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 33
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865
PAUL ROSS WEITZEL.
the king of Great Britain, and the adoption of such government as would best conduce to the happiness and safety of America. The conference immediately issued a call for a provincial con- vention for this purpose, to meet the following month. John Weitzel was appointed one of a committee at this conference to ascertain the number of members, and the proportion of representa- tion which should constitute the proposed convention. On July 8 he was duly elected a representative to this convention from Northumberland county. On July 15, the youngest of the nine- ty-six delegates, being then not yet twenty-four years of age, he took his seat in that body, which gave to Pennsylvania the con- stitution of 1776. Judge Weitzel was also appointed a member * of the Pennsylvania council of safety for Northumberland county from July 24, 1776, to March 13, 1777. He was appointed issu- ing commissary for the county, July 7, 1780, and contractor for furnishing provisions to the state troops from 1782 to 1784. Under the new constitution of 1776 Judge Weitzel was again appointed, June 19, 1789, one of the judges of the Court of Com- mon Pleas for Northumberland county, which office he held for seven years. He was a candidate for the state Assembly in 1783, 1785 and 1793, but each time unsuccessfully. He died in 1800. His first wife, whom he married June 15, 1781, was Tabitha Morris, daughter of John and Rose Morris, of Philadelphia.
John Weitzel, first child of Hon. John and Tabitha (Morris) Weitzel, was born at Sunbury March 24, 1792. He was a miller and merchant at Sunbury, and a justice of the peace from 1806 to 1830. He married, in 1805, Elizabeth Lehr, of Germantown, Pa. She died in 1853 and he died October 9, 1835. Joseph Weitzel, first child of John and Elizabeth (Lehr) Weitzel, was born in Sun- bury, October 8, 1808. He continued the business in which his father was so long engaged, that of milling. He married, Octo- ber 10, 1831, Sarah Woodrow, daughter of John and Sarah Wood- row, of Northumberland county. Paul Ross Weitzel, first child of Joseph and Sarah (Woodrow) Weitzel, was born September 13, 1832, at Sunbury. He was educated at the select schools at Sunbury, and in Dickinson Seminary, at Williamsport, Pa. He studied law at Union Law School, at Easton, Pa., where he graduated L. L. B., in 1856. He practiced for a time at Sun-
866
A. W. BANGS.
bury and Mauch Chunk, locating in Scranton in 1871, where he has since resided. He married, January 18, 1859, at Wilkes- Barre, Fannie Edwards Boyd, daughter of Dr. Eben Little and Ruth Ann (Ellsworth) Boyd, of this city. Dr. Boyd was the son of Hon. James Boyd, of Boston, and grandson of Hon. Robert Boyd, of Kilmarnock, Scotland, who was the youngest son of William, ninth Lord Boyd, and first Earl of Kilmarnock, and his wife, Lady Jean Cunninghame, eldest daughter of William, ninth Earl of Glencarin. The English family is now represented by the Earl of Erroll. Mr. and Mrs. Weitzel have six children living-Paul Eliner, Cornelia Shepherd, Eben Boyd, Herbert Edwards, Fannie Eleanor, and Carrie Leonard Weitzel.
A. W. BANGS.
A. W. Bangs, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 31, 1858, is a native of Bethany, Wayne county, Pa., where he was born July 26, 1834. He was educated at the pub- lic schools in Honesdale, Pa., and studied law with D. N. Lathrop and Lewis Jones at Scranton. While in this county he practiced law at Pittston and Scranton. About 1860 he removed to Le Sueur, Minn., where he resided for a number of years. He was county attorney for Le Sueur county for twelve years. He now resides in Grand Forks, Dakota Territory, where he has been county attorney, one of the school trustees for a number of years, is now a councilman of the city of Grand Forks, and is at present chairman of the democratic territorial committee of Dakota. He is also president of the Grand Forks Bar Association. He is the son of E'ijah K. Bangs, a native of Kortright, N. Y., where he was born in 1803, and who died in South Bend, Minn., in 1876. His wife was a native of Connecticut. The great-grandfather of A. W. Bangs was Lemuel Bangs. He resided in Stratfield, Conn., where his children were born. Mr. Bangs was an able man and a zealous whig during the revolution. He met with other whigs at Nichol's taven, parson Ross, also a strong whig, being of the number. During the discussions Lemuel Bangs said he would
867
HENRY WILSON.
