USA > Pennsylvania > Book of biographies; This volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of the Seventeenth congressional district, Pennsylvania > Part 75
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81
GEORGE F. KEEFER, surveyor of the borough of Sunbury, and a citizen in high standing, is a son of Peter and Amelia (Haas) Keefer, and was born in Upper Augusta township, Northumberland County, Pa., August 10, 1864. He is a grandson of George and Mary (Lantz) Keefer, and his ancestral history will be found in the foregoing sketch of his uncle, George W. Keefer.
Peter Keefer, the father of our subject, was born in Lower Augusta township March 3. 1838, and has lived in that and Upper Au- gusta township all his life. He is an extensive contractor, making a specialty of bridge build- ing, but early in life he was engaged in the mercantile business for a period of ten years, beginning at the age of about eighteen years. He then began contracting, and for more than
thirty years has followed that line of business with good results. He is a man of good busi- ness ability, and his career has been a most industrious one. Politically he is a Democrat, and, although not active in the workings of the party, has been school director at odd times. In religious attachments he is a de- vout member of the Reformed Church. He was joined in marriage with Amelia Haas, and they reared one child, George F., an account of whose life follows.
George F. Keefer was reared in Upper Au- gusta township, and obtained his mental train- ing in the public schools of East Sunbury, completing the prescribed course. He sub- sequently took up a course of study in Buck- nell College at Lewisburg, Pa., from which he was graduated in June, 1886. During a part of the time in school, he was engaged in teaching, and after his graduation he contin- ued for some time,-a period of seven years in all. He then took up the subject of civil engineering and surveying, and gained much practical experience during the four years he spent as a member of a corps engaged in that line of work. In 1890 he embarked in busi- ness on his own account, and established an enviable reputation as a civil engineer and sur- veyor. Four years later he was appointed to act in that capacity for the borough of Sun- bury, and he is now serving his fourth consec- utive year as such. He is a business man of the first class, shrewd, enterprising, and a hard worker, and aside from the duties of his official position he has a good patronage. He has a large circle of acquaintances throughout the county, with whom he is very popular.
Mr. Keefer was united in marriage, in 1895. with Ella R. Kuebler of Rockefeller township. and they have one son. Paul Frederick. So- cially he is a member of the B. P. O. E.
734
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.
J OHN LYMAN RICHARDSON, east- ern agent for the Weatherwax Manu- facturing Company of San Francisco, Cal., and an enterprising business man of Bloomsburg, was born in Waverly, Pa., and is a son of John L. and Catherine (Heermans) Richardson.
Amos Richardson must have come to New England before 1640. We find he was in Boston as early as 1645, but he was doubt- less there several years before. He is de- scribed as a merchant tailor, and was a man of great respectability and good taste. After the departure of Stephen Winthrop, the gov- ernor's son, for England in 1641, he was agent for him in New England, as he afterwards was for his brother John Winthrop, the first governor of Connecticut after the charter. With Dean Winthrop and others he was one of the original grantees of Groton, Conn., though he never went there to live. He was a man of strong convictions and determined energy and will, with a good deal of original talent, kind hearted, but never submitted to a wrong without an effort to secure the right. He died at Stonington, Conn., August 5, 1683. Stephen Richardson, third son of Amos Richardson, was born in Boston, June 14, 1652. He was a man of character and influence and lived and died in Stonington, Conn. Amos Richardson, second son of Stephen Richardson, was born in 1681. He settled in Coventry, Conn. Nathan Richard- son, eldest son of Amos Richardson, was born March 20, 1725. Nathan Richardson, fifth son of Nathan Richardson, was born at Coventry, Conn., October 27, 1760, and re- moved to Manchester, Vt., about 1780, and from there to near Burlington, Chittenden County, Vt., where he soon after died. He was an upright Christian man. William P. Richardson, son of Nathan Richardson, was
born at Manchester, Vt., July 22, 1784. In his early childhood he developed more than ordinary aptness to learn and excelled as a reader. During the period of his life few men of his position were oftener called upon to read in public. In the Congregational Church, of which he was a member, regular service at that time was always held on the Sabbath in the absence of the minister. On such occasions-and they occurred hundreds of times during his life-time-Mr. Richardson was invariably called upon by one of the dea- cons to conduct the service and to stand in the pulpit and read a sermon to the congre- gation. For weeks, and sometimes months, he served the church in this way in the ab- sence of the pastor. He studied theology un- der the instruction of the Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury (the grandfather of E. P. Kings- bury, of Scranton), pastor of the Congrega- tional Church at Jericho Centre, Vt. On ac- count of the protracted sickness of his mother who required his constant care, he was com- pelled to relinquish all thought of the ministry as a profession. Mr. Richardson married, Sep- tember 7, 1807, Laura, daughter of Capt. John Lyman. He was an old Jeffersonian Democrat, an ardent supporter of Madison and Monroe's administrations, and a decided advocate of the War of 1812. He enlisted as a volunteer and was an officer of his com- pany which was ordered to Plattsburg. After the close of the war he purchased a farm near Jericho Centre, directing his attention to agri- cultural life. He was for many years a jus- tice of the peace, often a member of the board of selectmen, and represented Chittenden County in the Legislature of the state in 1821, 1822 and 1824. He wrote the early history of Jericho township which was published in "Thompson's Gazetteer of the State." He early became interested in the cause of edu-
735
SEVENTEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
cation and secured the establishment of a good academical school in his township; and was president of the first organized temper- ance society in his town. When more than eighty years of age he removed with his wife to Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y., where the couple spent the remainder of their days with their son-in-law, Edward Converse. Mr. Richardson, the father of J. L. Richard- son, died February 28, 1871.
