Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, Part 76

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 76

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Henry M. Emerick, son of Elias. was born in 1854 in Lower Augusta township, and received his early education in the public schools near his bov- hood home. Later he attended Susquehanna Uni- versity, at Selinsgrove, and there also he began reading medicine, under the well known Dr. J. W. Sheets, who was then located at Selinsgrove.

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Entering the College of Physicians and Surgeons Northumberland county, seven miles from Sha- at Baltimore, Md., he graduated in 1880, since mokin. His ancestors were among the pioneers which time he has been in continuous practice. of the county, where the family has been settled He made his first location after graduating at tor a hundred and fifty years. His grandparents Pottsgrove, Pa., where he remained twelve years, were Samuel and Isabella ( Moore) Sober. in 1892 removing to Milton, which has since been

Isaac Sober, father of Coleman K. Sober, was his home and field of practice. Dr. Emerick has a native and lifelong resident of Northumberland won the confidence of his fellow citizens as much

county, where he was a wealthy and influential by his personal merits as by his medical skill, and agriculturist. He was born Feb. 23, 1814, and his standing among his fellow practitioners is equally high. He holds membership in the Lycon- ing County Medical Society, the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His time has naturally been almost entirely ab- sorbed by his professional duties, but he has served as school director at Milton, his interest in the cause of education and his high standards making hint a valuable member of the board. In politics he is a Republican. died June 12, 1882. His wife, Mary (Krigh- baum), daughter of George and Barbara (Reed) Krighbaum, was also of Northumberland county birth, and ten children were born to their union, namely: Freeman W., who was a farmer in Vir- ginia, where he died; Harriet, wife of Samuel Swinehart, of Northumberland county, Pa .; Cole- man K .; Clinton D., a farmer and dairyman of Northumberland county (he is a great shot with . the gun) ; Isabella, widow of F. W. Gilder, who

Dr. Emerick married Feb. 23. 1882, Anna M. died in Philadelphia, Pa. : Barbara Ann, widow Voris, daughter of Gilbert and Harriet (McWil- of Mahlon C. Moyer, who died in Shamokin; liams) Voris, and granddaughter of John Voris. . They have one daughter, Harriet A., who gradu- ated from Bucknell Seminary in 1903, and sub- sequently attended Lasell Seminary, at Auburn- dale, Massachusetts.

COLEMAN K. SOBER, of Lewisburg, Pa., is as much a citizen of Northumberland county as he is of the former place. He belongs to a fam- ily which has been settled in this county. for a hundred and fifty years, since pioneer times; he himself is a native of the county, and the care

Amanda, deceased, who was the wife of George Startzel, of Shamokin; Adeline, deceased, wite of A. J. Campbell : Martin Luther ( another phe- nomenal shot in the family, and in whom Mr. So- ber says he finds the nearest approach to a rival in game shooting) ; and Clara, wife of ex-County Treasurer D. S. Hollibaugh, M. D., a prominent - physician of Shamokin.

Mrs. Sober was not only an excellent rifle shot, but also an expert mechanic. She was the only child of a famous gunmaker of the Susquehanna Valley in his dav-the latter part of the eight- of the extensive landed interests he retains here eenth and the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury-and many a time in her girlhood she assisted her father in his shop. Her skill in shooting was acquired in testing the guns turned out in the shop, and so adept was she that with her own hands she manufactured a gun that became the property of her future husband.

has kept him in touch with the affairs of the lo- cality, where his value to the community is uni- versally recognized. Mr. Sober has been a suc- cessful man from the worldly standpoint. His profitable operations in lumber, covering many years of an unusually energetic career, would alone entitle him to that distinction. But he has led a life useful to others as well as to himself. His active intellect has enabled him to discover more than mere business opportunities in the pur- suit of his various ventures; and his inquiring mind has led him into investigations which have yielded much of real utility and added definitely to the sum total of serviceable knowledge. In practical illustration of this tendency of Mr. So- ber's may be mentioned his chief interest in Northumberland county, the extensive chestnut groves on the mountainsides that inclose the beau- tiful Irish Valley, the outgrowth of an experi- ment which has attracted attention all over the country. It is the only commercial chestnut grove in a sufficiently advanced stage of develop- board rafts during the day.