be willing to die and suffer eternal punishment if he could be the means of making America free. Mr. Ross replied, "It is a good thing to be zealous, but not to be too zealous. Where is my hat, I must be going ?" Rev. Nathan Bangs, D. D., Heman Bangs and Rev. John Bangs were children of Lemuel Bangs, the latter being the grandfather of A. W. Bangs. A. W. Bangs married, in 1860, Fally M. Baker, a daughter of Elnathan Baker, of Hyde Park, now city of Scranton. She died at Le Sueur in 1864. The following year he married Sara D. Plowman, a daughter of William Plowman, of Le Sueur, where he now resides, at the age of seventy-four years. He is a native of Ireland. Mr. Bangs has a family of seven children. His oldest son, Tracy R., is an attorney and a partner of his father, under the firm name of Bangs & Bangs.
THOMAS M. ATHERTON.
Thomas M. Atherton was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1859. He is a native of Kingston township, and is the son of Anson Atherton .In 1857 he was elected register of wills of Luzerne county, but re- signed his office in 1860, before the expiration of his term. He then went west and has resided for many years at Osage, Mitchell county, Iowa. He has been for many years connected with the Mitchell County Press, which was published first by Mr. Atherton, then by Atherton & Son, and now by Atherton & Company. He married, previous to his removal from here, Elizabeth Gilmore, daughter of Stephen Gilmore. He is a brother-in-law of the late M. E. Jackson, of the Luzerne bar.
HENRY WILSON.
Henry Wilson, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 19, 1859, is a descendant of Joseph Wilson, a native of Rhode Island. . His son, Isaac Wilson, was the father of Phillips Wilson, who was born in Pittston township, in this county, Feb-
868
GEORGE ABISHA WOODWARD.
ruary 8, 1809. He was the brother of John Wilson, M. D., father of Milo J. Wilson, who was admitted to the Luzerne county bar April 9, 1868. (See sketch of Milo J. Wilson.) Phillips Wilson was the father of Henry Wilson. The wife of Phillips Wilson was Frances M. Lines, a native of Franklin township, Susquehanna county, where she was born November 13, 1809. She was the daughter of Bellisle Lines, and Laura Lines, his wife. Henry Wilson was born October 7, 1834, in Franklin township. He was educated in the public schools of Carbon- dale, Pa., and at the Lackawanna Institute in that city. He ' read law with D. N. Lathrop, in Carbondale, and practiced his profession for a few years in that city, and then remove'd to Hones- dale, Pa., where he now resides. He was at one time one of the associate judges of Wayne county, Pa. Mr. Wilson married, September 6, 1863, Sarah A. Belcher, a daughter of William Belcher, who was a native of the state of New York. His wife was Mary Ann Carr, a native of Wyoming county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have a family of two children-Robert Bruce Wilson and Lena Kesler Wilson. The latter is an adopted child.
GEORGE ABISHA WOODWARD.
