USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 32
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EDMUND M. FERGUSON.
IN A OITY distinguished for the number and strength of its banking institutions, their vast ag- gregate capital and the ability and financial acumen of the men who conduct them, Edmund M. Fergu- son, President of the Merchants' and Manufac- turers' National Bank, one of the largest and strongest in the city of Pittsburgh, stands in the front rank of financiers, both in point of ability and wealth. The son of John Ferguson and Hclen Grace Morewood, he was born in New York city in 1838, and he is now, therefore, uot only in the very prime of his vigorous manhood, but in the midst of a business career that has already been rewarded with a success achieved by comparatively few men at the close of long and toilsome lives, and which, moreover, gives promise of still greater achieve- ments in the future. Mr. Ferguson's education was received at Dr. Harris's school at White Plains, New York, and at Trinity College, Hartford, Ct. While yet a lad he left college to enter, as machinist and draughtsman, the employ of Quin- tard & Whitney, the great engine builders of the Morgan Iron Works, of New York. In this capacity he continued for four years, until 1861, when he came to Western Pennsylvania as Assistant Super- intendent of the Brady's Beud Iron Works in Arm- strong County. His career here was an upward one, and, having amassed sufficient capital to em- bark in business for himself, he left his then em- ployment in 1869, and constructed the Mount Brad- dock Coke Works, which were started in 1870, and which he conducted with eminent success until the spring of 1878, when he formed a copartnership with Henry C. Frick, under the style and title of H. C. Frick & Co., for the manufacture of Connells- ville coke, the new concern being the most exten-
sive manufacturers of coke in this country, if not in the world. This partnership continued until the concern was merged into the great H. C. Frick Coke Co., a few years later. From commercial life to banking was but a step for a man like Mr. Fer- guson, who had for so many years directed the af- fairs of extensive manfacturing concerns, and, having served as a director of the Merchants' and Manufac- turers' National Bank from 1882, his financial judg- ment found recognition in his election to the Presi- dency of the same in the fall of 1885. He entered at once upon the discharge of the responsible duties of that office, and very much of the high standing of that institution to-day is due to his ability and wisdom as a financier. He is also a member of the director- ates of the Fidelity Title and Trust Co. and Union Storage Co., both of which are classed among the solid institutions of that very solid city. Such, in brief, has been the business career of Edmund M. Ferguson, the subject of this sketch, whose sterling integrity and progressive idcas, in conjunction with indomitable perseverance and an inexhaustible fund of energy, have contributed so materially to his success in life. But there is another side to Mr. Ferguson's character that is worthy of note in this connection, a social and domestic side, that endears him to friends no less than family. And nowhere is this so well exemplificd as in his charming home in that most delightful of Pittsburgh's many beau- tiful suburbs-Shady Side. Here, surrounded by a devoted family, he dispenses a most lavish and gen- erous hospitality. Having married in 1872 Jose- phine E., eldest daughter of Dr. W. S. Mackintosh, of Pittsburgh, he has four children : John M., Wil- liam S., Martha R. and Heleu M. One more feature of Mr. Ferguson's individuality should be noted be- fore concluding-his public spiritedness. He does not bury his talents, but with his wealth is contin- ually engaged in some enterprise for building up and improving the city. He was one of the origi- nators and founders of the Shady Side Academy and serves upou its Board of Trustees. The Protes- tant Episcopal Church has deemed him worthy of honor by making him a Vestryman of Calvary Church and by placing him for years upon The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Western Pennsylvania.
HAMPTON L. CARSON.
THIS well known lawyer, orator and essayist, of Philadelphia, comes of excellent stock, his father being Joseph Carson, M.D., a physician and scien- tist of repute, and who was Professor of Materia
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Medica in the University of Pennsylvania. His
Henry Hollingsworth, a prominent Philadelphian, mother, née Mary Hollingsworth, is a daughter of
who was Cashier of the Bank of North America, and
President of the Western Savings Fund. Mr. Car-
son is of Scotch descent on his father's side. The
family were driven out of Scotland by the tyranny
after the siege of Derry they came to the United of Archbishop Laud into the North of Ireland, and
States and settled in Philadelphia. His great-grand- father was one of the Philadelphia merchants wlio signed the famous non-importation resolutious, and who sided with the Colonists against the British crown. On his mother's side Mr. Carson is of Eng-
lish Quaker origin and a lineal descendent of Henry
that came over in the " Welcome" is now in the time of William Penn, in 1682. The family chest Hollingsworth, who came to this country about the
possession of the subject of this sketch. His grand- fatlier, Levi Hollingsworthi, was an intimate friend
of Washington, and was a member of the First City
Mr. Carson is a nephew of the late Gen. A. A. Troop after the Revolution. Of his later connections
Humphreys, who led the famous charge up Mary's
Heights, at Fredericksburg, Va., in December,
1862, under Gen. Burnside. Hampton L. Carson
was educated at the classical school of the Rev.
