USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. VII > Part 17
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ly. He finished that road, and com- menced shipping coal in the spring of 1838, continuing in the employ of the Hazleton Railroad and Coal Company as their superintendent until 1840, when he commenced business as a coal operator, which he continued to the time of his death, also engaging to a considerable extent in iron and lumber.
He founded the Pardee Scientific De- partment at Lafayette College, giving in various sums and at various times ap- proximately $500,000. He died at Or- monde, Florida, March 26, 1892.
Of his sons, the eldest, Ario Pardee, Jr., was graduated as a civil engineer from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and at the outbreak of the Civil War en- listed as captain of Company A, Twenty- eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- teers, resigning at its close in 1865 as commander of a brigade in General Sher- man's army. He died in 1898.
Calvin, the second son, graduated from Rensselaer Institute also, and enlisted at the outbreak of the Civil War, but was invalided home in 1862 with typhoid fever, and after many years engaged in coal mining, has now retired from active business.
The third son, Israel Platt, was gradu- ated from Lafayette College in 1874, and is now president of the Hazleton Na- tional Bank at Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Barton, the fourth son, is a retired lum- berman.
The fifth son, Frank, graduated from Lafayette College in 1879, and is engaged in the coal mining business at Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
SHOEMAKER, Levi I., M. D., Physician, Hospital Official.
Far from the land of his birth and the scenes of the activities of his useful life, Dr. Shoemaker passed to the care of the
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Levi I. Showmaker
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Great Physician, but neither time nor distance can dim the memory of that kindly, courteous gentleman who was so dear to all who knew him.
Dr. Shoemaker was the sixth child of Lazarus D. and Esther Waller (Wad- hams) Shoemaker, of Wilkes-Barre, grandson of Colonel Elijah Shoemaker, and great-grandson of Lieutenant Elijah Shoemaker, of Wyoming, lieutenant of the Twenty-fourth Regiment Connecticut Militia, who was murdered by Windecker in cold blood at the Wyoming Massacre, July 3, 1778, after the action was over. He was also a descendant of Colonel Nathan Denison, colonel of the Twenty- fourth Connecticut Regiment, who com- manded the left wing at Wyoming under Colonel Zebulon Butler on that fatal July 3rd. Colonel Denison's daughter, Eliza- beth S., was the wife of Colonel Elijah Shoemaker to whom she was married in 1800. Dr. Shoemaker also traced descent to Hendrick Jochem Schoonmaker, of the Dutch family of New York who came to New York in the military service of Hol- land in 1655. The line of descent is through the founder's son, Jochem Hen- drickse Schoonmaker, an original settler of Rochester, New York; his son, Benja- min Schoonmaker, an early settler in the province of Pennsylvania, and one of the pioneers of the Wyoming region ; his son, Lieutenant Elijah Shoemaker, the "Wyo- ming Martyr"; his son, Colonel Elijah Shoemaker, sheriff of Luzerne county and colonel of militia ; his son, Lazarus Denison Shoemaker, A. B., Yale, class of 1840, member of Congress, and most con- spicuous in the financial and industrial development of the Wyoming Valley, a lawyer of high repute, and a tireless worker for philanthropy, charity and the church. He married, October 10, 1848, Esther Waller Wadhams, daughter of Samuel and Clorinda Starr (Catlin) Wad- hams.
Levi Ives Shoemaker was born at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, September 28, 1859, and died at Bad Nauheim, Ger- many, September 27, 1909. He prepared in private school in Wilkes-Barre, and Hopkin's Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut, then entered Yale Univer- sity, whence he was graduated Bachelor of Arts, class of '82. Choosing medicine as his profession, he entered the Medical Department of the University of Penn- sylvania, receiving his degree of M.D., in the class of '86. He began the practice of his profession in Wilkes-Barre as junior resident-physician at the City Hos- pital, and during the following two years gained experience there and at the Penn- sylvania and University hospitals in Philadelphia. In May, 1888, he began private practice in Wilkes-Barre, but was ever connected with hospital work. From 1890 until 1908 he was a member of the medical staff of the City Hospital, and from 1899 to 1909 consultant to the Mercy Hospital; was physician to the Luzerne County Humane Society; and the Wilkes-Barre Home for Friendless Children; and surgeon to the Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey Central railroads.
