USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Biographical review : v. 24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburgh and the vicinity, Pennsylvania > Part 42
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land County, Ohio; Margaret A., the wife of Thomas Cameron, of Onslow, Jones County, Ia .; J. C. McCready, a real estate and insur- ance agent at 319 Edmond Street, Pittsburg ; Dr. Robert J. McCready, 56 Chestnut Street, Allegheny, Pa .; and Joseph A., the subject of this sketch. The mother died when but thirty-four years old, while the father lived to the age of seventy-three.
Joseph A. McCready acquired his rudimen- tary education in the Alder Lick district school, in which more doctors, lawyers, and preachers are said to have laid the foundation of their education than in any other in Colum- biana County. He received his literary train- ing at Mount Union College, Ohio, and at a school in Glasgow, Mo., of which the Rev. D. A. McCready was president. From 1868 to 1870 he was on a stock ranch in Kansas, having taken up a claim and stocked it with cattle purchased in Texas, whither he went for the purpose. Selling out his ranch, he began the study of medicine at Wellsville, Ohio, with Hammond & Noble, and later was with Dr. R. McCready, of Sewickley, Pa. Then he entered Bellevue Medical College, New York, from which he was graduated in 1875. After a year of practice in New London, Ohio, he came in 1876 to Pittsburg, and opened the office at 2908 Penn Avenue which he still oc- cupies. In 1886 he was appointed City Phy- sician for Wards Ten and Twelve, and parts of Wards Fifteen and Sixteen. He is surgeon to the Carnegie Steel Company and Ainsworth Steel Works, the Marshall Construction Com- pany, Scaifes Manufacturing Company, and the Pittsburg Steel Casting Company.
On December 20, 1876, Dr. McCready was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Hossler, of Greenwich, Ohio. Of the six children born to them, all are living but Jennie, the eldest daughter, who died March 3, 1893,
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ARCHIBALD V. CHESSROWN.
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aged thirteen years. The others are: William Augustus, Joseph Garfield, Martha Marie, Ferronda Mondawah, and James. Ferronda perpetuates her great-grandmother's name, which was given to the latter by an Indian chief.
Dr. McCready is a Republican voter. For twelve years he was a member of the School Board, and he has served on the Central Board of Education two terms. Fraternally, he is a member of Allegheny County Medical So- ciety, the Order of Good Fellows, the A. O. U. W., the R. A., and the Fraternal Legion. The family are Presbyterians in religious faith.
RCHIBALD DE-VOLNEY CHESS- ROWN, M.D. one of the most prom- inent physicians of the city of Pittsburg, was born upon a farm in Washing- ton County, Pennsylvania, August 13, 1844, son of John and Mary Ann (Young) Chess- rown.
Peter Chessrown and his wife, Elizabeth, the paternal grandfather and grandmother, settled in Lancaster County, in the eastern part of the State of Pennsylvania, about 1780, and some time prior to 1800 bought and re- moved to a large tract of land in Washington County, in the western part of the same State. He became a prominent man in the commu- nity, and was a farmer and surveyor. He was of Prussian ancestry, and his wife of the Franco-Prussian family of De-Volneys, that had been substantially identified with our Rev- olutionary struggles for independence. The grandfather reached the age of ninety-four, and the grandmother died at the age of eighty- eight.
John Chessrown, the father, was born in Washington County in 1814, and spent the |
early part of his life in farming and stock- raising. When the subject of this sketch was six years of age, they removed to Mononga- hela City, that the children might receive the educational advantages of that place. In pol- itics he was a Democrat, but never aspired to office. He was an ardent Unionist during the war of the Rebellion, and was represented in the army by a son, Captain J. Young Chess- rown, of- the Twenty-second Pennsylvania Cavalry. He married Miss Mary Ann Young, daughter of Squire James Young, who was drowned at the age of forty-five in the Ohio River, while on his way with his family to take possession of a farm he had bought, now the site of Covington, Ky. After many unsuccessful efforts to recover the body his wife, becoming disheartened, returned by land in wagons, to their old home place in Washington County, where she died at the age of seventy-seven. Both she and her hus- band were descended from Scotch-Irish stock, who rendered valuable service in the war for independence. Ten children were borne to John Chessrown by his wife, Mary, as fol- lows: James Young, now of Pittsburg, and identified with the Pennsylvania Railroad; John Carson, who is engaged in mining in California, to which State he went in 1858; Archibald D. V., the subject of this sketch; Narcissa J., who died twenty years ago; Eliza- beth I., who resides on the old homestead ; Daniel T., a merchant of Monongahela City; William I .. , an architect of Eaton, Col .; . and three others who died in early childhood. They were all members of the Episcopal church. The father died at the age of eighty- four, the mother aged seventy-nine.
