USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 5
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In 1896 he opened an office and began his professional career under his own name, with an office at No. 1-3 Union Square West, New York City, and has achieved considerable success in his vocation. He designed and supervised the construction of a fourteen-story mercantile building at Nos. 547-555 Broadway, New York City, for Charles Broadway Rouss, in 1900, and in 1907-08 a fifteen-story mercantile build- ing at Nos. 123-125 Mercer street, New York City, for Peter Winchester Rouss. He planned and remodelled a residence for William Floyd Jones, at Massapequa, Long Island, New York; designed and erected one for F. Taylor Pusey, at Lansdowne, Delaware county, Pennsylvania ; and a fine mansion for Peter Winchester Rouss, in the Prospect Park section of Brooklyn, New York. A few years ago he planned the de- sign upon which the historical old Lutheran Church at Upper Dublin, Pennsylvania, was
rebuilt; he designed the plans and dec- orations for the Epiphany Church, of Ster- ling Place, Brooklyn, New York; the St. Mark's Church, at Jamaica, Long Island ; the Church of the Advent, in Flatbush, Long Island; the Church of the Good Shepherd, at South Ozone Park, Long Island ; and has just completed the enlargement and re- modelling of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, at Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Mr. Dilthey is a Republican in politics ; has twice been nominated for assemblyman in the Second Assembly District of Brook- lyn by the Republicans, and endorsed by the Citizens Union, an independent organiza- tion, and while he has not been elected to office he has been instrumental in securing improved political conditions in his district. He was a member of the Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania at his old home, and a communicant of St. Matthew's Lutheran and Calvary Church in Brooklyn. He is a member of the Central Branch Young Men's Christian Association, also president of the Central Branch Young Men's Christian Association Literary So- ciety, and was president of the Franklin Literary Society. He has traveled exten- sively in the south and west, and has made several trips to the mining regions of the south-west. He is president of the Arizona Copper Belt Mining Company, of Yavapai county, Arizona, a mining property that consists of three hundred acres of mineral lands in copper, gold and silver, which is under development. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, Brooklyn Chapter ; the Taxpayers Association of New York City, and the Young Republican Club of Brooklyn, New York, and is active in civic and public improvements for the com- mon welfare.
LICHLITER, Marcellus Deaves, Clergyman, Litterateur.
Marcellus Deaves Lichliter, educator, minister, author and lecturer, is descended
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from good ancestral stock-German, Eng- lish and Scotch-Irish-grafted into New England Puritan stock. The name has been variously rendered : Lechleiter, Leichleider, Leichliter and Lichliter. It is composed of two German words-licht, meaning light, and leiter, meaning bearer or leader. Johann Conrad Lechleiter, of Bremen, Ger- inany, was the founder of the Lichliter family in America. He took passage from Rotterdam, October 21, 1741, in the ship "Friendship," Alexander Thomas, master, and settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from whence several branches migrated, settling in Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.
Jacob Lichliter, grandfather of this Mr. Lichliter, married a woman of Scotch-Irish descent, whose ancestors had distinguished themselves at the Battle of the Boyne. Among their nineteen children the third was Levi, who was one of the pioneer farmers of his section, an educator and a minister. He married Catherine Younkin, whose an- cestors, having supported Cromwell, were obligated to flee to this country to escape religious persecution, and found a home among the hills of New England.
Marcellus Deaves Lichliter, second son of Levi and Catherine (Younkin) Lichliter, was born on a farm near New Lexington, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, April 10, 1849. He attended the public and normal schools, and completed his education at Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio. For several years he was engaged in teaching in the public schools, entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1872, in the Pittsburgh Annual Conference, and served for a period of twenty-eight years.
Impaired health obliged him to retire from active ministerial service in 1900. During his effective service in the conference, he was statistician of that body for ten years. Since his retirement from the ministry he has filled the position of chief clerk in the Department of Agriculture of Pennsyl- vania, having been appointed to this office
by Governor William A. Stone, and re- tained in office by all the governors of the State up to the present time. From his early manhood Mr. Lichliter was an en- thusiastic Republican, and has always been an active worker in the interests of that party.
