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 30
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829
LEWIS E. PARSONS.
pointed ensign February 19, 1778. Mr. Benedict died in 1810 and his wife in 1827. Sarah Benedict, his oldest child, became the wife of Lewis Jones.
Lewis Jones, son of Lewis Jones and Sarah, his wife, was born in Exeter, Pa., August 28, 1807. He was educated at the Wilkes- Barre Academy, and studied law with Chester Butler. He has practiced and resided in this city, in Carbondale and Scranton, Pa. He has also practiced in most of the counties of northeastern Pennsylvania. While residing in Carbondale in 1851 he drew the charter and had the town incorporated as a city. In 1855 he removed to Scranton, and in 1870 he was appointed by Governor Geary recorder of the mayor's court of the city of Scranton. This office he filled acceptably for a short time, and, declining a nomination, retired as well from general practice as from official position. Taking an early advantage of the opportunity offered in the city of Scranton, as well as the Lackawanna valley, for speculation, he acquired a large property. Since 1872 he has resided in the city of New York. Mr. Jones married, June 15, 1836, Anna Maria Gibson, a native of Springfield, Otsego county, N. Y., and daughter of William Gibson, of the same place, formerly a merchant of the city of New York. Her mother was Sarah Wharton Collins, daughter of Thomas Whar- ton, of the city of Philadelphia. The father of William Gibson was also William Gibson, a native of Paisley, Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Jones have two children-W. Gibson Jones and Meredith L. Jones, both lawyers, residing in the city of New York. The late Rev. Isaac D. Jones and Benjamin Jones, of Pittston, are brothers of Lewis Jones.
LEWIS E. PARSONS.
Lewis E. Parsons was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 6, 1839. His father was Erastus Parsons and his mother was Jeanette Hepburn, daughter of Lewis and Huldah Hepburn, natives of New Haven, Conn. L. E. Parsons is a na- tive of Lisle, Broome county, N. Y., where he was born in April,
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830
LEWIS E. PARSONS.
1817. He was a teacher in this city, and subsequently read law with George W. Woodward. After remaining here a year or two after his admission, he removed to Talladega, Alabama, in 1841, where he established himself in the practice of the law. He rose rapidly and was successful in his profession. He was a firm and decided whig in politics, without any compromise or con- cession. He was defeated for the legislature on the American ticket in 1855. In 1859 he was elected to the house of repre- sentatives, and in 1860 he allied himself with the democratic party, as the best means, in his judgment, to save the country from a threatened danger. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention, which supported Mr. Douglas for the presidency. As a representative to the legislature in 1863 he took a high position among men of talent and exhibited strong debating powers. From that time his character as a public man has been favorably known to the people of Alabama. During the late civil war he was a Union man without disguise, although offer- ing no factious opposition to the majority. All parties believed him honest and only conservative in his views. When in the sum- mer of 1865 President Johnson announced his policy of reorganiz- ing the seceding states, Mr. Parsons was appointed provisional governor of Alabama, with every token of public approbation. He resigned his position as governor on December 20, 1865. The state convention of September, 1865, over which Benjamin Fitzpatrick presided, unanimously
" Resolved That, this convention express confidence in the integ- rity, patriotism and capacity of Hon. L. E. Parsons, provisional governor of this state, and the members hereof acknowledge the courtesy and kindness which have uniformly distinguished his conduct in his intercourse with them."
As evidence of a still higher degree of public favor, the general assembly, at its session in December, 1865, unanimously elected ex-governor Parsons a senator in the congress of the United States for a term of six years. That he was not permitted by the powers at Washington to take his seat does not impair the force of the compliment. His wife was a Miss Wake, of Kentucky. In 1865 Mr. Parsons delivered a lecture in New York, in which he said: "While public attention in the north was
831
LEWIS E. PARSONS.
