USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Volume I > Part 50
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For some years Mr. Parkhurst was a member of the board of directors of the Addison & Northern Pennsylvania Rail- road Company, in which he was elected to the office of vice-president, but de- clined to serve in this office. Like his father, Mr. Parkhurst has always had the welfare of Elkland deeply at heart, and gives liberally of his time and means to forward its interests in every manner. The cause of education has had a more than ordinary attraction for him, and for almost a quarter of a century he has served continuously as a member of the school board, and during this time he has greatly advanced the cause he has had at heart.
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Michdust Laguire
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Parkhurst married, October 7, LARZELERE, Nicholas Henry, 1896, Marian M. Moon, born in Bain- . Lawyer, Man of Affairs. bridge, New York, daughter of the Rev. Dr. S. H. Moon, a Presbyterian clergy- man who preached at Bainbridge and Peckville, and who was the pastor of the church at Elkland for more than eighteen years. The work he accom- plished was of the highest order. He was a scholarly gentleman, and while at Elkland received many flattering offers to accept other pastorates, but preferred to remain with the people to whom he had become so deeply attached in the course of the passing years. His last years were spent in Brandt, Susque- hanna county, Pennsylvania, where his death occurred at the age of seventy years. Mrs. Parkhurst took special courses in language and music in Wilson College, and being possessed of a mag- nificent soprano voice was the recipient of a very fine musical education. Her talent has been called into requisition in the churches of New York City, Brook- lyn, Elmira and numerous other cities, and her voice has also been frequently heard at concerts and on other public occasions. Mr. Parkhurst is also a mu- sician of a high order. He and his wife together have often taken a prominent part in musical affairs in large cities, and for some years he led the choir in one of the large churches in Elmira. He has been the leader for many years of the choir of the Presbyterian church in Elk- land, and here he has been ably assisted by his gifted wife. Both have been gen- erous in devoting their musical talents in many ways for the benefit of the people of Elkland. In addition to this they have been active in imparting musical knowl- edge to the young people of the town, and in this manner raising higher ideals in every branch. Mr. and Mrs. Park- hurst have had one child, Anna Char- lotta, born December 30, 1898.
All nations of whom we have authen- tic record have at some time in their history been seized with a madness that lias raged none the less fiercely from the fact that it was practically national sui- cide. Strangely enough this madness usually sprang from a religious or moral issue. Even our own land has not been free from fanatical persecution, but it was shortlived and local in character. But France, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the withdrawal of all legal protection from their enemies, drove thousands of the best families to seek asylum in less bigoted countries, leaving behind them the bleeding bodies of their slain loved ones, and taking away from France a body of men skilled in the mechanical arts and science to en- rich Holland, Switzerland, and other countries, who have ever given asylum to the oppressed of all lands. From these countries there flowed in early days a steady stream of emigration to our own land, and everywhere may be found families founded by these Hugue- not heroes who sacrificed everything save conscience. That the shame of France is our glory and gain does not affect the argument.
Among the families forced to flee from France was the Larzeleres, who, headed by Nicholas and John Larzelere, settled first on Long Island, New York. The family in Norristown, Pennsylvania, represented so ably in the present by Nicholas Henry Larzelere, springs from Nicholas, who after a short sojourn on Long Island settled on Staten Island, in New York Harbor. The descent is traced through his son Nicholas, who in 1741 founded the family in Pennsylvania, settling first in Bucks county. His son Nicholas, born 1734, fought in the Revo- lution, and died aged eighty-four years.
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His son Benjamin moved to the township of Bristol, and on his old homestead where the borough of Bristol is partly built. Then his son Nicholas came to Montgomery county, settling in Abing- ton, where he died at the age of sixty- seven, and is buried in the churchyard of the Presbyterian church. The second of his twelve children was again a Ben- jamin Larzelere, who married Mary Maxwell, a granddaughter of Jacob Bus- kirk, whose father came from Holland in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury, and married Elizabeth Lawrence, a granddaughter of John and Mary Law- rence, who came from England in 1712. Mary Lawrence was a Townley of Lan- cashire, England, of a family whose genealogy is traced to the reign of Henry VIII.
