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 21
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GEORGE REYNOLDS BEDFORD.
ordinance of God, have improved the blood of their line by the aid of their footmen." Achievement is the grand test. Those who have peopled new countries, and by their labor and genius made them to " blossom as the rose"-those who have wrought great things in mechanics and in art, and yet, amid all the strain attending the doing of these things, have been true to their duty to God, to God's great handiwork as embodied in their own physical and mental beings, and to their wives and children- these are the favored fathers of favored sons-these bequeath to their posterity from their loins a fortune of greater worth than silver, or gold, or precious stones. All this, however, is but par- enthetical in our series of sketches, albeit, there is no little proof of its general correctness in the record of the ancestry of our immediate subject.
George Reynolds Bedford was born at Waverly, Pennsylvania, November 22, 1840. He was educated at the Madison Academy, in his native place, after which he entered the law office of Hon. Samuel Sherrerd, at Scranton, as a student in the profession that gentleman adorned. During a portion of the year 1860, he was a clerk in the office of the Prothonotary of Luzerne county, a position in which valuable experience in matters incident to the practice of the law is to be secured. He subsequently entered the Albany (N. Y.) Law School. He completed his legal educa- tion there, and in May, 1862, he was admitted, on examination, to the bar of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He did not begin practice in the empire state, however, but came to Wilkes-Barre, and for the succeeding six months continued his studies in the office of Hon. Stanley Woodward. On November IO, 1862, he was regularly admitted a member of the bar of Luzerne county. During the following twelve years, Mr. Bed- ford applied himself assiduously to his professional duties, ac- quiring a comfortably paying practice, and a reputation as a careful and successful practitioner. He is a Democrat in politics, and did good service, locally, in the behalf of his party. When, therefore, in 1874, his name was mentioned in connection with the Democratic nomination for additional law judge, many flocked to his support from all parts of the county, as one who, both by reason of his party service and legal attainments, was
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fitted for the distinguished honor. The competing candidates were Hon. John Handley, now president judge of the courts of Lackawanna county ; Hon. D. L. O'Neill and Asa R. Brun- dage, Esq., of Wilkes-Barre. The contest was a very spirited one. In the convention, Mr. Bedford led all his competitors through a series of ballotings up to the last, when Mr. Handley, having secured a small majority of the votes, was declared the nominee. The victory was almost wholly one of locality. There was a growing disaffection of the people of the upper end of the county at the time, occasioned by the opposition of Wilkes-Barre to the then proposed new county of Lackawanna, and Mr. Bed- ford, being from the objectionable city, was sacrificed. The friends of the approaching secession naturally assumed that Mr. Handley would be its friend and lend his influence to promote it. Under other circumstances, Mr. Bedford would undoubtedly have been the candidate, and that he would have made an excel- lent judge is abundantly proven by his combined successes as a practitioner, and by the high esteem in which he is still held by citizens of all parties.
Mr. Bedford has never filled-has never since been a candidate for-any political office, although he has been active in the coun- cils of his party, and from time to time did it important service from the stump.
He has, however, been a director of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital, a trustee of the Memorial Presbyterian Church and of the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church. He is now a trustee of the Female Institute of Wilkes-Barre, and for the last ten or twelve years has been one of the masters in Chancery.
He married May 19, 1874, Emily L., daughter of the late Hon. Henry M. Fuller, and has had two children, sons, both of whom are living.
In 1863, he enlisted as a private in Captain Agib Ricketts' Com- pany K, 30th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, and was subsequently promoted to the position of colonel's clerk. There were several members of the Wilkes-Barre bar in this company. Among them C. P. Kidder, E. K. Morse, H. B. Plumb, Alexan- der Farnham, and others. Mr. Farnham was at first second- lieutenant, and afterwards became adjutant-general of the brigade.
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The company did service in what was known as the Gettysburgh campaign, and continued in the field about six weeks. Captain Ricketts refused to be mustered into the United States service, and E. W. Finch, who was the first-lieutenant, was elected cap- tain in Mr. Ricketts' place.
