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 25
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GEORGE PECK LOOMIS.
Captain Isaiah Loomis, of Lebanon, Conn., was the fifth son of Lieutenant Thomas Loomis. He was born September 11, 1749, and married Abagail Williams December 8, 1774. He served in the army of the revolution, and died November 20, 1834. Sherman Loomis, second son of Captain Isaiah Loomis, was born May 17, 1787. He married Elizabeth Champlin November 15, 1810, and died March 18, 1867, at Centremoreland, Wyoming county, Pa., to which place he removed in 1816. William Wal- lace Loomis, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., third son of Sherman Loomis, was born at Lebanon, Conn., July 14, 1815. He removed with his parents from Connecticut to Pennsylvania when but a babe, and has resided in this city since the autumn of 1827, with the excep- tion of three years. The only persons that Mr. Loomis recollects as being residents of Wilkes-Barre when he came to this city are Josiah Lewis, James P. Dennis, and Nathaniel Rutter. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1834, and is the oldest member of the Franklin street church. He has been a class leader since 1838. In 1865 he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Baker, and in 1870 he was ordained an elder by Bishop Janes. He has also been superintendent of the Sabbath school of the Franklin street Methodist Episcopal church. In 1857 he was the republican candidate for county treasurer, but was defeated by Edmund Taylor, democrat. From 1854 to 1861, inclusive, he was burgess of the borough of Wilkes-Barre, and from 1877 to 1880 he was mayor of the city of Wilkes-Barre. He is a charter member of the Home for Friendless Children of this city, a trus- tee since its incorporation in 1862, and for two years was its treasurer. He has also been treasurer of Lodge 61, F. & A. M., of this city. W. W. Loomis married, February 23, 1841, Ellen E. Drake, a daughter of Benjamin Drake, of this city. She died June 25, 1845. The only surviving issue of this marriage is William Drake Loomis, a resident of Wilkes-Barre. Mr. Loomis married for his second wife Elizabeth R. Blanchard, who was the mother of George P. Loomis. She was the daughter of Jere- miah Blanchard, jr., who was the son of Jeremiah Blanchard, jr., who was the son of Captain Jeremiah Blanchard. He was in Pittston in 1772, when he received a deed for " a settling right in Lackawanna " from Samuel Stubbs, of Walkill, N. Y. He
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EDWARD FRANK MCGOVERN.
was constable in 1775 and 1776 for Pittston. In 1778 he was captain of militia, and was in Pittston Fort with most of his company at the time of the battle and massacre, July 3, 1778. He was the first settler in Port Blanchard, in Jenkins township, Luzerne county, and a portion of his farm is still in the possession of his descendants.
George Peck Loomis, son of Rev. W. W. Loomis, was edu- cated at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa., from which he grad- uated in 1878, and the Syracuse University, graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1882. While in college he won an enviable reputation for his influence and activity in college fraternities. He first studied law with A. Ricketts, but left that office and filled the responsible position, with great credit to him- self, as cashier in his uncle's wooden moulding mill, Brooklyn, which he held a little over a year, when he returned to this city and completed his law studies under H. A. Fuller, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 31, 1887. Mr. Loomis is a young man of unusual natural intelligence, and gives evidence of having made the best possible use of the time he has devoted to general study and special preparation for the bar. He is a fluent writer and a very attractive talker. His qualifications are such as should assure him, in due time, a fore- most place in the profession he has chosen. Mr. Loomis is an unmarried man, and in politics a democrat.
EDWARD FRANK McGOVERN.
Edward Frank McGovern is a native of Darlington, county Durham, England, where he was born September 10, 1860. His father, Frank McGovern, of this city, was born May 7, 1822, in Curryglass, county Longford, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States in 1842. After remaining in this country about ten years he returned to his native country, but came again to the United States in 1862. Edward McGovern, father of Frank McGovern, was also born in Curryglass. The mother of E. F. McGovern
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EDWARD FRANK MCGOVERN.
who was the wife of Frank McGovern, was Fannie Ray, a daugh- ter of Robert Ray, a native of Mine Abbey, county Mayo, Ire- land. She married Mr. McGovern September 10, 1856, at Darl- ington. The wife of Robert Ray was Mary Arkeson, of Mine Abbey. When Frank McGovern came to this country, in 1862, he settled in Olyphant, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, and remained there until 1869, when he removed to this city and has remained here ever since.
