USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 47
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of a business, religious or social nature, his whole heart and soul seem to be enlisted. His composi- tion is one of intense nervous energy. A self-made man in every sense of the term, he supplements the physical toil of his earlier life by a mental activity which never ceases. Few men have his capacity for work and probably fewer still the need he ex- periences for constant activity. Life to him means action, and no small part of his enjoyment is in the vast amount of good he so unostentatiously accom- plishes. He has merited and he receives both the affection and respect of thousands who have come within the sphere of his varied and useful as well as beneficent activities. Mr. Connell presents one of those rare examples, in which appears a combination of extraordinary business sagacity with the finest literary taste. In his busy life he finds many an hour for communion with the best authors, and is always ready, as if for relief, to turn from the ex- citements of business activity to a discussion of some literary or philosophical subject. Before and after business hours, Emerson, Prescott, Carlyle and kin- dred authors are laid under contribution and made to yield some inspiring thought, or throw the charm of their beautiful style over the mind and heart of the reader. Besides, the subject of this article is possessed of the most refined sensibilities. Beneath the man of business, bold, strong, aggressive, as Mr. Connell appears to the world, his closest friends know there lives another nature-a soul of the finest grain, and a temperament highly poetic. His is a nature that vibrates responsive to the noblest senti- ments in poetry, literature, art and music. Thus richly dowered by nature, had Mr. Connell, in his early life, received a liberal education, there is little doubt but that he would have devoted himself to letters or to professional life, and would never have been known as the wealthy capitalist and successful man of business that he is to-day, though he must have won distinction in other spheres. As a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Con- nell's aid and counsel have been sought by various institutions, and he has been made Trustee in Syra- cuse University, Wesleyan University and Drew Theological Seminary. He was also a member of the General Conference that met in Philadelphia in 1884. Mr. Connell married, January 2, 1852, Miss Annie Lawrence, of Llewellyn, Schuylkill County, Pa., a charming and kind-hearted lady, whose de- light it is to co-operate in the charitable deeds which come so natural to her worthy husband. Of the eleven children born to their marriage, nine are now living. The family life in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Connell is an exceptionally happy one, and each regards the other with that abiding affection
born of many trials shared in common, and many good deeds mutually undertaken and zealously per- formed.
BENJAMIN H. THROOP.
THE ancestry of Dr. Benjamin H. Throop is trace- able to the year 1668, and indicates a family of dis- tinction, even at that early period. A legendary account, brought down from generation to genera- tion, affirms that Adrian Scrope, one of the Regicide Judges who condemned Charles I., fleeing from his country, landed, with others, onjour shores, and to conceal his identity and thereby escape the wrath of Charles II., changed his name to Throop. There were three Benjamin Throops, of three different generations, who were Congregational clergymen at various points in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Dr. Throop's grandfather, also named Benjamin, served through the War of the Revolution. He was a Major in the 4th Connecticut Volunteers, and was brevetted Colonel for gallant conduct, on the recom- mendation of Gen. Washington. His commission, signed by John Jay, in 1779, at Philadelphia, is now in the possession of Dr. Throop. He was a pen- sioner until his death in 1820. The father of Dr. Throop served also in the same regiment, as a fifer, being about fifteen years of age, and he likewise became a pensioner of the Government. Benjamin H. Throop, the subject of this sketch, was born November 9, 1811, at Oxford, Chenango County, N. Y., to which place his parents had emigrated from Connecticut, in 1800. The latter were both natives of New England, and, as already intimated, came of old and worthy Puritan stock. Benjamin was the youngest of a family of six sons. When he was twelve years of age his father died and he was left to the care of his mother, an estimable and pious woman, whose chief thought was for him, he being the only one of her children left at home to comfort her declining years. She died in 1842, aged seventy-three years. The early years of Dr. Throop were beset by the trials of adversity, but he came successfully out of the ordeal, which seems to have only the better qualified him for the great battle of life. Dr. Throop was educated in the old Oxford Academy, and among his classmates were a number whose subsequent career reflected the highest honor upon their Alma Mater, which still flourishes. Prominent among these were the Hon. Horatio Seymour, and the Hon. Ward Hunt, who attained to National renown, with many others. When he had finished his academic training he turned his attention to the study of medicine, which he prosecuted in the office and under the direction
PROPERTY OP AUSTIN BOYER WEISSPORT, CARBON CA BA.
