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 37
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"On my maternal side I am of Scotch-Irish descent. My great- grandmother was a Boyd, was taken captive by the Indians at Bloody Run and released seven years afterwards by General Boquet's forces; she married Robert Smiley, who was also of Scotch-Irish descent, and lived in Lancaster or Bedford county. Her daughter. Agnes Smiley. married Moses Fream, whose father, William, came to America from Ireland at an early date, before the Revolutionary struggle. Hle mar- ried Phebe Merrill in Jersey and afterwards settled in Maryland, where my grandfather was born. My mother was a daughter of Moses and Agnes Fream and was a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania.
"My ancestors on both sides were mechanics or farmers, none of whom (in America) had the advantage of an academic education. It was a tradition in the family on both sides that none were illiterate. none criminal, none wealthy, but all thrifty.
"So far as I can ascertain, I am the first of my line, on either side. who followed a professional occupation."
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF W. J. KRAMER.
I. William John Kramer, was born in 1840, January 2nd, in Ger- many, near Bremen. My father, Frederick W. Kramer, a native of Germany, was born in 1806, and my mother, also a native of Germany, was born in 18to. Her maiden name was Sophia Wilimina Wittie. Mother died in 1895.
My father, who died in 1869, was a wagonmaker, and followed that trade most of his life. His leading characteristic in this line was to make a first-class job at all times, and deal honestly with all men. In a
A. J. Kramer
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political sense he was a Republican, and his hobby was the free press and free speech. One of the reasons for his leaving Germany was the tyranny of the petty kings at that time, both military and otherwise A man was used more like a dog, by the nobility and officials, than like a man. His very nature rebelled at such treatment, so he sold his home, and with his wife and six boys set sail in a sailing vessel from Bremer- hafen in 1845. and after a voyage of two months arrived in New York. After staying there some time he went to Philadelphia and from there to Pittsburg, where he worked for some time, until Peter Graff hired him to go to Butler county, Pennsylvania, to make and repair wagons for an iron furnace, which he owned at that time.
It was there that I received my training as a wagonmaker. . As we had only about three months of school a year my schooling was very limited. Altogether it did not exceed more than three years. . Is our family consisted of ten boys we were obliged to go to work as soon as we were able to help earn a living. I commenced to work for my father before I was twelve years old, when my older brother and I took one end of the cross-cut saw and my father took the other, to get out wagon stock. In those days there were no sawmills in our section, and we had to saw and cut all our wagon stock from the tree. In that way I re- ceived a first-class schooling in the knowledge of wagon timber.
The first work I can ever remember of doing away from home was helping to make hay for the firm who owned the iron furnace. For this I received twenty-five cents per day, and boarded at home.
At that time money was very scarce, and father got very little. probably not over twenty-five dollars a year in cash. The rest of his wages he took out in provisions at the company's store.
When we boys went to a Fourth of July celebration we received twenty-five cents each for spending money, and then would walk from
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five to ten miles, as the case might be, to get there. This taught us a lesson in economy that few boys get to-day.
My first work was on the farm, and then came taking wagon timber. chopping cord wood for charcoal, road-making. clearing up farms, work- ing the furnace, mining ore and coal. and a number of other things too numerous to mention. I had learned the wagon trade before I was twenty-one years old.
In 1861, after helping my father to put up the crops, 1 came to Oil City, or to where Oil City now stands, to look for work. Not being able to secure a position of any kind, my chums advised me to start a repair shop. In October. 1861, 1 went back home, gathered up the few tools my father let me have, borrowed ten dollars from my brother. and. with this and another dollar which 1 had left, started in business by building a small shop 16x20 feet, one story high.
Now that the shop was built I had no stock to work with, as there was no wagon stock in this part of the country, and no railroads on which to have any shipped in. I went to Butler county and gathered up some there, and had it hauled to Oil City with teams. So you see 1 began business under very trying circumstances.
My first new wagon, made in 1862. was the first new one ever built in Oil City, and was sold to John Coast, now of Olean, New York.