turned mainly to the operations around Richmond and to those which attended the movements of the vast armies of General Sherman, it also happened that General James H. Wilson, of Illinois, with a large force of cavalry, some seventeen thousand, commenced a movement from the Tennessee river and a point in the northwest of the state of Alabama diagonally across the state. His troops penetrated to the center and then radiated from Selma in every direction through one of the most productive regions of the south. That little city of Selma had about ten thousand inhabitants. Its defenses were carried by assault on one of the finest Sunday evenings in April, the sun being about an hour high. Before another sun rose every house in the city" was sacked except two ; every woman was robbed of her watch, her ear-rings, her finger-rings, her jewelry of all descriptions ; and the whole city was given up for the time to the possession of the soldiers. It was a severe discipline to the people. It was thought necessary by the commanding general to subdue the spirit of rebellion. For one week the forces under General Wil- son occupied the little town. Night after night and day after day one public building after another, the arsenal, and then the foundry, each of which covered eight or nine acres of ground, and was conducted upon a scale commensurate with the demand for military supplies that the war created, the railroad depots and machine shops connected with them, and everything of that de- scription which had been in any degree subservient to the cause of the rebellion, were laid in ashes. Of the brick stores in the city, more than sixty in number, forty-nine were consumed. After three weeks had elapsed it was with difficulty you could travel the road from Plantersville to that city, so offensive was the atmosphere in consequence of decaying horses and mules that lay along the roadside. Every description of ruin except the interred dead of the human family met the eye. I witnessed it myself. The fact is that no description can equal the reality. When the Federal forces left the little town, which is built on a bluff on the Alabama river, they crossed at night on a pontoon bridge, and their way was lighted with burning warehouses standing on the shore." He has one son, L. E. Parsons, jr., who is a lawyer. He also has other children.
832
ORSEMUS HURD WHEELER.
ORSEMUS HURD WHEELER.
Orsemus Hurd Wheeler, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 3, 1841, is a native of Galway, Saratoga county, New York, where he was born August 20, 1818. He is the son of Ephraim Wheeler, born in 1779, and his wife, Elizabeth Wakeman, a daughter of Gideon Wakeman, who was the son of an English nobleman. His grandfather was Calvin Wheeler, whose wife was Hannah Thorp. All of the above were born in Weston, Fairfield county, Conn. O. H. Wheeler was educated in the public and select schools in Galway, Saratoga county, N. Y., and the academy at Elmira, N. Y. He read law in this city with Volney L. Maxwell, and has practiced in Carbon, Luzerne, Nor- thampton, and other counties in this state. In 1848 and 1849 he was deputy attorney general for Carbon county, Pa. In the latter year he was a candidate for the state senate, but was defeated. From 1850 to 1856 he was district attorney of Carbon county. In 1884 he was elected an alderman in Bradford, Mckean county, Pa. He resigned in 1888 and now resides in Williamsport, Pa. He married, February 1, 1844, Malvina F. Barnes, a native of Kingston, Pa., where she was born October 26, 1820. She was the daughter of James Barnes, a native of Milton, Saratoga county, N. Y, where he was born in 1779. He was the eldest son of Dr. Barnes (who after the battle of Saratoga was a prisoner and permitted to desert by General Gates), who married and lived at Milton. Eliza Woodbridge, wife of James Barnes, was born at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1786. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have one son living-Harry Clay Wheeler, who is married and resides at Williamsport, Pa.
THOMAS SHARP MURRAY.
Thomas Sharp Murray, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county November 7, 1842, is a native of New Hope, Pa.,
833
THOMAS SHARP MURRAY.
where he was born February 2, 1819. His grandfather, William Murray, and Rosamond Dawson, his wife, as also his father, Jo- seph Dawson Murray, were natives of Edenton, N. C., whose ancestors, of Scotch descent, settled there early in the last cen- tury. His mother, Margaret Sharp Murray, daughter of Thomas Sharp and Rebecca Foster, his wife, was born in Salem county, N. J., October 16, 1793. Her ancestors, who were from England, settled in the same county in 1685. Thomas S. Murray was prepared for college at the preparatory school of Rev. Samuel Aaron, Burlington, N. J., and then entered Brown University, R. I., from which he graduated in the class of 1840. He read law with Volney L. Maxwell in this city. He never engaged in gen- eral practice, and only practiced in connection with his father's business in this and Bucks county, Pa. From 1848 to 1852 he was postmaster of New Hope. He married, December 8, 1846, Gertrude R. Butler, a daughter of Steuben Butler, of this city. The latter was the son of Colonel Zebulon Butler. (See page 326.) He died when Steuben was but seven years of age. Mr. Butler learned the trade of a printer with Asher Miner, in Doylestown, Pa. In 1818 he established the Wyoming Herald in this city. Its motto was, "He comes the herald of a busy world. News from all nations." In 1828 he enlarged the paper, and an interest was purchased by Eliphalet Worthington. The paper was pub- lished by Butler and Worthington from 1828 to 1831. The latter subsequently removed to Sterling, Ill., where he published a paper until his decease. Charles Miner bought Mr. Worthington's interest. This co-partnership existed intil 1833, when the paper passed into the hands of Eleazer Carey and Robert Miner. About 1842 Mr. Butler engaged in the book business and established a store on Franklin street, below Market. He continued in this business until 1867, when his store was destroyed by fire. From 1824 to 1827 he was one of the commissioners of Luzerne county. From 1849 to 1853 he was postmaster of this city. He was secretary and treasurer of the Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton turn- pike for forty-five years, and was one of the projectors of the Wilkes-Barre branch of the Bank of the United States in this city. He married, July 3, 1810, Julia Bulkeley, a sister of Jona- than Bulkeley. (See page 288.) In the prime of his life Mr.
