Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 52

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318


USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania > Part 52


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).


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264 d


HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


ham was a daughter of John and Isabell (McFarlin) Graham, natives of Scotland, who emigrated to New York State in 1803, and settled in Harford, near the Lower Lake, in 1812. The children of Tyler Carpen- ter are Catharine S., wife of Edwin Thatcher, of Ra- venna, Mich. ; John G., deceased; William T., en- gineer, of Columbia County, N. Y .; Simeon M., of Canaan, Wayne Co .; Mary I .; Jane A., wife of Linus W. Moore, of Harford; Julia A., the twin sister of Jane; Miles D., engineer at Olyphant, Pa. ; and Alex- ander M., an engineer at the same place.


The children of Captain and Julia A. Sweet are


Drinker estate, a woodland tract, and built the pres- ent residence, where he spent his life and reared his family. He was one of the founders of the Harford Agricultural Society, an early advocate of temper- ance and a member of the Old Washington Temper- ance Society of Harford. He was a Universalist in religious belief, a useful member of society, and served his township in various official capacities. His children are Eliza Ann, wife of Ansel Page, of Jackson ; Sarah Jane, resides in Washington, D. C .; Foster F., of Atlantic County, N. J., served nine months in the late Rebellion ; George M., enlisted in


A. J. week-


Arta T., a teacher, educated at Harford and Keystone Academies ; Mary L., George Graham and Sarah Winona Sweet. Captain Sweet is the son of Arta (1802-78) and Sally Osmun (1807-66) Sweet, the lat- ter the daughter of Embly and Catharine (Teeple) Osmun, natives of New Jersey, who died in New Milford. Arta Sweet was the son of Elias and Abi- gail Foster Sweet, who resided in the west part of Harford, where Jackson Tingley is located. This Elias Sweet came to Harford from Attleborough, Mass, in the fall of 1797, and was the son of Amos Sweet, who settled here with his wife and five chil- dren in the fall of 1795, from the same place. Arta Sweet first settled the homestead, a part of the


the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment, Com- pany F, Captain Beardsley ; was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg and died shortly afterwards ; Captain Abel T .; Hannah A., wife of George War- ner, of Lackawanna County ; Hilan B., merchant at Scranton ; and Eva C., wife of D. Payson Brewster, of Harford.


Elias Sweet had children,-Captain Elias ; Joseph ; Alfred; Hannah, wife of Saxa Seymour, was a mer- chant at Harford; Eliza, a Mrs. Capron, of Ohio ; Arta ; and Abigail, wife of Ira Belcher, of Gibson.


Tremain Post, No. 81 .- Tremain Post, of Lanesboro', was instituted on the 16th day of June, 1880, pursu- ant to special orders from department headquarters,


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THE GRAND ARMY.


directed to R. H. Hall, of Susquehanna, who was designated to muster the post and install its officers. The following were mustered as charter members: G. E. McKune, J. F. Stewart, J. D. Shutts, Noah Bisbee, J. A. Hard, Dr. C. H. Yelvington, E. P. Bag- ley, D. C. Patrick, S. W. Foster, C. J. Duren, Frank Plunkett, R. N. Henderson. The following were chosen as officers and were duly installed : P. C., G. E. McKune; S. V. C., Noah Bisbee; J. V. C., J. F. Stewart; C., R. N. Henderson ; Q. M., J. D. Shutts ; S., Dr. C. H. Yelvington ; O. D., J. A. Hard; O. G., S. W. Foster ; A., J. O. Taylor ; S. M., F. Plunkett ; Q. M. S., C. J. Duren.


After the post was duly organized, Comrade Wm. H. Telford, on behalf of Moody Post, No. 53, pre- sented a marble gavel block, and on behalf of Cap- tain Lyons Post, No. 85, a gavel to the newly-organ- ized post. The total number borne upon its rolls is sixty-two, and its present membership is forty-one. The post meets in Grand Army Hall, and owns furni- ture and post property to the value of three hundred dollars. Its Past P. C.'s are G. E. McKune and Jas. O. Taylor, and its present officers are : P. C., G. H. Hurlburt; S. V. C., W. C. Lacey; J. V. C., F. James ; S., Dr. C. H. Yelvington ; C., H. D. Wood; A., J. D. Shutts; Q. M., J. F. Stewart ; O. D., J. O. Taylor ; O. G., Paul Atwell; S. M., G. E. Pooles ; Q. M. S., G. E. McKune.


