USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 21
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DeGOLIER, Albert, Representative Citizen.
In the wilds and among the pioneers of the Northern Tier region of Pennsylvania, on June 4, 1831, Albert DeGolier was born. His birthplace was at Lafayette Corners, in the county of Mckean. The hamlet had become widely known, because here the East and West Road, the great highway projected by Act of Assembly to extend from the eastern to
the western boundary of Pennsylvania, was crossed by a trail from Chinckle- clamoose (Clearfield) to Fort Niagara (Buffalo). The boy's father, Abel De- Golier, who was a minister, skilled, too, in the trade of a carpenter and joiner, with his wife, Elizabeth (Overheiser) De- Golier (who died in 1893 at the age of ninety-one years) and his brother, Nathan, had struck out from their home near Avoca, in the county of Steuben, State of New York, about two years before, and after brief visits to settlements along the State border, took up their temporary abode at Smethport, which had then been named as the county seat of Mckean. Here, while Albert was in infancy, scarce two years of age, his father succumbed to the rigors of border life.
Meantime, Nathan DeGolier, Albert's uncle, had been attracted to a saw-mill settlement in the western part of the county, on the waters of the Tunungwant creek, and here, at or near the present vil- lage of DeGolier, he erected and main- tained a flourishing grist-mill. Through his intercession a home was found for the boy and his mother in the neighboring settlement of Corwin Center on Kendall creek, at the homestead of Warren Edson. There were then but eight other settlers in the valley: Philetus Corwin, Andrew Brown, Absalom Hutchinson, George Smith, John W. Whipple, Orson Hogle, Samuel Whipple and Zach. Reynolds, all of whom lived in primitive fashion, in log cabins, with open fireplaces, equipped with cranes and pot-hooks. Edson, how- ever, was distinguished among them by the fact that he had built a barn. The journey from Smethport was then quite an undertaking, there being no well- travelled road. But there was a trail fol- lowing the course of the present highway, through Farmers Valley, over Rew Hill. It was the mail route from Jersey Shore
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albert De Galier
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to Smethport, Tuna Valley, Little Valley, and thence to Belmont. So the infant boy, with his mother, followed the trail horseback. Here, in Kendall Creek val- ley, Albert's childhood was spent. When of sufficient age, he worked on the farm. Perchance in the fall and spring he would attend with his elders the elections, which were held at the house of L. S. Foster, and not infrequently go to the post-office, just established, to receive from William Fisher the weekly mail. In 1838 the Pennsylvania free school system went into effect. Albert attended the first pub- lic school in the valley, and some years later became the teacher of the same school.
Between the settlement on Kendall Creek, the mill village at the mouth of Foster brook, and the East Branch settle- ment, around the confluence of the branches of the Tunungwant, the United States Land Company, succeeded by Daniel Kingsbury, planted a little town, thereafter to be known as Littleville, Lit- tleton, and later as Bradford. When Albert DeGolier came to Bradford, it was a busy lumber center. In 1853 his mother had died. His circumstances, however, were such that he was able to maintain a home of his own. On October 17 of that year, he married a companion of his child- hood, Eleanor Hutchinson, daughter of Absalom Hutchinson, and they resided at Bradford until 1860, when, attracted by the tide of emigration to the rich prairies of the West, and having accumulated some means, he removed to Iowa, and there for a time conducted with good suc- cess a general mercantile business.
In 1866, learning of the discovery of petroleum at Bradford, he disposed of his business and returned. Here he made fortunate investments in real estate, chiefly at the present intersection of Main and Kennedy streets. At the northwest
corner of this intersection, he established, and for several years maintained a gen- eral store, dealing in dry goods and sup- plies. He also engaged with others in the production of oil. In fact, he became interested in the growth of Bradford in various directions. He took part in its civic progress. Every well-considered measure for its advancement enlisted his support. He had a quick comprehension of the moral phase of any mooted propo- sition, and could be counted to appear on the right side. In the great causes of temperance, of public education, and of the abolition of slavery, he was always alert, aggressive and influential. His native ability, reënforced by education and experience, gained for him a degree of prominence in the affairs of the city which few others enjoyed. He spoke to the point and readily, as occasion de- manded, and wrote with fluency. His attitude on public questions was often made known through the press, and thus, in a large sense, he became an accepted monitor for the community. Although the development of the oil district brought to Bradford a cosmopolitan population, mainly enterprising, wide-awake, ener- getic, Albert DeGolier held his ground as an influential factor. He was elected for successive terms to the office of school director, and served for many years as the secretary of the board.