George Abisha Woodward, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county August 26, 1859, is a native of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he was born February 14, 1835. He is a son of the late George W. Woodward, of the Luzerne bar. (See page 97). George A. Woodward was educated at the Wilkes-Barre Acad- emy, Bolmar's school, at West Chester, Pa., Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa., and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1855. He read law with Emmons and Van Dyke, and Hon. Nelson Cross, at Mil- waukee, Wis., and was admitted to the Supreme Court at Madison, Wis., in December, 1856. He has practiced at Mil- waukee, Wilkes-Barre and Philadelphia, Pa. He was city attorney of Milwaukee from May, 1858, to May, 1859. During the
869
ANDREW JACKSON SMITH.
late civil war he entered the service as captain, and was promoted successively to major, lieutenant colonel and colonel in the volun- teer service. He entered the regular army as lieutenant colonel, and is now colonel in the same service. He is on the retired list from wounds received. He married, February 14, 1867, Char- lotte Treat Chittenden. Her father was Asahel Chittenden, who was born in May, 1797, in Waterbury, Conn., removed to Colum- bus, Ohio, in 1829, and died there in 1880. Her paternal grand- father, also named Asahel, was born in 1764, probably at Guilford, Conn. Her father was of the sixth generation in descent from William Chittenden, who in 1639 emigrated from the parish of Cranbrook, in Kent, England, landed in New Haven, Conn., and settled in Guilford, of which he was one of the orig- inal proprietors. He "was the principal military man of the plan- tation, bearing the title of lieutenant." Savage states (I, 381) that "he had been a soldier in the English army in the Netherlands, in the Thirty Years' War, and that he reached the rank of major. He was a magistrate of the plantation, and deputy to the General Court until his death." The mother of Mrs. Woodward was Har- riet Harpin Treat. She was the daughter of Major Stephen A. Treat, of Milford, Conn., who was a descendant of Governor Treat, one of the early colonial governors of Connecticut, during whose administration occured the incident of the hiding of the charter in the oak. She married Mr. Chittenden in 1829, and died at Colum- bus, Ohio, in 1872. Colonel and Mrs. Woodward have two children -Henry Sterne Woodward, born in Nashville, Tenn., September 2, 1868, now in Yale University, and Sarah Elizabeth Woodward, born at Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory, November 2, 1871. Colonel Woodward resides at Washington, D. C.
ANDREW JACKSON SMITH.
Andrew Jackson Smith, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, Pa., January 2, 1860, is a descendant of Thomas Smith, a native of East Haddam, Conn., who removed to Wyo-
$70
ANDREW JACKSON SMITH.
ming in 1783, and located on the east side of the Susquehanna river, near Nanticoke. The great ice freshet of 1784, which bore down from the upper waters of the Susquehanna such vast masses of ice, overflowing the plains and destroying the property along the river, swept his farm of all its harvest product, leaving it with little else than its gullied soil. Hardly had his recuperative energies again made cheerful his fireside when the "pumpkin freshet," as it was called, from the countless number of pumpkins it brought down the swollen river, again inundated its banks, sweeping away houses, barns, mills, fences, stacks of hay and grain, cattle, flocks of sheep and droves of swine in the general destruction, and spreading desolation where but yesterday, autumn promised abundance. Mr. Smith, not stoic enough to receive the visits of such floods with indifference, moved up in the "gore" (now Old Forge township, Lackawanna county), in 1786, "for," said the old gentleman, "I want to get above high water mark." His daughter Hannah married Abraham Bradley, who was ad- mitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 2, 1788.
Deodat Smith, son of Thomas Smith, was born in Con- necticut, and came with his father to Wyoming in 1783. He was one of the commissioners of Luzerne county during the years 1825, 1826 and 1827. On April 6, 1820, he was appointed by Governor William Findley a justice of the peace for the townships of Pittstown, Providence, Exeter, Blakely and Northmoreland. His wife was Rachel Allsworth, a daughter of William Allsworth, a Yankee, who, living on the extreme border of the state of New York, was induced to leave and emigrate to "Nine Partners," N. Y., in 1782. He was a shoemaker by trade, and, learning how scarce they were in Westmoreland, determined to migrate thither. Taking the old Connecticut road, which passed from Orange county, New York, to the Yankee possessions at Wyoming, he reached what is now Dunmore, Lackawanna county, just at the edge of evening, in May, 1783. Surrounded by the shades of night, he lit his bright fires around his covered wagon containing his fam- ily, to intimidate the horde of wild cats and wolves swarming in the chaparral toward the Roaring Brook, while the surrounding trees, fallen and rolled in a cabin shape, and covered with the limbs and poles, became tolerably comfortable. At one time a bear
871
ANDREW JACKSON SMITH.
