Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, Part 16

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co.
Number of Pages: 1090

USA > Pennsylvania > Northumberland County > Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 16

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Lewis Rockefeller, born Sept. 12, 1823, died in October, 1898. He married Catherine Campbell, who survives him, and they became the parents of a large family : Joseph. born in 1850, died in 1820: former a graduate of Bucknell University) and Lemuel married Hattie McClow and they have Susan (Mrs. Lorenza Eckman, who has two chil-

three children. Catharine, Mary and Margaret: Sarah married H. Clay Seasholtz and has had one son, David : Isabella died in 1888. at the age of twenty-five : Hattie married H. C. Lyons: Charles married Mattie Manier and has two children. Harrison and Helen: Isaac married Emma Specht; David P. is mentioned below ; Oliver mar- ried Jennie Haupt ; Emery is mentioned below.

died young; and Mary, who lives in Sunbury. (3) Abraham died young. (4) Herman married Elizabeth Reed, and their son, Edmund. married Mary Haupt. (5) Sarah married Charles Eck- man, and had two children, Frank and Ellard (who married Ella Snyder). (6) Ella married (first) Kelso Savidge, by whom she had three children, Clinton (who married Louise Essie and has six children, Harry W., Albert C., Ralph W. E., Preston M., Louise and Lucile), Harrison C. and Lizzie A. (married Willard Robinson). Her second marriage was to George Forrester, by whom she has had two children, Isabella (Mrs. Clark) and Ellen, the latter dying young. (7) Rhoda married Samuel Oberdorf, and they have had eleven children, Oliver (deceased), Isaac (de- ceased), Hamilton (deceased), Isabella (de- ceased ), Chalmers (deceased), Mary, Peter, G. Donald (a graduate of Princeton and now prin- cipal of the Mount Carmel high school, who mar- ried Olive A. Ruch), Maurer ( married to Amanda Gearhart), William (who married Ollie Wolver- ton and has two children, Calvin and Robert. the

dren, James and Chalmers). (8) Elizabetlı mar- ried (first ) Bloomfield Carr, by whom she had two sons, Janics and William, and (second) Charles Houghout, by whom she has two daughters. Vir- ginia and Roda, the latter the wife of William Clark and the mother of three children, Bessie, George and Morris.

DAVID P. ROCKEFELLER, son of Lewis and Cath- crine (Campbell) Rockefeller, is a well known business man of Sunbury, being president of the Sunbury Table Works, manufacturers of exten- sion and parlor tables, and similar goods. Mr. Rockefeller was born in .Sunbury Nov. 23. 1839. and there received his early education in the pub- lic schools. After a few years' attendance there

Mrs. Catharine (Campbell) Rockefeller though now (1911) in her eighty-first year is active and retains all her faculties, and to her excellent mem- ory we are indebted for much of the data in this article. She enjoys good health, and her kind and unselfish disposition keeps her interested in the welfare of her numerous descendants and endears her to a wide circle of relatives and friends. 'She he went to Philadelphia, where he was a pupil in now makes her home with her daughter Mrs. Sea- the school at Seventeenth and Pine streets. Dur-

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ing his residence in that city he clerked for his Minnie Gonsar, and to them were born two chil- cousin, John Rockefeller, for a period of ten years. dren, Verua and Iliff. Mrs. Rockefeller died Returning to Sunbury in 1883, he engaged in the March 12, 1911, aged forty-one years and was bur- bottling business, which he continued to follow ied in Pomfret Manor county. until 1898, For three years afterward he was engaged in the lumber business, and for a similar period in the mercantile business,. in 1905 selling his stock of merehandise to J. K. Frederick. At

Like her husband, Mrs. Rockefeller was a mem- ber of one of the early settled families of the coun- tv. Her grandparents. Samuel and Catharine (Long) Gonsar, natives of Schuylkill county, Pa., that time he began the manufacture of tables. in came to Northumberland county in an early day,

which he was engaged alone until he established the present concern, in May, 1907. The plant is located on North Second street, the factory and yards covering nearly a city block. The main building is 200 feet square, and there is another 50 by 150 feet in dimensions. The establishment is equipped throughout with the most modern ma- chinery and all improvements designed to facili- tate the work, and from seventy-five to eighty men

On Sept. 18th, 1891, Mr. Rockefeller married Agnes Cummings, daughter of Andrew and Har- riet Cummings, of Washingtonville, Montour Co., Pennsylvania.

