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 33
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OF THE ST.ITE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
As Dr. Seip labored on year after year, his ideas and the work that he accomplished drew to him the attention of the educational world, and various college degrees were conferred upon him, including that of Doctor of Divinity received from the University of Pennsylvana in 1886. He was chosen as a member of varous associations tending to advance the interests of education, including the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, the American Society of Church History, the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, the Society of Science. Letters and Arts of London, England, and other bodies whose membership was composed of the scholarly men of the world. Not long after he assumed the presidency of Muhlenberg College, he took steps to bring the institution into closer relations with other colleges and uni - versities of the country, and he was largely instrumental in founding the College Association of Pennsylvania in 1887, which has grown to include the middle states and Maryland. He was the first chairman of its executive committee, and was continued in the office until he declined re-election. He was the vice president and presided in the absence of the president at the meeting in the University of Pennsylvania in 1889. and he was chosen to read the "History of the Organization of the Col- lege .Association of Pennsylvania." He was also appointed to prepare and read a paper at its meeting in Princeton College on the "Taxation of College Property." an ethical treatment of the subject. Following his inauguration as president of Muhlenberg College, he inaugurated a move- ment to holl an annual course of free lectures in the college chapel open to the public, thus formally doing work for the community which has since been attracting attention elsewhere under the name of the Uni- versity Extension work. These lectures have been given every year since by men eminent in their specialties, who as friends of the college have contributed their services gratuitously.
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Dr. Seip was not only a teacher, but an orator. As an author he became widely known in church and educational circles, many of his addresses having been printed, including those on "Education," "A Sketch of Muhlenberg College," baccalaureate sermons and reforma- tion addresses, etc. He possessed the happy faculty of expressing his thoughts in a clear and forcible manner, having a natural and easy style, an elegant and copious diction, and a unique and lucid construction, and the productions of his pen were always read with pleasure and profit. Although he never accepted a pastorate, Dr. Seip became well known as a preacher, frequently filling various pulpits. His sermons were prepared with the same care and precision that marked his preparation for the work of the class room. He was logical in his reasoning, a deep thinker, and clear and forceful in his presentation of any subject. He appealed to the intellect as well as to the heart of the people, and he preached Christ rather than dogmas. He was, however, a firm believer in the doctrines of his denomination, and for a number of years served as a member of the examining committee by appointment of the synod. He was. because of his knowledge of Greek, the examiner in Greek exegesis from 1886 until his death. During the same time he was a member of the executive committee of the synod. and he was also elected for a number of years by the ministerium of Pennsylvania as a dele- gate to the general council, and never failed to attend its meetings. He was usually chosen the presiding officer of the second district confer- ence of the Pennsylvania synod, and presided with dignity and grace, his decisions being fair and just. In the city in which he made his home, he was honored and esteemed as few men have been, and as occasion offered he was called upon to deliver public addresses, among the more notable of which was that delivered in memory of President Garfield.
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OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Hle was made a chairman of the committee on resolutions on that occa- sion, and in 1885, at a public meeting of the citizens of Allentown, called to take action on the death of General Grant, he presided over the meet- ing by invitation of his fellow citizens, and delivered an address on the "Life and Death of General Grant," which was afterward published by request.
Dr. Seip was twice married. He first wedded Emma Elizabeth Shimer, of Bath, Pennsylvania, who was confirmed in the same class that made her husband a member of the church. She died in 1873, and in 1877 Dr. Seip married Miss Rebecca Keck, of Allentown. His four children were born of the first marriage-Howard Shimer Seip. A. M., D. D. S., of Allentown; Rev. Frank Muhlenberg Seip. A. M., who died in 1898: Annie Elizabeth Seip: and Theodore Lorenzo Seip. who died in infancy, in 1873. The home life of Dr. Seip was ideal, and he held friendship inviolable. His courteous, cultured manner, combined with- the kindliness of his disposition, won him not only the esteem but also the love of pupils and associates, and Muhlenberg College will long bear the impress of his individuality. Its growth and development he made his life work. At times he received tempting offers from other institut- tions, but these he always declined. His ambition was not for personal honor or gain, but for the growth and extension of the influence of the school, with which he became identified at its organization, and with which he continued until his death. He championed the highest Chris- tian education, and with such success that his name came to be held in high honor while he lived, and his untimely death was regarded with a sorrow which was at once general and sincere.