Thus there courses in the veins of Nicholas Henry Larzelere the blood of three great nations-French, English and Dutch-and from each he has taken some prominent trait that has formed a rare combination of manly intellectual vigor. From the old Huguenot Nicho- las, he derives the tenacity and courage of his convictions; from the Hollander, the thrift and energy that attends to tem- poral benefit; while from the English- man he received the pride of country, family, and honorable achievement. Yet with all these, he gains but a foundation upon which he has built that splendid figure we all recognize as American.
Nicholas Henry Larzelere was born in Warminster township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1851, but grew to youthful manhood in Warrington township, where he attended the public school during the winter months and worked on the farm during the busy farming months. At the age of eighteen years he entered Doylestown English and Classical Seminary, where he prepared for college, and a part of the time taught. In September, 1871, he entered Lafayette
College, where after a brilliant career he was graduated A.B., class of 1875. Dur- ing his junior year he gained fame by winning the oratorical contest between Franklin and Washington Halls. In his senior year he was chosen to represent Lafayette in the inter-collegiate oratori- cal contest held in the Academy of Mu- sic, New York, January 13, 1875. In this contest he met picked orators from Princeton, Williams, Cornell, College of the City of New York, and Columbia, and did not suffer in comparison.
In September following his graduation he entered the law offices of George Ross, Esq., of Bucks county, pursuing a course of study under his preceptorship one year. In 1876 he continued his legal education under Hon. B. Markley Boyer, of Norristown, and on September 28, 1877, he was admitted to the Montgom- ery county bar. He at once began the practice of his profession in Norristown, and, beginning at the bottom of the lad- der of professional fame, he mounted steadily round by round until, clear of the crowd at the bottom, he gained higher altitudes, where with clearer vis- ion and enlarged opportunity he has gained secure foothold at the top. He is learned in the law and most skillful in its application. Behind him is a long list of legal victories won from other giants, for the Montgomery county bar has seen many such and some of the greatest legal battles known to the State bar have been fought in that court. Mr. Larzelere combines in himself the qualities that cannot fail to produce a successful man in whatever line engaged, and shall we not again thank the sturdy ancestors who each contributed their quota to the making of this American lawyer? His legal attainments, great as they are, would not of necessity bring success at the bar, but to these let us add courage of the highest order, perseverance and industry and an eloquence that places
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his thoughit before judge and jury in enterprise has been the development of convincing argument. Not his are the tricks of the law, but honest himself to the core, he first thoroughly masters his case, then with honest endeavor to have the right prevail he submits his case with all the force and eloquence at his com- mand. He holds the respect of the en- tire bar and is a recognized leader. Per- haps the case in which he takes the great- est satisfaction was his fight for a free bridge across the Schuylkill river at De- Kalb avenue, in Norristown. He was the attorney for the Free Bridge Asso- ciation, and only won the decision after one of the most bitterly fought contests ever witnessed in the Montgomery county court. To enumerate his vic- torious cases alone would be to edit a volume, but in the more than a quarter- century at the bar he has been connected with very many important cases and bears an unblemished reputation for ability, honesty and fair dealing with both clients and juries. He has been admitted to all State and Federal courts of the district, also to the Supreme Court of the United States, and to courts in other States. He was senior of the law firm of Larzelere & Gibson, which later by the admission of Gilbert R. Fox be- came Larzelere, Gibson & Fox, but has now associated with him his nephew, Franklin L. Wright, and his son, Charles Townley Larzelere. Mr. Larzelere is at- torney for several of the great Schuyl- kill Valley corporations, viz .: The Penn- sylvania Railroad Company in Montgom- ery county ; the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company; the Lehigh Valley Transit Company; the Reading Transit WHITAKER, Thomas Drake, Manufacturer, Man of Affairs. Company ; the Bell Telephone Company ; the Western Union Telegraph Company, and many others.
In public affairs outside his profes- sion he has always been prominent. He has championed needed reforms and aided public improvement. His greatest
Norristown's suburban railways, and as- sociated with the Schuylkill Valley Trac- tion Company, has helped to extend the branch lines of that corporation in the directions most favorable to the develop- ment of Norristown as a center. In ad- dition to the demands of his profession and of his railway interests, he also serves as director of many manufactur- ing and financial corporations. Nor does the finer side of his nature suffer neglect (and here again his alien blood asserts itself) ; his library is one of the finest in private use in the State, while his col- lections of paintings and other works of art speak the skilled connoisseur. Nor is he unmindful of his duties as a citi- zen; originally a Democrat, he turned from that party when Bryanism became its fetish, and has ever since acted with the Republican party. He is a member of the Union League, and when Judge Swartz was a candidate in 1904 for Judge of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Mr. Larzelere presented his name to the State Convention in a speech long re- membered for its earnestness and elo- quence.
