USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 33
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closed the business of the firm of A. and D. H. Chambers Window Glass Manufac- turing Company.
At this period of his life it became evi- dent that Mr. Chambers possessed not only sound judgment, but also initiative, that he was distinctly a man of progres- sive ideas. In 1877 he selected a site on the Pennsylvania Railroad, twenty-eight miles from Pittsburgh, and in co-opera- tion with M. Sellers McKee, at that time one of the leading tableware manufac- turers of Pittsburgh, built the first win- dow glass melting furnaces ever put up in the United States. This bold and de- cisive action marked an epoch in the his- tory of a great industry.
In the course of time a desire to go into business for himself prompted Mr. Cham- bers to organize, as we have seen, the firm of Chambers & McKee. Their plant was situated where Jeannette now stands, and Mr. Chambers is justly regarded as the founder of that flourishing and progres- sive community. The plant was at that time the largest in the world for the man- ufacture of window glass, and when the firm was incorporated as the Chambers & McKee Glass Company, Mr. Chambers became president. Subsequently Mr. Chambers founded the Chambers Win- dow Glass Company, building a plant in Arnold, a suburb of New Kensington. This plant was constructed and operated along the same lines as that of the Cham- bers & McKee Glass Company. These plants are the finest of their kind in the United States, and are the finest equipped window glass plants in the world. They manufacture all kinds of cylinder window glass, making the celebrated "Chambers Eagle Brand," "Chambers Columbia Brand," the "Chambers Crystal Picture," and the "Chambers Select 26-oz" Mr. Chambers was the first president of this company, retaining the office until the
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consolidation in 1900, and to an extent which it is impossible to estimate this widely-known organization is the crea- tion of its founder.
Some years later the spirit of enter- prise which is so dominant a factor in Mr. Chambers personality found expres- sion in the organization of the American Window Glass Company, which was a consolidation of the Chambers & McKee Window Glass Company, the Chambers Glass Company and all the more import- ant window glass manufacturing com- panies in the United States. Mr. Cham- bers was, in this venture, the ruling spirit, and became the first president, remaining in office until 1910, when he retired. The Chambers & McKee Glass Company is still in operation as a part of the Amer- ican Window Glass Company. Until re- tiring he was president of the tariff com- mittee of the Window Glass Association, also holding the presidency and active leadership of all the important window glass manufacturing associations.
Among the many proofs of Mr. Cham- bers progressive spirit and inventive gen- ius there is one which should stand be- side his introduction of the tank-melting furnace. This is his development, in as- sociation with Mr. Lubbers who was em- ployed by him, of machines for the manu- facture of cylinder window glass. While president of the American Window Glass Company he turned over all his patents to this company. This is today the most successful method for the manufacture of window glass and is used almost exclu- sively in that manufacture in the United States, England, Canada, France and Japan.
Public spirit is something in which Mr. Chambers has never been found wanting, but for the excitements of political life he has no taste and office seeking and office holding are alike repugnant to him. The
only public position which he ever con- sented to hold was that of a member of the Lake Erie & Ohio River Ship Canal Commission. He belongs to the Du- quesne Club, the Pittsburgh Club, the Allegheny Country Club, and the Pitts- burgh Athletic Association, and has for years been conspicuous in the club life of Pittsburgh. He is a member and at- tendant of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.
Perhaps the clearest possible idea of Mr. Chambers personal appearance can be conveyed by saying that he looks like a man of deep reflection, wide experience and decisive action. A glance at his face reveals the fact that he is pre-eminently one of the world's doers, that his part in life is accomplishment and that he leaves to others the recital of his deeds. His nature, though somewhat undemonstra- tive, is warmly social as the number of his friends bears eloquent testimony.
A man who lived through, albeit only as a boy, the momentous period of the Civil War, must hold in his memory many things possessing the most intense interest for those of a later generation. Perhaps the most thrilling of all Mr. Chambers' recollections and the one in- vested with the greatest historic value is that of the assassination of President Lin- coln. On that ever-memorable night the boy, then a student at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, was taken by his father to Ford's Theater, and not long since, in relating the incident, said :
I can still recall how the house was draped with American flags in honor of the President's presence. Mr. Lincoln was sitting in the upper box. The lower box, as the theatre was built, was on a level with the stage, and the upper box was not much more than seven or eight feet above the stage level. The president was in the upper box. I can see his face now as he sat there shortly after the curtain arose. Just below his box was a big American flag, draped down.
