USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. VII > Part 34
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William Hall, son of James Sproul and his wife, Anne Johnson, was born at Sadsbury Forge, November 6, 1837, and was named for William Hall, of Lebanon, an ironmaster and associate of his father. His early life, after leaving school, was spent in Kansas and Pennsylvania until 1874, when he moved to Negaunee, in the upper peninsula of Michigan, where he held an executive position with a large mining and smelting company. In 1882 he returned to Pennsylvania and was in- terested in the Chester Rolling Mills, until his retirement. He married, March 5, 1862, Deborah Dickinson Slokom, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Walker) Slokom, and granddaughter of Thomas and Susan (Miller) Slokom.
The Slokoms were of English Quaker descent, as were the Walkers, while the Millers were of German origin, the ances- tor coming with the Amish emigration of about 1728. Samuel Slokom was a banker and capitalist, reputed at his death, in 1889, to have been among the richest men in Lancaster county. His wife, Mary (Walker) Slokom, died in Chester, April 20, 1893, aged eighty-seven years and was buried in the Friends burying ground at Sadsbury beside the unmarked graves of her Quaker ancestors and almost within sight of where she and her people for generations and all her children and grandchildren have been born. On the Walker side Mr. Sproul is descended from Lewis Walker, who settled in Ches- ter county in 1682; from the Newlins of Concord; the Moores, Jermans, Starrs, Dickinsons, Taylors and Mendenhalls. Seven of his Colonial ancestors were members of the Assembly of Pennsyl- vania.
From such an ancestry came William Cameron, youngest of the three sons of William Hall and Deborah Dickinson (Slokom) Sproul. He was born on the farm along the Octoraro, in Colerain
township, Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, September 16, 1870, and four years later his parents moved to Negaunee, Michigan, where his early life was spent. Before his sixth birthday he entered a private school taught by a young lady, Miss Louise N. McIntyre, who started the lad aright and inspired him with his first ambition to become a scholar. In 1881 he entered Negaunee High School, being then eleven years of age; a year later the family returned to Pennsylvania, settling in Christiana, where he spent a winter in the high school. In March, 1883, they moved to Chester, where he finished his high school course and was graduated from the Chester High School in the class of 1887, with a teacher's diploma. In the fall of 1887 he entered Swarthmore College, where he spent four years. He took the full scientific course ; was editor of the "Swarthmore Phoenix ;" editor of the "Halcyon," the college annual; was member and manager of the football team ; president of the Eunomian Literary Society; a charter member of the Swarthmore Chapter, Phi Kappa Psi ; winner of one of the college oratorial prizes, and a participant in all student movements. He was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science, 1891, and with his kinsman, E. Lawrence Fell, soon after bought an interest in the Franklin Printing Company, an old-established Philadelphia house. But his penchant was for journalism and in March, 1892, he acquired a one-half interest in the "Chester Times," the leading daily news- paper of Delaware county. This was the culmination of an ambition that had beset him from the age of ten years, when with a schoolmate, Fred Dougherty, in Negau- nee, he invested in a small printing out- fit, set the type, edited and printed a monthly journal, "The Amateur," with sixteen pages the size of a postal-card. But "The Amateur" made money, and
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Mr. Sproul yet remembers with what pride the young owners found they had earned a profit of ten dollars, during their first six months. Later in Chester in 1883 and 1884 he published "The Sun," an amateur paper, and became a member of the Pennsylvania Amateur Press Asso- ciation. In 1884, while yet in high school, he began to do work for the "Chester Times," and attracted the attention of John A. Wallace, the owner, who decided he was worthy of encouragement, and offered to compensate him for work done after school and evenings. The lad thought twenty-five cents per day fair pay, and he began work in earnest at that rate. In the following year he became Chester correspondent of the "Philadel- phia Press," under Mr. R. E. A. Dorr, then news editor. Mr. Dorr loved to tell in the latter years how in 1885 he sent for his Chester correspondent to give him some instructions, and of his surprise to see a fifteen-year-old boy come to the office in answer to his summons. He kept up his newspaper work while at Swarth- more, and in addition to the college pub- lication conducted general college depart- ments in several metropolitan journals, earning considerable money in that way. When at last his hopes were realized and he was half owner of "The Times" and began his partnership with his early friend and employer, John A. Wallace, he threw his whole soul and energy into the work, learned the business thoroughly, and developed into a forceful writer, as well as a capable business manager. In 1895 he had acquired such a reputation in business circles that he was elected a director of the First National Bank of Chester, and in 1898 was elected vice- president of the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works (for- merly Roach's shipyard). In 1899 he re- signed and at once began the organiza-
tion of the Seaboard Steel Casting Com- pany, incorporated with $500,000 capital. Mr. Sproul was elected president of the corporation, and on December 31, 1900, the last day of the nineteenth century, the first heat was poured from the furnaces of the extensive plant erected at the foot of Jeffrey street, Chester. Thus he fol- lowed in the iron business which had been the leaning of the Sprouls for five generations. This has been a most suc- cessful enterprise under the direction of Mr. Sproul and his elder brother, S. Everett Sproul, and one of great value to the city of Chester. But not even the field of journalism or of steel manufac- ture was sufficiently large to satisfy his energy.
