USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Volume I > Part 6
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present proud position which the city holds as a manufacturing centre is large- ly owing to his efforts in the line of gen- eral progress to which he may be said to have devoted as much time as he has to the furthering of his personal inter- ests. A man of action rather than words, he has demonstrated his public spirit by actual achievements that advance the prosperity and wealth of the community, and he is by common consent recognized as foremost among those who have made York the third manufacturing city of the great old Keystone State.
Notwithstanding his celebrity as a business man, Mr. Farquhar is best known throughout the nation and among the statesmen of foreign lands as a stu- dent of political economy and as an authority upon every branch of the sub- ject, more especially with regard to fi- nance and tariff legislation. He has brought to bear upon the great economic questions of the day all the forces of a thoroughly practical and well disciplined mind, and as a clear and cogent writer upon such topics has gained the atten- tion of thinking men throughout the world. He has established his points by well taken tenets, enforced by wide and discriminating observations, careful study of minute details, and cognizance of statistical values. His essays along these lines have been published in the New York, Philadelphia, and Boston pa- pers and magazines, and have com- manded the strongest recognition for their wisdom and freedom from partisan bias, while his pamphlets on finance (notably those on the silver question) have been circulated by the thousand. On February 14, 1890, in response to a request from the Reform Club of New York City, Mr. Farquhar delivered an ad- dress upon the great economic question of the day,-protection. Subsequently his remarks were embodied in a publica-
During the long period of Mr. Far- quhar's residence in York, his name has been synonymous with progress, and the tion of nearly five hundred pages, entitled
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"Economic and Industrial Delusions." The titles of the several chapters give an idea of the scope of the work: "The Case for Protection Examined," "Abuse of Party Allegiance," "Balance of Trade and Currency Supply," "Paternal Gov- ernments and Industrial Progress," "For- eign Countries as Commercial Rivals," "Prices versus Wages," "The Home Market," "The Ideal Revenue with Inci- dental Protection," "Protection and Agri- culture," "Special Discussions," "The Silver Question." In the compilation of this valuable work Mr. Farquhar had as an able collaborator his brother, Mr. Henry Farquhar, a government statistic- ian of note, and the book is regarded as an authority upon the various points touched, bearing the unmistakable im- print of patient study, careful research and wide knowledge. It is written in a spirit of absolute fairness, and the posi- tions taken are rendered well-nigh im- pregnable. Mr. Farquhar clearly eluci- dates the ills that would arise from the free coinage of silver and from a high protective tariff, demonstrating that the former would unsettle the financial sta- bility of the country, and that the latter stands as a barrier to the exchange of the manufactured goods of our workshops.
In nothing is the independence of Mr. Farquhar's character more apparent than in his attitude toward politics, inasmuch as he votes irrespective of party, guided only by the dictates of his own judgment and considering nothing but the fitness of the candidate for the office for which he is nominated. He was a strong supporter of President Cleveland, regarding his ad- ministration as an honest one, well calcu- lated to conserve the best interests of the nation. At previous elections he had supported Lincoln, whom he knew per- sonally, and Blaine and Garfield, who were also personal friends.
In 1892 Mr. Farquhar was nominated by Ifon. Robert E. Pattison, then govern-
or of Pennsylvania, as one of the com- missioners to represent the old Keystone State at the World's Columbian Exposi- tion held in Chicago in 1893. At the meeting of the State Commissioners, Mr. Farquhar was elected executive com- missioner, and later received the addi- tional honor of being chosen president of the National Association of Executive Commissioners, representing all the States. He had previously visited Eu- rope, acting under a commission from the government, where he rendered valuable service in the interests of the World's Fair.
In January, 1897, Mr. Farquhar was appointed by Governor Hastings a dele- gate from Pennsylvania to the Coast Defense Convention, called by the gov- ernor of Florida to meet at Tampa, and over which General J. M. Schofield pre- sided. On that occasion Mr Farquhar delivered a most able address, replete with broad humanitarian principles and inspired by the loftiest sentiment, claim- ing that American's best defense was treating all nations fairly, and avoiding entangling alliances. He is a member of the American Peace Congress and of the World's Peace Congress, and in this con- nection has made addresses which have attracted world-wide attention, notably at the great peace gatherings held at Washington, D. C., Boston and Lake Mohonk. Mr. Farquhar belongs to al- most every Reform Society in the United States, being an active member of at least thirty-five such bodies. His name is on the rolls of the world-famous Cob- den Club of England.