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of the eminent Dr. Perez Packer, and also at the Fairfield Medical College-then the only one in the State west of New York-where he graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1832, being then twenty-one years of age. Young as he was at this time, he took a quiet and sensible survey of the field, and having decided upon Honesdale, Pa .- then a little village emerging rapidly from one of the glens of the Dyberry, and which derived some importance from its position at the head of the Delaware and Hudson Canal-as a favorable place to exercise his art, he established himself there, in February, and engaged in the practice of his profession. The thorns in his pathway were an impoverished purse, youth and inexperience, together with several old and able physicians, long established in Wayne County ; but despite these he made his way, by degrees, to prom- inence as a surgeon as well as physician. His rise in public confidence and in professional status was most rapid and extremely gratifying to the young man, who had the profound satisfaction of being held in high esteem among his neighboring profes- sional colleagues. Yet he was not satisfied with his location and left, going, in 1835, to Oswego, N. Y., where he spent nearly a year and then went to New York and continued to practice there, with flatter- ing success, until the fall of 1840, when he again visited Honesdale for a few weeks. Here he found prompt call for his professional services, and he concluded to accede to the demand. Being called in consultation to the valley of the Lackawanna, he found it a promising field, from a professional point of view, as well as being so near the great city, and with mountains filled with coal. He determined to make it his future home, and removed thither, October 8, 1840, establishing himself at Providence, now a suburb of the city of Scranton. Providence, at that early day, was in violent contrast to what it has since become. There was but one man in the town who practiced medicine, and he was never licensed nor graduated, was quite advanced in years and performed all the duties of doctor and nurse. A much needed impetus was given to the place a short time previous to Dr. Throop's arrival in it, by the purchase of Slocum Hollow by the late G. W. and Selden Scranton, Sanford Grant and others. The doctor soon became intimately ac- quainted with these gentlemen, and allied to one, by marriage with his wife's sister. Thenceforth he was connected with them, to a greater or lesser extent, in a social as well as a business way. In 1845 he was induced, by the owners of the Iron Company, to remove to Scranton-which even at that date was struggling for existence, and an open field for enterprise. Dr. Throop was the first to take
possession, with the consent of its owners, of land for a homestead-in the woods at that time-and to him belongs also the remarkable honor of being the first person to build a house in Scranton, proper, outside of what was owned by the Iron Company. His practice extended over a large territory, and was very exacting and laborious. In 1853 and '54 Dr. Throop embarked largely in the purchase and sale of coal lands. The iron ore in which earlier investors had thought to find a fortune proved a failure in this locality, as did also the lime, and time demonstrated that all they had of value was coal, in great abundance. Operating on this knowl- edge, the doctor sold many valuable properties, and also assisted in organizing several mining com- panies. By degrees he became the owner of a con- siderable landed possession in and about Scranton, which soon grew very valuable, by reason of the completion of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad direct to New York, and the extension of the Delaware & Hudson, as well as the Pennsylvania Coal Company into that section. Shrewdly suspecting in those early days what has actually taken place since, he made many large sales, but retained a larger quantity that is under leases on royalty, which is now greatly productive. In 1854 he personally obtained from the Legislature charters for a gas and water company, and also for the Lackawanna Hospital, to fill leisure moments while lobbying at Harrisburgh for a new County. With a business energy rarely found in a profes- sional man he engaged in most extensive real estate operations, including a large lumbering business near Scranton ; and as the place grew in population and wealth he made additions to Scranton, at Hyde Park and Providence and Dunmore, and laid out, in the town of Blakely, the village of Priceburg, sell- ing lots in these localities to actual settlers. His operations in land included also the founding of the town of Throop. His method was to select suitable farms and then divide them into lots which, being offered at low prices and on reasonable terms, read- ily found purchasers. This method lie still pursues with remarkable success. His tenants are very num- crous, but his interest in them increases with their numbers. The Newton turnpike was completed under his supervision and is the outlet for a large population beyond the western mountain to the markets of the city. Appreciating the advantages of a county organization, he spent a portion of sev- eral winters at Harrisburgh, vainly urging the Leg- islature to authorize the erection of one out of Luzerne, to be called Lackawanna. Years and years of futile effort were expended in this direction, but not until 1877 was the wished-for project con-
