USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 41
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Darling was an Episcopalian in religious belief and a regular attendant at St. Stephen's church, of which in his youth he was a valued member of the choir. 1Ie was a man of true religious feeling, and was much given privately to works of charity. He had a sympathetie heart and responded feelingly to the sufferings and misfortunes of others. Those who knew him well, declare that no deserving per- son ever left his hearing withont having received material assistance. He took the greatest pleasure in the refinements of life and was very fond of art, music and literature; and encouraged all three in his own modest way. He possessed critical tastes of a high order and exercised them frequently with happy effect in the purchase of works of art for the ornamentation of his home or of institutious with which he was connected. Mr. Darling's death was hastened in all probability by his conscientious dis- charge of duty, particularly in the period of depres- sion between the years 1876 and 1880, when the troubles of his clients-which he sympathetically made his own,-weighed upon him heavily and seriously affected his health. During the last ten years of his life he was more or less of an invalid, but always gentle and uncomplaining, and ever at work. In that period he sustained two paralytic strokes; and what physicians have called neuralgia of the heart, caused him great suffering in his later years. His death was sudden-due, it is supposed, to "heart clot." The news of his demise produced a great and profound sensation of sorrow among his fellow-citizens, for not only was he a leading light in his profession, but he possessed the respect and con- fidenee of the entire community, and was associated with most of its public acts and enterprises. The various bodies with which he had been connected met to give formal expression to their grief at his loss. At the meeting of the members of the Luzerne bar, A. T. Mcclintock, Esq., presiding, brief ad- dresses enlogistic of the deceased were made by many persons present, and the following series of resolutions, drafted by Mr. Alexander Farnham, were unanimously adopted :
" Resolved. That the members of the bar of Luzerne County have learned with profound sor- row of the death of their fellow-member, Edward P. Darling, Esquire."
" Resolved. That in the death of Mr. Darling not only has the community lost a foremost citizen, our profession a distinguished ornament, but each mem- ber of the bar feels a deep and abiding sense of per- sonal bereavement."
" Resolved. That we tender to the family of the deceased our heartfelt sympathies in the great sor- row which has fallen upon them."
"Resolved. That a copy of these proceedings be presented the Court at its next session, and, with its permission be placed upon the minutes thereof."
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" Resolved. That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of the deceased, and that they be printed in the newspapers of the county."
The Trustees of the Osterhout Public Library at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, adopted a series of minutes commemorative of the death and virtues of the deceased, a part of which reads as follows :
"We were bound to him by more than ordinary ties of friendship. Our business and social relations with him enabled us to apprehend with a clear vision and grateful appreciation, his many and varied accomplishments and the generous friend- ship that sprang from the best of human sympathies. The qualities of his mind and habits of life that enabled him to attain a foremost rank in the profes- sion of law, rendered his counsel invaluable in the many perplexing questions arising in the manage- ment and development of the estate committed to our care; and in the establishment of the library, its plan of administration and the scope of its purposes, his experience, his knowledge of books and scholarly taste, were constant aids in the work. His high character and known conservatism helped in a large measure to hold the confidence of the public in the actions of the board at a time when it was most valu- able to the interests of the trust and the beneficiar- ies thereof. He was a man strong of himself and moreover a source of strength to his co-workers, and we recognize that to him is due a large share of the success that the library has met with. In testimony of our respect for the character of our late associate it is
" Resolved. That in the death of Edward P. Dar- ling, late the President of the Osterhout Free Library, we recognize the loss of a cherished friend, a wise counsellor and co-worker in the duties committed to us, that we will attend the funeral in a body, and that the library be closed during the hours of the funeral."
The following minute and resolution, drawn up by Messrs. Sheldon Reynolds, George S. Bennett and Hon. C. D. Foster, were adopted at a meeting of the Directors of the Wyoming Bank :
"Edward P. Darling, late the Vice-President of this bank, died at his home in this city, Saturday, Octobor 19, 1889, at the age of fifty-eight years.
"During nearly nine years he had been a Director and for the same length of time Vice-President of this bank. The duties of the position, often onerous, always of a responsible character, he discharged with uniform fidelity and ability.