Ranking as he does among the dis- tinguished and successful men of the na- tion, Mr. Farquhar never loses sight of matters pertaining to the welfare of his home city, and well-nigh incalculable is the impetus which he has imparted to all her best interests. At home he is a mem- ber of the Board of Trade, president of
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the Chamber of Commerce, president of the State Conservation Association, pres- ident of the York Oratorio Society, etc., a director in the York Trust Company, and was at one time proprietor of the "York Gazette." He is president of the York Hospital, vice-president and mem- ber of the executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, and a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C.
Not only has Mr. Farquhar increased the prosperity of his adopted city, but he has also added to her beauty. He is president of the Park Commission, and it was through his efforts that York se- cured her attractive park system. Over and above this, Mr. Farquhar presented to the city the beautiful park which bears his name and which is one of the most charming and restful spots to be found anywhere. Not many years after Mr. Farquhar became a resident of York, he rendered her a service which forms part of our national history. During the Civil War, when York was invaded by Confederate forces, Mr. Farquhar ar- ranged with the commanding officer of the enemy for the protection of the town, by payment of a comparatively small sum, and not a dollar's worth of property was taken. For this inestimable service Mr. Farquhar received the personal thanks of President Lincoln and Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
The personal appearance of Mr. Far- quhar is that of a man of intense vitality, great strength of character and com- manding intellect. His presence carries ever the suggestion of immense reserve force, while his strong features and the piercing glance of his eyes are tempered by an expression of kindliness which be- speaks a genial nature. Widely chari- table as he is known to be, his face is that of a man who has never allowed ques- tionable methods to form part of his business career, whose record, in all the
relations of life, has been stainless, and whose whole course has, in large meas- ure, been an exemplification of his belief in the brotherhood of mankind.
Mr. Farquhar married, in 1860, Eliza- beth, daughter of Edward Jessop, a lead- ing hardware manufacturer of Baltimore, and president of the Short Mountain and the Tunnelton Coal Companies, his coun- try seat having been in Spring Garden township, York county. Mr. and Mrs. Farquhar are the parents of three sons: William E .; Percival, famous at the head of the Farquhar syndicate which has de- veloped railroads, docks and other enter- prises in South America, and Francis. Mrs. Farquhar is one of those rare women who combine with perfect wom- anliness and domesticity an unerring judgment-a union of traits fitting her to be in all things the companion of her husband who has ever found in her an ideal helpmate. "Edgecombe," the beau- tiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Farqu- har, is situated beyond the city limits, the mansion standing in the midst of spacious grounds, planted with noble trees, and having a most exquisite Italian garden, to which the falling waters of a fountain lend an additional charm. The approach to the house is through a beautiful granite gateway, and when the master passes this boundary line between his home and the outside world he leaves behind him all the cares which press upon him in the arena of business, find- ing in rural surroundings and in the amusements of outdoor life-especially in horsemanship and golf-much-needed rest and recuperation. Mr. Farquhar is one of the men who set advancing years at defiance, and never allow themselves to be overborne by the weight of public anxieties, preserving by judicious exer- cise, health of body and mind, and never losing the ability to face any emergency, however trying. Mr. and Mrs. Farquhar are prominent not only in the social cir-
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cles of York, but also in those of other Tennyson's poem, its "echoes roll from soul to soul, and grow forever and for- ever."
cities of the East Both possess the rare and charming faculty of winning friends everywhere; and their beautiful and stately home is a centre of gracious hos- pitality.
Throughout his long and brilliant career Mr. Farquhar has been animated by the all-conquering spirit of achieve- ment which was his heritage from noble and invincible ancestors, and his success has ever redounded to the general wel- fare. In cach of his triumphs his gener- osity has made York a sharer. Told in detail, the story of what he has done for her would be a record of many pages. By his single-handed effort she was saved from the rapine of the invader, and by his energy and genius her commerce has been vitalized, and all her essential interests have felt the uplifting power of a strong nature and a guiding intellect. The record of the citizenship of Arthur B. Farquhar will ever constitute one of the brightest and most memorable pages in the annals of York.
