USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. II > Part 11
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One of the bills by him introduced was a measure to prevent company stores, which passed both houses only to be vetoed. Another introduced by him, during his second term of office, was of a character similar to the Employers' Liability Bill in England, and to legislation in actual force for years past in more that twenty states of our Union, designed to repudiate many
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DENNIS O'BRIEN COUGHLIN.
absurd decisions whereby men who can have no knowledge of one another, or of one another's acts, and who from the very nature of their employment can have no control over each other, have, nevertheless, by the courts, in suits against employers for neg- ligence, been declared co-employés. Mr. Hines's bill was, per- haps, drawn in language too broad to be advisable legislation, and the subject, then first brought before our law makers, was not generally understood and had not been sufficiently agitated in the press of this state to enable wise solution of the problem at that time. This much, however, justice demands.to be said: that Mr. Hines's effort in the direction of a more extended liabi- lity of employers to their employés than is now recognized by the courts was a step forward and, doubtless, will some day result beneficially to the great mass whom it was intended to help.
Mr. Hines is a man of positive likes and dislikes, a quality which alone would bring him some friends and many enemies. His extreme youthfulness when he made his entrance in public life, being barely twenty-four years of age when he was first elected to office, together with an impulsive disposition and a frequently uncontroled use of invective, have increased his hostilities. There are, consequently, many democrats, now his party associates, who have long forgiven the party backslidings of others, committed during the exciting events of 1877, 1878, and 1879, who can not easily forgive him ; nor was it for these surprising reasons that he should be defeated in his candidacy for state senator from this dis- trict. Mr. Hines has, since his first legislative experience, read law and has secured recognition as a member of our bar, who pleads his client's cause earnestly and effectively, and who devotes himself to his practice industriously. With advancing years deliberation will probably subdue impulse, while the qualities of mind, perse- verance, and sympathy, will increase the success and respect which he already enjoys.
DENNIS O'BRIEN COUGHLIN.
Dennis O'Brien Coughlin was born in Fairmount township, Luzerne county, Pa., July 9, 1852. He was educated in the pub-
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DENNIS O'BRIEN COUGHLIN.
lic schools and at the National School of Oratory, in Philadelphia, and was for many years a teacher in the public schools of this county, seven years of which he was principal of the New Colum- bus Academy. He taught, also, three years in Foster township, and two years in Fairmount township. His father, John Cough- lin, who is still living, was born in 1810 in Kilrish, county of Clare, Ireland. He was the son of Dennis Coughlin, and was about ten years of age when he came to this country. The mother of the subject of our sketch, and the wife of John Coughlin, was Dianna Seward, daughter of Titus Seward, of Huntington township, in this county. He was a descendant of Enos Seward, Sr., who was born July 7, 1735, and removed to Huntington in 1793. His son, Enos, married Sarah Goss, and lived in Granville, Mass., until he moved to Huntington, in 1793, and occupied the farm formerly owned by his wife's father. Titus Seward was the son of Enos Seward, Jr. Philip Goss, Sr., was the father of Mrs. Seward and one of the first claimants of land in Huntington. His sons, Philip, Solomon, David, Comfort, and Nathaniel, were with their father in the place before the Indian and tory invasion of 1778. Solomon was a prisoner in Forty Fort with Captain John Franklin, and others, for a short time. The names of Philip Goss and Comfort Goss are enrolled among the first two hundred settlers who braved the hardships and dangers of the advance force who came to " man their rights." The name of Goss has been permanent in Huntington since the first advent of the Connecticut settler. Before the massacre and battle of Wyoming the family of Philip Goss, Sr., lived on the farm now occupied by Levi Seward.
Mr. Coughlin studied law with Agib Ricketts, of this city, and graduated in the law department of the Northern Indiana Normal School, at Valparaiso. He was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county November 20, 1882. In 1880 he was the democratic candidate for the state legislature in the second legislative district of Luzerne county, and was defeated by Philip H. Seeley, repub- lican, the vote standing Seeley 2299, Coughlin 1865. Mr. Coughlin married February 20, 1883, Emma Hughes, daughter of Edward Hughes, of Kingston township. He was the son of James Hughes whose wife was Elizabeth Swetland, daughter of
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JOSEPH MOORE.
