USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Volume I > Part 9
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Colonel Thomas married, in 1853, An- nette, daughter of Henry Kimmel, Esq., of one of the old and prominent families of the Cumberland Valley. Five chil- dren were born of this union, three of whom died young; the survivors are: Robert H., mentioned below ; and Estelle, wife of J. Irvin Steele, of Ashland, Penn- sylvania, a descendant of General Irvin, of Franklin county. During his long and useful career Colonel Thomas was inti- mately associated with the leading men of his State, and enjoyed in a marked degree their respect and esteem. He died at Mechanicsburg, January 6, 1908.
Robert H., Thomas, junior, son of Rob-
ert H., and Annette (Kimmel) Thomas, was born January 19, 1861, in Mechanics- burg, and received his education in the public schools of his native place and in the Cumberland Valley Institute. He has spent all his days in the place of his birth, and it may be said that his entire career, from early boyhood to the present time, has been a period of con- tinuous business activity. Upon leaving the school room in 1878, he entered the printing office, and both by study and practice learned thoroughly the details of his father's extensive business. With this knowledge and training he became business manager of the well-known Thomas Printing House, which exacting position he has successfully filled ever since. As his business has constantly brought him into contact with the ag- gressive minds that shape and direct mat- ters in the various spheres of life, he is generally well informed, and is possessed of a progressive and enterprising spirit. He has travelled much, mingling freely with the people, is naturally quick to observe, ready and accurate in speech, and a good judge of human nature. He is a clear and forcible writer, a good conversationalist, and holds high rank among the journalists of the State. He is a Republican and takes an active in- terest in local and State politics. Like his distinguished father, Mr. Thomas has long been prominent in Masonry, and has reached the thirty-second degree of the fraternity. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and the Patriotic Order of Sons of America (Lodge No. 164, of Mechanicsburg). He is an en- thusiastic fireman, and has been chief of the Mechanicsburg Fire Department. He is also identified with the Grange movement, and is general manager of the Grangers' Picnic Association, which holds annual exhibitions at Williams' Grove, Cumberland county.
Mr. Thomas married, in January, 1891,
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Frances, only daughter of Ira D. and Ellen (Downs) Coover. Mrs. Thomas was born in Upper Allen township, and on the paternal side is descended from one of the oldest and most respected families of that part of the county. Her mother was a member of an old and prominent family of the Eastern Shore, Maryland. She has two brothers, Alfred D. and David R., both of whom reside in Arizona. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas: Robert H. (3); Francis Edward; and Mary Es- telle -- all are living. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
For more than a century the name of Thomas has been synonymous with in- tellectual vigor, business enterprise and good citizenship. May the next genera- tion maintain the tradition !
NORCROSS, Rev. George, Educator, Clergyman.
The Reverend George Norcross, D. D., of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for nearly half a century the devoted and deeply loved pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in that city, belongs on his father's side to a family of English origin, while through his mother he is a descendant of Scotch-Irish ancestors.
Abraham Norcross, great-grandfather of the Reverend George Norcross, was born in New Jersey, and in early man- hood settled at Milton, Pennsylvania, subsequently removing to the then new county of Erie, in the same State, where he passed the remainder of his life. He married Nancy Fleming, and their son John is mentioned below.
who was born about 1790, in the North of Ireland.
Hiram, eldest child of John and Mar- garet (McCann) Norcross, was born July 9, 1809, near the town of Erie. He continued to reside in that part of Penn- sylvania until 1844, when he removed to Monmouth, Illinois, where the latter part of his life was spent. During all his active years he followed agricultural pur- suits, and for nearly four decades was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. He married, June 1, 1837, Elizabeth, only daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Gibson) McClelland, of Crawford county, Penn- sylvania. Mrs. McClelland was the youngest daughter of Hugh Gibson, who was captured by the Indians in 1756, in Sherman's Valley, at the same time that his mother, the widow of David Gibson, was shot and scalped. The scene of this tragedy was Robinson's Fort, near the site of Centre Church, Perry county, Pennsylvania. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Norcross the following lived to maturity : George, mentioned be- low; Hon. William Charles, a banker in Wichita, Kansas; Hiram Fleming, a lawyer, of Los Angeles, California; Isaiah, of Monmouth, Illinois; Thomas Rice, of Liberty, Nebraska; and Sarah Gibson, deceased, wife of Henry Beck- with, of New London, Connecticut. The death of Hiram Norcross, the father of the family, occurred in 1879.
