USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 51
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Archippus (2) Parrish, son of Archippus (1) and Abigail (Burnap) Parrish, was born in Windham, Connecticut, January 27, 1773, died in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, October, 1847. He married, in Morristown, New Jersey, Au- gust 14, 1806, Phebe Miller, born February 7, 1785, daughter of Eleazer Miller, a private in a New Jersey regiment in the Revolutionary War, and Hannah (Mills) Miller, of Morristown; and granddaughter of Thomas and Margaret (Wallace) Miller, of that place. Mr. Parrish was for many years engaged in
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active business pursuits in New York City, where he accumulated a handsome fortune. In 1810 he removed to Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where he made large investments which proved unfortunate, and thereby much of his property was swept away. He then engaged in mercantile pusuits, and a few years later became proprietor of the Black Horse Hotel on the public square in Wilkes-Barre, where he continued until his death in 1847. Archippus and Phebe (Miller) Parrish had nine children, the sixth of whom was Sarah Al- thea Parrish, who was born May 10, 1817, and who became the wife of Fran- cis William Hunt, as before stated; and the youngest was the late Charles Parrish, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The latter was the organizer and for twenty years president of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company and was also president of the Wilkes-Barre Coal and Iron Company; for twenty years president of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre; for a long time president of the Parrish and Annora Coal Companies; a director of the North- west Branch Railroad; a promoter and stockholder of other roads; and for thirty years a director of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. For sev- en years he was president of the borough of Wilkes-Barre, and always mani- fested a deep and wholesome interest in its affairs and in its progress. During the early part of the Civil War, he took an active part in organizing troops for the service, and gave generously of his means for whatever work in that con- nection was necessary. Mr. Parrish was in many ways identified with the business life of Wilkes-Barre, and his worth and popularity as a citizen were well known throughout the locality. It was he who induced the employees of his mine to allow the entire proceeds of one day of each year to be retained and made a fund for the relief of disabled miners and their families, and to this fund Mr. Parrish caused to be added the entire proceeds of one day's operation of the mines. Politically he was a Republican, but his interest in politics was that of the citizen and taxpayer and not of the politician. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and a life member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. He died December 27, 1896.
CHARLES PARRISH HUNT, second child of Francis William and Sarah Althea (Parrish) Hunt, was born in Meshoppen, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1843. He received his education in the Wilkes-Barre public schools and at Wyoming Semi- inary, Kingston, Pennsylvania, but he early entered into business pursuits. He became a clerk in the store of Rutter & Reading, hardware merchants in Wilkes- Barre, in 1859, and in 1866 became a partner of that firm. In 1869, he entered into partnership with Mr. Reading in the hardware business, under the firm name of Reading & Hunt, and so continued until 1876, when the latter suc- ceeded to the sole proprietorship of the business and conducted it alone until 1880, when his brother, Ellwood Herring Hunt, acquired an interest in the business ; the firm then became Charles P. Hunt & Brother, which continued until 1893, when the senior partner retired for the purpose of giving his whole attention to the vast business interests with which he had been identified for several years. He was one of the organizers of the Hillman Vein Coal Com- pany at Wilkes-Barre, in 1882, and was its treasurer and manager until 1902, when it was sold. He was one of the organizers, in 1889, of the Langcliffe Coal Company at Avoca, Pennsylvania, and treasurer of the company until it was sold in 1892, and he is now treasurer of the Parrish Coal Company, and a
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member of the firm of Parrish, Phillips & Company, coal sales agents, of No. I Broadway, New York. He is president of the Wilkes-Barre Iron Manufac- turing Company ; director of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre, the Vul- can Iron Works, the Hazard Manufacturing Company, and the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Wilkes- Barre Institute and the Home for Friendless Children. For many years Mr. Hunt has been a member and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, and was formerly a trustee of the Memorial Church of Wilkes-Barre. He is a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Westmoreland Club of Wilkes-Barre, Wyoming Valley Country Club of Wilkes-Barre, and a non- resident member of Scranton Club, of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Charles Parrish Hunt married, at New Orleans, Louisiana, April 6, 1875, Grace Staunton, daughter of Judge James Neilson and Hetty H. (McNair) Lea. Children : 1. Francis William, born December, 1876, died in infancy. 2. Lea, born September 19, 1878, educated at the Harry Hillman Academy, Horace D. Taft's Preparatory School, Watertown, Connecticut, and Yale College, a member of the Westmoreland Club, the Wyoming Valley Country Club, the Yale Club of New York City, and the Wyoming Historical and Geological So- ciety, and is now in business with his father. 3. Carl, born 1880, died January 28, 1883.
