USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
JOHN LIVINGSTON LUDLOW.
DR. JOHN LIVINGSTON LUDLOW, for many years one of the most distinguished physicians of Philadelphia, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, May 14, 1819. He was the eldest son of Rev. John Ludlow, D.D., LL.D and Catlyntje Van Slyck Ryley. His father was a descendant of Gabriel Ludlow, who came to this country in 1694. Haviug been an officer in Cromwell's army, he was obliged to leave England after the Restoration. His wife was Sarah Hanmer, a daughter of the first Episco- pal minister of New York. On his mother's side Dr. Ludlow came of Holland Dutch lineage, her people having been among the early settlers of the Mohawk Valley. At the time of his birth, his father was pastor of the First Dutch Reformed Church of New Brunswick. Three years later the family removed to Albany, New York, where his father had been called to the North Dutch Church, and amidst the delightful social surroundings of that aristocratic old church, his boyhood was passed. In 1834 the Rev. John Ludlow accepted the position of Provost of the University of Penn- sylvania, where he remained for eighteen years. His son accompanied liim and entering that institu- tion at fourteeu years of age in third term freshman class, commenced his life in Philadelphia. In 1838 he graduated with high honors, and afterwards em- braced the study of medicine, finishing his medical course at the University in 1841, and from this date until his death, June 21, 1888, his career was a prominent part of the medical history of Philadel- phia. In July, 1844, he married Mary A. L. Rozet,
the eldest daughter of John Rozet, a well known retired merchant of Philadelphia. A woman of rare beauty, and loveliness of character, she was on her father's side of French extraction, and on her mother's was descended from Judge IIollenback, a promineut settler of the historic Valley of Wyoming in Pennsylvania. Immediately after Dr. Ludlow's graduation, he commenced his connection with the Philadelphia Hospital, and his active services, as lecturer and visiting and consulting physician, ex- teuded over a period of thirty years. Amidst the pressing carcs and anxieties of his profession, and the fatigue attending' a very large private practice, he always found time to devote to the suffering poor; and through his clinical instructions young men went fortlı well prepared to battle with disease, from having witnessed the skill and tenderness, and listened to the learning and pure teachings of their perceptor. Upon resigning active duties in con- nection with the Philadelphia Hospital, the Board of Guardians of the Poor, in recognition and appre- ciation of his untiring services, conferred upon him the honorary title of "Emeritus Physician," in the hope that the hospital might still retain the benefits of his ripe experience and counsel. He was amongst the founders and earliest members of many societies conuected with his profession in the city of his adoption, and ever interested in all projects for the promotion of kuowledge aud advancement of science. While a very young man he wrote a " Manual for the Examination of Students," which for many years was extensively used, but although he frequently contributed to periodicals and jour- nals throughout his life, his extreme dislike to the mechanical part of authorship prevented his giving to the world those results of his long and varied experience and extensive learning which many of his friends hoped and looked for. Dr. Ludlow was a member of the College of Physicians, and of the State and County Medical Societies, President of the Board of Philadelphia Surgeons for the exami- nation of applicants for pensious, and senior phy- sician to the Presbyterian Hospital, having been appointed a member of the medical staff at the time of its organizatiou. Dr. Ludlow was a gentleman in the highest sense of the word, his dignified bear- ing bending with graciousness alike to rich and poor, the lofty and the humble. His characteris- tics gave evideucc equally of his long line of gentle aneestry and his Christiau training. Modest and unobtrusive, high-minded, honorable and just in all his dealings, lic commanded the respect and affec- tion of all who came iu contact with him. A wise counsellor, a steadfast friend, a " good physician" in the truest sense, his uoble and unselfish life was spent in the service of his fellow-meu.
50
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
CALVIN WELLS.