Joseph Swetland, a descendant of Luke Swetland, of Kent, Conn., one of the. Connecticut settlers of Wyoming. Mr. and Mrs. Coughlin have but one child living, Annetta Coughlin. James M. Coughlin, county superintendent of the public schools of Luzerne county, is an only brother of Dennis O. Coughlin.
Mr. Coughlin is not now practicing his profession, but is occu- pying an important position in the office of the collector of inter- nal revenue of this district. It goes without saying, however, that one who has been so carefully trained and has had such length- ened experience in the training of others, is a safe counselor and capable pleader in a court of law. As an educator Mr. Coughlin achieved a most enviable reputation, and as a rule those who have succeeded " with the birch " and afterwards went to the bar, have succeeded there.
JOSEPH MOORE.
Joseph Moore was born in Castle Eden, county of Durham, England, July 3, 1851. He is the son of John Thomas Moore, of Miners Mills, who is a prominent and worthy citizen of that borough. From 1871 to 1883 John T. Moore was inside foreman for some of the mines of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. He is at present superintendent of the Enterprise colliery, and Grassy Island Coal Company, and has charge of lands owned by Payne Pettebone, W. W. Amsbry, and other persons. He came to this country in 1854, locating first in Schuylkill county, where he was elected school director of Frailey township, but came to Luzerne county in 1867, before his three years, for which he was elected, had expired. Since residing in this county he has served a three years' term as school director in Plains township. The wife of J. T. Moore, and the mother of Joseph Moore, is Isabella, daughter of Joseph Smiles, of Scotch descent. She is a native of Shield's Row, county of Durham, England. Joseph Moore worked in the mines from 1862 to 1878. He attended school at intervals, and by close application to study, when not engaged in
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JOHN SLOSSON HARDING.
the mines, fitted himself for a teacher, and has taught in the schools of Falls township, Wyoming county, Ransom township, Lackawanna county, and Plains township, Luzerne county. He read law with F. M. Nichols, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county November 20, 1882. He has served as town- ship clerk of Plains township, and when the newly created borough of Miners Mills was incorporated he was chosen its first burgess, without opposition. In 1884 he was elected one of the county auditors of Luzerne county. He had the highest vote for that office in the county ; and in the borough of Miners Mills, where he resides, he had a majority of 139 votes over his highest, demo- cratic competitor, and 82 more votes than James G. Blaine, who carried the borough. He is an active republican, and is now secretary of the republican county committee. He is an unmar- ried man.
Mr. Moore is but at the beginning of his career, though, as we have shown, he has already given the best possible evidence of his being a useful man in the community in which he belongs. He is noted for doing whatever he undertakes to do, thoroughly, a trait of character not so common as it should be, and that, even in so crowded a bar as this is, will certainly ultimate in bringing him a paying clientage and a leading position. He has decided literary tastes and contributes not a little to the local newspapers, which are always grateful for his contributions.
JOHN SLOSSON HARDING.
Among the early planters of New England were the ancestors of the New England Hardings. Of the dates of their embarkation or arrival no record can be found, but circumstances indicate that it was in 1623. Captain Robert Gorges, "late from the Venitian wars," and son of Sir Fernando Gorges, of Redlinch, Somerset- shire, having received from the Council of New England the ap- pointment of General Governor of the whole country, and the grant of a tract four miles wide on Massachusetts Bay, and extend-
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ing thirty miles into the interior, arrived August, 1623, with a clergyman of the Church of England and "sundrie passengers and families intending there to begin a plantation," that being the "place he had resolved to make his residence." Sir Robert Gorges, his near kinsman, if not himself, had married Mary Harding, daughter and heir of William Harding; and which ever was her husband we may reasonably suppose that some of Lady Harding's relatives would have accompanied him. If she was his wife and attended him, the Hardings were probably her brothers. He pitched upon Wessagussett, already abandoned by Weston's people, and now Weymouth Landing, partly in Brain- tree. Here were seated the most ancient Hardings of New Eng- land, and here for half a century was the geographical centre of the race. Stephen Harding, the ancestor of John Slosson Hard- ing, by trade a blacksmith, is first mentioned on existing records in 1669, when he was of Providence. A tradition among his descendants, confirmed by circumstances, makes him to have come from Massachusetts and probably from Weymouth Landing in Braintree or Weymouth. He is supposed to have been the son of John and the junior brother of Abraham, and to have fol- lowed the colony from Weymouth to Rehoboth and to have first settled in the Baptist part of the town which became Swanzey and Barrington, now