USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 11
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not be practicable within the limits of this article to give a detailed list of the bridges and buildings de- signed by Mr. Wilson, either individually or under his direction in the firm with which he is connected. Those on the Pennsylvania Railroad alone would count up among the hundreds, and their cost would figure probably to six or seven millions of dollars or more. There might be mentioned: Susquehanna (Rockville) Bridge; Schuylkill Bridge, Filbert Street Extension ; Trenton, Delaware Bridge and New Brunswick Bridge-all on the Pennsylvania Railroad ;- Broad Street Passenger Station, Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania Railroad; Baltimore and Potomac Station, Washington, D. C .; a large num- ber of stations, shops, etc., on the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, including that at Wee- hawken, etc., etc. Mr. Wilson received the degree of Master of Arts from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1877. He received medals and awards at the Centennial International Exhibition for plans of bridges and buildings, also for the Main Exhibition Building and Machinery Hall. He received a Tel- ford premium from the Institution of Civil Engi- neers, London, England, for a paper contributed by him to that institution in 1879. Mr. Wilson wrote a paper on " American Permanent Way," by special request for the British Association, which was read at the Montreal meeting in 1884, and had the merit of being published " in extenso " in the proceedings of that Association. He wrote the " Mechanical and Scientific" and the "Historical " departments for the Illustrated Catalogue of the International Exhi- bition of 1876, published by Gebbie & Barrie, (Phila- delphia, 1876-8). He has s also contributed sun- dry papers at different times for various scientific and engineering journals. Mr. Wilson is a member of the following scientific societies: Institution of Civil Engineers, London, England; American So- ciety of Civil Engineers (Director, 1888); American Institute of Architects; Franklin Institute (Mana- ger, 1886 to 1887-President, 1887-8-9;) Engineers Club, Philadelphia, (President, 1888); American Philosophical Society, etc.
WILLIAM B. MANN.
COLONEL WILLIAM BENSON MANN, Pro- thonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Philadelphia, ex-District Attorney, ex- Colonel of the Second Regiment of Pennsylvania Reserves, and distinguished both as a lawyer and a politician, was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, November 27, 1816. The family of Mann
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
appears to be remotely of Irish origin, with an intermingling, in later times, of English blood. For several generations back the members of the branch of the family under consideration have been exclu- sively American, and their character does not belie their nativity. Persistent, daring, self-reliant, they have generally attained, iu varied patlıs, the objects of their ambition. The father of Colonel Mann was the late Rev. William Mann, M.A., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church who was widely known and respected for his talents and stainless probity. Born, like his son, in Burlington County, New Jersey, he was left an orphan at the age of five years, and his childhood was entrusted to the nurture of distant relatives and strangers. For a trade he was instructed in the printing business, which harmonized most fortunately with an early- developed taste for learning. As he grew older he applied himself to study with an assiduity that won for him, when comparatively young, the mas- tership in his native county of the Mount Holly Academy. In 1821 he removed to Philadelphia, where he speedily acquired a reputation as a math- ematician and linguist second to none in a city pro- lific in seholars. He joined the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and in it rose to the ministry. Shortly after his advent in Philadelphia he opened a private school, which soon became of good repute for excellence in imparting a thorough knowledge in the higher branches, and in it many of Philadel- phia's brightest and best boys, who afterwards rose to prominence, received their education. He lived to see his son more than fulfill the promise of his early youth, and having enjoyed far beyond the usual span of life, elosed his eyes beneath that son's roof in July, 1867, in the eighty-third year of his age. "His career"-says the writer to whom this biographical sketch is indebted for most of the foregoing facts-"imparts a lesson as purc and instructive as any within the books he taught of modern sage or ancient hero. His love of learn- ing, like his piety, must have been deep and sin- eere. Bereft of natural protectors in helpless child- hood, he won against difficulties and temptations a respected name. Patient, useful, affectionate, lie passed through many varied years, 'wearing the white flower of a blameless life.'" Sueh was the worthy father of the subject of this sketelı. His mother, whose maiden name was Alice Benson, was a lady of great personal worth and beuevo- leuce, who was highly esteemed iu all the relations of life. She died in 1848. The parents of Colonel Mann settled in the Northern Liberties, and there the Colonel himself has resided ever since-a period of close upon seventy years. He grew to mauhood
