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 32
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EDMUND GRIFFIN BUTLER.
thus answer for family use. Turning the matter in his own mind, and gathering information and advice from Hon. Thomas Cooper, then president judge of the courts of Luzerne county, and afterwards president of Columbia college, South Carolina, who was familiar with the use of bituminous coal in England, Judge Fell and his nephew, Edward Fell, improvised a rude grate of green hickory withes Having satisfied himself that the general design was good, the judge aided a blacksmith in forming an iron grate, which he placed in the bar-room of his house. As no little amusement had been excited at the judge's exertions to burn coal, he determined to make a suitable exhibition of the first attempt in the new grate, and accordingly gave notice to a large number of the most respectable citizens that, on the suc- ceeding evening, his experiment would be tried. The evening came, the fire was kindled, and the coal burned with unexpected brilliancy ; but only two or three of his neighbors came to wit- ness the experiment. The others, supposing the judge had found out the fallacy of his plans, and intended to take a little innocent vengeance on them for their incredulity, very prudently tarried at home with the view of laughing at those of the invited who might have been more yielding than themselves. Among others, Judge Cooper had been invited to stop at the tavern on his way home. He did so, and saw a nice coal fire burning in the grate. Judge Cooper became very angry to find that he had been superseded in the discovery, and he walked the floor mut- tering to himself "that it was strange an illiterate man like Fell should discover what he had tried in vain to find out." On the day of his experiment, Judge Fell made the following entry on a fly leaf of his " Freemasons' Monitor :"
"February II, of Masonry 5808. Made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the Valley in a grate in a common fire place in my house, and find it will answer the pur- pose of fuel, making a clearer and better fire, at less expense than burning wood in the common way. " JESSE FELL.
" Borough of Wilkes-Barre, " Feby. 11, 1808."
His experiment succeeded beyond his sanguine expectations. He caused a substantial grate to be made and set up in his
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house, where it was in use for a long time. For many years it was generally considered and believed that Jesse Fell was the first person to discover that anthracite coal could be used for domestic purposes, but within the last few years evidence has been procured showing that, for several years before Fell made his experiment, anthracite coal had been successfully burned in stoves and grates by Oliver Evans and Frederick Graff, of Philadelphia, who soon after recounted their success in letters to some of their friends and acquaintances. We are indebted to the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society of this city for the following letters of Oliver Evans and Frederick Graff, in their own proper handwriting, evidencing that fact :
" Being required to give my opinion of the qualities of the Lehi coals.
" I do certify to those whom it may concern. That I have experienced the use of them in a close stove and also in a fire place that may be closed and opened at pleasure so constructed as to cause a brisk current of air to pass up through a small contracted grate on which they were laid. I find them more difficult to be kindled than the Virginia Coal, yet a small quantity of dry wood laid on the grate under them is sufficient to ignite them, which being done they continue to burn while a sufficient quantity be added to keep up the combustion, occasionally stir- ring them to shake down the ashes. They, however, require no more attention than other coal, and consume away, leaving only a very light and white colored ashes, producing a greater degree of heat than any other coal that I am acquainted with perhaps in proportion to their weight, they being much the heaviest. They produce no smoke, contain no sulphur, and when well ignited exhibit a vivid, bright appearance, all which render them suitable for warming rooms. And as they do not corrode mettle as much as other coals, they will probably be the more useful for Steam Engines, Breweries, Distillerys, smelting of metals, drying malt, &c. But the furnaces will require to be properly constructed, with a grate contracted to a small space, through which the air is to pass up through the coal, permitting none to pass above them into the flue of the chimney until they are well ignited, when the doors of the stove or furnace or close fire place may
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EDMUND GRIFFIN BUTLER.
be thrown open to enjoy the benefit of the light and radiant heat in front. A very small quantity of them is not sufficient to keep up the combustion ; they require nearly a cubic foot to make a very warm fire, consuming about half a bus. in about fourteen hours. " OLIVER EVANS. " Philadelphia, Feby. 15, 1803."
