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 30
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1833, he went over the once famous Newburg and Easton stage line to Easton, Pennsylvania, and on the 11th of December, 1833, matriculated in Lafayette College. In that institution he won high rank as a student, and while engaged in the mastery of a course of study there he supplied his temporary needs by working as a cabinet-maker and carpenter. He also engaged in teaching to some extent, and was a contributor to various newspapers and magazines. His great persistency of purpose. laudable ambition and strong determination enabled him to carry on his work until he was graduated on the 20th of September, 1837. In recognition of his high scholarship he was awarded the Latin and Eng- lish salutatory address on commencement day. lle next entered the Union Theological Seminary in New York city, and also accepted such work as would bring him in the funds necessary for his support. Dur- ing one year he was for three months a teacher of the classics in Mid- dletown, and this effort in behalf of higher education resulted in the establishment of the academy at that place.
During the meeting of the presbytery of Hudson at Amity. Orange county, New York, on the 11th of September, 1839. Mr. Wood was ex- amined and licensed by the presbytery to enter upon the holy office as a minister of the church. He had in the meantime formed the acquaintance of Miss Elizabeth Caroline Able, and about the time he entered upon his ministerial work he was married to this lady at Easton, Pennsylvania, October 9. 1839, by the Rev. Daniel I. Wood, of Middletown, New York, assisted by Rev. Dr. Gray, of Easton. Mrs. Wood was the daughter of Jacob Able, and a granddaughter of Jacob Able, Sr., who in his child- hood days was brought from Germany to America in 1750. Mrs. Wood was a lady of superior education and culture. She possessed a most retentive memory and a mind of great compass. In early life she became a most carnest worker in the Sunday-school, and was also a recognized
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leader in the Easton Society. At the age of eighteen years she united with the Presbyterian church in Easton, under the pastorate of Dr. Gray. and through her life as a minister's wife she manifested the most thor- ough appreciation of the needs of the church and the work which her husband was doing, and ever gave to him her loyal sympathy and sup- port. She was greatly interested in charitable and benevolent work, and lost no opportunity to befriend the poor and needy, or to extend sympathy to the suffering. Yet she preferred the duties of her home. including those of wife and mother, to that of the presidency of the sewing circle or other societies of the church. She was, however, a most able assistant to her husband, her own labors rounding out his efforts in behalf of his denomination.
James Washington Wood was ordained and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Deckertown, December 29, 1839, by the pres- bytery at Rockaway, New York, and he remained there until September. 1845. when he resigned and began work for the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions in New York. While a representative of that society he preached for the mission at Chester, New York, and un- expectedly to him received a call to become pastor there. This invita- tion was accepted, and on the ist of November, 1845. he began work in Chester, where he remained for seventeen years, during which time the membership of the church was more than doubled, reaching the number of four hundred. It was also during this pastorate that a large and beau- tiful house of worship was erected at a cost of about ten thousand dollars. and the church advanced equally in spiritual strength. When at length his labors there were heavy upon him and he felt the need of relaxation, he resigned the pastorate at Chester, on the ist of October, 1862, and removed to Easton. On the 18th of the same month he sailed for Europe and the Holy Land, visiting many points of modern as well as historic
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interest in the old world. In the fall of 1863 he returned to America, and on the 23d of April. 1865, he accepted a call from the Presbyterian church in Allentown, Pennsylvania, being installed as its pastor by the presbytery of Philadelphia on the 25th of October. 1865. He continued to reside in Allentown until his death, which occurred very suddenly on May 5. 1884. Both he and his wife were laid to rest in the Able family plat. in the beautiful cemetery at Easton, Pennsylvania.