George F. Stone, Esq., a co-director and subsequently superintendent of the pub- lic schools of Bradford, now a member of the bar and prominent citizen of Seattle, writes as follows:
As to my recollection of Albert DeGolier, I would say that after the lapse of more than thirty years, my memory of him is that of one of the most notable examples of faithful public service that I have ever known. His position in the Board of School Directors for many years, as Chairman of the Committee on Buildings and
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Supplies, carried the duty of the oversight of the expenditure of large sums of money, and in marked contrast with a too common custom, he was as careful, economical and painstaking with the people's money as of his own. His integrity was above the possibility of question, and no scandal or accusation of graft ever attached to an act of his. Every contract was awarded on its merits, and no influence could move him from what he believed to be right. He was not a blind follower, but had ideas of his own, which he was never afraid to express, and convinced that he was right, there was no power that could move him from his position; this is my distinctive memory of Mr. DeGolier.
In religion, as in politics, he was not bound by tradition. Hence he was not always in harmony with the majority. But in the manner of his life he was an exemplar which the majority always respected. In regard to personal habits he was absolutely unassailable. He never used profane language. He drank no intoxicating liquor, nor tea nor coffee, nor did he use tobacco in any form.
At his death, which occurred at his home on January 19, 1908, he left to sur- vive him his widow, since deceased, and six children now living: Elizabeth An- toinette, wife of S. E. Barrett; Charles Fremont, a resident of Cambridge, Ohio; Mary Ann, wife of W. H. Smart, of Phil- adelphia; Spencer M., of Bradford, former mayor of the city, elected by a large majority in spite of strong party opposition; Margaret Lillian, wife of Herbert A. Lamprell, of Boston, Massa- chusetts, and Eleanor Jane, wife of C. J. Davis, of Bradford.
Important public ends to which Albert DeGolier had been zealously devoted came to fruition in his lifetime. He lived to see the Bradford High School estab- lished, its chemical laboratory become a reality, its reference library, founded by public subscription, expanded later into a city library free to the people. He enjoyed opportunities for public service,
and to it gave himself so generously that there were times when consequently his private interests suffered to such extent as to cloud, in some measure, the happi- ness of his latter days. But he left to the city an example of the best type of citi- zenship, which is, after all, the noblest heritage.
TORRANCE, Francis, Financier, Philanthropist.
Some men there are who touch life at so many points that in order to convey an adequate conception of their personal- ity, it seems necessary to describe them in several characters. A man of this type was the late Francis Torrance, one of the strong men of the Old Pittsburgh, whose commanding form, seen through the gathering mists of the fast receding years, rises before us as business man, financier and philanthropist.
Francis Torrance, father of Francis Torrance, was a prosperous farmer in the North of Ireland, where he spent his entire life of eighty-six years. He was the father of a large family.
Francis (2) Torrance, son of Francis (1) Torrance, was born in the town of Letterkenny, in 1816. He made good use of superior educational advantages, and came to America when twenty-one years of age. He first located in Pittsburgh, where for a short time he was employed as bookkeeper. He afterwards went to Wellsville, Ohio, and engaged in the gro- cery business. After a few years of suc- cessful business, he returned to Ireland and married Ann Jane McClure, and then went into business in his native town. After seven years in the Old Country, Mr. Torrance came to Philadelphia, where he embarked in the grocery business. He remained there a few years and then located permanently in Pittsburgh. In
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1875, in company with J. W. Arrott and John Fleming, Mr. Torrance established the Standard Manufacturing Company, now the Standard Sanitary Manufactur- ing Company, the largest corporation for the manufacture of sanitary goods in the world. Active in the affairs of the com- munity, Mr. Torrance served in the Select Council of Allegheny (now the Northside, Pittsburgh), and was for eigh- teen years a member of the School Board. He was a member and trustee of the Bap- tist church. For twenty-eight years he was the agent of the Schenley Estate, having charge of the entire interest of the estate in America, valued at over $30,- 000,000 and his able management of this trust brought him much praise.