I continued to repair wagons and occasionally built a new one to fill in the time. Mr. D. L. Trax doing smithing, until in 1880 he and I combined our capital and formed a co-partnership, bought some ma- chinery and commenced building wagons on a more extensive scale. We worked on for ten years, until our business outgrew our plant, and we took in Mr. Daniel Geottle, as a partner, moved our shops to the West End borough, where we are still doing business.
In 1857 I united with the Methodist Episcopal church in Butler
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county, and in 1861 brought my letter to the Methodist Episcopal church in Oil City, of which T. R. Thoburn is now pastor.
I have traveled considerably-from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Mexico to Canada.
At present I am president of the Kramer Wagon Company, and am manufacturing tables in company with my son, in Oil City, and am also a stockholder in the Rock Creek Lumber & Mining Company, of Ten- nessee.
On September 1, 1863, I married Sarah Ann Fair, daughter of Isaac Fair, a farmer of German descent, wagonmaker, and manufacturer of lumber. She was born in 1838, and was the mother of thirteen chil- dren, four boys and nine girls, two of which died when very young. The other eleven children are all living at the present time. My wife died on July 31, 1902, of heart trouble. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a good faithful wife and mother. In justice to her I must say that my success in business was due to ler fully as much as to myself.
J. WEIDMAN MURRAY.
Speaking of the above named gentleman, who now holds a promi- nent position in the iron workl of Pittsburg, one of his intimate business associates describes him as a "hail fellow well met," and a man of marked executive ability, whose word is as good as his bond. Such high praise from one who knows him well naturally excites curiosity to know something more concerning the object of such eulogy, and it is for the purpose of gratifying this desire that this brief biography has been compiled.
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Search for the family genealogy takes us to Lebanon county. Pennsylvania, where we find the parents settled in the early part of the nineteenth century. Captain William W. Murray, who was of Scotch-Irish stock, was known as a man of excellent business qualifi- cations, and for many years was manager of the Union Forge Com- pany at Union Forge, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. He was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, in politics was known as an "old-school Democrat." and when he passed away, at the age of sixty-five years. many people assembled around his bier and mourned him sincerely. both as a man and a citizen. In early manhood he had married Wil- helmina Bickel. a lady of German parentage, by whom he had twelve children. but the only survivors are: Mrs. E. P. Ewing, of Lincoln, Nebraska: William Murray, of Champaign, Illinois: L. W. Murray, of Connecticut. Ohio: and the Pittsburg man of business who is men- tioned in the initial sentences of these memoirs.
J. Weidman Murray, oklest of his father's living children, was born at Union Forge (now Lickdale). Lebanon county. Pennsylvania. October 17. 1853. and remained at home until about his eighteenth year. Meantime he had pursued his education in the public and private schools of the county, and when eighteen years old was graduated in the high school in Lebanon. Immediately thereafter he went to learn the trade of machinist with P. L. Weimer and Brothers at Lebanon. and remained in the employment of this firm for ten years following. Quitting this establishment temporarily, he was engaged with the Penn- sylvania Steel Company as assistant mechanical engineer for two and a half years, at the expiration of which time he returned to Weimer Brothers and remained with them an additional three years. His next move took him from his native state to the iron region of Bir- mingham. Alabama, where he was employed by the Tennessee Coal
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Mining & Railroad Company as mechanical engineer of the company and superintendent of their Linn Iron Works Department. After remaining with this southern company nearly eight years Mr. Murray took control as manager of the E. P. Allis Company, now known as the Allis-Chalmers Company, at Pittsburg, and has since retained that responsible position.
On the 30th of December. 1880, Mr. Murray was united in mar- riage with Miss Alice, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Carmany. of Lebanon, and they have two children: Leigh Carmany and Catherine Jeannette. Fraternally Mr. Murray's connections are confined to Masonry, in which he is a Knight Templar and has reached the thirty- second degree of the Scottish Rite. His social rank is indicated by his membership in the Duquesne Club, the largest and most influential or- ganization of its kind in the city and celebrated throughout the country on account of the distinction of many who have enjoyed the privileges of its exclusive circles. The rolls of the Duquesne include such men as Attorney General Knox, Andrew Carnegie and scores of others whose names are household words in the United States. Personally Mr. Mur- ray is a man of robust physique, of affable manners and genial address, and much addicted to outdoor sports, among which baseball is his par- ticular hobby.
