USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
David Glenn Stewart was born Novem- ber 3, 1839, in Pittsburgh, and is a son of William and Eliza (Glenn) Stewart. A sketch of William Stewart, including a his- tory of the Stewart family, appears else- where in this work. David Glenn Stewart was educated in the private school presided over by the Rev. Joseph Travelli, at Sewick-
947
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
ley, and began his business career as second clerk on the boat owned by his brother, James Stewart, plying between Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama. He filled this posi- tion three years and then went to Washing- ton, D. C., as clerk in the War Department. Remaining there during the Civil War, he enlisted in a company of government clerks organized to guard the city in the event of its being threatened by the enemy. At the close of the war Mr. Stewart, as clerk of the United States paymaster, accompanied that official to New Orleans and also travelled with him through the South, paying off regi- ments as they disbanded. About a year was required for the accomplishment of this work, and on its completion Mr. Stew- art spent another year in Europe, finding relaxation from long continued strain in visiting places of historic interest in the Old World.
On his return he settled in Pittsburgh, where, in 1873, he founded the grain busi- ness which has since under his able manage- ment grown to such huge proportions. For twenty-three years he conducted it alone, its development during that period being the result of his strong brain and will power and his keen business sense. Progressive in his ideas and tolerant of every suggestion offered him, he is yet wisely conservative and unfailingly self-reliant. A just and kind employer, his insight enables him to put the right man in the right place and he has the faculty of inspiring his associates and subordinates with something of his own energy and enthusiasm. In 1906 he re- ceived into partnership J. A. A. Geidel, the style of the firm becoming Stewart & Geidel.
In 1888 Mr. Stewart caused to be con- structed, on the South Side, the first Iron City elevator with a capacity of about 300,000 bushels of grain. In 1911 this was totally destroyed by fire and the firm has recently built a new concrete one, holding about 150,000 bushels, and novel in design and construction. The first story, supported on reinforced concrete columns at an alti-
tude of thirteen feet above the working floor, extends under the entire storage and affords the working space for the cleaning, grinding, shelling, sacking and local ship- ping operations of the plant. All of the machinery and equipment is installed with a view to absolute security from fire, being made of steel and arranged with a special view to the elimination of dust and the maintenance of a high degree of cleanliness and efficiency throughout the plant. The machinery is all motor driven, each part having independent control by means of friction clutches. Despite the fact that this elevator is only one-third the size of its pre- decessor, so far as storage capacity is con- cerned, the general arrangement of machin- ery and the splendid handling facilities which it now has place it in the front rank of elevators of the same size. There is also plenty of room available for increasing the present capacity of 100,000 bushels when- ever conditions may require it. As the first concrete elevator erected in Pittsburgh this has been the centre of much interest in the grain trade in that vicinity and has set the pace for better things in elevator construc- tion.
In addition to his grain business, Mr. Stewart holds the office of vice-president of the Western National Bank of Pittsburgh and has been for a very long period closely identified with the financial history of the city. For twenty years he was a director of the West End Bank, and he was one of the organizers and was elected one of the first directors, which office he has held continu- ously, of the National Bank of Western Pennsylvania. He held the presidency of the Fourth National Bank until that insti- tution was consolidated, January 17, 1910, with the National Bank of Western Penn- sylvania, when he became vice-president of the combination, holding the office until May 17, 1913, when that bank's name was changed and became the Western National Bank of Pittsburgh, of which he was elected a director and first vice-president. Fitted
948
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
as he is by mature judgment and ripe experi- ence for the administration and handling of important and complicated interests, Mr. Stewart has been frequently solicited to undertake such responsibilities and his pub- lic spirit has led him to accept many of these trusts. He is trustee of the James M. Bailey estate, executor for the estate of Mrs. F. N. C. Nimick, attorney in fact for Alexander K. Nimick, president (elected June 26) of the Shady Side Academy, president of the Homeopathic Hospital, and at the death of Thomas N. Miller was made president of the Pittsburgh Opera House Company. The duties involved in all these positions, and especially in that of trustee for estates, are of an exceptionally exacting nature, demanding the services of a vigor- ous and at the same time a quick and keen intellect.
