USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 27
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Pittsburgh, where he was soon afterward engaged as master mechanic for the Edgar Thomson Steel Company, to help erect their steel works and roll mill at Bessemer. Upon the completion of these works in 1875, Captain Jones was made General Superintendent and given full charge of the works. He built furuaces A, B, C, D, E, F and G,-H and I being in course of erection. He had at an early age developed a remarkable appreciation for maehincry, and had gained a knowledge of its laws, and showed marked ingenuity in solving difficult problems. His numerous improvements and inventions have made the furnaces which he erected the finest in the world. Of these invcutions his first were, a device for operating ladles in the Bessemer pro- cess, and improvements in hose couplings. These were patented December 12, 1876. In the same month he also patented designs for Bessemer con- verters. His other more important patents are washers for ingot moulds, (1876); hot beds for beuding rolls, (1877) ; apparatus for compressing ingots while casting ingot moulds, (1878); cooling roll journals and shafts, (1881); feeding appliance for rolling mills, and art of making railroad bars, (1886); appliance for rolls, apparatus for removing and setting rolls, housing caps for rolls, roll hous- ings, (1888); and apparatus for removing ingots from moulds, (1889). His last and greatest inven- tion was a method for mixing metal takeu from blast furnaces and charged into two receiving tanks. Letters patent on this inveution had been allowed, but were not yet issued at the time of Captain Joncs' death. In 1888 Captain Jones was appointed consulting engineer to Carnegie, Phipps & Com- pany. He was a member of the American Insti- tute of Mining Engineers, the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the Iron and Steel In- stitute of Great Britain. Some years ago he visited Europe, and was received with great consideration by Krupp, the famous German gun manufacturer, at Essen, besides receiving attention from all the prominent manufacturers of Europe. He was the first man in the United States that received an invi- tation from Mr. Krupp to visit his works. He was the only Pennsylvanian in attendance at the con- gress of steel men held in Scotland in 1888. While there he read an exhaustive paper on the making of Bessemer steel, which was received with applause. He was one of the leading members of the Grand Army of the Republic, a member of the Major Har- per Post of Braddock, and was largely instrumen- tal in procuring the ercction of the Braddock Soldiers' Monument. In 1888 he was chosen Senior Viee-Commander of the Department of Pennsylva- nia, and was prominently mentioncd for State Com-
mander. He was a member of the Masonic Order, of several Welsh societies and of the Loyal Legion. In politics Captain Jones was a staunch and uu- swerving Republican, and a firm believer in the doctrine of protection to American industries. He never had any political aspirations, but he was always ready to serve his party whenever he was needed. At the time of the Johnstown flood Cap- tain Jones took command of three hundred pieked men from Braddock and conveyed them to the scene of the disaster, where under his skilled leader- ship they performed extraordinary deeds in rescu- ing the injured. He always exhibited the greatest friendship and kindness towards the Methodist Church, a denomination which he assisted in many ways, and partieularly in aiding them to commence work on their handsome new church, now in course of erection at Braddock. As was natural, a man whose life was passed in such arduous mental and physical toil, must have some vent in the form of recreation. Captain Jones was an enthusiast over the national game of base ball, attending every game which was played in his vicinity on every possible occasion. During the great strike at Brad- dock he attended a mass meeting of the men, and as soon as opportunity was afforded him, he arose and read a proposition to them. When he had fiu- ished he added : "There it is for you now, you can do what you please with it. I am going to Pitts- burgh to the ball game." The services of Captain Jones to the Edgar Thomson Steel Works were of such a nature-so comprehensive and so capable- that it would be difficult to estimate them at a money valuation. As an illustration of this fact it may be stated that he received as his salary as General Superintendent the sum of $35,000 per year, which his income from royalties brought up to $50,000, thie salary of the President of the United States. He was very generous, however, in charity, and it is estimated that his gifts in various directions amounted to more than $10,000 a year ; many of these were large, and were bestowed so quietly that few kuew auything with regard to them. It is well known, however, that hundreds of poor people in Braddock had cause to be grate- ful to Captain Jones. The fact which rendered the death of Captain Jones more especially a subject of public grief and regret, was the nature of the cir- cumstances under which it occurred. On Septem- ber 26, 1889, a terrible and fatal accident took place at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works. Furnace C, one of the largest of the plant, had not been work- ing properly during the day. A cast had been made and everything was in good shape up to two hours after noon, when the charge collected up,
