USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Volume I > Part 45
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Mr. Arbogast married, in 1876, Emily Haas, daughter of Charles and Henry Haas. Children : Porter B., who is the special subject of a following narrative : Elsie B., now the wife of F. Ellwood J.
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Faust ; Gustavus, who died at the age of department in such a fashion as to fourteen years; Mary Catherine; Arthur.
ARBOGAST, Porter B.,
Man of Business.
The untimely death of Porter B. Arbo- gast removed from the social and com- mercial cireles of Reading one who by temperament and training was an orna- ment to them, and whose future held promise of great advancement and larger usefulness.
He was born in Allentown, in 1878, eldest child of Wilson and Emily (Haas) Arbogast. He was a diligent student, and was graduated from the Allentown High School with honor. His father was intent upon giving him a university edu- cation, but his ambition was for a life of strenuous business effort, and he entered the Arbogast & Bastian establishment in the capacity of shipping elerk. The busi- ness was in its infancy, and was housed in a small two-story building. Like his father, young Arbogast was extremely intent upon developing the business to the extent of its possibilities, and he commanded admiring attention for his energy and industry. After a time it was deemed advisable for him to relax some- what of his effort, and he went to Eur- ope, spending about two years in Ger- man art centers. He had developed talent as a violinist, and he gave most of his time to music studies, and acquired such proficiency on his favorite instru- ment as to receive advice that he should make it his life pursuit. His taste how- ever did not lie in that direction, though throughout the remainder of his life he cultivated the art, simply for the enjoy- ment it afforded himself and those im- mediately about him. On returning home he resumed his position in the Ar- bogast & Bastian establishment, and en- tered upon his duties with renewed ardor and ambition. He systemized his
greatly improve its efficiency, leading to a marked increase of output. His exhi- bition of his organizing and executive abilities resulted in his appointment as salesman for a territory covering sev- eral counties, and in which he greatly increased the volume of business. Later he was made manager of the Reading branch of the Arbogast-Bastian business, and to this he was giving his accustomed vigorous and intelligent effort, and with fair prospect of making it as extensive as the parent house, when he was taken with an illness which lasted four months, his death occurring May 17, 1908.
His death at so youthful an age, when such large expectation for his future was indulged in by a host of business asso- ciates and personal friends, was felt as a personal bereavement. Lie was a mem- ber of the Lutheran church and in poli- ties was a Republican. He married Miss Sadie Hartner. Their children surviv- ing are: Emily H. and Frederick W.
MCCLINTOCK, Oliver,
Merchant, Man of Affairs.
Honored in Pittsburgh, and deserving of the esteem in which he is held, is Oliver McClintock, President of the Oli- ver MeClintock Company, one of the old- est commercial houses of the Iron City, whose business career has been one of honorable success, and who stands today among the solid men of the city.
Oliver McClintock was born on Pitt (now Fifth) street, near Liberty street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1839, the eldest of seven children of Washington and Eliza (Thompson) Me- Clintock. His paternal grandfather, Alexander McClintock, the son of Wil- liam Mcclintock, of East Nottingham township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, was born May 10, 1776. He came to Pittsburgh from Montgomery county.
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Pennsylvania, about 1813, being engaged in the freighting business by means of "Conestoga" wagon teams between Phila- delphia and Pittsburgh. These were im- pressed into the service of the United States Government during the War of 1812. Soon after arriving in Pittsburgh, with his family and household effects in three "Conestoga" wagons, he opened a shop for general blacksmithing on Water street, near Penn. His shop, tavern and frame residence alongside lay within the confines of old Fort Pitt. He also oper- ated a ferry from the "Point" to Temper- anceville, on the South Side, where the road to Little Washington started, and where later he took up his residence upon a farm. The maternal grandfather, Sam- uel Thompson, came to Pittsburgh from Chester county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1807, and with his brother James conducted a tailoring business under the firm name of S. & J. Thompson, occupy- ing a store on the east side of Market street, near Water street. They made uniforms for army officers during the War of 1812, and it is written that after the war Samuel Thompson made a journey on horseback to Kentucky to col- lect debts for uniforms furnished. The firm's signature appears upon the peti- tion addressed to Congress by the people of Pittsburgh, in 1817, asking for the establishment of a branch of the United States Bank at Pittsburgh. Its establish- ment did not prove to be the financial blessing they had anticipated. Later Samuel Thompson occupied a store on the west side of Market street, almost directly opposite the first site. About the year 1825 he conducted a general store at the northwest corner of Market street and Fourth street, now Fourth avenue. In 1830 he bought from Henry Holdship the property on Market street, near Liberty, upon which the Mcclintock building now stands, where he conducted an exclusive drygoods and carpet trade.