Rev. Mr. Wood was a man of attractive appearance, of medium size and dark hair, and a man who was ever sympathetic and of broad humanitarian principle. He was a man of scholarly attainments, who throughout his entire life continued his acquaintance with the classics and with the German and French languages, and was able to write fluently in both as well as in the English tongue. On the 2d of July. 1879, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and at the exercises held at Lafayette College he responded in an oration delivered in the Latin tongue. His writings upon secular as well as on religious subjects which appeared in the newspapers and general pub- lications showed great breadth of thought, deep research and unbiased judgment. He was frequently called upon to deliver addresses on popu- lar occasions, and he perhaps was never at his best more than when in the company of the young. He continued young at heart, and rejoiced in their happiness and pleasures. He was a brilliant conversationalist. and conld adapt himself to the various conditions of all around him, and. moreover, he had the faculty of placing his associates at once at case. The poor, the needy and the distressed looked to him for sympathy, aid and encouragement, and were never disappointed. He was a popular man, not only because of his strong mentality, but because of his deep sincerity and abiding interest in his fellow men and their welfare. To his ministerial work he devoted his time with consecrated zeal, placing the
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cause of the Master ever first in his life and thoughts. While he de- nounced wrong in strong terms, and never swerved from the path of what he believed his Christian duty, he nevertheless had broad sympathy for the feelings of his fellow men, and extended to them every aid in his power that he might assist them in overcoming temptation and trials. He looked at life not from the standpoint of a theologian, but as a Christian, and regarded religion as a preparation for life's daily duties. He believed that the teachings of Christ instructed men how to work and how to play, as well as how to pray. He thought that one's religious faith should influence their political support. their social relations and their business careers, and he championed his views with all the intensity of a strong nature, and with all the honesty and persistency of one who holds a steadfast purpose and lives up to it. No one was ever in doubt as to his position upon any question on which his opinion was stated, yet his counsel and advice were always prompted by affection and earnestness and it was this which won for him the love of many people.
The children of Rev. James Washington and Elizabeth Caroline (Able) Wood were Jacob Winslow Wood, of Allentown. Pennsylvania ; James Whitfield, of Easton: Mrs. Elizabeth Able Harrison, of Minne- apolis, Minnesota : and Daniel Burton Wood, of Spokane, Missouri.
James Whitfield Wood was educated in Lafayette College, being a graduate of the class of 1866. He entered upon his business career in connection with the Chicago Tribune, of Chicago, Illinois, and in 1869 he returned to Easton, where, in connection with Henry L. Bunstein. now the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Milford. Delaware, he purchased the Easton Free Press, which they conducted until 1871. In that year they disposed of their paper and plant, and Mr. Wood has since been identified with industrial and manufacturing interests. Ile became connected with the Delaware Rolling Mills at Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
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and in 1873 formed a partnership with Jacob Tippett, under the firm name of Tippett & Wood, establishing the boiler works at Easton. This partnership was maintained until the death of Mr. Tippett on the 26th of October, 1886, when the business was incorporated under the old firm name. Mr. Wood at that time became president of the company, in which capacity he served until 1903. The company takes contracts for iron works, such as water towers, pig-iron furnaces and cement plants, and the business has become an important industrial concern of Easton, while the sales of the house have reached a large annual figure. Mr. Wood has also extended his operations into other fields of labor, being a man of resourceful business ability. He has been the president of the board of trade of Easton since its organization, is the treasurer of the , Stewart Silk Company of Easton, the president of the Henderson Water Company, of Henderson, North Carolina, and also of the Henderson Light and Power Company, and is a director of the Easton Free Press Publishing Company.
Mr. Wood has contributed to the development of his city along lines of material improvement and moral progress as well as through private business interests. He was a member of the city council at the time of the installation of the first brick paving and sewer construction in Easton. In politics he is a stanch advocate of Republican principles, and is a trustee of the Brainard Presbyterian church. and superintendent of the Williamsport mission school.
He was married September 18, 1872, to Miss Emily Drake, a daugh- ter of John Drake, of Easton, and to this marriage have been born three children: Margaret, who died at the age of five years ; Raymond ; and Emily, who died at the age of seven years. The son pursued his early education in Easton, was graduated in Lafayette College with the class of 1901, and afterward spent two years in Berlin, Germany, and Paris,
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France, studying music and also the German language. He is a thor- oughly educated musician, and a violinist of high standing in the pro- fession. He is now connected with business interests as secretary of the Tippett & Wood Company.
