USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. VII > Part 38
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(II) Arent, son of Philip Pieterse and Margaretta (Van Sleihtenhorst) Schny- ler, was born June 25, 1662, and in 1690, as a volunteer, led a company of scouts into Canada. He was shortly after com- missioned captain under the New York government, and in that capacity ren- dered important military service. About 1720 he removed to New Jersey, where he was a large landowner, residing on an
estate at Barbadoes Neck, three miles above Newark. On this land a copper mine was discovered which became the source of much wealth. Mr. Schuyler married (first) November 26, 1688, Jen- neke Teller, (second) January, 1703, Swantie Vandykhuysen, and (third) Maria Walter. He devised his home- stead and his copper mine to his son, the Honorable John Schuyler, and a planta- tion on the Delaware river, in Burlington, Burlington county, New Jersey, to his son, Casparus, mentioned below. The death of Mr. Schuyler occurred January 12, 1730, near Newark, New Jersey.
(III) Casparus, son of Arent and Jen- neke (Teller) Schuyler, was baptized May 5, 1695, in New York City, and re- sided on an estate of five hundred acres at Burlington, New Jersey. He was twice married, the Christian name of his first wife being Jane, and that of the second Mary, but their surnames have not come down to us. Mr. Schuyler died in 1754, at Burlington, New Jersey.
(IV) Arent (2), son of Casparus Schuy- ler, resided on his ancestral estate at Burl- ington. He married (first) May 19, 1748, Jenneke Van Waganan, of Essex county, New Jersey, and (second) Jane Proal. His death occurred at Burlington, in 1780.
(V) John, son of Arent (2) Schuyler, was born in 1751, at Burlington, New Jersey, and married, about 1775, Mary, daughter of Samuel Cripps, of Burlington county, and a descendant of John Cripps, secretary, in 1687, of the Proprietors of West Jersey. Mr. Schuyler died at Burl- ington, his birthplace.
(VI) Mary, daughter of John and Mary (Cripps) Schuyler, was married, November 6, 1797, at Philadelphia, to John Nicholson, as stated above.
(The McGrew Line).
The McGrew family belonged to the Clan Buchanan, of Scotland, but on ac-
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MIScafe
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
count of religious persecution fled from their native land and settled in County Tyrone, province of Ulster, Ireland.
Robert McGrew, the first ancestor of record, emigrated about 1726-27 from County Tyrone, Ireland, to the province of Pennsylvania, settling in Adams county, where he became a man of some prominence. Mr. McGrew married in Ire- land, the Christian name of his wife being Isabella. They became the parents of a large family, and among the sons was Finley, mentioned below.
(II) Finley, son of Robert and Isabella McGrew, married, and James, his son, is mentioned below.
(III) James, son of Finley McGrew, married, and his son, Finley, is mentioned below.
(IV) Finley (2), son of James Mc- Grew, married, and his daughter, Re- becca, is mentioned below.
(V) Rebecca, daughter of Finley (2) McGrew, became the wife of John Nichol- son Sr., as stated above.
(The Cheek Line).
Henry Cheek, grandfather of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Cheek) Nicholson, mar- ried Miss Hancock, who was a connection of a Signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence.
(II) James Henry, son of Henry and (Hancock) Cheek, was born in Adair county, Kentucky; was a physi- cian, and during the Civil War served in the Union army. He married Mary Agnes Bledsoe, who lived at Paris, Ken- tucky.
(III) Mary Elizabeth, daughter of James Henry and Mary Agnes (Bledsoe) Cheek, became the wife of John Nichol- son, Jr., as stated above. The great- great-granduncle of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Cheek) Nicholson was Sir John Cheek, a solicitor for the English crown.
SCAIFE, William B.,
Pioneer in Iron Industry.
Among pioneers of the iron industry of Pennsylvania was the late William B. Scaife, founder and head of the old firm of William B. Scaife & Sons, of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania.
Jefferey Scaife, father of William B. Scaife, was a native of Yorkshire, Eng- land. The family is of Danish origin and has been traced back to 1653. About 1780 Jefferey Scaife migrated to the United States, settling first in Philadelphia and afterward in Pittsburgh, where in 1802 he engaged in the manufacture of tin and sheet-iron ware. He married Lydia Bar- rett; his death occurring in 1846.