GOBIN, John Peter Shindel, Lawyer, Soldier, Public Official.
The man who said the test of a Church was the ability to produce saints, might have added that the test of a State was the ability to produce patriotic and useful citizens. Belonging distinctly to that plane of the human brotherhood whose lives have enriched the world by noble example, General John Peter Shindel Gobin has without any question added to the list of those sons of whom Pennsyl- vania may be proud. His career was one of whose activities were conducted along more than one important line and yet whose total effect was of noble and heroic service. The value of such a life in its achievement and in the reaches of spirit- ual accomplishment are not easily to be computed. Like the "bugle notes" of
The personality of General John Peter Shindel Gobin, conspicuous as it has been by a long and useful life as a citizen, by a brilliant record in military service, and by important and distinguished work as a public official, has been one of inesti- mable valne to those who came even re- motely under his influence. Notwith- standing the fears and denunciations of the Cassandras, the republican institu- tions will continue stable that produce sons of such a type. Exponent as he was in the sum total of his life's work of those American ideals that had fired the imagi- nation and the hearts of the founders of the commonwealth, General Gobin came of that breed of men that has furnished some of the finest pioneers of the Amer- ican stock. On his father's side his race was to be traced to patriots who had fought bravely in the Revolution and other wars, and, through his mother, the family could boast of ancestors in minis- ters who were men of power and great influence. Charles Gobin, his great- grandfather, was a captain in a battalion of Berks County Associators and served in the Jersey campaign in the Revolution during the summer of 1780, and later commanded a company of militia sent to protect the settlers from the threatened invasion of the Indians, Tories and Brit- ish from New York. His grandfather, Edward Gobin, served in the war of 1812. On the maternal side, the great-grand- father, John Peter Shindel, for whom he was named, was a pioneer Lutheran min- ister who held a pastoral charge in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, in the early part of the last century. In 1812 he removed to Sunbury, Pennsylvania. While living in Lebanon, his son Jeremiah was born, who became a noted minister in the Lutheran church. Before he began to study for the ministry, the Rev. Jeremiah
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Shindel served an apprenticeship to the printer's trade. He was ordained in 1831. In 1859 he was sent from the district comprising Lehigh and Northampton counties to the State Senate of Pennsyl- vania, and served as senator three years. In 1862 he was appointed chaplain of the IIoth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served two years.
The martial spirit of his father's an- cestors and the scholarly tastes of his mother's family were found closely blended in the character of General Gobin. He was born at Sunbury, North- umerland county, Pennsylvania, January 26, 1837, his parents being Samuel L. and Susan (Shindel) Gobin. His father was a large contractor. He received his early academic training in the schools of his native town, and then entered the of- fice of the "Sunbury American" to learn the printer's trade. His intellectual an- bition, however, was not satisfied with this, and he took up the study of the law, and filled all his leisure with the most ex- acting work. Fortunately, he had in- herited a strong mind in a strong body. As early as this, his character had begun to show its native trend by noble aspira- tions and by self-imposed tasks requiring courage and patience. His legal studies, conducted under the instruction of M. L. Shindel and General J. K. Clement, were brought to a successful termination when he was admitted to the bar in 1859. But his patriotism was of that ardent type that would throw away all his immediate chances of success to respond to the call to arms, and we find him at the outbreak of the Civil War leaving his law practice and joining the army upon President Lincoln's first call for three months' men. He was commissoned, April 19, 1861, first lieutenant of Company F, 11th Regi- ment Pennsylvania Volunteers. At the close of his term of enlistment he re- cruited a company, and upon being com- missioned its captain, it was mustered
in as Company C, 47th Regiment Penn- sylvania Volunteers. Promotion was rapid for the gallant young soldier, and he was successively advanced to the rank of major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of the 47th Regiment, and was breveted brigadier-general of volunteers for mer- itorious service on March 13, 1865, and complimented in general orders for gal- lantry at the battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Other engagements in which he participated were those of St. John's Bluff, Sabine Cross Roads, Pleasant Hill, and Cane River Crossing, serving in the departments of the South, the Gulf and the Shenandoah. General Gobin was with General Sheridan in his famous campaign, and by his gallantry in hold- ing fast his command, which was the right of Sheridan's line, checked the in- rush of the enemy's advance, thus giving it the first repulse and turning the tide of battle. After the war, General Gobin, re- maining with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina, was appointed judge ad- vocate general of the Department of the South, acting as provost judge of that city till 1866. This was a task which in the difficult reconstruction times was one requiring great gifts of tact, firmness and wisdom and the way he fulfilled his duties justified the confidence reposed in him by the authorities in Washington. He was mustered out of the service January 9, 1866.