CALVIN WELLS, one of the foremost manufac- turers of Pittsburgh, was boru in Genessee County, New York, December 26, 1827. His father had re- moved thither about 1820 from Greenfield, Massachu- setts, where his family had long been one of promi- nence and distinction. The robust mental and moral qualities which distinguished Mr. Wells and which have monlded his successful career, were derived from a sturdy ancestry on both sides. Ilis grand- father, Colonel Daniel Wells, was prosperously en- gaged in commercial enterprises, but with many others suffered irreparable injury when the Em- bargo Act pnt its deadly blight upon so many of the promising investments and business ventures of the young Republic. Of his three sons, Daniel attained a high position in the law, and became a judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Another son, Franklin Wells, removed to Ohio, where his educa- tion and superior advantages gave him a conspic- uous place among the pioneers, and made him Associate Justice of Loraiu County. The third son, Calvin, the father of our subject, was an upright and straight-forward man, of sterling character and earnest convictions. When he settled in Western New York, he purchased a farm and also a half interest in a mill property. With his care of these interests he united the practice of the little law re- qnired in those primitive days and served as jus- tice of the peace. He was an elder of the Congrega- tional and afterwards of the Presbyterian Church, and enjoyed the full confidence and respect of the community in which he lived. The mother of Mr. Wells was a woman of exceptional strength and en- dowments. She was the daughter of Rev. Samuel Taggart, who was for many years a commanding figure in Western Massachusetts, and exercised a powerful influence both there and at Washington. Of Scotch-Irish descent and boasting a lineage that ran back to the siege of Derry, he was altogether a remarkable man. Though a Presbyterian clergy- man, he did not limit his labors to the pulpit. He believed it to be the dnty of the minister to accept the full responsibilities of citizenship, and for thir- teen years he represented his district in Congress. Known through all the country about as "Parson Taggart," he exercised uubounded sway over tlie people, who reposed implicit trust in his rugged and forcible leadership, and who accepted his polit- ical instruction as faithfully as his religious teach- ings. His long service in Congress came at a time when the policy and character of the young Repub- lic were being formed and when many complicated and delicate questions demanded treatment. Iu
dealing with them, his stroug sense aud saving judgment were greatly esteemed by his associates. His intellectual qualities were of a high type, and he was a natural leader among men. He was one of the veterans of the House when Henry Clay began his career, and became the stead- fast friend and counsellor of the young statesman, who was destined to play so great a part in the his- tory of the country. The daughter of this not- able man inherited his positive qualities. She pos- sessed a tenacious memory, rare intellectnal gifts and a deep religious character. She was active in good works and left a strong impression on the minds and character of her children. The subject of the present sketch was the youngest of a family of three sons and one daughter. While a boy he met with an accident by which oue ankle was crushed, and it was some years before he ontgrew its ill effects. This misfortune kept him from the rnder sports and contests of boyhood, and gave his earlier years a more quiet and stndious turn. He enjoyed the ordinary advantages of school, and early developed the marked mechanical taste and talent which have distinguished his business life. When but fourteen years old he lost his mother, and with this blow at the home he took his departure and entered the general store of a brother-in-law at Detroit. Here he remained two years, when his brother-in-law removed farther west, and young Wells returned to Batavia, New York, where he again secured employment in a store, and served for three years. But he had always cherished a desire for a better education, and under its prompt- ings he applied to his brother, Rev. Samnel Taggart Wells, a Presbyterian clergyman, who lived at Pittsburgh. The response was a summons to come to his house aud attend the Western University. Accepting this invitation he proceeded to Pitts- burgh, and on November 19, 1847, landed without fortune, but with ample plnck and ability, at the place which was thenceforward to be his home. He entered the Western University and remained for more than a year. Then he became bookkeeper in the wholesale dry goods house of Benjamin Glyde. In 1850 he formed the business connection which was to determine his main life work. He entered the employment of Dr. Hussey, a man of great force, wlio was then engaged in the coffee business. A copper mill and warehouse had been established at Pittsburgh, and for a time Mr. Wells had a large part in managing it. Dr. Hnssey was a man of various enterprises, and in 1852 he diverted Mr. Wells, under the firm name of Hnssey & Wells, to the bacou and pork business, to sell the product of his Gosport packing house. This continued
5I
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
