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 9
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CHESTER BUTLER.
Chester Butler, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 8, 1820, was a native of this city, where he was born March 21, 179S. He was the son of General Lord Butler and the brother of the late Lord Butler and John L. Butler, of this city. (See page 335). He represented Luzerne county in the legislature of the state in 1832, 1838, 1839 and 1843, and from 1845 to 1850 was in the congress of the United States. In 1832 he was on the anti-masonic electoral ticket of Pennsylvania. He
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SAMUEL BOWMAN.
was elected in IS18 one of the trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Aca- demy, and served for twenty years, three years of which he was secretary of the board. He was a teacher and also a student in the old academy. From 1821 to 1824 he was register and re- corder of Luzerne county. He was a graduate of Princeton (N. J.) College in the class of 1817, and read law at the Litchfield, Conn., law school. His wife was Sarah Hollenback, widow of Jacob Cist, deceased. One son, George H. Butler, was the only issue of their marriage. Chester Butler died in Philadelphia October 5, 1850. His son, George H. Butler, died unmarried in the same city March 16, 1863. The latter read law with Andrew T. McClintock, in this city, but we can find no record of his ad- mission to the bar. He was also a graduate of Princeton College.
JAMES WATSON BOWMAN.
James Watson Bowman was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 8, 1820. He was the second child of Eben- ezer Bowman, and studied law with his father. (See page 1050.) He married, in 1825, Harriet Drake, of Wilkes-Barre, and died in 1834, leaving two children-George Drake Bowman and Amelia Watson Bowman, who married George Painter, of Muncy, Pa.
SAMUEL BOWMAN.
Samuel Bowman was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., August 8, 1821. He was born in Wilkes-Barre May 21, 1800, and was the sixth child of Captain Samuel Bowman, a son of Captain Thaddeus Bowman. At the outbreak of the rev- olution Captain Samuel Bowman enlisted and became a captain in the continental army, and served until the close of the war. It is said that he was with Major Andre the night before his execu-
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SAMUEL BOWMAN.
tion, and commanded the guard that led him to the gallows. He married, in Philadelphia, November 3, 1784, Eleanor Ledlie, of Easton, Pa., whose parents were from Ireland. About 1789 he moved to Wilkes-Barre, where his wife had a large landed estate, to which he devoted his time. He died June 25, 1818, being gored to death by a bull. He was one of the trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Academy from 1807 until his death. In 1794 he was captain of a company, and led the Luzerne volunteers to help quell the whiskey insurrection, and to Newburg in 1799. Ebenezer Bowman, of the Luzerne bar, was the uncle of Samuel Bowman. (See page 1050.) Samuel Bowman was educated at the Wilkes-Barre Academy. The law had been chosen as his profession, but he soon became a student of divinity, having been brought under deep religious conviction by the sudden death of his father, as before stated. He was ordained in Philadelphia, August 25, 1823, and entered upon his ministerial duty in Lan- caster county, Pa., the same year, preaching his first sermons in Leacock and Salisbury townships, where he remained about two years. In 1825 he was stationed at Easton, but in the following year he returned to his former charge in Lancaster county. In 1827 he accepted a call to the rectorship of St. James' church in Lancaster, Pa., one of the oldest Episcopal parishes in the state. His attachment to his parish and to the community was so deep that he would never accept any position which involved the necessity of abandoning Lancaster as his home. In 1845 he was, against his own inclination, voted for as the candidate of those in convention who opposed Rev. Dr. Tyng for bishop, and was several times elected by the clergy, but the laity refused to con- cur. The contest was long and exciting, and Bishop Potter was finally elected as a compromise candidate, much to Dr. Bowman's gratification, who would have accepted the office with much reluctance, if at all, for the reason above stated. In 1848 he was elected bishop of the diocese of Indiana, which he declined, again reiterating his desire to remain with the flock between whom and himself there was such a strong attachment. With regard to the two parties which unfortunately exist in the Episcopal church, Bishop Bowman was a conservative, even to the extent of ignor- ing the existence of what are called "High and Low Church."
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SAMUEL BOWMAN.
