USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. I > Part 12
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JEROME GREEN MILLER.
JEROME GREEN MILLER.
Jerome Green Miller was born in Abington township, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, February 27th, 1835. His father, Joseph B. Miller, the son of Elder John Miller, was a native of the same township. His grandfather, Elder John Miller, was a native of Voluntown, now Sterling, Windham county, Conn. He was one of the first to erect the Baptist standard in northern Pennsylvania, and among the foremost to rally to its support and defense. In the Abington Baptist Association he was the mov- ing spirit and acknowledged leader for nearly fifty years. It was organized in his house, and received the impress of his mind; in subsequent years it was fostered by his anxious care, and guided by his prudent counsels. He attended a funeral and preached his last sermon January 1, 1857, and thus closed an active and "efficient ministry of upwards of fifty-four years. He baptised, on a profession of faith, not far from two thousand converts, attended eighteen hundred funerals, and solemnized the nuptials of nine hundred and fourteen couples. During that time six whole churches and parts of six others had colonized and became inde- pendent bodies at various points in the surrounding country. Seven ministers of the gospel had also been raised up in the church (his own son, Benjamin, being among the number), most of whom are now settled as pastors of Baptist churches at differ- ent, and some at distant, places. For a period of twelve years he officiated in the Lackawanna Valley as the only clergyman of any denomination. Elder Miller continued to live with his parents at Voluntown until he was fourteen years of age, when they moved, some four miles distant, to Plainfield, in the same State. He lived in Plainfield until he was nineteen years of age, when his parents emigrated with their children to the State of New York, and settled at North Norwich, in the Chenango Valley. On February 18, 1797, at the age of twenty-two, he was united in marriage with Polly Hall, of his native place, and soon after, with his youthful companion, moved with his parents to
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JEROME GREEN MILLER.
Hardwick, Otsego county, N. Y. After remaining there a few years, he emigrated with his family to Abington. This was on the fifth anniversary of his marriage, February 18, 1802. His wife was the fifth female that arrived in the settlement, and the region was then an almost unbroken forest-the haunt of the wild beast and the hunting ground of the savage. His farm of three hundred and twenty-six acres of land he purchased for forty dollars-twenty dollars in silver, ten dollars worth of maple sugar, and the remaining ten dollars in tinware. Being a practi- cal surveyor withal, there are few farms in the northern portion ¿ of Lackawanna county he did not traverse while tracing and defining their boundaries. Elder Miller, although he held his own plow and fed his own cattle, was the great representative of Abington, whose various qualifications to counsel and console, whose characteristic desire to do good, whose benevolence of heart, grave but kind deportment, gave him an ascendency in the affections of the community attained by few. His second wife, whom he married April 13, 1823, was Elizabeth Griffin, daughter of James Griffin, of Providence, now Scranton. The late Rev. Samuel Griffin, of the M. E. Church, was a brother of Mrs. Miller. Elder Miller died February 19, 1857. His paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian clergyman, and preached the gospel for nearly half a century. Emily Green, daughter of Henry Green, M. D., was the mother of Jerome G. Miller.
Mr. Miller, the subject of our sketch, was educated at Madison Academy, Waverly, Pennsylvania, and read law with the firm of Fuller & Harding, at Wilkes-Barre, and was admitted to the bar April 24, 1858. In 1861 Mr. Miller was the Republican candi- date for District Attorney of Luzerne county, but was defeated by Hon. Ezra B. Chase by reason of the vote cast in the army being thrown out. Judge Conyngham delivered an elaborate . opinion sustaining the constitutionality of the army vote, and decreeing that Mr. Miller was duly elected District Attorney. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, one of the errors assigned being: "The court erred in allowing the votes cast by volunteers in the army to be counted as legal and constitutional votes, and in adding the same to the votes cast in the county of Luzerne." The Supreme Court held that no person in the army
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JEROME GREEN MILLER.
could vote outside of their respective residences, and refused to allow the votes cast by them to be counted, and decided that Mr. Chase was elected.
Mr. Miller was married October 13, 1864, to Emily, daughter of John Hollenback, of Wyalusing, and has two sons living.
During the Antietam campaign, Mr. Miller was Second Lieu- tenant in Capt. Agib Ricketts' company of Pennsylvania militia. Alex. Farnham, Esq., was First Sergeant in the same company.