J. L. Richardson, the father of our subject, was born near Jericho Centre, Chittenden County, Vt., September 15, 1816. The coun- ty was named after the first governor, and one of the most renowned governors of the state; was the county in which Col. Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, lived and died; the native county of Senator Edmunds; the native county of Dr. Higbee, former su- perintendent of public instruction in Pennsyl- vania; and the first public school which Mr. Richardson attended was soon after taught by the father of President Arthur. His first term in the academy of his native town found him a schoolmate of Judge Poland, for many years a member of Congress from Vermont. At the age of nineteen Mr. Richardson taught his first school near his native town, and soon after entered Burr Seminary, at Manchester, Vt., then under the principalship of his rela- tive, Rev. Lyman Coleman, D. D., subse- quently professor of ancient and modern his- tory in Lafayette College, teaching winters, however, during the four years of his con- nection with the seminary. He left Manches- ter in 1842 on a visit to his sister Hannah, who, with her husband, John G. K. Truair, had charge of the Gilbertsville Academy and Collegiate Institute at Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y. He spent a year at that place, teaching in the academy, and during one term was associated with the late Rev. Reuben
Nelson, D. D., who was a teacher of languages in the same institution. Mr. Richardson moved to Luzerne County in 1843 and taught school for several years. In the fall of 1855, while he was principal of Madison Academy at Waverly, Pa., he was commissioned by An- drew G. Curtin, then secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction, as super- intendent of the schools of Luzerne County. The act authorizing a superintendent was passed in 1854 and the late Rev. J. W. Lescher was the first superintendent, but he resigned shortly after the law went into effect. Mr. Richardson's first act as superintendent was to issue the following circular:
"Fellow Teachers: As you are about to enter upon the arduous and important duty of training the youthful mind, it can hardly be necessary to remind you of the responsibli- ity attendant upon the positions you are to occupy. At least for a brief period, the moral and intellectual training of far the larger por- tion of the children and youth of Luzerne County will devolve upon you. Around the faithful teacher clusters a moral grandeur which no other profession can claim. You are to act directly upon the human mind. just at that period of its existence when im- pressions are the most lasting, and when its direction is the most easily given. With this view of the subject, parents are about to sur- render to your guidance and care the most precious gifts which Heaven has bestowed upon them. Remember their deep anxiety as they watch the mental and moral de- velopment of their children while under your instruction and supervision. Remem- ber 'that just as the twig is bent. the tree's inclined.' You are to do an important part of the work for preparing those under your charge for the practical duties of life. The great moral and political
736
.
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.