After attaining the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Dr. Chessrown began the study of medi- cine with the late Dr. William H. King, of Monongahela City, in 1860. Four years later
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he entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, graduating in the class of 1869- 70. The intervals of time not given to the regular college course were devoted to special studies in various medical schools and hospi- tals. Since obtaining his degree, he has been in active practice in Pittsburg, and now occu- pies a beautiful home on Fifth Avenue in the East End. Since 1888 he has been the at- tending physician at the Allegheny County jail, where his opportunities for observation and experience in the study and treatment of chronic diseases, especially the physical and mental disabilities concomitant with alcohol- ism, the morphine, cocaine, chloral, and cig- arette habits, and, not least of all, worry, have been most extensive; and his diligence in em- bracing them has led to the discovery of many interesting facts. He is a member and ex- president of the South Side Medical Club, of the Allegheny County, State, National, and Mississippi Valley Medical Associations, of the Pittsburg Obstetrical Society, of the Na- tional Prison Congress, and of the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce. He has been staff physician to the Passavant Hospital since 1870, and is medical examiner for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark, N.J., of the ÆEtna of Hartford, Conn., Penn- sylvania Mutual of Philadelphia, Washington of New York, Security Trust and Life of Phil- adelphia, and is also surgeon in the employ of the national government at the jail.
His investigations along the line of public hygiene and sanitation have been productive of much good, especially his condemnation of prevailing methods of heating and ventilating private dwellings, as being unscientific and conducive to disease, in that the tendency is to propagate and foster bacilli, and his sug- gestions for a combination furnace for the utilization of both air and water, now being
introduced, the air being first thoroughly washed and made aseptic before heating, then forced into the house and out again as fast as it enters.
Being officially associated with numerous executions at the Allegheny County prison, and realizing their demoralizing and debasing effects - that, instead of terrorizing and intim- idating the depraved and viciously inclined, they furnished an incentive to recklessness and savagery, and even the commission of crime -- he, actuated by purely compassionate mo- tives, advanced the proposition, through the medium of the Allegheny County Medical Society, to substitute asphyxiation for the bar- barous methods now in vogue of inflicting the death penalty, as more humane and scientific, as well as less liable to appall the innocent and deserving, and shock the morals of the neurotic and weak, and at the same time main- taining the dignity and serving the purpose of the law. The committee colleagues appointed by the society to inquire into its feasibility were the late distinguished Professor I. B. Murdock and J. Chris. Lang, of the W. P. Medical College, whose investigations and ex- perimentations upon dogs and cats demon- strated beyond doubt that carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) will produce somatic death in from five to eight minutes without disturbing natu- ral sleep or showing any manifestations of pain or suffering. Favorable consideration has been accorded by the press and medical fraternity abroad, as well as in this country.
Dr. Chessrown is one of the busiest of men, devoting his entire time to the duties of his profession, almost to the exclusion of the social clubs and fraternal orders of the city.
He married June 14, 1870, Miss Sarah Jane Phillips, daughter of John Phillips, of Oliver Brothers & Phillips, iron and steel works, and they have had three children :
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John Phillips, of the Phillips Mine Supply Company ; Olive Aline, now Mrs. Wilbur Jack, of the Bank of Pittsburg; and Florence Edna, a student at the Pennsylvania College for Women. They are all active members of the Shady Side Presbyterian Church.
ARON FRENCH, president of the A. French Spring Company of Pittsburg, controls one of the largest indus- tries of Western Pennsylvania, manufacturing springs for cars in this country and in Europe. He was born in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, March 23, 1823, a son of Philo and Mary (McIntyre) French, and was named for his paternal grandfather.
