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 2
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Mr. Harvey was twice married. The first time, October S, 1845, to Phebe Maria Frisbie, a daughter of Chauncey Frisbie, of Orwell, Bradford county, Pa. She died at Wilkes-Barre, June 7, 1849, leaving only one child, Olin Frisbie Harvey, M. D. Mr. Frisbie was born November 16, 1787, at Burlington, Hart- ford county, Conn., and was a son of Levi and Phebe (Gaylord) Frisbie. Phebe Gaylord was a daughter of Lieutenant Asher Gaylord, slain in the battle and massacre of Wyoming. Chaun- cey Frisbie was at one time treasurer of Bradford county, also postmaster at Orwell, and held various positions of trust. His eldest son, Hanson Z. Frisbie, studied law with Colonel Harvey, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 5, 1850. He now resides at Grantville, Kan. Colonel Harvey's second wife, whom he married July 8, 1850, was Sarah Maria Garretson, a native of Readington, Hunterdon county, N. J. She was the eldest child of Stephen and Mary Ann (Urquhart) Garretson. Mrs. Garretson is still living. She was born October 31, 1797, at Readington, and was the eldest child of George and Sarah
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(Pittenger) Urquhart. George Urquhart was born in Scotland January 17, 1767, and came to America in 1786. He was for nearly his whole lifetime a school teacher. Captain John Urqu- hart, father of George Urquhart, M. D., of this city, and Samuel A. Urquhart of Pittston, was the second child of George Urqu- hart. Mrs. Harvey died in this city August 21, 1875. [For the material facts connected with the Harvey family we are indebted to advance sheets of " History of Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M.," by Oscar J. Harvey, now in press.]
Oscar J. Harvey was prepared for college by his father in his Classical and Mathematical Institute, and for the year preceding his entering college was an assistant teacher in the school. He entered the freshman class of La Fayette College in September, 1867, a few days after his sixteenth birthday, and graduated B. A. in 1871, and was at that time elected historian of his class for life. In 1874 he received the degree of A. M. After graduation Mr. Harvey returned to Wilkes-Barre and spent the ensuing year in his father's office as clerk. In July, 1872, he was elected professor of mathematics and higher English in the Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, and in September following entered upon his duties. He remained in the institution until July, 1873, when he resigned the position. He then entered the law office of Wright (C. E.) and Hand (I. P.), and in October, 1875, passed his examination for admission to the bar. C. E. Rice, W. S. McLean, and J. Vaughan Darling being the examining commit- tee. The court not being in session he could not be admitted at the time, and on November 6, he started on a trip through Europe for travel and study. He returned home in. May, 1876, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county May 16, 1876. Mr. Harvey founded, in 1872, at La Fayette College, " The Har- vey Prize for English," an annual prize of twenty dollars in gold to the student of the junior class excelling in the English studies of the year. He also contributed a collection of valuable books to the college library, and was recording secretary of the Alumni Association from 1874 to 1882. Upon the organization of the Wilkes-Barre Fencibles, November 28, 1878, Mr. Harvey was elected captain, and the Fencibles became Company B of the Ninth Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania. Cap-
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tain Harvey remained in command of the company till October 17, 1879, when he became commissary of the regiment. He continued in this position until July 11, 1881, when he was dis- charged under an act of the legislature of the state, cutting off all commissaries and paymasters in the National Guard of Penn- sylvania. Mr. Harvey has contributed articles to the Keynote, a leading journal of New York City, devoted to dramatic and musical matters, to the Magazine of American History, and other publications. He has been secretary of the Mechanics' Loan and Savings Association of Luzerne county since 1872 ; a director of the Masonic Benefit Association since 1879; also a mein- ber of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, and a counsellor of the American Institute of Civics, of which Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, is president. Mr. Harvey married, June 23, 1880, Fannie Virginia Holding, of West Chester, Pa., daughter of Eben B. and Martha P. (Smith) Holding. Mr. Holding was born near Smyrna, Del., and was the son of Richard and Elizabeth (Tillen) Holding, of Queen Anne county, Md. Mrs. Harvey has two brothers, Samuel H. Holding, the elder of whom, is assistant solicitor of the Cincin- nati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Indianapolis Railroad Company at Cleveland, O .; and the other, G. A. McC. Holding, is the law partner of R. E. Monaghan, of West Chester. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey have three children : Thorndyke Harvey, Ethel Harvey, and Helen Harvey, the latter two being twins. Circumstances have lured Mr. Harvey from the practice of his profession to other pursuits, probably more congenial to his nature, and possi- bly more profitable. He now occupies the post of chief of a division in the office of the third auditor of the United States treasury department. The office has a fair salary attached and the duties are important, and of a character Mr. Harvey's legal training and general business acquirements give him special fitness for. He has been a republican, though of late years not very positively of that faith, and his appointment under these circumstances was made in accordance with the pledge of Presi- dent Cleveland, given at the time of his inauguration, to preserve, as far as possible, the so-called non-political offices from partisan- ism. Mr. Harvey has a decided leaning to literary endeavor,
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and in several magazine articles on various topics, principally of a historical order, has evinced considerable literary ability. His diction is clear and pleasing, his reasoning forcible, and his facts are carefully collated and substantiated. He is at present engaged in the preparation of a history of Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M., of this city, one of the oldest Masonic organizations in this part of Pennsylvania, and whose membership has, from time to time, in- cluded a large majority of the distinguished men of the Wyo- ming Valley, not a few of whom have reached to enviable state and national reputations. The publication will contain about 400 pages, 8vo., eleven portraits (engravings and photographs), . and ten wood-cuts. There is not much doubt but, had he cho- sen to apply himself assiduously to the practice of the law, he might have achieved both a good income and a fair distinction thereat.
THOMAS HENRY ATHERTON.
Thomas Henry Atherton was born in Kingston township, Luz- erne county, Pa., July 14, 1853. He is a descendant of Robert Henry, who emigrated with his sons, John, Robert, and James from Coleraine, Ireland, and settled on Doe Run, Chester county, Pa., in 1722. Their ancestors were natives of Scotland. James died young, leaving one child, who died in infancy, and Robert removed to Virginia after his marriage to Mary A. Davis, of Chester county. John Henry, son of Robert Henry, married Elizabeth de Vinney, a daughter of Hugh de Vinney, who came to Pennsylvania in 1723, and settled in Chester county. John Henry died in 1744, and his wife Elizabeth in 1778, at Lancaster, Pa. William Henry, eldest son of John Henry, was born in Chester county, May 29, 1729, and after the death of his father was apprenticed to Matthew Roeser a gunmaker in Lancaster. Of his early youth but little is known. He possessed a mind strong in its powers by nature, and while prevented by circum- stances from obtaining a thorough scholastic education, he was still ardently bent on the acquisition of knowledge. Soon after
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the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1750, he commenced business on his own account in Lancaster. Upon the breaking out of the Indian War in the summer of 1754, he was appointed armorer to the troops collected for Braddock's expedition, and was ordered to Virginia. (Pittsburgh was then claimed to be in Virginia.) After the defeat of the expedition he returned to Lancaster, where he, as appears in a letter from Colonel Clap- ham to Governor Morris, delivered two hundred stand of arms for the use of the province. In 1756 he was married to Ann Wood, a native of Burlington, N. J. She proved to him a worthy helpmate during life, combining within herself every qualification to render him happy in his marriage relations. During the revolution she conceived the idea of making rag carpets. This she carried out by making the first one in the provinces or elsewhere. The war had rendered the luxury of a carpet almost out of the question, and this invention tended to supply the place of the imported article. In the year 1757 Mr. Henry, as contracting armorer, was again called to Virginia, to the army concentrating there upon the second outbreak of the Indian War in that part of the colonies. After the campaign he returned to Lancaster, where, in addition to the manufacture of arms, he, in 1759, entered into partnership with Joseph Simon in the iron and hardware business. In 1760, Mr. Henry, who sailed for England on business for his firm, was shipwrecked in the Bay of Biscay, and nine months elapsed from the time of his leaving home before his arrival in England. Soon after his marriage the introduction of Benjamin West to him took place under the fol- lowing circumstances, and we advert to this pleasing incident in the life of William Henry with peculiar pleasure, as its relation will disclose the character in a considerable degree of his appre- ciation of the fine arts and his desire to encourage talent : West, who was born October 10, 1738, was at the time this acquain- tance took place (1756) about eighteen years of age and was apprentice to a tinsmith of Lancaster named Metzger. Mr. Henry observed him chalking figures on a board fence as he was passing, and was led to enter into conversation with him. West confessed that he desired to have paints and brushes to exercise his favorite art. Thereupon Mr. Henry visited him at