George, eldest child of Hiram and Elizabeth (McClelland) Norcross, was born April 8, 1838, near Erie, Pennsyl- vania, and was six years old when his parents removed to Monmouth, Illinois, where he received his early education in the public schools and at the select school presided over by Mr. W. B. Jenks. He then entered McDonough College, at McComb, Illinois, passing thence to Monmouth College, where he graduated
John, son of Abraham and Nancy (Fleming) Norcross, was born in New Jersey, but grew to manhood on the banks of the Susquehanna river. He preceded his parents to Erie county, in the class of 1861. He then began his where he married Margaret McCann, theological studies at the McCormick
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(Presbyterian) Chicago, and in his second year was given · a professorship in Monmouth College. April 18, 1863, he was licensed to preach, and for seventeen months served as sup- ply of a church at North Henderson, Il- linois. In the autumn of 1864 he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, remaining one year, and at the end of that time received a call from his old church at North Henderson. On June 6, 1865, he was ordained and in- stalled as the pastor of those who had so greatly appreciated his services, and among whom his labors were signally blessed.
In 1866 Dr. Norcross was called to the Presbyterian Church of Galesburg, Illi- nois, where he remained two years and a half, at the end of that time receiving a call from the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, which he accepted, and in January, 1869, entered upon the duties of his pastorate. Under his leader- ship the work of the church flourished greatly, the membership being largely augmented. During his first year the manse was built, and during the second the old church edifice was torn down to make way for the present Gothic structure, which was dedicated on May 29, 1873.
In 1879 Princeton University con- ferred upon Dr. Norcross, in recognition of his literary attainments and faithful ministerial services, the degree of Doctor of Divinity. While devoting himself rigorously to the work of his own con- gregation, he was known, both as a min- ister and a citizen, as the friend of every reform. He gave much thought and labor to the temperance cause, and when the question of constitutional amend- ment in the interest of prohibition was before the people in 1889 he addressed many public meetings in its behalf, and his famous "Ox Sermon," or "Our Re- sponsibility for the Drink Traffic,"
preached before the Presbytery, was printed and widely circulated.
In 1886 the centennial anniversary of the Presbytery of Carlisle was cele- brated, and Dr. Norcross became the editor, compiler and in part the author of the publication entitled "Thie Cen- tennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle." The work consists of two volumes, and is a valuable historical and biographical review of the origin and growth of Presbyterianism in Southern Central Pennsylvania. As the result of this and other literary work Dr. Norcross was made a member of the American Society of Church History, the American Historical Association, and of the Scotch- Irish Society of America. In 1896, at the request of the committee of arrange- ments, Dr. Norcross prepared a paper on "The Scotch-Irish in the Cumberland Valley," which he read before the Eighth Scotch-Irish Congress in Harris- burg. In 1898 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Westminster Assembly which was convened by the Long Parliament of England in 1663. Dr. Norcross was re- quested to prepare a paper telling "The Story of the Westminster Assembly," which he delivered during the sessions of the General Assembly at Winona Lake, Indiana, in May, 1898. This paper was published in the volume, "West- minster Anniversary Addresses." In the autumn of 1899, Dr. Norcross was made moderator of the Presbyterian Synod at Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1877 he was an associate member of the first Pan-Pres- byterian Council held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in 1899 was a member of the Seventh Council convened in Wash- ington, District of Columbia. He has represented the Presbytery of Carlisle four times in the General Assembly: in 1871 at Chicago, in 1874 at St. Louis, in 1885 at Cincinnati, and in 1895 at Pitts-
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burgh, serving in the last two assemblies as chairman of important standing com- mittees.
A pastorate of thirty years' duration was remarkable in the history of Car- lisle, and the thirtieth anniversary of Dr. Norcross's devoted service in the Second Presbyterian Church was ap- propriately commemorated by the con- gregation. The celebration extended over two days-January 1-2, 1899-and ministers and laymen participated with equal freedom in the interesting and memorable exercises. The sermons and historical addresses were published by the board of trustees in book form, under the title, "The Story of a Thirtieth Anni- versary," a volume which constitutes an important chapter in the history of this favored church, favored to the still greater extent of witnessing the fortieth anniversary of the union of pastor and people. On this occasion Dr. Norcross preached from the text, "Forty years in the Wilderness." He then withdrew from the arduous activities which, dur- ing this long period, had engrossed his time and thoughts, and has since been the honored pastor emeritus of his be- loved church, lending the aid of his long experience and mature wisdom to young men pursuing their theological studies.
