USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > An historical catalogue of the St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia, with biographical sketches of deceased members > Part 13
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He served with the First City Troop in the preliminary skirmishes before Gettysburg. He was a member of this troop for fifteen years and became commander in 1877.
In the early seventies Colonel Snowden was appointed register of the United States Mint and later became coiner. In 1877 he was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, but later returned to the mint as superintendent, after having twice refused the appointment of director of all the mints. He became a recognized authority on all subjects relating to coins and coinage.
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COL. ARCHIBALD LOUDON SNOWDEN Member 1864 Counsellor 1865-1866 Died September 9, 1912
Biographies of Deceased Members
Colonel Snowden managed the great parade on Decem- ber 16, 1879, celebrating General Grant's return after a trip around the world, and again in 1887 showed his execu- tive ability in organizing the civic parade under the auspices of the Constitutional Centennial Commission.
The colonel began his diplomatic service in 1889, when he was appointed Minister Resident and Consul-General to Greece, Roumania, and Servia by President Harrison. Shortly thereafter Congress raised the grade to that of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Colonel Snowden was later transferred to the Court of Madrid, where he successfully settled grave diplomatic questions. The Queen Regent of Spain conferred on him the Grand Cordon of Isabella the Catholic. He also re- ceived honors from the kings of Greece and Roumania.
For years Colonel Snowden was a member of the Park Commission, and at the time of his death was president of the body. He was recently named by Mayor Blankenburg as a member of the Comprehensive Plans Committee. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, Sons of the Revolution, the Union League, Philadelphia, and other organizations.
Colonel Snowden was a ready, eloquent, and impres- sive speaker, and his services were always in demand during political campaigns. Of fine personal appearance, dignified but affable and courteous in manner, he had a host of friends at home and abroad, and his death was a distinct loss to his city.
JAMES LAING SOMMERVILLE, member 1900. Born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, August 16, 1837; died at his home in Winburne, Clearfield County, Penna., August 24, 1912. He was the only child of John S. Sommerville of Shotts, Lanarkshire, and Elizabeth Laing of Airdrie, his wife.
After the death of his mother, when about 9 years old, he accompanied his father to this country and located in
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Biographies of Deceased Members
Snow Shoe, Penna. He attended the public schools, and completed his education at the Bellefonte Academy and Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. At the latter place he studied civil engineering, and in 1858 was employed on the Bellefonte and Snow Shoe Railroad, then under construc- tion. On the completion of the railroad, he was appointed assistant engineer, and later chief engineer and land agent. He was associated with his father in the management of the coal properties of this company, and they were the first shippers of coal from the Snow Shoe region. Later Mr. Sommerville moved to Winburne, where he opened the coal and laid out the town. He also organized the Carn- warth Coal Company (named after Carnwarth in Lanark- shire), of which he was president, was a trustee of the Cottage State Hospital of Philipsburg, president of the Winburne Water Co. and of the Bituminous National Bank of Winburne.
He was a life-long member of the Presbyterian Church, and for over forty years an elder. At the time of his death he was trustee of the Presbytery of Huntingdon, and was twice its representative to the General Assembly.
Mr. Sommerville was widely known and recognized as a man of rare judgment, safe and sane in counsel, wise, unselfish, and generous. He identified himself with all re- forms and movements which were for the betterment of the community.
He married in Bellefonte on October 1I, 1860, Jane M. Harris, a daughter of James D. and Mary Ann Harris of that place. Mrs. Sommerville was also active in church work, was a woman of beautiful character, and theirs was an ideal married life. She died March 12, 1912, while president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. Both husband and wife are buried in Bellefonte.
Their surviving children are Bond V., John S., Alan O., Robert H., Donald L., and two daughters, Elizabeth L. and Mary Sommerville.
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Biographies of Deceased Members
DAVID SPROAT, member 1765, Assistant 1767, Secretary 1768-69, Vice-president 1772-73.
Mr. Sproat was the son of David Sproat, of Port Mary, Kirkcudbright, Scotland. He came to Philadelphia in the year 1760, and soon entered into mercantile business as an importer and dealer in cloths, dry goods, etc., being located in 1767-68 on Front Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets.
He was one of the signers, on October 25, 1765, of the Non-importation Resolutions; but, when war opened be- tween the Colonies and Great Britain, he felt it his duty to cast his fortune with the mother-country and this proved to be at great pecuniary sacrifice.
