USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. VII > Part 32
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expert. Although belonging to the younger generation of professional men, Mr. Carman is exceptionally experienced, having been associated with large enter- prises from his youth.
Mr. Carman was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and received his early education in the public schools, afterwards attending Grove City College and then studying for his profession at the West Virginia University, where he completed the law course in 1906. He was admitted to practice at the Pitts- burgh bar, December 15. 1906, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, October 15, 1907, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, November 11, 1912.
The fact that it was necessary for Mr. Carman to work his way through college gave him an advantage which falls to the lot of every youth so situated, though not to all with the same fullness of oppor- tunity with which it came to him-the advantage of learning at the same time from books and from life. While a student, Mr. Carman was employed as stenographer by various large interests, including the law firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw & Beal, of Pittsburgh; the Credit Department of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company ; and as sec- retary to W. B. Storey, Jr., then chief engineer of the Santa Fe railway system, now vice-president of that system. The experience thus gained must have been of inestimable value to the young man, and that his natural ability had enabled him to profit by it in no ordinary measure was apparent from the outset of his career.
From 1906 to 1909, Mr. Carman was associated with the law firm of Blakeley & Calvert, of Pittsburgh, devoting his time largely to the practice of corporation law in all courts, and rising by dint of thorough equipment and intense applica- tion into well-deserved prominence.
From 1909 to the present time he has practiced alone.
In 1912-13, Mr. Carman traveled abroad for six months in Europe and South America, making a study of foreign bank- ing systems. On his return he became assistant to the head of the French-Amer- ican Bank, of Wall street, New York, and remained in that position until the bank went into liquidation. Mr. Carman then returned to Pittsburgh and shortly after- wards was made receiver of the High Grade Oil Companies and the Virginian Coal Company, by appointment of the Federal Courts in Pittsburgh, New York and West Virginia.
Mr. Carman is a frequent contributor to financial periodicals, and an occasional lecturer on financial topics. His insight into financial problems is well illustrated by the fact that he was the first man to publicly advocate important measures in the development of the Federal Reserve banking system which were afterwards adopted by the Federal Reserve Board and the National Association of Credit Men. These measures were suggested by Mr. Carman in an article entitled "The Change in Credit Methods Made Neces- sary by the Federal Reserve Act," which was published in the "Commercial and Financial Chronicle," of New York, April 24, 1915, later appeared in pamphlet form, and soon found a permanent place in financial literature in the libraries of the American Bankers Association and of all Federal Reserve Banks.
In the mentality of Mr. Carman, the legal mind and the mind of the financier are harmoniously blended and this com- bination has impressed upon his suc- cesses a stamp of singular distinction. Deeply read in the law and in finance, with an accurate conception of business psychology and a marvelous memory, he possesses rare skill in the application of
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his knowledge and an insight into char- acter which enables him to penetrate all disguises and renders it well nigh impos- sible for him to be taken by surprise. These attributes are well understood by the public and the profession and have caused him to be regarded as a very for- midable antagonist.
Although deeply absorbed in his work, Mr. Carman is actively interested in public affairs that make for civic progress and improvement. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, and serves on its finance and banking committee, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Carman is a man of valiant fidelity, a true friend, and possesses the faculty of inspiring loyal attachment in others. His appearance is, perhaps, best described by the simple recital of what he has accom- plished, for his face and bearing show him to be a man who has done what is recorded of him and indicate that his present achievements are only a begin- ning.
(The Carman Line).
