USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 31
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up another school based upon prevention as well as cure by purely sanatory methods. To this school belongs Dr. Robert Walter, who in 1877 opened for the benefit of suffer- ing humanity the Walter Sanatorium on South mountain, near Wernersville, Berks county, Pennsylvania, the most perfectly appointed and successful sanatorium in the State, and believed to have been the first institution in any country, certainly in this country, devoted to the treatment of in- valids and the preservation of health by purely sanatory and hygenic methods.
Dr. Walter is the son of George Walter, a farmer of Devonshire, England, who emi- grated to Canada in 1837, settling in the Province of Ontario in 1839. He died in 1892, aged eighty-four years. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Vodden, of England. She died in 1884, aged sixty- eight years.
Dr. Robert Walter was born in the town- ship of Esquesing, Halton county, Ontario, Canada, February 14, 1841. He obtained his early training in the township schools, and to this he added largely through his own efforts. At the age of fourteen years he was clerk in a store, and at fifteen cashier and bookkeeper in a large tannery, continu- ing one year, until the death of the owner. Notwithstanding his youth the heirs of his late employer's estate retained him to settle up the estate, this responsible duty being performed faithfully and satisfactorily in due time. He next was called upon to settle his grandfather's estate, and so well was that duty performed that other estates were placed in his hands for settlement. He also served one year as assistant division court clerk, and taught in the public schools for several years. He became an expert stenog- rapher, and for a time was employed in New York City in the land office of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.
From youth he was a semi-invalid with the outlook very dark for a long and health- ful life. He originated a course of treat- ment that he rigidly followed, and finally
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recovered. He believed he had accomplished his own cure and he felt so encouraged by the success of the treatment in his own case that he resigned his position in the land office and began a systematic study of medi- cine. In 1872 he married and located in New Jersey, where he lectured on medical science, a subject that had been a constant study for several years. His wife was a graduate of the Hygeio Therapeutic Col- lege of New York, 1865, and in 1873 Dr. Walter, after a course of activities, was graduated from the same institution. After graduation he became manager in charge of a sanatorium and mountain home in Frank- lin county, Pennsylvania, later leased and conducted a health resort on South moun- tain, Berks county, continuing the same successfully. During this period he aban- doned the water cure theory and treatment and during the latter part of his term sub- stituted the modern sanatorium treatment.
The success of this treatment was so pro- nounced that ere his lease expired Dr. Wal- ter began the erection of his present large collection of buildings, now known as Wal- ter Sanatorium, and in 1877 he opened it to the public. The institution, now known all over the county comprises a number of substantial stone buildings adjacent, five stories high and three hundred and fifty feet in length, with a farm and woodland covering five hundred acres. The buildings are thoroughly furnished with all modern conveniences and appliances ; the healthful air, perfect sanitary conditions and hygenic precaution being the remedies used to pre- serve and rebuild the body. The location on South mountain is ideal. From the front of the buildings the mountains, hills and valleys to Reading, thirty miles westward, are visible, and from South mountain the rolling fields and hills of the Tulpehocken, Schuylkill and Ontelaunee valleys extend to the Blue mountains, twenty to forty miles away, and form a scene of indescribable beauty. From its first inception Walter Sanatorium has been thronged with guests
from all over the United States, not by in- valids alone but by those who under the healthful conditions there prevailing store up energy for coming compaigns in business or profession. No more complete, success- ful or valuable a sanatorium exists in the State.
Dr. Walter, founder and manager, is also a graduate of Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine from that institution in 1888. He is a thoughtful, active man, and in addi- tion to the development of his sanatory methods and management of his great insti- tution publishes a monthly journal of health, numerous pamphlets relating to sanitation, and is the author and publisher of "Vital Science," an octavo volume of three hun- dred and twenty pages, and of "The Exact Science of Health," a large royal octavo volume of three hundred pages, his deduc- tions being based upon the same principles that have caused chemistry and astronomy to be regarded as exact sciences. His methods of treatment and prevention are purely sanatory, no dogmas, schools or wild theories being followed. The patronage that for forty years has sought his health- ful home is the best testimonial that could be written, and judged by the public verdict the Walter Sanatorium is entitled to its high reputation and the good doctor to his un- blemished fame.