came to the cabin of Allsworth, just at the edge of evening, and, jumping into the pen, seized the old sow in its bushy, brawny arms, and, in spite of every effort of those daring to pursue, car- ried the noisy porker off to the woods towards little Roaring Brook. The little pigs, frightened but safe, were left in the pen. For greater safety the barn yard, or the strong inclosure into which cattle and sheep were driven at night, was built contigu- ously to the rear of the cabin. At another time, during the absence of Mr. Allsworth, a large panther came to this yard in the afternoon in search of food. This animal is as partial to veal as a bear is to pork. A calf was in the pen at the time. On this the panther sprang, when Mrs. Allsworth, hearing an unusual bleat, seized the huge tongs standing in the corner of the fire- place and actually drove the yellow intruder away without its intended meal. The same night, however, the calf was killed by the panther, which, in return, was the same week secured in a bear-trap and slain. For sixteen years there was no near settler to Mr. Allsworth. He married, in early life, Esther Pettebone, a daughter of Noah Pettebone, who came to Wyoming in 1769. (See page 460.)
Thomas Smith, son of Deodat Smith, was born May 1, 1803, and was a native of Old Forge. He resided in Waverly, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pa., nearly all his lifetime. He was an active and successful business man, and followed the occupa- tion of a surveyor. In 1856 he was a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania. He was killed in a railroad accident at Shickshinny in 1865. He was commissioned by Governor George Wolf, on Jan- uary 14, 1834, a justice of the peace for the townships of Abington, Greenfield, Nicholson, and a part of Falls. The two latter town- ships now lie in Wyoming county. In 1850 and 1855 he was elect- ed a justice of the peace for Abington township, and in 1859 and 1864 a justice of the peace for the borough of Waverly. He was one of the original incorporators of Madison Academy at Wa- verly, and was also one of the original commissioners of the Leggett's Gap Railroad, now a part of the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western Railroad system. The wife of Thomas Smith was Mary Dean, a granddaughter of Jonathan Dean, a native of East Greenwich, R. I. He was an agent for the holders
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872
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PURSEL.
of the land under the Connecticut claimants, and surveyed the township of Abington for its owners, and is said to have ridden one horse nineteen times on his trips from Connecticut and Rhode Island to Wyoming. He died in Abington early in the century. Jeffrey Dean, son of Jonathan Dean, was the father of Mrs. Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Smith left four children-Jane S. Smith; Emily A. Smith, now the wife of Rev. W. N. Clarke, D. D., a Baptist clergyman, of Hamilton, N. Y .; George T. Smith, a mem- ber of the Luzerne county bar, now deceased; and Andrew J. Smith, the subject of this sketch, who was born at Waverly, Lu- zerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pa., December 15, 1837. He was educated at Madison Academy and the State and National Law School at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., graduating from the latter institution at the age of twenty with the degree of LL. B. He then entered the law office of G. B. and L. R. Nicholson, in this city, and studied with them until his admission to our bar. He then opened an office in Wilkes-Barre, and in the spring of 1861 entered the army. On October 23, 1863, he was promoted to second lieutenant of Company K, One Hundred and Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers (Eleventh Cavalry), and on April 8, 1864, to first lieutenant of same company. His father died soon after, and he came home to take charge of his business interests. Mr. Smith has been a justice of the peace of his na- tive borough for nineteen years, and, at various times, has filled every borough office therein. He married, January 31, 1859, Josephine A. Green, a daughter of William C. Green, whose wife was Aurelia Stone, and granddaughter of Henry Green, M. D. Mrs. Smith died February 11, 1874. He has a family of three children-Mary Nicholson Smith, Grace Josephine Smith and Thomas Bradley Smith. Mr. Smith resides in Waverly, and is still a widower.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PURSEL.
