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 5
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GEORGE WASHINGTON SHONK.
tion ; and never was a crime followed with severer retribution. Yet Le Tellier, the chancellor, at the age of eighty, thanked God that he was permitted the exalted privilege of affixing the seal of his office to the act before he died. Madam de Maintenon declared that it would cover Louis with glory. Madam de Sé- vigné said that no royal ordinance had ever been more magnifi- cent. Hardly a protest came from any person of influence in the land, not even from Fénelon. The great Bosseut, at the funeral of Le Tellier, thus broke out : 'Let us publish this miracle of our day, and pour out our hearts in praise of the piety of Louis- this new Constantine; this new Theodosius; this new Charle- magne; through whose hands heresy is no more.' The Pope, though at this time hostile to Louis, celebrated a Te Deum."
"The tradition in the family," says Ira Davenport, of Plymouth, now seventy-three years of age, " is that our ancestor returned to France and was put to death." The wife of Thomas Daven- port, jun., was Mary Reynolds Bronson. She was the daughter of Levi Bronson, a native of Kent, Litchfield county, Conn. He was the father of Ira Bronson, who was one of the commis- sioners of Luzerne county from 1846 to 1849, and also one of the justices of the peace of the county for many years. .
George W. Shonk was prepared for college at Wyoming Sem- inary, Kingston, Pa. He then entered Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., from which he graduated in the class of 1873. He then entered the law office of Hubbard B. Payne, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 29, 1876. He married, August 15, 1880, Ida E. Klotz, daughter of Joseph Klotz, of West Pittston, Pa., who is a descendant of Jacob Klotz, who came to this country with his wife, nee Uteloch, from Wur- tenburg, Germany, September 2, 1749. in the ship Chesterfield. He took out a warrant for a tract of land in Lowhill township, Le- high (then Northampton) county, March 16, 1767, and another in November of the same year, lying between the site of the " Mor- genlender church and the Jordan creek." He had two sons : John and Casper. John Klotz, the grandfather of Joseph Klotz, married Franconia Krouse, and by her had five sons. Christian Klotz was the fourth son of John, and was the father of Joseph Klotz. He was born May 14, 1789, and about the year 1814
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GEORGE WASHINGTON SHONK.
left his native township, and soon after settled in Mahoning town- ship, Carbon county, where he died March 12, 1848. In 1816 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert McDaniel, and by her had five children ; Joseph Klotz, the father of Mrs. Shonk, being the youngest. In 1848 Joseph Klotz removed to Pittston, where he has since resided. He married, November 6, 1850, Mary A. Grube, daughter of John Grube. Robert Klotz, of Mauch Chunk, Pa., who represented the counties of Carbon, Columbia, Montour, Pike, Monroe, and parts of Luzerne and Lackawanna in congress from 1878 to 1883, is a brother of Joseph Klotz. Robert McDaniel, the maternal grandfather of Joseph Klotz, was born August 24, 1756, in a small lumbering village near Penob- scot, Me. He was apprenticed to Captain Joseph Longstreth, of Philadelphia, who, in 1783, purchased the Gilbert farm in Mahoning Valley, being the same place where the Indians cap- tured the Gilbert family in 1780. The wife of Robert McDaniel was Elizabeth Hicks, a Quakeress. Mr. and Mrs. George W. Shonk have two children : Herbert Bronson Shonk and Emily Weaver Shonk. Mr. Shonk is one of the best and brightest of the younger members of the Luzerne bar. He comes of a good family, some of the members of which have been prominently identified with the political and business interests of the county. His father, as already stated, served two terms in the house of representatives at Harrisburg, where he took a live interest, and was an active participant, in the proceedings. George W.'s ca- pacities, both as a lawyer and man of business, are of no narrow order. He never permits himself to underestimate the impor- tance of a cause placed in his keeping, and is always prepared to defend it from every point of attack. Hence he is a close stu- dent as well as a member of the bar, as every good lawyer who expects to remain a good lawyer, must be. He is a republican in politics, and quite prominently identified with the interests of that party. He is quiet, courteous, and affable, and these quali- ties, added to his professional and business powers, give promise of his becoming a citizen of rare usefulness.
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CLARENCE WINFIELD KLINE.
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CLARENCE WINFIELD KLINE.
