USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 11
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sions and they form an important part of the law of the State.
Besides his judicial labor, Judge Mitchell has added a great deal to the literature of the law. From 1862 to 1887 he was editor in chief of "The American Law Register," the oldest and most widely circulated law journal in the United States. He was also one of the founders of the "Weekly Notes of Cases" in 1874, and continued chief re- porter for his own court until 1889. He also revised and edited many important legal manuals, and outside of the law con- tributed nearly two thousand quotations to the great Oxford Dictionary, these being nearly all examples from the early Ameri- can law reports. He was also one of the commission engaged in printing the statutes- at-large of Pennsylvania, from the founda- tion of the colony down to the year 1800. He is also the author of the standard law books, "Mitchell on Motions and Rules," and the sterling works: "History of the District Court;" "Fidelity to Court and Client ;" "Hints on Practice in Appeals," and "John Marshall," an historical address.
He is a member of several professional societies ; is an overseer of Harvard Uni- versity, and served for many years (since 1905) as provost of the Law Academy of Philadelphia and is now in that position ; and member of the Philosophical Society. His distinguished ancestry, paternal and mater- nal, gains his membership in the following patriotic societies: The Military Order of the Loyal Legion ; the Sons of the Revolu- tion; and honorary membership in the Order of the Cincinnati. Judge Mitchell has taken deep interest in historical study and is president of the Council of the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania. This has extended to the collection of historical en-
gravings, his being one of the finest col- lections of engraved portraits in the United States. Judge Mitchell has never married. He is a man of most engaging manner, and possesses those qualities of mind and heart that have made for him a multitude of loyal
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friends. He is a devotee of club life, and spends much of his time at the Rittenhouse and University clubs of Philadelphia. At the present time Judge Mitchell is prothon- otary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylva- nia, having been appointed to that office in 1910.
This record of a life well spent in the full publicity of a public career, reveals Judge Mitchell as a type of highest citizenship-a jurist of impeachable character, deep learn- ing and eminent fairness, his record forms one of the brightest pages of the legal his- tory of this commonwealth. His intel- lectual gifts have been combined with great legal attainments and his decisions, ever characterized by profound knowledge, sound reasoning and an all pervading common sense.
BYERS, Alexander McBurney, Ironmaster, Man of Affairs.
Pittsburgh, in this Age or Iron, is the seat of an empire more substantial than that of Greece or Rome, and Titans in very truth were the men who laid deep and strong its mighty foundations. Masterful and impres- sive figures were these sires of the present- day autocracies, and none among them, seen through the gathering mists of the fast- receding years, looms larger or more com- manding than does the late Alexander Mc- Burney Byers, head of the celebrated firm of A. M. Byers & Company, iron manu- facturers, and for more than half a century one of the makers of the history of the Iron City.
Alexander McBurney Byers was born September 6, 1827, at Greenfield, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and was one of the ten children of Daniel Cannon and Maria (McBurney) Byers. The boy received his education in the public schools of the neigh- borhood, meanwhile assisting his father in the labors of the farm. Very early in life he entered upon his long and memorable connection with the iron industry by asso-
ciating himself with the Henry Clay Fur- nace Company, an organization which oper- ated one of the oldest blast furnaces in Pennsylvania. When only sixteen years of age Mr. Byers was intrusted with the super- intendency of a blast furnace, thus enjoying, perhaps, greater advantages for gaining a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of pig-iron from the raw material than furnace men of the present day possess. At that primitive period in the iron industry fur- nace companies west of the mountains dug their ores from the surrounding hills, usually having to strip from fifteen to twenty feet of earth for a ten or twelve-inch vein of ore, which would yield only twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. of iron in a blast fur- nace. They chopped their own wood, made their own charcoal for the smelting of the ore and mined the coal which was subse- quently used in the furnace. Noteworthy, indeed, is the fact that the furnace of which Mr. Byers was the youthful superintendent was the first west of the mountains to prac- tically demonstrate the successful use of raw bituminous coal for the smelting of the ores in blast furnaces, without first coking it. Moreover, it is recorded in the annals of the iron industry that at this same fur- nace, in 1848 to 1849, the first Lake Supe- rior iron ores were smelted, under the super- vision of Alexander McBurney Byers. Thus early did the future iron magnate be- gin to gather his laurels.