" Having made a trial of the Lehi coal some time in the year 1802, at the Pennsylvania bank, in the large stove, I found them to answer for that purpose exceeding well. They give an ex- cellent heat, and burn lively. It is my opinion they are nearly equal to double the quantity of any other coal brought to this market for durability ; of course less labour is required in attend- ing the fire. Mr. Davis, Superintendent of the water works of Philadelphia, has also made a trial of them for the Boiler of the Engine imployed in that work, and has found them to answer well. It must be observed, a draft is necessary when first kindled. For the use of familys- the fire place can be so constructed with a small expense as to have the sufficient draft required. My opinion is, they will be found cheaper than wood. They burn clean. No smoke or sulphur is observed, or any dirt flying when stirred, which is a great objection to all other coal for family use. If the chimneys for the burning of those coal are properly con- structed, and a trial made, I am well convinced that most of the citizens of Philadelphia would give them preference to wood.
" FRED'K GRAFF,
" Clerk of the water works of Philadelphia. " Phila., May 1, 1805."
In 1810 the Luzerne County Agricultural Society was or- ganized, and Judge Fell was its first president. From 1812 to 1814 he was treasurer of the Bridgewater and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Company, operating that part of the road running from Wilkes-Barre to Tunkhannock; and for a number of years he was one of the managers, and, in 1824, president, of the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Company. In 1845 Fell township, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, was organized, and was named in honor of Judge Fell.
Mr. Fell left surviving him three sons and five daughters. Sarah Fell, his third child and second daughter, married Joseph
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EDMUND GRIFFIN BUTLER.
Slocum, of Wilkes-Barre, in 1800, and was the grandmother of the subject of our sketch. Mrs. Fell died March 7, 1816, and Judge Fell died August 5, 1830.
Edmund Griffin Butler, son of Lord Butler, was educated at the Waverly institute, Waverly, New York, and the Wesleyan university, Middletown, Connecticut, from which last named institution he graduated in 1868. He studied law with Edward P. Darling, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county November 17, 1869. He married December 22, 1869, Clara T. Cox, daughter of the late Henry Wellesley Hamilton Cox, of Friendsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Cox was a native of England, and emigrated when a child to Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and was a lineal descendant of the learned Dr. Richard Cox, tutor to Edward the Sixth, one of the compilors of the liturgy, and who, in the reign of Elizabeth, was created Bishop of Ely. Mrs. Butler's mother was Caroline Peironnet, daughter of James S. Peironnet, a native of Dorchester, England. A friend said of . him, " He exchanged for a home in a then uncultivated wild, in Susquehanna county, the shaven lawn and rose-wreathed cottages that lend such charms to English scenery. He often reminded me of those virtues that grace the character of an English county squire as shadowed forth by the felicitous pen of Irving. He retained a love of letters to the last." Mr. and Mrs. Butler have a family of three children-Abi H., Elsey P., and Caroline C. Butler.
Mr. Butler has inherited the best of the traits of the sturdy ancestry from which he sprang. He is a respected citizen in the community, in the early history of which his progenitors played so conspicuous a part. Without any pretence to brilliancy in his profession, he has nevertheless, by close application to his books and by manifesting a genuine, hearty interest in his cases, acquired a distinctive position therein, which is at the same time honorable and pecuniarily profitable. His practice is extensive, and almost wholly in the Common Pleas, to which he brings a natural apti- tude, the fruits of a careful training and an unremitting industry.
The law is a profession in which there is much hard work to be done. Not only those who would achieve distinction in, but all who are dependant upon it for a livelihood, must submit to much in their practice that closely approaches drudgery. It is
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only the fortunate few whose names and reputations enable them to refuse employment except in leading positions and in causes involving large interests. These reap golden harvests from merely planning the strategic moves of litigation, leaving to the younger or less brilliant and otherwise less favored of the fraternity the weary work of detail which frequently calls for equal ability, and always for more intense and burdensome application. There is a certain heroism in the faithful performance of this latter part of the practice, a sacrifice of needed rest and recreation, a sternly exacting devotion to the interests of clients that are seldom even understood, much less rewarded. Yet, after all, it is mainly those who are capable of such heroism, willing to make such sacrifices in the beginning of their professional careers, who ultimately reach the top rungs of the ladder. Such men's patience and perseverance must in the end reap for them the full measure of their deservings. They are a long way on their journey, however, before the nature and worth of their work come to be recognized by those whose appreciation leads to its reward. We are led to these remarks by the reflection that Mr. Butler is one of the patient many who have thus been toiling along uncomplainingly, energetically, and never-tiring, until he has at last come to be looked upon by his brother professionals, and-what is more to the purpose-by a large number of the business community who have had the benefit of his services, as a lawyer of wide experience, sound judgment, safe in counsel, and reliable in execution.