The post was named in honor of Major Tremain, who enlisted as a private in the Eighty-ninth Regi- ment New York Volunteers, but at the timc of his death he was in command of his regiment as its major.


MAJOR FRANK W. TREMAIN, for whom the G. A. R. Post at Lanesboro', Susquehanna County, Pa., was named, was the oldest child of William and Harriet Blanchard Tremain, and was born at Dur- ham, Greene County, N. Y., in 1843. At an early age he removed with his father's family to Lanesboro', where he resided at the breaking out of the Rebellion, being then eighteen years old. Obtaining his parents' consent, he commenced a vigorous canvass for recruits and succeeded in getting several who went with him to Binghamton and joined the Eighty-ninth New York Volunteers, called the Dickinson Guards (named for the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson). He was promoted from time to time for faithful and merito- rious service, and escaped injury to the time of liis death, April 2, 1865, in the last moments of the army before Petersburg, while he was in command of the regiment charging Fort Gregg.


Yeomans, D. T. Salsbury, G. W. Rice, John Snow, R. S. Luce, I. C. Disbro, A. L. Southworth, M. V. Bisby, Morris Reidy, Jeremiah Hays. The following


were also charter members and were elected the first officers of the post, being duly installed on the night of its organization, as follows: P. C., J. J. Stockholm; S. V. C., B. C. Vance ; J. V. C., T. L. Smith ; Adjt., J. H. Munger ; Q. M., S. B. Knapp; C., A. E. Stock- holm; Surg., E. P. Munger; O. D., A. M. Snow ; O. G., J. W. Palmer ; S. M., H. B. Wilbur ; Q. M. S., Geo. C. Hill.


The total number borne upon its rolls is forty-six, and its present membership is thirty-five. In 1882 their Post Hall and all their property, except the records, were destroyed by fire. The present officers of the post are: P. C., S. B. Knapp ; S. V. C., Geo. P. Stockholm ; J. V. C., J. W. Palmer ; Adjt., J. H. Munger; Q. M., W. L. Bcebe; C., A. E. Stockholm; S., H. H. Dougherty ; O. D., A. M. Snow; O. G., G. W. Rice ; S. M., E. L. Beebe; Q. M. S., John Harsh. Its Past P. C.'s are J. J. Stockholm, B. C. Vance, T. L. Smith and E. L. Beebe.


The post was named in honor of


TURNER J. SOUTHWORTH, son of Arthur and Maria Southworth, who was residing in Liberty township when the Rebellion burst upon the country. Early in the fall of 1861 he enlisted in Company H, Sixty- first Regiment New York Volunteers, and soon pro- ceeded to the front. In the spring of 1862 he was with McClellan in the disastrous Peninsula campaign. He contracted disease amid the miasma of the Chicka- hominy swamps and was sent to Carver Hospital, at Washington, D. C., where, on the 28th of May, 1862, he died of typhoid fever. His body was embalmed and brought home, and tenderly and tearfully laid to rest in the cemetery at Lawsville-one of the first martyrs of the deadly strife to find a resting-place among his kindred.


Simrell Post, No. 233 .- Simrell Post, of Great Bend, was instituted December 9, 1881, with the following charter members : Thos. Summerton, R. Y. Hazard, Francis S. Ericson, A. B. Conklin, L. W. Chichester, S. B. Munson, Chas. Hamlin, George Wolcott, George Bagart, O. A. Lines, F. B. Decker, Chas. M. Reinhart, Robert Thomas, W. A. Gates, Stephen Armstrong, Jeremiah Haney, Christopher Guilcs, Henry Talmage.


