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 44
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
481
SELIGMAN JOSEPH STRAUSS.
smattering of everything rather than a complete understanding in a few things. The first gives an apparent brilliancy that at- tracts and, when accompanied by a ready assurance and a glib tongue, even dazzles on first, or during cursory acquaintance. But it is those who are thorough in the things incident to the particular profession they have chosen, or the particular work in life to which circumstances have assigned them, who, after all, reach the top rungs of the ladder they would climb, and accom- plish about all the really serviceable and enduring work done in the world. With all necessary natural talent, an excellent educa- tion, and the disposition to know everything that is to be known concerning those things which come within the line of his duty and the scope of his aspirations, Mr. Strauss has already taken a leading position at our bar, and is one of the few who are looked to to take the places of its older and more distinguished lights as in the course of nature they are called away. The same pro- clivity to thoroughness that distinguishes his work as a lawyer marks, also, his political researches and speeches. He is not greatly given to indulgence in campaign oratory, but consents occasionally, being a democrat of very positive character, to per- form service of that kind, and on such occasions his deliverances are very certain to be marked with a carefulness, both of thought and speech, that prove his democracy to be a fixed and well di- gested conviction, rather than, as is too often the case with men's politics, a mere blind or inherited faith. He employs no cant phrases or tricks of speech to catch an audience, but treats dem- ocracy as a great living principle, the success of which alone can excuse or dignify the mad rush and tussle of party for power and men for office. Such speakers are not always voted the best by the rabble that attends campaign gatherings, but they are the ones who sow the seeds that fructify in the convictions that make the voice of the people the voice of God when great crises come. It must not be inferred from these facts, however, that Mr. Strauss is one of those morose, prematurely old, book worms or philosophers who bury themselves from the world in the pro- fundity of their theories and calculations. On the contrary, he is possessed of many attractive social qualities, enjoys both home and public entertainment, is happy in an after-dinner speech, and
482
GEORGE MORTIMER LEWIS.
belongs to several societies, in one of which, a wide-spread and influential American Hebrew organization, the B'nai Brith, he now holds an office of considerable prominence and dignity. He is already the fortunate possessor of a comfortable competence, keeps open house to numerous friends, and has as few enemies as any man we know of. He has written magazine and other writings that have attracted considerable attention. As yet Mr. Strauss remains an unmarried man.
GEORGE MORTIMER LEWIS.
George Mortimer Lewis was born at Merryall (a name im- ported by his ancestors from Connecticut), in the township of Wyalusing, Bradford county, Pa., November 23, 1848. His an- cestors on his father's side were of New England stock; the original settler having come from England to Massachusetts in 1630. His great-grandfather, Thomas Lewis, was a native of Fairfield, Conn., where he was born in 1745. He was the son of Thomas Lewis, who graduated from Yale College in 1741, and the grandson of Rev. Thomas Lewis, a congregational minister settled at Fairfield, Conn. He removed from Fairfield to New' Milford, Conn., where he married Mary, daughter of Captain James Turrell. During the war between England and France he was prominent on the committees for raising supplies for the soldiers and recruits for the army during that period. He was a volunteer during the war of the Revolution, and at the battle of Danbury caught General Wooster as he was falling shot from his horse. After the close of the Revolutionary struggle he sold his possessions in Connecticut and removed to Pennsylvania, bringing his family on July 13, 1788, to the place now called Merryall, then in the midst of a trackless and dreary wilderness, far removed from a single habitation. His son, Justus Lewis, was a native of Wyalusing, Pa., where he was born August 24, 1787. He married December 3, 1812, Polly Keeler, daughter of Elisha Keeler, of Pike township, Bradford county, Pa. Elisha Keeler
.
483
GEORGE MORTIMER LEWIS.
