USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 88
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BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN REA, of Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsyl- vania, second child and eldest son of Samuel above mentioned and grand father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Janu- ary 17, 1755, and died at Chambersburg, February 6, 1829, and is buried in Rocky Springs. His early life was spent in the Conococheague region, while it was still infested with savage Indians and amid the hardships of frontier life. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary struggle he became at once an ardent supporter of the patriot cause, enlisting in Captain William Hendricks' company, in Colonel Thompson's rifle battalion, the first armed force from Pennsylvania to march for General Washington's camp at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, leaving Carlisle, Cumberland county, July 15, 1775, and reaching the camp at Cambridge, August 8, 1775. His next service was as lieutenant of a company in the Fifth battalion of Cumberland county militia to which position he was commissioned January 20, 1777. On July 31, 1777, he was promoted to captain of the Eighth company in the Eighth battalion, Colonel Smith, being re-commissioned May 14, 1778, and again on May 10, 1780, as captain of the Second company, First battalion, Cumberland county militia, Colonel James Johnston, and was in active service during practically the whole war, serving under Colonels Armstrong, Smith and Johnston. With the close of the Revolu- tion he became an officer of the Pennsylvania militia and rose through the sev- eral grades to the rank of brigadier-general, and during the War of 1812-1814, was major-general of the Seventh division of Pennsylvania militia, in active service. His services in the civil department of his native country were not less distinguished than in the military department. He was a member of Assembly from Franklin county in the sessions of 1789-1790, 1792-1793, and
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1796-1797; was elected to the United States Congress in 1803 and served until 18II, and was again elected to Congress on May II, 1813, for the unexpired term of Robert Whitehill who died in 1812, and was again elected for the term of 1814-1815. He was elected to the state senate in 1823 and resigned in 1824.
General John Rea, in November 1806, married Elizabeth Culbertson, born about 1770, died June 6, 1836, at Mann's Forges and buried at Martinsburg, both in Blair County, Pennsylvania. She was daughter of Colonel Samuel Cul- bertson, and granddaughter of Captain Alexander Culbertson, of Culbertson Row, one of the most prominent families in the annals of central and western Pennsylvania, and one that probably furnished more officers to the Revolution- ary army than any other family in Pennsylvania.
The Culbertson Family of Culbertson Row, Ballygan, County Antrim, Ire- land, were of ancient Scottish ancestry, their forbears having fled from Scot- land during the religious and civil disturbances of the seventeenth century. In 1730, three brothers, Alexander, Joseph and Samuel Culbertson, from near Bal- lymoyney, County Antrim, emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in Lancaster County. Long prior to the organization of Cumberland county, they located in what became Lurgan township, Franklin county, seven miles north of the pres- ent site of Chambersburg, and called their settlement "Culbertson's Row" after the home of their ancestors in the Province of Ulster, Ireland.
Alexander Culbertson, the grandfather of Elizabeth (Culbertson) Rea, was a soldier in General Braddock's army in the unfortunate expedition against Fort DuQuesne, now Pittsburgh, in 1755, and when the settlements on the whole Pennsylvania frontier were threatened with annihilation by savage hordes of Indians, incited by the French and left unrestrained by the disorganization of the Provincial forces as a result of the defeat at Braddock's Field, he raised a company among his neighbors, of which he was commissioned Captain in Lieu- tenant-colonel Armstrong's Second Pennsylvania regiment and marched against the Indians. He was killed in a battle with the Indians at McCord's Point, Franklin county, April 2, 1756. He had probably held a captain's commission prior to this time, as we find him in command of a company at Fort Augusta, now Sunbury, in 1755. Two sons of Captain Alexander Culbertson, were colonels in the Revolutionary War : Samuel and Robert; another son, Alexander was a captain, and his daughter Elizabeth was the wife of Lieutenant-colonel Charles Cessna, of the Bedford county militia. Several of his nephews were likewise officers in the patriot army. Colonel Samuel Culbertson, son of Cap- tain Alexander, and father of Elizabeth (Culbertson) Rea, was born in the pres- ent limits of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, December 21, 1741, and died there February 4, 1817. He married (first) March 20, 1761, Margaret Henderson, born 1743, died April 30, 1775, and (second) at Rocky Spring church, February 4, 1777, Elizabeth McClay, born 1755, died June 4, 1817, daughter of the Hon. John McClay of Lurgan township, member of United States Congress and long a prominent figure in state and national politics.
