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 6
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EMMETT DE VINE NICHOLS.
press and contend for them with all proper vigor, of good ad- dress, and of industrious disposition, and that he will acquit himself creditably as district attorney everybody feels assured.
EMMETT DE VINE NICHOLS.
Emmett De Vine Nichols was born in the village of Ulster, Bradford county, Pa., July 8, 1855. He is the son of George W. Nichols, of New Albany, Pa., and a descendant of Stephen Nichols, who came from England at an early day and settled in Connecticut. The mother of Emmett De V. Nichols was Eliza- beth B. Nichols (nee Hemingway), of Rome, Pa. Mr. Nichols at- tended the common schools of his native township up to the age of fifteen. He then attended the select school of Professor J. B. Crawford, at Sheshequin, Pa., and at the age of twenty received a certificate to teach. He taught in Laddsburg, Pa., during the winter of 1875-1876. He attended Wyoming Seminary during a portion of the latter year, after which he went to Marathon, N. Y., for the purpose of recruiting his health. He then went to a place called Willett, near Marathon, for the purpose of teaching a select school. On the Sunday night before opening his school he delivered his first public address to a packed house in the Baptist church. After teaching several months he went to Cort- land, N. Y., and studied law a day and a half in Judge Smith's office. In the spring of 1877 he came to Wilkes-Barre and en- tered upon the study of the law in the office of Kidder (C. P.) and Nichols (F. M.), and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 16, 1879, and has been in continuous practice since. Mr. Nichols is an ardent temperance advocate, and at the age of fifteen was worthy chief templar of a Good Templar's lodge. While a student Mr. Nichols held many Murphy meet- ings and took an active part in good templary. He has been deputy grand worthy chief templar of the state of Pennsylvania, and is at present a district deputy. He was secretary of the first county constitutional temperance amendment association, or-
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EMMETT DE VINE NICHOLS.
ganized in Luzerne county, and organized the prohibition party in this county in 1880, and has been chairman of the party ever since. The same year he was one of the Pennsylvania presiden- tial electors on the prohibition ticket. In 1883 he was tempo- rary chairman of the state prohibition convention held at Pitts- . burgh. In 1884 he was the candidate of the prohibition party for congress for the Twelfth congressional district, and received 1,001 votes. In 1885 he published a work of one hundred and two pages, entitled, " The License System repugnant to sound Constitutional Law. Prohibition in perfect harmony with the spirit of American Institutions." Mr. Nichols married, June 25, 1879, Emma J. Koons, of Ashley, Pa. She is the daughter of John G. Koons, a native of the township of Sugarloaf, in this county, but who has resided in Ashley for the past twenty years. His father, Michael Koons, was a well-to-do farmer in the Con- yngham Valley, and died at the age of eighty-two years. His father was a native of Schuylkill county, and removed to Sugar- loaf township, and his father was born in Germany. The mother of Mrs. Nichols, and the wife of John G. Koons, is Emeline M., daughter of Captain Thomas W. Knauss. He was a native of Easton, Pa., but removed to Centreville, Pa. While residing there he was superintendent of the Reformed church Sunday school, postmaster, and justice of the peace for many years. He was captain of a military company in the Mexican war, and while - in Mexico was taken with a fever and died. Captain Knauss' father, John Michael Knauss, was a native of Kreidlersville, Pa., and was a soldier in the war of 1812. His father was a native of Germany, and afterwards came to this country and here mar- ried. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have three children : Carrie Al- berta Nichols, Pearl Elizabeth Nichols, and Maud Edna Nichols.
Mr. Nichols is one of that class of men of whom examples turn up in every age and in almost every community-men whose ambition it is to figure conspicuously in movements con- templating great reformations, and who frequently make great sacrifices, professionally and in a business way, in their ardent and unselfish efforts to achieve their object. Such men have sown the seed of every important political or social revolution the world has ever seen. They were the hard workers in the
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NATHAN BENNETT.
earlier days of the agitation against feudalism, for the substitu- tion of democracies for monarchies, and for the abolition of slavery. While comparatively few of the number have lived to participate in the fruition of their hopes, their memories are al- ways revered by their descendants, and frequently they have reached to high niches in the gallery of public fame. Whether we believe in or antagonize prohibition, we must needs concede to Mr. Nichols that he is devoted to the interests of the prohibi- tion cause, that he is sincere in his beliefs and professions, and that he has given, and still gives, very largely in, proportion to his means, to its advancement. The measure of his success, as above outlined, has been, under all the circumstances, quite re- markable. We can better appreciate such characters when we reflect upon how few there are who are content, in this world, with doing only that and all which their consciences approve. Mr. Nichols is a lawyer of good abilities, a gentleman of pleasant manners, and a reputable citizen.