Jerome G. Miller is one of the best natured men in the world. The mention of his name in the presence of those who know him best brings instantaneous suggestion of this fact. An easy-going, contented disposition is conspicuously marked in his every ex- pression and every attitude. He never seems to be in a hurry : is never, so far as outward appearances go, inclined to hard, seri- ous work, yet it must not be imagined that he either belittles or neglects the duties of his profession, or is not successful in it. His voice is seldom heard in the Quarter Sessions. He figures, in fact, very little in open court, yet at his desk he is as energetic, among his books as studious, and as an adviser as to the intrica- cies of civil law as prompt and as safe as many who, to guage their accomplishments and their worth by the noise they make, would be esteemed to be many rungs higher up the legal ladder. The profession of the law, like that of arms, lias its brilliant leaders, its distinguished specialists, and its aggregation of quiet, unostentations, but tireless, workers, without which latter the sum of its achievements would be small indeed. To that division Jerome G. Miller belongs, and in it he enjoys, among those more familiar with the facts than the general public can be, a reputation for wisdom and trustworthiness that is enviable.
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OSCAR FITZLAND NICHOLSON.
OSCAR FITZLAND NICHOLSON.
Oscar Fitzland Nicholson was born October 9, 1834, in Salem township, Wayne county, Pennsylvania. His father was Zenas Nicholson, an old resident.of Salem township, and who removed with his father, Francis Nicholson, an old Revolutionary soldier, when quite young, from Connecticut. The mother of Oscar F. was Nancy Goodrich, daughter of George Goodrich, and grand- daughter of Seth Goodrich, of Wayne county, also a native of Connecticut. She was the sister of Phineas G. Goodrich, the historian of Wayne county, and the aunt of Horace Hollister, M. D., the historian of the Lackawanna Valley.
Mr. Nicholson was educated in the common schools of his native place, and studied law with his brothers, George Byron and Lyman Richardson Nicholson, at Wilkes-Barre. For some years he was a clerk in the Prothonotary's office in this city, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county on the 24th of April, 1858. He served three years in the Federal army during the late war as a private in Company K, Eleventh Regiment Penn- sylvania Cavalry. His brother, Lyman Richardson Nicholson, Lieutenant of Company H, 143d Regiment Pennsylvania Infan- try, and who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county April 6, 1855, was killed at the battle of Gettysburg.
Mr. Nicholson was married September 13, 1870, to Angeline C. Philips, a daughter of Solomon Philips, of. Benton township, Lackawanna county, Pa. They have one son, Stanley Fitzland Nicholson.
Horatio W. Nicholson, a half-brother, and who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county April 6, 1841, was one of the lead- ing lawyers of the county in his day. His mother was Mary, also a daughter of George Goodrich.
"Byron" Nicholson, as he was familiarly called, a brother of Oscar F., and who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county November 10, 1848, was one of the brightest legal lights of his day and generation. As a counsellor he excelled, but it was in
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OSCAR FITZLAND NICHOLSON.
what is known in the profession as special pleading that he enjoyed a rare distinction. He was at once tirelessly studious of, and quick to discern a weakness in, an adversary's case, and it was a particularly venturesome and usually unfortunate attorney who permitted himself to go to a hearing, when Mr. Nicholson was on the opposite side, until he had carefully weighed every word and syllable of his "papers," and strengthened and fortified his defenses at every point. Under existing laws, which allow the amending of a legal document, the tactics he so remorselessly and successfully pursued in this regard would not avail, but he was so well armed in every particular for victorious combat in the judicial arena that he must needs have been successful what- ever the obstacles to be overcome.
The subject of the present sketch has much of the legal acu- men and many of the elements of character that made his brother so marked a man, and so formidable in the practice of his pro- fession. His knowledge of the principles and history of our law, and his familiarity with the rules of its practice, if spurred by a greater ambition, would undoubtedly suffice to achieve for their possessor both professional distinction and large material gain ; but Mr. Nicholson is, seemingly, content with an humble station in life, preferring it to that elevation of the distinguished and the wealthy, which is to be reached after great labor and unusual worriment. 1
Mr. Nicholson is an unswerving Democrat in politics, and time was when his fearless and trenchant advocacy of the principles of his party brought it many converts. Like many others, how- ever, who, with him, have grown gray in the service, he now leaves that field to the younger and more ambitious.
