USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Biographical review : v. 24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburgh and the vicinity, Pennsylvania > Part 19
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the only firm in their line of business in the vicinity. Mr. Ritter speaks English, Ger- man, and French, and is thus enabled to act as interpreter. Messrs. Geltzheiser & Ritter are solicitors for the Powderly, the Crescent, and the Twenty-seventh Ward Building and Loan Association. Mr. Geltzheiser is a second tenor, and an active member in the Germania Singing Society, which is the leading and one of the oldest singing societies in Allegheny. He took a prominent part in the National Sängerfest, recently held here. In religious belief he is a Catholic and a member of St. Michael's Church. His home is in the Twenty-seventh Ward.
ILLIAM H. McKELVY, M.D., of Pittsburg, one of the foremost physicians of Allegheny County, was born September 21, 1843, near Wilkins- burg, Pa., a son of James McKelvy. The father, who was but four and a half years old when, in 1804, he came to this country with his parents from County Down, Ireland, was reared to agricultural pursuits. After his marriage he bought a tract of land near Wil- kinsburg, where he was engaged in farming till his demise at the advanced age of eighty- eight years. His wife, whose maiden name was Rosanna Swisshelm, was born in Carlisle, this State, daughter of Lieutenant Swisshelm, an officer in the Revolutionary army. They became the parents of nine children, three of whom died in infancy. The others were: James M., who was Circuit Judge in the Seventh Judicial District of Minnesota from 1866 until 1883, and died at St. Cloud, Minn., in 1884; Mrs. Elizabeth Heagen, who died at Lamar, Mo., where her husband, a Presbyterian minister, had charge of a church ; John S., who lives on the homestead; Martha
J., the wife of Harry B. Wintersmith, a man- ufacturer of tanks, windmills, etc., in Louis- ville, Ky .; Wilbur F., a clerk in Pittsburg ; and William H., the subject of this sketch.
William H. McKelvy laid a substantial foundation for his future education in the Wil- kinsburg Academy and the Allegheny College at Meadville, Pa. In 1866 he was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City; and in the following year he opened an office in Pittsburg, where, with the exception of five years, when he was in partnership with Dr. W. Snively, he has since practised alone, winning for himself an as- sured position among the prominent members of the medical fraternity. In January, 1868, he was elected physician to the county jail, a position which he subsequently held for thir- teen consecutive years. He has been the president of the Grant Subdistrict School Board for twenty-six years. A member of the Central Board of Education for twenty-two years, he was its president for fourteen years. He is a member of the Library Association, and one of the trustees of the Carnegie Li- brary. Dr. McKelvy is likewise connected by membership with the Allegheny County Medi- cal Society, the Microscopical Society of Pittsburg, and the American Medical Asso- ciation. In the Masonic fraternity he is a Knight Templar, and he has done much to promote the good of the order in the State. In politics he affiliates with the Republican party, being one of its stanchest supporters. On March 23, 1897, he was united in marriage with Margaret Youngson, of Pittsburg.
ACOB H. WALTER, the recent secre- tary of the Allegheny County Republi- can Central Committee, was born Jan- uary 7, 1835, in the town of Wilkins, this
WILLIAM H. MCKELVY.
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county, son of Adam and Sarah (Kuhn) Walter. The pioneer of the Walter family in America was Jacob Walter, grandfather of Jacob H. He settled in Lancaster County, and lived there to the remarkable age of one hundred and six years. Possessed of a wonderful physique, he shocked grain in the harvest field the year before his death. He was never known to suffer from an illness previous to that which caused his death. He had a family of four sons. Adam, the father of Jacob H., was a prosperous farmer in the township of Indiana. His first wife, Sarah Kuhn Walter, who was the mother of two of his children, died when her son Jacob was only five years old. His second marriage was made with Sarah McKel- vey, who bore him eight children, of whom Harriet, Mary, Ann, Margaret, John, and James are living.