Philo French, his father, was born in West Springfield, Mass., in 1795. After receiving his education in the public schools, he en- gaged in powder-making with his father. The mill in which father and son were inter- ested exploded about 1817, and they moved to that part of Ohio then known as the Western Reserve of Connecticut, settling at Wads- worth. The place at that time was a wilder- ness, and the highways for commerce and travel were paths through the woods marked by blazed trees. Philo French cleared a farm in Wadsworth, and he added to his income by travelling as agent for an Eastern powder- house. He died in October, 1823, aged twenty-eight years. His wife was a daughter of William McIntyre, a Highland Scotchman. She was the youngest of a family of fourteen, all of whom lived to be over seventy-five. She herself attained the advanced age of ninety-one, passing away in 1877. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Her union with Mr. French was blessed by three children: Philo, born February 22, 1819; Henry, who died at the age of twenty-
seven; and Aaron, the subject of this sketch. After Mr. French's death she married Daniel Stearns, of Ohio, by whom she had seven chil- dren - John M. (deceased) and Lucy (twins), William L., David E., Frank N., Daniel M. (deceased), and Charles L.
Aaron French attended school until twelve years of age, and then went to work on a farm. He began to learn the blacksmith's trade when he was thirteen years old, and fol- lowed it a few years, next entering the employ of the Ohio Stage Company at Cleveland, with whom he remained two years. The fol- lowing year he was employed in the Guyaoso House, Memphis, Tenn. ; and he was next en- gaged as agent in the West by the American Fur Company. While earning his livelihood he did his best to make up for the defects in his early education, and the year that he was twenty he attended the Archie McGregor Academy at Wadsworth, Ohio. He left the academy in the fall of 1844 to vote for Henry Clay, and, after the election was over, went South. In 1845 he was in St. Louis, and he was subsequently engaged in the manufacture of wagons with Peter Young in Carlyle, Clin- ton County, Ill. Here he was attacked with chills and fever, and was ill three or four months. Carried back to Ohio by his brother, he spent four years in comparative idleness, being too weak to attend to business. After his recovery he entered the employ of the Cleveland, Columbus & Lake Shore Railroad Company at Cleveland, Ohio. His first work for them was the erection of the iron work of the Painesville Bridge. He was connected with this company until the summer of 1854, when he went to Norwalk, Ohio. There he worked in a blacksmith shop during the year of the cholera epidemic, being the only able- bodied man to remain through the season; and the following year he had charge of the black-
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smith department of the Cleveland & Pitts- burg Railroad at Wellsville. His next posi- tion was that of superintendent of the black- smith business of the Racine & Mississippi Railroad at Racine, Wis. ; and a part of the time he acted as master mechanic. When the war broke out, he offered his services, but failed to pass the physical examination. In 1862 he was elected Sheriff of Racine County, Wisconsin; and he was in office two years. Before the expiration of his term of service he started in the manufacture of car springs in Pittsburg, with Calvin Wells as partner, using the firm name now so widely known, the A. French Spring Company. When he started in business, he rented a small place opposite the Union Depot, forty by one hundred feet in dimension, and employed only eight or ten men. The manufacture at first was limited to the elliptic springs of the Hazen patent. In four years the business had increased so that the firm was obliged to provide larger accom- modations, and erected the part of their pres- ent plant known as No. 1; and in 1893 the working force was over three hundred. The output at present embraces all styles of spiral and elliptic springs for locomotives and pas- senger and street cars. Quantities of springs are sent to Sweden, and until recently this company furnished all the Pullman equipment in Europe. It is said that this is the largest manufactory of the kind in the world. The works occupy two blocks between Nineteenth and Twenty-first Streets and a block on Smallman, between Twenty-fifth and Twenty- sixth Streets. Mr. Wells was a member of the firm for twenty years. After his with- drawal the company was reorganized and reg- ularly incorporated under the laws of Pennsyl- vania with the present name, the A. French Spring Company. It is hardly necessary to state that Mr. French is one of the ablest
business men of the county. He is a prominent member of the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce.
In 1848 he was married to Euphrasia Ter- rill, of Liverpool, Medina County, Ohio, who died in 1871. She was the mother of five children, namely: Lucie, wife of Carl Retter; Ida (deceased), wife of William Phillips; Clara, wife of Charles Kaufman, of Lancaster, Pa .; Philo N. ; and Aaron (de- ceased). Mr. French subsequently married Caroline B. Skeer, of Chicago, by whom he had one child, Mary A. This daughter died at the age of eighteen.