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HON. ALEX. MURDOCH.
Among the Scotch emigration to the colony of Pennsylvania when it still paid allegiance to King George was John Murdoch, who settled on a farm near Carlisle. The exact date of his arrival is not given, but it was some years before the opening of the Revolutionary war and probably as far back as 1760. In 1778. while the great struggle for independence was in progress, he came to Washington county and located on land in North Strabane township. With him came his third son, Alexander Murdoch, at that time a lad of eight years. as his birth had occurred at the homestead near Carlisle, in 1770. When he reached manhood Alexander purchased the Canonsburg mills, to- gether with a large tract of land adjoining them. and eventually became a business man of importance in that pioneer community. In those days the only large market for the products of the west was found at New Orleans, and the only outlet thereto was down the great river by the crude methods of navigation prevailing before the advent of the steamboat. It was a tedious as well as dangerous process, nor were the dangers over when the flatboats as well as their loads had been dis- posed of on the wharves of New Orleans. It was customary to return overland, a horseback ride or walk of many hundred miles through an unbroken wilderness infested with robbers. A trip of this kind was the event of a lifetime in those primitive times and furnished food for endless stories around the firesides in the lonely cabins of the pioneers. Alexander Murdoch was engaged in this traffic long before Fulton's great invention relegated keelboats to the past and revolutionized the commerce of the world. On one occasion it is related he loaded two large flatboats with flour and saddlery from his mills at Canonsburg and pushed vigorously out into the stream for the long and perilous
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1029
float to the metropolis near the mouth of the Mississippi. The journey was made in safety, the produce and manufactures disposed of to ad- vantage, and the adventurous young merchant succeeded in getting home safely despite the pirates who lay in wait for the returning flat- boatmen and the perils of the wilderness which then stretched in an unbroken mass from Louisiana to Pennsylvania. In 1809. having re- ceived an appointment from the governor as prothonotary of the court of common pleas of Washington county. he sold his property at Can- onsburg and removed for residence to the county seat. He served as prothonotary until 1819, but continued to reside at Washington until 1828. during which time he was engaged in mercantile enterprises. In 1822 he erected on the corner of Main street and Pine Alley, a brick house, which was long one of the landmarks of the town and is now a part of the Hotel Main. After leaving the county seat in the year above mentioned he purchased four hundred acres of land known as the Mor- ganza tract, situated two miles from Canonsburg, where he lived until his death. in 1836. In 1803 he had married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Matthew Henderson, who survived her husband twenty-seven years and was laid to rest in March, 1863. at Canonsburg, at the age of eighty-three years. Mary M., the eldest daughter, married Hon. J. L. Gow, of Washington, now deceased, and long owned and occupied the home erected by her father in 1822 and now the site of the Hallan block. Other daughters are Mrs. Sarah B. Musser, of Nelsonville. Ohio; Mrs. E. W. Wilson, of Moberly, Missouri ; and Anna, who is also a resident of the last mentioned place.
Alexander Murdoch, the well-known lawyer and United States marshal, was the seventh of the eleven children born to his parents. He studied law and after admission to the bar practiced chiefly in partnership with his brother-in-law. the late J. L. Gow. In April, 1861.
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he received from President Lincoln the appointment as United States marshal for the western district of Pennsylvania and was re-commis- sioned in April, 1865. serving in all eight years. In March, 1869, he was reappointed by President Grant to the same position, and discharged its duties until his resignation in December, 1872. At present Mr. Murdoch is residing in comparative quiet at Washington, Pennsylvania. where he holds the position of president of the First National Bank of that city. Ilis son, John H. Murdoch, has succeeded his father at the bar of Washington and is proving himself to be a worthy representative of his long line of notable ancestors. Two grandsons. Edgar B. Mur- doch and Alexander M. Templeton, are also among the bright legal lights practicing in the courts of Washington county, with a success that fully sustains the credit of the family.