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Clarence Winfield Kline was born October 25, 1851, near Jer- seytown, Columbia county, Pa. He is a descendant of Jacob Klein, who emigrated to this country from Germany October 2, 1741, in the ship St. Andrew. Daniel Klein, son of Jacob Klein, was born in 1742, and served in the revolutionary war. Daniel Klein, son of Daniel Klein, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and served under General Jackson. He removed from Philadelphia to East Hempfield township, Lancaster county, in 1820. George Schenck Kline, father of C. W. Kline, was born in East Hemp- field in 1826, and removed to Danville, Pa., in 1845. In 1846 he married Maranda Kisner, daughter of Jacob Kisner. He was the son of Leonard Kisner, who was the son of John Kisner, a native of Germany. Jacob Kisner was the cousin of William Kisner, of Hazleton. On the night of his marriage he left with the Columbia Guards for the Mexican war, where they partici- pated in every battle. The Columbia Guards organized in 1817, belonged especially to Danville, and was famous all over Colum- bia county (in honor of which it took its name), by its connec- tion with the Mexican war. It was mustered into the service of the United States December 28, 1846, and was attached to the Second Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Wynkoop, and afterwards by Colonel Geary, who subsequently became governor of Pennsylvania. Their first en- gageent w as at the storming of Vera Cruz, and the second at Cerro Gordo. At the battle of Chepultepec they lost two men. On approaching the City of Mexico, the defense of San Angelos, with all the military stores, was committed to the Guards, and on September 13, 1847, they were among the first to march in triumphal entry into the city. Mr. Kline participated in every engagement. He went out as first sergeant and was promoted by gallantry to first lieutenant and brevet captain. He left a magnif- icent sword as an heirloom to his children, which is now in the possession of the subject of this sketch, and which bears the fol-
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CLARENCE WINFIELD KLINE.
lowing inscription engraved upon its scabbard : "Presented to Lieutenant George S. Kline by General Winfield Scott for bravery and meritorious service on the battlefields of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Chepultepec, and Mexico." Lieutenant Kline had the honor to be the man who planted the American colors on the walls of Chepultepec after three brave soldiers had been shot in attempting to do so. Captain Kline returned to Danville after the war, and first acted as clerk and then as superintendent of the old " Rough and Ready " rolling mill at that place. In 1852 he went West with a party of surveyors to lay out a railroad, and at St. Josephs, Mo., was attacked by cholera and died within a few hours. His widow is still living.
C. W. Kline, after his father's death, was taken and raised by his grandmother Kline, in Lancaster county, and in the common schools of that county he received the groundwork of his edu- cation. When thirteen years of age he left school and Lancaster county and came back to his birthplace. The next year he suc- cessfully passed an examination and received a teacher's certifi- cate. His first school was at the old Derry Presbyterian church, in Anthony township, Montour county. He continued teaching in the winter and working on the farm in the summer until 1869, when he removed to Jeansville, Pa., and for two years was in the employ of J. C. Hayden and Company. He was then appointed principal of the Jeansville schools. In 1874 he registered as a student at law in the office of Thomas J. Foley, then practic- ing in Hazleton, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 10, 1877. Mr. Kline married, November 26, 1874, Jen- nie Lindner, daughter of Samuel Lindner, of Hazleton. Mr. and Mrs. Kline have no children living. Mr. Kline has been a school director of Hazleton, and for the last six years has been solicitor of the borough. He has been chairman and is now sec- retary of the republican committee of the Fourth legislative district. C. W. Kline, whose office is at Hazleton, is one of the rapidly rising young attorneys of the Luzerne bar: He controls a large proportion of the legal business of what is called " the lower end," meaning the southern portion of the county, or Hazleton region, and by assiduous exertion earns his fee and satisfies his client every time. Lawyers doing business in the
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EDWARD WARREN STURDEVANT. .
smaller towns of the county do not come so conspicuously before the whole people of the county as those residing at the county- seat, but many of them are, nevertheless, equally bright and de- serving, and do an equally important and lucrative business. In such towns cases of considerable importance are finally decided in the courts of the justices of the peace, and practice in these courts is oftener a serious matter than practice in the alder- manic courts of cities like Wilkes-Barre. It is a long distance by rail from Hazleton to Wilkes-Barre, and the journey is expen- sive to poor litigants, who, on these accounts, prefer to have their causes decided at home by the justices, if they come within - their jurisdiction, and where they are ably argued pro and con by the attorneys. A good part of Mr. Kline's practice is of this character, though he is an attendant at almost every session of the county courts representing numerous clients. He is a gen- tleman well read out of as well as in the law, and makes an ex- cellent plea.
EDWARD WARREN STURDEVANT.
