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 38
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LYMAN HAKES BENNETT.
third son, studied medicine in Kortright, N. Y., with Gaius Hal- sey, M. D., who was the grandfather of Gaius L. Halsey of the- Luzerne county bar. He located at Nanticoke, Pa., in 1825, and was the first resident physician of that borough. He married in 1829 Mary Ann Bennett, daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann Bennett (nce Espy), of Nanticoke. They removed to Boliver, O., in 1831. He was a member of the constitutional convention of Ohio in 1851. In 1853 they removed to Beloit, Wis. He was a state senator in that state when he died in 1862. He was a prominent candidate for the republican nomination for governor of the state. Two of his sons, Thomas and Phineas, served in the late civil war as lieutenants of Wisconsin regiments. Sub- sequently Thomas Bennett became chief clerk and then quarter- master, under General Sherman, of the military division of Mississippi. He married Jennie Ewing, daughter of Hon. James Ewing of Ohio. Joseph Bennett, youngest son of Isaac Bennett, was twice married and left three sons and three daughters. John . Ira Bennett, one of the sons, is a prominent lawyer in Chicago, Ill., and is a master in chancery in the United States courts for the northern district of Illinois. At the opening of the late civil war Mr. Bennett was appointed with the rank of colonel on Gov- ernor Yates' staff, and devoted much of his time during the early part of the war to recruiting men. For these services he asked and received no compensation. He had a strong desire to enter actively into the service, but impaired health resulting from a protracted attack of typhoid fever, prevented him. While living at Galva, Ill., he became widely known as a public spirited man, and was honored with many public trusts. In the campaign of 1864 he was chosen as elector for the fifth congressional district on the republican ticket, and was elected, receiving the highest number of votes of any republican elector. He was afterwards a candidate for circuit judge of Henry and Rock Island counties, and although he carried his own county by a majority of one thousand votes, he was defeated by a small majority in Rock Island county, his opponent, George W. Pleasants receiving the election. He always took an active interest in educational mat- ters, and for many years was a member of the board of education. He also edited the Galva Union, a newspaper of his .town, and
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LYMAN HAKES BENNETT.
purchased and developed the coal mines at that place. Since settling in Chicago he has built up a wide and remunerative practice, and ranks among the most influential members of the Chicago bar, having associated with him his son Frank I. Ben- nett, a promising young attorney. Simeon Losee Bennett, eldest son of Isaac Bennett, was a farmer. He moved first to Illinois, then to Iowa, where he died September 13, 1873. Phineas Louns- bury Bennett, the second son of Isaac Bennett, was born in Har- persfield, February 15, 1806, and is still living. He is a farmer, and until recently resided on the paternal farm at Quaker Hill. In his youth and early manhood he taught school for ten or twelve years. In 1830 he was a teacher at Nanticoke, and re- sided with his brother Doctor Bennett. He is prominent in educational matters in Harpersfield, and for over thirty years has been school commissioner, superintendent of schools, and trustee of his school district. He was supervisor of his town in 1841 and 1842, and was elected a justice of the peace, but declined to act. For many years he was a director in the Stanford Fire In- surance company. He is the father of Lyman Hakes Bennett. The mother of Mr. Bennett is Minerva Hakes, daughter of the late Lyman Hakes of Harpersfield. Judge Hakes was a de- scendent of John Hakes, an early Puritan, who was a resident of Windsor, Conn., in 1643. The following among others were "householders and. had seating in the meeting " at Windsor, Jan- uary 18, 1659-60: William Hayden, the ancestor of Rev. Horace E. Hayden ; John Hakes, the ancestor of Lyman Hakes Bennett, Harry Hakes and Charles E. Rice; Simon Hoyt, the ancestor of ex-Governor Henry M Hoyt; John Osborn, the ancestor of E. S. Osborne ; Jonas Enno, the ancestor of J. W. Eno, of Plymouth ; Joseph Loomis, the ancestor of W. W. Loomis ; Thomas Ford, the ancestor of Mrs. B. F. Dorrance of this city, and Theodore Strong of Pittston ; Matthew Grant, the ancestor of ex-President U. S. Grant, and Thomas Deble, the ancestor of ex-President Ruther- ford B. Hayes. Of the four sons of Judge Hakes, three became lawyers (Lyman, Harry and Harlo), and his two daughters each became the mother of a lawyer : Lyman Hakes Bennett, son of Minerva Hakes Bennett, and Lyman Hakes.McCall, son of Car- oline Hakes McCall, of Iona, Mich. Mr. Bennett worked on
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LYMAN HAKES BENNETT.