Dr. Walter married, in 1872, Eunice C. Lippincott, of Dirigo, Maine, a daughter of John and Sarah (Kitchen) Lippincott, of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and granddaugh- ter of Jacob Lippincott, a Friend, who con- scientiously opposed war with the mother country and migrated to Nova Scotia during the Revolution. This Lippincott family is a prominent one in New Jersey and Penn- sylvania. Mrs. Walter, herself a graduate of the Hygeio Therapeutic College of New York, has worked hand in hand with her husband in the development of his now proved sanatory methods, and assisted in the perfection of plans for the sanatorium
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as well as its management. Children: Maud M., Robert L., Mabel Helen (now wife of John Bridges, of Carlisle), Estella M., Ernest A. The first two are graduate phy- sicians and with their sister, Estella M., have from graduation actively cooperated with Dr. Walter in the development and success of the sanatorium.
COX, Walter,
Prominent Glass Manufacturer.
The origin and growth of the wire glass industry is a most interesting chapter in the history of American manufacture, and there is no one who has played a more important part in its development than Mr. Walter Cox, of Philadelphia, president of the Penn- sylvania Wire Glass Company. The biog- raphy of Mr. Cox could not be written without giving something of the details of the wire glass industry any more than the history of that industry could be written without a mention of Mr. Cox, for he has been identified with it from the beginning, being associated with Mr. Frank Shuman, the inventor of the process, and serving first as secretary and treasurer of the Amer- ican Wire Glass Manufacturing Company and finally becoming the foremost man in the industry.
Mr. Cox was born at "Solitude," in Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1857, son of Colonel Hewson and Mary Ricketts (Camac) Cox. His grandfather, William Cox, was a Philadelphian who spent his later years in St. Paul, Minnesota. Colonel Hewson Cox won his rank and laurels in the Mexican War under General Scott, to whom he acted as private aide-de- camp and confidential interpreter. On the maternal side Walter Cox is a direct de- scendant of Thomas Lawrence, a provincial councillor, and mayor of Philadelphia nine times, and one of the twenty-four founders and original trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Mary Lawrence, daughter of Thomas Lawrence, married William Masters, also a founder and original trustee
of this institution ; they had two daughters, Mary and Sarah, the former of whom be- came the wife of Richard Penn, a sketch of whose life is to be found in "Universities and Their Sons," in the files of the His- torical Society. A sketch of Thomas Law- rence, mentioned above, is also to be found in that work. Sarah Lawrence married Turner Camac, of Dublin, Ireland; their son, William Masters Camac, married Eliz- abeth Baynton Markoe, daughter of John Markoe, the latter a son of Abraham Markoe, captain of the First City Troop of Philadelphia in the Revolutionary War. William M. and Elizabetlı B. Camac were the parents of Mary Ricketts Camac, who became the wife of Colonel Hewson Cox, and the mother of Walter and the late Major Herbert Cox.
Walter Cox received his early education in the private schools of Rev. John W. Faires and Reginald H. Chase. He was a student in the Department of Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1877 and receiving the degree of Master of Arts in the following year. During his col- lege life he was closely identified with the promotion of athletics, being one of a small coterie which included the late John Neill and H. L. Geylin, who originated the col- lege cheer and suggested the college colors of the University Athletic Association. After leaving college he applied himself for a time to the study of law under the direc- tion of William E. Littleton, Esq., but did not complete his legal preparations, nor was he actively engaged in business until called to the service of the American Wire Glass Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia in 1893 as secretary and treasurer. The fol- lowing year he was chosen vice-president of the parent organization, the Wire Glass Company. At this time the future of the wire glass business was pregnant with great possibilities, and Mr. Cox, with his char- acteristic foresight, was quick to take ad- vantage of the opportunity. On June 28, 1901, he organized the Continuous Glass
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Press Company, which name was changed July 1, 1910, to the Pennsylvania Wire Glass Company, with Mr. Cox as its presi- dent, and the remarkable success that the company has met with in the thirteen years of its existence is due very largely to the unremitting toil and sound business manage- ment of Mr. Cox, and from the year 1901 the yearly output of wire glass was in- creased from about a million feet to up- wards of twenty million feet at the present time (1914), a market having been found for the product in nearly every part of the civilized world. During this time business was greatly stimulated by competition and by improved methods of manufacture, thereby turning out a better product than had ever been made previously, and conse- quently increasing the demand for the wire glass.
