USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 47
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
tion business. As his means were small, goods | were purchased at first on credit, but in four years he was entirely out of debt and buying for cash. In 1852 Mr. Patterson conceived the idea of mining for coal iu Ohio, and in July of that year went up the Mahoning river prospecting. IIc found the field was a large and promising onc and returned to New Castle, sold out his drug interest and invested the proceeds in the coal property and in improvements, but his capital was soon exhausted and he was obliged to borrow to complete the latter and at the enormous rate of eightcen per ceut. interest. As soon as he was ready to begin operations he com- menced to ship to the dock at Cleveland, Ohio, and the furnaces at Lowell, Ohio, and New Castle, Peunsylvania. He continued to give his personal attention to this business until 1855, when, iu con- junction with Mr. Watson, he opened a banking and exchange business in New Castle, employing James McKinley-brother of Major William McKin- lay, member of Congress from Ohio-to manage his coal business until the mine was exhausted. About 1854 he sold a third interest in his miuing property in Ohio aud Illinois, to John M. Maris of Philadel- phia, aud with him carried on the business until the mines were worked out. In 1858 Mr. Watson retired from the banking business of Watson & Pat- terson, and Mr. Patterson continued it under the name of the Patterson Bank. During the hard times for bauking institutions, when the troubles with the currency caused many of them all over the country to suspeud, a true friend to Mr. Patterson was Mr. J. M. Maris, of Philadelphia, who gave him permission to draw on him if he needed funds. This, however, never happened, and for twenty-five years the institution was run without ever suspend- ing, paying every coin certificate iu coin during the numerous money panics. In 1864 Mr. Patterson became associated with Mr. A. L. Crawford and others iu the enterprise of opening a block coal field in Mercer County, and which they operated for about eleven years. They had to build a railroad, sink shafts and organize all the necessary provisions for a thorough mining industry. The product of the mine was shipped to Erie Docks and to the fur- naces in New Castle. In 1868 and '69 Mr. Patterson organized the Etna Iron Company with a paid-up capital of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, -- Mr. Crawford building the furnaces for the com- pany,-and the company continued to run them un- til 1873, doing a prosperous and inereasing business, and then sold out to Mr. Kimberly of Sharon, Penn- sylvania. About this time also he was one of a cor- poration organized by A. L. Crawford and which built the Vigo furnaces at Terre Haute, Indiana,
and also the Wabash Iron Company's rolling mill at the same place. One of the furnaces was subse- quently taken to Gadsden, Alabama, where it is still in operation. About 1885 Mr. Patterson con- cluded to concentrate all his capital nearer home, and accordingly parted with his ownership in all his outside interests to his partners-excepting a coal mine in Brazil, Indiana. In 1863, in connec- tion with Mr. A. R. Lee, he purchased large tracts of coal land in the southwest corner of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, which are still being worked under the name of the Beaver Coal and Coke Com- pany (formerly Lcc & Patterson), producing a finc gas coal, which is sold largely to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to be used on their locomotives, and to gas companies throughout the country. In 1873 Mr. Patterson bought a large portion of the stock of the National Bank of Lawrence County ; remaining, however, with his old bank until 1880 ; since then giving the new enterprise his personal attention and supervision, and increasing the earn- ings of the bank from $640,000 iu capital and de- posits, to over $2,000,000. In the same year the Penn Coal Company was organized and the sheet iron rolling mill built at New Castle, with both of which he was connected. These concerns are still in operation. In 1883, with Mr. Crawford and others, he purchased what is known as the Neshan- nock Furnace property at New Castle, which has since been successfully operated by them under the corporate name of the Crawford Iron & Steel Com- pany, having a capacity of seventy thousand tons Bessemer pig annually. In 1885 and 1886 he, with associates, built the wire mill and wire nail works, known by the name of the New Castle Wire Nail Compauy, and organized the company which has re- cently completed the