NATHAN BENNETT.
Nathan Bennett was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., July 7, 1852. He is a descendant of Ishmael Bennett, who was born in Rhode Island about 1730. From there he removed to Connecticut, where he married, and from there came to Wilkes-Barre, where he settled about 1770. After the battle and massacre of Wyo- ming he returned to Connecticut with the expelled inhabitants, and subsequently returned to Wilkes-Barre, where he married for the second time (his first wife having died), Abigail Beers, widow of Philip Weeks, who was killed in the massacre. He removed to Ohio in 1816, and died there when a very old man. Nathan Bennett, son of Ishmael Bennett by his second wife, was born in Hanover township in 1788. He married Ann Hoover, daughter of Henry Hoover, a native of New Jersey, who came to Hanover in 1790 in company with his father, Felix Hoover. They were of Dutch descent. Nathan Bennett lived in this city,
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where he died in 1872. Stewart Bennett, son of Nathan Bennett and father of Nathan Bennett the subject of this sketch, was born in Hanover township in 1830. His wife was Mary Ann Lynn, a daughter of Joseph Lynn, of Bridgeville, Warren county, N. J., where she was born. Mr. Bennett was a prominent citizen of this city, and served in the city council for several years. He died in 1885. Nathan Bennett, the subject of our sketch, was educated in the public schools of this city and at the Normal School at Millersville, Pa. He taught one year in our schools, and for two years was a clerk in the prothonotary's office of Luzerne county. He read law with W. L. Paine and Alexander Farnham, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county Sep- tember 22, 1879. He married, May 19, 1881, Alice, daughter of Charles Sturdevant, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have one child : Fanny Sturdevant Bennett. Charles Sturdevant is the youngest son of the late Samuel Sturdevant, a native of Danbury, Conn., where he was born September 16, 1773. The late Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant was a brother of Charles Stur- devant, as also John Sturdevant (father of W. H. Sturdevant. Edward J. Sturdevant, and Samuel B. Sturdevant, M. D., of this city), who held the office of county commissioner of Wyoming county for several years, and who, in the year 1854, in connec- tion with Charles J. Lathrop, represented the counties of Sus- quehanna, Wyoming and Sullivan in the legislature of the state. In 1838 he, in company with Chester Butler, represented Luzerne county in the same body. This was before Wyoming county was organized. It was during the latter year that the " Buck- shot War," as it is called in Pennsylvania politics, occurred. The whig or anti-Masonic party, under the leadership of Thad- deus Stephens, although in a minority, undertook to organize the house of representatives by excluding the democratic mem- bers from Philadelphia, and " to treat the election as if it had not been held." Each party organized a legislature of their own. For several days all business was suspended, and the governor, alarmed for his own personal safety, ordered out the militia, and fearing this might prove insufficient, called on the United States authorities for help. The latter refused, but the militia, under Major-Generals Patterson and Alexander, came promptly
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in response. For two or three days during the contest the dan- ger of a collision was imminent, but wiser councils prevailed. The whig or anti-Masonic party, seeing the danger of longer continuing the struggle, weakened, and enough deserted to the democratic body to give that organization a decided majority, and by December 25, all had gone over to the democratic legis- lature save only one-Thaddeus Stevens. Against the protest of some of the democratic members, who held that Mr. Stevens was duly and regularly elected from Adams county and could not be expelled -the legislative body concluded to expel him, and did so by a vote of fifty-eight for, and thirty-four against. John Sturde- vant, although a whig at that time, did not approve of the action of Thaddeus Stevens, and was one of the first to go over to the democratic body, and when the excitement was greatest and Stevens, to save his life, jumped out of one of the windows of the capitol, Mr. Sturdevant was pleased to get rid of the incubus in that manner. John Sturdevant removed from Skinner's Eddy, ' Wyoming county, to this city in 1857. He died here in 1879. After his removal to this county he was for many years county surveyor of Luzerne county, and also engineer of the borough of Wilkes-Barre. The mother of Mrs. Nathan Bennett is Fanny Sturdevant, a daughter of the late Isaac Hancock Ross. He was a native of Pike township, Bradford county, and was the son of Jesse Ross, who was the son of Lieutenant Perrin Ross, who lost his life in the battle and massacre of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. Jesse Ross was only five years old at the time of the battle. He married Betsey, a daughter of Isaac Hancock, January 22, 1795. He was born near West Chester, Pa. Before the revolutionary war he was at Wyalusing for a time, and returned there about 1785. He is mentioned on the records of Luzerne county as a "taverner," for Springfield township in 1788. At this time he was also one of the overseers of the poor for the district com- posed of the whole extent of Luzerne county, from the mouth of the Meshoppen, north to the state line. In 1790 that portion of Luzerne since constituting the area of Susquehanna county, was included within two townships-Tioga and Wyalusing. By order of the justices of Luzerne county " Tioga was bounded on the north by the northern line of the state; and east and west by
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EDWIN SHORTZ.