Brigadier-general and Elizabeth (Culbertson) Rea had eleven children, nine boys and two girls, two of whom died in childhood. The eldest son Samuel, Dr. John Rea, William and Charles located in Pittsburgh in the forties. The only survivor is Charles, born in 1823, for three years a soldier in the civil war,
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and still residing in Pittsburgh. The only daughter who survived childhood was Elizabeth McClay Rea, who married William Scott of St. Louis in 1851.
JAMES D. REA, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the third son of Brigadier-general John and Elizabeth (Culbertson) Rea and was born at Cham- bersburg, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1811. He taught school as a young man and early advocated a public school system which he lived to see adopted. He lo- cated at Hollidaysburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, where he was in the canal forwarding offices, afterwards he became a storekeeper and married Ruth Blair Moore, in Hollidaysburg, daughter of Thomas Blair Moore. He died in Hol- lidaysburg, April 28, 1868. James D. and Ruth Blair (Moore) Rea had chil- dren :- Thomas Blair, Jane Moore and Samuel.
SAMUEL REA, second son of James D. and Ruth Blair (Moore) Rea, was born at Hollidaysburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1855. While he inherited little of this world's goods in houses and lands, he did inherit from worthy Scotch-Irish ancestors, sterling qualities of energy, industry, and the pride of independence that went far toward moulding his future successful ca- reer. His father dying when he was thirteen years of age, he soon after ac- cepted a position in a small store in his native town and later was a clerk for three months in a country store at Port Royal, Juniata county, Pennsylvania, but in 1871, he began his career with the Pennsylvania Railroad as chainman and rodman on the Morrisons Cove, Williamsburg and Bloomsfield branches of that company's system. The panic of 1873 put a temporary stop to all engineering work and he entered the office of the Hollidaysburg Iron and Nail Company as a clerk, but in the spring of 1875, re-entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a member of an engineering corps stationed at Connells- ville. The latter part of that year and until 1877, he was assistant engineer in charge of the construction of the "Point Bridge," a chain suspension bridge over the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. Upon its completion he was appointed assistant engineer on the original location of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and subsequently on its construction until its completion in 1879, when upon its opening he served for a time as cashier in the freight office and the first ticket agent in the Pittsburgh office. He soon returned to the Pennsyl- vania system in 1879 as assistant engineer in charge of the construction of the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway south of Monongahela City. From 1879 to 1883, Mr. Rea was engineer in charge of surveys and construction in Westmoreland county and the rebuilding of the Western Pennsylvania Rail- road, whereby it was transformed into an active low-grade freight line, under the supervision of J. N. DuBarry, then assistant to the president of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company. In 1883, Mr. DuBarry, having become vice-pres- ident of the company, called Mr. Rea to Philadelphia as his assistant, with the title of principal assistant engineer, which position he filled until 1888, when he was made assistant to the second vice-president. He resigned the latter office in 1889 to go to Baltimore, Maryland, as vice-president of the Maryland Cen- tral Railway Company and chief engineer of the Baltimore Belt Railroad Com- pany, which positions he resigned in 1891 on account of ill health, and leaving Baltimore, relinquished all work for a year.
May 25, 1892, Samuel Rea was appointed assistant to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and returned to the employ of that company
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after an absence of three years. On the day of his appointment, he left for London, England, to make a thorough investigation of the underground rail- ways, then proposed and constructed, of which he subsequently made special reports to his chief. He was well qualified for this mission, having during his last year at Baltimore, located and put under construction for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, a comprehensive surface and underground double- track railway through that city. The result of his experience abroad was after- ward put to good service on the Pennsylvania's New York Tunnel Extension, under the direct charge of Mr. Rea. After the death of Vice-president DuBarry in 1892, Mr. Rea was assigned to the charge of the general construction work then in progress, the acquisition of real estate and right of way for, and the promotion of, all new lines and branches, and the financial and corporate work incident thereto, which duties, with the exception of the construction work, have since been discharged by him. February 10, 1897, he was appointed first assistant to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and June 14, 1899, was elected fourth vice-president ; October 10, 1905, was advanced to third vice-president, and March 24, 1909, to the position of second vice-president of the company, and in addition to his former duties was placed in charge of the engineering and accounting departments. Mr. Rea is also second vice-president of the Northern Central Railway Company, as well as of the Philadelphia, Bal- timore & Washington Railroad Company and the West Jersey & Seashore Rail- road Company, and a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and, in- cident to supervising the corporate work of the subsidiary companies of the Pennsylvania system east of Pittsburg and Erie, and the promotion and con- struction of new lines, serves as director, vice-president and president of about one hundred of these companies.
