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 46
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of the Church of Scotland," was now, however, drawing to a close. His constitution had been naturally good, and during the earlier part of his life he had enjoyed uninterrupted health, but the sever- ity of his studious habits at length began to bear him down. He was first seriously affected in 1726, and from this period con- tinued gradually to decline till 1734, when he expired on March 21 ; dying, as he had lived, in the faith of the gospel, and love to all mankind. Mr. Wodrow was married, in 1708, to Margaret Warner, granddaughter of Wm. Guthrie, of Fenwick, author of the "Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ," and daughter of the Rev. Patrick Warner, of Ardeer, Ayrshire, and minister of Irvine. Sixteen children were born of this marriage, of whom four sons and five daughters survived their father. Robert Wodrow, his eldest surviving son, was born December 21, 1711. He was educated for the ministry and succeeded his father in the parish of Eastwood in 1735. In 1757 he resigned his charge and took up his residence upon the island of Little Cumbray, which is situated just off the shores of Ayrshire, in the firth of Clyde. It used to be said of this devout man that even in public he prayed first for the little Cumbray isle, and then for the realm of England and the rest of the world. He died January, 1784, and is buried in the Little Cumbray churchyard. He was twice mar- ried, his second wife being Ann Ruthven, by whom he had several children. His eldest son, Andrew, settled early in America, and left descendants who are still living at Romney, West Virginia. Mary Ann Wodrow, daughter of Robert Wodrow last named and paternal grandmother of R. W. Archbald, was born June 24, 1764. She was married August 4, 1789, to James Archbald, who, though inferior in social station, amply repaid her in the depth and tenderness of his attachment. But little is known of the family of the elder Archbald. His father was named James, and he had two brothers, John and William. The father lived on the main land at Knockendon, in Ayrshire, and had a cattle farm on the big Cumbray island, and a sheep farm on the little Cumbray, the latter being in charge of his son James. After her marriage Mrs. Archbald continued to reside on the little Cumbray isle. In the seclusion of this spot, with the busy commerce of Glasgow and the Clyde sailing by in sight through
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the waters of the firth, she found leisure to develop and gratify the literary and poetic tastes with which she was naturally gifted. Here was born, March 3, 1793, James Archbald, the revered father of the subject of this sketch. A second son, Patrick (or Peter) was born at Stevenson, in Ayrshire, in 1805, while Mrs. Archbald was on a visit to her uncle James Wodrow, min- ister of that parish, to whose family she was warmly attached. Two daughters, Margaret and Helen Louisa, were also born to her. With this family she removed with her husband, in 1807, to America, and settled at Auriesville, Montgomery county, New York ._ Having purchased a farm in the charming Mohawk Val- ley, it was found that Mr. Archbald, as an alien, took but a de- feasible title to the land. This led to a correspondence with Dewitt Clinton, already prominent in public life, in which the gifted pen of Mrs. Archbald enlisted him in her behalf, and through the influence of Mr. Clinton a special act was passed which confirmed the title to her husband. It is said that upon this occasion Mr. Clinton was so impressed with the literary talents of Mrs. Archbald that he urged her to undertake the his- tory of the state of New York. Amid all her household duties Mrs. Archbald found time to record the doings of each day in a diary, which still exists in manuscript, and which reads with the charm of a story, and often contains important reference to public events of the day. She kept up a regular correspondence to the end of her life with her relatives in Scotland. She has left a volume of paintings in water color, mainly of flowers exquisitely painted from nature ; and though distant from literary centers, she gath- ered about her a library of twelve hundred volumes, each one of which bears evidence of having been carefully perused and digested. Her husband died suddenly August 3, 1824, aged sixty-one. Mrs. Archbald survived him several years, and died January 3, 1841, in her seventy-seventh year. It is of more im- portance to inquire who was the mother of a man than who was his father, since the qualities of the former are more likely to be reflected in him than those of the latter, and this seems to be ex- emplified in the life of James Archbald. Born, as we have seen, on the little Cumbray isle, on the west coast of Scotland, and on the shores of the Atlantic, his early years were spent away from
