USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 13
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John Conlon was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1862. For a time he attended school in the little log school-, Catholic, a member of Sacred Heart Par-
house at Plains, but the large family demanded that the boys early become wage earners, and at an early age John was working as a breaker boy and add- ing his wages to the family fund. He began in the breaker at the Mill Creek Mine and as soon as possible obtained work in the mine. After becoming an expert miner and capable of filling higher position, he was promoted and finally became assistant superintendent of the Pine Ridge Mine owned and operated by the Delaware & Hudson Company. This was in 1880, and for twelve years he held the position of assistant, receiving his promotion to the post of superintendent in 1892. As superintendent he displayed good managerial capacity, and under his management the mine produced satisfac-
torily to the owners. He resigned his position in 1913, bought a tract of one hundred and sixty-five acres of coal bear- ing land from the Fairmount Land Com- pany, and opening up a slope became a producing operator. His mine located at Hudson in the Pennsylvania anthracite region is more than meeting his demands, the present output being over three hun- dred tons daily. It is a satisfaction to Mr. Conlon and his friends that success has come as a reward for his years of industry, and with the past as a criterion greater success awaits him. That he is highly regarded and popular in the town which has long been his home is well attested by the fact that for twenty years he has been retained a member of the Plains township school board, and at dif- ferent times he has been president of the board and its treasurer. That he holds honorable position among business men is evidenced by his membership in the board of directors of the Dime Deposit Bank of Wilkes-Barre. In politics he is a Democrat, in religious faith a Roman ish.
Mr. Conlon married, December 1, 1885, Mary Clarke, born at Bloomsburgh, Penn- sylvania, April 8, 1865, daughter of John and Mary (Carey) Clarke, her father born in Roscommon, Ireland. John and Mary Clarke were the parents of : James ; Michael; John; Mary, married John Con- lon; Margaret, married James Dun- leavy, of Wilkes-Barre; Peter; and Eu- gene, deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Conlon are the parents of eleven sons and daughters : I. William, born February 4, 1887; mar- ried Catherine Featherston, of Wilkes- Barre, a kindergarten teacher. 2. Mary, a graduate nurse. 3. Margaret, a teacher of Languages at Plains High School. 4. Gertrude, a graduate of Mansfield State Normal School. 5. Joseph, born August
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6, 1896; a graduate of Mansfield State Normal School, now in the service of his country, corporal of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery, United States Army. 6. Peter, born August 22, 1899; a student at Plains High School. 7. Paul, twin with Peter, and attending the same school. 8. John, born May 13, 1903. 9. Julia. 10. Alice. II. Charles Myles, born November 9, 1907.
HEALEY, Martin J., Coal Operator.
The success that has been attained by Mr. Healey in his coal operations has stamped him as a man of energy, sound judgment, and strong character. He was but twenty-three years of age when he executed his first lease, and two years later he purchased his own land and has developed his own properties to a point where he is shipping eight hundred tons of anthracite coal daily from his three mines, owns his own breakers and em- ploys five hundred men. All his success has been accomplished as a young man not yet in his prime, and could not have been achieved save through his rare busi- ness ability, clear judgment and untiring energy. He is one of the successful men of the coal business, and in Plains, Penn- sylvania, his home and business head- quarters, he is held in high esteem as a man of reliability and sterling worth.
Martin J. Healey is a son of Patrick and Bridget (Flannery) Healey, both born in County Mayo, Ireland. Patrick Healey was a farmer and remained in his native land until 1866, when he sailed from Queenstown, arriving in New York, going thence to Pittston, Pennsylvania, there remaining three months only. From Pittston he removed to Plains, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where he was em- ployed around and in the coal mines until
his death in 1903. His widow survived him until 1906. Both were members of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church of Plains. They were the parents of sev- eral children, four of whom grew to man- hood: Michael, Catherine, Patrick, and Martin J.