We are unable to give the names of its first or its present officers; but its Past P. C.'s have been R. Y. Hazard, O. A. Lines and Thomas Summerton, and its present P. C. is H. H. Williams. The total number borne on its rolls is sixty-five and its present member- ship is forty-one. The post was named in honor of Captain Warren F. Simrell, one of the three months' volunteers under the first call of President Lincoln, who afterwards served with distinction in Companies B and D of the Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.


CAPTAIN WARREN F. SIMRELL was born in 1841 in Scott, Luzerne County, Pa., and was one of the


T. J. Southworth Post, No. 222 .- Southworth Post, of Franklin Forks, was instituted October 28, 1881, by Comrade A. A. Clearwater, assisted by a delegation from Capt. Lyons Post, No. 85, who mustered the following as charter members : B. J. Lasure, E. C. ] fourteen children of William and Sarah Simrell. At the age of sixteen lie began to teach school, and fol- lowed that occupation until the beginning of the war, when he enlisted for tlirce months, and at the expira-


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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


tion of that time came home sick. As soon as pro- nounced well he again enlisted in Company B, Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and, upon the organization of the company, was made first sergeant; soon afterward, first lieutenant, and subsequently promoted to captain of Company D, which command he held until the close of the war, being honorably discharged June 20, 1865. At the battle of Chancel- lorsville he was wounded by a piece of shell, which eventually caused his death. After his return from the army he was book and time-keeper in the Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad shops at Hallstead, deputy postmaster in Great Bend borough, and subsequently engaged in the insurance business. In 1869 he was elected prothonotary of Susquehanna County and removed to Montrose and assumed the duties of his office. But death drew its sable curtain betwixt him and the brilliant future that seemed to await him, and, on the 21st of January, 1870, the office which he had filled but a few weeks became vacant by his death; and thus upon our country's altar was laid another noble sacrifice. His wife was Mary Cummings, who bore him two children,-Nellie and Warren F. Simrell.


Levi Moss Post, No. 313 .- Levi Moss Post, of New Milford, was instituted several years since, but its exact date we have been unable to obtain, and we have no data at hand as to its charter members, or its past or present officers. The last official report places its membership at thirty-eight. The post was named in honor of Levi Moss, an honored citizen of New Milford previous to the war, and who, with his broth- ers, was engaged in the tanning business at that place. When Captain Beardsley's company left New Milford, on the 22d of August, 1862, Mr. Moss, who had been revolving in his mind the terrible problem that the war presented, suddenly resolved to lend his aid in its solution, and joined the company as it was starting for the front. He was made a corporal, and, true to the purpose that led him to leave family and friends, he was ever present when duty called. The "official" record of his service is comprised in this sad and significant sentence,-" Mustered into service August 25, 1862; missing in action at Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864."


A. J. Roper Post, No. 452 .- A. J. Roper Post, of South Gibson, was instituted July 26, 1884, and was known as "C. M. Holmes" Post until April, 1887, when a change was made and the present name adopted. The charter members of the post are Wm. Rogers, G. R. Resseguie, D. S. Michael, G. G. Willer, George H. Burman, George M. Felton, Hiram Stevens, George E. Bowell, James Griggs, Theodore Fuller, Frank Pickering, James Keech, A. C. Follet, George Yarrington, Peter Patten, Lawrence Manzer, Wm. Michael, James S. Hall, David Nicholas, Isaac Morgan, Thomas Kelly, John D. Pickering, Wm. Thorn, M. B. Davis, George Berry.


Its first officers were elected and installed as fol-


lows : P. C., Dr. Wm. Rogers; S. V. C., G. R. Resse- guie; J. V. C., Isaac Morgan ; Adjt., D. S. Michael ; O. D., James Keech ; Q. M., A. C. Follet; Chaplain, Theodore Fuller; O. G., Wm. Thorn ; S. M., Freeman Whitney; Q. M. S., Lawrence Manzer. The whole number on its rolls is forty-seven, and its present membership thirty-five. The value of post property is nearly two hundred dollars. The officers for 1887 are : P. C., Dr. Wm. Rogers ; S. V. C., Rufus Barnes ; J. V. C., George Burman ; Adjt., D. S. Michael ; Q. M., James Keech; C., Gilbert Witter; S., Frank Pickering; O. D., H. D. Pickering; O. G., George Bowell; S. M., Solomon Williams; Q. M. S., Law- rence Manzer ; Past Post Commander, Theodore Fuller.