under the best home influences imaginable, and at his father's academy, and under his personal su- pervision, received a thorough education. When the academy needed an assistant principal he was found qualified for the place, and, being duly in- stalled, began the task of learning to control and develop the minds around him. In the science of mathematics he proved an exceptionally competent teacher, and notwithstanding his youth he was also an excellent disciplinarian. But teaching was not entirely to his taste and while prosecuting it, as an assistant to his father, he also studied law in the office of the Hon. Charles Naylor, then or soon afterwards a member of Congress from the Third Pennsylvania District. His preceptor in the law was a man of strong character and direet methods ; fearless, self-reliant and aggressive. Nature had already bestowed these very qualities upon young Mann, but in the office and under the eye of Mr. Naylor they were developed and perhaps intensified. With the thoroughness always characteristic of him and his family he mastered the law, not as many have, before and since, just sufficiently to pass the examinations, but to a degree that made him a formidable opponent when he argued his first case. His formal admission to the bar took place Novem- ber 27, 1838, just as he had passed his twenty- second year. "Henceforth," writes one who knew him well, " his studies and his books were sure to be a far more complex science, the minds and oceu- pations of men-quicquid dgunt homines. Here he has toiled ever since with unwearied industry ; has gathered such stores as all do who reap in that field, and the best testimony of the kindly human nature of the man is that the bitter crop has neither hardened his heart uor soured his temper." About the time of his admission to the bar he married and took up his permanent residence in the "up-town" section of the city-the "Northern Liberties," where his associates lived and where he could en- joy those outdoor physical sports and exercises for which through life he has retained a stroug affec- tion. There was more practice than profit in the first years of his legal experience, for the habit he had acquired, while his father's assistaut, of im- parting instruction, stuck to him and he made friends and followers rather than dollars. But this was in consonance with his nature. It was strength rather thau weakness. And it was the foundation of that hold upon the affections of men which has made him a power in the Keystoue State. IIe was but twenty-eight years of age when he was nominated for Mayor of the distriet in which he resided. The nominatiou came from the Whig party-of which his honored father was a member
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
and to which he himself was devotedly attached, not blindly because of parental example, but be- cause it appealed to all that was honorable and respectable in his nature. The Whig party was not in preponderance in the "Northern Liberties," but this year it could not have hoped to win cven with a popular candidate, for many of its former ad- herents had joined in the "Native American" movement, which also had a candidate in the field. Under these circumstances the Democrats had an easy task and they elected their candidate, Mr. John F. Belsterling. Mr. Mann proved his great personal popularity by running far ahead of his ticket in this, his first campaign for office, which occurred in 1846-47. In 1850 Mr. Mann was appointed As- sistant District Attorney by William B. Reed, for- merly Attorney-General of the State, but who, nom- inated on the Whig ticket in the year named for District Attorney, under the provision of the new statute, which made the office-hitherto appointive- elective, had been declared beaten but was after- wards, by the courts, declared elected. Mr. Mann had vigorously supported him in the canvass and had been an important member of his counsel when the election was contested. Mr. Reed appointed him Assistant District Attorney, and in 1853 re- appointed him for another term. In 1856 he was nominated for the office of District Attorney by both the "American " and " Republican " parties, and by a union of the votes was elected, running three thousand ahead of any other candidate on the fusion ticket. He was re-elected three years later, on what was called the "People's" ticket ; and in 1862, for a third term, on the Republican ticket. Nominated for a fourth term he was elected by ten thousand majority, the highest received iu that campaign ; and at the expiration of this term, was again re-nominated and a fifth time elected. Dur- ing the more than score of years he served the public in this office, six as Assistant and fifteen as chief, he was assiduous in attending to his duties, which he discharged with distinguished ability. He was well fitted for the onerous duties of the District Attorneyship, but its claims upon his at- tention withdrew him almost wholly from the prac- tice of the civil branch of his profession, in which, it is undoubted, he could have made a much greater pecuniary success and possibly a greater name as a lawyer. In his score of years' service in ferreting out and bringing to justice the lawless of a great and populous city, enough peculiar incident and marvellous coincidences occurred to fill a large volume, and it became his duty to prosecute some of the most cold-blooded murder cases the world ever knew. The strength and determination of Mr.
