USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume I > Part 26
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possesses the largest and most valuable collection of standard works on geology to be found in western Pennsylvania.
On the 17th of October, 1867, Mr. McCollough was united in marriage to Miss Mary Bredin, daughter of Edward M. and Adelia (Purviance) Bredin, of Butler, Pennsylvania. They now have three children. Marion, Kelt and Harry Ford. The family attends the ser- vices of the Presbyterian church, to which Mr. McCollough belongs, and he is also an exemplary Mason, whose membership with the craft dates from his early manhood. He votes with the Republican party and has firm faith in the triumph of its principles, because he believes they con- tain the best elements of good government, but the extent of his busi- ness has left him no time nor desire for political preferment. He has been a co-operant factor in many movements and measures for the general good along educational and moral lines, his best labors in behalf of the public being performed as a private citizen. There is something akin to poetic justice in the career of Mr. McCollough, his success and prominence coming to him as the direct reward of enterprise, of busi- ness methods that are unassailable, of untiring energy combined with unfaltering honesty. It is the triumph of labor and honesty over ad- verse circumstances, and his life history furnishes an example well worthy of emulation.
JAMES BLEAKLEY.
One of the most straightforward, energetic and successful business men who ever lived in Franklin was James Bleakley. Few men have been more prominent or widely known in this enterprising city than was he. In business circles he was an important factor, and his popularity was well deserved, for in him were embraced the characteristics of an
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unbending integrity. unabating energy and industry that never flagged. He was public-spirited and thoroughly interested in whatever tends to promote the moral, intellectual and material welfare of Franklin, and for many years he was numbered among its most valued and honored citizens.
A native of the Keystone state, Mr. Bleakley was born near Union- ville, on the 13th of September. 1820, and was a son of John Bleakley. a native of the township of Murphey, county of Tyrone, Ireland, where he was born October 20. 1788. He located in Venango county, Penn- sylvania, in the summer of 1833, and here resided until the time of his death, which occurred on the 11th of September. 1869.
In 1836 James Bleakley was apprenticed to the printing business, and after completing a three years' term of service he went to Butler. Pennsylvania, where he was employed for three years. Early in life he was called upon to give assistance to his father, who labored under pecuniary embarrassments, and as he was an energetic and methodical worker the son was able at an early age to render material aid, but his educational privileges were thus necessarily limited. The time which he spent in the schoolroom did not exceed eighteen months, and during his last term he was frequently late in returning home, for which his father demanded an explanation. Inquiry developed the fact that the teacher was often unable to solve the problems of his advanced class in arithmetic and that James Bleakley had remained after school to assist him in preparing the lesson for the following day. Returning to this city in the year 1842, he established the Democratic Arch in com- pany with John W. Shugert, and continued its publication for about two and a half years. The files of this paper from July, 1842, until October, 1843. still in the possession of the family, are the earliest continuous files extant of any newspapers in Venango county. In the spring of
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1844 he embarked in mercantile pursuits, and although at that time trade was limited his expenses were light, and with the assistance of his wife in preparing articles for sale he was soon able to accumulate a little money, which he invested in real estate in Franklin and through- out the county. In 1849 he erected the building formerly occupied by the International Bank, now by Franklin Trust Company, adjoining which building he carried on his mercantile business for twenty years In 1851 and for several years thereafter he was associated with A. P. Whittaker in the publication of the Venango Spectator, and in the journalistic circles throughout the county he gained an enviable posi- tion. In 1864 Mr. Bleakley was instrumental in organizing the First National Bank of Franklin, of which he was cashier from that date until 1867, and in the following year he opened the International Bank, the business thus established being conducted by his sons for a number of years and with success, but at the present time the Franklin Trust Com- pany occupies the room formerly occupied by the International Bank. In addition to the various interests already mentioned he was also promi- nently connected with other enterprises, among which was a tannery, foundry, oil refinery and a tinning establishment. and in real estate and other transactions. From the year 1859 until his death he was engaged in the various branches of the oil business, being one of the purchasers of the Galloway tract and out-lot No. 8. famous for their production of Franklin lubricating oil. The block which was erected by him on Liberty street, Franklin, is one of the most substantial in the city.