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the busy haunts of trade, with only the cultivated mind of a mother to foster his ambition. The eldest of his father's family, he naturally and early became the dependence of his parents ; and, apt in all the consequent minor duties of the house and farm, he might often be seen diligently knitting socks for the family while watching the sheep of his father grazing about him. Upon his removal to America, to the farm at Auriesville, N. Y., a new life opened before him. No railroads or canals then offered means of transportation, and the great Mohawk valley turnpike was the main artery of travel. At the age of fourteen young James, to whom thus early was committed the transaction of such business, might be seen driving his wagon load of wheat down the turnpike to Albany, some forty miles distant, where he sold his grain with the good judgment of maturer years. As he advanced toward manhood he became engaged in the varied pursuits of farming, lumbering, and finally trading to the then far distant Canadian line. While there he received an offer from the Northwest Fur Company, which he came near accepting, and which would have entirely changed the course of his life. It must not be supposed that while thus actively engaged the cul- tivation of his mind was entirely neglected. He eagerly seized every opportunity for reading and study ; became an ardent ad- mirer of poetry, and could recite even in his later days lengthy quotations from Burns and Byron, as well as most of the British poets. The intervals of labor were employed to gratify his inher- ited taste for reading, and often while resting at the plow the few spare moments were spent in perusing a book produced from his pocket. In the summer of 1817 the construction of the Erie canal was begun. This great work, which has linked to imper- ishable fame the name of Dewitt Clinton, its projector, opened a new field to Mr. Archbald's energies. He became a contractor and built that section of the canal which destroyed the symmetry of his own beautiful farm. His work as a contractor was well done; much to the surprise of the engineer, there were none of those attempts at cheating so common on politically managed improvements. The engineer in charge was the celebrated John B. Jervis, who, feeling pleased with the young man's faithfulness and capability, offered him a position in his engineering corps.
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Mr. Jervis was soon after offered the charge of the newly begun Delaware and Hudson Canal, and in the year 1825 Mr. Arch- bald was employed by him upon it. He was placed under an en- gineer somewhat noted for his fast qualities, who, not finding any congeniality in the straightforward plodding assistant, asked his removal on the ground that he would never make an engineer. Mr. Jervis at once assented, and to the general surprise made him resident engineer in charge of that division. In 1829 the newly opened mines and railroad at Carbondale being in their incipient stages of existence, the directors elected Mr. Archbald super- intendent, and from that time his life was principally passed in the Lackawanna valley. His mother was still living at this time on the farm at Auriesville, and such was his devotion to her that several times he walked the whole distance from Carbondale, by way of Rondout and the banks of the Hudson, to his old home to cheer her with a visit. Some seven or eight years after this W. C. Bouck, canal commissioner, and afterwards democratic governor of the state of New York, offered Mr. Archbald the position of engineer in charge of that portion of the Erie canal enlargement lying between Troy and Utica, a distance of one hundred miles. This he accepted and left Carbondale, much to the regret of the company and of the citizens of the place. But he did not stay away long. The strife and trickery of politics which prevailed among the canal authorities disgusted him and at the earnest solicitation of the president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company he once more took 'charge of the road, after the absence of a year. In 1847 the Pennsylvania Coal Company commenced building their gravity railroad from Pitts- ton to Hawley, and this too was placed in charge of Mr. Arch- bald and constructed upon his plans. In the prosecution of this work he was subjected to extreme fatigue and frequent expo- sure, and on one occasion he lost his way and spent all night in the woods near Jones Lake. Often at the end of the week's work he would walk home to Carbondale, several miles, over the mountains. The mines and works at Carbondale, Honesdale and Hawley were at the same time in his charge, and the conse- quent physical and mental strain upon him were too great. In the spring of 1850 he was taken with erysipelas, and for several-
