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 15
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Mr. Staples quickly rose to a leading position at the Monroe county bar after his admission thereto, and was in the enjoyment of a first class practice there when his appointment to the revenue service came to him. He was also well known in politics, as that appointment testifies. His administration or collection has thus far been marked by a skill and thoroughness that are very creditable to a new official. He has simplified the methods of collection in a number of particulars wherein the collectors are given an option, and has maintained a sharp look-out for infrac- tions of the law, not a few of which have already (September, 1886) been detected and the offenders punished. His district, as is indicated in the names and the number of counties covered by it, is one of the largest and most important in the state. Mr. Staples in private life is a very companionable gentleman, a pleasant and ready conversationalist, and on these accounts a favorite in the social circle.
PETER ALOYSIUS O'BOYLE.
Peter Aloysius O'Boyle was born in the parish of Killfine, in the county of Mayo, Ireland, November 10, 1861. He is the son of Patrick O'Boyle, who emigrated to this country in 1865, in com- pany with his wife and family, settling in Pittston, Pa., where he
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has since resided. The wife of Patrick O'Boyle, and the mother of P. A. O'Boyle, is Bridget Hagerty, daughter of Michael Hag- erty. P. A. O'Boyle was educated in the public schools of the borough of Pittston, and read law with Alexander Farnham, of this city. He was admitted to the Luzerne county bar July 27, 1885. During the past summer he was a delegate to the Chicago convention of the Irish National League of America.
Mr. O'Boyle is yet but a beginner, though he has already gath- ered a number of clients about him, and achieved a reputation of throwing that energy into the prosecution of their business that is certain to win both their confidence and, if the law is with them, their causes, too. He is fortunate in being the possessor of the rare gift of natural eloquence, and on that account is already much sought after as a public speaker, particularly by the Irish and Irish-American and other benevolent and patriotic organizations of his vicinity. A young man thus qualified is practically certain to develop excptional opportunity for acquiring a practice. Mr. O'Boyle has all the fitness for successful and profitable work at the bar, and " there is always room at the top."
HENRY HUNTER WELLES.
Henry Hunter Welles was born in Kingston, Pa., January 21, 1861. He is a descendant of Governor Thomas Welles, of Con- necticut, who was born in Essex county, England, in 1598. Early in 1636 Lord Saye and Sele, with his private secretary, Thomas Welles, ancestor of Henry Hunter Welles, came out to Saybrook, but his lordship, discouraged by the gloomy aspect of everything about him, and not finding his golden dreams realized, returned to England, and left his secretary behind to encounter the dangers and difficulties of the then wilderness. Mr. Welles, with his company, proceeded up the Connecticut river to Hartford. He appears for the first time of record in Hartford, in 1637, in which year he was chosen one of the magis- trates of the colony. This office he held every successive year
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from this date till his decease in 1659-1660, a period of twenty- two years. In 1639 he was chosen the first treasurer of the colony, under the new constitution, and this office he held at various times till the year 1651, at which time, being in the place of magistrate, and finding the execution of the duties of both burdensome, he himself moved the General Court " to be eased of the Treasurer's place ;" and the court granted his motion, and " did think of somebody else to be Treasurer in his room." . In 1641 he was chosen secretary of the colony, and this office he held at various times. In 1649 he was one of the commissioners of the United Colonies. In 1654, Governor Hopkins being in England and Deputy Governor Haynes being dead, he was elected by the whole body of freemen, convened at Hartford, moderator of the General Court. This year he was also appointed one of the com- missioners of the United Colonies, but his duties at home pre- vented him from serving. This year, also, he was chosen Deputy Governor; in 1655 Governor; and in 1656 and 1657 Deputy Governor ; in 1658 again Governor ; and in 1659 again Deputy Governor. Thus, then, stretching over a period of twenty-three years, from his first appearance in the colony to his decease, we find Thomas Welles perpetually enjoying the confidence of his fellow citizens, and occupying the highest post in the colony. As Secretary of State it was his duty to record the proceedings of the General Court and the agreements of the colony. We may presume that he ably discharged this duty, particularly as we find him charged at times with reducing to form the contracts of the colony, as in 1648 when he is appointed with Mr. Cullick " to draw up in writing for record " the important agreement of Connecticut with Mr. Fenwick, about Saybrook. It was this Saybrook affair that the next year, when Mr. Welles was one of the commissioners, formed a principal subject of deliberation in the first Federal Congress of the New World. She put a small duty on all grain and biscuit and beaver exported from the mouth of the river from the towns situated upon it, for the support of the fort at Saybrook. Springfield rebelled, and Massachusetts rebelled, and there was warm agitation at the meeting of the commissioners, and both Mr. Welles and Governor Hopkins nobly sustained the rights of Connecticut in the case and were triumphant, having
