USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 17
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interest in the Rotary Club movement, being a charter member and secretary of the Wilkes-Barre branch, and during the present World War he is actively and effectively engaged in Red Cross and Se- curity League matters.
Mr. Dodson married, June 8, 1904, Martha Watt, younger daughter of Ed- ward S. and Mary Ellen (Welles) Mor- gan of Wilkes-Barre. Mrs. Dodson's father was for many years prior to his death a member of the firm of Charles Morgans' Sons, engaged in the hardware business in Wilkes-Barre, and both her paternal and maternal grandfathers, Charles Morgan and William S. Welles, were highly respected citizens and suc- cessful business men in Wilkes-Barre in their day and generation.
KRESS, Frederick Joseph,
Business Man.
It would be hard to find, within the limits of Greater Pittsburgh, a more typical representative of the present gen- eration of the city's business men than Frederick Joseph Kress, president and director of the F. J. Kress Box Company, and identified in an official capacity with several other well-known commercial and financial organizations. Mr. Kress takes a keen and helpful interest in all that makes for progress and reform.
The family of Kress is an ancient and honorable one, having its origin in Ba- varia, Germany, and its members are en- titled to display the following escutcheon :
Arms-Gules, three fish argent posted palewise in fess, in chief four lozenges in fess or. Crest-A lion rampant issuant or.
Joseph Adam Kress, father of Fred- erick Joseph Kress, was born in Wurtem- berg, Bavaria, his father holding the office of forester to the king of Bavaria. Mr.
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Kress married Eleanor Heinz, born in Bairenth, Bavaria, daughter of a promi- nent woolen manufacturer who owned several woolen mills in that city. In childhood and early youth Miss Heinz was a playmate and friend of Richard Wagner, the eminent musical composer. At the age of twenty-six Mr. Kress, who was an exceptionally skilled cabinet- maker, emigrated to the United States.
Frederick Joseph Kress, son of Joseph Adam and Eleanor (Heinz) Kress, was born January 18, 1861, in the Penn ave- nue district, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received his education in public schools of his native city. After leaving school Mr. Kress began to work in a box factory, and his aptitude may be inferred from the fact that at the early age of nineteen he became foreman of the shop. At twenty-two he went into business for himself under his own name. The incep- tion of the concern, remarkable though it was, was perhaps less so than its steady growth and successful maintenance. In 1903 the business was incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania as the F. J. Kress Box Company. Later Mr. Kress formed another corporation, the F. J. Kress Box Company, incorporated under the laws of Virginia, and thereby hangs a tale. In the ardor of enterprise he car- ried his business into that State, erecting a box factory on what was then prac- tically an uninhabited spot. Around the factory sprang up a thriving village which, most appropriately, received the name of Kress and which is now to be found in the postal guide and on the map. Like a loyal Pittsburgher, Mr. Kress divides the honors with his native city, de- claring that it was there he learned the art of founding towns. Therefore, Mr. Kress is to-day president and director of the F. J. Kress Box Company, of Kress, Vir- ginia, as well as of the organization of
the same name in Pittsburgh. He is also president and director of the the Frank- lin Savings and Trust Company, and honorary president of the Pittsburgh Commercial Club. Assuredly, none can deny him the title of a truly progressive business man. 11
But there is another field in which Mr. Kress has achieved fame scarcely less widespread and no less honorable than that which has rewarded his efforts in the arena of business. Especially keen w+ his interest in the future generations of his native community, in the citizens who are to make Pittsburgh great in the years to come, « Nor is his interest limited to these. His feeling is national. The future of the citizens of the United States engages his attention and occupies his thoughts, and his activities in this direc- tion are attested by the fact that he is commander-in-chief of, the United Boys'/, Brigades of America. He is a member of the ways and means committee of the Allegheny County Four-Minute Men, and "is one of the most inspiring of the four- minute speakers. The simple statement that he is one of the Bankers' Liberty Loan speakers is conclusive proof that he is-a true patriot and a true orator.
