Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 25

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co.
Number of Pages: 1024

USA > Pennsylvania > Northumberland County > Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 25

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Mr. Johnson is a stanch Republican, and he has been very active in work for his chosen party. In 1908 he was elected for a three-years' term in Pemberton Bird, eldest son of Sylvanus Bird, was born in Shamokin township in 1817, and died in 1894, at the age of seventy-seven. He received an elementary English education in his native the town council, and in 1909 was made presi- dent of same. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and is at the present time serving as steward. Fraternally he belongs to the I. O. O. place. and learned the trade of carpenter, which, F. and the B. P. O. E.

Mr. Johnson was married in 1907 to Kathar- ine Hobbs, daughter of H. Clay Hobbs, who now resides at Denton, Caroline Co., Md. Her grand- father, Saulsbury Hobbs, was a prominent man in his day, and his name was given to the town of Hobbs in Maryland.

WILLIAM BENSON BIRD, late of Shamo- kin, was a descendant of one of the oldest pioneer faniilies of Northumberland county and himself one of the best known citizens of the borough in which he made his home, having for twenty-six years held the responsible positions of assistant

Post, No. 140, of Shamokin. Mr. Bird was born in 1842 on Commerce street, Shamokin, son of Pemberton Bird, and was a member of the fourth generation of his family to reside in this county. The history of its early settlement here and sub- sequent activity in local affairs is an interesting record.

Sylvanus Bird, youngest son of James Bird, was born in 1796, and died in March, 1856. He was reared in Rush township, spending his early life on the farm, and learned the trade of car- penter, at which he was employed by his brother Ziba, who was superintendent for John C. Boyd, the founder of Shamokin. He located at Shamo- kin in 1838 and there made his home to the end of his days, building many of the early houses there. He was also well known as postmaster, serving as such from 1852 until his death, ex- cepting from January to December, 1855; he also

In 1816 Mr. Bird married Lena Tietsworth, daughter of Robert, and to them were born chil- dren as follows: Pemberton, Eliza, John W., William W., Joseph F., Angelina (widow of George W. Raver), Matilda ( wife of Peter Heim), Robert T., Josiah F. (of Shamokin) and Sarah J .. all now deceased.

however, he did not follow to any great extent. He was clerk for Boyd & Rosser eight years, for Joseph Bird ten years and for the Bird Coal & Iron Company, attaining high responsibility with the latter concern, of which he was president for six years, later serving as vice president. during his declining years. He was prominent in the local civil administration, serving as a member of the boroughi council, borough clerk and for a nun- ber of years as school director. Religious matters also claimed a large share of his time and atten- tion. He was one of the original members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Shamokin, in 1842 was ordained a local preacher, and in 1846 was

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appointed to the Elysburg circuit by the Baltimore spect for the departed. The crayon occupies a Conference of the M. E. Church, continuing in prominent position on the wall in the rear of the the active ministry eleven years, at various points. desk of the adjutant, which office Mr. Bird held In politics he was a Republican.

In 1838 Mr. Bird married Mary Arnold, daugh- Sammel Harper, Department of Pennsylvania, in ter of Jacob Arnold, of Snydertown, and five children were born to them : William Benson ; An- nie, 'widow of C. W. Young: Sylvanns, deceased ; Joseph F., of Colorado; and Charles, of Harris- burg.

William Benson Bird received his education in the schools of Shamokin. A youth of nineteen when the Civil war broke out, he enlisted in the him as one of the aides de camp of his personal Union army Aug. 13, 1861, under Capt. Cyrus Strouse, as a member of Company K, 46th Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the United States service Sept. 16, Mass., Milwaukee, Wis., and Erie, Pa. In all of 1861, at Harrisburg, for three years. He was these positions of high responsibility he did eredit to himself and to those who chose him. Mr. Bird was also a chief factor in the organization and mpbuilding of Lincoln Post Corporation, of Sha- mokin, which possesses one of the most valuable properties owned exclusively by G. A. R. men in honorably discharged from active service Sept. 13, 1864, at the expiration of his terin of enlistment. Company K. largely recruited from Shamokin and vicinity, took part in the following battles: Win- chester, Va. : Middleton, Va. : Winchester, Va. (second battle) ; Cedar Mountain, Va., Aug. 9, the State: He was also one of the active organiz- 1862; Sulphur Springs, Va., Aug. ??; Southi ers of the local branch of the Royal Arcanum,