In 1854 Mr. Byers went to Cleveland, Ohio, to assume charge of the iron interests of the firm of Spang & Company, and three years later came to Pittsburgh as the representative of that house. In 1858 he became a partner in the firm of Spang, Chalfant & Company, manufacturers of iron in all its branches. In the spring of 1864, when the partnership expired by limi- tation, Mr. Byers disposed of his interests to his partners, and the same year founded the house of Graff, Byers & Company, erecting a puddle mill, rolling mill and a mill for the manufacture of wrought iron pipe
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on the south bank of the Monongahela river, being the only firm but one in the United States to manufacture their own iron for the production of wrought iron tubes. In 1870 the style of the firm was changed to Byers, Mccullough & Company, and in 1886 became A. M. Byers & Company, under which title it was incorporated in September, 1893, with a capital stock of half a million dollars. As originally established in 1854, this enterprise was a modest one, but from the very outset it was successful, as, indeed, it was destined to be, having for its leader a man of the type of Mr. Byers. The firm at once made a place for its wares in competition with the output of rival con- cerns, and from time to time increased the capacity of its mills, the plant now covering several acres on the line of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, from Sixth street to Bingham street. Also the largest puddle mill in America at Girard, Ohio. The mills now give employment to twenty-five hun- dred men, and have an annual capacity of 96,000 tons of wrought iron water, gas, steam and oil-well pipe.
In 1870 Mr. Byers became the sole owner and operator of an extensive furnace, pud- dle and rolling mills at Girard, Ohio. He was one of the organizers of the Philadel- phia Company, and was one of its board of directors and its largest individual stock- holder until the company was purchased by Alexander Brown & Sons, of Baltimore. One of his associates in the establishment of this company was George Westinghouse, with whom he was later allied in other and greater enterprises. Mr. Byers had been a director in the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, the Westinghouse Electric Man- ufacturing Company, and the Union Switch & Signal Company. He was president of the Union Bridge Company, and in differ- ent ways fostered many other manufactures, the number of which it would be impossible to enumerate. He did not ally himself with the National Tube Company at its inception, but conducted the business of A. M. Byers
& Company. As a business man, it may without exaggeration be asserted that Mr. Byers was in many respects a model. The goal of his ambition was success, but he would succeed only on the basis of truth and honor. Duplicity and false represen- tations he would not palliate, either in his own service or among his customers or cor- respondents, and no amount of gain could lure him from the undeviating line of recti- tude. The justice and kindliness which ever marked his dealings with his employes were beyond all praise and secured for him their loyal service and hearty cooperation.
Not only was Mr. Byers for many years prominently identified with the manufac- turing interests of Pittsburgh, and with the commercial element in her business life, but he was also a leader in the realm of finance, holding the office of president of the Iron City National Bank. He was a director in the Merchants' and Manufacturers' In- surance Company, the American Surety Company, and many other concerns. As a citizen with exalted ideas of good govern- ment and civic virtue he stood in the front rank, ever ready to lend his influence and support to any project which, in his judg- ment, tended to further the best interests of Pittsburgh. Widely but unostentatiously charitable, the full extent of his good deeds was known only to the beneficiaries. He affiliated with the Republican party.
In his countenance Mr. Byers plainly de- picted all the tremendous energy and in- domitable resolution so strikingly mani- fested throughout his career. His finely-cut features and keen, searching eyes indicated at once the thinker and the man of action, while the kindliness of his expression and the geniality of his manner showed that he combined the qualities of a leader in the arena of business with those of a philan- thropist-that he possessed those beautiful elements of character which win and hold friends.
Mr. Byers married, December 22, 1864, at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Martha, daugh-
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ter of Cockran and Sarah Fleming, of Pitts- burgh, and the following children were born to them: Maude, wife of J. Denniston Lyon; Alexander McBurney, deceased ; Dallas Cannon, also deceased; Eben M., president and director A. M. Byers Com- pany, director Bank of Pittsburgh National Association, director Bessemer Coke Com- pany ; and J. Frederick, vice-president and director A. M. Byers Company, director Union National Bank, director Hay Walker Brick Company, vice-president and director Girard Iron Company, member Board of Managers Allegheny General Hospital. J. Frederick Byers married, December 6, 1905, at Ardmore, Pennsylvania, Caroline Mitchell, daughter of E. B. Morris, of Philadelphia, and has children: Alexander McBurney III., and John Frederick, Jr.
