USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. III > Part 10
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HENRY PETTEBONE.
first paper ever published in Pike county, Pa. In 1833 he, in connection with a Mr. Atherholt, purchased the Republican Farmer, and they in turn sold the newspaper to Samuel P. Collings in 1835. While in New Granada Mr. Bidlack wrote a work on the manners and customs of the natives and the resources of the country, fragments of which he sent home. He intended to pub- lish the same, but his untimely death and the loss of his manu- script prevented its publication. He also negotiated a very important treaty between this country and New Granada, which received great commendation from the president and other men in high places. Mr. Bidlack was twice married. His first wife was Fanny Stewart, a daughter of James Stewart. (See page 836.) Mr. Bidlack married his second wife September 8, 1829. She was Margaret M. Wallace, daughter of James Wallace, and granddaughter of William Wallace. The wife of William Wal- lace was Elizabeth d'Aertz, a daughter of Francis Josephus d'Aertz, who came from France with General Lafayette, and who married the daughter of Colonel John Broadhead. Mr. and Mrs. Bidlack had the following children-William Wallace Bidlack, who, during the late civil war, served in the field and hospital as surgeon ; Mary E. Bidlack, who married Edward James Reed, of Philadelphia ; Benjamin Alden Bidlack ; James B. W. Bidlack, who served as a soldier in the late civil war, and has been for the past year medical director of the American Exposition in Lon- don ; Frances B. Bidlack ; Helen Bidlack, and Blanche d'Aertz Bidlack. The widow of Benjamin Alden Bidlack married for her second husband the late Thomas W. Miner, M. D., of this city, and is still living.
HENRY PETTEBONE.
Henry Pettebone, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 3, 1825, was the son of Oliver Pettebone, and grandson of Noah Pettebone, of Simsbury, Conn. (See page 460.) Henry Pettebone was born in Kingston, Pa., October 5, 1802. He was educated at the Kingston Academy, and read law with George Denison. On February 17, 1830, he was ap-
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BENJAMIN PARKE.
pointed prothonotary and clerk of the Orphans' Court, Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer for a term of three years, and on January 21, 1833, he was re-appointed to the same offices for an additional term of three years. On March 6, 1845, he was ap- pointed an associate judge of Luzerne county for a term of five years. He was also a merchant and a contractor on the North Branch Canal. In 1828 Mr. Pettebone, in connection with Henry Held, established The Republican Farmer in this city. In 1831 Mr. Pettebone sold his interest to J. J. Adam. The wife of Henry Pettebone was Elizabeth, daughter of John Sharps, a native of Greenwich township, Warren county, N. J. The Sharp family were very prominent in Greenwich at an early day. The name was originally Sharpensteins, and the family were of Dutch origin. Four brothers, John, Stuffle, Jacob and Peter each owned exten- sive farms, which they improved and upon which they resided. Jacob Sharps at a later day removed to Kingston, Pa. He was the father of John Sharps, the father of Mrs. Pettebone. The wife of John Sharps was Martha Welch. Mr. and Mrs. Pette- bone left two children to survive them-William Pettebone and Martha, who married William Streater, son of Dr. Streater, of this city. Judge Pettebone was at one time clerk of the senate of Pennsylvania, and was at the time of his death, May 5, 1851, secretary and general ticket agent of the Lackawanna & Blooms- burg Railroad Company.
BENJAMIN PARKE.
Benjamin Parke read law in this city, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., in 1825. He was the grandson of Captain Benjamin Parke, who was slain at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. Thomas Parke, son of Benjamin Parke, was brought up under the care of his grandfather, a clergyman, and received a good education. He removed from Charleston, R. I., in 1796, and was one of the first settlers of Dimock, Luzerne (now Susquehanna) county. In 1800 he married Eunice Cham- plin, of Newport, R. I. He was a fine mathematician, a good practical surveyor, and was an occasional contributor to the news-
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BENJAMIN PARKE.