John Faires, and he graduated from the Department
foundation for his after-earned fame as an orator. skill at English composition, and there laid the was noted for his powers of declamation and his elor of Arts, in June, 1871. While at college he of Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, as Bach-
He was a speaker at commencement exercises and
delivered the Master's Oration, in June, 1872.
Leaving college, he studied law in the office of Wil-
liam H. Tilghman, and was admitted to the bar in
April, 1874. Iu June, 1874, Mr. Carson took the
degree of Bachelor of Law at the Law Department
of the University of Pennsylvania, and was earn-
estly requested to deliver the Law Oration, but had
to decline the honor. In 1876 he became one of the
editors of the Legal Gazette, and about this time he
which were published and attracted considerable legal, historical, National and other subjects, all of wrote and delivered various essays and orations on
attention. Of his recent orations one was on "The
ton," delivered at Haverford College, February 22, Causes of the Revolution and the age of Washing-
1886; and one of his essays was an "Historical
Sketch of the Law Department of the University of
and the Law Faculty of the University. He lias Pennsylvania," read before the Society of Alumni
recently written and published a work upon the Law of Criminal Conspiracy, as found in the American
Maintenance and Education of Minors." Hampton American Law Register on "Allowances for the boycotts. In 1884 he had a leading article in tlie cases-the first book touching upon strikes and
Republican ticket in 1878, and was a warm advocate Philadelphia in 1877, and stumped the State for the He took an active part in the Reform campaign in thoroughly honest, consistent and intelligent one. L. Carson's political carecr has been, and still is, a
polled 34,000 votes, but ran behind his colleague, Commissioner with Charles H. Krumbhaar. He tee of One Hundred nominated him for County held in Chicago at that time. In 1881 the Commit- and made a speech against it at the great meeting fought in the battle against a third Presidential term " Anti Third-Terni League," and he successfully Carson went to Chicago as the Secretary of the of hard money and honest currency. In 1880 Mr.
and opposed the election of both Rowan and Leeds every campaign of the Committee of One Hundred ring rule and monopolies. He took the stump in Republicans. Mr. Carson has steadily opposed among the Democrats as there was among the because there was not the same independent voting
York and other cities and always advocated munici- interests of the people. He has spoken in New Co. and the Elevated R. R., as being against the spoke at the Academy of Music against the Traction for Sheriff, and William B. Smith for Mayor. He
" The Junior Bar," at the memorable banquet given pal reform. In 1882 he responded to the toast,
to Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster and to the laws
Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1884, and de- He spoke at the inauguration of the new hall of the made by William Penn, at the Bi-Centennial dinner.
livered about that time a eulogy on the late Gen. A. A. Humphreys. Mr. Carson has frequently taken the lecture platform on literary subjects and
Solicitor and Judge Joseph C. Ferguson for the lie also nominated Charles F. Warwick as City nated George S. Graham as District Attorney, and Constitution of the United States. He twice nomi- notably on the causes that led to the adoption of the
Orphan's Court. Hampton L. Carson has been leading counsel in a number of very important
cases. He defended Edward Parr for the murder
of his daughter, James Henry for the murder of
Voelmle, and Dennis O'Sullivan, John McGinnis
and Daniel Meehan for the murder of their wives,
Work brothers. He has often been employed as assist tlie prosecuting attorney in prosecuting the He was especially employed by Wayne McVeagh to and in these cases he was appointed by the court.