the lines of that county ; and on the south by an east and west line which should strike the standing stone " now in Bradford county. On September 1, 1791, Isaac Hancock was commis- sioned a justice of the peace for the district of Tioga by Governor Thomas Mifflin. He " was a portly, jovial, light complexioned man, the very opposite of his grave, dignified Quaker wife, whose dark face and black tresses contrasted strikingly with the light, blonde locks of her husband." The wife of Isaac Hancock Ross, and the mother of Mrs. Charles Sturdevant, was Maria Williams, daughter of the late Latham Williams; a native of Groton, Conn., who removed with his family to Brooklyn, Susquehanna county, Pa., in 1811. Isaac Edgar Ross, M. D., of this city, is a brother of Mrs. Charles Sturdevant, and Latham Williams was the grand- father of Edward Denison Williams, D. D. S., also of this city. Mr. Bennett is another of the many who have graduated from the school room to the practice of the law. The bar has never been recruited so largely from any other source. He is a repub- lican in politics, and has done much diligent and active service in his party's behalf, frequently acting as member and secretary of committees and performing much of that detail work of which the general public, and frequently even the candidates, know so little, but which is perfectly legitimate work, and as necessary to success as similar work is to the success of any private business enterprise. He has never been a candidate for office, but has frequently been spoken of in connection with nominations.
EDWIN SHORTZ.
Edwin Shortz was born in Mauch Chunk, Pa., July 10, 1841. His grandfather, Abraham Shortz, was a native of Nazareth town - ship, Northampton county, from which place he removed in the year 1800 to Nescopeck township, this county, having purchased from Thomas Craig on August 11, in that year, three hundred and fifteen acres of land in Nescopeck township, known as " Pine Grove Farm," for the consideration of "seven hundred pounds specie gold and silver money." He was commissioned by Wil-
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EDWIN SHORTZ.
liam Findlay, governor of this commonwealth, March 17, 1818, a justice of the peace for the townships of Sugarloaf and Nesco- peck in this county, and held the office for over twenty-five years. Abraham Shortz, son of Abraham Shortz, was born in Nazareth township in 1793, and removed with his father to Nescopeck township. In 1820 he removed to Mauch Chunk, and was for many years a contractor with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and also engaged in the manufacture of lumber. He was also a member of the house of representatives and senate from Northampton county, prior to the erection of Carbon county, By an act of assembly approved March 13, 1843, he was ap- pointed one of the trustees " to receive written offers of dona- tions in real estate and money towards defraying the expenses of the lands and public buildings for the use of the county of Car- bon, erected out of the counties of Northampton and Monroe." After the erection of Carbon county he was for several years one of the county commissioners, and also treasurer of that county. · He died in Mauch Chunk in 1876. His wife, who is still living, is Sarah, daughter of the late John Rothermel, of Nescopeck township, where Mrs. Shortz was born. Her brother, Peter P. Rothermel, is the celebrated painter, and whose handiwork is seen in the celebrated "Battle of Gettysburg," which he painted for the state of Pennsylvania for the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars. Edwin Shortz, son of Abraham Shortz, was educated in the public schools and Mauch Chunk Academy. In his youthful days he was a member of an engineer corps, and subse- quently was extensively engaged in the manufacture of lumber at White Haven, on his own account and as the senior member of the firm of Shortz, Lewis, and Company. While a resident of White Haven he was elected burgess, and also a member of the school board, of that borough. In 1876 he was the demo- cratic candidate for state senator in the Twenty-First senatorial district, but was defeated by E. C. Wadhams, republican, the vote standing : Shortz, 9,849; Wadhams, 9,936. In this connection we may state that this district, as at present constituted, has never elected a democrat but once, and Mr. Shortz reduced the major- ity in the district by nearly one thousand votes. Mr. Shortz read law with Stanley Woodward and was admitted to the bar of
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JASPER BYRON STARK.