EMERY ROCKEFELLER, retired farmer and dairy- man, now living in Sunbury, was born June 15, 1868, in Upper Augusta township, Northumber- land county, where he was reared and educated. He lived on the family homestead in that town- ship for some time, and in 1900 purchased from Gen. George B. Cadwallader a fine farm of 154 feller township, is a member.

acres in Upper Augusta township, fertile and val- George Hanpt was a native of Berks county, Pa., and came to Northumberland county in 1802, uable land. which he cultivated until 1906. That vear he built a fine home on East Market street, settling in what was then Augusta (now Rocke- in the borough of Sunbury, where he has since feller) township, where he owned many acres to resided with his family. While on the farm Mr. the east of Angustaville. He was a tailor. and Rockefeller carried on the dairy business, which followed his trade for some years, but farming was he has continued since his removal to Sunbury. his principal vocation. His farm was later owned Though unostentations in his habits and retiring by his grandson, A. G. Haupt (son of his son Samuel), but the present owner is John D. Haupt, and he and his wife, Margaret ( Overpeck). are buried at the Augustaville ( Stone) Church. Ac- cording to the records there he was born July 13, in disposition he has always interested himself in the public welfare, and while in Upper Augusta before mentioned. George Haupt was a Lutheran, township served as a member of the school board for two terms. Since becoming a resident of Sun- bury he has been elected to the borough council, at present representing the Eighth ward in that 1761, and died Feb. 11, 1853: she was born Jan. body. He is an excellent neighbor and friend. 21, 1972, and died Nov. 30, 1858. They were kind and hospitable, and has the respect of all the parents of ten children : John: Samnel (born who know him. In religions connection he is a 1804, died 1882, who married Lydia Fasold and member of the Catawissa Avenne Methodist had eight children) : George: David: Jacob: Hen- Church, of which he has been a trustee since 1909. TY : Sebastian, who lived at the corner of Third and On Jan. 24, 1894, Mir. Rockefeller married Market streets, in the borough of Sunbury; Cath-

settling in Shamokin township, where they passed the remainder of their lives. dying there. They are buried at Snydertown. He was a farmer and miller by occupation. . In religion he was a mem- ber of the Lutheran Church. He and his wife had a large family, viz. : John, 'David, Andrew, George, Daniel, Isaac, Jacob. Jesse, Sarah (mar- ried Benjamin Evert), Harriet (married Jeffer- son Miller, of Lewisburg ) and Hannah ( married are given constant employment supplying the de- John Campbell, of Snydertown). George. Daniel, mands of the large trade. Mr. Rockefeller has devoted himself to the building up of this busi- township. ness, and his efforts have been rewarded with un- usual success. IIe is respected and trusted by his fellow citizens, who elected him to the borough couneil in 1904, and he served in that body from that year until 1908. He is a Republiean in politics and in religion a member of the Presby- terian Church. Socially he belongs to the I. O. O. F.

Isaac, Jacob and Jesse all lived in Shamokin

Jesse Gonsar, father of Mrs. Emery Rockefeller, was born in 1836 and died in 1898, aged sixty-two vears, five months, sixteen days. He married Harriet Houseworth, and she survived him with their three children : Minnie, Mrs. Rockefeller, now deceased : Laura, who is the wife of Andrew Lantz and has one son, Jesse: and Grant, of Snydertown, Pennsylvania,

HAUPT. The Haupt family to which be- longed the late Henry Haupt, long a resident of Sunbury and later of Upper Augusta township, Northumberland county, was founded here by one George Haupt. There are several distinct families of the name in the county, that of Sham- okin township bearing no known relationship either to the one here under consideration or to the family of which John D. Haupt, of Rocke-

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

arine, who married Peter Flook; Mary, who mar- lite. He owned a farm of thirty-three acres in ried John Shipe; and Elizabeth, who died when Rockefeller township, where he died Jan 11, twenty-one years old. 1866. He was a Democrat in politics, and at the HENRY HAUPT, son of George, was born May time of his death was holding the office of over- 30, 1812, in Augusta township, and learned the tailor's trade from his father. In 1840 he loeated in Sunbury, at what is now No. 321 Market weeks before. street, in a typical log cabin, and he followed his seer of the poor, and it is singular that his asso- eiate in office, Daniel D. Conrad, died just two His wife, Barbara (Dornsife), born Feb. 18, 1824, died April 8, 1897. They

trade until 1853, when his health failed and he were Lutherans, and are buried at the Augusta- ville Church. Their children were: Mary Eliza- beth married Simeon Haupt, who was a descend- ant of George Haupt (1761-1853), of another fam- ily resident in the same community, and who had Indian blood in his veins; John D. is mentioned later ; Emeline is the widow of Hyman Shilly; Catharine E. married Milton DeWees.

