Commemorative biographical record of northeastern Pennsylvania, including the counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe, Pt. 1, Part 344

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 2390

USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > Commemorative biographical record of northeastern Pennsylvania, including the counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe, Pt. 1 > Part 344
USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > Commemorative biographical record of northeastern Pennsylvania, including the counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe, Pt. 1 > Part 344
USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Commemorative biographical record of northeastern Pennsylvania, including the counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe, Pt. 1 > Part 344
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > Commemorative biographical record of northeastern Pennsylvania, including the counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe, Pt. 1 > Part 344

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subject and his wife have one daughter, Mildred, born April 3, 1893. After his marriage he pur- chased a part of the old homestead, on which he erected a new house in modern style of architecture and now has one of the finest homes of Oakland township. His father also built a good residence upon the place, which is now occupied by the daughters. Our subject has purchased two adjoin- ing pieces of land and now owns 153 acres all in one body. He is a man of good business qualifica-

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tions, upright and reliable, and in addition to the operation of his own land, he looks after his sisters' interests. Politically he is a stalwart Republican, and has most acceptably and creditably served as supervisor and auditor of Oakland township. (7) Nellie J., born in February, 1860, received a good education in the Windsor Academy, and also re- sides on the home farm.

Hiram Pooler, father of our subject, was twice married, and by his first wife, Margaret Hillson, of New York State, had five children, namely : (I) James T. was killed by the kick of a horse in Colorado. (2) Charles is married and conducting a ranch in Colorado. (3) Robert L., a miner in Taos, N. M., married Jennie Coe, of Nevada, and has three children-Cora, Benjamin and Burt. (4) Marshall, a photographer, is married and resides in Oakland. (5) Barbara died young. The family were reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and although they are not members of the same they contribute to its support. They are well versed on current literature and their homes are the abode of culture, refinement, love and harmony.

JEROME WILBUR KINNEY is a wide- awake and energetic business man of Rush town- ship, Susquehanna county, who has displayed in the successful management of his varied interests remarkably good judgment. He is enterprising and progressive in his ideas, and he generally car- ries forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes.

Mr. Kinney is a native of Susquehanna county, born in Springville township. August 23, 1858, and is a son of Elijah and Sarah (Hall) Kinney. The father was born in New Jersey, in July, 1823, and in Abington, Penn., married Sarah Hall, who is a native of that place and is now sixty-eight years of age. They are residents of Rush town- ship, Susquehanna county, where the father carries on farming on a small scale. The children born to them were: Charles W., deceased; Martha J., wife of Eugene Roberts, a farmer of Auburn town- ship, Susquehanna county ; Emma J., wife of Ed- ward Lemon, a farmer of Auburn Corners; Sarah E., wife of William Lathrope, a farmer of Spring- ville township, Susquehanna county ; Jerome W., our subject ; John R., a bookkeeper of Bingham- ton, N. Y .; Elijah P., a farmer of Auburn town- ship; Elizabeth, wife of William Taylor, a me- chanic of Binghamton, N. Y. ; and Galucia G., who lives with his parents in Rush township. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Richard and Susan (Pierson) Kinney, of New Jersey ; and the maternal grandparents were Calvin and Nabbie (Frazier) Hall, of Clark's Green, Penn.

On leaving the parental roof at the age of twenty-one years, Jerome W. Kinney worked as a farm hand for one season, and for a year engaged in general labor. After his marriage he was em- ployed on the farm of Hon. W. H. Jessup for one year, and for three months worked in a toy fac-

tory in Montrose. In 1883 he located upon his present farm of 160 acres in Rush township, and here he has since successfully engaged in general farming and dairying, keeping twenty cows for the latter purpose. On March I, 1894, he was elected a director of the Rush Creamery Company, which position he held for five years. He is also engaged in the trucking business between Rush and Montrose, and is agent for several prominent agricultural implement companies, including P. P. Mast & Co., of Springfield, Ohio, and the Milwaukee Implement Company. He has operated a threshing machine since 1891 and in these various enterprises he has met with a well-deserved success. Politically he is a supporter of the Republican party, and for three years he has filled the office of school director, but has never sought political perferment, desiring rather to give his entire time and attention to his business interests.