SERGEANT AUGUSTUS J. ROPER, after whom G. A. R. Post No. 452 is named, was born in Gibson in 1839, the son of Wm. Roper, a well-to-do farmer, who re- sided near Union Hill. "Gus," as he was familiarly called, enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Forty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, at the organiza- tion of that company, and was one of its first corpo- rals. He was with his company up to the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was severely wounded, getting a bullet through the leg, which kept him from the field until March, 1864. He was with his regiment in its campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg. On September 11, 1864, while on duty as sergeant of the advanced picket, he became exposed to the quick eye of one of the rebel sharp-shooters, and was shot through the head, killing him instantly. His body was embalmed and brought home, and now lies in the Union Hill Cemetery ; and a grassy mound attests the resting-place of as brave a soldier as fought under the folds of the flag.


Four Brothers Post, No. 453 .- During the encamp- ment of the Veteran Organization of Susquehanna County at Montrose, September 4, 1884, Four Broth- ers Post was instituted by Colonel Thomas J. Stew- art, adjutant-general Department of Pennsylvania, G. A. R., assisted by Q. M. General H. G. Williams also of the department staff. Twenty-nine charter members were mustered, the ceremonies being held in Odd Fellows' Hall, which was filled to overflowing by members of the Grand Army. After " muster,", preceded by the band, they all marched to the camp at the fair-grounds, where the following-named officers were publicly installed by Colonel Stewart : P. C., H. F. Beardsley ; S. V. G., L. M. Baldwin ; J. V. C., F. G. Warner ; Adj't, H. C. Jessup; Q. M., W. A. Taylor; C., S. F. Lane; S., C. H. Smith; O. D., S. B. Loomis ; O. G., Hugh Mitchell.


Following are the names of the remaining charter members : D. W. Searle, C. N. Warner, W. F. L. Hartig, John Quinn, Chandler Stephens, N. J. Huff, T. F. Mack, E. F. Baldwin, Joseph Jameson, Isaac Z. Babcock, Jacob Titman, Otis McCracken, James P. Taylor, Hamilton Youngs, William Johnson, C.


264 g


THE GRAND ARMY.


M. Read, G. Z. Dimock, Hyde Crocker, Jr., Isaac Hamlin, P. J. Hart.


After the "installation," by invitation of the newly- made post, the members of the encampment sat down to " bean soup " and other army "rations," seasoned with stories, speeches and songs, and all the necessary adjuncts of an old-fashioned " camp-fire." The post meets in Grand Army Hall (old court-house), and it is the purpose of its members in the near future to rebuild and remodel it. The total number borne upon its rolls is eighty, and, with two deaths, and three transfers, its present memberhip is seventy-five.


The present officers of the post are : P. C., H. F. Beardsley ; S. V. C., L. M. Baldwin ; J. V. C., W. F., L. Hartig; Adj't, H. C. Jessup; Q. M., James P. Taylor; C., S. F. Lane; S., Dr. C. C. Halsey ; O. D. C. S. Page; O. G., James K. Brady ; S. M., A. H. Berlin ; Q. M. S., William L. Cox. The post was named " Four Brothers " in honor of four as brave and manly "boys " as ever wielded a sabre or sighted a musket. Perhaps its appropriateness cannot be more clearly shown than by quoting from a published arti- cle written by Captain Beardsley, at whose suggestion this name was adopted by the post. " What's in a name ?"-The inquiry that heads this article will naturally be made by those unacquainted with the circumstances that renders the name adopted by this post of more than local significance. Early in the War of the Rebellion, four noble sons and patriotic brothers enlisted in defence of the flag. Their names were Jerome R., Clark C., Luke L. and Benjamin R. Lyons. Before Grant's victorious flag waved over Appomattox, the three last named were lying side by side on the hillside, in our village cemetery, stricken down by war's cruel hand, and to-day their bones lie mouldering beneath the shadow of a broken shaft, emblematic of life's sudden ending.