Edward Warren Sturdevant was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., November 12, 1854. He is the youngest son of the late Ebene- zer Warren Sturdevant, also of the Luzerne bar. The mother of Edward W. Sturdevant was Lucy, daughter of Charles Hus- ton, at one time one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Judge Huston was the son of Thomas Huston, of Scotch-Irish descent, who, in September, 1775, was appointed "lieutenant of one of the armed boats ;" March, 1776, captain of the Warren; August, 1778, captain of the armed brig Con- vention ; and in October of the same year he reported to the supreme executive council of this state that he had "taken sev- eral prizes which are not condemned." Family tradition states that he came home on furlough to his home in Newtown, Bucks county, Pa., late on a certain afternoon ; his anxious, fearful wife persuaded him to retire for the night to a neighboring hill for security. He soon saw British soldiers enter his house. Pre-
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EDWARD WARREN STURDEVANT.
senting their bayonets to Mrs. Huston, they demanded her hus- band, promising protection if he would give himself up. She assured them there were none there excepting herself, her little children, and a hired boy, who stood trembling by. They ran- sacked the house, thrusting their bayonets into beds, closets, or wherever a man might have been. They found some fire-arms, and looking at the children proposed to " kill the cursed rebels in the bud," but their leader prevented any further trouble. Other officers who came home with Huston were taken, and were not released until the war closed. About that time the family settled near Carlisle, Pa. Judge Huston, the eldest child of Cap- tain Thomas Huston, first entered the army, afterwards studied law, then removed to Williamsport, and finally to Bellefonte, where he died. The parents followed him to Williamsport and kept a public house on a corner northeast of the court house for many years. Captain Huston died in Williamsport in 1824, aged eighty-five years. He was blind for some years, but could dis- tinguish any of his many grandchildren by the voice as he wel- comed them while sitting in his arm chair. His wife -- Jeanette Walker before marriage-was a notable housewife, robust and sprightly, making up boxes of clothing for home missionaries when seventy years old, eyes to her husband when blind, never tired of reading, and he never tired of hearing, out of the blessed Book. She survived him but two months, dying the same year, aged seventy-five years. Their youngest son, Thomas T. Hus- ton, M. D., settled in Athens, Bradford county, Pa., where he died in 1865.
Edward W. Sturdevant was prepared for college at the acad- emy of W. S. Parsons, in Wilkes-Barre, and then entered Lehigh University, at Bethlehem, Pa., from which he graduated in the class of 1875. He read law with E. P. and J. V. Darling, of this city, and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar June II, 1877. He married, October 18, 1882, Mary Nicholson Stark, only daughter of the late Jasper B. Stark, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Sturdevant have two children : Edward Warren Sturdevant and Amy Sturdevant. J. Byron Stark, of the Luzerne bar, is a brother of Mrs. Sturdevant. Mr. Sturdevant, whose ancestry are treated at some length in the sketch of his father, General
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BERNARD McMANUS.
Sturdevant, published in the previous volume of this work, pos- sesses talents as a scholar and a lawyer from which liberal profit, both in money and repuation, might have been realized had not the circumstances in which he was left by his father's death removed all necessity for his continuing to practice. His share of the General's estate amounts to a snug competence, and his time is now principally occupied in the management of it. He is a gentleman of unusual urbanity of manner, pleasant of speech, and popular in the best social circles.
BERNARD McMANUS.
Bernard McManus was born in Beaver Meadow, Carbon county, Pa., July 23, 1846. He is the son of the late Felix Mc- Manus, a native of Cavan, Ireland. His mother, Bridget Mc- Manus (nee Dolan), is still living. , Mr. McManus was educated at the Millersville, Pa., Normal School, and at St. John's College, Fordham, N. Y. He read law with John Lynch, and was admit- ted to the Luzerne county bar November 19, 1877. Rev. Patrick McManus, who is the parish priest at Great Bend, Pa., is a brother of the subject of our sketch. Mr. McManus married, May 20, 1884, Mary McCormick, daughter of Michael McCormick, a native of Roscommon, Ireland. They have no children. Mr. McManus practiced law at Hazleton for five years after his ad- mission, and then removed to this city where he has been in continuous practice since. Mr. McManus, coming from hum- blest beginnings, having few early advantages, and required from boyhood to depend upon his own labor for his livelihood, has, considering the short time he has been practicing, pushed him- self forward to a very proud position at the bar. He is a man of magnificent physique (which is a matter of no small conse- quence when one is compelled to the drudgeries of the law), of good mind and habits of industry. He joined the profession with the understanding that it would be of no manner of use to him without work, and hard work, and in that particular pos-
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ROBERT HUNTER WRIGHT.
sessed an equipment, the want of which will account for at least half the failures of the legal world. He is a very genial, cour- teous man in and out of court, and enjoys a most excellent repu- tation as a citizen with all who know him.