Mr. Lichliter has been prominently ident- ified with many fraternal organizations, and to some he lias given much time and service. The first organization with which he became identified was the Independent Order of Good Templars, in 1869, and so inspired did he become by its teachings, that he has been an unrelenting foe of intoxicants and active in every temperance movement in the country. He united with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past grand, and a member of the grand lodge, and he has lectured frequently in the in- terest of the order. He is a very active member of the Masonic fraternity, past master of Masons, eminent commander of Knights Templar (1914) and is a member of the grand lodge, and grand commandery, respectively, of each. He has attained to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Ac- cepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
It is, however, as a member and officer of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics that Mr. Lichliter has been especially conspicuous and active. He was the first clergyman in his locality to rec- ognize the noble and lofty principles taught by this patriotic organization, and became an enthusiastic member, ever ready with voice and pen to advance the objects of the order. As a lecturer his services were in great demand, and he has been called into many States to address public meetings and to present flags and Bibles. Since his con- nection with the organization he has pre- sented to the public schools fifty Bibles and more than four hundred flags. He was elected state councilor of the State Council of Pennsylvania, Junior Order United American Mechanics, in 1896; became a member of the National Council in 1898;
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served as chairman of the national legisla- tive committee for two years; was elected national chaplain in 1901, and has been re- elected at each session of the body up to the present time. Mr. Lichliter has written four rituals for the order ; addressed twice the Congressional Committee on Immigra- tion in support of a restrictive measure on the subject of immigration; and in num- erous other ways has worked for the pass- age of legislation affecting the public schools.
Mr. Lichliter is prominent in the field of literature as author and historian. For thirty years he has been a press corre- spondent of "The American" and other journals, his contributions including the following: Compulsory Education; Sec- tarian Appropriations; The Bible in the Public Schools; Suitors of Columbia; The Junior Order of United American Mechan- ics and Its Achievements; The Perils of Columbia; The New Face at the Door; Patriotism in the Southland; Washington, General, Statesman and Man; The Magna Charta of American Liberty and Its Sign- ers; Our Cherished Traditions; The Pub- lic School System of Education; The Junior Order United American Mechanics and What It Stands For: Through the Mid- night to the Morn of Freedom-Valley Forge ; A Symposium on the American Flag ; Betsey Ross and the First Flag; The His- tory of the Flag; The Flag and the Public Schools ; and The Flag and What Is Stands For.
He is a member of the following named historical associations: Western Pennsyl- vania Historical Society; National Geogra- phic Society of Washington, District of Columbia; Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies, of which he is the first vice-president, and will in 1915 become president. Among the historical mono- graphs of which he is the author are the following: The Mound Builders, Massey Harbison, The Seven Guardian Angels of Columbia, General Henry Boquet, General
Arthur St. Clair-A Nation's Ingratitude, Pioneer Life, Indian Chiefs of Western Pennsylvania, The Forts of Pittsburgh, The Battle of Monongahela, The First Settle- ments of Western Pennsylvania, The Crog- hans, Robert Fulton, Washington's First Battle-its Reflex Influence-Fort Neces- sity, Captain Sam Brady and His Exploits, Hannastown-First Seat of Justice of Westmoreland County, The Battle of Bushy Run-its Reflex Influence, and others. He is also the author of two publications: History of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and James Jackson McIlyar-and Autobiography, and has in manuscript a comprehensive history relating to Western Pennsylvania, entitled “Foot- prints of Patriots and Landmarks of West- ern Pennsylvania," which covers the period from the first coming of the white man until the opening of the nineteenth century. He anticipates the compilation of a similar volume relating to Eastern and Central Pennsylvania.
Mr. Lichliter married, June 22, 1876, Mary Florence, a daughter of the Rev. James Jackson and Alice (Morris) Mc- Ilyar, of Butler, Pennsylvania. Children : I. McIlyar Hamilton, who was graduated from the public schools, spent a short time in an academic course at Duquesne College, Pittsburgh, then two academic and three college years at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and was graduated from the DePauw University, Greencastle, In- diana, in 1900, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The last named university con- ferred the degree of Master of Arts upon him in 1903. He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1900, and has served in important charges in Pennsylvania, New York and Missouri. At present he is in charge of Grace Meth- odist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Mary- land. He married, 1902, Gertrude, a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J. M. Larimore, of Greenfield, Indiana ; has two children -- Mary Florence and James Marcellus Lich-
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liter. 2. Alice Morris, who was graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Music, and was prominently engaged in musical work at Chautauqua and elsewhere. She married, 1905, A. Bradford Crooks, a mer- chant in Boise, Idaho.