At Dimock, Susquehanna county, Mr. Kinney was married in March, 1882, to Miss Eva Horton, by whom he has had six children, namely : Charles W., deceased; Arthur A .; Raymond; Sarah; Jer- ome W .; and Nora. Mrs. Kinney was born June 18, 1854, on the farm where the family now reside, and is a daughter of Elisha and Evaline (Lung) Horton, who were of English extraction and spent their entire lives in Susquehanna county. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, located upon his farm in Rush township when it was all wild and unimproved, and there made his home until called from this life, being killed by a falling tree which he was cutting down, September 27, 1866, at the age of forty-one years. The mother died December 1I, 1888, at the age of fifty-five years, and both were buried in Bolles cemetery, Susquehanna county. Their children were Alpha E., deceased wife of William Hall; Eva, wife of our subject ; Ada, wife of Iman Very, a farmer of Jessup township, Susquehanna county ; and George E., a resident of Addison, N. Y. Mrs. Kinney's paternal grandparents were Joshua and Mary Horton ; and her maternal grandparents were War- ren and Cynthia (Brown) Lung, the former a native of Connecticut, the latter of Bradford county, Penn- sylvania.

FRANK O. PALMER. In the region that is mainly agricultural there is often an extensive field for the progressive and enterprising business man. There has been an opportunity of this kind at Little Meadows, in Apolacon township, Susque- hanna county, and it has been seized by the subject of this sketch, who now has large milling, lumber- ing and real estate interests in that borough and vicinity.

Mr. Palmer was born in Tompkins county, N. Y .. July 6, 1852, son of George and Sarah (La Bar) Palmer. George Palmer was born in Orange, N. Y., in 1825, son of Daniel Palmer, a native of Orange county, N. Y., who was a cabinet maker by trade and also followed farming. He moved

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from his native place to Tompkins county, N. Y., where he died about 1869. He was quite prominent in his locality, holding various minor public posi- tions, and was identified with the Whig and Repub- lican parties. George Palmer settled in Newfield, Tompkins Co., N. Y. His wife, Sarah La Bar, who was of French Huguenot descent, died in 1855, leaving her husband with two small children-our subject and his sister Francilla. They moved to Weltonville, Tioga Co. N., Y., where the father manufactured power for churns and other imple- ments. For his second wife he married Miss Mary Johnson, of Tioga county, N. Y., who died in Weltonville, leaving no children. In 1859 Mr. Palmer moved to Little Meadows, where he pur- chased the William House mill property and con- tinued the manufacture of power machines until his death in 1877. Francilla, the sister of our subject, married A. H. Lytle, of Tompkins county, N. Y., and resided at East Buffalo, N. Y., until her death ; she left no children.

Frank O. Palmer, our subject, received a good common-school education in Little Meadows. He learned the milling trade and took charge of his father's business, and in 1873 he rented for two years, on a cash basis, his father's mill. He then purchased the property, which he has greatly im- proved, in fact, entirely remodeled, and in 1899 it was changed from a burr to a roller process. Steam has been added, this power being connected to his large sawmill, to which is attached a planing mill, which he built in 1879. He has also made other notable improvements. He began business with a capital of one hundred and twenty-two dollars, and rapidly developed a good trade, now doing a large business in general milling. For the past twenty years he has averaged about one million feet of lumber annually.

In 1874 Mr. Palmer married Miss Mary B. Lewis, who was born in Tioga county, N. Y., in 1858, daughter of John and Almira Lewis, old and prominent residents of that county. In 1890 Mr. Palmer erected a commodious modern house at Little Meadows. He has built three or four other dwelling houses, which he rents. To him- self and wife have come four children, namely: George B., born in 1876, graduated from the Owego high school, was for two years a student of Cornell University and is now bookkeeper and manager in his father's mill ; Etta M., born in 1877, graduated from the Owego high school and the New York State Normal School, Cortland, N. Y., class of '98, and is now teaching in the high school of Summit, N. J .; Louisa, born in 1879, is book- keeper for her father; Lewis B., born in 1880, is a student of the home schools. Politically Mr. Palmer is a Republican, and he has held a number of the local offices. Mrs. Palmer and family are active members of the M. E. Church, to which our subject is a liberal contributor. He owns a large gristmill at Apolacon, Tioga county, whence he ships grain and flour by rail to large commercial centers. He

is a leading business man at Little Meadows and has been largely instrumental in the progress and development of his borough. His milling business has brought a large trade thither and his lumber- ing interests have given employment to many fam- ilies. He is not, however, so deeply engrossed in business as to neglect the educational affairs of life. His home is one of culture and refinement, presided over by a lady of many virtues, and his family is held in high social esteem throughout the com- munity.

