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 16
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When of an age to leave home, he was placed at a boarding school at Wilmington, Delaware, and later was sent to a similar institution in Philadelphia. In February, 1843. when Samuel .A. Crozer was but a few weeks over seventeen, his father was thrown from a sleigh, re- sulting in a fracture of the thigh. In the emergency occasioned by that accident, the lad was summoned home and given charge of the financial and office department of the manufacturing business conducted by his father, which by that time had grown to enormous proportions. With such ability had the son discharged the duties so unexpectedly cast upon him that his father, after his recovery from his injuries, con- tinued Samuel in absolute control of that branch of the business.
In August of that year occurred the great flood that will ever be remembered in this section. The elder Crozer dispatched his son to
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the West Branch mill to direct the operations there designed to save that establishment from total destruction, and, while that was only par- tially accomplished, Samuel continued at his post, even when more than half the factory had been undermined by water and had fallen into the angry flood.
In 1845 John P. Crozer purchased the noted Chester mills, near Upland, and began the erection there of a cotton factory, afterwards known as mill No. 1. When the building was completed, to his son Samuel was entrusted the entire supervision of placing the machinery, and in 1846, when the mill at Upland was started, Samuel had control and direction of this factory. Throughout the diary of John P. Crozer constant mention is made of his son. upon whose advice and assistance he frequently found he was unconsciously leaning. On January 1, 1847, when Samuel A. Crozer had attained his majority, his father admitted him into partnership in the business, and the firm remained John P. Crozer & Son until March 11, 1866, when, by the death of John P. Crozer. the partnership terminated.
On June 14, 1854. Samuel A. Crozer married Miss Abigail Cheney, at Lowell. Massachusetts. Mrs. Crozer was a native of Manchester. New Hampshire, descended from the sturdy Mayflower stock of the Bay state. Not only was she widely known for her proficiency in music, but she was an accomplished linguist. A number of her translations from German authors have been printed, among which may be mentioned Paul Heyse's "La Rabbiata" in her minor works, while in 1881 she published a translation of Otto Roquette's novel. "Conrad Hogen's Mis- takes," which was widely read. The profit from the sale of this book, which amounted to a considerable sum, was donated by Mrs. Crozer to the "Home for Destitute Children." For many years Mrs. Crozer conducted a singing school at Upland, which, while open to all the
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people of the village, was for a long period a feature of the local life of the borough. Mrs. Crozer, during the war of the rebellion, was presi- cent of the Soldiers' Relief Association of Delaware county, and that organization of good women not only ministered to the needs of the wounded Union troops, but contributed to the relief of the Confederate soldiers, in numbers amounting into the thousands, who were brought to the Crozer Military Hospital, now the Crozer Theological Seminary, at Upland. during that sanguinary struggle. Mrs. Crozer died July 21. 1890.
After the death of John P. Crozer, the three factories at Upland were divided among his sons. Samuel A. Crozer at that time began business on his own account, which he conducted until 1881, when his son. John Price Crozer, was admitted into the firm, which became Samuel A. Crozer & Son, and still continues under that title. While Mr. Crozer is identified with the history of Delaware county as a suc- cessful cotton manufacturer, he has large interests elsewhere, for in- stance, the Crozer Steel and Iron Company, of Roanoke, Virginia, the Upland Coal Company, of Elkhorn. West Virginia, in all of which enterprises Samuel A. Crozer owns controlling interests. His real estate holdings are large and exceedingly valuable, and are scattered in many states, noticeably in Roanoke City, Virginia: in the business heart of Chicago: the Crozer building, on Chestnut street, Philadelphia ; and in Delaware county, particularly in the borough of Upland and the city of Chester.
In the philanthropic and religious field of activity, Mr. Crozer has been exceedingly prominent. In 1863 he became the president of the National Baptist Convention for Missionary Purposes, for more than forty years he has been one of the managers of the Training School for Feeble Minded Children, at Elwyn, and for some years.
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he has been president of the board, a position that his father held at the time of his death. He is president of the Baptist Publication So- ciety, located in Philadelphia, and for more than forty years he has been one of the managers of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in Phila- delphia. Since the Crozer family endowed the Crozer Theological Seminary in 1868 as a school for training clergymen for the Baptist ministry. Mr. Crozer has been the president of the board of trustees. He is a manager in a number of Baptist missionary and other organ- izations.
