USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 19
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THOMAS WOOD.
THOMAS WOOD, of Philadelphia, a well known manufacturer of textile machinery, was born in 1814 at Hunslet, near Leeds, England. In 1830 he came to Philadelphia, where he learned the business of machine making and millwrighting with James Brown, who was then engaged in business in that city. In the year 1837 he went to South Carolina as engineer in charge of the machinery on the sugar plantation of Dr. Ravenels, near Charleston. After two ycars he returned to Philadelphia, and with his brother started the business since known as the Fairmount Machine Works, now one of the leading establishments of the United States in the manufac- ture of shafting, textile machinery, etc. In 1861 his brother, John Wood, retired, and since that time the business has been conducted by Thomas Wood, assisted in recent years by his sons, under the firm name of Thomas Wood & Co. With the exception of his short residence in the South, Mr. Wood has lived continuously in the Fairmount district of Phil- adelphia since 1831. He has ever been actively in- terested in social and philanthropic work. For up- wards of thirty years he has been identified with the cause of popular education by his services in the Board of Education, the local School Board and the Spring Garden Institute for Technical Instruction. He is a director or manager in a number of financial and industrial corporations. As the oldest one con- tinuously engaged in the iron and machinery business in Philadelphia, he is now regarded as the father of that industry in his city, and at seventy-five years of age is still active in the many fields of usefulness that have known his good work so long. In religion Mr. Wood is a Presbyterian, and has been a Ruling Elder in that body since early manhood. Mr. Wood has seven children living, the eldest being William Wood, a sketch of whom follows this.
WILLIAM WOOD.
WILLIAM WOOD, of Philadelphia, is one of those great manufacturers of the Keystone State whose works are regarded as colossal, even in Phil- adelphia, where there are so many vast concerns, and where, when the steam whistles blow in the morning, operatives and artisans swarm at the por- tals of over twelve thousand industrial establish- ments. It is indeed necessary that mills or factories to be conspicuous, or even commonly well-known in such a city, should be of truly vast proportions. The textile mills owned by Mr. Wood belong in the
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front rank of this class, and they are the product of his own indomitable will, well directed energy and business sagacity. He made his way almost entirely unaided from boyhood, and seems in a certain sense to have developed apace, or just ahead of his busi- ness, being ever ready to successfully meet an emer- gency or a new need by putting forth a new energy which may have been lying dormant, ready to spring into life when there was demand for its exercise. As has been intimated, he began his business career with few advantages. He was born in Philadelphia, and was the son of Thomas Wood and Elizabeth (McGill) Wood, the former a native of England, who came to America (and to the Quaker City) in 1830, and the latter a native of Scotland, who came here in 1818 when an infant, with her parents. Thomas Wood learned the machine trade, is still living in Philadelphia and has been a well known manufacturer of textile machinery for over fifty years (see preceding sketch). Our subject attended the public schools, graduated from the High School when seventeen years of age and immediately en- tered his father's machine works, with the expecta- tion of learning the trade and following it. But after the expiration of four years, when he was but twenty-one, he went into business for himself in a totally different line-that of manufacturing cotton- ades, to which, after a period of five years, he added the making of flannels. He at first rented a site, but in 1860 built a mill at Twenty-fourth and Ham- ilton streets (the Mt. Vernon Mills) devoted to the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods. In 1867 he built the works at Twenty-second and Spring Garden streets, and in the meantime brought about some of the many changes that have resulted in perfecting manufacturing processes and developing the business. In 1861 he associated with himself as partner Mr. John McGill (his mother's brother), and the style of the house became William Wood & Co. In 1867, to meet the demands of a heavily in- creasing business, additional ground was secured, embracing the area between Twenty-first, Hamilton, Twenty-second and Spring Garden streets, amount- ing to four acres. Upon this tract there are now seven buildings, constituting what arc known as the Pequea Mills, devoted chiefly at this date to the manufacture of men's woolens. Their dimensions will convey some idea, although necessarily an in- adequate one, of the immense business which Mr. Wood has built up from a very humble beginning. The warehouse on Twenty-second and Spring Gar- den streets, used for storing all stock, raw and fin- ished, is 96x110 feet and six stories in height. The building in which are the dyeing and finishing de- partments is also six stories high, and 180x64 feet