Luzerne county March 29, 1880. During the years 1882, 1883, and 1884 he was a member of the board of examiners for the admission of applicants to practice in the courts of Luzerne county. He married, November 5, 1867, Celinda Belford, a daughter of the late George Belford, of Mauch Chunk. He was a coal operator and contractor in his lifetime. Mr. and Mrs. Shortz have a family of two children; Robert Packer Shortz and Edwin Shortz. It will be observed that Mr. Shortz came to the study of the law under circumstances differing in many par- ticulars from those which usually surround the student. He had achieved a competence, he was nearing middle life, and his preceptor was his warm personal friend. He sought to be a law- yer, not to earn a livelihood, but from respect for, and love of, the profession, and he brought to the effort to master its intricacies and mysteries an experience in practical business life and a ma- turity of judgment that made success, and speedy success, a pos- itive certainty. It was within a year or two from the date of his admission that he became a member of the examining committee, and already he had been employed as counsel in a number of important causes. At this writing his practice is an extensive and lucrative one. Although Mr. Shortz is a very excellent talker, was so before he began to study law, and employed his gift on many occasions on the stump, to the gratification of his party friends and the advancement of his party's prospects, he does not allow himself to depend in any degree thereupon in his practice. He prepares his cases with the most zealous care, and leaves little to be abetted by favorable, and less that can be suc- cessfully antagonized by, opposition oratory. He is a gentleman of refined manners, extensively read, a citizen who has the respect and esteem of all.
JASPER BYRON STARK.
Jasper Byron Stark was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., February 17, 1858. He is a descendant of Aaron Stark, of Hartford, Conn., in 1639. He had a son William, who had a son Christo- pher (who removed to the Wyoming Valley in 1769), who had a
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JASPER BYRON STARK.
son William, who settled on the Tunkhannock creek, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county, in 1795. David Stark and Aaron Stark, two of the sons of Christopher Stark, were killed in the battle and massacre of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. Nathan Stark, son of William, had a son Nathaniel Stark who was the grandfather of the subject of our sketch. Jasper Billings Stark, son of Nathan- iel Stark, was born in Tunkhannock, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county, in 1823. For many years he was a prominent citizen of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys. In his early manhood he was a merchant in the city of Carbondale, and subsequently was deputy marshal of the recorder's court of that city. In 1856 he was elected sheriff of Luzerne county, and from 1862 to 1865 he represented Luzerne county in the state senate. He was collector of internal revenue for Luzerne and Susquehanna counties under President Johnson. He was also burgess of the borough of Wilkes-Barre, and at one time chief of police. Mr. Stark was the democratic nominee for the state senate in 1859, but was defeated by Winthrop W. Ketcham, republican nominee; and again in 1874, and was defeated by Hubbard B. Payne, his re- publican competitor. He at different times was engaged in keep- ing hotels ; the Eagle at Pittston, the Wyoming at Scranton, and was at the time of his death, February 16, 1882, the proprietor of the Wyoming Valley Hotel in this city. The wife of J. B. Stark is Frances, daughter of the late Captain Charles Smith. She is a native of Wurtsborough, Sullivan county, N. Y. The Smiths are of English descent, and were among the early set- tlers of Connecticut. Ephraim Smith, Mrs. Stark's grandfather, was born in Windham, Conn., in 1743, and died in Sullivan county, N. Y., in 1827. Charles Smith, her father, was born in Windham in 1778. He held at various periods important public offices, and served as captain during the war of 1812. He died at Carbondale, Pa., in 1865. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Stark was Captain David Godfrey, who received his commission direct from General Washington. ' He was born at Cornwall on the Hudson, and was of French descent. Mrs. Stark is a sister of John B. Smith, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany, at Dunmore, Pa. Jasper Byron Stark was educated at the academy of W. S. Parsons in this city, and at the Hopkins Gram-
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MARTIN FRANCIS BURKE.
mar School, New Haven, Conn. He read law with Henry M. Hoyt and the late Hendrick B. Wright, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county April 26, 1880. He is an unmarried man. Mr. Stark has given but little attention to the practice of the law, being without necessity for so doing. His qualifications are, however, of an order to convince all who understand and appreciate them that, if impelled by ambition to excel at the bar, or by a scantily filled purse, they would have brought him desir- able reward. While it is true that poverty and the wants of the physical man have served to develop and amplify the talents of some of the brightest geniuses this or any other country has ever produced, it is equally a fact that the inheritance of a fortune has ultimated in losing to the world the benefits of talents equally great.
MARTIN FRANCIS BURKE.
