USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Biographical review : v. 24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburgh and the vicinity, Pennsylvania > Part 5
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William H. Graham has passed his entire life in Allegheny. When left fatherless at the age of ten, he was obliged to withdraw from school and go out into the world to earn his living In April, 1861, young Graham, then only sixteen, enlisted in a Pittsburg com- pany, which, as Pennsylvania's quota was filled, was not accepted for service. Still determined to go to the war, on learning that West Virginia had been called upon for a regiment, the men composing the company chartered a steamer, by which they went down to Wheeling, where they offered their services. They were accepted for three years as Com- pany A, Second Virginia Infantry. It is claimed that this company killed the first rebel soldier in the war. Mr. Graham was wounded at the battle of White Sulphur Springs, and was sent to the West Penn Hos- pital, Pittsburg, where he remained until con- valescent. Then he returned at once to his regiment. He fought in the battles of Cross Keys, second Bull Run, Beverly, Droog Mountain, Cloyd Mountain, Winchester. Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, Waynesboro, Five Forks, and in a number of smaller en- gagements. After two years the regiment was mounted, and subsequently served under
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General Averill and General Sheridan. At the expiration of his term he accepted employ- ment in the quartermaster's department, and was attached to General Sheridan's headquar- ters during that dashing general's brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. He ac- companied Sheridan in his famous march across Virginia and ride around Richmond, joining General Grant at Petersburg, and with his cavalry and the Fifth Corps of infantry, he swung around Lee's flank, and fought the decisive battle of Five Forks, breaking Lee's line, and capturing Petersburg, compelling the evacuation of Richmond. During these operations and the pursuit of Lee's army Mr. Graham served as a volun- teer aid. While carrying a message to Sheri- dan on the eventful 9th of April, 1865, he rode out between the two lines of battle to the little village of Appomattox, and there, in the house of Mr. McLean, had the rare good fort- une to be one of the few witnesses of the memorable interview between the two great generals that terminated in the surrender of General Lee. After taking part in the Grand Review at Washington he returned to civil life. Upon retiring from the army Mr. Gra- ham and H. A. Spangler formed the firm of Graham & Spangler, wholesale leather dealers in Allegheny. This partnership continued until 1872. Then Mr. Graham became the chairman of Mansfield & Co., Limited, brass manufacturers. He is also president of the Mercantile Trust Company, of the Mercantile Bank, of the Eureka Coal Company, and of the Central Accident Insurance Company.
On September 30, 1869, Mr. Graham mar- ried Miss Sadie K. Shields, of whose six chil- dren by him Morris died at the age of eigh- teen. The others are : Allie, now Mrs. E. R. Kopp; Talbutt C .; William T .; Lesley S; and Elizabeth T. Having taken an active
part in politics, Mr. Graham was elected a member of the Common Council of Allegheny in 1873, a member of the Select Council in 1874, and member of the House of Repre- sentatives for 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878. In 1881 he was elected Recorder of Deeds for Allegheny County, and subsequently served nine years in that office. A member of the First Christian Church, he has been a Deacon for many years, an active church worker, and a liberal supporter of the society, and a highly respected citizen. Mr. Graham is also prom- inent in the Masonic fraternity.
