USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 18
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After his father's death in 1888, Dr.
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Roedel succeeded him as director in the Lebanon National Bank, and as treasurer and secretary of the Berks & Dauphin Turn- pike Road Company, and settled his estate. He took charge of his brother Jacob's estate, the latter being an epileptic and disqualified from doing business for himself; became his partner in business until his brother's death, and then settled his estate. It took Dr. Hare, rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, more than an hour to persuade him that it was his duty to become a member of the medical staff of the Good Samaritan Hospital. He thought younger men should do the work and shoulder the responsibility. So the Good Samaritan Hospital, originat- ing in a small house, with cramped quarters, by its efficiency and successful treatment of the sick and maimed, overcame the pre- judices of its enemies, that its coming gave rise to, that it was just another name for a poor house, the small beginning has by its earnest friends been replaced by the very creditable building, now occupied, and fur- nished with all the conveniences desirable. In 1903 Dr. Roedel, with A. B. Gloninger, one of the surgeons, thinking their days of usefulness in the Good Samaritan Hospital had ceased, established the Lebanon Sana- torium. From the annual report issued they are assured that their leaving was not de- trimental to it, but that it is still growing in favor ; while the more than two thousand surgical and medical cases treated, with the more than six thousand office patients treated at the Lebanon Sanatorium, proves that the change was timely, progressive and profitable.
At no time were the two above named institutions rivals, because, based upon op- posite principles-the former upon an eleemosynary basis, fairly well sustained by the citizens and with the aid of the common- wealth's semi-annual appropriations, en- abling it to make both ends meet ; the latter, upon the supposition that the community was not only able but willing to pay for medical and surgical services privately
rendered at home. Hence in the new enter- prise, wards were supplanted by separate rooms in which patients could have the privacy of a home, and might be attended by their own family physician, if desirable. The result proved the correctness of the originators' method. Quite a number of per- sons, who had been restored patients, prac- tically demonstrated their gratitude by fur- nishing rooms in the sanatorium.
Dr. Roedel married, December 2, 1858, Susan, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Ruth- rauff, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church at Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The family con- sists of a son and three daughters. The former, after graduating from the Philadel- phia College of Pharmacy, read medicine and graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania and is now practicing at home. The daughters are: Mary E., Emma M., and A. Louisa, who is married to Rev. George Fulton, a Presbyterian clergyman now located at Mechanicsburg; they have three children-Henry, Francis and George Jr.
COCHRAN, Richard Ellis, Life Underwriter, Financier.
The activity of Richard Ellis Cochran in the business world has conclusively proved him to be one of the representative citizens of the community. His family is an ancient one, and a brief record of the earlier gener- ations is of interest in connection with the life work of Mr. Cochran.
The name is derived from the Barony of Cochrane, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. In the reign of Alexander III., Warden de Cochrane was a witness to grants of land in county Argyll, made by Dongal, son of Swaine, to the Earl of Monteith, and his successor swore fealty to Edward I. of Eng- land. William Cochrane obtained from Queen Mary charters of the land and Bar- ony of Cochrane, which became the family seat. Sir William Cochrane, of Cowden, was devoted to Charles I., was raised to the
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peerage as Baron Cochrane, of Dundonald, and was created Lord Cochrane, of Paisley and Ochiltree. John Cochrane, one of the descendants of the Earl of Dundonald, crossed to the North of Ireland in 1570, and his great-great-great-grandsons, James, Ste- phen and David, emigrated to America and were the progenitors of the Cochran fam- ilies in this country, the final "e" having been dropped long before. A settlement was made in what is now known as Coch- ranville, Chester county, Pennsylvania. John, a son of James Cochran, removed to Delaware, near Middletown, and married Mary Ellis.