Martin J. Healey was born in Plains, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, Novem- ber 10, 1876, and there attended school until nine years of age, when he began wage earning as a "breaker boy." From the "breaker" he graduated to the mine, and for several years was engaged in mining in boys' positions and later as a skilled miner. For a short time he engaged in the undertaking business, but in the year 1900 he made his first start in the business in which he has since scored so signal a success, coal operating. He leased the old Hillman vein mine in North Wilkes-Barre, which he operated about one year very profitably, then sold his interest to the present owners, the Wilkes-Barre & Scranton Coal Company. The following year, 1902, he purchased from the Miner and Stocker Coal Tract, one hundred and thirty-two acres at Plains, Pennsylvania, on which he located two slopes, and developed to a condition of high productiveness the property now producing three hundred tons of mer- chantable coal daily. His success with that tract encouraged him to extend his operations, and in 1907 he added to his holding the Dr. Wey tract of one hundred and fifty acres, at Alden, Pennsylvania. At the mine on that tract he built a new breaker, and from that plant two hundred tons are shipped daily. In 1910 he still fur- ther enlarged his business by the purchase of a tract from the Troy Coal Company of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, his mine on that property now producing three hundred tons daily, the production daily from his three properties being eight hundred
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tons. He thoroughly understands his business, there being no detail which he has not learned from personal contact and experience. His standing is high in his community, and he ranks with the ener- getic, progressive men of his town. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Healey has been one of the active, influential men of his party in his district for several years. He has served his town as school director several terms, and is deeply interested in securing for the boys and girls of the dis- trict the very best educational advan- tages possible. He is a member of Sacred Heart Church, of Plains, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Wilkes- Barre, and the Knights of Columbus.
Mr. Healey married, November 26, 1898, Julia A. Reilly, daughter of James and Ann Reilly, of Miners Mills, Penn- sylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Healey are the parents of three daughters and a son: Anna, a student at Marywood College, Scranton, Pennsylvania; Martin J. (2); Loretta; and Rita.
SCOUTON, Frank J., Financier, Business Man.
When in June, 1910, the Citizens Bank of Parsons, Pennsylvania, was incorpor- ated, Frank J. Scouton, one of the found- ers, was chosen as its first executive head, an honor he had qualified for during a previous active and successful business career in Parsons, dating from 1888. His election has since proved his fitness for financial responsibilities, and under his administration and presidency the bank has gained a strong position among Luzerne county's financial institutions. Since youth Mr. Scouton has been en- gaged in the lumber business as manu- facturer, wholesaler and retailer, and is one of Pennsylvania's well-known busi- ness men and eminent citizens.
The Scoutons came from the State of Connecticut to Pennsylvania, the first comer being Jacob Scouton, a soldier of the War of 1812. He bought land in Forkston township, Wyoming county (then a part of Luzerne county), which he cleared and afterward cultivated, being among the early settlers both of the township and county. He married, and in addition to a daughter Lucy, who mar- ried William Thompson, he had another daughter, and sons: Charles, Matthias, William W., the latter, the grandfather of Frank J. Scouton.
William W. Scouton was born in Forkston township, Wyoming county, Pennsylvania (then Luzerne county), in 1796, and there died in 1852, a farmer and lumberman. He married a Miss Adams, they the parents of sons and daughters: Major, William W., of fur- ther mention; Calista, married George B. Clark, of Beaumont, Wyoming county ; Mary, married Henry Barber, of Lovel- ton, Wyoming county; Louisa, married John Lyman, and moved to near Syra- cuse, New York; Fanny, married J. B. Parks, of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, later a resident of Wyoming county.
William W. (2) Scouton, second son of William W. (1) Scouton, was born in Forkston township, Wyoming county, Pennsylvania, in 1827, died in Wilmot township, Bradford county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1896. He was reared at the homestead in Forkston township, obtained such education as the schools of the dis- trict then afforded, and remained at home, his father's assistant, until the latter's death in 1852. In 1858 he moved to Bradford county, purchased a two hun- dred acre tract in Wilmot township cov- ered with timber. This he cleared, man- ufacturing the timber into lumber, and bringing the land under a high state of cultivation in later years. He enlisted
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in the One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer In- fantry, and served until honorably dis- charged at the close of the Civil War. He then returned to his farm in Wil- mot township, and there lived the re- maining thirty-one years of his life. He was one of the substantial farmers of his township, a deeply religious man, highly esteemed by his neighbors and greatly sought for in counsel. He married, in 1843, Lura Robinson, daughter of Ira and Abbie (Taylor) Robinson, of Wyom- ing county. Mr. and Mrs. Scouton were the parents of: Ira, deceased; William M., deceased; John G., attorney, of Du- shore, Pennsylvania; James R., attor- ney, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ; Frank J., of further mention; Harriet, married Judge Harvey Sickler, of Tunk- hannock, Pennsylvania; and Anna, who died at the age of twenty years.