It is interesting to know just how this article first came to be made. The need of some such material as wire glass had been felt for some time, and it was the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company that first sought to solve the problem. They had experi- enced serious difficulty in the falling and breaking of their skylights. They sought expert advice and the matter was submitted finally to the well-known inventor, Frank Shuman, of the Franklin Institute of Phila- delphia, for solution, and he finally con- ceived a method of manufacture of wire glass in which the wire netting was im- bedded in the center of the glass during the process. "The Americana" says : "The first attempts to introduce a metallic mesh into the body of the glass were for the purpose of increasing its strength and to prevent its falling apart when broken. In this respect the product has been thoroughly developed, but in addition it has proved to be one of the most remarkable fire retardants, and in view of the exceptional hazard attaching to window and skylight openings in all build- ings its uses as a fire retardant is outranking in importance as well as quantity its other values. Wire glass will break, but it will not
scatter. It can be fractured, but it will retain its place, and the perils incident to falling glass and the ingress and egress of draft and flame are avoided." When these qualities were fully demonstrated the underwriters made large allowances in structures where wire glass was used, and the increasing de- mand for this product has of late years been something enormous. The entire plant of the Pennsylvania Wire Glass Company is at Dunbar, Pennsylvania. It was thought best to concentrate at one point, so that all the work could be under the supervision of Mr. Cox, who divides his time between the plant and the Philadelphia office.
Although his life has been crowded with activity Mr. Cox has been pressed into service in many other ways. In 1895 he became treasurer to the Hygeia Ice and Cold Storage Company of Philadelphia, manufacturers of artificial ice ; is a director of the Aldine Trust Company ; and has also had official connection with several other business enterprises, all of which have been remarkably successful. At the university Mr. Cox became a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and of the Philomathean Society. He was one of the incorporators of the University Club, and has been a member of the Franklin Institute, Philadel- phia, and Cape May Golf Club. He also holds membership in the Merion Cricket, Racquet, Philadelphia Gun, Philadelphia and Atlantic City Country clubs, and the State Club in Schuylkill. The latter organ- ization is the oldest of its kind in the world, having been instituted May 1, 1732, and has entertained at its board such noted person- ages as General Washington and General Lafayette. It is the most exclusive gentle- man's club in Philadelphia.
Mr. Cox has very little time to devote to club life, however, but he possesses those qualities of mind and heart which have made for him a host of loyal friends. An instance of his popularity is in the fact that on May 10, 1907, he was elected president of his college class (class of '77, University
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of Pennsylvania), and has held the office ever since. Many other members of this class have become famous, for instance, the noted surgeon, Dr. Howard A. Kelly, of Baltimore, and others high in business and professional circles in Philadelphia.
Mr. Cox married, May 24, 1882, Hannah Ashbridge, daughter of Richard Ashbridge.
MYERS, George H., Man of Affairs, Public Official.
The city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, owes its importance in the commercial world to the wise foresight, public spirit and extra- ordinary business ability of a few men who labored with untiring energy to establish and place upon a sure foundation the indus- tries and institutions that have made that city famous. Among all those whose zeal contributed to the upbuilding of Bethlehem proper, none are more entitled to grateful remembrance than George H. Myers, who departed this life in the year 1912, after a busy and useful life of unblemished integ- rity extending over a period of many years.
George H. Myers was born on his father's farm on Little Bermudian creek, Adams county, Pennsylvania, August 26, 1843, died in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, December 31, 1912. He was the son of Jacob A. Myers, and a grandson of Henry Myers, of German ancestry, and of a family prominent in Adams county, born at New Chester, where his seventy-seven years were spent, engaged from youth in milling and farming opera- tions. He came of a hardy, long-lived family, one of his brothers living to be over ninety years of age.