construction of a large rod mill, being one of the largest plants of the kind in the country. Mr. Patterson, with his associates, in the numerous plants with which he is connected, employs between eight aud nine hundred men. His labor and expenditure in increasing the manu- facturing industries of New Castle have been enor- mous. He made onc of the largest cash subscrip- tions to promote the building of the first railroad that ran into New Castle. He was among the prin- cipal influences that brought the Baldwin Stove Works to the same city, and he was also the means of inducing the owners of the Witherow & Gordon plants to locate in New Castle. Mr. Pat- terson was married January 6, 1852, to Anna M., daughter of Richard Mills, Esq., a gentleman largely connected with the iron interests. Mrs. Patterson died in March, 1863, leaving two daugh- ters, Mary L .- now the wife of Edward King-
yours Inity Juosfull
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
and Anna M., and one son, Rufus C .- now con- nected with the nail works and rod mill. On January 17, 1866, he married his present wife, Harriet W., daughter of Solomon Woodward, of Taunton, Massachusetts, by whom he has had one daughter, Julia H., and two sons, William Lee and George Lewis. While Mr. Patterson fostered his own business interests and devoted time and judg- ment to the conduct of large operations and the consequent accumulations. of capital, his devotion to his home, the city of his residence, has been al- most unexampled. He has been one of the sure foundations of New Castle, on which its great prog- ress has rested as upon a rock. No business en- terprise could be suggested which would benefit the city but Mr. Patterson was first and last in de- voting his best judgment, his time and his means to forwarding it. Always on the alert to discover and apply measures of benefit and improvement to the city, he has been tireless in promoting her wel- fare, while assiduously avoiding notoriety and keeping himself in the back-ground. Thus he has never sought nor accepted public position or official rank in politics or otherwise, believing that he could prove a more useful and serviceable citizen by aid- ing the promotion of industrial and financial enter- prises which should advance local conditions. The integrity and recognized probity of Mr. Patterson have caused him to be sought for to take charge of fiduciary interests, and these he has cared for with implicit fidelity and unusual skill and judgment. Endowed with an active nature he has been one of the busiest men of New Castle, keeping himself closely informed concerning every detail of the af- fairs of his bank and of his large coal, iron and steel interests, and it is a remarkable fact in the history of a long business career that Mr. Patterson nas never been engaged in a personal law-suit. No contract into which he has ever entered could be possibly misconstrued and no one of all those who were brought into business relations with him has ever thought of questioning his honesty of purpose and action. Mr. Patterson is a man who possesses charms of conversation quite invaluable in the case of a man who has so much knowledge to impart. He is affable and engaging in his manners and kindly and considerate in all his associations with others. Particularly is this the case with regard to his home life. Here, forgetting for the time the cares of business, surrounded by the cvidences of taste and culture, he is seen at his best. He pos- sesses a fine library of well selected works in the choicest literature, and his collection of works of art are significant of a refined taste and knowledge of the best modern masters. In his home Mr. Pat-
terson gives himself up to rest, quiet and social cul- ture and enjoyment, always hospitable and posses- sing qualifications which render association with him at such times most agreeable and satisfactory. These facts concerning Mr. Patterson's personal nature and private life have been obtained from one who knows him well and who can testify from intimate acquaintance to all that has here been said of him. Mr. Patterson is President of the National Bank of Lawrence County at New Castle, President of the New Castle Stcel Company, Vice-President of the Crawford Iron & Steel Company, General Adviser in the New Castle Wire Nail Company and New Castle Wire Mill, President of the Beaver Coal & Coke Company, Chairman of the Penn Coal Com- pany, (Limited,) Director in the Kimberly Iron Min- ing Company of Michigan, Director in the New Castle and Beaver Valley Railroad for twenty-seven years, and, finally, Director in the Knoxville and Nashville Railroad of Tennessee.
JOHN G. HALL.