Coleman K. Sober remained at home up to the age of eighteen, his summers being spent in farm work, and his winters in study at the neighbor- ing schools. So well did he improve these edu; cational opportunities that he prepared himself for teaching, and on leaving home in 1860 he en- gaged in that profession with such success that he continued it for eighteen terms with increasing reputation. His vacations were spent in study at higher schools, or in various occupations, such as pumping oil in the oil regions of the State, working in a sawmill, in blast furnaces, or in the rolling mills at Danville, Pa. His industry knew no bounds, and when he had a "night turn" he would take contracts to unload coal boats or draw

Among the higher schools he attended was the Danville Academy. In 1854. at the close of his

Mr. Sober is a native of this region, born Nov. term there. he found himself obliged to look 24, 1842, at the old homestead of his parents in around for work of some kind, his circumstances.

- ment to permit an estimate to be formed of the possibilities of such an enterprise.

----

Coleman R. Sober - 1.1998

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financially, uot being the best, and he was too after but five attempts he presented in the aston- proud to accept any assistance from his father. ished blacksmith a perfect nait ready for use. It so happened that one of his schoolmates, a lad by the name of C: R. Savidge (now judge of Northumberland county), having exhausted all his means, was obliged to seek some kind of employ- ment before the term of school canie to a close, and procured work at corn husking for a farmer named William Fox. Through this old school "chum" young Sober, now twenty-two years old, and of slight build, made application to William Fox for similar work. The latter, however, hav- ing "sized up" the youthful applicant, remarked that he was too light for such a task, and that his earnings thereat would be very meagre (the corn shocks were cut 7x9, or sixty-three hills). Nev- ertheless, the lad's application being favorably re- ceived, he began work on the following morning, at five cents a shock, and when night caine it was found that he had husked no less than eighty-six shocks. Mr. Fox having left the farm for a few days, a report was made to Mrs. Fox by some of the hands of the rapid work done by the new man, whereupon she immediately sent for Mr. Sober and informed him that he was discharged

for the reason that he "would break her husband up!"; his commissions amounted to $4.30 for this day's work. He thereupon demanded settlement and his pay ; but Mrs. Fox being unprovided with necessary funds, young Sober was permitted to remain at work until her husband's return. On the latter's arrival home, and on his learning of this phenomenal record in husking, he at once set about to investigate whether or not the work was well done. In his examination he failed to find a single stalk with an ear remaining unhusked. All this might be counted a mystery were it not explained away by the fact that Mr. Sober ac- complished with two motions what others required four to .do.

Another anecdote, bearing on Mr. Sober's in- nate skill and natural adaptability to existing cir- cumstances, is recorded of him in quite a different trend. "The hammer in the hand above all the arts doth stand" is a well known adage, and Mr. Sober's present expertness with the anvil is bet- ter known than is his boyhood experience with one, as here related. When he was a sixteen-vear- old lad he had a long distance to tramp to school, and about midway between his home and the schoolhouse was a blacksmith shop or "smithy," where on cold davs he would stop to warm hin- self and watch the smith forging horseshoe nails. etc. One day young Sober asked permission of this son of Vulcan to make a horseshoe nail. whereupon the latter laughingly asked the lad if he was aware that to learn to do such a job prop- erly required usually a full year's apprenti. eship. Nevertheless, the undaunted stripling insisted np- on being allowed to try his hand. at least. and 22

In 1880 Mr. Sober becanie employed by the day by Beecher & Zimmerman, lumbermen, who, quickly realizing his ability, at the end of the month offered to receive him into the firm. He accordingly purchased a one-third interest, and at the death of Mr. Zimmerman, a year or two later, he bought half of the deceased's interest, thus becoming half owner of the entire business. The firm, the Glen Union Lumber Company, which is one of the largest lumber concerns in the State, its offices and freight depot being situated at Glen Union, in Clinton county, now owns over 45,000 acres of the best timberland in the State of Pennsylvania, employment being given to a small army of one hundred men. The sawmills turn out each month one and a half million feet of sawed lumber, and at least 125 carloads of prop timber per month. In this connection it might not be out of place to cite an illustration of Mr. Sober's business acumen and foresight. His first purchase of prop timber was 1,100 acres bought "on the stump," and by the ton. at fifty cents per ton, and he immediately arranged for its transportation by rail, securing a reduction of fifty cents per ton (just the sum the timber cost him) from the regular rate; thus his pur- clase in reality cost him nothing. while at the same time he was the first in the United States to buy, sell and transport timber by the pound.