Mrs. Byers, a thoughtful, clever woman of culture and character, was endeared to all who knew her by the beauty and sweet- ness of her nature no less than by her per- sonal charm. Her husband ever found in her an ideal helpmate and his happiest hours were passed in the sanctuary of his home. Mr. Byers was a man of notable social gifts and an effective conversation- alist-a delightful host, as all who were ever privileged to enjoy his hospitality could abundantly testify. A lover of litera- ture and a patron of art, his beautiful resi- dence in Pittsburgh was adorned with many works of celebrated painters of the Old World and the New, his collection being considered one of the finest in the United States. Mrs. Byers survived her husband a number of years, passing away in August, 1912. Throughout her widowhood Mrs. Byers had continued the benevolent and charitable work in which she and her hus- band were so long united. The surviving descendants of Mr. Byers are recognized leaders in the business and social circles of Pittsburgh, in both upholding with ability and brilliancy the family traditions of dis- tinction in public and private life.
The news of the death of Mr. Byers,
which occurred September 19, 1900, in New York City, was received in Pittsburgh with demonstrations of sorrow by all classes of the community. It was felt that our city had lost one whose life, in all its relations, constituted one rounded whole-two perfect parts of a symmetrical sphere. Sincere and true in his friendships, honorable and gen- erons in business, he stood for more than two score years as one of the men consti- tuting the bulwark of the strength and de- velopment of the Iron City.
GREEN, Francis Harvey, A. M., Litt. D., Educator, Lecturer, Litterateur.
Doctor Francis Harvey Green, who occu- pies the chair of English in the West Ches- ter State Normal School, is a native of Pennsylvania, born at Booth's Corner, Del- aware county, May 19, 1861. His paternal grandfather, Abraham Green, came from England. and settled in Delaware county. Sharpless Green, son of Abraham Green, was born in 1820, on the family homestead. He died in 1887. He was a successful mer- chant, a Methodist in religion, and a Re- publican in politics. His wife was Mary, a daughter of James Booth, and they became the parents of seven children: Nelson C .; Charles ; Lydia, who became the wife of Curtis C. Hanby; Phebe ; Mattie, who be- came the wife of George L. Stranbridge, of West Chester; Francis H., and a son who died in infancy.
Francis H. Green, of the family named, passed from the public school to the West Chester State Normal School, from which he was gradnated in 1882, the year of his attaining his majority, and he subsequently took English courses at Amherst and Har- vard. For two years he taught in the pub- lic schools of Chester county, and then ac- cepted the chair of English in Juniata Col- lege. Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. In 1882 he relinquished his position to take a similar chair in the West Chester State Normal School.
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An accomplished educator in the depart- ment of which he is the head, Doctor Green is widely known in educational circles as a gifted litterateur, whose broad knowledge has been acquired not only through sys- tematic study but through extensive travel in Europe and intimate acquaintance with such eminent men of letters as Oliver Wen- dell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and John Greenleaf Whittier. For many years he has been known as a lecturer of marked ability on educational, economic and social topics, before teacher's institutes, literary clubs, and reform societies. In the past year he delivered more than two hundred lectures in various parts of the country, in- cluding his addresses before a Chautauqua Summer School. He is regarded as one of the foremost exponents of social reform in Pennsylvania, and is an earnest laborer in the cause of temperance, the founder of the Knights of Temperance in Chester county. A graceful and forceful writer, he has long been a welcome contributor to the pages of leading magazines and newspapers upon the various topics which engage his attention, and to which he devotes the cul- ture of a scholar and the deep interest of the real humanitarian.
GROSS, Edward Z.,
Pharmacist, Financier, Public Official.
