USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 27
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Louis richards,
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established himself in the general practice of medicine in association with his two brothers, Dr. J. H. and Dr. J. B. McClel- land, and is still (1913) associated with them. As a close student of human nature in connection with his professional work he takes high rank, and the knowledge he has thus acquired has greatly furthered the suc- cess of his efforts. His patience is prac- tically inexhaustible and his skill in master- ing the details of a case has aroused the enthusiasm of those competent to judge. He is connected with numerous professional institutions and organizations, in all of which his counsel is highly prized. He is a member of the orthopedic staff of the Homeopathic Hospital of Pittsburgh, and in the Training School for Nurses, which is connected with the hospital, he is the lec- turer on anatomy and physiology. He is a member of the Pennsylvania State Med- ical Society, the East End Doctors' Club, Allegheny County Homoeopathic Medical Society, American Institute of Homœo- pathy, University Club, Pittsburgh Golf Club, and Cornell Club of Western Penn- sylvania, having been the first president of the last mentioned association. As a Mason he has attained the thirty-second degree, is a member of Franklin Lodge, No. 221, Free and Accepted Masons; the Pennsylvania Consistory, and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. His religious affiliations are with the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, of which he is a member, and his political support is given to the Repub- lican party. He has never devoted time to active political work, but he takes a keen interest in all matters concerning the public welfare.
In addition to being a man of great force of character and possessing a vast amount of professional knowledge, Dr. McClelland is a cultured scholar in all branches of learn- ing. This latter attribute, in connection with his cordial manner and sympathetic heart, has won for him the warm regard of
a large circle of friends, and he is a wel- come visitor wherever he makes his appear- ance.
RICHARDS, Louis,
Lawyer and Law Writer.
Louis Richards, law writer and member of the Bar of Berks county, Pennsylvania, was born May 6, 1842, at Gloucester Fur- nace, Atlantic county, New Jersey, of which his father, John Richards, was proprietor. The latter, a native of Berks county, came of a vigorous stock of Welsh descent, his ancestors having settled in Amity township as early as 1718. He was for many years of his long and active life engaged in the iron manufacturing business, principally in the State of New Jersey, representing also Gloucester county in the Assembly in 1836 and 1837. From 1848 to 1854 he resided at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, as proprietor of the Carbon Iron Works at that place, and in the latter year retired to a handsome country seat known as "Stowe," in the vicinity of Pottstown, Montgomery county, where he died November 29, 1871, at the patriarchal age of eighty-eight. The sub- ject of this sketch was his youngest son, and only child by his second wife, Louisa (Silvers) Richards, a native of Monmouth county, New Jersey, descended upon the maternal side from the well known Rogers family of that section, and, in the third generation, from Henry Lawes Luttrell, Second Earl of Carhampton. Employed in early life as an instructor of youth, she was distinguished for her mental culture, marked individuality of character, and social tastes and accomplishments. Her decease occurred January 26, 1880, when well advanced in her eighty-first year.
Mr. Richards received his preliminary education in the public schools of Mauch Chunk, and subsequently took an academical course, attending the West Jersey Collegiate School at Mount Holly, New Jersey, the
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Hill School at Pottstown, and the Upland Normal Institute at Chester, Pennsylvania. In November, 1861, he came to reside at Reading, commenced the study of the law under the direction of his cousin, John S. Richards, Esq., a highly talented and widely- known practitioner at the Berks County Bar, and was admitted to practice January 16, 1865. While a student he served in the Pennsylvania Militia, during the invasions of the State by the Confederate armies in 1862 and 1863.
Having an early inclination to write, he contributed largely to the press, both before and after his admission to the Bar, furnish- ing incidentally accurate reports of all the cases tried in the county courts during the greater part of the period in which they were presided over by the Hon. Warren J. Woodward. In 1869 he married, and en- gaged in journalism, becoming a partner of the firm of J. Knabb & Co., in the publica- tion of the "Reading Times and Dispatch," and the "Berks and Schuylkill Journal," the daily and weekly organs of the Republican party in Berks. In 1871 he resold his inter- est to the firm, and resumed the practice of the law. In 1875 he purchased his father's estate at "Stowe," which he occasionally occupied until 1882, when he disposed of it to the Pottstown Iron Company, which erected thereon a very large manufacturing plant.