Frank J. Scouton, son of William W. (2) and Lura (Robinson) Scouton, was born at the home farm in Wilmot town- ship, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1861. He was educated in the district public school, Towanda High School, and Wyoming Seminary, com- pleting his studies with a business course at the last named institution. He was his father's assistant at the home farm until attaining legal age in 1882, then was engaged in lumbering until 1888 in Wya- lusing, Bradford county, and at Dushore, Sullivan county, Pennsylvania. These were six successful years for so young a man and definitely decided his choice of a business career. In the latter part of 1888, he located at Parsons, in Luzerne county, and continued in the lumber bus- iness under his own name. In 1890 the firm of Scouton, Lee & Company, con- sisting of Frank J. Scouton, Conrad Lee and George F. Lee, was formed. They continued a successful lumber business at
Parsons until 1895, when Conrad Lee retired, Mr. Scouton and George F. Lee continuing the business under the same firm name. The same year (1895) they opened a retail lumber yard and a general store at Hanover, in the borough of Nan- ticoke, that business being yet conducted under the firm name, Lee & Scouton, a name well and favorably known in the business world. For thirty years Mr. Scouton has been identified with the lum- ber business in Parsons, and during those years has won high and honored stand- ing as a man of upright character, fair and just in all his dealings, public-spirited, progressive and very helpful in commun- ity affairs. In June, 1910, the Citizens Bank of Parsons was organized, and when the incorporators met to organize, Mr. Scouton was elected president, the only man as yet to hold that honor. He is a member of the Franklin, Press, and Automobile clubs of Wilkes-Barre, and in politics a Republican.
Mr. Scouton married, February 14, 1888, Kathryn S. Shadd, born April 18, 1870, daughter of John and Elizabeth Shadd, of Bernice, Sullivan county, Penn- sylvania. Mrs. Scouton died December 24, 1896, leaving a son, Wirt W. Scouton, born April 4, 1892, now in the employ of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, married Isabel Gilmore and has a daugh- ter, Helen Scouton. Another child of Frank J. and Kathryn S. Scouton died in infancy.
DUNHAM, Minor B.,
Man of Enterprise.
With the passing of Minor B. Dunham, of Warren, Pennsylvania, a life ended which from boyhood, as his father's assistant and later as his successor, was one of well directed, successful effort. The lives of the Dunhams, father and son,
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were intermingled with the history of Cherry Grove and Sheffield townships, Warren county, from 1833 until 1856, when the father retired, leaving the son in control. From that year Minor B. Dunham was connected with many im- portant operations in various places in the county, principally with lumbering, and from 1871 until his death made War- ren his headquarters. The value of these two lives to Warren county cannot be estimated; their influence touched all departments of county life, and in busi- ness, finance, public life and church, their names "led all the rest."
When Richard Dunham settled in Cherry Grove township, the locality was virgin forest and his first home was a house built of logs cut from the site on which it stood. When a little later he moved to Sheffield township, but two men had preceded him, Timothy and Erastus Barnes. When Minor B. Dunham made his first trip to Pittsburgh, he was a boy of twelve, and journeyed to that city on a raft of lumber sawed from logs cut from the Dunham land. When in 1870 Richard Dunham died, he saw prosperous towns and fertile fields where he had found a wilderness, and when Minor B. Dunham closed his career, Warren had a population of nearly 40,000, and the city of Warren with a population of nearly 10,000 was a city of manufacturing, banks, business houses, and homes of wealth and luxury. And in all this development the Dunham's had borne a prominent part, the father as a pioneer and founder, the son developing and expanding with the opportunity of the last half of the nine- teenth century. The father gloried in the ability and success of the son, the son honored the memory of the father, and both deserve the high place in the annals of Warren county which history has accorded them.
Richard Dunham came to Warren county from Tompkins county, New York, but his father, Thomas Dunham, was from the State of New Jersey, going thence to the town of Ovid, Tompkins county, New York, in 1805. Thomas Dunham passed the latter years of his life in Steuben county, New York, and there died at the age of seventy-nine, on February 22, 1845, leaving seven sons and a daughter.