SNYDER, J. Frank, Lawyer, Author.
John Franklin Snyder, of New York City, was born at Clearfield, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1855, and is a son of the late Henry Edward Snyder, of the same place.
Balthazer Snyder, of German parentage, who died at New Berlin, Union county, Pennsylvania, July 1, 1838, in the seventy- third year of his age, and Susanna, his wife, who died in 1845, in her eighty-third year, were his great-grandparents; and their son, David Snyder, who was born in Union (now Snyder) county, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 4, 1800, and died July 23, 1891, and Catharine, his wife, who was born Novem- ber 7, 1804, and died April 20, 1890, were his grandparents. They had seven sons and four daughters, of whom Henry Edward Snyder above-named was the eldest. Balth- azer Snyder and his son David were farm- ers, and the Balthazer Snyder homestead near New Berlin, Pennsylvania, is still owned and occupied by a son of David Snyder, who is also a farmer.
Henry Edward Snyder was born January 31, 1827, on the Balthazer Snyder home- stead, and learned the trade of carriage smithing, and located at Clearfield, Pennsyl- vania, in 1850, where he carried on his trade for about forty years, when he retired, en- joying the confidence and respect of the whole community until his death on January 14, 1906. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Evangelical Lutheran church at Clearfield. He married, April 24, 1854, Louisa McPherson, daughter of John Mc- Pherson and his wife Margaret. John Mc- Pherson was born July 23, 1808, in Center county, Pennsylvania, and died November 21, 1864, at Clearfield. His father, Thomas
McPherson, son of Joseph McPherson, of Center county, was born June 25, 1776, and died April 1, 1827, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. John McPherson was a tan- ner. Margaret McPherson, wife of John and a daughter of Benjamin Bloom, son of William Bloom, was born June 13, 1815, in Pike township, near Curwensville, Clear- field county, Pennsylvania, and died August 16, 1852, at Clearfield. Her father, Ben- jamin Bloom, was one of the first settlers in Clearfield county, having come there with his parents in 1800 from Center county, and was born December 31, 1790, and died Au- gust 13, 1878, in Pike township, Clearfield county. He married Sallie McClure, who was born October 20, 1792, and died Sep- tember 14, 1868.
J. Frank Snyder, as he is most familiarly known, was educated in the private and pub- lic schools of his native town; he attended the Clearfield Academy, and was graduated in 1876 from the Clearfield High School. In 1872 he was put at work in his father's carriage smithing shop, and worked there until the fall of 1874, and during his vaca- tions in 1875-76, until his graduation in 1876 from the Clearfield High School. He then entered the law office of the late Judge Augustus S. Landis, at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where he was admitted, April 25, 1878, to the Blair county bar. On June 18, 1878, after passing a second bar ex- amination, he was admitted to the Clearfield county bar, and on June 23, 1878, opened an office at Clearfield, his native town, where he practiced his profession until June 18, 1898. In 1883 the late Judge John H. Orvis, of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, re- signed his position as President Judge of the several courts of the judicial district composed of the counties of Center and Huntingdon, and formed a partnership with him, under the firm name of Orvis & Sny- der. The firm conducted a general law practice at Clearfield until October, 1893, when it was dissolved by the death of Judge Orvis.
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Mr. Snyder moved to New York City in June, 1898, and was admitted to the New York bar on August 13, 1898, and for several years acted as general counsel for the widely-known leather house of Fayer- weather & Ladew, and for the late Edward R. Ladew, and for the last seven years has been angaged in the general practice of law in New York City. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsyl- vania Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York County Lawyers Association. He is a member of the Lutheran Church, is identified with the Democratic party, and is a member of the National Democratic Club.
He is also a member of the National Geo- graphical Society, and of the Clearfield His- torical Society, and was a charter member of the Clearfield Law Library Association. He is the author of the chapter of the "Origin, Growth and Development of the Educational Interests and Institutions," in the "History of Clearfield County, Pennsyl- vania," D. Mason & Co., 1887; of the writ- ten part of "Clearfield County, Pennsyl- vania-One Hundred Years' Growth- 1804-March 26-1904;" of a booklet "Clearfield Alumni Association, Thirtieth Anniversary," published in 1913; and of historical and miscellaneous newspaper articles.