In politics Mr. French is a strong Republi- can. He was made a Mason in Racine Lodge, No. 18, in Racine, Wis., and is now Past Master of St. John's Lodge of Pittsburg, be- longs to Zerubbabel Chapter of Pittsburg, and is Past High Priest of the Chapter in Wis- consin. He is also a member of Tancred Commandery of Pittsburg, and he belongs to the Duquesne Club. He attends and supports the Calvary Episcopal Church of Pittsburg, in which his wife is an active worker.
ROFESSOR DANIEL CARHART, dean of the faculty of the engineer- ing department in the Western University of Pennsylvania, was born in Clin - ton, Hunterdon County, N.J., January 28, 1839. His first known ancestor was Thomas Carhurta, recorded as living in 1420 in Corn- wall, and who was of Saxon origin. The fam- ily pedigree is said to be recorded from 1550, and to be in the possession of a Cornwall clergyman. Thomas Carhart, the first Ameri- can ancestor, came to this country in 1683, as secretary to Colonel Thomas Dongan, an Eng- lish Colonial Governor. This Thomas was a son of Anthony Carhart, a Cornwall gentle- man, who used a crest and coat of arms.
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Thomas Carhart married Mary Lord in 1691. They had a son, Robert, who had a son, Cornelius, the latter serving with the rank of Major in the Revolutionary War. His son, Cornelius, Jr., born in New Jersey, married Sarah Dunham. Their son, Charles, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Clinton. He married Mrs. Christine Carhart, whose' maiden name was Bird, and who was the widow of his brother Daniel, and settled upon a large farm opposite his father's, where he devoted himself success- fully to the cultivation of the land. He. was an active member of the Presbyterian church until his death in 1863, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His widow survived him, dying in 1881, at the age of eighty-four. They brought up a family of seven children, of whom Daniel was the youngest. One of the family, Samuel, was a Captain in the Thirty- first New Jersey Regiment during the Civil War.
Daniel Carhart grew up on the farm, receiv- ing his preliminary education at the common school. He graduated in civil engineering at Polytechnic College, of the State of Pennsyl- vania, in 1859. For some years thereafter he was employed in civil engineering, part of his labors being in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. His professional work, however, was interrupted during the late war, when for a time he was in the government recruiting service. In 1868 he was given a chair in civil engineering in his Alma Mater, where he remained for nine years. In 1882 he was called from Philadel- phia to the Western University of Pennsyl- vania, to found an engineering department for that institution. By his efficient methods and the inauguration of thorough courses Pro- fessor Carhart has made this one of the lead- ing departments of the University. It is
well equipped, and offers four courses, civil engineering, mechanical, electrical, and min- ing engineering, conferring the degrees of Civil Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Electri- cal Engineer, and Mining Engineer. In rec- ognition of his faithful services the Professor was elected dean of the department of engi- neering, and has control of the faculty in that department. He has also been honored by the University with the degree of Doctor of Science. He has written and published a text-book on plane surveying, which appeared in 1888. This book received high testimo- nials, and is used in many of the leading insti- tutions of learning in the United States. He also recently published a field book for civil engineers, which has received high commen- dations from railroad officials, and which has been favorably noticed by the Engineering News and other journals. It is used in tech- nical schools as a text-book and by practical men in their field and office work.
Professor Carhart married April 27, 1867, Miss Josephine Story, daughter of Charles and Eleanor (Reeve) Story, of New Jersey, a graduate of Pennington, New Jersey. Of this union have been born five children : Charles Forest; Elnore Christine; Helen Josephine, who died at the age of five; Anna Florence; and Thomas Chase. In choosing a home Professor Carhart selected a fine site at the head of Centre Street, called Hill Top, in Wilkinsburg, a suburb of Pittsburg. On this spot, which commands a wide and mag- nificent view of the surrounding country, he erected the beautiful house in which he now resides. He has taken an active interest in the educational affairs of Wilkinsburg, and has much of the time been a Director of the Schools. He has been a member of the Pres- byterian church for many years, and is now a Ruling Elder in the church at Wilkinsburg.
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Professor Carhart supports the Republican principles, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity. His life has been characterized by earnestness and steadfastness of purpose, by broad thinking and benevolence; and he may be called successful in the highest sense of the word.