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procured the decision of every colony in their favor except that of " the Bay." Besides this subject there came before the com- missioners the very serious quarrel between the English and the Dutch about the settlement of Delaware Bay ; the seizure by the Dutch of the vessel of Mr. Westerhouse, in the harbor of New Haven ; the murder by the Indian's of Mr. Whitmore, at Stam- ford; other murders at Southampton ; and a dark plot against Uncas and the English on the part of the Narragansetts and Nehantics. The meeting was an extraordinary one, called in view of serious and alarming dangers. . By a course of prudent action, in which the counsels of Mr. Welles had much influence, war with the Dutch was postponed, the Indians compelled "to keep the peace," and Uncas, in spite of the fact that he appeared before the commissioners with a deep stab from an Indian assassin in his body, was fined one hundred fathoms of wampum for too tender dalliance with the Pequot squaws. The entire proceed- ings of this congress of 1649 reflect high credit on the commis- sioners who composed it, and on Mr. Welles as one of them. In his part as moderator of the General Court, and as Deputy Gover- nor in 1654, Mr. Welles had to discharge all the duties of Gov- ernor, the Governor himself, Mr. Hopkins, being absent in Eng- land. This was a year of stirring events-of the arrival of Crom- well's fleet of ships for the reduction of the Dutch, and the quar- rel between Ninigrate and the Long Island Indians. Governor Welles twice convoked special sessions of the General Court : effected the appointment of commissioners to meet Cromwell's officers at Boston ; quieted a violent dispute between Uncas and the inhabitants of New London, about lands; and by correspond- ence with Governor Eaton and the colony at New Haven des- patched Lieutenant Seely and Captain Mason, with men and ammunition, to assist the Long Island Indians and check the assaults of Ninigrate. It was during his administration this year that the Acts passed sequestering the Dutch house lands and property of all kinds in Hartford, and thus forever cutting off a fruitful source of Dutch intrusion and Dutch impudence. To those familiar with the eternal annoyance which the settlers of Hartford received from Dutch Point, this act will appear a tall feather in the cap of Governor Welles. Governor Thomas
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Welles was married in England about 1618. His wife's maiden name was Hunt-a very highly respectable family. She died in 1640, and he on Sunday, January 14, 1660.
Samuel Welles, the fifth child of Governor Thomas Welles, was born in Essex, England, in 1630, whence he was brought with his parents in 1636 to Saybrook, and in the autumn of the same year to Hartford, where he lived until 1649, when he removed to Wethersfield, where he lived the remainder of his lifetime, and died July 15, 1675. He took the freeman's oath at Hartford May 21, 1657. He was elected deputy magistrate from 1657 to 1661, inclusive.
Captain Samuel Welles, the first child of Samuel Welles, was born in Wethersfield, Conn., April 13, 1660, whence he removed, about 1685, to Glastenbury, Conn., where he died August 28, 1731. He was one of the selectmen of Glastenbury, and for many years was a member of the legislature of Connecticut. Hon. Thomas Welles, son of Captain Samuel Welles, was born in Glastenbury February 14, 1693, and died there May 14, 1767. John Welles, son of Hon. Thomas Welles, was born in Glasten- bury August 11, 1729, and died there April 16, 1764. George Welles, son of John Welles, was born in Glastenbury February 13, 1756, and in 1798 he removed to Athens, Luzerne (now Bradford) county, Pa. His name is prominently connected with the early history of Athens. He was connected by descent and marriage with the prominent families of Connecticut, and was a man of superior ability, and said to be a graduate of Yale college. Soon after settling in Athens he was appointed a justice of the peace, and became land agent for Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. He was licensed a " taverner " in 1798, and was annually licensed until 1809. He was the father of General Henry Welles, of Athens. He died in Athens in 1813. Charles F. Welles, son of George Welles, of Athens, was born in Glastenbury November 5, 1789. At the organization of Bradford county, in 1812, Mr. Welles received from Governor Snyder authority to administer the oaths of office to the newly chosen officers, and himself was appointed prothonotary, clerk of the courts, register, and recorder. These offices he held until 1818. Mr. Welles was a man of varied and extensive read- ing, and probably knew more of the history of the county, of its