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EDWARD HENRY CHASE.
EDWARD HENRY CHASE.
Edward Henry Chase was born in Haverhill, Essex county, Massachusetts, February 28th, 1835. His father was Samuel Chase, a native of Hampstead, New Hampshire. His grand- father, Benjamin Chase, a native of Newbury, Massachusetts, was a musician during the Revolutionary war, and whose ances- tor, Aquila Chase, emigrated from Cornwall, England, in 1640, and settled in Newbury, in 1646, on a grant of a four-acre house lot, in consideration of his services as a mariner to the colony. He died in 1670, leaving eleven children, six daughters and five sons, whose progeny have since overrun the States, and from whom the numerous families of Chases throughout the Union derive their ancestry.
Mr. Chase was educated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., graduating in 1855. After graduating he taught one year in the Aurora Academy, now Wells College, at Aurora, N. Y. The following year he removed to Pennsylvania, and entered the law office of Hon. Edmund L. Dana, and was admitted to practice January 4, 1859. He was a member of the Wyoming Light Dragoons, and when the civil war broke out he left for the seat of war with his company, April 18, 1861. They were organized April 22 as Company E, Eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- teers, and were enrolled for three months, and Mr. Chase was appointed Colonel's clerk. On the 19th of June, he, in company with Lieut. Col. Samuel Bowman, was taken prisoner at Falling Waters, on the Potomac river, while on a reconnoitre in sight of their camp. They were on horseback, and met some pickets who wore the "blue," and whom they supposed to be United States soldiers. Mr. Chase was accosted by them and asked what regiment he belonged to. He replied the Eighth Penn- sylvania. One of the Confederates said, "My God, then you are our prisoners." They were then taken to Winchester, and from thence to Richmond. When they arrived there, they were respectively the eleventh and twelfth prisoners taken since the
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EDWARD HENRY CHASE.
war commenced. They were on parole at Richmond for two weeks, and amused themselves by attending the Constitutional Convention, then in session, and arranging personally with Presi- dent Davis for an exchange for Judge Merryman, of Maryland. The battle of Bull Run having been fought in the meantinie, they lost their chance for a parole, and were then taken to Raleigh and Salisbury, N. C., and Mr. Chase was finally surrendered with- out exchange, May 22, 1862. He says they were well treated, but neither he nor his companion liked their imprisonment.
Mr. Chase was appointed postmaster in April, 1865, but was removed by President Johnson, who, in the meantime, had again become a Democrat, in July, 1866. He was clerk and attorney for the borough of Wilkes-Barre for the years 1868, 1869, and 1870. When Wilkes-Barre became a city he was appointed her attorney and clerk for the years 1871, 1872, and 1873. In Octo- ber, 1873, he was appointed United States Collector of Internal Revenue, which office he still retains. His district embraces the counties of Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Montour, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming. Since 1862 he has been a member of the Republican State or County Committee. He is also a Director of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital and Wilkes-Barre Academy, and has also been a Trustee in the First Presbyterian Church, this city.
Mr. Chase married, June 18, 1863, Elizabeth, daughter of the late Hon. Edmund Taylor, of this city. Mr. Taylor was at one time Treasurer of Luzerne county, and Associate Judge of the Courts. He was a native of Allyngford, in the county of Here- fordshire, England, and emigrated to this country when he was about seventeen years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Chase have four chil- dren, two sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Harold Taylor Chase, is now in the Freshman class at Harvard University.
Edward H. Chase has been a good and a useful citizen. As the foregoing detailed facts show, he has devoted himself mainly to duties in part outside of his profession, yet it cannot be doubted that his legal training has, in a large degree, fitted him for a better performance of those duties. As Clerk to the City Council, Postmaster, Internal Revenue Collector, and as officially
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EDWARD HENRY CHASE.
connected with the several semi-public institutions of our city, he was made more thoroughly capable and successful by the fact that, in addition to his general knowledge of men and affairs, he had had special training in the law. There are many conspicuous examples of men throughout the country who, having been sim- ilarly favored, have thereby been enabled to more thoroughly fulfil their assigned duties, and even climb high up the ladder of distinction. Certain railroad presidents, officers of great insur- ance and other trust companies, and manufacturing and mining institutions, would have been great men anyhow, but are greater by reason of their having combined, with other faculties and excellencies, the aptitudes growing out of their study and prac- tice of law and equity.