In the early '30's Samuel Thompson shipped from Pittsburgh to Nashville, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, stocks of clothing of his own manufac- ture, for branch stores which he opened in these new towns. About the year 1850, Washington Mcclintock, Samuel Thompson's son-in-law and successor in business, actuated by a similar spirit of commercial enterprise, shipped a stock of carpets to the young and booming town of Cincinnati. In common with many other Pittsburgh merchants of that period, whose capital aided in the de- velopment of the West, he also became interested in several river steamboats employed in the transportation business on the western and southwestern rivers. In 1837 Samuel Thompson was suc- ceeded by the firm of W. McClintock & Company, his son-in-law, Washington McClintock, and his son, Robert D. Thompson, being the partners. The firm was dissolved in 1844, and Washington McClintock continued the carpet busi- ness exclusively, on the north side of Fourth avenue, upon the site now occu- pied by the Safe Deposit Company's building. He was burned out in the street fire of 1845. In 1854 he admitted his brothers, Alexander and George Led- lie McClintock, taking the firm name of McClintock Brothers, a partnership which continued for about one year. In 1855 the style became W. McClintock and remained so for seven years. In 1862 he admitted his eldest son, Oliver McClintock, to partnership, the style of the firm becoming W. McClintock & Son. In 1863 Washington McClintock bought out Robinson & Company, their chief competitor in the carpet business, and organized the firm of Oliver McClintock & Company (consisting of Washington McClintock, Oliver Mcclintock and George R. Sr.), to conduct the newly ac- quired business as a separate firm. Both stores were continued separately for
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about a year, but under the same man- agement. In 1864 the firm of W. Mc- Clintock & Son was merged into that of Oliver Mcclintock & Company, and the business continued at No. 219 Fifth avenue, Pittsburgh. Walter L. McClin- tock, second son of Washington McClin- tock, was admitted in 1864. In the year 1869 Washington McClintock retired from business because of failing health, which culminated in his death on July 28, 1870, at the age of fifty-six years. Washington McClintock's fourth son, Thompson McClintock, was admitted to the firm in 1874, and in 1884 Frank Thompson McClintock, the fifth son of the founder, was admitted upon the re- tirement of George R. Sr. On January 15, 1897, the firm of Oliver Mcclintock & Company was dissolved, and a new com- pany was incorporated under the present title, The Oliver McClintock Company, with Oliver McClintock, president ; Wal- ter L. McClintock, treasttrer, and Frank T. McClintock, secretary.
Oliver McClintock received his early education in the academies conducted by Rev. Joseph S. Travelli, in Sewickley, and Professor Lewis T. Bradley, in Alle- gheny (now the Northside, Pittsburgh), graduating from Yale College in 1861. He entered his father's business the fol- lowing year and has continued in carpets and interior decorations ever since, a period of over half a century. Although devoting himself closely to his business, Mr. McClintock has also given much at- tention and important service in behalf of the municipal, religious and educa- tional interests of his native city. At the time of the organization of the Young Men's Association in Pittsburgh, in 1866, Mr. McClintock was elected president, continuing until 1868. He was elected elder of the Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh in 1863; a trustee of the Western Theological Seminary in 1867, and a trustee of the Pennsylvania
College for Women in 1872. He and his brother-in-law, A. H. Childs, founded the Shadyside Academy of Pittsburgh in 1883. He is a director of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the University clubs of Pittsburgh and New York City. He is a member of the executive committee of the National Mu- nicipal League, of the Civil Service Re- form Association of Pennsylvania and of the Ballot Reform Association of Penn- sylvania.