until 1858, when the firm of Hussey, Wells & Co., embracing Thomas M. Howe and James M. Cooper, was organized to manufacture steel. The inaugura- tion of that enterprise marked an epoch in the development of one of the great industries of the country. Mr. Wells was made general manager, and he now found a work which was congenial to his talents. He spent several months in a thorough investigation of everything that related to the man- ufacture of steel. With the mastery of the subject thus acquired, he entered in 1859 upon the erection of ample works. The business grew rapidly and the outbreak of the civil war gave it great impetus and prosperity. Mr. Wells devoted himself to its demands with signal assiduity and capacity. He supervised the expanding buildings and machinery, and travelled widely to place the increasing pro- duct. It was the first establishment in the country directed wholly and continuously to the highest grades of steel. The partial and incomplete at- tempts made elsewhere had not achieved success. For the first time English steel found a real and dangerous American competitor, and English rep- resentatives naturally came over to ascertain whether this new rival industry was ouly a temporary spurt or whether it had enduring qualities. They found that it was intelligently and firmly established on a sound basis, and that it meant continued and suc- cessful development. For seventeen years Mr. Wells gave his energies, with the highest degree of success, to the management of this great business, and finally, in 1876, he sold his interest and severed his long association with Dr. Hussey. With his restless vigor, however, he had years before engaged in other enterprises and formed other business con- nections. In 1865 he became a half owner in the firm of A. French & Co., engaged in the manufac- ture of railway elliptic springs. To this conceru he brought the same large conceptions and thorough work which marked all his undertakings. Its busi- ness prospered with the great railroad development. Soon after its establishment it turned out over three thousand tons of springs a year, and within a few years its annual production rose to more than five thousand tons. In 1884, after a connection of nearly twenty years, Mr. Wells sold out his interest, in order to devote himself more fully to other en- terprises with which he had meanwhile become identified. In 1878 he was elected and still remains President and Treasurer of the Pittsburgh Forge and Iron Company, of which he had been for some- time a stockholder. It had long languished, and his assumption of its active management was promptly signalized by energetic measures. With liberal expenditure the works were recoustructed
and enlarged, aud equipped with all the modern appliances and improvements, so that its capacity has been increased to twenty-five thousand tons of finished material a year. Ten years earlier Mr. Wells' tireless energy had taken still another direc- tion. In 1868 his attention was called to investiga- tions which had been made in the West in connec- tion with spelter, and to the practical business possibilities. His quick discernment grasped the opportunity, and in association with several friends he organized the Illinois Zinc Company. He was chosen President and Treasurer at the beginning, and still holds these positions. The works were located at Peru, in La Salle County, as the most eligible point, aud they have grown, with rolling mills, foundries and all the equipment, into the second largest zinc works in the country. The orig- inal capital of fifty thousand dollars has been in- creascd to four hundred thousand. The annual product is eight thousand tons of spelter and the enterprise has been signally successful. In 1877 Mr. Wells entered upon an undertaking entirely different from any in which he had hitherto en- gaged. At the solicitation of a friend he joined in the purchase of the Philadelphia Press, furnishing most of the capital. He had not expected to give it personal direction, but soon found it necessary to do so for the protection of his investment. After various experiments, he in 1880 secured Charles Emory Smith as Editor, and with him entered upon a thorough reorganization of the paper. Mr. Wells applied to its development the same executive force which he had displayed in other business ventures. His guiding rules are the same in all his various enterprises-thorough organization, com- plete equipment, and the best standards. In build- ing up the newspaper property, of which he is still the chief owner, he displayed unflinching nerve amid early trials, and unbounded faith in the ulti- mate results of sound principles. He has steadily directed the most liberal expenditures and the un- stinted employment of all the multiplied resources of modern journalism. In connection with the im- mediate management he has given it his personal attention, and under his enlightened policy The Press has not only become eminently successful and prosperous as a newspaper property, but in point of influence, character and general ability it confessedly stands in the front rank of American journals. Mr. Wells has held various other relations. A director in the Exchange National Bank, in the Consolidated Gas Company and in the Chartiers Natural Gas Company, he has been associated with much of the business activity of Pittsburgh. He declined the proffer of the Vice-Presidency for Penusylvania