Mr. Chase has been a very positive and active Republican, and it is as a manager of the business and interests of his party here- abouts that he is best known. To that service he brought a fitness of no common order, and an energy that has "snatched victory from the jaws of defeat" more than once. Quick to detect a weak point in his adversary's defenses, and full of achievements to give his own side a consequent advantage, he has always been esteemed by the best of Democrats a "foeman worthy of their steel." While greenback and other schisms in the Democratic ranks have contributed most to the many defeats the Democrats have suffered in this naturally Democratic county, it must be admitted that the managerial skill of Mr. Chase has also had much to do with them.
As a citizen, Mr. Chase is universally respected for his public spiritedness, his many companionable qualities, and the keen- wittedness, industry, and push that made him the architect of the comfortable competence he now possesses.
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128
ROBERT CHARLES SHOEMAKER.
ROBERT CHARLES SHOEMAKER.
Robert Charles Shoemaker was born in Kingston township, Luzerne county (his present residence), April 4, 1836. He is the son of the late Hon. Charles Denison Shoemaker (a brother of Hon. Lazarus D. Shoemaker), who was a prominent citizen of the county in his day, and a graduate of Yale College. He was Prothonotary, Clerk of the Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer, and Clerk of the Orphans' Court, from January 26, 1824, to April 3, 1828, and from the last named date to August 21, 1830, he was Register and Recorder of Luzerne county. These appointments were made by Governor Andrew Shultze. On the last named date he was appointed Associate Judge of Luzerne county by Governor George Wolf, which he held for a number of years. He was a candidate for the Legislature in 1855 on the Whig ticket, but was defeated by Hon. Harrison Wright, the candidate of the Democratic party. He was also a charter member and Director of the Forty Fort Cemetery Asso- ciation, and for many years was Treasurer of the Proprietors' School Fund of Kingston. He died August 1, 1861. A writer in the Luzerne Union, in giving an account of his death, uses this language: "Death has struck down another one of the old families whose fortunes and sufferings are associated with the memorable times of Forty Fort, the Indian massacre, and the settlement and growth of Kingston. Charles D. Shoe- maker, the man whose probity was the incident of inheritance, and whose courteous manners and kindness of heart have signal- ized him for nearly half a century, died at his mansion in King- ston on Wednesday of last week. Few men in the community were more favorably and generally known. His position in public life had brought him much in contact with the people; and it may be doubted, in the many years of his official life, if any man ever received from him an unkind word or other cause of offense. Certainly the equanimity of his life and demeanor are without parallel. Judge Shoemaker, during the
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ROBERT CHARLES SHOEMAKER.
latter years of his life, devoted his time to agricultural pursuits, not, however, to that extent which might debar him the exercise of social enjoyment and the ministrations of an extensive hospi- tality. His door was ever open, and his table spread. Never a roof covered a family more liberal or kind to a guest .. " The father of C. D. Shoemaker was Elijah Shoemaker, whose history is given in our biographical sketch of Hon. Lazarus Denison Shoemaker.
The mother of Robert C. Shoemaker was Mrs. Stella Sprigg, nee Mercer, a native of Pittsburg, and daughter of Samuel Mercer, of the county of Lancaster. After the death of her father, she resided principally in New Orleans, where Mr. Shoemaker's father met her, and they were married. She was one of the original members of the First Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, being the first church of that denomination established in that city. The paternal grandfather of Mrs Shoemaker was Col. James Mercer, of Lancaster county, Pa. He was Major of the Seventh Battalion of Lancaster county in 1777, and served that year; also in the years 1778 and 1779 in the battalion of Col. Stewart, and in 1782 was Colonel commanding a battalion. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature from Lancaster county during the years 1781, 1782, and 1783. . He died in 1804.
The subject of our sketch was prepared for college at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, and Luzerne Institute, at Wyoming, Pa .; entered Yale, and graduated in the class of 1855. He read law with Hon. Andrew T. McClintock, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county April 4, 1859.
