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 II > Part 11
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tion, he was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1873 with the degree of A. B., following which he was a student at the Harvard Divinity School for three years. Ile also spent two years studying in Europe. His medical studies were pursued at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1888. In April of that year he began the prac- tice of his profession at 119 South Seventeenth street : he now resides at 1631 Locust street.
Since entering professional life Dr. Gould has made a specialty of diseases of the eyes, to the study of which he devoted his principal attention while in college, and as an oculist he has acquired a wide rep- ntation. From 1892 to 1894 he was ophthalmologist at the Philadelphia Hospital. As a writer upor medical topics and in other fields of litera- ture he has made excellent use of his facile pen. From 1891 to 1895 he was editor of the "Medical News." and from 1898 to 1900 was editor of the "Philadelphia Medical Journal." and has been editor of ".American Medicine" from its foundation in 1900 to the present time. Aside from his frequent contributions to various serials, he is author of the follow- ing works: "A Quiz Compend of Diseases of the Eye," 1888; in collaboration with Dr. W. L. Pyle, "A Compend of Diseases of the Eye and Refraction," 1897: "A New Medical Dictionary." 1890: "Twelve Thousand Medical Words Pronounced and Defined." 1892; "Thirty Thousand Medical Words Pronounced and Defined." 1899: "The Mean- ing and the Method of Life." 1893: "An Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine, Biology, etc.," 1894 (fifth edition, 1900) : "The Students' Medical Dictionary." tenth edition. 1896; "Borderland Studies." 1896; "The Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine." in collaboration with Dr. W. L. Pyle, 1896: "American Year Book of Medicine and Surgery." 1896 to 1904; "An Autumn Singer," a volume of poems, 1896; "Sug-
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gestions to Medical Writers," 1900; "\ Cyclopedia of Practical Medi- cine and Surgery." 1900: "Biographic Clinics," 1903. His medical dictionaries have attained great popularity, more than one hundred and sixty thousand copies having been sold.
Dr. Gould was president of the American Academy of Medicine for the years 1893 and 1894. and is a member of the University and Arts Club of Philadelphia, a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a member of the American Ophthalmological Society and various other medical societies.
BAYARD TAYLOR.
Bayard Taylor, one of the most prolific and pleasing of American authors, was a native of Chester county. Pennsylvania, born at Kennett Square. January 25, 1825. He studied under Jonathan Gause. at Union- ville, and learned the art of printing in the office of the "Village Record." at West Chester. making his beginning at the age of seventeen. In 1844, when nineteen years old. he published "Ximena, and Other Poems." In the same year he sailed for Europe, with his savings of a little more than one hundred dollars, but having a congenial mission -- that of writing his experiences in travel for the "New York Tribune." "Saturday Evening Post." and another journal. He spent two years in travel in Great Britain and upon the continent, and that he was well adapted for a traveler is evidenced by the fact that his entire expendi- tures did not exceed the sum of $500. Ilis newspaper contributions were received with so much favor that he was induced to tell of his pedestrian tour in a volume published in 1846. "Views Afoot, or. Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff." which had a wide popularity. He published a newspaper at Phoenixville for a short time, but in 1847 accepted
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an invitation from Horace Greeley to attach himself to the editorial staff of the "New York Tribune." When the gold fever was at its height he journeyed to California, acting as correspondent of "The Tribune." and in 1850 he made his experiences the basis for "Eldorado. or Adventures in the Path of Empire," a volume which had a phenomenal sale for the times, the sales being ten thousand in the United States and thirty thousand in Great Britain within a fortnight after its appear- ance.
Semewhat of a dreamer. Taylor deemed himself native to the east.
and in 1851 made a tour of the Nile regions, and he stored his memory with traditions and incidents which afforded the basis of much of his verse. In 1852 he made a voyage from England to Calcutta, and thence to China, where he joined Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan. and from these travels he drew material from which he wrote several volumes-"\ Journey to Central Africa." "The Land of the Saracens." and "A Visit to India, China and Japan." Returning home in 1854. lie entered upon a very successful career as a public lecturer. delivering addresses in the principal cities from New York to Wisconsin. After
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being thus occupied for two years, he visited northern Europe, with the principal purpose of studying Swedish life, language and literature, and out of this trip grew his long narrative poem. "Lars." and his volume of "Northern Travel."