Mrs. Hunt is descended from Rev. Luke Lea, of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, who married Mary, daughter of Zaccheus Wilson, Esq., signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, May, 1775; a member of the Pro- vincial Congress of North Carolina, 1776, and of the convention of 1788 which deliberated on the constitution of the United States; Rev. Luke and Mary (Wilson) Lea had three sons: 1. Rev. Major Lea, married Lavinia Jarnagin, and had four sons : Luke Lea, member of the United States Congress from Ten- nessee, 1833-37; Judge Pryor Lea, member of the United States Congress from Tennessee, 1827-31 ; Dr. Wilson Lea; and Albert M. Lea, of the United States army, 1831-36, lieutenant-colonel of the Confederate army, 1861-65, whose son, Edward Lea, of the United States navy, was lieutenant-commander of the United States gunboat "Harriet Lane" in 1862, and was killed in battle at Gal- veston, Texas, January I, 1863. 2. Colonel Luke Lea, married Susan Wells Mc- Cormick and they had one son: Judge John McCormick Lea, president of the Historical Society of Tennessee. 3. James Lea, married Eliza Roddy and they had two children: Mrs. Judge Samuel H. Harper and Major Squire Lea, M. D., major and surgeon in the United States army, Forty-fourth Infantry in 1813; post surgeon of the United States army in 1818; and assistant surgeon in 1821. Major Squire Lea married, in 1814, Eliza Neilson, of Virginia, and they had one son: Hon. James Neilson Lea, LL.D., who was born at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, November 26, 1815, died at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1884. Hon. James Neilson Lea, LL.D., studied law with his uncle, Judge Harper, of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and became judge of the Second District Court of New Orleans in 1847, and associate judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1855. He received the degree of LL.D. from Washington and Lee University, Virginia, in 1877. He married, March 16, 1841, Hetty McNair and they had four children besides Grace Staunton Lea, who married Charles Parrish Hunt, viz: Wilson Lea; Walter Lonsdale Lea.
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M. D., who graduated at Washington and Lee University, Virginia, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1877, and practiced medicine in Wilkes-Barre; Rosa Lea; Helen Lea, who married (first) Henry Holloway Lonsdale, of New Orleans, and (second) Robert Charles Shoemaker, of Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, and had three children : Hetty Lonsdale, who married Colonel Asher Miner, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Grace Lea Shoemaker, who married Dr. Charles H. Miner, of Wilkes-Barre, and Stella Shoemaker, who married William R. Ricketts, of Wilkes-Barre.
CORNELIUS COMEGYS
The Colonial ancestry of Mr. Comegys extends back to the year 1670, and into the state of Maryland. His Revolutionary ancestor was private William Comegys, an ensign of the Colonial regiment of Colonial troops, that went down to defeat and death with Braddock, on the fatal day, that is only known to history, as "Braddock's Defeat". During the Revolution William Comegys enlisted in Captain Dean's company of the Maryland line and fought at Brandy- wine and White Plains. The emigrant ancestor was Cornelius Comegys, who settled in Kent county, Maryland, in the year 1670. By his wife Willamenti, he had two sons from whom descended all of the name in this country. One of his descendants was William Comegys, the great-grandfather of Cornelius Comegys, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and this Revolutionary ancestor, William was a resident of Kent county, Maryland, the state from which he enlisted. He was born in the year 1735, died in 1831. His wife was a daughter of Gen- eral John Ascom Hooker, of Dorchester County, Maryland.
CORNELIUS COMEGYS, son of William Comegys, the patriot soldier, was a man of large affairs-a merchant, ship owner and landholder. He was twice married and had issue. His son, Dr. Henry C. Comegys, married a grand- daughter of John Boon, the first state senator elected from that part of Mary- land known as the "Eastern Shore". "Marblehead", the homestead of the Boon family, was erected by Senator Boon shortly after the Revolution and was a large stately mansion in the early colonial style. The house stood in the midst of a large estate and was the scene of much of the far-famed hospitality of the "Eastern Shore".