HON. WILLIAM SEBRING KIRKPATRICK.
Ilon. William Sebring Kirkpatrick, ex-congressman, and one of the most capable lawyers of the Lehigh Valley bar, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. April 21, 1844. The ancestral home of the family was at Watties Neach, in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, and the first of the family of whom we have record was the great-great-great-grandfather, who removed from Dumfrieshire with his family to Belfast, Ireland, during the reign of George 1, about the year 1725. In the spring of 1736 he embarked at Belfast for America, and after a stormy voyage of thirteen weeks reached the American harbor. He crossed the Delaware river at Philadelphia, and made his way up the state of New Jersey until he reached Bound Brook. Thence he proceeded across the mountains until he came to a spring of water which has since been called Mine Brook. There he settled with his family, built a log cabin, and began the de- velopment of a farm in the midst of a wilderness. He died June 3. 1758.
His son. David Kirkpatrick, who was born in Watties Neach, Dum- frieshire, Scotland, February 17. 1724. accompanied his parents and family on their emigration to America. For many years he remained a resident of Mine Brook, where his death occurred in 1814. He was married, March 31, 1748, to Mary MacEowen, who was born in Argyl- shire. Scotland. August 1. 1728, and died at Mine Brook, November 2. 1795. They had four sons and four daughters, including Alexander Kirkpatrick, the great-grandfather of William Sebring Kirkpatrick. He
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was born September 13, 1751, at Mine Brook, and died September 24, 1827. His wife was a daughter of Judge John Carle, of Long Hill. Morris county, New Jersey, and they had thirteen children.
Rev. Jacob Kirkpatrick, of this family, the grandfather of William S. Kirkpatrick, was born in New Jersey. August 8, 1785, and died at Ringoes. Hunterdon county, that state. The degree of Doctor of Di- vinity was conferred upon him, and for more than a half century he was prominent Presbyterian minister of Ringoes. He wedded Mary Bur- roughs Howell, a daughter of John Sutfin, of Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey, and their family also numbered thirteen children. Newton Kirkpatrick, the father. was born in Somerset county. New Jersey, and married Miss Sebring.
Their son, Hon. William Sebring Kirkpatrick, began his education in the public schools of Easton, and continued his studies until he had completed the high school course by graduation in 1859. The same year. although only fifteen years of age, he entered Lafayette College and was graduated in that institution with the class of 1863. On completing his literary course he took up the study of law under the late Judge Henry D. Maxwell, who directed his reading until he was admitted to the bar, October 7, 1865. within five months after he had attained his majority. No dreary novitiate awaited him. Almost at once he gained prominence as a lawyer, and has since maintained a leading position at the bar of the Lehigh Valley. A few years after entering upon practice he was appointed borough solicitor of Easton, and served in that position in a most capable manner. Northampton county having become a separate judicial district in accordance with a provision of the constitution of 1873, and a vacancy occurring on the bench of the district, Mr. Kirk- patrick was appointed, in April. 1874. president judge of the third judicial district by Governor Hartranft, upon the unanimous recommendation
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of the board of Northampton county. This was indeed a tribute to his personal worth and legal attainments, for he had not then reached the age of thirty years. At the ensuing election he received the Republican nomination for the office, and although the usual Democratic majority was thirty-six hundred. he succeeded in reducing the opposition vote so that his opponent received a majority of only three hundred. On the expiration of his term of service. Judge Kirkpatrick resumed the active practice of his profession and rapidly acquired a large and important clientage. He was retained as counsel either for the prosecution or de- fense in nearly all of the important cases tried in the courts of the dis- trict, and his power at the bar was soon widely recognized by the pro- fession and the general public. His practice extended to the courts of neighboring districts and to the federal courts as well. He has been remarkable among lawyers for the wide research and provident care with which he prepares his cases. His legal learning, his analytical mind and the readiness with which he grasps the points in an argument. all com- bined to make him one of the most capable lawyers at the bar of Easton. Pennsylvania.