HARLES S. JENKINS, the general baggage agent in the Union Station, Pittsburg, is one of the oldest rail- road employees in the city, and the oldest in point of service connected with the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Road. He was born in Woodstock, Vt., December 8, 1832, son of Samuel and Sarah (Roach) Jenkins. His parents died when he was a child, and he was early thrown on his own resources. He was educated in Woodstock. When his schooling was finished he sought work in Boston, Mass., where his first position was that of clerk in a restaurant. Afterward he was employed for a year as salesman in a wholesale fruit store at the corner of State Street and Merchants' Row. Next he worked for some time as packer in a boot store in Natick, Mass. In 1848 he went to Philadelphia, and there fell in with twenty-five other tall, broad-shouldered young men from the East. In company with these he came to Pittsburg seeking work. A contractor named Broad, pleased with their appearance, took them to Middletown, Pa .. and set them to work laying the track of the York & Cumberland Railroad, now called the North Central Railroad, between Harrisburg
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and Little York. When that contract was finished Mr." Jenkins was employed by the same contractor on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, running from Pittsburg to Crestline, Pa., and from this city to Brighton. He was subsequently conductor of the construction train between Ravenna and Alliance, supply- ing the track layers on the Ohio & Pennsyl- vania Railroad. After the road was com- pleted he became baggage man, in which capacity he served on the first passenger train from Pittsburg to Cleveland on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad. Appointed train baggage master in 1850, he acted in that ca- pacity for three years. At the end of that time the railroad connecting Pittsburg with Plymouth, Ind., was finished, and the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad and the Ohio & In- diana were operated by the P. F. W. & C. R. R. Co. Mr. Jenkins was assigned to a train running through to Chicago via Plym- outh, Ind., on the Pee Wee Railroad, now a part of the Vandalia line. When all the local roads were merged in the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, he was given the berth of baggage master at Allegheny City, and he remained in the employ of the road until 1877, the year of the riot. In the latter part of his term of service he had general charge of the baggage at both Allegheny and Pittsburg. In 1877 the ticket officers and baggage men of the Pennsylvania and the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago roads were consolidated, and Mr. Jenkins was installed in his present position at the Union Station in Pittsburg. At Haysville he drove the first spike in the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, now called Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, striking it nineteen times; and he has been in the employment of that road dur- ing its growth from infancy to maturity. During his term of service the baggage traffic,
which at first was slight and transient, has grown to an immense and constant business; and there have been many improvements in the methods of shipment and delivery. He was a pioneer in the sending of fish from Lake Erie to Pittsburg by rail, at one time manag- ing quite a business in that line, with a Mr. Breen as partner. He has been a member of the Pennsylvania Railroad Relief Association since its inception.
Mr. Jenkins married Miss Agnes Andrews, of Mckeesport, Pa. His only child, Alice, is now the wife of Thomas Irwin, of Sewick- ley, Pa. In politics Mr. Jenkins favors the Republican side. He is a member of Pitts- burg Lodge, No. 221, F. & A. M. His home is pleasantly situated in the part of Pittsburg called Lawrenceville.
AMUEL F. COLE, the efficient station master of the Chicago & Fort Wayne Railroad at Allegheny, was born in Pittsburg, June 9, 1845, son of John F. and Elizabeth M. (Greatrake) Cole. The father, who was born at Harrisburg, and came to Pittsburg when a boy, became the owner of steamboats that plied up and down the lower river. He was accidentally killed by the falling of a limb of a tree. His wife. Elizabeth, a daughter of Joquett Greatrake, a Baptist minister of French extraction, died in 1883. They had four children, namely : Charles L., who is now the general freight agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pitts- burg; Samuel F., the subject of this sketch; Mrs. C. B. Casselberry, now of Philadelphia ; and Mrs. John F. Marthius, who resides in Pittsburg. Both parents were members of the Baptist church on Sandusky Street, Alle- gheny.
Samuel F. Cole was educated in the public
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schools of Allegheny. In 1869 he went into the employ of the Pittsburg, Chicago & Fort Wayne Railroad, taking the position of pas- senger brakeman. He was made conductor in 1872, and in 1877 he was promoted to the post of station master at Allegheny. The business of the station master was at that time comparatively light. To-day the office entails heavy responsibilities. Mr. Cole to-day has charge of all arriving and departing trains, in- cluding thirty suburban trains, yet no acci- dent has ever occurred under him. The Alle- gheny yards are run on the North-west system, and he has the supervision of one hundred and sixty-four men, who daily come to him for orders, as Allegheny is the headquarters for the trainmen of this system. In 1883, asso- ciated with others, he began a livery busi- ness, which has rapidly increased in size; and they now own what is claimed to be the larg- est establishment of the kind between Phila- delphia and Chicago, comprising four stables and three offices. Mr. Cole is the financial manager. A lover of fine horses, he owns several high-bred trotters, among them Harry Superior, by Superior, who has no race rec- ord, although he has made 2.20. He also owns an Electioneer horse of Hambletonian ancestry, reckoned among the finest and fast- est at Sewickley.
On September 11, 1889, Mr. Cole married Miss Amelia Ihmsen, daughter of C. Ihmsen, of the Ihmsen Glass Factory, S. S., Pitts- burg. They have two children - Elizabeth and Marie. Mr. Cole attends the Baptist church, and aids materially in its support.
Pittsburg.