HON. JOHN GEARY HALL .- It is proverbial that the mountainous regions of Pennsylvania have contributed some of the strongest and most useful of our public men to the State. From the rugged sur- roundings they seem to gather those characteristics which go to make up the highest type of intellectual and physical development. As an instance of this, the late ex-Senator John G. Hall, of Elk County, serves as an illustration. He was born in Hublers- burg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, April 3, 1839, his parents being Benjamin M. and Susannah Hall. After exhausting the opportunities of the common schools of that neighborhood, he attended in turn the academies of Bellefonte and Lewisburg, in both of which institutions he distinguished himself by as- siduous application and conspicuous success in mas- tering the studies to which he had addressed himself. Even as a boy he was noted for his strict devotion to duty and close attention to detail. Every problem that came within his notice was mastered before it was given up, and he soon became the recognized leader in all intellectual achievements. Upon the completion of his academic studies Mr. Hall deter- mined to devote his life to the law, and entered the office of Hon. William A. Wallace at Clearfield, as a student. The same intelligent application that characterized him in his academic efforts was brought to bear in his new field of investigation, and his progress was as rapid as his success was marked. In September, 1861, he was admitted to
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPIIY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
practice. During the period of preparation he not only carned the confidence of his distinguished pre- ceptor, but acquired his friendship to such a degree that every inducement was offered him to remain in Clearfield and assist Mr. Wallace in his rapidly growing practice, as well as to share with him in the prosperity and famc which it was bringing. At first Mr. Hall consented to this, but in 1864 the desire to establishı a business of his own led him to search
out another field. Elk County, then sparsely set- tled, but rich in resources, attracted him, and in 1864 he settled in Ridgway and established himself in his profession. His success was so pronounced that he not only acquired large means, but a fame as a lawyer that is as enduring as it was wide- spread and deserved. Mr. Hall's energies were di- rected largely toward that branch of legal practice known as corporation law and he soon became a
recognized authority in that intricate field of the science. There is a mistaken notion that he was a member of the legal staff of the Standard Oil Com- pany. This is an error. He never was so con- nected. But his successes were not all achieved in corporation practice. He gave much thought and time to, and had vast experience in, that still more involved field of legal investigation-the land or
title law, in which the best legal talent of the coun-
try is so frequently employed. To give a full list
of the important cases in which Mr. Hall has been
concerned would be to write a history of the juris- prudence of several counties in northern Pennsyl-
the profession in those sections. But we may refer years he was universally recognized as the head of vania and southern New York. For a number of
to a few cases, which, on account of the important
legal principles involved or the vast pecuniary in- terests concerned, are exceptional. Among this
ter and Pittsburgh Railroad Company, involving class is the suit of Rothschild vs. the Buffalo, Roches-
the validity of a $20,000,000 mortgage. Of course
so vast an interest would be fought with great en-
Peckham, of New York, were some of the most posed to Mr. Hall and his colleague, Wheeler H. ergy on both sides and through all the courts. Op-
eminent lawyers of the country, but, notwithstand-
ing this, he was successful. Another case of al-
most equal proportions in a pecuniary sense, and
of even greater moment from a legal standpoint,
was that of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs.
the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway
Company, in which George W. Biddle, Esq., of
involves title to all anthracite and bituminous coal Philadelphia, was his associate. This case not only
interests of the several corporations controlled by the defendant company, which amount to millions of
dollars, but, incidentally, will determine the fate of all similar property held in like manner by other corporations. It is still undetermined in the Su- preme Court. In the other field of legal research to which reference has been made it is proper to cite a couple of instances. The case of Ensign es. Mc- Kinncy et al, is in point. This litigation was in the form of suits of ejectment from oil properties in the Allegheny oil fields of New York. The pecuniary interest involved is very large, and the fight has been stubborn and persistent. It has already been carried through all the courts of New York State, and was twice argued in the Court of Appeals. As in the Rothschild case referred to, Mr. Hall and his colleagues were opposed by an array of legal talent of the highest order, and though the litigation was carried on in a State with the practice of which he was unfamiliar, hc and his associates were entirely successful. The case of Satterfield vs. The Tide Water Pipe Line Company, Limited, in which Mr. Hall was principal counsel for plaintiff-ably assisted throughout by the late J. B. Brawley, Esq., of Meadville, and in the court below also by Col. J. M. Thompson, of Butler, Pennsylvania-was one of the causes celebre in western Pennsylvania. The op- posing counsel were Franklin B. Gowan, James E. Gowan, Samuel Dickson, of Philadelphia, and W.
R. Bole, Esq., of Meadville. It goes without saying that a case argued by these gentlemen would be ably presented and closely contested. The case in- volved the control of the defendant company-the minority stockholders, whom Mr. Hall represented, claiming to have elected a Board of Managers. It involved many interesting questions, the principal one being whether limited partnership associations, under the law of Pennsylvania, are not in fact cor- porations to be governed by the rules and principles
expressly ordered otherwise by statute. Mr. Hall of law applicable to corporations, except so far as
maintained the affirmative issue, arguing that being a legal entity distinct from that of the membership, having perpetual succession, a corporate seal, being governed by a Board of Managers, executing con- veyances by its Chairman and Secretary, having the
.
