USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
248
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
a Director and the Treasurer since its organization. In 1880, acting in conjunction with several other capitalists, he organized the Susquehanna Chemical Company, and, erecting capacious works at Starruc- ca, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, began the manu- facture of wood chemicals. This enterprise, of which he has been the business manager since its foundation, is now one of the most thriving in the county named, and gives employment to a large number of men. Later enterprises in which he has engaged as originator and promotor and which he has aided in conducting to a prosperous issue, are the Jefferson Chemical Company and the Lacka- wanna Chemical Company, each having their works situated at Avarat, Pennsylvania, the Melrose Acc- tate Company, with works at Melrose, Pennsylva- nia, and the Wayne Chemical Company, with work's at Equinunk, Pennsylvania. Among the active business men of the State, Mr. Wright may justly claim a high place. Early taught the soundest principles of business in the manufactory of his father, and trained during the impressionable years of his young manhood in the art and mysteries of finance in a prosperous bank, under the eye of his uncle, a financier of experience and ability, he has carried himself with the strictest probity through all his transactions, both monetary and commercial, and has earned a reputation which is synonymous with honor and honesty. Notwithstanding the pres- sure of his business duties he always found time to perform his duties as a citizen, and few of his neighbors took a morc hearty interest in local af- fairs. His time and means were never withheld from any project that promised to advance the wel- fare of the town, and by his personal attention he often brought about results which otherwise might not have been attained. In politics he found a healthful and agreeable relaxation from business cares. From his earliest days he has taken an earnest and active part in advocating the principles and sustaining the policy of the Republican party, which he supported with his first vote and to which he has loyally adhered ever since. Engaged to such a large extent in various business and financial trans- actions, he could not for many years consent to ac- cept public position, but, in 1886, he was persuaded to permit his fellow-citizens in Susquehanna County to bring his name before the District Convention as that of a candidate for Congress from the Fifteenth District. Although the nomination went to another candidate after a long contest, Mr. Wright de- veloped such strength that at the following Conven- tion, in 1888, he was again brought forward for the office, and secured tlie unanimous nomination, being shortly afterwards elected to the Fifty-first Con-
gress of the United States, by a plurality of six thou- sand three hundred and thirty-ninc votes. In the National Legislature he has made an excellent im- pression and has donc good work. His knowledge of finance has been happily utilized by his appoint- ment on the important Committee on Banking and Currency. Mr. Wright has devoted himself to his Congressional duties with a single eye to the public benefit. On measures of national moment lie sus- tains, as heretofore in private life, the general prin- ciples of the Republican party. In State and local affairs he seeks to promote the interests of the whole people irrespective of party lines, and con- scientiously labors to attain this end. In conse- quence he is recognized as a statesman rather than a politician, and has become exceedingly popular, both in and out of his party, and is already unani- mously renominated, by the Republicans of the four counties comprising his district, to the Fifty-second Congress. Mr. Wright was married, in 1870, to Miss Mary E. Falkenbury (daughter of the Hon. Samuel and Abby A. Falkenbury), who was born at Jersey City, New Jersey, May 14, 1849. By this union there have been four children : Sarah E., Albert H., Clarence E. and Chester S .- Albert H. Wright and Clarence E. Wright being now living.
JOHN B. ROBINSON.