master and examiner in equity cases and has always been sustained by the Supreme Court. He sat as
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Commissioner in the Weaver insanity case, and he argued the case of Major Ellis P. Phipps before the Pardoning Board. He has frequently appeared before Legislative committees and Congressional ones also. Outside of his legal practice the mental work performed by Mr. Carson is something phe- nomenal. His law practice in itself is very exten- sive, but in addition to that and a large amount of literary work of different kinds, such as preparing and delivering addresses before National, State and municipal bodies, addressing large political meet- ings, attending political conventions, reading essays before men of his own guild, etc., he performs a vast amount of unseen work, such, for instance, as the herculean task he successfully undertook as Secretary of the Constitutional Centennial Commis- sion, including months of labor in preparing the official programme of that great National event, and his voluminous correspondence with the Governors of the States and Territories and high officials of this and other countries, all of which led to the grand success of the celebration. Mr. Carson never sought political office and he declined the Committee of One Hundred nomination for Regis- ter of Wills, also the appointment, by Attorney-Gen- eral Brewster, as special counsel to prosecute the election frauds in South Carolina; and the position of Recorder of Philadelphia, tendered by Gov. Pat- tison, and other positions. Mr. Carson married Anna L., daughter of John R. Baker, a sister of the widow of the late Henry Armitt Brown.
JOHN DAVIDSON McCORD.
JOHN DAVIDSON McCORD is not only a repre- sentative Pennsylvanian, but he is a representative of thrift, energy and perseverance, coming to him through a long and honorable line of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was born on December 4, 1808, in Newville, Cumberland County, Pa., and his boyhood days were passed in the lovely valley where nearly a century before his thrifty ancestors helped to plant a garden in a wilderness. The McCord fami- ly traces its genealogy back to the sturdy Scots who settled in the province of Ulster, in the reign of James I. and who brought with them from their native heath all that rigid adherence to truth and morality which has made their descendants a dis- tinctive people wherever their lot has been cast. The determination and courage of these emigrants, in the face of most outrageous persecution, is a mat- ter of history. Under the reign of Charles I. they were subjected to every indignity, short of utter
extirpation, but heroically maintained their princi- ples, and it was not until they had to submit or starve, that they sought in a foreign land the peace . that was denied them at home. Large numbers began to emigrate to America, and up to the year 1729, some six thousand of them had settled in Pennsylvania. Among the first settlers of whom there is any authentic record were the Robinsons. They took up lands in Donegal, Lancaster County. In 1750 Thomas Robinson and William Robinson, John, David, William and another John McCord, became land owners in Hanover Township, Dauphin County. No reliable record exists of the family beyond William McCord, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He lived in what was then Sherman's Valley, now Perry County, in a quaint old stone house which is still standing. That the fami- ly must have been respected for its prowess is attested by the fact that a fort was erected in Con- ococheague Settlement (now Franklin County) and was named Fort McCord. In the year 1756 the In- dians attacked the fort, captured and burned it, and brutally massacred or made captives of twenty- seven persons. Among those carried off was Anne McCord, wife of John McCord, the brother of Wil- liam. She was providentially discovered and res- cued a few months later. William McCord had thirteen children. One of them, Rosanna, married Alexander T. Blaine, who was of the same family with the distinguished Maine statesman. The Mc- Cords, the Robinsons, the Davidsons and other Scotch families were living in the Cumberland Valley when, in 1760, the Indians were making trou- . ble. The thrifty colony was composed of men who, though brave as lions, were averse to war and its horrors, and it was with sad forebodings that they saw the gathering storm. When they found, how- ever, that war was inevitable, and that wives and babes must be saved from the fury and atrocious cruelty of the Indian, they formed themselves into parties of defense, and in every engagement they demonstrated their courage and their coolness. On Sunday these sturdy Scots attended church armed with rifles, and even the minister who expounded the doctrines of Calvin from the pulpit had beside him a gun ready for service if occasion required. It was not until after the famous expedition of Col. Boquet, in 1764, that there was any cessation of the horrors of Indian warfare, and the settlers were permitted to resume their peaceful avocations, for a time at least. It is from this Scotch-Irish Presby- terian stock, tried as it has been by religious perse- cution and the woes of barbaric law, that John Davidson McCord is descended. His mother was a Davidson, and his father, James McCord, believing
In Im bord
4
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