machinery of the state will soon be propelled by those who are now young. Be careful, then, how you deal with the future jewels of our country. Cultivate in them a love of study and correct thought; impress upon their young minds the principles of moral right as the only sure basis of their future usefulness. We are acquainted with many of the diffi- culties which will attend your efforts. Many of you will be without proper apparatus for your school-rooms, without a uniformity of text-books, located in miserable houses, en- tirely unfit for the noble design of education. But be of good cheer, for we believe a bet- ter day is coming. School directors are be- ginning to act in the right direction. The citizens of our thriving villages are beginning to feel uneasy when they view their splendid churches and their magnificent hotels, etc., in contrast with their small, dingy, gloomy school-houses. The contrast . is producing unpleasant sensations of mind, and shows a want of propriety, harmony and consistency. But we are rejoiced to know, that, in several places, efforts are in progress to leave these miserable school-buildings to the moles and bats, and in their places erect others better fitted for the education of those of whom it was said, 'Of such is the Kingdom of Heav- en!' If you find your school-rooms not fur- nished with blackboard surface, maps, charts, etc., urge the directors to provide them for you. . If school boards see that you are anx- ious by any means in your power to secure the improvement of your pupils, they will not be backward in assisting you. It will become my duty to visit your schools during the win- ter-a duty I intend without fail to perform. We shall note the progress your schools are making, and your own tact and skill as teach- ers. I would suggest that you procure and read Page's 'Theory and Practice of Teach-
ing,' take the Pennsylvania School Journal, and you will be more likely to succeed in your profession. Keep a faithful report of the attendance, progress, and deportment of your pupils. Organize so far as you can town teachers' associations for mutual improvement in the art of teaching, and be assured of my willingness to co-operate with you in efforts to elevate the common schools of our county.
"J. L. RICHARDSON, "County Superintendent."
Mr. Richardson did much to improve the efficiency of the common schools, and as the office of county superintendent was very much objected to by a large number of people at the first, he did much to elevate the office and gain for it the commendation of the people. He held the position for five years and then voluntarily retired. He was succeeded in the office by Rev. Abel Marcy. The Richardsons are a race of teachers. They are found scat- tered throughout the country, in our colleges, seminaries, public schools, and in every de- partment of scholastic labor. Of the brothers and sisters of Mr. Richardson, Betsy, Nathan. and Martin L. taught in Vermont; Mrs. Ed- ward Converse taught in Lackawanna County more than forty-five years ago; Mrs. J. G. K. Truair had charge of the young ladies' depart- ment in the Gilbertsville Academy and Colle- giate Institute; Mrs. Emily Hillhouse taught an academical school in Columbus, O .; and Simeon L. taught in Minnesota. Thus out of a family of ten children who grew up to ma- turity, eight were teachers. It is a fact worthy of note that during a portion of the time that J. L. Richardson was county super- intendent of Luzerne County, Rev. Willard Richardson was county superintendent of Susquehanna County, and Judson Richardson was county superintendent of Sullivan Coun-
737
SEVENTEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
ty. Mr. Richardson was for six years an agent of the New York American Missionary Association, and as such addressed thousands of his countrymen in favor of the newly-cre- ated citizens of African descent. His first year's residence during this work was in St. Louis, Mo., devoting his time to the organi- zation of schools and employing teachers for them. He visited the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, and raised thous- ands of dollars for his work among the freed- men. He is a pioneer anti-slavery man and cast his vote for James G. Birney, John P. Hale, and other anti-slavery leaders. At the age of fourteen he signed the pledge at a tem- perance meeting, of which his father was presi- dent, and he has never drank a glass of wine in his life. In two presidential campaigns he was employed by the state committee of the temperance organization to canvass for votes, and to do all in his power to build up the cause. He has also been agent and solicitor for the Tunkhannock Republican, a temper- ance paper, and also for the Scranton City Journal. In 1879 he retired to a farm in Cooper township, near Danville, Montour County, Pa. He married June 19, 1846, Catherine Heermans, at that time living in Hyde Park (now Scranton), Pa. She was a sister of Edmond and John Heermans, and niece of the late Joseph Fellows.
We herewith publish an article from the pen of C. H. Browning, which appeared in the Philadelphia Press August 14, 1898, in which Admiral Dewey is shown to be of royal descent, and our subject a descendant of the same ancestors:
"While it will not add a particle to the everlasting fame which Dewey-there is only one 'Dewey'-has brought to his surname through his heroism at Manila, yet it is agree- able to know that he is in a genealogical point
of view no 'up-start' and that on the con- trary he is ready to match ancestors with any one who may come along, and stands ready to back up his assertions with statements bear- ing on his claims found in Browning's 'Amer- icans of Royal Descent,' Douglas' 'Peerage of Scotland,' Dugdale's .Baronage of England.' Anderson's 'Royal Genealogies,' 'The Magna Charta Barons and their American Descend- ants,' and the other big guns of his genealog- ical armament.