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his house and soon provided him with these requisites, and dur- ing his leisure hours he, in a short time, had made such progress that he was induced to paint the portraits of both Mr. and Mrs. Henry. These are now in possession of a great-grandson living in Philadelphia. After having painted a few other portraits, Mr. Henry suggested to him the propriety of devoting his talent to historical subjects, and in a conversation mentioned the death of Socrates as affording one of the best topics for illustrating the moral effect of the art of painting. The young artist knew nothing of the history of the great philosopher, and upon con- fessing his ignorance Mr. Henry went to his library and took down from one of its shelves a volume of Rollin's Ancient His- tory (not Plutarch's Lives, as stated by Galt in his Life of West). The frontispiece of one of the volumes contains an engraving representing a slave in the act of handing the cup of poison to Socrates. (This identical volume is now in the possession of James Henry, of Nazareth). West commenced the painting on a canvass thirty by forty-five inches, but having never yet painted nude or semi-nude figures, he represented the difficulty to his patron, whereupon one of Mr. Henry's workmen was sent to him for a model (now in possession of James Harvey). West's second picture was a landscape, which was also presented to Mr. Henry. That West always cherished the most grateful remem- brance towards Mr. Henry is known, and that this friendship was reciprocated is evident from the fact that Mr. Henry named his youngest son, who in riper years also became a painter of con- siderable merit, after Benjamin West. In the year 1758 William Henry was commissioned a justice of the peace in and for Lan- caster county, and was in that capacity indefatigably engaged when the murder of the Indians by the "Paxton Boys" took place, in December of 1763. Mr. Henry was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society March 20, 1767, on which day David Rittenhouse was likewise elected. His certificate of membership is signed by Benjamin Franklin as president, and Samuel Vaughan, William White, and John Ewing. It is pleas- ant to note the progress of such a man as William Henry from the humble gunmaker's apprentice to membership in the Philo- sophical Society, and to the wise and sanguine plans of the
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statesman, to which he was called subsequent to this period. He rose by force of his native genius. Obstacles served only to rouse his latent strength. Considerable facility to improve his mind was afforded him by having access to the books of one of the first libraries established in the provinces (the Juliana Li- brary, of Lancaster). For many years the library was kept in Mr. Henry's house. In the year 1768 Mr. Henry invented a machine, an account of which will be found in the Philosophi- cal Society's transactions, Vol. I., p. 350, and also in the Penn- sylvania Gazette, July 7, 1768: "A description of a self-moving or sentinel register, invented by William Henry, of Lancaster, and by him communicated to the American Society, held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge."
If not the first, Pennsylvania was one of the first of the colonies to engage in the great system of public improvements. She merits unquestionably the credit of having attempted the first canal. Already in 1762 it was proposed to connect the waters of the Ohio with those of the Delaware, and as a part of the plan, in 1771, the assembly took into consideration that great advantages must accrue to the trade of the province in case an inland navigation could be effected between the branches of the rivers Susquehanna, Schuylkill, and Lehigh. The assembly ap- pointed John Sellers, Benjamin Lightfoot, and Joseph Elliot a commission " to examine the different branches of said rivers lying nearest to each other, to measure by the most direct course and distances between them, to observe the soil and other cir- cumstances in the intermediate country and report how far the said waters are or may be navigable up the branches thereof, and whether the opening, or communication between them, for the purposes of navigation or land carriage be practicable, etc., etc." On September 24, 1771, the commission reported to assembly. Benjamin Lightfoot resigned and William Henry was appointed in his place. On January 13, 1772, Samuel Rhoads and John Lukens were added to the commission, and two weeks later David Rittenhouse. They reported to assembly January 30, 1773. Mr. Henry's name is appended to the non-importation paper passed by merchants of Philadelphia in October of 1765. At this early stage of the controversy between Great Britain and