want of individual liability and the absence of the principle common to ordinary partnerships-that each member is the agent of the firm-were char- acteristics which proved in all substantial respects that such an association, despite its name, is, in fact, a corporation. And applying the principles
applicable to corporate elections he contended that the election which resulted in favor of his clients vested in them a valid title to be the managers for the ensuing year. Judge Church, of Crawford County, in whose court cross-suits were pending, in
B. Eastside
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
an opinion adverse to Mr. Hall's argument, pre- served the status quo until a final hearing by a pre- liminary injunction. The Supreme Court refused to dissolve this injunction, giving no opinion on the questions raised, it being their custom to file no opinion on preliminary hearing in a case which may come before them on an appeal for a final decree. In this case no final decree was ever had, nor was it further pressed, it being evident that the term of the managers contested, would expire before a final hearing could be reached. Mr. Hall's argument was complimented on all sides, and his paper book in the case is regarded as a model of method and research, and as presenting the strongest possible setting forth of his case. The exact character of a limited partnership association has never yet been defined by the Supreme Court, and whether Mr. Hall's views will eventually be adopted remains to be determined by the future decisions of that court. A lawyer as busy as was Mr. Hall, and so devoted to his profession, could not find time to attend much to public affairs. Yet he was never insensi- ble to the obligations of citizenship nor careless of his duties to the people. In 1869 he was elected to the Lower House of the Legislature, to represent the District composed of the counties of Clearfield, Elk and Forest, and was re-elected in 1870, serving with marked distinction during the sessions of 1870-'71. In 1872 he was elected a member of the Constitu- tional Convention and served in that body during all its deliberations. Though comparatively young at the time, he took an active part in the work. His intimate associates were such men as Charles R. Buckalew and the late Judge Jeremiah S. Black, and friendships were then formed between Mr. Hall and some of the leading statesmen of the Common- wealth, which were continued long after and in- creased as the years passed by. Mr. Hall also served two terms in the State Senate. He was first eleeted in 1878, beginning his labors in that body in January, 1879, and was re-elected in November, 1882. He soon took rank among the leaders of the Senate, and in debate was considered a master. His style as a speaker was graceful, cogent and logical. Little given to ornate rhetoric, he was nevertheless a polished and charming orator. He never talked except when the measure under consideration was of great moment or concerned the interests of his constituents. Then he spoke with such force and effect as to challenge attention and command ad- miration. While known widely as a corporation lawyer, and concerned intimately with corporation business, his Senatorial course was never shaped towards conciliating or truckling to corporation in- fluences. Among the strongest arguments which
adorn his record in the Senate is a speech in favor of the Free Pipe Bill, which the Standard Oil Com- pany was fighting with all its power and influence. His support of the bill to forbid the issue of free passes by railroads, and the one against the claims of the Rankin heirs, and that in favor of chattel mortgages, was equally vigorous, and his battle for a law to prevent the consolidation of the telegraph lines, by which he proposed to empower the Senate to annul the charters of corporations for violating the provisions of the Constitution, was characteris- tic and able. Mr. Hall was an ardent Democrat, and in the discussion of political questions he took a leading part on behalf of his party. Among his several able speeches in this line special reference may be made to that one in which the so-called In- dependent Republicans were condemned for joining with the " Stalwarts " of the Senate, in support of a resolution endorsing a course of Senator Mahone, of Virginia. It was one of the most incisive and eloquent speeches ever made on the floor of the Senate, and even the Republicans, who were flayed unmercifully, paid him personal tribute because of his masterly arraignment of them. Senator Hall was married June 18, 1866, to Eliza A., daughter of Joseph S. Hyde, of Ridgway, Elk County, Pennsyl- vania, the leading lumberman of that section, (whose biography will be found in preceding pages of this volume) the issue of the marriage being two daughters-Jane Hyde Hall, recently married to Vinton Liddell, of Montgomery, Alabama, and Susie, who is still pursuing her studies in school. Mr. Hall died suddenly October 7, 1889, at Liver- pool, England, whither he had gone on a business trip in company with his wife and Mr. Taylor, President of the Union Oil Company. The cause of his death was undoubtedly paralysis of the brain brought about by overwork. His remains were brought back to this country and interred at Ridg- way, in the presence of a large number of the repre- sentative men of his State, on the 22d day of Oc- tober, 1889.
BENJAMIN GARTSIDE.
