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 44
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999
JOHN NEVIN HILL.
bury induced him to take up his permanent abode in that place. As a lawyer and a citizen George Hill has always stood high in the community and has been specially respected for his honesty and good judgment. He is a democrat, and an active member of the Reformed church. At his present age of sixty-six he continues his practice, and his good health and clear mind indi- cate good habits and care. His wife, Martha Clark Hill, was a woman of an earnest and conscientious mind and of a sweet and patient disposition. She died June 2, 1870, after a lingering ill- ness, at the age of forty-two years.
John Nevin Hill, son of George Hill, studied law with his father, having, after reaching the age of fourteen years, spent most of his time during vacations in the office performing the duties of a clerk and sometimes taking notes of testimony in court be- fore they had a stenographer in Northumberland county, Pa. He went to Hazleton in the fall of 1878 to gain some experience in business matters away from home, and left there in the spring of 1882 to enter his father's office as a partner. He has been admitted to the courts of the following counties : Northumber- land, Schuylkill, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Montour, Carbon and Union. Since 1882 he has practiced in the Supreme Court. His success has been in the preparation, trial and argument of cases. He is a democrat in politics, conservative in opinion, but takes no active part in politics. He married, July 15, 1878, Florence Isabel McFarland, a native of Pine Grove, Pa., a daughter of John McFar- land, a Scotch-Irishman, who was born November 12, 1828, at Bal- 'yhalaghan, near Six Mile Cross, County Tyrone, Ireland. His fa- ther's name was Andrew McFarland ; his mother's maiden name was Isabelle Bell. Andrew was a farmer. He raised a large family of children. John was one of the youngest. His ancestors came from Scotland. John came to America to seek his fortune in 1847, leaving Liverpool March 7, and arriving in Philadelphia April 9, in the ship Wyoming. Here he had a brother Andrew, who had preceded him. Andrew was interested in coal mines in the Schuylkill region and was afterwards killed in that sec- tion by being thrown from his horse while riding down one of the mountain roads. John at first engaged in mercantile busi- ness in Philadelphia, but afterwards went to the Schuylkill min-
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1000
JOHN NEVIN HILL.
ing region in the employ of Brown & White, at Statara. He continued there until 1855, when he became interested in a col- liery called "Monterey," a few miles distant, with D. P. Brown and John S. Graham. Soon afterwards he sold out his interest to Mr. Graham and began buying and selling coal at wholesale. For that purpose he settled at Pine Grove, in Schuylkill county, and traveled to the larger cities, establishing a considerable trade. In 1858 he again undertook mining operations at Locust Gap, in Northumberland county, where, after expending consid- erable money in opening the veins, the project turned out disas- trously. On April 1, 1860, he removed from Mt. Carmel, near the Locust Gap operations, to Northumberland, where he again began business as a wholesale dealer in coal and -carried on that business with great success until the time of his death, Septem- ber 21, 1873. He had an office in Baltimore and sold coal from the Schuylkill, Shamokin and Wyoming regions, and was well known throughout the anthracite fields. He was a man of strong characteristics, eminently social and fond of company. He retained a strong attachment for his native land, and visited his old home before his death. He was a republican in politics, and a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. His father, An- drew, died May 3, 1848, and his mother, February 8, 1869. In 1855 John McFarland married Harriet Kempthorn White, a native of the county of Essex, England, who in June, 1851, sailed from London for New York, in company with her brother, J. Claude White, to visit her grandfather, Thomas Pyne, of the lat- ter city. Her father was the Rev. John Calcutta White, of Raw- reth Rectory in Essex, and he was a son of-White, of Col- chester, in the same county, who was the principal of the gram- mar school there up to the time of his death. The son was a graduate of Pembroke College, and was teacher of mathematics in the Military College, Cambridge. He married Sarah Pyne, a daughter of Thomas Pyne, afterwards of New York city. After the death of Thomas Pyne, Harriet K. White resided for some time with her grandmother and her uncle Percy R. Pyne in New York city. On June 18, 1855, she and her brother Claude were both married at the same time by the Rev. A. Prior, at Pottsville. Harriet married John McFarland and Claude married Mary Ann,
1001
ANTHONY BAUMANN.
a sister of David P. Brown, of Pottsville. Harriet K. McFar- land survived the death of her husband and in recent years has devoted herself to agricultural pursuits, owning two farms selected by herself and personally managing one of them in Mon- tour county, Pa.