Dr. Richard E. Cochran, son of John and Mary (Ellis) Cochran, was born Septem- ber I, 1785, and died in Columbia, Lancas- ter county, Pennsylvania, during the cholera epidemic of 1854. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1810, and was an active participant in the War of 1812. He was a physician in Middletown and Wilmington, Delaware, until early in 1824, when he removed to Columbia. He was a member of the Delaware Assembly, 1822-23, and in 1836 was a Henry Clay elector for Lancaster county, being an ar- dent Whig. In the same year he was a mem- ber of the Reform Convention which amended the constitution. Dr. Cochran married Eliza F., a daughter of Dr. Thomas Evans, and had: I. Thomas E., lawyer, State Senator in 1840-43, Auditor-General of Pennsylvania in 1859, and member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1872-73. 2. John Jefferson, of further men- tion. 3. Lieutenant Richard E., of the regu- lar army in Florida and among the Indians of Arkansas and Kansas; served under General Taylor in the Mexican War, and fell at Resaca de la Palma, just after he had entered the intrenchments captured from the Mexicans. 4. Theodore D., jour- nalist, soldier and statesman, editor of the "Columbia Spy" and "The Old Guard"; member of the Legislature, 1844-45; lieu- tenant of volunteers in the Mexican War;
captain during the Civil War. 5. Mary Frances.
John Jefferson Cochran, son of Dr. Rich- ard E. and Eliza F. (Evans) Cochran, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, December 20, 1816, and died May 12, 1879. He was a child when his parents removed to Co- lumbia, Pennsylvania, and he learned the art of printing in the office of the "Columbia Spy," then edited by his brother. In asso- ciation with his brother, Theodore D., he continued the publication of the "York Re- publican" until 1852, having purchased this paper when he removed to York in 1835. He then sold the paper, having been appoint- ed to the office of postmaster of York in the meantime, and filled this office until 1853, when he removed to Lancaster and became identified with coal mining operations at Shamokin under the firm name of Cochran, Peale & Company. Later, in association with his brother, he purchased and published several other papers, having during this period been appointed postmaster of Lan- caster by President Lincoln, an office he held until 1868. He was then appointed news- paper clerk in the House of Representatives at Washington, D. C., holding this office until it was abolished. Subsequently he again engaged in the editing and publica- tion of various papers, and was identified with this class of work until failing health obliged him to abandon it in the fall of 1878. Mr. Cochran married, in October, 1839, Catherine, born at York, Pennsyl- vania, 1818, died there in 1884, a daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Gartwan) Baumgardner, of German descent. Chil- dren: Thomas Baumgardner, editor and statesman, married Anna Margaret Pear- sol; Richard Ellis, whose name heads this sketch; Elizabeth Frances, Ellen Louisa, and Anna May, died in infancy; Catherine C., died at the age of seventeen years; John Jacob, died in infancy ; Henry Baumgard- ner, one of the proprietors of "The Exam- iner"; Alma, married Schreiner ; Alice B., married Charles R. Morrell, of
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Merchantville, New Jersey; John Jacob, a coal merchant of Lancaster, married Anna Keller; Flora May, deceased, married James A. Romeyn, of Hackensack, New Jersey ; Elizabeth G., deceased; Ella Louisa, died young.
Richard Ellis Cochran, son of John Jef- ferson and Catherine ( Baumgardner) Coch- ran, was born at York, York county, Penn- sylvania, June 24, 1849, and was educated in public and private schools of New York and Lancaster counties. He was still very young when he learned the printers' trade in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and later became interested in coal mining operations very largely from which he retired in 1873. He then engaged in the life insurance business, becoming associated with the United States Life Insurance Company of New York, and was advanced from time to time until in 1912 he became third vice-president and a direc- tor of this company at New York, with offices at No. 277 Broadway, New York City. His business career has been a most successful one, and he is connected with a number of other financial and industrial corporations. He is president and director of the National Dairy Supply Company of America ; vice-president and director of the Hygeia Ice Company of New Jersey ; direc- tor of the Crex Carpet Company ; trustee of the Empire City Savings Bank of New York; was elected president of the Life Underwriters' Association of New York City in 1896; and elected president of the National Association of Life Underwriters in America, in 1898.
Mr. Cochran married, at Philadelphia, November 4, 1875, Annie Geise, born in Philadelphia, January 21, 1857, a daughter of George Bockins, and a descendant of an old family of Philadelphia. Children: I. Elizabeth Bockins, born in Philadelphia, Oc- tober 15, 1876; married, June 5, 1902, Wil- liam E. Bliss, president of the E. A. Bliss Company, of Meriden, Connecticut. 2. Ethel, born in Philadelphia, August 31, 1882; married, June 5, 1902, Ward Coe
Pitkins, and resides in Englewood, New Jersey. Children: Ward Coe, Elizabeth F. and George DeWitt. 3. Helen B., born at Englewood, New Jersey, November 15, 1886; married John Forsyth Jr., of that town, and has one child : Helen.
