USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Biographical review : v. 24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburgh and the vicinity, Pennsylvania > Part 21
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George Flower (second), James O. Flower's father, was born in England in 1808. At the age of ten years he accompanied his parents to America. He acquired his early education at home. In his eighteenth year he came to Pittsburg, where he began the study of medi- cine. Later he entered Jefferson College in Philadelphia, where he duly graduated in com- pany with Dr. Jno. Dickson, who afterward became a noted surgeon of this city. After spending some time associated in practice with Dr. Dickson in Allegheny City, he located in what is now the Thirty-sixth Ward of Pitts- burg, and followed his profession successfully in that locality for twenty years. Then, owing to his impaired health, he relinquished general practice, and, associating himself with Professor Wellesley, M.D., and Dr. La Mott, devoted his attention to the treatment of pulmonary diseases. In this specialty he ac- quired a high reputation ; and he continued in practice until 1872, at which time he retired. He was commissioned an army surgeon in 1864. His wife was a daughter of James Olver, a wealthy man, who was a native of Plymouth, England, and accompanied the Flower family to America. Both the Olver
and Flower families were quite prominent in their native localities in England. Members of the Flower family who remained in the old country were intimate friends of the cele- brated Dr. Charles Darwin. Dr. Flower and his wife were the parents of three sons, namely: Cornelius, who is no longer living; George K., a resident of Pittsburg; and James O., the subject of this sketch. Both the grandfather and father were supporters of the old Whig party.
After receiving his early education under the tuition of his parents, James Olver Flower attended Bradley College. At the age of seventeen he commenced the study of dentis- try with Dr. Robert Vandervoort, one of the leading practitioners of Pittsburg, and ac- quired a good knowledge of the profession. He then associated himself with Dr. Wright, a physician and dentist, with whom he re- mained until the breaking out of the Civil War. in 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company K, Sixty-third Regiment, Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, for three years. At the ex- piration of his term of service he became associated with Dr. Vandervoort. Upon the retirement of the latter, about the year 1876, he succeeded to the entire practice. Dr. Flower married Sarah Schinneller, a daughter of John Schinneller, of Pittsburg. In politics he is a Republican, and takes a very active part in reform movements.
RS. AMELIA LOUISE (COWAN) SWARTZWELDER, of Pitts- burg, whose late husband, Mar- shall Swartzwelder, was for many years one of the first criminal lawyers in the State, is a na- tive of Woodville, now a part of the city of Pittsburg. Born in 1822, she is a daughter of Christopher and Elize (Kirkpatrick) Cowan.
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The father, a native of Ireland and of Scotch ancestry, was a well-educated man, and owned a large estate in his native place. When he came to Pittsburg, he started an iron and nail factory at Birmingham, which was one of the earliest manufacturing enterprises of Pitts- burg. To this establishment he afterward added a rolling-mill. Subsequently, in 1810, he married Miss Elize Kirkpatrick, daughter of Major Abraham Kirkpatrick, of an old Pittsburg family, whose homestead at Wood- ville was purchased by Mr. Cowan. Mr. Cowan was one of the founders and an early pew-holder of the old Trinity Church. He owned a large amount of property in Pitts- burg, Mount Washington, and Woodville, all now within the city limits. Late in life. he built a large and handsome residence beside the Monongahela River. He died in 1834, when Mrs. Swartzwelder was twelve years old, leaving four other children, namely : Mrs. Mary Renshaw; and Mrs. Elizabeth Ebbs, of Philadelphia; Margaret, the wife of Judge Mason, of Baltimore; and Richard Cowan, an attorney of Philadelphia.
In 1846 Miss Amelia Louise Cowan mar- ried Marshall Swartzwelder, who was born at Carlisle, March 13, 1819, son of John - and Mary (Marshall). Swartzwelder. Marshall Swartzwelder came of German descent. The father, who was a native of this State and a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, lived near Lancaster in early life, and was a well-known pioneer minister of Eastern Pennsylvania. He owned a place called Hamilton Hall, on the Monongahela River, until his son Mar- shall was twelve years of age. Then they re- moved to Hagerstown, where Marshall Swartz- welder completed his college preparatory course. After graduating from Princeton College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he read law with a Mr. Price, of Hagerstown,
and was subsequently admitted to the bar after an examination by Judge Buchanan. Coming to Pittsburg in 1840, he formed a partnership with Walter Forward, with whom he was associated until his election to the State legislature, in which he served in 1848 and 1849. Thereafter he practised indepen- dently, and for twenty-five years his reputation in the criminal law courts was second to none.