E. F. McGovern was educated in the public schools of this city, and the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating as bachelor of laws in the class of 1886. He then entered the law office of John T. Lenahan, in this city, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county June 6, 1887. In 1881 he was elected an alderman in the second ward of this city for a term of five years. He is an unmarried man and a democrat in politics.
Mr. McGovern belongs to a class of young men who, without the assistance of wealthy parents or a general college training, but by dint simply of natural wit and energy, and with the aid only of such educational advantages as are common to all boys and girls in this fair land, has furnished many of the brightest ornaments of the several learned professions and not a few of our ablest states- men. It is one of the proudest achievements of the republic, this sending of poor boys to the highest rung of the ladder of distinction as men. Nothing we have done or can do so aston- ishes the old world, where the idea still largely prevails that only those of "high ancestral na ne and lineage long and great" can be really bright and useful men and women in the higher call- ings. Mr. McGovern is himself a young man of unusually keen intelligence, with a disposition for hard work, that proves very useful in every walk of life and particularly in the legal profess- ion. His record at the law university was a good one, and it is safe enough to say, even thus early in his career as a lawyer, that he will not be, in the race for patronage, with the hindmost.
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WESLEY JOHNSON.
WESLEY JOHNSON.
Wesley Johnson, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county in April, 1846, is a native of old Laurel Run, in Plains town- ship, where he was born December 20, 1819. He is a descendant of Robert Johnson. (See page 187 for a history of the Johnson family.) His father was Jehoida P. Johnson, the youngest son of Rev. Jacob Johnson. He was an active business man in his day and resided at Laurel Run, where he built a mill which he operated successfully for many years. The mother of Wesley Johnson was Hannah Frazer. She was a daughter of Robert Frazer, a native of Lovat Dale, Scotland, and the family were said to be relatives of the unfortunate Simon Frazer, Lord Lovat. Robert Frazer was being educated for the Kirk, but, being a young man at the time of General Wolfe's expedition against the French, in Canada, he left his school and enlisted in the British army and fought as a sergeant under that brave but unfortunate general at Quebec, and received a musket shot wound in the elbow on the plains of Abraham and lost an arm in consequence. He finally came to Wyoming with the Connecticut settlers, where he was engaged in teaching the youth of the infant colony for many years.
Wesley Johnson was educated at the Laurel Run school house, at the Wilkes-Barre Academy, and the Wilkes-Barre High School, under Professor J. W. Sterling. He read law under his brother, Ovid Frazer Johnson, and was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia county January 7, 1846. He has practiced in the United States district courts at Galveston, Texas, and Marquette, Wisconsin. From 1842 to 1845 he was United States Inspector of Customs, at Philadelphia, and from 1851 to 1853 he was clerk of the circuit and county courts of Marquette county, Wisconsin. He is at present an alderman of the city of Wilkes-Barre, one of the city auditors, and one of the assessors elect of the city. Wesley . Johnson married, May 12, 1852, Cynthia H. Green, a daughter of David S. and Mary Green, of Bristol, Vermont. One son, Frederick C. Johnson, M. D., of this city, one of the proprietors of
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WESLEY JOHNSON.
