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 26
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He read law in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar in New York on November 29. 1859. and entered into partnership with Leon Abbett, afterwards twice governor of New Jersey, in the practice of his profession, but. his health failing him, by advice of physicians he abandoned the active pursuit of the law. While in New Orleans in 1863, a friend who was correspondent of one of the leading New York dailies became ill with typhoid fever. Mr. AAshmead acted in his stead for a period covering several months, during which time he had oppor- tunity of seeing much of the active campaigning in the department of the Gulf. On the death of his father. in 1868. the following year the family removed to Chester. Pennsylvania.
In June, 1872, when the Chester Evening News was established by F. Stanhope Hill, he became first reporter and local editor of that daily paper. and in 1874 held a like position on the Delaware County Republican, at which time the late Y. S. Walter was the editor and proprietor. In the fall of that year he edited The Campaign, a political sheet designed to advocate the election of Thomas J. Clayton as judge of the Delaware county courts, one of the incidents in Mr. Ashmead's life which he views with regret.
From this time on. Mr. Ashmead was a busy writer. In 1876 he wrote the "Sketch of Delaware County" published in Eagle's "History of Pennsylvania." He was appointed in 1882 corresponding secretary of the Bi-Centennial Association of Chester, and he wrote "Historical Sketches of Chester-on-Delaware," William Shaler Johnson furnishing
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the account of the Bi-Centennial exercises, the work of the committee, the celebration, and other interesting matter which forms a part of that volume. (*)
In 1884 Mr. Ashmead wrote "A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania," a volume of permanent value, and involving much dili- gent labor.
August 3. 1885, President Cleveland appointed Mr. Ashmead postmaster at Chester, and during his administration (on June 6, 1886), the special delivery service was instituted, and July 1, 1887, he organized the free mail delivery by carriers and put it into active operation on the date mentioned. In the spring of that year a com- mittee was appointed to urge upon Congress an appropriation for a United States postoffice building in Chester, and, at the request of the committee, Mr. Ashmead prepared a pamphlet entitled "Chester and Its Suburbs," which in a compact form presented the industrial features of the city of that day, and its importance as a commercial center as an adjunct to the port of Philadelphia. This pamphlet was distributed to the senate and house of representatives and from the data therein con- tained the subsequent reports of the committees of both houses were founded, and upon which a favorable report was made.
In 1889 he collected and wrote the greater part of the pamphlet published by the Board of Trade, entitled "Chester, Pennsylvania ; a History of its Industrial Progress and its Advantages for Large Manu- facturing," but did not supervise the final form in which it was given publication.
In 1890-91 Mr. AsInncad was in Colorado with an invalid son,
(*) Thomson Westcott, in writing of John W. Ashmead, makes this allusion to his son, H. G. Ashmead. "He is distinguished for his literary abilities, and published a few years ago an exceedingly interesting book entitled "An Historical Sketch of Chester."
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who had gone there in search of health. From 1895 to 1900 he was editorial writer on the Chester Morning Republican. In 1897 he wrote the text of the "Art Works of Delaware County." In 1902 he pre- pared a gencalogical sketch tracing the descent of the children of Robert and Phoebe Ann ( De Laney) Wetherill through the Sharp. Keen, San- delands and other families, which was printed in book form for private distribution.
In the same year he wrote the plays, "Mistress Nancy," "The Cap- tain's Ward," and "Miss De Courcy." In the following year ( 1903) he wrote other plays-"The Matchmakers." "The Silent Witness," "By Order of the Czarina." "In Troublous Times," and "\ Hallowe'en Tangle." In the same year he wrote "The History of Chester," and was also associated editor of "Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal," a history of the commonwealth. His fugitive contributions to the periodi- cal and newspaper press, upon historical subjects, are numerous, far exceeding. if gathered into volumes, his publications in book form. He now has in preparation for publication "The Story of Lapidea Farm," the country seat of Hon. William C. Sproul. and "The History of the Bank of Delaware County, and its successor. the Delaware County National Bank."