Mr. Cochran is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Englewood, New Jersey, where he has resided a number of years, and is a member of the Blue Lodge, No. 444, Free and Accepted Masons, of Philadelphia. He was appointed chief of staff to General Horace Porter, of New York City, in the great Mckinley campaign parade of 1896; was on the staff of General Horace Porter, with the rank of brigadier- general, in the Mckinley inaugural parade at Washington, March 4, 1897, being in command of the Second Brigade, Third Division ; and was in command of the Third Division of the Mckinley-Roosevelt in- augural parade, at Washington, March 4, 1901, with the rank of major-general. He is a Republican, and a member of the Re- publican Club of New York. His social affiliations are with the Englewood Field Club and the Union League Club, of Ber- gen county ; Automobile Club of America, and the Pennsylvania Society of New York City.
MARTIN, J. Rankin,
Lawyer, Financier.
Beaver county, Pennsylvania, figures as one of the most attractive, progressive and prosperous divisions of the State, justly claiming a high order of citizenship and a spirit of enterprise which is certain to con- serve consecutive development and marked advancement in the material upbuilding of this section. The county has been and is signally favored in the class of men who have contributed to its development along commercial and professional lines, and in the latter connection the subject of this review demands recognition, as he has been actively engaged in the practice of law at Beaver
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Falls since 1882. He is financially interested in a number of important business enter- prises in Beaver county, and his honorable and straightforward methods demonstrate the power of activity and honesty in the business world.
J. Rankin Martin was born in Darlington, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1852, son of James P. and Mary C. (Imbrie) Martin, both of whom were born in Beaver county and both of whom are now deceased. The Martin and Imbrie fam- ilies are descended from stanch Scotch stock. James P. Martin was engaged in farming operations in the vicinity of Dar- lington, during the greater part of his active career, and he was a stalwart Republican in his political convictions. From 1876 to 1878 he served as sheriff of his county, and he acquitted himself with honor and distinc- tion in discharging the duties connected with that office. He and his wife were devout United Presbyterians in their religious faith. They reared a family of eight children.
Under the invigorating influence of the old homestead farm, J. Rankin Martin was reared to maturity, and his rudimentary educational training consisted of such ad- vantages as were afforded in the public schools of his native place. Subsequently he attended Darlington Academy, and after completing the curriculum of that institu- tion he was engaged in teaching school for a period of four years, at the expiration of which he was matriculated as a student in Westminster College, which he attended for two years. In 1876 he was appointed deputy sheriff by his father and he served as such for three years, when he entered the law offices of Agnew & Buchanan, under whose able preceptorship he studied law. He was admitted to practice at the Pennsylvania State bar, February 6, 1882, and imme- diately located at Beaver Falls, where he has devoted the major portion of his time and attention to a large and lucrative client- age during the long intervening years to the present time, in 1912. He is counsel for
a number of prominent business concerns in this section of the State, and his practice extends to all State and Federal courts. In connection with the work of his profession he is a valued and appreciative member of the Beaver County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania State Bar Association.
Mr. Martin is a decidedly prominent fac- tor in business and banking circles in this county. He is vice-president of the Farm- ers' Bank at Beaver, a member of the board of directors of the Beaver Trust Company, and director in the Citizens' National Bank at Monaca, Pennsylvania, in addition to which he is likewise interested in a number of other business enterprises of local impor- tance.
In politics he is an uncompromising Re- publican, and he has served as a member of the Republican county committee for many years. On various occasions he has been chosen as a delegate to State conventions, and in 1883 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of prose- cuting attorney for Beaver county. He was incumbent of that office for the ensuing six years. In 1905 he was nominated on the Republican ticket for the office of county judge, but met defeat at the following elec- tion as the result of a combination. In the Masonic order he has passed through the circle of the Scottish Rite branch, and is a thirty-second degree Mason.