Mr. Shoemaker married November 22, 1876, Mrs. Helen Lonsdale, nee Lea, daughter of Hon. James N. Lea, late of New Orleans. They have two children, both daughters. Mr. Lea was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Louisiana prior to the late civil war, and is now a resident of Lexington, Va.
Mr. Shoemaker is a Presbyterian in religious belief, and is the Superintendent of the Union Sabbath School at Maltby. He is also one of the Trustees of the Memorial Presbyterian Church of this city, and has been since its organization.
Perhaps no language at our command could more fitly or thoroughly describe Robert C. Shoemaker than that employed
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ALFRED DARTE, JR.
by the obituary writer above quoted to describe the chief charac_ teristics of his father Excepting that the father was for many years in official life, while the son has never sought public station, the son is in large part a pattern of the father. Unusually quiet and unobtrusive in his deportment, yet genial withal, and dis- pensing to the many friends who visit his home a generous hospitality, dividing his time between his law office and his farm, fulfiling in his intercourse with his fellow-men the golden rule to the letter, Robert C. Shoemaker is an example of a large class of citizens who live good and useful, if not conspicuous, lives, and die deeply mourned by a larger circle than the average observer would think had acquaintance with them. Mr. Shoemaker's legal attainments have made him very useful, as an office practitioner, to a large clientage, and his general information, gleaned from a wide familiarity with books, lift him far above the average level.
ALFRED DARTE, JR.
Alfred Darte, Jr., was born on the 28th of April, 1836, at Dundaff, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. His father, Hon. Alfred Darte, is a resident of Carbondale, Lackawanna county, is also a lawyer, and for some years was Recorder of the Mayor's Court of that city. He is a native of Bolton, Toland county, Conn. The grandfather of the subject of our sketch was Elias Darte, also a native of Connecticut. He, with six of his brothers, were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. He received a bayonet wound in the attack on Fort Griswold. His mother was Ann E., daughter of Dorastus Cone, of Esopus, Ulster county, N. Y. The Cone family were also from Connecticut.
Mr. Darte was educated in the common schools and at Wyoming Seminary. He studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county May 12, 1859. During the late war he was First Lieutenant of Company K, Twenty-fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry, in the three months' service.
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ALFRED DARTE, JR.
He was mustered in at Harrisburg, Pa., April 26, 1861. His father was Captain of the same company. On August 13, 1861, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Company M, Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry, and afterwards promoted to Captain of the same company. He remained in the army until September 19, 1864, when he was discharged for disability aris- ing from wounds received in action at Trevillion Station, Va. In 1879 Mr. Darte was elected District Attorney of Luzerne county on the Republican ticket by a majority of 2,057 over John T. Lenahan, the Democratic candidate, and of 3.578 over James Bryson, the Labor Reform candidate. Mr. Darte was also a Justice of the Peace for a number of years in the borough of Kingston, where he resides. He is now President of the Town Council. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church in King- ston, and has been a Trustee in the same.
On the 11th of June, 1863, Mr. Darte married Caroline Sealy, a native of Kingston, Pa. Her father, Robert Sealy, is a native of Cork, Ireland. They have no children.
Capt. Darte is a man of splendid form and figure-as fine a specimen of physical manhood as one would wish to see. His full six feet of height, broad shoulders, great width of chest, and finely proportioned and muscular limbs, the whole surmounted by a large square head, with rather dark features, make up the tout ensemble of the ideal soldier, and the record of his service shows that his manhood and courage did not disappoint these bounteous gifts of nature's giving. Mr. Darte disposition is to excessive quietness, almost to taciturnity, yet he is an enjoyable companion, and has a large circle of ardent friends. He has fine legal capacities, and although making no pretensions to forensic excellence, can, nevertheless, always be depended upon for solid, pointed argument, of the sort that has weight with juries. His administration of the affairs of the District Attorney's office was marked by a vigorous determination to an enforcement of the criminal laws, and untainted with suspicion of collusion with wrong-doers for purposes of personal gain. His indictments were drawn with care, and were generally unassailable, and his prosecution of his causes in open court showed unusual familiar- ity with the statutes, the authorities, and the rules of court. Mr.
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HENRY BLACKMAN PLUMB.
Darte may fairly be looked upon as a lawyer of more than usual attainments, with a professional future to be envied; as a citizen, worthy in every particular, and a soldier deserving the gratitude of his fellow-men.
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