He became interested in lumber, coal, railroad and banking companies and in shipping. In 1900 he with others organ- ized the Chester Shipping Company, with a line of steamers on the Delaware River, becoming president of the corporation. Other Chester companies in which he is officially interested are the Delaware County Trust Company and the Dela- ware County National Bank, holding directorships in both these financial insti- tutions. His lumber, timber, coal and railroad interests are largely in the State of West Virginia. He was president of the Coal River railway until its sale to the Chesapeake & Ohio railway; of the Ohio Valley Electric Railway Company of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio; and managed, until he disposed of them, the Kanawha Valley Traction Company ; the Charleston & South Side Bridge Com- pany and the Coal River Land Company ; the Kanawha Bridge and Terminal Com- pany ; the Seaboard Fuel Company. In addition to the banks already mentioned Mr. Sproul is director of the Commercial Trust Company, one of the large institu- tions of Philadelphia. In 1911, in con-
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junction with W. A. Stanton, Mr. Sproul organized the General Refractories Com- pany, which now has more than four mil- lion dollars of capital invested in fire brick plants in Pennsylvania and Ken- tucky. He is president of this company, and is also president of the Lebanon Val- ley Iron and Steel Company of Lebanon and Duncannon, Pennsylvania. In 1916 he purchased the old-established engi- neering works of Robert Wetherill & Company, Incorporated, at Chester, and soon afterward sold this plant and a large tract of land which he owned nearby on the river front to the Sun Shipbuilding Company, which is constructing there one of the largest shipyards in America. Mr. Sproul is a director in the Sun Ship- building Company and is chairman of the Penn Seaboard Steel Corporation, a com- bination into which the Seaboard Steel Casting Company has been merged. He is president of the Lackawanna & Wyo- ming Valley Railroad Company, and of the Scranton & Wilkes-Barre Traction Corporation. He is a director in the Phil- adelphia, Baltimore & Washington rail- road and in the Valley railways. This does not by any means cover the field of Mr. Sproul's business operations, but only the most important, and would seem to be of sufficient magnitude to employ the time of even the most energetic man. But not Mr. Sproul. There is another field which few business men, except those either retired or directly descended from statesmen of note, ever enter-the field of politics. Even before Mr. Sproul was of age he was an active political worker and a strong partisan. After be- coming part owner of "The Times" he became well known as a rising man, and coincident with his advent into the busi- ness world was his entrance into official political life. In March, 1896, he was nominated by the Republican convention
for the office of State Senator to succeed Jesse M. Baker, and was elected the fol- lowing November by a majority of almost ten thousand votes. By a strange coinci- dence Mr. Sproul's great-great-great- grandfather, Nathaniel Newlin, was the second Senator from Delaware county, having been elected in 1794, just one hun- dred and two years before his descendant was chosen for the same seat. He was then just past twenty-five years of age, the constitutional age limit for Senators, and for six years was the youngest man in the State Senate. Notwithstanding his youth and his pronounced independence, he was assigned to important committees and became prominent in connection with notable legislation. In 1900 he was re- nominated and elected without serious opposition. In the session of 1891 he was strongly opposed to the so-called "ripper" bills for changing the form of govern- ment of cities, and, although closely affili- ated with the regular Republican State organization, strenuously labored to de- feat the Pittsburgh "ripper," which was the political sensation of that session. In 1903 Senator Sproul, after a careful study of the question of road improvement, drafted the general plan of State aid in highway construction, which combined with some features of a bill introduced by the late Senator Roberts, of Montgomery county, was passed during the session of 1903. This bill forms the beginning of the highway improvement movement that has converted many of the hitherto infer- ior roads of Pennsylvania into splendid modern avenues of travel, and is constant- ly spreading until the cause of "Good Roads" has become the most vital and important of all State improvements. He has followed up the subject and in 1909 and 1913 fathered the "Sproul Road Bills" which created the system of State High- ways. In 1903 Senator Sproul was the