Mr. Rea was for many years interested in a project to bridge the Hudson River from Hoboken to New York city, thus establishing in the metropolis a terminus for the railroads having their termini on the New Jersey side. He was one of the incorporators of the North River Bridge Company chartered by Act of Congress in 1888. The other railroad companies not joining the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in aiding the project, it went ahead alone and after a very careful examination and report on the entire situation, coupled with the success- ful introduction of electrical traction about that time, determined to build its own extension-by means of tunnels-with a large and commodious station in New York City, and Mr. Rea was given direct charge of what is considered the most important piece of engineering work accomplished in this country. The New York Connecting Railroad jointly owned by the Pennsylvania and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Companies is a part of this great work yet to be completed (1910), and, with the tunnel extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad, will form a through all rail route between the southern, western and New England States.
Mr. Rea is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the In- stitution of Civil Engineers of London, as well as of a number of other scien- tific, patriotic, benevolent and social organizations. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Society of the War of 1812 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in right of descent from Major-general John Rea, who served in both wars for independence. He is
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the author of a number of papers on technical subjects, one of which is "The Railways Terminating in London," a comprehensive study, based on personal investigation in 1887 of the physical and financial condition of the English Rail- way systems. His extended and varied experience as an engineer, as a student of financial questions, generally, and of railroad accounts and reports and their analysis, coupled with his unceasing activity and experience in organizing and consolidating railroad companies, and his familiarity with the laws governing such enterprises for the betterment and increase of traffic in the conduct of this character of work, make him an unquestioned authority in many matters pertaining to railroads. February 22nd, 1910, the University of Pennslyvania conferred the degree of Doctor of Science on Mr. Rea in recognition of his ability and genius in carrying to a successful conclusion the New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Samuel Rea married September 11, 1879, Mary M. Black, youngest daughter of George Black, deceased, of Pittsburgh, Pa., formerly one of the prominent men of western Pennsylvania, long engaged in the transportation business, first by canal and later by railroad, and as an iron manufacturer and actively identi- fied with the leading financial institutions of Pittsburgh, and at the time of his decease, in 1872, a Director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Mr. and Mrs. Rea had two children, George Black Rea, who died April 8th, 1908, and Ruth Rea.
3 .
FRANCIS ADAMS DONALDSON
HANS DE NEUS, the great-great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was founder of the Nice Family, long prominently associated with public affairs in Philadelphia, and that part of Philadelphia known as Nicetown. He came to Philadelphia from Holland, with Janneke his wife, but was a French Hugue- not, his family having taken refuge from religious persecution in France, in Holland, where he married. The Christian name of his wife would indicate that she was of Holland ancestry, but her maiden name is unknown. They settled on the site of Nicetown, in what was the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, and tradition relates that they celebrated the erection of their house there by throwing a bottle of schnapps over it and christening it and their plantation Nicetown, by which name it has since been known. Hans de Neus died at Nicetown in 1736, and his widow Janneke in 1742.
Anthony Nice, the third son of Hans and Janneke de Neus, was the great- great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch; the name de Neus becoming anglicized into Nice.
Captain George Nice, second son of Anthony Nice, born at Nicetown, Phila- delphia in 1739, like several other grandsons of the Huguenot pioneer, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He was captain of the Second Company, Sec- ond battalion, Philadelphia Associators, 1776-77, and was otherwise active in the cause of Independence. He died in Nicetown, Philadelphia, April 10, 1812. Captain George Nice married Hannah Hall, and had among other children :
Jacob Nice, born at Nicetown, Philadelphia, in 1766, and died there, October 2, 1818. He married December 11, 1811, Mary Allen, of Winchester, Virginia, and their daughter Matilda Nice, born at Nicetown, Philadelphia, November 16, 1814, married, May 24, 1832, John Plankinhorn Donaldson, and was the mother of the subject of this sketch.