The marriage of Mr. Bleakley was celebrated in this city, where Miss Elizabeth Dubbs became his wife. She is the eldest daughter of Jacob Dubbs, who came to Franklin in 1824. and was engaged as a wheelwright until 1830, in which year he embarked in mercantile pursuits, and so continued until the time of his death, in 1845. Seven
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children were born to the union of James and Elizabeth Bleakley, as follows: Elizabeth, who became the wife of T. W. Brigham, was born January 16, 1845: Clara, who married Alexander McDowell, a banker of Sharon, Pennsylvania, was born April 6. 1847: William James was born July 6, 1849, and married Miss Mary S. Lamb, dangh- ter of John Lamb, of Allegheny township. Venango county: Effie, born November 26, 1851, married Dr. E. W. Moore, of Franklin: Orrin Dubbs, born May 15, 1854, married Miss Hattie Richardson, of Frank- lin: Harry was born January 8, 1859: and Edmund, born October 30, 1860. married Miss Bertha Legnard, of Waukegan, Ilinois.
Although Mr. Bleakley was a man of positive character he made few enemies, and his many noble characteristics won and retained him many friends. In political matters he was allied with the Democracy until the election of Buchanan in 1856, from which date forth he affil- inted with the Republican party, and he was the choice of his fellow townsmen for many positions of honor and trust, having served as the burgess of Franklin for several terms, was a member of the council of both the borough and city, and from 1851 for two terms was the effi- cient county treasurer. Ever zealons in the improvement of his locality. he was active in advocating public attention to care for the parks and in promoting the various measures designed for the advancement of the city. In his pleasant home in Franklin he closed his eyes in death on the 3d of October. 1883. and thus ended the career of one of the truest and best citizens the community had ever known.
JOHN B. ROACH.
When the annals of the American republic come to be fully written, the achievements of the great captains of industry who have organized
John S. Rrach
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and conducted the mighty manufacturing establishments which have been the most pronounced development of the last century, will come in for a large share of attention. The men who by their skill and ability have paved the way for the great material wealth of the nation and the pre-eminence of American industrial activity will come to be reck- oned as the peers of the statesmen and warriors and scholars of the times in the records of the American people.
The name of Roach is so essentially connected with shipbuilding in the United States that no history of this important industry could well be written without recounting the work of the father and son who have had so much to do with the inception and construction of the American navy and merchant marine. Indeed, for more than a third of a century, the record of ship construction on this side of the Atlantic has been largely the history of the Roach firm.
The story of the life of the elder Roach, reading like a chapter from fiction, is widely known. The history of the Irish lad, who came here seeking for work, and. little by little, accumulated experience, wealth and reputation until, at the time he was stricken down, the victim of a persecution inspired by political malice, he was the leading shipbuilder and one of the largest employers of labor on this continent, has been told by nearly every writer upon the men of achievement of the nine- teenth century, and has furnished a favorite topic for those who would point out the marvellous possibilities of our land. John Roach's fame as a great organizer and executive, as a thinker and writer upon subjects relating to his business, and the economics of trade and transportation, with especial relation to shipping and the maintenance of navies, is se- cure. History also gives him credit for the manly qualities of mind and heart which made him a faithful friend and an exemplary employer as well as a citizen of the highest value. John B. Roach, the son, has
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followed in his father's footsteps, and the honor which surrounds the family name has been augmented and maintained by the efforts of the son who, trained in his father's policies, has worthily carried on his work.
John Baker Roach was born in the city of New York on December 7, 1839. He was second in a family of seven sons and two daughters. His father, born in 1813. on Christmas day, had come to the United States from his home. in Mitchellstown, county Cork, Ireland, in 1831, and while a workman, at the Allaire Works. Howell, New Jersey, had married Emeline Johnson, the daughter of a worthy family in Mon- mouth county. The Roche family was a prominent one in Ireland- for the name is, correctly. Roche .- and the elder Roach was the son of a merchant, his people being well-to-do for the time and locality.