came from Brookfield, Conn., to Wyalusing in the spring of 1793. His family consisted of his wife and three children and his aged father, also named Elisha. He died in 1814. In the same year Justus Lewis united with the Presbyterian church, and during his life was one of the most cordial and efficient coadjutors in the work of the church, contributing much towards the support of the pastor and the benevolent societies of the community. From 1837 to 1860 he actively engaged in the temperance and anti- slavery reform movements, especially during the years 1840 and 1841, when they were most warmly discussed. He was always outspoken, and no matter how unpopular his views might be, he never failed to communicate them openly and ably. In 1808 he was a federalist, in 1824 a national republican, in 1840, 1844, and 1848 an anti-slavery whig, and a strong republican from the or- ganization of that party till the close of his life. As an energetic business man Mr. Lewis was proverbial, and in any public enter- prise he was among the foremost. He died May 10, 1874, leav- ing seven children, to each of whom he bequeathed a rich legacy of unblemished character and a long life replete with lessons of wisdom. The father of G. Mortimer Lewis, and son of Justus Lewis, is Augustus Lewis, a native of Merryall, and for many years a prominent merchant at Wyalusing. His wife was Sarah Ingham Stone, daughter of Raphael and Sarah Stone. Mr. Stone was a son of Edmund Stone, who came from New Milford, Conn., and settled in Wyalusing in 1803. The change from the school, church, and social privileges of his former residence to the priva- tions of the wilderness, was anything but pleasing, but the same endurance that characterized the pioneers already there before them was shown by this family also. The wife of Raphael Stone was Sarah, daughter of Jonas Ingham. He was a descendant of Jonas Ingham, an English Friend who came from old to New England about 1700, and thence to Trenton, N. J. He settled in Buckingham township, Bucks county, Pa., about 1705. He was a fuller and clothier by trade. His mills were located in that part of Buckingham township afterwards set off in Solebury township. He afterwards removed his residence to the Great Spring farm, now New Hope, in the same county. He died November 15, 1755.
5
484
GEORGE MORTIMER LEWIS.
Jonathan Ingham, son of the first Jonas Ingham, succeeded to the farm and fulling mill at the Great Spring and became an in- fluential citizen. Jonas Ingham was the son of Jonathan Ingham, and a native of Bucks county. He was a fuller and clothier. In 1777 and 1778 he was in active service as a militiaman ; first as lieutenant, then as captain. In this campaign, during the months of November, December, and January, he suffered much from cold, lying out of doors on the ground with no other covering than a single blanket. At the battle of Gulph Mills he was among the last to leave the grounds, and came near being taken prisoner. He married Elizabeth Beaumont of his native county, and the old homestead of the Inghams in Bucks county is now owned by Andrew J. Beaumont, of that county. In 1789 Joseph Ingham came up the river to Wyalusing and bought the Con- necticut title to what had been known as "Staples pitch," and where the Skiffs had lived prior to the battle of Wyoming. Here he found the log cabin the Skiffs had built, but their clearings had grown up to brush. On this place he settled, nearly three miles from any inhabitant. In his journal Mr. Ingham says : "After the repeal of the confirming law the settling of land under the Pennsylvania title was little thought of, and the inhabitants had frequent meetings. At Tioga Point at one of them, I expressed myself with so much spirit on the subject of the repeal of the confirming law, that they saw fit to choose me one of their di- rectors. After this I was requested to deliver a discourse on July 4, 1801, to include this subject. The discourse I delivered pleased the people very much, who were now settling under Con- necticut title, and the legislature of Pennsylvania was passing very severe laws against them, as the Intrusion law and Terri- torial act, and the people were very much harrassed by them." In 1804 Mr. Ingham was chosen to represent Luzerne county in the state legislature, and through his efforts the obnoxious laws above referred to were repealed. The next year the whole set- tlement was thrown into a ferment. by an ejectment suit being brought against Mr. Ingham, which was finally terminated by his purchasing the Pennsylvania title. The next year after (1806) as Mr. Robinson, a well-known surveyor, was tracing the Dundee Manor line, some of the people near Camptown, fearing that this
.
485
GEORGE MORTIMER LEWIS.
was done to dispossess them of their lands, determined to stop the survey. Here we will let Mr. Ingham tell the story : "The inhabitants in the settlement were all of them very averse to any surveys being made for fear of ejectments, and thereby furnishing the means for landowners to prove their rights. Some of them queried with me what kind of opposition to make. I told them to make any kind of opposition they pleased, only to kill and hurt nobody, nor let anybody appear in arms. When this sur- veyor came, a great many of the inhabitants collected; some in the woods shooting, others around the surveyor threatening him. I was afraid somne worse mischief would happen, so I ordered some one to break the compass, or I would. Upon this one of the company broke the compass, and the surveyor went away. And not a great while afterwards a United States officer was sent to arrest those who stopped the surveyor and broke his compass, and four of them were taken and had to go to Philadelphia. I went with them to excuse them and take their part, and defend them as well as I could. Accordingly, when they appeared be- fore the court, in the representation which I made to the lawyer who spoke for me, I took all the blame upon myself. I stated the case as it really was. I said the people were ignorant and all did what I bid them, which I thought was better than might have happened otherwise. This the lawyer stated to the court in a few words, and then expatiated largely upon the commendable part I had acted. Before he was done another lawyer got up and addressed the court, and said he was perfectly acquainted with me and that I was a very good man. Thus, contrary to my ex- pectations, I received great honor and applause, when I appre- hended I should receive severe censure and reprimand as the encourager and ringleader of outlaws. They were all dismissed to go home about their business with only paying the cost." Subsequently Mr. Ingham entered into an extensive correspond- ence with the Pennsylvania claimants of the land, for the purpose of obtaining from them some adjustment of the title which the Connecticut people would accept. But in this his efforts were unavailing. Mr. Ingham died suddenly in Bloomfield, N. J., October 28, 1820. Mr. Miner says of him that he possessed a mind highly cultivated by scientific research, was a model of tem-
486
GEORGE MORTIMER LEWIS.