From 1902 until 1909 he was a member of the board of trustees of the State Asylum at Danville; member of the Lu- zerne County Medical Society, 1888-1909, and its president in 1904; member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Medicine. He joined the Wyoming Historical and Geo- logical Society in 1894, and in 1905 was elected its vice-president. His business relations were with the Second National Bank, which he served as a director from 1895, and with the Spring Brook Water Company, of which he was a director from 1893 to 1896.
Through his patriotic ancestry he gained membership in the Pennsylvania
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Society Sons of the Revolution. His fra- ternity was Delta Kappa Epsilon and Wolf's Head of Yale; his clubs, the Graduates of New Haven, the Westmore- land and Country of Wilkes-Barre. In religious preference he was a Presby- terian, in politics a Republican.
Dr. Shoemaker ever retained a deep in- terest in Yale, and in his will devised a remainder interest in practically his en- tire estate, to the Medical Department of the University. In 1909 he went abroad and in Germany was fatally stricken. The following tributes to his memory voice the sentiment of all who knew him.
Resolution adopted by Luzerne County Medical Society, on the death of Dr. Levi Ives Shoemaker, September 27, 1909:
He became a member of this Society, Sep- tember 5th, 1888, and served as president for the year 1904. He was a regular attendant at our meetings, always showed a great interest in the welfare of the Society, and was a fre- quent contributor to the library. He was also a member of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, the American Academy of Medicine, and the American Medical Associa- tion. He was noted for his devoted services to the poor of this Valley and was universally beloved by them.
His winning smile and cheerful manner made him dear to all. He was honest in giving his opinion. Generous in impulse and a true gentle- man. His death came as a great shock to all his friends although his health had been im- paired for the past few years.
We deeply mourn his death and extend our heartfelt sympathy to his wife and family.
Resolutions adopted by the Second National Bank, of Wilkes-Barre, Penn- sylvania :
Resolved, That the following resolution upon the death of Dr. Levi Ives Shoemaker be ap- proved and accepted:
The directors of this bank record with deep sorrow the death of Dr. Levi Ives Shoemaker which occurred at Bad. Nauheim, Germany, September 27, 1909.
Dr. Shoemaker and his father, before him
were identified in a business way with the bank ever since its organization in 1863.
He was elected as director in 1893 and served as such, continuously, until his death. His care- ful and conservative business judgment was always at the service of the institution, and in his nnostentatious way he was always vigilant in caring for and guarding the trusts committed to him.
Although of a retiring nature, he was kind and courteous to those with whom he came in contact, and made of them sincere friends who will greatly mourn his early taking off.
Dr. Shoemaker married, November 27, 1889, Cornelia Walker Scranton, who survives him. She is a daughter of Joseph Hand Scranton and his second wife, Cor- nelia Walker, a daughter of Judge Wil- liam Walker, of Lenox, Massachusetts. Mrs. Shoemaker descends from John Scranton, who came from Kent, England, to Guilford, Connecticut, in 1639, his de- scendants founding the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Shoemaker's life ended in its prime and at the very height of his usefulness. His professional ability was recognized as of the highest, and in the sterling qual- ity of his manhood there was no flaw. Short as was his life, it was filled with good deeds, worthy of emulation.
SHOEMAKER, George, Man of Exalted Character.
George Shoemaker, descendant of one of the original colonists of the Hudson River settlement, was born at Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1844. He was never extensively connected with the larger business enterprises of the Wyo- ming Valley, nor was he known to the community at large through commercial activities or political associations. He was regarded among a large circle of relatives and friends as one whose inter- ests were centered in his home, and in the chosen companionships of years,
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Georges thormatter
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whose word was sacred, and whose up- rightness and characteristic courtesy, with their cognate qualities, had fused har- moniously into a nature both charming and altogether winning. His tastes were domestic and simple, his nature genial, and all combined to suggest in him a personality which his friends were fond of describing as "a gentleman of the old school." He was held dear among those who knew him best, and was thoroughly appreciated by all who understood his refined and cultivated traits. To these friends he, in turn, gave a full measure of loyalty and devotion. He was pre- pared in the liberal arts course for col- lege, but at this point he turned to the study of law, rather more, as it came about, for the extension of his own mental equipment, than with the intention of active practice. His law reading, how- ever, enabled him to intelligently and ably care for his own private interests, and the leisure he gained in escaping a business routine he devoted to the pur- suits congenial to his tastes.