John Nevin Hill was educated in private schools in Sunbury, Mercersburg and Reading, Pa., and in Wisconsin. A regular course was interfered with by ill health. He has never held any public office but spent the year 1873 as a clerk in the offices of the recorder of deeds, register of wills and clerk of the Or- phans' Court, at Sunbury. He is a member of the board of ex- aminers, one of the committee on court rules and a director of the law library of Northumberland county. Mr. Hill was from 1882 to 1884 a vestryman and church warden of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal church of Northumberland. His present residence is in Sunbury. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have a family of three children, two born in Hazleton-Martha Olivia Hill and John McFarland Hill-and George Morton Hill, born in Sun- bury. Mr. Hill compiled in 1855 the laws and ordinances of the borough of Northumberland, and has acted as the reporter of Judge Rockefeller's decisions for the Pennsylvania County Courts' Reports since that publication was began. He has in preparation the Poor Laws of Pennsylvania, with decisions of our own and the English courts.
ANTHONY BAUMANN.
Anthony Baumann, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., May 12, 1880, is a native of Baden, Germany, where he was born June 2, 1844. He was educated in the schools of his native county, also in France. He emigrated to this country, and commenced reading law with Joseph J. McClure, at Allen- town, Pa. He subsequently removed to this county, and finished his reading of the law with Alfred Darte, in this city. After prac- ticing here for a short time he removed to Scranton, where he
1002
CHARLES MATTHEW PHOENIX.
now resides. While here he had charge of the Volksfreund, a German newspaper published in this city. He is at present president of the Society for the Protection of Personal Liberty in Pennsylvania. Mr. Baumann married, April 27, 1882, Ida Hooker, a native of Troy, Bradford county, Pa. Her father, Charles C. Hooker, emigrated from Massachusetts to Bradford county in 1824. Mr. and Mrs. Baumann have a family of two children-Carl Baumann and Frieda Baumann.
CHARLES MATTHEW PHOENIX.
Charles Matthew Phoenix, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, Pa., November 27, 1880, is a descendant of Mat- thew Phoenix, a native of Kingston, Ulster county, N. Y., where he was born in 1769. In 1815 he removed to Monroe township, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county, Pa., and became the owner of a tract of four hundred and nine acres of land. His part of the township was a wilderness, and there were no roads but bridle paths. In a few years Mr. Phoenix made for himself a well cul- tivated farm. His wife's name was Mary May. Mr. Phoenix died in 1876, at the remarkable age of one hundred and seven years. James Phoenix, son of Matthew Phoenix, was born in Kingston, N. Y., and emigrated to Monroe with his father in 1815. He was a justice of the peace in Monroe township for fifteen years, and from 1876 to 1881 was one of the associate judges of Wyoming county. His wife was Mary Ann Rice, a daughter of Rev. Jacob Rice, a native of Knowlton, N. J., who emigrated to Trucksville, in this county, in 1814. C. M. Phoenix, son of James Phoenix, was born in Monroe township August 28, 1854. He was educated in the public schools of his native township and at the Bowman's Creek Academy. He read law with W. E. and C. E. Little, at Tunkhannock, Pa., and was admitted to the Wyo- ming county bar in 1880. He practiced in this city a few years, but now resides somewhere in the west.
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1003
WILLIAM LEE PAINE.
WILLIAM LEE PAINE.
William Lee Paine, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., April 6, 1874, is the descendant, in the ninth gen- eration, of Thomas Paine, who formed one of the first companies of pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1621, accompanied by his son, Thomas Paine, who married Mary Snow, the daughter of Nicholas and Constina Snow, the former of whom came over in the ship Ann in 1623, and married Con- stance, the daughter of Stephen Hopkins, one of the Mayflower's band of pilgrims. The immediate predecessors of Captain Jede- diah Paine, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, located. in Truro township, on the eastern end of Cape Cod, adjoining the Provincetown settlement. The family of Payen or Pagan (the original style of spelling) or Paine were of Norman descent, and were among those who accompanied or followed the Norman invasion of England. In 1639 Thomas Paine, jr., was deputy from Yarmouth or Cape Cod to the first general court, and was in 1655 one of the original proprietors of the the town of East- ham. They were, from the nature of their surroundings, a sea- faring race, and the funeral records of their local churches and township records show many names whose owners were never laid to rest in mother earth, but found a grave in the ocean depths. The family was quite prolific, and under the various names of Paine, Payn and Payne, are well and favorably known. Captain Jedediah Paine was for nearly half a century a ship master and owner, sailing out of New York, and continued in that business until taken with his last and fatal sickness. His wife was Phebe Ann Compton, daughter of Lewis Compton, of Perth Amboy, N. J.