Mr. Sober became the head and front of this con- cern, everything being under his supervision, he giving his attention mainly to the field work of the company, his special province being the exam- ination of timberland and the direction of opera- tions in the woods. Independent of the Glen Union plant, he conducts an extensive personal business ; his shipments for the fourteen years be- ginning Jan. 1, 1897, to Jan. 1, 1911. being 18,- 140 carloads, or an average of 1.295 carloads per vear, of prop timber, pulpwood. lumber and hay. His adininistrative and executive ability is well exemplified in the generalship he displays in hand- ling and controlling his many employees, some- thing that in the lumber woods requires no little tact and discretion. He is a master of every de- tail of his business, and has never had a mechanic in his employ to whom he could not teach some- thing, while he often finds points in the machinery of his plant upon which, perfect though it may seem, he could suggest some improvement. This comprehensive grasp of detail is characteristic of the man : and it is also said of him that wherever and whenever he sees an effect he is sure to find the cause-that is, in anything that may interest him. He is so thorough a business man, and so prominent as a citizen, that it would be injustice to him to give undue prominence even to his mar- velous feats with the shotgun, which will be fully

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spoken of farther on. He has made his own way using neither tobacco nor liquor in any shape. In in the world with clear-eyed singleness of purpose his political predilections he had always been a Democrat until the campaign of Gov. D. H. Hast- ings (now deceased), and since that time has been a stanch. Republican ; but he has never tonnd time to seek official preferment or recognition, save being met promptly and fully. While he would . that in May, 1884, he was commissioned by Post- which reminds one of his unerring aim at a tar- get. In all his enterprises, great and small, he is precise and painstaking, and the strictest integ- rity marks his business dealings, every obligation not take an unfair advantage of an opponent in master Walter Q. Gresham postmaster at Sober (Center county), which office was named in his honor, and of which he was first postmaster. He also was postmaster at Glen Union. Clinton coun- ty, from 1892 to 1897. In 1870 he was appointed by Gov. John W. Geary coal and iron policeman for the State of Pennsylvania, he being one of a shooting contest or an athletic game, and would not accept a penny that he did not consider his due, neither would he smother his sense of right and yield tamely to an infringement upon his own just clains. Thoroughness in everything is one of his strong points, and he will never allow him- self to be excelled in any respect, if earnest, per- the six first commissioned in Pennsylvania, and sistent thought and labor will win.

Mr. Sober is not only a marvel of ambidexter- ity with the shotgun, as the reader will presently discover, and an expert in work on the anvil, as above recorded, but he is also highly skilled in taxidermy, an art that cannot be learned in a day, yet one that came to him naturally and with- . out any instruction. Some fine specimens of his skill in mounting birds, etc., including an eagle shot by N. B. Grugan, of Glen Union, and which measured seven feet from tip to tip of wings ( pre- pared for Dr. B. H. Warren, the State zoologist), were exhibited at the World's Fair held in Chi- cago· in 1893, and attracted much attention, win- ning many encomiums : while among other speci- niens he has in his possession some five deer heads, taken from noble animals of his own slaying, and mounted by himself. On his fifty-eighth birthday Mr. Sober shot a pheasant on wing, with a weasel attached to its neck taking its life blood, and he has saine mounted : it is a question if this is not the only specinien of its kind in the world.

Then, also, as an engraver on gold and other metals, he excels, in this respect being not one whit behind professionals, though he never re- ceived instruction in the art, his designing and 'engraving of horses, dogs, violins, locomotives, on a ten-cent piece, etc. (from tools of his own mak- ing), being surprisingly clever.

Socially Mr. Sober is looked upon as a prince among men, exceedingly pleasant and affable, and he is a perfect gentleman, hospitable and liberal- " in short, "a royal good fellow," as he is called by his closest acquaintances : and he always carries under his vest a big heart. He is a man of fine. physical proportions, active, strong and quick, in height about five feet. ten inches, and weighing some 175 pounds; his complexion is somewhat sandy, much tanned by his outdoor life. Pos- sessed of the bright blue eyes of a sure shot, he is in fact what might be expected in the makeup of a sportsman: and although in age he is now · nearing the three score and ten mark, he only shows a better developed maturity of vigorous manhood. In his habits he is very abstemions,

clothed with all the authority of the city police. In 1878 he was appointed mercantile appraiser of Northumberland county, Pa., being chosen from among twelve applicants. He long ago received his first appointment as State game connnissioner, and was reappointed in 1892. On Nov. 17, 1896, he was again appointed, by Gov. D. H. Hastings, and he has held the office continuously to the present, by successive reappointments. This is not a salaried position, but its duties, the propa- gation and conservation of game, are so thorough- ly to Mr. Sober's liking and in accord with his principles that he takes pride and pleasure in their performance.