He married, September 21, 1880, Ida Frances, second daughter of Dr. John W. and Hannah Loch, of Norristown. Children : John Loch and Charles Town- ley, both graduates of Princeton Univer- sity. The family are members of the Presbyterian church, and reside in a beautiful home erected on spacious grounds at DeKalb and Basin streets, Norristown.
Thomas Drake Whitaker, deceased, who was one of the most alert, enter- prising and progressive young business men in Eastern Pennsylvania, was born January 13. 1860, at Cedar Grove, Phila-
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delphia, which has been the homestead of the Whitaker family for a number of generations. He was the thirteenth child of William and Ann ( Lord) Whitaker. Robert, the only surviving child of this large group, is still a resident on the homestead at Cedar Grove.
Mr. Whitaker received his early edu- cation at Eastburn's Academy, Broad street, Philadelphia, and the DeLancey School, in the same city, after which he matriculated at the University of Penn- sylvania, 1880, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1883 with the degree of Mechanical Engineer, after having paid particular attention to chem- istry and electricity.
His first business association was with his brothers in the firm of William Whit- aker & Sons, which had been established by his father, engaged in the manufac- ture of woolen goods, carpets, rugs, etc. Their factories were located at Cedar Grove and Frankford, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While this line of indus- try gave him sufficient employment both for mind and body, he was of a more in- ventive and mechanical turn, and even in his boyhood, while yet in his "teens," he had experimented in the building of flying machines, the models he created embodying excellent ideas and being far in advance of the period in which he created them.
While driving through a section of the State of New Jersey in 1893, Mr. Whit- aker was impressed with the character of the clay formations which he noticed, and foresaw the possibilities of the man- ufacture of cement. He erected a plant for this purpose in the section he had selected, experimented at his own ex- pense, and it was but a short time be- fore he had demonstrated the practical worth of his ideas. He then succeeded in interesting his father-in-law and others in the project he had in his mind, and the result was the organization of
the Whitaker Cement Company, now known as the Alpha Portland Cement Company. This was the first Portland Cement Company plant built in the State of New Jersey, and the second in the United States to manufacture Portland cement by the rotary kiln method. Credit must be given Mr. Whitaker as being the pioneer in the cement industry in the Lehigh Valley. Ile had formed large and well-developed plans for the further exploiting of the cement industry in the State of New Jersey, but his un- timely death cut short many of these ideas. He it was who interested the most prominent men of the State in these plans, among them being numbered such names as Colonel Harry C. Trexler, George Ormrod, Charles Matcham and E. M. Young, who later organized the Lehigh Portland Cement Company, now one of the largest cement manufacturing concerns in the country.
Mr. Whitaker was a man of retiring disposition, at all times a student, yet full of vim and ardor in the development of his business ideas. He inherited from his forbears a keen interest in church matters, and was a member of the Old Oxford Church, where the Whitakers have maintained a family pew for five generations.
Mr. Whitaker married Catherine, sec- ond daughter of George Ormrod, and they became the parents of one son: Francis, born March 14, 1885, who was educated at the DeLancey School, Phila- delphia; the Preparatory School at Al- lentown; Muhlenberg College; and the Hill School.
Mr. Whitaker was a member of the following organizations: Union League Club, of Philadelphia; Lehigh Valley Country Club; Northampton Country Club; Livingston Club, of Allentown ; St. Leger Club, of Allentown ; John Hay Republican Club; Lehigh Valley Motor Club; Lehigh County Humane Society ;
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Lehigh Valley Kennel Club; Bethlehem Club, of Bethlehem ; Goodwill Fire Com- pany, of Allentown; Hill's School Alumni Association; Greenleaf Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Rajah Tem- ple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Reading; Caldswell Consistory ; Royal Arcanum, of Phila- delphia; and was a vestryman of Grace Episcopal Church, of Allentown, Penn- sylvania.