The Carman family is one of the oldest of the Anglo-Saxon race. Its authentic ancestry, based on official records, begins in the English nobility of the reign of Edward the Confessor (A. D. 1042), but the name appears in the Anglo-Saxon chronicles in the time of Alfred the Great (A. D. 871-901), in the genealogies of the Bishops of Mercia (A. D. 670-796) and is mentioned by Bede, the first historian of England. The following is a condensed chart of the ancestral line of Earle Park Carman from A. D. 1042 to the date of his birth :
(1) John Carman, holding a lordship in Surrey, A. D. 1042, and holding the same A. D. 1085-86, as per records in Domesday Book. (2) John Carman of Surrey, in the list of Sir Knights Crusad-
ers of the English Contingent of the First Crusade, A. D. 1096. (3) John, 1125, holds same lands in Surrey. (4) Wil- liam, 1149, son of preceding, holds same lands and manor. (5) William, 1171, son of preceding, is in the Battle Abbey Char- ters. (6) Thomas, 1199, son of preced- ing, in same records. (7) John, 1224, in Cinque Port Records, and his son, (8) Henry, 1254, in same records of Harwich and Herts county. (9) Henry, who is clearly traced as son of preceding, is in the so-called second historic census of England, A. D. 1273, the Rotuli Hun- dredorum, or Hundred Rolls. He holds a manor and desmesnes at Hemel Hemp- stead, and is also referred to as Henry Carman and "Matilda his wife." (10) William, 1299, who succeeds as heir, who has (II) William, born 1325, who has (12) John, born 1354, who has (13) John, born 1378, who by wife Ann Stratford has a son (14) Henry, born 1404, who succeeds to the estate as only surviving heir. His son (15) Thomas, born 1430, has (16) Thomas, born 1459, who has (17) John, born 1482, who among others has (18) Thomas, born 1517; William, born (?), both Puritan leaders and both burned at the stake at Norwich, William in 1557 and Thomas in 1558. With the latter in the same fire was William Sea- man, of Mendelsham in Norfolk. Soon after a daughter of William Carman be- came the wife of a son of the martyr, William Seaman. (See Bloomfield's "History of Norfolk;" Neal's "Puritan Martyrs," etc).
Thomas Carman, the martyr of 1558 (born 1517) had three sons : (19) Thomas, born 1539, died 1548, (19) John, born 1541; (19) Henry, born 1547.
Of these, Henry, born 1547, had Henry, who had Henry, born 1597, who in 1620 went to Virginia in the ship "Duty." (See Hotton's "Original Lists of Immigrants from 1600 to 1700"). Also
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see account of him in "Makers of the Nation."
We resume the lineage with (18) Thomas, born 1517, who had (19) John, born 1541, who had (20) John, born 1563, who had (21) John, born 1584, who was the father of
(22) John Carman, the Puritan ances- tor of Plymouth Colony, who in 1631 came in the ship "Lyon," and was of Lynn, where in 1632 he had by wife Flor- ence (daughter of Rev. Robert Fordham) a son John and (1634) a daughter Abigail. Next of Wethersfield, Colony of Connec- ticut, and in 1641 one of the original patentees of Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1643, with his father-in-law, of the committee who negotiated the purchase of about 120,000 acres of land on Long Island, extending from Long Island Sound to the Atlantic ocean, of the Rockaway and Merrick tribes of Indians. In 1644 this purchase was confirmed to himself (John Carman) and six other Englishmen. Of these, one was the noted Captain John Seaman, who in 1641 was co-patentee of Stamford. In 1644 John Carman was one of the first five families that settled on this patent-all but one of the families being of or from Hemel Hempstead, England, and the settlement was named Hempstead (originally "New Hempstead") and the first child born in the settlement was Caleb, son of John and Florence Carman.
We now resume the lineage with
(I) John Carman, who came in the "Lyon" in 1631 and who is first of the American lineage. His son
(II) John, born in Lynn, 1632, mar- ried Hannah, daughter of Captain John Seaman. He had
(III) John, born in Hempstead, Long Island, 1656, who by wife Mary, daughter of Simon and Mary Cooper, had
(IV) William, born in Jamaica, Long
Island, in 1680, who by wife, Ann Den- ton, had
(V) Elijah, born in Jamaica, in 1705, who by wife, Elizabeth Bloodgood, had sons Elijah, William, Joshua, Jonathon, Daniel, Nathaniel, Thomas, Caleb and Jehiel. Elijah (V) served in the French and Indian War in Northern New York and at its close removed with his family to Monmouth county, New Jersey, where was born, April 21, 1768.
(VI) Jehiel, who came with other colonists to Western Pennsylvania in 1784, where he settled in what is now Washington county, and later in life ac- quired by patent from the Common- wealth a large tract of land, some of which has remained in the family name to the present time (1915). Four of his older brothers, Elijah, Nathaniel, Daniel and Thomas, served in the patriot army during the Revolution in the famous First Batallion of the First Regiment of the Continental Line of New Jersey, all credited to the quota of Monmouth county. Another brother, Jonathan, was in the First Regiment of the New York Continental Line and was killed at the battle of Long Island.
In 1795, Jehiel married Margaret Near- ing, of Washington county, Pennsyl- vania. He had sons Elijah, Daniel, Jona- thon, Joseph, Enoch and William Cooper. In the latter part of his life, he moved to Jefferson county, Ohio, where he acquir- ed other lands and died in 1855.
