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 41
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EMORY ROBINSON
1868 entered as freshman the class of '72, in the Lewisburg University, in the full classical course. He left the university during the sophomore year, and during the next two years and a half pursued his classical studies in Philadelphia, under most competent instructors. During a year of this time he also had the benefit of lectures in the law department of the University of Pennsylvania. He then went to Smethport, Mckean county, Pa., where he registered as a student with the Hon. Warren Coles. Mr. Coles removed to the West, but on certificate of study and on examination he was admitted to the bar of his native county, in November, 1872. He commenced the practice of law at Car- bondale, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar, January 5, 1874. In 1875 he was a candidate for the legislature in the Eighth legislative district, but was defeated by Thomas W. Loftus. In 1877 he removed to this city and has been in continuous practice since. Mr. Rob- inson is a man of rare natural ability, which he has supplemented by much reading. He is a clear and logical thinker and deliv- ers an excellent address, either professionally to the court or before a jury, or from the platform in a political campaign. It is not too much to say that some of his pleas have evinced an un- derstanding of the law, an insight of the real merits of a cause and a fervor of eloquence that few, even of the older members of the bar, might not envy. He enjoys a fair practice, which might be much larger if he would manifest a greater hunger for the plaudits of the people and for the creature comforts it would bring. By this we mean that if his ability were equalled by his push, there are some other young attorneys at the bar who would quickly be called upon to sacrifice a portion of their client- age. Mr. Robinson has been from early manhood a democrat of pronounced convictions, and seldom allows himself to be worsted in an argument as to the righteousness and wisdom of the prin- ciples of that party. He has been frequently upon the stump, and while manifestly not aspiring to eloquence for the sake of eloquence, attains to it by the very keenness of his reasoning and quiet force of his logic and metaphor. He is one of the bache- lors of the fraternity, is easy-going and affable in demeanor, and has many friends.
448
QUINCY ADAMS GATES.
QUINCY ADAMS GATES.
Quincy Adams Gates was born December 19, 1847, in Scott township, Wayne county, Pa. Scott is on the Delaware river and is the northeastern township of Pennsylvania. Mr. Gates was educated at Deposit (N. Y.) Academy, and studied law with C. P. & G. G. Waller, at Honesdale, Pa., and was admitted to the Wayne county bar December 2, 1873. He then removed to Car- bondale, Pa., and practiced in that city for sixteen months. De- siring a wider field he removed to this city and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar January 22, 1874, and has been in con- tinuous practice since. Mr. Gates' great-grandfather, Sylvanus Gates, and his grandfather, A. W. Gates, removed to Wayne county in 1818 from Worcester, Mass. His father, Alpheus W. Gates, is a native of Mount Pleasant, Wayne county. His mother is Semantha L., daughter of Major Martin Hall, of Jack- son township, Susquehanna county, Pa. Major Hall is a native of Halifax, Vt .; where he was born in 1792. He removed to Susquehanna county in 1815, and is still living. The wife of Major Hall was Emily Lamb, a daughter of David Lamb, of Jackson. She was also from Vermont. L. M. Gates, M. D., of Scranton, is the only brother of the subject of our sketch. Quincy A. Gates is a republican in politics, but not a politician in the ordinary sense of that term. He has never held an office nor desired one. He is also an unmarried man. Few men in the acquaintance of the writer are more devoted to their profes- sion, or more willing to work to succeed in it. The industry of Mr. Gates has passed into a proverb among his brother profes- sionals, and is deserved too. No legal problem is sufficiently knotty to affright him, and no necessary search, either of records or opinions, can be sucli a consumer of time or provoker of toil' as to discourage, or even tire him. This seems like strong lan- guage, but the devoted application and energy which Mr. Gates has brought to the overcoming of the difficulties that attend every young lawyer who attempts to build up a practice in a
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FRANKLIN CARROLL MOSIER.
community in which he begins a comparative stranger, deserves it. With even more meagre opportunities to begin upon, such persistent study and zeal must needs have resulted in the in- bringing of a large and profitable clientage. Many young men otherwise in every respect fitted to win a foremost place in the profession, enter it with the suicidally-erroneous idea that the necessity for study has ceased with their admission, and that the chief duty of a lawyer is to sit in his office and extend his open palm for the rich fees that clients will crowd each other to drop into it. There are so many such, in fact, that no one of the pro- fessions record as frequent failures of those who, as students, .. gave their relatives and friends apparently the best reasons for the rosiest hopes of their success. It is a genuine pleasure, therefore, for one whose position is such that he cannot help but note such things, to have occasion to mention so striking an instance of that push and determination which is the price of victory, whether for clients or for self, in the practice of the law. Mr. Gates is an estimable citizen as well as a good and rising lawyer. Prior to his commencement of the study of the law he was a civil engineer, and as such did work for the central branch of the Union Pacific Railroad, and also as a surveyor of the public lands in western Kansas.