JOSEPH HARTMAN.
Henry Ward Beecher once spoke the following words: "You can- not succeed in life by spasmodic jerks. You cannot win confidence, nor earn friendship, nor gain influence, nor attain skill. nor reach position. by violent snatches."
Not by a single jump, nor by a single stroke of commercial bril-
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lianey, did Joseph Hartman become a permanent factor in the business and financial circles of western Pennsylvania. The great development of the cities of western Pennsylvania, in the last quarter of a century, is due to the enterprise and progressiveness of such men as our subject : it is instructive as well as entertaining to chronicle the lives of those men who have done so much toward bringing about their present pros- perity, and such a one we have in the subject of this sketch, who was born October 18, 1827, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania.
Philip Hartman, his paternal grandfather, was among the pioneers of Oakland township. Butler county. The date of his settlement is not exactly known, but was soon after the close of the American Revolution. At the time of the war he resided at or near Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where he enlisted and served under Colonel Ogle. His brother. Michael Hartman, was also a soldier of the Revolution. and soon after the war settled in Manor township, Armstrong county. Pennsylvania, in the neighborhood of Kittanning.
On July 4. 1796. William Hartman, father of the gentleman whose name heads this biography, was born. He was undoubtedly one of the first. if not the first, male white child born in Butler county. He lived in Oakland township. Butler county, until he became a young man. when he went to Pittsburg, where he learned the trade of a blacksmith. Some- time after, he married Miss Mary Winters and removed to Armstrong county. A few years afterward the family removed to Pittsburg, where they remained a few years, and again returned to Armstrong county, where he engaged In farming and working at his trade until the year 1849, when they moved to Donegal township, Butler county, Penn- sylvania.
Joseph Hartman spent his boyhood days with his parents in Arm- strong county, and in Pittsburg, where he acquired habits of industry
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that have remained as leading traits of his character all through life. He received a common school education and private instruction from his parents. He commenced life for himself under very adverse cir- cumstances. His first earnings were invested in a small tract of land in Donegal township. Butler county, Pennsylvania, where he settled with his father and mother, and where they resided until the time of their death. His mother died September 10. 1864. in the sixty-fourth year of her age, and his father died February 14. 1879. aged eighty-four years. In 1849 he enlisted with Captain Fink, a veteran of the Mexican war. in Company E: was mustered at Middlesex, Armstrong county. under Colonel Surwell, and served for three years in the state troops as a private soldier. During the late Civil war the subject of this biography was a strong advocate for the Union, and in 1862 enlisted in Company E. one hundred and sixty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served nine months and was honorably discharged. Returning to But- ler county, he settled on his farm, where he remained until 1891 when he moved to Butler. Pennsylvania, where he now resides. Mr. Hart- man was regarded as one of the prominent and progressive agricultural- ists of the county, and in every sense a successful business man. lle always took a deep interest in matters of education, and was an active member of the school board of his township and served as its secretary almost continuously for thirty years. In politics he is an ardent Repub- lican, and in 1884 was elected to represent Butler county in the state legislature, serving in the sessions of 1885-86. He is a member of .1. G. Reed Post. G. A. R., of Butler, Pennsylvania, and a warm friend of the old soldiers.
Mr. Hartman has been twice married. His first wife was Mar- garet, daughter of John Black, of Donegal township. Butler county. whom he married in January. 1853. She died July 5. 1869. leaving a
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family of five children, as follows: Mary E., Lizzie J., the wife of Patrick Gallagher : Anna 1., the wife of Michael Leonard; Eva F. ; and Joseph D. Mr. Hartman's second marriage took place in 1873. with Miss Mary McFadden, who died April 17. 1891.