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months his life was despaired of. So important to the enterprises in his charge was his supervision considered to be, that a physi- cian was sent from New York city by the company, and one of the directors took his place at the bedside of Mr. Archbald to help nurse him back to life. In 1851 Carbondale was made a city, and the citizens thereof, to show their respect and attach- ment, elected him mayor, which office he filled for four succes- sive terms, and until he removed from the place. In 1854 Mr. Archbald was chosen vice-president of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana railroad, and he once more and finally dissolved his connection with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company and the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and took per- sonal charge of the western railroad. His stay in the west, however, was limited to a year, when he received his final recall to the scene of his early labors. A new railroad was in progress and mighty changes were taking place in the valley. The extension of the Delaware and Hudson railroad had built up the village ( now the borough ) of Archbald, named in his honor; the business of the Pennsylvania Coal Company had made Dunmore and the enterprises of the Scrantons had made Slocum Hollow (which is now transformed into the city of Scranton) the center of the coal trade of the valley. The Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad having been estab- lished, George W. Scranton was compelled by ill health to abandon his position in the employ of that company, and by the general voice of the directors Mr. Archbald was appointed gen- eral agent. He now moved his residence to Scranton, leaving Carbondale (after a sojourn of about thirty years), much to the regret of her people, and followed by the good wishes of the entire population. In 1858 Mr. Archbald was appointed chief engineer of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and subsequently president of the Lackawanna and Blooms- burg, both of which positions he held at the time of his death. He had a competency-the proceeds of a life of industry, not a dollar having been made in speculation-but his active habits of life still forbade his retiring from his customary pursuits, and until near his death he possessed the elasticity and industry of younger days, rose with the early dawn, and on a tramp over the moun-
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tains could rarely be tired out by men who were much his junior in years. Esteemed most by those who knew him best, Mr. Archbald had the entire confidence and affection of the railroad managers and employees. The simplicity of his character, the purity of his life, and the uprightness of his dealings, have made his name a synonym for honesty. Ne never failed in his word; he never refused a favor nor harbored an enmity ; he never so- licited an office. In 1866 Mr. Archbald reluctantly accepted the unanimous nomination of the republican party for congress. Per- sonally his inclinations were averse to running the gauntlet of the campaign, but the clamorous entreaties of his friends over- bore his better judgment. Even with the powerful assistance of Susquehanna county, which was then attached to this congress- ional district, he was defeated by his opponent, Charles Denison. James Archbald died at Scranton August 26, 1870.
The wife of James Archbald was Sarah Augusta Temple Froth- ingham, daughter of Major Thomas Frothingham and Elizabeth Frost. Thomas Frothingham was descended from William Froth- ingham, who, as appears from the town records of Charlestown, Mass., came from England and settled at that place in 1630. The second son of William Frothingham was Nathaniel, born in 1639. There were two other brothers of the original family, Peter and Samuel, and Nathaniel had a family of seven children who came to ages of maturity, so that early foundation was thus laid for the spread of the Frothingham name, a geneological history of which has been compiled in recent years by Richard H. Frothingham, a member of the family. A curious relic has come down to the present generation from this time and source. It consists of a small box or trunk about twelve by eighteen inches in size and six inches high, covered on the outside with black leather, patched in many places, and having on the lid the date of 1678, marked in brass headed nails. The inside is lined with what is supposed to be a kind of wall paper of that day. Rude figures, outlined in black upon the white ground, and looking almost as though made with a burnt stick, alternate in lines with several oft repeated pious texts, such as :
GODS WORD IS PURE A SHIELD MOST SVRE. THE PAINFVL HAND SHAL RULE THE LAND. SAVE VS O LORD FROM HETHENS SWORD . FROM EVEL STRAY AND LIVE FOR AVE. AN EVEL WOMAN IS LIKE A SCORPION .
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These would seem to betray a Puritan origin, and the box is reputed in the family to have been brought over from England.
The oldest son of Nathaniel Frothingham was also named Nathaniel, and was born July 2, 1671. His wife was Hannah Rand. Nathaniel Frothingham-third of the name-eldest son of Nathaniel and Hannah, is next in succession. He was born December 7, 1698, and died May 7, 1749. He married July 27, 1721, Susanna Whittemore. Their second son and third child was William, who was born October 16, 1729, and was married October 16, 1751, to Hannah, oldest child of Charles Hewson and Hannah White. Of this marriage was born January 27, 1755, Thomas Frothingham, maternal grandfather of the subject of this record.