the Record of the Times, is the sole surviving issue of this marriage. The wife of F. C. Johnson is Georgia Johnson (nee Post), a daughter of Joseph H. Post, of Knoxville, Tenn. Wesley Johnson married a second time, in 1856, Frances H. Wilson, widow of Frederick McAlpine, of this city. Her grandfather, James Wilson, emigrated from near Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and settled at Mount Holly, N. J., where her father, Seth Wilson, was born. Seth after- wards removed to Wilkes-Barre, where he married Rebecca Yar- ington, a daughter of Abel Yarington, who was a native of Norwich ·or Stonington, Conn., and removed to Wilkes-Barre in 1770, where Mrs. Wilson was born, in a house on the river bank nearly oppo- site the residence of Andrew T. McClintock. He lived in this house until the Wyoming massacre and battle took place, July 3, 1778. It was then burned, with everything in it, by the Indians, Mr. Yarington and his family barely escaping with their lives in a ferry flat down the river to Sunbury. They stayed there till late in the fall, after the Indians had left and gone back to the north, when he returned and rebuilt the house and continued his business of ferrying until the great ice flood of 1784. At one time, while Mr. Yarington was absent from home, the Indians made a raid on the settlement. There was a cellar under the house, where Mrs. Wilson and a sister, Mrs. Colt, were secreted with their mother until the Indians left. The Indians came to the residence and ate all the provisions that were to be found in the house. (See page 496.) Mr. and Mrs. Johnson had but one child, Margaret, which died when about five years of age. Mrs. Johnson died April 21, 1888.
Few would imagine that in the quiet old gentleman who dis- penses justice in the Fourth ward of Wilkes-Barre is a lawyer of more than forty years' experience, whose professional duties have been performed at points so widely distant from each other, and whose career has covered such a variety of callings, all, however, bearing a more or less close relationship to the profession of the law. Mr. Johnson has not been an active practitioner for some years back. He is best known to Wilkes-Barreans, apart from his aldermanic position, as an historian and antiquarian, one interested in preserving the records of the past for the entertain- ment and guidance of the present generation and those who are
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SHELDON REYNOLDS.
to come. He has compiled a very useful volume on the Wyom- ing centennial and done much other literary work in the same line. He has been a frequent contributor to our local journals on all manner of topics, and is regarded as an authority on the subject of old Wilkes-Barre and old Wilkes-Barreans. He is a democrat of the old school, and has done much service for his party for many years on the stump and otherwise. He is one of the best known and most respected of our older citizens.
SHELDON REYNOLDS.
The Reynolds family is of English extraction, and is descended from James Reynolds, of Plymouth, Mass., 1643. James removed to Kingstown, R. I., before the year 1665, where the family remained for three generations. About the year 1750 the branch of the family now resident in this neighborhood settled in Litchfield county, Conn., and came thence to Wyoming with the first settlers in 1769. Benjamin Reynolds' name is recorded among the "men on the ground at Wilkesbarry, on the Susquehanna, be- longing to New England," April 12, 1770; and the name of David Reynolds appears as a witness to the articles of capitula- tion of Fort Durkee, November 14, 1769, also in the list of taxa- bles in 1777 in Wilkes-Barre and Plymouth, and in 1778 in the Plymouth list. It is not known whether he took part in the battle of Wyoming, but from the fact that his brother William was slain in that engagement and that David was one of the gar- rison of the block-house in Plymouth during the winter and spring succeeding the battle, it would seem probable that he was in the battle. The family was located as early as 1771 in Ply- mouth, at which time the name of William appears on the list of settlers, and where a tract of land was allotted him known as "Reynolds' Pitch." Their residence in Plymouth was continuous from the year 1771, with the exception of the time of the flight after the battle, and the expulsion in 1784 by the Pennamite troops, on both of which occasions the dwelling house and barns
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SHELDON REYNOLDS.
were destroyed by fire. David Reynolds died in Plymouth July 8, 1816, aged eighty-two years.