Immediately upon leaving the army, General Gobin established himself in Lebanon and resumed the practice of the law, meeting with a success that has placed him in the first rank of the lawyers of that part of the State. Early in his professional career he was made county solicitor of Lebanon county, and in 1884 this was followed by his election to the State Senate, in which body he served continuously until 1899, an unprecedented term, resigning at that time in order to assume the duties of Lieutenant-Gover-
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nor of the State, to which he had been elected in 1898. His discharge of the duties of official position was marked by the same conscientious ardor that char- acterized the man and gave satisfaction even to his critics.
He was as public spirited in the con- cerns of the community as he had been patriotic in his relations to the nation at large. The list is long of the institutions and movements in which he took an ac- tive part. He served as trustee of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Erie; as a commissioner of the Soldiers' Orphan Schools; and as a commissioner of the Gettysburg Monumental Association. He was commissioned colonel of the 8th Regiment, National Guard of Pennsyl- vania, in 1874, and since 1885 he has been brigadier-general of the Third Brigade of the Guard, and was in charge of the State troops when labor troubles and riots threatened the welfare of the Common- wealth. During the Spanish-American War he held a commission as brigadier- general of volunteers, and at his death was major-general commanding the Na- tional Guard of Pennsylvania.
General Gobin assisted in the organiza- tion of the Grand Army of the Republic, and won the highest honors that organi- zation can confer. In 1866 he was elected department commander, and in 1897, com- mander-in-chief. He was an active mem- ber of the Loyal Legion, and of the Sons of the Revolution. He always took a very keen interest in fraternal societies. He was grand commander of the Knights Templar of Pennsylvania ; grand captain general of the Grand Encampment of the United States; grand generalissimo, deputy grand commander and grand master of the United States. He was prominent also in Odd Fellowship, and was post grand patriarch of the State of Pennsylvania. Apart from his profession, General Gobin had important connections with various local interests, being a mem-
ber of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Lebanon, and of the Cornwall & Lebanon Railway Company, serving both these corporations as solici- tor. General Gobin had a most pleasing and inspiring personality. His command- ing presence, his courtesy and kindliness, drew to him alike young and old. He was a gifted public speaker, and no less able a conversationalist. His scholarly tastes were great and notwithstanding his busy life had never been neglected.
He married, in 1866, Annie M., daugh- ter of Charles Howe, of Key West, Flor- ida. Charles Howe was born in Massa- chusetts, and had been appointed collec- tor of customs at Key West. He died in Massachusetts, in his seventy-first year. General Gobin died at his home in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1910.
WESTINGHOUSE, George,
Inventor, Manufacturer, Financier.
No other city, in proportion to its size, has created so many millionaires as has Pittsburgh. The reasons are many, but chief among them is the fact that the men to whom the city owes her industrial pre- eminence are men who work with brains no less than with hands. Foremost among them stands George Westing- house, inventor of the air brake, -- able business man, astute financier, public- spirited citizen, a militant man of affairs no less than a mechanical genius.
The paternal ancestors of Mr. Westing- house came from Germany, and settled in Massachusetts prior to the Revolution. Their predominant characteristic as a race has always been physical strength, combined with intellectual vigor and moral force. Through his mother, Mr. Westinghouse is descended from a Dutch-English ancestry, and can claim kindred with those who have won dis- tinction along the lines of art, education and religious work. Viewed in the light
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of these facts, the personality and work of Mr. Westinghouse furnish the strong- est possible proof of the theory of heredity.