In 1864. Mr. Hartman commenced operating in the old fields of Venango county, Pennsylvania. He subsequently transferred his oper- ations to Butler and Armstrong counties, and has been successfully identified with oil producing for the past thirty-three years. He has operated extensively in the Millerstown, St. Joe and Jefferson Center fields. in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and in Allegheny county, New York, and in the great McDonald field in Washington county Pennsyl- vaia : also in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, and in Marion, Wetzel, Monongalia, Harrison and Ritchie counties, West Virginia and in Mon- roe county, Ohio. He is a stockholder in the Delmer Oil Company, of West Virginia. He is the largest stockholder in the Hartman Oil Com- pany, whose main office is at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. This company has drilled some hundred and twenty-five wells in the deep territory, in West Virginia, and has a large production. The company has large holdings in West Virginia.
Mr. Hartman is also the largest stockholder in the Richland Oil Company, whose wells and lands are located in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. He has also producing wells at Callery Junction, But- er county, Pennsylvania. He is a stockholder in the United States Pipe Line Company, and also the Producers' Pipe Line Company.
At the time the movement was inaugurated to curtail production he earnestly supported Hon. T. W. Phillips in his plan to set aside two million barrels of oil for the protection of labor engaged in the petroleum industry, the net profits of which were one hundred and ninety- two thousand dollars, which was divided among those thrown out of
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employment. Mr. Hartman. in connection with other capitalists, pur- chased the Kelly mine in New Mexico. After running this mine about eight months he disposed of his interest at a satisfactory profit. He is also a stockholder in the Trade Dollar Mining and Milling Company, of Idaho. He is also a stockholder in the Golconda Gold Mining and Milling Company, of Cripple Creek, Colorado.
The Butler County National Bank was organized and commenced business August 18, 18go. On the Ist day of October, 1890, Mr. Hart- man was elected president to succeed Mr. Taylor, a position he has filled to the entire satisfaction of the patrons and stockholders of the bank. The success of this bank has been phenomenal, and it is now one of the strongest institutions in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Hartman is a member of the Catholic church, and was reared in the religious faith of that denomination. The principal part of his early education he received from his mother, who was a very pious and good woman. Mr. Hartman takes a commendable interest in religions matters, and was active in the erection of the new church at Sugar Creek ; and was one of the members of the building committee. Ile not only gave his children a good common school education, but all his daughters completed theirs in a convent, and his son received a college education. His home and farm that he left in 1891, when he moved to Butler, was one of the finest in the county, and in it he takes great pride and interest.
CHARLES A. KUNKEL.
The well known and efficient cashier of the Mechanics' Bank. Charles A. Kunkel, merits and holds a place among the representative citizens of Harrisburg, and the story of his life offers a typical example
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of that alert American spirit which has enabled many an individual to rise to a position of influence and renown solely through native talent and singleness of purpose. He is a native son of the Keystone state. his birth having occurred in Shippensburg. Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, on the roth of June, 1847. He is a son of Samuel and Rachel ( Bomberger ) Kunkel. On the paternal side the remote ancestors came to this country from Germany, and Mr. Kunkel traces his genealogy to his grandfather, Christian Kunkel, who came to this city from York county, Pennsylvania, in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Charles A. Kunkel received his elementary education in the com- mon schools of his native locality, which he attended until fifteen years of age, and subsequently became a student in the Bryan & Stratton's Commercial College of Philadelphia, graduating from that institution in 1865. Previous to that time, in 1862, he had begun his business career as a clerk in a general store in the city of his birth, receiving in compensation for his services a salary of fifty dollars a year, and there he remained for two years. Obtaining a knowledge of bookkeep- ing 'in the Quaker City. Mr. Kunkel then came to Harrisburg and ac- cepted a clerkship in the Mechanics' Bank, of which Philip Dougherty was at that time president and Jacob C. Bomberger cashier. The latter died in 1807. and in his will bequeathed to his nephews, the Kunkel brothers, the Mechanics' Bank, a private banking institution of which he was the sole owner, and Mr. Kunkel was made its cashier, a position which he has ever since continued to fill. Through his excellent finan- cial management this bank has weathered through the monetary crisis and has maintained the confidence of the people when many other similar institutions went to the wall. In his business relations he has been thor- oughly upright and conscientious, gentlemanly, considerate and court-
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eous in his personal and social contact, and with all mankind an honest man.