Mr. Bedford is of medium stature and build. He is devoted to his clients and his books, and by an ever present sagacity and an unusual industry, assures to the former all that in jus- tice or equity is warranted by the latter. He does not, how- ever, permit professional matters to engross his time and attention to the neglect either of his social or political duties. He takes a marked interest in his family and all that relates to it, is much sought after in society because of his vivacity and bright conversational capacities, and his opinion is as likely to unravel a knotty problem in politics as that of any man in the county. As chairman of the Democratic Committee of the Twelfth Congressional District in 1882, he so organized and led his forces as to bring a creditable victory out of what at one time looked to be a very dubious situation.
Mr. Bedford's life is yet to be written. He comes, as will appear from the brief sketches of some of his ancestry herewith incorporated, of a stock remarkable for its longevity. With a fair prospect of at least as many years before him as have been recorded in his past, he may be expected to have the best part of his history yet to make.
HUBBARD BESTER PAYNE.
Hubbard Bester Payne was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, where he now resides, July 20, 1839. He is a descendant of Stephen Paine, a miller from Great Ellingham, near Attleburg, county Norfolk, England, who came to New England in 1638 with a large company of emigrants from the neighborhood of Hingham, bringing his wife, three children, and four servants, in the ship Diligent, of Ipswich. He settled first in Hingham,
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Mass., but about 1643 removed to Rehoboth, of which town he was one of the founders and first proprietors. He possessed large estates in that and adjoining towns, and was prominent in the affairs of the church and colony. He was representative to the General Court in 1641 for Hingham and for Rehoboth for many successive years and until his death, August, 1679. The will of Stephen Paine is on file in the Boston State House. Stephen Paine, a tanner, eldest son of Stephen Paine, sen., was born in England about 1629, and came with his father to New England in 1638. He was admitted freeman in 1657. He had married in 1652 Ann Chickering, daughter of Francis of Ded- ham. He was an active participant in King Philip's Indian war, and contributed liberally to its cost. He owned much land in Rehoboth, Swanzey, and Attleboro. He died at Rehoboth 1679, a few months before his father.
Stephen Paine, son of Stephen Paine, jun., was born at Reho- both, September 29, 1654. He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Williams, who died in 1706 without issue ; second, Mary Brintnall, in 1707. He was representative to the General Court in 1694 and 1703, and died in 1710.
Edward Paine, the younger of the two sons of Stephen and Mary (Brintnall) Paine, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., January 22, 1710. His father died March 12 following, and the widow, with her two children, removed to Preston, Conn. At a proper age, he was bound to a farmer. He married April 6, 1732, Lois Kinney, and soon removed to Pomfret, Conn., where he purchased a farm in that part of the town called Abington Society, upon which he lived and died. He was a man of upright character and highly esteemed. His eleven children were all born in Pomfret.
Stephen Paine, third son of Edward Paine, was born January 31, 1746. He removed to Lebanon, Conn., where he gained a valuable estate.
Captain Oliver Payne, eldest son of Stephen Paine, was born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1780. He removed to Norwich, Conn., and from there, in 1813, to Gibson, Susquehanna county, Pa., where he died in 1868. Payne's lake in Susquehanna county derives its name from Captain Payne.
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HUBBARD BESTER PAYNE.
Bester Payne, son of Captain Oliver Payne, was born in Nor- wich, Conn., April 10, 1810. He removed with his father in 1813 to Gibson, Pa. At that time, that section of the country was a dense wilderness, with a very few inhabitants. . He removed to Kingston in 1839, and was widely known through the counties of Luzerne, Bradford, Columbia, Susquehanna, and Wyoming as a lead water pipe layer. Mr. Payne married December 4. 1834, Polly, a daughter of Joseph Pierce, a native of Hasbrook, Sulli- van county, N. Y. Her mother died there, leaving her the next to the oldest of six children ; her father had died about two. years before. She was thus left an orphan at the age of twelve years. By her energy and ability, she was able to maintain and provide for her brothers and sisters, who have since all prospered in life's pathway. Her grandfather was William Pierce, a native of the north of England, who came to this country about 1778. Her mother was Elizabeth Cargell, a daughter of Abram Cargell, a native of Scotland, and his wife, Catharine Hornbeck, a native of Holland. Mrs. Payne married for a second husband Isaac Rice, of Kingston. She is still living, and is in her seventy-fourth year.