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papers of the day. He had filled several minor offices in his native state, invested his patrimony and means in the purchase of the Connecticut title to lands in Pennsylvania, and came here the legal owner, as he supposed, of some ten thousand acres- nearly half the township of Bidwell-lying on the waters of the Me- shoppen, and covering parts of what is now Dimock and Spring- ville. He fixed his residence in the former (Parkvale), where he lived till his death in 1842. When he came to look up his lands he found only two settlers west of "Nine Partners," and they were near what is now Brooklyn Centre. West of that to the Wyalu- sing creek was a belt of twenty-five miles, north and south, an unbroken forest. With the aid of his compass he explored and marked a path to the forks of the Wyalusing, the nearest place where any breadstuffs could be obtained, from whence they were to be brought on his back until the next season, when a small green crop was raised. In the winter of 1797 he walked home to Charleston, and walked back the next spring. By the Trenton decree he lost all the wordly estate he possessed, and was after- wards obliged to purchase upon credit from his successful oppo- nents, paying by surveying about six hundred acres, including the farm upon which he lived and died. He was for three years one of the commissioners of Luzerne county, and also in 18II one of the three trustees appointed by the governor to run the lines, lay off and organize Susquehanna county.
Benjamin Parke, eldest son of Thomas Parke, practiced his profession in this city a few years after his admission, and then removed to Harrisburg, Pa. While there he, in company with William F. Packer (afterwards governor), edited and published the Keystone, then the central and leading organ of the democratic party in Pennsylvania. After disposing of that paper he for a time edited the Harrisburg Argus, and commenced the publication of the Pennsylvania Farmer and Common School Intelligencer. In 1834 he was appointed by Governor Wolf to be the prothonotary of the middle district of the Supreme Court, consisting of sixteen counties. He also held the office of commissioner in bankruptcy, and was the principal compiler of Parke and Johnson's "Digest of the laws of Pennsylvania," published in 1837. He returned to Susquehanna county in 1860.
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GEORGE C. DRAKE.
JAMES MCCLINTOCK.
James McClintock, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., January 23, 1826, was a native of Jersey Shore, Pa. He was the son of Thomas Mcclintock, and grandson of James McClintock, both of whom were natives of Raphoe, county of Donegal, Ireland. He read law with his uncle, Ethan Baldwin, and was for some years one of the most prominent lawyers at the Luzerne bar. He was a great orator, and whenever he spoke the court room was certain to be crowded. In 1832 he was a candidate for congress against Thomas W. Miner and Andrew Beaumont, but was defeated by the latter. Soon after this he lost his wife (who was Miss Johnson, of Germantown, Pa.) and child. He then had a severe attack of brain fever, and became hopelessly insane. He survived his insanity over fifty years.
GEORGE C. DRAKE.
George C. Drake was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 8, 1827. He was the son of Benjamin Drake, who was born April 22, 1778, in Mendham, Morris county, N. J. The latter was a merchant in this city for some years, and was also a blacksmith. His first wife, whom he married January 23, 1799, was Susanna Wright, a daughter of William Wright, an old resident of this city. (See page 1125.) His second wife, whom he married March 2, 1817, was Nancy S. Ely, a native of Abing- ton, Montgomery county, Pa., where she was born February 10, 1788. The only living descendant of this second marriage is Wil- liam Drake Loomis, of this city. George C. Drake was born in Wilkes-Barre, May 25, 1806. He practiced his profession in this city for a few years, was district attorney of the county, and in 1833 became a Protestant Episcopal minister. He officiated as such at Bloomsburg, Pa., Danville, Pa., Muncy, Pa., and other
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SYLVESTER DANA.
places. He was married three times. His first wife was Abigail Haines, a daughter of George Haines, of this city. . There were two children by this marriage-Abigail and Elizabeth - both deceased. His second wife was Margaret Shoemaker, a daughter of Jacob Shoemaker and his wife, Sophia Robb, daughter of Robert Robb, of Muncy, Pa. By this marriage Mr. Drake left five surviving children-Margaret, wife of Dr. J. J. Whitney ; Charles ; Harriet, wife of F. C. Peterman ; Benjamin and Anna Drake. His third wife was Sophia Robb, a daughter of William Robb and his wife Mary, daughter of Henry Shoemaker, of Muncy, Pa. Mr. Drake left two surviving children by this marriage -- Susan, wife of Milo W. Ward, and John Drake. George C. Drake died at Muncy, Pa., June 27, 1878.
SYLVESTER DANA.
Sylvester Dana, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., November 7, 1828, was a native of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he was born May 28, 1806. He was the son of Anderson Dana, a native of Connecticut, who was born August 11, 1765, who was the son of Anderson Dana, born in 1733, and his wife, Susanna (Huntington) Dana, who was the son of Jacob Dana, born in 1698, who was the son of Jacob Dana, born in 1664, who was the son of Richard Dana, who was born in France, April 15, 1612, and died in Cambridge, Mass., April 2, 1690. Sylvester Dana was educated at the Wilkes-Barre Academy, then under the charge of Rev. Joseph H. Jones, D. D., and at Yale College, from which he graduated in 1826. He read law with Garrick Mallery, and practiced in this city and Circleville, Ohio. Owing to failing health and trouble with his voice, which prevented public speaking, he returned to Wilkes-Barre from Ohio, and in 1835 became the principal of the Wilkes-Barre Academy, which position he held until 1839, when he established Dana's Academy. A few years since he gave up his school and removed to Lower Makefield, Bucks county, Pa., where he died June 19,
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THOMAS EDWARD PAINE.