As a citizen with exalted ideas of good government and civic virtue, Mr. Tor- rance stood in the front rank. In politics he was a Republican. Ever ready to respond to any deserving call made upon him, such was his abhorance of publicity that the full number of his benefactions will, in all probability, never be known to the world. A man of fine personal ap- pearance, of a nature so genial and sym- pathetic as to possess a rare magnetism, he was a man who drew men to him. Personality, coupled with great ability, was, in fact, the secret of his wonderful success, making possible undertakings which, in the hands of an ordinary man, would have met with utter failure. His countenance was indicative of great force and also of that capacity for friendship which made him the object of the loyal and devoted attachment of all who were in any way associated with him.
Mr. Torrance was twice married. By his first wife, Ann Jane (McClure) Tor- rance, he had three children, one of whom is living, Elizabeth, residing in Ireland. By his second wife, whom he married in 1857, and who was Jane Waddell, daugh-
ter of John Waddell, he had one son, Francis J., whose sketch follows in this work, and one daughter who died in infancy.
The death of Francis Torrance, which occurred March 11, 1886, deprived Pitts- burgh of a man whose business talents were of the highest order and whose will was simply indomitable. Full of work, of fiery energy and unquenchable hope, he represented a type, the value of which to a city it is impossible to estimate. The influence of such men ramifies all through the commercial and industrial life, extend- ing itself to the entire social economy, and every man, from the toiling laborer to the merchant prince, receives benefit from them.
TORRANCE, Francis J., Man of Affairs.
It would, perhaps, be impossible to find throughout the length and breadth of Western Pennsylvania a man who pos- sessed in larger measure, or in more per- fect balance, the qualifications necessary for success in a city like Pittsburgh, a city which is more than a city, which can be described only as an industrial cyclone, than does Francis J. Torrance, first vice- president and chairman of the executive board of the Standard Sanitary Manufac- turing Company of Pittsburgh and its subsidiary companies of the United States.
Francis J. Torrance was born June 27, 1859, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, son of Francis and Jane (Waddell) Torrance. He received his elementary education in the public schools of his native city, grad- uating from the Third Ward School in 1874. Later he took a course at Newell Institute, finishing his education at the Western University. He entered his business life in 1875, as clerk in the
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employ of the Standard Manufactur- ing Company, and subsequently be- came it treasurer and general man- ager. When the Standard Manufac- turing Company merged into the Stand- ard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, with nine other concerns in a similar line of business, Mr. Torrance was elected a director and subsequently made first vice- president and chairman of the executive committee. The concern has a capital of fifteen million dollars, and is, by far, the largest producer of plumbing and sani- tary goods in the world. Its principal factories are at Pittsburgh, Pennnylvania ; Louisville, Kentucky; New Brighton, Pennsylvania; Kokomo, Indiana; Tiffin, Ohio; and Toronto, Canada. It has branch houses, warehouses and offices in every prominent city in the United States, and in addition to this in many foreign countries. Mr. Torrance's business life is centered in the Standard Company and its various interests and subsidiaries.
In no way has Mr. Torrance more con- vincingly proved his ability as a com- mander of men than in his treatment of his employees. Never regarding them merely as parts of a great machine, he recognized their individuality, and noth- ing gives him greater pleasure than to reward with speedy promotion their worth and ability. Moreover, he has the rare faculty of inspiring them with his own enthusiasm, and he receives from them an unstinted measure of most loyal service. Were this type more common we should soon cease to hear of the con- troversy between capital and labor. A fine-looking, genial man whose counte- nance radiates an optimistic spirit, Mr. Torrance carries with him the suggestion of intense vitality and alertness, and the briefest talk with him reveals his ability, the versatility of his talents and his rare gifts for managing large and intricate business enterprises.