moved out of the borough, settling in Upper Au- gusta township. The change proved beneficial, for he lived to the ripe age of eighty-four years, dying Feb. 10, 1897. After giving up tailoring he became a watehman on the Shamokin branch of the Pennsylvania railroad. He is buried in the old cemetery at Sunbury. Mr. Haupt was a Presbyterian in religious faith, and served as trus-

John D. Haupt has followed agricultural pur- tee of the ehureh at Sunbury. He took an inter- suits all his life. His farm consists of 100 acres

est in the affairs of the community, and served in the southeastern part of Rockefeller township, and is the old homestead of George Haupt, who was the founder of another Haupt family in this neighborhood, being no known relative of John D. Haupt. Mr. Haupt raises general erops and sells his produce at Trevorton. He is an enter- prising eitizen and has taken some part in public affairs in his locality, having served the township as school director and roadmaster. In politics some years as overseer of the poor. His first wife, Maria Yordy, died Mareh 26, 1844, the mother of two children, Samuel Y. and Freeman. His second marriage was to Sarah Mowery, who was born Christmas Day, 1810, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth ( Kerschner ) Mowery, of Sunbury, and died Nov. 4, 1876. There was one ehild by this union, Liberty Dewart, born in Sunbury, on the site where she still resides. She married he is a Demoerat. in 1871, John O. Dugan and has three children, In 1883 Mr. Haupt married Matilda Neidig, Harry W., of Plymouth, Pa .; Fannie E., who daughter of Solomon and Maria (Conrad) Nei- married Claude E. Wilson, of Sunbury ; and Sal- dig, and five children were born to them: Stella lie, who married W. C. Forrester, of Upper Au- B., who was married in 1910 to Atwood Wetzel : Blanche M., wife of William E. Stranb ; and Don- ald D., Myrtle V. and Hatton H., at home. Mrs. Haupt died Oet. 3, 1903, aged forty-one years, twenty-five days, and is buried at Augustaville. gusta township. She is an active member of the Presbyterian Church. She was named Liberty after Miss Liberty Brady, who was born about the time the Liberty Bell proclaimed freedom to all the inhabitants of the United Colonies upon the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, and who was a sister of the six Brady brothers, noted Indian fighters and scouts of the Susquehanna valley, in Pennsylvania.

JOHN D. HAUPT, a prosperous farmer of Rockefeller township. was born there May 25, 1851, son of George G. Haupt, on the old home- stead of. his family. His grandfather lived in Cameron township. this eounty, where he fol- lowed farming, and he and his wife, whose maiden name was Gearhart, are buried in that township. He owned property. They were Intherans in re- ligious faith. Of their children, John. Jacob and Benjamin lived in Cameron township: George G. is mentioned below : Sarah married George Derk: Hettie married Gideon Derk, brother of George; there were other daughters whose names are not given.

George G. Haupt was born Sept. 12, 1810, in Cameron township, and learned the trade of shoe- maker, which he followed to some extent. but farming was his principal occupation through

CHARLES M. MARTIN, M. D., late of Sun- bury, was a physician and surgeon of high stand- ing in that borough, where he was successfully en- gaged in the general practice of his profession for over thirty years. A man of admirable per- sonal traits, publie-spirited. energetie, progress- ive in his special field of labor and in all that had to. do with the real good of his fellow men, he was a citizen to be esteemed and valued, and his memory will live long in the hearts of the many who knew and appreciated him. Dr. Martin be- longed to one of the oldest families of Sunbury, having been a grandson of George Martin, who came thither among the pioneers.

George Martin was active in the public affairs of Northumberland county in his day, serving as county prothenotary and for some years as jus- tiee of the peace. He is buried in the okl cem- etery at Sunbury. He and his wife Mary had children as follows: Rev. Jacob was the father of Dr. Martin ; George served for thirty-two years in the United States army, attaining the rank of captain, and was in the Indian Seminole irar.