1882. Mr. Dana married, March 26, 1832, Elizabeth Brown, a daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Frisbie) Brown, of Connecticut. Five children were the result of this union-Eunice A. Dana, Elizabeth Dana, Louisa A. Dana, Ellen Dana, and Robert S. Dana, whose wife is Fanny Pawlings, who have one son, Sylves- ter Dana.
WILLIAM STERLING ROSS.
William Sterling Ross was commissioned an associate judge of Luzerne county, Pa., May 6, 1829, as the successor of Jesse Fell, which position he held until 1839-the time of the adoption of the amended constitution of the state. His wife died June 23, 1882. They left no children. For a sketch of Judge Ross see page 296.
THOMAS EDWARD PAINE.
Thomas Edward Paine, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, Pa., April 7, 1830, was a descendant of Thomas Paine, of Eastham, Cape Cod, Mass., who, at various periods from 1767 to 1782, was a member of the Massachusetts legisla- ture, and in the list of deputies to the Old Colony court the names of his father and grandfather often occur as far back as 1671, the family having resided at Eastham from about the first settle- ment of the Cape. The name of Thomas Paine appears in the history of Eastham upon various committees appointed for car- rying out the principles of freedom in resistance to British tyranny during the revolution. His mother, Alice Mayo, was a descendant of Governor Thomas Prince, and Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the declaration of independence, was his cousin, as was also William Payne, the father of John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home." Having lost most of his prop- erty by the reverses of the war, and his wife dying, he removed
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THOMAS EDWARD PAINE.
from Cape Cod to Boston, and subsequently to Maine. He was a man of intelligence and piety. The family being thus broken up, the sons were thrown upon their own resources and widely scattered, though keeping up by correspondence the bond of family union. One of the elder brothers was an early volunteer in the continental army, and another was twice taken prisoner on board a privateer. Clement Paine, the son of Thomas Paine, was born August 11, 1769, at Eastham, and at the age of fourteen years went to Portland (then Falmouth), Maine, to learn the printing business. He was subsequently engaged in various publishing offices in Boston and New York, and in 1791 formed the project, in connection with his brother Seth, of establishing a press and journal at "Kaatskill on the Hudson." But the type and other material ordered by them from London was lost at sea in the brig "Betsy," and the enterprise was abandoned, although we find that the publication of the Catskill Packet was commenced a year or two later by Croswell & Co., with good success. In 1791, and 1792 Clement Paine was engaged in the office of Clay- poole's Daily Advertiser at Philadelphia, then the seat of the general government under Washington's administration. It was there he frequently saw the first president, and a strong sentiment of respect and admiration then formed for the personal character of Washington remained with him through life. In September, 1792, Clement Paine, in connection with his brother, David Paine, erected a store and potash factory at Rensselaerville, N. Y. The business, however, did not prove a success. In March, 1794, David writes from "Ovago on the Susquehanna" to Clement, who remained to wind up the concern, and soon after from Tioga Point, where the former had become connected with William Bingham in the purchase and sale of lands under the Connecticut title. Clement came to Tioga Point in December, 1794, and the brothers were there connected in trade and land operations. During the winter and spring of 1796 Clement had charge of the business of his brother Seth at Charleston, S. C., who was pub- lishing the City Gazette, the first daily paper ever printed there. His partner was Peter Freneau, secretary of the state, and the brother of Philip Freneau, well known as a poet and journalist. In 1796 David and Clement Paine erected the house which was
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THOMAS EDWARD PAINE.