perance, and a promoter of the peace and harmony of society. Samuel D. Ingham, who was a member of the legislature of Penn- sylvania in 1805, 1806, and 1807, a member of congress from 1812 to 1829, except three years while secretary of the common- wealth, and secretary of the treasury under General Jackson, which office he filled with distinguished ability, was a nephew of Jonas Ingham, being a son of his brother, Jonathan Ingham.
G. Mortimer Lewis was educated at the academy known as the Wyalusing Educational Union, and was prepared for college by his uncle, Rev. Darwin Cook, pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Wyalusing. He entered the last term of the freshman year at La Fayette in 1870, and graduated in the class of 1873. He read law with Edward P. Darling, of this city, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 6, 1875. He is the junior member of the firm of Ryman & Lewis. Mr. Lewis, as will be seen, unites in his veins the blood of two old New England families as well as that of an old Pennsylvania family, that have given to this section of our own state a number of good and influential men and women. From such an origin the quali- ties that win are almost necessarily inherited. Mr. Lewis is young, active, and ambitious. He is neither afraid of the hard de- tail work and research which the profession puts upon those who would follow it, nor of the necessity of standing before learned judges and detailing in a client's behalf the results thereof. He has a ready comprehension and an inclination to do his utmost. He prepares his cases skillfully and argues them with marked firmness and ability. In the comparatively short time he has been at the bar, he has made an excellent reputation with his brother professionals, and secured a clientage of which many an older practitioner might be proud, and which is the fruit of his individual efforts and conceded reliability and conscientious devo- tion to his duties. Mr. Lewis is a republican in politics, but has not held, or been an applicant for office. He is a genial young fellow and enjoys a marked social popularity, and is a bachelor.
a
二
=
487
GEORGE RIDDLE WRIGHT.
GEORGE RIDDLE WRIGHT.
George Riddle Wright was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Novem- ber 21, 1851, and is the only surviving son of the late Hendrick Bradley Wright of this city. He was educated at Edgehill school and at the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, graduating in the class of 1873. He read law with his father, and was admitted. to the bar of Luzerne county September 6, 1875. He is a director in the Wilkes-Barre Water Company, and also in the Wilkes- Barre Electric Light Company. Mr. Wright came from a family of lawyers, his father and his father's two brothers having each been prominent in the profession. Few Pennsylvanians were more widely known than the former, Hon, Hendrick B. Wright, now deceased, whose biography has already appeared in this series. Hon. Harrison Wright, though a comparatively young man when he died, had already made his mark at the bar of this county. Hon. Caleb E. Wright, the only survivor of the three, is still one of the leading members of the Bucks county bar, and resides at Doylestown in that county. The natural advantages of being derived from such stock, added to those of an education acquired at one of our very best institutions of learning, prepared the subject of our sketch for the study of the law, which he sub- sequently pursued in the office and under the tutelage of his father. After being admitted he practiced mainly in connection with his father, and made with him a very powerful and reliable legal combination. When the labor movement of this county was at its height Mr. Wright was offered the nomination for judge, but declined it, and William H. Stanton was nominated and elected. The circumstances of the family were such as to lift him above the necessity of practicing for a livelihood, and coming, at the death of the father, into possession of a handsome fortune, Mr. Wright, in effect, abandoned the profession, and now devotes himself mainly to the care of the estate and the pursuit of pleasure. Those who know him well feel that he has in him the material out of which successful lawyers are made, but the
488
EDWARD AMBROSE LYNCH.
necessity for calling it into action is lacking. He is very popu- lar in Wilkes-Barre's social circles, and entertains royally during the winter in his city residence, and in summer at a handsome and commodious cottage at Harvey's Lake. He is a democrat in politics, and has been several times spoken of in connection with the nomination for the legislature in the Wilkes-Barre dis- trict, but his ambition has not yet tempted him to competition for that or any other political honor. He is yet unmarried.