in Rhode Island. Here he is presumed to have come into possession of the town-right of an original grantee, in whose right and name he and his heirs drew many lots which led to the permanent settlement of several of his descendants in the latter towns. His name does not occur among the grantees and early proprietors of Rehoboth, because he must have been in his minority at the date of their incorporation, nor among the inhabi- tants of Swanzey when erected into a town, because he had pre- viously removed to Providence. But if a list of the early members of the Baptist church in Swanzey should be discovered, it is prob- able his name will be found included. Captain Stephen Hard- ing, son of Stephen Harding, sold his brother John seventy-three acres of land in Providence on December 31, 1712. At the same date he bought three acres of meadow land. He had laid out to him April 15, 1714, six acres of the common lands of Providence, and June 22, 1715, he purchased one hundred and forty acres in
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several parcels, the largest containing eighty acres. Nothing more is found of him on the Providence records. He removed to Warwick, or more probably resided there, when these convey- ances were made ; and was in early life a tanner and currier, but before leaving Rhode Island had probably built and sailed his own vessel. He was in middle life a man of wealth, and his ac- quaintances and transactions seem to have been with the first persons in the colonies. He subsequently settled in New Lon- don, now Waterford, and engaged in commerce. He sailed from New London, until, sustaining heavy losses at sea, he resumed his early occupation and ended his days upon his farm. The name of his wife has not been ascertained. His eldest son, John, removed to Red Stone, Pa., and subsequently to Kentucky, and from him some of the distinguished Hardins of that state are presumed to have descended. Stephen Harding, son of Stephen Harding, was born in 1723. He married Amy Gardner about 1747 and settled in Colchester, Conn., where his children were born. In 1774 he removed to Wyoming and settled on the west bank of the Susquehanna river in what is now Exeter township. Captain Stephen Harding was in Jenkins fort at the time of the Wyoming massacre and was taken prisoner. He died October II, 1789, aged 66 years. Benjamin Harding and Stukely Hard- ing, sons of Captain Stephen Harding, were the first victims of the savage invasion of Wyoming in the summer of 1778. On June 30, as they were returning from their corn field, some miles up the river from Fort Jenkins, where the family had taken refuge, they were assaulted by an advanced party of Indians, whom they, being armed, "fought as long as they could raise a hand, but were overpowered, shot, speared, tomahawked, scalped and had their throats cut." Their bodies were found, taken to the fort, now West Pittston, and buried. In after years their brother, Elisha Harding, erected to their memory a monument with this inscription : "Sweet be the sleep of those who prefer Death to Slavery." The late Benjamin F. Harding was a son of Elisha Harding. He was born in Wyoming county, Pa., January 4, 1823; studied law in his native county and came to the bar in 1847; emigrated to Illinois in 1848 and during the following year settled in Oregon ; in 1850 he was chosen a member of the legis-
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lative assembly ; in 1851 was chief elerk of the legislative assem- bly ; in 1852 was chosen a member of the legislature and made speaker. In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce United States District Attorney for the territory of Oregon; in 1854 he was appointed secretary of the territory, which office he held until Oregon was admitted as a state. From 1859 to 1862 he was a member of the state legislature, serving the two last years as speaker, and in 1862 he was elected a senator in congress from Oregon, taking his seat during the third session of the thirty- seventh congress. The famous engraving, "Wyoming, June 30, 1778," well known to the residents of this county, was the first of a series of national engravings designed by F. O. C. Darley, and published in New York and London. The design is the same detailed in the following passage in Miner's History of Wyoming :
"At Fort Jenkins, the uppermost in the valley, and only a mile above Wintermoot's, there were gathered the families of the old patriot, John Jenkins, Esq., the Hardings and Gardiners, dis- tinguished for zeal, with others. Not apprised of the contiguity of the savages, on the morning of the 30th of June, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, John Harding, a boy, James Hadsel!, James Hadsell, Jr., Daniel Weller, John Gardiner and Daniel Carr, eight in all, took their arms and went up about three miles into Exeter, to their labor. Towards evening, at an hour when aid could not be expected, they were attacked. That they fought bravely was admitted by the enemy. Weller, Gardiner and Carr were taken prisoners. James Hadsell and his son James, Benja- min and Stukely Harding were killed. John Harding, the boy, threw himself into the river and lay uncer the willows, his mouth just above the surface. He heard with anguish the dying groans of his friends. Knowing he was near, the Indians searched care- fully for him. At one time they were so close that he could have touched them."