" How significant the lines


. ""Brave boys were they ; gone at their country's call ;


And yet, and yet we cannot forget that many brave boys must fall !'


"The other brother, Captain Jerome R. Lyons, barely escaped with life from the perils of many battles, and returned to his home bearing the scars of rebel bullets, and with constitution shattered and health destroyed. He died in 1877, universally la- mented by his comrades and all who knew him. The beautiful soldiers' monument that graces our square is alike a monument to him and his architectural skill and ability, for he designed and superintended its erection. The ' Four Brothers' sleep their last sleep in our village cemetery, and is it not most fit- ting that their memory should be revived and per- petuated, and our post honored, by adopting a name whose significance calls to mind a circumstance per- haps without parallel in the whole country ? "


The spirit of patriotism that with, it seemed, one accord, impelled these four brothers to go forth in defence of their country and flag, was the same as


impelled their great-grandfather, David Lyons, to help tumble the tea overboard into Boston harbor. We have already given a brief sketch of Captain Jerome R. Lyons in connection with the post that bears his name. Licutenant B. R. Lyons enlisted with Captain Dimock in Company D, Fiftieth Penn- sylvania Volunteers, and was second lieutenant of the company. General Stevens, in a letter to Lieutenant Lyons, written shortly after he had received the wound that resulted in his death, says : "You have acquitted yourself nobly during your whole service at the South, commencing with your energetic con- duct on the 'Winfield Scott,' and ending with your leading the forlorn hope at Secessionville. I have announced you as one of my aids-de-camp, and you will continue as such, however long your wound may disable you." He died July 6, 1862, nine days after the above letter was written.


Luke L. Lyons was also a member of Company D, and its first sergeant. At the expiration of his first three years' term of service he re-enlisted. At Spott- sylvania he was severely wounded, and died on the 20th of May, 1864. Company D had no truer or braver soldier. Lieutenant Clark M. Lyons was adjutant of the Fifty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- teers-the same regiment in which his brother, Captain J. R. Lyons, served. He was wounded, while charging with his regiment the enemy's works at Petersburg, on the 18th day of June, 1864, and died two days afterwards. He, too, was a veteran volun- teer, having re-enlisted-it seeming to be the determination of these four brothers to see the end of rebellion unless " killed or disabled."


Truly " Four Brothers" Post has honored itself in thus seeking to honor them, and perpetuate and keep green their memories.


CAPTAIN H. F. BEARDSLEY was born in the town- ship of New Milford July 18, 1836. He is the eldest son of Jared and Polly (Peck) Beardsley, who were both natives of Connecticut, and to whom clung many of the characteristics of the " Nutmeg " State. He has one sister, Lucy E., the wife of Rev. R. J. Kellogg, residing in Connecticut, and one brother, William L., who resides in Kansas. His father was an intelligent, energetic farmer, zealously wedded to agricultural pursuits, but not to the neglect of mental recreation or intellectual culture,


Captain Beardsley's boyhood was spent on the home farm until after his father's death in 1852, when, de- sirous of obtaining an education, he entered Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, Pa., then under the able man- agement of Dr. Reuben Nelson, where he remained two years, and, besides adding to his store of knowl- edge, he gained many life-long friends. While at the seminary he developed a taste for literary pursuits, and at the close of his school-life there, he shared the honors, with a schoolmate, of being selected to write the anniversary colloquy. He was then engaged in cleri- cal duties and teaching school most of the time, until