While assiduous in business, Mr. Stewart is moved by a public-spirited interest in his fellow citizens and his aid and influence are never withheld from any project which, in his judgment, tends to further the welfare of Pittsburgh. Ever ready to respond to any deserving call made upon him, he is widely but unostentatiously charitable. In politics he is a Democrat and although fre- quently urged to become a candidate for office has steadily refused. He affiliates with the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Tancred Commandery, No. 48, Knights Templar, and is a member of the Pittsburgh Club, the Civic Club of Allegheny County, the Automobile Club of Pittsburgh and the Church Club of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. He and his family are members of Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church.
A man of strongly marked characteristics, modestly inclined, but in business thor- oughly aggressive, Mr. Stewart is genial in disposition and highly appreciative of the good traits of others. Tall and fine-looking, with iron grey hair, white moustache and keen but kindly eyes, he looks the man he is. An energetic worker, he is also a very quiet one, accomplishing much without apparent
effort. Dignified, courteous and compan- ionable, he possesses the capacity for life- long friendship.
Mr. Stewart married, April 29, 1880, in Pittsburgh, Jennie L., daughter of William K. and Elizabeth (Bailey) Nimick. Mr. Nimick died April 19, 1875, in Pittsburgh. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of one son: Glenn, born January 6, 1884, in Pittsburgh, educated at Shady Side Acad- emy, at a school at Asheville, North Caro-
lina, and at Yale University, graduating in 1906, in the scientific course. After attend- ing Harvard Law School he went to France and Spain in order to become familiar with the languages of those countries and is now preparing to secure a position in the diplo- matic service. He is a member of the Auto- mobile Club of Pittsburgh. Of strong domestic tastes and affections, Mr. Stewart is devoted to the ties of family and friend- ship and delights in the exercise of hos- pitality. Mrs. Stewart is a member of the Twentieth Century Club of Pittsburgh and the Civic Club of Allegheny county.
David Glenn Stewart is one of the men who are essential to the unbuilding of great municipalities by reason of the fact that his work has both magnitude and permanence and that he is eminently fitted for the ad- ministration of high and important trusts. His long and useful career is illustrative of the phrase, "Success with Honor."
BEAL, James Harvey, Corporation Lawyer, Financier.
The future of Pittsburgh is in the hands not of her industrial leaders and potentates alone, but also in those of the men who preside and argue in her courts, who admin- ister justice and plead for redress of wrongs. The bar of the Iron City, distin- guished from the beginning, has grown in lustre with the passing years, and prominent among the men who to-day ably maintain its ancient prestige, is James Harvey Bcal, of the famous corporation law firm of Reed,
949
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Smith, Shaw & Beal, and former assistant city attorney for Pittsburgh. Mr. Beal's entire professional career has thus far been associated with the metropolis and he is intimately identified with her most essen- tial interests.
James Harvey Beal was born September 1, 1869, at Frankfort Springs, Pennsylvania, and is the son of William and Mary (Liv- ingston) Beal. The boy attended the public schools, the instruction which he received there being largely amplified by private study. In January, 1892, he was admitted to the Allegheny county bar, and has since been continuously engaged in active prac- tice in the city of Pittsburgh. Innate ability enforced by thorough equipment and vital- ized by unflagging industry, rapidly brought the young lawyer into well-earned promi- nence, and in 1896, only four years after his admission to the bar, he became assistant city attorney for Pittsburgh. This position he filled with a degree of ability and an ad- herence to principle which attracted much attention and added to his already enviable reputation. In 1899 Mr. Beal resigned his office in order to associate himself with the firm of Knox & Reed, composed of former United States Senator P. C. Knox and James H. Reed. When Mr. Knox became Secretary of State he was forced to sever his connection with the firm, which was reorganized as Reed, Smith, Shaw & Beal. It is now one of the foremost corporation law firms in Pittsburgh, and one of the most prominent coalitions of lawyers in the en- tire State of Pennsylvania. As an expert in corporation practice, Mr. Beal stands second to none and, with his associates, has conducted some of the most important and exacting legal actions ever brought in the United States. Strong in reasoning and forceful in argument, he possesses that judicial instinct which makes its way quickly through immaterial details to the essential points upon which the determination of a cause must turn and his statements are re- markable both for logic and lucidity.
With the business life of Pittsburgh Mr. Beal is also conspicuously identified. He is a director in the Pittsburgh Coal Com- pany, the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, and the Western Allegheny railroad. In banking circles he holds an influential position, being a director in the Lincoln National Bank. In matters of business he manifests the same keen penetration and sound judgment which char- acterize him in his legal practice.