In 1864 Mr. Sober was united in marriage with Bernetta Anderson, of Northumberland county, a daughter of Jacob and Phebe Anderson. She died Jan. 4, 1906, and is buried at Lewisburg, Pa. Four children blessed their union, two of whom are deceased. (1) Mary B. has been twice mar- ried, first to Harry Grove, by whom she had one child, Helen Mary. After Mr. Grove's decease she married, Oct. 14, 1896, Martin H. Lesher. of Shamokin Dam, Pa., and they have five children. Bernetta Edna, Isabelle M., Martha S., Coleman K. and Thornton S. Mrs. Lesher is skilled in oil, pastel and crayon work, and excels in free- hand drawing. (2) Oswell Coleman and (3) Hudson Atwood both died young. (4) Waldron Bland married R. Elizabeth Bright, daughter of William H. Bright, and they have four children, Bernetta E., Mary B., Coleman K., Jr., and Wil- liam Bright; the last named, born Sept. 6, 1908, celebrates the anniversary of his birth on the same date as his father and his grandfather Bright. While still a youth W. Bland Sober ac- quired marvelous skill as a trapshot, and as a sportsman few of the old hunters can "bag more game" in a day than he.

On Dec. 27, 1906, Mr. Sober married (second) Hannalı Alvirda Cummings, daughter of James and Mary Rebecca (Stover) Cummings.

Mr. C. K. Sober maintains his residence at Lewisburg. Union Co., Pa., where he has a pleas- ant home, whose perfect appointments show his

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attention to detail. Every part of the premises ing was begun early in the spring, and Mr. Sober,, gives evidence of his careful management, and with the assistance of a farm hand or two, looked his stables, in which he keeps some fine horses, after all the work himself the first year. From some of them being fast trotters, are sufficiently this modest beginning has been developed an in- neat and comfortable for the habitation of human beings. He has a beautiful summer home on the large estate in Irish Valley upon which his won- derful chestnut groves are located.

The story of Mr. Sober's interest in chest- nut growing begins in his boyhood. Brought up on a farm, he was but twelve years old when he persuaded his father, who was grafting fruit trees, to let him graft small chestnut trees. His father treated the matter as a joke, but the boy clung to it, and though it was not until forty-two years later that he put his ideas to practical test he nev- er lost faith in them. Nor were his theories vain. The result of his experiments, the Sober Paragon chestnut, has attained sneh a degree of perfection that it is in demand everywhere that chestnuts find a market. and thousands of scions and trees trom Mr. Sober's trees and nursery stock are sokl vearly. Their pedigree is of interest as showing the beginnings of an industry that has already attained notable proportions, and that promises to be more generally engaged in as its advantages become known. Almost thirty years ago Mr. W. L. Shaffer, of Germantown, near Philadelphia, discovered a tree growing in his lot from an un- known source-it may have been from a foreign

dustry which requires a considerable working force and promises to make the land as profitable as it would be under ordinary agricultural condi- tions. The principal grove stretches along the bordering mountainside for over a mile on one side of the mountain, and comprises about 300 acres, the southern part of the farm. The hill- side to the north is crowned with a 100-acre grove. Then there are three hundred thousand Sober Para- gon Registered seedlings and grafted trees, from one to three years old, grown from the Sober Para- gon nut ingrafted with the scions from the true Sober Paragon tree in bearing. Over two hundred bushels of Sober Paragon chestnuts were planted in the spring of 1911, thus adding more than a quarter of a million seedlings, which will be graft- ed at two years onto young chestnut seedlings growing on what would be waste land. The pro- cess of establishing a grove by planting nuts would be too slow, hence Mr. Sober has adopted this method of gaining time in the production of val- uable trecs.