Thomas Frothingham was born at Charlestown, Mass., and was the second son of his parents. He was apprenticed at the age of fourteen to learn the trade of cabinet maker. Early in 1775, the danger of hostilities with the mother country being apprehended, he formed with other young men a company of artillery. Secret meetings were held and a wooden gun, mounted on a carriage, was used to drill with. On the 19th of April, hostili- ties having been begun at the battle of Lexington, he enlisted in the artillery for eight months under his master, Lieutenant Benja- min Frothingham, and subsequently, in January 1776, reenlisted for a year longer. In April following he went with the army to New York, and was there under Captain Corsen, "one of the most experienced fire workers," as he says in a letter to his son, "to be found in the then colonies." Upon the retreat of the army from New York in September, 1776, he was appointed con- ductor of military stores, and in September, 1779, deputy field commissary, with the rank of major. He was assigned a post at West Point, and remained in this office and service till the close of the revolution. In 1784 he entered into a partnership with Benjamin Gorton, and opened a store at Claverack landing, on the North river, now incorporated in the city of Hudson. In 1790 the firm was dissolved, but Mr. Frothingham continued the business until the fall of 1805. From Hudson he removed to Sand Lake, a village twelve miles east of Albany, and there took charge of the construction and management of a glass fac-
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tory, in which position he continued until his death, January 25, 1827. Major Frothingham was a gentleman of the old school. He was tall and dignified in his bearing, and courteous in his manners. He was a prominent mason, and served a term in the state senate of New York in 1821 and 1822. The senate at that time sat as a court of errors and appeals, and the position of senator carried consequent importance and dignity. On Septem- ber 27, 1785, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Gideon Frost and Sarah Ireland, of Cambridge, Mass. Gideon Frost was de- scended from Edmund Frost, who was born July 12, 1672. The line passes down through Ephraim, the son of Edmund, born January 12, 1718, and a second Edmund, the son of Ephraim, born November 6, 1752. Edmund Frost married Hannah Coop- er, and from them was born, June 24, 1724, Gideon Frost, the father of Elizabeth. Sarah Ireland, the wife of Gideon, was the daughter of John Ireland and Sarah Shepherd, and was born August 26, 1728. Part of the land over which the grounds of Harvard college, at Cambridge, now extend was originally in the Frost family, as well as a large part of that on which the village of North Cambridge has grown up. The old Frost house, in the latter place, over two hundred years old, is still standing. Its long sloping roof, low ceiling and old tiled fire places would delight the antiquary. It was kept up in the old style by the late Mrs. Susan Austin, a descendent of the family, until her death recently.
Elizabeth Frost, the wife of Thomas Frothingham, was born November 15, 1760. She was a woman of peculiar mould, and some of the characteristics of the mother have descended to her children. One of these certainly deserves mention. Even at that early day she was one of the few who espoused the cause of the negro against his master. The state of Massachusetts then afforded a safe refuge for the escaping slave, and the village of Sand Lake, N. Y., a few miles from the state line, was the last station upon the underground railway. While living at that place Mrs. Frothingham frequently harbored and concealed mem- bers of this persecuted class, and when the way was open, helped them on to the white stone which marked the dividing line of the two states, and made the slave a freeman. Mrs. Frothingham
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did not rise with the dawn, but, on the contrary, when the neigh- boring blacksmith began to stir his morning fires, this was her signal for retiring. Nevertheless, she lived to a good old age, dying December 26, 1843, at the ripe age of eighty-three.
The youngest child of Thomas and Elizabeth Frothingham was Sarah Augusta Temple Frothingham. She was born Sep- tember 14, 1805, at Hudson, N. Y., but while still an infant her parents moved to Sand Lake village, already mentioned, and there the whole of her early life was spent. Upon the occasion of a visit to Auriesville she met James Archbald, ten years or more her senior, and still living with his mother on the farm. Seven years later, November 27, 1832, she became his bride, and removed with him to the then seeming wilderness of Car- bondale, Pa., where meantime the mines and works of the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal Company had been developing under his superintendency. Her life from this time on mingles with that of her husband, and but little is to be said of it. A dutiful daughter, a faithful and loving wife and mother-how brief, how simple the record, yet how important! She made a place for herself, while she lived, in the hearts of her friends and family, and passed to her rest July 5, 1874, in the sixty-ninth year of her age, having survived her husband nearly four years.
