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 18
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JOHN MARION ALEXANDER.
John Marion Alexander was admitted to the bar of Luzerne · county, Pa., August 4, 1846. He was a native of Cortland county, N. Y. When a young man he removed to Wayne county, Pa.,
1232
ALFRED DARTE.
where he taught school for a number of years. He married a Miss Atwater, of Mount Pleasant, in that county, and had a fam- ily of two daughters. He read law in Honesdale, Pa. In 1853 and 1854 he was clerk for the commissioners of Luzerne county. In 1846 lie settled in Providence, now a portion of the city of Scranton, and advertised his office "in the cave at Cottrill's hotel." He subsequently removed to Leavenworth, Kansas.
ALFRED DARTE.
Alfred Darte, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., November 2, 1846, was a native of Bolton, Tolland county, Conn., where he was born July 14, ISIO. His father was Elias Darte. (See page 130.) In 1829 Alfred Darte left his native state and settled in Dundaff, Susquehanna county, Pa. On December 30, 1830, he married Ann E., daughter of Dorastus Cone. He was a teacher for a number of years, and when not so employed built the Meredith saw mill, one of the first build- ings erected in Carbondale. In 1844, while having a wife and three children, he concluded to study law. As it was neces- sary under the rules of court of Susquehanna county to remain in a lawyer's office for one year, which he could not afford to do with his young family, he went to the state of Kentucky, where he passed an examination and was admit- ted to the Supreme Court of that state. Upon the certificate of his admission in Kentucky he was admitted to practice in the courts of Susquehanna county. In 1845 he, removed to Carbondale, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, where he practiced his profession (except during the time he was in the army and while on the bench) until his death, which occurred August -, 1883. He ranked as colonel in the state militia thirty years ago. On April 18, 1861, he was commissioned a captain of company K, in the Twenty-fifth regiment, Pennsylva- nia volunteers, and as such served in the three months regiment that was called out at the outbreak of our late civil war. His son, Alfred Darte, was first lieutenant in his father's company. They were mustered out August 1, 1861, and on October 30,
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MILTON DANA.
1861, Alfred Darte was commissioned as captain of company M, Sixty-fourth regiment, fourth cavalry, Pennsylvania volunteers, and served as such until December 4, 1862, when he resigned. He was wounded at the battle of Antietam. His son, Alfred Darte, was second lieutenant of the same company, and on his father's resignation was commissioned captain in the company. In 1863 Colonel Darte was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he organized and commanded a regiment of Sioux Indians. He was an abolitionist in every sense of the word. In the early days of the late civil war he placed a musket in the hands of his colored servant, one Henry Brown, who is now a resident of this city, telling him that in case any one questioned his authority to carry arms, to refer such persons to the colonel. Many old soldiers remember Brown as the first colored man they ever saw with a musket. Judge Darte was an active republican, and was one of the organizers of the party in Luzerne county. He was a delegate to the first republican convention held in the county. He was district attorney of the mayor's court of Car- bondale, in 1871 and 1873, and recorder of the same court in 1872 and 1874. Mr. Darte was a patriot through and through. He was remarkable for his independence of thought and expres- sion, and his contempt for that which people call policy: He hated shams and cant, and liked the society of those who had opinions and independence enough to express them. Mr. Darte died August 13, 1883, at Carbondale. He left four children to survive him-Mrs. James Thompson, of Carbondale ; Mrs. Wil- liam Herring, of Detroit, Michigan; Alfred Darte, a member of the Luzerne county bar, who is serving his second term as district attorney of the county ; and L. C. Darte, ex-commis- sioner of Luzerne county.
MILTON DANA.
Milton Dana, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., November 6, 1846, was the great-grandson of Anderson Dana, a lawyer from Ashford, Connecticut. (See pages 3( and 240.) Milton Dana was born in Eaton, Luzerne (now Wyoming)
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HENRY METCALF.
county, Pa., February 27, 1822. He was educated in this city and read law with George W. Woodward. He practiced in this city, at Tunkhannock, and in the state of Texas. During the late civil war he was quartermaster of the One hundred and forty-third regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, of which his brother, Edmund L. Dana, was colonel. On May 17, 1865, he was appointed assistant quartermaster United States volunteers, with the rank of captain. His wife was Sarah Warren, of Frey- burg, Maine. She was the granddaughter of Ichabod Warren, of Berwick, Maine, and daughter of Isaiah Warren, of Denmark, Maine. Mr. and Mrs. Dana had no children, but adopted a son, Perceival Walker Dana. Milton Dana died at Conway, New Hampshire, February 18, 1886.