FRANKLIN CARROLL MOSIER.
Franklin Carroll Mosier was born October 8, 1846, in the township of Pittston (now borough of Hughestown), Luzerne county, Pa. His great-grandfather, Johannes Mosser, was a native of Germany, and arrived in this country October 13, 1766, in the " ship Betsey, John Osmond master, from Rotterdam, last from Cowes." He was quite young when he arrived in this country, and settled in Northampton county, Pa. His name appears on the roll of Captain Miller's company as John Moeser {enlisted in Northampton county), of Colonel William Thomp- son's Battalion of Riflemen, which was the first quota of volun-
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FRANKLIN CARROLL MOSIER.
teers raised in Pennsylvania for the defense of the Colonies. These troops marched to Cambridge, Mass., and participated in the siege of Boston, which was evacuated by the British forces March 17, 1776. Colonel Thompson's command, prior to above date, became the " First Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies, commanded by His Excellency General George Wash- ington, Esquire, general and commander-in-chief," and "the First Pennsylvania Regiment" of the Continental line, which fought under Washington from the siege of Boston to that of Yorktown. During this long, sanguinary period the paternal great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch was a true patriot and faith- ful soldier, and served his adopted country without pay or reward. Referring to Volume I. of Pennsylvania Archives, we find on page 338 that John Mosier's depreciated pay escheated to the state. His son, John Mosier, was a tailor by trade, and was born in the vicinity of Easton, Pa. The son of John Mosier and father of F. C. Mosier is Daniel Dimmick Mosier, who was born in Middle Smithfield township, Monroe county, Pa., in 1816, but came to Luzerne county at about the age of fifteen or sixteen. The wife of John Mosier is Sarah Overfield, a daughter of Mar- tin Overfield, who was a descendant of one of the early settlers of Monroe county. She resides on the Mosier homestead in Middle Smithfield, within a short distance of where she was born. She is nearly a centenarian in age, and is still strong and vigorous in mind and body. William Overfield, who was one of the canal commissioners of Pennsylvania, was her brother. In the year 1794 Benjamin Overfield and Paul Overfield, brothers of Martin Overfield, settled in Luzerne (now Wyoming) county. Paul Overfield married a daughter of Nicholas De Pui, of Mon- roe county. She was in the Wyoming Valley at the time of the battle and massacre of Wyoming, but her life was saved by a friendly Indian acquaintance who secreted her among the rocks. Nicholas Overfield, son of Paul Overfield, became one of the most prominent citizens of Wyoming county. He was associate judge of the county from 1851 to 1856, and repre- sented Luzerne county in the legislature before Wyoming was set off. He married Harriet, daughter of Samuel Sterling, who was the grandfather of Walter G. Sterling, of this city. Moses
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FRANKLIN CARROLL MOSIER
Overfield, brother of Nicholas Overfield, was a justice of the peace for twenty years, and was the first to represent Wyom- ing county in the state legislature. Daniel Dimmick Mosier is a prominent citizen of the borough of Hughestown. He has filled various local offices, and was for ten years a justice of the peace for Pittston township. The wife of D. D. Mosier and the mother of F. C. Mosier is Elizabeth Ann Mosier (nee Ward), a native of Trumbull, Fairfield county, Conn. Her grandfather, Thomas Ward, emigrated from England and settled in Connecti- cut with his wife, Anna, whose maiden name was Wakely. Her father was Victor Ward, a soldier in the war of 1812. The mother of Mrs. Mosier was Anna Sherwood Mills, daughter of Robert Mills. His wife was Desire, a daughter of Jonathan Robertson, of Weston, Fairfield county, Conn., who was a soldier in the old French and colonial wars. Her sister, Elizabeth, was the wife of Sergeant Thomas Williams.