James Archbald left to survive him five children-James, Mary Wodrow, Thomas Frothingham, Augusta, and Robert Wod- row. James was born February 13, 1838, graduated at Union College in 1860, and succeeded his father as chief engineer of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which position he still holds. He married, January 25, 1865, Maria H., daugh- ter of the late Joseph J. Albright (one of the pioneers, and prom- inent in the later development, of Scranton), and has several children. He was captain of Company I, One Hundred and Thirty-second Pennsylvania Volunteers, in the late war, and was present at the battle of Antietam. His engineering skill is at- tested by the new Bergen tunnel of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, at Hoboken, N. J., with its approaches, and the Buffalo extension of the same railroad, over two hundred . miles from Binghamton to Buffalo, N. Y. He is at present the general and energetic manager of the Barber Asphalt Paving
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Company, and resides at Scranton. Mary W. was born June 16, 1840, and married, September 4, 1867, George H. Catlin, of Shoreham, Vermont. They now reside at Scranton, Mr. Catlin being vice president of the Third National Bank there. Thomas F. was born July 23, 1843, and died February 17, 1882, leaving a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth. Augusta, born March 19, 1846; deceased March 9, 1873; unmarried and without issue.
Robert Wodrow Archbald was born September 10, 1848, at Carbondale, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pa., where he lived until near nine years of age, removing in August, 1857. with his parents to Scranton. He attended the public schools of the latter place until 1864, when he began the pursuit of civil engineering, intending to make that his calling. A road to be known as the Wyoming Gravity Railroad had been projected at that time from Wilkes-Barre over the Pocono mountains to Stroudsburg, Monroe county, to connect at the latter place with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and give an outlet for the transportation of coal in that direction. The work was in charge of his eldest brother, James Archbald, and the summer and fall of 1864 were spent by him in the field as one of a corps of engineers under his brother. Following the same de- sign, in January, 1865, he entered the Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., but, under some discouragements at the outstart, was diverted from the idea of becoming an engineer, and returned home. For a few months in the spring and summer of 1865 he took his place again in the field upon the Wyoming Gravity road, but in the fall of that year, having determined upon taking a clas- sical course at college, he entered Flushing Institute, a prepara- tory school, at Flushing, Long Island. From there he successfully entered the academic department of Yale College in September, 1867, and graduated four years later in the class of 1871. No special honors fell to him at college, save a declamation prize, an oration at the junior exhibition, and a place on the famous wooden spoon committee. He was also leader of the class glee club. In senior year he was a member of the so-called Scroll and Key society. Returning to Scranton in 1871, he took up the study of the law in the office of Hand and Post. That firm was composed of Alfred Hand-subsequently one of the law
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judges of Luzerne and Lackawanna counties -- and I. J. Post, Esq., since deceased. Mr. Archbald was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 17, 1873, and began the practice of the law at Scranton. The disadvantage of practicing at such a distance from the county seat was keenly felt by him, as by others, and while the division of the county was being strenu- ously urged, there seemed for the time very little likelihood that it would be accomplished. Taking this view of things, Mr. Archbald removed, in January, 1878, to the city of New York, intending to cast in his lot there. He soon returned, however, and resumed practice at Scranton, and in August following had the satisfaction of aiding in the establishment of the new county of Lackawanna. In February, 1883, he was mentioned for the position of city solicitor of Scranton against I. H. Burns, Esq., the incumbent of the office, who had then successfully held it for three terms. The election was by the city councils, of whom a majority were republicans, the same as Mr. Archbald, Mr. Burns being a democrat. The first ballot was a tie, but on the second a change of two votes gave the election to Mr. Burns, and he has held the office ever since. In 1884, as the term of Hon. John . Handley, president judge of the Forty-fifth Judicial District, com- posed of the county of Lackawanna, drew towards a close, Mr. Archbald was favorably mentioned as a candidate upon the side of the republicans. His nomination was contested, however, by H. M. Edwards, Esq., who is now serving his second term as district attorney of the county, but Mr. Archbald was chosen by a vote of about two-thirds of the nominating convention. The position and popularity of Judge Handley, who was the antici- pated candidate of the democratic party, made the nomination seem at the time a barren one. But dissensions having sprung up in the ranks of the opposition, Edward Merrifield, Esq., was nomi- nated as the regular candidate of that party, and Judge Handley became an independent candidate. After a spirited canvass, the result of which was to the end extremely doubtful, Mr. Archbald was elected, November 4, 1884, by a plurality of about two thou- sand votes. On January 5, 1885, at the age of thirty-six, he took his seat upon the bench as additional law judge of Lackawanna county, Hon. Alfred Hand, by the retirement of Judge Handley,
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