At his personal cost, Mr. Crozer erected the South Chester Bap- tist church, the Leipersville Baptist church, and recently built the new Emanuel Baptist church at Fifteenth and Potter streets, Chester. as a memorial to his wife. He has been a liberal contributor to the Chester Hospital, the Chester Free Library and Pennsylvania Hospital, and similar organizations, and gave Crozer Park, a tract of thirty-five acres, to the city of Chester.
While Mr. Crozer does not claim to be a public speaker, on several occasions he has delivered addresses that are valuable contributions to the local history of Delaware county, particularly his address before the Delaware County Historical Society. at Upland, June 22. 1899. (fully reported in the proceedings of the organization) on "The Early Manufactures and Manufacturers of Delaware County." and his his- torical address at the semi-centennial of Upland Baptist church. Mr. Crozer is also an extensive traveler, having visited almost every sec- tion of the globe, with the exception of China, Japan, and India, and in so doing has crossed the Atlantic nearly eighty times.
To the marriage of Samuel .A. and Abigail Crozer were born six children, John P. Crozer: Samuel A. Crozer, Jr., who died at Seine
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Port. France: Edward Crozer: Sallie K. Crozer, who married the late William H. Robinson; Margaret Crozer, who married Caleb Fox; and Mary Crozer, who married Lewis R. Page.
HON. JOHN B. STEEL.
Hon. John B. Steel, of Greensburg. Pennsylvania, first president judge of the Separate Orphans' court of Westmoreland county, is the eldest son of William and Sarah Jane ( Brown) Steel, born February 17. 1861, on the Hannastown Farm, the seat of the famous Hannastown burned by the Indians in 1772, Hempfield township. Westmoreland county. Pennsylvania.
Judge Steel came from that sturdy Scotch-Irish race that has done so much for the cause of liberty and the development of the country, being Scotch-Irish in every line of his ancestry. His great-grandfather. James Steel. was born in Castle Blaney, near Carrick Macross, Ireland, about 1741. emigrated to America after the Steel Boy Insurrection (1772), stopped on the eastern side of the mountains at that Scotch- Irish hive in Cumberland. now Franklin county, and moved westward about 1773. settling on land in Sewickley Manor, now Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, about the time of the formation of Westmoreland county. Here he bought land from the Penns and became an important landowner in his day of land that is now in the Connellsville coking coal region. Four hundred acres of the land bought by him has been passed down through his descendants and is now owned by his great-grandson. Joseph W. Steel. True to the char- acteristics of his race he became an agitator for freedom, was a mem- ber of the Mt. Pleasant Associators formed to protect this western coun- try, was three years in the Revolutionary army, took the oath of allegiance
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required by all foreign born citizens, before Hugh Martin, a justice of this county, March 3. 1777, and served with his brothers-in-law, Rob- ert and Andrew Donaldson, in the campaign in the Jerseys. He was married, first, to Elizabeth McMasters, a sister of James McMasters. who lived near his farm. By this union he had two children, Joseph Steel, intermarried with Barbara Blystone, Franklin township, this county, and Jane Steel intermarried with William Hunter, near what was then Loudenville. Richland county, Ohio. About the close of the Revolutionary war James Steel was married to Elizabeth Donaldson, said to have been his cousin, and by this union they had three children : Elizabeth. born September 24. 1785, intermarried with Alexander Ham- ilton, of what is now Ruffsdale, Pennsylvania: James Steel born on the day of the adoption of the United States constitution, September 17. 1787. intermarried with Martha Mccutcheon, of Franklin township. this county: and John Steel. the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, born April 7. 1789, intermarried with his cousin. Martha Walker. the daughter of Andrew and Sallie ( Donaldson ) Walker, of Virginia, near Steubenville, Ohio. James Steel, the great-grandfather, died Sep- tember 10, 1823, and was buried at the Middle Presbyterian church. Mount Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania.
John Steel. the grandfather, acquired the old homestead in Mt. Pleasant township, and in 1826 purchased the Robert Hanna farm, on which was located Hannastown, the former county seat of Westmoreland county, which then embraced all of western Pennsylvania This farm became the homestead farm of John Steel, and is still in the possession of his son, William Steel, the father of Judge Steel. To John Steel and Martha Walker were born mne children: Sarah, intermarried with Henry Byers, Grapeville, Pennsylvania : Eliza, intermarried with Andrew Machesney, of Greensburg. Pennsylvania: James, intermarried with
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Elizabeth Hanna, Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania : Joseph Walker, inter- married with Malinda Brechbill, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania ; John. intermarried with Susan Geiger, Beatty, Pennsylvania: Margaret, in- termarried with James M. Steel, her cousin, Salem township, West- moreland county, Pennsylvania : Mary J., intermarried with Henry T. Hanna, of Smithton, Pennsylvania: Martha, intermarried with Major David P. Mechling, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and William Steel. intermarried with Sarah Jane Brown, of Hannastown, Pennsylvania. All of these are now deceased, except Mary J. Hanna and William Steel. John Steel, the grandfather, died May 22, 1860, being one of the fore- most business men and largest landowners of his county He is buried at the Congruity Presbyterian church. .