F. C. Mosier was educated at Wyoming Seminary and the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor in that state. In 1862, when not quite sixteen years of age, he enlisted in Company H, Nineteenth regiment of Pennsylvania Militia, during the An- tietam campaign. Returning home, he remained on his father's farm until 1865, when he became a clerk in the store of the Lack- awanna Iron and Coal Company, at Scranton. During the five years that he remained in the employ of that corporation he dis- charged his duties with fidelity, and was offered a prominent position if he would remain in their employ. He, however, deter- mined to study law, and began his studies with his brother-in-law, the late Conrad S. Stark, of Pittston, and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar February 26, 1874. He has served as a member of the town council of the borough of Pittston, of which body he was elected president, and made an impartial and efficient public officer. He has also been their attorney. In 1882 he was unanimously nominated as the democratic candidate for rep- resentative in the Seventh legislative district, composed of a portion of Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, but was defeated by James L. McMillan, the republican candidate, the vote stand- ing, McMillan 1,761, Mosier 1,431, and J. C. Miles, prohibitionist, 25. In 1884 he came within a vote or two of receiving the den-
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HOWKIN BULKELEY BEARDSLEE.
ocratic nomination for congress in the Twelfth congressional dis- trict of Pennsylvania. Mr. Mosier is still an unmarried man. It is the fate of many of the profession of the law to aspire to conspicuous positions in politics. That this is so is but natural. Those whose studies have made them familiar with the law in all its various phases develop, almost of necessity, the desire to ex- ert a special influence in the making of the law, or its adminis- tration. Lawyers are the fittest legislators, though we concede the wisdom of the custom that brings representatives of almost every profession and calling to a seat and voice in law-making bodies-and a very large percentage of our most distinguished men in legislation and state craft come to their honors from practice in the courts. Mr. Mosier has shared the aspiration spoken of, and was rewarded with the nomination of his party for the state house of representatives in the Seventh or Pittston legislative district in 1882, but the district is largely republican and he failed of election. He has always been an ardent demo- · crat, and his counsel is in demand by his fellow partizans at all times. He is equally ambitious as a lawyer, and has acquired a paying practice, to which he gives loyal care and consideration.
HOWKIN BULKELEY BEARDSLEE.
Howkin Bulkeley Beardslee who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, April 16, 1874, is a native of Mount Pleasant, Wayne county, Pa., where he was born April 15, 1821. His father, Bulkeley Beardslee, was a native of Fairfield, Fairfield county, Conn., and removed to Wayne county in the early part of the present century. His name first appears in the assessment list of Mount Pleasant township in 1818, as the owner of a house and farm. The wife of Bulkeley Beardslee was a daughter of Walter Kimble, who was a son of Jacob Kimble, and one of the earliest settlers on the Paupack. He, with others, was driven out of the settlement about the time of the Wyoming massacre, and did not return until after the revolution. He died in 1826,
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453
HOWKIN BULKELEY BEARDSLEE.
aged ninety-one years. Bulkeley Beardslee was a prominent citizen of Wayne county and held several offices, one being that of a commissioner of the county. From 1845 to 1848 the sub- ject of this sketch was register and recorder of Wayne county ; in 1860 a representative to the legislature from the same county, and in 1864, 1865 and 1866 a state senator. He edited and owned for many years the Wayne County Herald. In 1871 he removed to this city and became the editor and part proprietor of the Luserne Union, and subsequently its sole owner, which he carried on for a number of years. He is now the editor and proprietor of the Luzerne County Herald, which he established in 1882. His wife is Charlotte, a daughter of the late William Clark of Abington township, Lackawanna county, Pa. In 1799 Dea- con William Clark, (the grandfather of Mrs. Beardslee), and family, including his three sons, William Clark, the father of Mrs. Beardslee, Jeremiah Clark, John Clark, Thomas Smith and Ephraim Leach came from Plainfield, Conn. They crossed the Leggett mountain at a gap westerly from where the road now passes, their team being one poor horse, and their conveyance a drag made of poles fastened at the back of the horse. On this drag were placed a sap kettle, their axes and a few clothes and provisions. These adventurers found their way to a spot near the residence of Mr. Wall, upon which they made their camp on March 15, 1799. During the summer and fall they made clear- ings in several places and opened a path through Leggett's Gap. Deacon Clark settled at what is now Clark's Green, where he made the first clearing. This for many years was known as the "Green," and from it the settlement was named. The village has two churches and several thriving business concerns. The early settlers of Abington suffered from the incursions of beasts of prey, which often confronted them, especially in Leggett's Gap, while making their frequent trips to the mill in Slocum Hollow, now Scranton, or visiting the different settlements. "Many a time," said Mr. Leach, "in passing through the notch with my little grist upon my shoulders have I kept the wolves at bay with a long club which I kept swinging vigorously as they came growling around me, and to my faithful club, often bitten and broken, have I been indebted for my life." About seven
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HOWKIN BULKELEY BEARDSLEE.
years after the first settlement the outlook was quite promising, but the nearest market was Wilkes-Barre, twenty-five or thirty miles to the south, with only a single pathway leading to it through a dark extent of forests. The wife of Deacon William Clark was the first white woman in Abington. On May 22, 1802 the first Baptist church was formed in Abington, at the house of Deacon Clark, and Deacon William Clark and his wife became members. Rev. John Miller, the grandfather of Jerome G. Mil- ler, became their pastor, and continued as such until 1850, when Rev. Andrew Hopper became associated with him at his request.