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unanimous choice of the Republican members of the Senate for president of that body and was elected by the party vote. He was reëlected to the Senate in 1904, and, in 1905 was again chosen presi- dent of the Senate by his party associates. He is the author of bills calling upon Congress to consider uniform divorce laws and of other measures; also has served upon several State commissions and has rendered his State valuable serv- ice in his efforts in behalf of public char- ities and philanthropies. Mr. Sproul has been reëlected to the seat in the Senate in 1908 and 1912, and at this writing, in 1916, is the nominee of his party for a sixth term, being by far the oldest mem- ber of the Senate in point of service. The campaign of 1912 was a memorable one, Mr. Sproul being opposed by both Demo- cratic and Progressive nominees. Despite the Roosevelt landslide of that year he was successful with a clear majority over both his opponents combined. In 1916 he represented his district in the Repub- lican National Convention. In 1913 Sen- ator Sproul drew the bill providing for the creation of the Pennsylvania Histor- ical Commission, and was appointed by Governor Tener a member of that body. He has been its chairman ever since its organization and has been very active in the work which it has done. He is a member of the board of managers of Swarthmore College, his alma mater, and in 1903 was elected president of the Alumni Association. In March, 1907, he presented the college with funds sufficient to equip the observatory with one of the largest and most powerful telescopes in the whole world. In 1912, at the celebra- tion of the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of Franklin and Marshall College, at Lancaster, Senator Sproul was given the honorary degree of Doctor of
Laws. He is a trustee of the Pennsyl- vania Training School for Feeble Minded Children, at Elwyn, and is most liberal in his private philanthropies. His frater- nities are the Masonic orders; the Eiks; Patrons of Husbandry; Phi Kappa Psi and the Book and Key, the two latter college fraternities. He is also an honor- ary member of the Phi Beta Kappa Soci- ety of the University of Pennsylvania. His clubs are: Union League, the Phil- adelphia, Corinthian Yacht, Pen and Pencil, Clover and Bachelors Barge, of Philadelphia; Manhattan and India House, of New York; Penn, of Chester ; Harrisburg ; Rose Tree Fox Hunting and Springhaven Country, also numerous political organizations. He is much inter- ested in the Union League, of Philadel- phia, and for eight years has been a mem- ber of the board of directors of that or- ganization, and for four years a vice- president. Mr. Sproul is fond of open-air sport, especially with rod, line and gun. He is also fond of travel and has travelled widely for a man whose life has been so occupied. In religious faith he is a mem- ber of the Society of Friends. He mar- ried, January 21, 1892, Emeline, daugh- ter of John B. Roach, the noted ship- builder of Chester and his wife, Mary Caroline Wallace. Children: Dorothy, who married, October 7, 1914, Henry J. Klaer, and John Roach Sproul. The fam- ily residence is "Lapidea Manor," a historic and beautiful mansion in Nether Providence, just beyond the Chester city limits. This place is one of the most notable in a section filled with imposing homes. The house contains a famous col- lection of art objects, an extensive library and many historic articles which are wide- ly noted. "Lapidea Manor" comprises nearly two hundred acres of land, one of the largest tracts in the lower end of Delaware county.
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GARRISON, Abraham,
Manufacturer, Financier.
The industry which gave to Pittsburgh the name of the Iron City was developed by men whose Titanic personalities even Time itself has failed to obscure. Through the mists of years we discern with star- tling distinctness the commanding forms of these stalwart pioneers-none more imposing in its simple grandeur than that of the late Abraham Garrison, head of the well-known firm of A. Garrison & Company, owners of the famous old Pitts- burgh foundry. For nearly seventy years Mr. Garrison was a resident of the city whose prestige he did so much to create, and during that long period he labored with unswerving loyalty for the upbuild- ing and maintenance of her best and most essential interests.
