixty-seventh sessions. On October 23, 1917, Mr. Casey was appointed Commissioner of Conciliation, Department of Labor, and the following year became a member of the Advisory Council to the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor. In July, 1918, he became affiliated with the Emergency Fleet Corporation, United States Shipping Board, labor adjustment division, as lahor advisor and executive, resigning to serve as a member of the Sixty-sixth Congress.
Strictly self-made, in the fullest sense of the word, Mr. Casey was noted for his broad-minded and absolutely fearless methods of despatching the duties of public offices. He long held the welfare of his district as the principal interest of his life. He served as president of the Plumbers and Steam Fitters Union, local No. 147, of Wilkes-Barre, was president of the Pennsylvania Federa- tion of Labor, and active in social life. He was a mem- ber of the Knights of Columbus, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Holy Name Society.
Congressman John J. Casey married, August 1, 1900, at Wilkes-Barre, Sara Celestine Lally, daughter of John and Bridget Lally of Wilkes-Barre, and to them were born eleven children : 1. Andrew Augustine, of Edwards- ville, Luzerne County, who married Catherine Myles. 2. John J., Jr., student at Dental College of the Georgetown
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