"His sterling integrity, sound judgment, wise forecast of events, conservatism, promptness and correct business methods, united with a rare talent in matters of finance, marked him as an invaluable counsellor and a wise and judicious administrator.
"The many and varied interests that had been committed to his care identified him in an excep- tional degree with the business and industrial life of this community, and under his counsel, both as a man of affairs and in his professional capacity, much of its activity was guided.
" Bred to the law he long since attained distinc- tion in his profession, and the same qualities of
mind and habits of industry and energy that won him success and substantial reward in the practice of the law brought about a like result in his ex- tended business relations.
"A scholarly man, of exalted character, refined tastes and of genial friendships, he had won the con- fidence and esteem of all who knew him, and his untimely death is sincerely mourned by the com- munity of which he was a useful and honored member.
" As a mark of respect for the character of our late associate, it is
" Resolved. That in the death of Edward P. Dar- ling this bank has been deprived of an efficient offi- cer and a judicious counsellor, whose long and able service in its management was alike beneficial to the institution and creditable to himself; that a sense of personal bereavement is brought home to each member of this board, and while mourning our loss we tender our condolence to the family of our late associate, and further that we will attend the funeral in a body."
At a special meeting of the Directors of the Miners' Savings Bank, to take action on the death of Mr. Darling, their Vice-President, the following resolutions werc unanimously adopted :
" Resolved. That by the death of Edward P Dar- ling, the Miners' Savings Bank has been deprived of a faithful, conscientious and capable officer, and the community of a citizen of marked ability and usefulness.
"The prominent traits of his character were fidelity to duty under all circumstances, remarkable industry in business, unquestioned integrity, and a sense of manliness and honor rarely equalled and never excelled. To great learning in his profession he added the grace of general culture, and to both the instincts, habits, and unfailing deportment of a gentleman. He was a conservative and safe coun- sellor, a gencrous and public-spirited citizen, and a fast friend. Without ostentation he pursued his way in the successful management of great and varied interests, seeking only the reward due to a conscientious performance of duty. He was in every relation of life a true man. We mourn his loss and revere his memory.
" Resolved. That an engrossed copy of these reso- lutions be presented to his family with the sincere condolence of the Directors of this bank, and that they will attend his funcral in a body."
Mr. Darling married, on September 29, 1859, Emily H., a daughter of Nathaniel Rutter, Esq., of Wilkes-Barre, who died in 1882, leaving issue, three children, viz. :- Miss Mary Rutter Darling, Miss Emily Cist Darling and Mr. Thomas Darling, the last named a graduate of Yale College and now a practicing lawyer at Wilkes-Barre. The Rev. Dr. Henry Darling, an elder brother of the deceased, is President of Hamilton College, to the administration of whose affairs he brings all the requisite qualifica- tions, together with the unflagging activities so characteristic of the family, in whatever field of effort their energies may be directed.
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ALEXANDER L. CRAWFORD.