Dr. Norcross married, October 1, 1863, Mary Sophia Tracy, of Monmouth, Illinois, who died March 25, 1866. He married (second) April 22, 1867, at Gales- burg, Illinois, Louise (Jackson) Gale, daughter of Samuel Clinton Jackson, and widow of Major Josiah Gale, son of Rev. Dr. Gale, the founder of Galesburg. By his first marriage Dr. Norcross became the father of one child who died in in- fancy, and to his second union the fol- lowing children were born: Delia Jack- son, wife of Judge Carl Foster, of Bridge- port, Connecticut; George, who died at eight years of age; Elizabeth, wife of Henry M. Esterly, of Portland, Oregon ;
Mary Jackson, at home; and Louise Jack- son, wife of François Lucas.
In 1877, after attending the sessions of the Pan-Presbyterian Council in Edin- burgh, Dr. Norcross and his wife made a tour of the continent, and in July, 1890, accompanied by his entire family, he again visited the Old World, spending seven months in Leipsic, and six months in travelling through Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and France, returning to this country in August, 1891.
After the strenuous and varied labors of many years Dr. Norcross is enjoying a well-earned season of repose among a people by whom he is revered and loved, and to whom he has ministered, both by precept and example, for nearly fifty years.
BOYD, John Yeomans,
Financier, Mining Engineer.
John Yeomans Boyd, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, widely known as an astute and enterprising man of affairs, is a rep- resentative, on his father's side, of one of those old families whose records are interwoven with the history of Pennsyl- vania, while through his mother he is heir to the scholarly traditions of a New England ancestry.
William and Thomas Boyd, progeni- tors of the Boyd family in America, came in 1732 from Armagh, Ireland, and set- tled in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Among their descendants was Brigade Chaplain Adam Boyd, who served in the patriot army of the Revolution, and was the first secretary of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati.
John Cowen Boyd, grandfather of John Yeomans Boyd, of Harrisburg, was a partner and associate of Stephen Girard, and was one of the commissioners ap- pointed by the State of Pennsylvania to construct the canal from Columbia,
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Pennsylvania, to Chesapeake bay. He from Philadelphia to Chicago and St. Louis.
married, May 18, 1820, Hannah, daughter of General Daniel Montgomery and a descendant of General William Mont- gomery, a member of the Associators of Chester county, Pennsylvania, a body of patriotic citizens formed to resist the tyranny which the government of Great Britain attempted to establish in the Province of Pennsylvania. Later Gen- eral Montgomery was a delegate from Chester county to a convention of the people of the Province of Pennsylvania, called by the Philadelphia committee, January 23, 1775, and he afterward served as one of the committee on ways and means for putting 4,500 men in the field. In 1779 he was elected a member of Assembly from Northumberland county, and in November, 1784, was elected by the Assembly a member of Congress. In 1785 General Montgomery was appointed Presiding Judge of Northumberland county.
James, second son of John Cowen and Hannah (Montgomery) Boyd, was born September 23, 1831, at Danville, Penn- sylvania, where his early life was spent and where he received his education. At the age of eighteen he became a member of the engineering corps surveying the Shamokin & Pottsville railroad, and it was his association with this enterprise which opened the way for his entrance into a sphere of activity for which his talents peculiarly fitted him and in which he was destined to achieve distinguished success. Securing control of the product of several anthracite coal mines at Shamokin, he engaged in shipping the coal from Sunbury by canal, and in 1873, the business having grown to propor- tions of magnitude, he moved to Harris- burg. In that city, as senior member of the firms of James Boyd & Company, and Boyd, Stickney & Company, he con- ducted a large anthracite coal business, the scope of its operations extending
James Boyd married, in 1861, Louisa, daughter of Rev. John William Yeomans, D. D., a graduate of Williams College, class of 1824, and subsequently a stud- ent at Andover Theological Seminary. After leaving the seminary Dr. Yeomans helped to organize the Congregational church of North Adams, Massachusetts, and became its first pastor. He was then successively pastor of the First Congre- gational Church of Pittsfield and of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, New Jersey, and in 1841 was elected president of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, an office which he held until 1844. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him simul- taneously by Princeton University and Williams and Miami Colleges. In 1860 he was moderator of the General As- sembly of the Presbyterian Church. His death occurred in 1863 at Danville, Penn- sylvania. Mr. and Mrs. James Boyd were the parents of three children : John Yeomans, the immediate subject of this sketch; Helen Montgomery, widow of A. P. L. Dull; and Mary Letitia, wife of Henry B. McCormick. The death of Mr. Boyd, which occurred December 12, 1910, at Southern Pines, North Carolina, de- prived Harrisburg of one of her fore- most business men and most honored citizens.