his father's farm until the age of twenty, doing the ordinary work of farmers' sons, and going to school when he could be spared from the plough. In 1865 he went to Cambridge, Henry county, Ill., and spent a year there as clerk in the office of the recorder and clerk of that county. In 1866 he went to Washington, D. C., and entered into government employment as a clerk in the second auditor's office. He remained in this position until 1872, when he came to Wilkes-Barre and entered the office of his uncle, Harry Hakes. He was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, December 4, 1872. While in Washington Mr. Bennett entered the Columbia Law school, and graduated therefrom in 1870. He was in the class of George S. Ferris of the Luzerne county bar. Mr. Bennett has two brothers living, Alden J. Bennett, a banker at Virginia city, M. T., and Isaac Bennett, a farmer living near Binghamton, N. Y. His only sister is the widow of the late Rod- ney Dennis, who was a prominent lawyer in Steuben county, N. Y. Mr. Bennett married June 2, 1874, Ella N. Robbins, daughter of Robert Robbins of Dodgeville, Ia. Her mother was Eleaner Houpt, a daughter of the late Philip Houpt of this city. They have two children living, Anna Minerva Bennett and Lillian Bennett.
It is no reflection upon the personal appearance of Lyman Hakes Bennett to say that his looks are not nearly so suggestive of the lawyer as his name. Meeting him casually you would be disposed to regard him as too big for books and too fond of his ease to be energetic. But Mr. Bennett is, nevertheless, a very industrious and conscientious reader, and there are few attorneys at the bar so truly zealous and untiring in unraveling the intri- cacies of a cause given him to try, and bringing them within the light of the law. He is an examiner and master in chancery, and as such has solved many knotty problems in a manner testifying amply to his possession of great ability as a lawyer, and of a judicial mind. His methods are those of the man who real- izes that the profession of the law yields profit or fame to nothing less than hard, willing, and unremitting work, and uniting with this wise conviction, a giant's frame and iron constitution, he has bent himself to just that kind of work. There is, in fact, no more indefatigable toiler at any bar in the state. Such men
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MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
must succeed. Socially Mr. Bennett is a prime favorite with those who really know the man. Behind his brawny exterior is an unwavering good nature and disposition to any rational recre- ation and enjoyment that make his few intimate friendships very warm ones. He takes little interest in politics beyond keeping himself at all times well informed upon, and capable of intelli- gently discussing, the questions of the hour. A lawyer devoted to his profession and dependent upon it has no time for more.
MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
Malcom Edwards Walker is a native of Waverly, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pa., where he was born April 8, 1847. He is a descendant of Thomas Walker, of Boston, Mass., who died July 2, 1659. Thomas Walker of Sudbury, Mass., was the son of Thomas Walker of Boston. He taught school at Sudbury in the year 1664, and in 1672 kept an ordinary. “ His signature was very good. The town of Sudbury considered if they would give Mr. Walker land as an encouragement to keep a free school in Sudbury." His wife, Mary, was a daughter of Daniel Stoner, of Billerica, formerly of Boston, and was fourteen years younger than her husband. She married a second time Captain John Goodenow, of Sudbury. She gave her son, Wil- liam Walker, lands in Wells, Me., in 1715. Thomas Walker had ten children; five sons and five daughters. William Walker, the third son of Thomas Walker, was born in Sudbury July 22, 1666, and married, May 6, 1686, Sarah Goodenow, daughter of Captain John Goodenow. He taught school, and was a farmer in addition. He died in 1732. Thomas Walker, the third son of William Walker, was born in Sudbury August 15, 1689. He married Elizabeth Maynard June 16, 1717. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. Hezekiah Walker, son of Thomas Walker, was born in Sudbury in 1721, and mar- ried in-1738, Hannah Putnam, of Framingham, Mass., and had four children. Hezekiah Walker, son of Hezekiah Walker, was born
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MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
February 25, 1747, in Holden, Mass., and died December 30, 1837. He married, in 1776, Lucy Raymond. She was born in 1755, and died January 21, 1849. For upwards of sixty-three years they trod life's pathway together, and were honored by the entire community as having lived without a stain or reproach on their names. They had twelve children, six boys and six girls, and upwards of eighty grandchildren at the time of their deaths. Of these children Joel Walker, of Oakland, Mass., eighty-seven years of age, and Eli Walker, of West Boylston, Mass., eighty-three years of age, still live, and are both physically and mentally healthy and vig- orous. Of the others, one son lived to be upwards of ninety years, two daughters eighty-eight, one eighty-three, and the rest, with one exception, who died at seventy-three, upwards of seventy- five years