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resources and men, than any other man of his day. Though never a politician in the sense of aspiring for office, he took a deep interest in political questions. In early life he espoused the principles advocated by Jefferson ; later he became an admirer of Henry Clay, and a defender of his policy. During his ten years' residence in Towanda he exerted a well-nigh controlling influence in the politics of the county. His articles on political questions written at this time were marked by a breadth of view and urged by a cogency of reasoning that carried conviction to the mind of the reader, while the corrupt politician received scathing rebukes from his trenchant pen. As a man of business he was punctual, ready, accurate, of unquestioned integrity, pos- sessing a generous heart and a kindly feeling for the distressed. The tenants upon his farm or the people in his employ ever found him liberal in his demands and unexacting in his requirements. Though engaged in extended and frequently harrassing business, his interest in public matters continued unabated; and it is believed that until within the last year of his life he never missed attendance upon a single term of court held at Towanda. He was admitted to the bar of Bradford county at its first term, but it is believed that he never practiced his profession. He died at Wyalusing, Pa., September 23, 1866. He married August 15, 1816, Ellen Jones Hollenback, daughter of Matthias Hollenback, of Wilkes-Barre. He was a native of Jonestown, Lancaster (now Lebanon) county, where he was born February 17, 1752, and was the second son of John Hollenback and Eleanor Hollenback (nee Jones); his paternal grandfather came from Germany. The mother of Mrs. Welles, and the wife of Matthias Hollenback, was Mrs. Cyprian Hibbard, whose maiden name was Sarah Burritt, whom he married April 20, 1788. She was the daughter of Cap- tain Peleg Burritt, a native of Stratford, Conn., and who removed to Hanover, in this county, as early as 1773. Cyprian Hibbard, the first husband of Mrs. Hollenback, was in the battle and massacre of Wyoming, July 3, 1778, with his two brothers, Ebenezer and William, and was slain, the two brothers es- caping.
Rev. Henry Hunter Welles, son of Charles F. Welles, was born at Wyalusing September 15, 1824. He graduated at the college of
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New Jersey, at Princeton, in the class of 1844. He also studied two years in the Princeton Theological Seminary. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Susquehanna August 29, 1850. He began supplying the Kingston Presbyterian church December 1, 1850, and was ordained and installed pastor of the same church, by the presbytery of Luzerne, June 12, 1851. He resigned from the pastorate of this church in April, 1871, since which time he has resided in Kingston, and is supplying pulpits of churches in Lackawanna presbytery. He married, October 12, 1849, Ellen Susanna Ladd, daughter of General Samuel Green- leaf Ladd, of Hallowell, Maine.
He is a descendant of Daniel Ladd, who came to this country from England in the ship Mary and John, which arrived in Boston, Mas- sachusetts Bay Colony, in 1634. He was the founder of the towns of Salisbury and Haverhill, Mass. He had a son named Nathaniel, born in 1651, who resided in Exeter, N. H., who had a son also named Nathaniel, of Exeter, who had a son Dudley, who lived at Haverhill, who had a son also named Dudley, who lived in Concord, N. H. He was the father of General Samuel Greenleaf Ladd, the grandfather of H. H. Welles, jr. General Ladd was the eldest of thirteen children. He was in business for a time in Concord in the hatter's trade, which was his father's business also. While yet a young man he removed to Hallowell, Maine. He established himself there as an hardware merchant and kept a large (the first) stove establishment on the Kennebec. During the war of 1812-14 he was captain of a militia company, and marched with his company to the defense of Wiscasset, Maine, against the British. For several years he was adjutant general of the state of Maine. In 1840 he left Hallowell and removed to Farmington, Maine, where he was engaged as an hardware merchant. In 1851 he left Farmington and removed to Auburn, Maine, and from there to Kingston, Pa., where he died May 3, 1863. While a resident of Hallowell he married Caroline Vinal. Her father was a son of Judge Vinal, a French jurist, who lived in Boston, having emigrated from France before the Revolutionary war. He was exiled on account of his political sentiments. His wife was of the nobility of France, either the daughter of a countess or one herself by a prior marriage. Their residence in
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Boston was on Beacon street, Boston Common, next door to the residence of Governor John Hancock. Caroline Vinal on her mother's side was a descendant of Deacon John Adams and his wife, Susanna Boylston, through Elihu Adams (a brother of John Adams, second president of the United States) and wife, Thankful White, whose daughter Susanna married Judge Vinal.