in after years and for a long period the family residence of the latter. It was in part built by the father of Judge Elwell. The conflicting land titles of Connecticut and Pennsylvania began to interfere much with both public and private property throughout the region, and in 1797 Clement Paine writes : "Many people are of opinion that violent measures will be resorted to before the dispute is finally settled, but I can hardly persuade myself that this State will attempt a thing so amazingly absurd as it would be, under the present circumstances, to send on troops to dis- possess the settlers here, who, by estimation, now amount to from twelve to fifteen thousand people. We shall continue regularly to prosecute our business, notwithstanding the hostile attitude of our enemies, and such is the general intention of the people." Later in the same year he writes : "A great stagnation of mer- cantile and speculative business is the universal complaint throughout this northern country. The sale of new land in any situation seems entirely suspended, and it is difficult to obtain money for any kind of property." The brothers were associated with Colonel Franklin and others in vindicating the rights of the settlers, and in behalf of the common cause David made repeated journeys to Philadelphia and New England. During the uncer- tainty and depression of the times Clement began the study of law, and again spent a winter or two in Philadelphia. In March, 1801, on a passage from that city to New England, his vessel was wrecked on the south coast of Long Island, and he, with other passengers, barely escaped with their lives. In 1801 his esteemed brother, Seth Paine, whose publishing house had grown into an extensive business, died of yellow fever at Charleston, and at that city, for a part of several subsequent years, Clement Paine was engaged in the collection of claims and the settlement of the estate, in which he succeeded beyond expectation. For quite a long period after its first settlement Tioga Point, or Athens, as it is now called, was the centre of trade for a consid- erable part of the country. During the earlier years of his busi- ness there Clement Paine purchased his stocks of goods princi- pally from Orrin Day and Dr. Croswell, at Catskill, from whence (as for more than twenty years afterwards from New York and Philadelphia) he had them transported in wagons to Athens.
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GEORGE WASHINGTON WOODWARD.
Sometimes, however, they came up the river on "Durham boats," which were propelled with poles. In July, 1806, he was married to Anne Woodbridge, a native of Glastenbury, Conn., the daugh- ter of Major Theodore Woodbridge, an officer of the revolutionary army, who removed to Wayne county, Pa., about 1800. She died in October, 1834, at the age of fifty years. In 1812 Clement Paine was a presidential elector, casting the vote of his district for James Madison and Elbridge Gerry. During the war of 1812 he was active in procuring volunteers for the army, together with arms and supplies for their use. In 1844 he removed to Troy, Pa., where he died at the residence of his son, in March, 1849.
Thomas E. Paine, son of Clement Paine, practiced his profes- sion in this city for several years. He became a Protestant Episcopal minister, and was ordained deacon by Bishop Kemper July 23, 1837. He was rector of St. Paul's church, Palmyra, Mo., in 1841. He died at Woodville, Miss., in 1843.
GEORGE WASHINGTON WOODWARD.
George Washington Woodward was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 3, 1830, and died in Rome, Italy, May 10, 1875. He sailed for Europe from Philadelphia on Oc- tober 22, 1874, to join his daughter, Lydia C., accompanied by Mrs. Woodward and her niece. After visiting many parts of England they sojourned for awhile in Paris, and thence went to Italy, stopping at various places and cities of that country, and finally settled in Rome for the remainder of the winter. Colonel Forney, in several of his letters to the Press from Italy, mentioned the pleasure he had in meeting Judge Woodward and his family. and particularly remarked upon the Judge's great interest in the ruins of Pompeii, among which he spent many hours. Rome, always a residence exposing foreigners to the danger of typhoid and malarial fevers, had been particularly unpleasant and un- healthy during that winter. Letters received from Rome, not only those which had appeared in public papers, but also those
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GEORGE WASHINGTON WOODWARD.
written to family friends at home, had all mentioned the long continuance of cold weather and unusual rains, which brought as their concomitants fever and other forms of disease. It was but a few days before his death that a letter was received from Judge Woodward designating the following August as the time of his return home. At its date he was in good health ; in fact, he had never complained of any ailment during his absence.
George W. Woodward was born March 26, 1809, and was con- sequently in the sixty-seventh year of his age at the time of his death. His birthplace was Bethany, then the seat of justice of Wayne county, Pa. His father, at the time of his birth, was sheriff of the county, and subsequently became an associate judge, an office which he held up to the date of his death in 1829. The family had settled in Pennsylvania before the revolution. The two grandfathers of Judge Woodward formed part of a colony from Connecticut which, cotemporaneously with the emigration to 'Wyoming, had occupied, in the year 1774, the valley of the Wallenpaupack, which forms the present boundary between the counties of Wayne and Pike. After the battle and massacre of Wyoming the colonists were driven from their homes by the tories and Indians. The women and children were enabled to find shelter and food in the counties of Orange and Dutchess, in the state of New York, while most of the men of the colony en- listed in the revolutionary army, and generally in different regi- ments of the Connecticut line. Jacob Kimble, the maternal grandfather of Judge Woodward, commanded a company as captain in the Connecticut line throughout the war. After the war of the revolution, in 1783, the survivors of the settlers returned to the valley of the Wallenpaupack, and commenced that career of toil and hardship which in that age was always, for at least one generation, incident to frontier life. The colony was remote and obscure; the early improvements, in consequence of their enforced abandonment for a series of years, had become valueless, and the means of the settlers had been exhausted by the necessity for their support during their absence. The winter following their return is still traditional throughout the country- side as the severest one of the century. The nearest settlement at which supplies could be obtained was Milford, on the Dela-
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GEORGE WASHINGTON WOODWARD.