Jolin B. Roach's boyhood was spent in and about New York. His father, already, in succession, an employing founder. an engine-builder and a contractor for large engineering projects, gave him the advan- tages of education which were at the time readily accessible, and after a course at a good academic institution in Greene county. New York. the young man went into the office of a merchant to get business ex- perience. His health failing, he was obliged, about the time he became of age, to leave the city, and several of the best years of his life were spent on a farm in Dutchess county, New York. He was married, in 1861. to Mary Caroline Wallace, the daughter of David and Gertrude Wallace, of Staatsburg. New York, and then was begun a happy asso- ciation which has done much, undoubtedly, to round out symmetrically John B. Roach's useful life.
The business of the firm of John Roach & Son, which had absorbed several old-established foundry and machine concerns in New York, had grown in 1868 to such an extent that the Morgan Iron Works, at
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the foot of East Ninth street, in New York city, had been added. This was one of the largest and most complete plants of the kind in the busi- ness at the time, and its acquisition placed the Roach firm in the front ranks of engineering contractors. John B. Roach, always his father's confidential associate, had kept in close touch with the affairs of the firm, and when, in 1871, the shipyard at Chester, Pennsylvania, was purchased. and the preparations were under way to establish the business which has made the Roach name most famous, it was decided that the younger Mr. Roach should assume the active direction of matters at the works. So, in the fall of 1871, John B. Roach moved his family to Chester, and there, in the old city on the Delaware, which he has seen grow by ieaps and bounds from a sleepy river town to one of the most noted industrial centers in the country. he has done his life's work.
The Reaney, Son & Archbold Shipyard, at Chester, which had been purchased by the firm of Jolin Roach & Son, was reorganized into the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works. with John Roach as president and John B. Roach as secretary of the cor- poration and the personal representative of his father, the owner, upon the ground. John Roach rarely came to Chester more frequently than once a week, so that the active direction of matters at the shipbuilding plant at once devolved upon the son.
The Chester yard was already a fairly well equipped shipyard. having been founded in 1860 as a building and repair yard, and a num- ber of vessels had been constructed there, including several monitors and other ships for the government. The yard has a river frontage of about a quarter of a mile on the widest and deepest portion of the Dela- ware river channel, and is one of the finest natural sites for a shipyard that is to be found in the world. Immediately upon the purchase of the property, the Roach firm set out to build iron steamships upon a scale
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theretofore unheard of in the United States. New steamship lines were established and the old ones encouraged to add to their fleets the new iron ships which the old shipmasters, wedded to their bulky wooden hulls, were wont to sneeringly speak of as "tin boats." One after an- other almost ail of the steamship companies operating under the Amer- ican flag placed orders for Roach ships, and in three years the force of workmen had increased to nearly two thousand, while in the New York works and the affiliated industries engaged in supplying materials for the operations of the shipyard, as many more were engaged.
Here for a third of a century, the great foundries, forges and shops have turned out iron and steel steamships which have included among their number many of the most noted vessels which have flown the American flag. At the time the business was started under the Roach name, the number of American-built iron vessels could almost be counted upon the fingers of the hands. so that in building up its business the Roach yard had to blaze the way in an almost unknown direction. Dur- ing the past thirty-two years, however, no fewer than one hundred and four first-class steamships for merchant service, ten vessels for the United States navy and forty-seven other craft, including steamboats, ferry-boats, yachts, and other vessels for various purposes, have been contracted for and completed by the Roach Company. The aggregate value of this work is in the neighborhood of fifty millions of dollars, and about half of this immense sum has been distributed in wages in Chester as a result of the shipyard operations. The great works have educated one of the finest bodies of mechanics to be found in any indus- try in the world, and Chester's ship-artisans are to be found in every shipyard on this continent, in leading positions of trust and skill. Dur- ing all these years, too, although agitators have often endeavored to spread dissatisfaction among the workingmen, the plant has never been
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closed by a strike, it having been Mr. Roach's policy to deal with his operatives directly and to listen in person to every legitimate complaint.