ALEXANDER L. CRAWFORD, President and General Manager of the New Castle and Beaver Val- ley Railroad, Pennsylvania, was born near Norris- town, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Febru- ary 5, 1815. He came of old Irish stock, his paternal great-grandfather having migrated to this country from Ireland about the year 1720, and set- tled ncar Norristown, where his grandfather and father were born. The farm which was the birth- place of the subject of this sketch was in the pos- session of the Crawford family for nearly a century. Both Andrew and Elizabeth Crawford, the parents of Alexander, were natives of Montgomery County, where the father died in 1834, the mother having died in 1828. Andrew Crawford carried on an extensive farm and lime-kiln business in Montgom- ery County up to the period of his death. Alexan- der was raised on his father's farm and worked upon it until the latter's death in August, 1834, when he took charge of the large lime-kiln interests of the estate, for Messrs. Thomas and Hooven, who rented the property and carried on the business, which employed about fifty men, and burned about a thousand bushels per day for three years. Alex- ander then sold the property, and in 1836, married Miss Mary R. List, of Montgomery County. He now went into farming, in which he continued until 1841, when he abandoned that business as not suf- fieiently profitable, sold his farm and removed to New Castle, Pennsylvania. He went into the flour mill business, started a rolling mill, and continued at these vocations until 1864. At that time money was plenty and everybody wanted to invest in sub- stantial lines of business, therefore those in which Mr. Crawford was engaged ranked high. He was so shrewd as to see that this was the time to turn his capital at a profit, and accordingly sold out, at "war prices." In 1842 he had purchased the Springfield furnace, and made charcoal iron for the use of the rolling mill, and in 1847 he built the Tremont blast furnace, near New Wilmington, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, which he sold out ten years later. In the summer of 1853 he bought the Mahoning furnace, situated at Lowellville, Ohio. He built a railroad two miles to the coal mines to cheapen the cost of the coal used in the fur- nace. He ran this furnace a month, when he blew it out and instituted many improvements in it. By bringing the gas down from the tunnel head to the boilers and hot blast, he was able to make a saving of thirty dollars a day ; making this the first furnace run in the United States with gas, successfully, with the boilers and hot blast located on the
ground. The increased quantity of iron per week was from thirty-five to eighty-five tons-with the same quantity of blast. In May, 1864, he sold this furnace out at a good price. In 1868 he built the two Etna furnaces at New Castle, sold them out in 1872 when iron was high, and gave the owners for four years' interest, one hundred and fifty per cent., besides their original capital. In 1872-4, he built two blast furnaces at Terre Haute, Indiana, one of which was afterwards renioved to Gadsden, Ala- bama, and both of which are still run by Mr. Craw- ford's sons, Andrew and James P. In 1876 he built the Sligo furnaces, in Dent County, Missouri, which are still in operation, making fifty tons of charcoal iron daily. In 1875 he built the Wabash rolling inill at Terre Haute, Indiana, still run by his sons, Andrew and James P. In the fall of 1884 Mr. Crawford bought the Neshannock furnace in New Castle. He made many changes in this fur- nace, increasing the output from seven hundred and fifty to thirteen hundred tons per week of Bes- scmer pig. As early as 1855 Mr. Crawford had sunk the first coal shaft in Mercer County, Pennsyl- vania, in the block coal, which works raw in the furnace ; and in 1866 he sank the first coal shaft in the block coal in Clay County, Indiana, and of this district the daily product of coal is now about four thousand tons. The first iron ore ever shipped from Marquette, Michigan, was five tons shipped by Mr. Crawford for experimental purposes. The result of the experiment was so satisfactory in quality, that the increase in shipment grew enor- mously, the Lake Superior district sending out in 1889 over seven million gross tons, enough ore to make more than one-half of the pig iron used in the United States in 1889. Mr. Crawford's remarkable discernment in regard to everything connected with his business was shown in the year 1857, when the first blast furnace was built in Pittsburgh by Graff, Bennett & Co. They undertook to run the furnace on coke made from Pittsburgh coal. Mr. Crawford assured the firm that the attempt would be unsuc- cesssful, which proved to be the case. They tried it for some time, piling up iron which could not be used, until it grew to be more than they could earry. They were in a bad position, when Mr. Crawford offered to get them out of the scrape, provided they would implicitly follow his direc- tions, which they agreed to do. He sent them up to Connellsville to get a coal bank to coke the coal on the ground, until they could build some ovens, and bring it to Pittsburgh and use it in their fur- nace, when he would guarantee they would make good iron. All turned out precisely as Mr. Craw- ford had predicted. Mr. Bennett was very anxious