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834
EDMUND BURKE BAAB.
Butler took great interest in the affairs of Wilkes-Barre, and was honored by all As an editor he manifested much ability, and the history contained in his paper is one of great interest. Mrs. Butler died May 16, 1833, and Mr. Butler August 12, 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Murray have a family of three children. Their only son, Steuben Butler Murray, married June 14, 1887, Adelaide Butler, granddaughter of Steuben Butler, and daughter of George G. Butler. They have one child-Steuben Butler Murray.
EDMUND BURKE BABB.
Edmund Burke Babb, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 5, 1843, is a native of Pittston, Pa., where he was born in December, 1819. His father was John P. Babb, son of Peter Babb-both natives of Northampton county, Pa. His mother was Mary Shriner, a daughter of John Shriner, of North- umberland, Pa. John P. Babb was treasurer of Luzerne county from January 2, 1824, to April 12, 1826. He was an architect and builder, a man of energy and ability, a sample of whose sub- stantial work still remains in the Columbia bridge across the Schuylkill near Philadelphia. He built and resided in the house now owned and occupied by John G. Wood, on North Franklin street, in this city. E. B. Babb was educated at Dickinson Col- lege, Carlisle, Pa., and graduated in the class of 1840. He read law in the office of Charles Denison. He spent several years in foreign travel, and then became one of the editors of the Daily Gazette, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His present residence is at North Vernon, Jennings county, Indiana. He is an unmarried man.
Rev. Clement E. Babb, D. D., who resides near San Jose, Cal., is a brother of E. B. Babb. Dr. Babb is also a native of Pittston, and is one of the most voluminous, graphic, original and widely known newspaper writers in the United States. He edited for seventeen years the Christian Herald of Cincinnati, which was one of the principal Presbyterian papers in this country. For five years he was the editor of the Occident in San Francisco.
835
JOSEPH CLUBINE RHODES.
He is also a regular weekly contributor to the Interior, of Chi- cago, and the Herald and Presbyter, of Cincinnati. When Henry Ward Beecher left the First Presbyterian Church at Indianapolis and removed to Brooklyn, Mr. Babb became his successor, and filled that pulpit for five years.
JOSEPH CLUBINE RHODES.
Joseph Clubine Rhodes, who was admitted to the bar of Isu- zerne county, Pa., April 8, 1844, is of English descent, and pre- vious to his father's day the family were members of the society of Friends. His great-great-grandfather, John Rhoads, came to America in 1682 from England when he was quite a young man. He came to this country in the ship Welcome, with Will- iam Penn. John Rhodes, son of John Rhoads, was born July 8, 1709, in Philadelphia. Joseph Rhodes, son of John Rhodes, was born May 11, 1756, in Bucks county, Pa. John Rhodes, son of Joseph Rhodes, was born September 17, 1783, near Lehighton, Pa. He removed to Youngmanstown, now Mifflinburg, in Union county, Pa., in 1817. The wife of John Rhodes was Kate Clubine who was born December 26, 1792, in Sussex county, N. J. She was a daughter of Andrew Clubine. He emigratedin 1801 to Upper Canada, now Ontario, and settled on lands near New Market, thirty miles north of Toronto, where he died October 4, 1839. Joseph C. Rhodes, son of John Rhodes, was born at Mifflinburg, Union county, Pa., October 2, 1818. He was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., and graduated in the class of 1838. He read law with Alexander Jordan at Sunbury, Pa., and was ad- mitted to the Northumberland county bar in 1843. He has resided in this city and Milton, Pa., the greater part of his life. In 1858 he represented Northumberland county in the legislature of the state. Mr. Rhodes married, May 19, 1846, Martha Stewart Thomas, a daughter of Abraham Thomas, of this city. Mr. Thomas was born in Bethany, Conn., January 9, 1794, and was the son of Noah Thomas and his wife, Mary Tolles, of New Ha- ven. She was the daughter of Daniel Tolles and his wife,
836
JAMES LEE MAXWELL.