Richard Dunham, fifth son of Thomas Dunham, was born in New Jersey, in 1802, and died in Warren, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1870. He was three years of age when his parents moved to Ovid, New York, and in his new home he began his school life, finishing in Ithaca, New York, even at that early day a town of good schools. He began teaching at the age of eighteen, and continued a peda- gogue twelve years (1820-1832), although he soon became the owner of a farm and gave his summers to its cultivation. In 1832 he traded his farm for a tract of land in Warren county, Pennsylvania, and in March, 1833, moved to his new home in the wilderness, the locality being then under sixteen inches of snow. The locality in which he first settled and built his home of logs to which he brought his family is now Cherry Grove township, the immediate site later witnessing the opening of the first and greatest oil well in the village of Garfield, which sprang up around it and flourished for a time.
It was not until the July following, that he had his home completed and a start made at real settlement. He then began his lumbering operations by aiding in the construction of a dam and saw mill for a firm to which he was afterward admitted a partner. In course of time he bought his partners out and moved to Sheffield township, in which but two families were living. He conducted extensive lumber-
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ing interests with the aid of his sons, and as they came to sturdy boyhood he gave way to them, he never being a man of robust health. He, however, remained at the head of the large lumbering business he had created until 1856, when ill health forced a reluctant retirement. For twenty consecutive years he was a justice of the peace, and from 1858 he was a member of the Methodist Episco- pal church. He was a man of strictly moral life, and trained his children to habits of industry and right living.
Richard Dunham married, in New York, in July, 1826, Laura Allen, born in Saulsbury, New York, July 29, 1805, and died July 29, 1891, aged just eighty-six years. She was a daughter of Enos Allen, who settled in Yates county, New York, about 1817, a descendant of Col- onel Ethan Allen, of New Hampshire. Mr. and Mrs. Dunham were the parents of six sons and five daughters, nine of their children reaching years of maturity.
Minor B. Dunham, second child of Richard and Laura (Allen) Dunham, was born in Tompkins county, New York, January 25, 1829, and died in Warren, Pennsylvania, February 4, 1902, after an illness of fifteen months. He was four years of age when his parents moved to Warren county, Pennsylvania, and in the public school of Sheffield his education was begun. He obtained a good educa- tion, his father giving him the advan- tages of school attendance in Havana, Schuyler county, and in Alfred, Alle- gheny county, New York, in addition to the personal instruction he was himself well-fitted to give. The school attend- ance continued until the young man was of age, but not continuously, as he was his father's assistant from the age of twelve years when he went on his first trip to Pittsburgh with a raft of lum- ber. The father fully instructed his son
in business methods, and so fully trusted him with his interests that from the age of twelve years he was able to attend school only a part of each year. After the age of sixteen, his trips with the lum- ber rafts to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were made with regularity, and in 1856, at the age of twenty-seven, his father retired, leaving Minor B. Dunham in charge. In 1858 he purchased the Dun- ham homestead and all the property, and became sole owner and manager of the business. In 1865 the timber lands of Sheffield failing to furnish a sufficient quantity of logs for his mills, he sold out his holdings there and moved his base of operations to Cherry Grove and Watson, and enlarged the scope of his activity.
Naturally, with the change in methods from those of earlier days, the shifting of trade channels caused by the opening of railroads, Mr. Dunham, a thoroughly pro- gressive man, kept pace. He began ship- ping lumber from his mills to Philadel- phia and other eastern markets, and reached many lumber markets away from river transportation. From 1868 until 1871 he resided in Sharpsburg, Pennsyl- vania, where he had established an inter- est in a lumber yard and a planing mill. In 1871 he removed to Warren, Pennsyl- vania, which was ever afterward his resi- dence, and in 1876 he erected a fine home on Water street. He enlarged his lum- bering interests continually, operated sawmills in Forest county, in addition to those in Warren county, and he also owned timber lands in West Virginia. These were his individual concerns, and do not include his corporate or partner- ship interest. From the year 1856 he was associated with Colonel L. F. Watson in the purchase of large timber tracts, had large mining interests, and at the time of his death was president of the Chainman Mining Company of Nevada. For about
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fifteen years he was a director of the Warren Savings Bank, and to a certain extent operated in oil. But his chief interest from boyhood until death was lumbering, and there was no phase of that business from standing timber to the manufactured product with which he could not be classed as an expert. His judgment upon the value of a tract of standing timber was unquestioned, and in the business of marketing the product of his mills he used unerring judgment.