Mr. McClintock was one of the lead- ers in organizing the Citizens' Municipal League of Pittsburgh in 1895-96, and a member of the Executive Committee of Five authorized to select candidates for the ensuing municipal election for the three executive city officers, and to con- duct a campaign in their behalf. The contest that followed was remarkable for its aggressiveness and heat, and for the good work done in awakening and educating public sentiment to a realiza- tion that city government should be con- ducted on business principles only, di- vorced from the ruinous partisanship of national parties. So effective was the work done by Mr. McClintock in this campaign that it called forth many tri- butes, the following, from "McClure's Magazine" of May, 1903, by Lincoln Steffens, being one of many :
"If there is one man in Pittsburgh who de- serves credit for the successful results of reform in municipal politics, it is Oliver Mcclintock, for many years one of the most aggressive foes of the political machine. It was on the foundation laid by Mr. McClintock and his associates, in 1895-96, that the Citizens' party gained an over- whelming victory in the municipal election of 1898, and it was only after the party leaders of 1898 had repudiated the principles which he ad- vocated and for which he fought, that he left that party to keep on in his persistent fight for purification of city politics. Victories have not always been with Mr. McClintock, but it was his indomitable persistence, despite defeats, that won for him the admiration of even those whom he fought."
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Mr. McClintock married, June 7, 1866, Clara C., daughter of Harvey and Jane B. (Lowrie) Childs. By this marriage Mr. McClintock gained the life compan- ionship of a charming and congenial woman, and one fitted in all ways to be his helpmate. Mr. and Mrs. McClintock are the parents of: Norman and Walter McClintock, connected with the Oliver McClintock Company; Mrs. Thomas Darling, of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania; Harvey C., and the Misses Elsie and Jeanette Mcclintock. The entire Mc- Clintock family are socially popular in Pittsburgh.
Oliver McClintock belongs to that class of men who wield a power which is all the more potent from the fact that it is moral rather than political, and is exercised for the public weal rather than for personal or partisan ends. Unselfish and retiring, he prefers a quiet place in the background to the glamour of pub- licity, but his rare aptitude and ability in achieving results make him constantly sought and often bring him into a promi- nence from which he would naturally shrink were less desirable ends in view.
MILLER, Charles Lincoln,
Physician, Man of Affairs.
From faraway Germany there came to onr shores, in 1729, a little group of Palatinates, among them John Miller, the ancestor of Dr. Charles L. Miller, late of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a son of the sixth generation.
Dr. Miller was a son of David W. and Mary (Louser) Miller. He was born in Lebanon, August 20, 1865, and after a life of activity and usefulness, died there March 24, 1911. He completed the course of instruction mapped out for the public schools of Lebanon, then taught school for the succeeding three years. His am- bition was for the medical profession and entering the office of Dr. S. Weiss, as a
student, he was prepared under the doc- tor's wise preceptorship. In 1886 lie en- tered the University of Pennsylvania, whence he was graduated Medical Doc- tor, class of 1889. The four succeeding years he spent in Philadelphia, two of those years as chief of the skin clinic, and two years as chief of the medical clinic at the Polyclinic Hospital, gaining an experience that was of inestimable value in his after practice. In 1893 he returned to Lebanon where his after life was spent. He established there in medi- cal practice and until his death was de- voted to his profession. He was ambu- lance surgeon at the Good Samaritan Hospital, of Lebanon, 1893 and 1894, also receiving in the latter year an appoint- ment to the United States Pension Board of Examining Physicians. He was chosen secretary of that board and later presi- dent. Although entirely the physician by choice and education, and loving his profession, Dr. Miller was compelled by circumstances to devote a great deal of time to business affairs. His father's estate included a prosperous retail lum- ber yard in Lebanon and the manage- ment of this fell upon Dr. Miller and his brother, H. M. Miller. This, added to the burdens of a profession as exacting as that of a physician, made excessive demands upon his strength, but he nobly fulfilled every obligation and literally "died in the harness" at the very prime of life, forty-five years.
He always retained his interest in Miller Brothers' lumber business, and re- sided in the beautiful stone mansion, at the corner of Fourth and Willow streets, now the home of his widow. He was connected with many societies, profes- sional and fraternal; was secretary and later treasurer of the Lebanon County Medical Association; member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Association ; member of the General Alumni Associa- tion, and vice-president of the Lebanon
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County Alumni Association, of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania ; member of the Lebanon County Historical Society ; member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men, and was a member of the "Hoo Hoo," a lumbermen's association, an af- filiation of which he was very proud. In all these societies he took an active in- terest, and in all circles, professional, commercial, fraternal or social he was held in highest esteem. In political faith he was a Republican, and in religious be- lief was a Presbyterian.