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to find out how Mr. Crawford knew this, but the latter would not tell him, and chuckles over the fact that he never has to this day. From that small beginning arose the vast Connellsville Coke indus- try, whose daily output is now over ten thousand tons, increasing about as rapidly as the Lake Supe- rior ore trade. Mr. Crawford made his first at- tempt at railroading when he was nineteen years old, and he put in the first switch ever applied up to that time, 1834, for switching a car or cars from the main track. The practice before that was to have a turn-table, turn them by hand, and run them one at a time, out at right angles with the main track. There were at that time just four locomotives in use in the United States. The
Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Rail- road had the first one built by Mr. Baldwin, and called the "Ironsides." It only weighed about twelve tons, and had no cab, so that the company advertised that on pleasant days the locomotive would pull the cars, but on rainy days the horse cars would run as usual. Since that period Mr. Crawford has built the New Castle and Franklin Railroad, and a number of short coal roads, while assisting to build the Youngstown and Ashtabula Railroad, the Lawreuce Railroad, the St. Louis, Sa- lem and Little Rock, the Newcastle and Beaver Valley, and the Nashville and Kuoxville Railroad in Tennessee. One hundred miles of this latter road extends from Lebanon to the block coal fields of Overton County. These are the largest fields of that kind of coal in the United States. It will make iron in the raw state, as it comes out of the mine. This road, when completed to Knoxville, will shorten the distance over the present route via Chattanooga, some sixty miles, from Nashville. Concerning this last enterprise, Mr. Crawford says, -" When I get this road to the coal mines, of which I own many thousands of acres, I shall quit build- ing railroads, as my health is poor, and my age seventy-five years." Mr. Crawford is President of the New Castle and Beaver Valley Railroad, Treasurer and General Manager of the Nashville and Knox- ville Railroad, Vice-President of the National Bank of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, Vice-President of the Sligo Furnace Company, of Missouri, Presi- dent of the Kimberly Iron Company, of Michigan, and President of the Crawford Irou and Steel Com- pany of New Castle. Of late years he has sold out his interests in many more extensive corporations, and retired from his official connection with them. Mr. Crawford has had eight children, and has four sons and one daughter now living. Andrew J., the oldest son, and James P. the third son, are located in Terre Haute, Indiana, where they manage large
furnaces and control the local electric plant. Hugh A. Crawford, the second son, is engaged in the iron business in St. Louis, and is Vice-President of the Continental Bank of that city. The youngest son, John L., is interested in the iron business in New- castle. Mr. Crawford's only daughter married L. S. Hoyt, Esq. formerly of New Jersey, now of New Castle, Pennsylvania. Mr. Crawford was a pioneer in the three most important industries in the United States: the production of coal and iron, aud the building of railroads. He has seen these interests grow from small beginnings to vast pro- portions, and now can enjoy the satisfactory reflec- tion that he materially aided in their advancement. Indeed it is doubtful if the progress of either would have been so rapid in the beginning of their history, were it not for the shrewd, far-seeing judgment of Mr. Crawford. He has been a mau of national as well as local reputation, for the quickness and keenness of his perception, and the accuracy of his judgment in regard to all those matters which he has made a life-long study. Gifted with a memory of marvelous strength and accuracy, he can give the cost of prospecting and running coal mines from the time the fields are discovered; and the cost of material and building, and the earning of every mile of railroad with which he has ever been connected. With regard to these subjects he is an indisputable authority, sought after and respected, far and near. His life has been one full of earnest and faithful work, crowned with success and with the respect and admiration of all who know him.
OSCAR L. JACKSON.