"Admiral Dewey's pedigree begins on the very border of mythology with Thor, the Saxon God, or cult-hero, who is almost a myth, called variously Vothinn, Othinn, Odin, Bodo, and Woden, the King of the West Sax- ons, A. D., 256-300, who with his spouse, Frea, were the Mars and Venus of Saxon mythology. This King Woden, the God of War, is described as the great-grandfather of the bugaboos of English history, Horsa and Hengst, brothers, freebooters and pirates, of whom the Saxon annals tells us that Hengst was the King of Saxons, and died between A. D. 474 and 495, first King of Kent.
"Leaving this progenitor of the Saxon rul- ers of Britain, Admiral Dewey's royal lineage passes along the royal Saxon line on the con- tinent, through King Hengst's son, Prince Hartwaker, to the historic King Dieteric, and his 'famous' wife (he had others), Wobrogera, a daughter of the unique character, Bellun, King of the Worder. Their grandson, Wite- kind the Great, was the last King of the Saxons, A. D. 769-807, and then dwindled into only their dukes, and Duke of West- phalia, while his descendants for a few gene- rations were only Counts of Wettin, until on the genealogical line we come to the great Robert-Robert-fortis-who, by his sword became Count of Axjor and Orleans, Duke and Marquis of France, and won the hand of
738
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.
the fair Lady Alisa, sister-in-law to the King of France, Lothaire I.
"This hero of medieval history, Robert-for- tis, the great-grandson of the great Witekind, was the founder of the so-called Capuchin line of monarchs of France, for from him, through a line of Dukes of France and Burgundy, Counts of Paris, etc., who by their swords and intermarriages, became firmly seated on French soil, was descended the celebrated Hugh Capet, Duke of France, who usurped the throne of France and supplanted Charles, Duke of Lorraine, the heir of Louis d'Outre- mere, or King Louis IV., the last Carlovin- gian, or descendant of the great Emperor Charlemagne, to occupy the 'French' throne. "Tis said 'blood will tell.' How true it is in Dewey's case. The blood of the finest war- riors in history tells in him. He inherited the 'knack of knowing' when to do it and how to do it, and is the peer of any of his ances- tors from King Hengst to Hugh Capet, yet unconsciously he emulated the traits of many of them.
"Two other kings of the Capuchin line- Robert the Pious, and Henry the First- Dewey numbers among his illustrious ances- tors, and Gibbon in his 'History of the Rom- an Empire,' tells us of the high lineage of one of his early ancestresses, Anne of Russia, wife of Henry I., of France. Gibbon states she was the daughter of Jaroslaus, Grand Duke or Czar of Russia, A. D. 1015-1051, who was a descendant of Basil, the Macedon- ian, first emperor of Constantinople, of his line, A. D. 867, and that Basil was descended, on his father's side, from the Araeides, the rivals of Rome, possessors of the scepter of the East for 400 years, through a younger branch of the Parthian monarchs, reigning in Armenia; and on his mother's side, from the European, Constantine the Great, and Alex- ander the Great, the Macedonian.
"All these illustrious historic characters were Dewey's forbears and so also were many others, he nor any one can ever be proud of. But genealogy, like politics, 'makes strange bedfellows.' He was born to these-good, bad and indifferent ancestors-they have been discovered for him, not manufactured, and of their attributes he has inherited the best, so it appears.
"Continuing Dewey's pedigree, we find that one of his ancestors-the one necessary to connect him with these historic characters- was the son of King Henry I., of France, Hugh the Great, or Magnus, Duke of France and Burgundy, Marquis of Orleans and Count of Paris, and through his wife Count of Ver- mandois and Valois, a noted man of his day.
"It is here that Dewey's pedigree leaves the Continent and begins to be a part of English history. Dewey's ancestresses, Lady Isabel de Vermandois, was the daughter of the afore- said Hugh Magnus, and was the first wife (he was her first husband) of Robert de Bello- mont, or Beaumont, a Norman, Earl of Mil- lent, who accompanied William of Normandy on his expedition to England, and for the part he took in the contest was created in 1103 Earl of Leicester and granted many manors in England, dying in 1118. He had issue by Lady Isabel, Robert Bosse de Bello- mont, second Earl of Leicester, who was jus- ticiary of England, and, dying in 1168, had issue by his wife, Lady Amelia or Amica, a daughter of Ralph de Waer or Waher, who in 1066 was the Earl of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge, but forfeited these earldoms in 1074; Robert-blanc-Mains, third Earl of Lei- cester and Steward of England, whose daugh- ter, Lady Margaret de Bellomiont, was an an- cestress of Admiral Dewey.