Although Judge Kirkpatrick failed of election at the time he was a candidate for the bench, because of the strong Democratic majority in the district, he was in the same year elected president of the Alumni . AAssociation of Lafayette College, and in 1875 was appointed dean of the law department of that college, which in that year was established. He continued to fill the position until financial reasons caused the sus- pension of the department. Although his time has been assiduously em- ployed in the pursuit of his chosen profession, he has given some attention to politics, remaining ever a stanch and unfaltering advocate of Repub- lican principles. Frequently he has served as a delegate to the state con- ventions of his party, and in 1882 was elected to preside over the tem-
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porary organization. In 1884 he was elected one of the delegates from his district to the Republican national convention in Chicago, and upon the accession of Governor Beaver to the highest office within the gift of the commonwealth, on the 18th of January, 1887. Judge Kirkpatrick was appointed by him to the position of attorney general of Pennsyl- vania, and the courts of Northampton county in that year ordered that official record be made of their gratification at the public honor thus bestowed upon their colleague. Judge Kirkpatrick assumed the office on the date mentioned, and brought to the important duties which de- volved upon him not only thorough preparation for his work, but also a well defined determination to introduce noted reforms in the admin- istration of the office. It had grown to be the custom for the chief to leave the work of the position largely to his deputy. This course Judge Kirkpatrick no longer honored, but gave his personal supervision to all of the important cases in which the commonwealth was concerned, and in his preparation of them showed signal care. The result proved of great advantage to the public service, and he won notable victories for the commonwealth. Patiently persevering, possessed of an analytical mind, and one that is readily receptive and retentive of the fundamental principles and intricacies of the law, gifted with a spirited devotion to wearisome details, quick to comprehend the most subtle problems and logical in his conclusions, fearless in the advocacy of any cause he might esponse, he took to his office rare qualifications for success, and his course during the four years of his service as attorney general was such as to elicit the highest commendation of the best citizens of Pennsylvania.
On the expiration of his term of office, Judge Kirkpatrick returned to Easton, where he resumed the private practice of law. In 1894 he was unanimously nominated for Congress by the Republican party in the eighth congressional district, and reduced the usual large Democratic
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majority to less than two hundred votes. In 1896 he was again nom- inated, and after a hotly contested conflict was elected by a majority of three hundred and twenty-nine over his competitor, Laird H. Barber, the Democratic nominee, carrying his own county by an increased majority. He took a prominent part in the session of the fifty-fifth Congress, and delivered a number of speeches on the momentous questions of the day. that attracted widespread interest. He was an ardent supporter of the administration of President MeKinley, and his congressional record won for him the admiration and support of his constituents throughout the district. The good of the nation he placed before partisanship, and the welfare of his constituents before personal aggrandizement. He com- manded the respect of the members of Congress, and at home in the state of his nativity where he is best known, he inspires personal friendships of unusual strength.
Judge Kirkpatrick was married, November 20, 1873, to Miss Eliza- beth H. Jones, a daughter of Matthew Hale Jones, and their children are two in number, William Huntingdon and Donald Kirkpatrick.
HENRY G. WESTON, D. D., LL.D.
Henry G. Weston, D. D., LL. D., president of Crozer Theological Seminary, Chester, Pennsylvania, was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, September 11, 1820. His father, the Rev. John E. Weston, in partner- ship with Mr. Benjamin True, founded, in 1819, at Boston, the first Baptist weekly in America, The Christian Watchman, now The Watch- man, and was its first editor. He was drowned when Henry was eleven years old, but he had already grounded his little son in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Indeed, Dr. Weston can not remember when he could not recite the Greek alphabet. After preparing for college in the Lynn
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.Academy, he entered Brown University, graduating in 1840. He passed at once to Newton Theological Institution, but ill health broke off his studies before the end of the second year. Hemorrhages from the lungs threatened him with the disorder which proved fatal to his mother and to all his brothers and sisters, but he deliberately began to spend from half an hour to an hour and a half daily in deep breathing. mostly out of doors, and to this custom, followed for forty years, and to prudent habits, he no doubt owes the extraordinary freshness and vigor of his later life. Compelled to seek a favorable climate, he was ordained at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1843, and spent the next three years as a missionary at his own charges in Illinois. From 1846 to 1859 he was pastor of the Baptist church in Peoria, and from 1859 to 1868 pastor of the Oliver Street, later the Madison Avenue. Baptist church in New York city. His pastorates were highly successful, and from the last mentioned he was called to Crozer Theological Seminary, of which he has been president from its foundation in 1868. Here he took the chair of Preaching and Pastoral Duties : he also lectures on the Charac- teristics and Relations of the New Testament Writings.