ALCOLM WAYLAND EVER- SON, M. D., occupies a high place in the esteem of the citizens of He was born in Pittsburg, De-
cember 3, 1867, son of William H. and Sarah (Macrum) Everson. The father, who was a native of England, came to this country with his father in 1835. In 1840 the father and his son, under the style of Everson & Son, engaged in the manufacture of sheet iron in Pittsburg, establishing a plant on Second Avenue, near the Tenth Street Bridge. They were pioneers in the iron industry in this city. In 1850 it was changed to Everson & Preston, Barclay Preston being one of the partners; and later it was Everson, Macrum & Co. For forty years the house occupied a prominent place among the sheet iron manu- facturers of Pennsylvania, Mr. Everson being the leading member of the firm through all the changes of conditions. In addition to the plant on Second Avenue the local firm oper- ated the Charlotte blast furnace at Scottdale, and the sheet iron mill at Everson. They had hundreds of men in their employ, and were powerful factors in the industrial life of the State. In 1889 the Second Avenue plant was destroyed by fire. Mr. Everson was a man of wide business experience, sagacious and able in the management of financial matters. He was one of the founders of the Marine National Bank, and its president for a number of years; and he was a director in the Allegheny Insurance Company. A zeal- ous Baptist, he was connected with the Fourth Avenue Church for nearly sixty years, from 1837 until the time of his death; and he gave twenty thousand dollars toward the erection of the present church edifice, and directed the building of the first organ. Skilled in vocal and instrumental music, he was organist and director of the choir for a number of years. He died April 11, 1896, aged eighty years, at the home of his son, Dr. Everson, 3530 Fifth Avenue. His death was considered a great loss to the city. Mrs. Everson, who,
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born in Ireland, came to this country about the year 1850, and now resides with her son, Malcolm W., reared eight children; namely, John Q., B. M., T. Bissell, William H., George M., Malcolm W., Charlotte W., and Amelia. John has succeeded his father as organist at the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church; B. M. and T. Bissell are well-known singers; Charlotte W. is the wife of J. C. Thompson; and Amelia is the wife of N. G. Macrum.
Malcolm Wayland Everson attended the Western University of Pennsylvania, and re- ceived his degree from Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, in 1889. A graduate of one of the best medical schools in the world, his training and his natural ability combine to make him a most able and popular physi- cian and surgeon. Although in practice but a short time, he has a large patronage. He is surgeon to the Consolidated Traction Com- pany, the Linden Steel Company, and the Pittsburg Steel and Iron Manufacturing Com- pany, and he is a member of the Allegheny County Medical Society. In politics Dr. Everson is a Republican. He belongs to the Masonic order and to the Pittsburg Country Club. His musical talent makes him a val- ued guest at many a social gathering.
LEXANDER H. SILVEY, the editor and publisher of the Wilkinsburg Call at Wilkinsburg, was born July 16, 1844, in the town and county of Washington, son of Adam Silvey. On the paternal side he is of German descent. His grandfather emigrated from the Fatherland to this country with a large family of children in the early part of this century, and spent his last years in Philadelphia.
Adam Silvey, who was born in Germany,
came to Pennsylvania with his parents when a lad of three years. He grew to years of ma- turity in the city of Philadelphia, and there began his career as a brewer. From there he came to Pittsburg, where he was engaged in the same business until the destruction of his brewery by fire. He then removed to Wash- ington, Pa., where he was clerk for the com- missioners of that place for several years. His death occurred in 1879, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He married Mar- garet Mitchell Hamilton, daughter of Robert Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton, who was born in Ireland, came when a young man to this State, settled in the town of Washington, and was there engaged in blacksmith work throughout the rest of his active years. Mrs. Adam Silvey was one of a family of five children born to her parents. After having survived her husband two years, she died in Washington in 1882, in the house in which her birth oc- curred seventy-nine years before. Of the eight children born to her, five sons and three daugh- ters, three are now living ; namely, George W., Martha, and Alexander H. Martha is the widow of the late H. C. Hamilton.
