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 39
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JOHN ALFRED OPP.
to the Luzerne bar February 24, 1873. The father of John A. Opp is Thomas Jefferson Opp a native of Lycoming county. His grandfather, John Opp, was a native of Columbia county, and was one of the early settlers of Muncy, Pa. The mother of the subject of our sketch was Keziah Schuyler, daughter of the late Adam Schuyler, of Paradise township, Northumberland county, Pa. Mr. Opp married, October 12, 1880, Helen Wier, daughter of Andrew Wier, of Plymouth, Pa. Mr. Wier is a native of Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Opp have a family of two children, John Howard Opp and Elizabeth Opp. Mr. Opp is a trustee in the First Presbyterian church of Plymouth, and is a director in the Plymouth Gas Company, and also in the Plymouth Water Company. He has held the position of judge advocate in the National Guard of Pennsylvania with the rank of major. It is no small praise to say of an American citizen that he was a brave and dutiful soldier in the years when the life of the nation trem- bled in the balance and there was call for every stout heart at the front. Such praise is Mr. Opp's due. The regiments in which he served did effective service, and in every engagement in which they were concerned during his term he had part and bore himself with conspicuous gallantry. It was of the young men of the country that the fervor of the army was constiuted, and the good names they earned fighting for union are a rich heritage to be bequeathed to their children. As a teacher he was painstaking and uniformly successful, winning golden enco- miums from directors, scholars, and parents. That his interest in the subject of education did not cease with his retirement from the school-room, is shown in his active service since as a director, to which he has devoted much time and brought ideas and ener- gies that have redounded greatly to the benefit of the schools. Mr. Opp is a generally bright man, and has already achieved a good standing in his profession. Few young men have had a greater degree of success in the same time, and fewer still can look forward to a bright future as hopefully. He is well read outside of the law, and this, added to his many other compan- ionable qualities, make him gratifyingly popular in the social circle.
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JOHN TRITLE LUTHER SAHM.
JOHN TRITLE LUTHER SAHM.
John Tritle Luther Sahm is a native of Greencastle, Franklin county, Pa., where he was born September 6, 1843. He is a descendant of an early German settler who came to Pennsylva- nia at a very early period in its history. His grandfather, John Sahm, was a native of the neighborhood of Manheim, Lancaster county, Pa., and was a farmer and distiller. He left to survive him seven children, two of whom became ministers of the gos- pel, as follows : Rev. Abram Sahm, a Methodist Episcopal min- ister, and Rev. Peter Sahm, D. D., a Lutheran minister. The latter was the father of the subject of our sketch. He was born near Manheim in 1809, and.educated at the Lutheran Theologi- cal Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa., and graduated in the class of 1831. He commenced his ministerial labors in 1832, and had been engaged in the work of the ministry about forty-four years at the time of his death. He was endowed with more than ordinary natural talent, and his mind was well disciplined by education. He was a diligent student, and became a thorough theologian. He had acquired an accurate acquaintance with the German as well as the English language, and preached equally well in both. He was a homilectician and prepared his sermons carefully and systematically. His strength in the pulpit consisted more in the clearness and logical connection of the matter than in the ornament and beauty of his style. He was solid and instructive, as well as an impressive and successful preacher. As a pastor he was diligent and faithful. He was humble and modest in his bearing, quiet and retiring in his intercourse with his fellow- men, but in his consistency and devotion to the cause of Christ he exerted a positive and wide-spread influence over the mem- bers of his church and the community among whom he labored as a Christian minister. Although strongly attached to the Lutheran church he, nevertheless, fraternized with Christians of other evangelical denominations, and spent his last Sabbath morning on earth in participating in the exercises of the dedica-
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JOHN TRITLE LUTHER SAHM.
tion of the Reformed church, at Laurelton, Pa. He served the following charges in the order named : Maytown, Middletown, St. Thomas, Greencastle, Blairsville, Johnstown, Indiana, Fried- ensburg, Loysville, Aaronsburg, and New Berlin. He died at Laurelton, Union county, Pa., March 14, 1876, aged sixty-six years. His remains are interred in the cemetery at New Berlin, Pa. He left five children to survive him, among whom in addi- tion to the subject of our sketch, is Theophilus H. T. Sahm, a law- yer at Hamburg, Ia. ; W. K. T. Sahm, a physician at McCoysville, Pa. ; and M. O. T. Sahm, a Lutheran minister in Lawrence county, Pa. The wife of Rev. Dr. Sahm is Susan Tritle, daughter of the late John Tritle, of Guilford, Franklin county, Pa. He was a farmer and spent a long life on the old homestead near Cham- bersburg, Pa. He was a man of industrious habits, and a devout Christian, and for many years an elder in the Lutheran church. His father, Jacob Tritle, was a farmer and distiller, and was a native of Bavaria, and on his arrival in this country settled in Franklin county. Jacob Benedict, M. D., and Daniel Benedict, M. D., well-known physicians in the lower part of the state, are grandsons of Jacob Tritle, as is, also, Rev. Frederick Benedict, a Lutheran minister. Frederick A. Tritle, also a grandson, is a prominent lawyer, and is now governor of Arizona Territory.