Dr. Miller married, January 18, 1893, M. Jeanette, daughter of Charles W. Scott, deceased, of Scotch ancestry, for- merly a druggist in the State of Arkan- sas. Child: Charles David Miller, born in Lebanon, September 27, 1894, who with his mother occupies the old stone residence before mentioned.
LORD, James,
Soldier, Ironmaster.
James Lord, son of James and Martha (Lockwood) Lord, a prominent leader in the great American iron industries, is a native of Delaware, born in 1844. James Lord, his father, came from Maryland and settled in Kent county, Delaware, where he engaged extensively in the shipping and grain business. The younger James' early education was sup- plemented by a preparatory course at Andover, Massachusetts, which gained him an entrance at St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland.
The opening of the Civil War aroused his enthusiastic support of the Union cause, and he enlisted in 1861 as lieuten- ant in a company of Delaware infantry. When the troops of that State were dis- banded he served as volunteer aide to General II. H. Lockwood, but received no remuneration whatever in return, nor
even a ranking title. He entered the United States service December 8, 1863, as second lieutenant in the Purnell Le- gion, Maryland Cavalry Volunteers. He was promoted to captain in the same company, March 13, 1865, and received his honorable discharge in August, 1865.
In the same month that he left the army he received a government appoint- ment to become commissioner of freed- men and abandoned lands in Eastern Virginia, resigning, however, in the fol- lowing year, as it was necessary for him to take up a business career. Five years later his business prospects were given definite aim by his entering the iron busi- ness at Reading, in 1871. He removed from that town to Lebanon in 1882, in order to become manager and treasurer of the Pennsylvania Bolt and Nut Com- pany. On the consolidation of this com- pany in 1899, with the East Lebanon Iron Company, J. H. Sternbergh & Son, and the Lebanon Iron Company, under the new corporate name of the American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company, he continued with this firm as its mana- ger, holding this position until 1907, when he was elected to the presidency of this great corporation.
CHALFANT, George Alexander, Ironmaster, Financier.
Pittsburgh, in this age of iron, is the seat of an empire more substantial than that of Greece or Rome, but the primary source of her supremacy is her superior brain-power. She is a city of practical thinkers-men of the type of the late George Alexander Chalfant, of the famous old firm of Spang, Chalfant & Company, and for a third of a century prominently identified with the political and financial interests of the Iron City.
John Chalfant, founder of the Ameri- can branch of this old and highly re- spected family, came to Pennsylvania in
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Fr. a Chaglant
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
the Welcome with William Penn, and fant was the proprietor of a general store was given a deed for six hundred and forty acres of land in Chester county. This was about 1682, and in 1699 he settled on a tract of land of two hundred and fifty acres in Rockland Manor, in the same county, obtaining a warrant for it October 22, 1701. John Chalfant died in August, 1725, leaving two sons, John and Robert.
John (2), son of John Chalfant, mar- ried, and among other children had three sons: Jolin, Solomon, and Robert.
Robert, son of John (2) Chalfant, mar- ried Ann, daughter of John and Mary Bentley, of Newton. Chester county, and their children were: John, mentioned below; Mary, Jane, Ann, Robert, and Elizabeth.
John, son of Robert and Ann (Bent- ley) Chalfant, married and had one son, Henry, mentioned below.
Henry, son of John (3) Chalfant, mar- ried, August 5, 1740, Eliza Jackson, and had nine children, the eldest of whom, Jonathan, is mentioned below.
Jonathan, son of Henry and Eliza (Jackson) Chalfant, was born April 8, 1743. and married, December 24, 1777, Ann. daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Carter) Barnard, Burnard (or Bernard), the former mentioned in 1701 as of West Marlborough. He died in 1732, at Ches- ter. His first wife was Eliza Swain, of Newark, New Jersey. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Chalfant: Thomas, born No- vember 2, 1778; Ann, May II, 1780; Jonathan, May 15, 1783; Jacob, Novem- ber 3, 1786; Annanias, August 24, 1788; Henry, mentioned below; Eliza, born October 8, 1794, died October 15, 1794; Eliza (2), born August 25, 1797; Amos, December 9, 1799.