HON. JOHN BUCHANAN ROBINSON, a prom- inent attorney at law, and member of the State Sen- ate of Pennsylvania, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1846. On both sides Mr. Robinson comes of the sturdy North of Ireland stock, which has done so much to supply leaders in every walk of American life. His paternal grand- father was the late General William Robinson, who served in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and had also the honor of being the first Mayor of Allegheny City after its incorporation. General Robinson was the first President of the Exchange Bank of Pitts- burgh. He was also appointed a United States Commissioner in 1842, and as fiscal agent was au- thorized by the Government to effect a loan of five million dollars in Europe. Owing, however, to the fact that American credit was then at a very low ebb, he was unable to accomplish this mission. General Robinson was the first white child born north and west of the Ohio river. He was held in such esteem as he grew to manhood and passed middle age, honored and respected by all who knew him, that, at the time of his death in 1868, it is probable he could have borrowed on his personal
249
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
credit the sum refused him in 1842 as the agent of the National Government. Mr. Robinson's father, William O'Hara Robinson, was a leading lawyer of Pittsburgh and served as United States District At- torney of the Western District of Pennsylvania, in 1841. His son, Jolin Buchanan Robinson, was liberally educated ; at first in the private schools of his native city ; and afterwards at the Western Uni- versity and at Amherst College. In 1862, when the War of the Rebellion was at its height, young Rob- inson attached himself to Captain Riddle's company of the Pennsylvania Fifteenth Emergency Regiment ; and two years later he regularly enlisted. But the family had already furnished two sons to the service of their country-who were then at the front with Grant's army, and one of whom, Captain Willianı O'H. Robinson, Sixty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, was killed at the battle of the Wilderness May 6, 1864 -and through the influence of his grandfather, Gen- eral Robinson, the young man's discharge from the army was effected. He was shortly after appointed a Cadet-midshipman in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, by the late Hon. Thomas Williams, Member of Congress from his district. His class was sworn into the United States service for eight years. He passed the required four years course and was graduated in 1868. Mr. Robinson remained in the United States service, through the different grades of promotion to Lieutenant, until 1875, when he resigned to enter upon the study of law in Philadelphia. During his eleven years naval service, Mr. Robinson visited almost every country in the world. He was three times in Europe and circumnavigated the globe in the flag-ship " Col- orado," flying the broad pennant of the late Rear Admiral Rodgers. He was in Japan at the time of the memorable American expedition to Corea, in which the gallant Lieutenant McKee and a number of marines and sailors lost their lives during an at- tack on the Corean forts on the shore of the Hang River. In the same year of this expedition, 1871, in company with Lieutenant Chipp, (afterwards lost with the Jeanette expedition to discover the North Pole), Lieutenant Robinson was on board the United States steamer " Monocacy," commanded by Cap- tain McCrea, engaged in the hydrographic survey of the delta of the Yang-tse river. The same year, as navigating officer of the United States sloop of war " Idaho" commanded by Captain J. Crittenden Watson, he passed through the exciting and danger- ous experience of a typhoon in Yokohama harbor, which wrecked many vessels, and nearly sunk the "Idaho" at her moorings. A most interesting ex- perience was encountered by Lieutenant Robinson while in Japan. Up to that time, the only person
of European descent to have an interview with the Mikado of Japan had been Sir Henry Parkes, K. C. B., British Minister at Yeddo. With Commander J. C. Watson and a company of United States naval officers, Mr. Robinson was present at an interview with this hitherto rigidly secluded sovereign. This was in 1871, and in August of that year Mr. Robin- son, with a party of American officers, made the ascent of Fuji-Yama, the peerless mountain of Dai Nippon, and accurately measured its height by bar- ometric observations. In 1873 Mr. Robinson served on the northern lakes of the United States in the United States steamer "Michigan " and in the fall of that year was ordered to New York to the " Ju- niata " as watch officer. The "Juniata " sailed under sealed instructions, which proved to be to proceed to Santiago de Cuba, and peremptorily de- mand the surrender of American citizens seized on board the " Virginius " by the Spanish authorities. This successful and important cruise completed Mr. Robinson's sea service. On January 1, 1875, his resignation, offered the year previous, took effect, and he settled down to the study of law in Philadel- phia in the office of Jolin G. Johnson, Esq. In 1876 he was admitted to practice at the Philadelphia bar, and in 1878, removing to Delaware County, was ad- mitted to practice there and also in the Supreme Court of the State. As a practicing lawyer, he be- came widely known as senior counsel for the de- fence of a colored man, Samuel Johnson, who was on trial for the murder of farmer John Sharpless. This case is now a cause celebre in the State. It was tried with wonderful ability and pertinacity, being carried through the different courts to the Board of Pardons, and argued by Mr. Robinson with such ability and eloquence as to succeed in saving the life of the accused. In 1884 Mr. Robinson was elected to the State Legislature by the Repub- licans of Delaware County, and was re-elected two years later; he was also prominently mentioned for the Speakership. Among Mr. Robinson's noted speeches were his "Anti-discrimination " speech, his speech against Governor Pattison's veto of the Indigent Soldiers Burial Bill, and one in favor of an increase of the school terms, which resulted in passing the bill. Mr. Robinson also gained great praise for his "Memorial Day " addresses at West Chester, Lebanon aud Shamokin, and for his ad- dress at the Reunion of the Veterans of the 97th Pennsylvania Volunteers in November, 1889. Not only as a speaker but as a writer did Mr. Robinson distinguish himself. While he was in the United States service he wrote a series of brilliant letters for the Commercial Gazette of Pittsburgh, and since that period has been a frequent and welcome con-