Mann's character were brought out in a most notice- able way during the campaign of 1856. "It was evident to all men that the throue which the Demo- cratic party had occupied for nearly forty years would in a short time be shaken by a new aspirant, whose strength or character no one could conjec- ture. The battle in Pennsylvania at this time was to the death." As it proved, Pennsylvania was the pivotal State in this campaign and Mr. Lewis C Cassidy, one of its strongest possible candidates, was opposed by the Democracy to Mr. Mann. When the result was first announced it appeared that the latter was beaten by almost six hundred votes. Mr. Mann's previous experience in defend- ing Mr. Reed's claims had given him an insight into the methods adopted in the ultra-Democratic wards, and he stoutly contested the electiou. "Iu the course of the suit of Mann vs. Cassidy, and in the light there thrown on the manner in which the elec- tion of October had been carried in the principal county of Pennsylvania, Mr. Mann appeared the champion foemau against the Democracy in the whole land, and his actions were watched and his name repeated from the seacoast of Maine to where the homes of American citizens nestle at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Legal talent as brilliant and accomplished as cver appeared before any tribunal, battled day by day for nearly seven months before the end was reached." In the case of Mr. Mann it was a struggle not merely for personal success but for principle, and was prosecuted by him at heavy expense and frequently under the most dispiriting circumstances. But he was sustained by a few tried friends and his own indomitable spirit, and in the victory he achieved he acquired the experience and the strength which iu the near future placed him at the head of the Republican party in his county and made him a potent factor in the State. At the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Mann took an active part in sustaining the National Government; and on May 27, 1861, was directed by General McCall to take the organized companies that had been mustered into the State service at Philadelphia and march them into camp at Easton. He was given the rank of Colonel and placed in charge of this camp, which was named Camp Washington, and to which he brought some thirty companies for purposes of drill. When the State of Pennsyl- vania summoned into the field a Reserve Corps, Colonel Mann directed his efforts to the organiza- tion of a regiment. No time or labor was spared to place the men at the disposal of the State author- ities at the earliest possible moment. Recruited in Philadelphia, the regiment rendezvoused at Camp Washington, and when organized elected Colonel
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Manu to its leadership. Frecd temporarily from his official duties as District Attorney by a special act of the Legislature empowering him to appoint a Deputy, Colonel Mann took the field with his com- mand, and during the campaign of that summer and fall remained in active service. When the army went into winter quarters he resigned his colonelcy and returned at once to his civil duties. He returned not to rest, bnt to meet requirements as urgent from a political point of view as any he might have been called to face in the field. Repub- lican snccess in Philadelphia was not doubted in the campaign of 1862, but it was not to be put in jeopardy by the absence of a leader. Colonel Mann met his old antagonist, Mr. Lewis C. Cassidy, but the latter went down before his formidable oppo- nent, almost without a struggle. And so the cur- rent ran-victory followed victory, until, in 1874, Colonel Mann finally laid down his arms on the field- of active politics. In 1875 he was appointed to the office of Prothonotary of the Conrts of Com- mon Pleas of the County of Philadelphia. He was the first incumbent of the office created under the Constitution of 1874, which merged the two previ- ously existing offices of Prothonetary into one and gave the selection of the officer to the twelve jndges of the Courts of Common Pleas. His appointment to the place was a concession to the universal senti- ment of press and public that he was the man for it, and since his incumbency he has proved one of the best who has ever been called to administer the duties peculiar to it. He has the details of the office at liis finger's ends and watches with zealous care the business of the courts and the fidelity and correctness of the records. Modestly, but firmly, lie has brought the work of the office to a degree of perfection which it is almost difficult to compre- hend without a personal experience of its admirable workings. It is almost needless to say that he has the sincere thanks of the entire body of citizens for his absorbing devotion to this most important work. As a political leader Colonel Mann has qualities which few possess. A leading Philadelphia editor has said of him; " I doubt whether Philadelphia has ever produced a more potent and brilliant specimen of the partisan leader. Since he has settled back in the mellow twilight of advancing years there has been no one who can be said to have succeeded him. He had all the qualities of a leader of men -- physical brawn, commanding intellect, unflinching courage, magnetism, tremendous capacity for labor, devotion to friendship, pride in his followers, flu- cncy and force of speechi. He was strong both in the small arts of management and in the showy exercise of public leadership. With the subtlencss