Jacob Walter lived in Wilkins until he was ten years old. At that time his father bought a farm in the town of Indiana, and the son subsequently worked there until he had passed his twenty-sixth birthday. In the winter he taught school for seven years. After leaving the homestead, he started a country store at Brimstone Corner, on the Pittsburg & Atlan- tic road in Allegheny County, and conducted it for three years. During that time he was - Postmaster of the place and Justice of the Peace. He then took a clerical position in the prothonotary's office for eight months, and at the end of that time, in 1862, he was appointed chief clerk in the office of the County Commissioner. In 1864 he was elected prothonotary, and again in 1867, serving in all for six years in that capacity. Later he was engaged in the producing and refining of oil, and was connected with the insurance and banking business. He constructed the Highland Avenue reservoirs for the city water- works in the years 1874, 1875, and 1876.
After this he was in the commission business until 1890, when he was one of the officials appointed to take the census. Completing that, Mr. Walter went into the office of the Collector of Customs at the Port of Customs in Pittsburg, and remained there during four years. Then he became the secretary of the Allegheny County Republican Central Com- mittee, which office he filled for the remainder of his life. His career was a good example of what can be accomplished through energy and patience united with principle. Entirely a self-made man, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his success was largely due to his own ability and perseverance. He died April 19, 1897.
On September 4, 1856, Mr. Walter married Miss Lillie A. Euwer, a daughter of John and Jane (Elliott) Euwer. Mr. and Mrs. Wal- ter's elder daughter, Maria Luella, is now the wife of Richard A. Kennedy, an attorney. The other daughter, Lillie Lincoln, is the wife of W. H. Ellis, who is also an attorney. The only son, John, died in infancy. Both parents were members of the Methodist church for over forty years, and the father was super- intendent of the Sunday-school for over thirty years. Mr. Walter was a member of Henry Lamber Lodge, No. 475, I. O. O. F. ; and of the Bankers' and Bank Clerks' Mutual Benefit Association.
TON. BOYD CRUMRINE, a lawyer now in active practice at the Pitts- burg bar, is a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and is of German de- scent, tracing his ancestry in America to a period prior to the Revolutionary War.
From 1682 to 1776 Pennsylvania was the central point of emigration from Germany, France, and Switzerland. For the first period of twenty years-that is, until 1702-not over
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two hundred German families arrived; and those settled principally 'at Germantown and other localities near Philadelphia. But the period from 1702 to 1727 marked an era in early German emigration, and between forty and fifty thousand persons left their Fatherland. Queen Anne of England, desiring to fill up her American colonies without depleting the British kingdom, caused copies of a book to be distributed throughout the Palatinate in Ger- many, having her portrait as a frontispiece and the title in gold letters, on which account it was called "Das Golden Buch," to induce the Palatines to come to England in order to be sent to the Carolinas or to other of her Amer- ican colonies. Thus lured, it is said that in 1708 and 1709 thirty-three thousand Germans left their homes on the Rhine for London; and that of this large number seven thousand, after having suffered great privations, returned half- naked and in despondency to their native coun- try, ten thousand died for want of sustenance, medical attendance, and other causes, and the survivors were sent to America.
In 1727, during the time of Governor Will- iam Keith, German immigration had so much increased that it was feared Pennsylvania was becoming "a foreign country," and a regulation was established by the provincial government requiring that all foreigners on their arrival should subscribe an oath of allegiance to the kingdom of Great Britain and of fidelity to the proprietaries of the Province. All persons over sixteen were made to sign this oath. When they could not write, their names were written and attested by a clerk. By this means the names of over thirty thousand Ger- man and Swiss immigrants into Pennsylvania between 1727 and 1776, when the colonies separated from the mother country, have been preserved. These lists are still to be seen in the Department of State at Harrisburg, and
one who examines them will be attracted by two things to be observed : first, every ship's list, almost, was headed by the name of the pastor, who was leading them as a flock into the wilderness; second, excepting a very small percentage of the whole number, every name is written in German, evidently the writer's autograph, and generally in the clear hand of a good penman. From these lists I. D. Rupp made up his "Collection of Thirty Thousand Names " of immigrants, published a few years since in Philadelphia.
In this collection of thirty thousand names there are but two Krumreins. On September II, 1732, "the ship 'Pennsylvania,' John Stedman master, from Rotterdam, last from Plymouth," landed with "seventy-three males above sixteen, women and children of both sexes ninety-eight - in all, one hundred and seventy-one." In this list is the name of Hans Michael Krumrein. On September 5, 1748, "the ship 'Edinburgh,' James Russell master, from Rotterdam, last from Ports- mouth," landed with one hundred and twenty-seven persons. In this list of names is that of George Lenhart Krumrein.