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forming an arch in the narrower part of the fur- nace. When it was discovered that the metal was not running freely, the men who were endeavoring to remedy the difficulty under the personal dirce- tion of Captain Jones, endeavored to loosen the charge by shutting off the blast. This did not have the desired effect, and other means were being tried, when a sudden break occurred, the flame shooting out tons of molton iron and pouring it upon the men. The terrible rush of metal knocked Captain Jones down into the pit, where he happened to be thrown between two trucks or he would have met instant death. When removed from the pit his elothing was burned entirely from his body, and he was horribly burned about the head. His fall eaused his death, however, as he struek his head on the ear or wall, while it is probable that he might have recovered from the burns. Several other employees were injured at the same time, and all were at onee taken to the Homeopathie Hospital at Pittsburgh for treatment, where Captain Jones breathed his last on the Saturday following at half-past ten o'eloek at night, never having been in an entirely eonseious state from the time of tlie aceident. The five thousand men employed in the great steel works were almost frantie with grief when they heard that their beloved and admired leader was dying ; and both for his recognized ami- able and generous qualities as a man, and because he was known throughout the United States and Europe as one of the most expert and sueeessful steel managers in the world, his sudden death awakened a ehord of sympathy seldom struek to so general an effect. The funeral of Captain Jones took place at Braddoek on the afternoon of Oeto- ber 2. The whole town was draped in mourning. The floral tributes in honor of the dead were nu- merous and beautiful. The pall-bearers were James C. Me Williams, who was the only person with Cap- tain Jones when he died, George Kennan, James Mullooley, James Tolan, Luke Higgins, John Mar- tin, Newton Trees and William Purdy. The hon- orary pall-bearers were Andrew Carnegie, of New York, H. C. Friek, of Pittsburgh, George Lauder, of Pittsburgh, Robert W. Hunt, of Chicago, Owen F. Libert, of Bethlehem, Alexander Hamilton, of Johns- town, James Thomas, of Catasauqua, and Thomas M. Lapsly, of Braddoek. Major A. M. Harper Post, No. 181, G. A. R., aeted as a special eseort, followed by the Hixleman Lodge of Masons of East Liberty, and Monongahela Couneil, Junior Order of United American Mechanies, of Braddoek. The parochial and publie sehools, and all the principal stores of the town were elosed during the funeral. Among the instances of publie recognition of the occasion,
that of the people of Johnstown was notable. At a meeting of the most prominent men of the town, a series of the most flattering and complimentary resolutions were passed. Four children were born to Captain and Mrs. Jones, two of whom are dead and two living, the surviving ones being Mr. W. M. C. Jones, and a daughter Cora. The son is engaged at the Edgar Thomson works as engineer and sur- veyor. Among the many editorial references to his death, the following quotation illustrates the univer- sal sentiment with regard to the character of Cap- tain Jones, and expresses the general regret at his loss :
" Without resort to conventional platitudes, it may be truly said that tlie community mourns. Why should it not? Here was a generous soul, a soul the very essenee of which was the inbred in- stinet of honor ; a bold and resolute, but kind heart which eleaved to the right, but knew charity for the erring; a leader in almost every public enter- prise ; the most trusted guide-wheel to the vast in- dustries of the great firm by which he was em- ployed; a tried and valiant soldier. In eivil life a conspicuous example of the self-suecess which it has been the fond habit among Americans to boast, he was in every respect openly, and in his private life, a type of manhood to which we could turn at all seasons, and experience pleasure and profit in the contemplation. A noble soul has been stilled, and only the comfort remains that the good it has accomplished does not perish with it."