A Republican in politics, Mr. Torrance represented his congressional district in the Minneapolis convention which nom- inated Benjamin Harrison for president, and he was a delegate-at-large from Penn- sylvania to the National convention at St. Louis which nominated William Mc- Kinley, of whom he was a warm personal friend. He was chairman of the Repub- lican city committee of Allegheny until the merger of the two cities-Allegheny and Pittsburgh. In 1894 Mr. Torrance was appointed by Governor Hastings commissioner of public charities, and was unanimously elected president of its board on February 14, 1902, which office he still holds. This board has control of all insti- tutions in Pennsylvania classed as crim- inal, penal, correctional and charitable. Mr. Torrance has been delegate-at-large to many of its conventions.
Mr. Torrance is prominently identified with the religious and social interests of the country. He is trustee of the San- dusky Street Baptist Church; trustee of Bucknell College; trustee of Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific In- stitute, at Mt. Pleasant. In club life he is connected with the Duquesne, Pitts- burgh Athletic, Union, Pittsburgh Coun- try, all of Pittsburgh ; New York Club of New York; Fulton Club of New York ; Pennsylvania Society of New York, and numerous others. He has also been a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh for many years. Mr. Tor- rance, now in the prime of a vigorous manhood, looks in every particular the aggressive business man which the world knows him to be. His piercing eye and deeply thoughtful expression show strong reasoning powers and penetrating insight into human nature, while his resolute bearing and springing step are indicative of firmness of purpose and promptness in execution.
Mr. Torrance married, November 6,
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1884, Mary Rachel, daughter of David and Lydia (Griffith) Dibert, of Johns- town, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Torrance is one of those rare women who combine with perfect womanliness and domestic- ity an unerring judgment, traits of the greatest value to her husband to whom she is not alone a charming companion, but a confidant and adviser. Mrs. Tor- rance is active in social, religious, charit- able and club circles of Pittsburgh. Their only child is Jane, who became the wife of Horace F. Baker. Mr. Torrance is a man of strong domestic affections, and the Torrance home on the Northside is the seat of a gracious hospitality.
A man of action, rather than words, of remarkable business talents and untiring energy, Mr. Torrance demonstrates his public spirit by actual achievements that advance the prosperity and wealth of the community. Whatever is undertaken by him he gives to it his whole soul and lets none of the many interests intrusted to his care suffer for want of close and able attention and industry. Such men are indeed rare, and an honor to the commun- ity in which they reside.
NEALE, Henry Marion, M. D., Authority on Tuberculosis.
Dr. Henry Marion Neale, of Upper Le- high, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, is one of the most prominent figures in his profession in the State, and is well known in medical circles throughout the coun- try. He is at once extremely successful in his practice, there being few physicians in this region who rival him in popular- ity and the trust reposed in him by the community, and he is also a writer of authority on various branches of medical science, and a profound student of the entire subject, whose name is known in this connection as one of the men whose
labors are forming the growth of medical history to-day. On the paternal side of the house, Dr. Neale is of Irish descent, his grandfather having been born in County Antrim, Ireland. His grand- father, Jeremiah Alban Neale, who mar- ried Ann Fuller, of Windsor, Connecti- cut, came to this country in the prime of manhood and settled first in New Haven, Connecticut, where he lived for a number of years. Dr. Neale's father, Martin Hub- bell Neale was born in Southington, Con- necticut, in 1820, but shortly after, his parents moved to New Haven, Connecti- cut, where they made their permanent home. The father was connected with railroad building in that part of the coun- try, and for a number of years was em- ployed as a construction master by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. He was eventually injured in a wreck at New London, Con- necticut, and thereafter lived in retire- ment at Southington in that State. Martin Hubbell Neale married, at New Haven, Martha Hitchcock, a native of Plymouth, Connecticut, and connected with many of the oldest and most dis- tinguished New England families.
