USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 18
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mont, who was then President-Judge of the Eight- eenth Judicial District, but who still retained his residence at Franklin, although at that time it was not within the bounds of his district. In April, 1845, Thomas S. Espy, then a promising lawyer of Franklin, removed with his family to Iowa. At his solicitation Alfred Brunson McCalmont went with him. After being a short time in Iowa, Mr. McCal- mont concluded that he would not remain, and set out for his home by way of St. Louis. To get the means to prosecute his journey, he taught school for some months at St. Charles, Missouri, until the spring of 1846, when he returned to his native vil- lage, Franklin. His letters to his father and family during this period were very entertaining; full of his trials as a pedagogue, and sparkling with hu- morous touches, very graphically written. In fact, when he had leisure, he displayed in his conversa- tion and correspondence his humorous inclination to the best, nor did he ever cease to take pleasure in reading the works of humorous authors, as Dickens, Thackeray and the like. It would be, however, a mistake to suppose that most of his time was taken up with light reading or social con- versation. On the contrary, he was a very close and thorough student, not content until he had mastered any subject which he undertook, whether in law or other science. His transient companions, who saw him only in his hours of recreation, and observed his good humor, and sallies of wit in con- versation, got mostly but a slight perception of the strength of his character for thorough research and profound meditation which distinguished him in his professional duties. He was extremely modest and diffident in alluding to his own merits. He was admitted to the bar in Venango County in 1847, and then, at the suggestion of his brother John, went to Reading, Pennsylvania, with a view to locating there; but soon discovering that there was not sufficient promise of a practice there, inasmuch as he was unacquainted with the Dutch language, he took the advice of Judge Burnside, and removed his office to Pittsburgh. There he had, as every be- ginner at the bar has in a strange city, a hard time of patient waiting and solicitude as to his future success and support. Gradually as his merits be- came known he acquired considerable practice; conducting with ability his cases, clearing now and then by his advocacy some prisoner in the Criminal Court ; or gaining here and there, by his careful preparation, causes in the Common Pleas or Su- preme Court. But the business was not enough for his active temperament. He wanted to be occu- pied continually. He seemed to fret at the slow- ness of clients, and the smallness of fees. In fact,
his generosity and love of good cheer were so marked, that he was scarcely prepared to gnaw the crusts or subsist on the crumbs of the profession for many years. He assisted his friend Keenan, who was at college with him, in editing the Legal Journal, and also the Daily Union, a Democratic journal. He was a Democrat. But he had located in a Whig or Republican city. It is evident that his true policy would have been to stick to law, and let politics alone. He seems to have been of that opinion himself at times. But he was considered a good stump speaker. As such he was very popular in his native county, and he could not well resist the importunities of his friends to help the party, by his voice, as well as his vote, in election times. In these years he formed an agreeable acquaintance with Miss Sarah Frances Evans, the granddaughter of Mrs. Sarah Collins (with whom Miss Evans lived, her parents being deceased), at whose commodious and hospitable mansion, near the city, the best of society loved to meet. The acquaintance in time ripened into an engagement, and resulted in a mat- rimonial alliance. The wedding took place in Trin- ity Church, Pittsburgh, April 28, 1853. From that time, till the day of his death, Mr. McCalmont was perfectly happy in his domestic relations, and en- joyed intensely the society of his wife and children and home. His arguments in court, as well as his editorials in the Legal Journal and Daily Union brought him to the attention of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and he was ap- pointed Prothonotary. Afterwards Judge Jeremiah S. Black, who had been appointed Attorney-General by President Buchanan, offered Mr. McCalmont, in 1858, the appointment as Chief Clerk, with the assurance that when the office of Assistant Attorney- General should be created by Congress, he should receive that appointment. Under this view he ac- cepted the office, and became the first of the Assist- ants to the Attorney-General. At the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration, when the Democratic party had been disrupted, and the Union threatened with a like fate, Mr. McCalmont, in resigning his office under the new administration, retired to his native town, Franklin, where he entered into part- nership with James K. Kerr, in the practice of law ; but soon catching the spirit of the Union music and determining to keep step to it, in spite of for- mer affiliations or antipathies, he, in conjunction with William Hasson and George R. Snowden, raised a company of volunteers. It became a part of the One hundred and Forty-second Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Union Army, of which Mr. McCalmont was appointed Lieutenant- Colonel. The history of its participation in many