The organizations in which Mr. Kress is enrolled are, as might be expected, extremely numerous. He holds perpetual membership in the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, and is a life member of the Pittsburgh Exposition Society and the Americus Club. In 1911 and 1912 he was president of the National Wood Box Manufacturing Association, and in No- vember, 1916, was elected treasurer of the National Association of Corrugated Fibre Box Manufacturers. He belongs to the official board of the West Pennsyl- vania Hospital, and is a member of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society, being also enrolled in the Pittsburgh
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Athletic Association. Mr. Kress affiliates with Crescent Lodge, No. 576, Free and Accepted Masons, and is prominently associated with matters Masonic. He is a member and elder of the Fourth Pres- byterian Church, and at one time served for seven years as superintendent of the Sunday school ..
Mr. Kress married, April 17, 1884, in Pittsburgh, Mary, daughter of Cornelius and Mary (Ramsey) Enscoe, of. that city, and they are the parents of two chil- dren: I. Elsie Enscoe, now the wife of Thomas Pringle, an architect of Pitts- burgh; they have two children, Mary and Thomas. 2. Paul Cornelius, attending Lafayette College, class of 1921, Be- tween Mr. and Mrs. Kress, the latter a woman of unusual intelligence and most amiable disposition, there exists the most perfect harmony of tastes, sympathies and aims. Mrs. Kress is not only connected with all the societies of her church and active in its charitable work, but at this national crisis she is, the true comrade of her husband in patriotic endeavor, hav- ing been constantly identified with the labors of the Red Cross.
In all respects but one Mr. Kress looks the man his records shows him to be, the single exception being the discrepancy between the length of his career and his apparent age. A stranger, on meeting him, would substract twenty from the total number of years of accomplishment which are actually his. His hair is dark, his strong features are clean shaven, and his keen, kindly brown eyes are those of a leader who wins the enthusiastic loyalty of his followers. He is a man who draws men to him. Never was the work of building up citizens for Pittsburgh and for the Nation more needed than at the present time, and never, we venture to say,was there a man beter fitted to "lend a hand" in its accomplishment than Fred- erick Joseph Kress.
PRICE, JOHN BERTSCH,
Financier.
John Bertsch Price, president of the First National Bank of Hazleton, Penn- sylvania, and connected in various ca- pacities with many of the most important industrial concerns of this place, has for many years occupied a position of prom- inence in the community, and during his long and successful career has won for himself the esteem and regard of his fel- low citizens generally. He is a son of Judge Samuel B. Price, for many years an influ- ential citizen of Mauch Chunk, Pennsyl- vania, and of Harriet (Bertsch) Price, his wife. Judge Price was a native of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, but came to Pennsylvania early in life and was associated with the Upper Lehigh Coal Company in the capacity of chief clerk for a considerable period. He resigned from this position in 1887 and devoted his attention entirely to the responsible duties devolving upon him as treasurer of Carbon county. In 1889 he was elected judge, a post which he filled to his own credit and that of the community in which his court was situated. He mar- ried Harriet Bertsch, a native of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, where he lived thereafter. They were the parents of the following children: Harrie Bertsch, born September 25, 1857, married, October 27, 1884, Margaret Smith, of Cornwells, Bucks county, Pennsylvania; Samuel Barber, died in March, 1904; Daniel Bertsch, deceased; Samuel Clark, who resides at Hazleton; John Bertsch, with whose career we are especially concerned.
Born November 17, 1864, at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, John Bertsch Price went with his parents to Upper Lehigh as a small boy and there spent most of his childhood. It was at Upper Lehigh also that he attended his first schools, and continued a pupil therein until he
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was sent to the Swarthmore Preparatory College, where he was prepared for a uni- versity course. He then entered Lehigh University at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and there studied engineering, graduating as a civil engineer in the year 1885. His ambition to become conversant with every branch of his chosen profession as speed- ily as possible induced him, during most of his college vacations, to spend his time in the mines of the district, studying the application of his theoretical knowledge to actual conditions, an experience which was invaluable to him. In 1886, the year after his graduation from Lehigh, Mr. Price went abroad and spent some months in Europe. Returning in the following year, he became the construction engineer of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and made his home temporarily in Denver, Colorado. Unfortunately his eyes were delicate, and after a year of work with the railroad he was obliged to retire from active business for a time. He spent the following two months on a cattle ranch in the West, hoping to strengthen his eyes by a complete rest, and the follow- ing winter underwent treatment for them consistently. In the spring of 1888 he located at Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he had received the position of teller of the First National Bank, and ever since that time he has made his home here and continued his association with this insti- tution. His father, Judge Price, was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Hazleton, and the young man was shortly after promoted to the post of assistant cashier. He held the two posi- tions until the spring of 1896 and was then appointed cashier. In this capacity he served until his election to the presi- dency in March, 1901, and continues to hold the latter post at the present time.