Mountain, Md., Sept. 14; Antietam, Sept. 17; Chancellorsville, May 1, 2, 3, 1863: Gettysburg, July 1, 2, 3: Resaca, Ga., May 19. 1864; Dallas, Ga., May 25: Pine Knob, Ga., June 9; Culp's Farm, June 22; Peach Tree Creek, July 20; At- lanta, Sept. 6; Cypress, Ga., Dec. 8; Savannah, Dec. 21; Chesterfield, S. C., March 2. 1865 : Coon Run, N. C., April 10: Averysboro, N. C .. March 14; and Bentonville, N. C., March 19. Mr. Bird was wounded three times while in the service, having been shot through the arm and leg at Cedar Mountain, while his company was operating as part of the Army of Virginia. under General Pope, Banks Division. Company K went into this bat- tle with forty-eight men and came out with twen- tv-four, eleven being killed and thirteen wounded. The wounds received at Cedar Mountain disabled him for active service, and necessitated his con- finement in the Saint Jolin's College hospital. An- napolis, Md., for many montlis. Upon recovery he was commissioned to do secretary duty in the medical department of the hospital, which posi- tion he creditably filled to the end of the war.

serving that beneficial society as regent at the timne of his death.

Not long after his return to civil life, upon the close of the war, Mr. Bird became associated with the Pennsylvania Railway Company, continuing in its employ for a consecutive term of twenty- six years. marked for efficient service and intelli- gent discharge of his responsible duties. He nat- urally made many friends and acquaintances in this connection, and few men in Shamokin were more widely or favorably known. He died June 1. 1892, at the comparatively early age of forty- nine years. Mr. Bird was an attendant of the Methodist Church.

In 1871 Mr. Bird married Clara E. Jolin, who survives him. She is a member of the Lincoln Street Methodist Episcopal Church and has long taken an active part in church and Sunday school work. having served twenty-nine years as organist of the infant department of the Sunday school .. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bird : Cora Blanche, who lives at home; Samuel John, now employed as bookkeeper for the Shamokin Banking Company: William Carlton, deceased : and Rutherford Townsend, deceased. Samuel daughter of Luther S. and Alice ( Keefer) Cooper,

Mr. Bird's interest in military affairs remained with him to the close of his days. He was one of the organizers of Lincoln Post, No. 140, G. A. Jolin Bird in 190? was married to Rosella Cooper, R., of Shamokin, serving that organization several times as commander, his valued services as adjn- of Snydertown, Pa. To them have been born three children : John Cooper, and William and Robert, twins.

tant also being frequently sought by other com- manders. Ever one of the post's most useful and active members, his death cansed a gap in the ranks hard to fill. On Sept. 9, 1892. following his de- SAMUEL JOHN, father of Mrs. Clara E. (John) Bird, was a pioneer resident of Shamokin, where he lived from 1839 until his death. He was a mise, a handsomely framed erayon portrait of the deceased was presented to the post by his former comrades, an unusual mark of devotion and re- native of Shamokin (now Ralpho) township,

at the time of his death. Under Commander 1887, he was commissioned chief mustering officer of the State. With his fellow officers of the G. A. R. he was the special guest of the Philadelphia Union League, Oct. 18, 1887, on the occasion of the unveiling of the monument to General Meade. National Commander Russell A. Alger, of the Grand Army of the Republic, in 1890 selected staff. The Pennsylvania State encampment hon- ored him at different times as delegate to the na- tional encampments, at Columbus, Ohio, Boston,