ROBERT HUNTER WRIGHT.
Robert Hunter Wright, of Hazleton, was born in Greenwood township, Perry county, Pa., December 4, 1841. He is a de- scendant of Isaac Francis Wright, a native of England, who emi- grated to this country when quite a lad. He was a carpenter by trade and resided in Philadelphia until his death, which was caused by a fall from a building. He married in this country Hannah Taylor, a daughter of William Taylor and granddaugh- ter of Isaac Taylor, of Lower Merion township, Montgomery county, Pa. The wife of Isaac Taylor was a daughter of Mau- rice Llewellyn, to whom William Penn gave a deed for six hun- dred and forty acres of land in Lower Merion township, fronting on the Schuylkill river. Charles Wright, the only son of Isaac Francis Wright, was but three months old when his father died. His mother married for a second husband, George Mitchell, with whom she and her son Charles moved to the Eagle Hotel, in Chester county, near Morgan's Corner, where she remained as proprietress, while her husband went back to Ireland to secure the " fortune coming," with which he purchased a tract of nearly two thousand acres of land in Greenwood township, Perry county, Pa., extending from the summit of the Buffalo Hills north, and from one-half mile of the Juniata river east. Charles Wright removed to Perry county when he was ten years of age, or about 1790, and lived with his mother and step-father until he married Deborah Van Camp, which occurred in his twenty-sixth and her twenty-second year. They moved into the woods to begin life for themselves, but they did not stay long, for, pos- sessed of a vigorous mind and a strong, healthy body, he " cleared " his way out. He was a democrat in politics, and as
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ROBERT HUNTER WRIGHT.
such was elected to the county offices of director of the poor and county commissioner for one term each. He changed his poli- tics during the late civil war, and was ever afterwards as ardent a republican as he had hitherto been a democrat. He was a prominent member of the Presbyterian church. The Van Camp (or Van Campen) family were descendants of the Holland Patroons, and settled in the Dutch village of Esopus (now Kingston), thirty- six miles northeast of New York City. William Van Camp, the ancestor of the line, was married to Elizabeth Decker, by whom he had three children-John, Jane, and Lydia- before 1763.
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They were informed in the evening that Indians lurked near, med- itating a midnight attack, and before IO P. M., with whatever could be hurriedly packed on two horses, leaving behind them four cows, ten sheep, and six hogs to arrest the pursuit of the · plundering savages, who sacked and burned the village before the dawn of the next day, the Van Camps were on their way through the forest toward Pennsylvania. Where they settled after this flight is not certainly known (the family stories differ), but from the most reliable sources were said to have lived in Columbia county, along the North Branch of the Susquehanna river. How long these fugitives were unmolested is not known, but it is certain that another surprise by the savages was more successful, for Lydia was made a captive and not ransomed for a period of nine months. The children of William and Elizabeth Van Camp, after their flight from New York, were James, Alex- ander, Andrew, and Deborah. The latter was the wife of Charles Wright. The removal of the Van Camps from the Susquehanna took place between 1767 and 1790. They purchased the lands they owned on the Juniata river from John Anderson, jun., who obtained the warrant and had the survey made in June, 1767.
. Charles Wright, jun., son of Charles Wright, is still living at Newport, Perry county, Pa. He is a farmer and is a native of Greenwood township. His wife is Eliza Jane Hunter, a daughter of John Hunter, a native of the North of Ireland. Mrs. Wright was born near Liverpool, Pa. R. H. Wright, son of Charles
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THOMAS REBAUGH MARTIN.
Wright, jun., worked on his father's farm in the summer and attended school in the winter until he was fifteen years old. He was subsequently a clerk, and when twenty years of age he at- tended the Bloomfield Academy. After completing his education he taught school, engaged in the mercantile business, and vari- ous other business pursuits until 1877. (Bloomfield, in connec- tion with this sketch, means a borough of that name in Perry county, the postoffice being New Bloomfield). He read law with Charles Barnett, of Bloomfield, and with Jabez Alsover, of Hazle- ton, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county March 22, 1878. He married, December 22, 1863, Kate E. Smith, daughter of the late Samuel Smith, of Bloomfield, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Wright have children as follows: Minnie Winona Wright, now the wife of George E. Harris, of Bethlehem ; Lulu Itaska Wright, Florence Adelaide Wright, and Edgar Samuel Wright. Mr. Wright is a man of good mental parts, and, having been an ear- nest student, is very well qualified for practice as an attorney at law. He does a fair share of the legal business of Hazleton, and his face is a familiar one in the county courts. He has never been especially active in politics, or other than his profession, but possesses qualities that would make him popular as a public character if he but chose to employ them with that ambition. He is as yet but upon the threshold of his professional career, which in the future, if he goes on as he has begun, will bring him enviable laurels.