52
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of the National Tariff League, but is a member of the executive committee. For personal participa- tion in politics he has had little time or inclination. In 1884 the Republican State Convention nominated him at the head of the electoral ticket as Elector-at- large, and he and his ticket were elected. Though tendercd other places of political honor he has steadily declined. Mr. Wells is a man of marked individuality. His conspicuous success is the legiti- mate fruit of his strong mental and moral qualities. He has unflinching nerve, an indomitable will and unyielding pertinacity in whatever he undertakes. Neither threatening opposition nor unexpected difficulties can deflect him from a course upon which his mature judgment has determined. With these attributes, he unites the varicd resources and the facile flexibility which adapt themselves to changing requirements. He is equally strong in conception and in execution. Cast in a large mould, with great breadth of view and comprehensiveness of grasp, he plans on the broadest scale and goes to his mark with a bold and direct hand. Next to the wide range of his intellectual vision, his most sig- nal faculty is his rare executive power and talent for organization. This faculty embraces a keen and discriminating judgment of men, and the most systematic principles of management. With this creative force he has not hesitated to grapple with enterprises which have drooped and failed in other hands, and to invigorate them with new life by his more decisive, liberal and progressive measures. The secret of his policy is the constant maintenance of the best standards, and it has been illustrated in every undertaking with which he has been iden- tified.
CHARLES EMORY SMITH.
CHARLES EMORY SMITH, Editor of the Phil- adelphia Press, is one of that type of men in whose career there has been no retrogression. From the time he entered journalism, and became a power and a factor in the political history of a great State, he has risen steadily and surely, and has not yet reached the zenith of his ability. Mr. Smith was born at Mansfield, Conn., February 18, 1842. His parents removed to Albany, N. Y., seven years later and his early education was obtained in that city. At the age of sixteen he was graduated from the Albany Academy, and immediately after began his first work in journalism in the editorial columns of the Albany Evening Transcript. While thus engaged he passed the biennial examination of Union College, entering at the opening of the junior
year in 1859. Although only seventeen years of age then, he displayed a lively interest in the political questions of the day and became Captain of the College " Wide Awakes"-a Republican campaign club. This was the birth of an allegiance to the principles of a party which he believed to be right, and an allegiance that has never swerved an iota, nor faltered in the face of the most obstinate oppo- sition. He represented Union College on the Board of Editors of the University Review-a periodical published in New Haven with a view of uniting the literary talent of a number of colleges. In 1861 he was finally graduated, and then entered upon a career which has been exceptionally active and honorable, as well as completely successful. The great struggle between the North and the South had but just begun. The State of New York was one of the most active in the North in recruiting, and the city of Albany was the central point in prepara- tions for the field. One of the most important soldiers in this work of mobilization was the gal- lant General John F. Rathbone. He saw in Mr. Smith those qualities which would make him valu- able in a confidential relation and appointed him Military Secretary, following this with a promotion to the office of Judge Advocate-General with the rank of major. The young journalist faithfully ful- filled the duties of this responsible office for a year and a half, and during that time demonstrated his ability to handle with tact and conscientious care the complex and manifold machinery of requisitions and orders which came through his department. When a change in the methods of enlistment came, Mr. Smithi took a position in the office of the Adju- tant-General of the State, where he remained until Horatio Seymour became Governor in 1863. Then resigning he became a teacher in the Albany Acad- emy, and while occupying this place he contributed daily to the Albany Express two columns of pithy, forceful editorial matter, which attracted general attention not only for its patriotism, but for the persistency and cogency of the appeals made in behalf of the loyal North and her needs for soldiers. Mr. Smith was induced to drop his teaching about this time and accept an editorial position on the newspaper, in whose columns he had gained more than a local reputation, even while fulfilling his duties in the Albany Academy. The young editor had carefully studied the momentous issues of the day, and when he daslied in with a vim and a vigor that stamped him at once as the man for the placc, he began to make his impress. The War of the Rebellion was just over and the great political problems it left remained for solution. The Express, which up to that time had paltered
Chai Emry Anide
.