LITTLE. Throughout the greater part of the present century the name of Little has been one of prominence in legal circles in northeastern Penn- sylvania. The late Robert R. Little, of Tunkhan- nock, Henry E. Little, still at the Bar in Columbia county, and the late Ralph B. Little, of Montrose, brothers, won distinction in and adorned the profes- sion, and another brother, William Little, became a prominent lawyer at Joliet, Illinois. Seven of the sons of these men also adopted the legal profes- sion and are sustaining the family reputation as one of first-class lawyers ; two are at the Towanda Bar, one president judge of the Bloomsburg Dis- trict and one a member of the Susquehanna County Bar. For upwards of sixty years the late Ralph B. Little, George P. Little and Ralph B. Little- father, son and grandson, in turn and together, have ably represented the profession in the practice of law in the Courts of Susquehanna and adjoining counties, members of the Susquehanna County Bar with residence at Montrose.

The late RALPH B. LITTLE, whose death occurred at his home in Montrose January 26, 1877, aged sixty-one years, was for many years one of the ablest lawyers of the Susquehanna County Bar, a Bar that has always sustained a high rank among the Bars of the State. Mr. Little was born January 16, 1816, in Delaware county, N. Y., the son of George and Mary (Estabrook) Little, who at the time of their son's birth were residents of Delaware county, N. Y. Their children were : George H., who located at Leraysville; Ralph B., who settled at Montrose; William, who moved to the State of Illinois, settling at Joliet; Robert R., at Tunkhannock ; Ephraim H., at Bloomsburg, and Mary E., who married S. S. Grover (now deceased) and lived in Florida.

From the age of eight years Ralph B. Little was reared in Bethany. Penn., then the county seat of Wayne county, whither his parents had removed when the child was that age. He had the benefit of such school privileges as the surroundings of his youth afforded. He studied the sciences under the tuition of Dr. Strong, and Greek and Latin un- der the care of Rev. Alexander Campbell, the Pres- byterian clergyman of the place. While yet in his teens he began the study of law at Bethany under the direction of Earl Wheeler, which he furthered at Montrose in the office of B. T. Case, his parents having removed to that point when the son was

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twenty years of age. Continuing his law studies under Mr. Case, he was admitted to the Bar of Susquehanna County on November 22, 1836, pass- ing a highly creditable examination before Messrs. Read, Jessup and Lusk, the committee appointed by the Court. From boyhood all through life Mr. Little was a great student. He was ambitious on entering the profession to achieve success as a law- yer, and bent all of his energies to that end. Greatly to his credit neither he nor his friends from that point of view had reason for any disappointment, for he became eminent in the profession and achieved great success. Mr. Little, in the earlier part of his practice, was associated with the late Hon. Franklin Lusk, a lawyer of great ability, under the firm name of Lusk & Little. Later he was a partner with William M. Post, the style of the firm being Little & Post. Still later, on the admission of his son to the Bar in 1863, the firm became R. B. and G. P. Little. Mr Little took a great interest in politics, but as is the case with most studious men, his aspirations did not lead him to seek the cares and honors of office; his tastes were eminently social, and he preferred the comforts of home to the excitements of public life. His generous im- pulses, and warm and benevolent nature endeared him to everybody, and especially so to his numerous tenants, to whom he exhibited the kindness of a father rather than the exactures of a man of busi- ness. In 1868 he was the choice of the Demo- cratic party of Susquehanna county for Congress, and was the candidate of that party for president judge against F. B. Streeter and received a very complimentary vote. Mr. Little possessed a won- derful faculty of memory, which enabled him to recall the points in any case with which he had been connected, and he could refer with great ex- actness to the page and date of the record of the numerous causes happening in his long experience. "As a speaker his style, in the use of language, was rich, without ornament, natural, bold and con- cise, with a wonderful faculty in the selection of the fittest words to express every shade of thought. His easy and vigorous style of elocution together with his great memory made him an advocate of uncommon power whether before courts or juries. He was the leader of the Bar in his time, at Mont- rose, and commanded the attention of the Supreme Court whenever he advocated a case before it. With all his peculiar gifts, there was one of which he himself seemed scarcely conscious, which was not always a source of gratification even to his friends. This was an aptitude for indulgence, upon occasions of sharp and heated controversy, in a vein of sarcasm so keen as to inspire resentment, yet so adroit as to render resentment powerless for reprisals. Naturally enough some sores so created were slow to heal; but this sarcastic method was only used under the sphere of excitement in his professional zeal. Socially his manner was emi- nently kind and agreeable, sometimes thoughtful and preoccupied, but never offensive."