ELLIOTT SMITH MILLER HILL. .
Elliott Smith Miller Hill, who was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, Pa., August 3, 1847, was a native of Carmel, Put- nam county, N. Y., where he was born December 20, 1822. He was educated in his native village, and subsequently removed to where Scranton is now located, and there read law with David R. Randall. He married, about 1846, Lucy Newbury, and left several children surviving him. Mr. Hill died in 1874. He established, in 1860, the Luzerne Legal Observer, which he pub- lished for nearly four years. He also established, about 1865, the Scranton Daily Register and Scranton Register, which were discontinued in 1868. In 1866 he became the first mayor of Scranton, which office he held for three years. His father was Noah Hill, and his maternal grandfather was Benjamin Miller.
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HENRY METCALF.
Henry Metcalf, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 3, 1847, was a native of Yorkshire, England, where he was born August 24, 1821. He was a son of Richard Met-
.4
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DAVID RICHARDSON RANDALL.
calf and Mary Metcalf, (nce Harper). Mr. Metcalf was educated at Dana's academy, in this city, and at Yale college. He read law with Andrew T. McClintock, of Wilkes-Barre, and after his ad- mission here practiced in the counties of Luzerne, Sullivan, and Wyoming. He was elected district attorney of Sullivan county and served several terms. During the late civil war he was a major of the Fifty-eighth regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers. Mr. Metcalf married, November 14, 1848, Sarah A. Dana. She is the daughter of Asa S. Dana and his wife Ann Pruner, and a sister of the late General E. L. Dana, of the Luzerne bar. (For further particulars concerning the Dana family see page 31). Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf had a family of three children- Mary G. Metcalf, Henry F. Metcalf, and Emma H. Metcalf. Mary G. was married, June 4, 1874, to Bradley W. Lewis, of the Wyoming county bar. Mr. Metcalf died December 23, 1864.
ELISHA BOANERGES HARVEY.
Elisha Boanerges Harvey was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., November 4, 1847. (For a sketch of his life see page 508).
DAVID RICHARDSON RANDALL.
David Richardson Randall, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa, November 4, 1847, was a native of Rich- mond, Cheshire county, N. H., where he was born August 21, 1818. He was the son of Joseph Randall, who was born in Che- shire county in 1795, and the grandson of Levi Randall, who was born in the same county December 22, 1761. Joseph Ran- dall was a farmer, and removed to McDonough, Chenango county, N. Y., when David was about six years old. Some years after his father died, leaving him the oldest child and only son of a family of eight children, and but little property. Young Ran- dall thus found himself at the age of fifteen the head of a family
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DAVID RICHARDSON RANDALL.
who looked to him for support and protection, with nothing to assist him in the struggle of life but his own indomitable deter- mination, fortitude, and perseverance of character, guided by the affectionate counsel of a devoted mother, and the kind hand of a beneficent providence. Left thus with seven sisters, he struggled on to support the family and educate himself. Daylight found him at his work on the farms of the neighborhood, or any other labor that he could find to do that was honorable, and the night time found him at his books by the light of pine fagots. In this way he educated himself and supported a widowed mother and his sisters till he arrived at the age and acquired the necessary educa- tion to enable him to become a teacher, he having passed a most flattering graduation from Oxford (N. Y.) academy, at that time one of the most thorough and popular institutions of learning in the state. As a teacher he labored with the same energy that had characterized him from early boyhood, and at the age of twenty- six he was elected superintendent of common schools for the county of Chenango. . His rare fitness for the position and em- inent usefulness in it was universally conceded. Indeed, in later years, while in the practice of his chosen profession, he gave some of his best thoughts and efforts to promote the cause of popular education. His labors in behalf of the common schools in Luzerne county will ever be gratefully remembered by our people. Devoting his time and efforts to the cause of education in this capacity for two years, he then concluded to enter upon the study of the law. He accordingly entered his name as a student in the office of Ransom Balcomb, later one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the state of New York. This was in 1843, and he continued to read law with Judge Balcomb until 1846, being obliged, however, to devote much time to teaching to support the family. Judge Balcomb became so much interested in his student that he frequently visited him at his home, after young Randall had settled in this county. In 1846 Mr. Randall left his home and went to Hyde Park, now a. portion of the city of Scranton, in this county, commencing there to build up his fortune by teach- ing, and soon afterwards entered his name as a law student with Charles H. Silkman, Esq., of Providence, also a portion of the city of Scranton. There, as in the state of New York, he was
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DAVID RICHARDSON RANDALL.
obliged to teach daytimes and study nights, for there was ever before him the dependence of his mother and sisters. Struggling along with persistent energy, he was admitted to the bar of Lu- zerne county, as we have already stated, on November 4, 1847. He opened an office at Providence, and soon his studious habits, frank manners, and ready business tact brought him clients, the number of whom increased up to the time of his sickness.