While it is recognized that Captain Jones in his youth was gifted beyond the average boy in having a natural adaptability for meehanies, he achieved sueeess mainly through untiring industry and un- eeasing application. He was emphatically a worker; he had a deep pride in his vocation and was ambi- tious to exeel. He followed the maxim, " There is no true exeellenee without great labor," and tliere is the key to his success. He was a true " Captain of industry," unsurpassed as an organizer, mar- velous in his knowledge of detail, fruitful in experi- ence and inventions, always planning new vietories and winning them. His sueeess is written in the monster establishment at Bessemer, which will re- main a monument to his energy, his skill, his achievements. The position whiel he filled was one which demanded a high order of executive ability, inventive faculty of an extraordinary na- ture, coupled with the power of analysis on the one hand, and of generalization on the other, that are rarely found combined in any one man. The fact that in the possession of these faeulties Captain Jones was pre-eminent, aeeounts for the lofty es- teem in which he was held by those who knew him or who had elose dealings with him. Finally, as the erowning reeord of his life by such a tribute as rarely falls to any man, the following resolutions
a. metcalf
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
are given, as passed on October 3, 1889, at a joint meeting of the managers of Carnegie Brothers and Company, limited, and of Carnegie, Phipps & Com- pany, limited, held at their branch offices in Pitts- burgh :
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" Resolved, That as this firm in all its history has never been called npon to record a loss so tragic as that which has deprived it of its great manager, Captain William Richard Jones, so neither has it ever lost an officer whose services were inore valu- able, or to whom it was more deeply indebted for the success which has attended its operations. .
" Resolved, That valuable as the services of Cap- tain Jones have been, not only to us bnt to steel manufacturers in general, the remembrance of these fade away in the keen pangs of grief awakened in us by the recollection of our friend, the man.
" Resolved, That the history of steel manufacture will record his name with those whose joint labors have brought the art to its present state of perfec- tion ; and in the list of men who have risen from the ranks through the possession of indisputable genius to commanding positions as organizers and mana- gers of masses of men in the industrial armies of this age, the highest rank must be accorded to Cap- tain Jones.
" Resolved, That to us, his employers and friends, who knew him intimately through many years of almost daily intercourse, there is still left in our grief, though he is gone, the precious privilege of meditating npon a combination of manly qualities which constitutes the real man, and which, united in him, gave forth that indefinable, but rarest qual- ity, character; a brave, just, honest, transparent sonl ; a staunch, loyal-hearted, generons friend was he, whose absence from us and from our councils we to-day so deeply mourn.
" Resolved, That his life should have been sacri- ficed in our service must ever hereafter tinge onr thoughts of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works with feelings of profound regret ; and yet we would not forget that the commander fell at the head of his men, at the post of duty, amid the roar of the vast establishment which was his work and which is his monument. A heroic end was his, worthy of the soldier he was, for Captain Jones fell upon the field which he had conquered.
" Resolved, That the firm cannot forget the faith- ful men who died or suffered with their Captain. It begs to thank the survivors, and to assure them that it appreciates to the fullest extent their devo- tion to dnty ; and the profonnd sympathy of the firm is hereby offered to Mrs. Jones and her family, and to the families of those who were stricken by the recent gricvous accident.
" Resolved That these resolutions be engrossed upon the minntes and copies forwarded to the be- reaved families."
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More than ten thousand men followed to the grave the remains of Captain Jones, who had been at once the friend, the associate, the benefactor and the leader of the most of them.
ORLANDO METCALF.
ORLANDO METCALF, manufacturer, was born July 31, 1840, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ITis father, Orlando Williams Metcalf, was a gradnate of Union College, and a lawyer of high reputation. Arunah Metcalf, his grandfather, of Cooperstown, New York, was a member of the Assembly of that State in 1806-'10, and also a Representative in Con- gress in 1811-'13. The latter was the son of Zebnlon Metcalf, of Lebanon, Connecticut-himself a de- scendant of the Metcalf family of England, recent- ly represented in the British Peerage by Sir Charles Herbert Theophilns Metcalf, Baronet, of Fern Hill, Berkshire. The old family crest is a talbot (mas- tiff), the dexter paw supporting a golden escutcheon: the motto is Conquiesco-" I am at rest." Arnnah . Metcalf married Ennice Williams, whose father, Capt. Veatch Williams, married Lucy Walsworth. Capt. Williams was of the fifth generation from Robert Williams, born in 1563 in Norfolk, England, who came to this country in 1637 and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was " a staunch and typical Puritan whose scruples forbade his conform- ity with the tenets of the established church of Eng- land during the intolerable reign of Charles I." Eunice Williams Metcalf (the paternal grandmother of Orlando Metcalf), as the daughter of Lucy Wals- worth Williams, had in her veins the blood of Mar- garet Plantagenet, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence and Lady Isabel, daughter and heir of Richard, Earl of Salisbury and Warwick, in 1499. This lady was (October 14, 1513) advanced to the dignity of Countess of Salisbury, and received let- ters patent establishing her in the castles, manors and lands of Richard, late Earl of Salisbury, her grandfather. Notwithstanding these marks of royal favor, an opportunity was seized upon several years afterwards to destroy the only remaining branch of the Plantagenets in this illustrious lady. At the ad- vanced age of seventy years (31 Henry VIII.), she was condemned to death, unhcard by Parliament, and beheaded on Tower Hill, May 25, 1541. when her dignity as Countess of Salisbury fell under at- tainder. She married Sir Richard Pole, K. G., and had issue Henry, Baron Montague, from whom lineally descended Lucy (Walsworth) Williams. Orlando Williams Metcalf, (her grandson) married Mary Mehitable Knap, May 17, 1826, sister of Charles Knap, founder of the Fort Pitt Cannon Fonndry, Pittsburgh. These were the parents of Orlando Met- calf, of Colorado Springs. Mr. Metcalf's ambition from the earliest days of his youth was to become a business man ; and he enjoyed the benefits of a liberal education, the latter portion of which was
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obtained during the term passed at Kenyon College, Cambria, Ohio, where, however, he did not graduate. In 1858 his uncle was engaged in the manufacture of sugar and cotton machinery for the Southern trade ; and as this seemed to offer the first opportunity for obtaining a business education, he entered the estab- lishment in the lowest capacity, as office-boy, at $75.00 a year. He performed punctually and satis- factorily the duties which the position required, and lived within his income, small as it was. This lat- ter simple fact was the key note to his character. Carrying the principle into all his business relations, he can say to-day that he owes no man anything. During the war, his uncle, Charles Knap, ran his foundry for the manufacture of Columbiads, and was assisted by his nephews William and Orlando Metcalf. From the close of the war until 1871 the foundry was turned to the use of moulding peace- ful as well as warlike implements. Mr. Metcalf next entered into business relations with the " Cres- cent Spring Company," of which he was Manager and Treasurer until 1873, when he started the " Ve- rona Tool Works," under the firm name of Metcalf, Paul & Company, of which he is still the head. This company is engaged in the manufacture of railroad track tools. One of its famous specialties is the Verona Nut Lock, of which there are now more than 150,000,000 in use. In 1879 Mr. Metcalf was suffering from nervous prostration, superin- duced by the stress of his difficult and constantly increasing business cares. He accordingly visited Colorado, where he soon realized the benefits of the climate; and with the natural mental activity of the man, he became deeply interested in the vast natural resources of the State, to the extent that he began to take a prominent part in their develop- ment. At this time the Colorado Midland Railroad was under consideration, and Mr. Metcalf entered into the movement with all his natural energy and his strong business sense, and was elected a mem- ber of its first Board of Directors, and a member of the Executive Committee, and from 1885 to 1888 was Second Vice-President of theroad. He became and is still President of the Pacific Coal and Coke Company, whose fields, located in Gunnison County, Colorado, comprise about 3,000 acres of the finest anthracite coal land, giving strong indications also of silver ore, and possessing slate and marble quar- ries of the rarest qualities. The anthracite coal de- posits, now well developed, have been favorably reported upon by expert authorities, such as Pro- fessor Lawson, of Dalhousie College; Engineer Long, of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway ; Pro- fessor J. W. Langley, of the Chair of Chemistry, Ann Arbor University ; and recently very thorough-
ly and exhaustively by Professor James T. Gardi- ner, of Albany, New York. The latest development of this coal measure shows up 2,500,000 tons of the very finest anthracite coal, equal in every respect to the best to be found anywhere, and covering only an area of 210 acres of the 3,000. The conduct of the affairs of a company engaged in an interest or industry of the extent, value and importance of this would be sufficient, one would suppose, to oc- cupy the entire time and consideration of any one man ; but Mr. Metcalf is also President of the Elk Mountain Railway, extending from Carbondale, Col- orado, to these coal fields, a distance of thirty miles, the line of which has been surveyed and permanent- ly located. Mr. Metcalf married in 1863 Miss Agnes McElroy, daughter of Mr. James McElroy, of Pitts- burgh. The household of Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf re- side during the winter at their Colorado Springs residence, and in summer at Camp Duquesne, Mani- tou Park, on the line of the Colorado Midland, re- markable for the beautiful mountain region which it has opened up to travel and tourists and for set- tlement. From the office boy to the manufacturer and promoter of interests involving the history of another State, is a long step; but Mr. Metcalf's suc- cess has grown out of the principles which he im- bibed in his youth and held to and made practical through all his business life-principles, no doubt, which had their origin in the long line of blooded ancestry to which he can look back with such just pride. "Blood will tell," and in the clear vision and earnest and far-seeing expression which charac- terize the countenance of the subject of this sketch, can be seen the native American quality of the man, and this has grown out of a Puritan and old Nor- man family ancestry.