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

through the Mexican war and in the Civil war in the locality of his birth. He had a very ex- (he lived retired in Philadelphia) ; William served tensive general practice, and attended faithfully through the Mexican war and in the Union army. to all its demands, in addition to which he served during the Civil war and attained the rank of for thirteen years as resident surgeon at Sun- major (he, too, lived retired in Philadelphia) ; bury for the Pennsylvania Railway Company, be- ing succeeded in that position, upon his death, Charles, who served in the Union army during the Civil war, died in Savannah, Ohio, where he by Dr. Drumheller, of Sunbury. He was ap- had made his home for a number of years; Henry, pointed a member of the board of pension exam- who was a resident of Sunbury, entered the Union iners, removed when the Democrats came into army during the Civil war and was killed at the power, in 1884, and reappointed in June, 1889. battle of the Wilderness; Luther, who lived in His standing in the profession was high, and he Elizabeth, N. J., where he was married, was also was honored with the vice-presidency of the Sun- a soldier during the Civil war and was killed at bury Medical Association. In spite of a busy the battle of Gettysburg; Betzv married a Mr. professional career he found time for local public Stroh and they lived at Selinsgrove, Pa. ; Cath- service, acting as member of the borough council arine (Kitty) married Peter Rhoads and they and for some years as a school director. He was lived near Pittsburg, Pa. : Mary; and two others. also known in social circles, and fraternally was All of this family were born and reared at Sun- bury.

a Knight Templar Mason. He was a Republican in politics and a Lutheran in religious connection.

Rev. Jacob Martin, son of George and Mary. In 1865 Dr. Martin married, at Westminster, Martin, was born in Sunbury Feb. 11, 1803, and Md., Sallie H. Shreeve, who died in 1872 at Ow- ing's Mills, Md. On Feb. 18, 1873, he married (second) Mary Alice Haas, daughter of John and Mary (Gheen ) Haas, late of Sunbury, and Mrs.

died there in 1872, after a service of fifty years in the ministry of the Lutheran Church. His first charge was in New York State, at Dans- ville. For some years he was at Westminster, Martin still occupies the large residence at No. and at Reisterstown, both in Maryland, each of his charges comprising four or five congrega-

141 Chestnut street which the Doctor erected in 1875. To the second union was born one son, tions. He was an able speaker, preaching both. William H., on December 28, 1873; he died Nov. English and German, and also a good singer, us- 13, 1902, while a student at the University of ually leading the church singing. He married Pennsylvania, and he and his father are buried in Abbie A. Stevenson, daughter of Henry Steven- Pomfret Manor cemetery, at Sunbury.

son, who came from Ireland, and she survived him but three months. They were the parents

WILLIAM W. RYON, of Shamokin, a legal of seven children, namely: Henry and George practitioner of over thirty years' standing in that died young, but five days apart: Mary E. died borough, was born April 29, 1857, at Lawrence- young; Margaret married D. Wilson Shryoeck. of ville, in Lawrence township, Tioga Co., Pa. His Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., Pa .: Charles M. parents were George L. and Hannah (Hammond) is mentioned below ; Harriet married James Lyon, Ryon, both descendants of prominent pioneer fam- and they live at Sunbury; Harry died at West- ilies of Pennsylvania, the mother a member of minster, Md., when eighteen years old.

the Connecticut Hammond family, which came

Charles M. Martin was born Jan. 15, 1840, to Pennsylvania in Provincial davs. Both of at Greencastle, Franklin Co., Pa. He received Mr. Ryon's great-grandfathers served in the Con- his academic training at Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa., and attended medical lectures

tinental forces during the Revolution, one at- taining the rank of colonel and commissary of at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, from subsistence in General Anthony Wayne's division. which institution he was graduated in March, Several of the name have attained distinction in 1863. The family was living at Westminster, high offices of public trust. Md., during that period. While in Baltimore John Rvon. Jr., grandfather of William W., was born in Luzerne county, and left the Wyo- ming Valley, where the family had then been set- tled for nearly a century, when about eighteen inond of the United States army, being assigned years of age. He removed to Elkland, Tioga he was a resident student at the hospital and after his graduation received the appointment of assistant surgeon from Surgeon General Ham- to hospital duty at Frederick, Md. He remained county, where he became a prominent citizen, tak- in the government service until the close of the ing a leading part in the public affairs of that sec-

war, after which he located for practice at Owing's tion, which he represented in the State Senate Mills, Baltimore Co., Md., remaining there until ( from the Tioga and Bradford districts) for he settled at Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa., eleven years, and while in the Senate introduced in the summer of 1872. From that time until a resolution favoring the nomination of Andrew his death, which occurred Dec. 26. 1892. Dr. Mar- Jackson for President, which was passed by both tin took high rank as a physician and surgeon houses. He was associate judge of Tioga county

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

for fifteen years. About eighty years ago he was man of strong character, of progressive disposition, located at Milton, Northumberland county, as of foresight, he combined the possession of all these superintendent of the Pennsylvania canal, and traits with sufficient enterprise to launch and car- his name, as such, was cut on a stone in the lock ry through the various undertakings he felt could at Shamokin dam, opposite Sunbury, under date of 1829.