But although Mr. Price has given so greatly of his time and energy to the
operation of this highly successful bank and is, perhaps, more closely identified with it than with any other business con- cern, it does not by any means mark the limits of his active interests. He is, on the contrary, affiliated with many other concerns and among them should be men- tioned the Luzerne Silk Throwing Com- pany, of which he is the treasurer and a director, while he is materially interested in a number of others. Mr. Price is also a conspicuous figure in social and club circles here, and is a member of the Sigma Phi College fraternity, Tau-Beta Pi, Hon- oring College Engineering Society, the University Club of Philadelphia, the Westmoreland and the Wyoming Coun- try clubs of Wilkes-Barre, and the Hazle- ton and Hazleton Country clubs of Haz- leton, and is a director of the last named. In his religious belief Mr. Price is an Episcopalian, and attends St. Peter's Church of that denomination at Hazle- ton, of which he is vestryman and treas- urer.
John Bertsch Price was united in mar- riage, October 1, 1891, to Mary Silliman, of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Morgan and Martha (Levy) Silliman, old and highly respected residents of this place. Mr. and Mrs. Price have become the parents of the following children: I. John Bertsch, Jr., who received his early education at St. Luke's School for Boys at Philadelphia, and afterwards attended Stanford University, California, from which he graduated with the class of 1915, taking the degree of B. A .; he is now in the United States Naval Auxiliary Service. 2. James Silliman, born April 27, 1894. 3. Robert Morgan, born June 16, 1895, educated at St. Luke's School for Boys at Philadelphia and Stanford University, California; he is now in the United States Aviation Service.
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Harry WChampion
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
CHAMPION, Harry W.,
Man of Affairs.
It is frequently said of a man that he is a representative of the interests with which he has identified himself, but in the case of Harry W. Champion, presi- dent and director of the Newton Machine Tool Works, Incorporated, the statement has a special significance inasmuch as Mr. Champion has been, throughout his business career, connected with the or- ganization of which he has been for a number of years the head and the guid- ing and controlling spirit. Mr. Champion is a loyal citizen of his native Philadel- phia, associated with her most essential interests and a promoter of all that makes for her truest advancement. Harry W. Champion was born October 21, 1864, in Philadelphia, and is a son of John B. and Nancy (Coulter) Champion, and a grand- son of John Champion, of an old New Jersey family. John B. Champion was a native of Philadelphia, and died in that city, where he was for a time engaged in the paper business.
The education of Harry W. Champion was received at the Germantown Acad- emy, and after completing his course of study he spent one year in a real estate office, going then to an engineer's office in order to learn engineering. In 1882 he entered the Charles C. Newton Tool Works and was given a position in the draughting department by Mr. Newton. Mr. Champion tells us that, in addition to his work in the draughting room, he "ran errands and made himself generally useful." This, however, was only at first. Soon he became so proficient in his duties that he was promoted from the position of draughtsman to that of head draughts- man, becoming then salesmanager and later, successively, secretary and direc- tor and general manager. Upon the of five or six men has increased to three
death of Mr. Newton, in 1916, he suc- ceeded to the presidency of the company.
