USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 68
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CHARLES CARD SELDEN, PH. D., M. D., is a son of Samuel and Car- oline (Perkins) Selden. He was born at Mayside, Erie county, Penn- sylvania, February 10, 1861. In 1868 the family moved to Erie. After attending the public schools in Erie, Charles continued his education at Harvard University for two years and the Universities of Germany for three years. Returning to this country he spent several months at his home and then entered the employ of the New York Tartar Company of Brooklyn, as an expert chemist. After several years in that work. he undertook the study of medicine and surgery at the Long Island Med- ical College, where he graduated as Doctor of Medicine.
In 1895 he married Gertrude W. Thwing. daughter of Reverend E. P. Thwing. D. D. of Brooklyn. Two years later, in the summer of 1897. Dr. and Mrs. Selden moved to Canton. China, where they now reside. Dr. Selden has for a number of years, been at the head of the John Kerr Refuge, the first, and it is believed the only institution, for the care of the insane patients in the Empire of China. The work under Dr. Sel- den's supervision has grown from year to year, until now, there are two hundred or more patients constantly cared for. The Refuge is sustained entirely by private subscription. Dr. Selden giving his services free.
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While thus engaged in the work for the Chinese. Dr. and Mrs. Selden are mindful of the need of aid in their own and other lands, and con- tribute largely of their means for the support of schools and missions. Three children have been born to them in China, Samuel, John Kerr, and Mary.
SAMUEL FELLOWES SELDEN, youngest son of Samuel and Caroline ( Perkins) Selden, was born at Mayside. Erie county, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1864. In 1868 the family moved to Erie, where Samuel attended the public school, from the primary through to the high school, continuing his studies at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Troy, New York, where he graduated as a civil engineer. Returning to Erie after extended travel in Europe, he engaged in the business of brick- making, with his uncle, John C. Selden, and upon his uncle's death he continued for several years in that business in partnership with his brother Edward.
Mr. Selden married in June, 1894, Miss Sarah L. Carroll, daughter of Mr. George Carroll, of Erie. He became a director in the Erie City Iron Works in 1894 and took an active part in the management of that business until his death, February 22, 1892. Mr. Selden was a man of splendid character, genial and kind disposition, but firm in his adherence to the principles of truth and right. He took an active interest in public affairs and in benevolent and church work, serving for a number of years, as superintendent of the Eastminster Sunday school. His death at the age of thirty-three, in the very prime of his manhood, was a distinct loss to the community. The high esteem in which he was held by his asso- ciates, may be inferred from a remark by his pastor, Rev. Herbert C. Ross. D. D., who when conducting the funeral services, said that he would not preach a sermon. as Mr. Selden's whole life had been a sermon.
DAVID OLIN was another of the upbuilders of Girard, one of its first and most prominent merchants. He was the proprietor for many years of a general store in the city, carrying on business in a large business block which he erected. He was born in Otsego, New York, February 11, 1814, and after obtaining a common-school education he entered upon his career as a merchant, and that was his occupation until his busy and useful life was ended in death on the 4th of May. 1876. He was always active in church affairs, first as a Presbyterian and later as a member of the Methodist denomination, he having helped very materially in the erec- tion of the church building in Girard. His political affiliations were with the Democratic party.
On the 25th of December. 1844, Mr. Olin was married to Polly M. Hutchinson, but she only survived her marriage a few years, dying on the 15th of June. 1847, and in 1849, on the 17th of September, he mar- ried her sister, Eliza Hutchinson who was born February 28, 1828. This union was without issue. Mrs. Olin is one of the oldest living residents of Girard, a woman of a keen, intellectual mind, and loved and honored wherever known, and further than this she is the daughter and widow of two of the most honored early residents of Erie county.