Mr. Martin was married, October 21, 1880, to Miss Anna M. Eakin, who was born in Beaver county, and who was a daughter of John R. and Margaret (Mitch- ell) Eakin, prominent residents of Beaver. Mr. and Mrs. Martin became the parents of three daughters: Helen, the wife of Oli- ver C. Hurst, of Beaver Falls; Margaret, wife of Frank M. Hoover, of Pittsburgh; and Mary, wife of Robert C. Mayer, of New York City. Mrs. Martin was sum- moned to the life eternal March 22, 1910, and her remains are interred in the Beaver cemetery. She was a woman of most gracious personality and her death is uni-
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formly mourned throughout her home com- munity.
Mr. Martin is a United Presbyterian in religious faith, and is an active factor in church and Sunday school work. He is a man of fine mentality and broad human sympathy; always courteous, kindly and affable and those who know him personally accord him the highest esteem. His life has been exemplary in all respects, and he has ever supported those interests which are calculated to uplift and benefit humanity, and his own splendid moral worth is deserv- ing of the highest commendation. He is a member of the Beaver County Country Club.
ROTT, Louis, Financier, Man of Affairs.
Prominent and progressive! Two words full of comprehensive meaning which be- long, by right of their achievements, to the men who have made, and are still making, the greatness and the fame of Pennsylvania. To none could they be applied with more ab- solute fidelity to truth than to the late Louis Rott, President of the First National Bank of Marshall, and officially connected with a member of the important industrial and financial institutions of his home city. Dur- ing the thirty years of his residence in Homestead, Mr. Rott was conspicuously identified with the growth of its best inter- ests and with the maintenance of its con- sequent prosperity and prestige.
Christian Rott, grandfather of Louis Rott, was a native of Germany, where his entire life was spent. He was a resident of the town of Isenhutte, where he was manager of iron works and occupied a position of influence. He married and had children.
Christian, son of Christian Rott, served for a time as a soldier in the German army and then studied veterinary surgery. Later he was employed in the silver mines be- longing to the father of the celebrated spe- cialist, Dr. Koch, and was also engaged in
making blacksmith's tools. In 1850 he emi- grated to the United States, settling in Pitts- burgh, becoming the first toolmaker in what was then Crogansville and is now the Twelfth Ward. He afterward accepted a position with Newmyer & Graff, with whom he remained until his retirement from active work. He was a member of the Lutheran Church on High street. Mr. Rott married, in Germany, Louisa Heiseike, and a native like himself of the duchy of Brunswick. Their children were: Frederick, of Pitts- burgh ; Christian Z. F., at one time a mem- ber of the firm of George A. MacBeth & Company, and now of California; Louis, mentioned below ; and another son who died early in life. The death of Christian Rott occurred in 1875, in Pittsburgh. He was a man most estimable in all the relations of life, taking special interest in the education of his children and in preparing them to enter the world of business.
Louis, son of Christian and Louisa (Hei- seike) Rott, was born October 22, 1844, in Badenhausen, Brunswick, Germany, and was six years old when brought by his par- ents to the United States. His education was obtained in the schools of Pittsburgh, and at the age of fourteen he began an ap- prenticeship to the drug business in the re- tail store of W. J. Radcliff. After serving five years he was received into partnership, but one year thereafter the business was closed. Mr. Rott was then associated for sixteen years with the firm of B. L. Fahne- stock & Company, wholesale druggists, ac- quiring during this period a thorough knowl- edge of every detail of the business and de- veloping those remarkable executive abilities for which he was ever afterward distin- guished.
In 1882 Mr. Rott removed to Homestead, where he opened a retail drug store on the corner of Ann street and Eighth avenue, and soon found himself at the head of a flourishing business. It was not long before he became a man of influence in the com- munity, and his talents for finance did not
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Lewis Pistarica! Pub
Laweis Rott
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long fail of recognition. In 1888 he assisted in organizing the First National Bank of Homestead, becoming its first cashier, sub- sequently he was elected vice-president, and finally president. By his wise administra- tion of this office he became widely known as a financier of great sagacity and much aggressive ability, one in the inmost circle of those closest to the business concerns and financial interests which most largely con- served the growth and progress of the city.