Dr. Weston has been twice married, first to Miss Enda Chambers Van Meter, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; second. to Miss Mary Lovitt Peters, who died in 1894. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by the University of Rochester in 1859, and subsequently that of Doctor of Laws by four institutions-Brown, Bucknell, Denison and the Southwestern University. The latter fact intimates the fitness for college presidencies which was recognized in the Crozer president, a recognition which led to repeated and urgent calls.
Nature equipped Dr. Weston for a great preacher. Of somewhat grim countenance and impressive presence, with a voice at once power-
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ful and sympathetic, and a bearing both familiar and earnest, his mental correspond to his bodily endowments. His horizon is wide, his obser- vation close, his sagacity almost infallible, his emotions quick and strong, his will and his geniality alike masterful, his humor lively but reverent, his memory prompt with illustrations from experience, and. what is of supreme importance in a preacher. the real affectionateness of his spirit as much in evidence as its forceful and even formidable masculinity. These gifts of nature were developed by an experience which has brought to him a varied and deep acquaintance with both God and men. He is an insatiable reader of the best books, and crowns his learning with a study of the Bible most rare. Every month for many years he has read the New Testament through with watchful and loving attentiveness. As a result, his knowledge of the book and his breadth of sympathy keep him still in constant demand as a preacher. and he has been as valued a lecturer among the devoted people of North- field as in theological circles or with his students at home. . All the qualifications for the pulpit were as eminently serviceable in pastoral relations, and if one attempted to describe how fit he is for the chair of instruction and the responsibility of a seminary presidency, it would be hard to do more than point out what any one can see for himself, how these same characteristics, native and acquired. necessarily made him what has grown so rare, an old-time president. the dear friend of his col- leagues, the revered father of his students, the trusted counsellor of his alumni, the far-seeing, tactful, informing soul of the Seminary. He has led it for more than thirty years to a place among the best schools of divinity, and now, in his eighty-fourth year, he is as bright, stimulat- ing and instructive as ever, while his enriched spirituality makes his hold gentler but surer, and his presence more indispensable than it could ap- pear in years less ripe. When he is present in chapel, as he almost in-
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variably is, the room seems full, and when he is away the place seems uncomfortably void. And so his position is almost, if not quite, unique. as that of such a man in such relations must necessarily be. What it is was partly illustrated in the preparations for commencement a year ago. Some of the graduating class were asking for a change of plans. and he said: "You do not seem to be afraid of me, gentlemen." To which a member of the class had the wit and the good heart to reply : "You know. Doctor, that perfect love casteth out fear."
JAMES McCLURG GUFFEY.
. . James McChirg Guffey, a leading operator in the oil and gas fields of western Pennsylvania, and the promoter of kindred industries having their rise from the development of the great natural resources of the State, was born in Sewickley township. Westmoreland county. January 19. 1839. He is descended from the clan of Guffey, living in one of the most fertile districts of the lowlands of Scotland. Its rep- resentatives have also been connected with the history of Pittsburg from almost its first appearance in history. The first American ances- tor was William Guffey, who, with his wife and child, crossed the At- lantic in 1738 and settled near Philadelphia. In 1758 Forbes made his memorable expedition against Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg, and soon afterward William Guffey and other adventuresome spirits, took their families and followed the army to the little settlement in western Penn- sylvania, where the battle had been fought and won. They traveled through unbroken forests, and made the first English settlement in Westmoreland county and the second west of the Alleghany mountains, the first having been made at Mount Braddock, near the present site of Uniontown, six years before.
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