The nationally known corporation of which Mr. Champion has been for the last two years the efficient leader was founded in 1880 by the late Charles C. Newton in a two-story building on Cal- lowhill street, with a force of five or six men. In this modest way Mr. Newton began the manufacture of small milling machines of the standard column and uni- versal types, and so successful was the venture that in 1882 the firm was capable of branching out in the manufacture of the Lincoln type milling machine, called by Mr. Newton the "new pattern milling machine." It represented a distinct im- provement over existing milling machines and from the very beginning had a ready sale. In 1885 the firm designed and built the first commercial locomotive rod mill- ing machine, which was introduced with considerable difficulty owing to the fact that the milling machine had not yet begun to supersede the planer, for certain kinds of work, to any great extent. It has, however, so increased in favor that to-day the sale of heavy planer type mill- ing machines forms the greater portion of the company's total business. In 1886, the old quarters having been outgrown, the company moved into a two-story building at Twenty-fourth and Wood streets, and in 1892 it took up its abode on its present site, Twenty-fourth and Vine streets, in a building three stories high, and within a stone's throw of the place in which it had started. From time to time various extensions have been added to the original building until at present the company occupies the entire city block of Vine, Twenty-third, Pearl and Twenty-fourth streets, and two-thirds of the block bounded by Pearl, Wood and Twenty-third streets. Its original force
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F.NCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
hundred, with a capacity for five hun- dred. Since 1885 the company has branched out principally in the manufac- ture of locomotive and railroad tools. For many years it has made a specialty of cold-saw cutting-off machines, being recognized as the largest manufacturer of these machines in the world and as authority on their design. At both the Chicago and St. Louis world's fairs the Newton cold-saw cutting-off machines were awarded gold medals. The Frank- lin Institute, some years ago, awarded a premium for the company's universal milling machine. Another specialty of the Newton company is the designing and construction of heavy machine tools for special purposes, and it has furnished a large percentage of the special machine tools installed by the extensive manu- facturers of electrical apparatus. In 1897 the company was incorporated under its present title.
It is now more than thirty-five years since Mr. Champion became connected with the Newton Machine Tool Works, Incorporated. From draughtsman he has advanced to president, and during the years of his progress, as well as since he has filled the position of leader, he has been ever-increasingly the heart and soul of the business. He has made of the concern a thoroughly modern, twentieth century enterprise, and to-day it stands in the van among organizations of its kind. We have his authority for the gratifying assurance that, in the design- ing of machine tools, American engineers lead the world. Mr. Champion is a firm believer in the power of advertising, and by his methods in this respect has im- mensely increased the trade of his cor- poration. His advertising, however, is always strictly impersonal. Never does he talk of himself or of what he is doing.
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Vitally present as he is in every depart- ment of the work he appears only in the silent but most effective manifestation of results. He is most emphatically and pre- ëminently a doer.
Politically Mr. Champion is a Repub -. lican with independent tendencies. Earn- estly public-spirited, he is active, as far as his business responsibilities allow, in community affairs. He occupies a seat in the Chamber of Commerce, and is vice- president and director of the Auxiliary Fire Alarm Company and a stockholder in other concerns. He affiliates with Pennsylvania Lodge, No. 380, Free and Accepted Masons; the Improved Order of Red Men, and the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and his clubs are the Union League, the White Marsh Valley Country Club, the Engineers', the Manufacturers', and the Athletic, all of Philadelphia ; likewise, the Mohawk Club, of Schenectady, New York. Mr. Cham- pion belongs to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Metal Trade Association and the Philadelphia Board of Trade.
Mr. Champion married, July 14, 1886, Matilda G., daughter of Levi and Sophia (Frick) Godshall, of Philadelphia, and they are the parents of two daughters: Edna; and Lelia, wife of Donald E. Lind- sey, of Philadelphia, who is now with the United States forces in France. Mr. and Mrs. Champion are devoted to the ties of family and friendship and their home is a center of gracious hospitality.
The great concern which he has so largely built up and maintained has been very aptly compared to the lengthened shadow of Harry W. Champion and it is a shadow that will not pass away. It is an organization which, as the years go on, will form one of the industrial bul- warks of Philadelphia.
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MILLER, George J.,
Business Man.
Four generations of this branch of the Miller family have resided in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, George Miller, of Dutch ancestry, coming from the State of Connecticut early in the nineteenth century and founding the family of which his great-grandson, George J. Miller, a prominent business man of Pittston, Pennsylvania, is a twentieth century rep- resentative. George Miller, a farmer, was a leading man of his district, but the last years of his life were spent in the home of his daughter, Kate, where he died. He was laid at rest in the old Cooper burying ground at Plains. He had sons: Jacob M., George, Daniel, Moses, Conrad, and John, also daughters : Polly, Kate, and Peggy. The line of descent is through his son, Jacob M., grandfather of George J. Miller, of Pitts- ton.
