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 23
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From the outset. young MeCauley gave evidence of all the qualities which mark the thorough soldier. He displayed the personal courage
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characteristic of his blood, and possessed those traits of leadership which inspired confidence in his fellows and won the repeated commendation of his superiors, and his promotion was rapid. Soon after entering the service he was made orderly sergeant : November 20, 1861, he was commissioned first lieutenant of Company C. and he was promoted to the captaincy, July 20, 1863. He was barred from further lineal ad- vancement on account of want of vacancies in the higher grades, but at the conclusion of the war he was brevetted major of United States Vol- unteers, "for gallant and meritorious services during the war." his com- mission bearing the presidential signature. But he had paid a dear price for the honors accorded him, leaving his right arm on the bloody field of Charles City Cross Roads, on the sixth day of the desperate "Seven Days Battle." The story was told with thrilling power by his personal friend and commanding officer (Colonel E. B. Harvey) in the following communication to the "American Republican." shortly after the war:
"Levi MeCauley was one of the best and most trustworthy and valuable men in my regiment. His devotion and fidelity to the cause and to duty secured him an early promotion from private to a captaincy. .At Drainsville he was specially noted for his firmness and determination and success as a commanding officer, performing duties many others shrank from. At Mechanicsville, the battle of the seven days fighting around Richmond, Captain McCauley and Captain King were specially (lirected to guard a fordway across the Chickahominy, and at the extreme left of the battle line. Twice they repelled a rebel effort to cross the stream. So successfully and well done were the acts that General McCall personally desired to thank McCauley and King for saving the battle that day to our forces at that point.
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"At Gaines Ifill battle, on the next day. while Captain McCauley's company, was decimated, he kept his men in order and steadily at work.
"At Charles City Cross Roads, after the conflict became confused and disorder and disorganization seemed to prevail. I ordered Captain McCauley to support a battery, while other companies gave attention to a flanking party. The rebels charged on the battery. McCauley rallied his men, and, with others ordered to his aid. he retook the guns after a hand-to-hand fight over them, and slaughtered the foe. Mc- Cauley was shot in the arm.
"The victory was his. The guns and ammunition were removed! from the field. McCauley had his right arm amputated, and was taken prisoner that night by the rebels."
Major McCauley was conveyed to Libby prison, where he lay in miserable plight for want of adequate surgical treatment and nourish- ing food for a period of seventy days. Only his iron constitution, ex- cellent habits and indomitable resolution preserved his life during this distressing time. He was paroled August 13. 1862, and transferred to David Island Hospital, and afterwards invalided home. Ile was sub- sequently on recruiting duty in Harrisburg until January, 1863, when he was regularly exchanged. Incapacitated for field service, he was as- signed to duty in the department of Washington and was retained until June, 1866, more than a year after the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged.
Returning to West Chester, Major MeCanley busied himself in financial and commercial affairs, and his excellent business qualifications enabled him to afford most useful aid in the establishment and develop- ment of various enterprises conducive to the interests of the community at large. Ile has been particularly identified with the West Chester Gas Company, of which he became general manager in 1873: the West
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Chester State Normal School, of which he has been a trustee for fifteen years : and is now president of the board: the Farmers National Bank of West Chester and the Coatesville Gas Company, in each of which he has long been a director : and the Good Will Fire Company, of which he was president for five years.
Major McCauley has been for many years prominent and useful in the civil and political affairs of the county and state. A Republican from his early manhood. his first vote was cast for Galusha A. Grow for Congress, in 1858. From those days he has been an earnest and ag- gressive advocate of the principles of his party, which has called him to various high positions of honor and trust. In 1867-68 he was assist- ant sergeant-at-arms of the state senate. In 1869 he was elected register of wills of Chester county. In 1897 he was elected auditor general of Pennsylvania, and he displayed conspicuous ability in that high office. He was chairman of the Chester county Republican committee from 1886 to 1890, when he declined re-election. He has frequently been a (lelegate to county, congressional, district and state conventions.