Lewis Compton Paine, son of Captain Jedediah Paine, was born in Perth Amboy, N. J., March 26, 1827. Naturally the sea became a familiar object to Mr. Paine, and at an early age he was the companion of his father and visited with him various parts of the ocean to which his father's business called him, generally the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea. At the early age of fourteen
1004
WILLIAM LEE PAINE.
years he acted as second officer on his father's vessel, and filled this position with satisfaction, acquiring thus early a knowledge of seamanship and the practical parts of navigation. Fate would probably have made the ocean life his, but during a temporary idleness in the shipping service he was induced to visit some friends in Wilkes-Barre. He became interested in business mat- ters here and gradually became weaned from the sea. Attract- ing the favorable attention of Colonel H. B. Hillman, who was then engaged in mining in Nanticoke, he was employed by him at that place. This was in 1843. During his residence there he became acquainted with and eventually engaged to Miss Mary Campbell Lee, the youngest daughter of James Stewart Lee and Martha Lee (nee Campbell). James S. Lee was the brother of Colonel Washington Lee. A long-continued attack of fever, re- sulting in a very serious and extended convalescence, compelled a removal from and resignation of Mr. Paine's position at Nanti- coke and a return to the sea coast. During the period of this convalescence Mr. Paine married Miss Lee, September 19, 1848, and they began married life at Perth Amboy. About this time Captain John Collins, a relative of Mr. Paine's, was organizing a line of steamers to Savannah, Ga., and offered the position of purser to Mr. Paine, who gladly accepted this opportunity to re- turn to his early love, the sea. Within a year the rush of travel to California became so great that Messrs. Howland & Aspin- wall formed a new line of steamers, via the Isthmus, and pur- chased the steamers Tennessee and Cherokee, which formed the Savannah line, and with them formed the new line on the Atlan- tic to Chagres. Captain Cleveland Forbes, an old family friend, was appointed captain of the latter named ship, and the position of purser was tendered to Mr. Paine and was accepted by him on this new line, where for three and a half years he was steadily engaged, making nearly forty monthly voyages between New York and Chagres. It was while engaged in this business and as purser of the steamship Georgia, under the command of Lieu- tenant D. D. Porter (now Admiral Porter), that he ran the first passenger train on the Panama railroad, which was then in pro- cess of construction. An unusual flood in the Chagres river pre- vented a landing of the passengers, some one thousand or more
1005
WILLIAM LEE PAINE.
who were on board the steamer lying in the open roadstead en route to California from New York. Mr. Paine had undertaken the landing in his boat for the purpose of examining personally the situation, but nearly sacrificed his life in the attempt. The extraordinary rise in the river had formed a current so strong that the picked crew of sailors forming his boat's crew could hardly contend against its power, and for a long time it was a question whether the boat and her crew could withstand the force which was drifting them on to the rocky ledge which formed the bar at the river's mouth, and over which heavy breakers were running, and with which contact meant, in the state of the river's current, certain death to the whole crew. Lieutenant Porter, who under- derstood and appreciated the situation, was standing at the wheel- house with his glass, deeply interested in the struggle being made, and knowing the inevitable result if the boat failed to clear the reef, and said to himself (as he afterwards stated), as he looked down on the deck where Mrs. Paine and her infant son, the sub- ject of this sketch, were sitting, unconscious of the danger in which husband and father was, "Poor little woman, she will be a widow in five minutes." But brave hearts and strong arms, after a long and anxious struggle, carried the boat away from the rocky ledge, and a successful landing was made in the breakers on the west side of the river's mouth. On the shore was found another thousand of return passengers awaiting the ship's return voyage to New York, but all access to the ship, as well as from her, was cut off. There only remained one of two things to do -to await the falling of the river's current and flood, or to seek an outlet to the new harbor of Aspinwall over the Panama railroad, then being constructed, and but recently reaching the river at Cruces, the first station at which the road touched the Chagres river, at a point some few miles from its mouth. After consultation with the railroad people, the latter course was decided upon. Word was sent to the ship by a native boatman advising her removal to Aspinwall, the ocean terminus of the railroad, some eight or ten miles distant. The river steamer Orus was chartered to transport passengers, mails and specie to the railroad station at Cruces. All the dirt and con- struction cars of the company were gathered there, and with these
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1006
WILLIAM LEE PAINE.