In 1857 Mr. Taylor married Maria Hansen, daughter of a German astronomer. After traveling for a time in Greece, and afterwards in AAmerica upon the Pacific slope, Mr. Taylor (in 1862) entered the diplo- matic service in the capacity of secretary of legation at St. Petersburg. and in the following year became charge d'affairs at the Russian capital. In 1864 he returned to the United States, and for ten years devoted himself industriously to literary pursuits. It was during this period that he produced his four novels, of which one possessed a deep interest in his native county of Chester-"The Story of Kennett," founded upon the doings, real and mythical, of James Fitzpatrick, a noted desperado of the Revolutionary period. It is to be said in all truth that Mr. Taylor was not endowed with those qualities which make a really masterly novelist, and his literary fame must rest principally upon his volumes of travel and his poetry. Ile visited Iceland in 1874, to take part in the centennial celebration held that year. In June. 1878, he was appointed United States minister to Germany, and died in Berlin. December 17, shortly after his arrival there.
RICHARD WETHERILL.
But few persons in the United States can claim family association with a particular locality to the like extent as that which is presented in the instance of Richard Wetherill. In the ninth generation he is a descendant of Joran Kyn (George Keen), to whom the Swedish crown. in 1644, patented the territory upon which the colonial part of the pres-
Ruch Wathoud
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ent city of Chester is situated, and whose history has its beginning in that grant to Richard Wetherill's ancestor, the handsome guardsman to Governor Printz. In the same degree he is a lineal descendant from Christopher Taylor, who two centuries and a half ago suffered in the cause of freedom of speech and religious toleration in the mother coun- try. A man of letters and refinement, who, before Penn's coming. sought that liberty of act and thought that were denied to him in the country of his birth; a man whom Proud, the historian. terms "one of the first and principal settlers in the province under William Penn:" who served as a member of the first legislative assembly in the colony. and was a member of Penn's first council, the advisory body to the proprietary in governmental affairs. Christopher Taylor owned and resided at Tinicum Island, now Tinicum township. Delaware county. In the eighth generation he is descended from James Sandelands, a cadet of the proud Scottish family of Sandelands. It was in his house where the first assembly convened at Chester, in 1682. (See note fol- lowing this sketch.) His many personal acts are interwoven and enter into the story of English colonization on the Delaware, or South river. In the sixth generation he traces descent from AAnthony Sharp, of Dub- lin, a man of large means, who has made a lasting impression upon the annals of his adopted city, for he was of English birth, and who, as one of the owners of West New Jersey. enters largely into the colonial history of that commonwealth in whose early settlement he played no inconsiderable part.
In the maternal line he traces descent from the West family of Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire, England, to which the title Lord De la Ware appertains, and is a scion of the Delanys of Bally Fine, Queen's county. Ireland. His great-grandfather. Dr. William Delany. served in the Revolutionary army for seven years, while his great-great-
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uncle. Colonel Sharp Delany, who took part in that struggle, was a personal friend of Washington and a constant associate of "Mad An- thony" Wayne, who made Colonel Delany one of the executors of his will. In the Price line he comes from a sturdy Welsh race who settled in what is now Delaware county two centuries ago. His great-grand- father. John Price, was a soklier in the Pennsylvania Continental Line. whose health yielded to the severe privations to which he was subject in his several years of active military life, and whose death in 1783 was the result of his devotion to the cause of American independence. His great-grandfather. Richard Wetherill, born in 1788, at Rich Hill, county Armagh, was the child of English parents who had removed from York- shire to Ireland. That Richard Wetherill, hardly beyond his majority. in 1810 embarked in the manufacture of woolen fabrics in Conc ird township. Delaware county, when the industrial development of the section was in its infancy. For two and a half centuries Richard Weth- erill. the subject of this sketch, and his ancestors, have been prominently identified with the county of Delaware, which has been the theatre of his active business career.