His last discourse was based upon the words of St. Paul : "For I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." And this was the spirit in which he accepted the office of assistant bishop three years before. The convention failing to make a choice between Dr. Vinton and him- self, Dr. Bowman offered a resolution for a committee to report to the convention a candidate, which he advocated with great earnestness and ability, solemnly and emphatically withdrawing his name from the nomination before the convention. He said God brought men together by ways unknown to them. His name had been placed there without any feeling of ambition on his part. His great and only desire was that he might pass the remainder of his days in the humble yet honorable station of the ministry to which he was so sincerely attached. He expressed the hope that the carrying out of this resolution would prove the breaking down of the partition that existed between some portions of the church, in which church all should be of "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Let the only strife be," he continued, "as to who shall expend most labor in the cause of God. Let us no longer array ourselves under party leaders. Let our only motto be, 'Pro Deo, pro ecclesia, et hominum salute.' " After the election of Dr. Bowman he was introduced to the convention by a com- mittee as the assistant bishop. He closed a feeling address with the "fervent hope that the work which the convention had accomplished that day would redound to the unity and advance- ment of the church through Jesus Christ our Lord." The death of Bishop Bowman occurred in this wise: He had left home on a tour of western visitation in his official capacity, and had taken the 6 A. M. train on the Allegheny Valley railroad, en route for But- ler, where he had an appointment to administer the rite of confirma- tion on the following Sabbath .. At Freeport, twenty-four miles from Pittsburg, he proposed taking the stage to Butler. After proceeding about nineteen miles the train was halted in conse- quence of a bridge which had been injured by a late freshet and a land slide nearly two miles beyond. Arrangements had been made to convey the passengers over this part of the road in a hand car, a locomotive and a passenger car being in readiness on the other side to carry them on. Several gentlemen preferred
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JOEL JONES.
walking, and among them Bishop Bowman. The workmen hav- ing charge of the hand car, when returning to the bridge, found the bishop lying by the road side, having fallen upon his face as if seized with apoplexy. His face was buried in his hat, in which was his pocket handkerchief that he had saturated with water in a small stream a few paces back, doubtless as a preventive of sunstroke. Genesee College conferred the degree of doctor of divinity on Bishop Bowman. He married Susan Sitgreaves, daughter of Samuel Sitgreaves, of Easton. She died in 1830, and he married, in 1836, Harriet Clarkson, of Lancaster. Bishop Bowman died August 3, 1861.
AMZI FULLER.
Amzi Fuller was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., January 11, 1822. (See page 580 for further particulars con- cerning Mr. Fuller.) He spent the greater part of his life in Wayne county, Pa. A few years before his death he purchased the property on River street now occupied by the widow of his son, Henry M. Fuller, and Henry A. Fuller, his grandson, of Hon. Charles D. Shoemaker, and removed here, where he spent the latter years of his life.
JOEL JONES:
Joel Jones, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., January 14, 1823, was a native of Coventry, Conn. He was a descendant of Colonel John Jones, who was born at Fregarion, in the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, in 1580. He was married in 1623 to Henrietta, second sister of Oliver Cromwell, lord pro- tector of England, was one of the judges of Charles I in 1648, and of Cromwell's house of lords in 1653, and lord lieutenant of Ireland from 1650 to 1659. He was beheaded by Charles II October 17, 1660.
William Jones, son of Colonel John Jones, was born in London
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JOEL JONES.
in 1624, was a lawyer at Westminster for a number of years, was a resident of the Fields of St. Martin, Middlesex, and was married to Hannah Eaton, of the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn. London, spinster, by the Rev. John Rowe, sr., Independent minister of the church, in July, 1659. She was the youngest daughter of Hon. Theophilus Eaton, the first governor of New Haven colony, and was born in London in 1633. Hon. William Jones was for several years deputy governor of the colonies of New Haven and Connecticut, retired from office in 1698, and died in New Haven October, 1706, aged eighty-two years. His wife died May 4, 1707, aged seventy-four years. They were buried under the monumental stone of Governor Eaton, and the following inscription was placed upon it, after giving their names and the date of their deaths :
To attend you, sir, under these famed stones,
Are come your honored son and daughter Jones, On each hand to repose their weary bones. . The memory of the just is blest.