Henry Hunter Welles, son of Rev. Henry Hunter Welles, was educated at the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, and graduated in the class of 1882. He read law with E. P. & J. V. Darling, of this city, and attended the law school of Columbia college during portions of the years 1883 and 1884, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county October 10, 1885. He is assistant treasurer of the Hollenback cemetery association. Having been at this writing less than a year at the bar, Mr. Welles could not be expected to have yet acquired a large prac- tice, but he has already shown himself the possessor of qualities that have won for him the esteem of his preceptors and other leading members of the bar, and gives evidence of the fact that with ordinary energy he can go to the front rank if he tries. He comes, as shown, from stock that faced greater difficulties than beset any of us in the race of life nowadays and won, and with the incentive of such a lineage there should be little question as to his professional future.
JOHN MONTGOMERY GARMAN.
John Montgomery Garman was born in Thompsontown, Juni- . atta county, Pa., September 1, 1851. He is a great-grandson of John Garman, a native of Germany, who came to this country, with his father, when a boy, and settled in Lancaster county, in this state. His son, Jacob Garman, was a native of Lancaster county. John Levi Garman, son of Jacob Garman, is the father of John Montgomery Garman, and was born at Dauphin, Pa., subsequently settling in Juniatta county. The mother of the subject of our sketch, and wife of John Levi Garman, is Margaret
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Graham. She is a native of Thompsontown. Her father, James Graham, was a native of county Antrim, Ireland. He was con- nected with the Irish Rebellion in 1798. His name originally was James Graham McVannon, and when he escaped to this country he dropped the latter name. William McVannon, a brother of James Graham, was also connected with the Irish Re- bellion, and was executed by the British government for com- plicity in the same. John M. Garman married, October 25, 1882, Nellie Carver, a native of Lemon township, Wyoming county, Pa. They have but one child living-Jessie Carver Garman.
The father of Mrs. Garman is Benjamin Carver. He is a descendant of Jonathan Carver, who is among the list of taxables in Kingston township in 1796. Samuel Carver, his son, is also on the same list. The Carver family settled in the back part of Kingston township, near where the Carverton post-office is loca- ted. Samuel Carver was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church. Doctor Peck, in his history of Early Metho- dism, relates the following in regard to Mr. Carver : "Our next appointment was in the neighborhood of Rev. Samuel Carver's, a most excellent man and a good local preacher. He was a bright and shining light wherever he was known. Brother Car- ver was one of the mighty hunters of those days. Hence he often brought in savory meat, such as bears and coons. Now, my colleague had an implacable aversion to coon's flesh. It so happened that on one occasion, about the time that Sister Carver had prepared a dinner of coon's flesh, Brother Kimberlin came in, and of course seated himself at the table with the family, ask- ing no questions (whether for conscience's sake or not deponent saith not). He ate most heartily, when about the close of the repast Sister Carver inquired how he liked the meat. He replied, 'Very much.' She then informed him that he had been eating coon's flesh, and, with the muscles of his face distorted, he exclaimed, 'Sister Carver, why did you do so?,' and it was with some difficulty she could pacify him for the deception she had practiced upon him."
Rev. Samuel Carver had a son, Isaac Carver, who had a son, Benjamin Carver, the father of Mrs. Garman. The wife of Benj-
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amin Carver was Emilia Mitchell Carver. She was the daughter of Thomas Mitchell, a native of Warwick, Orange county, N. Y., where he was born in 1780. He was the son of Daniel Mitchell, an early settler of Pittston, where he died in 1787. Thomas Mitchell removed to Eaton township in 1818. He was one of the first deacons in the Baptist church in Eaton, which was founded November 20, 1823. The wife of Thomas Mitchell was Mary, daughter of Elisha Harding, who was born in Colchester, Conn., April 8, 1760. He lived with his father, Captain Stephen Harding, in Exeter, from 1774 till the Wyoming massacre. In connection with that tragedy his brothers Benjamin and Stukely were massacred, but Elisha escaped, with other members of the family, to Orange county, N. Y. He spent the rest of the revo- lutionary period in Connecticut, and was one of the volunteers who went to the defense of New London when that town was sacked by Arnold. He returned to Wyoming in 1784, just in time to be driven out by the Pennamites, but soon returned to fight it out. He was captured and put in jail at Easton, Pa., but escaped and returned. He married, in 1781, Martha Rider, of Pittston, and settled near the mouth of the Lackawanna. He moved, in 1789, to Eaton, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county. He was a justice of the peace from 1799 to 1812. In 1809 he was elected one of the commissioners of Luzerne county for three years. He died August 1, 1839, at