Mr. Swartzwelder was an earnest student of literature. He was gifted with a retentive memory, and his eloquent speeches are re- membered as models of profound reasoning and elegant diction. He was a strong Repub- lican until the nomination of Greeley, for whom he took the stump, afterward making many political speeches for Grant. He was connected with some of the greatest criminal trials in the State, and appeared in every murder trial for twenty-five years, saving many lives. His practice took him to every part of the State. During the Murphy move- ment he became prominent as the prosecutor for the Law and Order Society, in which ca- pacity he secured the first conviction in the "waiter-girl cases." During the great rail- road riots he was the lawyer for the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company, and took an active part in the controversy between the contend- ing parties. Mr. Swartzwelder continued in active practice of his profession until shortly before his death, and his last plea was made in the Nutt case of Uniontown. He made his family home in Pittsburg until 1857. Then he resided for ten years in Hazelwood, after which he returned to the East End. He died at his home at Sewickley, September 30, 1884, after five weeks of illness caused by a broken leg. Mr. and Mrs. Swartzwelder had four children - Elizabeth, Mary A., Richard C., and Amelia Cowan. Elizabeth is now the wife of George W. Beckwith, of Wilkins-
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burg. Mr. Swartzwelder supported the Trin- ity (Episcopal) Church, which his wife regu- larly attended.
ARKLEY C. CAMERON, M.D., one of the younger physicians of Pittsburg, was born April 7, 1861, in Allegheny, Pa., son of James and Sarah J. (Woods) Cameron. John Cameron, the grand- father, a stone-mason by trade, came from Scotland with his wife. He had four sons - Samuel, Jacob, James, and William; and two daughters - Eliza and Mary. Mary and the four sons are now deceased. Eliza is the widow of William Bailey. James was a roller in the Crescent Steel Works of Pittsburg for fifteen years. He died in March, 1894, hav- ing survived his wife, who died in April, 1891. Of their twelve children seven are now living, namely: Alice, the wife of A. S. Mundorff, an expert accountant of Pittsburg; Frank B., a roller of Pittsburg; Dr. Markley C., the subject of this sketch; the Rev. H. N. Cameron, a Methodist Episcopal minister of Somerset, Pa .; Sarah J., who is unmarried, and resides at the old homestead; Anna M., the wife of H. W. Mitchell, an attorney-at- law of Pittsburg; and William B., a medical student. Four children died in childhood, and Bessie died at the age of twenty -one years of typhoid fever.
Markley C. Cameron attended the public schools of Pittsburg, graduating from the high school in 1879. Subsequently he graduated from Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., in the class of 1881, and from the University of Pennsylvania in the class of 1885. After passing a year in the capacity of resident phy- sician in the West Penn Hospital, he estab- lished himself in Pittsburg. Dr. Cameron is a member of the Allegheny County Medical Society, of the Pittsburg Academy of Medi-
cine, and of the Austin Flint Medical Club. He is also demonstrator of the diseases of women in the medical department of the Western University of Pennsylvania. In poli- tics he is a Republican, and he is a member of the Masonic society. On April 16, 1891, he married Harriet O. Williams, daughter of W. F. Williams, the manager of the Standard Oil Works. Their only child is Bessie Williams.
ILLIAM FERRIS AULL, a vet- eran of the Civil War and a promi- nent business man of Pittsburg, was born April 9, 1848, in Charlestown, Portage County, Ohio, son of James and Phoebe (Ferris) Aull. Having given the best proof of his own patriotism by fighting for the Union, one is not surprised to find that he comes of good patriotic stock. His great- grandfather, John Aull, who resided in Phila- delphia, fought in the Revolutionary War as a private of Captain Ashmead's company of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Colonel Walter Stewart.
William Aull, a son of John, born in 1786, was one of the early pioneers of Western Pennsylvania. For many years he was the proprietor of a hotel at Frankfort, near Mar- tinsburg, Va. He was also extensively en- gaged as a contractor. In this latter capacity he had a large share of the work of construct- ing the National Turnpike. A man of ability and refinement, and possessed of considerable means, he exercised much influence in the dis- trict. He was one of the most prominent representatives of the Masonic fraternity in Virginia sixty years ago. On May 13, 1813, in Westmoreland County, where he had set- tled, he married Elizabeth Hunter, by whom he became the father of one son and five daughters. The latter were: Elizabeth,
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WILLIAM F. AULL.