Mr. Beardslee's life has been an active one, though cast more in the political and journalistic field than in the line of his pro- fession. As stated, he has been register and recorder of Wayne county, and representative in the lower house of the state legis- lature and senator from the district of which it formed a part. His service in the latter capacity was during one of the most exciting periods of the country's history, 1864 to 1866. In the . former year there was for a long time a tie in the body under the following circumstances : The senate then consisted of thirty- three members. Of the senators elected sixteen were democrats and seventeen republicans, but one of the latter, General Harry White, who represented the Indiana district, was at the time in a confederate prison. In the contest for political supremacy, such things are always taken advantage of. The democrats on this occasion resisted, through several weeks, the election of a republican speaker. Mr. Beardslee was one of the sixteen of the democratic faith, and his name beginning with B, and the roll being made up, under the rule, in alphabetical order, he happened to be the first democrat whose name was called to vote. This, in view of the numerous parliamentary dodges and contrivances always resorted to in such contests, made his position one re- quiring the exercise of great watchfulness and caution. That he carried himself through the ordeal without hesitation or error is no small compliment to his sagacity. Mr. Beardslee's tastes led him to abandon practice for journalism. As editor of the Wayne County Herald and Luzerne Union, he did valiant battle for his party for many years. For a long time the latter was the only democratic journal printed in English in this great county, (which
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JOHN VAUGHAN DARLING
then included Lackawanna,) and it was therefore the organ of the party, and looked to by the rank and file as their guide in its policies and purposes. It is not too much to say that the Union discharged this responsibility with commendable wisdom and vigor. The Union was also a clean and enterprising family jour- nal, the sole reliance of hundreds of citizens, especially in the rural districts, for the news of the day. Since the merging of the Union with the Leader, under the name of the Union -Leader, Mr. Beardslee has been publishing the Luserne County Herald, a weekly publication, issued at Wilkes-Barre, democratic in -poli- tics, but devoted mainly to miscellaneous family reading. Mr. Beardslee is a gentleman of much energy of character, well read, a pithy writer, a good controversialist and is possessed of other traits which make it certain that he might have achieved a lead- ing position at the bar had his ambitions not been turned to other fields.
JOHN VAUGHAN DARLING.
John Vaughan Darling was born in Reading, Pa., July 24, 1844. He is the youngest son of his father, William Darling, and is the brother of Edward Payson Darling of the Luzerne bar. Mr. Darling was prepared for college by Prof. Kendall, and passed his examination, for the junior year, at Harvard University, but his , health failing him, he gave up the idea of a collegiate education. In his early years he was a frequent contributor to the columns of Lippincott's Magasine and the Atlantic Monthly, and for five years was assistant editor of the North American Exchange and Reviewe. Mr. Darling read law with R. C. McMurtrie, of the Philadelphia bar, passed his examination before he was of age, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1865. Soon after his admission he went into partnership with. Morton P. Henry, which continued until his removal to this city in 1874. He was admitted a mem- ber of the Luzerne bar, June 4, 1874. In 1869 he was retained as junior counsel with James E. Gowen for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which exhibited his standing as a young
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JOHN VAUGHAN DARLING
lawyer. Mr. Darling married, October 9, 1872, Alice Mary, youngest daughter of Andrew T. McClintock of the Luzerne bar. Mr. and Mrs. Darling have no children. Mr. Darling came to the study of the law with a liking for it and a conviction that to excel he must apply himself steadfastly, not only to mastering of the principles, but to acquiring familiarity with the rules of practice and every fact material to the consideration of a case at issue. This is a natural and neces- sary inference from the active, diligent and yet deliberate course for which he is is noted. None of our lawyers are more consci- entious in this regard, and consequently few are in as great demand among clients whose causes involve delicate ques- tions and important interests. Nobody who knows the man would think of associating his name with a trivial case, and yet we suspect that, however inconsiderable the consequences em- braced, he would enter upon its elucidation with the same cau- tiousness and painstaking that characterize his dealings with
more important trusts. Singly, and in connection with his brother, whose biography has already been published in connec- tion with this series, he has been concerned in many a cause cel- ebre, both in the local and in the Supreme court, and with results in every respect satisfactory to the sides upon which he has been enlisted. Mr. Darling makes no pretensions to oratory, but his reasoning is lucid and forcible and his delivery smooth and pleas- ing, and these are the characteristics that plead most success- fully to the unfettered judgment. Besides being a good lawyer, Mr. Darling is a gentleman in the best acceptation of the term. He is liberally informed in general literature and in all subjects of current interest. He takes only a watchful citizen's interest in politics and is one of the few of the fraternity who have never been suspected of hungering for official honors, though he would manifestly make his mark in a legislative body or grace the judi- cial bench.