250
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
tributor to the leading journals of New York and Philadelphia. In 1881-'82 he was the chief editorial writer of the Delaware County Gazette, of Chester, Pennsylvania, then under the proprietorship of Mr. August Donath. In the winter of 1880 Mr. Robin- son made his first essay on the lecture platform, and proved so successful as a lecturer that his services became in frequent demand all over the State. In 1888 Mr. Robinson ran for a renomination to the lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature, but was defeated after a close contest by ex-District At- torney Jesse M. Baker. The same year he took the stump for his successful competitor, and later, was engaged under the auspices of the Republican Na- tional Executive Committee, in the States of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. In 1889, a va- cancy being created in the Ninth Senatorial Distriet of Pennsylvania, (composed of the county of Dela- ware)-by the appointment to the Philadelphia Col- lectorship of Customs, of Hon. Thomas V. Cooper, who had represented the district for fifteen years- Mr. Robinson entered the contest for nomination as his successor. After the most exciting and memor- able political struggle ever fought in the county, he . gained the nomination on the first ballot, his com- petitors for the honor being Hon. Jesse M. Baker, Mr. James Watts Mercur, of Wallingford, (a son of the late Chief Justice Mercur), and Mr. Geoffrey P. Denis, a Chester manufacturer. In this contest Mr. Robinson had to fight the most formidable odds, the county and Federal influences being wielded against him, and the liquor interest in the district arraying itself almost unitedly to defeat him. He led, however, a successful revolution, and as the " People's candidate " completely changed the com- plexion of the old time Republican rule in the county. His management of this fight and vietory, owing to the great interest taken in it outside the county, established Mr. Robinson firmly as a leader in State politics. At the general election his com- petitor was Mr. Hiram Hathaway, of Chester, over whom he was elected by a majority of 1,559, and he is now serving as State Senator-eleet for the dis- trict. The name of Mr. Robinson has also been prominently associated with the nomination by his party for Congress in the Sixth District, (Chester- Delaware) and also for the Lieutenant-Governor- ship of Pennsylvania. Mr. Robinson is one of the most trenchant and vigorous political leader-writers in the State, and his pen and voice have both been frequently employed in aid of reformatory measures of great public service. As a speaker he is logical and convincing, while he often rises to the heights of true eloquence. Staunchly Republican in poli- ties, his attitude in relation to grave publie ques-
tions has often been distinguished by a manly inde- pendence of men and measures. He has shown an entire absence of demagogy-notably in the Legis- lative session of 1887-when he stood alone on the Republican side of the House, in voting against the appropriation for the Soldiers' Orphans' Schools. He contended that as the House had sent to the upper branch a resolution of investigation of the schools-the conduet of which had been publicly criticised by the press, and charges made that a re- morseless syndicate had farmed out the bounty of the wards of the State, under a guise of patriotism -that the popular body would stultify itself by passing the appropriation unless action were taken on the previous resolution. His vote and action on this occasion entered into the discussion on the oc- casion of the Senatorial canvas of 1889, but Mr. Robinson was largely sustained by the popular voice of the intelligent constituency he now repre- sents in the State Senate. In 1874 Mr. Robinson married Elizabeth Waddingham, daughter of Mr. Charles L. Gilpin, then of St. Louis, Missouri, and the granddaughter of ex-Mayor Charles Gilpin, of Philadelphia, by whom he has had six children, four of whom (girls) are living. Mrs. Robinson is a lineal descendant of Joseph Gilpin, of Dorehester, Oxford- shire, England, who emigrated to America in 1696, and settled in Birmingham township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, at that time a part of Chester County. Joseph Gilpin was a descendant of the sixteenth generation of Riehard de Guylpin, who had a grant in the reign of King John, in 1206, of the estate of Kentmere in the County of Westmoreland, England. The children of Mr. Robinson can, there- fore, through their mother, trace their lineage to the time of " Magna Charta," twenty-one generations. Mr. Robinson is affiliated with many important so- cieties ; he is an Odd Fellow ; a member of the American Protestant Association ; of the Knights of Pythias; the Order of Chosen Friends; the Knights of the Golden Eagle ; the Improved Order of Red Men; of the Independent Order of Mechanics ; and of Bradbury Post, No. 149, Grand Army of the Republie, of which he was elected Commander in 1884, besides numerous other societies, in which he has held subordinate offices of honor and trust. A man of fine natural gifts-developed by contaet in political and professional life, with the best associa- tion; blessed with a comprehensive education, greatly extended by wide foreign travel; in the prime of life-Mr. Robinson can justly aspire to the highest gifts within the power of his countrymen to bestow. With remarkably fine forensic qualities, and accustomed to guide the opinions of others from his own extraordinary resources of intelleet
Geo Matheson
251
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY - OF PENNSYLVANIA.