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Mary, Martha, Jane, and Sarah. The son, James, was born February 27, 1817, in West- moreland County, and is still living in Pitts- burg. After conducting a prosperous busi- ness in live stock for fifty years, he retired upon a fair competence. In that period he became known to every prominent man en- gaged in the same business between New York and Chicago, acquiring a high reputa- tion for honorable dealing and general integ- rity. In 1846, May 27, he married Phoebe Ferris, a school teacher of Geauga County, Ohio, and a descendant of the famous Ferris family of New York. She died in Pittsburg in 1889, having been the mother of six chil- dren - William F., Charles H., Mary C., Ella H., Elizabeth H., and Clara P. Clara became the wife of the Rev. Charles B. Mitchell, D. D., a prominent Methodist min- ister. The entire family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
William Ferris Aull, the eldest of his par- ents' children, received his education in the public schools of Allegheny City and Phila- delphia. In September, 1863, though then but fifteen years old, he ran away from his home in Philadelphia, and succeeded in join- ing a regiment of "emergency men," with whom he patrolled the Cumberland valley be- tween Harrisburg and Carlisle for twenty days. After this he made several unsuccess- ful attempts to enlist for service in the war then going on, being refused at every recruit- ing office on account of his youth, without the consent of his parents. However, in the fol- lowing winter, with the assistance of a man whom he induced to act the part of his guar- dian, he was received in the Eighth Pennsyl- vania Cavalry to serve for three years. After much trouble, and aided by the Hon. William D. Kelly, then representing Philadelphia in Congress, his father secured his honorable
discharge by Special Order No. 132 of the War Department, on March 30, 1864. He was then sent to relatives in Ohio, in the hope that his removal from the vicinity of the numerous recruiting stations in Philadelphia would cure him of his war fever. The hope was not realized, as on May 2, 1864, he en- listed in Company K, One Hundred and Seventy-first Regiment, Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, with which he served until the expira- tion of his term. Upon returning home, he entered the Iron City Commercial College of Pittsburg. After graduating from this insti- tution, he took a special course in civil en- gineering under the private instruction of Samuel Stevenson, of Oil City, Pa. Fully qualified to discharge the duties of the office, he was appointed Assistant City Engineer of Pittsburg in 1867. In the following year he entered the employment of the extensive Denny estate in Pittsburg, which he now serves in the capacity of attorney in fact and general agent. He has held membership in the Society of Engineers of Western Pennsyl- vania and in the Pittsburg Chamber of Com- merce for several years.
In 1868, April 20, Mr. Aull was united in matrimony with Anna Martin, a native of Chester County. Among Mrs. Aull's ances- tors were: Lord De La Warre, who in 1610 was appointed the first Governor of Virginia; Henry Cornish, the Lord Mayor of London in 1680; and John McFarland, who served in the Fourth Regiment, Light Dragoons, United States Cavalry, during the war of the Revolu- tion. Born of the marriage are four children -- Charles Elmer, John Albert, Florence, and Grace. Like his ancestors for generations, Mr. Aull is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He takes an active part in pol- itics as a member of the Republican party. Valuable public service was rendered by him
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as Pittsburg City Councilman for seven years, and as State Senator, representing the Forty- fourth District for four years. Serving con- tinuously in the National Guard of Pennsyl- vania from 1870 to 1885, he held in turn every commission from the rank of Second Lieutenant to that of Colonel. Throughout the seven weeks' campaign of 1877 in the anthracite coal regions, he commanded the Eighteenth Regiment. He is a member of several secret societies, including the Masonic order. In the latter he is a Knight Templar, a brother of the Mystic Shrine, and a recip- ient of the thirty-second degree. He is also a comrade of the Grand Army, having been Commander of McPherson Post, No. 117, for three years, an officer in the Department of Pennsylvania for several years, and an aide-de-camp on the staff of the Commander- in-chief. Mr. Aull and his family reside at 4259 Fifth Avenue. Public-spirited to a high degree, he has always done his part in further- ing the best interests of the community.
ON. THOMAS MELLON is one of the oldest and best known residents of Pittsburg. He was born Febru- ary 3, 1813, at Camp Hill, County Tyrone,
Ireland, son of Andrew and Rebecca (Wauchob) Mellon. The house of his birth was situated on a farm that had been in the possession of his father's family since it was given to its Scotch founder, who was one of the Cromwellian settlers of Ulster. Coerced by the oppressive taxation laid upon him by the English government to defray the ex- penses of its wars with the first Napoleon, like many other middle-class farmers of the north of Ireland, Andrew Mellon came with his wife and child to this country in the year 1818. Crossing the mountains into West-
moreland County in the fall of the same year, he invested his money in a farm near New Salem, where he passed the remainder of his life occupied in cultivating the soil. Both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church. Besides Thomas, they had four other children, namely: Eleanor and Eliza, both residents of Allegheny County, who respec- tively married David Stotter and George Bowman; Margaret, who married James Shields, and spent her married life in Califor- nia; and Samuel, deceased, who made his home in the South. The father died aged seventy years, and the mother, when she was seventy-nine years old.