Mr. Butler is five feet eight inches in height, heavily built, and of commanding presence, the soul of good nature, well informed on general topics, and a companionable gentleman in every regard.
BURTON DOWNING.
Burton Downing was born in the township of Hanover, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, November 14, 1845. He is a descendant of an old New England family of that name. . His great grand- father, Reuben Downing, came to Wyoming about 1763, in
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BURTON DOWNING.
company with Joseph Slocum, from either Connecticut or Rhode Island. He was probably a boy or young man at that time. His name appears among the list of taxables in Wilkes-Barre in 1799. Bateman Downing, son of Reuben Downing, was born January II, 1795, at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in a log house on Main street, near Northampton, where the Chrystal block now stands. He was a farmer and blacksmith. On February 28, 1825, he was appointed by Governor Shulze a justice of the peace for Hanover and Newport townships, and was for upwards of forty years a justice of the peace in Hanover township. In the years 1831, 1832, 1850, and 185 1, he was treasurer of Luzerne county. In 1840 he was an assistant marshal, and took the cen- sus of the greater part of Luzerne county. He married early in life Sarah, a daughter of Benjamin Cary, and removed to the farm of his father-in-law, which he subsequently purchased. Mr. Cary was a descendant in the fourth generation of John Cary (originally spelled Carew), who came from Somersetshire, near the city of Bristol, England, about 1634, and joined the Plymouth colony. The precise date of his arrival in the new world is not known, nor the date of his birth. When a youth he was sent by his father to France to perfect his education, and while absent his father died. On returning home to Somersetshire, he differed with his brothers about the settlement of their father's estate. He compromised by receiving one hundred pounds as his portion, and immediately sailed for America. We find his name among the original proprietors and first settlers of Duxbury and Bridge- water, Massachusetts. His name occurs in the original grant as well as in the subsequent deed made by Ousamequin, the sachem or chief of the Pockonocket Indians, in 1639. Mr. Cary's share was one mile wide and seven miles in length. Bridgewater was the first interior settlement in the old Plymouth colony. "Dux- bury New Plantation " was incorporated into a new and distinct town, and called Bridgewater, in 1656. John Cary was elected constable, the first and only officer elected in the town that year. He was elected the first town clerk, and held the office each consecutive year until 1681. In 1667 John Cary was appointed on a jury " to lay out the ways requisite in the town." In 1667 Deacon Willis and John Cary were chosen "to take in all the
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BURTON DOWNING.
charges of the late war (King Phillips') since June last, and the expenses of the scouts before and since Junc." Mr. Cary was prominent among his fellows, and participated actively in town mcetings; was intelligent, well educated, and public spirited. The tradition is that he taught the first latin class in the colony. Doubtless he was deeply imbued with puritan principles, and a decided Christian, as were all the Bridgewater settlers. He died in 1681. Francis Cary, son of John, was born in Bridgewater in 1648, and died in 1718. Samuel Cary, son of Francis, was born in Bridgewater in 1677, and removed from that town to Duchess county, New York. Eleazer Cary, son of Samuel, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1718, removed with his father and family to Duchess county, New York, and thence went as a pionecr to Wyoming valley in 1769. He married a Miss Stur- devant, and had a large family of sons and daughters, among them Benjamin Cary, the father of Mrs. Downing. The place of settlement of this family was called Carytown, now in the lower part of the city of Wilkes-Barre. John Cary, one of the sons of Eleazer Cary, was a man of herculean frame, marvelous strength, and great personal courage. He enlisted under Captain Durkee, in the Revolutionary war, and served with distinction throughout the war; was at the Wyoming massacre and escaped death. It is recorded of him that, when eightcen years of age, when the early settlers of the valley werc suffering for food, he went on foot over the mountains, in the severe cold of winter, to Easton, . Pennsylvania, for flour. Samuel Cary, another son, was small in stature, but active, energetic, persevering, and patriotic. Hc was in the battle of Wyoming, under Captain Bidlack, and was among those who escaped massacre; he was taken prisoner by the In- dians, and remained a captive for six ycars; and was supposed to have been murdered, but unexpectedly returned in 1784 to Wyoming, having suffered incredible hardships in the mean- whilc. Nathan Cary, another son, was in the memorable battle of Wyoming, but escaped miraculously and without injury. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He was the first coroner of Luzerne county. Benjamin Cary was commissioner of Luzerne county from 1813 to 1816. In 1864 Bateman Downing removed to Edgerton, Rock county, Wisconsin, where he died May 24,
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BURTON DOWNING.