Isaac Jones, son of William and Hannah Jones, was born June 21, 1671, in New Haven, and was married to Deborah Clarke, daughter of James Clarke, of Stratford, Conn., by Hon. William Jones, deputy governor of Connecticut, November 25, 1692. He died in New Haven in 1741. His wife died in the same place May 28, 1735. Joel Jones, son of Isaac and Deborah Jones, lived and died in North Bolton, Conn. His eldest brother was Isaac Jones, of Saybrook, Conn. Joel Jones married a Miss Hale. He was born in 1695 and died in 1775. He left ten sons and five daughters living at the time of his death. Amassa Jones, son of Joel Jones, lived in Coventry, and removed to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., about 1818, where he died in 1843. His body and that of his wife were removed by his youngest son, Matthew Hale Jones, to Easton, Pa. The wife of Amassa Jones was Elizabeth Hunting- ton, a daughter of Rev. Joseph Huntington, D. D., of Coventry, Conn. He was a descendant of Simon Huntington, of Norwich, Conn., and a brother of Samuel Huntington, a signer of the declaration of independence, governor of Connecticut, chief just- ice of the same state, and at one time president of the American congress. Huntington township, in this county, took its name from him.
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JOEL JONES.
Joel Jones, eldest son of Amassa and Elizabeth Jones, was born October 26, 1795, and removed to Wilkes-Barre with his father's family. He was educated at Yale College, from which he grad- uated in 1817, and the Litchfield law school, and studied law with Judge Bristol, of New Haven, Conn., where he was first admitted to the bar. He practiced law at Wilkes-Barre, Easton, Pa., and Philadelphia. He was a man of large legal knowledge. When appointed with W. Rawle, who was upwards of eighty years of age when appointed, and T. I. Wharton to revise the civil code of the state, those gentlemen expressed to their friends surprise that a man of so little prominence should have made such acqui- sitions in the law, little knowing how many wearisome years he had spent in his small office on the northwestern corner of Inde- pendence square in studying the principles of jurisprudence. He i did good service to the state as one of the revisers, and some of the reports of the commissioners which made the most important suggestions were written by him. Some parts of the new system were remodeled and re-written exclusively by him, as, for example, the disposition of estates of intestates, which passed the legisla- ture without the change of a word, and they have scarcely been touched down to the present day. Some of the other matters for legislation which were acted upon by the commissioners were an act relating to registers and registers' courts, the Orphans' Court, relating to last wills and testaments, relating to executors and administratrators, relating to counties and townships and county and township officers, to weights and measures, to the organization of the courts of justice, to roads, highways and bridges, to inns, taverns and retailers of vinous and spiritous liquors, to the support and employment of the poor, to county rates and levies and township rates and levies, to the militia, to elections by the citizens of the commonwealth, to the inspection of articles of trade and commerce-most of which were passsed by the legislature as reported. Mr. Jones was subsequently ap- pointed an associate judge and the president judge of the district court of Philadelphia. These offices he held from 1835 to 1847. Girard College never did a better thing than when it made Judge Jones its first president, and the career of usefulness on which that institution entered is largely due to the wise manner in
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JOEL JONES.
which he interpreted the will of Mr. Girard and the legal pro- visions enacted concerning it. He filled this position during most of the years 1847 and 1848. He then returned to his favorite pursuit of studying and practicing law. Immediately thereupon he was nominated as a candidate for mayor of the city of Phila- delphia, and was elected by a large popular vote. On retiring from the office in 1849 he returned again to the law, and the force of his speech and his pen was frequently felt in the courts. He also wrote for the magazines of the day on literary, philosophic and religious subjects. The volume published after his death, which he had modestly entitled "Notes on Scripture," will long attest the thought which he gave to the profoundest themes with which the human mind can become conversant. Judge Jones was a most exemplary christian and an active and useful member of the Presbyterian church. He died February 3, 1860. Anson Jones, an American physician, and president of the re- public of Texas at the time of its annexation to the United States, was a kinsman of Judge Jones. He settled in Brazoria, Texas, in 1833, and took a prominent part in the political and military movements which resulted in the independence of that republic. He was minister to the United States in 1838, and afterwards for three years secretary of state under President Houston. In 1844 he succeeded Houston as president. He died by his own hands in 1858. In that year he was the rival of Louis T. Wigfall for a seat in the United States senate, and when defeated, invited all the leaders of the party and Wigfall himself to a public dinner, and after entertaining them blew his brains out at the dinner table, with the remark that as Texas did not need him any more he would emigrate. Judge Joel Jones married, in 1833, Elizabeth Sparhawk, a daughter of John Sparhawk, one of the non-import- ing merchants of Philadelphia in 1774, a grandson of Sir William Pepperill, of Kittery Point, Maine (then Massachusetts), who cap- tured Louisburg during the old French war. The wife of John Sparhawk was Elizabeth Perkins, a native of Barbadoes. Judge Jones had six children, only two of whom survive-S. Hunting- ton Jones, a Philadelphia lawyer, and Rev. John Sparhawk Jones, D. D., a Presbyterian clergyman. In his young days Judge Jones was principal of the Wilkes-Barre Academy. The late
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BENJAMIN ALDEN BIDLACK.