Richard Wetherill, the third son of Robert and Phoebe Ann ( De- lany ) Wetherill, was born in Lower Merion township. Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. September 28. 1850. His father at that time owned and operated the three Wetherill woolen mills, at Manayunk. which, prior to the disastrous panic, were among the first successful woolen manufacturing enterprises in the commonwealth. The boy at- tended the public schools in Philadelphia. but on the death of his father in the late summer of 1861 the mother removed with her family to Delaware county, and Richard Wetherill became a student at the Ches- ter Academy. At an early age he became a junior clerk in a drug store, but subsequently secured a clerical position with the Philadelphia, Wil-
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mington & Baltimore Railway Company, and part of the time while in that employment he was stationed at Wilmington. Delaware. Soon after attaining his majority, on January 1. 1872, he entered into partnership with his brother. Robert Wetherill. in the building of Corliss engines and boilers and the foundry business, and young as he was, in the allot-
ment of the duties devolving upon the partners, to Richard Wetherill fell the management of the financial affairs of the firm. This distribution of responsibilities in the conduct of the business of the firm of Robert Wetherill & Company culminated in the most satisfactory results, until from small beginnings and the command of meagre capital the works under such direction have lec me one of the leading industries in the United States, whose product has been distributed in every state and
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territory in this country, and found sales in Canada, Cuba, Mexico and in far-away China.
Richard Wetherill was one of the organizers of the Chester Na- tional Bank, and was chosen a member of its first board of directors, a position to which he has since been annually re-elected. He is a director of the Chester Street Railway Company of Chester, was treasurer and vice-president of the Standard Steel Casting Company, and was presi- dent of the Chester Gas Company until the Philadelphia Suburban Gas Company secured ownership of that plant. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania Military College. and director in several of the successful textile industries of Chester. He and his brother Robert are interested in a number of electric railways and in- dustrial enterprises in other localities, all of which are dividend-paying investments. The residences of Richard and Robert Wetherill are among the finest private dwellings in this section of the state.
On December 3. 1878. Richard Wetherill married Ella Larkin, youngest daughter of the late Hon. John Larkin, the first mayor of Chester, and one of the men to whom that city owes its great growth and development. Mrs. Wetherill, as in the case of her husband, traces descent from many of the early settlers of this part of Pennsylvania, who were active in their day and generation. Through several of these Mrs. Wetherill has entered the Society of Colonial Dames of America. To this marriage were born two sons and two daughters.
NOTE .- The Sandelands house was described as follows in a paper read by Mr. H. G. Ashinead before the Delaware County Historical So- ciety, at Media, September 26, 1901 :
" In the early part of the eighteenth century on the west side of Edgmont avenue below Third street, in the city of Chester, could be seen the foundations of an old building, which, in the period associated with Penn, was known as James Sandeland's double house. It was the most imposing building in Upland, and therein Penn convened the first general assembly that ever sat in the province of Pennsylvania.
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The house had been built with mortar made of oyster shell lime, which proved so utterly worthless, probably because of defective burning, that in the course of twenty odd years the structure showed such signs of decay that it became untenantable. fell into ruins, and gradually the materials used in its construction were removed. Shortly after 1800, even the foundations were buried in the accumulation of soil that has taken place during a century. In time its very existence was forgotten. hence tradition for many years gave credit to the Friends' old meeting house which stood on the adjoining lot as the place where the first assembly met.
" On July 14. 1893, while excavations were being made for the cellars of a row of commission stores, the foundations of Sandeland's. double house were unearthed. An accurate survey of them was made by Walter Wood. assistant city engineer. giving the precise size of the old structure and the distance from the intersection of Third and Edgmont streets. William B. Broomall. Esq., had Mr. Nymetz take a photograph of the unearthed walls for which act he will receive the thanks of coming generations.
"In this double house in its pristine glory James Sandeland kept tavern, for the pretentious word hotel had not then found its way into the English language."