Mr. Randall had all his life been a steady, consistent and thor- ough democrat, and in the fall of 1860 he was nominated as a candidate for congress by the democracy of the Twelfth congres- sional district of Pennsylvania, composed of the counties of Lu- zerne, Wyoming, Columbia, and Montour. His opponent was Hon. George W. Scranton, the strongest man by all odds in his party, and who defeated Mr. Randall by a majority of six hun- dred and ninety-five in the district. It the town of Providence Mr. Randall had a majority of twenty-four, where Colonel Scran- ton had two years before received a majority of eighty-two, and a majority of three thousand, nine hundred and eighty in the dis- trict. Upon the death of E. B. Chase, the district attorney of Luzerne county, Mr. Randall was appointed on February 18, 1864, by Judge Conyngham, district attorney of the county until the next annual election. When the democratic convention met in the fall of the same year he was unanimously nominated as the candidate for district attorney. So great was his popularity as a lawyer among the people with whom he had spent so many years of his life that he received a majority of fifty-three votes in the town of Providence, and this was at a time during the war when party spirit was running rampant, and his town at that time gave a majority of seventy-three votes to the republican candidate for congress. Mr. Randall was triumpantly elected district attorney by a majority of two thousand, two hundred and thirty-five in the county. This was the last time Mr. Randall ever suffered his name to go before the people as a candidate for office. Upon the incorporation of the city of Wilkes-Barre in 1871, Mr. Ran- dall was appointed chief assessor of the city by Garrick M. Harding, a republican judge, upon the unanimous recommenda- tion of the members of the city council and the commissioners . of the county. He so faithfully performed the duties of this
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JOHN BUTLER CONYNGHAM.
office that upon the expiration of his term in 1874 he was re- appointed, and continued to perform the duties of his office up to the time of his death.
Mr. Randall was twice married. On August 25, 1849, to Mary Child, by whom he had four children, none of whom are now living. She died February 7, 1855. On March 5, 1856, he married Elizabeth S. Emerson, of McDonough, N. Y., who still survives him. She is the great-granddaughter of Thomas Emer- son, granddaughter of Samuel Emerson, and daughter of Moses Sargent Emerson, all of whom were born in New Hampshire. Mr. Randall died August 31, 1875, leaving six .children to sur- vive him. The qualities of the deceased endeared him to his friends and commanded the respect of all who knew him. He was a true friend and generous foe. Bluff, hearty, and outspoken in his dealings with his fellows, he went in and out among them through the years of his busy, useful life honored and beloved, and left to his children the priceless legacy of an unstained name.
GEORGE BYRON NICHOLSON.
- George Byron Nicholson was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., November 10, 1848. He was a native of Salem, Wayne county, Pa., where he was born May 31, 1826. He was a son of Zenas Nicholson and his wife Nancy Goodrich, daugh- ter of Seth Goodrich. (See pages 123 and 539.) His wife was Mary A. Stone. Mr. Nicholson died in this city February 12, 1873. He left two daughters to survive him-Mary Emma Nich- olson, now the wife of Ernest Jackson, and Ruth Nicholson.
JOHN BUTLER CONYNGHAM.
John Butler Conyngham was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 6, 1849. He was a son of John N. Conyng- ham, and was born in this city September 29, 1827. In 1842, when not quite fifteen years of age, he entered Yale college. As
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JOHN BUTLER CONYNGHAM.