He entered the British service as a volunteer under Lord Howe in the expedition to the Chesapeake preparatory to the occupation of Philadelphia, and, after the battle on the Brandywine, September 11, 1777, Mr. Sproat was appointed commissary of prisoners. On October 13, 1779, he was made commissary general of naval prisoners, and was sta- tioned in New York City, where American prisoners of war were confined on a number of prison-ships in that harbor.
Charges of cruel treatment of prisoners, as to their care, clothing, and food, reflecting severely upon those in charge, were freely made in the public press and in letters and pamphlets ; but a recent publication from the Knickerbocker Press, New York, by Mr. James Lenox Banks, “ David Sproat and Naval Prisoners in the War of the Revolution," shows, by letters and official documents, that Mr. Sproat had used all the means in his power to alleviate the con- dition of prisoners under his charge.
Mr. Banks, in the book referred to, says that many of the statements as to the treatment of prisoners were largely based upon unproven charges of early writers and upon tra- ditions founded in the bitter feeling of the day, when accu- sations were made that might have been tempered upon second thought.
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Biographies of Deceased Members
That the guards upon these prison-ships at times exceeded their authority and abused prisoners, then as they have done since, is more than probable, but no instances have been found to show that the offi- cers in whose charge the prisoners were used other than the best means obtainable to relieve their distress and promote their comfort.
Mr. Sproat endeavored to secure release from his painful duties, but Lord Rodney prevailed on him to continue in that service as "the only person I can find capable of managing the business properly."
Mr. Sproat made personal appeals to people in New York for money to relieve the prisoners under his charge, by the purchase of suitable supplies of clothing and bedding, and advanced for this purpose 550 pounds of his own money, which Congress in 1784, upon the recommendation of Robert Morris, ordered to be repaid to him, thus showing the con- fidence of that body in Mr. Sproat's honesty and in his work under such conditions.
At the time of his leaving Philadelphia to enter the British service, he resided at the southwest corner of Walnut and Front Streets. In a petition presented to the British government for reimbursement for losses sustained, he said, " that in consequence of his loyalty to the Crown he had been attainted of High Treason and his Estates confiscated and sold," "his House was ransacked by the Committee, his desk broke open, his Books, papers and furniture much damaged, his clerk confined in a Dungeon, his Servants turned out of doors, and his House converted into a Hospital for the accommodation of the Rebel Soldiers."
Mr. Sproat left New York for Scotland in December, 1783, and settled on the entailed estate Port Mary, Kirkcud- bright. The following year he was elected a member of the Town Council, and was twice elected Provost.
He died there in October, 1799, aged 65 years. The entailed estate then passed to his nephew, Major David Lenox of Philadelphia (member 1788), whose biography is recorded in the " History of The St. Andrew's Society " (1907), pages 222-23. Upon the death of Major Lenox,
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the estate passed to his brother, William Lenox of New York.
The records of The St. Andrew's Society show that Mr. Sproat was very attentive to his duties as a member in look- ing after applicants for charity. He was one of the few members in attendance on the Annual Meeting, November 30, 1776, when it was agreed that, owing to the prevailing conditions, they should simply re-elect their officers and adjourn.
SIR JOHN ST. CLAIR, Honorary Member, 1757. Sir John St. Clair, third baronet of his line, was one of the noted family of that name, of Argyleshire, Scotland. The Min- utes of The St. Andrew's Society record his election as an Honorary Member November 30, 1757, when Dr. Graeme was President, but letters of Mrs. Graeme to her talented daughter Elizabeth Fergusson, then absent, record the visit of Sir John to Graeme Park in September, 1755.
Sir John, as colonel of the Forty-second Foot, was in 1755 appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General of the Brit- ish forces in America, and assigned to duty with General Edwin Braddock in the proposed expedition to expel the French from Western Pennsylvania. He first landed in Virginia and made a reconnoissance of the head-waters of the Potomac, and later joined Braddock in Alexandria.
In the ill-fated campaign which followed in which Gen- eral Braddock was killed, Sir John was severely wounded, but soon recovered. He was evidently an energetic and capable officer, but shared with his chief an undisguised contempt for the Provincial troops in the expedition. His duties were necessarily arduous, as he had to see that roads were cut for the advance of the soldiers through a wilder- ness, and that horses, wagons, and supplies were procured for the service.