Major McCauley was one of the early members of McCall Post. No. 31. Grand Army of the Republic, in which he is a past commander. and one of the trustees. In 1902 he was elected commander of the de- partment of Pennsylvania, and during his term of office has traveled more than twelve thousand miles in his visitations to the various posts. Warmly devoted to the highest interests of the order and the cause which it seeks to aid. he has exerted himself most zealously in behalf of the Soldiers' Orphans' Commission, of which body he is vice-presi- clent.
Major MeCauley was married October 6, 1870. to Isabella Dar- lington, born May 7. 1844. in West Chester, a daughter of Hon. Wil-
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liam and Catharine ( Paxson) Darlington. Major and Mrs. McCauley have a beautiful residence at 22 West Chestnut street. West Chester. Pennsylvania.
WILLIAM JACOB HELLER.
William Jacob Heller, historian and manufacturer of Easton, has long been numbered among the patriotic citizens of the land, and he was largely instrumental in instituting the movement that resulted in placing the American flag upon the schoolhouses in the country. He comes of a family noted for loyalty and patriotic service, eleven of his family having fought for the independence of the nation in the Revo- lutionary war. He is a direct descendant of Christopher Heller, who was born in Petersheim, in the province of Paltz. in the Palatinate of Germany, in 1688. He cmigrated to America in 1738, arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. on the 5th of September of that year. He established his home in what is now Milford township, in the south part of Lehigh county, and there died in 1788. having become a cente- marian. He had six sons. Of these Joseph, born in 1719. died unmar- ried in 1800. Johan Simon Heller, the second son, was born in 1721, and on attaining his majority purchased a farm in Lower Saucon town- ship. Northampton county, where most of his children were born. In 1763 he removed to Plainfield, Cumberland county, where his death occurred in 1783. He was one of the founders of the Lower Saucon church and afterward removed to Plainfield, where he assisted in the organization of the Reformed church in that township. His patriotic spirit was manifested by active military service in the French and Indian war. He had sixteen children, of whom Jacob. John. Abraham and Simon served in the Continental army.
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Johan Michael Heller, third son of Christopher Heller, was born in 1724 and died in 1803. Early in life he purchased a farm on Sancon creek, in what is now Hellertown, and in 1746 built a stone house which is still standing. He became the founder of Hellertown. and was an extensive landowner of his part of the county, but lost very heavily through the depreciation of currency during the Revolution, which, with his contributions to the patriot cause, and his gift of several him- dred-acre farms to his children, left him comparatively a poor man at the time of his death. His team was the first to leave Saucon valley loaded with provisions for the starving army at Valley Forge. He also rendered active service in behalf of the cause of liberty as a lieu- tenant in the army.
David Heller, son of Johan Michael Heller, was the great-great- grandfather of William J. Heller. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Ladenmecher, and their children were Catherine, who was born in 1773. and died in 1776: Susanna, born in 1774 and died in 1776; Elizabeth, who was born in 1775, and married Jacob Roth, who became the owner of the homestead east of Hellertown; Michael, who was born in 1777 and died in 1816: David, who was born in 1778. and became a tanner at Lehighton, Pennsylvania; Job, who was born in 1780 and died in 1822: Catherine, who was born in 1780 and died in 1796; Yost, who was born in 1783; Susanna, born in 1784; Maria. born in 1786; Joseph, born in 1788, who made his home in Philadelphia ; and Rosanna, who was born in 1789 and died in 1811.
Yost Heller, the great-grandfather, was reared upon the home farm and in his early youth was full of life, fun and merriment. Many a laugh did he cause in the neighborhood by his merry pranks, but he also commanded the respect of friends and neighbors, and, as the years advanced, his attention was given to work that proved of benefit to the
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community along material and moral lines. He was the first deacon of Appel's church, and reared his family according to its teachings, while its principles formed the rule of his own conduct. He was mar- ried to Elizabeth Shaffer, of a prominent family of Lehigh county, and their children were Jacob: Elizabeth, who became Mrs. Bachman ; and Mary, who became Mrs. Weiss, and afterwards Mrs. Rice.