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battles which the Army of the Potomac fought, can be found in many records, and its hard fighting and terrible losses are cngraven on many tombs. The regiment was so reduced by casualties in battle and on the march, that not enough men were left for a battalion. The War Department failed to give or- ders to recruit it. New regiments were forming in Pennsylvania, and Mr. McCalmont was offered and accepted the Colonelcy of the Two hundred and Eighth Regiment. It immediately joined the Army of the Potomac, and continued with it, in General Hartranft's Division, to the close of the war. For his services Col. McCalmont received the brevet of Brigadier-General, by the title of which he was subsequently known. He participated with his regiment, or the remnant of it, in the grand parade in May, 1865, when the veteran troops marched in their last review before President Johnson and Cab- inet at Washington, preparatory to their final mus- ter out of the service. General McCalmont (now brevetted) then returned to his wife and children at Franklin, Pennsylvania, and again resumed his profession. He soon acquired a large and lucrative practice at the bar. He was a candidate for Con- gress in 1866, but was defeated. And in 1872 he was strongly recommended as a candidate for Governor on the Democratic ticket. But he must have been aware that he was on the wrong party ticket for success, however deserving of it he might have been. His friends saw, however, that his success at the bar was assured, and looked forward to fur- ther honors for him; but about 1872 a small tumor appeared on his cheek, near the ear. It gave him much concern, especially when it began to suppu- rate. In the wiuter of 1873 it appeared to be heal- ing, but in the spring of 1874 it again presented an angry appearance, and General McCalmont deter- mined to have it removed by a surgical operation. In the meantime he had been selected as Orator for the occasion of the annual reunion of the Army of the Potomac in May, 1874. He much appreciated the honor, aud was anxious to perform the duty. In April he visited Philadelphia, and there, at the Girard House, whilst engaged in writing his ad- dress, he consulted Dr. Joseph Pancoast, who with his son William, both eminent surgeons, performed the operation of removing the tumor. It created but little pain, and seemed simple, healing easily ; but on the second or third day after the operatiou, symptoms of malignaut erysipelas set in, and so rapidly affected the head and braiu that the physi- cians had from its onset but little if any hope. They did all that medical skill could do, but without avail, and in a week's time, on Wednesday after- noon the 7th day of May, 1874, General McCalmont,
in the presence of his devoted wife, brother, nephews and other kind friends, breathed his last. His remains, carefully and tenderly guarded, were conveyed to his home, where, on Sunday the 10th of May, after appropriate services in the Episcopal Church, they were followed to the tomb, in the Franklin Cemetery, by a very large company of his comrades in arms, legal brothers, fellow-citizens, neighbors and sympathizing friends.
E. N. WILLARD.
E. N. WILLARD, a distinguished lawyer of Scran- ton, was born in Madison, New Haven County, Con- necticut, on April 2, 1835. He attended the schools of his native town in the winter, and worked on his father's farm in the summer, until eighteen years of age, when he entered the office of Ralph D. Smith, Esq., Attorney at Law, at Guilford, Con- necticut. For two years under the instruction of this careful and learned lawyer, with one term in the Yale Law School, Mr. Willard prepared himself for his profession, and in 1857 was admitted to the bar of New Haven County, and in the same year to the bar of Luzerne County, in the State of Pennsylva- nia. He served during the last two years of the war as Captain, Company C., One Hundred and Twen- ty-seventh Regiment, U.S.C.T., part of that time acting as Judge-Advocate General of the Division upon the staff of General R. E. Jackson, command- ing the Second Division, Twenty-Fifth Army Corps. Since the close of the war Mr. Willard has been act- ively engaged in his profession at Scranton, Penn- sylvania. In 1860 he was married to Ellen C. How- er, and has one daughter, now the wife of Everett Warren, Esq., his present law partner. In 1867, aided and assisted by his iutimate friend Ex-Gov- ernor Henry M. Hoyt, he was appointed Regis- ter in Bankruptcy for his Congressional District in the State of Pennsylvania, and filled the office until the business of his district was closed. No man ever found fault with his administration of this office. The firm of Willard & Warren enjoys an extensive law practice, and is retained by the Dela- ware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, The New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Com- pany, The Erie & Wyoming Valley Railroad Com- pany, The Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, The Scranton Steel Company, The Scranton Gas & Water Company, The New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad Company, The Wilkesbarre & Scranton Railroad Company, The Pennsylvania Coal Compa- ny, The Hillside Coal & Iron Company, and many
ENWillard
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other corporations and business firms doing busi- ness in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Aside from his law business, Mr. Willard is also engaged in various other business enterprises in the city of Scranton. He is President of the Scranton Savings Bank & Trust Company, one of the soundest and most care- fully conducted savings' institutions in the State of Pennsylvania. He is also President of The Stevens Coal Company, The Stowers Pork Packing & Pro- vision Company, and a Director and Manager of The Lackawanna Coal Company, Limited. Without the benefits of a liberal education in early life, and with but little material aid, he has with true Yankee grit made his fight alone and unaided. Mr. Willard stands the acknowledged leader of the bar in Scran- ton, and as a nisi prius lawyer is without an equal in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
HENRY A. MUHLENBERG.