Jacob A. Myers was also born in New Chester, Pennsylvania, and grew to man- hood at the home farm, becoming a manu- facturer and owner of the Good Intent Woolen Mill. After his marriage he estab- lished a homestead on Little Bermudian creek, where he resided until 1855. In that year he became associated in coal mining operations with his brother-in-law, John B. McCreary, and moved to Tremont, Schuyl-
kill county, Pennsylvania, and a year later to Audenried, Carbon county, where he was interested in the Honey Brook Mines and a general store. These properties were owned by the Honey Brook Coal Company, of which he was a director, and largely con- cerned until his death in September, 1865, aged fifty-one years.
Jacob A. Myers married, January 1, 1821, Sarah Ann Deardoff, born at Deardoff's Mill, near Petersburg, Adams county, Penn- sylvania, who survived him, residing until death with her son in Bethlehem. She was a daughter of George Deardoff, the original proprietor of the mill, and owner of a good farm nearby. She was all her life a faith- ful member of the Lutheran church, a faith- ful wife and devout mother. Children : Emily, married James Ellis, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania; George H., of whom fur- ther; Nancy, married F. C. Mattes, whom she survived, a resident of Bethlehem; L. Richmond, a lawyer of Bethlehem; Jacob U., also of Bethlehem ; William B., a banker of Bethlehem ; another child who died young.
George H. Myers spent the first twelve years of his life on the home farm, attend- ing local schools. He then spent a year at Tremont, Pennsylvania, his parents moving a year later to Audenried, Carbon county, Pennsylvania. Here his long and success- ful business life began, his first employ- ment being as clerk in the Honey Brook Coal Company's store, in the intervals occurring in his school life. In 1860, at the age of seventeen years, he entered Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, spending nearly four years at that institu- tion, following this with a full commercial course at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. He finished his school life in the spring of 1865, then re- turned to his home in Audenried, where he became his father's valued assistant. In the September following the latter died and the son succeeded him as director of the Honey Brook Coal Company, the Myers estate holding a large interest in that company.
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Although little more than of legal age George H. Myers was chosen to administer and manage the family estate, and soon be- came interested in coal mines on his own account, besides faithfully conserving the interests of the estate he represented. He continued a director of the Honey Brook Coal Company until that corporation and its holdings became the property of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The coal mines in which he became interested were merged in the firm of A. L. Mumper & Company in 1868, Mr. Myers having active interest in that company for ten years, when the firm became Thomas John & Company, so continuing until 1880, when upon the deatlı of Mr. John the firm was reorganized as George H. Myers & Company. This com- pany became an important factor in the business world, operating largely in the Lehigh, Schuylkill and Wyoming valleys of Pennsylvania. After his marriage, in 1873, Mr. Myers established his home in Bethle- hem and from that time until his retirement, several years prior to his death, was actively concerned in the promotion of industries and the improvement of that borough.
The firm of George H. Myers & Com- pany retained their interest in the Honey Brook Coal Colliery until May, 1892, but Mr. Myers was largely concerned in many other coal properties, holding the position of treasurer of the Mid-Valley Coal Com- pany, and was secretary and treasurer of the Alden Coal Company; director of the Silver Brook Coal Company ; vice-president of the Ponupo Mining and Transportation Company of Cuba, West Indies ; secretary and treasurer of the Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Company of Thomas, Ala- bama ; also largely interested in the Allen- town and Bethlehem Rapid Transit Com- pany. These were but his chief business interests ; he aided in the establishment of many enterprises and did all in his power to promote the public good. He was elected a director of the First National Bank of Bethlehem in January, 1874, and in 1880
was chosen president of this most important institution. As president he was conserva- tive and helpful, strictly safeguarding the interests of his depositors, but giving sup- port to all that tended to promote Bethle- hem's prosperity. He continued at the head of the First National from 1880 until his retirement in 1896.
As a business man Mr. Myers had no superiors for quick decision, farsightedness, wise judgment and integrity. His name was a synonym for uprightness, and to use the words of his lifetime friend, General Doster, his career was one of "unblemished integrity." He was a warm friend of John Fritz, and was perhaps closer to him than any other man in Bethlehem in friendly relationship. Having no "axes to grind" these two men were drawn together as by bands of steel, and remained the best of comrades until death separated them.