Gross is a name that has been awarded distinction and honor in the State of Penn- sylvania since the Third Line of Pennsyl- vania troops in the Colonial army was graced by the presence of a bold and cour- ageous commander in the person of Cap- tain John Gross. He was promoted to that position through the lieutenancy, always as a soldier in the Third Line. Through his marriage with Rachel Sahler, a son Abra- ham was born, who married Maria Wiest- ling, and lived in Middle Paxtang township, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. Abraham and Maria (Wiestling) Gross were the par- ents of Daniel Wiestling Gross, father of
Edward Z. Gross, the present representative of his line, with whom this chronicle deals.
Daniel Wiestling Gross, father of Ed- ward Z. Gross, was born in Middle Pax- tang township, Dauphin county, Pennsyl- vania, March II, 1810, and was educated in the schools of Harrisburg and the Harris- burg Academy. His general study com- pleted, in 1826 he came under the preceptor- ship of an uncle, Norman Calendar, in preparation for work as a pharmacist, and in 1830 forming a partnership with this relative and establishing a pharmacy in Harrisburg. Mr. Gross later purchased his uncle's interest in their venture, and con- tinued in the practice of his profession until a short time before his death, which oc- curred in 1896, at which time he was one of the oldest men actively engaged in busi- ness in the city. Public affairs constantly claimed his wise and earnest cooperation, the list of his attachments being a long one. The first borough council of Harrisburg chose him as its president, an office he held from 1860 to 1862; for many years he held membership on the school board; for a long period was trustee of the State Lunatic Asylum at Harrisburg, a part of that time treasurer of the institution; president of the board of trustees of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church; vice- president of the board of trustees of Frank- lin and Marshall College; for many years president of the board of education and publication of the Reformed Church of the United States; and one of the members of the first board of managers of the Harris- burg Hospital. The above record shows his sympathy with educational endeavor, but the mere enumeration of the institutions with which he was officially connected gives but little idea of the time and energy he devoted to the interests of the schools, col- leges, and seminaries that he served with steadfast fidelity. He was an elder in the Salem Reformed Church, the pivotal point upon which many of its departments moved, being at the time of his death its oldest
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member, many of the years of his connec- tion therewith having been superintendent of the Sunday school, even holding that office in the infant department, and was a member of the celebrated "Peace Commis- sion" of the Reformed Church. Eighty-six years to a day from the date of his birth, his spirit entered its heavenly home, assured for it by a life of upright, God-loving serv- ice. Mr. Gross married, in 1841, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of George and Catherine (Zeigler) Kunkel, who died in 1882. They were the parents of: George A., deceased ; John K., a railroad freight agent at York, Pennsylvania ; Joshua W., employed in the recorder's office in Harrisburg; Daniel W., died in infancy ; Edward Z., of whom fur- ther ; Henry S., superintendent of the Mer- chant and Billet Steel Mills of the Pennsyl- vania Steel Company at Steelton, Pennsyl- vania ; and Robert and Mary Elizabeth, who died in infancy.
Edward Z. Gross, son of Daniel W. and Elizabeth (Kunkel) Gross, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, November 6, 1851, and obtained his early education in the private schools of his native city, later attending the academies taught by Messrs. Gause and Seiler. When he was sixteen years of age he discontinued his academic courses and entered the drug store owned and conducted by his father, and four years later matriculated at the Philadelphia Col- lege of Pharmacy, whence he obtained his degree in the spring of 1873. Returning to his father's employ, he took his brother's place in partnership with his father, an association enduring until January 1, 1894, when Mr. Gross assumed entire charge of the business, having since successfully and profitably conducted the same. Besides owning this pharmacy, which is one of the leading establishments of its kind in the city, he is a member of the board of direc- tors of the Manchester Shale Brick Com- pany, holding the same position in the Union Trust Company of Harrisburg, and is vice-president of the State Capital Sav-
ings and Loan Association, also being treas- urer of the Holmes Seed Company, of Harrisburg. His public service began as a member of the Harrisburg school board, on which he displayed the ambitious enterprise that had marked his father's relations with such work in past years, and in 1896 was the successful candidate of the Republican party for recorder of Dauphin county, tak- ing office on January 1, 1897, for a term of three years. In 1899 he was reelected for a like period, his second term expiring Janu- ary 1, 1902. During his incumbency of the recorder's position his name was advanced as the Republican candidate for mayor of Harrisburg, and in the election of Novem- ber, 1904, the confidence of the citizens of the city in his worth, merit, and depend- ability, was shown by the returns, and he was duly installed in the seat of the chief executive on April 3, 1905. His term was one in which progressive tendencies in all branches of city life were allowed to expand and to display their real value, and, sur- rounding himself with advisors chosen for their sterling qualifications for office, he gave to Harrisburg an administration lofty in conception, able in execution, beneficial in result. That he was accompanied to office by the high sense of personal honor that has characterized the family for genera- tions is known to all, and the sum of integ- rity, energy, and ability was a mayor striv- ing singly for the ideal of government and the greatest measure of good.