William B. Scaife, son of Jefferey and Lydia (Barrett) Scaife, was born Sep- tember 5, 1812, in the First Ward, Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, and received all the education obtainable at that time in his native city. Nothwithstanding his inces- sant activity, he was all his life a student. becoming a remarkably well-informed man, with a special taste for metaphysics. From an early age he was trained in his father's works, and a proof of the pre- cocious development of his mechanical genius is found in the fact that when but nine years old he fashioned articles which were offered for sale with those made by his father's workmen. In 1834 the firm of William B. Scaife & Company was or- ganized, the company consisting of the well-known business men, Messrs. Mc- Clurg and Wade, of the Fort Pitt Ord- nance works. They engaged extensively in the manufacture of tin, sheet-iron and copper ware. In 1838, Mr. Scaife, by purchasing the interest of his partners, found himself, at the age of twenty-six, sole proprietor of an important industry. At this time steamboat trade was one of Pittsburgh's greatest interests, and Mr.
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Scaife gave much of his time to the manu- facture of the tin, iron and copper por- tions of these vessels. This was the ori- gin of what afterward became an inde- pendent branch of business-that of the building and thorough equipment of steamboats. He was one of the first to inaugurate the system of towing coal down the river instead of floating it, as was then the custom. Mr. Scaife was perhaps the pioneer manufacturer of iron roof frames and corrugated iron roofings and sidings, a venture which proved very profitable, orders coming in from all parts of the United States. He was always the first to install labor-saving machinery and to do everything calculated to improve the condition of his men. In 1870 the firm name was changed to William B. Scaife & Sons.
In everything pertaining to the wel- fare of Pittsburgh Mr. Scaife's interest was deep and sincere, and wherever sub- stantial aid would further public progress it was freely given. In politics he was first a Whig and then a Republican. A strong believer in temperance, he assisted the cause with influence and means. He was the organizer of a debating society known as the Philo Institute which pos- sessed a fine library and numbered among its members many men who later became prominent. He was a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
William B. Scaife married Mary Fris- bee, daughter of Ephraim Frisbee, of Schoharie county, New York, and they were the parents of thirteen children, in- cluding the following sons : Oliver P., de- ceased; Charles Cooke, deceased, whose biography and portrait follows; Lauris- ton L., an attorney of Boston; William Lucien, chairman of the Scaife Foundry and Machine Company ; Marvin F .; and Walter B., of Florence, Italy.
The death of William B. Scaife oc-
curred in Pittsburgh, April 2, 1876, and he is buried there in the Allegheny Ceme- tery.
SCAIFE, Charles C., Civil War Veteran, Manufacturer.
A representative of one of the oldest in- dustries of the Iron City, and a true type of the influential, aggressive Pittsburgher, was the late Charles Cooke Scaife, presi- dent of the William B. Scaife & Sons Company, manufacturers of steel tanks for air, gas and liquids, steel buildings, and water purifying apparatus. This com- pany was founded in 1802 by Jefferey Scaife, the grandfather of Charles Cooke Scaife, and is perhaps the oldest manu- facturing establishment west of the Alle- gheny mountains.
Mr. Scaife was a member of a family famous in the industrial annals of Pitts- burgh, and was himself prominently asso- ciated not only with her manufacturing interests but with the other elements most essential to her well-being. He was born September 8, 1844, in Pitt township, now a part of the city of Pittsburgh, a son of the late William B. and Mary (Frisbee) Scaife, the former one of the most prominent iron manufacturers of his day.
Charles C. Scaife was educated in public and private schools of his native city, and belonged to one of the first classes of the old Central High School. He early associated with his father in the latter's business. Proving himself to have inherited a full share of the ability hereditary in his family, he very shortly became a member of the firm, with which he was closely identified for over fifty years. Under his able leadership the scope of the business was greatly en- larged, and the company now owns an immense plant at Oakmont, employing
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Lewis Mistarica. Pad La
Photo by Johnston
by Sindans & Bra MY
Grat l. Scaife.
4
James Verner -11
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
about five hundred men. Mr. Scaife was thoroughly familiar with every detail of the business, and his vitalizing energy pervaded every department of the con- cern. Mr. Scaife was a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted September 15, 1862, in Company C, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia.
He was married, December 24, 1867, to Priscilla M., daughter of the late James Verner, of Pittsburgh, and the following children were born to them: James Ver- ner; William B; Charles Cooke, Jr., died November 13, 1915; and Anna Verner, wife of John H. Ricketson, Jr.
While closely attending to his business affairs, Mr. Scaife ever manifested a keen and active interest in everything pertain- ing to the city's welfare, and his name was associated with projects of the ut- most municipal concern. The financial and commercial institutions, the educa- tional, political, charitable and religious organizations, which constitute the chief features in the life of every great city, all profited by his support and cooperation. He was the owner of much real estate, and a fine judge of the dormant possibili- ties of landed property. A Republican in politics, and known to be an attentive observer of men and measures, he was frequently consulted in regard to ques- tions of public moment. Although re- peatedly urged to run for public office, he steadfastly declined.