On the 13th of January. 1881, Mr. Kunkel was united in marriage to Eliza B. Waugh, and two children have graced their union, Beverly and Rachel B. After acquiring a rudimentary education the son en- tered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1901. and in the following October he was called back to that institution to become an instructor in biology. He is now devoting his entire time to that pro- fession. Mr. Kunkel gives his political support to the Republican party, but is in no sense a seeker for public honors or emoluments. He is an active member of the Zion Lutheran church, in which he has served as Sunday-school superintendent for over twenty-five years, while for five years, though not consecutively, he has served as president of the Young Men's Christian Association. He is now serving as trustee of the Pennsylvania College, of Gettysburg, and both he and his brother con- tributed liberally to the erection of the nursery wing to the Orphan's Home at Loysville. He has been liberal in aiding and assisting all worthy and benevolent enterprises.
ALLEN P. PERLEY.
In past ages the history of a country was the record of wars and conquests; to-day it is the record of commercial activity, and those whose names are foremost in its annals are the leaders in business cir- cles. The conquests now made are those of mind over matter, not man over man, and the victor is he who can successfully establish, control and operate important commercial interests. Allen P. Perley is unques- tionably one of the strongest and most influential business men of Williamsport, and his life has become an essential part of its history.
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Tireless energy, keen perception, honesty of purpose, genius for devis- ing and executing the right thing at the right time, joined to every-day common sense, guided by resistless will power, are the chief character- istics of the man. As president of the West Branch National Bank and by his connection with other important enterprises, he to-day occupies a front rank in the business circles of Williamsport.
Mr. Perley was born in Oldtown, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 8th of March. 1845. and is a son of Daniel J. and Mary ( Lovejoy ) Perley, the former a native of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and the latter of Kennebec county, Maine. In the Pine Tree state the father practiced the profession of medicine for sixty years, and both he and his wife died in Penobscot county.
Allen P. Perley passed the days of his boyhood and youth in the county of his nativity, and is indebted to the schools of that locality for the educational privileges he enjoyed. He began his business career as a clerk in a mercantile establishment and was similarly employed for several years. Coming to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1865. he accepted the position of bookkeeper at George Zimmer planing mills, and four years later purchased an interest in the firm, which he retained until 1873. Subsequently he was employed as bookkeeper by Daniel W. Smith, and in July, 1874, entered the service of Slonaker, Howard & Company in the same capacity. In 1879 he purchased Mr. Slonaker's interest and engaged in the lumber business under the firm name of Howard, Perley & Howard until January, 1887. when C. B. Howard retired from the firm and Mr. Perley and William Howard have since continned the business under the style of Howard & Perley. This firm ranks high among the lumber dealers of Williamsport. They have large interests in Clinton and Potter counties, Pennsylvania, and are
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the owners of twelve niiles of railroad in the lumber field. Mr. Perley has long been a director of the West Branch National Bank of Will- iamsport, and in November, 1898, was chosen president of that institu- tion, which is the largest and strongest financial concern in the city. The safe, conservative policy which he has inaugurated commends itself to the judgment of all and has secured for the bank a patronage which makes the volume of business transacted over its counters of great im- portance and magnitude. The success of the institution is certainly due in large measure to him, and through it and his lumber business he has promoted the welfare of the city.
Mr. Perley has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Clara Lovejoy, a daughter of Albert Lovejoy, of Gardiner, Maine. Their marriage was celebrated September 1, 1869, and was blessed with five children who are still living, namely: Margaret Lovejoy, Harriett Scott, Fred A., Martha C. and Alien P., Jr. The wife and mother died in January, 1886, and in 1888 Mr. Perley wedded Mrs. Anne Stowell, a native of New York. They are prominent members of Christ's Epis- copal church, in which he holds the office of vestryman, and he is also a member of Lodge No. 106, F. & A. M. Politically he is a stanch Republican and served one term as a member of the city council. Mr. Perley stands high in the esteem of his business asso- ciates as a man possessing excellent business ability and sound judg- ment, being particularly successful in the management of large business enterprises. In manner he is courteous and considerate, and is a most respected, congenial and kind-hearted citizen, who is held in the highest regard by all with whom he comes in contact either in business or social life
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