ware, and every mouthful of the food of the colonists in all that dreary winter was carried upon the backs of men who traversed upon snow-shoes the thirty miles between Milford and their homes. The colony soon became prosperous, and, like all such communities, soon began to send out into the world large num- bers of hardy, vigorous, and unflinching men. From the rugged character of the country in which they were reared, and from the habits of self-reliance which their isolation induced, the colonists of the Wallenpaupack have always been distinguished for a pecu- liar physical and mental energy. Imbued with the blood of the Wallenpaupack, Judge Woodward had inherited with it the un- bending courage, the resolute will, the clear, concentrated power, and the outspoken and open contempt for baseness and base men, which always characterized the pioneers from whom he was descended.
The early education of Judge Woodward was such as the cir- cumstances of the country and the period permitted. The county of Wayne was upon the frontier, and the schools were designed for only the necessary wants of a community of struggling and straitened settlers. It has been said, however, that he had the advantage of a training by an elder brother, who died early, but who for the time was an accomplished mathematician, and who gave to his pupil the foundation for a thorough mathematical education. As soon as he attained a suitable age his father placed him at the Geneva Seminary-now Hobart College-at Geneva, New York, where for some years he was the classmate of several young men who have since been distinguised in public life, including the Hon. Henry S. Randall, formerly secretary of state, and the Hon. Horatio Seymour, ex-governor of New York and the democratic candidate for the presidency in 1868. From there he was transferred to the Wilkes-Barre Academy, then in charge of Dr. M. P. Orton. In every respect this change was most fortunate. The school itself was one of the last of a class of institutions which, prior to the advent of the common school system, afforded to students the means of thoroughly mastering the groundwork of classical, mathematical, and scientific knowl- edge. While the course of study was not greatly extended, it was thorough as far as it went. And certainly no equivalent for
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GEORGE WASHINGTON WOODWARD.
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the old system of academical education is now in existence, ex- cept in the few schools of a polytechnic character, where a scholar can be trained in and for a specialty and nothing else. Dr. Orton himself entertained adequate conceptions of the value of his own position and a conscientious sense of his responsibility to his pupils. The academy under his charge was successful for a long period of years, and in 1828 young Woodward left it with an education which, in thoroughness, clearness, and finish, he could not have elsewhere readily acquired.
Leaving school, Judge Woodward first entered the office of the late Thomas Fuller, of Wayne county, and then of the Hon. Gar- rick Mallery, at Wilkes-Barre, as a student at law. Mr. Mallery had long been the leading lawyer in northern Pennsylvania, and was at that time a member of the state legislature. In April, 1831, he was appointed by Governor Wolf president judge of the Berks judicial district, and Judge Woodward, who had been ad- mitted to the bar in August, 1830, became the occupant of his office and succeeded to his business. His success at the bar was very rapid and very great. His intellect was one of those which mature early. He had great capacity for labor, and both physical and moral courage. He was an eloquent and impressive speaker, and his weight of character, as well as his abilities, soon gave him the influence which character always secures both with courts and juries. He was in full practice in Luzerne, Wayne, Pike, Monroe and Susquehanna counties, and in the Supreme Court of the state, within a very short time after the transfer of Mr. Mallery to the bench. He was a thoroughly bred lawyer, laboring every question and every cause with unfailing energy, and his success in practice was in proportion to the expenditure he bestowed upon it. He was a man of commanding personal appearance, being over six feet high and built in proportion. On the bench he was the very personification of noble dignity, and with him no lawyer or any other person dared to trifle. Never- theless, he was a courteous judge, always regardful of the rights and privileges of all with whom he came in contact. He was deeply versed in all legal lore, was eminently a just and an upright judge, and an earnest and sincere christian gentleman. He was an honor to the bench and a citizen and statesman to whom our
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