A member of Calvary Methodist Epis- copal Church of Pittsburgh, Mr. Scaife was its oldest trustee in point of service. Dignified and courteous on all occasions, a true "gentleman of the old school," his sterling qualities of manhood and genial disposition drew around him a large circle of devotedly attached friends. His innu- merable private benefactions were always carried out in a manner not to permit them to become known elsewhere. The
poor of the community never had a more generous and sympathetic friend.
The death of Charles Cooke Scaife, which occurred December 31, 1915, re- moved from Pittsburgh a man whose business capacity was of the highest order, a citizen of active patriotism, and a man of refined tastes and benevolent disposition-one who in every relation of life had never wavered in his loyalty to the loftiest principles.
VERNER, James, Man of Enterprise, Public Official.
The business men of the old Iron City ! We all know them as history and tra- dition have preserved them for us-men whose lives furnished examples of com- mercial probity and enterprise, and civic and socal virtue; men whose monument is the Pittsburgh of the present, prosper- ous and beautiful. Among the foremost of the noble company to whom the pres- ent generation owes so much was the late James Verner, for more than half a cen- tury prominently identified with the best business, financial and social interests of Pittsburgh.
James Verner was born August 30, 1818, at Monongahela City (then called Williamsport), Pennsylvania, the youn- gest child and only son of James and Elizabeth (Doyle) Verner. His grand- mother died at Verner's Bridge, County Armagh, Ireland, where she had always lived, and where her husband had died many years before her. Their ancestors were of Scotch origin. James and Eliza- beth Verner came from Ireland to Penn- sylvania in 1806, and after a brief stay at Pittsburgh moved to Williamsport. About 1820 they settled permanently in Pittsburgh, where Mr. Verner engaged in the brewing and lumber business with James Brown, the firm being known as
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Brown & Verner. James Verner, Sr., died in 1854, aged seventy-one; his wife dying two years later at the same age. The family consisted of three daughters and one son. Their eldest daughter, Eliza- beth (Mrs. Samuel Morrison), died in 1887; Ellen Holmes, widow of Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Philadelphia; Mary; James, see below.
James Verner, son of James and Eliza- beth (Doyle) Verner, received his educa- tion at a private school kept by John Kelly, in Allegheny, and at Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. He married Anna, a daughter of General James Murry, of Murrysville, Pennsylva- nia, and settled on a farm of four hundred and sixty acres at the site of the present borough of Verona, which was formerly called Verner's Station. Mr. Verner cleared and fenced the farm and added to it. After the completion of the Allegheny Valley railroad he formed a company to lay out a village, which now constitutes the first ward of Verona borough, and secured the location of the Allegheny Valley railroad shops there. Returning to Pittsburgh, Mr. Verner became a part- ner in the brewing firm of George W. Smith & Company, in which he continued several years. He then became interested in and operated the Excelsior Omnibus Company, which transferred passengers and baggage from the Pennsylvania rail- road to the Fort Wayne railroad. Selling out this, Mr. Verner applied for and ob- tained a charter for the Citizens' Passen- ger Railway Company, which was put in operation in 1859, the first street railway operated west of the Allegheny moun- tains. This road was later consolidated with the Transverse road in the Citizens' Traction railway. Mr. Verner afterward organized the Pittsburgh Forge and Iron Company, and was its first president.
A man of much public spirit, James
Verner served several years as a member of council from the Fourth ward, being a Whig and later Republican in his political affiliations. He was noted for his love of field sports, and had the reputation of being the oldest "wing-shot" in Western Pennsylvania. He was one of the first to interest himself and others in the im- provement in the breeding of hunting dogs, and was one of the organizers of the Sportmen's Assocation of Western Pennsylvania, an association organized for the protection of game and fish. Mr. Verner was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. James and Anna (Mur- ry) Verner were the parents of five sons and five daughters, of which number five lived to maturity: Priscilla M., wife of Charles C. Scaife; Amelia, Mrs. Arthur Malcolm, of Philadelphia; James K; Murry A; and M. Scott. Mrs. James Verner died April 10, 1881.
The death of James Verner, which oc- curred August 8, 1901, was deeply and sincerely mourned by all classes of the community. As a business man he might truly be called a model, and in all the relations of life he was admirable. His record both as a business man and a citizen is without a blemish. Through- out his career he was conspicuously iden- tified with Pittsburgh. The promotion of her prosperity and power was his ulti- mate object in all his enterprises, and with prophetic instinct he realized her preëminence in the years to come. Pitts- burgh to-day has more than justified his belief, and among the names which she holds in grateful remembrance is that of James Verner.