of age. Rev. John Walker, the grandfather of M. E. Walker, was the seventh child of Hezekiah Walker, and was born in Holden May 20, 1787, and died at Cold Brook Springs, Mass., August 18, 1866. He married Eunice Metcalf November 29, 1813. She died in 1870, aged eighty years. They had seven children, five sons and two daughters. One of the daughters died in infancy and the rest are still living, as follows: John, a florist, Worcester, Mass .; A. Judson, a Baptist minister, also the inventor and patentee of the "hydraulic elevator," Warren, Mass .; William S., a Baptist clergyman, Newton, Mass .; Eunice M., Cold Brook Springs; Sylvia J., wife of Henry Wilder, a mer- chant and farmer at Hubbardston, Mass .; and Harvey D., teacher and also a Baptist clergyman, Huntington Mills, in this county. Rev. John Walker, until the age of twenty-one, worked on his father's farm, and at the age of twenty-five began preaching. For years he was the only Baptist minister in Holden, Princeton, West Boylston, Westminster, and Leominster, and in all these places reared vigorous churches, and converts were numbered by hundreds. He was the regular ordained pastor, during his min- istry, of churches at Holden, Princeton, West Sutton, Barre, and Cold Brook Springs, being pastor of the latter place at the time of his death.
Prof. Harvey D. Walker, the father of M. E. Walker, is a son of Rev. John Walker, and was born at Princeton, Mass., April 20, 1817, and married Electa B. Bates, of Bellingham, Mass.,
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MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
April 2, 1844, and had four children, two boys and two girls, all of whom are living. At the age of ten years, while at work on the farm, Harvey D. formed this purpose, "that, cost what it might, he would go through college." To this his father gave no encouragement, so, working by day and studying by night, almost entirely without instruction, except what could be gained from the scanty text-books within his reach, he prepared him- self to be a teacher, and at the age of sixteen, a boy weighing less than ninety pounds, commenced teaching in the public schools. The school numbered upwards of sixty, half of whom were older than their teacher. His success was such that after the public fund was expended the citizens of the district added six weeks to the term by subscription. For four successive years he taught school, working during vacation, his father re- ceiving all his wages. At twenty his father allowed him the last year of his minority and he entered on the accomplishment of his long cherished purpose. With but a single suit of clothes and a handful of books, without a dollar, or a friend to whom he could look for aid, he commenced his studies and fitted himself for college. He entered Brown University in 1839, graduated with honor in 1843, and in 1846 the degree of A. M. was con- ferred on him by his alma mater. Two days after graduation he became principal of the Milbury Academy, at Milbury, Mass., where he remained over two years, meeting with decided success. Among his pupils at this place whom he fitted for college were Hon. H. C. Rice, ex-governor of Massachusetts; Hon. S. P. Bates, LL. D., state historian of Pennsylvania, and former deputy state superintendent of public schools, Meadville, Pa. (a cousin of Mrs. H. D. Walker); and Bishop Willard R. Mallalieu, of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. In November, 1845, he removed to Abing- ton Centre, Luzerne (now Waverly, Lackawanna) county, and on December 1, 1845, he commenced his labors as principal of Madison Academy, and continued in that position for nearly eight years. Among those who received instruction at Madison Academy during this time were Garrick M. Harding, Alexander Farnham, D. L. Patrick, George R. Bedford, Jerome G. Miller, A. H. Winton, A. J. Smith, the late G. Byron Nicholson, and other members of the Luzerne bar. In October, 1853, he accepted the
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MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
principalship of the preparatory department of Lewisburg Uni- versity, and after the first year of his labors at this institution he taught a part of the Latin of the collegiate, and of the Greek of the theological, course. Among his students at this place were Thomas H. B. Lewis, W. H. Gearhart, and J. M. C. Ranck, mem- bers of this bar. In October, 1857, he moved to New Columbus, in this county, and organized the academy-which had then . existed but a single year as a Normal School-under the name of the " New Columbus Normal Institute," and became its prin- cipal, and remained as such until December 30, 1861, when he moved to Orangeville, Columbia county, and commenced work as principal of the Orangeville Academy and Normal Institute, continuing as such until September, 1869. In 1864 he was induced by Thomas H. Burrows, then superintendent of public schools, and Governor Curtin to become interested in the estab- lishment of the Soldiers' Orphans' Schools of Pennsylvania, and was commissioned as principal of the first Soldiers' Orphans' School established in Pennsylvania, although the second to go into operation owing to the necessary changes incidental thereto, and remained as such until its removal in June, 1868. In September, 1869, he became principal of the public schools of Bloomsburg, and