In 1897 Mr. Ashmead read before the Delaware County Historical Society a paper entitled "Chester Street Nomenclature," and in 1901 "The Man in Leather Stockings." "Noted Trials in Early Colonial Days," and "Some Ghosts and Haunted Places in Delaware County." Although not posing as a public speaker, Mr. Ashmead has at various times delivered addresses which were heard with deep interest. He was called upon to make historical remarks at the unveiling of the tablets placed by the Delaware county chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution on the Washington House, April 20, 1902, and
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on the City Hall. April 19. 1903. Again, on June 27, 1903, at a meet- ing of the Society of the War of 1812, he delivered the historical address, taking for his theme the story of Camp Gaines.
It may be permitted to the writer of this sketch, during a long and busy lifetime engaged in work somewhat similar to that performed by Mr. Ashmead, yet not so long acquainted with him as to make per- sonal bias the mainspring of his remarks, to pass a verdict upon his performances. His writings have ever been characterized by that which is approved by the highest standards-clearness of style and smoothly flowing diction. It is to be said in all truthfulness that his pen has never been used in an unworthy cause. Whether as editor. writer or speaker, his one object has been the exploitation, forcefully. yet never outside the bounds of truthfulness, the accomplishments of those men of the past and of the present, too, who have stood for the best that there is in citizenship in the devotion to public interests and worthy causes, and all that goes to the establishment and development of an ideal community. To his tasks he has brought a wide range of abilities. A deep student of books, a close observer of events and a rare judge of men, and uniting the knowledge of the historian, the wise discrimination of the critic, and the well tempered judgment of the philosopher. He has through a long and peculiarly useful life, endowed himself with all the equipment necessary for his labors in promoting the upbuilding of his historie city and county in which he takes a genuinely hearty pride.
To this narrative may be added a pleasant incident which was written of in the following from the Chester Times, in the autumn of 1902:
Henry Graham Ashmead. the Delaware county historian, may be said to have been mirtured in the cradle of literature, and has all his
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lifetime wielded the pen with a masterly effect. His literary researches and labors have naturally brought him into contact with many of the distinguished writers, but one of the pleasantest recollections of such intercourse dates back to 18449, when he was a lad of ten years. His home was then in Philadelphia, opposite Washington Square, a few doors below Seventh street.
John Sartain, the distinguished mezzotint engraver, who was United States commissioner of fine arts at the Centennial exposition. and William H. Sloanaker, then naval officer of the port, were publish- ing Sartain's Magasinc. Both of these gentlemen were clients of Graham's father, John Wayne Ashmead, the United States district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. The boy was privi- leged to frequent the office of the Magasine at Third and Chestnut streets, and inspect at will a number of portfolios containing fine imported steel prints, of which, from time to time, selections were made for reproduction in the monthly.
On one of these occasions, when the noon hour arrived, Graham was about to leave for home. when a seedily attired gentleman, who had been conversing with the editor, Prof. John S. Hart, asked him which way he was going. When informed of the route, the gentleman replied : "I am going that way, and will walk with you, my lad." The two proceeded up Chestnut street to Sixth and thence to Walnut, the boy being attracted toward the stranger and charmed by his delight- ful conversation, until they separated at the corner of Seventh and Walnut streets.
That afternoon a lady calling upon Mrs. Ashmead chanced to remark that she had seen her son walking with a person evidently in needy circumstances, whom she thought was scarcely a proper com- panion for a child of his age. The boy did not know the name of his
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chance companion. In the evening Mr. Sartain and Sloanaker visited the house, and Mrs. Ashmead inquired of them who the stranger was. She was informed that he was no less a personage than Edgar Allen Poe, conceded to be the most original of American- poets, and classed by the majority of European critics as the greatest of all American authors.
When quite a young man, Mr. Ashmead was well acquainted with Frank R. Stockton, the author, who died last spring. There was a difference of only five years in their ages. Some fifteen years ago, at a chance meeting. Ashmead jocularly remarked to Stockton that the names he gave to some of his characters were noticeably ugly.
"So you object to the names I have selected for some of my heroes? " interrogated Stockton.
"Yes." was the reply. "they are in some instances just ugly, lack- ing that attractiveness which not unfrequently accompanies certain types of ugliness."