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON CASSATT.
Alexander Johnston Cassatt, prominent in railroad affairs, and who maintains a splendid estate at Berwyn, Pennsylvania, is a native of the state, born in Pittsburg. December 8. 1839. a son of Robert S. Cassatt. The elder Cassatt was for a number of years closely identi- fied with the financial and industrial interests of western Pennsylvania. and was first mayor of Allegheny City.
.Alexander J. Cassatt received his primary education in the public schools in his native city. While he was but a lad. his father sojourned in Europe for some years, and the son obtained a knowledge of modern languages in various continental schools, among them the University of Heidelberg. After returning home he attended the Rensselaer Poly- technic Institute, from which he was graduated in 1859. shortly be- fore attaining his majority. With an excellent knowledge of engineer- ing, and a predisposition for railway affairs, he was occupied for two years after his graduation with a surveying corps in the location of a route in Georgia. In 1861 he became connected with the engineering department of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in the capacity of roadman. In 1864, after the Pennsylvania had absorbed the Phila-
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delphia & Erie Railroad, Mr. Cassatt was at Renovo, as superintendent of the Warren & Franklin Railroad, and with duties as resident engineer of the middle division. In April, 1866, he was transferred to Williams- port, as superintendent of motive power and machinery of the Phila- delphia & Eric Railroad. In 1867 he was appointed to a similar position on the Pennsylvania Railroad, with his offices at Altoona. April 1. 1870. he succeeded Dr. Edward U. Williams as general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Upon the leasing of the United Rail- roads of New Jersey, in December, 1871, Mr. Cassatt was made general manager, being the first incumbent of that office. September 30. 1882. he resigned in order to return to private life, but his retirement was of brief duration. In February. 1885. he was called to the presidency of the New York. Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad, and in 1899 he was elected president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, both of which positions he has occupied to. the present time. His eminent abilities in transportation concerns have given him an international reputation. and his influence has extended far beyond the vast properties which he has under control. In the spring of 1891. when the projected Inter- Continental Railroad to connect North, Central and South America received the approval of the International American Conference, Mr. Cassatt was appointed by President Harrison one of the three commis- sioners on the part of the United States, and he was chosen president of the commission.
Mr. Cassatt makes his home and legal residence in Lower Merion township, Montgomery county. Pennsylvania, and has ever borne a full share in promoting the interests of the neighborhood, and he has, through uninterrupted elections, served in the position of supervisor since 1881. Near Berwyn, Chester county, he maintains his famous
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Chesterbrook Farm of seven hundred acres, devoted to the maintenance of his many splendid carriage and saddle horses, for which have been provided buildings almost palatial in their appointments.
JAMES W. HOLLAND, A. B., A. M., M. D
James W. Holland. A. B., A. M., M. D., Professor of Medical Chemistry and Toxicology and Dean of the Faculty of the Jefferson Medical College, was born in Nashville, Tennessee. April 24. 1849. the son of Dr. Robert C. Holland, who moved to Louisville, Kentucky. at the time of the cholera epidemic in 1852. He was graduated a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Louisville in 1865. and received his Master degree three years later. Having attended two courses of lectures in the University, he completed his studies in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, graduating as Doctor of Medicine in 1868.
Returning to his home in Louisville. Dr. Holland began the prac- tice of medicine in partnership with his father, and connected himself at once with the teaching corps of the University at Louisville, in the capacity of assistant demonstrator of anatomy. In 1872 he was elected professor of medical chemistry and clinical neurology, and as vacancies occurred in other chairs of that institution he successively occupied those of materia medica, clinical medicine and eventually that of prac- tice of medicine and clinical medicine.