For many years Mr. Richards devoted much attention to municipal law, and the municipal affairs of his adopted city. While serving as a member of its Councils in 1875- 76 he personally revised, amended and codi- fied its local laws, and published in the latter year the first Digest of the Statutes and Ordinances of Reading. Of this work he subsequently compiled two other and more elaborate editions, containing many valuable notes and citations of judicial decisions. In December, 1876, he was selected as Secre- tary of the State Municipal Commission, appointed by Governor Hartranft to devise
a uniform plan for the better government of the cities of Pennsylvania. Of this body, which was composed of eleven eminent law- yers and citizens of the State, the Hon. But- ler B. Strang was chairman. The Commis- sion presented its final report to the Legisla- ture in January, 1878, and the principal features of the code which it submitted were subsequently incorporated in the Act of June 1, 1885, for the government of the City of Philadelphia, known as the "Bul- litt Bill." As a member of committees ap- pointed by the Inter-Municipal Conven- tions of 1886 and 1888, Mr. Richards was deputed to prepare the original drafts of the Acts of May 24, 1887, and May 23, 1889, the latter constituting the frame of govern- ment of cities of the third class in Pennsyl- vania. In these several capacities he ren- dered much valuable service to the people of the State, and acquired a wide reputation as a skillful draftsman of municipal statutes. He is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, organized in 1895 ; a vice- president (1914), and chairman of its com- mittee on legal biography. In the interest of law reform he devised and secured the passage by the Legislature of the Act of July 9, 1897, "declaring the construction of words in a deed, will or instrument, import- ing a failure of issue."
In 1889, in association with the Hon. G. A. Endlich, Additional Law Judge of the Berks district, then also a practitioner at the Bar, he was the author of a treatise upon the "Rights and Liabilities of Married Women in Pennsylvania," devoted princi- pally to the exposition of the Married Per- sons' Property Act of 1887, which greatly enlarged the contractual powers of femmes covert. In 1895 he issued, in two volumes, the "Pennsylvania Form Book," containing precedents in the various branches of law practice-a work in general use by the pro- fession throughout the State-and, in 1898, a "Digest of Acts of Assembly for the Gov- ernment of Cities of the Third Class,"
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which was followed by two successive edi- tions. His other published productions in- clude numerous law pamphlets, historical and genealogical sketches, and reports and addresses upon various subjects of profes- sional or general interest. Profoundly de- voted to antiquarian researches, he has since 1903 been president of the Historical Soci- ety of Berks county, giving to its affairs much attention and intelligent direction. He is also a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and an occasional con- tributor to its "Magazine of History and Biography." His only business connection is with the Charles Evans Cemetery Com- pany, of which he has been for the past twenty years the efficient secretary and treas- urer.
Distinguished for his public spirit, he has employed his time and talents in the pro- motion of every movement in the line of progress, good government and reform. In politics Mr. Richards is a Republican, and in the presidential campaign of 1884, was the candidate of the minority party in the Berks District for Congress, against Daniel Ermentrout, the sitting member, receiving 9,405 votes. His political views are, how- ever, strongly tempered with the spirit of independence, which inclines to subordinate mere partisan considerations to the superior obligations of individual good citizenship.
As a member of the Bar he is recognized as a highly reputable, accurate and pains- taking practitioner, though it is in the capac- ity of a writer of marked vigor and skill, that he is best known to the public. His literary tastes are cultured and absorbing, and it is in the companionship of his books, and the environment of the student, that he finds his chief entertainment and solace. Practical and thorough in all his methods and undertakings, he devotes to the per- formance of every duty in which he may engage his best abilities and most conscien- tious efforts.
Mr. Richards has four children-three sons and a daughter.
JONES, J. Glancy,
Lawyer, Member of Congress, Diplomat.
When William Penn was looking for col- onists to settle his newly acquired province, he met with a prompt response from the mountains of Wales, and the Welsh immi- gration into Pennsylvania for some time ex- ceeded that from any other country. Penn was himself of Welsh extraction and many of the Welshmen who conferred with him in London in the latter part of 1681 were Quakers like himself.