At the present time Mr. Gross is a trus- tee of the Harrisburg Academy, and for a number of years was one of the managers of the City Hospital, for the greater part of the time serving as secretary of the board, also being a member of the advisory board of the Children's Industrial Home. Fra- ternally he is a member of Robert Burns Lodge, No. 464, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, of which he is past master ; Persever- ance Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Pil- grim Commandery, Knights Templar, of which he was eminent commander, and
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other Scottish Rite bodies, including the thirty-second degree; Harrisburg Council, No. 7, Royal and Select Masters, of which he was thirice illustrious grand master ; and Zembo Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Other than his Masonic affiliations, he belongs to Dauphin Lodge, No. 160, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows; Star of America Commandery, No. 113, Knights of Malta ; Knights of Pythias ; Phoenix Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His club is the Country, his church the Pine Street Presbyterian, where he is a member of the session, having served as leader of the choir and as superintendent of the infant department of the Sunday school.
Mr. Gross married, at Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, May 18, 1876, Nancy J., daughter of J. Vance and Hannah (Dull) Criswell. They are the parents of: 1. Hannah G., married John, son of William Campbell, of Pittsburgh, her husband an employee of the Central Iron and Steel Company of Harris- burg ; they are the parents of one daughter, Nancy Gross, and two sons-John Camp- bell Jr. and Edward Gross Campbell. 2. Henry McC., born May 21, 1885; educated in Harrisburg Academy and Yale College, graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1906. is a civil engineer in employ of Harrisburg's Board of Public Works.
PATTERSON, Thomas, Lawyer, Law Examiner.
The Bar of Pittsburgh had its beginning before the American Revolution, and has been distinguished from its inception. To- day it stands high in all the accomplisliments that make for the best in jurisprudence, practice and culture. During the last quar- ter of a century it has numbered among its acknowledged leaders Thomas Patterson, who is a representative of a family which has been for more than a century and a half, resident in Pennsylvania, and mem- bers of which, in the successive generations,
have been associated with the leading inter- ests of the Commonwealth.
John Patterson, the first ancestor of rec- ord, is known to have lived, during the lat- ter part of the seventeenth century, in the North of Ireland. Robert, his son, was born about 1685, and among his earliest recollections was that of the siege of Lon- donderry. He had two sons-Joseph and Robert.
Joseph, son of Robert Patterson, was born March 20, 1752, and about 1773 emi- grated to the American colonies, settling in Saratoga county, New York. Later he re- moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he became a teacher in the schools. He was present at the first reading of the Declaration of Independence, at the door of the State House, and thereupon dismissed his school and enlisted as a private in the Continental army, serving in 1776-77. Afterward he migrated to York county, where he continued his work as a teacher, and also engaged in farming. In 1785, under the guidance of Rev. Joseph Smith, he began to study for the ministry, and August 12, 1788, was licensed to preach. On November 10, 1789, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Raccoon and Montour Run churches. In 1816 ill health forced him to resign and he removed to Pittsburgh, where he continued to preach, also distributing Bibles and tracts. When General Lafayette, after an absence of forty years, visited the United States, lie recog- nized Mr. Patterson, who was five years older than himself, as one of his companions in arms during the war for independence. Mr. Patterson married (first) in Ireland. Jane Moak, a native of that country, and (second) Rebecca Leach, who was born in Pittsburgh. On February 4, 1832, he closed his long, useful and eventful life, having served his adopted country as educator, soldier and minister of the gospel.
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