Hubbard Bester Payne is the only child of the late Bester Payne. Until the age of eighteen, Mr. Payne lived at home, working with his father in the lead pipe manufactory, or by the day for the farmers of his neighborhood, or attending the schools in King- ston. He prepared for college at the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, and in August, 1857, entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. There his life struggles really began. The means of his parents being limited, he sought to aid them, and, during his college course, taught a district school for three suc- cessive winter terms of eighteen weeks, at Rocky Hill, Hartford county, Conn., keeping up his studies at the same time. In col- lege, he took an active part in the literary societies. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon Secret Society and of the Pythologian Society, and by the faculty he was chosen a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In June, 1861, he graduated, standing number four in his class. In August following his graduation, Mr. Payne entered the office of the late Charles Denison, of Wilkes-Barre (afterwards a member of congress for three terms), as a law student. While pursuing his legal reading, he taught a
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district school during the winter of 1861 in Cinder alley, Wilkes- Barre, and a public school of boys in a store-room of the Hillard block during the winter of 1862. He was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 20, 1863, and at once secured a desk in the office of the late Winthrop W. Ketcham, then solicitor of the United States Court of Claims, and entered upon that struggle known only to a young lawyer who, without means or influential friends, attempts to build up a practice. With the closest atten- tion to business, and with a strong determination to deserve success, it was yet four years before his income equalled. his expenses, small though they were. But as they invariably do, industry, integrity and frugality prevailed finally, and with Mr. Payne it became a question, not how to get business, but how to attend to what he had, and his practice since has been lucrative and successful. Politically, Mr. Payne has been from. the first a decided, active and outspoken Republican. Beginning with the presidential campaign of 1864, he has since taken an active part for his party in local and general elections, working on commit- tees and publicly addressing the people. In 1874, he was nominated without opposition for the State Senate in the twenty- first senatorial district, and elected by a majority of 1045. Jasper B. Stark was his Democratic opponent. During his term in the senate, he was active in the business of the session, serving on the committees on " judiciary general," "judiciary local," " mines and mining," and " new counties." He was chairman of the two last named committees. While in the senate, he introduced an act to secure to children the benefits of an elementary education. It provided " that all parents and those who have the legal charge of children shall instruct or cause them to be instructed in spell- ing, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and the history of the United States of America. And every parent, guardian, or other person having legal charge of any child between the ages of eight and fourteen years, shall cause such child to attend some public or private day school at least sixteen weeks in each year, eight weeks at least of which attend- ance shall be consecutive, or to be instructed regularly at home at least sixteen weeks in each year" in the branches named above; and "any parent, guardian, or child, who shall at any
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time show to the board of school directors of the town, borough, or city in which said child shall live, that the labor and services of said child for the time being are absolutely necessary for the support and maintenance of such child, parent, brother, sister, etc., such board of school directors to which such fact shall be properly shown are hereby authorized to relieve such child from the operation of the act." The bill was reported favorably, and subsequently was re-committed to the committee on education, and allowed to rest there because of the fear the issue might assume a political aspect. The popularity of the act is shown by the fact that one of the planks in the platform of the State labor conven- tion, held at Philadelphia, August 28, 1882, reads as follows : " That education be made compulsory, and that elementary and fundamental principles of political economy be taught in all grammar and higher classes of the public schools, and the pro- hibition of children in work shops, mines and factories, before attaining the age of fourteen years."