LEMUEL OLIVER FOOSE.
Lemuel Oliver Foose. city superintendent of the public schools of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. the oldest son of James and Catharine ( Boyer) Foose, was born January 16, 1838. in Juniata county. Pennsyl- vania. In 1840 his parents removed to the vicinity of Markelville, Perry county, Pennsylvania. He obtained his education in the public schools near his home, at the Markelville Academy and at Pennsylvania College. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The latter institution conferred the degree of M. A. on him in 1878.
After leaving school he devoted himself to the profession of teach- ing. He was principal of the academy at Aaronsburg, Center county. Pennsylvania, from 1864 to 1865, was superintendent of the public schools of Lima, Ohio, from 1865 to 1867, and also of the schools of Miamisburg, Ohio, from 1867 to 1869. In 1869 he became principal of
L. O. Joon
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OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the boys' high school of Harrisburg. Pennsylvania. This position he held until 1879. when he was elected city superintendent of the schools of Harrisburg. Ile still ( 1904) continues to act in this capacity. Dur- ing his administration the schools of the city have been advanced to a high degree of perfection.
He inaugurated many innovations and improvements in the organ- ization and administration of the schools. During his time of service they have been entirely reconstructed. many fine new buildings have been erected. new courses of study have been introduced, special departments for instruction in business, art and natural sciences have been organ- ized. and the general work of the schools has been made to keep pace with the progress of the times. In 1889 he became one of the founders of the Harrisburg Public Library. He was elected the first secretary of its board of trustees and still continues to act in this capacity. For years he has been identified with Sunday-school and Bible work of the city of Harrisburg and the county of Dauphin, and during that time has held official positions in the various organizations for carrying on this work.
In 1868 he married Miss Eleanor Elizabeth Kuhn. daughter of Rev. Samuel and Eleanor ( Cunningham) Kuhn. of Hummelstown, Pennsyl- vania. The children of this union are: Albert Eliot. Charles James. Eleanor Irene. Frank Clare and Jessie Florence.
REV. ROBERT B. YOUNGMAN. A. M., PH. D.
The Rev. Robert Barbber Youngman, of Easton, Pennsylvania. clergyman and educator, was born in Danville, Pennsylvania. November 18. 1836, son of George Norgle and Keziah ( Chambers) Youngman.
The Youngman family is of German origin, and the American pro- 60
1034 COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
genitor was Elias Youngman, born in Germany, August 17, 1738, and died April 12. 1817. He was the proprietor of Youngman's Town, non Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania. His son. Colonel Thomas Youngman, was the father of four children: Hannah, who married George Lehman : Catherine, who married a Mr. Withington: Amelia, and George Nurgle Youngman.
George Norgle Youngman was born May 10. 1804. and died January 13. 1881. He was educated in the common schools, and on arriving at manhood engaged in a mercantile business which he conducted during the remainder of his life. in Danville, Pennsylvania. He was a man of excellent character and exerted a strong influence in the neighborhood. For many years he occupied the position of justice of the peace at Mif- finburg. He was married. December 31. 1835. to Keziah, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Bond ( Barbber ) Chambers. Her father was born in Cumberland county. Pennsylvania. May 8. 1773. a son of Robert Chambers, a native of Ireland, who came to America shortly before the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. He recruited a company of infantry for the continental service, was elected to its captaincy, and marched to Boston. His son Robert also entered the patriot army shortly before the close of the war.
George Norgle and Keziah ( Chambers ) Youngman were the parents of five children: 1. Robert Barbber, to be further written of below. 2. John, who during the Civil war performed honorable service as major of the Fifty-first Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers: he was a banker. and in 1892 removed to Kansas, where he followed his occupation until his death. July 2. 1901 : he was married December 16, 1869, to Harnah Jane Grear, of Danville, Pennsylvania. 3. Benjamin, born March 9. 1840, who is a teacher in Clearfield. Pennsylvania: he was married in August. 1874. to Mary Delle Bunting. 4. Sarah Amelia, born June 23.
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OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLE.INL.A.