John Yeomans, son of James and Louisa (Yeomans) Boyd, was born Au- gust 19, 1862, at Danville, Pennsylvania, and received his preparatory education at Harrisburg Academy, afterward entering Princeton University and graduating in the class of 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Immediately there- after Mr. Boyd threw himself into the arena of those activities for which he speedily proved himself most admirably adapted, associating himself with the large business interests of his father both
.
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in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. At the time of the dissolution of the two firms of which his father was a member, Mr. Boyd was closely identified with their management and had long since proved himself to have inherited in full measure the business ability which for more than a quarter of a century had been associated with the name of Boyd. Peculiarly adapted as he is for the administration of large affairs, this characteristic was recognized by Governor Stuart, who in January, 1908, appointed him a member of the Railroad Commission of Pennsyl- vania for a term of three years. At the expiration of his term Mr. Boyd declined a re-appointment.
As a public-spirited citizen, taking the keenest interest in everything pertain- ing to the progress and well-being of the capital of Pennsylvania, no project which in his judgment is likely to ad- vance that end fails to receive Mr. Boyd's hearty cooperation. He is a member of the board of managers of the Harrisburg Hospital, and belongs to the board of trustees of the Harrisburg Academy. He is identified with the American Society of Mining Engineers and with the En- gineers' Club of Pennsylvania, and holds membership in the North Carolina So- ciety of the Cincinnati, the University Club of New York, the University Club of Philadelphia, the Ivy Club of Princeton University, and the Harrisburg Country Club. He is president of Princeton Alumni Association of Central Penn- sylvania, and holds the office of elder in the Pine Street Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Boyd married, April 26, 1887, Eleanor Gilmore, only daughter of the late A. J. Ilerr, for many years one of the leading lawyers of Harrisburg, and for a considerable period a member of the State senate, serving one term as president "pro tempore" of that body. Four children have been born to Mr. and
Mrs. Boyd: James, Jackson Herr, Eleanor Gilmore, and Louisa Yeomans.
KLEIN, Theodore Berghaus,
Financier, Antiquarian, Writer.
Theodore Berghaus Klein, president of the Ilistorical Society of Dauphin county, and one of Harrisburg's most honored citizens, is of pure German- American lineage, both his parents hav- ing been descended from ancestors of that Teutonic stock which has so largely moulded the past and determined the future of the State of Pennsylvania.
John B. Klein, father of Theodore Berghaus Klein, was born in 1806, and was a merchant, spending most of his life in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. He married Eliza Henrietta Dorothy, born in 1808, daughter of Henry C. Berghaus. John B. Klein died at the early age of thirty-six, and his widow survived him more than sixty years, passing away in 1900, at the venerable age of ninety-two.
Theodore Berghaus, son of John B. and Eliza IIenrietta Dorothy (Berghaus) Klein, was born August 22, 1831, at New Cumberland, Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, and received his primary edu- cation in the public schools and at the Harrisburg Military Academy, presided over by Captain Partridge. On leaving school he was apprenticed for four years to D. W. Gross, druggist, and at twenty- one, his time having expired, he went to Alabama and for one year was em- ployed in the drug business. On return- ing to Pennsylvania Mr. Klein joined an engineering corps commanded by Samuel W. Mifflin and appointed to make pre- liminary surveys for the extension of the Huntington & Broad Top railroad, and for carrying the Columbia and Octorora line as far as tidewater at Newcastle, Delaware. As assistant engineer Mr. Klein was engaged in the enlargement
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of the Union canal, completed in 1856. He remained in the service of the com- pany between five and six years, and in 1857 became bookkeeper for the Paxton Iron Company, Harrisburg.