BENJAMIN GARTSIDE, manufacturer, was born at Rochdale, Lancashire, England, May 26, 1794, and died in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1885. He received his early education in his native coun- try, and while still a boy, learned the use and ma- nipulation of the hand loom. Cartwright's power
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
loom was invented in 1787, but hand looms were still in use in England, as they are to this day in In- dia, and, for certain purposes, in France and Ger- many. The young man accordingly followed this trade until 1831, when he emigrated to the United States, going at once to Philadelphia. Here he ob- tained employment at the Blockley Mills, and (still working on hand looms) remained there until 1833, when he removed to Manayunk and began to work for Joseph Ripka. He remained with him about five years ; and in 1838 started in the only business which he knew, on his own account, at Manayunk. His plant was at first very limited, consisting of but one hand loom, but afterwards his business in- creased to such an extent that he operated four power looms ; and in 1840 he rented a mill on the Wissahickon Creek, of Robert Haley, which he fitted up with appropriate machinery and power looms, and carried on the business there until 1843, when he again removed to Cardington, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where he leased a mill for nine years. Here he introduced a new and com- plete set of machinery and made it in every way suitable to the business he proposed to follow. He was very successful during his residence at Carding- ton, and only left there to continue his business in a factory which he built at Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and which was known as the Keokuk Mill. This establishment he made one of the most com- plete of the kind in the country. It consisted of a building 90x38 feet in dimensions and four stories high ; and the property was subsequently largely increased by the purchase of additional lands and by the erection of other buildings. He bought largely from Samuel Cliff, in 1858-'59, who gave him altogether a river front of three hundred feet, extending from Front and Fulton Streets to low water mark. A large storehouse was erected upon this property, and the combined buildings occupied the square of ground comprised between Front Street and the Delaware River and Parker and Ful- ton Streets. These buildings still remain. The en- gine-house and dyeing and drying-houses are con- nected with the main building. The engine used is one of sixty horse power, and all of the machinery is of the newest and most approved description, consisting of seventy-two power looms, with all the necessary apparatus for finishing and other pro- cesses. This mill employs eighty-five hands; and an illustration of the interest taken in the em- ployees is seen in the fact that twenty houses have been built by the owners for their accommodation. The business has grown to be very large and pros- perous, and consumes three thousand pounds of wool and one thousand pounds of cotton warp per
week, producing three thousand yards of the manu- factured article in the same tinie. The goods manu- factured by these mills include all-wool Kentucky jeans and doeskins, the material used being entirely new-no shoddy being allowed to enter the factory. An additional convenience is a wharf, which was built in 1855, with a fine frontage on tlie Delaware River. This was necessitated by the large and growing extent of the business transacted. Mr. Gartside prospered remarkably through his admira- ble conduct of this factory; and in 1857 he asso- ciated with himself two of his sons-James and Amos-the firm becoming Benjamin Gartside & Sons. Another son of Mr. Gartside carries on the weaving business at Chester in a new factory of liis own. From the time of his first removal to Chester, Mr. Gartside became actively identified with the growth and prosperity of that eity. In politics he was an old line Whig, and like most of the members of that party, after its disruption in 1852, he became a Republican. He was for six years Councilman of the borough and filled various other positions of trust and honor in the city. He was one of the originators and a Director of the First National Bank of Chester, from the time of its organization. He was also prominent in the projection of the Chester Rural Cemetery ; and through his liberality and his wide-spreading influence was ever a pro- motor of all measures tending towards the develop- ment of the city of his adoption. In religion Mr. Gartside was a Baptist, and was one of the oldest deacons, in period of service, in the church of which he was a member. Up to the time of his death, at an advanced age, he was still hale and hearty and well preserved, and seemed when past his ninetieth year to be as active in his business as he had been in his younger days. His extensive manufacturing business, which he left as a monu- ment of his sagacity, integrity and enterprise, has been and is now successfully conducted by his sons, who have inherited in a large measure the sterling and conservative qualities for which their father was so particularly distinguished. Mr. Gartside was married, in 1815, to Miss Elizabeth Kershaw, of Rochdale, England. Their children were :- Enoch, Robert, Mary (Mrs. John Kershaw) John, James, Ann (Mrs. Jonathan Grant) and Amos and Joseph. Mr. Gartside was always remarkable for the extent and minuteness of his technical knowledge of the business which he had conducted all his life. He was a remarkably industrious man and persevering, very determined in the carrying out of his projects, while the strict integrity of his character made him as much respected and esteemed as he was admired in his business capacity.
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