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summated, and not even then without the "sinews of war" and the hardest personal efforts. Some years ago he became interested in banking. The Scranton City Bank, then doing a small business, attracted his attention, and he acquired a consider- able interest in it and was elected its President, and now stands as well among its patrons as any in the city. He is also President of the Scranton Illumi- nating, Heat and Power Company. For years Dr. Throop has been an active force in securing much needed local improvements. The great improve- ment of Wyoming avenue, and the increased value of property on it, are largely due to his efforts. In 1861, when President Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the Rebellion, Dr. Throop was the first surgeon in old Luzerne to respond to the call. Without solicitation on his part he was commis- sioned by his friend Governor Curtin, Surgeon of the Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. It is a remarkable fact that owing to the thorough enforcement of the laws of hygiene by Dr. Throop, the regiment did not lose a man by disease while absent from home. To the doctor belongs the honor of being the first to found Field Hospitals dur- ing the Rebellion. His initial attempt was made at Chambersburg before he had been a week in service, and was a pronounced success. Some ten thousand men from Pennsylvania and other States were encamped at Chambersburg. So large a number of raw recruits, removed abruptly from the comforts of home and put into the field at such an early season of the year, necessarily furnished a great number of sick. As Dr. Throop was the senior surgcon he was expected to provide quarters other than tents for the invalids. In the emergency he took posses- sion of an abandoned hotel, and this proving inade- quate he took possession of the Town Hall, that afforded accommodations for about one hundred cots, which were furnished and equipped by the patriotic people of Chambersburg. At the doctor's request numerous boxes of bed clothing and other comforts were sent on to the sufferers from Scran- ton. The doctor had left home on the 18th of April, prepared only to spend a day and a night at Harrisburgh, but it was four months before he was able to return to his home, all of which time he was on active duty in the field. He often facetiously alludes to this as a good joke on the traveler to Harrisburgh, for when he left home he had no idea of doing more than spend a day. After his return home with his regiment at the close of the campaign, he was again sent back to the front by his friends, to care for the wounded of the One Hundred and Thirty-second Pennsylvania (troops mainly from that section), which was badly cut up at the Battle of
Antietam-Col. Oakford and many others being killed-and for six weeks he served faithfully and efficiently as a volunteer surgeon. During this time he established, in a forest, the Smoketown field hospital, to which all the badly wounded were taken from the various barns, sheds, stables, tents and improvised hospitals of the regiments that were enagaged in that sanguinary fight. He remained with the wounded until they died or were sent North to their friends, or to other Government quarters, and then followed the army to Harper's Ferry, where he remained, though worn out with care and fatigue, until attacked by fever, which compelled him to return to his home. After the war Dr. Throop withdrew from active practice, his business engagements absorbing his time and atten- tion. Since then he has acted only in counsel and in such surgical cases as fell in his way. During the whole period covering the marvellous growth of Scranton-almost a half century-no Christian or humane movement has failed to receive his hearty co-operation and substantial aid. To him belongs the credit of starting the first livery stable, the first drug store, the first express on the D., L. & W. R. R., and other valuable services. He framed and obtained from the Legislature the charter of the Scranton Gas and Water companies, and was promi- nent in the establishment of postal facilities, being appointed local Postmaster by S. B. Hobie, May 6, 1853, commissioned as such by Franklin Pierce, February 4, 1857, and serving also all through Pres- ident Pierce's administration. This office was the first post-office in Scranton, and under Dr. Throop's administration mails were first brought through to Scranton proper, without being extracted at a neigh- boring village and carried thither in a satchel by a man going there for that purpose. His services in the cause of religion have been notable, and have been extended with true Christian spirit to the brethren of every denomination. An enduring wit- ness of his determination is the Church of St. Luke's (Episcopal), one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical edifices in Northwestern Pennsylvania. He was one of the leaders in establishing the first Lodge of the Society of Odd Fellows in Scranton, and the erection of a hall for them, which was also used for church purposes and entertainments and lectures for many years. He still maintains his interest in medicine, and in medical institutions, and is regarded as one of the best and most accomplished surgeons in the State. He recently presented a medical library of about two hundred volumes to the Lackawanna Medical Society. In 1872 he was appointed by Governor Hartranft, a trustee of the Danville Insane Hospital, a position which he has held for fifteen