HON. HENRY A. MUHLENBERG, a distin- guished lawyer and legislator, was born in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1823, and died January 9, 1854, soon after taking his seat as a mem- ber of the Thirty-fourth Congress. He was the son of Henry A. Muhlenberg, the elder, and Rebecca, daughter of Governor Joseph Hiester. He was in- structed under the direction of his father, and re- ceived at his hands a most thorough education, enabling him, at the age of fourteen, to matriculate at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, where he remained a year, passing thence to Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he entered the sophomore class, and gradu- ated therefrom with the highest honors in the autumn of 1841. He was a close student, especially in the classics and history. Of the latter he was particularly fond, as he considered that an accurate and complete knowledge of past events, their causes and consequences, was an indispensible requisite for those who hoped themselves to assist in making history. He passed the three years, from 1841 to 1844, in the office of his preceptor, Hon. J. Pringle Jones-a ripe scholarand an eminent jurist-engaged in the study of law. The examination for admission to the Reading bar was then conducted in open court, and any member was allowed to examine the candidate. He here acquitted himself so well as to receive the highest praise for his acquirements from the Hon. Wm. Strong, John Banks, and other lead- ing counsellors. His father, who had been, in March, 1844, nominated as the candidate of the Democratic party for the Gubernatorial chair of Pennsylvania, made his son his private secretary.
The latter conducted all his father's correspondence during the canvass. The very sudden death, two months prior to the election, of his father, to whom he was devotedly attached, was such a shock to him that for a year or more he could turn his attention to nothing save the duties of his profession. In 1846; when the Mexican War broke out, he raised a company of volunteers in Reading, and personally tendered their services to the Governor; but the complement of Pennsylvania having already been filled, the offer was declined. In the County Con- vention of 1846, he, with his brother Hiester-the President of that body-was mainly instrumental in causing the adoption of a resolution approving of the principles of the Tariff of 1842, and demanding "that as it was passed by Democratic votes, it should receive a fair consideration from a Demo- cratic Congress." He also delivered a speech in the same body, on the Oregon Question, in which he strongly favored the claims of the United States to all that district of country lying south of the paral- lel of 54° 40'. In 1847 and 1848 he was occupied in writing the life of General Peter Muhlenberg, of Revolutionary fame, which was published, early in 1849, by Carey & Hart, Philadelphia. It was dedi- cated to Jared Sparks, as a slight recognition of his services in elucidating our Revolutionary history. The volume was favorably received by the public, and a complimentary notice appeared in the North American Review, of 1849, from the pen of Francis Bowen, of Harvard University. In the fall of 1849 he was elected to the Legislature as Senator from Berks County, and served the full term of three years. He there acquired such a reputation for in- tegrity, eloquence and business ability as made him the leader of his party, in a body which contained within it some of the most brilliant men in Pennsyl- vania. Shortly after taking his seat he delivered a powerful speech on the supplement to the Act incor- porating the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Com- pany, which greatly influenced the Senate in its decision to pass the measure, and by so doing pre- vented the impending ruin of that great corporation. He was, throughout his term, a member of the Com- mittees of Finance, the Judiciary and the Militia, and for two years Chairman of the first-named body. In the second year of his Senatorial career he was the Democratic candidate for Speaker, though the youngest member of that house, his competitor on the Whig side being Hon. John H. Walker, of Erie (the President of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-'73). The Senate then contained sixteen Whigs, sixteen Democrats and one Native American, and a majority of all who voted was required to elect. On the eighth ballot-and on the third day-when it
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was evident that no choice could be made unless the Whig candidate should vote for himself, the Democratic candidate, together with Messrs. Packer and Guernsey, also Democrats, out of political cour- tesy abstained from voting. Throughout the whole contest the two candidates respectively voted for Thomas Carson and William F. Packer. The early history of the Commonwealth was always a subject of great interest to him, and as chairman of a select committee, to which was referred that portion of Governor Johnston's message for 1851 treating of the care and preservation of the State archives, he reported a bill for the publication, at the expense of the State, of the records of the Proprietary Govern- ment, and of all papers relating to the Revolutionary War, down to 1783. The report of the committee, written by him, was considered by men of all par- ties a most able production. The bill afterwards became a law. He procurcd also the passage of an act, making an appropriation to continue the geo- logical survey of the