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457
ALLAN HAMILTON DICKSON.
ALLAN HAMILTON DICKSON.
Nisbet says, " They of the surname of Dickson, as descended of one Richard Keith, said to be a son of the family of Keith Marischal, took their name from Richard (called in the south country Dick), and to show themselves descended of Keith Earl Marischal they carry the chief of Keith." The first of the family of Dickson, of Hartree, in Lanarkshire, was John Dick- son, an eminent lawyer. Of the same family was the Reverend David Dickson, born in 1583, and son of a John Dickson, who was a wealthy merchant in Glasgow. David was one of the regents of the University of Glasgow. In 1639 he was modera- tor of the general assembly, and in 1650 he was elected to the professorship of divinity at Glasgow. He took an active part in the various controversies of that day. At the time of the res- toration, for declining to take the oath of'supremacy, he was ejected from his professorial chair. He wrote many scriptural and theological expositions and treatises, and died in 1663. His grandson, John Dickson, was born about 1673, and having mar- ried Jane Dodd, emigrated to Ireland and settled near Rathfry- land, in county Down. They had four children, all of whom lived to be married. James, the eldest son, had eleven children, of whom Alexander, the fourth son, and grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch, was born in 1776, at the homestead. He took part in the Wolf Tone rebellion of 1798, under the leader- ship of the Rev. William Dickson, a cousin. This William was a general in the rebel ranks and a man of learning and probity, who suffered for his part in this action by prolonged imprison- ment and banishment. Alexander was for a time forced to hide, on the downfall of the rebellion. In 1799 he emerged from his retreat and was married to Sarah McKee. They had ten chil- dren born of this marriage, nine of whom lived to maturity and were married. The wife died in 1819, and in 1820 he married Margaret Harring, by whom he had six children. In June, 1827, he brought his family to America and settled on a farm in
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ALLAN HAMILTON DICKSON.
Schaghticoke, Rensselær county, N. Y. In 1837 he removed to Lansingburg, N. Y., and died there, on Sunday, April 2, 1871, in the ninety-fifth year of his age. Hugh Sheridan, the seventh child of Alexander, was born in 1813, and was fourteen years old when he arrived in America. Being of a studious and ambitious disposition, and having a determined will, he gained (largely by his own efforts) a thorough education. His father having a fam- ily of fifteen children who lived to maturity, was unable out of the proceeds of his farm to provide for them all an education in more than the common school branches. Hugh graduated at Union College in 1839 and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1841. Having been ordained he assumed the charge of a church in Louisville, Ky., from whence he moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., and during his pastorate there was married on September 2, 1845, in Philadelphia, Pa., to Sarah Margaret Stoever. She was also of ministerial descent. The first of her ancestors who came to America was Rev. John Casper Stoever, who was born . in Frankenberg, Saxony, December 21, 1702. He was the son of Deitrich Stoever and of Magdalena, daughter of Rev. Andrew Eberwein. In 1728, John Casper, after a pastorate of five years in Anweiler, Bavaria, came to America as chaplain to a party of emigrants. It is a singular coincidence that on the same vessel that brought over Mr. Stoever there was Sebastian Dorr, the ancestor of Andrew F. Derr, of the Luzerne county bar, and Philip Heinrich Soller, the ancestor of George B. Kulp. In 1733, Mr. Stoever was preaching the gospel in Lebanon, Pa., and in 1740 became the first regular pastor of the Lutheran church in Lancaster, Pa. He married Maria Catharine Markling. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived him. He died May 13, 1779. Frederick, the youngest son of John Casper Stoever, was born in 1759, and married Margaret Dinshert. Eight children were born to thein, five of whom survived him. He died in 1833. Their eldest son, Frederick, was born in 1784, and died at West Chester in 1867, in his eighty- third year. He married Sarah Reigart. He was a prosperous merchant during all his mature life in Philadelphia. They had three children : Elizabeth, intermarried with Huizinga Messchert -now dead; Jefferson, now dead; and Sarah Margaret. The
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