A man of action rather than words, Mr. Rott demonstrated his public spirit by actual achievements which advanced the wealth and prosperity of the community. He was connected with the Homestead Brick Com- pany, the Homestead Baking Company, and the Mifflin Land and Improvement Com- pany, and was one of the organizers of the Homestead Building and Loan Association, serving twenty years as its secretary. He was also secretary of the Homestead Ceme- tery Company. These are but a few of the many enterprises in which he was financially interested and his duties toward each were faithfully discharged. To whatever he undertook he gave his whole soul, allowing none of the many trusts reposed in him to suffer for want of close and able attention and industry.
As a citizen with exalted ideas of good government and civic virtue Mr. Rott stood in the front rank. Always an uncompromis- ing Republican, he was one of those who, in 1872, voted for Horace Greeley, and was a member of the Republican committee from the time of the incorporation of that body. For ten years he was treasurer of the bor- ough of Homestead, served for three years as school director and secretary of the school board, and for two terms represented his ward in the city council. In 1906 he was elected burgess, and made the first annual report ever made by a Homestead burgess. He served for three years as coun- cilman in Bellevue. In 1911 he was elected as school director for a term of six years. He was active in fraternal circles, affiliating
with Homestead Lodge, No. 582, Free and Accepted Masons ; Magdala Lodge, No. 991, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Boaz Council, Royal Arcanum; Amity Conclave, Heptasophs ; Lincoln Castle, Ancient Order of Knights of Mystic Chain; also the Knights of Pythias, and Shiloh Chapter. He was one of the organizers of Magdala Lodge, the first lodge of its order in Home- stead, and for many years served as its secretary. He and Mr. Andress selected the name and were successful in erecting, at an expense of $40,000, what was then the finest lodge hall in Pennsylvania. He also helped to organize Homestead Lodge, in which he attained the rank of past master. He was past exalted ruler of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, belonged to the Golden Eagles, and Andress Encamp- ment and was a member of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. He was one of the founders of the Gervaise Commandery of the Knights of Malta. Mr. Rott was bap- tized in the Lutheran Church in Germany, but after removing to Homestead became a member of St. Matthew's Protestant Epis- copal Church, in which he served for many years as senior warden. No good work done in the name of charity or religion sought his cooperation in vain, and in his work of this character he brought to bear the same discrimination and thoroughness that were manifest in his business life.
The personality of Mr. Rott was that of a great-brained and large-hearted man, genial, sympathetic, and withal forceful and aggressive. He was beloved by his em- ployes, his conduct toward whom was ever marked by the strictest justice and the most considerate kindliness, and his sterling qual- ities of manhood commanded the respect of the entire community. Sincere and true in his friendships, he was a man who drew men to him and irradiated the ever-widening circle of his influence with the brightness of spirit that expressed the pure gold of char- acter.
Mr. Rott married (first) July 19, 1876,
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Arabella Jeannette, daughter of Robert and Ann (Lafferty) McCandless. The former was one of the incorporators of St. James' Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Rott were the parents of the follow- ing children: Louis Edwin, connected with the First National Bank of Munhall; Rob- ert George, clerk of the Carnegie Steel Com- pany; Charles Henry, deceased; Albert John, of marked artistic ability in various directions; and another son who died in infancy. Mrs. Rott was before her mar- riage principal of the Sixteenth Ward school and an active worker in church circles. She died November 28, 1889. Mr. Rott mar- ried (second) his sister-in-law, Margaret Virginia McCandless, a thoughtful, clever woman of culture and character, and in all respects fitted to be to her husband an ideal helpmate. Mr. Rott was devoted in his family relations and delighted to entertain his friends. His beautiful home was a cen- ter of hospitality, Mrs. Rott being one of the city's most charming and tactful hostesses. The whole family are extremely popular in Pittsburgh society.
The death of Mr. Rott, which occurred March 31, 1913, deprived the Keystone State of one whose business talents were of the highest order and who had long stood before the community as a splendid type of the citizen whose interests are broad and whose labors are a manifestation of a recog- nition of the responsibilities of wealth as well as of ability in the successful control of commercial affairs. His public and pri- vate life were one rounded whole, two per- fect parts of a symmetrical sphere and over the record of his career there falls no shadow of wrong nor suspicion of evil.
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