DR. HENRY C. COMEGYS, son of Cornelius and Eleanor N. Comegys, was born in Greensboro, Maryland, April 7, 1833. He received his primary and academical education in the schools of his native town, attending them until reaching the age of sixteen. At that age he entered Dickinson College at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania, where he completed his literary education. He decided up- on the practice of medicine as his life work and read for a year in the office of Dr. Goldsborough, of Greensboro, a most excellent physician and capable preceptor. He next entered the medical department of the University of Mary- land, and in 1854, at the age of twenty-one years, was graduated with the pro- fessional degree of M. D. He returned to his native town, Greensboro, and be- gan the practice of his profession. Here he soon was firmly established, and henceforth until the year 1881 he was in constant practice. He was a skillful physician, and in private life was largely respected and esteemed. His entire life, public and private, was clean, upright and honorable, and by his intimates he was held in a peculiarly high regard. He entered heartily into the life of the community, was interested in their educational affairs and served as school commissioner of Caroline county. During the war he served a year in the United States Medical Corps, as assistant surgeon in the Hamon General Hos- pital at Point Lookout. In 1881 he removed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where
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he established a medical practice that he continued until his death, which oc- curred November 29, 1904, after a highly useful life and professional career covering the unusual period of half a century. During President Grover Cleve- land's first term of office Dr. Comegys was examining surgeon of the Pension Board. He was a member of state and county medical societies and other or- ganizations professional, fraternal, religious and social.
Dr. Comegys married, in 1858, Helen A. Boon, of Maryland, granddaughter of John Boon, of previous mention. Dr. and Mrs. Comegys were the parents of Cornelius, see forward, and Mary G., who resides with her mother.
CORNELIUS (2) COMEGYS, only son of Dr. Henry C. and Helen A. (Boon) Comegys, was born in Greensboro, Maryland, October 25, 1858. His early edu- cation was obtained in the public schools which he attended until he was fourteen years of age. At that age he entered St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, from which he was graduated with the class of 1877, being then nineteen. He chose law as his profession and after three years of study under the preceptor- ship of Edward Ridgeley, of Dover, Delaware, was admitted to the Maryland bar in April, 1882, at Denton. For several months he travelled with a view to choosing a permanent location for a business and home. In 1883 he located at Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to the bar at the October term of court held that year. Soon after locating, he was chosen by District Attorney Edwards as his assistant, and for five years served as assistant district attorney. At the end of that time he resigned, his private practice having become of such a character as to demand his full time and attention. He now has a large, satis- factory legal practice in Scranton, and his mental and legal equipment is such that his standing in the legal profession is secure. Among a bar of unusually brilliant lawyers he is easily the peer of any and is so recognized. In addition to his professional duties he has business interests that are of importance. He is a power in the councils of the Democratic party, although he refuses all offers to make him a candidate for any office. He holds membership in the city and state bar associations as well as the social and fraternal organizations of the city.
Cornelius Comegys married, in 1889, Sarah J., daughter of Thomas D. Bevan, of Scranton. Mr. and Mrs. Comegys are the parents of Margaret Bevan, Cor- nelius Breck, Helen Augusta and Jessie.
IONE MARY READER WALTER
The first member of the Walter family under consideration of whom we have any definite and authentic record was,
HENRY WALTER, of Torrington, Litchfield county, Connecticut, who married there Lydia Tuttle, of a prominent Connecticut family, and removed with his family prior to the Revolutionary War to Winchester in the same county, where he purchased land, and resided until his death, about the year 1793. Henry and Lydia (Tuttle) Walter had children : Lemuel, John, Daniel and Patience.
JOHN WALTER, son of Henry and Lydia (Tuttle) Walter, was a land owner in Winchester, Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 1779, and lived there until 1798, when he removed with his family to Burke, Caledonia county, Vermont, where he died September 23, 1848, at the age of one hundred years and six months. He was a soldier in Captain Watson's company, Colonel Burral's Connecticut regiment, and served in that regiment during the Revolutionary War, on the northern frontier. He married, August 3, 1773, Sarah Gleason and they had six children: Cynthia, born April 7, 1774; Norris, October 25, 1775; Jerusha, January 18, 1777; Andrew, December 5, 1779; John, February 25, 1782; Eber, of whom presently.