REVEREND JAMES PERRY IRWIN, a retired minister of the Presby- terian church, one of the oldest and best-known men of Erie in religious circles, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in Northumberland county, November 13, 1839. He is the son of William Merrill and
DAVID OLIN
THL DE !! YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Rachel Patton (Tipton) Irwin, both natives of the state of New Jersey, the former of Scotch-Irish and the latter of English descent. James Irwin's grandfather, William Henry Irwin, came to America from Eng- land about 1429, settled in New Jersey, and married Elizabeth Perry, first cousin to Commodore Perry, and from this connection James Perry Irwin received part of his name. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Tipton, a native of Yorkshire, England, came to America during the Revolutionary war. William Merrill Irwin, father of Rev. Mr. Irwin, in early life was a shoe merchant, but after settling in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, he became a farmer, and died there in 1851 ; his widow died in Sac county, Iowa, several years later, at an advanced age. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. William Merrill and Rachel Patton ( Tipton) Irwin had the following children: Richard Merrill, born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1818, married Rebecca Alexander, of Mercer county, and died in Sac county, Iowa, in 1899 ; Thomas Tipton, born in 1824, in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, and died in 1890; he married first Elizabeth Alexander, who died in 1859, and then married for his second wife Matilda Hood; Sarah, died unmarried, in 1859 ; Eliza, died unmarried, in 1858 : Jane D., born in 1828, in Lycom- ing county, married B. Croy, and now resides at Strothers, Pennsylvania ; William Henry, born in 1830 in Northumberland county, married Mary Waugh, and resides in Sac county, Iowa: Robert H., born in 183%, in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, married Harriet Means, and died in 1903 ; and Reverend James Perry.
James Perry Irwin was reared in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where he attended the common and high schools, and in 1861 entered Washington and Jefferson College, from which he graduated in 1864. Three years later he graduated from the Western Theological Seminary, and was ordained and installed at Canfield, Ohio, as pastor of the Presby- terian church, in 1868 ; he remained in that city until 1880, when he was installed pastor of the church at Pulaski, Pennsylvania, and remained there until the fall of 188". He then officiated a year and a half as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Jamestown, Pennsylvania. and in 1888 became connected with the church at Bell Valley, Erie county, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the fall of 1895 and then located at Erie, where he has since resided. Since locating in Erie he has been an evangelist, preaching the gospel in various places ; he has preached in every Presbyterian, every Baptist, Christian and Disciple church in Erie, and every Methodist church save one. Probably no other minister of the gospel is so well-known, so highly respected or highly honored by so large a number of people as this soldier of the cross, who has spent forty years in spreading religion, and who has never faltered in his duty in the great work to which he dedicated his life and talent. As an orator he is fluent and convincing, as well as earnest and eloquent, and his sin- cerity is always impressed on his audiences. In his declining years he has the satisfaction of feeling that his life has been lived for the benefit of his fellow-men, that in all the years of his ministerial career he has been actuated not by thought of gain, but in the hope of discharging his duty to humanity and to his Maker.
Reverend Irwin was united in marriage, December 22, 1868, with Nannie Baird Jewell, who was born at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1840, the daughter of James and Martha (French) Jewell. Her father was a native of near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was Vol. II-31
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engaged in farming, and he served many years as elder of the Old Miller, Run Congregation at Cannonsburg, which was one of the oldest Presby- terian Congregations of Western Pennsylvania. To Reverend and Mrs. Irwin but one child has been born, Edgar Willis.
Edgar Willis Irwin was born at Canfield, Ohio, October 20, 1869, was educated in the common schools of the various places where his father had a pastorate, and spent one year in college at Grove City, Pennsylvania, after which he graduated from the Erie Business College. He then became employed as bookkeeper for the Boston Store, of Erie. and later learned railroad telegraphy at Langdon Station on the Penn- sylvania & Eastern Railroad. He was first employed as night operator at Ludlow, Pennsylvania, which position he filled about two years and then entered the employ of the P. S. & L. E. Railway, now the Bessemer Railway, where he spent five years as operator and bill clerk. He then embarked in business on his own account, in the line of draying and carting, and in 1906, in partnership with parties from Buffalo, incor- porated as the Erie Storage & Carting Company, of which he is President and General Manager. This company is the only one of its kind in Erie, and does an extensive and constantly growing business. Mr. Irwin is recognized as one of Erie's leading and enterprising business men, and he stands high in the respect and esteem of the community. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of its Encampment, Canton and Daughters of Rebekah, of Perry Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Royal Arcanum. He is also a member of Erie Chamber of Commerce and Erie Business Men's Exchange. He married Linnie Lavine Anderson, daughter of William and Emeline Anderson, of Jamestown, Pennsylvania, and to them have been born two children. Perry Anderson and Roy Lavine.