Eaton. Hon. Charles Miner, in his Hazleton Travellers, speaks thus of Elisha Harding: "'He slept with his fathers' is the simple and beautiful expres- sion of scripture when an aged man has closed his earthly pil- grimage. Elisha Harding, of Eaton, has paid the debt of nature and gone down to the grave in a good old age, with the universal respect of all who knew him. One of the very few who were left among us who shared in the scenes and sufferings of Wyoming in the Revolutionary war, his departure creates a painful chasm, and compels the remark-a few, very few, years more and not one will remain who can say 'I was there. I saw the British Butler, his Green Rangers, and his savage myrmidons. I saw the scalps of our butchered people, and witnessed the conflagra- tion.' * * * Mr. Harding described the savages, after the massacre, as smoking, sitting about, and, with the most stoical
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indifference, scraping the blood and brains from the scalps of our people and stringing them over little hoops to dry-a most soul-sickening sight. In a day or two Colonel Butler, his Ran- gers, and a party of the Indians, left the valley, abandoning the settlement to the tender mercies of the butchers, who chose to remain. Among the expelled, Mr. Harding sought his way to Nor- wich, Conn., bound himself to the blacksmith's trade, and, des- pising idleness and dependence, nobly resolved to live above the world and want by honest industry. After the war he returned to the beloved waters of the Susquehanna. Whoever dwelt on its banks that did not say, ' If I forget thee, thou clear and beautiful - stream, may my right hand forget its cunning?' Whoever left Wyoming whose soul did not long to return to its romantic hills and lovely plains ? Married, settled, having an admirable farm, and he a first rate farmer, comfort and independence flowed in upon him, crowned his board with plenty, and gave him the means of charitable usefulness, in reward for early toils and present labor. A man of strong mind and retentive memory, he read much and retained everything worth remembering. Shrewd, sensible, thoroughly understanding human nature, few in his neighborhood had more influence. Of a ready turn of wit, an apt story-an applicable scripture quotation-a couplet of popular verse, always ready at command, rendered him a prominent and successful advocate in the thousand inter- esting conflicts of opinion that arise in life. A keen sarcasm, a severe retort, an unexpected answer, that would turn the laugh on his opponent, characterized him, but never in bitterness, for he was too benevolent to give unmerited pain. Of old times he loved to converse, and his remarkable memory enabled him to trace with surprising accuracy every event which he witnessed or heard during the troubles here. A very worthy, a very clever, a very upright man, he leaves the world respected and regretted. Thick-set, not tall, but well knit together, he seemed formed for strength and endurance. Of an excellent constitution, well pre- served by exercise, cheerfulness, and temperance, he had known but little sickness."
John M. Garman was educated in the common schools of his native county, and at the Bloomsburg Normal School, graduating
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from the latter institution in the class of 1871. He was a teacher from the time of his graduation until 1884. From 1875 to 1878 he was superintendent of the common schools of his native county. For six years he was principal of the schools of Tunkhannock, Wyoming county, Pa. He read law with Louis E. Atkinson, of Mifflintown, Pa., and with William M. and James W. Piatt, of Tunkhannock, and was admitted to the Wyoming county bar in June, 1884, and to the Luzerne county bar January 29, 1886. Theorus D. Garman, who was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature during the sessions of 1879 and 1880 is a brother of John M. Garman.
On his removal to Luzerne Mr. Garman located at Nanticoke, where he has already made himself master of a lucrative practice. He is a man of the aggressive sort in the prosecution of his pro- fession, without timidity, who believes in forcing the fight against his antagonist-qualities that compel admiration, especially in new, bright, go-ahead towns like Nanticoke, where even the oldest inhabitants are still, in a sense, new beginners, and have not yet had time to become conservative. He is a ready and fluent talker, a very useful capacity in the profession, and one that has already brought him into some political prominence in the county. He was not a delegate to the democratic state'con- vention of this year (1886), but happened to be in Harrisburg at the time the gathering was in session, and, being solicited, gladly agreed to accept a substitution for the purpose of presenting to the convention the name of Colonel R. Bruce Ricketts, Luzerne's candidate for the nomination for Lieutenant Governor. He had had no time whatever for preparation, but his speech, though brief, was pronounced by all one of the most eloquent and, in all respects, appropriate delivered during the session. Mr. Gar- man has a ready wit and a good memory, and with the gift of native eloquence, already referred to, he should have little difficulty in securing to himself an enduring reputation in our county.
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