State, conducted by Professor Rogers. He introduced many important bills to the notice of the Legislature; among others, one em- bodying all the provisions of our present postal money-order system. He favored also the building of new railroads to develop the resources of the Commonwealth, though he was opposed to the State granting any direct aid to these objects. During the whole of his Senatorial term he was, in the words of Hon. C. R. Buckalew, "the bulwark of the Treasury against the assaults of outside inter- ested parties." He was strongly hostile to the en- actment of a prohibitory law in Pennsylvania- similar to the Maine Liquor Law-as he considered that Government had no moral right to pass sumptu- ary laws, or to interfere with private or vested rights. He was ever outspoken in defense of a tariff of such amount and so levied as to protect the great manufacturing interests of the country, and to ena- ble them to enter into competition with the foreign- made article. He also thought, that as iron was an indispensable requisite for any nation, to provide against the contingency of a war, and to render the United States independent of any other country, that a high, though not a prohibitory duty, should be imposed on that article. In the Senate, and in the County Conventions, he-in connection with Judge Strong and other distinguished Democrats- demanded a modification of the Tariff of 1846, in favor of the iron interest-in accordance with the views of Hon. Robert J. Walker, the author of that tariff, views expressed at the time of its passage. He was an earnest opponent of slavery, and con- sidered it "a curse to that community on which it was inflieted; no one could dislike it more than he
did; nor did he ever wish to be thought the friend and advocate of the institution." In his devotion, however, to the Union, and in his desire to do away with all causes which might inflame one section of the country against the other, looking upon the com- promise measures of 1850 as a solemn compact between the North and South, he thought those measures, and the laws resulting from them, should be executed fully, honestly and completely. His devotion to the Union was one of the cardinal prin- ciples of his political faith. The words used by his father, in Congress, at the time of Clay's Compro- mise Act of 1833, might be placed in his mouth also: "The Union is the first and greatest of our national blessings, and to preserve it nothing can or ought to be deemed too precious. I go for the Union, the whole Union, and nothing but the Union. It must be preserved, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." No one who knew him intimately can doubt for a moment that he would have been foremost in the van of those Democrats who in the hour of greatest danger rushed to the rescue of their Gov- ernment, and of their Union. At such a time he would not have been behind his brother Hiester, or his uncle, Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg of Lancaster, in forming that party which, in their opinion, held the true Democratic doctrine, in that it advocated the greatest good to the greatest masses. In July, 1852, he was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for Congress, in Berks County, and was elected in the following October by a large majority. He left Reading late in November, 1853, for Wash- ington, and was present at the opening of the Thir- ty-fourth Congress, but had scarcely taken his seat ere he was stricken down by illness. Everything was done for him that was possible, and it was be- lieved at one time that he was materially improved; but a relapse occurred, and he died January 9, 1854, of hemorrhage and congestion of the lungs. His remains were laid to rest in the Charles Evans Cemetery near Reading. He was a warm and true friend; no act of kindness was ever forgotten by him, and nothing within the limits of possibility was deemed too difficult wlien done in the cause of a friend. His fearlessness in all departments of life was one of the most marked traits of his character ; he never shunned bearing the responsibility of any of his actions ; he did what he considered his duty, no matter what the consequences might be. Above all, throughout the whole of his publie life, lie was a man of unswerving integrity and unblemished honor; he would do nothing, however great the in- ducements to the contrary, which could lower him- self in his own esteem, or in that of others. His standard was ever a high one, and when he believed
2. Sicher
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himself to be right, no power on earth could divert him from the path which honor, good faith, good feeling, and his own judgment pointed out. He possessed an ample fortune, from which he was ever ready to contribute to all objects, whether charita- ble, religious, political, or literary, which deserved his support. As a citizen of Reading, he was fore- most in advancing, by pen, tougue and purse, all projects which could benefit or increase the pros- perity of his native place. Had he lived, he would have written his name on the historical records of his country, and would have impressed his charac- ter on her legislation ; cut off untimely in the flower of his youth, and in the very maturity of his powers, his loss was a great calamity to the Commonwealth. He was married, in November, 1847, to his cousin, Annie H., daughter of the late Dr. F. A. Muhlen- berg, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; and a son and only child, born October 27, 1848, survives him.