All Bries
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years, and now holds, by a succession of appoint- ments from every Governor since. With distinguished philanthrophy he founded the institution now known as the Lackawanna Hospital, and for a long time maintained it at his own expense to demonstrate its necessity. The large number of patients treated in this hospital, and the varied character of the surgi- cal operations performed there, extended its reputa- tion and gave it prominence. Largely through its founder's efforts it has been endowed by the State. For many years Dr. Throop has held the position of Chief Surgeon of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Railroad. Dr. Throop is noted for his liberality of thought and kindly hospitality. His learning and brilliant conversational powers and gentle courtesy make him a valued and entertaining companion. As either host or guest he is highly esteemed. In his views he is broad, independent and original. He has paid considerable attention to historical study and has embodied the results of his observations and researches in several articles, which have been published in pamphlet form, and are most delightful reading. The warm place he holds in the affection of the community, in which he has done so much good work and spent so large a portion of his useful and honorable life, is the best evidence of his worth as a citizen.
HENRY MARTYN BOIES.
COLONEL HENRY MARTYN BOIES, an active business man of Scranton, and President of the Board of Trade of that city, was born in the town of Lee, Massachusetts, in 1837. The founder of the family of Boies in America was a French Huguenot, who fled from persecution in Europe in the seven- teenth century and found a congenial abiding place in Boston, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he established and carried on for many years the first paper mill put into operation on this Continent. Colonel Boies' parents were orthodox Christians, as is shown in the baptismal names they conferred upon their son, in which they sought to perpetuate the memory of the strong faith and missionary zeal of their ancestors. Young Boies received a thor- ough liberal and classical education, which was completed at Yale College, where he was graduated in the class of 1859. In the following year he joined the famous corps of Zouaves, organized in Chicago by the dashing young Ellsworth, "in which he con- tributed his portion toward awakening the military spirit of the North to meet the great Southern
Rebellion." In 1861 he became a member of the firm of Silver and Boies, and for the next four years was engaged in the freighting and forwarding busi- ness at Tivoli, on the Hudson River. In 1865 he re- moved to Scranton, Pa., where he established him- self as resident member of the firm of Laflin, Boies and Turck, manufacturers of powder. In a com- paratively short time he became quite extensively known in the business circles of that city, identified himself with every progressive movement, and by his zeal and activity in promoting the best interests of the place and its people won a high place in pub- lic regard. In 1869 he was elected to the Presidency of the Moosic Powder Company, a position he still holds. A desire to diminish the frequent and serious accidents, which were constantly occurring in the mines from the careless making of cartridges by lamp-light, led him, in 1873, to the invention and patenting of a cartridge-package for mining powder, which has been almost universally adopted in the Wyoming regions and has undoubtedly largely re- duced the casualties in coal mining. During the last twenty years he has been unwearying in his activities, which have assumed a great variety of forms. When, in the upheavals and excitements of August, 1877, the city of Scranton was compelled to look to its young men to deliver the municipality from the terrors of a lawless spirit which threatened to attain the ascendency, and the now well known "City Guard " was formed, the high character and brave spirit of Mr. Boies at once suggested him as its commander. By the unanimous choice of the officers of the corps he was elected to that position, and, when the organization mustered into the Na- tional Guard of the State as a Battalion, he was com- missioned its Major. In 1878, when the independ- ent companies from surrounding towns were con- solidated with the Battalion to form the Thirteenth Regiment, Major Boies was elected