When this conference was held the Welsh demanded and received the assurance that if they went to America, they were to have their bounds and limits to themselves, within which all causes, quarrels, crimes and titles were to be tried and wholly determined by officers, magistrates and juries, in their own language and by those who were their equals, in the same manner and with all the liberties and provileges they enjoyed in Wales under the Crown. Their desire was to form their own community and preserve their language. In accordance with this un- derstanding William Penn directed his sur- veyor-general, Thomas Holmes, to lay out for them 40,000 acres, extending along the west bank of the Schuylkill, from what is now City Line to Conshocken, and as far west as was necessary to obtain the required acreage. This survey, known in history as the "Welsh Tract," included within its bor- ders most excellent land, and under Welsh enterprise and industry became the most prosperous and best cultivated part of the province, containing in 1684 eighty settle- ments. The people in Wales kept in close touch with these colonists by correspond- ence, by the return of an occasional emi- grant and by new settlers going out. Among those who were affected by the course of events in Pennsylvania was David Jones, born in August, 1709, in the parish of Llan- gower, Merionethshire, the most mountain- ous county in Wales. He was a son of Rev. William Jones, a clergyman of the Church
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of England, a graduate of Oxford Univer- Jones purchased a large farm above St. sity, B. A., 1684. His mother died when he was very young, and, his father having mar- ried again, the lad left Wales with some relatives who settled in the Welsh Tract, in what is now Radnor township, Delaware county.
Fourteen years later, David Jones mar- ried Elizabeth, youngest of the eight chil- dren of William Davies, a Welshman of prominence among his countrymen, a large landowner, and one of the founders of old St. David's Church, Radnor ; a vestryman, warden and donor in 1715 of the ground upon which the present church is built. It was at the house of William Davies that services were held in 1700 and for several years afterward. David Jones and Eliza- beth Davies were married May 10, 1735, and made their first home in the beautiful valley of the Conestoga, north of the Welsh Mountain. Here David Jones, who had inherited some money from his mother, pur- chased one thousand acres in the Upper Valley and about four hundred acres in the Lower Valley, near Bangor Church. He cultivated his fertile fields, opened and developed iron mines and is described as "one of the foremost ironmasters of his day." His farm and mine workers were mostly slaves, brought from the Congo and Senegambia, and bought in Philadelphia, direct from the ships. The descendants of these slaves were held and bequeathed by their masters until slavery in Pennsylvania became extinct. David Jones, in 1752, when the County of Berks was erected, found his location included in the new county, the new county seat, Reading, being fourteen miles distant, to the north.
Jonathan Jones, second son of David and Elizabeth (Davies) Jones, was born in Caer- narvon township, in November, 1738. He married, May 2, 1760, a relative, Margaret, daughter of John and Mary Davies, and great-granddaughter of William Davies, of Radnor, of previous mention. Jonathan
Thomas' Church, in the Conestoga Valley, where he built a stone residence in the colonial style, that is still standing, and there he lived, cultivating his lands, until the War of the Revolution drew him into military life. He was one of the first captains com- missioned in the First Battalion Pennsylva- nia Line; was on duty in Philadelphia until January, 1776, when he joined the expedi- tion for the invasion of Canada, marched six hundred miles, and arrived before Quebec in March. He was with Arnold at the Cedars and Three Rivers, June 8, 1776, and his will recorded in Berks county bears date at Fort Ticonderoga, where it was written during that expedition. On October 25, 1776, he was promoted to the rank of major. He was with Washington at Trenton, Decem- ber 26, 1776, was commissioned lieutenant- colonel, March 12, 1777, and later was in command of his regiment stationed in Phil- adelphia. In the summer of 1777 he was stricken with paralysis, which affliction com- pelled him to resign. He afterward was a commissioner under the test laws, a member of the House of Assembly, and lieutenant- colonel of Berks County Militia. He died September 26, 1782, and is buried in Bangor churhcyard, Churchtown, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.