Benjamin Franklin Pursel was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., February 20, 1860, on a certificate of admission from Clinton county, Pa. He remained in this city but a few months. His present residence is Kansas City, Mo.
873
CHARLES WESLEY TODD.
CHARLES WESLEY TODD.
Charles Wesley Todd was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 14, 1860. His grandfather was John Todd, of Philadelphia. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. Simon Todd, son of John Todd, was born in Philadelphia in 1802. In 1824 he married Margaret Forester, daughter of William For- ester, a native of Scotland, who for a number of years com- manded a ship sailing between the East Indies and New York He became the husband of Leah Thomas, who was born in Vir- ginia in 1771. Her father was educated at Oxford, and was a distinguished linguist. His wife was a Knapp, whose parents were among the first settlers in Long Island. Mr. Thomas was on intimate terms with Washington during the revolutionary war. Leah said that the general was often a guest at her father's house, and that she had been led by the hand as her father walked and talked with him. When she became the wife of William Forester, in 1794, she removed to New York, where she became the mother of two daughters, Mary and Margaret. The husband, in 1801, while on a homeward bound voyage, in a perilous storm, was lost with his ship and all on board. The widow with her two children subsequently removed to Philadel- phia, where, after the lapse of years, the younger daughter became the wife of Simon Todd. In 1829 Simon Todd and his wife removed to Sterling, Wayne county, Pa. Charles Wesley Todd, son of Simon Todd, was born July 22, 1832, in Sterling, Pa. He was educated at the public schools of his native place, and at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa. He was a teacher in the public schools of this city for about a year and a half. He read law with Hendrick B. Wright and Samuel P. Longstreet in this city. On April 19, 1860, he entered the ministry of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, uniting with the Wyoming Annual Con- ference. After serving several charges through a period of eight years, he was transferred from Hawley, Pa., to Oregon City, Oregon, in which region he continued preaching until 1877, when, on account of the ill health of his wife, he returned to Penn -.
874
DAVID CHASE HARRINGTON.
sylvania, and subsequently reunited with the Wyoming Con- ference. Mr. Todd married, December 25, 1861, Anna M. Pur- sel, daughter of William Pursel, formerly of this city, but at the time of the marriage a resident of Buckingham, Bucks county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Todd have a family of four children-Fannie Forester, wife of A. C. Giddings, of Christ Church, New Zeal- and, William Pursel Todd, married to Dila Dunn, of Uniondale, Pa., Mary Bensley, wife of S. H. Norton, of Uniondale, and Charles Forester Todd, who was born June 29, 1884. Rev. C. W. Todd now resides at Carley Brook, Wayne county, Pa.
DAVID CHASE HARRINGTON.
David Chase Harrington, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., May .7, 1860, is a son of James Harrington, who was born in Herkimer county, N. Y., October 17, 1810. His mother, Emeline H. Harrington, was born February 20, 1811, in Lexington, now Jewett, Greene county, N. Y. She was a daughter of David Chase, a native of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where he was born March 1, 1786. D. C. Harrington was born at Jewett, N. Y., December 8, 1834. He was educated in the common schools, and read law with George D. Haughawout, in Scranton. He commenced the practice of the law at Scranton, and in 1862 removed to Wilkes-Barre, and in 1870 to Philadel- phia, where he now resides. He married, September 11, 1856, Ann Jeanette Kemmerer, a daughter of David Kemmerer, who was born near Stroudsburg, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington have a family of nine children-Harriett E. Harrington, Carrie E., wife of Charles W. Reichard, Lillie J., wife of William L. Connell, Blandine I. Harrington, Walter E. Harrington, married to Maude Hastings, Curtis J. Harrington, Frederick A. Harrington, Dora Harrington and Ethel Harrington.