WILLIAM DONALDSON, paternal great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1705. His family were among the vast number of Scotch Covenanters who sought an asylum from religious perse- cution in the province of Ulster, Ireland, and William Donaldson married in County Down, Ireland, in 1730, Margaret Townsend, and soon after came with her to Pennsylvania and located in Philadelphia, where they spent the remainder of their days.
ANDREW DONALDSON, fourth son of William and Margaret (Townsend) Donaldson, was born in Philadelphia, in 1736. He married at Old Swedes Church, Philadelphia, March 23, 1761, Eleanor Toy. He was lost at sea in Sep- tember, 1782, while captain in the Merchant Marine.
WILLIAM TOWNSEND DONALDSON, eldest son of Andrew and Eleanor (Toy) Donaldson, was born in Philadelphia, July 11, 1762. He took a prominent part in public affairs in his native city, and filled the office of sheriff of Philadel- phia county, for the term, 1808-1810. He died March 31, 1818. He married, October 20, 1785, Mary Adams, and had several children, among them :
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JOHN PLANKINHORN DONALDSON, above mentioned, who was born Decem- ber 4, 1795, and died April 17, 1845. He married (first) in Philadelphia, May 24, 1832, Matilda Nice, born November 16, 1814, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Allen) Nice, and granddaughter of Captain George Nice, of the Revo- lution. Matilda (Nice) Donaldson died in Philadelphia, March 20, 1842, and John P. Donaldson married (second) November 8, 1843, Eliza Ann (Nice) Clason, who survived him over a half century, dying in Philadelphia, September 18, 1907. John Plankinhorn and Matilda (Nice) Donaldson had five sons, viz : Charles Keen Donaldson, died in infancy ; Jacob Nice Donaldson, born Septem- ber 7, 1835, married September 13, 1866, Annie M. Crossan, and had one daugh- ter, Mary Crossan Donaldson, who married April 26, 1893, James Monroe Reed ; John Plankinhorn Donaldson, Jr., born June 12, 1838, died July 22, 1901. He was a captain in the 22nd Virginia Infantry, Confederate States Army during the Civil War, was wounded at Droop Mountain and Cold Harbor, Virginia, and taken prisoner at the latter battle, and was confined at Fort Delaware until the termination of the war; Francis Adams Donaldson, the subject of this sketch; Coleman Donaldson, died in infancy.
FRANCIS ADAMS DONALDSON, fourth son of John Plankinhorn and Matilda (Nice) Donaldson, was born in Philadelphia, June 7, 1840. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union army and was mustered in, June 4, 1861, as sergeant of Company H, Seventy-first Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, originally known as the California Regiment, from the fact that it was recruited (principally in Philadelphia) by Edward D. Baker, United States Senator from Oregon under special instructions from President Lincoln, and Isaac J. Wistar of Philadelphia, who had been a trapper in the employ of the Hudson Bay Com- pany and had commanded Indian Rangers in Oregon and California in 1850- 1851. Baker was chosen colonel, and Wistar, later a brigadier-general, lieuten- ant-colonel. The regiment, treated during its earlier service as belonging to the regular army, was sent to Fortress Monroe where it performed dangerous and arduous picket and scouting duty, until after the first battle of Bull Run, when it was ordered to the south bank of the Potomac, opposite Washington, and charged with guarding the line of fortifications encircling the capital and with scouting and picket duty, of extremely hazardous character. It suffered con- siderable loss in the attack on Munson's Hill in September, 1861, and October 21, 1861, was almost annihilated at the battle of Ball's Bluff, Va., Colonel Baker being killed, and more than half of his command either killed, wounded or tak- en prisoner. Among the latter was Sergeant Donaldson, who was confined in Rich- mond, Va., until exchanged February 19, 1862. The regiment went into winter quarters and was recruited as part of Pennsylvania's quota. Under Colonel Wistar it served for a time with General Banks at Winchester, Virginia and later with McClellan at Yorktown and on the Peninsula. Sergeant Donaldson was promoted to second lieutenant of Company M, May 1, 1862, and was severely wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks, May 31, 1862. On the organization of the One hundred and eighteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, known as the "Corn Exchange Regiment" being recruited and equipped by the Corn Exchange of Philadelphia, Lieutenant Donaldson was chosen captain of Com- pany H, in that regiment, which was mustered into the service, August 19, 1862. The regiment was assigned to the First brigade, First division, Fifth corps, and
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took a leading part in most of the important battles of the war from Antietam to Gettysburg, and later at Bristoe Station, Rappahannock Station and other engagements, suffering terrible losses in the battle at Shepherdstown, Freder- icksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. It went into winter-quarters at Bev- erly Ford, Virginia, in December, 1863, and Captain Donaldson was honorably discharged, January 14, 1864, and returned to Philadelphia. On his retirement from the army, Captain Donaldson engaged in the general insurance business in Philadelphia, and is still engaged in that business at 204 Walnut Place, Phila- delphia. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Rev- olution ; the Pennsylvania Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and of a number of social, and patriotic organizations.