Mr. Payne had passed while in the senate " An act to authorize the judges of the several courts throughout the commonwealth to fix the number of the regular terms of the said several courts, and the term for holding the same, the term for summoning the grand jury, and for the returns of constables, aldermen, and jus- tices of the peace to the same." This bill is of vast importance in the administration of justice, and enables the grand jury to sit in advance of the criminal court, and thus enable the district attorney to give his undivided time to the trial of cases in court. Another act he had passed was one "to exempt pianos, melodeons, and organs leased or hired, from levy, or sale, on execution, or distress for rent." The above shows the spirit of Mr. Payne in legislating for the benefit of the people. It is not , too much to say that no senator was more active in his work than Mr. Payne, and none spent a greater portion of his time in attending to legislative duties than he. In 1876, Mr. Payne was nominated without. opposition for Congress in the twelfth con- gressional district of Pennsylvania, and at the time of his nomin- ation had every prospect of election. Edgar L. Merriman was his opponent, but died during the campaign. Hendrick B. Wright was then nominated by the democratic and greenback
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parties, and Mr. Payne was defeated. The vote stood: for Colonel Wright, 13,557 ; Mr. Payne, 12,101.
In 18So, Mr. Payne was nominated without opposition again for one of the law judges of Luzerne county, but was defeated by Stanley Woodward, the vote being: Woodward (democrat), 12,234 ; Payne (republican), 11,058; Ricketts (greenbacker), 470.
For many years Mr. Payne has been an active member of the Presbyterian Church of Kingston, and he is now serving his twenty-first year as superintendent of its Sabbath school. He has been a ruling elder in the same church for seven years. - He has also been active as a freemason, and is now a past master by service in the Kingston lodge. He has also served two years as district deputy grand master for the district of Luzerne county. In 1883, he was one of the vice-presidents of the Pennsylvania Sunday School Association. For three years, he was one of the examiners to examine students for admission to the Luzerne county bar. He was a director in the Miners' Savings Bank of Wilkes-Barre for ten years. Mr. Payne is also one of the trustees, under the will of the late Isaac S. Osterhout, of the " Osterhout Free Library."
Mr. Payne married February 22, 1865, Elizabeth Lee Smith, an only daughter of Draper Smith, of Plymouth, Pa. From this union four children have been born, three of whom are now living-a daughter, Louisa S. Payne, and two sons, Hubbard B. and Paul D. Payne. Mr. Smith is a native of Eaton, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county, where he was born November 7, 1815. He has resided in Plymouth since 1832. The father of Draper Smith was Newton Smith, sen., who was born in New London, Conn., February 27, 1772, and died at Wyoming, Genessee county, N. Y., October 28, 1838. William Smith, the father of Newton Smith, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and during the Wyoming troubles was driven away by the Indians. He died from exposure during his escape. His widow subse- quently became the second wife of Dr. William Hooker Smith, and this at a time when Newton Smith, sen., was but seven years of age. The mother of Mrs. Payne was Caroline, a daughter of the late John Smith, long a resident of Plymouth, and a pioneer in the coal trade.
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In any event, Mr. Payne would have achieved success in the legal profession, by reason of his conscientious care and indus- try in the prosecution of the causes of his clients. These are qualities that are of greater moment in the ordinary conflicts of life than mere talent, which alone can do little when it lacks their assistance. Time was when lawyers were held to be great or mediocre according as they had genius as orators or were without it, or according as they were skillful in the arts and tricks which constitute the displays of the profession in open court; but in these more practical days a much fairer test, and the one more frequently relied upon, is the degree of devotion and honest energy brought to bear in preparing a case and ascer- taining its exact relation to the law and the equities. This sort of practice will not avail to save the murderer from the hangman or secure the property of one to the profit of another, but it is the sort that honest men seek, and that in the long run not only brings the practioner the greatest pecuniary rewards, but sheds upon his name and fame the brightest lustre. Mr. Payne's christian ancestry, his own religious training and inclinations, his self-reliance, and sympathy for the conscientious struggler, developed by his being thrown so early in life wholly upon his own resources, have given him that reputation which impels litigants who have just causes to seek his intercession with the adjudicators of the law, and in such a clientage there is not only, as we have said, replenishment for the purse, but satisfaction for the heart. It is the qualities named, too, that have commended him so to those of his political faith that they have showered honors upon him frequently. It falls to the lot of but few men at his age to have been chosen to represent his fellow citizens in the highest law making body of the state, and to have been subsequently pressed in quick succession for a seat in the federal congress and a high position upon the judicial bench. That he was not chosen to the latter positions was due solely to the fact that a majority of the voters were of a different way of thinking politically, and the contest in each instance turned upon political issues.