EDWARD AMBROSE LYNCH.
Edward Ambrose Lynch was born at Nesquehoning, Carbon county, Pa., August 15, 1853. He is the son of the late Patrick Lynch, of this city, who emigrated from Cavan, Ireland, to this country in 1830. Mr. Lynch read law with the legal firm of Rhone & Lynch, and was admitted to the Luzerne bar Septem- ber II, 1875. He was educated in the public schools and at Wyoming Seminary, and in his younger days learned the art of printing, serving an apprenticeship with Robert Baur, of the Democratic Wachter, of this city. He is a brother of John Lynch of the Luzerne bar. Mr. Lynch has talents which, if energeti- cally cultivated, will make him a useful member of the bar. He is young, content to make haste slowly, but creditably assiduous to earn his retainers. He is a democrat, has a taste for politics, but has not sought office, and is unmarried.
CHARLES HUSTON STURDEVANT.
Charles Huston Sturdevant was born in Bellefonte, Centre county, Pa., May 18, 1848. He is the son of the late E. W. Sturdevant, of the Luzerne county bar, whose biography has already appeared in this series. The mother of Charles H.
489
CHARLES HUSTON STURDEVANT.
Sturdevant was Lucy, daughter of Charles Huston, at one time a judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and one of the most distinguished jurists of the country. He was born in Plum- stead township, Bucks county, Pa., in 1771. His grandfather came from Ayrshire, Scotland, and he was Scotch-Irish in descent. He probably finished his studies at Dickinson Col- lege, Carlisle, Pa., where he was professor of Latin and Greek in 1792. He was studying law at the same time; and while there he completed his legal studies, was admitted to the bar in 1795, and settled in Lycoming county-cut off from Northumberland the preceding winter. Among his pupils in the languages was the late Chief Justice Taney, who placed a high estimate on the character of Judge Huston. In his autobiography the chief justice says of him, " I need not speak of his character and ca- pacity ; for he afterwards became one of the first jurists of the country. He was an acomplished Latin and Greek scholar, and happy in his mode of instruction. And when he saw that a boy was disposed to study, his manner to him was that of a compan- ion and friend, aiding him in his difficulties. The whole school under his care was much attached to him."' Judge Huston was commissioned a justice of the Supreme Court April 27, 1826, and retired from the bench in January, 1845. The last time he sat on the supreme bench at Pittsburgh he boarded privately with the sheriff, who kept house in the jail. He was much annoyed by a correspondent writing to one of the newspapers, "one of our supreme judges (Huston) is in jail," which put him to the trouble of writing to his friends and explaining how he happened, on that particular occasion, to be on the wrong side of the bars. With a rough exterior, he was as gentle as a child, with all its truthfulness and fidelity. After he retired from the bench he wrote a work on " Land Titles in Pennsylvania," which was pub- lished in 1849. He left his manuscript on his table by the side of a candle one evening while he went to tea. It caught fire, and when he returned he found his labor of years nearly consumed. But with his accustomed determination he re-wrote the work, al- most entirely from memory. Judge Huston died November 10, 1848, in his seventy-eighth year. He left two daughters, one of whom married E. W. Sturdevant, and the other became the wife
490
FRANK CALEB STURGES.
of the late James Hale, member of congress and judge of the Clearfield district. C. H. Sturdevant was educated at the acad- emy of W. S. Parsons in Wilkes-Barre, and at Hobert College, Geneva, N. Y., and graduated from the latter institution in the class of 1869. He read law with E. P. Darling, of this city, and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar October 4, 1875. Mr. Sturdevant, coming from a parent stock that has been fruitful of good and competent men and women, and having had the ad- vantages of a liberal education, found himself, upon admission to the bar, equipped to become one of its most useful and active members. He is not one of the pushers of the profession, how- : ever, having means and other prospects sufficient to relieve him of necessity for depending upon it, and being content to take the legal world pretty much as it comes. He has done some legal work and done it well, and is capable of more and better. He is well read in general literature, popular in society, and not much given to politics.
FRANK CALEB STURGES.