Jacob Ileller, the grandfather, was born in 1804 and died in Easton in 1881. Brought up in the faith of the church, according to his teachings he also reared his family in the same way. He married Sarah Bellis, of Lower Saucon, and their children were: Elizabeth, born in 1825: William, born in 1827; Josiah B., born in 1829; Jacob. Sarah, John. Susan and Emma.
Josiah B. Heller, the father of William Jacob Heller, was born in 1829, and pursued his education in a school at Hellertown, and under Dr. Vanderveer. at Easton. Subsequently he engaged in teaching in Easton and in surrounding townships, and he also was numbered among the leading music instructors of the Lehigh valley in his day. After devoting a number of years to educational work, he engaged in farming for a decade, and then returned to Easton, where he con- ducted a transfer freight line for many years. He was one of the early members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at that place, and took a helpful interest in promoting the lodge and its growth. His political allegiance was given to the Democracy, which he continued to support until his death, on the 5th of December, 1898. He married Susan Heinlein, of Forks township, Northampton, a descendant of George Heinlein, captain of the Durham township militia during the Revolution. Their children were: George B .. born in 1853: William J., born in 1857: Arthur P., born in 1864, and died in 1903: and Lizzie May, born in iSGg, and married Chester Seip.
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William J. Heller is indebted to various institutions of Easton, Pennsylvania, for the educational privileges he enjoyed in his youth. After putting aside his text books he followed various pursuits, and became quite widely known because of his artistic talent and ability. In 1886 he established his present business, the manufacture of flags. opening the first exclusive flag factory in the United States. His business has constantly grown in volume and importance, and to-day he manufactures nearly one-half of the flags used in this country. While witnessing the decoration of a public building for a celebration, the idea occurred to him that the nation's emblem should be seen over the school buildings of the country in order to foster a spirit of patriotism among the children of the land. He began discussing the idea with the prominent people of his locality, and in fact, was the founder of the movement which has embodied his ideas, and deserves great credit for instituting the patriotic movement which swept over the country in 1892. He is popular and well known among the workers in patriotic circles. and has had many honors conferred upon him by the Woman's Relief Corps, the National Congress of Women, and many other national organizations. He is a charter member of the George Washington Memorial Association to promote the establishment of the University of the United States. Ile is an honorary member of the various lead- ing women's clubs in many parts of the country, and he has lectured in all of the principal cities of America upon patriotic occasions. His lecture on "The Evolution of Our National Ensign" is universally known. History has always been a most interesting study to him. and he believes in promoting every line of thought that will foster a love of country and its people. He has made a study of the local Indian history during his leisure hours, and is now engaged in compiling data for a history of the Forks of the Delaware. He is a life member of
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the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a member of the Pennsylvania German Society, a member of the Bucks County Historical Society. and an honorary member of various historical societies in this and adjoining states. He takes an active part in public affairs in his city. and is a member of the board of trade of Easton and of the Royal Arcanum.
Mr. Heller was married May 5. 1877. to Miss Tillie .A. Lesher, a daughter of George Lesher, and a lineal descendant of George Leosch, of Tulpehocken, Berks county, Pennsylvania, who gave so gener- ously of his means to assist the struggling Moravians when they first landed in this country. His memory is yet perpetuated by the record of his good deeds preserved in the Moravian Archives. Mr. and Mrs. Heller became the parents of three children, but the two sons died in early childhood. Their daughter, Bessie Evelyn Heller, is a lineal descendant of sixteen Revolutionary soldiers.
CHARLES HENRY HART.
Charles Henry Hart, lawyer, art critic and historian, was born in Philadelphia, February 4. 1847. son of Samuel and Julia ( Leavey) Hart. On the paternal side he is of Dutch descent. His mother, who was a native of London, England. was of English ancestry on her father's side. Her mother was the daughter of a Frenchman named Andrade, whose wife was a Spanish lady named Rodriquez.
His early education was acquired in private schools and under the direction of special tutors. His legal studies were pursued in the office of Ilon. Samuel H. Perkins, and also in the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1869. having been admitted to the bar in November of the previous year.