seven months later "professor of rhetoric and higher math- ematics " in the Bloomsburg State Normal School. In October, 1871, he returned to Waverly and re-opened the Madison Acad- emy (which he had left just eighteen years before), with its new buildings, as the Waverly Normal School, and commenced teach- ing the children of very many of his former pupils. In April, 1880, he located at Huntington Mills as principal of the Hunting- ton Mills Academy and Normal School, and is still teaching there. Here, as at Waverly, he is instructing scores of the chil- dren of those who were his pupils at New Columbus and Orange- ville. Although nearly sixty-eight years of age Professor Walker · is as active physically and mentally as when in his teens. The wife of Rev. Harvey D. Walker is Electa B. Bates, a daughter of the late Otis Bates, of Bellingham, Mass. Lucias R. Bates, of West Boro, Mass., one of the largest manufacturers of straw goods in the United States, is her brother. Her sisters are R. T. Brown, widow of Rev. James Brown, late chaplain United States army,
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MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
now living at Factoryville, Pa. ; and Cynthia, wife of E. C. Craig, of Walpole, Mass.
M. E. Walker, at the age of fourteen, commenced assisting his father in the Orangeville school, and continued in that work until 1865, when he was appointed vice principal of the Orange- ville Soldiers' Orphans' School, which position he held until 1868. In the latter year he commenced reading law with Sam- uel Knorr, of Bloomsburg, then assessor of internal revenue, and during 1869 and 1870 was a clerk in that office while prose- cuting his studies. He was admitted to the bar of Columbia county December 6, 1870, and the next morning entered the public schools of Bloomsburg as a teacher. On April 1, 1871, he was appointed deputy postmaster of Bloomsburg, and con- tinued to act as such until the fall of the same year, when, desir- ing to open an office, he resigned and commenced the practice of his profession. In December, 1871, Professor Henry Carver, principal of the Bloomsburg State Normal School, having left, and the faculty having been re-organized, George E. Elwell, then a teacher in the public schools, was elected one of the faculty. He tendered his resignation as teacher in the public school and the directors accepted it, provided M. E. Walker could be induced to take his place; and thus from January 2 to June 1, 1872 he again taught school. On November 25, 1872, he removed to Shickshinny and opened an office, and has resided there since. He was admitted to the Luzerne bar January 6, 1873. On April, 8, 1873, he established the Mountain Echo, becoming its editor and proprietor, continuing as such until 1876, when he disposed of the same to R. M. Tubbs, the present editor. In September, 1873, he was asked by one of the directors of Bloomsburg to take the principalship of the schools of the West ward. Know- ing that Professor Bates, of the Normal School, as well as a number of the older teachers of the public schools, were appli- cants for the position, he said to Mr. Ringler, the director, " give me twenty-five dollars a month more than any one else asks and I will come." Upon this idly spoken promise, and without any application in writing, as required by the board, Mr. Walker was elected principal and his salary fixed at seventy-five dollars per month, an advance of twenty-five dollars, and the term fixed at
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MALCOM EDWARDS WALKER.
eight months. Mr. Walker, upon being notified of the action of the board, had a special meeting called to re-consider their action, as his paper and practice required all his time. But the board unanimously refused to release Mr. Walker from his promise, but agreed that when actually necessary he might leave his position for the purpose of attending to his legal matters in Luzerne county. Thus from October, 1873, till June, 1874, he taught school again, spending Saturdays at Shickshinny, and at least one day during each sitting of court at Wilkes-Barre, and daily, by mail, keeping up his paper. Since 1876 he has devoted his tinie exclusively to the practice of law, sandwiched since 1879 with the duties of justice of the peace. It is a remarkable fact that out of upwards of fifteen hundred cases acted upon by Mr. Walker but six appeals have been taken, one of them very recently ; four of the other five have been tried and the judgment of the justice affirmed, and not a single certiorari to his records has ever been taken. In 1875 Mr. Walker was elected the bur- gess of the borough of Shickshinny. In politics he is a republi- can, and was a member of the county committee of that party for several years. He has been frequently a delegate to state and county conventions of his party. Mr. Walker married, May 13, 1873, Terressa A. Vannetta, daughter of Peter Vannetta, of Blooms- burg. She was for ten consecutive years prior to her marriage principal of the primary department of the public schools of Bloomsburg. They have three children living, Harvey Day Walker, Warren Woodward Walker, and Harry Malcom Wal- ker. While Mr. Walker is not a member of any temperance organization, he has never yet tasted a drop of any intoxicating liquors, domestic wine, or beer, and has never used tobacco in any form.