HON. OSCAR L. JACKSON, of New Castle, a distinguished soldier, lawyer, and Member of Con- gress, was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, (at that time part of Beaver County,) September 2, 1840. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish, and very early settlers iu the State. His great-grandfather, Samuel Jackson, settled on a farm a short distance south of the city of New Castle, in 1797, and the farm has ever since remained in possession of the family. His great-grandmother Jackson's maideu name was Janet Stewart, and she was the daughter of Major John Stewart, who settled near Philadel- phia at an early day, and served in the American army during the Revolutionary War. She was a sister of John Carlyle Stewart, who laid out the town of New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1798, and built a few years later the old forge on the Neshan- nock, where the first bar iron was made in western
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Pennsylvania. Oscar L. Jackson's grandfather, James Jackson, was a soldier in the American army during the War of 1812. His mother's maiden name was Nancy Mitchell, a native of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and a descendant of a Scotch-Irish emigrant who settled on the banks of the Susquehanna river. She died in 1859. Colonel Jackson's father, S. S. Jackson, still lives, at the age of seventy-five, having been born August 15, 1815. He occupies the farm which was settled in 1797. There are two brothers living: Dr. D. P. Jackson, of New Castle, and IIon. E. W. Jackson, of Harrisburg ; and a sister, Mary, the youngest of the family. He has two half sisters, Anna and Jane. Colonel Jackson was teaching school at Lo- gan, Ohio, the winter before the breaking out of the Civil War, and recruited a company in that vicinity. He entered the Union army as Captain, Company H, Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry ; and served continuously to the close of the war, a term of four years, from August 1861, to July, 1865. His first active service was in Missouri under General Pope, including the actions at New Madrid and the operations that resulted in the capture of Island No. 10. His regiment afterwards joined Gen. Halleck's army at Pittsburgh Landing, and took part in all the operations of the siege of Corinth, being a part of the troops engaged in the action at Farmington, and the assault on the 28th of May, 1862. This reg- iment was also in General Grant's operations in September, 1862, which resulted in the battle of Iuka Springs, Mississippi, being in Stanley's di- vision, which had the principal part of the fighting to do in that engagement. In the battle at Corinth, Mississippi, October 3 and 4, 1862, his regiment, under General Rosecrans' command, gained very distinguished credit, and is prominently mentioned in Greeley's History of the Rebellion. In this bat- tle, on the 4th, Colonel Jackson received a severe gun shot wound in the face, the bullet entering near the right eye where it yet remains, never having been extracted. He is spoken of in the official report of the battle as " A young officer of great promise who is severely and, it is feared, mortally wounded, who held his company in perfect order until two-thirds of his men were killed and wounded." Colonel Jackson's regiment was one of those that immedi- ately supported Battery Robinett on that day, and without works or protection of any kind, met the repeated charges of the enemy in that terrible bat- tle. After recovering from his wound, Colonel Jackson rejoined his regiment, and in 1863 was with the division which escorted Straight's Cavalry through the enemy's lines when starting on their famous Southern raid, and afterwards engaged tlie
enemy sufficiently to divert attention from the movement. He subsequently took part in the various operations, in the summer of 1863, of Gen- eral Dodge's command in northern Alabama and Mississippi, and along the Mississippi river from Memphis to Vicksburg, during the siege of the lat- ter city. His regiment at this tiinc belonged to the Sixteenth Army Corps, and liad full share in all the movements of that corps. After the fall of Vicks- burg he was with that part of the army which marched with General Sherman overland, from the Mississippi river east, to the relief of Chattanooga and Knoxville; his division being detached and sent to the right to secure the railroad at Elk river. In the campaign of 1864 Colonel Jackson's regi- ment was in the Seventeenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, under command of General Mc- Pherson. He was constantly with his regiment, and engaged in the battles of Snake Creek Gap, Re- saca, Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain and the siege of Atlanta. He was with that part of the army which made the movement south of Atlanta, fought the battle at Jonesboro, drove the enemy off the Macon Railroad, and thus secured the fall of Atlanta. After the fall of that city, when the enemy under General Hood moved in the rear of the Union army, Colonel Jackson took part in the operations to drive him off the railroad, and was at that time in command of his regiment, as he had been on frequent occasions before. Colonel Jackson was with Sherman on the " march to the sea," at the capture of Savannah, and on the campaign through the Carolinas. Hc commanded his regiment in the operations preced- ing and at the surrender of Johnston's army, and likewise at the grand review at Washington, and then conducted it to Louisville, Kentucky, where it remained until ordered "mustered out " in July, 1865. Colonel Jackson was successively promoted to be Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, and was on the recommendation of his brigade, division and corps commanders, commissioned by the President, Colo- nel of United States Volunteers, by brevet, for gallant and meritorious services. The former com- mander of the regiment, having lost a leg in the battle of July 22, 1864, before Atlanta, had never been able to rejoin it, leaving Colonel Jackson, for a long time previous to the mustering out of the regiment, its permanent commander. After the war Colonel Jackson studied law, was admitted to the bar, and lias since been in active practice. He was elected, and served as District Attorney from 1868 to 1871. He was appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania (Hartranft), and served as a mem- ber of the Commission to codify laws, in 1877 and 1878. Colonel Jackson was elected in 1884 to the
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