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Suddenly we heard a shot-I looked up toward the box and then I saw Booth jump from the box. He had boots and spurs on, and his spurs caught in the folds of the flag and he nearly fell headlong on the stage. He had a large bowie knife in his hand, and as he rallied himself after his tangle with the flag he walked across the stage facing the audience waving the knife in his up- lifted hand and made his celebrated declaration -"Sic Semper Tyrannis," but I cannot recall that he made the aftermath declaration: "The South is Avenged," so often attributed to him. Father and I waited and saw President Lincoln carried out of the theatre on a stretcher. His face was white as a sheet. They took him across the street, and then father and I went to Willard's to wait for news. We had hardly reached there when we heard that Seward had been assas- sinated and that Grant had been waylaid at Havre de Grace. Grant was on his way to' Washington at the time and his adjutant was at the hotel. This officer soon allayed our fears by telling us that he had absolute information that Grant was all right. My father went to Stanton, secretary of war, and got passports for us to go to City Point, where Grants' headquarters were at that time. Father had known General Grant before. I was in my cadet uniform from the military school in Pennsylvania. Our uniforms were gray, modeled after those of West Point, and I recall how a sentry stopped us and wanted to know if lad though I was, were a Confederate soldier. We met General Grant at City Point and later went on to Petersburg, where we saw the soldiers' underground quarters occupied by them before the final assault that wound up with the occupa- tion of Richmond.
Such a narrative from the lips of a man who has but recently withdrawn from the turmoil of the business arena must have made the listeners feel that they were par- ticipants in an event which had for half a century belonged to the dominion of history, and that they were at the same time living amid the rushing progress and startling developments of the ensuing hundred years.
Mr. Chambers married, December 10, 1874, Maria, daughter of James, Jr. and Elizabeth (Micheltree) Patton, of Alle- gheny, now North Side, Pittsburgh. Mr.
and Mrs. Chambers are the parents of four children: I. Alexander. 2. Eliza- beth, married William N. Murray, of Pittsburgh, and they had one child, Eliz- abeth ; Mrs. Murray is now deceased. 3. Marion, married George C. Wilson, Jr., of Pittsburgh, and they have one child, Maria ; Mr. Wilson is a son of George C. Wilson, a prominent attorney of Pitts- burgh, whose biography and steel por- trait appear elsewhere in this work. 4. Martha Jane, married Thomas J. McKay, of Pittsburgh, and they are the parents of four children: James Chambers, Thomas J., Jr., Elizabeth and Lawrence.
Factories in England, France, Japan and Germany are equipped with machines developed and introduced by James A. Chambers. As a son of a pioneer in the upbuilding of one of the greatest indus- tries of Western Pennsylvania he brought to that field of activity the fruits of his father's experience and the wealth of his own ability and determination. The City of Pittsburgh, the State of Pennsylvania, the United States and the World-at-large bear witness to the results.
FERREE, Clifford B., Business Man.
Among the business men of Pittsburgh must be numbered Clifford B. Ferree, member of the firm of W. W. Mudge & Company, of Pittsburgh.
The family of Ferree is of French deri- vation, and the coat-of-arms is as follows :
Arms-Azure, three plates, a bordure chequy argent and azure.
7 John Ferree, with whom this record has its inception, having fled his native land under religious persecution, finding asy- lum in the Palatinate of Germany, where he died. He belonged to the class known in history as Huguenots, his widow Mary,
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in 1709, coming to America, accompanied by her six children: Daniel, Catherine, Mary, Philip, of whom further ; Jane, and John.
(II) Philip Ferree, son of John and Mary Ferree, married Leah, daughter of Abraham Du Bois (who was born in 1659, died in 1731), and granddaughter of Louis and Catherine Du Bois, who immigrated to America in 1660. Children of Philip and Leah (Du Bois) Ferree: Abraham, Isaac, of whom further; Jacob, Philip, Joel, Elizabeth, Magdaline, Leah, and Rachel. The arms of the Du Bois family is as follows :
Arms-Sable, an eagle displayed or.
(III) Isaac Ferree, son of Philip and Leah (Du Bois) Ferree, was born 1752, married, and had a son, Jacob.
(IV) Jacob Ferree, son of Isaac Fer- ree, married Rachel, his first cousin, daughter of Joel Ferree, and had children : Jacob, of whom further ; Joel, Jane, Reb- ecca, and Elizabeth.