William Steel, the father of Judge Steel. was born October 1. 1833, was married to Sarah J. Brown, April 3. 1860. He is a large owner of valuable real estate and coal land, has always been identified with farming and stock-raising interests of the county. was Westmoreland's pioneer in the rearing of Short-horn cattle and one of western Pennsyl- vania's foremost importers and breeders of pure bred draft horses. Will- iam and Sarah J. Steel are both living at the Hannastown Farm in Salem and Hempfield townships, this county, and are the parents of the follow- ing named children: Hon. John B. Steel. Greensburg, Pennsylvania : Mary Herron, intermarried with George Coleman, East End, Pittsburg. Pennsylvania : Eliza Martha, intermarried with Samnel C. Patterson, near New Alexandria. Pennsylvania : Agnes Beatty, intermarried with George S. Barnhart. near Greensburg, Pennsylvania: Helen Milligan, intermarried with Samuel O. Hugus, near New Alexandria, Pennsyl- vania : Margaret Elder, intermarried with Samuel B. Moore, near La- trobe, Pennsylvania; Clara Malinda, unmarried, residing at home; Will-
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iam Oliver Steel, deceased: Joseph Walker Steel, Sarah Jane Steel and Henrietta Marie Steel, unmarried and residing with their parents.
On the maternal side the ancestry of Judge Steel is also Scotch- Irish : they came from Scotland with numerous other Covenanters under King James' confiscation act, settling in county Donegal. Ireland. Matthew Brown, the seventh grand-ancestor, was a captain in Colonel George Walker's famous Derry Regiment, which rendered such valiant services to the cause of civil and religious liberty at the siege of Lon- donderry. and at the battle of the Boyne. His sword is still preserved as a precious relic by Howard Brown and William Brown, his descend- ants in Pittsburg. His grandson. also Matthew Brown by name, left county Donegal with his family in 1774 and came to America in com- pany with the Reverends Dobbin and Lynn, who afterwards founded an academy at Gettsyburg and taught the first abolition doctrine on the very field where ninety years after freedom received her crowning laurel. He settled at Green Castle, Franklin county, and was there buried, leaving to survive him five children: David. the great-great- grandfather of Judge Steel: John, intermarried with Catharine Foster. sister of Robbin Foster, of near New Alexandria, Pennsylvania, moved to Sugar Creek township. Armstrong county, Pennsylvania : Andrew. of Armstrong county. Pennsylvania : Samuel Brown, said to have moved to Virginia : Mary, intermarried with James Watt, of Franklin county.
David Brown, the great-great-grandfather of Judge Steel was mar- ried to Margaret Oliver, whose mother was an Erskine of the House of Erskine, Scotland; he purchased in 1802 the land now owned by John Oliver Brown, his descendant. at the mouth of the White Thorn Run, near New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. To them were born six children, viz .: Mary, intermarried with Nathaniel Alexander, Allegheny town- ship. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania : Thomas Oliver Brown. 46
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grandfather of Judge Steel: Elizabeth, intermarried with Thomas Gailey Clarksburg, Pennsylvania: David, intermarried with Maria Beatty. Salem township: Margaret, intermarried with John Coleman, Ellers Ridge, Pennsylvania : James, intermarried with Margaret Elizabeth Wil- son, of Salem township. On the death of David Brown he was buried in the New Alexandria Covenanter churchyard, and his real estate be- came the property of Thomas Oliver Brown, grandfather of Judge Steel. and James Brown.
Thomas Oliver Brown was married to Nancy Beattie Brown, a daughter of Robert Beattie and Martha "Welsh" Beattie, and a grand- daughter of William Beattie, of Knock Bracken. near Belfast, Ireland. and came from a family, several of whose members were banished for participation in the Irish rebellion of 1798. To this union there were born six children : Martha Welsh, intermarried with Major D. P. Mar- shall, Arkansas, Kansas; David Oliver Brown. intermarried with Mary Stewart, Saltsburg, Pennsylvania: Sarah Jane Brown, intermarried with William Steel: Margaret Erskine. intermarried with John Eller, Perry township. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania : Nancy A., intermarried with Henry Seanor, of Winfield, Kansas: Mary Elizabeth. intermarried with James Monroe, of Saltsburg, Pennsylvania. Thomas Oliver Brown is buried in the Reformed Presbyterian churchyard at New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. All of his children except Sarah Jane Steel and Mary Elizabeth Monroe, are now deceased.