the first trip of the Panama railroad was made under the control and direction of Mr. Paine. This was in 1852. On the return of the steamer to New York the physician's orders compelled a final withdrawal from the influence of the Chagres climate, from the fever attaching to which Mr. Paine had but just partially recov- ered. Accepting an offer made by his brothers-in-law, Messrs. Washington and Andrew Lee, he joined them in mining coal at Nanticoke, under the firm name of Lee, Paine & Co., at the old Lee mines, now operated by the Susquehanna Coal Company. This situation seemed to promise the change necessary for recuperation from broken health, the result of the attack of Chagres fever, and, coupled with a desire of his wife to return to Pennsylvania, induced a removal from Brooklyn to Nanticoke in 1853. Here, in the latter part of the year, his wife died in child birth. In a short time he removed to Wilkes-Barre, where he has since re- sided. The panic and depression in business in 1857 made the coal mining business a failure, and the firm of Lee, Paine & Co. was dissolved. On October 15, 1857, Mr. Paine married a second time, Annie E. Lee, of Sycamore Grove, Tredyffrin township, Chester county, Pa., a daughter of David Lee, hav- ing the same family name but not related to his former wife. Mr. and Mrs. Paine have had a family of three children, two of whom survive. Mr. Paine was president of the Ashley sav- ings bank until it was closed for want of sufficient business to make it profitable. He is an active member of St. Steph- en's Protestant Episcopal church of this city. Since the death of Judge Conyngham he has held the position of senior or rector's warden, and member of the vestry of that church. As chairman of the building committee, he supervised the rebuilding and enlargement of that church in 1887. Mr. Paine was largely instrumental in bringing to this city the Sheldon axle works, in which concern he holds the position of director. These works are said to be the largest of its kind in the world at the present time. He was one of the executors of the will of Isaac S. Oster- hout, of this city, and is one of the trustees of the Osterhout Free Library.
William Lee Paine, son of L. C. Paine and Mary Campbell Lee Paine, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 23, 1851. He was
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1007
F. H. NICHOLS.
educated at Lehigh University, Yale College, and Harvard Law School, graduating from the latter in 1872. He read law in this city with W. W. Lathrope, H. B. Payne and H. W. Palmer, and practiced his profession in this city until 1882, when he removed to New York city, where he now resides. He married, May 18, 1882, Mrs. Maggie A. Lee, daughter of George W. Swetland and granddaughter of William Swetland. (See page 464.) Mr. and Mrs. Paine have a family of two children-Lewis Compton Paine and William Swetland Paine.
WILLIAM BEATTY MINER.
William Beatty Miner, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., January 11, 1881, is the only son of William Penn Miner. (See page 42.) He was born in this city July 20, 1854, and read law with Dickson (A. H.) & Atherton (T. H.) Soon after his admission to the bar he learned the printer's trade in the office of his father, and subsequently became a partner with his father in the Daily and Weekly Record of the Times, of Wilkes- Barre, under the firm name of W. P. Miner & Son. The firm sold out their establishment, when W. B. Miner removed to the west. He is now the editor and proprietor of the Grant County Herald, at Lancaster, Wis. He is an unmarried man. His mother was Elizabeth DeWitt Liggett, daughter of John Liggett, who was a merchant in Philadelphia and a soldier in the war of 1 812.
F. H. NICHOLS.
F. H. Nichols, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., December 12, 1881, is a son of Thomas Nichols, of West Pittston, Pa. He read law with John. Richards and the late C. S. Stark, at Pittston. He is said to reside in Brooklyn, N. Y.
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1008
HENRY RICHARD LINDERMAN.
WILLIAM ALLISON PETERS.
William Allison Peters was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., November 20, 1882. He graduated from Vale Col- lege in the class of 1880, and read law with E. P. and J. V. Dar- ling, in this city. He now resides in Seattle, Washington Terri- tory.
HENRY RICHARD LINDERMAN.