(V) Jacob (2) Ferree, son of Jacob (I) and Rachel (Ferree) Ferree, born 1750, died September 5, 1807, was a farm- er on Peters creek in the southern part of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, whither he had moved from Chester county, later becoming the owner of land on the pres- ent site of Coraopolis, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, securing more than three hundred acres of government land. This extended from what is now Montour street along the southern bank of the Ohio river to the eastern boundary of Coraopolis. He and his wife were mem- bers of the Presbyterian church. He mar- ried (second) in the year 1783. in Chester county, Pennsylvania, Alice Powell, born January 12, 1760, died July 21, 1846, both being buried on the George Ferree farm in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. By his first marriage he had the following children:
Joel, Leah, Rebecca, Jane, and Elizabeth. Children of Jacob and Alice (Powell) Ferree: Rachel, born May 29, 1784, died in girlhood; Isaac, born January 9, 1786; Olaf, born January 10, 1788; Mary, born May 6, 1790, married Samuel Marks, and lived in Chester, West Virginia; Anna, born May 31, 1792, died in girlhood ; Lida, born July 2, 1793, died young; Jacob, born July 17, 1795, held military rank of colonel, being stationed at Fort Meigs; William Powell, see below; Lavinia, born June 6, 1803, married Benjamin Jackson, and lived in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania.
(VI) William Powell Ferree, son of Jacob (2) and Alice (Powell) Ferree, was born on Peters creek, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, March 29, 1798, and died February 3, 1863. He inherited one hun- dred acres of land from his father, and to this tract he added two hundred and twenty-five acres, purchased in small lots as they appeared for sale. He was a sur- veyor by profession, and performed a great deal of work of that nature in all parts of Allegheny county. In politics a Whig, later an Abolitionist, and after- ward a Republican. On the slavery ques- tion he held opinions and views of the most decided nature, and his was an im- portant and busy station on the "Under- ground Railroad" that was so strong an institution in ante-bellum days. He sup- ported his convictions with his life, en- listing in the Union Army and being killed in battle, February 3, 1863. His religion was the Presbyterian. He mar- ried Mary Stoddard, born in Moon town- ship, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, August 1, 1798, died December 23, 1888, and had children: 1. Jacob. 2. Margaret O., born March 10, 1826, died about 1863; married Andrew Shaffer, proprietor of a fulling mill. 3. Robert M., born April 21, 1830, died in September, 1906; married Rachel Curry. 4. William K., born January
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22, 1833, enlisted in the Ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves, in 1861, and was discharged for disability, his death occur- ring January 1, 1865. 5. Sanford Har- rison, see below.
(VII) Sanford Harrison Ferree, son of William Powell and Mary (Stoddard) Ferree, was born May 28, 1835, died Jan- uary 29, 1914, in Coraopolis, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. He enlisted, Aug- ust 9, 1862, in John J. Young's Independ- ent Battery, Union Army ; appointed lieu- tenant in Pennsylvania Fifth Heavy Ar- tillery ; discharged June 30, 1865, at close of war. He married (first), December 26, 1867, Anna R., daughter of John and Mary (Johnson) Mathews; she was born September 17, 1845, died November 15, 1881. Mary Johnson Mathews was the daughter of Joseph Johnson, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, and lived at Nobles- town, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. Children of Sanford H. and Anna R. (Mathews) Ferree: Clifford Byron, see below; Mary Corinne, married Charles A. Martin, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Lulu L., deceased ; Joseph Johnson, died in early infancy. He married (second), May 1, 1884, Phoebe S. Gealy; she was born September 3, 1847. Sanford H. Fer- ree was a Presbyterian in religion, and a Republican in politics.