(VII) Elijah, eldest son of Jehiel and Margaret (Nearing) Carman, was born in what is now Independence township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 20, 1797, where he lived during practically all of his lifetime of ninety years. He married Eleanor, daughter of William and Margaret Richardson, also of Washington county, Pennsylvania. He left surviving, sons William, Jona-
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thon, Jehiel and Louis Wetzel, and four daughters.
(VIII) Louis Wetzel, youngest son of Elijah and Eleanor (Richardson) Car- man, was born in what is now Inde- pendence township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, August 11, 1841. On April 4, 1872, he married Rebecca J. (born March 15, 1850), daughter of John and Elizabeth Buckey, of Brooke county, West Virginia. To this union eight chil- dren were born, two of whom died in early youth and six of whom survive (1915), namely : Maude C., wife of Rev. R. W. Adair, of the Minnesota M. E. Confer- ence; Nellie C., wife of Prof. Frank W. Rineohl, of Larimore, North Dakota; Charles Strickler, of Chicago, Illinois; Ernest Clark, of the Minneapolis (Min- nesota) bar; Carl Buckey, of East Liver- pool, Ohio; and the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Carman died January 2, 1889, and Mr. Carman (Louis W.) now resides with his daughter, Mrs. Rineohl. (IX) Earle Park, son of Louis W. and Rebecca (Buckey) Carman, was born in Independence township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, March 28, 1880.
Ancestral History and Records.
The above chart, down to the Penn- sylvania line, is taken from "American Families of Historic Lineage, Long Island Edition," published in 1915 by the National Americana Society (New York), and from the genealogical records of the Long Island Historical Society, Brook- lyn, New York, and the Public Library of New York City. In the first mentioned work numerous records and authorities are cited and in it appears ancestral his- tory from which the following is taken:
In the lists of names of persons entered in Domesday Book, "holding lands in the time of King Edward the Confessor" (A. D. 1041-64) we find a John Seaman and a John Carman, living in the County of
Surrey, where the respective families were "possessed of domains, manors, and others of forms of properties of that time" (1042) and with this year the authentic records and tracings of these families be- gin. There is no mention of either name in the Domesday records of any of the other counties embraced therein. Both names, however, appear much earlier in the annals of Britain. Carman is in the genealogies of the Bishops of Mercia, 670-796, and is mentioned by Bede, the first historian of England. It is also found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in the time of Alfred the Great, 871-901. Seaman also appears in these early rec- ords. These data bring both names very near to the beginnings of Saxon rule in England in the fifth century, and also indicate that both families must have been of the leading and influential fam- ilies for some time prior to 1042, as also in 1085-86, the years in which the Domes- day Book census was taken, by order of William the Conqueror. This precious historical document, or census, is still preserved in the British Museum. That both families were of consequence is also shown by the Domesday entries, "John" Carman and "John" Seaman-both hav- ing a first or Christian name in the time of the Confessor (1042) and which was something very unusual at this period. "It is impossible," says Arthur ("Christ- ian and Family Names, Their Origins and Meanings") "to state at what precise period names became stationary, or began to descend hereditarily in baptismal form." According to Camden, Sur (or Sir) names with a first of Christian name prefix began to be taken up in France just before A. D. 1000 and in England just before the beginning of the reign of the Confessor, A. D. 1042.
In the Domesday Records of 1085-86 both are entered as "holding lordships in
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Surrey in 1042" and this seems to imply that the John Seaman and the John Car- man of 1085-86 were the same individuals of record in 1042. Neither of the names appear in the Domesday records of any of the other counties. In 1096 we find a John Seaman and a John Carman in the list of "Sir Knyghtes Crusaders" of "the First Holie War," and as neither name is found in the records of any county but Surrey we are justified in assuming these as descendants of the Carman and Sea- man holding lordships 1085-86 and 1042.
In the thirteenth century we find the main or parent line of Carmans in the second historic census of England in the time of Edward the First-the Rotuli Hundredorum, or Hundred Rolls, A. D. 1273, and recorded as owners of desmes- nes, manors and properties at Hemel Hempstead. Henry Carman is the re- corded owner of these properties and ac- cording to the same records his wife was Matilda. In the next and following cen- turies the Carmans are of record as hold- ing the same domains and manors at Hemel Hempstead.