Benjamin Reynolds, the son of David, was born in Plymouth, Pa., February 4, 1780. He was sixth in descent in line of James, of Plymouth, Mass. (David 5, William 4, James 3, James 2, James 1, 1643). In the female line he was descended from James Greene, of Rhode Island, the ancestor of General Nathaniel Greene. Benjamin Reynolds was one of the prominent men of Plymouth. For many years he held the office of justice of the peace, and was elected sheriff of the county in 1831. As a friend to the cause of education and religion he did much during a long and useful life toward the promotion of its interest in his native village. In 1800 he married Lydia Fuller, a descendant of the Mayflower family of that name, three of her ancestors having been members of the company of Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. She was seventh in the line of Edward (Joshua 6, Joseph 5, Joseph 4, John 3, Samuel 2, Edward I). The last two were of the Mayflower. In another line she was descended from Rev. John Lothropp, who, fleeing from the oppression of Archbishop Laud, came to America in Winthrop's company. Benjamin Reynolds died in Plymouth February 22, 1854. The children of Benjamin Reynolds and Lydia Fuller Reynolds, his wife, were William C. Reynolds, the father of the subject of this sketch; Hannah, wife of Andrew Bedford, M. D., of Waverly, Pa., the mother of George R. Bedford, of the Luzerne bar; Chauncey A. Reynolds, the father of the late Lazarus Denison Reynolds, of the Luzerne bar : Elijah W. Reynolds, father of John B. Reynolds, of the Luzerne bar; J. Fuller Reynolds, father of H. B. Reynolds, of the Luzerne bar; Clara Reynolds; Emily, wife of R. H. Tubbs, M. D., of Kingston ; and Abram H. Reynolds. Emily and Abram H. are still living.
William Champion Reynolds, the father of Sheldon Reynolds, was the eldest son of Benjamin and Lydia Fuller Reynolds, and was born in Plymouth, Pa., in December, 1801. He received his education at the schools near his home and the old Wilkes-Barre Academy, where he was prepared to enter the sophomore class of Princeton College. His purpose of securing a collegiate educa- - tion, which he had long cherished, had to be given up owing to lack
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of means ; and after leaving the academy, at the age of eighteen, he secured the position of school teacher in his native village and continued in the work of teaching until, by means of his savings and some aid received from his father, he was able to embark in the coal business. In 1820 he began shipping coal to Harrisburg and Columbia ; and after four years spent in this pursuit, his ex- perience and the measure of success which had attended his efforts enabled him to extend the range of his business so as to comprehend in addition to coal the shipping to market of other products of the region. About this time he associated himself in business with his kinsman, Henderson Gaylord, under the firm name of Gaylord & Reynolds, and they entered actively upon the business of mining and shipping of coal and the shipping of grain and lumber. The changes that have been wrought in the indus- trial interests of this community within the last thirty years by means of railroads, canals, and modern machinery have been so great that in order to understand the condition of affairs at the time of which we are speaking, a few words in explanation may be necessary. Before the building of the North Branch Canal the only means of outlet for the products of this region, mainly grain, lumber, and coal, were those afforded by the Susquehanna river and the Easton and Wilkes-Barre turnpike. During the spring and fall freshets in the river many small fleets of rafts and arks bore to the markets of Harrisburg, Columbia, Baltimore, and other less important places, the products of the farms and mines that during the intervening seasons had been made ready for shipment and awaited this method of transportation. The mar- ket at Easton was not so much resorted to except in winter, when the snow made communication less difficult ; and then the trade was confined to grain in comparatively small quantities. The main markets were the river towns, as they were called, and the river was the highway upon which the great bulk of the commodities was carried. The region being in such a measure cut off from the markets, another cause operated to retard in a further degree its development. Money was so scarce that little business could be transacted by means of it, and recourse was had to barter, by which method nearly all business was carried on. Wheat being taken in exchange more readily than any other
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product of the farm, it became the staple product, and was grown in large quantities wherever the land was adapted for this purpose ; it served as a medium of exchange, and answered many of the pur- poses of money in local traffic. The isolation of the place arising from the causes mentioned rendered of little avail its vast natural resources, and restricted its products to the home trade. Under these conditions the establishment of a market that should enable a producer to realize upon the product of his labor became a question of general concern. The river, as said before, was the main highway; but the vicissitudes of river traffic, involving losses that frequently ate up the margin of profits, deterred many from engaging in the business. Some who had made the attempt suffered great losses ; others had abandoned the enterprise after a short trial of its uncertainties ; a few, however, through energy and foresight, were enabled to succeed, and by the establishment of a permanent shipping business on the river, created the home market for the products of the region. The firm of Gaylord & Rey- nolds engaged with great energy in the shipping business. In connection with this business they established a general store in Plymouth and another in Kingston, where they bought and stored for shipment large quantities of grain, the