a student he stood well and took several honors. In 1844 he, with fourteen of his class mates, started a Greek letter fraternity. Those fifteen members of the class of 1846 builded better than they knew when they founded the brotherhood to which good fellowship has ever been a passport not less requisite than learn- ing. To-day the fraternity has chapters in twenty-nine of the leading colleges of the United States, and stands at the head of the Greek letter college societies. Graduating from college in the summer of 1846, Mr. Conyngham returned to Wilkes-Barre and immediately began the study of the law in the office of A. T. McClintock. In 1852 .he established himself at St. Louis, Missouri, as a lawyer, and remained there with great credit to himself until 1856, when he returned to Wilkes-Barre. Upon the breaking out of the late civil war he enlisted in Captain William Brisbane's company, of Wilkes-Barre, for the three months' ser- vice. This company became C company of the Eighth Pennsyl- vania Regiment, and Mr. Conyngham was elected and served as its second lieutenant. When the Fifty-second Regiment Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, for three years' service, was organized in the fall of 1861, Lieutenant Conyngham was made major of the regi- ment. On January 9, 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and soon after his regiment was ordered to South Carolina. During the attack on Fort Johnson, before Charleston, July 4, 1864, he was taken prisoner and confined first in Charleston and then in Colum- bus, Georgia. After his release he was, on June 3, 1865, pro- moted to the colonelcy of his regiment. At the close of the war Colonel Conyngham was honorably mustered out of the service, and returned to Wilkes-Barre. On March 7, 1867, he was appointed captain in the Thirty-eighth United States Infantry, and in November, 1869, he was transferred to the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry. In 1871 he was brevetted lieutenant colonel for gallant services in the field. Mr. Conyngham was an unmarried man. He died at Wilkes-Barre May 27, 1881. (See pages 203 and III4.)
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WINTHROP W'ELLES KETCHAM.
WINTHROP WELLES KETCHAM.
Winthrop Welles Ketcham, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., January 8, 1850, was a native of Wilkes- Barre, Pa., where he was born June 29, 1820. He was the grandson of Daniel Ketcham and his wife Alice Holmes, who were mar- ried March 28, 1771. His father was Lewis Nesbet Ketcham, who was born in Philadelphia February 3, 1795, and his wife Deborah Eldridge, who was born in the same city November 20, 1800. They were married April 17, 1819. Lewis N. Ketcham was a painter and cabinet maker. At an early age Winthrop assisted his father and painted many buildings in this city, and also a number of the lock houses along the canal. As a boy he was always hard working and industrious, and seemed to under- stand that he had his own way to make in the world. He deter- mined to obtain an education, and attended school whenever oppor- tunity offered. As an instance of his energy and perseverance, it is said that when at work painting he would carry his books with him and learn his lessons during the noon-day hour. In 1844, when the Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, was first opened, he secured the position of a teacher under the late Rev. Reuben Nelson, D. D. He devoted himself to study and his duties as teacher until 1847. After leaving the seminary Mr. Ketcham studied law in the offices of Lazarus D. Shoemaker and the late Charles Denison. On September 15, 1847, while yet a teacher in Kingston, he married Sarah Urquhart, a daugh- ter of John Urquhart, of this city, and a native of Readington, Hunterdon county, New Jersey. His father, George Urquhart, was born in Scotland January 17, 1767, and came to America in 1786. He was for nearly his whole lifetime a school teacher. Two children were born to Mrs. Ketcham-Ellen U., who died in Pittsburg, and John Marshall Ketcham. In 1848 Mr. Ketcham went to Philadelphia and became a teacher in Girard College, of which institution Joel Jones was then president. Here he remained until the latter part of 1849, constantly studying and fitting him- self for the career that lay before him, and then returned to
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WINTHROP WELLES KETCHAM.
Wilkes-Barre and soon thereafter was admitted to the bar. To his new profession he brought all the energy and zeal which had always characterized him, and rapidly rose into popularity. His first public office was that of prothonotary of Luzerne county, to which he was elected in 1855. This he held during the term of three years. In 1858 he was elected a member of the house of representatives and served one year. In 1859 he was chosen state senator for three years. President Lincoln appointed him solicitor of the United States court of claims in 1864, and he removed to Washington. In the fall of 1866 Mr. Ketcham resigned this office, as he was not in accord politically with Pres- ident Johnson. Mr. Ketcham became a republican when that party was first organized, having been a whig prior to that time. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention of 1860 which nominated Mr. Lincoln, and a delegate at large to the Baltimore convention of 1864, when Mr. Lincoln was re-nominated. In 1868 he was a presidential elector from this state and cast his vote for General Grant. In 1866, 1869, and 1872 he received flattering votes in the republican state convention for governor. He was elected to congress from this district over Hendrick B. Wright in 1874. Before Mr. Ketcham's term in congress had expired he was appointed judge of the United States circuit court for the western district of Pennsylvania, and retained that high position until his death. President Lincoln, in 1863, appointed Mr. Ketcham to the position of chief justice of the territory of Ne- braska, but, although pressed to accept that high position, he declined. In 1867, when the act was passed authorizing an addi- tional law judge for this district, Mr. Ketcham was appointed the .judge by Governor Geary. This office he also declined. Mr. Ketcham died December 6, 1879. At his funeral Rev. W. H. Olin, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal church, spoke thus of Mr. Ketcham : " He was a notable example of successful endeavor as a self made man. He demonstrated the fact that a poor young man may lay hold on the possibilities of life and win; that no position was too high but integrity and fidelity may attain it. He was always an attentive, respectful, and candid hearer of the preached word. He had a broadness of soul that respected truth wherever found. He leaves his work, worth, and example
1242
EDMUND TAYLOR.