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For twenty-five years he practiced law in Philadelphia, rising rapidly in the profession, and acquiring a reputation as an able and conscientious counselor. In cases of an intricate or complex character wherein im- portant issues were involved, he evinced an especial aptitude. studi- ously determining their actual legal merits, and preparing them for solution in a thoroughly comprehensive manner. His keen powers of perception and profound legal thought were especially displayed in the famous North American Land Company's case, which he forced to a final settlement after it had passed through more than fourscore years of litigation. A serions railroad accident early in 1894 so disabled him as to necessitate his confinement within doors for a period of two years, and finally resulted in his permanent withdrawal from practice.
Since his recovery from the more serious effects of his accident, he has devoted his time exclusively to literature and art, in both of which he has from his youth been a close student. Aside from being one of the best known art critics in America, he is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as an expert in historical portraits, his dictum having in more than one instance been adopted by the National Portrait Gal- lery, London. His pen has ever been active in advocating the superi- ority of English art to that of the French, and to his earnest endeavors may be attributed no small measure of the present high appreciation in the United States of the works of English artists. He has also been ceaseless in his investigation into the history of art in America, and in an article contributed to "Harper's Magazine" for March. 1898, he proves quite conchisively that Gustavus Hesselius, of Sweden, who came over in 1711, was the earliest artist of note in America, of whom we have any knowledge. For this work he received the special thanks of King Oscar of Sweden. He was selected as chairman of the committee on retrospective art at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and
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as such he rendered a most important service in bringing together and classifying the exhibition of American pictures.
Mr. Hart has been a director of the Mercantile Library of Phila- delphia since 1879, originating and editing its Bulletin of Additions. He has been a director of the Pennsylvania AAcademy of Fine Arts since 1882, and as chairman of the exhibition committee he instituted in 1887 the first exhibition of historical portraits in this country. He also pre- pared the catalogue of the collection, which has since become a hand- book of reference. He was appointed a member of the committee of fifty formulated for arranging the celebration in New York city in 1889 of the centennial anniversary of the inauguration of President Wash- ington, being the only non-resident thus honored. Prior to his majority. Mr. Hart was connected with six prominent literary bodies, namely : the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. American Entomological. Maine Historical, New England Historic-Genealogical, and Long Island Historical socie- ties. Subsequently he was elected a corresponding member of the Nu- mismatic and Archaeological Society of Baltimore, the Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Rhode Island, and other historical socie- ties: the American Association for the Advancement of Science: the Essex Institute of Salem, Massachusetts; and the New York Genealog- ical and Biographical Society. He is also a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences and of the American Historical Association, and an honorary member of the New Jersey Historical Society and of the Phila- delphia Society of Etchers.
Mr. Hart's bibliography comprises upwards of fifty published works upon art, historical and biographical subjects. Many of the latter were written for the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadel- phia, while serving as its historiographer, and among them are sketches
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of William Willis, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck. Richard S. Field. George Ticknor, William Beach Lawrence. Samuel S. Ilaldeman, Lewis II. Morgan. George Sharswood and others. He is also the author of "Bibliographia Lincolniana," "Abraham Lincoln's Place in History." "Turner, the Dream Painter." "The Story of a Portrait." "Original Portraits of Washington." "Franklin in Allegory." Life Portraits of Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster. Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson : Memoirs of Colonel John Nixon, Robert Morris, and Mary White-Mrs. Robert Morris. Mr. Hart contributed to the last Edinburg edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," at the request of Professor Robertson Smith, the articles upon "Philadelphia" and "Gilbert Stuart." and has published in the "Century Magazine" a series of fifteen illustrated articles on Stuart's Portraits of Women. This is to be followed by a series of Stuart's Por- traits of Men. His last published work is a superb quarto volume enti- tled "Browne's Life Masks of Great Americans." and he is at present engaged in seeing through the press an exhaustive work upon the en- graved portraits of Washington, which he has prepared for the Grolier Club in New York. Mr. Hart's "talk" to the Fellowship of the Penn- sylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, called "Hints on Portraits and How to Catalogue Them." is accepted as an authoritative treatise.