George Shoemaker was descended from Dutch ancestors. Hendrick Joachim Schoonmacher, the founder of the Amer- ican family, came to these shores from Amsterdam, Holland, in 1655, and as a representative of the Dutch East India Company. His descendants have gradu- ally extended over much of the United States, and many of this branch of the family, carrying the name in various altered forms, have been men of large accomplishment and of eminent position in all walks of life.
Benjamin Schoonmacher, grandson of Joachim, came to the Wyoming Valley from the Hudson River district well be- fore the Revolution. A great-grandson of Benjamin, Elijah Shoemaker, and great-grandfather of George Shoemaker of this writing, gave his life to his coun-
try. Others of the family connection en- dured their share of the Colonial hard- ships and of the Revolutionary perils. Benjamin Schoonmacher, grandson of the American founder of the family, mar- ried Elizabeth Depuy, of Huguenot de- scent. The father of George Shoemaker, himself named George, was prominent among the earlier coterie of engineers who surveyed the rich lands of the Wyo- ming Valley, and who extended their operations into the mountains which were at that time, as they had long been, favorite haunts of Indian hunters.
Early in the nineteenth century the old Shoemaker homestead was built at Forty Fort, at about the time that Thomas Jef- ferson was elected as third President of the United States. In this old home- stead there lived continuously five gen- erations of the family, and thus it became an historic landmark, as it remains at this writing (1916). It was here that George Shoemaker, whose career is traced in these pages, was born. The line of descent from Hendrick Joachim Schoon- macher was through Joachim (2) Hend- rick Schoonmacher, also of the Hudson river settlements; his son Benjamin, founder of the family in the Wyoming Valley, and who married Elizabeth Depuy, the Huguenot ; his son, Lieuten- ant Elijah Shoemaker, born 1752, who as an officer of the Wyoming company at- tached to the Connecticut line dared the British and Indians at the battle of Wyo- ming against overwhelming odds, and who was killed in action that day, July 3, 1778; his son Elijah (2) who like his father and grandfather lived at Forty Fort homestead and in turn passed it on to his son George, the civil engineer and prominent business man.
George (2) Shoemaker, son of George and Rebecca W. (Jones) Shoemaker, was born in the old homestead as already
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stated. He was educated at the Presby- terian Institute, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and at Freehold (New Jersey) Academy. On completion of his college preparatory course he read law with his uncle, Laza- rus Denison Shoemaker, an eminent law- yer of Luzerne county, and was in due time admitted to the bar. He never fol- lowed active practice. At Forty Fort, surrounded by neighboring friends, and having a wide acquaintance among the prominent families of the valley, he spent his days, many of them in the quiet com- panionship of his beloved books, and in the benign influences of the culture he so naturally assimilated and so largely ac- quired. He gave many years to active interest in, and service as trustee and member, of the Kingston Presbyterian church. And though he was among the humblest of believers, and chary of ad- vancing personal religious experience, his character showed throughout the years the ennobling influences of his re- ligious principles. His home was among those that perpetuated the reputation of the historic Wyoming Valley for the genius of hospitality among its people.
He had a reasonable pride in the asso- ciation of his family with the stressful periods of American history. In July, 1900, he became a member of the Sons of the Revolution-an order formed to memorialize the deeds of honored sires, and to make potential in the latter days the heroism and sacrifice of the fathers. He gained admission to the Sons through two ancestral lines, being a grandson both of Lieutenant Elijah Shoemaker, mentioned above, and of Colonel Nathan Denison, born 1742, died 1809, of the Twenty-fourth Regiment Connecticut Militia, and commander of the left wing at the battle of Wyoming. It was Colo- nel Denison who, with the commander of the British and Indians, arranged the
articles of capitulation of Forty Fort. These articles assured to the Americans a surrender with the honors of war, and protection for the women and children. But the agreement was ruthlessly trav- ersed, and the terrible massacre of the helpless after the surrender, darkens one of the most pitiful pages of American history. The sacrifice was not however in vain, for on hearing of the savage and atrocious cruelty, public opinion in Eng- land was arrayed against the ministry, and against a further prosecution of the war.
Mr. Shoemaker married, October 10, 1872, Anne Elizabeth, daughter of John Dorrance and Martha A. (Goodwin) Hoyt, of Kingston, the Hoyt forbears hav- ing been among the early settlers of the Wyoming Valley. He died suddenly in the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital, Febru- ary 3, 1910.