Jacob M. Miller was born in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, May 22, 1809, and died in Princess Anne county, Maryland, July 17, 1879. He remained in Luzerne county until 1846, a boat builder, having a yard at the basin where he repaired and built boats for the river trade, but later he became a contractor and builder. About 1846 he moved to Oregon, going from there to the State of Maryland, about 1873, and purchasing a plantation in Princess Anne county. He was a devout Methodist, a founder of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, at Pittston, Pennsylvania, and a man of just and up- right life. He resided on his Maryland plantation for six years, 1873-1879, and there died. He married, January 1, 1831, Hannah Stark, born July 28, 1810, died at .Pittston, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1858, daughter of John Stark, of Wilkes- Barre. They were the parents of sons: 1
John G., Wadsworth, Kennard S., and Charles; and daughters: Mary, Hannah S., Mrs. Nellie Thayer, of Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Mrs. C. A. Porter, of Auburn, New York. The line continues through John G. Miller, father of George J. Miller, of Pittston.
John G. Miller was born in Plains, Lu- zerne county, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1832, and died in Pittston, October 2, 1902. He was educated in the district schools of the town, and at Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania, and after completing his studies learned the carpenter's trade. He worked for sev- eral years as a journeyman, finally becom- ing a contractor and spending the remain- ing years of his life engaged in building operations. He erected many of the pub- lic and private buildings in Pittston and vicinity, his reputation as a skilled builder and reliable contractor ranking with the highest. He was the leading builder in Pittston for many years, and a citizen beyond reproach. He was an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal church; a Republican in politics; his fraternal order, The United American Mechanics. He married, in 1863, Mary Bowman, born 1844, died 1888, daughter of John and Mary Bowman, of Shenan- doah, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were the parents of ten children, three of whom grew to mature years: George J., of further mention; Kenneth Stark, and Gertrude.
George J. Miller, eldest child of John G. and Mary (Bowman) Miller, was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, March 18, 1865, and there yet resides. He was educated in the public schools, learned the carpenter's trade, and until 1893 was asso- ciated with his father in the contracting and building business. In that year he withdrew from that line of business activ- ity, but remained in Pittston, where for five
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years he was engaged in the ice business. He then sold out to the Citizens' Ice Com- pany, and in 1898, in company with O. C. Foster, purchased of Coward & Stark the business of the Pittston Iron Roofing Company. The business was soon aban- doned, and after its sale Mr. Miller engaged in stock dealing with sale sta- bles in Port Blanchard, horses and mules the special lines handled. This business, begun in a small way, has been a most successful and profitable one, the larg- est of its kind in that section of Pennsyl- vania, its every branch now being de- voted to the service of the United States Government, Mr. Miller traveling the Western country, buying horses and mules to be used for army purposes at home and abroad. He has very capably performed "his bit" in this particular field, and has furnished the Government with hundreds of horses and mules, each one especially selected for a definite pur- pose. He is a member of the City En- gineers' Club of Scranton, Pennsylvania ; Wyoming Valley Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; and of all bodies of Key- stone Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite of Scranton, he being a thirty- second degree Mason of that body. He is also a noble of Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In political faith he is a Republican, and in religious preference a Presbyterian, affiliated with the First Church of West Pittston.
Mr. Miller married, September 18, 1890, Mary Harriet Hodgdon, born April 29, 1863, at Port Blanchard, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Blanchard) Hodgdon. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the parents of two sons: George Edward, born December 24, 1893, educated in the Pittston public schools and Charlotte Hall Military Academy,
Charlotte Hall, Maryland, now sergeant Q. M. C., N. A., Auxiliary Remount Depot, No. 333, United States Army, in training at Camp Joseph E. Johnson, Jacksonville, Florida; and Richard, born March 6, 1899, educated in West Pittston grade and high schools, and Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pennsylvania.
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