GEORGE L. DICKSON.
GEORGE LINEN DICKSON, a leading citizen and distinguished business man of Scranton, for fifteen years President of the Dickson Manufactur- ing Company, (one of the largest corporations of the city,) Vice-President of the First National Bank of Scranton, and prominently connected with other financial, commercial and mercantile enterprises, was born at Lander, Berwickshire, Scotland, Au- gust 3, 1830. His grandfather, Thomas Dickson, was for more than twenty years in the British Army. He was Sergeant of the Ninety-second Regiment of Highlanders, went through the Penin- sula campaign when the French under Bonaparte were driven out of Spain, and with his comrades in arms stood invincible in the shock of the last charge of the French at Waterloo, where Scotch persistency added lustre to British glory. James Dickson, (son of the old soldier) and Elizabeth Linen, his wife, both Scotch by birth, and imbued with Scotch fru- gality and teachings, parents of the subject of this sketch, with a family of six childreu, of whom George L. was the youngest, save one, emigrated to America in 1832, settling first in Canada, but soon removing to the United States, where they found a congenial home in the great iron and coal district of Pennsylvania. He was a skillful mechanic and performed an important and most useful part in the development of his adopted State, and at the time of his death, May 6, 1880, was prominent in the iron and coal interests-the chief sources of its wealth and prosperity. His eldest son, Thomas, (of
whom a sketch may be found in Volume I. of this work, pp. 287,) became one of the leading business men of Pennsylvania. He was the founder and first Presideut of the Dickson Manufacturing Com- pany and also President of the Delaware and Hud- son Canal Company, guiding the affairs of both with signal ability for many years. George L. was a mere infant when his parents sailed for America, and but six years of age when they settled at Carbondale, where he had ample opportunity in the district schools to lay the foundation of his edu- cation. At the age of fifteen years he entered the business world as clerk in a country store, and the next eleven years were spent in mercantile pursuits. Iu 1856 he became connected with the foundry and machine works at Carbondale (now Van Bergen & Co .. Limited,) as managing partner. Four years later he moved to Serantou to take charge of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, which he, to- gether with his father, brothers, and several other associates, had founded at that place in 1856. For nearly a quarter of a century, Mr. Dickson was actively and officially connected with this company, which ultimately became one of the leading manu- facturing companies in the State, and of which, from 1867 to 1882 he was President, succeeding his brother Thomas, upon the latter's resignation of the office owing to the pressure of his duties in connec- tion with the Delaware aud Hudson Canal Com- pany. Mr. Dickson is still a stockholder in this company, of which his nephew, Mr. James P., is now President. Upon resigning from active partic- ipation in the company's affairs, Mr. Dickson es- tablished an independent business as a manufac- turer's agent and dealer in pig-iron, steel boiler plates and forgings, locomotive tires, tubes, steam pumps, railway and machine shop equipments and supplies, aud is still thus engaged. He represents such famous concerns as The Otis Iron and Steel Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, National Tube Works Company, The Standard Tire Company, The Charles Scott Spring Company of Philadelphia, The Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company, and others of equal importance. His large and increasing trade extends throughout the State and into many of the adjoining States both east and west. As a busi- ness man he is known and esteemed in all sections of the country. In Scranton, where so many years of his life have been spent in tireless activity, he occupies an enviable position, being justly classed with the foremost men of the city. Mr. Dickson took a prominent part in 1863 in organizing the First National Bank of Scranton, of which he then became one of the Directors and, in 1887, Vice- President. He also assisted in organizing the
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