George Westinghouse was born Octo- ber 6, 1846, at Central Bridge, Schoharie county, New York, son of George and Emeline (Vedder) Westinghouse. In 1856 the family removed to Schenectady, New York, where the father, who was an inventor, established the Schenectady Agricultural Works. The son received his earlier and preparatory education in the public and high schools of the town, and at Union College (Ph.D. 1890), and during this period spent much of his leisure time in his fath- er's machine shop. The opportunity which he thus enjoyed of familiarizing himself with all kinds of machine work, he has since regarded as of great impor- tance in laying the foundation of his suc- cess. His boyish experience enabled him at the age of fifteen to invent and con- struct a rotary engine, and also to gain knowledge sufficient for passing at an early age the examination for the posi- tion of assistant engineer in the United States Navy.
The same patriotic spirit which im- pelled one of his brothers to lay down his life as a soldier in the war for the preser- vation of the Union, led George Westing- house, in June, 1863, to enlist in the Twelfth Regiment New York National Guard for thirty days' service. In July, at the expiration of his term, he was dis- charged, and in November of the same year he re-enlisted for three years in the Sixteenth Regiment New York Cavalry, being chosen corporal. In November, 1864, he was honorably discharged, and on December 14 following was appointed third assistant engineer in the United States Navy, and reported for duty on the "Muscoota." June 4, 1865, he was transferred to the "Stars and Stripes," and on June 28 of the same year was operated by pressing a wheel against the
detached and ordered to the Potomac flotilla. The war having now ended, Mr. Westinghouse was desirous of continuing his college studies, and therefore, resist- ing solicitations to remain in the navy, tendered his resignation, receiving, Au- gust 1, 1865, an honorable discharge.
On returning home, Mr. Westinghouse entered Union College, remaining until the close of his sophomore year. During his military and naval career the in- herited impulse toward experiment and invention had not lain dormant, but had moved him to invent a multiple cylinder engine, and while a college student he found it extremely difficult to resist the tendency which has ever been so marked a trait in his character. Accordingly, Mr. Westinghouse, after conference with President Hickok, of Union College, and by his advice and appreciative sugges- tion, discontinued his classical studies and sought in active life a wider field for his inventive genius.
In 1865 Mr. Westinghouse invented a device for replacing railroad cars upon the track, and this device, being of cast steel, was manufactured by the Bessemer Steel Works at Troy, New York. One day while on his way thither, a delay caused by a collision between two freight trains suggested to Mr. Westinghouse the idea that a brake under the control of the engineer might have prevented the accident. This was the germinal thought of the great invention with which his name will ever he associated-the air brake. Among the various devices which occurred to him was that of a brake act- uated by the cars closing upon each other. No experiments were made, but the car-replacer business was developed. In Chicago, in 1866, Mr. Westinghouse met a Mr. Ambler, inventor of a continu- ous chain brake having a chain running the entire length of the train, with a windlass on the engine which could be
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flange of the driving wheel of the loco- motive, thus tightening the chain and causing the brake blocks to operate upon the wheels of the car. Mr. Westing- house remarked to Mr. Ambler that he had himself given some attention to the brake problem, but was met with the re- ply that there was no use in working upon the subject, as the Ambler patent covered the only practical way of operat- ing brakes. Far from being discouraged, ina much as he believed Mr. Ambler to be mistaken, Mr Westinghouse found his purses ering spirit and inventive genius only further stimulated and aroused, and Rave lumself more earnestly than ever to the study of the subject. His first plan wan to use a steam cylinder under the tender to draw up the chain, and then the use of the cylinder under each car, with a pipe to feed all the cylinders, was considered. Experiments and discussion with his brother Herman showed the plan to be impracticable. At this time Mr. Westinghouse met with an account of the operation of the drilling apparatus in Mont Cenis tunnel, at a distance of three thousand feet from the air compressor. The use of compressed air in drilling suggested to him its possible employ- ment for the operation of the brake- compressed air being free from the objec- fions to the use of steam. Having made drawings of the air pump, brake cylin- ders and valves, he explained them to the superintendent of the New York Central railroad, who declined to try the appa- ratus. After filing a caveat he made the same request for a trial to the officers of the Erie railroad, and with the same re- sult.
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