Thomas Drake Whitaker, while on a hunting trip in the Raccoon mountains, in November, 1895, contracted a severe cold which resulted in his death, March 7, 1896. Ile was buried in the Oxford Church Cemetery, Philadelphia. Mr. Whitaker was a true and loyal Ameri- can citizen. He took a deep interest in all movements calculated to improve and benefit the community, and gave his hearty co-operation and substantial sup- port to various enterprises for the public good.
ACHESON, Ernest F.,
Lawyer, Journalist, Congressman.
From a student of the laws made by others to the making of the laws studied by others, with a signally successful business, editorial and political career to his credit, is the record of the Hon. Er- nest F. Acheson, of Washington, Penn- sylvania.
Acheson, of which his father was senior member. After two years of practice he decided that he would not make the legal profession his life work, and, with- drawing from the firm, purchased a half interest in the "Washington Observer," the county's leading weekly paper. In 1890 he established the "Daily Observer," which at once sprang into popularity, and in 1902, in order to secure a larger means for operation, the Observer Pub- lishing Company was organized, with a capital stock of $35,000. The "Reporter," which had been a weekly from 1808 to 1876 and from the latter date a daily newspaper, was added to the company's possessions in the fall of 1902. The com- pany now publishes the "Observer" as a morning (daily and semi-weekly) and the "Reporter" as an evening paper. Mr. Acheson was president of the company from its organization in 1902 until July I, 1912, when he sold his interest in the concern, and is now practically retired from all business.
Besides his journalistic activities, Mr. Acheson is prominent in many other business enterprises of his locality. He is president of the City Water Company, a member of the board of directors of the Citizens' National Bank, a member of the board of trustees of Washington and Jefferson College, and is also owner of some very desirable city and country real estate. He has served as trustee of the California State Normal School, as president of the Washington Board of Trade, and has been manager of the Washington Cemetery since 1893. In 1893 he was president of the Pennsyl- vania Editorial Association, and likewise served one year as secretary of the National Editorial Association.
He was born in Washington, Septem- ber 19, 1855, son of Alexander W. Ache- son, one of the luminaries of the Wash- ington county bar of his day. He ob- tained an excellent education in the pub- lic schools of his native city, and later completed it at Washington and Jeffer- son College, from which he was grad- uated in the class of 1875. In 1877 he In politics he has had a brilliant and useful career. He was defeated as the Republican nominee for Congressman in 1892 from the largest congressional dis- was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, after studying in his father's office, and at the same time became a member of the law firm of A. W., M. C. & E. F. trict in the United States (the Twenty-
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fourth Pennsylvania District, comprised of Washington, Fayette and Greene counties, the boroughs and townships of Allegheny county south of the Mononga- hela and Ohio rivers and between the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers, the city of Mckeesport, and the Thirty- eighth Ward of Pittsburgh). He was again the candidate in 1894, and was elected four consecutive times from the district as above constituted. The popu- lation of this district, in round numbers, was 400,000; later it was altered to in- clude Washington, Beaver and Lawrence counties. From the new district Mr. Acheson was elected in 1902, 1904 and 1906, making in all seven full consecu- tive terms which he served in the lower legislative body of the United States. He was a progressive, energetic and high minded statesman, serving with dis- tinetion on several important committees. His district, the needs and requirements of his constituents, were always behind his every action, and he gained a de- served reputation as a loyal and useful servant of the people.
He married, November 22, 1882, Jannie Bushfield Stewart. Both are regular at- tendants and members of the First Pres- byterian Church of Washington, to which they give their hearty and liberal sup- port. Children : Phoebe Stewart ; Alex- ander Wilson, a graduate of Harvard Law School, 1910, who began the prac- tice of law in Washington, Pennsylvania, October, 1910, offices in Washing- ton Trust Building; Elizabeth Scott; Janet Wishart, and Martha Wishart.
MOORE, Charles Augustus,
Business Man, Public Official.