Mr. Little's religious life began in 1843, at which time he united with the Baptist Church. In 1869 he became identified with the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and in both churches was granted a license to preach as occasion might afford or demand, which permit he improved quite frequently to the edification and profit of the people. In his religious life he was as prominent for his unostenta- tious piety and devoutness, as at the Bar he was eminent for his legal acumen and earnest eloquence. It was a part of his life, and that not an inferior part ; not a nominal Christian, but an active worker. Seldom absent from the weekly prayer-meeting, never from the Sabbath sermon, ready and earnest in revival work, and a faithful teacher in the Sab- bath-school. His pastor said of him, "His religion was not in name or mere profession. In this as in everything else he manifested a distaste for mere assumption or announcement. He sought the re- liable, the assurance in his own experience, and he prized it in others. The ostentatious and external to him were secondary. The real spirit was in it all. Modest, retiring, humble himself, he was at- tracted by the same in others."

Below is given an extract from an editorial in the Montrose Democrat at the time of Mr. Lit- tle's death : "Mr. Little, endowed by nature with superior intellect and a high order of talent, and by the practice of strictly moral and temperate habits and untiring and persevering industry as a student, became an able advocate at the Bar and a formidable opponent. What he demanded right as law, politics or anything else, he had the un- daunted courage to stand up and advocate or de- fend, regardless of denunciation or opposition from any source, and men of prudence took issue with him in caution, and those who lacked caution and other needful qualities were doomed to disaster and defeat. During his entire brilliant legal career, he made and left at hand a short memorandum of all the decisions of the Supreme Court of the State, commencing with First Binney and ending with Twenty-eighth Smith. In his profession he took special pride, honoring it for its own sake and de- voting to it his entire energies with an industry very rarely witnessed, and with a degree of suc- cess very rarely equaled. His labors have been rewarded with worldly competence. During the first few years of his manhood he acted with the so- called liberty party ; when that party failed to place a ticket in the field he generally voted with the Democratic party, and during the last fifteen years he has been an active laborer in the cause of the Democracy and identified as a prominent and lead- ing member of the Democratic party ; not as an office seeker, but from honest principle."

On April 14, 1840, Mr. Little was married to Phila Ann, daughter of David and Minerva (Scott) Post, he one of the founders of the village of Mont- rose and a man of prominence in the community for many years. To this marriage were born children as follows : George P., David P. and Mary E., now

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the widow of the late Dr. E. L. Blakeslee, who took high rank as a criminal lawyer in the Montrose Bar. The mother of these children died January 7, 1878, in the sixty-first year of her age, and the father died January 26, 1877, aged sixty-one years.

GEORGE P. LITTLE, son of the late Ralph B. Little, and who at this time probably enjoys the largest practice of any attorney at the Susquehanna County Bar, is a native of the village in which he re- sides-Montrose-born April 25, 1842. He was here reared, and educated in the village academy. He read law in the office of Little & Post at Montrose, of which firm his father was the senior member. He was admitted to the Bar in Susquehanna county at the April term, 1863. He was enrolled in the fall of 1862 in the home company of Capt. Richard Van Valkenburg, and on Gen. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863, he was mustered into service of the United States as a member of Company B., 28th Regiment Pennsylvania Militia and for some weeks was out with that organization. After his admission to the Bar he became a partner of his father under the firm name of R. B. & G. P. Little. On the death of his father, in 1877, the son became associated in the practice with E. L. Blakeslee and M. S. Allen, which partnership was dissolved two years later. Messrs. Little and Allen continued together for several years, when Mr. Allen was suc- ceeded in the firm by David W. Brown. The latter retired from the firm in 1887, and from that time on until the admission to the Bar, in 1889, of Ralph B. Little, Mr. Little was alone in the practice. During the last decade father and son have re- mained together in the practice and become one of the well-known law firms of northeastern Penn- sylvania. The elder Little has zealously and dili- gently pursued the practice of law from boyhood among the people who hold him in high esteem and regard. He is an earnest, painstaking, conscien- tious, careful lawyer, and has the full confidence of his many clients, his legal brothers and fellow- citizens. He has made a specialty of equity cases and for years there has hardly appeared in court an important case of this class with which he has not been connected. Mr. Little was appointed by the Court, attorney for the defense of Cornelius Shew, who was tried at the November term of court, 1898, in Susquehanna county and convicted for the murder of Jackson Pepper. It is gener- ally conceded that in this trial Mr. Little acquitted himself with great credit, making an able defense, and closing with a strong and forceful plea before the jury. For many years Mr. Little has been an earnest and active member of the Baptist Church of Montrose, a deacon in that Society and super- intendent of its Sabbath-school. He is identified with the order of Odd Fellows and Masonry. In his political views he is a Democrat. A strong and earnest advocate for years of the cause of tem- perance, he affiliated for a period with the Prohibi- tion party, and in 1888 was the candidate of that party for president judge.