Alexander H. Silvey attended the public schools of his native town until seventeen years old. Then he served a three years' ap- prenticeship on the Crawford Democrat at Meadville, under Thomas W. Grayson. After attaining proficiency in his trade, he came to Pittsburg to take charge of the me- chanical department of the Pittsburg Christian Advocate, a position which he filled satisfac- torily for thirteen years. In 1880 Mr. Silvey embarked in business for himself. Going to the neighboring town of Braddock, he estab- lished the Braddock Herald, which he con- ducted successfully for eight years. He founded the Wilkinsburg Call in 1887, and in the following year became a resident of this
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place. The Call, which is one of the strong- est organs of the Republican party in the vi- cinity, has a large circulation in this part of the county. In 1893 Mr. Silvey erected his present office building, 711 Penn Avenue, a handsome, three-story brick structure, with a fine stone front.
On July 30, 1870, Mr. Silvey married Miss Mary E., daughter of John Hamnett, who was for many years a prominent dealer in hides and leather in Pittsburg. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Silvey are: Thomas, who is a reporter on the Chronicle-Telegraph at Pitts- burg; Charles, who is a commercial agent for the Armstrong Cork Works, located at Lan- caster, Pa., and who married Miss Gertrude Baird, of Pittsburg; Harry, the youngest, who is a law student. Mr. Silvey belongs to the Royal Arcanum, the Maccabees, the Hepta- sophs, and the Junior Order of American Me- chanics. Both he and Mrs. Silvey are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he is a stanch and influential Repub- lican.
EV. JAMES . ALLISON, D.D., was born in Pittsburg, Pa., September 27, 1823, son of James Allison, who was born in the Cumberland valley, Pennsyl- vania. When seventeen years old, he was brought by his father to the neighborhood of the Lebanon church, Allegheny County, where the family resided for several years. Then they removed to what is now known as Allison Park, on the Pittsburg & Western Railroad, nine miles from Pittsburg. His mother was a daughter of George Brickell, one of the earliest settlers of a district now included in Pittsburg. George was brought from Fort Redstone to this place in 1760, when only six years old; and there he lived until his death in 1852, at the age of ninety-eight.
Dr. Allison's father was of Scotch-Irish descent, his ancestors coming from the north of Ireland to the Cumberland valley between the years 1729 and 1750, that they might escape from the extortions of the landlords. Their descendants are now found in large numbers in different parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and In- diana. The mother of Dr. Allison was a de- scendant of one of the German families that came to Pennsylvania at an early day. Her father and uncles took an active part in the conflicts with the Indians, and both the par- ents of Dr. Allison came of Revolutionary stock.
When he was an infant, his father pur- chased a large farm near Bakerstown, in the northern part of this county, where he passed his boyhood, beginning at a very early age to work on the farm. He attended first the com- mon schools of the neighborhood. Then for a time he went to a private school taught by the Rev. Peter Jones, afterward to an acad- emy in Bakerstown, of which the Rev. Thomas C. Guthrie, D. D., a Covenanter clergyman, was principal; and for six months previous to entering college he was a stu- dent in an academy at Hickory, Washington County, of which the Rev. John Moore was principal. He entered Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pa., in the autumn of 1842, and graduated in the fall of 1845. Immediately afterward he became a student of the Western Theological Seminary, from which he gradu- ated in the spring of 1848, having been licensed in the previous October by the old Presbytery of Allegheny at a meeting held in the church of Slate Lick, of which the late Rev. John Reddick was then pastor. On the Sabbath after leaving the seminary he preached to what was then the small church of Sewickley, on the bank of the Ohio River,
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twelve miles below Pittsburg. He was at once invited to become "stated supply," which he did; and on the 16th of October, 1849, he was ordained and installed pastor. He served this church for a period of sixteen years, during which time two hundred and seventy-six members were received on confes- sion of faith and two hundred and thirty-one by certificate. In the meantime the largest and finest house of worship in Allegheny County outside of Pittsburg had been built.
In February, 1864, Dr. Allison resigned his pastoral charge to devote himself entirely to editorial work. When a student at college he had occasionally written for the secular press, and soon after entering the ministry he became a frequent contributor to the religious papers. For a time he was the regular Pittsburg correspondent for the Presbyterian Banner, which had been established in Phila- delphia by the Rev. David Mckinney, D. D. Upon its removal to Pittsburg and consolida- tion with the Presbyterian Advocate he be- came an assistant editor. In 1857 he became a partner of the publishers, who dissolved partnership in 1862; but in February, 1864, he and the late Robert Patterson, Esq., then a professor in Centre College, Kentucky, forming the firm of James Allison & Co., purchased the Presbyterian Banner from Dr. Mckinney. Mr. Patterson had studied law and been admitted to the bar, but for many years had devoted himself to teaching. He was a gentleman of a most agreeable character, an earnest Christian, of faultless literary taste, a fine scholar, and a clear and forcible writer. He died from an attack of paralysis in the fall of 1888, greatly lamented. To Dr. Alli- son his death was a personal bereavement.