"Well." said Stockton, "the next story I write I will give my hero a name to which you cannot object."
Shortly afterwards this celebrated author published a Christmas love story entitled "Major Pendallas," in which the hero is styled "Henry G. Ashmead." an artist. Several years subsequent to the ap- pearance of this story. Stockton and Ashmead again met. and in the course of their conversation "Major Pendallas" was mentioned, Ash- mead remarking :
"Stockton, you failed to remember that I am always called by my middle name. Graham."
"So you still object to the names of my heroes." laughed the author.
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Mr. Ashmead was at one time exceedingly active in Masonic circles, having attained to the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite.
Mr. Ashead has been twice married-first. September 2, 1872. to Miss Rebecca Frances Warner, daughter of Captain Richard N. Warner, of Alexandria, Virginia, and (second) October 26, 1881, to Miss Emma Campbell, daughter of James and Angelina (Garsed) Campbell. Her father, James Campbell, is prominently identified with the history of Chester as its first manufacturer who was instrumental in giving it its industrial incentive. To the first marriage of Mr. Ash- mead was born, August 27. 1873, a son, John Wayne AAshmead, who, when a young man of exceeding promise, died November 30. 1891.
CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF.
Clinton Rogers Woodruff, lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, De- cember 17. 1868, the son of Charles Henry and Rachel Anne ( Pierce) Woodruff. He is descended from John Woodruff, who settled in Massachusetts in 1648, but afterward removed to a tract of land of about one thousand acres he had purchased near Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He is of direct lineal descent also from Captain Amos Wood- ruff, who served in the Revolutionary army from Cumberland county, New Jersey.
Mr. Woodruff received his early education in the public schools of his native city, graduating Bachelor of Arts from the Central high school in 1886. He was a first honor man and the valedictorian of his class. In the fall of 1886 he matriculated in the college department of the University of Pennsylvania with the junior class, and chose the course of the Wharton School, where under Professors James and Patten he developed his close interest in economic and political ques-
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tions. He was graduated at the head of his class in 1889, and afterward took post-graduate courses in political science, and studied law in the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received his Bachelor's degree in 1892.
For three years, 1890 to 1893. he was business manager of the National Baptist, a leading journal printed in advocacy of the interests of that church, being associated in its conduct with Dr. H. L. Way- land. Ever since his graduation from the law school, Mr. Woodruff has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Philadelphia. He has made a specialty of election cases and those involving questions of public policy, as counsel of various bodies of citizens devoted to the principles of political reform. Many of his cases have involved im- portant questions of public policy and constitutional construction, as in Commonwealth vs. De Camp, and Commonwealth vs. Griest. He was associate counsel with Hon. Wayne MacVeagh in the water bribery cases of 1898, and is the counsel for the Municipal League, the United Labor League, and at least a dozen other labor bodies and several elec- tion committees. The Municipal League, which he was instrumental in organizing, has also been closely identified with his name. He was for a long time its secretary and treasurer, and out of it grew a National Municipal League of which he is now the secretary. He is also secre- tary of the Pennsylvania Ballot Reform Association, and was one of the secretaries of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. an office he held from 1889 to 1899. He is now one of its directors and its counsel. In 1893 he was secretary of the Union Committee for a Better Water Supply and Sanitation in Philadelphia. In 1898-1899 he was a member of the executive committee of the Citizens' Union, and in 1897-1899 he served as a member of a committee of the National Municipal League to draft a municipal charter which should be a
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model for all American cities. In 1898 he was a member of the execu- tive committee of the National Primary Elections Reform Association. Mr. Woodruff is now a member of the executive committee of the Civil Service Reform League. He is also trustee of the American Institute of Civics, and carlier was councillor of the American Institute of Christian Sociology. He was secretary of the National Conference for Good City Government held in Philadelphia in January, 1894. and has been officially connected with many other organizations for ac- complishing social and political reform.