John B. Roach has been personally familiar with the details of the construction of every vessel which has been laid down in the yard, and few men in any business have the grasp of a complicated industry that he has of the shipyard, with its score of trades so different in their natures. The benders and punchers and fitters-up and riveters and chippers and caulkers who erect the steel body of the ship: the boiler- makers, blacksmiths. moklers, machinists, engineers, coppersmiths, sheet- iron workers and pipe-fitters, who fashion and install the power and machinery; the ship-carpenters who prepare the ship's berth and lay her decks and rails and finally send her down the ways into the element that is to be her home : the carpenters and joiners and carvers and pol- ishers and painters and decorators and upholsterers who build the cabins and finish them for palatial occupation, the riggers who fit out the ship with her equipment ready for sea, with their other affiliated trades, all of which are carried on in this big establishment. recognize Mr. Roach as a critical judge of their handiwork and respect his knowledge of all their intricate duties. And one of the best evidences that he knows and requires good workmanship is the record of the Roach ships and the fact that whole lines of vessels have been built by him. the owners returning for new vessels, as needed, to the builders of their earlier ships. The first ship undertaken by the Roach firm was the City of San Antonio, a small vessel, which. after thirty-one years of service, is still in good condition, staunch and seaworthy. This vessel was for the Mal- lory Line, or the New York and Texas Steamship Company, and, at this writing. the San Jacinto, a magnificent twin-screw steamship of nearly six thousand tons, the finest coasting steamer ever constructed, is being completed for the same line.
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During its more than three decades of work, the Roach shipyard has, in hewing out the way for the progress of American shipbuilding. built the first large iron steamship ever turned out in the United States, which was the Pacific Mail steamship City of Peking, launched March 18. 1874, and which was, at the time of her completion the largest ship in the world, with the sole exception of the misfit Great Eastern. The City of Peking now, after twenty-eight years of continuous service, during which time she has made scores of round-trips across the Pacific Ocean, is still a leading ship of her line and her machinery is as good as the day it was installed. The Roach yard built the first compound engines ever built in this country, the first iron sailing ship and the first steel vessels, the splendid Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Dolphin, the beginning of our new navy. The largest steamboat, the splendid Priscilla, of the Fall River Line, is also a Roach product, while the noble ships of the Mallory Line, the New York and Cuba Mail, the Panama Line, the Pacific Mail, the American-Hawaiian, the Maine Steamship Company, the Savannah Line, the Old Dominion Line, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company and numerous other corporations have been built in the Chester yard The work is being vigorously pushed forward now, and it looks as though John B. Roach might complete an even greater number and tonnage of ships during his presidency of the company, than were built during the time that his father was in supreme command. Upon the death of John Roach, in 1887, John B. Roach was elected president of the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works, and he has since had complete charge of the entire business.
Although his work in connection with the shipyard occupies him very completely, John B. Roach finds time to cultivate the social side of life. He is, however, very domestic in his tastes, and the family home, .
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at Eighth and Kerlin streets, in Chester, seldom misses him after night- fall. Mr. Roach is a member of the Union League, of Philadelphia, the Engineers' Club, of New York, and the Penn Club, of Chester, but his principal pleasure and relaxation is in his home. He is also a member of the New York chamber of commerce, and is a director in the Sea- board Steel Casting Company, the Chester National Bank and the Cam- bridge Trust Company, besides being identified with various other cor- porations in different lines of business.