Martin Francis Burke was born in Pittston Pa., February 8, 1855. He is the son of Michael Burke, a valued and respectable citizen of this city, a native of Annadown, in the County of Gal- way, Ireland. He came to this country in 1840, first settling in Manayunk, Pa. In 1844 and 1845 he was employed in the roll- ing mill in this city. He was one of the earliest employés of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, at Scranton, Pa., and was collector of tolls on the Wyoming canal at Plainsville and this city for many years. He has resided in Wilkes-Barre since 1867. His wife, whom he married in this country, is Catharine Burke (nee McGee), a native of Arratoma, and daughter of Mar- tin McGee. M. F. Burke was educated in the public schools of this city and at the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa. He read law with General Edwin S. Osborne and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar May 10, 1880. He married December 23, 1879, Margaret McGinty, daughter of Manus McGinty, of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Burke have two children living: James Burke and Catharine Burke. For the past few years Mr. Burke has been engaged in other pursuits.
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WILLIAM JAY HUGHES.
WILLIAM JAY HUGHES.
William Jay Hughes was born in Pittston, Pa., December 30, 1857. He is the son of the late Morris Hughes, who was born January 2, 1826, at Hollyhead, a seaport town in North Wales. Morris Hughes emigrated to America in the spring of 1845, and engaged in the tailoring trade in Pottsville, Pa. In 1850 he went to California, and while there was interested in gold mining, but subsequently branched out as a contractor and builder in Yreka, Siskiyou county, in the vicinity of the Modoc lava beds, where General Canby was killed. He had many adventures with the Pitt River Indians, but his good sense and practical knowledge of men stood him in good stead, and he escaped all the danger that threatened him in the lava beds. Later on he engaged in farming and stock raising, and in 1856 he returned and settled in Pittston, where his brother, H. R. Hughes, had preceded him He accepted a position as book-keeper with the firm of E. Bevan and Company, in which firm H. R. Hughes was interested. A few years later H. R. and Morris Hughes bought the brewery built by Howarth Brothers, and conducted the business under the name of H. R. and M. Hughes until the death of Morris Hughes. In 1868 the brewery was burned out, but was imme- diately rebuilt. Subsequently the Forest Castle Brewery was acquired by the two brothers. After he returned from California he married Jannett Shennan, daughter of William Shennan, a farmer in Clifford township, Susquehanna county. Mr. Shennan was a native of Scotland. The father of Morris Hughes was in the British navy, and was in the battle of Trafalgar under Nelson. In 1865, he re-visited his old home and attended his father's funeral, who died at the age of eighty-three years. Mr. Hughes was one of the republican candidates for the legislature when Luzerne and Lackawanna were united under the old system, but was defeated, the democratic party having a large majority in the county. He was president of the Pittston Trust Company and Savings Bank from 1870 until it passed out of existence, and was
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for many years a director of the First National Bank. He was also a trustee of the West Pittston Presbyterian church. Morris Hughes died July 7, 1883, at his home in West Pittston. He had many intelligent friends who valued him at his worth, and the appreciation was just. He took an active interest in all that ameliorated the condition of the indigent, and was foremost in every enterprise that promised an advantage to the general pub- lic. Mr. Hughes was pre-eminently a public man. He was con- stantly on the alert to serve a public need, and no one with a just ' cause left him empty handed. In his death a host of friends lost an intelligent friend and neighbor. Just, generous, and faithful, he was regarded as one of the foremost men of the town. During the war for the Union he was among the first to recognize the call for aid, and he responded generously. Regarded as a public man Morris Hughes occupied an enviable position among the mon- eyed men of Pittston. Whatever public improvement was sug- gested that promised an advantage to Pittston, Mr. Hughes was free to contribute, and that generously. His main object in life seemed to be the furtherance of the public interest, while at the same time he did not neglect his duty to his household, which was among the happiest in West Pittston. As a husband and father Mr. Hughes was a model man, as a citizen he was among the first. William Jay Hughes was educated at Wyoming Sem- inary, Kingston, and at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, Chester, Pa. He studied law with John Richards, of Pittston, and with Alexander Farnham, of Wilkes-Barre, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Luzerne county June 7, 1880. In 1882 he organized Company C, of the Ninth Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and was captain of the company until June, 1885, when he was promoted to the office of major of the regiment. He is an unmarried man and a republican in politics. William Jay Hughes inherits from his father much of the acute- ness, diligence, and energy as a business man by which, as we have seen, the latter was characterized. He made the best use of the years he gave to mastering the mysteries of the principles of the law, which was a necessary preliminary to his admission to practice, but with his attainment of that honor did not by any means cease to be a student. Wisely realizing that no lawyer
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