HON. A. ELVERTON SISSON, a leading lawyer of Erie, has been prom- inent at the bar both as a private practitioner and in his local official re- lations. He is also an active Republican leader, locally and in a general way, having been twice chairman of the Republican county committee. for two successive terms district attorney of Erie county, and for three successive terms a member of the upper house of the state legislature. Mr. Sisson is a native of Dayton, New York, born on the 12th of Jan- uary. 1851, being the son of Nathaniel and Salina ( Phillips) Sisson. The family is of old English stock, its American founder being Richard Sisson, who was born in 1608 and came to America shortly after the landing of the "Mayflower," settling at Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Later, he became a large land owner at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and died in the year 1684. The son of this emigrant. James, married Lydia Hathaway, daughter of Arthur and Sarah ( Cook) Hathaway. her ma- ternal grandfather. John Cook, and his father. Francis Cook, both being "Mayflower" pilgrims. The grandmother of Mrs. James Sisson, Sarah Warren Cook, was the daughter of Richard Warren, also one of the historic band. Nathaniel Sisson, the great-grandfather of A. Elverton. was a native of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, born November 11, 1456, and died at Queenstown, New York. on the 10th of May, 1840. His wife (nee Grace Gifford) was also a native of that place, born September 16. 1261. and died at Queenstown on the 4th of September, 1843. The grandfather. Benjamin Sisson, born January 22, 1991, was a native of Queenstown, and died in 1874 at Brant, near Buffalo, New York.
AuSiscon
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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In 1820 the Benjamin Sisson mentioned moved from Queenstown, New York, where his father Nathaniel had settled at the close of the Revolutionary war, and established a home near Buffalo. For many generations the majority of the Sisson family were Quakers, but Ben- jamin, the grandfather, was debarred from the church, as he had mar- ried Sally Ferris, a woman outside the faith. Nathaniel, father of A. E. Sisson, was a farmer and a native of Erie county, New York, born in 1821, his wife ( nee Salina Phillips) being born near Glens Falls, New York, in 1819. Mrs. Sisson was a daughter of Samuel D. and Hannah ( Wing) Phillips. The Wing family, on the maternal side, was also identified with the Society of Friends, and was long established at Glens Falls and Sandy Hill, New York, whither different members had moved from Plymouth. Barnstable and Bristol counties, Massachusetts, prior to the migration of the Sisson family. In 1854 the father settled in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and five years later moved to Spring- field, Erie county, where he died in 1885. His first wife passed away in 1851. the year of the birth of A. E. Sisson, of this sketch.
Mr. Sisson received his education in the common schools of Craw- ford and Erie counties and at the Kingsville ( Ohio) Academy, the West Springfield ( Pennsylvania) Academy and the North East (Pennsyl- vania ) Seminary. Admitted to the Erie bar in 1881, he soon established a high position among his fellow attorneys and also early became prom- inent in Republican politics. In 1883-6 he served as chairman of the county committee : in the following year was elected prosecuting attor- ney of Erie county and re-elected in 1890, being the first incumbent of that office to serve for two successive terms. In 1900 Mr. Sisson was further honored by election to the state senate and was re-elected in 1904 and 1908, being the first state senator from the Erie district to serve three successive terms. At the conclusion of the session of 1907 he was elected president pro tempore of the senate and re-elected in 1909. During the special session of the senate in 1906 he served as a member of the com- mittee to investigate the state insurance department, and in 1904 served as chairman of the committee on railroads, and was a member of the commission, created at that session, to investigate the frauds in connec- tion with the building and furnishing of the new capitol. He was elected November ?. 1909, by the Republican party, auditor general of Penn- sylvania.