In this campaign the road-building was under the imme- diate charge of Captain-later Colonel-James Burd of this Society, and Colonel Benjamin Franklin was especially
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selected to procure horses, wagons, and supplies for the troops, advancing for this purpose his own money and pledging his personal credit for payment. Governor Robert Hunter Morris, then President of The St. Andrew's Society, also rendered every possible service, but was hampered by the hesitation of the Assembly to grant sufficient appropria- tions, as it believed that the proprietary government should pay a larger proportion of the expense. The first campaign, as stated, resulted in failure, but Sir John took an active part in the second and successful campaign, under General John Forbes, as Deputy Quartermaster-General.
In February, 1762, Sir John was gazetted as colonel, and in 1766 was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 28th Regiment of Foot, then stationed in New Jersey. He pur- chased a farm near Elizabeth Town, where he died Novem- ber 26, 1767. He is frequently referred to in the Pennsyl- vania Archives under the name of Sinclair.
On March 17, 1762, he married Elizabeth, a daughter of John and Catherine Hutchinson Moland. Mr. Moland was owner of a large estate on the Frankford Road, Phila- delphia, later known as Rose Hill.
There were two children by this marriage, a son who died in early youth at Trenton, and another son, John, who became the fourth baronet of that line upon his father's death, and who married a daughter of Sir William Erskine, Quartermaster-General of the British Forces in the Revo- lutionary War.
[Keith's Prov. Councillors et al.]
HON. SAMUEL GUSTINE THOMPSON, member 1872, Counsellor 1877-78, 1880, 1888. Born in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1837. Died at his summer home at Narra- gansett Pier, R. I., September 10, 1909.
He was a son of the Hon. James Thompson, who for fifteen years was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Penn- sylvania, serving as Chief Justice the last six years of his life. His son, Samuel, was educated at the Erie, Pa., Acad-
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HON. SAMUEL GUSTINE THOMPSON Member 1872 Counsellor 1877-1880, 1888 Died September 10, 1909
Biographies of Deceased Members
emy, and was later graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania. He was admitted to the Bar in January, 1861, and speedily won a place for himself in his chosen profes- sion. While his abilities were more particularly directed to the legal affairs of large corporations, he was also successful in other fields of legal activity.
At no time in his long and honorable career was he a seeker after office, but he took a deep interest in political affairs. In the exciting presidential contest of 1876-77, he visited Florida in the interest of Samuel J. Tilden. In 1892 he was a delegate to the Convention that nominated Grover Cleveland. In March, 1893, he was appointed by Governor Pattison a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Chief Justice Edward M. Paxson, but was defeated for re-election. In November, 1903, he was appointed by Governor Penny- packer a Justice of the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Chief Justice McCollum. This ap- pointment of a life-long Democrat by a Republican surprised the politicians, but it was a recognition of Justice Thomp- son's ability and high standing in his profession. He served out the term and then retired.
Judge Thompson then devoted himself to his private practice, and in 1907, by appointment of Judge Bregy and with the full concurrence of the principals interested, he was referee in the filtration contract dispute, resulting in an award against the city of Philadelphia and in favor of the contractors of over two million dollars.
He was vice-president of the Fairmount Park Commis- sion, to which he was appointed in 1887, a director of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, trustee of the Jefferson Medical College, a manager of the Forrest Home for Actors and president of the board; was president of the Renovo, Philadelphia and Erie Land Company, and was connected with several financial institutions.
Judge Thompson, as a member of the Park Commission and trustee of the Memorial Hall, was an able coadjutor to
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John G. Johnson, Esq., in the purchase of pictures for the notable Wilstach collection. He also gave close personal attention to the affairs of the Edwin Forrest Home for Aged Actors at Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, being unremitting in his interest in its beneficent work.
HENRY TOLAND, member 1799. On charter of 1808. Poulson's Advertiser of December 23, 1816, noted the death of Mr. Henry Toland on December 20th, at his residence, No. 409 Market Street, in the sixtieth year of his age, “ for many years a deservedly respected resident and merchant of Philadelphia."
Of the deceased we may with great justice repeat the words of a highly respected Physician who attended him in his last moments. He said, "I have known the friend we have just lost as long as my memory serves me, and I can with truth say, that I never heard, neither do I believe, that he ever caused a tear of sorrow to flow from the eyes of any human being, except those now shed for his lamented departure."