that a boy's hands should be kept out of mischief, put his son to learn the trade of a hatter. The boy showed an aptitude and a turn for business. When, at the age of eighteen, he had finished his appren- ticeship, he put out a sign of his own, announcing to the people of Newville that he was ready to do business on his own account. At the same time, having been taught from early life the truths of the gospel, he became a member of the Presbyterian church. Although young McCord had bonght ont his employer, he camc to the conclusion that New- ville was not big enough for him, and he determincd to go West. With several chosen friends he started out on horseback, in the year 1832, to prospect, and if possible, to locate. At that time there was no such town as Toledo, nothing where it now stands bnt a big swamp at the head of the Maumee River. The site of bustling, busy Chicago was then occu- pied by eighteen houses. West of Ohio the conntry was comparatively a wilderness, occupied princi- pally by painted savages, wild animals, and here and there a trading post. Mr. McCord did not see much prospect for business in selling hats to Indians, and, being of a practical turn of mind, turned back. A year later he emigrated to the city of Pittsburgh, in company with Benjamin McLain and H. D. King, with the intention of going into business in that growing city. Each of the young men had perhaps four hundred dollars. Their objective point was the hatting establishment of John Graham. An account of stock was taken, and it was estimated to be worth twelve thousand dollars. This proved to be no obstacle. Mr. McCord's frank manner in- spired confidence, and he and his partners were told that they could pay over what cash they had and give their obligations for the balance. This they did, and put out their shingle with the firm name of " McLain, King & McCord " upon it. Business prospered with the young men, and they created and maintained a large trade in Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. They were all pushing and industrious, and by their method of conducting business gained the confidence and re- spect of the community in which they lived, as well as the people with whom they transacted business. The young men prospered in their undertaking, and their profits were commensurate with their indus- try. Mr. McCord purchased, in 1837, Mr. McLain's interest, and the name of the firm was then changed to McCord & King. In 1847 he purchased Mr. King's interest, and associated with him his brother James S. McCord, whereupon the firm name was changed to McCord & Co. Mr. McCord, who had taken a lively interest in church since his eighteenth year, attached himself to the First Presbyterian
Church of Pittsburgh, and in the year 1855 was clected a ruling elder. Sunday-schools were new in Pittsburgh then, but Mr. McCord saw in them a great power for good, and took an active part in the work. Hc was Superintendent of the First Pres- byterian Church Sunday-school for ten years. IIe became a trustee of the Western Theological Semi- nary, did much to advance the interests and broaden the scope of that institution, and was a member of the Board for Freedmen. In addition to his church connection, he was actively engaged, as far as his time would permit, in promoting and assisting char- itable and other institutions. He was one of the original corporators of the Allegheny Cemetery, and was a director some fifteen years in the Ex- change National Bank, and several years in the Allegheny Insurance Company. In 1867 Mr. Mc- Cord retired from active business, and gave over a part of his interest to his sons, William and James. He then went to Philadelphia, taking up his resi- dence in a handsome mansion at 2004 Spruce street. Although freed from the cares of business, Mr. Mc- Cord had been too active a man all his life to sink into idleness. He became a member of the West Spruce Street Church, and in 1870 was elected an elder thereof. While in Pittsburgh he had become a member of the Board of Domestic Missions, which in 1871 was removed to New York, and then became the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church. In 1868 he was elected a member of the Presbyterian Board of Publication. He became in- terested in the care bestowed upon injured persons, and saw the necessity for better hospital facilities in Philadelphia, and was one of the moving spirits in the establishment of the Presbyterian Hospital in that city. Mr. McCord's name appears as one of the corporators, and he was clected the Treasurer of the institution on the day it received its charter. He is also Treasurer of the City Missions of Phila- delphia Presbytery, and has been six times a Com- missioner to the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church. Since his retirement from business Mr. McCord has been frequently called upon to act as executor for various estates, because of his probity and correct business methods. He has ac- cepted several of these trnsts as well as guardian- ships, and, although in his eightieth year, he attends to these duties with the same regularity that marked the habits of his younger days. Mr. McCord was married in 1833 to Margaret McCandlish, who came from the same sturdy stock as himself. The issue of this marriage was six children. Mrs. McCord died in 1845, and when Mr. McCord married again, he took to wife, Rosanna Blaine Robinson, his second cousin and a descendant of the Scotch Rob-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
insons, and a relative of the family of Ephraim Blaine and Alexander T. Blaine. There were three children born of this marriage. The second Mrs. McCord died in December, 1886. At the age of nearly eighty years Mr. McCord looked like a man nearing sixty. His record of health is something unusual. Until 1875, when he met with a painful accident during the erection of the Presbyterian Hospital, necessitating the amputation of his right leg below the knee, hc seldom ever took medicine. During his long life he never drank any kind of liquor, nor did he ever use tobacco in any form, nor ever play a game of cards. He was never in a theatre in his life but once, and that was in 1835 in the Old Park Theatre, New York. His face at eighty is the picture of ruddy health, his eye as bright and his hand as steady as a man thirty years his junior. A kindly disposition, joined with the rigid principles laid down in the Westminster Stan- dards, brings out in his character that which is at once loyal in its loving, stern in its righteousness, and immovable in its resolution.