Mr. Sisson married Miss Lena Spencer, daughter of the late Dr. H. A. Spencer and wife. Julia (Cook) Spencer. She was born in Waterford. Pennsylvania, but moved with her family to Erie in 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Sisson have one child, Spencer Alec, born November 2. 1889.
T. HENRY COGSWELL. The most satisfactory administration of all grades of government, from local to national, is based on business prin- ciples, both as it relates to effective working and honesty. It has there- fore long been accepted by the leaders of public polities as a truth set- tled beyond argument that the thorough, broad business man of un- swerving integrity is far more apt to make an ideal public official than the man taken from the ranks of the professions. That, assuredly, has been the experience of the citizens of Erie county in the selection of their sheriff at the election of 1907, when they placed in office T. Henry Cogs-
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well, for nearly twenty years one of the most extensive and successful business men of northern Pennsylvania.
Sheriff Cogswell is a native of Warren, Pennsylvania. born on the 29th of April, 1860, and is a son of Samuel M. and Mary ( Beck) Cogs- well. The mother, who was a native of England, died in September, 1908, while the father, a Connecticut man of an old New England family, is still a resident of Warren engaged in the oil fields as an active pro- ducer. When the boy was ten years of age, his parents located at Eric, where he received a public school education. In 1818 the family re- turned to Warren, and in 1888 T. Henry became a resident of Corry, this county. There, as the senior member of the firm Cogswell, Eaton and Gay, he engaged in the wholesale meat business, whose transactions de- veloped into the most extensive of any similar establishment in that sec- tion of Pennsylvania, reaching an annual figure of one million dollars. In 1901, as stated, Mr. Cogswell was returned by the Republicans to the shrievalty of Erie county, and the public has since been more than sat- isfied with the nature of his administration. The sheriff's personal char- acter is naturally social and fraternal, and he is an active member of numerous secret and benevolent orders, including the Odd Fellows. Knights of Pythias, Elks, Royal Arcanum, Maccabees and Moose. His wife was formerly Miss Cora A. Lane, a native of Randolph, New York.
TURNER W. SHACKLETT. The man himself and the prestige he has won as a representative business man and citizen of Erie, entitle Turner Washington Shacklett to consideration in every publication taking rec- ognition of those who have aided in the industrial and civic develop- ment and progress of the city. For more than thirty years has Mr. Shacklett been identified with the more important business interests of Erie, and his career has been characterized by broadness and liberality, impregnable integrity, untiring energy and a high sense of his steward- ship as one of the world's noble army of workers.
Turner Washington Shacklett reverts with well justified pride to the fact that he is a native of the fine Old Dominion commonwealth, in which was cradled so much of our national history. He was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 10th of August, 1848, and is a son of George Washington and Lucy ( Morris) Shacklett, representatives of fine old families of the Old Dominion. In the agnatic line the genealogy is traced back to French-Huguenot origin, and the founders of the Shack- lett family in America were of this historic stock, whose representatives were compelled to flee from France to escape the persecutions incidental to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The parents of Mr. Shack- lett continued their residence in Virginia until their death, the father dying in November 1861, aged 52 years, while the mother lived to the ripe old age of eighty-seven and died in March, 1901. George W. Shack- lett was a Henry Clay Whig in his political adherency and in 1860 he supported Bell and Everett, the nominees of that party for president and vice-president of the United States, but when Virginia seceded from the Union and the Civil war was precipitated upon a divided nation, he re- mained loyal to his native state and to the institutions under whose in- fluence he had been reared, and he thus cast in his lot with the Confed- cracy, in whose cause two of his sons sacrificed their lives, Sewall, hav- ing been killed at Williamsburg. Virginia, when but nineteen years of age, and Edward, having lost his life in the sanguinary battle of Gettys- burg, when twenty-three years old.
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Turner W. Shacklett secured his early education in private schools and the Piedmont Academy, at that time a well ordered institution of learning in his native state. The Civil war left the family impoverished, and thus the subject of this review found it incumbent upon him to face the battle of life, single-handed and alone, and with only a few dollars in his pocket. On the 1st of February, 1868, shortly before attaining to the age of twenty years, he came from Virginia to the city of Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of assuming the position of travel- ing salesman for a wholesale dry-goods and notion house which had been founded many years before by relatives of his family. With this con- cern he continued to be identified for seven years, at the expiration of which the business was closed out.