It is scarcely necessary to add to the relation of the foregoing facts that Mr. Walker is a man of much energy and perseverance, and a useful man in the community in which he resides. Taking example from his ancestry, he sets before him the objects to be attained and pursues his course to the ends thus marked out undeviatingly, and undeterred by any obstacles that intelligent effort can be made to overcome. That he is appreciated by his neighbors and fellow-citizens is also sufficiently attested. His
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MICHAEL CANNON.
practice is a large one proportioned to the territory from which it is drawn, and larger far than that of many of his more preten- tious professional brethren abiding in more pretentious commu- nities. That he is able to give it attention and at the same time not neglect his duties as a justice, of itself argues a willingness to work, and an ability to work, that, joined together, must needs make substantial headway in the world.
MICHAEL CANNON.
Michael Cannon was born March 22, 1844, at Innisskeel, in the county of Donegal, Ireland, and was less than a year old when his parents came to this country. His father, who is still living, is James Cannon, an early settler at Summit Hill, Carbon county, Pa., having located there in 1832. He resided there until 1840, when he returned to Ireland and married Rosa, a daughter of Hugh McAloon, who is the mother of the subject of our sketch. Mr. Cannon subsequently returned to this country and has resided at Summit Hill and Hazleton ever since. Michael Cannon was educated in the public schools, and subse- quently became a teacher in the borough of Hazleton and in this city, studying law in the meanwhile in the office of the late David R. Randall and Michael Reagan, of this city. He was admitted to the Luzerne county bar Janvary 25, 1873. In January, 1865, Mr. Cannon enlisted in the United States Navy, doing duty on the monitor steamer Canonicus, and was at the storming of Fort Fisher. He married, November 25, 1873, Nettie McDonald, youngest daughter of the late Patrick McDonald, of Union town - ship, Luzerne county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Cannon have four children; Nettie Cannon, Stella Cannon, Laura Cannon, and Edna Cannon. Mr. Cannon, it will be observed, is another of the numerous class of attorneys who began active life in the school-room. He is a representative, also, of those who have got along in the world without other education than tliat the common schools afford. The disadvantage arising from lack
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JOHN ALFRED OPP.
of college or university training is often more than compensated by the spirit of independent self-reliance that has its birth and growth in those exigencies that come with dependence upon our own energies for a livelihood. Mr. Cannon was a worker as well as a teacher, and in the latter capacity achieved an enviable rep- utation, as those who knew him and had opportunity of judging his qualifications and estimating the results of his effort at the time, freely attest. His enlistment in the nation's service when he was not yet quite of age, brought him experiences which have, doubtless, been valuable to him in later life. In the practice of his profession Mr. Cannon is noted among his brethren for both application and energy, qualities that are certain to unlock the repositories of the legal knowledge necessary for the successful prosecution of a client's cause. He is a democrat in politics and a fair orator, and has been frequently called to effective service on the stump in his party's behalf.
JOHN ALFRED OPP.
John Alfred Opp was born near Muncy, Lycoming county, Pa., July 15, 1847. He was educated in the public schools and at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pa., graduating from the latter institution in 1870. On July 4, 1863, during the late civil war, he enlisted in Company E, Thirty-Seventh regiment, Pennsyl- vania Militia, and remained in the service about one month, when the regiment was mustered out of service. In January, 1864, Mr. Opp enlisted in Company D, Eightieth regiment (Seventh cavalry) Pennsylvania Volunteers, and the regiment was mustered out of the service August 23, 1865, at Macon, Ga. After the war Mr. Opp was a teacher in the public schools in Muncy Creek township, Lycoming county, and in Plymouth, in this county. For the last five years he has been one of the directors of the public schools of the borough of Plymouth, where he resides. He studied law with E. H. Little, of Bloomsburg, Pa., and was admitted to the bar of Columbia county, February 1, 1873, and
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