On December 24, 1864, Mr. Little was mar- ried to Miss Mary A., daughter of Nelson C. War- ner (now deceased) of Montrose, and to the union were born: Ralph B. (mentioned below), George P., Jr., (born in 1869 and died in 1884), and Phila Ann.

RALPH B. LITTLE, son of George P. Little, and junior member of the law firm of G. P. & R. B. Little, Montrose, is a native of the latter village, born November 8, 1865. He was reared in the village, attended its school, including the Montrose Academy. He furthered his studies in Keystone Academy, a preparatory school at Factoryville, Penn., remaining one year, then in 1885 entered the freshman class of Bucknell University, Lewis- burg, Penn., where he passed two years, withdraw- ing from the College Course at the close of his Sophomore year. Having descended from a family of lawyers, young Little, as it were, was born, cradled and reared a lawyer. On leaving college he entered his father's office for the study of law, and was admitted to the Susquehanna County Bar at Montrose, in January, 1889, being the first attor- ney admitted after Judge Searle's elevation to the bench. In partnership with his father he has since been in active practice, and has won his way to the front rank of the younger attorneys by close appli- cation, tireless energy, and natural legal talent. Mr. Little, though an ardent and unswerving Re- publican since attaining his majority, never sought political preferment until in 1898. He had always worked early and late for the success of his party ; he had been sent a number of times as delegate to County and State conventions, and in the na- tional campaign of 1896, he took the stump for McKinley, and his voice was heard in many towns of Susquehanna county in able and eloquent appeals for the triumph of Republican principles. In 1898 he became the nominee of his party in Susque- hanna county for the office of district attorney. The home press of Mr. Little at the time of his nomination and at times before his election often re- ferred in very complimentary terms to his high character and standing as a man as well as to his fitness for the office which he is now so ably and efficiently filling ; extracts from some of them fol- low :

"The nomination of Ralph B. Little, Esq., of Montrose, as the Republican candidate for District Attorney is an especially fitting one and will add a tower of strength to the ticket."

"The Republicans of this county made a happy selection of a candidate when they named Ralph B. Little, Esq., of Montrose. Though still in the full vigor of young manhood, he has had a long and successful experience at the Bar, is a born lawyer of splendid ability-honest, courageous and forceful-and is of the highest character. Such is the man whom the Republican party of Susque- hanna county presents for the office of District At- torney, and he will receive, as he deserves, a rousing majority at the polls."

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"The nomination of Mr. Little will command a hearty and united support from his party, which will result in his election by a rousing majority, and the people of the county may rest assured that under his administration the duties of the office will be performed with fidelity, ability and absolute justice."

In the election that followed Mr. Little led in the vote. He received practically every Republican vote, and added to this votes from the Prohibition- ists and Democrats. In January, 1899, Mr. Little was chosen to the office of chairman of the Repub- lican County Committee. The press at this time observed: "The election of Ralph B. Little, Esq., to the chairmanship will meet with the general and hearty approval of the Republican voters, and we desire to extend to Chairman Little our congratula- tions, and wish him unlimited success in marshaling the Republican host for victory."

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Commemorative biographical record of northeastern Pennsylvania, including the counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe, Pt. 1, Part 344

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 2390

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 2390