When Thomas Mellon became a resident of Westmoreland County he was less than five years of age. From that time until he at- tained his twentieth year, he spent his sum- mers employed in work suited to his capacity on his father's farm, and his winters chiefly in attending the log cabin school established in the neighborhood. In 1833, as he had shown much fondness for study, it was decided that he was better adapted for a profession than for the calling of a farmer. He was ac- cordingly sent to the classical school at Mon- roeville, Allegheny County, conducted by the Rev. Jonathan Gill. After completing the course of this institution, he matriculated at the Western University of Pennsylvania, then situated on Third Street, Pittsburg, and pre- sided over by Robert Bruce, D.D. Here he graduated in the class of 1837. Two years before, while attending the university, he began to read law with Judge Shaler, the senior partner of the law firm Shaler & Simpson, leading attorneys of that day; and in Decem- ber, 1838, he was admitted to the bar. In- stead of engaging in the profession immedi- ately after, he accepted the position of manag- ing clerk in the employment of Prothonotary
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Thomas Liggett, the founder of the well- known Liggett family of East End, Pittsburg. His object in doing this was to get acquainted with the members of the bar and to gain more experience in the work of his profession. He remained with the prothonotary until the fol- lowing June, when he opened an office on Fifth Avenue, near Market Street, in Pitts- burg, and had a lucrative practice from the start. In 1858, when the labor of attending to his largely increased practice began to seri- ously undermine his health, his friends of both the bar and bench prevailed on him to become a candidate for a judgeship that had been recently created in Court of Common Pleas, No. 1 ; and he was elected. After dis- charging the duties of this office with signal success until the close of his term, he de- clined renomination, and engaged in the bank- ing business with his sons, with whom he de- sired to be associated, that he might guide them clear of disaster. The banking firm of T. Mellon & Sons was established in 1886. After wisely directing its affairs for a pro- longed period, Mr. Mellon retired, since which time it has been managed by A. W. and R. B. Mellon. During the eleven years of the firm's existence its business has largely in- creased both at home and abroad.
In 1843 Mr. Mellon was united in matri- mony with Miss Sarah J. Negley, who proved to him a model helpmate. She belongs to the old and numerous family of East End de- scended from Jacob Negley, who laid out the town of East Liberty, where he owned over a thousand acres of land, and in 1820 built the first steam grist-mill operated in Western Pennsylvania. By his marriage Mr. Mellon became the father of eight children, of whom Thomas A., James R., Andrew W., and Rich- ard B. are living. The others were: Selwin, George N., Emma, and Rebecca. George N.,
a bright young man of great promise, died April 6, 1887. As already stated, Andrew and Richard now conduct the banking estab- lished by their father. The mother, now at the age of fourscore, enjoys good health. In religion Judge Mellon is a Presbyterian of the more liberal type. In politics he is proud of being a Republican since the formation of the party; while he holds that party interests must always yield to public welfare, and is a determined opponent of ring rule and of government for the spoils. It is also worth noting that the Judge, with his great expe- rience of our legal processes, both as counsel and a member of the judiciary, is of opinion that our jury system has survived its useful- ness, regarding it as a relic of a semi-barbar- ons age, protected by prejudice against the evolution that all other things have under- gone. He would abolish the trial by a jury of several offences, would limit the number of jurors in the trial of others to three, five, or seven, according to the degree of the offence, and he would select all jurors from members of the bar, in the manner of choosing arbitra- tors under our compulsory arbitration. laws. He now spends his time chiefly in reading, which has always been a favorite occupation with him. Although in his eighty-fifth year, he is well-preserved both mentally and physi- cally. The serene old age he is enjoying is the recompense of a life of good deeds and duties nobly done.