of a diplomatist and the keenness of a detective he had also the boldness and dash of a soldier. He was as expert in the caucus as he was daring on the hustings. He was equally at home before a crowd of volunteer firemen in an old-time hose-house, or before the bench of the Supreme Court; before a meeting of division workers or before the most imposing National Convention. No man, however great or however hnmble, would fail to recognize his natural power over his fellows." His percep- tions are rarely at fault, a notable instance of which is afforded by his early advocacy of General Grant for the Presidency. He it was who, in 1867, organ- ized the first Grant Club and started the movement which resulted in the nomination of the distin- guished General to the Chief Magistracy of the Na- tion. The secret of his almost unexampled political snccess is not to be sought in his learning, his ora- tory or his magnetism. It lies in the fact that he has chosen to live close to the people, and has never songht other intellectual sympathy than theirs, feel- ing in his honest, manly heart, "that in the nin- spoken voice of large masses there exists a truth which even genins might bend to reverence." His constancy to his opinions and to his friends is worthy of especial admiration. "His course in stormy times," says a friend, " seems as steadfast as the Northern star. Slander, invective, con- tumely fail to move him, the party may change around him, but he does not change." As a lawyer, he is more than well-trained, for his experience has been remarkably long and especially varied and eventful. In the learning of the criminal law he is probably without a peer at the Philadelphia bar. His mind is keeu and vigorons, swift to detect errors-swifter still to perceive and unveil crime. In his manner of addressing a jury, the logical pre- vails over the imaginative, and strives rather to convince than to sway. In personal appearance he is striking, being of large build and impressive, although kindly aspect. He has often been de- scribed as a handsome man, and such, in truth, he could be called by those who see in vigorons health, a well-ordered mind and that kindliness of counte- nance which ever betokens a good heart, the most striking manly beauty. One of his leading traits is his consideration for the poor and unfortunate. His charity is proverbial, and is never bounded by political or sectarian lines. No worthy object ap- peals to him in vain for assistance. His labors in aid of a number of public charities are well-known. In one of these, the Wills Eye Hospital, he is par- ticularly interested, and as a member of the Board of Directors of City Trusts has effectively urged its claims to public support. To mention his public
Ino Welsh
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charitable work in detail would be a task of magni- tude, while to enumerate his private acts of kind- ness and sympathy would be impossible. Hc is a member of a number of Societies and Orders, or- ganized for a variety of purposes, and his benevo- lent work in these alone is enough to absolve him from any other claims upon his charity. In all his exciting and exacting career he has never lost the love of learning which was transmitted to him from his honored father. He was long one of the com- paratively few members of the bar with a reputa- tion for classical scholarship, and in his home to- day, where he is surrounded by every luxury that a refined taste might crave, his greatest pleasure after intercourse with his family, is found in his library. His country place, "Eddington Farm," on the Delaware River some fourteen miles from Philadelphia, always possessed great attractions for him, as he has always been very fond of hunting, fishing, and all out-door athletic sports. Colonel Mann married, on April 15, 1839, Miss Margaret Ketler, daughter of John Ketler, of Philadelphia. At his elegant city residence, corner of Nineteenth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, he recently cele- brated his golden wedding. The guests numbered fully fifteen hundred and included not only the most distinguished people of the city, but all of his old and tried friends, even the humblest. The celebration was one of the most brilliant and enjoy- able ever occurring in the city. The honored couple were assisted in receiving their guests by their children and grandchildren, Mr. Charles N. Mann, the eldest son, and his wife, together with their children-Miss Mabel H., Miss Alice Benson and William B. Mann, Jr., standing on one side; and Miss Emmie Mann and Mr. Harold Mann, the latter accompanied by his wife, on the other. Con- gratulatory telegrams were received from many parts of the world, and from a number of distin- guished American statesmen, friends of the inter- esting couple. The life of Colonel Mann, if written in detail, would be found to be closely interwoven with nearly every event of importance occurring in Philadelphia during the last generation ; and would connect him with many institutions previously ex- isting, now obsolete, and with many events almost forgotten. The local power he enjoyed has perhaps never been surpassed by that wielded by any other single individual, and that he has never used it for purely selfish purposes will ever be his most endur- ing monument. He has been truly loyal at all times and under all circumstances to Philadelphia, and in the pages of her history his record will long survive as that of one of the most fearless, most unselfish and ablest of her distinguished citizens.
JOHN WELSH.