"This lady married Saher de Quincey, an English baron, created in 1207 by King John,
789
SEVENTEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
to win him over to his side, Earl of Winches- ter. This baron accepted and enjoyed the honors conferred on him by John, but never was friendly to him. On the contrary, he was, next to Fitz Walter, the leader of the insurrectionary barons, and did as much work as any of them to compel King John to grant the Magna Charta-the charter of liberty -- and was one of the twenty-five sureties chosen to enforce its observance. It is through this baron that Dewey is eligible to membership in the Order of Runnymede.
"Turning now to the pages of the Scottish peerage books, we learn that this Earl of Win- chester's granddaughter, Elizabeth de Quin- cey, was the wife of Alexander de Comyn, second Earl of Buchan, who was a descendant of Donalbane, King of Scots, which gives Dewey a 'strain' of the sturdiest sort. And reverting again to the English peerage, we find that Gilbert, Baron d'Umfraville married Lady Agnes, a daughter of the aforesaid Eliz- abeth, Countess of Buchan, and was the pro- genitor of a line of d'Umfravilles to Lady Joan d'Umfraville, who married Sir William Lam- bert, Knt., Lord of Owlton Manor, in Dur- ham. From the authentic pedigrees of the official Heralds of England we learn that a great-granddaughter of this marriage was the wife of Thomas Lyman, Gent, of Navistoke, in Essex, who died in 1509, and the mother of Henry Lyman, of High Ongar, in Essex, who was the ancestor of that Richard Lyman, born at High Ongar Manor in 1580, who came to the Massachusetts colony in 1631 and died in 1640 at Hartford, Conn., of which city he was one of the founders and earliest lot owners.
"His son Richard Lyman (of Windsor, Conn., died in 1662) daughter, Hepzibah, married November 6, 1662, Josiah Dewey (who was baptized October 10, 1641, and was
the son of Thomas Dewey, the first of this surname to come to the new world-to Bos- ton, Mass., in 1633) and they were the par- ents of Josiah, Jr., born December 24, 1666, who was the lineal ancestor as set forth in the 'Dewey Genealogy' by William T. Dewey, of Montpelier, Vt., of our gallant hero, Rear Admiral George Dewey.
"Richard Lyman, the patriarch of all the Lymans of English descent in America, was born at High Ongar, Essex County, Eng- land, and was baptized October 30, 1580. The date of his birth is not known. He mar- ried Sarah Osborne, of Halstead, iir Kent. She went to America with her husband and all her children, and died in Hartford, Conn .. about the year 1640, soon after the death of her husband. Mr. Lyman embarked about the middle of August, 1631, with his wife and children, in the ship 'Lion,' for New Eng- land, taking their departure from the port of Bristol. There went in the same ship, Martha Winthrop, the third wife of John Winthrop, at that time governor of New England, the gov- ernor's eldest son and his wife and their child- ren, also Eliot, the celebrated apostle of the Massachusetts Indians. The ship made anchor before Boston on November 2, 1631. Rich- ard Lyman first became a settler in Charles- town, Mass., and, with his wife, united with the church in what is now called Roxbury, un- der the pastoral care of Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. He became a freeman at the General Court June 11, 1635, and on October 15, 1635, he took his departure with his fam- ily from Charlestown, joining a party of about one-hundred persons who went through the wilderness from Massachusetts to Connecti- cut, the object being to form settlements at Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. He was one of the first settlers at Hartford. The journey from Massachusetts was made in
740
BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.
about fourteen days' time, the distance being more than one hundred miles, and through a trackless wilderness. They had no guide but their compass, and made their way over moun- tains, through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were not passable except with the great- est difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those which simple nature afforded them. They drove with them one-hundred and sixty head of cat- tle, and, by the way, subsisted in a great meas- ure on the milk of their cows. The people carried their packs, arms, and some utensils. This adventure was the more remarkable as many of this company were persons of figure who had lived in England in honor, affluence and delicacy, and were entire strangers to fatigue and danger. Richard Lyman on this journey suffered greatly in the loss of cattle. He was one of the original proprietors of Hartford, and there is little doubt that he and his wife formed a connection with the first church in Hartford, of which the Rev. Thomas Hooker was pastor. His will, the first on record at Hartford, is dated April 22, 1640, is first in the valuable collection of Trumbull, and stands Record I. page 442, and followed by an inventory of his estate. He died in August. 1640, and his name is inscribed on a stone column in the rear of the Centre Church, of Hartford, erected in memory of the first settlers of the city. His wife, Sarah, died soon afterward. Richard Lyman is re- ported to have begun life in the new world as a man of 'considerable estate, keeping two servants.'
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.