and acquirement, his presence in any deliberative body must always be of the greatest value and im- portance to his constituents. Meanwhile, his fixed integrity of purpose, and his persistent individual- ism, will always hereafter, as heretofore, prevent him from being a mere follower of the majority- against his eonvietions with regard to the right or wrong of proposed measures. On the stump, while a fair and just opponent, he ean attack with foree, while he defends himself and his eause with the rare weapons of logie and convincing argument. His unusually broad experience of human nature in many walks of life has given him an insight into the motives and methods of human aetion, whose importanee in debate, and in his personal judgment of affairs of publie importanee, ean hardly be over- estimated. The steady progress of such a man, in a brief deeade, from a mere offiee position in pro- fessional life to that of Senator in one of the lead- ing States in the Union, is a sufficiently suggestive commentary on the character and capacity of the man. It also illustrates the peculiar characteristics of the best birthright of the best type of American eitizen ; the ability to suceed in politieal and so- eial life, without having reeourse to triekery and ehieanery, which in recent years have so mueh dis- figured Ameriean polities ; and whieh, indeed, have, unfortunately, not been wanting in the advanee- ment of men in any of the walks of life open to gen- eral competition. Senator Robinson has proved himself to be above all such arts, and to rely solely for his progress on his native qualities of sagacity, persistenee and integrity.
GEORGE MATHESON.
GEORGE MATHESON, a well-known engineer and iron-master of Pennsylvania, now a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and founder of the American Tube and Iron Works, was born at Jedburgh, Rox- buryshire, Seotland, October 27, 1828. His parents, Adam and Isabella Matheson, were also of Seoteh birth, the maiden name of the latter being White. After receiving a good common sehool edueation, he was apprenticed in his seventeenth year to Messrs. George and Robert Stephenson, the eele- brated engineers and inventors of the locomotive steam engine and railways, under whom he served his time at the famous works at Neweastle-on-Tyne, England, acquiring profieieney in all departments of the business. He supplemented this five years training by a few months employment in other en- gine works in England, and in October, 1850, em-
barked at Glasgow for Ameriea. Within forty- eight hours after his arrival in the city of New York he found employment in the shops of Messrs. Hogg
& Delamater. Thenee he passed to other well- known establishments and in more than one of them was placed in charge of important constructions. He afterwards found a good position in a responsi- ble eapaeity, in the employ of the Novelty Iron Works, New York, and filled it with consummate ability for a period of ten years. In 1861 his ser- vices were engaged by Messrs. James Murphy & Co., proprietors of the Fulton Iron Works, New York City, with whom he passed the earlier years of the Civil War, having eharge during that event- ful period of all the outside work of the firm, an important part of it being the fitting out of a num- ber of Government vessels. In 1864 he severed this connection to aeeept the appointment of Superin-
tendent of the East River Iron Works, owned by Messrs. Samuel Seeor & Co., whose business at that time was largely building marine and station- ary engiues, work for which his long experienee specially qualified him. One of the eontraets sue- cessfully earried out under his supervision while there, was the construction of the machinery for the Bergeu Tube Mill of New Jersey, through which he first beeame acquainted with the manufacture of tubing. In 1869 he made praetieal use of this knowledge, acting in eonjunetion with several eapi- talists who were subsequently incorporated under the title of the National Tube Works Co., and for whom he ereeted a eapaeious establishment at East Boston, Massachusetts, personally supervising all the important details, and upon the completion of the works being installed therein as Superintendent. When the growth of the business rendered greater facilities neeessary, he was charged with the eon- struetion of a more extensive establishmeut at MeKeesport, Pennsylvania, which was sueeessfully built under his management and supervision. Over these new works he was placed as General Superin- tendent, and held the position until 1880. During his eonneetion with this establishment he devised and introdueed several very valuable improvements in the manufacture of tubing. He was sueeessful also in operating Siemens' gas regenerator furnaces in the manufacture of tubing, a feat all the more re- markable from the faet that he was the first to try it in this country, and succeeded after some of the ablest English engineers who experimented with them abroad had failed. The erowning business achievement of his life was the projeeting and building, at Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1880, of the large and finely appointed establishment of the American Tube and Iron Company, of which he was
252