J. T. L. Sahm was prepared for college at Somerset Academy and in a select school taught by Silas M. Clark, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He then entered the Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, Pa., from which he graduated in 1862. He read law with B. McIntyre at New Bloomfield, Pa., and was admitted to the Perry county bar in April, 1865. He then removed to Mifflintown, Pa., and in 1866 was elected district attorney of Juniata county for three years. Upon the expiration of his term he entered into a legal partner- ship with Ezra D. Parker, under the firm name of Parker & Sahm. This partnership continued until 1873, when Mr. Sahm removed to this city. He was admitted to the Luzerne county bar April 23, 1873. In December of the same year he became a clerk in the prothonotary's office, and has continued in that po- sition until the present time. He has been chief deputy prothon- otary since January 1880. It speaks well of Mr. Sahm to say
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JOHN TRITLE LUTHER SAHM.
that although a democrat in politics he has retained his position under all administrations of the office for the past eleven years and over. Mr. Sahm married, September 17, 1872, Minnie S. Rothrock, a daughter of Joseph Rothrock, of Fermanagh, Juni- ata county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Sahm have four children living, Frank Basil Rothrock Sahm, Raymond Paul Rothrock Sahm, Ruth Victoria Rothrock Sahm, and Minnie Constance Rothrock · Sahm. Every here and there through the country are to be found men who have been bred to the law, but have drifted from its active practice into positions in which their professional train- ing constitutes one of the chief elements of their usefulness. Mr. Sahm is one of this number. He has become a fixture in the office of the prothonotary of the county, where his knowl- edge of the principles of the law and familiarity with the statutes enable him to perform the duties assigned him with a rapidity and safety that could not be otherwise attained. Every member of the Luzerne bar will bear cheerful witness to this fact, and · · will admit his obligations for the assistance it has been to him in that part of his practice which brings him into contact with the prothonotary's office. In addition to this exceptional fitness Mr. Sahm is possessed of a most obliging disposition. He is never either too busy or too tired to give prompt attention to the de- mands of the profession upon his assistance. His memory is a storehouse rich in important information relative to the general business of a prothonotary's office, and the books and records of this particular prothonotary's office, and he is never known to hes- itate to unlock it for the convenience of his professional brethren. Whether or not he will ever go back again to active practice he is uncertain, but if he should the knowledge he has acquired in his present position ought, of itself, to insure him a paying clientage.
427
WILLIAM HENRY MCCARTNEY.
WILLIAM HENRY McCARTNEY.
William Henry McCartney was born in Boston, Mass., July 11, 1834. His father, John McCartney, came from Dublin, Ireland, and for many years successfully carried on the manufac- ture of carriages and fire engines in Brattle Square, Boston. W. H. McCartney was an invalid in his youth, and at the age of twelve went with his mother to Gilmanton, N. H., where he lived on a farm engaged entirely in out-door sports and pursuits until he was eighteen years of age. At that age he had outgrown his physical troubles and he then commenced to acquire an education. He attended preparatory schools at Laconia and at Meriden, N. H., but his education was principally directed by a tutor, John G. Jewett, now one of the judges of the court of Common Pleas of New Hampshire. He studied law. with Hon. Asa Fowler and Hon. H. A. Bellows, at Concord, N. H., and subsequently with F. W. Sawyer, at Boston, and was admitted to the bar of Massa- chusetts in March, 1856. He at once entered into a large and lucrative practice in Boston, and continued therein up to the beginning of the late civil war. Prior to that event he had been connected with the Boston militia ; first, in the Light Infantry, an organization then known in Boston as the " Tigers," and at the breaking out of hostilities held a commission as first lieuten- ant in a battery known as the Boston Light Artillery. That organization formed a portion of the three months troops that Massachusetts sent into the field, and Lieutenant McCartney left Boston with his command on April 19, 1861, at half an hour's notice. His command went with General Butler's expedition from New York to Annapolis and served at the Relay House on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and at Baltimore through the three months' campaign. At the expiration of this service Lieu- tenant McCartney returned to Boston and raised the First Massa -. chusetts Battery for three years' service, of which he was made captain. During the three years' service he participated in the following engagements: West Point, Mechanicsville, Gaines
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428
WILLIAM HENRY MCCARTNEY.