So passed the life of one whom many recall as a friend of tried and true quality, and as a man of exalted character. The remembrance of him is woven through with gratitude for his many virtues, his uprightness, his loyalty to family and community associations, and for the im- mediate response that could ever be ex- pected of him to every obligation laid upon the man of heart and conscience. He used his ample means as a trust, and to contribute to the happiness of those about, rather than to centre the oppor- tunities thereof on mere selfish gratifica- tion. He rests in Forty Fort cemetery beside many of his kith and kin, and in an acre long associated with the departed of an ancient and honorable family.
SHOEMAKER, Charles Jones, Estimable Citizen.
The subject of this writing was the bearer of an historic name, a name that had its intimate association with the
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earlier colonial life of this country, and that has been prominently known through the various stages of American history. Many of this descent have been active and useful men and women, generous sharers in religious, political, and social life, wherever they have fared. Charles J. Shoemaker represented in himself much of the personal quality of those who had learned their life's lesson in the school of strenuous endeavor. The Shoe- makers were among the earliest blazers of the trail, and tillers of the soil. They had no inconsiderable share in the wars of the Nation, and they have consistently assumed and have borne with dignity and in honor the burdens and responsi- bilities of the individual citizen.
Charles Shoemaker (brother of George Shoemaker, whose biography and ances- try are elsewhere sketched in these pages) was descended from Hendrick Joachim Schoonmacher, who came from Holland to New Amsterdam (New York) in 1655, as representative of the East India company. His grandson Benjamin journeyed from the Hudson River settle- ments to Pennsylvania well before the Revolution. He married Elizabeth Depuy, of Huguenot descent. (For the ancestral chain see sketch of George Shoemaker).
The original Shoemaker estate in the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, included an entire square mile of fertile acres, ex- tending from the Susquehanna river on the east to the mountains on the west, and closely adjoining the venerated spot where the dread scenes of the Massacre of Wyoming were enacted July 3, 1778, and the night following. In fact the heroic band sallying forth from the old stockade at Forty Fort to meet the sav- age invaders traversed the Shoemaker lands. On this original estate five gener- ations of the family were born, down to
and including both George and Charles J. Shoemaker, and a part of this area is still in possession of the Shoemaker heirs.
This spot in the storied Wyoming Val- ley has naturally held its charm for the family descendants, inasmuch as Elijah Shoemaker, great-grandfather of Charles, was among the victims who fell in the earlier hours of the battle at Wyoming. And it was another ancestor, Colonel Na- than Denison, who in that battle-called massacre, because of the hideous cruelties visited upon the American captives- commanded the left wing of the out- numbered Americans. The original Denison lands adjoined the Shoemaker estate on the north.
Elijah Shoemaker's son, also named Elijah, built the Shoemaker homestead, about 1810, on the estate, and bordering the old road called Wyoming avenue, at first a trail connecting the Susquehanna river settlements. The ancient house, practically unchanged as to exterior or interior, is still standing, in excellent pres- ervation (1916).
Charles J. Shoemaker was born on the old estate December 5, 1847. He died September 1, 1915. His father and mother were George Shoemaker, Sr., and Rebecca W. Shoemaker.
He was prepared for Williams College, but was unable to follow out his desire of university training because of an affec- tion of the eyes which demanded particu- lar care as to their use. Yet he never ceased to be a student, and his knowl- edge of the world's literature and of men and things was continually translated into a vital force of culture which inured to his own serenity of mind, and made him always a notable personality in the association among people of acquirement and taste. His education was augmented also and to a certain extent moulded, by extensive and frequent travel in all parts
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of the world. A particular development of his observation was his appreciation and enjoyment of the best in pictorial art. In his later years, through the attention required in business concerns, he became a recognized authority on finance and investment, in which his well stored and wonderfully retentive memory served.
Though his bent had always been man- ifested in following the world's exalted thought, and though his mental attain- ments were proverbial among his fellows and easily recognized by the casual ac- quaintance, his personality was impressed upon the community in attributes which are esteemed, in ultimate analysis of character, beyond mere mentality. He was in the best sense, without taste for controversy or the least suspicion of cant, a religious man. For many years of his life he was actively concerned in the in- terests of the First Presbyterian Church of Kingston. His bequests to charities and benevolences indicated a man in whom the impulse to good living and right thinking had proceeded from the depths of a wholesome altruism.