HON. JOHN WELSH, President of the Board of Finance of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, in Philadelphia, and Minister to England, was born in Philadelphia, November 9, 1805, and died in the same city April 10, 1886. His earlier ances- tors were Swedish and British settlers in America. His father, after whom he was named, lived near Christine, Delaware, whence he removed to Phila- delphia in 1786, becoming there a prominent and prosperous merchant. He had three sons-Samucl, William and John ; and these he trained to a mer- cantile life, and as they became qualified gradually surrendered to them his large and growing enter- prises. John Welsh received his education at a boarding school, kept by an English gentleman, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, " and after a few years of hcarty study," to use his own words, he was put to work to earn his living. Leaving school before he was fourteen he entered into mercantile pursuits, and subsequently became a partner in the firin of his brothers, S. & W. Welsh, for more than half a century one of the largest commission houses in Philadelphia. Meanwhile the subject of this sketch interested himself greatly in public and charitable affairs, and for more than twenty-five years prior to his decease he was a leader in all great public movements which were undertaken in - Philadelphia. From his early youth Mr. Welsh was a member of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church, for fifty-four years a member of the vestry, and for eighteen Rector's Warden, besides frequent- ly serving at the diocesan convention as a lay dele- gate, and as Treasurer of the fund for the support of the Episcopate. In connection with his relations to the church, he also took an active part in the foundation and support of the Episcopal Hospital, making himself entirely responsible for the build- ing fund of that institution, which between the years 1862 and 1876 amounted to the sum of $331,- 992. Prior to 1866 Mr. Welsh had himself contribu- ted to this fund more than $12,000. In the next four years he added over $18,000 to his gifts, and in 1876 gave $10,000 more, making nearly $41,000 in all. Mr. Welsh was one of the founders and the President of the Merchants' Fund, an organization which in an unpretentious way has done a vast deal of good by assisting merchants who have suffered business reverses, or who by age or sickness have become incapacitated for active work. In 1864, when the great Central Sanitary Fair was held at Logan Square in Philadelphia, Mr. Welsh served as Chairman of the Executive Committee having it in charge. In this position he obtained the experi-
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ence and confidence in himself which served him so well in his greatest work, that of managing the finances of the Centennial Exhibition. The Sani- tary Fair was held in buildings whose aggregate lengtli amonnted to 6,500 feet, and yet wliclı were constructed in the brief period of forty working days. The profits of the Fair amounted to over one million dollars. In money and supplies the Phila- delphia agency of the United States Sanitary Com- mission received from this source over a million and a half dollars, nearly all of whichi was expended by the Commission in promoting the health and com- fort of the soldiers and sailors of the Union forces. About $300,000 was expended directly in Philadel- phia and vicinity for similar work. The success of the fair was justly attributed in a large degree to Mr. Welsh's untiring efforts; and at its close he was presented with ten richly bonnd volnmes of souvenirs bearing a complimentary inscription. Nine years afterwards, (in April, 1873) thie Centen- nial Board of Finance was organized nnder an Act of Congress passed Jnne 1, 1872. Mr. Welsh was chosen President of this organization, with the full belief that he would bring to the new enterprise the same energy which had been of so much service in the Sanitary Fair, with the added experience which he had obtained while conducting that colos- sal beneficent undertaking. These expectations were fully realized. Mr. Welsh successfully man- aged and directed the vast finances of the Exhi- bition, sometimes lending his personal credit to save the enterprise when it was threatened with failure, and he remained President of the Board of Finance until the final adjustment of all the ac- connts of the great Exhibition. It was the opinion among those best qualified to judge, that his con- tinnons and arduous labors contributed more to the success of the Centennial Exhibition than did those of any other one person. In order to better under- stand and appreciate the services rendered by Mr. Welsh in this direction, it should be remembered that while there was a Centennial Commission in general charge of the undertaking, the Board of Finance, of which he was President, selected the gronnds, erected all the buildings and raised all the money required for that purpose. The money problem proved to be one of extreme difficulty, par- ticnlarly when unexpected demands for space com- pelled the enlargement of the original plans, and required the expenditure of mncli more money than had been collected. There were times, indeed, (though unknown to the general public) when the failure of the enterprise seemed inevitable ; but Mr. Welsh never lost heart, and aided by the able ef- forts of his co-laborers, chief among whom were
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