Captain Donaldson married October 15, 1872, Mary Heyberger, daughter of John and Eliza (Keene) Landell, of Philadelphia. They had three children, viz :- Francis Adams Donaldson, Jr., born in Philadelphia, July 9, 1875, married April 5, 1904, Mattie, daughter of Rudolph and Martha (Patton) Oelbermann, and has two children, Francis Adams Donaldson, 3d, born August 24, 1907, and William David Donaldson, born October 4, 1908; Kate Beresford Donaldson, born June 28, 1876, married October 15, 1896, George Herbert Taylor, and has one son William Shipley Taylor, 2d, born December 6, 1900; Wharton Landell Donaldson, born June 26, 1880.
HARRY BLYNN
PETER BLYNN, the earliest paternal ancestor of the subject of this sketch of whom we have any definite record, born in or about the year 1640, was among the early settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut. The family is supposed to have been of French Huguenot ancestry, and the name in the early days of phonetic spelling of proper names appears on the records as Blin, Blinn, Bly, Blynn, and even as Blen and Blenn. Peter Blynn was collector for the town of Wethers- field, Connecticut in 1692. He drew his allotment of the common land of the town in 1694; was fence viewer in 1708-9, and filled various other municipal offices. He died in Wethersfield in March, 1724-5, the inventory of his estate being made March 18, 1724-5, and his will bearing date March 2, 1724-5. The will mentions his wife Mary Blynn, and children: Peter, James, William, and Mary, the latter wife of - Hurlburt ; and grandson Daniel Blynn, son of a deceased son Daniel.
WILLIAM BLYNN; son of Peter and Mary Blynn, of Wethersfield, Connecti- cut, was born July 1, 1675, and died October 17, 1729. He married (first), No- vember 13, 1701, Anna Coltman, born March II, 1680-I, daughter of John Coltman, who first appears in the Connecticut colony in 1645. He was a son of Thomas Coltman of Newton-Harcoate, county Leicester, England, and came to New England as a member of the family of Leonard Chester, who erected the first mill at Wethersfield, of which Coltman was manager until 1648, when he became part owner. He was a man of education and was the town school- master in 1666. In 1668 he was granted land near the Chester Mill, where he erected a house in which his son-in-law, William Blynn, later resided. John Coltman died about 1696, and his widow married a man by the name of Sher- man. Anna (Coltman) Blynn, died October, 1724. William Blynn married (second) December 22, 1725, Thankful, daughter of John Nott. By his first wife, Anna Coltman, he had seven children. He was proprietor of Chester's mill, at Wethersfield in 1715, when the town records show that he was granted liberty to overflow "Deming's Meadow." He resided in the house formerly the property of his father-in-law, John Coltman, in the south part of Wethers- field.
WILLIAM BLYNN, (2), the third of the seven children of William and Anna (Coltman) Blynn, was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, July 29, 1709. The record of the birth of seven children born to him and his wife Sarah, appear at Wethersfield : Solomon, in 1734; Deliverance in 1739; Mary, 1740; Elizabeth in 1741 ; William, in 1742; Hosea, in 1744, and Sarah in 1746.
HOSEA BLYNN, youngest son of William and Sarah Blynn, born at Wethers- field, Connecticut, December 1, 1744, died August 6, 1815. He probably served in the Revolutionary War, as few able-bodied men of New England of suita- ble age escaped active service. On the roll of Captain Luther Stoddard's Sixth company in Colonel Charles Burrell's Connecticut Battalion, "raised by virtue of the Governor's proclamation of January 27, 1776, to reinforce the northern
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