George L. Ryon removed with his family from Elkland to Lawrenceville (both in Tioga county) about 1849. Their eldest son, George W. Ryon, of Shamokin, has been a resident of that borough for over forty years and long one of its leading citizens.

William W. Ryon grew to manhood in his na- tive township, and received his early education in the common schools of Tioga county. Later he attended the Mansfield ( Pa. ) State normal school, from which he graduated in June, 1874, and soon afterward entered the office of his brother George W. Ryon, of Shamokin, to take up the reading of law. After his admission to the bar of Northum- berland county, in March, 1878, he practiced for a short time, until he accepted an appointment as deputy sheriff under Sheriff William M. Weaver, with whom he served three years, continuing in the position for three months longer under Mr. Weaver's successor, John C. Morgan. Mr. Ryon then resumed the practice of his profession, was in time admitted to practice in the Supreme and the Superior courts and has continued his legal work successfully and profitably to the present day, though he is also interested in a number of the most important commercial and manufactur- ing enterprises of the borough. He was an orig- inal stockholder in the Shamokin Street Railway Company, was president of the Shamokin Valley Telephone Company, of which he was one of the organizers, until it was taken over by the United Telephone & Telegraphi Company; and a leading member of the Shamokin Board of Trade, hav- ing been connected with the organization from its inception. He is attorney for the First National Bank of Shamokin and for the Union, Home and Citizens' Building & Loan Associations,of which he was one of the original promoters.

Politically Mr. Ryon is a Democrat and active and influential in the party. He is a leading mem- ber of St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church of Shamokin.

IRA T. CLEMENT, late of Sunbury, was a leading citizen of that community to the close of his long life, which covered a period of over eighty- five years. In his day there was scarcely a more conspicuous figure in the development of the bor- ough and the surrounding territory, and his de- scendants are classed among the most valuable cit- izens there to-day. His interests as merchant and manufacturer not only brought to him means and influence, but were also the means of enhancing the industrial facilities of the entire region.

be successfully prosecuted in this section. His sons in time engaged in business with him, and in the activities of various members of the family the position of the Clements among the most prominent residents of this section has been well sustained.

Joseph Clement, the father of Ira T. Clement, died on Staten Island, New York. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In 1805. in Sus- sex county. N. J., he married Hannah Hazen, daughter of Samuel or Ezra Hazen, and to them were born three children : Augustus married Car- oline Lyons, and died in Sunbury ; Sarah was twice married, first to a Mr. Hazen and later to Dr. Woodbridge, and raised a large family (she died at Buchanan, Mich.) : Ira T. is mentioned below. After the death of Joseph Clement liis widow married Solomon Smith, of Amherst, Mass., and they. moved out to Ohio, where they settled and reared their family. Mr. Smith died there, and Mrs. Smith then came to Sunbury, Northumber- Jand Co., Pa., where she spent several years be- fore her death, which occurred June 25, 1868, in her eighty-fourth year. She was born April 12, 1785, in Woodbury, New Jersey.

Ira T. Clement was born Jan. 11, 1813, in New Jersey. He was a young child when he came with his mother to Northumberland county, and in fact was only five years old when his mother indentured him to Jacob Hoover, with whom he lived on what is now the Odd Fellows' Orphanage tarm. He learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed for a few years, but he soon embarked in the mer- cantile business on his own account in Sunbury, continuing in that line for thirty years. However, there were too many opportunities in this then opening region to permit him to devote all his en- ergies to one field of enterprise. He had a small tract of land and a sawmill near Arters station. a few miles east of Sunbury, and he worked in the woods during the day, getting out his logs, which he sawed into lumber at night. In 1847 he came to Sunbury, where in that year he built the first sawmill established in the place, at what was later the site of his table factory on Front street. having bought the land shortly after his arrival here. from Ebenezer Greenough. Besides conducting this place he engaged in the mercantile business. his first store in Sunbury being located on Mar- ket street. near Third street. He ran the sawmill until 1867, when he sold it to William Reagan, and it was subsequently owned successively by the Sunbury Lumber Company and the form of Fril- ing, Bowen & Engle. After they failed, in 1877, it was conducted in the interest of their creditors A until 1883, when Mr. Clement repurchased it.

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Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, Part 16

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co. Number of Pages: 1090

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co.
Number of Pages: 1090