The Hemel Hempstead domains and manor of 1273 descended from Henry and "Matilda, his wife," from generation to generation, from sire to son, and then in the fourteenth generation from Henry and Matilda, and 333 years from the census record of 1273, in the year 1606, an event occurred of preeminent interest in the annals of the Carman family of this country. In this year, 1606, as the official records show, there was born in Hemel Hempstead, John Carman, the Pilgrim Father who came in the ship "Lyon" in 1631, the Puritan ancestor of the Amer- ican family of the name. A year prior among those who came in the "Win- throp Fleet" was a John Seaman, the Captain John Seaman of historic fame, as set forth in the history of the Seaman family, and with this John Seaman of
1630 and John Carman of 1631 begins an- other series of remarkable coincidences- the American series, so to speak.
The county histories and various refer- ence authorities named at the close of this chapter contain the more or less ex- tended details of the Carman lineage from Henry Carman of 1273 and on.
John Carman, first of the American line, died in Hempstead, Long Island, in 1653. A chair brought by him in the ship "Lyon" in 1631 is now in the possession of Dr. Albro Carman, of New York City (1915).
Coat-of-arms-There seems to be some doubt as to the exact form of the coat-of- arms of the ancient British family, and the American descendants differ in opin- ion concerning it. The coat-of-arms accepted as authentic by Bliss Carman, the Canadian poet, and other Canadian descendants of John and Florence Car- man and some of the present family of Long Island, is: A castle surmounting a helmet, and with it the motto, Dieu en avant (God and forward). This coat-of- arms is said to date from the First Crusade, A. D. 1096.
SHOEMAKER, Lazarus D., Lawyer, Financier, Legislator.
Of all the descendants of Hendrick Jochemse Schoonmaker, the Dutch founder of the Wyoming Valley Shoe- maker family, none more worthily has borne the name during the two and a half centuries of its American residence than Lazarus Denison Shoemaker, eminent lawyer, legislator, and Congressman. Had he consulted his personal wishes and cast aside the call of duty and the solici- tation of friends, political and personal, "eminent lawyer" only would have sum- med up the record of his life, as the pur- suits of private life and the practice of his profession were his preference and wish.
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L. D Shoemaker
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Happy indeed was it for his party and the State that, subjugating personal de- sire, he accepted office, as important legis- lation received his hearty support and better laws for the "impartial selection of juries" and an advanced "registry law" were placed upon the statute books through his valuable aid. He was a leader at the Luzerne bar, occupied a prominent position in the industrial and financial development of the Wyoming Valley, and numerous organizations- philanthropic, charitable, educational, and religious-sprang into being through his generosity and planning, or felt the im- pulse of his hearty, liberal support. There were few interests of the city of Wilkes-Barre with which he was not identified during the adult portion of his years, seventy-four in number, and no man in city or valley stood more nobly that great test of character, public official life and public opinion. His integrity was unquestioned, his character spotless, and among those who knew him best was he most tenderly regarded.
Mr. Shoemaker was of the sixth Amer- ican generation of his branch of the fam- ily, and of the fourth generation in the Wyoming Valley, his great-grandfather Benjamin coming to Pennsylvania in 1735, settling on the Delaware river at what is now Stroudsburg, and to the Wyoming Valley in 1763. This Benjamin was the son of Jochem Hendrickse, and grandson of Hendrick Jochemse Schoon- maker, the founder. Both his sire and grandsire were prominent in military affairs in New York State, and were con- spicuous in the early settlement of the Hudson River Valley and of the city of Rochester. In deeds for land, Benjamin is called Schoonmaker, but his will, writ- ten by himself, he signed Benjamin Shoe- maker, a form since used by succeeding generations.
Lieutenant Elijah Shoemaker, son of
Benjamin and grandfather of Lazarus D. Shoemaker, was a lieutenant of one of the Valley companies, and lost his life in the massacre following the battle of Wyom- ing, July 3, 1778. Elijah, only child of Lieutenant Elijah Shoemaker, was a colo- nel of militia, high sheriff of Luzerne county, "a strong man physically and intellectually." He married Elizabeth S. Denison, daughter of Colonel Nathan Denison, who commanded one wing of the American forces at the battle of Wy- oming. The nine children of Sheriff and Colonel Elijah Shoemaker were men and women of unusual excellence, and several of them attained high position in civic, professional, and business life.