The Garrison family was of English origin, and in 1686 a branch was trans- planted to what is now Putnam county, New York. Garrison's Landing, on the Hudson, derived its name from this family and was owned by them for many generations. Beverly Garrison, great- grandfather of Abraham Garrison, was the first to develop the famous Forest of Dean iron mine in New York State.
Oliver Garrison, grandson of Beverly Garrison, had property on the Hudson near West Point, and was the owner and captain of a sloop which ran between Albany and New York. He married Catharine Kingsland, whose ancestors were among the first English settlers of New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Garrison were the parents of five sons: Abraham, men- tioned below; Oliver, Daniel R., and Isaac L., all of whom settled in St. Louis; and the late Commodore C. K. Garrison, of New York City.
Abraham, son of Oliver and Catharine (Kingsland) Garrison, was born March 4,
1804, near the Hudson river, below New- burgh, Orange county, New York, and one of his earliest recollections was that of being taken in August, 1807, to see Fulton's first steamboat on her initial trip to Albany. This was but the first occasion of the kind with which Mr. Gar- rison was destined to be identified. In 1831 he was present at the opening of the first railroad from Albany to Schenec- tady, and in 1846, soon after Congress appropriated $25,000 to enable the inven- tor Morse to construct his line of tele- graph from Washington to Baltimore Mr. Garrison, in association with the late Thomas Bakewell and John Anderson, was appointed to go to Washington on public business, and his name and those of his companions were among the first transmitted over the new telegraph line, then regarded as the eighth wonder of the world.
From the age of fourteen, Mr. Garrison assisted his father in the navigation of the sloop "Hudson," of which the latter was owner and captain. Before his twenty- first birthday the son had become the commander of the vessel. but on attaining his majority he relinquished his position and engaged in the grocery business in New York City, but only for one year. In 1826 he removed to Pittsburgh and became clerk in the office of Kingsland, Lightner & Company, then the proprie- tors of the Jackson and Eagle foundries, the senior partner of the firm being his maternal uncle. In 1829, having formed a resolution to learn the foundry busi- ness, he entered the service of Howard, Nott & Company, iron founders of Al- bany, New York. That he was a man born to his task the sequel proved. In 1830 he returned to Pittsburgh as fore- man of the business of Kingsland, Light- ner & Cuddy, then owners of the Pitts- burgh foundry. In 1836 he and his late
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partner, H. L. Bollman, obtained an in- terest in the business, and in January, 1840, Kingsland & Lightner disposed of their shares in the Pittsburgh foundry to the firm of Bollman & Garrison. As an instance of Mr. Garrison's thoroughness, accuracy and attention to detail it may be mentioned that, for at least sixty years, he kept a record of the price of pig-iron in the Pittsburgh market and for fifty years purchased the metal used at the foundry.
From 1840 to 1860 Mr. Garrison be- stowed on the practical part of the busi- ness the closest attention and achieved the distinction of being the first American whose untiring efforts resulted in the manufacture of chilled rolls equal in ex- cellence to those of foreign make. He drove foreign chilled rolls out of the mar- ket, and established the chilled roll in- dustry on a firm footing in the United States.
The foundry of which Mr. Garrison was then one of the proprietors was the first iron foundry in Pittsburgh, and probably the first west of the Allegheny mountains. It was built in 1803, and in it were cast the cannon balls used by General Jackson on the memorable eighth of January, 1815, also the projectiles shipped to Com- modore Perry on Lake Erie. To-day this foundry furnishes chilled rolls to upward of three hundred and fifty mills in the United States, from Maine to California and from Canada to the Gulf States. At various times, rolls have been sent to England, France, Belgium, Russia and Mexico. In 1842 Mr. Garrison first began to furnish the sheet brass rolls of the Naugatuck valley, in Connecticut, with chilled rolls, they having prior to that time been imported from England.