in dimensions, divided into three parts by five walls. The carding and spinning departments are in a structure 260x60 feet, four stories high, and the weaving department in another, which is 300x45 fcet, a part being five and a part six stories high. This is for narrow looms or the manufacture of narrow goods Another building, devoted to the making of broader goods, is 200x52 feet and two stories high. Still another building for general pur- poses is 100x40, and four stories high. There are various other buildings, a fire-proof cotton-house, houses for the storage of stock, etc., etc. The Pequea Mills with the Mt. Vernon Mills employ up- wards of 1,000 operatives. Like most men of force and achievement, Mr. Wood has not been satisfied with confining his energies to a single establishment, extensive as it is, nor to one line of industry. Even were his great mills left entirely out of considera- tion he would still be regarded as a leader among the leading business men of Philadelphia. He is President of the Merchants National Bank, a Direc- tor of the Brush Electric Light Company, and was one of the projectors of electric lighting in Philadel- phia, one of the Board of Directors of the Investment Company, and Vice-President of the Arrott Steam Power Mills Co., which owns, controls and rents out six large factories in different parts of the city. He is the executor of the Arrott estate and also sev- cral others of Philadelphia, and is one of the Direc- tors of the German-American Insurance Company of New York, having represented Philadelphia in that large corporation for many years. He has been nearly ever since its inception, one of the trustees of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Indus- trial Art, which has in successful operation a school for practical instruction in the designing and manu- facture of textile fabrics. He has held since its organization the office of President of the Philadel- phia Manufactures Association, organized to effect settlement of differences between manufacturers and employees, and for the general promotion of their mutual interests. Another index of Mr. Wood's broad and genuine interest in the well being of his fellow men, is his active work in the Society for Organized Charity, with which lic has been identified as a leading spirit ever since its organization. He has held official position in the Fifteenth Ward branch of this society from its origin. Always re- garded by his associates as one of the leading minds and most influential characters in the building up of the city's marvelous industries, it was natural that Mr. Wood should have been one of those chiefly in- strumental in bringing this class of business men into social union, and hence we find him one of the originators of the Manufacturers' Club. He presided
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at the meetings which brought about its organiza- tion, and has ever since been one of its Directors. Mr. Wood lias throughout his career been indenti- fied with the best interests of the city-moral and material-and, while he has advanced the prosperity of Philadelphia in a general way, has not been un- mindful of the welfare of his own employees and of the improvement of that portion of Philadelphia in which his mills are located. Of late years he has expended large sums of money in building dwelling- houses, a propensity in which, fortunately for the city, he has had many compeers. - Half a million or thereabouts of Mr. Wood's capital has very recently been and is being invested in a similar way in the city of Pittsburgh in the building up of a tract of land long looked upon as of little value and known as Coltart Square. There is a certain element of the poetic mingled with the practical in this undertak- ing, for the original owner of the property, whose name it still bears, was the father of Mr. Wood's late wife, and the redemption of a waste and un- sightly place and its adornment with tasteful houses will serve in a certain sense as a memorial of the family with which the present owner's life was linked. Joseph Coltart, the original proprietor, came from Scotland early in the present century, located in Pittsburgh, built the first Court House in that city, and many other buildings, as well as tak- ing heavy canal contracts, and retired in the enjoy- ment of a competence. It was his daughher, Jose- phine Ritchie Coltart, whom Mr. Wood married. They were united October 26, 1864, and after nearly twenty years of happy wedded life, she died in March, 1883, leaving three children. Mr. Wood's religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an active member. He is Manager, and has been for many years a member of the Pres- byterian Board of Publication, and is also connected with several boards in management of Presbyterian Homes. For years he has taken an active part in all matters pertaining to the welfare of this body, being an energetic and conscientious worker here, as in all the walks of life upon which he has cver entered. The key-note of Mr. Wood's character, and the primary cause of his phenomenal success, have been his ambition and his determination to do thoroughly whatever his judgment has told him was worth doing at all. If it is true that in the lexi- con of youth there is no such word as "fail," it is equally so that with some strong natures there is in the whole span of life no such contingency. Some men simply develop strength through encountering obstacles which would baffle others, and move on to success with invincible impetus. Mr. Wood, as we have shown, came of a commingling of those sturdy