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the founder, and which to-day is under the general management of his two eldest sons, Mr. A. Scott Matheson and Mr. James HI. Matheson. Mr. Mathe- son's success in life hinges mainly on two things, viz .: a natural fitness for the calling he adopted, and un wearying perseverance in followingit. He is an ac- knowledged master in his department of engineering and most worthily wears the honors of being one of those who were taught tlicir trade by the Stephen- sons. Thorough and self-reliant in his calling, lic is, nevertheless, extremely unassuming in manner and speech, the type of a modest, hard-working, brainy business man who, while winning success for him- self, has been of benefit to every community in which he has cast his lot, both by reason of the ex- cellent example he has set by his diligence and pro- gressive thought and enterprise, and the exhibition of the most sterling qualities of manhood. He mar- ried, in May, 1850, Miss Isabella Hewison, a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. Eleven children have been born to this marriage, of whom eight are now living, viz .: the two sons previously named, (who rank among the leading business men of Mid- dletown), and a third, William D. Matheson, a young man now at college; also five daughters: Isa- bella H. (now Mrs. John Swerd of Scotland); Elizabeth; Maynie (now the wife of A. W. Momeyer of New York) Hannah H. and Cornelia C. Mathe- son.
HENRY W. HARTMAN.
HENRY WATERS HARTMAN, a leading iron and steel master of Pennsylvania, and President of the Hartman Manufacturing Company of Beaver Falls, was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsyl- vania, December 21, 1850. He is the second son of Benjamin and Peninah Hartman, natives of Penn- sylvania. His father was a farmer and with him the subject of this sketch labored in the fields until he was eighteen years old, attending country school during the winter season only. In 1869 Mr. Benja- min Hartman removed with his wife and family to Hollidaysburg, Blair County, where his son began business life as a clerk in the general store con- nected with the extensive iron works of B. M. Johnston & Co. Paying close attention to duty and displaying business qualities unusual in one so young and inexperienced, the lad soon attracted the attention of his employer, who in due time opened up a broader field for his usefulness and ability by promoting him to a responsible position in the gen- eral offices of the rolling mills. In his new position
[ he was diligent and careful, keeping his employer's interests constantly in view, and exerting his best powers in the discharge of the duties which now fell to him. He had been in the offices but a few months when it was clearly perceived that he was competent to fill a much higher position, and, al- though he was young to be entrusted with the responsibility, he was made Superintendent of their largest rolling mill, within six months after engag- ing in their employ, and when only nineteen years of age. IIe remained at this post, discharging its duties with rare judgment and to the utmost satis- faction of all concerned, until the lease of the mills expired, in 1876. He then took a position in the employ of the Pottstown Iron Company, which he resigned, in 1879, to enter the Gautier Stecl Depart- ment of the Cambria Iron Company, at Johnstown, where he became within two years the Assistant General Superintendent and practically the mana- ger of these great works. In 1882 he resigned this position and, removing to Beaver Falls, estab- lished at that place the extensive plant of the Hart- man Steel Company now owned and operated by Carnegie, Phipps & Co .; Andrew Carnegie and Henry Phipps having been partners in the Hartman Steel Company from its inception. These mills cover nearly ten acres of ground, and when Mr. Hartman sold his interest in them to Carnegie Broth- ers, in April, 1888, they were employing a force of about twelve hundred men. Mr. Hartman is a man of ready wit and rare energy. He has made a close study of the business to which his life has been de- voted, and is quick to perceive possibilities and energetic in testing them to ascertain their merit. In 1872, when superintending the nail factory at Hollidaysburg, he made the first Bessemer steel cut nails ever manufactured in America, the steel hav- ing been made at Johnstown, where its production first began. He also made and put upon the mar- ket in 1884 the first penny wire nails to replace the cut nail. This industry has since then grown to mammoth proportions. Wire brads and finishing nails were manufactured in limited quantities prior to this period, but the cut nail was not superseded until the introduction of the penny wire nail as mentioned above. Soon after retiring from the Hartman Steel Company, Mr. Hartman built a large factory on the water power of the Beaver River, at Beaver Falls, and in a little while developed at this placc a flourishing industry. The business is now conducted by an incorporated company known, as _ the Hartman Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Hartman is President. The manufactures con- sist of what are known as the "Hartman Patent Specialties" and include flexible steel and brass
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.