1842, became the wife of Benjamin F. Harvey, and died March 14. 1900. 5. Thomas W. born July 28, 1849, became a physician and died June 6, 1903. The mother of these children died January 13. 1903.
Robert Barbber, eldest son of George Norgle and Keziah ( Cham- bers ) Youngman, received his preparatory education in the schools of his native village, prepared for college at Mifflinburg Acadeny. and completed his education at Lafayette College, from which he was grad- nated in 1860, and was valedictorian. He was at once made clerk of the faculty, a position which he has held to the present day, his service hav- ing covered the long period of forty-three years. At the same time (in 1860) he began his connection with the instructional corps, which 1. Is likewise been extended uninterruptedly to the present. He served as a tutor until 1863. when he was made adjunct professor of Latin and Greek. After five years' labor in this capacity, he was (in 1868) ap- pointed professor of the Greek language and literature, and he has been the instructor in this department from that day. It would be difficult to bound the usefulness of Professor Youngman during this long period, but it has been the privilege of the writer of these pages, dur- ing the past one-third of a century, to meet large numbers of divines. professional men, litterateurs and men of affairs, who hold him in grateful and affectionate regard for the excellent instruction which he afforded them, and for his kindly personal interest.
While Professor Youngman is known throughout the United States as an educator, he is also well known throughout Pennsylvania as a clergyman. He studied theology under the private tutorship of the late Rev. John Gray, D. D., of Easton. He was made a licentiate April 20. 1864. by the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, and was ordained January 6. 1874. at Allentown, by the Presbytery of Lehigh.
Mr. Youngman was married. April 18, 1800, to Miss Catherine
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S. Opdycke, a daughter of John and Martha ( Patterson) Opdycke. She died December 9, 1891, having borne her husband three children : Alice Gray, born April 12, 1869, now the wife of Professor F. A. March, Jr. : Ethel, born December 9. 1875: and Kate Barbber, born June 20, 1879.
REV. C. J. COOPER. D. 1).
Rev. C. J. Cooper, to whom Muhlenberg College is deeply indebted for its substantial development and the excellent financial basis upon which it now rests. belongs to one of the oldest families of the Lehigh Valley.
William Cooper, of Dillenburg in the duchy of Nassau, Germany, was born August 24, 1722, and his wife Gertrude was born September 12, 1724. They came to America in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and. spending their last days in Lehigh county, their remains were interred in the burying ground surrounding St. Paul's church, at Upper Sancon. Their son Daniel preceded them. however, to the new world. coming about 1770. He was born in Dillenburg. in the duchy of Nassau. March 31. 1752. and on crossing the Atlantic settled at Goshenhoppen. Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. On the 3d of November. 1775, he married Elizabeth Gery, a daughter of Jacob Gery. of Goshenhoppen. Daniel and Elizabeth Cooper became the parents of ten children: Jacob. John, Peter. William. Charles, Daniel, Cath- erine, Elizabeth and two who died in infancy.
Of this family Jacob removed to Philadelphia, where he was en- gaged in mercantile pursuits. He was married twice, and by his first wife had a son Daniel, who became a physician and practiced his pro- fession in Jonestown, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. His second wife
ยท
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OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
was in her maidenhood Miss Fink, but at the time of her marriage to Jacob Cooper she was Mrs. Owen, a widow. They had one son. Jacob. Jacob Cooper, Sr., having occasion to go to New Orleans, was taken ill on the ocean with yellow fever, died and was buried at sea. John Cooper, the second son of Daniel Cooper, died in 1847, leaving a daugh- ter, Fayette, who was married to Elias Nitraner. Peter Cooper, an- other son of the family, was born December 26, 1790, married Susan Buchecker and died May 19, 1837, leaving four children. He was the founder of Coopersburg, Lehigh county, and served as deputy surveyor general of Pennsylvania. Of his children, Martin is still living in Coopersburg, and has passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey. Charles W. became the first county superintendent of the public schools of Lchigh county, and was cashier and president of the Allentown National Bank. He left a son, Harry, who resides in Allen- town. Dr. Thomas B. Cooper, a physician, became prominent in pub- lic affairs, represented his district in Congress and died in 1862. His son, Tilghman S., resides at the old homestead in Coopersburg, and is a leading breeder and importer of cattle. . Anna Matilda Cooper became the wife of Dr. Fred Martin, and died in Bethlehem, leaving two daugh- ters, who are residents of Philadelphia. William Cooper, son of Daniel Cooper, the founder of the family, removed to Schuylkill county. Daniel Cooper married Sarah Ott, and died in April, 1864, leaving several children. Charles died in childhood. Catherine Cooper became the wife of Jacob Seider and is the grandmother of Mrs. Edwin Kline, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Cooper married Abraham Sli- fer, and removed to Flourtown, Pennsylvania, where she died in 1867.