Judge Steel has never been married. He is distinctively a self- made man, worked on the farm and attended district school and academy during his early life and later entered Geneva College as a classical student and graduated from that institution in 1885 ; read law with Judge James moreland county, August. 1888. opened an office for the practice of his A. Hunter, was admitted to practice in the several courts of West-
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profession with Hon. Welty McCullogh, and on the return of the latter from Congress in the spring of 1889 the law firm of MeCullogh & Steel was formed, which continued until the death of Mr. McCullogh six months later. He afterwards continued the business of the firm at their former offices and at once sprang into full practice at a bar com- posed of some of the leading legal minds of western Pennsylvania. Later he took into partnership with him H. Clay Beistel, who read law at Dick- inson Law School and in his office.
Judge Steel has always been a stanch Republican, and for many years has been one of the leaders of his party: he was the chairman of the organization in 1894. was the candidate of the Republican party for president judge of the court of common pleas in 1899, and was de- feated by one hundred and seventy-one votes by the then present incum- bent, Judge Doty, after a most desperate contest in which almost thirty thousand votes were polled. He was put forward by his county and section of the state as a candidate for congressman at large against Hon. Galusha A. Grow, and was elected by the Republican state convention as a delegate at large to the national Republican convention that selected Mckinley and Roosevelt. On the creation of the separate Orphans' court judgeship in Westmoreland county in 1901, Judge Steel was appointed on the 26th of April of that year as president judge of the Separate Orphans' court to fill said position : he was conceded the nomin- ation by his party and was elected by a large majority at the November following for the ten years' term beginning first Monday of January. 1902. He is one of the trustees of the First Presbyterian church of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He has helped to organize and is director in a number of the leading banks of his county, is the owner of and in- terested in the development of coal in Washington and Westmoreland
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counties, is one of the directors of the John W. Pollins Company, the Greensburg Finance Company, the Pittsburg & Southwestern Coal Com- pany and is a large owner of farm and town properties.
WILLIAM SHALER JOHNSON.
William Shaler Johnson, of Chester, Pennsylvania, litterateur, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. November 23. 1836. He was the son of the Ilon. Edwin Ferry Johnson, one of the earliest and most promi- nent railway engineers of the United States. His father was a de- scendant of the Woburn and Andover Johnsons of Massachusetts.
John Johnson, the first in this country, came from Hern Hill, near Canterbury, Kent county. England. Ile and his wife Susanna came over with Captain Edward Johnson, also of Hern Hill, in Gover- nor Winthrop's fleet in 1630. He settled in Agawam, afterward Ips- wich, in 1632, where his name appears in the list of first settlers and land proprietors. When Andover was settled he removed to that town, and there his wife died in 1683. and he probably soon after. (2) Timothy, son of John, was born in 1644. and died in 1688. In 1692 his widow was among the number of those accused of witchcraft, but acquitted. His house was raided by the Indians in 1698, and Penelope, a daughter of his brother. Thomas Johnson, was killed by them at the age of nineteen. (3) Timothy, son of Timothy, was born in 1679, and died in 1771. Ile was a captain in the French and Indian war, nine years selectman of AAndover, and three years a member of the general court of Massachusetts. Ilis son Timothy was also an officer, and died before Louisburg in 1746. His third son, Samuel, was colonel of the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment during the Revolution, was present at the battle of Stillwater and the surrender of Burgoyne,
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was three years representative in the general court, and after the war assisted in the quelling of Shay's rebellion. Samuel, his son, was a captain in his father's regiment, and promoted to major. (4) Asa, son of Timothy 2d, was born in 1716 and died in 1759. Of his six sons, James, Benjamin and William served in the army during the Revolution. James, with his cousins, John and Joshua, were of the party of sixteen who captured a British schooner in the Mystic river in May. 1775. William was a captain. His son, William (grandson of Asa), was a member of the Massachusetts legislature, both in house and senate. Benjamin served in Colonel Stickney's New Hampshire regiment, was at the battle of Bennington, and was commended by Gen- eral Stark for conduct and bravery.