Jehu Jones, tenth child of Lieutenant- Colonel Jonathan and Margaret (Davies) Jones, was born in the family homestead, near St. Thomas' Church, January 24, 1778. He was liberally educated and prepared for the bar but never practiced his profession, spending his life as the schoolmaster of Connestoga. He married, April 13, 1800, Saralı, daughter of Owen Glancy, a gradu- ate of Trinity College, Dublin, who was also a Conestoga schoolmaster. Sarah Glan- cy's mother was Elizabeth, a descendant of Henry and Jean Pawling, who came to Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, from New York, in 1720. During the War of 1812-14, Jehu Jones served under Captain George Hetzelberger, enlisting in 1814 and
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Hilancy Jones
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marching to the defence of Baltimore. He died at Morgantown, November 24, 1864, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, and is buried with his wife in the church- yard of St. Thomas' Church.
From this stock sprang Jehu Glancy Jones, the subject of this sketch, lawyer, statesman and patriot, son of Jehu and Sarah (Glancy) Jones. He was born in the Conestoga Valley, October 7, 1811. At the age of sixteen years he was ready for col- lege, and after due deliberation the newly founded "Kenyon College," at Gambier, Ohio, an Episcopal college founded by Bishop Philander Chase, was selected as his alma mater. There Mr. Jones laid the foundation of a ripe scholarship. He was a diligent student, and a rare classical scholar, the habit of reading the New Testament in the original Greek continuing all his life. He was fond of athletic sports and was a fine horseman.
After leaving Kenyon College, Mr. Jones, in 1831, then twenty years of age, entered a theological school at Cincinnati, continuing his studies there until 1834. During this period he made the trip from Cincinnati to Philadelphia, seven hundred miles, on horse- back, was married at the end of his journey (June 23, 1832) and immediately returned to Cincinnati with his bride. The itinerary of that journey affords an interesting illus- tration of the conveniences or inconveni- ences of traveling at that time. They left Arch street wharf, Philadelphia, at 6 a. m., on the steamboat "Ohio;" passed down the Delaware, through the Delaware and Chesa- peake canal, on barges ; took passage on the steamboat "Kentucky," and arrived in Balti- more the same afternoon. From Baltimore to Frederick, Maryland, by rail; thence across the Alleghenies by stage coach to Brownsville, on the Monongahela; thence to Pittsburgh by boat; from Pittsburgh across the Panhandle by stage to Steuben- ville, Ohio; thence down the Ohio river by steamboat to Wheeling, tying up there for the night on account of a low water stage.
The next day was spent in making the eight miles between Wheeling and Marietta, but then deeper water was reached and better speed made during the night. Cincinnati was reached July 9, 1832. In the summer of 1834 he returned with his family to "Flushing," the home of his wife's parents in Bensalem township, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania.
Having completed his theological studies, Mr. Jones was ordained a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church and on the sev- enteenth Sunday after Trinity (October 11, 1835) he was ordained to the priesthood, in Christ Church, New Brunswick, New Jer- sey, by his warm friend, Bishop George Washington Doane, one of the most distin- guished bishops of the American Episcopal church.
For about three years Mr. Jones devoted his attention very successfully to the up- building of several parishes in New Jersey and then in 1838, at the solicitation of some friends who had settled in the new Terri- tory of Florida, embarked in the missionary undertaking of building a church at Quincy, in Gadsden county, where there was a charming social life and great expectations of a prosperous development of the newly acquired territory. He succeeded perfectly in the purpose of his mission, built a church and established a congregation upon a firm and enduring foundation ; but he realized in course of time that he and his family had made a mistake in the choice of his profes- sion. He was richly endowed with quali- ties which far better fitted him for the arena of the bar and public life than for the tranquil and less controversial life of the church. While, therefore, he was earnestly and faithfully discharging his duties in the ministry, he began, as best he could, the study of the law, although the Territory of Florida where the Spanish Civil Law then prevailed was not a good field for the study of the Common Law of England. In 1841 Mr. Jones, having completed the work of his temporary sojourn in Florida, with-
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drew from the ministry and completed his legal studies in the adjoining State of Geor- gia, where he was admitted to the bar of the Superior Court, then sitting at Eatonton in Putnam county.
He had no intention of remaining in the South and after his admission returned to Pennsylvania, and on April 19, 1842, was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, taking up his residence and begining practice in Easton.