Judge Sharswood said of Judge Jones: "As a judge he was remarkable for great courtesy, immovable patience, and unwearied attention. He was, therefore, a safe, though, it must be con- fessed, a slow judge. When he had once formed an opinion at nisi prius, which was after great deliberation, he was hardly ever known to change it. His law learning was very considerable, but it lay more among the ancients than the modern books, and it was with much difficulty that he could turn the current of his ideas upon legal subjects into new channels. Kind in his dispo- sition, yielding in his temper, affable in his manner, unbending in his integrity, and pure in his life, his memory is that of the just --- is blessed. He was an excellent Hebrew and Greek scholar, and an earnest student of the bible in the original tongues. He published a volume entitled 'The Patriarchal Age; or, The Story of Joseph,' in which much critical acuteness, as well as extensive Oriental erudition, was exhibited."
BENJAMIN ALDEN BIDLACK.
Benjamin Alden Bidlack was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pa., January 5, 1825. He was a descendant of Chris- topher Bidlack, who came from England to Windham, Connec- ticut, in 1722. Captain James Bidlack, a descendant of Chris- topher Bidlack, came with his family to the Wyoming valley in 1777. A son of his, Captain James Bidlack, jr., fell at the head of his company in the battle and massacre of Wyoming, only eight of the whole number surviving that fearful tragedy. Another son was made a prisoner on Long Island, and "was starved to death by the British." Benjamin Bidlack, another son, came with his father to the valley of Wyoming. The history of the Bidlack family is identified with the romantic period of the history of this far-famed valley. The father, when quite advanced in years, was captain of a company of old men organized for the defense of their homes while their sons entered the regular service and were called away to other points of danger. He was surprised
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BENJAMIN ALDEN BIDLACK.
by a company of Indians and suffered a distressing captivity, which only terminated with the end of the war. He returned to the Wyoming valley and lived to see his country rise into almost un- hoped for prosperity-the fruit of the services of the patriots of the revolution. Benjamin Bidlack was seven years in the service as a soldier. He was at Boston when Washington assembled his forces to oppose Gage, at Trenton at the taking of the Hes- sians, at Yorktown at the surrender of Cornwallis, and in the camp at Newburg when the army was disbanded. When peace with the mother country was concluded he returned to the lovely- valley of Wyoming, as he hoped to live in quiet and to give succor to his aged sire in the decline of life. But alas! He came to this spot, rendered so beautiful and lovely by the hand of nature's God, to see further exhibitions of the malignity of the human heart-"The Pennamite and Yankee war," a fierce and bloody conflict between the Connecticut and Pennsyl- vania settlers - for the title of the soil was then renewed. Young Bidlack was what the Pennsylvanians called a "wild Yankee." He was not disposed to engage in the fray, for al- though he was as good a soldier as ever breathed, he had a kind heart, and of course, hated this unnatural war. He engaged in business and made a trip down the Susquehanna to Sunbury about the distance of fifty miles. Here he was seized by the Pennsylvania party and put in jail. He was a jovial fellow and manifested so much good nature and was so fine a singer that a company from the neighborhood frequently assembled in the evening to hear him sing. On one occasion he told them that he had a favorite song they had never heard. It was "The Old Swaggering Man," but he could not sing it without more room, and he must have a staff in his hand, as the effect depended much on the action. Nothing suspicious, they gave him a cud- gel and allowed him liberty to make his sallies into the hall. All . at once as he commenced his chorus, " Here goes the old swag- gering man," he darted out of the door, and in a trice was out of their reach, outdistancing the fleetest of them. The next day he was safe at home and was never more disturbed. Bidlack having a most splendid voice, and being full of fun and frolic, was not unfrequently the center and life of sporting and drinking