Politically Mr. Beal is a Republican, but has never been numbered among office- seekers, and has refrained from taking an active part in public affairs, always, how- ever, giving the loyal support of a good citi- zen to measures and movements which in his judgment tend to promote progress and reform. Ever ready to respond to any de- serving call made upon him, he is widely but unostentatiously charitable. He belongs to the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, and his clubs are the Duquesne, Pittsburgh Press, University, Pittsburgh Country, Oak- mont Country, Union and Stanton Heights Golf, all of the Pittsburgh district, and the New York Athletic and Lawyers' clubs of New York City. The countenance of Mr. Beal is an index to his character, the clear- cut features with their lines of will and achievement and the large dark eyes with their direct, forceful gaze speaking elo- quently of intellect and decision and the re- lentless pursuit of the fixed purpose, soft- ened by kindliness and a strong sense of humor. He is ardent and loyal in his attach- ments and counts his friends by the hun- dred.
Mr. Beal married Beatrice Littell, and they are the parents of two sons-William Rodgers, and James Harvey Jr. Mrs. Beal, a woman of most attractive personality, is prominent in the social circles of Pittsburgh, being one of the city's favorite hostesses. Mr. Beal delights in the exercise of hos- pitality and is devoted to his home and family.
In his twenty-two years at the bar Mr.
950
Bujanun Matthias Nead.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Beal has accomplished much, having a rec- ord of achievements both solid and bril- liant. He has not, however, yet completed his forty-fifth year, and he is one of the men with whom time means progress. Everything indicates that the future has in store for him more signal triumphs and greater honors than those which the past has already brought him.
NEAD, Benjamin Matthias, Lawyer, Journalist, Author.
Benjamin Matthias Nead, who for more than a quarter of a century has been num- bered among the leaders of the Dauphin county bar, Pennsylvania, comes of good old Pennsylvania German stock, and during the long period of his residence in Harris- burg has become thoroughly identified with the municipal, social and benevolent inter- ests of the capital of the Keystone State.
Four of the ancestors of Benjamin Mat- thias Nead were in the party who came in 1710 to Livingston Manor, New York, afterward going to Schoharie county, and in 1723 and 1728 proceeding down the Sus- quehanna to the Swatara and thence to Tul- pehocken. They were: Michael Lauer (grandfather four generations removed), and his son Christian Lauer; John Spyker (grandfather four generations removed), and Jacob Lowengut (grandfather three generations removed). The last mentioned, with his wife, was killed and scalped by hos- tile Indians at Tulpehocken, in April, 1758.
Peter Spyker, great-great-great-grand- father, was judge of the Berks county courts from 1768 to his death in 1789, the greater part of the time president judge, and took an active part in civil affairs during the Revolution, being one of the com- missioners appointed by the Assembly in 1776 to raise funds to prosecute the war. Two great-great-grandfathers, Major Peter Dechert, of Pennsylvania, and Captain Ben- jamin Spyker Jr., of the Maryland Line, served as officers in the struggle for inde-
pendence, and two great-grandfathers, Dan- iel Nead and John Wunderlich, enlisted as privates. Two great-great-grandfathers, Matthias Nead and Peter Hefleigh, were pioneers in the settlement of Western Mary- land, going there shortly after 1750, and both took an active part in affairs.
Matthias Nead, grandfather of Benjamin Matthias Nead, of Harrisburg, served as an officer in one of the Maryland regiments during the War of 1812, and in the early part of the nineteenth century was promi- nently identified with the political and busi- ness history of Franklin county.
Benjamin Franklin, son of Matthias Nead, was for upward of forty years actively engaged in business in Chambers- burg, for the greater portion of the time as one of the firm of Wunderlich & Nead, which was among the pioneers in the old- time forwarding and commission business. Franklin Nead, as he was commonly called, and Daniel K. Wunderlich, the other mem- ber of the firm, were prominent among that little coterie of active and enterprising busi- ness men to whom belongs the credit of having built up the little village of Cham- bersburg from an ordinary country town into the progressive and thriving borough which it was when the blight of the Civil War fell upon it. Benjamin Franklin Nead married Ellen Wunderlich, a sister of Dan- ial K. Wunderlich, and their son, Benjamin Matthias, is mentioned below.