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her American colonies, Mr. Henry warmly espoused the cause of his country. His inventive genius developed itself more and more. The sentinel register was followed in 1771 by the in- vention of the screw auger. A description of this was prepared by his second son, John Joseph Henry, for a number of years president judge of Lancaster, York and Dauphin counties, for Rees' Encyclopedia, to be found under head of Auger. On Octo- ber 12, 1776, he was elected a member of assembly from Lancas- ter county. Among the committees on which he served were, one to draught instructions to delegates in congress, and one for a militia law. Mr. Henry's election to the assembly may be considered his entry into public life. In March, 1776, he was or- dered to manufacture two hundred rifles for Pennsylvania. His workmen were exempted from draft so long as they continued in his employ. On September 3, 1776, he was appointed a justice of the peace by the legislature of Pennsylvania, and in October following appointed to hear and determine and discharge the prisoners in the county jail who were suspected of being inim- ical to the revolution. In 1777 he was elected treasurer of Lancaster county, and held the office until his death in 1786. When the news reached Lancaster of the treaty between France and the United States (1778) William Henry personally paid for the illumination of the town in honor of the event. During the revolution he also held the office of deputy commissary of Lan- caster county, and, under Washington's order, in 1777, collected blankets, shoes, stockings, clothing, and other supplies for the use of the army. There are still in existence several letters of Washington to William Henry, as well as one from the secre- tary of war, desiring him to purchase a pair of horses for the family coach of Washington. A few days previous to the occupation of Philadelphia by General Howe, September 26, 1777, congress, as well as the assembly, removed to Lancaster, and David Rittenhouse, state treasurer, removed his office to the house of Mr. Henry, where it remained until the evacuation of the city. Thomas Paine, the political and deistical writer, roomed in Mr. Henry's house in 1778. Of him William Henry, jun., of Nazareth, has left record that "he occupied the second story room ; that he had often seen him sitting in an arm chair before
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a table covered with writing materials (he was then writing the 'Crisis') ; there used to stand on the table a bottle of gin, and pitcher and tumbler ; his habits were disgusting to every member of the family, but my father said that his writings had a great effect on the war by urging the inhabitants of the colonies to oppose Great Britain; he was very slovenly and dirty in his dress ; some days he did not write more than a line or two ; as soon as my father found out his opinions on religion, he did not encourage him to remain in his house; a coldness sprung up and he finally left."
Among those antecedent to Fitch or Fulton in the application of steam as the motive power to propel boats, was William Henry. See Life of John Fitch, p. 138, published in Philadelphia, 1857, for Fitch's visit to William Henry, who told him that " he himself had thought of steam as early as 1776, and had held some conversation with Andrew Ellicott on the subject, and that Thomas Paine, in 1778, had suggested it to him, but he never did anything in the matter further than drawing some plans and inventing a steam wheel, which he showed Mr. Fitch, and said that as he (Fitch) had first published the plan to the world, he would lay no claim to the invention, etc." On page 170 it is also stated " that it was declared that Thomas Paine, in 1778, and William Henry afterwards, had suggested the plan of applying steam to the verge of a wheel as the method of producing a motive power." The original drawings made in 1779 by William Henry were found among his papers after his death.
The German traveler, Schoepff, who traveled through the United States in 1784 and 1785, visited Lancaster and called on William Henry. See Vol. II., page 21 : " Another talented and worthy gentleman, named William Henry, I became acquainted with. Among other notable and ingenious things shown me by Mr. Henry was a small machine of which he was the inventor. An agreeable conversation between us as to the practicability of con- structing a machine that would move forward against wind and tide, gave occasion to its production to me. The machine is very simple and, apparently, will answer the purpose very well. A tin verge such as are made use of in windows for the purpose of ventilation, has attached to its axis a spindle of about six
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inches in length, etc. Mr. Henry said that he could make an- other machine which, if applied to a boat, must move it forward against the current. This machine he is, however, not willing to describe at present. He is confident that its use will, in a great degree, assist the propelling of boats up the Mississippi and Chio rivers, etc." And again: "I omit to mention other magnetic and electrical experiments which occupy Mr. Henry's leisure hours in an agreeable and useful manner, all of which indicate him to be a gentleman of refined mind and deep study."