John Harding, the boy mentioned above, was the eighth son of Captain Stephen Harding, and was born about 1765. He married Affa Baldwin, resided in Exeter, and died in 1826. Isaac Harding, son of John Harding, was born in Exeter in 1797. On December 15, 1818, he was appointed by Governor William Findlay a justice of the peace for the townships of Blakely, Exe- ter, Northmoreland, Pittston and Providence. This office was
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practically for life, as the commission always read, " as long as you behave yourself well," and only the best men in the com- munity received the appointment. From 1825 to 1828 he was one of the commissioners of Luzerne county. In 1846 he re- moved to Pawpaw Grove, Lee county, Ill. He was a farmer and was elected a judge of the county court of Lee county. He died in 1854. Garrick M. Harding was a son of Isaac Harding. His biography has already appeared in this series of sketches. The wife of Garrick M. Harding, and the mother of John Slosson Harding, was Maria Mills Slosson, a daughter of John William Slosson, and a descendant of George Slawson, who was in Lynn, Mass., as early as 1637, and in that year was one of the proprie- tors of the new town of Sandwich. He sold land in Duxbury, Mass., in 1638, and is claimed as an inhabitant there ; he moved from Sandwich to Stamford, Conn., as early as 1642, and was a leading member in the first church, " and evidently a man of note in civil life." In 1657, as a deputy to the colonial assembly from Sandwich with Richard Law and John Waterbury, he presented to the court at New Haven the submission of the contumacious people of Greenwich. He was a deputy from Stamford to the last session of the New Haven colonial assembly. He died in Stamford February 17, 1694-5. Eleazer Slosson, of Stamford, was one of his sons. His will is dated April 29, 1693. Nathaniel Slosson, son of Eleazer Slosson, was born about 1696; bought nine acres of land at Captain's Plains, in Norwalk, Conn., Febru- ary 24, 1720-21, and five acres at Kent, in Norwalk, March I, 1720-21 ; and in each deed was described as "of Deerfield, Mass." He married Margaret Belden, daughter of William Bel- den, of Norwalk ; and probably began his residence in Norwalk directly after buying the land above named, for he was called of Norwalk November 16, 1721, when Samuel Belden gave him a deed of all of said Belden's right in the undivided lands in Nor- walk, " in consideration of the love and good will which I have and do bear towards my loving cousin, Nathaniel Slawson, of said Norwalk." He and his wife Margaret were among the members of the church at Wilton at the ordination of Rev. William Gay- lord, February 13, 1732-33; yet no record of their admission appears nor of the baptism of any of their children until the
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tenth (Nathan), March 18, 1739. In the first division of lands in Kent in May, 1738, he drew lot No. 21, and tradition says that he settled thereon about the first of November, 1739, about three miles northeasterly from Kent village, in the district called Flan- ders. He was chosen constable of Kent December 4, 1739; the town meeting was held in his house September 1, 1740; and in 1744 he was a lister. They joined the church in Kent July 12, 1741. His wife Margaret died April 14, 1780, in the Soth year of her age. He died March 8, 1787, aged 91 years. His grand daughter, Abagail, daughter of Jonathan and, Abagail (Slosson) Skeel, married Captain Asaph Whittlesey, a native of Washing- ton, Conn., where he was born May 12, 1753. He was a son of Eliphalet and Dorothy (Kellogg) Whittlesey, and was killed in . the battle and massacre of Wyoming July 3, 1778. Nathaniel Slosson was the ancestor of Hon. James Guthrie, secretary of the treasury under President Pierce, through his daughter, Sarah Slosson, whose grandson he was. Nathan Slosson, son of Na- thaniel Slosson, was born in Norwalk, recorded in Kent January 30, 1738-9. He married, October 13, 1768, Elizabeth Hubbell, daughter of Jehiel and Elizabeth (Sackett) Hubbell and grand daughter of Rev. Richard Sackett, pastor of the second church of Greenwich, Conn. . He served in the war of the revolution ; was " a sergeant major in the cavalry," and was detailed to the commissary department. He was at the capture of Burgoyne. He died October 5, 1821. His wife died January 16, 1829. Barzillai Slosson, son of Nathan Slosson, was born in Kent De- cember 27, 1769. He graduated from Yale College in 1791 ; and as he entered college in the senior year, he availed himself of the right to become a candidate for the honors of Dean Scholar, and obtained the first premium for excellence in Greek and Latin. He taught for a short time in the Sharon academy, then studied law with Governor John Cotton Smith, of Sharon, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Fairfield county, Conn., April 17, 1794. Between 1797 and 1812 he represented Kent in the Connecticut legislature. He was elected clerk of the Connecticut house of representatives in 1812. He married, October 25, 1772, Mary, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Cass) Hatch. He died in Kent January 20, 1813. His wife died February 13, 1831.