AVID CHALLINOR, of Pittsburg, who at one time took an important part in the glass industry of l'enn- sylvania, was a pioneer in silvering glass and in the manufacture of "crimped top " lamp chimneys, and is now living in retirement. He was born in Birmingham, England, March
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18, 1830. His parents, Thomas and Mary (Dale) Challinor, resided prior to his birth in Wolverhampton, the old family home of the Challinors. Thomas Challinor was station agent at Wolverhampton for "The Fly," or fast canal boat line managed by the firm of Crowley & Pickford, a position similar to that of railroad station agent to-day. Having met with an accident which made it necessary for him to resign this office, he moved to Birmingham, where he spent the rest of his life. He died when David was a small child, leaving two other children, namely: Charles, now a resident of Pittsburg; and Jonathan, · who died in Birmingham. His widow spent her last years in Pittsburg, residing for some time with her son David, and then with Charles, at whose home she died. Both par - ents of Mr. Challinor were members of the Episcopal church.
David Challinor's early education was limited to thirteen weeks' schooling in Birm- ingham. He went to work in a glass house when only seven years old. He commenced an apprenticeship in the glass factory at the Five Ways, owned by Rice Harris, the Mayor of Birmingham. His term of service was in- terrupted by an organized strike when his ap- prenticeship lacked three years of completion ; and he went out with the boys and men con- nected with the union, which supported them during their enforced idleness. As an appren- tice he was liable to be whipped and jailed if arrested by his employer. The union em- ployed an attorney to adjust matters; and the boys, brought up before a magistrate, were dismissed with the understanding that the proprietor would keep them employed, and furnish them with tools. This was a great advance in labor reform in England at that day. About a year after the termination of the strike Mr. Challinor came to America,
and obtained work in the Atlantic Glass Works on Atlantic Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., under the supervision of Mr. Gillen. In July, 1850, about the time of the death of President Taylor, he obtained employment in the glass works of Mulvaney & Leadly, South Side, Pittsburg. Here he remained for a number of years, until Mr. Mulvaney died, when he was hired by Bakewell, Pierce & Co., as a finisher on pressed ware. Some time after entering the employ of this firm, there was a depression in business that threw many glass workers out of employment. Mr. Chal- linor was not a man to stand around with his hands in his pockets. He obtained a Drum- mond light and magic lantern, and for some time conducted a show, the first of the kind in this city. He soon went to work at his trade again, for there were not many first-class glass-blowers in the country at that time; and shortly after he obtained of Mr. Pringle, in place of the payment of a bill due him, a rec- ipe for silvering glass-ware. This marked a turning-point in his career. There was not much demand for silvered ware at first ; and he went to work again for Bakewell & Pierce, at the same time manufacturing a limited amount of the silvered glass on his own account, pay- ing fifteen cents a pound for the rough glass for the foundation. Mr. Pierce was away at this time: and when he returned he built a new furnace, and gave Mr. Challinor all the day work he could do. Then he manufactured the silvered ware after hours. He was the first west of the Alleghanies to make the sil- vered reflectors now so common. He had many difficulties to contend with. His fel- low-workmen, envious of his enterprise and indignant at his making more money than they, at length refused to work under his su- pervision. He then obtained the privilege of using a shop at odd times, and made his re-
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flectors alone. Under a contract with Bake- well & Pierce he manufactured them for seven years for that firm, refusing offers from other business men. He then formed a partnership with Edward Dithridge, under the name of Dithridge & Co. The firm carried on a very successful business for seven years, making silvered ware, such as large globes, reflectors, and goblets. Mr. Challinor next formed a partnership with Edward Hogan, who is still in the business; and the firm of Challinor, Hogan & Co. bought the works of the Pitts- burg Glass Manufacturing Company, at the corner of Eighth and Washington Streets, South Side, Pittsburg. A few months after the place was burned; but the firm soon re- built on a larger scale, putting in a furnace that kept two hundred men busy. This was one of the largest furnaces in Western Penn- sylvania at that time. Having previously made lamp chimneys with plain tops, they were among the first to produce chimneys with crimped tops. The scalloped-top chim- neys were at first made by hand; and, as the manufacture and competition increased, the firm was obliged to lower prices. In order to reduce expenses, they took down a large fur- nace, and put in the second Nicholson furnace used in Pittsburg, fed by gas produced from pit-slack, which was then thought to be worth- less; and they began to use a machine for crimping chimney tops that could be managed by a boy. Four concerns had patents on the new-style chimney, and used them together in order to limit the manufacture. After Challinor & Hogan had completed their im- provements, their men refused to work with the new machinery, and went on a strike which lasted two years; and the men in the employ of the other firms holding the patents also struck. But Challinor, Hogan & Co., conjointly with Evans & Co., leased a factory
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