Elected to the Pennsylvania legislature in 1897. he was re-elected in 1898 by an enlarged majority. He introduced a number of bills dealing with matters of public interest, with one of which his name has been conspicuously identified. It provided for a series of amendments to the constitution of Pennsylvania making it possible for the legisla- ture to pass a personal registration act. The proposed amendments were passed in 1899. only to be vetoed by the governor. A suit was brought to determine whether or not an executive could veto a pro- posed amendment to the constitution. On appeal, the supreme court maintained that the governor had no such right. The points involved were passed once in Pennsylvania, and passed in one or two instances in the United States. The case of Commonwealth vs. Griest was per- haps the most important constitutional case decided in Pennsylvania in the past decacie. The amendments were again passed by the legisla- ture in 1901 as required by the constitution, and Mr. Woodruff had the pleasure of seeing them adopted by the voters of the city in 1901. after an active campaign in their behalf, led by him in person as chairman.
He is a member of the Union League. the University Club, the Penn Club, the Philobiblon Club, and the Contemporary Club of Phila-
.
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delphia, and belongs also to the German Society, the Law Academy, and the Law Association of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Bar Associ- ation, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Genealogical Society, the Fairmount Park Art Association, the Pennsylvania Forestry As- sociation, the American Park and Outdoor Art Association, the League for Social Science, the American Economical Association, and the American Postal League. He is a member of the various alumni as- sociations of the University of Pennsylvania, to which his earlier con- nection with that institution entitles him to belong. From 1889 to 1898 he was a member of the board of managers of the Associated Alumni of the Central high school. Ile is also an honorary member of the Educational Club of Philadelphia, and secretary of the Public Edu- cation Association of that city.
Mr. Woodruff is prominently identified with various religious and benevolent organizations. He was the president of the Inter- Collegiate Young Men's Christian AAssociation in 1891-1893, and was the first president of the University of Pennsylvania Young Men's Christian Association: is a member of the executive committee of the Baptist Social Union, a member of the American Baptist Historical Society, and for three years, 1894-1897. was vice-president of the Young Men's American Humane Union. He has also interested him- self in arbitration. Since 1898 he has been a member of the executive committee of the Lake Mohawk International Arbitration Conferences, and was its secretary in 1900-1901, and in 1899 was a member of the Philadelphia Committee on the International Peace Conference at The llague. In 1893 he was vice-president of the Christian Temperance Alliance for Philadelphia. He was a member of the Philadelphia Branch of the American Friends of Russian Freedom, and of the Italian Political Prisoners Aid Committee. Mr. Woodruff is a fre-
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quent contributor to the North American Review, the Forum, the Inde- pendent, the Outlook and other magazines, on subjects connected with city government and kindred problems. He has also written many articles for the New York Evening Post, Harper's Weekly, Leslie's Weekly. and many other leading American journals. He was assistant editor of the Department of Corporations in the American Law Register and wrote the article on "Arbeiterschutzgesetzgebung in den Vereinigten staaten von Amerika" in Conrad's "Handworterbuch-der-Staatswis- senschaften." a leading German encyclopedia in political science.
Mr. Woodruff married. February 12, 1890, Anna Florence Wood- ruff.
JONATHAN WILLIS MARTIN.
Jonathan Willis Martin, lawyer, of Philadelphia, son of Jonathan Willis and Malvina ( Regester ) Martin, was born in Philadelphia, May 29, 1856. It is supposed by many that the origin of the Martins is the same as was that of Saint Martin, who was born in Pannonia (now Austria). A. D. 316, the son of a Roman tribune. He espoused Chris- tianity in the face of much opposition, and was made Bishop of Tours (in France) in 371. Several of that name served with William the Conqueror in the battle of Hastings in 1066. William Martin, third Lord of Cornmass, married Augarrd, daughter of Rhys, Prince of Wales, who was succeeded in that title by his son William. Oliver Martin, second son of Baron William Martin, of Arlington, Devon- shire, born in 1165, accompanied Henry the Second in the conquest of Ireland, and went to the Holy Wars in Palestine with Richard Coeur de Leon. He finally settled in Galway, Ireland, becoming the progenitor of a numerous posterity.