Hans Michael Krumrein, after having lived in the neighborhood of Philadelphia until after 1741, passed westward into Northampton and finally into Centre County, where some of his descendants still live, others having passed on into Ohio. George Lenhart Krumrein went into Baltimore County, Maryland, afterward perhaps into Georgia, returning to Maryland at a later day. In 1800 George Crumrine, son of Abraham, a son of George Lenhart Krum- rein, passed from Baltimore County, Maryland, over the Alleghanies into the valley of the Monongahela, and settled upon a farm in East Bethlehem township, Washington County. One of his sons, Daniel Crumrine, was born upon the same farm. He married Margaret,
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the daughter of John Bower, Esq. The Bower family was of Swiss-German origin, and came West from the Juniata valley in 1796.
Boyd Crumrine is a son of Daniel and Mar- garet, and was born in East Bethlehem town- ship, Washington County, Pa., February 9, 1838, on the farm first occupied by his grand- father in 1800. With the exception of a great-grandfather on the maternal side, George Rex by name, who was an Englishman, his blood is all German from the upper Rhine. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm. During the winters of 1854-55 and 1855-56 he attended the Bridgeport schools, Browns- ville, Pa., and in the spring and summer of 1856 he was a student at Waynesburg Col- lege, Waynesburg, Pa.
In September, 1856, he was admitted to the Sophomore class of Jefferson College at Can- onsburg, Pa., then in its prime, having per- haps over three hundred students, many of whom were from the South. At the begin- ning of his second term, at his own request, he was permitted to drop into the Freshman class, in order that he might lay a better foundation for a complete classical course. With that class he continued until his gradua- tion on August 1, 1860, when he divided the first honor of his class of over fifty men with Mr. Roland Thompson, of Milroy, Pa., and delivered the Greek salutatory on Commence- ment Day. Through the whole course he was a diligent student and a vigorous thinker, doing nothing by spurts, producing level work and square work always, and striking twelve in nearly every recitation. At the beginning of the Junior year Professor John Fraser formed what he called his select class, em- bracing all the Juniors who graded above ninety, to whom he offered special instructions in mathematics and general literature. The class consisted of Mr. Crumrine and four
others, who met at night for two years in the Professor's chambers, where, as a reward for mastering a dozen extra volumes of higher mathematics, the privileged five were regaled, often into the "wee sma' hours," by the best thoughts and noblest sentiments of the man who, as a teacher, stands without a rival and without a peor in the memories of his pupils. One year before graduation Mr. Crumrine chose the profession of law, and entered upon it with the Hon. John L. Gow, of Washington, Pa., as his preceptor, to whom he recited once a week during his Senior year in college. The first year after graduation he taught a select class of young ladies at Canonsburg, continuing his law studies at the same time. On the 2 Ist of the following August he was admitted to the Washington County bar.
The war of the Rebellion interfering with his purpose to begin legal business in the West, in the following November he enlisted as a private in Company B, Eighty-fifth Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was made the Quartermaster Sergeant of the regiment. After spending the winter of 1861-62 in the trenches at Washington, he was discharged in order to accept a commission as First Lieuten- ant in a brigade of Eastern Virginia Volun- teers then forming ; but, soon after his commis- sion was received, the government issued an order discontinuing all recruiting service and disbanding all uncompleted organizations. This made him a citizen again ; and, returning home, he opened an office in Washington, Pa., in May, 1862, and began the practice of law, in which he has continued ever since with sufficient business always on hand to keep him steadily occupied. He has not grown rich in goods and chattels, but a glance at his person is sufficient to show that his work in life has not been of so trying a nature as to keep him poor in flesh. Weighing at gradua-
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tion one hundred and thirty-five pounds, he now turns the scales at above two hundred. The stalwart form has rounded out to com- pleteness, the broad shoulders have become broader, the face, somewhat spare of old, has become full; and with the sparse English side whiskers of his early majority grown to mas- sive "Burnsides " on his cheeks, he is now as fine a specimen of physical manhood as the eye need wish to look upon.