Further than this, the graces of his character, the essential guilelessness of his mind, the personal value he gave to associations among men, endeared him to his friends and advanced him high in the estimate of the community. To a mind well stored he added the charm of a strong and ingratiating character-a character swayed by idealism, persuaded by the softening influences of religion and of humanity. Here was a type of man ever dependable, whose word was as strong as his signature, a man to whom truth was an instinct and honor a shib- boleth. Ever courteous and kindly, in- variably consistent and thoughtful, his name stood for qualities that the modern world is like to ascribe as among the ster- ling attributes of the fathers. The glory
of American tradition was strong in him, and he was qualified, in the balance and blend of his traits, to convey to the younger generation the best of what has been taught and sought in the pioneer days of American struggle. Like his brother, George Shoemaker, he was a member of the Sons of the Revolution, and identified with many of the associa- tions that attract the man of social in- tinct and business sagacity. He held for many years a directorate in the Miners' Bank of Wilkes-Barre.
He rests in old Forty Fort cemetery among those of his name, who, in their day, gave a large response to the call of duty and of responsibility.
REYNOLDS, Abram H., Man of Enterprise.
The pioneer of the Reynolds family in Pennsylvania was William Reynolds, who was born near the close of the seven- teenth century in Kingstown, Rhode Island. He was fourth in descent from William Reynolds, who is presumed to have been originally from Gloucester- shire, England, and then of Bermuda, whence he immigrated about 1629 to Salem, in the Puritan colony of Massa- chusetts Bay. He was a member of the First Church of Salem, Massachusetts, under the ministry of its aged pastor, Samuel Skelton, and of his successor, Roger Williams, with whom he was asso- ciated in the early settlement of and founding of Providence Plantations. In 1637 he was one of the signers of the "Compact," and in July, 1640, signed with thirty-eight others at Providence an agreement for a form of government, a royal charter being granted four years later for the incorporation of the Provi- dence Plantations. William Reynolds became prominent in the affairs of the
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little colony, and owned considerable land within its borders. In 1646 he sold his Providence possessions and moved to Kingstown, Rhode Island, where a few years later he died.
James (1) Reynolds, son of William Reynolds, the founder, and Deborah Rey- nolds, was born about 1625, and took a prominent part in boundary conflicts be- tween the adjoining colonies, and in May, 1677, was carried off by a Connecticut party and for a time imprisoned at Hart- ford. He held several important public offices, and owned considerable land in Kingstown and East Greenwich. He died at Kingstown, Rhode Island, in 1702.
James (2) Reynolds, son of James (1) and Deborah Reynolds, was born in Kingstown, Rhode Island, October 28, 1650. He married, February 19, 1685, Mary Greene, daughter of James and De- liverance (Potter) Greene and grand- daughter of John and Joan (Tattersall) Greene, of Warwick, Rhode Island, the Potters, Greenes and Tattersalls, all dis- tinguished Rhode Island families.
William Reynolds, of the fourth Amer- ican generation, son of James (2) and Mary (Greene) Reynolds, was born about 169-, at Kingstown, Rhode Island, died at Plymouth, Pennsylvania, in 1792. He was antedated in the Wyoming Valley a few months by his son Benjamin. He and his son David came in 1769. Under the distribution plan adopted by the Sus- quehanna Company, William Reynolds was assigned to Plymouth, and in the spring of 1772 he established his home within the limits of the present borough of Plymouth, Luzerne county, Pennsyl- vania. Later he acquired other lands in the same township by purchase, and at the time of his death possessed a large amount of real estate. In 1777, although of great age, he enrolled in the "Alarm List," Third Company, Twenty-fourth
Regiment, Connecticut militia, and with his company took part in the battle of Wyoming, his youngest son, William Reynolds, Jr., being killed in the battle. When the retreat of the Americans be- gan, William Reynolds, Sr., escaped from the bloody field with a comrade, saw later service, then retired from the Val- ley until the Revolutionary War and the "Second Pennamite-Yankee War" were over. In 1785 he returned to his home in Plymouth. He married, September 18, 1729, Deborah Greene, daughter of Ben- jamin and Humility (Coggeshall) Greene, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
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