Of such strong pioneer blood came Lazarus Denison Shoemaker, ninth and youngest child of Colonel Elijah and Elizabeth (Denison) Shoemaker. He was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, No- vember 5, 1819, and died September 9, 1893. After years of preparation at the celebrated Moravian school, Nazareth Hall, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he enter- ed Kenyon College (Ohio), going thence to Yale College in 1836, and was gradu- ated A. B., class of 1840, carrying off class honors. All this was but preparatory to his real object in life, the practice of law ; and immediately after graduation from Yale he began study under the preceptor- ship of General Edward W. Sturdevant, of Wilkes-Barre, a well known member of the Luzerne bar. In two years he passed the required tests, and in 1842 was admitted to practice at the Luzerne county bar. He rose rapidly in his pro- fession and, save when the duties of the offices to which he was elected compelled his residence in Harrisburg or Washing- ton, was in constant practice in Wilkes- Barre until his death, half a century later. These were years of great changes, im- provement and progress for Wilkes- Barre, the Wyoming Valley, and Penn-
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sylvania, but Mr. Shoemaker kept pace with all advancement, and whether in law, politics, or business, was always abreast of the leaders. His law practice was very large, and in its conduct he dis- played wisdom, learning, and skill. No good cause ever suffered at his hands, and to every client, great or small he gave equal service. He was highly esteemed by bench and bar, and possessed the ut- most confidence of his very large clientele.
Although eminently the professional man, Mr. Shoemaker became intimately connected with important business in- terests, financial, commercial, and general. He was one of the presidents of the Second National Bank of Wyoming, and at the time of his death a director of that bank, president of the Wilkes-Barre Lace Manufacturing Company, president of the Spring Brook Water Company, president of the Forty Fort Cemetery Association, director of the Wilkes-Barre Gas Com- pany and of the Vulcan Iron Works. Other concerns of the valley with which he had been officially connected were the Wyoming Valley Manufacturing Com- pany, the Wyoming Valley Camp Meet- ing Association, the Wyoming Insurance Company, all of which he served as presi- dent, and the Crystal Spring Water Com- pany, which he served as director.
His public service was equally valuable. A Republican in politics, he was made the nominee of his party for State Senator in 1866, and was elected in a normally Democratic district by a majority of two hundred. His service as State Senator brought him the honor of a Congressional nomination in 1870, and after a hotly con- tested campaign he was elected by a ma- jority of twelve hundred. In 1872 he was reelected, serving two full terms with honor to himself and benefit to his dis- trict. At the close of his second term and the end of the Forty-third Congress, he
retired to private professional and busi- ness life, henceforth holding no public office except as a member of the Board of Prison Commissioners, an office to which he was appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Notwithstanding the pressing demands of public office, profession, and business, Mr. Shoemaker took a deep interest in various institutions of public character, and with purse, advice, and personal effort aided them in their work. These included the church of his choice, the First Methodist Episcopal, of Wilkes- Barre, which he served as trustee; the Young Men's Christian Association, the Home for Friendless Children, the City Hospital, the Home for Friendless Women, the Wyoming Camp Meeting Association, the Luzerne County Bible Society, and others. He was one of the proprietors of the Wyoming Valley Cen- tennial Celebration of 1878, and one of the officers of the Commemorative Asso- ciation, an outgrowth of the celebration. He was a life member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, and vice-president, 1890-1893. He was one of the organizers of that national society of lawyers, the American Bar Association, formed at Saratoga, New York, in 1878, and also belonged to the State and County bar associations. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution, his ancestry, both paternal and maternal, entitling him to that honor.
A life so filled could not fail to be a useful one, and in its details shows no lack of those attributes held so desirable. He played well his part in the drama of life and though long gone to the reward of the just man, his memory is ever green.
Mr. Shoemaker married, October 10, 1848, Esther Waller Wadhams, who died August 4, 1889, daughter of Samuel and Clorinda Starr (Catlin) Wadhams. The
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Wadhams descent is traced from John Wadham, from Somersetshire, England, who settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1650. The line to Mrs. Shoemaker was through John (2) Wadhams; his son, Reverend Noah Wadhams, A. M., Yale, 1758, a minister of the Congregational church who came to the Wyoming Valley in 1769 as pastor of the second Connecti- cut colony; his son, Calvin; his son, Samuel, who married, April 7, 1824, Clo- rinda Starr Catlin, a descendant of Thom- as Catlin, who is recorded in Hartford, Connecticut, as early as 1645.
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