Of his own efforts he wrote to the class his- torian for the reunion of 1885: "I have tried to keep my little boat trimmed neatly and to trim it myself and after my own style. My sole ambition has been to do as well as I could what has been set before me. The law to me has been a jealous mistress; yet, as a relaxa- tion and a mellowing of the lines of toil, which otherwise might have been hard to me, I have been a rider of hobbies, one after an- other, always with the reservation of the liberty to change them at my own will and pleasure - philology at one time, then ento- mology, the microsope, and of late years his- tory and philosophy."
In 1871 Mr. Crumrine compiled the Rules of Court of Washington County. In 1872-73 he prepared "The Pittsburg Reports," legal cases of the several State courts not elsewhere reported, in three volumes octavo. In 1878 he published "Omnium Gatherum," or "Notes of Cases for the Lawyer's Pocket and Counsel Table," of which the edition is now ex- hausted. In 1882 he composed a large part and edited the whole of the History of Wash- ington County, a quarto of one thousand pages, nonpareil type, published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia.
Mr. Crumrine is a Republican in politics, but has never sought political preferment. His tastes are altogether literary and profes- sional. He was given the degree of Master
of Arts by Jefferson College in 1863. From 1865 to 1868 he was District Attorney for Washington County, and in 1870 was ap- pointed Deputy Marshal of the United States for the Western District of Pennsylvania, to compile the social statistics of that district for the Ninth Census. After this temporary employment outside of his profession in mat- ters in which .he had great interest, he con- fined his work to his practice until April, 1887, when, without solicitation on his part, he was appointed by Governor Beaver State Reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and, accepting the ap- pointment as one suited to his tastes and ex- perience, he had published at the end of his official term, in May, 1892, thirty-one volumes of Pennsylvania State Reports, which seem to meet with the approval of the bench and bar of the State. ` Secretary of State Charles W. Stone, in response to a letter concerning these reports, wrote in 1889 as follows : "Mr. Crum- rine is making a model reporter, and his work is held in very high estimation by the bench and bar throughout the State. He is improv- ing the style and method of reporting, and is ex- ceedingly faithful and painstaking in his work. The profession generally appreciate this fact, and also the promptness in the publication of his reports and their improved typographical execution. You cannot speak too highly of his official efficiency."
He has also been the recipient of many other well-merited compliments, written and verbal, from members of both bench and bar, of all phases of politics. Indefatigable in his work, he is a lover of it. In the winter of 1891-92, when his name was presented to President Harrison for appointment as United States District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, among many letters to the President, filed in his favor, from judges and
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lawyers of the State, was one in which the justices of the Supreme Court joined, and which was such as to make him feel more than comfortable even though he failed to receive the desired appointment. At the general election in November, 1891, he was chosen a member of the constitutional convention pro- vided for by the act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed June 19, 1891. How- ever, a majority of the electors of the State voting against the convention, it was not held.
At the close of his term as State Reporter Mr. Crumrine opened an office for active prac- tice with his son-in-law, Mr. J. P. Patterson, at 96 Diamond Street, Pittsburg, Pa. Since then, still retaining his connection with his home office at Washington, Pa., conducted by his son, E. E. Crumrine, he has been em- ployed literally day and night in the business of his profession. In 1894 he was mentioned for nomination as a candidate for the office of Judge of the Supreme Court; and in 1895, the Superior Court having been created and organ- ized, an active canvass was made by his pro- fessional friends in favor of his nomination as one of the judges of that court, but unsuccess- fully.
On August 2, 1860, the day following that on which he was made a Bachelor of Arts, Mr. Crumrine was married to Miss Harriet J., daughter of George A. and Jane B. Kirk, of Canonsburg, Pa. They have had four chil- dren - Ernest Ethelbert, Louisa Celeste, Ro- land Thompson, and Ilattie J. Of these Roland T. and Hattie J. both died young. Ernest E. is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, and is a partner in his father's law office at Washington, Pa. His wife is Gertrude, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. J. F. McGill, of Fairfield, Ia., and they have one child, Lucias McKennan Crumrine. Lou- isa Celeste was educated at the Washington
Female Seminary, and is now the wife of J. P. Patterson, Esq., a partner in her father's law office at Pittsburg, Pa. They have had two children : Hattie, a daughter, now deceased ; and a son, John Logan, surviving.