Frank Caleb Sturges was born in the village of Greenfield Hill, Fairfield county, Conn., March 12, 1854. He is a descendant of Roger Sturgis, of Clipston, Northamptonshire, England, whose will is dated November 10, 1530, and who had a son Robert, who had a son Roger, who had a son Robert, who had a son Edward. This last named removed to New England and settled in Charles- town, Mass., in 1634. He subsequently settled in Yarmouth. Ed- ward had a son Peter, who had a son Christopher, who had a son Joseph. He settled in Stamford, Conn., where his son Lewis was born July 15, 1756, and died in 1838. His wife was Mary Porter. His son, Joseph Porter Sturges, was born in 1784, and died in 1861. His wife was Laura, daughter of Thomas H. Benedict. He was a descendant of Thomas Benedict, whose history is given in "The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America," by Henry Marvin Bene- dict. He thus speaks of Thomas Benedict : Among those Eng- lishmen who went into voluntary exile rather than endure the cru-
491
FRANK CALEB STURGES.
elties and oppressions of Stuarts in the state and lands and in the church, was Thomas Benedict, of Nottinghamshire. There is rea- son to suppose that his own remote ancestor had made England his refuge from religious persecution on the Continent. There was a tradition in his family which ran, that anciently they resided in the silk manufacturing district of France, and were of Latin origin ; that Huguenot persecutions arising they fled to Germany and thence by way of Holland to England. It is said of Thomas Benedict that he was born in 1617; that he was an only son ; that the name had been confined to only sons in the family for more than a hundred years ; and that at the time he left England he did not know of another living person of the name; whence it is assumed that his father was not living. Hinman says, " Thomas Benedict was the only early settler found in the colony of Connecticut of the name of Benedict." The mother of Thomas Benedict died early, his father marrying for his second wife a widow, whose daughter, Mary Bridgum, came to New England in 1638, in the same vessel with Thomas, then in his twenty-first year. Soon after their arrival they were married, and, finding the society and institutions of Massachusetts Bay congenial, they resided in that colony for a time. These facts in the history of Thomas Benedict are verified by the testimony of Mary Bridgum herself, who lived to the age of one hundred years, and in her life-time communicated them to her grandson, Deacon James Benedict, of Ridgefield, Conn., who recorded them in 1755. In June, 1657, Thomas Benedict was a resident of Huntington, and in 1640 was an inhabitant of Southold. There are traces of his presence in Jamaica as early as December 12, 1662, when, in conjunction with two others, he was appointed to lay out "the south meadows." On March 20, 1663, he was appointed a mag- istrate by the Dutch governor, Stuyvesant, an honor, it is to be feared, which he never requited by loyalty to the Dutch govern- ment. On September 29, 1663, we find him, with other inhabitants of towns on the west end of Long Island, petitioning the General Court of Connecticut to be what in our day would be termed annexed to the colony. He was, in fact, one of the bearers of this petition to the court at Hartford, November 3, 1663. On December 3, 1663, he was appointed lieutenant of the town. He :
·
0
492
FRANK CALEB STURGES.
held the office of commissioner when the Dutch governor, Stuy- vesant, surrendered New York and its dependencies to the Eng- lish under Colonel Richard Nichols. He was a member of "a General Meeting " held on the last day of February, 1665. This is thought to be the first English legislative body convened in New York. The same year he was appointed by Governor Nichols lieutenant of the foot company of Jamaica. The fact that in this same year he is recorded as having been chosen town clerk of Norwalk, Conn., gives color to the supposition that some confusion of dates was occasioned about this time by the intro- duction into the possessions acquired from the Dutch of the style in use in England then, and for many years afterwards, and also from the practice of double dating. A flight to the jurisdic- tion of New England from that of New York, whose governor must have seemed a lineal representative of the persecutors who had driven the Puritans from the mother country, would not be a suprising thing in the case of any of that people. In that of Thomas Benedict it was a most natural result. The following year he was made a selectman of the town. He was continued town clerk until 1674, and after an interval of three years was again appointed. His term of service as selectman covers seven- teen years, closing with 1688. His name is one of forty-two who comprised the list of freemen in 1669. He was the repre- setative of Norwalk in the general assembly in 1670, and again in 1675. In the patent granted by the General Court in 1686, confirming the title of Norwalk to its territory, his name is in- serted as a patentee. In May, 1684, the General Court appointed him and three others to plant a town above " Norwalke or Fayre- feild," at Paquiage ; and in the fall of that year and the spring of 1685, Samuel and James, sons of Thomas, and six others, with their families, settled there, the land having been purchased from the Indians. The parties most interested asked that their settle- ment might be named " Swanfield," but in 1687 the General Court denied their request and called it Danbury. He is identified with the founding of the first Presbyterian church in America, at Jamaica, in 1662 ; and during the term of his residence there he was of the committee to make the rate and provide the means to support its minister. In Norwalk he was chosen deacon and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.