RHODES S. SUTTON.
RHODES STANSBURY SUTTON, M.D. LL.D., was born on July 8, 1841, at Indiana, Pennsylvania. His father, James Sutton, was, during the course of his life both a successful merchant, and a suc- cessful manufacturer. For several years previous to his death he was President of the First National Bank of Indiana. It was almost entirely owing to his influence that the Indiana branch of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad was built. Dr. Sutton's mother's maiden name was Sarah Stansbury. Her father was a physician. Her grandfather was the first Surveyor-General of the State of Delaware, and for some time was a partner in business with Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame. She is a woman of
PROPERTY OF AUSTIN 1
WEISSPCI 2, CO
Ily
BORN JUNE 3 Til 1821, 2 age 72 - 5- 28. DIED DEC. 1ST 1893.
BURIED at mauch Chunk, Pa.
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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unusual intellectual power and cultivation, and it was mainly through her respect for the profession of medicine that her son was encouraged to follow his own inclination in the choice of a profession. During early boyhood young Sutton attended the public schools of Indiana, and recited private les- sons to his mother, reading under her tutorage, prior to his fifteenth year, an extended course in history. At thirteen years of age he began the study of Latin and Greek, under the Rev. Alexan- der McElwain, then pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Indiana. Under the tutorage of this ex- cellent divine he pursued his studies for two years. In the autumn of 1856 he entered Elders Ridge Academy, where he remained for one year. He then continued his studies for two and a half years in Tuscarora Academy in Juniata County. In the spring of 1859 he entered Jefferson College at Can- nonsburg, Pennsylvania, graduating from there in June, 1862. During the senior year in college, in addition to the studies of the course, he read anat- omy and physiology with the late Dr. J. V. Her- riott. In September, 1862, he entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, registered as a private student of Professor D. Hayes Agnew, who was then conducting a private school of anatomy and operative surgery. He attended the winter course of instruction in the college, and spent the evenings during the entire term, in Dr. Agnew's dissecting rooms. From the spring of 1863 to the spring of 1864, he was attached to the Medical De- partment of the Union Army. He then returned to Philadelphia and resumed his studies under Dr. Agnew,-who had then become connected with the University of Pennsylvania, -and graduated in 1865, receiving the degree of M. D. From the spring of 1865 to the autumn of 1866 Dr. Sutton remained in Philadelphia, serving as House Physician in Block- ley Hospital, and teaching anatomy in the same dissecting rooms in which he spent the winter of 1862. In 1866 he began the practice of medicine in Pittsburgh, where, with the exception of twenty- one months spent in Europe in professional studies, he has remained. In 1879 he was tendered a lec- tureship on the Diseases of Women, in Rush Medical College of Chicago. In 1880 he was elected to the chair of Operative Surgery in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of Baltimore. In 1888 he was elected to the chair of Diseases of Women in the Medical Department of Wooster University, located at Cleveland, Ohio. All these offers were declined for the same reason-that he preferred to remain in his native State. His professional life has been a busy one. For some years his practice has been almost exclusively limited to the medical and surgi-
cal treatment of women. His ambition to obtain the best results possible in surgical work, led him to establish, after his return from Europe in 1883, a Private Hospital for the accommodation of his own patients. This institution has grown to be one of the largest private hospitals in the United States, and its statistics as to the results will compare fa- vorably with those of any similiar institution. Washington and Jefferson College gave him the degree of A. M. in 1865 ; three years after attaining the degree of A. B. In 1886 Wooster University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. For the past sixteen years Dr. Sutton has been a contributor to many of the leading medical journals of the country, to the Transactions of the Ameri- can Gynecological Society, and to several standard works on diseases of women. He is a member of several learned societies of this country and of Great Britain ; and during his extended professional career has achieved deserved distinction in the practice of his profession; more especially in that department pertaining to the diseases of women, in which branch he has an excellent reputation both in the United States and Europe.
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