[The foregoing sketch of the Hon. Boyd Crumrine is compiled for the most part from "A Biographical Album of Prominent Pennsyl- vanians," published in three volumes at Phila- delphia, 1889, and from the Class History of the Jefferson College Class of 1860, read at the quarter-centennial reunion in 1885, by the Rev. Dr. J. W. Wightman. ]
L. SLONAKER, A.M., M.D., was born near Markle, a beautiful country village in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on June 19, 1862. Here the thrush and the oriole filled the morning and evening twilight with their hymns and vespers, the landscape affording to the eye a collection of admirable pictures. Into such a world of beauty and song the subject of this sketch was born; and that those scenes have passed into his soul there can be no doubt to those fa- miliar with him.
His father, Michael Slonaker, born near Edgecliff, Westmoreland County, October 9, 1831, was an industrious farmer. A man of high moral character, Michael was esteemed by all who knew him. The mother, Nancy (Younkins) Slonaker, born near Edgecliff, September 11, 1833, was an amiable charac- ter. She loved righteousness, and was always on the side of justice, mercy, and truth. She was a woman of deep insight, rich apprecia- tion, and gifted mentally and morally. All her children were much benefited by her ma- ternal instruction. With them righteousness and truth weigh more than personal advantage. The parents of Dr. Slonaker were married Oc-
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tober 7, 1858. In them we face the old Ger- man stock, scholarly and ponderous. Ten children were the outcome of this happy union, of whom seven are now living - Frank R., Dr. Alter L., William B., the Rev. Paul Jones, Ada Elizabeth, John Calvin, and Minnie Martha.
Alter L. Slonaker, the fourth of the ten children, spent his youth on the farm in ar- duous labor for his father. The days spent in the fields and in such outdoor exercises as are conducive to the development of a vigor- ous constitution were not spent in vain. Early in life he desired an education. His father's limited means made it impossible for him to materially aid his son; but the habits of industry, economy, and temperance, incul- cated in the boy, were worth more to the son than silver or gold. At the age of fifteen he left the farm for the walks and ways of college life, and to gain for himself the blessings of refinement and culture. He attended the Markle Select School, and soon equipped him- self for teaching. By this means he obtained the funds necessary for advanced study, and soon entered Reedsburg Academy, finishing this course in 1882. He subsequently re- ceived the degree of Master of Arts from Grove City College. During the winter of 1885 and 1886 he taught the school in which he received his primary education, and the evenings were spent in the study of medicine. Such marked success had he in teaching that the School Board insisted upon his teaching a second and third term. While teaching all his spare time was devoted to the study of medicine, and many times he was known to walk as far as nine miles to recite to his pre- ceptor, Dr. Alter. His pathway was not down an inclined plane, not over a smooth, level highway, but up rugged mountains of difficulty. He entered the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons, medical department of Wesleyan University, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1886, and graduated with honors from this in- stitution in 1888. Eager for knowledge and believing that time spent in preparation is never lost, he decided to spend another year in the study of human life and death, thus se- curing for himself the benefit of a post-gradu- ate course from the medical department of the University of Western Pennsylvania, Pitts- burg, from which institution he graduated in ISS9. He began the practice of medicine in Pittsburg, where he has since devoted all his time to his profession and the care of his patients, clear in diagnosis and quick to take the proper course of treatment. Although young in the profession, his practice has grown so rapidly that he has decided to give up general practice, and confine his attention to gynæcology and chronic diseases.
The Doctor's personality glows with gener- ous regard for the men about him, and grapples them to him "with hooks of steel." He is always cheerful, sympathetic in feeling, generous in nature, and easily accessible. During his nine years in the practice of medi- cine Dr. Slonaker has made for himself a wide circle of friends and admirers and a fine reputation as a physician. He loves the com- pany of scholars and statesmen, he loves great men and gracious women; yet he has the fac- ulty of making all classes -rich and poor, cultured and illiterate - feel at perfect ease with him. He is a gentleman in manners, bearing, and life; and as a pure-minded man and a Christian he is beloved by all the peo- ple who know him. Splendidly qualified by natural fitness and large culture, he is prov- ing himself an honor to the profession. He is in the fullest and best sense a man of prog- ress. He is systematic in his labors. A man of pronounced, positive convictions, hav-
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