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Nathan, a brother of Barzillai, represented Kent in the legislature ; John, another brother, was a lawyer of Ridgefield, afterwards of New Milford, Conn. William, another brother, received in 1803 from Union college the honorary degree of A. M., and was a dis- tinguished lawyer in New York. Ezbon, another brother, was also a lawyer in New York. John William Slosson, son of Bar- zillai, was born in Kent December 20, 1795, and married, Sep- tember 26, 1824, Hannah Patty Mills, a daughter of Philo and Rhoda (Goodwin) Mills. She was the sister of Maria Mills Ful- ler, wife of Amzi Fuller and mother of Henry M. Fuller, of the Luzerne bar. Mr. Slosson was a merchant and settled in Kent, where he died Nov. 14, 1862. John Slosson Harding, eldest son of Garrick M. Harding, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., August 29, 1859. He was prepared for college at the public schools in Wilkes-Barre, at the academy of W. R. Kingman in this city, and at St. Paul's school, Concord, N. H., which school he at- tended during the years 1874-1875-1876. He then entered Yale college and graduated in the class of 1880. He read law with his father and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county No- vember 21, 1882. Since 1883 he has been assistant to the dis- trict attorney of Luzerne county. He is an unmarried man. Mr. Harding has given to the work he has had to do since com- ing to the bar such a color of wise discretion and intelligent effort as to quite fully prove that he has made the best possible use of the exceptional advantages he has had. The influence of con- stant association with his father, who is one of the foremost of our lawyers and was one of the most brilliant of our judges, and the training at Yale operating upon a naturally gifted mind, have made John Harding already one of the best of our young prac- titioners. He showed this during his term as deputy or assistant to District Attorney McGahren, a service which was so well per- formed as to earn for him the commendation of his chief and the applause of the bar generally and the court. It was a service valuable to himself also, since it must have given him exceptional familiarity with all our criminal laws and the methods of proced- ure under them. Mr. Harding is a democrat and quite an active member of that party, being secretary of the committee of the first legislative district, and a diligent and effective worker in
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every campaign as it arises. He is an affable gentleman, well read in general literature, a good conversationalist, and popular in social circles.
CORMAC FRANCIS BOHAN.
Cormac Francis Bohan, was born in Pittston, Pa., December 14, 1862. He is a son of Paul Bohan, a native of the parish of Cloone, in the county of Leitrim, Ireland. The father of the last named was Cormac Bohan. Paul Bohan emigrated to America in 1850 and located in Hawley, Pa., where he remained until 1854, when he removed to Pittston, where he has resided up to the present. He is a leading and prominent citizen of the borough of Pittston, and was a member of the town council of that borough from 1859 to 1862. From 1862 to 1867 he was one of the justices of the peace of the borough. From 1872 to 1875 he was a member of the school board. From the last named year to the present he has been a member of the "poor board of Jenkins township, Pittston borough, and Pittston town- ship," which includes also the townships of Lackawanna and Old Forge, and the borough of Hughestown. He was twice appointed to this position by ex-Judge Harding and twice by Judge Rice. He has also been in the mercantile business in Pittston since 1857. The wife of Paul Bohan, whom he married in Easton, Pa., August 1, 1858, is Bridget Ellen McCanna, daugh- ter of Francis and Ann Bradley McCanna. She was born in the parish of Killasnot, county of Leitrim, Ireland. She came to this country in 1850, and settled in Easton where she remained until her marriage. C. F. Bohan was educated in the public schools of Pittston and at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston Pa., from which he graduated in the class of 1880. He then entered the law school of Yale college, from which he graduated in 1883. He was admitted to the bar of New Haven county, Connecticut, June 27, 1883. After his graduation he entered the law office of ex-Judge Harding, in this city, and was admitted to the bar of
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