Throughout Mr. Garrison's business career, capable management, unfaltering enterprise and a spirit of justice were well
balanced factors. To his associates he showed a genial, kindly, humorous side of his character which made their business relations most enjoyable, and never did he fall in to the serious error of regarding his employès merely as parts of a great machine, but, on the contrary, recognized their individuality, making it a rule that faithful and efficient service should be promptly rewarded with promotion as opportunity offered. Born to command, wise to plan, he was quick in action and capable of prolonged labor, with the power of close. concentration. To a man of his stamp, work was happiness. De- siring success and rejoicing in the benefits and opportunities which wealth brings, he was too broad-minded a man to rate it above its true value, and in all his mam- moth business undertakings he found that enjoyment which comes in mastering a situation-the joy of doing what he under- took. Capable of managing great com- mercial and industrial concerns and of conducting business on terms fair alike to employer and employed, he was a type of man whom the world needs.
As a citizen with exalted ideas of good government and civic virtue, Mr. Garri- son stood in the front rank, demonstrat- ing his public spirit by actual achieve- ments which increased the prosperity and wealth of the community. Almost to the close of his life he was president of the Diamond National Bank, the Safe Deposit Company and the Birmingham Bridge Company, and he was also a director in a number of other institutions. To what- ever he undertook he gave his whole soul, allowing none of the many interests in- trusted to his care to suffer for want of close and able attention and industry. No good work done in the name of charity or religion sought his cooperation in vain and in his work of this character he brought to bear the same discrimination
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and thoroughness which were manifest in his business life. He was a member and one of the founders of St. Andrew's Prot- estant Episcopal Church.
A man of fine personal appearance, his strong, resolute, clear-cut face lighted by keen blue eyes, Mr. Garrison looked the fearless, aggressive, yet wisely conserva- tive man of affairs which his whole career showed him to be. Possessing generous impulses and a chivalrous sense of honor, for dissimulation and intrigue he had no toleration. The old saying, "His word was as good as his bond," was frequently quoted as descriptive of his character. Ardent in his friendships, he was of a genial and sympathetic nature and few men have been more sincerely loved and honored.
Mr. Garrison married, August 1, 1830, Mary, daughter of Samuel Clement, of Rensselaerville, New York, and of the children born to them the following reached maturity : Clementina, widow of John Howland Ricketson; Sarah Ellen ; and Mary Catherine, widow of Walter Laurie McClintock. Mr. Garrison was peculiarly happy in his domestic rela- tions and was essentially a home-lover, devoted to his family and delighting in the exercise of hospitality.
On May 10, 1894, Mr. Garrison, having entered his ninety-first year, passed away, "full of years and of honors." Long had he stood before the community as an ex- ample of every public and private virtue, and on his removal from the scenes of his activity he left a record which remains as an inspiration to those who come after him.
The story of the life of this great- brained and large-hearted man is a story of ninety-one years of noble living. To the service of his beloved city he gave nearly threescore years and ten-the tra- ditional life-time. And with what result?
To this question the Pittsburgh of to-day, mighty and beautiful, world-famous and wonderful, a nation rather than a city, is the all-convincing reply. Most truly can it be said of Abraham Garrison that his works follow him.
GRIER, Samuel C., Man of Affairs.
Some men there are of natures so large and talents so versatile as to render it impossible to describe them in a single sentence, unless it be this-"He was an all-round man." Such a man was the late Samuel Campbell Grier, able, aggressive business man, astute and brilliant politi- cal leader and widely successful man of affairs. Mr. Grier was a life-long and honored resident of Pittsburgh, conspicu- ously identified with all her best and most essential interests.
Samuel Campbell Grier was born March II, 1851, in South Canal street, Pitts- burgh, and was a son of David A. and Mary (Aiken) Grier, the former the pro- prietor of a grocery business in Liberty avenue. The boy attended the Third Ward public school of Allegheny City, and early entered into active business life in a drygoods store in Lawrenceville. At the age of fifteen he was clerk in an Alle- gheny coal office, and had not more than completed his eighteenth year when he engaged in the coal business for himself. Wonderful to tell-and yet not wonderful when we consider his rare natural endow- ments-he succeeded, and for ten years the enterprise prospered.
While still a very young man, Mr. Grier began to take an active interest in politics, allying himself with the Republi- can party. Possessing a high degree of public spirit and a rapidity of judgment which enabled him, in the midst of in- cessant business activity, to give to the
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