He rose rapidly at the bar, soon taking a leading position among the strong men of the profession. He tried many important cases and built up a large and lucrative prac- tice. The fruitful resources of his mind, his energy, his industry and his power as a public speaker won recognition, and there was scarcely a movement of importance in Easton in which he was not called upon to take a conspicuous part. He became one of the foremost advocates of "tariff for rev- enue only," delivering at Easton, April 19, 1842, by request, to a non-partizan meeting, a clear, sound and able address elucidating the subject, which was then new and absorb- ing the public attention everywhere. He was a Democrat by inheritance and was always a supporter of that party, enjoying the confidence of the leading Democrats of Pennsylvania, prominent among whom was James Buchanan, then United States Sen- ator, an intimate lifelong personal and polit- ical friend. Mr. Jones was an earnest advo- cate of Buchanan's nomination for the Pres- idency in 1844, and took the Senator to task for withdrawing his name from the conven- tion; but after the nomination Mr. Jones warmly supported the nominee of the con- vention, James K. Polk, and made many speeches favoring his election, winning great prominence by his forceful, direct, eloquent and convincing speeches.
On December 31, 1844, he moved his resi- dence to Reading, then a town of eight thou- sand people, and on January 7, 1845, was admitted to the Berks county bar. On June 25, 1845, at a town meeting held to make
preparations for a fitting memorial service in honor of the recently deceased ex-Presi- dent Andrew Jackson, Mr. Jones was unan- imously chosen to deliver the oration. On June 30, 1845, the day fixed for these com- memorative exercises, all business was sus- pended, and the bells tolled as the funeral procession moved slowly through the streets to the Lutheran Church, where Mr. Jones delivered a most eloquent and fitting ora- tion.
He rose rapidly in influence and position, writing to a friend in 1847: "I have as full a practice as I could wish before me. I have labored assiduously to effect certain results here and thank God I have failed in none, not one."
Although Berks county was strongly Democratic there were dissensions and at the election of 1844 the regular Democratic nominee of the party for Congress, John Rit- ter, had been elected by the greatly reduced majority of 517, but Mr. Jones openly avowed his preference for Mr. Buchanan, and continued to advocate his claims. He took lively interest in everything that affect- ed the public welfare and won the position of a leader to whom the people turned with confidence. The subscribers for a new pub- lic library met in his office. He was one of the commissioners named to erect city gas works. He undertook and carried on the erection of the new county prison as presi- dent of the board of inspectors. He was a pastmaster of the Masonic Order, and noble grand of the Odd Fellows. He supported the war with Mexico and drafted the reso- lutions which pledged Reading as a borough to the support of that war. He took a prom- inent part in the adoption of a charter cre- ating Reading a city in 1847 ; was lieutenant- colonel on the staff of Governor Shunk; was a delegate to the State Convention that renominated Shunk and later to the conven- tion that nominated Morris Longstreth for governor. The subsequent defeat of Long- streth was the greatest political sorrow of Mr. Jones' life, as he had been largely in-
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strumental in his nomination, and held his warmest personal friendship.
Mr. Jones took a deep interest in the com- pany of volunteers raised for service in Mexico, served on the committee appointed to disburse the money given by the city and county to equip and transport them, and act- ing on behalf of friends, made a speech pre- senting a sword to one of the officers of the company. When the body of Lieutenant Wunder was brought back from Mexico he delivered the funeral oration and when the little remnant of the company returned after the war in 1848, he delivered the address of welcome. He was one of the vice-presidents of a town meeting of Germans, held to com- memorate the revolution of 1848, and spoke at a meeting of Irishmen called to condemn the conviction of Mitchell. These activities give some idea of the full, strenuous and useful life he led during his first few years in Reading.
In April, 1847, he was appointed deputy attorney-general for Berks county, an office now known as district attorney. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Con- vention which met at Baltimore, May 22, 1848, and was one of the vice-presidents of the convention. Pennsylvania presented the name of James Buchanan to the convention but much to the chagrin of Mr. Jones and his friends, General Lewis Cass was nomi- nated. Mr. Jones was chairman of the Democratic State Committee of July 4, 1849, appointed by the State convention, and under his management the Democrats carried Pennsylvania, which the year before had been carried by General Taylor.
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