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 VI > Part 12
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HUGH L. CAMPBELL-As director, vice- president and general manager of the Hazle- ton Brick Company, Inc., Hugh L. Campbell has demonstrated to the stockholders of that concern and interested observers his capacity for the reinvigoration of a business that had fallen on evil days and bringing it to the point where it is returning dividends to the investors and permitting of the broadening of its field and the enlargement and im- provement of its great plant. Mr. Campbell' is a leading factor in the commercial life
of Hazleton and a leader in all that makes for civic advance and community prosperity.
Born in Hazleton, August 28, 1870, Hugh L. Campbell is the son of John and Mary (Callahan) Campbell, both parents natives of Ireland. He worked as a breaker-boy from the age of eight years until he was eighteen, and obtained a good working knowledge of that department of coal mining. Then he took up carpentry and learned the trade thoroughly, becoming a contractor and build- er. At the age of twenty-one he entered the Stroudsburg State Normal School and was a student there for two years. That incident in his career furnishes an insight into his character, wherein is to be seen a laudable ambition to acquire an education and to equip himself for going out into the world of business. Afterwards he pursued his trade and erected many buildings in Hazleton and the vicinity-the City Hall, churches, business blocks and other structures for utilitarian and domestic purposes. Since he reorganized the Hazleton Brick Company he has devoted practically all his attention to the affairs of that concern, his energy and ability as execu- tive and manager having had the most to do with its remarkable rejuvenation and progress. Mr. Campbell has been called to serve the city in a number of important offices, notably tax collector and councilman, in each of which he was an incumbent for several years. He is a member of the Izaak Walton Club, the United Sports Club and St. Gabriel's Roman Catholic Church.
Hugh L. Campbell married, in 1906, Mary Sweeney of Drifton. Their children: 1. Hugh L., Jr., director and manager of the Hazleton Brick Company; graduated from Notre Dame University, class of 1927. 2. Anna, a student at Trinity College. 3. Marie, a student at Villa Marie College. 4. Helen, a student at Trinity College. 5. Elizabeth, a student at St. Gabriel's High School. 6. John. The fam- ily residence is 141 South Wyoming Street, Hazleton.
The Hazleton Brick Company, Inc., was founded in 1914 by Peter Kehoe, Nick Schmidt, Jacob Schmidt, Arthur Root, John Schneider, Frank Hemingway, Louis Carl, Edmund Gibbs, Hugh L. Campbell and a number of other men, Mr. Campbell being the only mem- ber resident in Hazleton. He had discovered rich shale beds and obtained options on the land in which they were located, and on that basis he promoted the company. The business was incorporated with a capital stock of $150,000. All the incorporators, with the ex- ception of Mr. Campbell, were stockholders of the Diamond City Brick Company. During its earlier years the concern passed through serious difficulties. In the World War period its operations were held up because of the lack of coal, that commodity having been diverted largely for war and other purposes incident to its prosecution. The slowing down of building operations throughout the country because of war conditions was another cause contributory to the failure. Finally the com- pany was petitioned into the hands of a re- ceiver and the plant closed. After the war, Mr. Campbell and his fellow stockholders got together and made several attempts at re- organization, but these were not fruitful of results because of a lack of confidence in the plans for rehabilitation of the business.
Mr. Campbell eventually took matters in his own hands, bought the business outright, inclusive of the plant, and effected a reorgan- ization. The first two years of the revived business saw little profit, this due to a va- riety of causes; but Mr. Campbell stuck to the ship and plodded on with characteristic persistency. Finally the business began to
WF. Church
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pay dividends and the output was increased. With reorganization effected, Hazleton peo- ple had become stockholders, and from among their number the officers were elected as fol- lows: President, Max Friedlander; vice- president, and general manager, Hugh L. Campbell: vice-president, T. E. Snyder; sec- retary-treasurer, Ben Morris; directors, the aforementioned officers and Carl Jacobs, Jon- athan Liebensperger, N. H. Massan, and Hugh L. Campbell, Jr.