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Jonathan Willis Martin traces his American lineage to John Mar- tin, who emigrated from England in 1620, settling in Dover, New Hampshire ; he married Esther, daughter of Thomas Roberts, who suc- ceeded John Underhill in the presidency of the colony of New Hamp- shire. John Martin subsequently removed to New Jersey, settling in Middlesex county, and became chief-justice in 1670. John Martin, son of the above, was commissioned ensign of the Middlesex Company of Foot, July 15. 1678. Oliver Martin, a direct descendant of the first John, and great-grandfather of J. Willis Martin, served in the Revolutionary war and was with the Third New Jersey Regiment at the surrender of Yorktown in 1781 ; after the war he resided at Rah- way, and entertained General Lafayette during the latter's second visit to the United States. Grandfather James Martin settled in Philadelphia when a young man and became a senior partner of the firm of Thomas & Martin, leading merchants of their day. James married Mary Willis, daughter of Jonathan Willis, Jr., and a descendant of an ancient Eng- lish family. J. Willis Martin, Sr., devoted his life to scholarly pur- suits and was an accomplished linguist : he died in 1872. On his mother's side J. Willis Martin, Jr., is of English and Dutch stock. and a descendant of Richard Stout, of Nottinghamshire, who was one of the patentees of Gravesend, and is recorded in history as the first English settler in New Jersey, having purchased land of the Indians in 1664; he was a member of the general assembly in 1667, and two years later was chosen senior member of the court from Middletown. Other ancestors were William Biles, member of the provincial council and of the Pennsylvania assembly, and justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court from 1699 to 1701; Joseph Kirkbride. member of the Pennsylvania assembly 1712-1720: Mahlon Stacy. member of the governor's council 1682-1683, and of the provincial assembly of West
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Jersey 1682-1701, and John Scotcher, who accompanied William Penn to Pennsylvania on the proprietor's last visit to his province in 1689, and subsequently served in the provincial assembly.
Judge Martin acquired his early education in private schools. His legal studies were pursued in the office of the late J. Sergeant Price, Esq., and in the law department of the University of Pennsylvania. from which he was graduated in 1879. Admitted to the Philadelphia county bar the same year, he became associated in practice with his preceptor, and two years later was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States. He was subsequently admitted to several other county bars. Prior to the Spanish-American war he was counsel for the Spanish government, and also represented as counsel the Land Title and Trust Company, and the Arch Street, Race and Vine Street, and Hestonville & Mantua railway systems, previous to their absorp- tion by the Union Traction Company. Upon the death of his pre- ceptor he formed a copartnership with the former's son, Eli Kirk Price, which continued until Judge Martin's elevation to the bench.
.Among some of the celebrated criminal cases in which Judge Martin had appeared as counsel was that of the Commonwealth vs. Campbell, in which the defendant, a bishop of the African-Methodist church, was charged with perjury; the MeCausland case of assault with intent to kill, growing out of a disputed right to use a city railway track by a hospital ambulance; the Roper case, wherein as counsel for the defense he succeeded in having a case of delirium tremens designated as a species of insanity rather than a case of drunkenness; the Common- wealth against the Countess Racouski, in which he appeared for the government. He successfully defended some of the prisoners in the Keystone Bank cases tried in the United States court; saved the defendant from the gallows in the Bartolucci case, and as counsel
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for the successful contestants in the Thirty-fifth ward contest he con- ducted one of the most carefully prepared cases ever brought before the Philadelphia courts. In the civil courts he had been equally suc- cessful in establishing principles of law in cases that frequently arose for the first time. In Ulmer vs. Ryan, argued before the state supreme court, he settled the principles of warranty in reference to food com- modities. In the Hestonville Railroad case he succeeded in establish- ing the principle that the right of ownership carries with it the right to vote upon stock. notwithstanding directions given by a testator em- powering one of several executors named to exercise the franchise. This decision has been frequently cited in text books and cases through- out the country. In Schuylkill county he brought foreclosure pro- ceedings on one of the largest mortgages ever sued upon in the state, the amount involved being $12,000,000. He was one of the leading practitioners in the orphans' court of Philadelphia county, representing, as executor, trustee and counsel, numerous large estates, and was fre- quently called upon to act as examiner, master and referee in pending litigation.
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