In 1859, Mr. Klein entered into a new sphere of activity, removing to Adams county, near Gettysburg, and there en- gaging in the lumber and coal business. Throughout the stormy scenes of the Civil War he remained in this vicinity, an eye-witness of much that forms one of the most thrilling episodes in our national history. In 1864 he returned to Harrisburg and shortly after reentered the service of the Union Canal Company at Lebanon, where he remained for sev- eral years. In 1875 he became cashier of the North Lebanon Savings Bank. His next removal was to North Anville township, Lebanon county, where he cul- tivated a farm and operated a forge and flour mill, thus returning to the active outdoor life of former years. One of the most conspicuous and noteworthy traits in Mr. Klein's character has always been the facility with which he was able to turn from one occupation to another, apparently possessing equal equipment for all. In 1885 or 1886 he again re- turned to Harrisburg and to the duties and responsibilities of a financier, be- coming cashier for the Equitable Life Insurance Company, a position which he retained until 1888. In that year he re- ceived an appointment in the Depart- ment of Internal Affairs, and served under General Thomas J. Stewart until the close of the latter's term of office, later holding the same position during the two terms of General James W. Latta, and served four years as Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs under Isaac B. Brown. Mr. Klein's service in the de- partment covered in all a period of twenty years.
The penetrating insight, sound judg- ment and spirit of enterprise which have
marked Mr. Klein's career a's a business man have been conspicuous in his atti- tude toward public affairs. He has ever taken the keenest interest in all relating to the progress and well-being of his community, and no effort to secure it has at any time been wanting on his part. His political affiliations have al- ways been with the Republicans, and in 1881 and 1883 he represented his con- stituents of Lebanon county in the legislature, to his own credit and to the satisfaction of his constituents. During the first session he served on the ju- diciary, banks, and city passenger rail- ways committees, and during the second was on those on education, corporations, libraries and agriculture.
During the last five years Mr. Klein has led a retired life, devoting his leisure to the indulgence of his literary tastes and to the exercise of those gifts as a writer from which he has been debarred by the strenuous activities of half a cen- tury. He has compiled an account of the system of internal improvements of the State of Pennsylvania. He is also the compiler of a pamphlet of selections from the songs of long ago. As president of the Historical Society of Dauphin county, Mr. Klein finds congenial oc- cupation, and is fitted to render most valuable service. He belongs to the Pennsylvania German Society, and is a member of Bethlehem (Lutheran) Church.
Mr. Klein married, in 1859, Elizabeth Rebecca Frazer, who died in 1864, leav- ing four children: Samuel Frazer, since deceased; Luther Ross; Eliza Rebecca; and George Berghaus. In 1866, Mr. Klein married (second) Eva Margaretta Roedel, and the following children were born to them: Anna Margaret; Jessie Roedel ; and Jacob Roedel, now deceased. Mrs. Klein died in 1872, and in 1889 Mr. Klein married (third) Esther A., daughter of Daniel Shellenberger.
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Few men have touched life at as many points as has Mr. Klein. As engineer, business man, legislator, scholar and author, his career has been one of high- minded endeavor and honorable achieve- ment-a career which in its entirety is perhaps best described in the simple but most expressive phrase, "a well-rounded life."
COLEMAN, George D., Iron Master, Public Benefactor.
The Brock and Coleman families have been for generations prominent in the business life of Pennsylvania, being inti- mately connected with the iron manu- facturing industry. They have also been prominent in social circles and liberal supporters of religious and philanthropic enterprises for the good of their fellow- men. This record begins with John Penn Brock, a brave officer of the Mexi- can War.
John Penn Brock, son of John and Catherine (Egert) Brock, was born in Philadelphia, December 27, 1823; died at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1881. He received his primary education in public schools of his native city, and entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1839; was a member of the Zelosophic Society there and was graduated with the de- gree of A. M., class of 1843. He studied law in the office of Horace Binney, and was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar. He enlisted in the United States Army during the war with Mexico, and June 21, 1848, was commissioned Second Lieu- tenant in the Eleventh Regiment United States Infantry and served until mus- tered out with his regiment, August 15, 1848, at the close of the war.
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