Jacob Cooper, father of Rev. C. J. Cooper, was born in Upper Saucon, Lehigh county. He received a very limited education, but was trained to active labor, learning the tanner's trade, which he fol-
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lowed for many years. He became a member of the German Reformed church in early manhood, but afterward united with the Evangelical Lutheran church. In politics he was a stanch Democrat, and for many years he resided in Coopersburg, where he took an active and helpful interest in many movements for the general good. His death occurred in Allentown. His wife, Mrs. Sarah Ann Cooper, was a daughter of John and Mary Catherine ( Egner) Horlocker, and was a native of Upper Saucon, Pennsylvania. She traced her ancestry back to the founder of the family in America, who came from Wurtemberg. Ger- many, about 1730. His son. Daniel llorlocker, was the father of John Horlocker, who wedded Mary Elizabeth Schaeffer, and one of their children was John Horlocker. the father of Mrs. Cooper. Jacob Cooper and Sarah Ann Horlocker were married in June. 1827.
Dr. C. J. Cooper was born in Upper Saucon township, Lehigh county, near Lanark, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1847. In 1850 his parents removed to the vicinity of Coopersburg, and, entering public schools of that locality, he began his education, which he continued in the New Allentown Academy, the Bucks County Normal and Classical Institute at Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and in the Allentown Seminary in Muli- lenberg College. On leaving the last named institution he matriculated in the sophomore class at Pennsylvania College. Gettysburg, in 1864, and was graduated in 1867. The same year he entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, and completed his course of study there by graduation in 1870. He was then ordained by the Luth- eran Ministerium of Pennsylvania in Pottsville and was elected pastor of St. Peter's Society at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he received a salary of three hundred dollars per year. Subsequently Freemansburg and Lower Saucon were connected with this parish. Dr. Cooper min- istered to the three congregations until 1881, when he resigned the
OF THE ST.ITE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 1039
work at Lower Sancon, and in 1886 he resigned as pastor of the church at South Bethlehem and Freemansburg, in order to accept the position of treasurer and financial agent of Muhlenberg College. He built new churches in the three places named, and promoted a work of far-reach- ing importance. He was secretary of the second conference district synod. secretary of the synod, and has been a trustee of Muhlenberg College since 1876. He was also a delegate to the general council of the Evangelical Lutheran church of North America, has been a mem- ber of its board of publication since igor, and is a member of the Penn- sylvania German Society. His work in behalf of Muhlenberg Col- lege entitles him to the gratitude of all of his denomination who have interest in Christian education. He accepted his position when the financial foundation of the school was very insecure. There was a debt of seventy-five thousand dollars resting upon the institution, and through the untiring and effective efforts of Dr. Cooper this was reduced to thirty-two thousand five hundred. He was also instrumental in in- creasing the endowment from one hundred and twenty-five thousand to one hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars, and in doubling the number of students. His efforts also resulted in the improvement of the library and the apparatus of the school, and he was the chief in- stigator and prime mover in the effort to raise two hundred thousand dollars for the purchase of new grounds and the erection of new build- ings west of Allentown. This project has every promise of success. fifty-five acres of ground having been purchased, while at the present there is a building one hundred and ninety by sixty-five feet, and a dormitory one hundred and eighty-three by forty feet. now in course of erection. In his work in behalf of church and college he has ever locked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities of the future, laboring not only for the present but also for the later develop-
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ment of the school, and bringing to his work the zeal and consecration of a strong nature that fails not in the accomplishment of its purpose.
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