The Presbyterian Banner, at the time of its purchase by Messrs. Allison and Patterson, had only a small circulation, but this at once
began to increase; and for many years it has been among the most widely circulated and most influential religious journals of the world. It is really the unbroken continuance. though the name has several times been changed, of the Recorder, founded by the Rev. Jian An- drews, July 5, 1814, at Chillicothe, Chio, the first religious newspaper, of the master and style of such publications now, published in the world. During all these years Dr. Allison has taken an active and leading part in the discussion of religious and ecclesiastical ques- tions and of matters of public interest at home and abroad. "The Pittsburg Circu- lar," which was the means of bringing about the reunion of the old and new school branches of the Presbyterian church, was sug- gested and written by him. In what is known as the "Briggs Controversy" he stood out prominently and successfully, always contend- ing that the Bible is absolutely infallible, and for the interpretation given to it in the Con- fession of Faith, and for the latter as inter- preted by the General Assembly. In the meantime the Presbyterian Banner has been one of the largest, most attractive, and most influential of the religious journals. In 1865 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church appointed its Committee on Freedmen for the evangelization and education of the negroes in the South, which has bestme the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen. Dr. Allison was a promoter of this enterprise from its beginning until his resignation in 1889; and for eighteen years he was its treas- urer, serving without compensation, and trav- elling in its interests thousands of miles through the South, and speaking in its behalf before Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies.
Dr. Allison resides in Sewickley, one of the most beautiful of the Pittsburg suburban
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towns. He has been married twice. His first wife, to whom he was married August 19, 1851, was Mary Anderson, daughter of one of the leading citizens of Allegheny County. She died October 31, 1853, leaving one daughter, Lizzie Taylor Allison, now the wife of Joseph W. Reinhart, a well-known railroad man, residing in Plainfield, N.J. His second wife is Caroline Snowden Allison, daughter of the Hon. John M. Snowden, a widely known and highly influential citizen of Pitts- burg. He was married to her November 6, 1856. The only child of this marriage was a son, John M. Snowden, born August 19, 1859. A young man of rare promise, Jobn M. graduated with honor from the Western University of Pennsylvania, entered the office of his father, and soon gave evidence of the possession of the highest order of newspaper ability. Previous to his death, December 27, 1887, he stood at the head of all the younger men connected with the religious press.
AMES HARVEY HARRISON, an attorney -at-law of Pittsburg, was born March 6, 1857, in Harrison township, Allegheny County, son of John Harrison. He is a grandson of Thomas Harrison, who emi- grated to this State from Newcastle-on-the- Tyne, England, during the earlier part of the present century, and is said to have been the first man who mined anthracite coal in Pennsyl- vania. The father, who was a native of Eng- land, born in 1812, lived there until about ten years of age, when he accompanied his parents to America. The first two years after their arrival was spent by the family in Pottsville, Pa. Then they went to the eastern part of Ohio, and lived there for a year, after which they came to Pittsburg. John Harrison re- mained beneath the parental roof-tree until at .
taining his majority, having been engaged in his younger days in driving a six-horse team from Pittsburg to Philadelphia. He afterward turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, first settling on what was then known as Grant's Hill, and later locating on what is now the Fourteenth Ward of this city. On one of the Schenley farms in Bellefield he started a dairy, which is still carried on by one of his nephews. In 1855 he removed to that section of the county that was then called Deer township but is now known as Harrison township, and there engaged in farming until his death, which occurred October 12, 1879. He was quite active in local affairs, and for fifteen or more years served as treasurer of the School Board. He married Eliza Jane Sampson, of a locality that is now called White Ash, this county. They had twelve children, of whom there are living: David H., Margaret, John Edmund, Annie E., Alice M., James Harvey, and Frank J. Margaret is the wife of Joseph B. Beale, of Leechburg, Pa. ; and Alice M. is the wife of H. H. Wray, of Leechburg. The parents also adopted an infant nine days old, Effie Belle Johnson, who was baptized under the name of Harrison at the Presbyterian church, of which they were active members.
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