Born July 27, 1858, at New Haven, Connecticut, Henry Marion Neale was educated at the local schools of Southing- ton, whither his father had gone to live after his accident, and afterwards at Lewis Academy, and also took special courses under Professor F. A. Brackett, of Hartford, Connecticut. He had deter- mined to adopt medicine as his profes- sion at an early age, and with this end in view matriculated at the famous Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. After the usual course, in which he proved him- self a capable and industrious student, he was graduated from this institution with the class of 1880 winning his degree. Im- mediately after this event he went to the
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Blockley Hospital at Philadelphia, and became a member of its staff. He re- mained for a year as an interne there, and then received an appointment as physi- cian and surgeon on the famous old steamer the "Indiana," a vessel of the American Line plying between Liverpool and Philadelphia. In this position he made an excellent reputation for himself and continued in his seafaring life for one year. During one of his trips across the Atlantic he made the acquaintance of Dr. T. J. Mays, of Upper Lehigh, Pennsyl- vania, and this chance meeting was the original cause of his coming to this place. The two men formed a warm friendship with one another, and a little later Dr. Mays asked the young man to become his assistant in caring for the large practice he had built up in this section. Dr. Neale did not find it difficult to make up his mind, but promptly closed with the offer, and the year 1883 saw him securely estab- lished at Upper Lehigh. The following year Dr. Mays removed from this place to another part of the country, and Dr. Neale fell heir to his successful practice. From that time to the present he has con- tinued very active here, and in the interim has gained a reputation for ability and a strict adherence to the highest ethics of the profession second to none. Besides his purely private practice, Dr. Neale has formed many important affiliations with the large medical institutions hereabouts and serves his fellows as a physician in a number of capacities. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania State Hospital at Hazleton, a responsible post that he has held since 1890, and is at the present time vice-president of that body. He is senior attending physician to the White Haven (Pennsylvania) San- itorium for Consumptives, and has made a profound study of that dread disease. Another post held by him is that of com-
pensation surgeon to all the mines in the lower portion of Luzerne county. In the year 1912 he was honored by the appoint- ment by the United States Government to be one of the delegates of ten physicians sent by it to the Seventh International Medical Congress held at Rome, Italy, for the purpose of studying tuberculosis and taking measures to prevent its spread. Dr. Neale is a public-spirited man and has always taken a keen interest in the gen- eral well-being of his colleagues in the medical profession, so that it is not sur- prising that he is very active in the work of the several medical societies in this region. He is a member of the Luzerne County Medical Society and served as its president for a number of years; of the Lehigh Valley Medical Society; the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, of which he has been vice-president; and of the American Medical Association.
It has already been mentioned that Dr. Neale has made a special study of the subject of tuberculosis, a fact which made his selection as a member of the American representatives to the European Congress particularly appropriate, but it remains to be said that he is an important contribu- tor to the literature upon this highly im- portant subject. He has, indeed, contri- buted many articles to the various medi- cal journals in the country and abroad, and addressed many professional gather- ings upon this subject and upon a num- ber of others covering a wide range of the science of medicine. His conserva- tism lends authority to the progress in the profession for which he stands, and few of the statements, or even beliefs, of this trenchant observer are questioned. Dr. Neale is at the present time serving his country as chairman of the Exemption Board, Division No. 10, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. His clubs are the Clover of Philadelphia, the Westmoreland of
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Wilkes-Barre, Medical Club, Philadel- phia, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Neale was united in marriage, March 5, 1885, with Ada Leisenring, a native of Upper Lehigh, and a daughter of Walter and Mary Ann Price (Kem- merer) Leisenring, old and highly re- spected residents of this place. Three children have been born to them as fol- lows: Mahlon Kemmerer, Joseph Haw- ley, and Gertrude Leisenring.
MARSHALL, George V., Business Man, Civil War Veteran.
The late George V. Marshall, for many years head of the old-established firm of Marshall Brothers, was one of those Pittsburghers identified with the mo- mentous period which began with the Civil War and may be said to have ended with the tremendous era of the present World War. As business man, soldier and citizen, Mr. Marshall's example was ever in accordance with the highest standards of integrity and patriotism.
pendent Pennsylvania Light Artillery, thus entering upon a course of service which ended only with the surrender at Appomattox. When the army was dis- banded an honorable discharge marked the close of his gallant career as a de- fender of the Union.
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