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parties. Still he had religious notions and religious feelings, and wild and wicked as he was, he would go to the Methodist meet- ings and lead the singing, sometimes, indeed, when he was scarcely in a condition to do it with becoming gravity. The Methodist preachers who planted the gospel standard in the in- terior of this state were the pioneers of the country, and many of them officers or soldiers of the revolution. They were con- sequently men of nerve and capable of great endurance. At length Mr. Bidlack was awakened and converted to God, and henceforth he "sowed" no more "wild oats." He soon began to exhort his neighbors to "flce from the wrath to come," and to sing the songs of Zion with a heart and a power that moved the feelings, while it charmed the ear. " Ben Bidlack has become a Methodist preacher," rang through the country and stirred up a mighty commotion. His first circuit embraced his own neigh- borhood and even the jail from which but a few years before he had escaped, shouting, " Here goes the old swaggering man." The appointment at least shows the state of the public mind in relation to him where he was best known, and is very much to his credit. Mr. Bidlack was married and had three children when he commenced travelling. During his effective relation to the conference he had sixteen appointments, standing in the follow- ing order : Wyoming, Seneca, Delaware, Ulster, Herkimer, Mo- hawk, Otsego, Chenango, Pompey, Seneca, Lyons, Shamokin, Northumberland and Lycoming. Look at his removes. One year he goes from Wyoming to the Seneca Lake, and the next from that to the Delaware. This was itinerancy in deed and in truth. Any one who can recollect what was the condition of the roads sixty-five or seventy years ago in the regions in which he travelled and through which he removed his family can, in some measure, ap- preciate the labors which he performed. Mr. Bidlack was re- moved every year during his itinerancy, with the exception of three. His first wife was Lydia, a daughter of Prince Alden, of Newport township. He was the son of Andrew, who was the son of Captain Jonathan, who was the son of Hon. John Alden. (See page 305.) After the death of his first wife he married the widow of Lieutenant Lawrence Myers, of Kingston. Mr. Bid- lack stood something over six feet, erect, with a full,'prominent chest,
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BENJAMIN ALDEN BIDLACK.
broad shoulders and powerful limbs. His black hair sprinkled with gray hung upon his shoulders, and his large, open features bore an expression of gravity and benignity, mingled with cheer- fulness, which at once prepossessed one in his favor. His voice was powerful and harmonious. Naturally, his voice was the very soul of music, and much of its melody remained until he was far advanced in life. He was an effective preacher, though not a profound thinker. His sermons were fine specimens of native eloquence, and were often attended with great power. One of his favorite discourses-at least it was a favorite with his hearers -was upon the words: "They that turn the world upside down have come hither also." In laying out his discourse on this text, he proceeded : First, I shall show that the world was made right side up. Secondly, That it has been turned wrong side up. And thirdly, That it is now to be turned upside down; then it will be right side up again. Here he had the main doctrines of every old-fashioned Methodist sermon directly in his way. First, man was created holy ; secondly, he has fallen, and thirdly, he is re- deemed by Christ, and must be regenerated by the Holy Ghost. The ncame the exhortation to sinners to "repent and be converted." The sermons of Mr. Bidlack were plain expositions of scripture, and manifested a thorough knowledge of the bible, and consid- erable acquaintance with the writings of Wesley and Fletcher. He died November 27, 1845, in the eighty-seventh year of his age.
Benjamin Alden Bidlack, only son of Rev. Benjamin Bidlack and Lydia, his wife, was born in Paris, Oneida county, N. Y., September 8, 1804. He completed his education at the academy in this city, then under the charge of Joel and Samuel Jones, and read law with Garrick Mallery. Shortly after his admission he was appointed deputy attorney general for this county. In 1834 he was treasurer of Luzerne county. In 1835 and 1836 he repre- sented this county in the legislature of the state. He was a repre- sentative in congress from this county from 1841 to 1845. Immediately after the expiration of his term in congress he was appointed minister to New Granada (now the United States of Colombia), and died in Bogota, February 6, 1849. The American residents of that city erected a very handsome monument to his memory. He established and edited The Northern Eagle, the
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