ADAM TRAQUAIR, member 1816. Adam Traquair was the son of James Traquair, who was reported in Ritter's " Philadelphia and Her Merchants " as a spirited and pro- gressive stone-cutter who came over from Greenock (Scot- land) in 1784. He built in its time a notable building on the southeast corner of Market and Tenth Streets, the lower story of which had a marble front, and his marble yard was in the rear.
Our member, Adam, was at the time of his death, Janu- ary 22, 1851, serving as president of the Board of City Commissioners, in the old city district, and, on the Councils learning of his death, both branches met in joint session and passed resolutions commendatory of his long service as a faithful officer of the corporation.
They attended his funeral in a body and ordered that the usual badge of mourning be worn for thirty days.
Mr. Traquair was buried at Laurel Hill, January 24, 1851.
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Biographies of Deceased Members
SAMUEL HENDERSON TRAQUAIR, EsQ., member 1833, Secretary 1837-38, Counsellor 1847.
Mr. Traquair died Monday, January 17, 1853, in the forty-first year of his age, and was interred in Laurel Hill.
A special meeting of The St. Andrew's Society was held at the house of Mr. William Struthers to take action upon the death of Mr. Traquair, Dr. John K. Mitchell, President, in the chair, and appropriate resolutions were adopted, de- claring that Mr. Traquair was a gentleman of talent and of generous and noble impulses, and greatly beloved by the brethren of this Society.
JAMES TROTTER, one of the founders of the Society, served as clerk at the first meeting, December 7, 1749, and Secretary 1750. Advertised as an importer of broad-cloths, linens, etc., " at his store next door to Townsend White on Front Street."
FREDERICK TURNBULL, member 1883. Mr. Turnbull was born in Glasgow, Scotland, September 21, 1847, and died suddenly at his summer home, Atlantic City, N. J., September 6, 1909.
He was the son of Matthew Turnbull, of Dumbarton- shire, and his wife, Margaret E. Wilson Turnbull, of Lanark- shire, Scotland.
He was educated at both the high school and the Uni- versity of Glasgow, and graduated from the Andersonian University in 1866, in chemistry, under Frederick Penny. He was for several years first lieutenant, Lanarkshire Artillery.
His father conducted one of the largest and best-known dyeing and bleaching establishments in Great Britain. About 1880 Mr. Turnbull came to this country to demonstrate Turkey-red dyeing, and in 1882 became associated with William J. Matheson & Co. as their Philadelphia manager, and later served in the same capacity with the Cassella Color Company until he retired in 1904. In May, 1906, he organ- ized the Turnbull Construction Company, of which he was president until the time of his death. He also opened a
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laboratory in 1906 for analytical research and consulting purposes in the textile trade.
Mr. Turnbull had a thorough knowledge of dyestuffs and of the chemical business, and had an extended acquaint- ance and many friends among both dealers and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. He was highly regarded in commercial circles for shrewdness and uprightness in his dealings, and esteemed among his countrymen for his help to those in need of assistance.
He married in Columbia, S. C., March 23, 1884, Miss Nina Ross Bryce, by whom he had two children, Norman Frederick and Frederick Dale Turnbull. Again married in Reading, Pa., November 24, 1906, to Bessie Dengler Brobst. He was a member of the Art Club, Philadelphia Country Club, the Manufacturers and other clubs.
[Mr. S. W. Wood in Textile Colorist et al.]
PETER WALKER, member 1857. Peter Walker was born in Jedburgh, Scotland, in 1813, and while still a lad moved to Edinburgh, where he received his education in the com- mon schools of that city.
At the age of twenty-four he came to Philadelphia, and immediately upon his arrival obtained a position with the type-foundry of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. He remained with them but a few years, when he resigned to accept a position with the Presbyterian Board of Publication and the Presbyterian Review. He continued with this board until he died, on June 3, 1882.
In 1853 Mr. Walker was married to Mary, a daughter of John Hamilton of Lanarkshire, Scotland, and had one child, a daughter, Elizabeth H. Walker.