THOMAS REBAUGH MARTIN.
Thomas Rebaugh Martin was born near Hagerstown, Wash- ington county, Md., May 26, 1849. He was educated at Mer- cersburg College, and Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1874. Mr. Martin comes from an old Maryland family. His grand- father, William Martin, was a justice of the peace in Washington county for over thirty years, and was a leading man in the com- munity in which he resided. The father of Thomas R. Martin.
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THOMAS REBAUGH MARTIN.
was David L. Martin. He was a farmer and resided in the same county. His brother, and the uncle of the subject of our sketch, Samuel Martin, was a lawyer of considerable note. Thomas R. Martin read law with D. G. Eshelman, of Lancaster, and com- pleted his legal reading with Andrew K. Seyster, of Hagerstown. He was admitted to the bar of Washington county, Md., in the latter part of the year 1875 ; to the Lancaster county, Pa., bar, in January, 1876 ; and to the Luzerne county bar, April 10, 1876. He married, June 28, 1877, Anna A. Stirk, daughter of Isaac Stirk, of Lancaster, Pa. They have one child: Florence Vir- ginia Martin. Mr. Martin came from Maryland to Wilkes-Barre "a stranger in a strange land," and to a bar very much over- crowded. He brought with him, however, a remarkable affabil- ity and a generally pleasing deportment and bearing that soon forged for him a way into a position of credit and prominence in his profession and in the party-the democratic-with which his sympathies lay. Professionally, nothing was too arduous to be 'undertaken for a client; politically, no task assigned him con- sumed too much of his time, or put him to too much trouble ; personally, he was ready for any thing to serve a friend ; and as a consequence he soon had an enviable standing at the bar, as a democrat and socially, that many less persevering and judicious, though more pretentious and ambitious, had long essayed in vain. During the time that he has been in the community he has probably made more political speeches than any other law- yer, either democratic or republican, and having a prolific vocab- ulary, a good enunciation, and captivating address, and being otherwise qualified for success in stump speech delivery, he at once made himself a good reputation with all who take delight in, or profit from, such instruction. The reputation thus achieved brought him into prominence for the nomination for district at- torney in 1882, and in the convention of that year he polled a good vote. He was again a candidate in 1885, and reached within an ace of the nomination, his opponent, James L. Lena- han, being especially popular, both personally and by reason of the peculiar circumstances attending the contest. Mr. Martin is a man who outlives discouragements, and if he chooses to be a candidate again, he may do so with bright promise of success.
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JAMES L. LENAHAN.
JAMES L. LENAHAN.
James L. Lenahan was born in Plymouth township, Luzerne county, Pa., November 5, 1856. He attended the public schools of this city until he was fourteen years of age. He then acted as clerk in his father's store for three years, then entered the academy kept by W. R. Kingman, and completed his education at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass. James L. Lenahan read law with his brother, John Thomas Lenahan, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 28, 1879. In 1880 he was census enumerator for the Fourth ward of the city of Wilkes-Barre. The father of James L. Lenahan is Patrick Lena- han, a retired merchant of this city. His mother is Elizabeth Lenahan (nee Duffy), a native of Wilkes-Barre township. Her father, Bernard Duffy, was a native of County Louth, Ireland, and emigrated to this country in 1831. In November, 1885, Mr. Lenahan was the democratic candidate for district attorney of Luzerne county, and was elected, the vote standing: Lena- han, 9,191 ; William Henry McCartney, republican, 8,604; and Frank Caleb Sturges, prohibitionist, 470. Although the element of chance enters more or less largely into all contests for political nominations, and frequently has more to do than anything else in determining them, it must be admitted that, in the case of Mr. Lenahan's selection as the candidate of his party for district attor- ney in 1885, there was an irresistible tendency towards him from the moment of the announcement of his name, that was due to the esteem in which he was held by his fellow-professionals and the people generally. His was one of that class of nominations that are sometimes spoken of as natural nominations. All the circum- stances surrounding him and his name seemed from the outset to point to the wisdom of his being placed upon the ticket, and the fact that, though his party was at the time split up into sev- eral warring factions, all united upon and elected him, is of itself one of the best evidences of his fitness for the position. Mr. Lenahan is a man of strong convictions and the courage to ex-
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