In this country the popularity of the chestnut as a food is still in its initial stages. However, it is gaining recognition daily, so much so that arboriculturists are interesting themselves in its nut, which produced the Paragon chestnuts, culture, with the view of presenting its attractions about five times the size of the average American

to owners of available land. The fact that chest- chestnut. - Crisp and sweet, it differed from the nut trees may be cultivated successfully on land Italian chestnut, which is either coarse and taste- valueless for other purposes will undoubtedly in- fluence many to attempt their cultivation. The interest has become so widespread that the na- tional government through the United States De- partment of Agriculture, and the State govern- ment through the Department of Forestry, and Chestnut Tree Blight Commission, have seen fit to investigate his experiments and results thor- oughly. Commission President Winthrop Sar- gent. of Philadelphia: Commission Secretary Harold Pierce, also of Philadelphia, of the Chest- less or possesses an unpleasant acorn flavor. The first scions used in grafting the Sober trees were of Paragon trees obtained from W. H. Engle, of Marietta, Pa. In the Irish Valley, six miles from Paxinos, and seven miles west of Shamokin, Mr. Sober has a property comprising about eight hun- dred acres. It is a beautiful and fertile depres- sion, walled in on the cast and west by parallel spurs of the Alleghenies, whose sloping, rocky sides were originally covered with oak, sap pine

and chestnut timber. About half of this is now , nut Tree Blight Commission : Hon. I. C. Williams, under chestnut cultivation. The pine and oak deputy State forestry commissioner: S. B. Det- wiler, executive officer of the Chestnut Tree Blight Commission : Dr. J. W. Harshberger, professor of botany of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Haven Metcalf and Professor Collins, of the Unit- ed States Department of Agriculture, visited the farms and chestnut groves Sept. 2. 1911. Mr. C. A. Reed, special agent of United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, visited the farms and cliest- nut groves on Sept. 8, 1911.

were cut down years ago, and subsequently some of the chestnut was marketed. A second growth of chestnut later sprang up. Such were the con- ditions on about. half of Mr. Sober's large estate. Ordinarily this would be waste mountain land, soil that could not be utilized profitably even as sheep pasture. In the fall of 1896 he cut down the standing trees on the land where his first at- tempts at chestnut culture were to be made. By spring young shoots had - appeared around the Not long after commencing this work Mr. So- ber realized that a nursery branch of his busi- stumps of the fallen trees. These shoots were grafted with the scions of the Sober Paragon nut, ness would be almost a necessity if others were to before mentioned, which had been cut in February profit by his experiences, and the demand for nuts and laid away in sand until needed. The graft-

and young trees has far exceeded the supply. Rows

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of young trees have been grafted to the Sober termined to give the whip graft a thorough trial, Paragon nut, and heavy shipments are made each and the process has been so improved that 90 per cent of the grafts are now suecessful.

season. At first the orders were mainly from the New England States, but now they come from all parts of this country and even from Europe. In 1908 a solid earload of the Sober Paragon nut went to Seattle, Wash. In the summer of 1910 a Seattle man who had an ambition to enter the business on a large scale offered to buy Mr. So- ber's entire yield for that year. Several carloads of young trees are sold every spring. In 1910 Mr. Sober shipped and sold to one concern, Glen Brothers, of Rochester, N. Y., seven carloads of bearing trees, and in addition to this shipment sold to varions other concerns over five thousand grafted trees (nursery stock, two and a half to three feet high). In 1911 he shipped to Glen Brothers two earloads (one shipment) of bearing trees, eight to twelve feet in height, and in addi- tion to the same concern at various times over ten thousand trees.

Mr. Sober has devised an insect trap for night use that does notable work. He has made a elose study of the various insects that blight or destroy chestnut trees, and has originated ways of exter- ininating them or protecting the trees against their ravages. He himself keeps a large flock of gamme chickens which he allows to run about in the groves to help make away with insect pests. and sheep are turned to pasture in the groves to keep the grass and undergrowth cropped elose. The groves are protected against fire on two sides by fire roads -- wide avenues denuded of timber and then burned over. Brush and debris of all kinds are gathered and burned to prevent aeeumulation of any waste matter that might endanger the trees in case of fire; and the employees on the property are fully instructed as to their duties. It is not always smooth sailing. In 1906 the erop was al- most ruined by locusts, but one of the results of the calamity was that Mr. Sober applied him- self more earnestly than ever to the study of this and other pests, their habits, etc., until his in- vestigations covered the field thoroughly and yield- ed valuable information. There are other' ene- mies of the ehestnut, thieves for instance, which have to be guarded against, but with all these drawbacks the venture has paid and the profits are inereasing steadily.

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Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, Part 76

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