Mills, Charles City Cross Roads, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, December 14, 1862; Fredericksburg, May 4, 1863; Marye's Heights, Salem Heights, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, Saun- der's House, The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, South Anne River, Cool Arbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Winchester, and Fisher's Hill. He was commended in general orders by General Franklin for " gallantry and conspicuous bravery " at Fredericks- burg (December 14, 1862), and at Antietam. He was also com- mended by General Sedgwick for "gallantry and exceptionally brilliant services " at Salem Heights, Gettysburg, and Mine Run ; and by General Brooks for " repulsing most gallantly, without as- sistance, a brigade of infantry which saved our line from being broken, when to break any portion of it was sure defeat to the whole corps." He was also mentioned by General Lee for " great gallantry and marked efficiency in battery service " at Fredericks- burg, December 14, 1862 ; and by General Barksdale for gallantry .. in repulsing an assault of Barksdale's brigade at Salem Heights, and for kindness and attention to Confederate wounded at Antie- tam. For the above named commendations he was brevetted to the rank of brigadier general. In February, 1865, he was made provost marshal and ordered to Massachusetts, and had charge of that department until December 31, when he was mustered out of the service. In January, 1866, he was appointed clerk of the naval committee of the house of representatives at Washington, and was made special counsel by the navy department to collect and codify the testimony taken before the naval committee of the house on the subject of naval steam engineering. In June, 1866, he was appointed collector of internal revenue of the Third Mas- sachusetts district, then comprising most of Boston, and, in point of receipts, the largest revenue district in the country, excepting the Thirty-First New York district. He was endorsed for this position by the governor and lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts ; by the speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives; by all of the senators and representatives of Massachusetts; by many of the bankers, merchants, and leading business men of the district; by the entire delegation from Massachusetts in the house of representatives ; by the Hon. Henry Wilson, of the sen-
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WILLIAM HENRY MCCARTNEY.
ate ; and by the Hon. John A. Andrew, ex-governor of Massachu- setts, as well as by several of the principal living generals under whom he served. He held the position until April 1, 1869, hav- ing tendered his resignation in October preceding, to be able to devote more of his time to a contract granted to him by the government of Costa Rica for the construction of a railroad across Costa Rica. He was engaged in his railroad scheme until the spring of 1870, when he resumed the practice of his profession at Boston. He was shortly compelled, through failing health, to give up his practice, and in the beginning of the summer of 1870 he shipped as a sailor on a vessel engaged in traffic with Labra- dor. On his return from Labrador he went South, where he recovered his health, and on his way back to Boston was per- suaded by Manton Marble, then proprietor of the New York World, to go into journalism. From January, 1871, to July, 1873, he was connected with the World in New York, doing most of his work under the nom de plume of " Muldoon, Major of Heavy Artillery." He also edited Frank Leslie's illustrated paper during a portion of that period, wrote magazine articles, and, in connection with the late John H. Selwyn, wrote two plays entitled " The Bayonet," and " Constance." In 1858 he married Anna M. Leach, a daughter of Harry Leach, then of Boston, but formerly of New Milford, Susquehanna county, Pa., by whom he had three children, two of whom, Jessie and Anne McCart- ney, are still living. His son, Frederick McCartney, died in the spring of 1879, in the twentieth year of his age. His first wife died in August, 1869, and he was married to his present wife, who was Katharine E. Searle, daughter of the late Leonard Searle, of Montrose, Pa., in September, 1872. Shortly after his second marriage he went with his wife to Europe, where they passed a winter, returning in June, 1873, to spend the summer at Montrose. While there he was induced to give up his literary pursuits and go back to his profession. General McCartney was admitted to the bar of this county September 12, 1873, and has been in continuous practice since. He has by his present wife two children, Ella McCartney and W. H. McCartney. General McCartney has quite a reputation as a political speaker, and since his early manhood has done effective service in that direction.
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WILLIAM HENRY MCCARTNEY.
In 1860 he stumped Massachusetts for Stephen A. Douglass. In 1863 he stumped the Third and Fourth congressional districts of the same state, having been granted a leave of absence for that purpose, and making twenty-two speeches in twelve days. It was his services on the stump in that campaign that made him collector of internal revenue. In 1866, he stumped Connecticut with the late Lot M. Morrill. In 1867 he stumped New York for John A. Griswold for governor, and in 1868 he stumped the same state for General Grant for president. In 1872 he again stumped the state of New York for Horace Greeley, the candi- date of the liberal republicans for president. Since his residence in this state he has stumped Pennsylvania in 1876 for Rutherford B. Hayes for president, in 1878 for Henry M. Hoyt for governor, in 1880 for James A. Garfield for president, in 1882 for John Stewart for governor, and in 1884 for James G. Blaine for presi- dent. General McCartney is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Loyal Legion (which is composed of officers of the late war and their oldest sons), of the Loyal League, of the United Service Club, of the New England Society of Philadelphia, and many other clubs and societies.