BRAINARD, Ira F.,
Enterprising Business Man.
Among well-known Pittsburgh busi- ness men is Ira Fitch Brainard, who has for nearly half a century been a leader in
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
business affairs in that city. He is a rep- resentative of the old Brainard family, which was among the earliest settlers from England in this country.
(I) Daniel Brainard, the American an- cestor of this family, was brought to America when a child of eight years, and lived in Hartford, Connecticut. His home was with the Wyllys family, and he re- mained with them until he had attained the age of twenty-one years. After his arrival in this country he received a letter from his mother in England, in which the family name is spelled Brainwood, so it is to be presumed that this was the original spelling, but the form of Brainard has been retained through the successive generations. His name is on record as a settler and proprietor of Haddam, Con- necticut, in 1669, and he appears to have been a man of considerable influence and prominence in matters of both church and State. He had apparently acquired a good education, and served as justice of the peace for a number of years. He was one of the leading spirits in the building of a church, in which he served as a deacon. He married (first) Hannah Spencer, daughter of Garrard Spencer, of Lynn, Massachusetts, and they had chil- dren: Daniel, Jr., born March 2, 1665; Hannah, born November 20, 1667 ; James, born June 2, 1669; Joshua, born July 20, 1671; William, born March 30, 1673; Caleb, born November 20, 1675; Elijah, see below; Hezekiah, born 1680 or 1681. Daniel Brainard married (second) Mrs. Hannah Saxton, a widow whose maiden name was also Saxton.
(II) Elijah Brainard, sixth son and seventh child of Daniel and Hannah (Spencer) Brainard, was born at Had- dam, Connecticut, in 1677. He married (first) Mary Bushell, by whom he had children: Mary, born January 20, 1700; Abigail, born June 18, 1702; Joseph, born
January 12, 1704; Elijah, Jr., born Sep- tember 27, 1706; Thankful, born July 22, 1709; Rachel, born May 13, 1712; Jabez, born February 19, 1715. He married (second) Margaret - -, and they were the parents of Esther, born August 16, 1717, and Phineas, of whom below.
(III) Phineas Brainard, only son and second and youngest child of Elijah and Margaret Brainard, was born October 17, 1720. He married, November 9, 1741, Jerusha Towner, and they had children : Jerusha, born September 9, 1742 ; Phineas, Jr., born March 20, 1744, died in infancy ; Elizabeth, born March 22, 1745 ; Phineas, Jr., born January 2, 1747; Esther, born March 9, 1749; Henry, see forward; Herman, born 1754; and John, born No- vember 5, 1757.
(IV) Henry Brainard, third son and sixth child of Phineas and Jerusha (Towner) Brainard, was born March I, 1751. He married Huldah ---- , and had a number of children, among them being: George, and Calvin Cone, of whom see forward.
(V) Calvin Cone Brainard, son of Henry and Huldah Brainard, married Sophia Fitch, and they had several chil- dren among them being Ira Fitch, as below.
(VI) Ira Fitch Brainard, son of Calvin Cone and Sophia (Fitch) Brainard, was born on a farm in Canfield, Mahoning county, Ohio, January 8, 1840. He re- moved to Boardman, Ohio, in 1849, where he attended public and private schools, and the academy at Poland, that State. His next place of residence was Salem, Ohio, to which he removed in the spring of 1857, and where he attended the high school. He was engaged in busi- ness for his father from 1859 until 1862, when he left to enter the Army of the Cumberland as commissary clerk to Cap- tain Jacob Heaton, who was on the staff
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
of General James A. Garfield, late Presi- dent of the United States. In 1867 Mr. Brainard came to Pittsburgh and entered the live stock business, and in which he has since been engaged to the present. He has been president of the Live Stock Exchange for many years; was one of the organizers of the Liberty National Bank, and was president for about ten years; organized the Liberty Savings Bank ; is a director and large stockholder in the Westmoreland Specialty Glass Works; is a large stockholder and presi- dent of the Central Stock Yards of Louis- ville, Kentucky; is a member of the firm of Brainard Brothers, doing business in the Produce Exchange, New York, and is a member of the New York Produce Exchange. Force and resolution, com- bined with a genial disposition, are de- picted in his countenance, and his simple, dignified and affable manners attract all who are brought into contact with him. Mr. Brainard is a member of Duquesne Lodge, No. 546, Free and Accepted Masons; Pittsburgh Consistory; Syria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; the Duquesne and Country clubs; the Pittsburgh Board of Trade; and the Sons of the American Revolution.