(VIII) Clifford Byron Ferree, son of the late Sanford H. and Anna R. (Mat- hews) Ferree, was born in New Bedford, Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, Septem- ber 27, 1869. He received his education in the schools of New Bedford and at Mt. Union College. He then entered the em- ploy of the Second National Bank of Youngstown, Ohio, remaining there for three years. He was next employed by the Monongahela Furnace Company, at Mc- Keesport, Pennsylvania, for eight or ten years, after which he entered the broker- age business, dealing in pig iron, steel and
coke. In 1905 he helped form, along with E. W. Mudge and Robert G. Campbell (whose biographies and portraits are on other pages of this work) the iron and steel firm of W. E. Mudge & Company, of Pittsburgh, of which he is still a mem- ber. Mr. Ferree is also vice-president, treasurer and director of the following concerns : Claire Furnace Company, Ella Furnace Company, Reliance Coke Com- pany, Westmoreland-Connellsville Coal & Coke Company, Fort Palmer Supply Company, of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, Denbeau Supply Company, of Denbeau, Pennsylvania. In politics he is a Repub- lican, but has never accepted office. He is a member of the Duquesne Club, Pitts- burgh Athletic Association, Pittsburgh Country Club, Oakmont Country Club, Pittsburgh Field Club, life member of the Americus Club, and Civic Club ; mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce of Pitts- burgh, of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, the Historical Society of West- ern Pennsylvania, and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fraternity.
Mr. Ferree married, May 29, 1900, Nell B., daughter of John M. and Sarah (Young) Davis, of Pittsburgh. The Davis coat-of-arms is as follows:
Arms-Gules, a chevron engrailed between three boars' heads erased argent.
Crest-On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, a boar passant argent.
Motto-Virtute duce comite fortuna (With valour my leader, and good fortune my com- panion).
FERREE, Robert B.,
Surgeon.
Throughout the history of Pittsburgh her physicians and surgeons have been of the highest standing, and prominent among those who, during the quarter of a century just elapsed, most ably sus-
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tained the prestige of the profession was the late Dr. Robert B. Ferree, long a lead- ing member of the surgical staff of the Presbyterian Hospital. In addition to professional eminence Dr. Ferree pos- sessed the social distinction to which, as a man of noble ancestry, he was justly entitled.
(VII) Jacob F. Ferree, son of William Powell and Mary (Stoddard) Ferree, (q. v.) was born in Robinson township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, and died in that county aged seventy-three years. He was first a resident of his native town- ship, later acquiring title to more than five hundred acres of land in Moon town- ship, bordering on the Ohio river for more than one-half mile, and extending back from the water front to three- quarters of a mile. For almost a quarter of a century he was justice of the peace of Coraopolis, and he was an active worker in the activities of the Presbyter- ian church, being a member of the ses- sion thereof. His entire life was spent in farming operations. At the time of the Civil War he was a member of the Home Guards. He married Nancy Phillips, born in Robinson township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, died -- , aged seventy-four years, and had children: I. John W., deceased, was a retail furniture dealer of Allegheny City (Pittsburgh, North Side) ; lived on Stockton avenue. 2. Jennie E., born 1855, died April 6, 1902 ; married James E. McCague. 3. Harry W., general foreman of the car repair shops of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania ; resides on State street, Coraopolis. 4. William A., a foreman in the shops of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad; resides on State street, Coraopolis. 5. Sarah, unmarried, resides on State street, Coraopolis. 6. Robert B., whose biography follows. 7. Lillie E., married T. Edward Cornelius; loved as a friend. His professional work
resides on State street, Coraopolis, her husband an architect. 8. Frank, died young.
(VIII) Robert B. Ferree, son of Jacob F. and Nancy (Phillips) Ferree, was born August 31, 1863, in Coraopolis. After a thorough literary education the youth, when the time came for him to choose a profession, selected that of medicine, a choice which the results most abundantly justified. His medical course was begun at the Western Reserve College, Cleve- land, Ohio, and completed at the Western University of Pennsylvania, now the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh. Immediately there- after Dr. Ferree entered upon the active practice of his profession. Innate abil- ity and thorough equipment, joined to enthusiasm for the work and self-sacri- ficing devotion in the performance of duty, soon gained for the young physician a large and constantly increasing clientele and gave him an assured standing in the medical fraternity. His eminence as a surgeon was attested by the position he held in the Presbyterian Hospital, and as a private practitioner he possessed the implicit confidence not only of his own patients, but also of the general public, inspired by his well-merited reputation for profound knowledge and exceptional skill. The demands of duty left Dr. Fer- ree little time for affiliating with organiza- tions other than those of a professional character, but he was never unmindful of the obligations of citizenship and was ever ready to assist with his means and influence any project which, in his judg- ment, had a tendency to promote better- ment of conditions in the life of the com- munity. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church. With commanding talents Dr. Ferree combined a most at- tractive personality. By his patients he was not only trusted as a physician but
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was peculiarly congenial to him by reason of the fact that it was essential to the wel- fare of humanity. It could truly be said of him that he was "one who loved his fellow-men." His appearance and manner marked him unmistakably as the man of race. He was the high-class physician and the true and perfect gentleman.