Henry, son of Jonathan and Ann (Bar- nard) Chalfant, was born May 13, 1792, and in 1827 settled at Turtle Creek, Alle- gheny county, there founding the Pitts- burgh branch of the family. Mr. Chal-
and kept the postoffice and relay station for the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia stage coach line which traversed the old Greensburg turnpike. About 1840 he set- tled on a farm of several hundred acres halfway between Wilkinsburg and Turtle Creek, which he made his home during the remainder of his life. Henry Chal- fant married, March 27, 1827, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Rev. George Duffield offi- ciating, Isabella Campbell, born January 12, 1801, daughter of Samuel and Hetty (Lusk) Weakley, and their children were: John Weakley, deceased, a sketch and por- trait of whom may be found elsewhere in this work ; William Barnard, born July 8, 1829, died August 1, 1830; Sidney Alex- ander, born May 14, 1831 ; Ann Rebecca, born August 8, 1833, married Albert G. Miller, and died October 17, 1896; Hetty Isabella, born April 4, 1835, died Janu- ary 30, 1840; Henry Richard, born July 25, 1837, died September 30, 1887; James Thomas, born May 18, 1839, died April 20, 1901; George Alexander, mentioned below; William Lusk, born August 3, 1843, died April 20, 1895; and Albert Mc- Kinney, born October 6, 1846. Henry Chalfant, the father of the family, died December 14, 1862, and the mother sur- vived him many years, passing away March 4, 1885, on the homestead, where she had resided during her widowhood with her son, Henry Richard.
George Alexander Chalfant, son of Henry and Isabella Campbell (Weakley) Chalfant, was born March 3, 1841, at Turtle Creek, Allegheny county, Penn- sylvania, and received his preparatory education in the public schools and at Wilkinsburg Academy, afterward enter- ing Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Penn- sylvania, and graduating in the class of 1861. The following year he became clerk for the firm of Spang, Chalfant & Company, of Etna (near Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, then, as now, leading iron
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manufacturers. This house, founded in 1820 by Charles F. Spang, is now an im- mense concern, numbering its employees by the hundred. Mr. Chalfant from the first showed great ability, and in conse- quence was rapidly advanced, becoming successively superintendent of works, general manager, and finally president, the concern having been incorporated in 1900. As a business man his judgment was sound, and he possessed the ability to look far and foretell results. One notable proof of this is furnished by the fact that he was the first mill manager in the Pittsburgh region to use natural gas for fuel. Kindhearted to a fault, he yet demanded the strictest attention to duty from his subordinates, who were devoted to him, and richly did he de- serve his well-earned popularity, inas- much as he never made the mistake of regarding his employees merely as parts of a great machine, but recognized their individuality, making it a rule that faith- ful and efficient service should be promptly rewarded with promotion as opportunity offered.
The versatility of talent with which Mr. Chalfant was endowed, combined with his faculty for the rapid dispatch of business, enabled him to associate him- self with interests other than those of the great firm with which he was so prominently connected. He was for years president of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Sharpsburg, and of the Mount Royal Cemetery Company of Pittsburgh ; vice-president of the American Tubular Axle Company ; and a director of the Equitable Trust Company of Pittsburgh. In all these positions he exhibited re- markable executive ability, an astonish- ingly clear conception of the wants of the different organizations, and a judg- ment that was seldom at fault when their financial policy was to be considered.
As a citizen with exalted ideas of good government and civic virtue, Mr. Chal-
fant stood in the front rank, readily lend- ing his support and influence to any movement which in his judgment tended to promote the welfare of Pittsburgh. Ile was one of the most active and effi- cient Republicans to be found within the limits of his city, always laboring in the interests of progress and reform. He served as a director of the Allegheny County Workhouse, and no good work done in the name of charity or religion sought his co-operation in vain. He was a member of the Pittsburgh, Country, Duquesne, and Monongahela clubs.
The personal appearance of Mr. Chal- fant was striking, and, once seen, not easily forgotten. In the latter years of his life his silvered hair and snow-white beard and moustache imparted to his resolute countenance an air of singular distinction, enhanced by his dignity of bearing and the invariable courtesy of his manner. His piercing eyes held in their depths a most kindly expression, indicative of the genial disposition which endeared him to all with whom he was brought into close relations and rendered his friends almost numberless. He looked what he was-a man of deep con- victions, great force and extraordinary personal power.
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