875
ALFRED HAND.
ALFRED HAND.
Alfred Hand, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne coun- ty, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1860, is a descendant of John Hand, who was on the whaling list of 1644, in Southampton. At the time of the settlement of East Hampton, in 1648, he was one of the company from Southampton to found a new plantation. He was, according to the East Hampton records, originally from Stanstede, and according to other accounts from Maid- stone, in the county of Kent, England. (See page 313.) He died in 1663. He had a son Stephen, who died in 1693, who had a son Stephen, born in 1661, of Wainscot in 1684, and died in 1740, who had a son John, who had a son John, born in 1701, and died in 1755, who had a son John, born September 31, 1754, (whose brother, Aaron Hand, was the father of Rev. Aaron Hicks Hand, the father of Isaac P. Hand, of the Lu- zerne bar), who had a son John, who died May 30, 1809. He was a native of Athens, Greene county, New York. His wife, whom he married March 6, 1778, was Mary Jones. Ezra Hand, son of John Hand, was born in Rensselaerville, Albany county, New York, August 9, 1799. He married, June 2, 1829, Cath- arine Chapman, who was born February 11, 1808, at Durham, Greene county, New York. She was a descendant of Robert Chapman, who came from Hull, in England, to Boston, in 1635, from which place he sailed, in company with Lyon Gardiner, for Say-Brook, Connecticut, November 3, as one of the com- pany of twenty men who were sent over by Sir Richard Sal- tonstall to take possession of a large tract of land and make settlements near the mouth of the Connecticut river, under the patent of Lord Say and Seal. He is supposed to have been about eighteen years of age. After the Indians were subdued, deeming it safe to form plantations at a distance from the fort, they proceeded to clear up the forests and form a permanent settlement. For about ten years after leaving England he kept a journal, which was burned about twelve years after the establishment of the fort. This is to be regretted. He was one of the particular friends of Colonel George Fenwick.
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876
ALFRED HAND.
That he was a man of influence in the town of Say-Brook, is evident from the fact that for many years he held the office of town clerk and clerk of the Oyster River quarter, and filled many other important stations. He was for many years com- missioner for Say-Brook, and was elected as their deputy to the General Court forty-three times, and assistant nine times. He was therefore a member of the legislature of the state at more sessions than any other man from the settlement of Say- Brook to the present time. The colony records also show that each of his three sons were representatives to the legislature; the eldest, twenty-two sessions, the second one, eighteen ses- sions, the third, twenty-four sessions. Robert Chapman seems to have been a soldier. Lieutenant Colonel Gardiner, in his His- tory of the Pequot War, speaks of him as a sentinel in a skirmish on the neck, February 22, 1637, with the Indians, and once as engaged in beating samp. It appears from the records of Say-Brook, that Robert Chapman was a very large landholder in the towns of Say-Brook and East Haddam. He also owned a very large tract of land in Hebron, leaving at his decease to each of his three sons, fifteen hundred acres in that town, which he received as one of the legatees of Uncas and his sons. He was a man of exemplary piety, and but a short time previous to his decease he wrote an address to his children, who were all members of the church, in which, it is said, he exhorted them to a devoted life and to abide by the covenant into which they had entered with God and his church. He died October 13, 1687. His wife, Ann Blith or Bliss, whom he married April 29, 1642, died November 20, 1685. Robert Chapman, the second son of Robert Chapman, was born in September, 1646, at Say-Brook, and was extensively engaged in agriculture. He owned, at the time of his decease, not less than two thousand acres of land in Say-Brook, East Haddam and Hebron, as appears from the probate records at New London. The town records, as well as the records of the sec- retary of state, abundantly show that he was a man of ex- tensive influence in civil affairs. He was for many years clerk of Oyster River quarter, and commissioner and surveyor for the town of Say-Brook. But a short time after his father's de- cease, he was elected a representative to the state legislature,
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