While residing in Louisville he was a member of the Louisville College of Physicians and Surgeons, of the Louisville Medical and Chi- rurgical Society, president of the Kentucky State Medical Society, and a member of the American Medical Association. In 1878 he was ap- pointed a member of the Kentucky State Board of Health. During this
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period of active professional work his literary work was confined to contributions to medical periodicals. In 1880 he was sole editor of the Louisville "Medical News." His more recent works as a medical writer comprise "The Diet for the Sick." a "Laboratory Manual of Clinical Chemistry," the chapter on the Urine in the American Text- book of Practical Medicine, and an exhaustive chapter on Inorganic Poisons in Peterson and Haines "Legal Medicine and Toxicology," all of which attracted favorable attention from the profession.
Since 1885 Dr. Holland has resided in Philadelphia, as professor of medical chemistry and toxicology in his alma mater, the Jefferson Medical College, and since 1887 he has been Dean of the Faculty ; and it may be said without fear of contradiction that during his incumbency of that office the institution has prospered as never before in its history. and the popularity and rank which it has attained among the larger medical colleges of the country has been largely due to the untiring efforts in its behalf and his practical business methods in the manage- ment of its affairs. He is a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and has served as president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
HON. WILLIAM POTTER.
Hon. William Potter, president of the Board of Trustees of Jef- ferson Medical College, was born in Philadelphia, April 17. 1852, is a son of the late Thomas Potter, an eminent citizen of Philadelphia, and of the late .Adaline Coleman Potter, whose grandfather. Gen. Jacob Bower, of Reading, Pennsylvania, and great-grandfather. Colonel Joseph Wood, of Philadelphia, served as officers in the Continental Line
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during the entire Revolution. General Bower being an original mem- ber of Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati.
Mr. Potter was educated in private schools in Philadelphia and matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania ( member of the class of 1874) : but, owing to the serious illness of his father. he was obliged to leave before being graduated, and finished his university studies in Europe and with private tutors. On his return to America he began the study of the science of law.
Although desirous of being admitted to the bar. Mr. Potter became a partner in his father's large manufactory corporation, and continued therein for eighteen years, until 1892, when he was appointed by Presi- dent Harrison to the Italian mission.
While vice-president of the incorporated company and retaining an active and controlling interest in the great enterprise founded by his father in 1835. Mr. Potter has from his youth been earnest in public affairs in what might be called the higher regions of politics. . Always a Republican and believing the prosperity of the country to be insepar- able from Republican supremacy, Mr. Potter has never ceased to labor for the purification of political methods. With this intent he was a member of the Committee of One Hundred and a member of its Execu- tive Committee. He remained an active participant in that commend- able movement until the committee departed from the essential princi- ple of its organization by a refusal to endorse reputable Republican nominations. During the several political campaigns which have matured since the manhood of Mr. Potter he has taken part as a Republican leader not only in the practical work of organization, but as a ready and forceful speaker.
The necessity of better postal intercourse between nations was among the duties which devolved upon the administration of
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President Harrison. Mr. Potter was appointed special com- missioner to visit London, Paris and Berlin in behalf of the State Department and the Postmaster General and negotiate a system of sea post-offices. The success of these negotiations led to his appoint- ment as delegate to the fourth congress of the Universal Postal Union, held in Vienna in 1891. Mr. Potter and his colleague were given pleni- potentiary power, under which they arranged and signed for their gov- ernment a new treaty. This instrument, which went into effect October 1, 1892, was among the most important achievements of Mr. Harrison's administration.
Mr. Potter retired from business in 1892 and is now a member of the Philadelphia bar.
In consideration of his well-known interest in educational matters Mr. Potter was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Jefferson College in the year 1895. and on the resignation of Joseph B. Townsend, Esq., LL. D., was unanimously chosen its president.
ROBERT JENKINS, SR.
Everywhere in our broad land are to be found men who have worked their own way from lowly and humble beginnings to places of leadership in commerce, the great productive industries and the man- agement of the veins and arteries of traffic and exchanges of the country. It is one of the glories of our nation that this is so. It should be the strongest incentive and encouragement to the youth of the country that such possibilities exist. Prominent, and in some senses exceptional. among the self-made and representative men of the old Keystone state of the Union is the subject of this sketch-a man honored. respected and esteemed wherever known, and most of all where he is best known.
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