The annual output of the company is fif- teen million brick. The products comprise all varieties of red brick, concrete blocks and crushed stone; these are distributed to all parts of the country. The company owns one hundred and sixty-five acres of land, on which are its shale deposits, and its equip- ment includes six rectangular kilns and one beehive kiln. It gives employment to one hundred persons in all the departments. Un- der the direction of General Manager Camp- bell the plant is constantly being beautified; the buildings are of attractive design and ornamentation as far as it is possible for a plant of this kind to be. In the foreground is a lake stocked with trout. At one side is a large dovecote, where the concern raises and maintains homing pigeons, which are used in a unique form of advertising devised by Mr. Campbell, whose keen mind is almost con- stantly producing ideas for attracting busi- ness to the plant and for the increase of its output. H. L. Campbell, Jr., invented a shaker bar for use in the crushed rock department that separates the disintegrated matter from the rock. By-products, including cinders and brick bats are all ground up and used in concrete blocks. The white rock is separated by shaker bars and crushed into crushed stone, used for building purposes, roads, etc. The by-products are rapidly becoming a most important factor in the business. The enter- prise is today rated as one of the largest and most prosperous of its class in the United States.
WILLIAM F. CHURCH-More than sixty years in the drug business in Kingston, almost all of which have been at the same location, No. 220 Wyoming Avenue, have brought to William F. Church the satisfac- tion of duty well performed and a most dig- nified standing in the community where he was born and where he has spent his entire life. His origin is of one of the earliest set- tlers in the Wyoming Valley, all respected for their solid citizenship, for their industry and for their devotion to every cause look- ing toward the improvement of commercial, industrial, religious, fraternal and civic activ- ities. The head of this old drug concern has attained the highest pinnacle of success, in that he has won and held the admiration and devoted respect of the entire community. by his admirable qualities of citizenship through every avenue of labor which that elastic term follows.
He was born in Kingston, in 1845, a son of Addeson Carver and Mary (Johnston) Church, both members of historic Wyoming Valley families. William F. Church was postmaster of Kingston for two terms preceding 1885, and was assistant postmaster under Abram Goodwin for three terms, serving in all from 1865 to 1885. Mr. Church was one of the first class of five to be made a Mason in Kingston Lodge, No. 395. He is the oldest living member of that lodge and was Past Master of the lodge in 1873. He has been a lifelong Republican and for more than sixty years a member of the Kingston Presbyterian
Church, serving for many years as a ruling elder.
William F. Church married Ann Hoyt Corss, daughter of the Rev. Charles Chapin and Ann (Hoyt) Corss, the first named having been a distinguished Presbyterian minister In Northeastern Pennsylvania. The mother, Ann (Hoyt) Corss, is still living (1929), aged seventy-eight years. Mr. and Mrs. Church were the parents of five children: 1. H. Ken- neth, of whom further. 2. Mary, who is un- married. 3. Elizabeth Hoyt, wife of Oswald D. Ingall, of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the mother of two children. 4. Charles C., of whom further. 5. Frederick Corss, who is head professor of history at the University of Idaho.
H. Kenneth Church, son of William F. and Ann Hoyt (Corss) Church, has been asso- ciated with his father in the drug business for many years. He was born in Kingston and was educated in the public schools here, at Wyoming Seminary and at Lafayette Col- lege, Easton, Pennsylvania. He afterwards became associated as a chemist with Worth Brothers' Steel Company, of Coatsville, com- ing back to Kingston in 1902. He was em- ployed in the post offices in Kingston and Wilkes-Barre for thirteen years, then entered into association with his father in the drug and statlonery business. He is a Republican and a member of the Kingston Presbyterian Church. His fraternal associations include Kingston Lodge, No. 709, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is Past Grand Master; Kingston Lodge, No. 395, Free and Accepted Masons. He also belongs to the Luzerne County Veteran Firemen's Associa- tion and to the Kingston Business Men's As- sociation. He has never married.
Charles C. Church, the other brother asso- ciated with his father in business, was also born in Kingston. He was educated in the public schools here and at Wyoming Semin- ary, afterward taking a course at the Phila- delphia College of Pharmacy. Since gradua- tion from the last named institution he has been engaged with his father in business. He is a Republican in political affiliation and a member of the Kingston Presbyterian Church. He belongs to Kingston Lodge, No. 709, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is Past Grand Master; to Kingston Lodge, No. 395, Free and Accepted Masons; Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, Royal Arch Masons; Dieu le Veut Commandery, Knights Templar; Key- stone Consistory, Scottish Rite Masons; Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Wilkes-Barre. He has membership also in Irem Temple Country Club and the Kingston Business Men's Asso- ciation.