Mr. Brainard married, September I, 1862, Frances, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Potts) Heaton, of Salem, Ohio, and they have had children: Ed- ward Heaton; Clifford C., deceased ; and James J., of Pittsburgh.
SAWYER, John H., Manufacturer, Financier.
One of the strong men of the Old Pittsburgh-one of those Titans of trade whose heroic proportions seem to dwarf their successors of the present day-was the late John Hamilton Sawyer. Mr.
Sawyer was a man who touched life at many points, and his great abilities and sterling traits of character caused him to be regarded by the community with feel- ings of admiration.
John Sawyer, grandfather of John H. Sawyer, was born near the city of Boston, Massachusetts. His wife's maiden name was Porter. Both the parents of Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer were among the Pilgrims who came to America on the ship "Speedwell," and settled near Boston in 1620. John Sawyer was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was currier for a time to General Washington. He left Boston for Ohio, where he purchased a tract of land near Hockingport, and his name appears among the names of the Revolutionary soldiers on a large monu- ment erected at Wooster, Ohio. He had two brothers who were ministers in the Baptist church, to which denomination he also belonged. He and his wife were the parents of eight children: 1. Frances. 2. Eleanor. 3. Robert, a sailor, lost at sea. 4. Samuel. 5. Porter, who became a Methodist minister. 6. James. 7. Na- thaniel. 8. Benair Clement, see below.
(II) Benair Clement Sawyer, son of John Sawyer, was born in 1791, in Hock- ingport, Ohio, and died in 1860. He came to Pittsburgh in 1812, and learned the printer's trade, which he followed for a short time. Later in life he embarked in business for himself as a manufacturer of soap. He took an active part in the affairs of the city, and helped organize the Pitts- burgh Volunteer Fire Company. He was an earnest member of the Trinity Epis- copal Church. He married Catherine Brooks, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who died at the age of fifty-two years. Her father was a native of England, and her mother a native of Ireland. They were married in England, and coming to America, settled at Carlisle, Pennsyl-
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B.C. Lawyer
Foro. O'Brien
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
vania. He was a highly educated gentleman, and the founder of a seminary in which he acted as one of the profes- sors. Benair Clement and Catherine (Brooks) Sawyer were the parents of six children : 1. James Brooks Sawyer, an attorney of Pittsburgh, who died aged thirty years, in 1854, unmarried. 2. Robert, died young. 3. Harry, died in boyhood. 4. Benair C., who was mayor of Pittsburgh in the sixties, and later a resident of Los Angeles, California ; mar- ried Catherine Aiken, and they had a son and three daughters. 5. John Hamil- ton, see below. 6. Colonel Nathaniel Porter, of Pittsburgh; died November 24, 1903; was a member of the soap manufacturing firm of B. C. & J. Sawyer, and also extensively engaged in real estate transactions; married Margaret O'Brien, and their children were: (a) John H., of Denver, Colorado, married Jean F. Phipps ; (b) William English, de- ceased, of Pittsburgh; (c) Henry C .; (d) Mrs. Anna Cora Easton, of Pittsburgh.
(III) John Hamilton Sawyer, son of Benair Clement and Catherine (Brooks) Sawyer, was born on Third avenue, Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, September 20, 1825. He was educated in private schools and completed his education in the Uni- versity of Western Pennsylvania (now University of Pittsburgh), becoming a chemist. At the age of twenty-one years he was taken into the firm with his father, and was engaged in the manu- facture of soaps until 1865, when he retired from the firm and engaged in the real estate business, in which he con- tinued until his death. He was one of the organizers and president of the Sharps- burg and Etna Bank. In politics he was a Democrat. His death occurred July 10, 1877, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
John Hamilton Sawyer married, Janu- ary II, 1855, Miss Jane Frances O'Brien,
daughter of John and Mary Elizabeth (Evans) O'Brien, of Pittsburgh. A biography of John O'Brien, together with his and his wife's portraits, appears in this work. Mrs. Jane Frances (O'Brien) Sawyer was born in Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, November 10, 1837. Children of John Hamilton and Jane Frances (O'Brien) Sawyer: I. James Brooks Sawyer, born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, (now Northside, Pittsburgh), November 12, 1856, received a collegiate education and read law with Biddle & Ward, of Philadelphia ; was later admitted to the bar of Allegheny county. 2. John O'Brien Sawyer, born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1857, studied dentistry with Dr. Spencer; married Mary A. Corbett, of Georgetown, and they had children: Mary Frances, wife of Percival Glenwar Heming, of Pitts- burgh, and they have two children, Frances Marie and Marjorie Josephine ; John Francis, born June 20, 1888, unmar- ried ; James Leo, born February 18, 1890, unmarried.
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