He was an elder in the Tenth Presbyterian Church, and was always known as a man of integrity, of great and patient industry, and of constant devotion to the interests of the church. He was a man of good scholarship and wrote well, and was one of the best proof-readers of the city. When he died he was in the seventy-first year of his age, and, while he had been for some time in failing health, the an-
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nouncement of his death came suddenly to many of his old associates.
JOHN WALLACE,* one of the founders of the Society who traced his descent direct from James the First, King of Scotland, was born at Drumellier-on-the-Tweed, Scot- land, January 7, 1718, the son of John Wallace, minister at Drumellier.
He emigrated in his twenty-third year from his paternal home, and arrived in the year 1742 in Newport, R. I., and here established himself in business, and in time became one of the leaders in the commercial life of Providence, in that State. He later removed to Philadelphia and there married Mary, only child of Joshua and Mary Maddox, the former an honored citizen of Philadelphia, and for many years one of the justices of the courts, a Councilman of the City, a founder and trustee of the college, and a warden of Christ Church.
Mr. Wallace demonstrated the possession of admirable business abilities by establishing a commercial house, which soon took high rank among the many successful concerns of a kindred nature which were operated in Philadelphia at that time. Ship-building had become, even at that early period, a leading industry on the Delaware. Thus John Wallace established a prosperous business, acquired large wealth, and made himself one of the leading merchants of his time.
In the winter of 1748-49 the City Dancing Assembly was organized, and, as stated elsewhere, Governor James Hamil- ton and other members of The St. Andrew's Society became members. John Wallace is the twenty-first name on that list, and he remained identified with that exclusive organ- ization many years.
His activities in other directions were wide-spread. In October, 1775, he was chosen a Common Councilman of the
* Replacing brief sketch on page 349, vol. i, “Historical Catalogue The St. Andrew's Society." From Frank Willing Leach's articles on " Old Philadelphia Families" in Sunday North American.
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City, a position then filled only by men of the largest in- fluence. This post he held until the Revolution swept away this form of municipal government then existing under the charter of 1701.
The concluding years of his life were spent at his coun- try-seat in Somerset County, New Jersey, where his death occurred, September 26, 1783.
His wife, Mary, was born in Philadelphia, in January 1732, was baptized in Christ Church, February 4, of that year, and died at her husband's seat in New Jersey, January 9, 1784, less than four months after her husband.
John and Mary (née Maddox) Wallace had four chil- dren, Joshua Maddox, Ann, William, and Sarah. Joshua M. became a member of The St. Andrew's Society in 1804; the other son, William, was not a member.
While the monument adjacent to the Wallace vault in Old St. Peter's Church-yard at Third and Pine Streets bears the inscription given below, both John Wallace and his wife were buried in the grounds of the First Presbyterian Church on Market Street, between Second and Third Streets. The later Wallaces became Episcopalians.
In Memory of MR. JOHN WALLACE late a worthy Citizen and Merchant of Philadelphia Son of the Reverend Mr. John Wallace Minister of Drumelier on the Tweed, Tweedale, Scotland and of Christian Murray, his wife, Daughter of William Murray of Cardone Born 1717 at his Father's Manse Came A.D. 1742 to Newport, Rhode Island, Where he assisted to found the Public Library in that place, since become the Redwood, Afterwards for many years a Resident of Philadelphia. A Founder A.D. 1749 of The St. Andrew's Society in this City. From 1755 till the Dissolution of the Royal Government in 1776. A Councilman of the City. Died September 26, 1783 At Hope Farm, his Seat on the Raritan Somerset County, New Jersey Anno Aetat 65.
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JOHN BRADFORD WALLACE, member 1803, Counsellor 1808-1820 .* Born at " Ellerslie," his father's country-seat, on the Raritan, New Jersey, August 17, 1778. Died in Philadelphia, January 7, 1837.
He was the second of the adult sons of the first Joshua Maddox Wallace, by his wife, Tace Bradford Wallace. When under sixteen years of age he graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1794, receiving the degree of A.M. in 1797.
He entered the law office of his maternal uncle, William Bradford, Attorney-General of the United States under President Washington. He was one of the founders of the "Law Library Company of Philadelphia."
In 1819 Mr. Wallace became financially embarrassed through the failure of an elder brother, and, with a view to recoup his fortunes, he removed to Meadville, Crawford County, Penna., where he owned or controlled large tracts of land. By devotion to business with zeal and integrity, his pecuniary troubles were brought to an end.
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