1879. An obituary of him states that " he was an influential and leading democrat of the Jacksonian stripe ; and in his political integrity, his faithfulness to public trust, and his genial, social qualities as husband, father, friend, and neighbor, he was a model in his day and generation. One peculiar trait of his character was his happy faculty of giving good practical advice and counsel to young men, so that, with a well spent life, full of honor and replete with manly virtues, though dead, he still lives in the daily walks and conversations of those who are wise enough to follow his excellent example." Reuben Downing, son of Bateman Downing, and father of Burton Downing, was born in Hanover township February 16, 1822. He was brought up as a farmer, and followed that occupation for many years. From 1847 to 1853 he was deputy sheriff, under the administrations of William Koons and Gideon W. Palmer respectively. In 1853 he was a candidate for sheriff against Abram Drum, but was defeated by less than a hundred votes. On May 28, 1855, he was appointed prothonotary by Governor Pollock, which he filled until the next general election. The vacancy was caused by the death of Anson Curtis, M. D., the prothonotary. During the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, he was one of the auditors of Luzerne county. In 1870 he was commissioned by Governor Geary one of the jus- tices of the peace for Hanover township. During a portion of the late civil war, he was treasurer of the bounty fund of Han- over township, and one of the deputy provost marshals of the Twelfth congressional district of Pennsylvania. He has also held the positions of school director, judge of elections, and other local offices in his native township. Since 1870 Mr. Downing has been the real estate agent of the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. He is a man of wealth, and a director of the First National bank of this city, and owns one-half of the massive structure in which the bank is located. He resides in this city. He married, in 1844, Nancy Miller, daughter of the late Barnet and Mary Miller, of Hanover township. Burton Downing, the subject of our sketch, is his only son living. He was educated in the common schools of his native township and at the academy in the borough of New Columbus, Pennsylvania. He entered the office of Harry Hakes as a student of law, and was admitted
LIDE
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CHARLES EDMUND RICE.
to the bar of Luzerne county November 19, 1869. Mr. Downing followed his profession for a few years, and is now engaged in attending to the property interests of his father. He has also taught school in Hanover township and other localities. He is a widower, having married Emma Brown, daughter of Smith Brown. Eva Frances Downing is their only child.
Mr. Downing does not appear to have acquired that love for the allurements of the law-such as they are-that prompts so many to waste time in its practice that could probably be more profitably employed in other directions. He has rather inclined to stick closely to his first love-the farm ; and the bright pros- pects the unusually propitious circumstances under which he is a farmer hold out to him, are such as would give almost any man ample warrant for following the plow. As already shown, he had the advantage of excellent general training, and of a first-class preceptor, and but for his preference for the humble, though probably more useful, avocation, might have gone to the first rank in our profession.
CHARLES EDMUND RICE.