Aside from the important part Mr. Myers played in the great development of his borough and section he was active in munici- pal affairs for many years. In 1877 he was elected a member of the borough council, serving until 1880, when he was elected chief burgess. He gave the borough a wise business administration, and in his official capacity displayed the same rigid princi- ples of honor that characterized his private life. He was fearless in the discharge of his duty, and championed all measures that tended to improve municipal conditions or forward the cause of civic progress. He did not crave political preferment, and only the earnest solicitations of his near friends drew him into the political arena. He was prominent in the Masonic fraternity, hold- ing all degrees in both the York and Scottish rites up to and including the thirty-second degree, Bloomsburg Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. In the York Rite he was connected with Bethlehem Lodge, the Chapter, and Hugh De Payens Com- mandery, Knights Templar. In political faith he was a Democrat, later a Repub- lican, and in religious belief a Lutheran, be-
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longing to Grace Church, which he served for many years as elder.
Mr. Myers married, in Bethlehem, in 1873, Caroline Weiss, born at Summit Hill, Pennsylvania, daughter of Francis and Eliz- abeth Weiss, her father a large coal operator and business man. Children: Frank J., Lehigh University, class of 1898; Emily R., educated in Berlin, Germany, after finish- ing a high school course in Bethlehem; Kate W. and Caroline W., graduates of Bethle- hem, 1894, finishing in Berlin, Germany ; Helen D .; George H .; Legh R .; Edward L. Mrs. Myers survives her husband and re- sides in the beautiful homestead in Bethle- hem, energetic and capable, of kindly heart and charitable disposition.
This review of the life of one of Beth- lehem's greatest benefactors necessarily touches only the leading incidents of his career. A volume would not suffice to chronicle his many activities, record his many deeds of charity, and the help ex- tended to hundreds of men who prospered through his timely aid, wise counsel and never-failing friendship. As husband and father he was loving and affectionate, his home the dearest place on earth, and his family the object of his deepest devotion.
WILLIAMSON, Isaiah V., Founder of Williamson Free School.
Isaiah V. Williamson, deceased, adorned his long and eminently useful life with some of the most notable benefactions known in the history of the commonwealth. He was born in Fallsington, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, February 3, 1803, son of Mahlon and Charity (Vansant) Williamson, and fifth in line of descent from Duncan Wil- liamson, a Scotchman, who came to Penn- sylvania about 1661, long before the coming of William Penn. Isaiah V. Williamson obtained a limited education in the public schools, and at the early age of thirteen years became a clerk in Harvey Gilling- ham's store in Fallsington, and where he
continued until he was of legal age. Dur- ing that period of his life he formed those strict habits of economy as to personal ex- penditure, and the careful investment and reinvestment of his savings, which con- tinued throughout his life. In 1825 he opened a retail store in Philadelphia, in Second street, near Pine street, but after a few months formed a partnership with Wil- liam Burton and moved the place of busi- ness to Second street and Coombs' alley. One year later the firm dissolved, Mr. Wil- liamson purchasing the store of John S. Newlin, at No. 9 North Second street. In 1834 he formed a partnership with H. Nel- son Burroughs, his clerk, and which con- tinued until 1837, when he retired from active business as a merchant, but retained an interest as special partner in the firm of Williamson, Burroughs & Clark. There- after he engaged in a variety of public enterprises, investing his means wisely, and at the age of seventy years was reputed to be worth about $4,000,000. He was one of the founders of the Thomas Iron Works, also a director in the Pennsylvania Steel Works and the Cambria Iron Company, as well as having very large coal interests near Girardville, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Williamson now yielded to the im- pulse of his naturally kind and sympathetic nature and began a system of wise, judicious and liberal distribution of his fortune. He gave in a broad catholic spirit both money and property to hospitals, schools, homes and similar charitable and educational insti- tutions. He thus gave away in the years from the age of seventy to eighty-six about $5,000,000; yet so wisely had he admin- istered his investments that he was richer than when he began his benefactions. He left at his death an estate valued at $10,000,000, one-tenth of which he devised to charitable purposes.
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