General McCartney is an unusually aggressive man, in and out of his profession ; a man of very positive and pronounced views. He may be said to carry many of the attributes that secured him such frequent and flattering commendation as a soldier and com- mander into both his practice of the law and his political labors. His stump speeches are distinguished by vigorous English and a wealth of appropriate and funny anecdotes, both of which appear to please his audiences in about equal degree. Even those of opposite political faith, however much they may be at variance with his arguments, find pleasure in his oratory-if the word can be applied to anything so thoroughly unpretentious, off-hand, and practical-and meetings he is announced to address seldom fail to attract the presence of as many of "the enemy" as of his own side. His gift in this respect is a rare one, and is acknowl- edged to bring no little profit to the candidate or party in whose behalf he chooses to exercise it. It will be noticed in the partial record of his " stumping" achievements above set forth that the general has been, at different times, for and against about all the
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BARNET MILLER ESPY.
parties, and about all the varying phases of his party, that have flourished since he came to stumping age. This marks a char- acteristic of the man of which he need not be ashamed. He is never afraid to be what he thinks he ought to be from fear of comparison with what he has been. There are those whose po- litical lives are lives of persistent devotion to one party or one set of issues from simple fear of the charge of inconsistency, or unwillingness to admit that at some time they may have erred. We are not of those who believe that this is to their credit. The general is much in demand as an after dinner talker, in which capacity he is never at a loss for the means of " setting the table in a roar" and keeping "it" there as long as he occupies the floor. On such occasions he has a faculty of saying very sharp things that, said in any other way, would be certain to offend, but said as he says them, provoke only laughter and applause. In fact, his varied experience as lawyer, soldier, politician, and journalist, aided by a good memory, ready wit, never-failing self possession, and a zest for any rational social enjoyment, make him a welcome addition to any company gathered with merry- making intent. As a lawyer he ranks deservedly high. He is especially strong in cross-examination and in appeals to the jury, being a quick and analytical reasoner and seldom missing any possible "points." He enjoys a lucrative practice, both in the Civil and Criminal Courts, and loses cases only when the proofs and the statutes are against him.
BARNET MILLER ESPY.
Barnet Miller Espy was born in Nanticoke, Luzerne county Pa., May 16, 1846. He is a descendant of George Espy, who was born in Hanover township, Lancaster (now Dauphin) county, Pa., in 1749, and removed with the Paxton Rangers to Luzerne county prior to the massacre in 1778. He located on a tract of land not far from the present borough of Nanticoke, in Hanover township, and there built himself a log house, in which he and
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BARNET MILLER ESPY.
his family resided until his death in 1814. He was commissioned a justice of the peace on May 30, 1800, for the district of Hano- ver township and Wilkes-Barre. He was by trade a mason, and built the old stone jail which was located at the corner of Wash- ington and East Market streets. It was commenced in 1802 and completed, at a cost of five thousand eight hundred and forty- six dollars and forty-three cents. His wife was Mary Stewart, cousin of Captain Lazarus Stewart, who fell at the battle and mas- sacre of Wyoming, and granddaughter of Lazarus Stewart, who settled on the Swatara, in Hanover, Lancaster county; in 1729. John Espy, son of George Espy, was born July 26, 1776. He was a farmer and a prominent man in his day. He died February 3, 1843. He married, April 5, 1809, Lavina Inman, daughter of Colonel Edward Inman. He was the son of Elijah Inman, who was a mere lad when he came from England with his father, who was an iron worker and armor maker, and settled in Rhode Island, and from there moved to the Wyoming Valley in 1763. Elijah Inman was one of the first men in the country conversant with the smelting of iron, and his services were often sought by furnace men. He had seven sons, five of whom went to the bat- tlefield. The two others, one quite a lad, the other about nine- teen, would have gone, but they had no arms. It is an interest- ing fact in the history of the invasion of Wyoming, that the companies of Durkee and Ransom were obliged to furnish their own arms. Of course, men of spirit and regarding themselves as the special defenders of the settlement, would obtain the best rifles and muskets the country afforded. When called away they took with them their guns, and thus Wyoming was not only left without men, but deprived of their arms, so that for those who remained there was not sufficient. There would, otherwise, have been six or seven of the Inman brothers in the battle ; as it was, there were five, the youngest boys being left at home with their aged parents. Two of the brothers, Elijah and Israel, fell on the field ; two escaped without injury ; and the fifth, hotly pursued by the bloody savages, plunged into the river, over- heated with exertion, and hid himself under the willows. The poor fellow might as well have fallen in the fight, for a cold set- tled on his lungs, and in a few weeks took him to his grave.