strains of blood-English and Scotch-well calcu- lated to invest him with the requisites for force and action and achievement in the larger affairs of life. His first step in business for himself, his radical turning aside from his father's calling, in which he had himself a thorough training, exhibited at once his independence, confidence and force. It doubt- less appeared to his friends a rash movement for the young man to suddenly abandon machinery to take up textile manufacture, but it was not made with- out due consideration, and time soon vindicated his judgment and each succeeding year that vindication has been most emphatically reiterated and accentu- ated by increased success. Mr. Wood is a man of quick but accurate judgment, a man of decision. Were it not for this he could not have accomplished more than a small fraction of what he has. He is still in the meridian of life, and it must be borne in mind that he has by no means allowed his business, large as it has been, to monopolize his time and talents. He is a symmetrically developed, many sided, versatile man, having the broadest ideas of a citizen's duty to the State and to his fellow man, and to the best of his ability he has discharged his duty in these directions. Thus it has happened that, while never seeking or thinking of political prefer- ment, he has been an active and influential worker in the field of politics. He is a staunch Republican and has done much to strengthen the party in the city and State. His energy in the cause of public measures and practical philanthropy has been exerted unceas- ingly during all of his adult years, and he has been equally active and potential in the cause of religion. While he is a man who upon slight acquaintance per- haps does not appear socially inclined, wearing a lit- tle of that apparent reserve which is common to busy men deep in multitudinous affairs, there are few who have warmer feeling for their fellows and who enjoy the genialities of friendly intercourse more than does he. His life has, too, been rounded out with becoming and healthful enjoyment of the domestic circle, without a love for which nearly all lives, however prosperous and successful otherwise, seem, in a measure, failures.
HENRY HOWARD HOUSTON.
THE Houstons of Pennsylvania come of a race noted for its physical and mental strength. They trace their lineage far back into the chivalrous days of Scotland, when the destinies of the land of heath and heather were dominated by the tyrannical Ed- ward I. of England. The clan Houston came into
Henry A. Houston
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existenee during the life of the valorous Wallace. Its origin, however, goes back to the time of Sir Hugh de Padvinan, the Laird of the lands of Kil- peter in Strathgrief, and comes in a direct line through the oldest sons down to the present time. The baronetcy is now held by George Lndovic Houston, of Johnstone, Renfrew County, Scotland. The younger sons of the original family migrated from their native land to the north of Ireland, in the early part of the seventeenth century, and are now scattered through the counties of Antrim, Tyrone, Donegal aud Londonderry. From thence came that branch of the family that settled in Lancaster Coun- ty, Pennsylvania, between the years 1725 and 1730, and from the Lancaster County Houstons branched out the Houstons of Virginia aud Tennessee, and the famons Sam Honston of Texas, the hero who battled with Santa Anna, and who was the first President of the Republic. Henry Howard Hous- ton, who comes of such sturdy stock, was born near Wrightsville, York County, Pa., October 3, 1820. He was the youngest son of Samuel Nelson Houston, and is now, with J. Houstou Mifflin, the only living grandsons of Dr. John Houston of Co- lumbia, who, after graduating at Edinburgh, Scot- land, returned home in 1766. At the outbreak of the Revolution, he entered the army as surgeon, and, with four brothers, fought through the war. Samuel Nelson Houston was distinguished for his splendid physical manhood. After graduating at Burlington College, he gave his attention iu his early years to the study of materia medica and pharmacy, but this did not repress the martial nature that was strong within him, for he became an active member of Captaiu Shippen's troop of horse in Lancaster County, and took part in the War of 1812. In 1816 lie marricd Susan Strickler, a daughter of Colonel Jacob Strickler, and the issue of that marriage was five children : John James, Henry Howard, Emily Strickler, Eleanor Wright and Martha Mifflin. IIen- ry Howard left school at an early age, and devoted several years to mercautile life in his native town. When he reached the age of twenty, he went with Mr. Samuel M. Reynolds, of Lancaster, to Lucinda Fnruace, Clariou County. He remained there three years, and then joined Mr. Edmund Evans, going with him to the abandoned Horse Creek furnace, on the Allegheny River, Venango County, which they rebuilt and put in successful operation. Mr. Hous- ton, in February, 1847, entered the Philadelphia office of D. Leech & Co., the theu leading canal and railway transporters of Pennsylvania. He remained with this company, attending to importaut business in its belialf iu Pennsylvania and in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, until December, 1850.