On November 16. 1869. Mr. Hart was married, by the Rt. Rev. W. H. Odenheimer. Bishop of New Jersey, to Armine Nixon, a great- granddaughter of Colonel John Nixon, who on July 8. 1776. proclaimed for the first time to the people of the colonies the Declaration of Inde- pendence, in the Statehouse Yard at Philadelphia. Mrs. Hart, who died June 11. 1897. was also a great-granddaughter of Robert Morris, signer of the Declaration, and financier of the American Revolution.
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GEORGE W. BIDDLE.
George W. Biddle. LL.D., for twenty years the leader of the Phila- delphia bar, was born in Philadelphia, January 11. 1818, the son of Clement Cornell and Mary ( Barclay) Biddle.
Ile was educated at Mount St. Mary's College, Maryland, and sub- sequently studied law in the offices of his uncle. James C. Biddle, and of the Hon. John Cadwalader, being admitted to the Philadelphia bar on January 10, 1839. AAt once he began that career of successful effort which gradually bore its fruit in the general acknowledgment of his leadership in the Philadelphia bar. At different times Mr. Biddle held the offices of school director, common councilman, and trustee of the gas works of Philadelphia. He represented the first senatorial district in the convention of 1873 to revise and amend the constitution of the state of Pennsylvania. He afterward represented the constitutional conven- tion when the question of their right to submit that interest to the people was called in question, and was successful in defending that right. Among other famous cases in which he appeared was that in which he represented the Democratic party in the contest in Florida over the vote of that state in the Hayes-Tilden presidential controversy of 1876. He also represented the United States in one of the fishery disputes between this country and Canada.
Mr. Biddle was a member of the American Bar Association, and among the papers read by him before that and other learned bodies are : "An Inquiry Into the Proper Mode of Trial;" "Lion of the Debts of a Descendant on His Real Estate in Pennsylvania :" "Retrospective Leg- islation :" "Contribution Among Terre-Tenants," and "Chief-Justice Taney, Ifis Relations to and Influence on the Federal Constitution." He also prepared an index to the English Common Law Reports.
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Mr. Biddle married Maria McMurtrie, and had three children : George, Algernon Sydney and Arthur Biddle. Upon the death of the two former, Mr. Biddle gave to the University of Pennsylvania, as a memorial to them, over five thousand volumes, to form the nucleus of a law library, to be known as the George and Algernon Sydney Biddle Library.
When Arthur Biddle died, in 1897, his widow added to this col- lection about four thousand volumes, and the entire library is now known as the Biddle Law Library, and is located on the second floor of the new law building of the university. George W. Biddle died in Philadelphia, April 29. 1897.
WILMER WORTHINGTON THOMSON.
Wilmer Worthington Thomson, editor of the "Daily Local News," West Chester, Pennsylvania, was born March 26, 1842, in Willistown township. His parents. Aaron B. and Harriet (Evans) Thomson. were also born in the same township, and his paternal grandparents. David Thomson and Phebe Thomas were natives of the county.
Aaron B. Thomson was educated in the common schools, but he was taught so thoroughly and added so largely to his knowledge through private studies, that he became a well equipped teacher and gave his long life most usefully to school work in Chester county, and almost to the time of his death at the age of eighty-two years. To him were born four children, of whom three were also teachers for longer or shorter periods.
1. Joseph Addison Thomson, who after teaching school for some years entered the consular service in Washington. In 1870 he became editor of the Chester "News." He subsequently returned to accept ap-
minomax
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pointment as postmaster at Media, and died while occupying that posi- tion. He married Rebecca L. Owen, and they became the parents of three daughters and one son. The son and one of the daughters are living.
2. Mary Emma was also a teacher prior to her marriage to Jolin O. K. Robarts of Phoenixville, editor of the "Messenger." Three chil- dren were born of their marriage, of whom one is living.
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