OHN C. JAMISON, president of the Pittsburg Tool Steel Company of Pitts- burg, was born January 9, 1840, in Saltsburg, Indiana County, Pa., son of the late Major Samuel S. Jamison. He is of Scotch-Irish and Teutonic ancestry, his pater- nal grandfather, John Jamison, having been born in Ireland, whither his progenitors re- moved from Scotland. John Jamison, who was a wheelwright and chair-maker by trade, emigrated to America in 1771, and located at Hagerstown, Md., whence he went to Carlisle, Pa. Finding but little work in Carlisle, he returned to Hagerstown, where he married a daughter of John Schryock, a highly respected German citizen of that place. A few years later he removed to Martinsburg, Va .; but after a stay of two years in that place he mi- grated with his family on pack horses to what was then termed the "Western wilds" of Pennsylvania, settling at Greensburg. He there built a log house, which he inhabited two years, when he proceeded to Conemaugh town- ship, which was then in process of organiza- tion; and from that time until his death he was identified with the progress and develop- ment of that part of the State, taking an ac- tive part in all matters of importance in the county. He bore arms against the British in the War of 1812.
Samuel S. Jamison, father of John C., was born in Martinsburg, Va., September, 1797, being the youngest of a family of three chil- dren. During the War of 1812 he was left at
home to care for the farm and family while his father and brother did their duty on the field, his youth only debarring him from shouldering the musket. He subsequently obtained work near Greensburg at four dollars per month, a sum that was later increased to six dollars. Inheriting the habits of frugality and thrift common to his Scotch and German ancestors, he hoarded his wages until amass- ing a sufficient sum to purchase a small stock of flour and grain; and, packing this on horseback, he conveyed it over rough roads to remote parts of the county, a business which he carried on successfully for a time. In 1818 he removed to Indiana, where for eight years, in company with the Hon. Joseph Thompson, he worked as a wheelwright and chair-maker. Having then obtained from General Lacock the contract for the construc- tion of a section of the Pennsylvania Canal, he settled with his family in Saltsburg, and from that time was actively interested in the affairs of that place. In 1829 he was appointed supervisor of the western extension of the canal, extending from Tarr's Locks to Pitts- burg. In 1836 he was chosen Brigade In- spector for his district, a position which he held six years, ranking as Major; and he was afterward elected Captain of the "Saltsburg Blues." In 1843 he was again appointed supervisor of the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal, an office which he re- signed after serving four years. In 1853 Major Jamison was elected as State Senator, and in that capacity took an active part in all discussions affecting the State or his district ; and all public enterprises subserving the in- terests of the poor or needy found in him an earnest advocate. His long life was well and usefully spent ; and on January 11, 1877, he passed away, honored and esteemed by all. Major Jamison married July 1, 1823, Miss
JOHN C. JAMISON.
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Sarah Ann Bell, a member of a worthy pio- neer family of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, who, by her true womanly graces, worthy am- bition for her husband's advancement, and abundant common sense, proved herself an able helpmeet, and made their union a mutual blessing. She bore her husband ten children, as follows: Eveline, Julia, Sarah, Susan, Eliza, Myra, Benton K., John C., Samuel S., and Mary C. Sarah, Susan, Eliza, and Myra are now deceased. Benton K. is a resident of Philadelphia. It was the privilege of the parents to travel life's pathway hand in hand for more than half a century; and on the oc- casion of the golden anniversary of their wed- ding they had the pleasure of greeting, besides their immediate family and friends, a large gathering of people of note and prominence.
John. C. Jamison, the special subject of this sketch, was reared on a farm, and well remembers his very early school days, when, book in hand, he trudged through the woods to the old log school-house with its slab seats and puncheon floor, and the goose quill with which he formed the pothooks and figures. His father's educational advantages were very limited, but the elder Jamison was neverthe- less a strong believer in higher education; and he inaugurated a movement for the erection of an academy at Saltsburg, which was completed in 1852. John C., who was then but eleven years old, assisted in the erection of the build- · ing by carrying all the brick for the front of it; and he was subsequently one of the most diligent students in the school, Later he at- tended Duff's Commercial College in Pitts- burg, at which he was graduated in 1857. Between the ages of eleven and thirteen he used to accompany his father to Ohio, where they purchased cattle, sheep, and horses, driv- ing them across the country to Philadelphia, and travelling eight or ten miles a day. In
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