EBER WALTER, youngest son of John and Sarah (Gleason) Walter, was born at Winchester, Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 1789. He went with his parents to Vermont in 1798, but on attaining manhood returned to Litchfield county, Connecticut, and settled at Winsted, a prosperous manufacturing village in Winchester township, where he resided for several years. In 1815 he married Rhoda, daughter of Major Isaiah Tuttle, of Torrington, Litchfield county, Con- necticut, and soon afterwards moved to Wayne county, Pennsylvania, where he resided until his death, January 19, 1845. His wife, Rhoda Tuttle, who was born in Connecticut, May 25, 1791, survived him and died October 3, 1851. They had seven children, viz : Lucius, see forward; Sarepta, born October 21, 1818, died January 13, 1883; Luther, October 25, 1820; Adah, January 1, 1823; Ruth, April 15, 1825, died September 11, 1850; Cynthia, March 13, 1827, died August 17, 1890; Leverett Tuttle, November 21, 1829, died January 23, 1908.
LUCIUS WALTER, eldest child of Eber and Rhoda (Tuttle) Walter, born March 26, 1816, was reared in Texas township, on the banks of the Lackawax- en creek, near Honesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and lived during the ac- tive years of his life at Prompton in that township. He married, in 1843, Mary A., daughter of Zenas Alvord, of the neighboring township of Dyberry, and his wife, Deborah ( Hart) Alvord. Lucius and Mary A. ( Alvord) Walter had three children : Edwin Lucius, of whom later; Martin R., born in 1848, married Flor- ence Dean; Aurora Walter, born 1854, wife of T. D. Dorshimer.
Alexander Alvord, pioneer ancestor of Mary A. (Alvord) Walter, came from Somersetshire, England, in 1630, to New England. He was among the earliest settlers of Hartford county, Connecticut, residing for some years at Windsor, in that county. He later removed up the Connecticut river, to the
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site of Northampton, county seat of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, where he spent his remaining days. His wife was Mary Vose.
Thomas Alvord, son of Alexander and Mary (Vose) Alvord, married Jo- anna Taylor, and resided in Northampton, Hampshire county, Massachusetts. Thomas (2) Alvord, son of Thomas (I) and Joanna (Taylor ) Alvord, mar- ried Mary Strong.
Seth Alvord, son of Thomas (2) and Mary (Strong) Alvord, born in North - ampton, Massachusetts, in 1714, died there in 1802. He married Elizabeth Spen- cer, born 1716, died 1800, and had children; Ruel, Seth, Oren, Hannah, Hanet.
Seth (2) Alvord, second son of Seth (I) and Elizabeth (Spencer ) Alvord, enlisted in the Continental army at the age of sixteen years, and served through- out the Revolutionary War, as a member of General Washington's Life Guard; was with him at the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776, and at the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown. He married after the close of the war, and had six children: Seth, Otis, Eliza, Ashbel, Chauncey, Zenas.
Zenas Alvord, son of Seth (2) Alvord, born in 1790, married Deborah Hart, and removed to Dyberry, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1847. They had ten children, the second of whom was Mary A. Alvord, above men- tioned, wife of Lucius Walter. She was born in 1816, died in 1880.
EDWIN LUCIUS WALTER, eldest son of Lucius and Mary A. (Alvord) Walter, was born at Prompton, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1844. He received his education at the public schools of his native county, and began the study of architecture. When the Civil War broke out, August 16, 1861, though little over seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the Second New York Cavalry, and served with that regiment until July 9, 1862, though he had received an hon- orable discharge, June 6, 1862, the term of his enlistment having expired. He was with his regiment at the battle of Falmouth, on the Rappahannock, in Vir- ginia, April 17, 1862. He later served in the construction corps of the army. At the close of the war Mr. Walter began business as an architect, and in 1880 located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and became one of the prominent architects of that city. He designed a great number of buildings there, including the city hall, county jail, and a number of the school buildings of the city. In 1907 he was appointed superintendent of buildings in Scranton, which position he still fills. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and prominent in the Masonic fraternity. Edwin Lucius Walter married, January 23, 1864, Ione Mary Reader, born October 27, 1845, daughter of Wesley and Eliza (Latham) Reader, the latter a descendant of the first settlers of Connecticut.