Thankful Smith, of New Haven. Abraham Thomas was one of the early merchants of Wilkes-Barre, and had a large mill on the canal near the redoubt. The wife of Abraham Thomas, whom he married March 20, 1822, was Abigail Alden Stewart, a daugh- ter of James Stewart and his wife, Hannah Jameson. James Stewart was a son of Captain Lazarus Stewart, who was killed at the head of his company in the battle and massacre of Wyo- ming, July 3, 1778. (See page 844.) Hannah Jameson was the daughter of John Jameson. (See page 301.) Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes had a family of three children. The only surviving child is Nellie, wife of Walter E. Meek. J. C. Rhodes resides in Houtzdale, Pa.
JAMES LEE MAXWELL.
James Lee Maxwell, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county November 4, 1844, was born in Northampton, Fulton county, N. Y. He spent his early life in Johnstown, in the same county. He subsequently entered Union College, Schnectaday, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1842. He was a student of law in the office of V. L. Maxwell, and after admission practiced until 1852. He then studied theology and entered the Protestant Episcopal Church. He now resides at Danville, Pa., and is rector of Christ (Memorial) Church. His father was Samuel Maxwell, M. D., a native of New England, whose grandfather was in the English navy and left it at Halifax, N. S., before the revolution. James L. Maxwell's mother's maiden name was Helen VanArnam, who descended from the old Dutch settlers of New York. Mr. Maxwell married, in 1847, Elizabeth Meredith, a daughter of Thomas Meredith, who was the son of Samuel Meredith, the first treasurer of the United States, to which office he was appointed by his intimate friend, George Washington. The father of Samuel Meredith was Reese Meredith, an emigrant from Wales, and a merchant in Philadelphia. Mrs. Elizabeth Maxwell died November 1, 1875. Mr. Maxwell married for his second wife Henrietta Miller, a daughter of George Miller, of the city of New York.
837
THOMAS LANSFORD FOSTER.
THOMAS LANSFORD FOSTER.
Thomas Lansford Foster, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, Pa., November 4, 1844, is a son of the late Asa Lans- ford Foster, a native of Rowe, Franklin county, Mass., where he was born in 1798. He came when quite a young man to Pennsyl- vania, then the "far west," and engaged in the mercantile business with an older brother, who had preceded him, at Berwick, Pa. A few years later-about 1821 or 1822-he engaged in the same business on his own account at Bloomsburg, Pa., and married - Louisa Chapman, daughter of Charles Chapman, a granddaughter of Captain Joseph Chapman, of Brooklyn, Susquehanna county, Pa. The mercantile business of that time and locality was chiefly that of trade and barter of the merchandise usually kept in country stores for the products of the farm and forest. Part of these products were taken on wagons and sleds to Philadelphia and part were sent to market down the Susquehanna on the spring and fall freshets in rafts or arks. Goods for the store were brought in wagons or sleds from the city. About 1826 he disposed of his business at Bloomsburg and removed to Philadelphia, intend- ing to engage in the wholesale trade in such merchandise as his experience had taught him was needed in the country. In Phil- adelphia he accepted temporarily a position in a wholesale house, and while there, through his connection with his relative, Isaac A. Chapman, then civil engineer for the Lehigh Company, and residing at Mauch Chunk, Pa., Mr. Foster made the acquaintance of Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, and was by them engaged to take charge of the company's large supply store at the latter place. He removed with his family to Mauch Chunk about 1827. Here he found a very large and substantial stone store build- ing, filled from garret to cellar with goods which had from time to time been sent by the managers of the company, many of which, owing to their ignorance of the needs of their employees, were useless and unsalable. These he had packed and returned to the city and replenished the stock with such goods as were wanted. His management of the store made it very popular, and
838
THOMAS LANSFORD FOSTER.
it soon became the centre of supply, not only for those employed by the company, but also for the country from the Susquehanna to the Delaware, which found here a ready market for its pro- ducts. To manage such a business, keeping the stock of goods and supplies full, with the facilities for transportation then available -by wagons from a city nearly a hundred miles distant-required ability, foresight, and energy, which Mr. Foster had and exer- cised to the entire satisfaction of the company, while the attention which he gave personally, and required of his assistants behind the counters, to all customers made them all his friends and patrons. After acting as manager for a few years, the company having concluded to relinquish the mercantile business to private enterprise, Mr. Foster, in connection with P. R. McConnell and James Brodrick (father of the late Thomas Brodrick, of this city), erected a store. In 1829 he commenced the publication of the Lehigh Pioneer and Mauch Chunk Courier, with Amos Sisty as editor. This was the first newspaper in what is now Carbon county. In 1842 he sold the materials of the office to Joseph H. Siewers, who changed the name to the Carbon County Transit. A year or two later Mr. Siewers sold it to William Reed, when the paper came again under the control of Mr. Foster for a short time, during which the old name was revived. The store which was erected in 1833 was supplied with goods and business com- menced about the time that the Beaver Meadow Railroad, from Beaver Meadow to Parryville, and the "Upper Grand Section" of the Lehigh Navigation, from White Haven to Mauch Chunk, were in course of construction. Mr. Foster's abilities as a mer- chant were again called into action, this store becoming the principal point from which supplies for the army of men employed on these great works were drawn. The store was, while under the management of Mr. Foster, at first owned by McConnell, Foster and Brodrick, then Foster and Brodrick, and finally owned by Mr. Foster alone. Mr. Foster removed from Mauch Chunk in 1837 to engage in another enterprise, leaving his mercantile business in charge of his salesman. He unlocked what is now the great Black Creek coal basin, and obtained knowledge which many men more ambitious and less scrupulous could have turned greatly to their advantage. The immediate results of Mr. Fos-
839
THOMAS LANSFORD FOSTER.