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BARNET MILLER ESPY.
Thus three sons perished. With the rest of the settlement the Inman family fled, but returned in the fall. They found their farm a scene of desolation. Fire and destruction had done their utmost, and danger they knew lurked around them. Just at the setting in of winter the lads said they heard wild turkeys in the neighboring woods, and Isaac, a young man of nineteen, took his gun and went out. Shots were heard and he did not return. Snow immediately after fell. That Indians had been in the neighborhood was soon known, for other families had suffered, and the only hope was that he was alive, though a prisoner. Spring brought grief and woe to the already bruised heart of the poor old father. Isaac, the lost boy, might well have been a favorite. He was tall, straight as an arrow, gay, sprightly, and every way a pleasing young man. "Death found strange beauty on his manly brow and dashed it out." His mangled corpse was found when the snow melted, in the edge of a little creek that passed through their farm. He had been shot. A war club lay by his side ; his light silken hair was yet stained by blood. He had been murdered and shot with an Indian barbarity. So that four of the family fell that year: Elijah, David, Israel, and Isaac. That family, indeed, deserved well of their country. La- vina Espy died February 19, 1874. James Espy, son of John and Lavina Espy, was born in Hanover township, in 1811, and died at Rummerfield, Bradford county, Pa., June 16, 1872. He married, in 1840, Mary A. Miller, daughter of Barnet and Mary (nee De Witt) Miller. Mr. Miller was the son of Andrew Miller, who died at Harmony, Warren county, N. J., June 10, 1820, aged fifty-seven years. He had formerly lived in Northampton county, Pa., and the family was of German descent. Mrs. Espy's mother was the daughter of Peter De Witt, of Harmony, N. J. B. M. Espy, son of James and Mary A. Espy, was educated in the academy taught by the late E. B. Harvey, of the Luzerne bar, and at Wyoming Seminary, from which he graduated in 1869. He read law with Edwin S. Osborne, and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar September 20, 1873, and has been in con- tinuous practice ever since. In the year 1863, during the late civil . war, he was a member of Company F, Forty-First Pennsylvania Militia. He remained in the service about one month when his
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434
BARNET MILLER ESPY.
regiment was mustered out. He is the secretary and treasurer of the Wilkes-Barre Water Company. He married, September 23, 1873, Caroline, daughter of Abraham Wood. They have two children living, Ridgeway Bowers Espy and Blanche Wood Espy. Abraham Wood was for many years a successful business man in Wilkes-Barre and Mt. Carmel, Wabash county, Ill. At the time of his death he was a resident of Trenton, N. J. Mr. Wood was a descendant of " Michael Wood, of Tenker Hey, North Dean, in the vicarage of Halifax and county of York," whose will, written in 1537, is in the possession of the family, having passed down through the succeeding generations. Joseph Wood, the great-grandfather of Abraham Wood, was a cloth manufac- turer of Halifax, England. Robert Wood, the son of Joseph Wood, was a man of great energy. He purchased a grant of land in America, and set on foot a movement to raise a colony and settle in this country. He had large carved oak chests made and filled with clothing, and preparations were nearly completed for sailing, when the war for the independence of the colonies broke out and thwarted his plans. Robert Wood married Elizabeth Ingham, one of three sisters of Crowstone Hall. (One of these sisters lived to be one hundred and fourteen years of age.) By that union there were seven children, of whom Moses Wood was the second son. He was born in Halifax, England, 1765, and married Jane Beilby, daughter of John and Esther Beilby, of Wetwang, in the county of York, England. Mr. Wood remained in his native country until 1819, when he, with his family, left the land of their nativity and settled in America. His family consisted of his wife, eight children, and two servants. He also brought with him a tailor, shoemaker, and blacksmith. The same oaken chests made by his father years before were also brought over. They sailed in the ship Mary Ann Isabella from Burlington quay. The owner of the vessel, Mr. George Baker, was a personal friend of the Wood family. After a tedious voyage of nine weeks and four days they landed in Philadelphia, and from there proceeded to Wilkes-Barre where they settled. Here Mr. Wood purchased three hundred acres of land, nearly one-third of which has been occupied as a part of the city. The remainder developed into valuable coal lands. When Moses
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