E. H. WESLEV-Springing from an ances- try of Pennsylvania pioneers, some of whom founded and carried on enterprises of a high- ly useful character to the region and whose energies left them only through death, E. B. Wesley has embodied in him the most virile germs making for success in life. His foresight pictured to him the miraculous de- velopment of the automobile industry, espe- cially in the inexpensive car, a vision of which he took advantage. He was fortunate in getting the agency for the Ford Company, since when he has built up a business of great magnitude and one that grows with the days rather than the years. His business, centering in Nanticoke, includes all of lower Luzerne County, but his sales cover a far greater territory. He is looked upon as a
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valuable citizen of the community and a great addition to its business activities.
E. B. Wesley was born at Benton, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, July 23, 1891. His father was Charles Wesley and his mother, Hattie (Dodson) Wesley, the father being now deceased. Charles Wesley was born in Sweet Valley, Luzerne County, where he lived until he was twenty-five years of age. The family is one of the oldest in this section, coming here from Connecticut with the origi- nal William Wesley, great-great-grandfather of E. B. Wesley. Benjamin, son of William, was a farmer of Ross Township, Luzerne County, and served his country during the Civil War. Charles Wesley was a cabinet maker and wheelwright and built the first steam sawmill in his part of the county. He later removed to Columbia County, establish- ing the first roller-process flour mill at Ben- ton. He also built and operated a paper mill at Stillwater for thirteen years, retiring be- cause of ill health. For years he was the only Republican in that place, yet, because of his progressive character, he was elected to membership on the school board and other offices in the county. He was a member of the Christian Church and the last active work of his life was to build a church edifice at Stillwater. He was one of the men who or- ganized Benton Borough. His wife also came of a pioneer family of Connecticut, her father being Elias Biggsby Dodson, a farmer and manufacturer of lumbering materials. He served for three years in the Civil War, was a strong Republican and filled some of the local offices of his county. He was born in 1833, a son of George, and Hannah (Seeley) Dodson. Of this ancestry, E. B. Wesley is directly descended.
He received his education in the Stillwater schools and at the Eastman Business Col- lege, Poughkeepsie, New York. For the four years following this period of schooling he worked as a clerk and bookkeeper in the Farmers' National Bank of Bloomsburg, then coming to Nanticoke, where he established himself in business with the Ford agency. He has remained here, and has control of a Ford agency in Scranton. He is a director in the Nanticoke National Bank; a charter member of the Nanticoke Kiwanis Club; Wilkes-Barre Lodge, Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, and of the United Chris- tian Church. During the World War he was assistant food inspector.
Mr. Wesley married, September 28, 1912, Lorena Hagenbush, of Stillwater, daughter of O. D. and Ella (McHenry) Hagenbush. They have one child, Charles.
ALBERT REES-A native and life-long resident of Nanticoke, Mr. Rees has been established there for more than ten years In the automobile and garage business. As the local representative for Dodge motors he has built up a large and lucrative trade and he is considered one of the most successful and substantial business men of the town, where he enjoys the respect and confidence of all who know him.
His father, M. J. Rees, was a native of Wales, British Isles, but spent the greater part of his life in Nanticoke. There he was successfully engaged for many years as a mer- chant. He was one of the organizers of the Nanticoke Hospital and a director of the Nan- ticoke Construction Company and of the Sus- quehannah Lumber Company. He also was the owner of much valuable real estate and in every respect was one of the most useful citizens of Nanticoke. He married Almina Meek. Mr. and Mrs. Rees, both now deceased, were the parents of six children: John;
Anna, now deceased; Morgan: Albert, of whom further; Roy; and May.