Charles Edmund Rice was born September 15, 1846, at Fair- field, Herkimer county, N. Y. He is a descendant of an old Wallingford, Connecticut family of that name, his great-grand- father having been a teacher in Wallingford and New Haven for over forty years prior to the revolution. His grandfather, Moses Rice, was a native of Wallingford, where he was born in 1797, but removed to Salisbury, Herkimer county, N. Y., at an early age. He died in 1880. His wife was Roxana Cook, daughter of Atwater Cook, who was a descendant of Henry Cook, a native of Kent, England, who emigrated to the new world and was at Plymouth, Mass., before 1640. His son, Samuel, went to Wal- lingford in 1670 with the first planters. Mrs. Rice was born in Salisbury, Herkimer county, N. Y., September 25, 1777, and died September 15, 1852. Hon. Atwater Cook, of Salisbury, promi-
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nent in Herkimer county in his day, and who represented the county in the state legislature in 1831 and 1839, was a brother of Mrs. Rice. Thomas Arnold Rice, the father of Charles E. Rice, after his marriage removed to Fairfield. He was a leading man in his town, and was for many years a trustee of the Fairfield acad- emy and the Fairfield Medical college. His wife was Vienna Carr, a daughter of Eleazer and Hannah Carr. The Carrs were natives of Salisbury and the family was originally from Connect- icut. Charles E. Rice, son of Thomas Arnold and Vienna Carr Rice, was prepared for college at Fairfield academy, N. Y. - This institution was incorporated in 1803, and for the first twelve or fifteen years of its existence was the only school of the kind in central or western New York in which thorough academic in- struction could be obtained. After leaving the academy Mr. Rice entered Hamilton college, Clinton, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1867. After leaving college he went to Blooms- burg, Pa., where he taught for one year in the Bloomsburg .Literary institute, in the meanwhile reading law with John G. Freeze, of that place. In 1868 and 1869 he attended the Albany Law School, from which he graduated in the latter year and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the state of New York. He then came to Wilkes-Barre, where he has since re- sided, and entered the office of his relative, Lyman Hakes, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county February 21, 1870. In 1874 he was the candidate of the republican party for the office of Orphans' Court judge, but was defeated by Daniel L. Rhone, the present incumbent. In 1876 he was nominated by the republican party for district attorney of the county, and was elected over P. J. O'Hanlan, democrat, by a majority of two thousand four hundred and forty-four, and this in a county that gave Samuel J. Tilden, who ran for president the same year, nearly four thousand majority. In 1879 he was the candidate of his party for law judge, and was elected over William S. McLean, democrat, and John Lynch, labor reformer. He is now the pres- ident judge of Luzerne county. Mr. Rice was one of the charter trustees of the Memorial Presbyterian church, and he is now one of the trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Female institute. He married December 18, 1873, Maria Mills Fuller, daughter of the late
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CHARLES EDMUND RICE.
Henry M. Fuller, of the Luzerne county bar. They have two children living, Charles Edmund and Philip Sydney Rice. Lieu- tenant Adam Clarke Rice, of the 121st regiment New York Vol- unteers, who died during the recent civil war, was a brother of Charles E. Rice. His "letters and other writings" in a book of one hundred and sixty-six pages were compiled by Judge Rice, and printed for private circulation among the friends of the lieutenant.
There have been good lawyers who have not made good judges. There have been some good judges who were not among the best lawyers. The man who combines the qualities essential to success, both at the bar and on the bench, and whose qualities never forsake or fail him in either capacity, is a remark- able man. The man who reaches the bench and sits long enough on it to warrant this verdict of himself before he has reached his fortieth year is one man among ten thousand. This reads like extravagant commendation, yet it is fully merited in the case of Judge Rice. His progress to one of the highest honors of the profession, to a position that would justify the honorable seeking of a lifetime, has been rapid, yet it has had no meretricious aids, and is the reward solely of valuable services faithfully per- formed. Judge Rice's practice in the courts attracted attention with its very beginning. There was a quiet force in his methods, and a clean cut vigor in his arguments, that brought him at once into an enviable notoriety. In attestation of this was his nomi- nation for the responsible position of judge of the Orphans' Court within five years after his admission. Men of even less service in the profession have, upon occasion, had similar honors awarded them, but it was generally in recognition of their activity and worth as workers in partisan politics, a field in which Judge Rice has never made himself conspicuous. Only two years later, as already stated, he was made a candidate for the district attorneyship, and the remarkable majority by which he was elected was as much a deserved tribute to the popular esteem in which he was held as to the fact that his opponent's nomination had been achieved in despite of the protests of a large contingent, both professional and lay, of his own party. As prosecutor of the pleas of the commonwealth he achieved a most enviable rep-
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