53
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
along in a slip-shod sort of fashion, began to show signs of vigorous and aggressive life. From a modest, easy-going local paper it began to de- velop into a political factor. Its opinions were widely quoted; its advice carefully regarded. Mr. Smith's value to the paper was so quickly made apparent that he secured a part ownership in the property aud was given editorial control. In 1866 Governor Fenton was re-elected and the relations between him and Mr. Smith, intimate as they had been before, became more closely cemented. The Albany Journal was not friendly to the Governor, and when, in 1867, the Express gained a decisive victory in the State nominations, its young editor came into greater prominence than before, and his paper became the most formidable rival at the State Capital that the Journal had ever met in its own party. Between Mr. Smith and Governor Fentou there existed a bond of friendship, which was strengthened when, in 1868, without relinquishing his journalistic connection, the editor became the Governor's private secretary, retaining that intimate and confidential relation until the expiration of his term. The proprietors of the Journal began to see as early as 1868 that there lacked something in the editorial management of their newspaper, and Mr. Smith was asked to cast his fortunes with them. He declined to do so until he could go in his own way, and in 1870 he became associate-editor on the Journal and later on assumed the full editorial com- mand of the paper. While in this capacity (and in fact many years before), he had taken a deep inter- est in the educational affairs of the State and in liis Alma Mater. In 1871 he was elected a trustee of Union College for a term of five years. He re- mained joint editor with Mr. George Dawson on the Journal until 1876, and then that gentleman retired, leaving Mr. Smith in full and absolute control of the paper. It was well known, however, that his had been the laboring oar and largely the guiding hand in the political conduct of the Journal during all the period of his connectiou. In this position he was regularly elected a delegate to the annual State Convention, and it soon came to be regarded as the unwritten party law that he should head the Com- mittee on Resolutions and should prepare the plat- form. This was a post requiring tact and care, for the opposition was ever on the alert to pick a flaw in a declaration or make capital out of a coustruc- tion. In 1876 Mr. Smith was made a delegate to the National Republican Convention, and took a lead- ing part in the preparation of the platform. Dur- ing all of these years the influence of the Journal was steadily directed towards a liberal party policy. In 1877 Mr. Smith carried the first principles of
Civil Service Reform in the State platform, and in 1878, after a serious party schism, he framed and offered a platform which united the support of Roscoe Conkling, the head of the opposition, and of William M. Evarts, the head of the administra- tion of President Hayes. Armed as lie was with these experiences, and fully equipped in all that pertaiued to his chosen profession, Mr. Smith was the man needed, when in 1880 he was called upon to take control of the Philadelphia Press. The old war Press, under the able direction of John Wein Forncy, had been the leading and most progressive newspaper of its day, but the Press in time of peace had so degenerated that, as one writer aptly put it, "it was a newspaper stranded in the shal- lows of a diminishing circulation." Colonel Forney had been unfortunate, and what was once a great power and a valuable property was on the verge of bankruptcy. The proprietor sold it to several gen- tlemen who were satisfied after a short struggle that they would only sink deeper in the mire of debt, and gladly disposed of it to Mr. Calvin Wells of Pittsburgh. The position occupied by that news- paper in metropolitan journalism, and as a force in politics to-day, is the most significant evidence of what Charles Emory Smith has accomplished. When he assumed control he found the paper lack- ing in everything, from the mechanical department to the business office, and from the business office to the editorial rooms. Years of lax discipline had helped to sink what was once the great Republican orgau of the State of Pennsylvania into a mire of doubt. It was while matters were in this shape that Mr. Smithi took the helm of the sinking craft. With that discretion and foresight which chiarac- terized all his undertakings in earlier life he saw at once what was lacking. He began immediately to gather about him the brightest and brainiest men that money could procure. He changed the methods of the old regime completely. This was an undertaking far more difficult than the starting of a new newspaper-it was the revivication of a moribund; the rehabilitation of a dismantled hull. The Garfield-Hancock campaign had just opened when Mr. Smith undertook the task of putting The Press on its feet. Its influence, which had been slipping away for years, was about at its lowest ebb, but the change in its editorial direction was at ouce made manifest to the people of Philadelphia, and to the people of the State. In less than six months the new impress was widely felt. The vigorous
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.