In the transactions of the American . Philosophical Society, March 20, 1785, we find: "The society received from William Henry, of Lancaster, the following piece of mechanism and other curiosities, communicated by David Rittenhouse: The model of a wheel carriage, which rolls close in against the wind by wind force ; two pieces of crystal of unusual magnitude, found in Lancaster county; an exceeding large tusk and one of the grinders of some unknown animal from Ohio." The model and papers of Mr. Henry, deposited in the Philosophical Society, have long since disappeared from their archives.
John Fitch, in order of time, ranks after William Henry. Page 215, in Life of Fitch, says: "April, 1785, John Fitch conceived the idea of a steam boat." The plan of William Henry was made in 1779. Both Fitch and Fulton visited him. By vote of assembly, October 16, 1784, he was elected a delegate to the Continental congress from Pennsylvania, and on the 29th of that month took his seat in that body. In the following year he was again elected. Congress convened in Trenton, N. J. The busi- ness before congress mainly related to the examination and ad- justment of claims upon the United States. "One of the commit- tees on which he served was that of coinage. They reported : "First, that the money unit of the United States be one dollar ; second, that the smallest coin be of copper, of which two hun- dred shall be one dollar ; third, that the several pieces shall in- crease in a decimal value." A few weeks prior to his election to congress, August 19, 1784, he was appointed president judge of the Courts of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Lancaster county. This appointment evinces that, notwithstanding that he had not made law a particular study, yet, having acquired an
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early fondness for reading and mental investigation, became well acquainted with the various branches of science and literature- thereby becoming possessed of an extensive fund of information. His knowledge of law was less scientific, but more practical and useful. During the session of congress of 1784, a deputation of Indians arrived at the seat of government (Trenton), among them a chief called "White Eyes." This chief formed the acquaint- ance of William Henry, and entertaining for him a peculiar af- fection, he proposed to cement the regard for him (customary among Indians) by an exchange of names. To this proposal Mr. Henry acceded, and the name of Henry is borne by his descendants to the present day (1885). A descendant, Rev. John Henry Killbuck, late a graduate of the Moravian Theological Seminary, and at present laboring among the Moravian Indians in Canada, is about to proceed on a mission among the Indians of Alaska. The family were early converts of the Moravian Mis- sion prior to the revolution, and have continued members of the church. For many years Mr. Henry was one of the most active and influential assistant burgesses of the borough of Lancaster. He was also commissary of the regiment of troops raised in Lancaster county in 1775, and which was destined to re-enforce Arnold at Boston. Mr. Henry, after a short illness, died in Lan- caster, December 15, 1786, and is buried there in the Moravian grave-yard. He caught cold whilst attending a session of con- gress in Trenton.
William Henry, son of William Henry, was born March 12, 1757, and when young was placed with Henry Albright, gun- maker, of Lititz, to learn the business, and remained with him until 1778, when he became of age. The same year he removed to the Moravian settlement, Christian's Spring, near Nazareth, Pa., where he carried on the business of gunmaker until 1780, when he removed to Nazareth, and married Sabina Schropp. He resided in Nazareth until 1818, when he removed to Phila- delphia, where he died April 21, 1821. His remains now repose in Woodland Cemetery. His wife died in Bethlehem May 8, 1848. On January 14, 1788, he was commissioned justice of the peace of Bethlehem district, Northampton county, as also on the same day a lay or associate judge of the Courts of Common
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Pleas and Quarter Sessions. These offices he held until 1814, and then resigned. In 1792 he was chosen one of the electors for president and vice president of the United States, and had the honor of giving his vote to Washington, who was re-elected president of the United States. His duties as a justice of the peace and judge of Common Pleas he discharged with great fidelity during the insurrection in Northampton county in 1798, when the house or window taxes were about being collected. In 1798 he contracted with the state of Pennsylvania for two thousand muskets, and in 1809, in company with his son, John Joseph, with the United States, for ten thousand. He thereupon erected gun works at Bolton, near Nazareth, and in 1808 erected a forge to manufacture refined bar iron, and on March 9, 1809, had the first bar of iron drawn out in Northampton county. The Marquis of Chastellux, who visited Nazareth in 1783, describes an elegant pair of pistols made by Mr. Henry.
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