.
as things to be proud of. He was a grand specimen of an Amer- ican citizen. His sympathy for young men struggling for suc- cess was remarkable. There was nothing selfish in him, no jealousy lest another might surpass him. He desired to bring all up to his standard. It is a privilege to mourn for such a man -like Cæsar-whose good deeds done the state Marc Antony emblazoned-he has given the state so much of worth that its people love him. His example is one to be followed and his death, like his life, is an example to all. His self denial, intense labor, integrity, judicial fairness and impartiality commend him for imitation. Out of these came a successful life, a triumphant death, and a blessed hereafter." Mrs. Ketcham and her son, J. M. Ketcham, reside in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
. EDMUND TAYLOR.
Edmund Taylor, who was commissioned an associate judge of Luzerne county, Pa., January 15, 1850, was a native of Allyng- ford, in the county of Herefordshire, England, where he was born August 4, 1804. He was the youngest of the fourteen children of his father, John Taylor, and was the twelfth son, He emigrated to this country with his father's family in 1818, and located in this city the same year, where he remained until his death, February 8, 188r. He was married, December 28, 1828, by Rev. Samuel Carver, to Mary Ann, daughter of El- nathan Wilson, who was the son of Uriah Wilson, who resided near New London, Connecticut. The Wilson family at one time owned a great part of the land upon which New London now stands. The day Elnathan Wilson was sixteen years of age he enlisted in the continental army. A few days after a sergeant's squad of twelve men, of whom he was one, were detailed to guard a cross-roads where stood an old school house, in which the sergeant and his men took up their night's quarters. After stationing one of the number at the corner of the roads to look out for any straggling enemy that might happen to pass that
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EDMUND TAYLOR.
way, the rest of the squad had the hard floor to sleep on. El- nathan had not yet got hardened to that kind of bed, he was rest- less and could not sleep, so he got up just before daybreak and told the sentinel that he would relieve him, for he could not sleep on the soft side of a board. The sentinel gave him his old mus- ket that would not go off, or if it did would not hit a barn door five rods off, and went into the school house. He had not stood long at his post when he heard the clatter of horses' feet, and soon discovered a horseman coming towards him. When he came up within a few rods it was just light enough to see that the rider, who was jogging slowly along, had on the uniform of a British officer, who seemed to be more asleep than awake. Mr. Wilson stood behind a post and the officer did not see him till he sprang right before the horse, grabbed the bridle rein, and shouted to the astonished redcoat to halt, dismount, and surren- der or he would blow him through, and then pulled the officer off his horse. The men in the school house rushed out and escorted their prisoner into their quarters. Mr. Wilson was very proud of his first success in war. The horse and trappings were valued at one hundred and eighty dollars, which, according to usage, belonged to him, but he never received a penny. The prisoner in a few hours made his escape, probably by the con- nivance of some of the men, who might have been tories and willing to take any fee the officer might give for permission to escape. In 1787 Elnathan. Wilson left his native state and removed to Stroudsburg, Pa., where he remained four or five years, and then removed to Forty Fort. He employed himself at any kind of labor that presented a chance of making money, and always had something to do. In those primitive times the village of Wilkes-Barre had no better way of getting their salt, sugar, molasses, and such heavy articles of household use than to send down the river by boats to pick up their supplies from the lower river towns. They had a kind of craft called Durham boats, long, slim, low boats, with running planks on each side from stem to stern, for the boats were propelled by three or four polemen on each side, walking backward and forward the whole length of the boat, with the ends of their long ash poles against their shoulders, pushing in a bent position with all their might
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