The Moores were early settlers of Schaefferstown, Lebanon county, and throughi intermarriage with the Shindels, trace to another early family. Charles Augustus Moore was born in Lebanon,
Pennsylvania, May 19, 1854. Ile is the son of William P. Moore, born in Le- banon, 1831, died February 1, 1876, son of Jonathan Moore. William P. Moore married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Catherine (Orth) Shindel, grand- daughter of John Peter (2) Shindel, born in Lebanon, August 21, 1766, died Sep- tember 17, 1829, served in the State Leg- islature, was for many years justice of the peace, married Mary Mengas, and had eleven children; great-granddaugh- ter of John Peter (1) Shindel, born Feb- ruary 28, 1732, in Odenwald, Germany, emigrated to America, settling in what is now Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, where he died May 29, 1784, leaving a wife, Anna Margarette, and eight chil- dren; great-great-granddaughter of Michael Shindel, a native of Odenwald, Germany, emigrated to America with sons Jacob, John, Peter and Conrad, settled in what is now Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, where he died prior to 1778. William P. and Elizabeth (Shin- del) Moore had an only son, Charles Augustus; and an only daughter, Alice Catherine, born April 8, 1858, died April, 1891, married Morris F. High.
Charles Augustus Moore attended the public schools of Lebanon and later be- gan business life with the Reading rail- road. He later entered the machine shops of Lebanon Manufacturing Works in Lebanon, becoming an expert machinist, and during the succeeding eight years he traveled all over the United States. Ilis love of travel being gratified, he returned to Lebanon and entered the employ of the American Iron and Steel Company. He continued some time with the com- pany and then determined on another line of activity, which for twenty years he has successfully conducted. He is a Republican in politics, served as council- man, and gained so enviable a record that he was elected register of wills for Lebanon county, his four year term be-
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ginning January 1, 1912, when he was inducted into office. As an evidence of his popularity among the voters, it is noted that he carried every voting dis- trict in the county. He is past chancellor commander, Knights of Pythias; past chief, in the Order of the Knights of the Golden Eagle; member of the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows, Order of United American Mechanics, Improved Order of Red Men, and the Lebanon Fire Insurance Association. In all these bodies he is held in high esteem, and per- haps no man in the county is better known or more highly regarded.
He married, September 10, 1876, Addie C., daughter of William Buch, of Lan- caster county. Their only child died in infancy.
DYER, John T.,
Railroad Builder, Man of Affairs.
The community is fortunate that pos- sesses citizens whose integrity, whose leadership in the activities that make for culture and progress, and the tenor of whose whole lives begets greater respect for the human nature they adorn. To this class of men, who have left behind them memories of well spent lives and have set a standard of private and busi- ness conduct that may well be followed by the oncoming generation, belonged John T. Dyer, one of the foremost busi- ness men of his time in Norristown.
Mr. Dyer was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, April 19, 1848. His family was of English Quaker origin, and was among the earliest settlers of Pennsyl- vania. His parents were Richard H. and Caroline (Hoffman) Dyer, and they had five other children: William G., Eugene, Elizabeth, Emily, and Laura. The elder Mr. Dyer died at Slatington in 1876.
The school advantages of John T. Dyer were of brief duration, and he went to work as quite a young boy. He first
secured a position in the quarries at Slat- ington, and worked there until he was offered one in the country store of the place. These positions were merely step- ping-stones for a boy of his ambition and boundless energy. Before long, wider opportunities opened out before him in the work of foreman for con- tractors, and soon as contractor himself. During this period of his life the enorm- ous physical endurance of the man as well as his indomitable grit came very largely into play. His wife was pos- sessed of the same spirit, and played a man's part on more than one strenuous occasion. Once, not long after their mar- riage, in the midst of his first railroad contract, where he was deserted by the foreman on whom he had relied, she took charge of the entire equipment of tools, supplies and storeroom, in addition to her household duties, while he in his turn was blacksmith, foreman, boss, and contractor, working with incredible en- ergy sometimes for twenty-four hours at a stretch. The difficulties of this period were the precursors, however, of much later success. He was given large and im- portant contracts by the Pennsylvania railroad when it built its Schuylkill Val- ley branch, he building the sections at West Laurel Hill, Spring Mill and Con- shohocken, Norristown and Landingville. On the Trenton cut-off he built sections at Howellville and Fort Washington, and on the Cresheim branch another section at Fort Washington. When the grades of the cut-off were changed, he had the contract from Rambo Station to Blue Bell, including the elevation of the bridge over the Schuylkill river. The great freight yards of the Pennsylvania railroad at Morrisville and those at Shire Oaks, in Washington county, were also his work.
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