supplies being drawn from a section of country many miles in extent. Grain was bought also in the vicinity for future delivery at the place of shipment. From their mines in Plymouth they mined and stored coal in sufficient quantity to supply, in part, during the time navigation was practicable, an increasing demand for that fuel, a market for which depended largely upon the certainty of supply. After the completion of the canal to Nanticoke, connecting this section with the canal system of the state, much of the river traffic was transferred to that avenue, and the trade increased largely. In 1835 the firm of which Mr. Reynolds was a member was dissolved by mutual consent, and he continued the business until 1854, when, the trade having reached such proportions that the canals afforded insufficient facilities for transportation, he retired from active participation in the business and entered upon the project of providing better means of reaching the markets. Believing that communication by rail would answer in the highest degree the demands of the increasing trade, and in addi-
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tion to enhancing the value of coal lands, would also promote all other industrial interests of this region, he, together with Hen- derson Gaylord, the late Chief Justice Woodward, William Swet- land, Samuel Hoyt, and others, whose interests lay mainly in the development of the mineral resources of the locality, secured the charter for and proceeded to build the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad, extending from Scranton to Sunbury, forming connection at the former place with the Delaware, Lack- awanna and Western Railroad, and to the southward with the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie, and other roads, thereby open- ing a market for the coal of the Wyoming region reaching from the seaboard to the great lakes and the west. He served several years in succession as president of this corporation, his first term beginning in 1854, the year active operations were begun in the building and equipment of the road, and continued in the office until the completion of the enterprise, when, at his own request, he was relieved from the duties of the chief executive office, but continued as a director until the year 1865.
In his political belief Mr. Reynolds was a democrat of the Jefferson school, and when a young man took an active part in the management of the affairs of his party. He was elected to the legislature, and, together with his colleague, Henry Stark, represented this district for the term 1836-38, which included the territory now embraced within the limits of Luzerne, Lack- awanna and Wyoming counties. At that time the question of internal improvements was one of the chief subjects that engrossed the attention of the people. The development of the natural resources and the commercial interests of the state by means of avenues of intercommunication-the system of canals, slack- water navigation, and turnpikes-had been undertaken by the state government nearly a score of years before, and the benefits which were expected to accrue to this section by the extension and completion of this work made it a question of the highest importance to the people here. Mr. Reynolds' business experi- ence had made him well acquainted with the need of the pro- posed improvements and the great purposes they might subserve, and he assumed the duties of the office to which he had been chosen well fitted to represent the interests of this district. He
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SHELDON REYNOLDS.
advocated all measures relating to the plan of internal improve- ments, and labored to bring about its extension throughout this section of the state.
Among the important bills he introduced having relation to this subject was one granting authority to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to build a railroad to connect the head of navigation on the Lehigh river with the North Branch Canal at Wilkes-Barre. The bill was a compromise measure, releasing the company from the operation of certain clauses of its charter bearing upon the extension of its system of slack-water naviga- tion, but making obligatory the building of the railroad to Wilkes- Barre. Work was begun on the road in 1838, and completed five years later. It was one of the first railroads built in this part of the state, and its completion was looked upon with great satis- faction by the people as a principal factor in the progress and improvement of the place ; and that their expectations were not disappointed is shown in the present usefulness of this highway, which, after nearly fifty years of continuous operation, still serves to carry to market a large part of the products of the mines of the vicinity.
The course Mr. Reynolds pursued as representative, and his efforts in furthering the system of internal improvements, were favorably recognized by his constituents in a number of public meetings by resolutions expressing the high regard in which they held his services. The discharge of the duties of repre- sentative and the cares incident to the office required more time and attention than he could spare from the demands of an active business life, and at the expiration of his term he declined a re- nomination to the office.
In 1840 and for several years thereafter he served by the ap- pointment of the auditor general as manager of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, representing the interests of the state in that corporation. He was appointed in 1841 associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne county for the term of five years, succeeding in that position William S. Ross, and having for his colleague Charles D. Shoemaker. He was chosen a trustee of the Wyoming Seminary in 1845, the second year after the establishment of the school by the Wyoming Conference
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SHELDON REYNOLDS.
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