Henry Richard Linderman, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, Pa., December 5, 1884, is a descendant of Jacob von Linderman (of the family of Margaretha Linderman, the mother of the reformer, Martin Luther ), who removed from Saxony during the disturbed period of the Austrian war of succession, and came to the province of New York in the first part of the last century. He purchased a large tract of land in Orange, then Ulster county, was a slave-holder and large farmer, and a man of means and prominence in the county. His son Henry
succeeded him in the possession of his property and was also an honored and prominent resident and large land owner of Orange county. Of Henry Linderman's sons, John Jordan Linder- man, M. D., was a student of medicine under the famous Dr. Valentine Mott, at the New York College of physicians and sur- geons. After graduation he removed to Pike county, Pa., and practiced medicine for fifty years, over a district forty miles in extent, in Pike county, and Sussex county, N. J. He began practice in 1816 and was considered the most eminent physician in that part of the state. Dr. John J. Linderman married Rachel, the daughter of the Hon. Richard Brodhead, who was on the Common Pleas bench in Pike county, Pa., many years, and the sister of United States Senator Richard Brodhead. These were the grand parents of H. R. Linderman, the subject of this sketch. Of Henry Linderman's other sons, the brothers of Dr. John J. Linderman, two were eminent at the bar. The Hon. James
1009
HENRY. RICHARD LINDERMAN.
Oliver Linderman was admitted to practice in 1835. He was president judge of Ulster county, N. Y., from 1843 to 1855. Syl- vester's history of Ulster county describes him as wonderfully popular, enjoying the confidence of all classes and parties. Wil- lett Linderman, Esq., was admitted to the bar in 1820. He was district attorney of Ulster county, N. Y., from 1837 to 1846, and was eminent as a lawyer. Judge Linderman's son, Henry Wil- lett Linderman, was a brave officer of volunteers throughout the late civil war, is a member of the bar, although not practicing, and resides at Buffalo, N. Y. Of Henry Linderman's remaining sons, two died in youth, and the youngest brother of Dr. John J. Linderman, Henry Shaw Linderman, resided on the old home- stead property, and in the house built by his grandfather, Jacob von Linderman, in Orange county, N. Y., until his death, at an advanced age, a few years ago. Jacob von Linderman's family had been distinguished in Saxony for two centuries before he came to this country, his ancestors having achieved eminence in the church, the law, and medicine. Several were counselors and physicians to the elector of Saxony. Casper von Linderman, M. D., first physician to the elector, Frederick Augustus, 1526, and Laurentius von Linderman, LL. D., counselor to the elector Augustus, were the most famous of these. Two others, Diede- rich von Linderman, and John von Linderman, LL. D., were mayors of Dresden and Leipsic, respectively, at the close of the fifteenth century, and the latter was professor of jurispru- dence in the University of Leipsic. Another, Nicholas von Lin- derman, was Senator at Gotha, 1570. Dr. John Jordan Linder- man married Rachel Brodhead, as before stated. She was the daughter of Judge Richard Brodhead, and the sister of the Hon. Richard Brodhead, who, after serving three terms in the house of representatives, was elected to the senate of the United States and served the full term, from 1853 to 1859. Mrs. Linderman was the granddaughter of Garrett Brodhead, lieutenant in a New Jersey regiment (though a Pennsylvanian) during the revolu- tionary war, and a great-niece of Daniel Brodhead, colonel of the eighth (afterwards first) Pennsylvania regiment of the continen- tal line ; commandant of the western military department from 1778 to 1781, afterwards brigadier general, and a member of the
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HENRY RICHARD LINDERMAN.
society of the Cincinnati, who received the thanks of congress for his services ; also a great-niece of Luke Brodhead, captain in the sixth Pennsylvania of the continental line, and a friend of Lafayette; and a great-niece of John Brodhead, who was also a captain in the revolutionary army. General Daniel Brodhead's son, Daniel, jr., was senior first lieutenant in Colonel Shee's Penn- sylvania battalion, was captured by the British the first year of the war, exchanged 1778, and died soon after. A New York nephew of these Pennsylvania officers, Charles Wessel Brodhead, was captain of a grenadier company in the New York line, which he equipped at his own expense, and with which he was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. General Daniel Brod- head was one of the most distinguished patriots and officers of the Pennsylvania line throughout the entire struggle; and cap- tain Luke Brodhead, though promoted to a colonelcy, was obliged to retire from active service because of the desperate character of his wounds received at the battle of the Brandywine. The sword which he took from Captain Grant, of the British army, at the battle of Long Island, is now in the possession of his grandson, Luke W. Brodhead, Esq., of the Water Gap, Monroe county, Pa. These Pennsylvania officers, ancestors of Mrs. Linderman, were the sons of Daniel Brodhead, of Brodhead manor, the an- cestor of the Brodhead family in Pennsylvania. He was one of the first magistrates in the Minisink valley, and justice of the Quarter Sessions by the king's commission; a man of large prop- erty and great prominence. He came to Pennsylvania from New York in 1737. He was the grandson of Daniel Brodhead, the
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