He was first married, October 10, 1885, at Clearfield, Pennsylvania, to Edith Ann Tate, a daughter of the late Hon. Aaron Chandler Tate, and his wife, Martha Jane Brown. Edith Ann Tate was born April 4. 1856, in Lawrence township, Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, and died March 14, 1894, at Clearfield. They had one son, Aaron Tate Snyder, of San Francisco, born January 4, 1887, and a son who died in infancy. Aaron Chandler Tate, son of Joshua Tate and Lydia Wilson, his wife, was born in Lawrence township, Clearfield county, and died December 24, 1880, at Clearfield; he served two terms of three
years each as prothonotary and clerk of the several courts of Clearfield county, and one term as a representative in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Joshua Tate, son of William Tate and Ann Nichols, his wife, was born June 1, 1801, and died March 8, 1864, on his farm in Lawrence township, Clearfield county ; and William Tate was born March 14, 1770, and resided in Chester and Center counties, and died April 24, 1834, at Clear- field. William Tate was one of the first settlers in Clearfield town, and a member of the first board of county commissioners of Clearfield county.
Mr. Snyder married Sarah Ann Patchin, at Clearfield, June 19, 1907. She is a daughter of the late Horace H. Patchin, and Sarah Ann Weaver, his wife, who was born December 27, 1818, at Sabbath Day Point, on Lake George, New York, and died December 23, 1885, at Burnside, Clearfield county. Horace H. Patchin was a merchant and manufacturer and dealer in lumber, and a descendant of Joseph Patchin, who settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, between 1633 and 1640, and who afterwards resided and died at Fairfield, Connecticut. Jacob Patchin, grandson of Joseph, married Abi- gail Cabel, daughter of John Cabel, of Fairfield, Connecticut, and had several chil- dren, among them a son Jabez Patchin, who married Hannah Squires, and resided at Wilton, Connecticut, where their son, Cap- tain Samuel Patchin, was born. In 1764 Jabez Patchin and his family left Wilton and eventually located at Milton, Saratoga county, New York. Jabez Patchin and his son, Captain Samuel Patchin, served in the Revolutionary War. Captain Samuel Patchin married Mary Hollister, and settled at Sabbath Day Point, on Lake George, New York, where they both died, and their son, John Patchin, and his wife Elizabeth Wright, were the father and mother of Horace H. Patchin above named. Sarah Weaver, wife of Horace H. Patchin was born May 20, 1822, at Bellefonte, Pennsyl- vania, and died March 10, 1907, at Clear-
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field. She was a daughter of Daniel Weaver and Mary Williams, his wife, who was a daughter of Captain Joshua Williams and Mary Dill, his wife, late of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Joshua Williams was a cap- tain in the Revolutionary War.
REAM, Norman Bruce, Soldier, Man of Large Affairs.
The antecedents of Norman Bruce Ream can be traced back to Andrew Ream, a German emigrant, who settled in Pennsyl- vania during the first half of the eighteenth century. He had a son, John Ream, who was a patriot soldier in the War for Amer- ican Independence, and Samuel Ream, his son, married Mary Rheims, who had issue.
Levi Ream, son of Samuel and Mary (Rheims) Ream, was born in 1816, in Som- erset county, Pennsylvania ; was a farmer who resided there until his death in July, 1902. He married Highley King, daughter of Jacob and Eva (Pringry) King, in Som- erset county, Pennsylvania. She was de- scended from English-Scotch ancestry, who came to New Jersey in Colonial days, and was the mother of several children, among them a son, whose sketch follows.
Norman Bruce Ream, son of Levi and Highley (King) Ream, was born November 5. 1844, in Somerset county, Pennsylvania. He attended the district schools of his na- tive county until he was fourteen years of age and then worked on his father's farm; taught school one term of four months, and traveled about the country making ambro- types, then a new improvement in photog- raphy, between terms of the Somerset County Normal School, which he attended until 1861, about three years altogether.
He enlisted November 12, 1861, in Com- pany H, 85th Pennsylvania Regiment, and served with it through several campaigns and many battles. He was promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant in December, 1862; to first lieutenant, May 1, 1863; was wounded at Whitmarsh Island, Georgia, February 22, 1864, and again at Petersburg,
Virginia, June 17, 1864; was discharged on account of wounds, August 31, 1864.