GEORGE THOMPSON LEWIS.
The subject of this comparatively brief sketch, George Thompson Lewis, of the house of John T. Lewis & Brothers, manufacturing chemists, belongs to a family which, both chronologically and by points of excellence, is one of the first of Philadel- phia ; has himself led a life of such activity and fruitful attainment, in scientific and business lines, that a volume might be written upon it ; has been foremost in charities, and yet, because of a naturally retiring disposition, is perhaps one of the least widely known of Quaker City people. Philadel- phia has perhaps a larger number of this class of quiet, substantial citizens, carrying on tremendous interests, and still but vaguely known to the gen- eral public, than any other town in the United States, but the writer does not call to mind a more remarkable exemplification of this truth than is af- forded by Mr. Lewis' character, career and services. He is a descendant of the sixth generation of a family of Welsh nativity, and belonging to the Society of Friends, who came to America in 1686, only four years after the landing of William Penn, and located in what is now Delaware County, not far from the infant town of Philadelphia. The original immigrant, William Lewis, was one of the family of " Lewis of the Van," which name is still borne by the ruins of extensive buildings in the an- cestral home in Glamorganshire in South Wales.
The great grandson of this pionecr was Mordecai Lewis, only son of Jonathan and Rachel Lewis, born in Philadelphia, September 21, 1748. He be- came a great merchant and ship owner, was con- nected with the leading institutions of the city in his time, led a life of great uscfulness, and attained honor and well deserved riches, though he died at an early age-in his forty-first year, upon the 13th of March, 1799. His home was a fine old double house on South Front street, below Walnut, which was standing as late as 1848. Directly back of his dwelling, on Dock street, was his counting house. His son, Samuel N. Lewis, father of the subject of this biography, was born in Philadelphia, Septem- ber 3, 1785, and before he was twenty-one, in the year 1806, entered into mercantile relations with an older brother, Mordecai. The commercial rela- tions of the firm of M. & S. N. Lewis, as ship- owners and commission merchants, were very ex- tensive. The firm of Mordecai Lewis, their prede- cessor, having been importers of white lead as early as 1772,* their attention was turned to its manufac- ture in this country, and, in 1819, they became the owners of a white lead manufactory, started six years before by Joseph Richardson on Pine, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets, which by exten- sions they made to accommodate a growing busi- ness and the manufacture of other articles, soon oc- cupied the whole square between the streets named, and having Lombard street as its fourth boundary. This property eventually becoming too valuable for such purposes, the works were removed in 1848 to the present situation in Port Richmond. The firm had in 1806, when they started in the shipping and commission business, established their counting house at No. 135, (now 231) South Front street, directly opposite the old dwelling and office of Mor- decai Lewis the elder, where their successors, John T. Lewis & Brothers, now carry on the lead busi- ness. Samuel N. Lewis, who died in 1841, was even a more prominent citizen than his father, but like him, and true to the traits of the Society of Friends, far more useful than obtrusive. Although pre-eminently a man of business, he was not neg- lectful of public interests, or of those of the cause of humanity. He was in 1814, one of the founders of the "Society for Supplying the Poor with Soup," the pioneer organization of its kind in the city. In 1826 he was made Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Hospital, holding the position until his death, a period of about fifteen years. His father had held this office from 1780 to 1799; his brother Joseph S. Lewis from 1799 to 1826, and his son John T. Lewis was its incumbent from 1841 to 1881, this important
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