and commis- sioned Colonel, October 10th, in the same year. He proved the right man for this responsible place, and by his energy, self-sacrifices and enterprise en- deared himself to his command, which he raised to such a degree of efficiency as to give it a reputation throughout the Commonwealth. With his pen, also, he sought to awaken true and patriotic interest in the National Guard, and with a marked degree of success. The high place he held in public esteem was well shown by the fact that when he was irri- tated and exhausted in the failure to secure legisla- tive relief for his command from the burden of pay- ing all the bills after doing all the work, and sent in his resignation, the people of Scranton with one accord " besieged him and gave him no peace until that resignation was withdrawn." He withdrew it
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on condition that the Scranton City Guard should bc relieved of the injustice of having to pay for its armory and that it be furnished with sufficient money to make a decent appearance, according to the merit of its members, which condition was ac- cepted and faithfully fulfilled by his fellow-citizens. In 1883, after completing five years' service in the regiment, during which he placed it in a position of efficiency second to none in the State, he declined a second term to which he was re-clected, owing to the great pressure of his business duties. In the spring of 1882 Colonel Boies was chosen President of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, and held that position until his resignation in May, 1886. During this four years connection the company built the new machine shop and pattern shop at the Pennsylvania Avenue Works, remodelled and en. larged the boiler shops and introduced the hydraulic system of flanging and riveting, and by means of improved tools, machines and devices increased the capacity for production and reduced the cost of manufacture so as to furnish employment, during the great business depression of 1884 and 1885, to over six hundred of its skilled workmen, who were thus wisely retained in service, in readiness to meet the great influx of orders which subsequently poured in and taxed the resources of the works to their full- est capacity. During this time the locomotive works of the corporation were also increased by the addition of new and improved machinery, which raised their capacity to one hundred completed engines per annum. The Wilkes-Barre shops also shared in these improvements. While Colonel Boies was at the head of the Dickson Manufactur- ing Company he invented a new and improved steel tired car wheel, known as the " Boies' Steel Wheel," which is so extensively approved and adopted by railroads that he has erected shops for its manufac- ture on Jefferson avenue in Scranton, confident that he will develop out of it an important new in- dustry for the city. The extent and importance of the business interests with which he has been so intimately identified, led him to make a study of finance and to become personally connected with one of the leading banking institutions of the city (the Third National Bank), of which he was an in- corporator and for ten years a director. In 1887 he was elected President of the Scranton Board of Trade, a position for which his experience, judg- ment and broad views eminently qualify him. In 1888 he was elected President of the American Live Stock Express Co. He is also a director in a num- ber of leading manufacturing companies. Except a term upon the School Board and delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago in 1884,
he has never held any political office. He has been for many years a member of the State Executive Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, and is one of the Board of Directors of the Young Men's Christian Association of Scranton; wasits Pres- ident from 1870 to 1874, and in 1888 was again elected to that position. The structure recently built for and now occupied by the Association is the out- come, in large part, of his personal interest and active exertions, and is a notable architectural orna- ment to the city. In 1886 he was appointed by Gov. Beaver, a Member of the Board of Public Charities of Pennsylvania and elected by the Board a member of the Committee on Lunacy, and of its Eastern Ex- ecutive Committec,-whose members constitute the United States Commissioners of Immigration for Pennsylvania,-and has taken an active part in the work of this Board. Since 1878 Colonel Boies has filled the position of Secretary of the Lackawanna Bible Society. In 1884 he succeeded the late Thomas Dickson as President of the Board of Trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church, and was Chairman of the Building Committce during the erection of the beautiful edifice in which that body now wor- ships. He is, in the fullest sense of the term, a man of action and progress, and combines in a rare de- gree, with his pursuit of fortune and the advance- ment of his personal interests, a large hearted desire for the good of his fellow-men, for whose welfare he is constantly laboring.
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