The Pennsylvania Railroad had then completed its line to Hollidaysburg, and with the State Portage road which was constructed over the mountains, and with the State canal from Joliustown to Pitts- burg, formed a through line from the eastern termi- nus of the road at Philadelphia to the Ohio River. Mr. Houston's merit as a business man while en- gaged with Leech & Co. had attracted the attention of Col. William C. Patterson, at that time President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and he was selected to organize the freight department of the new road. It was the right man iu the right place. There was an intense and bitter rivalry, and the most vigorous and unremitting efforts were required to secure and maintain trade as against competing lines. The Pennsylvania Railroad was completed to Pittsburgh in 1853, and from that time until 1865, Mr. Houston scarcely knew what rest mcant. He was fortunate in possessiug sound health, and the constant strain did not serionsly affect him. For fifteen years he managed the department with satisfaction to the company and with credit to himself. In 1865 Mr. Houstou entered into special transportation on local and transcontinental railroads, connected in these enterprises with several gentlemen, who still are associated with him as owners in steam vessels and the condnet of lake and ocean trausportation on a large scale. Mr. Ilouston is now the part owner of twenty-one ocean steamers,and has a large interest in a fleet of twenty steamers on the lakes iu the Northwest. He was successful in the early days of the oil excitement by careful investments, which resulted in handsome profits, and he became known not only as a prosperons producer and oper- ator in petrolenm, but also successful as an investor in gold and silver mines in Montana and Colorado. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Lonis Railroad, the Pennsylvania Company, the Inman Steamship Company, the In- ternational Steamship Company, the Erie and Wes- tern Transportatiou Company, aud a number of other companies of minor importance. Mr. Houston was married, in 1856, to Miss Sallie S. Bonnell, of Philadelphia, and six children are the issue. The first, a daughter, died in infancy. The eldest son, Henry Howard Houston, Jr., was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the class of 1878. IIe made a tour of Europe, travelled up the Nile, visited Palestine and came to Rome by way of Turkey in Europe. He died iu that city in June, 1879, aged twenty-one years. The third child, Eleanor Anna, died aged twelve years, in January 1875. The surviving children are Sallie B., Samuel Frederic, aud Gertrude. The family residence is at
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Germantown, oue of the most delightful suburbs of Philadelphia. Mr. Houston is a member of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church at German- town, and has been Rector's Warden from the time of the organization of the parish. He is a man of much force of character, and is quick and accurate in his estimate of men and measures. He is of robust physique and an active man both mentally and physically. His benevolence and charities are unostentatious but munificent. He is a trustee of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Vir- ginia, where he is held in high esteem, and also a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the oldest and most popular institutions of learning in the country. The Houston family is identified with the Mifilins of Pennsylvania, whose ancestors came over with William Penn, and who have become famous in the political and judicial history of the Keystone State, Joseph Mifflin having married Martha Houston, an aunt of the subject of this sketch. The family is an honorable one, aud in Henry Howard Houstou is found a worthy descend- ant of his old Scotch ancestry.
JOSEPH D. POTTS.