ter's discovery was the organization of the Buck Mountain Coal Company, of which he was appointed superintendent, and in the last named year, having had a log house built on the top of Buck Mountain, he removed his family there. The work was com- pleted and one boat load of coal was shipped in the fall of 1849. In the fall of 1844 he returned to Mauch Chunk. In 1855 he became a partner with Sharpe, Leisenring & Co., afterwards Sharpe, Weiss & Co., in the lease and opening of the Coun- cil Ridge colliery, at the eastern end of the great Black Creek basin, and within two miles of the place where twenty years before he had developed the existence of coal in that locality. This is now in Foster township, in this county, and the township was named in honor of Mr. Foster. It was his knowledge of the resources of this great coal field, and their confidence in Mr. Foster's judgment, that induced these gentle- men to invest all their means in the venture. It was financially succesfsul, and although, like many pioneers in great projects, Mr. Foster was at first unfortunate, unlike many of them, he lived to participate largely in the fruits of his early labors and enter- prise. He died in this city, after a short illness, when on a visit to friends here, January 9, 1868. He was one of the vestry of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church when it was incorporated, and was one of a committee "to solicit subscriptions for building a Presbyterian meeting house." The borough of Lansford, in Carbon county, was also named after Mr. Foster by applying his middle name.
Thomas L. Foster, son of Asa L. Foster, was born in Blooms- burg, Pa., August 30, 1823. He read law in this city with V. L. Maxwell. He soon after located at Mauch Chunk; was super- intendent of the public schools of Carbon county for six years, meantime keeping up the practice of the law. On the organiza- tion of the Second National Bank of Mauch Chunk he was elected cashier, and is now president of the bank. For many years he was secretary and attorney of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. He was one of the incorporators in 1861 of the Nes- quehoning Railroad. He was also one of the engineers in laying out the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and was for some years con- nected with the Mauch Chunk Courier, and was a member of the
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840
HORACE BLOIS BURNHAM.
first borough council of East Mauch Chunk. Mr. Foster married, November 10, 1847, Henrietta Pratt, daughter of Asaph Pratt and his wife. Eliza Pratt (nee Worthington), of Beaver Meadow, Pa. He has four children living-Charles W. Foster, Emily P., wife of Thomas W. Brown, of this city, Asa L. Foster, Louisa C. Foster, and Harry W. Foster.
HORACE BLOIS BURNHAM.
Horace Blois Burnham, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne -county August 12, 1844, is a descendant of Thomas Burnham, born in England in 1617, and died in Connecticut in 1688. He sailed from Gravesend, England, for the Barbadoes in 1635, and soon after removed to Hartford, Conn., where he was admitted a freeman in 1656. He was a shrewd criminal lawyer, and for his ยท defense of Abagail Betts, accused of blasphemy (saving her neck), was prohibited from practicing. He then settled on his lands at Podunk. His house was fortified and garrisoned during the Indian war, 1675. William Burnham, son of Thomas Burnham, was of Wethersfield, Conn. Rev. William Burnham, son of William Burnham, was born in 1684. He graduated at Harvard College in 1702. He was pastor of a church at Farmingham in 1712, and moderator of the general association of Connecticut in 1738. Appleton Burnham, of Cornwall, Conn., son of Rev. William Burnham, was born in 1724. Abner Burnham, of Sharon, Conn., son of Appleton Burnham, was born in 1771 and died in 1818. His first wife, the mother of Judson Williams Burnham, was Sarah Williams. Judson Williams Burnham, father of Horace Blois Burnham, was born in 1793 and died in Carbondale, Pa., in 1857. His wife was Mary Blois. He was a jeweler and began business in 1832 in Carbondale. In 1837 he was one of the school directors of the same place. He was foreman of the first grand jury impaneled for the recorder's court of the city of Car- bondale September 8, 185 1.
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