On the 1st of April, 18:5, Mr. Shacklett took up his residence in Erie, where he became actively interested in the Erie pail factory, whose business had been permitted to run down to a low standard. Through his energy, judgment and marked executive ability, was accomplished much of the work by which the institution was placed upon a paying basis and became one of the most important industrial enterprises of the city. To the interests of this concern he gave his time and attention for a quarter of a century, and then, after a second disastrous fire had vis- ited the plant, the business was absorbed by the western association of woodenware factories. Since that time Mr. Shacklett has continued business under the title of the Erie Pail Factory, the goods being fur- nished to him by the association mentioned and Erie being made one of the leading distributing centers. In addition to being manager of this business he is president of the Odin Stove Company, vice-president of the Williams Tool Company, and a stockholder, in each of the Erie Manufacturing & Supply Company, the Colby Piano Company, and the First National Bank, of which last mentioned institution he is a director.
As a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, Mr. Shack- lett is well known as an earnest and devoted churchman, and he has been actively identified with both parish and parochial affairs since taking up his abode in Erie. He and his wife are identified with the parish of St. Paul's church, and he was superintedent of its Sunday school for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1883 he was elected a member of the vestry, and after serving nine years as clerk of this body he was elected junior warden, of which office he has been incumbent since 1896. He is licensed as a lay reader, and as such frequently conducts the liturgical services of the church when emergency arises. Since 1900 he has been treasurer of the board of missions of the diocese of Pittsburgh, and in 1907 he was a delegate to the General Convention of the church, at Rich- mond, Virginia,-one of the most notable occasions in the history of the church in America. In the support of the various collateral benevo- lences of the church he is liberal, and, intrinsically the friend of human- ity, he finds it in his heart to be mindful of "all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body or estate."
In his political allegiance Mr. Shacklett is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, in whose faith he was reared. In April, 1890, he was elected to represent the First ward of Erie in the select council, in which he served two years, at the expiration of which he was re-elected for the full term of four years, but he soon afterward resigned to accept ap- pointment by the court as a member of the board of water commission- ers, in which office he served three terms of three years each. After an
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interim of one year he was again called to official service, since, in 1901, he was elected school director from the First ward. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected and served for a second term of three years, but he voluntarily retired from this office on the 1st of June, 1902, after having served as president of the board during the last year. In 1904 he received the nomination of his party for representative in the state legislature, but declined the honor. He has been identified with the Erie Board of Trade for a full quarter of a century, and was pres- ident of the same for the fiscal year 1907-8.
Mr. Shacklett is affiliated with Lake Shore Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past grand, and with Keystone Council, Royal Arcanum. He holds membership in the Erie Humane Society. the Elmwood Home Association, the Country Club, the Kennel Club. the Erie County Bird Club, and the Erie Singing Society. Mr. Shacklett has long been prominent in musical circles, and is a basso of marked ability, possessing a well trained voice of splendid timbre. In connection with the society last mentioned he has appeared in many public concerts, recitals, operatic performances, oratorios, etc. It may be noted that he has thus interpreted the roles of "Sir Joseph Porter," in "Pina fore :" "John Wellington Wells," in "The Sorcerer :" the "King," in "Belshazzer," besides many other characters. He has sung at nearly two hundred funerals, and is ever ready to accord his services in utiliz- ing the fine singing voice which has been vouchsafed to him. It is need- les to say that Mr. and Mrs. Shacklett are prominent and popular in the best social life of the community, nor that their attractive home is a center of gracious and refined hospitality.
The multiplicity of business cares and the exacting duties of public office have not prevented Mr. Shacklett from indulging his tastes as a nature lover and his flower garden which he personally attends and which contains many of the native plants of this section and have been gathered on his tours of exploration, is noted for its beauty and simple attractiveness, while as an enthusiastic member of the Erie County Bird Club his interest in and knowledge of the feathered tribe is an inspir- ation to his fellow-members.
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