Nineteen Andover Johnsons served in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars, of whom eleven were officers. The arms borne by the Johnsons of Hern Hill are. however, very peaceful emblems. They were granted to William Johnson, a bachelor of divinity, but whether a churchman or, like his namesake, Samuel Johnson. a Puri- tan, does not appear. They are thus described: "Ar. a Chef az. betw. three pheons ru. On a chief of the second an open book representing the Holy Bible ppr., edged and sealed or, thereon inscribed Proverbs chap. 22: verse 6, betw. two crosses flory of the last. Crest-a Pheon as in the arms surmounted by a star of eight points or." Peaceful em- blems enough, especially as the pheon, the only warlike sign, is re- versed; but in the days of the English civil war the clergy on both sides not seldom joined actively in the strife and sometimes led their flocks to battle.
(5) Benjamin, son of Asa, was born in 1744, moved to Canter- bury, New Hampshire, and then to Limerick. Maine, where he died in 1832. (6) John Johnson, son of Benjamin, was born in 1771;
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married ( Ist) Rachel, daughter of Daniel and Eleanor Ferry, of Granby. Massachusetts, and (2d) Lurinda, daughter of Colonel Ezra and Eliza- beth (Coan) Smith, of Vermont.
(The ancestors of the Ferry family were Huguenots. Three brothers come to this country sometime between 1650 and 1675, from Holland. One settled in New York, one in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts. The son of the latter. Charles Ferry, lived in or near Springfield. His son Noah settled in Granby, then South Hadley. Daniel, the second son of Noah, was born in 1742. His daughter Rachel, married John Johnson as above.)
John Johnson was by trade a millwright, and became a land-sur- veyor and designer of bridges, dams, mills, etc. He settled first in Essex, Vermont, but removed to Burlington in 1810. He furnished the government with valuable maps and information in the war of 1812- 15. and in the latter year was appointed United States commissioner for the settlement of claims growing out of the war. He was appointed a master in chancery by the judges of the supreme court of Vermont in 1813, and surveyor general of the state the same year, holding the latter position for ten years. He was selected by the commissioners under the treaty of Ghent to take charge of the survey of the north- eastern boundary. on the part of the United States government, in which he was engaged from 1817 to 1819. and his final report was the basis of the treaty. He died in 1842.
(7) Edwin Ferry Johnson, son of John and Rachel (Ferry) Johnson, was born in Essex. Vermont, May 23. 1803. He took charge of his father's business and began land surveying in 1817 at the age of fourteen: was on northeastern boundary survey with his father in 1818: aided his father in the reconstruction of the mill, and built a new dam at Hubbell's Falls, 1819: engaged with his father in furnishing
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large quantities of lumber to the Quebec market, took a large raft of lumber from the Missisquoi river through the St. Johns, the Chambly rapids, Lake St. Peter and the St. Lawrence, to Quebec. 1821; took charge of the mill at Hubbell's Falls, made land surveys, looked after the farm, and devoted every spare hour to study, 1822; instructor in Military Academy. Norwich, Vermont, 1823: instructor in geometry and surveying, same, 1824: in Burlington, studied practical mechanics. drilled company to act as escort to General Lafayette, made mineralogical tour of Lake Champlain, 1825; instructor in civil engineering, mathe- matics and tactics, Military Academy (then located at Middletown. Connecticut ). 1826-1827 : commandant same. 1828: engaged in survey of land lines Erie and Champlain canals, advocated the railway, outlined the course of a great western railroad ( the basis of the Erie road after- ward built). 1829; assistant engineer Catskill and Canajoharie rail- road. 1831: resident engineer same. 1831-1832; resident engi- neer Chenango canal, 1833: resident engineer Utica and Schenectady railroad. 1834: chief engineer Auburn and Syracuse railroad. 1835 : same New York and Erie railroad. 1837: same Ogdensburg and Cham- plain railroad. 1838: president Stevens Joint Stock Co., Hoboken, New Jersey. 1839: chief engineer New York and Albany railroad. 1840; same Syracuse and Oswego, 1846: same New York and Boston rail- road. 1847: examined the ground and prepared and published plans for the Vermont and Canada railroad and the St. Lawrence and Cham- plain canal. 1848: appointed chief engineer Rock River Valley Union railroad ( Illinois and Wisconsin). completed first practical essay on Northern Pacific railroad. 1850: chief engineer Illinois and Wis- consin railroad. 1852; published his work entitled "Railway to the Pacific. Northern Route." 1854: superintended surveys for Os- wego and Troy railroad. 1854: organized. with others, the Central Bank.
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