Dr. Ferree married, April 5, 1892, Sadie, daughter of George W. and Margaret (Wallace) Ramsey, and they were the parents of one son, Robert B., Jr., who is now an ensign in the United States Navy. Mrs. Ferree is a woman of charming per- sonality with a mind and heart which ad- mirably fitted her to be a true mate for her gifted husband, the ruling motive of whose life was devotion to the ties and duties of the household. It was in the home that the beauty of his character was most distinctly manifested, but that phase of his life belongs not to the biographer but only to those who stood to him in the nearest and dearest relations.
In the full tide of usefulness and the perfect fruition of his powers, Dr. Ferree was summoned from the scene of his ac- tivities, passing away October 15, 1917. The loss to the profession was great and keenly-felt and the sense of personal be- reavement widespread, being, in his home city, well-nigh universal. We mourn that the career of such a man should have been, as it seems to us, prematurely ter- minated, but in his thirty-three years of practice he had accomplished more than many achieve in half a century. A cer- tain radiance attaches to the memory of one who, like Dr. Ferree, is summoned hence when scarcely beyond the prime of life. Most truly could it be said of this noble and gifted man, "his sun has gone down while it is yet day."
(The Ramsey Line).
(I) Robert Ramsey, the first of the line herein recorded, was born in Mary-
land. He traveled across the mountains in the early pioneer days of the State of Pennsylvania, and located in Washing- ton county, which at that time extended as far north as the Ohio river. He mar- ried Mary Michel, who bore him fifteen children, six sons and nine daughters, all age of more than sixty years. The oldest son, Rev. James Ramsey, D. D., was a professor in the Seceder Theological Seminary at Canonsburg and pastor of the Canonsburg Seceder Church for forty years. Robert Ramsey was one of the founders of the Kings Creek Seceder Church, also one of its elders.
(II) Robert (2) Ramsey, son of Rob- ert (1) Ramsey, was born in Maryland, in 1780, and removed with his parents to Pigeon creek, Washington county, Penn- sylvania, in 1789, and they later settled in Hanover township, same county, on the farm later owned by Thomas Ram- sey, now deceased. After his marriage Robert Ramsey, Jr. moved to near Youngstown, Ohio, and subsequently re- turned to Pennsylvania and settled on the farm now owned by James and Joseph Ramsey. He married (first) Susannah Leeper, (second) a widow, Mrs. Deborah (Stephens) Whitehill. Children: Rob- ert, lived on the homestead until his death, unmarried ; James ; William, died on his farm near Hookstown; Mary, married Robert Cross, and died in Washington county, Pennsylvania; Eliza, married (her husband's surname being the same as her own), and died in Hanover township; Eli; James, the owner of a farm near Hookstown, where he died.
BAUERSMITH, William,
Contractor, Builder.
During the half century recently ended the contracting and building interests of Pittsburgh had no abler or more conspicu- ous representative than the late William
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Bauersmith, who was highly respected as a citizen, and was particularly active in the promotion of church work and the support of charitable undertakings.
William Bauersmith was born Febru- ary 8, 1838, in Hesse Cassel, Germany, and was a son of George Frederick and Susanna Maria (Hefner) Bauersmith. When the boy was twelve years old the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, the city which, dur- ing the remainder of his life, was the home of William Bauersmith and the center of all his interests. Mr. Bauer- smith was engaged in business as a con- tractor and builder. He was very suc- cessful, developing an extensive trade and acquiring an enviable reputation for abil- ity and integrity. He was instrumental in building up much of the finest part of the East End, Pittsburgh's leading resi- dential district. The last large contract on which he was engaged was the resi- dence of Herbert Du Puy. Possessing all the essential qualifications of a good citizen, Mr. Bauersmith could always be counted on to do his part toward promot- ing any plan having for its object the wel- fare and progress of Pittsburgh. He was a member of the Oakmont Presbyterian Church, and in an official capacity had been for many years connected with the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, af- terwards with the Forty-third Street Pres- byterian Church. He always took an ac- tive and earnest interest in the progress and maintenance of the church. The character of Mr. Bauersmith is easily read in the narrative of his career. There we see him as the energetic, honorable busi- ness man, the public-spirited citizen, the man of irreproachable private life, and his face gave evidence of the fine qualities which made him what he was.
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