Benjamin Matthias, son of Benjamin Franklin and Ellen (Wunderlichı) Nead, was born July 14, 1847, in Antrim town- ship, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and received his early education in the Cham- bersburg Academy. During the last year of the war he was under the private tutelage of Rev. James F. Kennedy, of Chambers- burg, afterward entering the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut, where he remained one year. At the end of that time he matriculated at Yale Uni- versity, graduating in the class of 1870. After graduation, Mr. Nead returned to
951
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Chambersburg and studied law in the office of Hon. Francis M. Kimmel, ex-judge of that judicial district. June 4, 1872, he was admitted to the bar of Franklin county, and practiced his profession until 1875, when he was appointed State Tax Deputy in the department of the Auditor General of the Commonwealth. In consequence he re- moved to Harrisburg, and held the position until May, 1881, when he retired to resume the practice of his profession, in which he has ever since been actively engaged. The practical knowledge of State tax law acquired by Mr. Nead during his service in the department of the Auditor General led him, upon his retirement from that service, to make a specialty of practice in State tax and corporation cases, and in this practice he has been largely success- ful, building up for himself a reputation throughout the State. In the forty years of his legal experience he has been counsel for a number of corporations and has been employed in many important cases, notably those in which the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania enjoined the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company from the purchase of the South Pennsylvania and Beech Creek rail- roads, and the suits instituted by the Com- monwealth against the counties of Philadel- phia and Allegheny to recover large amounts of fees claimed by the State. He has been a receiver of two national banks, and at the present time is largely engaged in Orphans' Court practice in the settlement of trust estates.
In addition to his service in the Auditor General's department, Mr. Nead has repre- sented his State in a variety of other ways. On the commission appointed to revise the revenue laws of the Commonwealth and report a new system of taxation to the leg- islature of 1883, he served by special, ap- pointment, and he was also a member and secretary of the commission of six expert accountants appointed the same year to de- vise a new system of keeping the accounts of the State. During the two terms of Gov-
ernor Pattison's administration, Mr. Nead filled by his appointment the position of State financial agent for Pennsylvania at Washington, D. C. In September, 1894, he was appointed by the Comptroller of Cur- rency at Washington to take charge, as re- ceiver of the defunct National Bank of Middletown, Pennsylvania, and to settle up its affairs. In 1904 he was president of the Harrisburg Board of Trade, and in 1905 served as vice-president of the Municipal League of Public Improvement.
Politically, Mr. Nead has always been an ardent Democrat, and as a young man was active both in State committee work and on the stump. During the Greeley and Buckalew campaign of 1872 he was chair- man of the Democratic committee of Frank- lin county, and in 1874 served by appoint- ment as secretary of the Democratic State committee. In 1887, when the new rules for the party were adopted and the office of permanent secretary was created, Mr. Nead was chosen as the first incumbent, filling the office so acceptably that he served by reëlection seven successive years, the position, at the end of that time, being made an appointive one under the State chairman. In 1894 he was unanimously nominated for Congress in his district, but having just entered upon his duties as re- ceiver of a national bank, under Federal appointment, he withdrew from the ticket.
In various ways Mr. Nead is identified with religious and other public activities, serving as trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association, the Loysville Or- phans' Home, and the Public Library Asso- ciation, and as elder and vestryman of Zion Lutheran Church, Harrisburg. In 1905 he was president of the Dauphin County Bar Association, and he is now president of the Yale Alumni Association of Central Penn- sylvania. He is a member of the following societies: American Historical Associa- tion; Pennsylvania Historical Society ; Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania ; His- torical Society of Dauphin County (vice-
952
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
president) ; Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies (elected president for 1914) ; Kittochtinny Historical Society; Lycoming County Historical Society ; Penn- sylvania-German Society (president 1906) ; Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution ; and the Authors' Club, of Lon- don, England. He is a past master and Royal Arch Mason; past exalted ruler of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; a past regent of the Royal Arcanum, and a representative in the supreme council of that order.