Mr. and Mrs. Roach have had eleven children, five of whom grew to maturity. The eldest, Sarah E., became the wife of Charles E. Schuy- ler, of New York, but died in 1893, leaving no surviving child; the second, Emeline Wallace, married, in 1892, William C. Sproul, of Chester, now president of the senate of Pennsylvania, and has two children, Dorothy Wallace Sproul and John Roach Sproul; the third, Mary Garretta, married, in 1893, Dr. Frederick Farwell Long, of Ches- ter, and has two children, Sarah Schuyler Long and Frederick Farwell Long, Jr .; the fourth, John, married, in 1899. Hortense Moller, of Hoboken, New Jersey, and resides in New York; and the fifth, William McPherson, is unmarried and resides at home.
CLARENCE BURLEIGH.
Clarence Burleigh, who for several years administered without fear or favor that most important office of district attorney of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, and is now one of the leading lawyers of the city of Pittsburg, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 20. 1853, and was the oldest son of Thomas D. Burleigh, who was a native of New Hampshire and who came to Pittsburg in 1862.
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Clarence Burleigh received only a common school education to start him in life, but the principal point the biographer would make of his early life was the fact of his restless ambition and passion for the law. He was still a boy when he began working as a pattern-maker on the South Side, and however tired he may have been from his day's work his evenings and other spare time were spent in study. He thus early learned habits of thrift and the peculiar Yankee knowledge of "how many cents it takes to make a dollar," and when he had accumu- lated a considerable sum of the latter he matriculated at Washington and Jefferson College. He finished the full course with distinction.
He was now ready to enter upon the preparation for his chosen profession, and. beginning his reading in the office of Bruce W. Negle- yand in 1875, he was admitted to the bar in 1877. That period of a lawyer's life when clients are few and expenses heavy, he successfully passed over, and before the inscription on his professional shingle had become dimmed by the passage of many years he was well established and certain of future success. In 1878 he formed a partnership with John R. Harbison, which lasted till 1891. He early showed himself to possess one of the most important qualities of the lawyer-persist- ence-and he was also remarked as being a good speaker, and able to handle a difficult case logically and convincingly. He was elected to the city council from the thirtieth ward, and gave good service for one term.
In 1895 Mr. Burleigh was appointed district attorney to succeed the late Richard R. Johnson, and the record he made in that office was sufficient to secure his re-election. Not for many years had there been a man in office so vigilant and relentless in following up and bringing to punishment criminals of all classes. A conviction for murder in the first degree had been a rarity, but in one year thirteen men were tried
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and condemned for this offense under his regime. It has been said of Mr. Burleigh that so great is his idea of what constitutes his duty that he would convict his dearest friend if he believed him guilty. At the time of the Homestead riots he prosecuted each and every one indicted for complication in them, notwithstanding that such a course meant his political death, and he was not to be turned aside by the entreaties of his friends. Later on he displayed the same zeal in prosecuting the manufacturers, and thus the previous stigma of unpopularity was neu- tralized, for it became known that all evil-doers were alike before him.
He declined to run for another term as district attorney, and later also discouraged the movement of his friends to place him in a vacant judgeship. In October, 1895, he was appointed city attorney to suc- ceed the late Major W. C. Moreland, and in June, 1901, was appointed city solicitor by A. M. Brown, the city's executive-the title of the chief officer being changed by the new charter from mayor to recorder. Au- gust 29, 1901, Recorder Brown, who was among the supporters of the infamous "Ripper Bill," and had been appointed to his office through that measure, removed Mr. Burleigh from his office. During the stormy time from the passage of the bill until the city government was restored to a peaceful condition by the removal of Brown and the ap- pointment of J. O. Brown as recorder, Mr. Burleigh, with cx-city chair- man William Flinn and J. O. Brown, directed the Republican organiza- tion, and when peace was declared Mr. Burleigh was reappointed solic- itor. He resigned, however, January 15, 1902, on account of his ap- pointment as general attorney for the Pittsburg Railways Company, the traction department of the Philadelphia Company. At the same time he formed a partnership with J. C. Gray, who had been one of the assist- ant city solicitors for a number of years. and they are now devoting themselves to a general legal practice.
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