JOSEPH D. POTTS, known most widely through his identification with vast transportation enterpri- ses of Pennsylvania and neighboring States, but also intimately associated with manufacturing interests, has for many years been a citizen of Philadelphia, but he is a native of Chester County, and a member of the famous Potts family, which has had the chief centres of its residence in Montgomery County, and has figured largely in its political, social and indus- trial history. He is a descendant in the sixth gener- ation of that Thomas Potts who was the pioneer iron-master of the Schuylkill region ; and his great- great-grandfather, John Potts, was the founder of Pottstown. His grandfather, Joseplı Potts, was the owner of Glasgow Forge and of Valley Forge. His father, David Potts, was born at the old homestcad near the first-named ancient iron establishment, on August 11, 1799, and died November 15, 1870, and his mother, Rebecca S. (Speakman) Potts, was a native of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Joseph D. Potts was born at Springton Forge, Chester Coun- ty, December 4, 1829, and his early life was spent at Pottstown and at Isabella Furnace, Chester County. He drifted away, however, from the occupation of his ancestors and became a civil engineer, as such being connected with various railroads, beginning in May, 1852, upon the Sunbury and Erie. Subse-
quently he was made Vice-President of the Steu- benville (Ohio) and Indiana R. R., Superintendent of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania R. R. and President of the Western Transportation Com- pany. Upon the breaking ont of the Civil War, Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, having recog- nized his abilities and executive energy, appointed him as Lieut .- Colonel upon his active staff, and Chief of the transportation and telegraph department of the State. He held this position from May to De- cember, 1861, the labor being transferred upon the latter date from the State to the Federal Govern- ment. Mr. Potts, while serving in 1862, with the militia of the State, called out in consequence of Lee's Antietam expedition, was detailed by General Reynolds as Military Superintendent of the Franklin Railroad, and performed prompt and valuable ser- vice in that capacity. The next few years constituted the most active and responsible period of an ever busy career. During 1862-'63-'64-'65 he served as General Manager of the Philadelphia and Erie Rail- road for its lessee, the Pennsylvania Railroad Compa- ny, and from 1865 to 1877 he was the President of the Empire Transportation Company, and on Feb- ruary 20, 1871, of the Erie and Western Transpor- tation Company, the latter owning and operating a fleet of propellers upon the Great Lakes. In 1877 the Empire Transportation Company sold its entire cquipment, plant and good will and closed its exis- tence, Mr. Potts continuing as its President until the final dissolution, and the complete and satisfactory division of its assets among its shareholders. About this time his investments and interests became so varied and widely spread, and his time and energies so taxed, that he was obliged to relinquish some of them, and finally, on June 7, 1881, he decided to resign the Presidency of the Erie and Western Transportation Company, which he had held con- tinuously for over twelve years, to obtain neces- sary relief from care and responsibility. The direct- ors and stockholders accepted his resignation very reluctantly, and gave expression to their feelings of appreciation of their President's splendid services and the loss which they sustained in his withdrawal. A special committee of the former body, consisting of W. Thaw, H. H. Houston, W. H. Barnes and Geo. B. Bonnell-to whom was referred the letter of resignation-said : "Mr. Potts' proposed retirement will sever relations which have existed between him and this Company since the beginning of its opera- ations. Under his fostering care the company has so grown that it is to-day prosperous, substantial, strong and healthy, financially and otherwise. So highly appreciated are his services that the Commit- tee feel that they are speaking not only for the Board
Hoy. s . Potts
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of Directors, but for the whole body of stockholders, in saying that to him is due, in the largest measure, this excellent condition of affairs ; that without his foresight, his unfailing power of resource, and his untiring energy, no such result could have been at- tained *
* * He will leave his official position accompanied by the warmest good wishes of the directors, officers, and all others connected with the service of the company." Mr. Potts still retains an interest in the company, and is one of its directors. In 1874 our subject became a Managing Director in the National Storage Company, and, in 1879, Presi- dent of the National Docks Railroad Company, both corporations under the laws of New Jersey, having their principal properties in Jersey City. He held these positions until 1884, when he resigned them both, though retaining a directorship in each. He was elected President of the Enterprise Transit Company in 1871 and still retains that position. For some years prior to 1885 he was President of the Girard Point Storage Company, of Philadelphia, (which is the owner of the extensive elevators, wharves, warehouses, railroads, tanks, etc., near the mouth of the Schuylkill) and he is still a director of the company. He is also, and has been from its establishment, a large owner and a director in the International Navigation Company, which operates the Red Star and American lines of ocean steamers. He is also a director in the Inman and International line of steamers, running between Liverpool and New York. Of late years Mr. Potts has withdrawn as far as possible from active and care-involving po- sitions, encountering however, that strong opposi- tion from friends and associates which is always called forth when men of capability seek to lay aside their long carried business burdens. His rest has been well earned by years of faithful and incess- ant toil, exercised in a number and variety of chan- nels seldom exceeded by one man, and calling for such brain vitality and energy as few, even of our great controllers of affairs, can bring to bear upon their enterprises. But while putting aside the cares of executive positions in one direction, he has as- gumed other business interests almost equally large,
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