Mr. Nead's record in literary work is long and noteworthy. From 1874 to 1877 he was legislative correspondent of a number of leading Democratic newspapers, in 1887 he was editor-in-chief of the Harrisburg "Daily Patriot," and in 1889 editor-in-chief of the Harrisburg "Morning Call." His pub- lications include the following: "Sketches of Early Chambersburg" (1872) ; "Nead's Guide to County Officers" (1875) ; "The Colonial and Provincial Laws of Pennsyl- vania, 1667-1700" (1878) ; "Historical Notes on the Legislative Councils and As- semblies of Pennsylvania, 1623-1700" (1878) ; "A Brief Review of the Financial History of Pennsylvania, 1682-1881" (1881); "Waynesboro-A Centennial His- tory" (1900). He has also published a number of historical monographs, illustrated and otherwise (newspaper and magazine sketches) : "General Thomas Proctor, of the Revolution" ("Pennsylvania Historical Magazine," 1880) ; "James McLene, one of the Unmentioned Men of Mark, &c." ("His- torical Register"-Interior Pennsylvania, 1883) ; "Brave Mollie of Monmouth"; "The Origin of Protection in Pennsylvania"; "The Story of the Mason and Dixon Line"; "Ye Trial of ye Longe Finne" (Swedish) ; "Seedtime and Harvest in Pennsylvania"; "The Early Lottery as a State Subsidy," etc. (Philadelphia "Press," Harrisburg "Telegram," etc.). Among his public ad- dresses and lectures and papers read are the following: "The Pennsylvania-German
in Civil Life" (before Pennsylvania-Ger- man Society, 1894) ; "In the Footprints of Pennsylvania's Past"; "England, Country- side and Metropolis"; "Historical Shrines of Old England"; "An Age of Iron": "The Scotch-Irish Movement in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania" (Eighth Scotch- Irish Congress, 1896) ; "The Town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and its Historic En- vironment" (Tenth Scotch-Irish Congress, 1901) ; "Past Blessings-Present Duties" (Harrisburg "Old Home Week" oration, 1905) ; "Evolution of the Judiciary System of Pennsylvania (Bar Association, 1906) ; "Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in State and Nation Building" ( Kittochtinny Histor- ical Society, 1903) ; "Some Hidden Sources of Fiction" (Historical Society of Dauphin County, 1909). The last mentioned was a criticism of Sir Gilbert Parker's novel, "The Seats of the Mighty," and attracted no little attention not only in this country but also in England.
Mr. Nead married, October 14, 1875, at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Jane, youngest daughter of David and Nancy (Colwell) Hayes, of Middle Spring, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of two sons: Benjamin Frank, born De- cember 27, 1877; and Robert Hayes, born March 9, 1880. Both these children were born at Harrisburg. Mrs. Nead died Janu- ary 11, 1883, and Mr. Nead married (sec- ond), January 21, 1892, at Harrisburg, Annie Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Nicholas and Maria (Gilbert) Zollinger, of that city. The death of Mrs. Nead occurred October 25, 1906. Mr. Nead's elder son, Benjamin Frank Nead, graduated from the Yale Law School in the class of 1901, and is now the junior partner of the law firm of Nead & Nead. He married, April 20, 1910, Margaretta Rote, of Harrisburg. Rob- ert Hayes Nead, the younger son, graduated from Yale, academic department, class of 1904. He is in the service of the Pennsyl- vania railroad, freight department, and re- sides at Ardmore, Pennsylvania.
953
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
LAZEAR, Thomas C.,
Lawyer, Prominent Citizen.
The bar of Pittsburgh, distinguished from the beginning, has grown in lustre with the passing years, and among those who during the last half century have most ably upheld its lofty standards of character and learn- ing Thomas C. Lazear occupies a foremost place. For many years Mr. Lazear has been an acknowledged leader of his profes- sion in the Iron City, and for as long a period has been numbered among her sterl- ing citizens.
Thomas Lazear, grandfather of Thomas C. Lazear, was born March 31, 1771, in Greene county, Pennsylvania, and there for twenty-seven years served as justice of the peace. The family is of French origin, and the ancestors of Thomas Lazear were of the Huguenot faith. On coming to Amer- ica they first settled in Maryland, afterward removing to Greene county, Pennsylvania, prior to its formation from part of Wash- ington county. Thomas Lazear married Elizabeth Braddock, second cousin of Gen- eral Edward Braddock, of colonial fame, killed in 1755 in the famous battle with the Indians at Braddock's field. Thomas Lazear died November 16, 1858.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.