Cary Latham was a resident of New London, Connecticut, in 1638, when he married Elizabeth Lockwood, widow of Edward Lockwood, and resided there until 1642, the record of the birth of his two eldest sons, Thomas in November. 1639, and Joseph in December, 1642, appearing of record, there, as well as that of the birth of two sons of his wife by her former husband, John and Edmund Lockwood, the former in 1632. Cary Latham was one of the associates and assistants of Governor John Winthrop in the founding of New London, Connec- ticut, in 1644-45. To use the words of Winthrop himself, he was with him "in the beginning of the plantation at Peaquot", the name by which New London was first known, of which Winthrop received the grant, June 28, 1644. Cary Latham was from this date to his death in 1685, next to Winthrop himself, one
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of the most important and prominent men of the new colony, where he is known to have been in the summer of 1645, when it is recorded that he "mowed the meadow at Fox-plain". He was one of the first selectmen and magistrates of the town; was appointed one of those who were "to act in all towne affaires as well as in the disposing of lands as in other prudential occasions for the towne". At the recommendation of this commission, February 22, 1648-49, "The Inhab- itants did consent and desire the plantation may be called London". He served as selectman from the founding of the town until his death; was its deputy to the General Court of the Provincial Legislature, for at least six years, 1664 to 1670; and was constantly employed on some public commission in behalf of the town, making treaties and purchasing land from the Indians, and serving upon various important commissions, notably those for the creation of new towns out of the growing settlement. March 25, 1655, he was granted a fifty years' lease of the ferry over Pequot river between New London and Groton, and was the first settler on the Groton side of the river; his lease being finished by his son-in-law, John Williams, second husband of his daughter Jane. He had large grants of land in and around New London which descended to his sons and grandsons.
Joseph Latham, second son of Cary and Elizabeth (Lockwood) Latham, was born at New London, Connecticut, December 14, 1642. He married, about 1667, and had a large family of children. His eldest son Cary was born July 14, 1668. He died in 1706, leaving seven sons and one daughter Lydia, the wife of Ben- jamin Starr. Joseph Latham was one of the patentees of New London, named in the royal charter of 1663.
John Latham, one of the younger sons of Joseph Latham, inherited his fath- er's lands in Groton, and spent his whole life there. He married Abigail Bur- roughs, a descendant of Robert Burroughs, another of the first settlers of New London, who came there from Wethersfield.
Captain William Latham, son of John and Abigail (Burroughs) Latham, born at Groton, New London county, Connecticut, in 1740, was a distinguished officer of the Connecticut state troops, during the Revolutionary War. He was captain of a company of artillery at Groton, in 1777, under Colonel William Ledyard, who had been appointed to the command of the posts of New Lon- don, Groton and Stonington, being stationed at Fort Griswold, of which he was still in command, on September 5, 1781, when General Arnold, with his British regulars and refugee Tories, attacked and burned the greater part of New London. He escaped the massacre which succeeded the capture of Fort Griswold, when his superior officer, Colonel Ledyard, was murdered with his own sword after he had surrendered it to his captors and near one hundred of the brave defenders of the Groton fort were inhumanly butchered after they had laid down their arms. Captain Latham died November 26, 1828. He married Sarah Dennison, of a family specially distinguished in the annals of the Connecticut settlement.
William Denison, with his three sons, Daniel, Edward and George, came to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1631, arriving in the ship "Lyon" with Rev. John Elliott.
Captain George Denison, the third of these sons of William Denison, born in 1619, married, in 1640, Bridget Thompson, who died in August, 1643, leav-
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ing him two daughters. Immediately following the death of his wife, Captain George Denison returned to England and took part in the civil war then in pro- gress. He married, while in England, Ann Borradill, of Irish parentage, born in 1619, and returned to Roxbury prior to 1646, with wife and a son George, born in England. He was prominent in the affairs of Roxbury, and was sug- gested by the elder John Winthrop, for commission as captain, being "a young soldier lately come out of the wars in England". The birth of two children, John in 1646, and Ann in 1649, are recorded at Roxbury, Massachusetts. Soon after the latter date he located in New London, Connecticut, where he built a house in 1651. Here he became one of the most prominent men of the town, filling the positions of town clerk, magistrate assistant, judge of probate and judge of the county court, as well as captain of the Provincial forces of the town. His principal activities were, however, in the town of Pawhatuck, now Stonington, where he removed about 1653. He was commissioned a justice during the period that this section was under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and got into difficulties through performing the functions of his office without authority of Connecticut, when it was again adjudged a part of that state. He was a captain of the Provincial forces during the Indian War of 1675-76, and won high honor for his valiant service. He died October 23, 1694, at the age of seventy-six years.
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