Mr. Payne served his fellow citizens acceptably and faithfully in the position to which he was elected, and would have acquitted
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WILLIAM MERCER SHOEMAKER.
himself with equal acceptance in the others had it been his party's good fortune to have commanded the support of a majority of the voters. He is a gentleman of fine literary taste and culture as well, and a pleasant conversationalist and companion. He manages to find leisure, as above indicated, to labor outside of his profession, and often is called upon to lecture upon practical, moral and religious subjects.
WILLIAM MERCER SHOEMAKER.
William Mercer Shoemaker was born in the " old Shoemaker homestead," in Kingston township, Luzerne county, Pa., June 20, 1840. He is the son of the late Hon. Charles Denison Shoemaker, a nephew of Hon. Lazarus Denison Shoemaker and a brother of Robert Charles Shoemaker.
A record of the origin of this old and well known Wyoming valley family, and of its connection with the early history of the valley, has already been given in this series of biographies, and need not be repeated here.
The subject of the present sketch was educated at Wyoming Seminary and Yale College. After leaving the last named insti- tution, he entered upon the study of the law with the late Hon. Charles Denison and G. Byron Nicholson, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, September 3, 1863. On the 24th of August, 1861, Mr. Shoemaker, having been elected and commis- sioned second lieutenant of Company L, 92d Regiment of Penn- sylvania Volunteers, was mustered as such into the service of the United States, being at the time but just past 21 years of age. The 92d was a mounted regiment, and was known as the 9th Cavalry. A severe course of drill and discipline at Jeffersonville, Ind., fitted it by January, 1862, for active service, when it was ordered to duty at the front on the Green river. From this time on, excepting when retained for a while in Kentucky by request of its legislature and citizens, the 9th was engaged in continuous important and hazardous service. It first distinguished itself in
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May, 1862, by two brilliant victories over the rebel raider, Morgan, on the 4th and 14th of that month, at Lebanon and Spring Creek respectively. Morgan's activity in that vicinity gave the 9th plenty to do, and it did it gallantly. Its excellent conduct at Perryville, where its losses were heavy, elicited a high compliment in general orders from General Buell. It had numerous engagements in Kentucky, and afterwards participated in the campaign against Bragg in Tennessee, and in the fights at Rover, Middleton, Shelbyville, Elk River, Lafayette, Ga., and at famed Chickamauga. For its strikingly conspicuous daring in the last named conflict, it was again especially complimented, this time by the lamented Thomas. From this time on, it was almost incessantly engaged at one point or another in the south- west, principally under the dashing Kilpatrick, with Sherman in his famous march to the sea, and after Savannah, in the Caro- linas, at Black Snake's Station, Averysboro, Bentonville, Hills- boro, and Morrisville, which practically finished the active fight- ing of the war. The 9th furnished Sherman's escort when he went to meet Johnston to arrange terms for the latter's capitula- tion. On April 7th, or about two months before Gettysburg, Lieutenant Shoemaker having previously been promoted to the first lieutenancy of his company, and afterwards to the office of adjutant of the regiment, was compelled by business reasons to resign his commission, and return home.
He resumed the study of the law, which his entrance into the army had interrupted, and, as already stated, was admitted to the profession about five months later. Mr. Shoemaker never entered into active legal practice, though he passed a very creditable examination, and may be said to be endowed with many of the qualities which insure success in that arena. He had a penchant for the insurance business, in which he soon afterwards engaged with Messrs. Thompson Derr & Bro., and with whom he is still employed as adjuster for the firm. The Derrs may be said to have been the pioneers of the insurance business in this vicinity, and have established one of the most important and successful offices in the country. They do a business covering immense risks, and which extends not only through Luzerne county, but into nearly all the counties of eastern, and especially north-eastern, Pennsyl-
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