Albert Rees, fourth child and third son of the late M. J. and Almina (Meek) Rees, was born at Nanticoke, March 21, 1888. He was educated in the public schools and, after the death of his father in 1913, entered the groc- ery business, which he continued to carry on successfully until 1922. In the meanwhile he had become, in 1916, the sole agent for the various automobiles made by Dodge Brothers, establishing this agency at that time at No. 183 Market Street, Nanticoke. Until 1922 he carried on this business in connection with his grocery business, but, when he retired from the latter in that year, he located in a new building, in which he has up-to-date showrooms and where he also maintains a service station and garage. To this business he now devotes his entire at- tention and under his able management it has been brought to a very high degree of efficiency and prosperity. He also owns sev- eral valuable pieces of real estate and takes a deep interest in the development of his native city.
Mr. Rees married, in 1914, Bertha Wesley, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wesley. Mr. and Mrs. Rees are the parents of three children: Albert, Carl, and Dorothy Rees. The family home is located on Market Street, Nanticoke.
H. S. TWAROWSKI-Having entered the banking business in Wilkes-Barre at the age of sixteen years, almost forty years ago, Mr. Twarowski has been engaged in this business ever since and as the result of his untiring energy and industry and his close attention to his duties has worked himself up from modest beginnings to a position of promi- nence and responsibility as treasurer of the Miners' Trust Company of Nanticoke, one of the leading financial institutions of that section of Pennsylvania. To this bank he came in 1923, after having held similar execu- tive positions in several other banks in and near Wilkes-Barre, and much of the rapid and constant growth of the Miners' Trust Company is attributable to his thorough knowledge of the business, his energy and his executive ability.
Mr. Twarowski was born at Hazleton, Penn- sylvania, August 13, 1875, a son of Zygmont and Julia Twarowski, both natives of Poland and now deceased. He was educated in the public schools, which he left at the early age of eleven years. For the next few years he found employment in different stores of his native town. At the age of sixteen he went to Wilkes-Barre and there entered the employment of the Wilkes-Barre Deposit & Savings Bank as a messenger boy. His in- dustry and his many other good qualities won him rapid recognition and promotion and, when he was only twenty-three years old, in 1898, he was appointed teller. In this posi- tion he continued until 1912, when he resigned and accepted the position of cashier with the Slovanic Bank, now the Pennsylvania Bank & Trust Company, of Wilkes-Barre. From there he went, in 1923, to the West Side Trust Company at Kingston as treasurer. In Octo- ber of the same year he accepted the offer of the treasurership of the Miners' Trust Com- pany of Nanticoke, a position which he has continued to fill since with great credit to himself and to the benefit of this bank and its many customers. In March, 1982, Mr. Twar- owski was elected a director of the Miners' Trust Company.
The Miners' Trust Company of Nanticoke was founded in 1920 under the name of the Polish Deposit Bank, with a capital of $50,-
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000 and a surplus of $25,000. In 1923 the Miners' Trust Company was chartered and took over the business of the Polish Deposit Bank. The capital at that time was increased to $125,000 and the surplus to $150,000. The business of the new bank was very active from the first and expanded so rapidly that the existing facilities soon were found to be inadequate. In 1923 ground at the corner of Market and Broad streets was purchased and the erection of a new and up-to-date bank- ing house was started. Completed in 1924, it is one of the finest buildings in Nanticoke and one of the most modern banking houses in that section of Pennsylvania, representing an investment of $225,000. By 1927 the assets had increased to more than $3,000,000, the surplus and profits to $225,000 and the de- posits to $2,600,000. A general banking busi- ness is carried on, with departments for sav- ings, foreign exchange, steamship tickets, and other services. In 1926 the bank took over the educational thrift service of the public schools of Nanticoke. The Miners' Trust Company is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank System and of the American Bankers' Association. Besides Mr. Twarowski the offi- cers of the bank are: Emil Malinowski, its founder and president; John Malinowski, vice- president and trust officer; and M. J. Cannon, secretary. The board of directors consists of the following prominent and substantial citizens of Nanticoke: R. A. Quinn, Stanley Budziwski, Joseph J. Janowski, Michael Lup- cho, Dr. J. A. Hugo, Robert B. Job, Harry Cimmet, John L. Turner, B. Gorski, Julius Hecht, Sr., John Korbaski, M. J. Cannon, Emil Malinowski and John Malinowski.