He was an ardent Republican, his sec- ond presidential vote being cast for Gen- eral John C. Fremont, the first candidate of that party, and he supported every Re- publican presidential candidate there- after. He would never accept office for himself, but was loyal in the support of his friends with political aspirations. He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and while residing in Sharpsburg aided in the construction of Union Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, as he had previously done in the erection of a new Methodist church in Sheffield. In Warren he was a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, saw the need of a new building, and most generously contributed of his means and valuable time to accomplish its erection. The church edifice was begun in June, 1885, and was dedicated September 19, 1886. He was a member of the board of trustees for many years, and ever active in all departments of the work of the church. He was for several years presi- dent of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, and ever deeply interested in its work. His charities and benevolences extended to all worthy objects, and he privately aided many indivduals. His interest in and work for his fellowmen continued until the last, and his death was genuinely regretted in the commun- ity in which he was such a power for good.
Mr. Dunham married, February 19, 1852, Mary M. Person, who survives him, a daughter of Harrison Person of Ellery, Chautauqua county, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Dunham were the parents of two sons and two daughters: I. Clara Ellen, born August 23, 1853, died February 6, 1875. 2. George H., born October 27, 1854; educated at Mount Union College (Ohio) ; associated with his honored father in business, and at the time of the latter's death was in charge of the street railroad at Titusville, Pennsylvania, that being the latest of Mr. Dunham's busi- ness ventures. 3. Francis, born April 15, 1856, died in infancy. 4. Jessie M., born April 6, 1862; Married Dr. Richard B. Stewart, of Warren, and has two sons: i. Minor Benson Stewart, born June 16, 1884, now connected with the Hamilton Iron Company, married Louise C. Ham- ilton and has a daughter, Jane Hamilton Stewart; ii. Paul Bryant Stewart, born April 5, 1886, now a practicing physician of Warren, Pennsylvania, married Helen Alice Seigfred, and has two sons, Rich- ard Seigfred and John Seigfred Stewart.
BALDWIN, William C.,
Manufacturer.
When Jared R. Baldwin, the first of the family to settle in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, died at the age of eighty- four, he had compiled a record of use- fulness as farmer and citizen which included a great deal of public service. He was succeeded by his son, Charles B. Baldwin, whose life was correspondingly valuable, but was cut short in its prime. His son, William C. Baldwin, is the pres- ent representative of the family in Wyom- ing, and one of the substantial men of the borough.
Baldwin is an old Scandinavian name, meaning "Bold Winner," or "bold cour- ageous friend." It is found in many
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tongues; in Latin it is Baldwins, in is: Squirrel Segant a squirrel sitting French, Baudouin, in Italian, Baldino and Colored in Gold. Balduino, in English, Baldwin. One of the first of the name to appear that attained prominence was Baldwin, son of Gan, a young French knight, killed with so many other noble youths at the battle of Rocenvalles, A. D. 778. Another is named Baldwin, son of Ogier, the Dane who was slain by Charlemange. In 837, "Baldwin of the Iron Arm" founded Bruges; that Baldwin married Judith, the fair daughter of Charles of France, and their descendants ruled the Duke- dom of Flanders from 837 to 1195. Many Baldwins fought in the Crusades and one of them was made the first King of Jeru- salem after Godfrey Bullon conquered the important cities on the seacoast of Pales- tine. A Baldwin was Emperor of Con- stantinople in 1204. A Baldwin was an Archbishop of Canterbury, and Matilda Baldwin married William, the Conqueror, and went to England with him. Their son ruled Normandy, and their son Wil- liam Rufus succeeded his father as King of England. The pages of English his- tory teem with Baldwin achievement, and in every walk of life they are found. Of the region from whence came the Bald- wins, Bryants, Fenns and Fowlers, of Milford, Connecticut, in 1638, it is writ- ten: "The woods of Hampden and to the north upon the brow of a lofty hill called Green Holly. In the side of this chalk hill is cut 'Whiteleaf Cross.'" It is about 100 feet long by seventy wide and made by cutting off the turf and leaving the bare chalk visible for many miles. This monument is of great age intended to commemorate a battle be- tween the Saxons and Danes. The usual Arms of the Baldwins were: Three Oak leaves slipped or six in pairs, two in chief and one in base bent stalks, their points downward. With these the usual crest
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