264 h


HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


1862, his last term being at Brooklyn, Pa. Inclining to the law as a profession, he had, in 1861, made ar- rangements to prosecute its study with McCollum & Searle, but the war camne, and Coke and Blackstone were thrown aside for Hardee and Casey. Early in August, 1862, having received authority from Gov- ernor Curtin, assisted by A. A. Hempstead and E. B. Brainard, he recruited a company, and, upon its or- ganization at New Milford on the 22d of August, was elected to command it. (Military Chapter, Company F, One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment). On the forced march which the regiment made from Arling- ton Heights to Poolsville, Captain Beardsley became disabled and was obliged to be left behind when the army moved. He came near being captured while at Poolsville, but managed to escape in the "role " of a Quaker cattle buyer, aided by his Quaker host. His valise, however, fell into the hands of the rebels, and in it were his commission and private papers. Par- tially recovered, he joined his regiment just in time to participate in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13th. When the spring campaign of 1863 opened and the regiment started for Chancellorsville, Captain Beardsley was in command of his company, though weak and unfitted for the hardships and fatigue of the march. Through the terrible ordeal of those three days, culminating in the fearful carnage of that Sun- day morning, he remained with his company, but af- ter the battle he was unable to resume command, and, being unfit for duty, was granted a sick leave. He was never afterwards able to resume duty in the field. As to Captain Beardsley's subsequent service we quote from Chaplain Craft's " History of the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment," page 222, as follows :


In June, after the battle of Chancellorsville, the captain had been granted a twenty-day sick leave and went home. He, however, accompanied the militia, who left Montrose in response to Governor Curtin's call for aid in repelling Lee's invasion, tendered his services to the adjutant-general of the State, was as- signed to duty at Camp Curtin, remaining on duty until the expiration of his sick-leave. Unable to reach his regiment he reported to General Couch, command- ing the department of the Susquehanna, who ordered him to Reading, where a camp of instruction had been established, and shortly after he was appointed acting assistant adjutant general on General Sigel's staff, then commanding the district of Lehigh, where he remained until March 9, 1864, receiving an acknowl- edgement from his chief in general orders for faithful and able services, and leaving him in temporary com- mand until the arrival of his successor.


Captain Beardsley continued to hold the same place on the staff of General Ferry, who succeeded Sigel in the department. On the 18th of March he was ordered to Chambersburg, and was assigned to duty as acting assistant adjutant general to General Couch. He re- mained on the staff of General Couch until June 9, 1864, when a special order was received from the War


Department, honorably discharging him from the ser- vice.


This order from the War Department was in accord- ance with previous instructions, transmitted to Gen- eral Couch as follows: " If at the expiration of sixty days Captain Beardsley is still unfit for field duty, he will be discharged the service." For nearly a year after this Captain Beardsley remained at home en- deavoring to regain his health, when being tendered a place in the quartermaster's department at Harris- burg by Major Reichenbach, with whom he had served while with General Sigel at Reading, he accepted and remained there nearly a year, or until the affairs of the department were closed up. In 1865, during his residence in Harrisburg, he married Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. R. T. Ashley, of Brooklyn, Penna., whose acquaintance he had made while a student at Wyoming. The captain remarked to the writer that, although his alma mater had never conferred any "degrees" upon him, yet he should ever hold it in grateful remembrance.


Returning to Susquehanna County, he engaged in various business enterprises, among others, that of editing and publishing a newspaper until 1875, when he was elected register and recorder of Susquehanna County, and upon the expiration of his term was re- elected and filled the office for six years. In 1878 he was elected a councilman for the borough of Mont- rose, and for two years served as president of that body, being re-elected in 1886. He commanded the veterans' organization of the county for three years, and has been commander of "Four Brothers " Post, Grand Army of the Republic, since its organization in 1884. He is now aid-de-camp on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Re- public and has also served on the staff of the depart- ment commander. He has always been active in every public enterprise, and notably in his efforts to pay off the debt of nearly seven hundred dollars, on the soldiers' monument, and it was at his suggestion that the " Monument Celebration " was held. We quote an extract from the published report of that celebra- tion. "There was but oneaim-one ambition perva- ding all who labored for the celebration-success and the payment of the Debt. And while many contrib- uted to the result-some more, others less, we think we do injustice to none, and but echo the sentiment of all who are capable of judging the facts when we say that the full and perfect success of the celebration is due to the indefatigable zeal and almost ceaseless la- bors of Captain H. F. Beardsley, from the very incep- tion of the undertaking to its triumphant close."




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