After leaving the army he clerked in a store at Harnedsville, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in 1864 and 1865; in 1866 he moved to Princeton, Illinois, where he con- ducted a general mercantile business. A year later he removed to Osceola, Iowa, where he remained until 1871. and con- ducted a general live-stock and grain busi- ness, in connection with farming. In 1871 he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he be- gan trading as commission merchant in grain and live-stock, in which he was very successful. Later he became an operator on the Chicago Board of Trade, and there laid the foundation of his fortune and sub- sequent career. In time he became in- terested in real estate and when, in 1886, he organized a syndicate to erect a large office building, it was suggested that the frame be made of steel, riveted together so as to form a bridge-like structure; and thus he authorized the construction of the first steel frame building in Chicago, known as the Old Rookery. He was one of the pro- moters in the formation of the National Biscuit Company, which company has achieved great success due to the introduc- tion of improved and scientific methods of baking and wrapping soda and other bis- cuits. He has also been interested in the Corn Products Company of Illinois; the Pullman Palace Car Company; and in the United States Steel Corporation, of which he is a member of its finance committee. He was interested in the reorganization of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Colo- rado Southern Railroad Company ; has also financed and built several systems of street railroads in different cities, and is largely interested in the First National Bank of Chicago. During recent years Mr. Ream has served on the directorates of many financial and commercial organizations. He is vice-president and director of the Central Safety Deposit Company of Chicago, Illi- nois ; director of the First National Bank of Chicago, Illinois; is likewise of the Secur-
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ities Company of New York; and trustee of the New York Trust Company. He is a director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company; the Chicago & Erie Railroad Company ; the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Day- ton Railway Company ; the Erie Railroad Company ; the Pere Marquette Railroad Company ; and the Seaboard Air Line Rail- way Company. He is a director of the United States Steel Corporation; the Pull- man company ; the National Biscuit Com- pany ; the Franco-American Association ; the Cumberland Corporation ; the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States ; the Fidelity-Phoenix Fire Insurance Company of New York; the Sussex Realty Company, and the Mount Hope Cemetery Association.
Mr. Ream married, February 19, 1876, at Madison, New York, Carrie Thompson, daughter of Dr. John and Elizabeth Put- nam ; she was born March 1, 1852, at Mad- ison, New York; is descended from a well known old New England family. Mr. and Mrs. Ream had children: 1. Marion B. Ream, born in Chicago, Illinois; married Redmond D. Stephens. 2. Frances M., born in Chicago; married John L. Kem- merer. 3. Norman P., born in Chicago. 4. Robert C., born in Chicago; married Mabel Wrightson. 5. Edward King, married Nellie Speed. 6. Louis Marshall.
Mr. Ream is an Independent in politics ; is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Arts; and of the Illinois Commandery of the Loyal Legion. In Chicago he is a mem- ber of the Chicago Club; and in New York of the Union Club, the Art, the Metropol- itan, the New York Yacht, and the South Side Club, besides a number of other social and recreation clubs. .
MOSIER, Frank C.,
Lawyer, Man of Affairs.
Frank C. Mosier, prominently identified with the professional progressive, industrial
and business interests of Pittston, Pennsyl- vania, was born October 8, 1846, on the paternal farm in Pittston township, son of Daniel Dimmick and Elizabeth Ann ( Ward) Mosier.
His great-grandfather, John Moeser (the original form of the family name), was a native of Germany, and came to America prior to the Revolution, settling in North- ampton county, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in Captain Abraham Miller's company of Colonel William Thompson's battalion of riflemen. His name appears on the roll of Captain Craig's company, Ist Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line; and as John Mosier on the roll of same company before June, 1777, and afterwards on that of Cap- tain Simpson's company of same regiment, Colonel Edward Hand commanding. He was with the troops who assembled under Washington at Cambridge, Massachusetts ; served on Long Island; took part in the battle of Monmouth; was with "Mad An- thony" Wayne at Stony Point; and under the same general in the Georgia campaign. After this long and creditable service he returned to Northampton county, where he made an admirable record for industry and thrift, becoming owner of fifty acres of land surveyed to him January 23, 1785, and 400 acres, July 12, same year. His children were ungratefully deprived of the back pay due him for his military services.
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