Though naturally the responsibilities of his important position as treasurer of the Miners' Trust Company have always received the major share of Mr. Twarowski's time and attention, he has found it possible to interest himself to considerable extent in the general life of the community. For some time in 1926 he served as a member of the Nanticoke Board of Education. He is also a member of the Polish National Alliance and of the Polish Union, as well as of the Wyoming Valley Country Club. His religious affiliations are with the Roman Catholic Church and he is a devout communicant of both St. Stanislaus' Polish Roman Catholic Church and of St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. Twarowski married, in 1901, Nellie Stafford of Kingston, Pennsylvania, a daugh- ter of Patrick and Catharine (Coyle) Stafford. Mr. and Mrs. Twarowski are the parents of three children: 1. Alice, employed in the Second National Bank of Wilkes-Barre. 2. Mary, a teacher in the public schools of Nan- ticoke. 3. Robert, a student in the Nanticoke High School. The family residence is located at No. 104 West Main Street, Nanticoke.
JOHN T. HOWELL, M. D .- The late Dr. John T. Howell was a leading member of the medical profession and one of the foremost citizens of Wilkes-Barre, to which he devoted more than forty-five years of his professional life. He was a member of the staff of the General Hospital for over thirty-three years; was chief surgeon for twenty-five years and chief of staff from 1915 until the date of his death, June 16, 1926. In other departments of community progress Dr. Howell took a part as prominent and constructive.
John T. Howell was born in Siegfried, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1850, son of Theodore Hart and Mary (Le Van) Howell, both natives of that county and parents of eleven children. Dr. Howell was educated at Weaversville Academy, at Cooperstown Academy, in New York State,
and at Jefferson Medical College, In Philadel- phia, where he received his professional train- ing, graduating in 1881 with the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. He was an interne at the Gen- eral Hospital in Wilkes-Barre in 1882. After practicing for the brief period of six weeks in Scranton, Dr. Howell moved to Wilkes-Barre, where he spent the rest of his life. He cared for a large private practice, practicing at the same location at the corner of North Main and Union streets throughout the forty-five years of his professional career. During a large part of that time also, he was asso- ciated with the General Hospital, and for a long time he was chief surgeon for the old Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. He belonged to the Luzerne County Medical Society, the Lehigh Valley Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He was past president of the county organization and the Lehigh Valley Society.
The fraternal affiliations of Dr. Howell were with 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, An- cient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His clubs were the Shrine and the Westmoreland. He was a communicant of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.
John T. Howell married, June 4, 1890, Min- nie B. Brandow, of Wilkes-Barre, a daughter of Oscar Miner and Margaret (Blair) Brandow, and they were the parents of two children: 1. Margaret Blair, wife of Effingham P. Hum- phrey, of Upper Lehigh, and mother of three children: Effingham P., Jr .; Blair, and Molly Humphrey. 2. John T. Howell, Jr., whose record accompanies this.
Dr. Howell died at the advanced age of seventy-six, a practicing physician to the time of his last and fatal illness. The local papers expressed the general grief at the loss of a man at the same time an eminent physi- cian and surgeon and a distinguished gentle- man. That in the Wilkes-Barre "Record" of June 17, 1926, reads as follows:
In the death of Dr. John T. Howell the com- munity loses one of its most prominent and one of its most highly esteemed citizens. He was a resident of the community for many years. As it grew in population and in the number of citizens who became distinguished in various ways, Dr. Howell remained in the very front rank of those whose names are household words and whose reputations re- main uneclipsed. To be able to say this of any person and to be able to say it in all sincerity is indeed a tribute of the highest order.
In his professional work, in his family rela- tions, in his close friendships, in all of the various phases of his life Dr. Howell stood out in uniform excellence of character. He was not of the type of men who appear to be admirable in one way and faulty in another. To know him intimately in one phase of his career was to know him in all phases. There was nothing hypocritical in his make-up. He was one and the same to all men at all times and in all manner of personal contact. To him the Golden Rule was a principle of con- duct easily attained because goodness and justness and kindly consideration for others were natural characteristics and he had no other thought or purpose in life.
We hear much about the gradual disappear- ance of the family physician in favor of the specialist, but we cannot believe that the tendency is in that direction when we see family physicians of the type of Dr. Howell- practitioners who endear themselves to the families to whom they minister profession- ally, who win their way into the hearts of families, who are so well trusted for their professional skill and who establish them-
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