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Northumberland county, born Feb. 27, 1807, sev- enth son of Abia and Martha John, who settled in this county in 1795, and passed his early youth on the homestead farm, continuing to reside there until his removal to Shamokin, in April, 1839. He followed farming. to which occupation he was trained from boyhood, operated the old forge be- low Shamokin. and also did surveying, convey- ancing, etc. When he settled in Shamokin he engaged in merchandising, in connection with which he had so many other interests that he was a very busy man. He operated what was then known as the Buck Ridge colliery, and conducted the Shamokin foundry, manufacturing plows, stoves, hollow ware, ete., an ambitious enterprise in that day. In 1844 he was appointed postmaster, holding that office two years. He assisted Kimber Cleaver in locating what was then known as the Eastern railroad, and was active in procuring the southern outlet to Baltimore, to transport the pro- ducts of the Shamokin coal field to the South by rail. In 1867 he was one of those who secured a charter for a railroad between Shamokin and Trevorton. Having leased the Green Ridge col- liery, which he called the Green Mountain colliery, he decided that the Western markets would be the best for the output and he accordingly assisted in procuring a charter for the Enterprise railroad. Both these roads are now owned and operated as parts of the Philadelphia & Reading system. His part in the development of the Shamokin coal field, and, in that connection, of the local trans- portation facilities, was an important one, and his interest in these lines was awakened early, for he was recognized as a leader in such operations as far back as 1832, in which year the Legislature appointed him one of the commissioners of the Danville & Pottsville railroad. Moreover, he was a director of the Shamokin Town Lot Association, which had for its object the promotion of manu- facturing industries. He continued his mercantile interests for a period of twenty-five years, having a general store in Shamokin for years, and op- erating stores at Mount Comfort and Mount Car- mel. Local banking interests also had him among

at one time as cashier of the Shamokin Bank and for years as a director of the Shamokin Bank- ing Company, the only bank in the borough which withstood the panie of 1877. He was the founder.

school system and served many years as a school director in Shamokin township. He was a member of the Shamokin Lyceum and took part in its (lisenssions.

In polities a Whig and later a Republican, Mr. John took little active part in political affairs and never sought office, bis appointments as postmaster and justice of the peace coming to him entirely unsolicited. He resigned both offices after cred- itable service. He was once a candidate for Con- gress in this distriet, but the nomination went to a resident of Schuylkill county. He did consid- erable toward establishing an almshouse in Coal township.

Though a busy man until he died, July 23, 1877, in his seventy-first year, Mr. John had robust health, which he attributed to his abstemious hab- its and regular life. He was a thorough business man, making the most of all his undertakings and expecting those with whom he had dealings to fill their contracts to the letter, but he was equally particular about discharging his own ob- ligations. Fraternally he was a Mason. He was of direct Quaker descent.

When twenty-six years old Mr. John married Angelina John, second daughter of Abraham and Mary John. of Catawissa township, Columbia county, of the same name, but not related. She survived him, dying Sept. 5, 1894. Five sons and five daughters were born to this marriage, namely: Laertes P., who is deceased; U. F., a lawyer of Shamokin, deceased; Kersey T, a mer- chant of Mount Carmel, deceased; J. M., de- ceased : Samuel L., deceased ; Vienna A .; Clara E .. widow of William B. Bird, of Shamokin ; Angelina R., deceased wife of William H. Shipe. of Minnesota: Mary A., who married William E. Raver, now deceased, and is now the wife of Charles A. Smith, of Shamokin; and Sarah L.

CHARLES A. HARTMAN, of Sunbury. furni- ture dealer, does a leading business in his line, having a trade which extends beyond the limits of the borough all over the territory of which that place is the center. He has lived in Sun- bury since 1895. and has been in business on his own account since 1904.

Mr. Hartman is a native of Snyder county and a member of a family of long standing there. their most prominent supporters, he having served . John Hartman, his great-grandfather, was born Ang. 13, 1482, and died July 31, 1834; he is buried in the private burial ground of the Hart- man family at Shamokin Dam, Snyder county.

John Hartman, son of John, was born at Sha- editor and proprietor of the Shamokin Register, mokin Dam, and followed farming throughout his active life. He married Mary Keefer, who died at the age of seventy-three years, Mr. Hartman reaching the age of. seventy-nine. They are in- terred in the Hartman cemetery at Shamokin Dam. Their children were : Samuel ; Marx; Theo-

the second newspaper published in the borough. In fact there were few phases of the life of the community, particularly those designed to benefit the general welfare, which did not elicit his sup- port and encouragement. . He took a deep inter- est in establishing and maintaining' the public dosia. who married Theodore IInminel: Mary, who married Philip Gibbons : and Newton E.

Newton E. Hartman, father of Charles A. Hart- man. was born April 16. 1849. During his aetive years he was engaged in farming and humbering

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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

at Mifflinburg, Union county, but for a number ship this region affords. He is a son of the late of years past he has been a resident of Shamokin Thomas Scott, than whom there was no more pro- Dam, of which plaee he is a well known eitizen. gressive resident of Mount Carmel in his day. He is a Republican, and for ten years held the office of supervisor of Monroe township, Snyder county. On July 4, 1871, he married Aliee Len- hart, daughter of John and Sarah (Sampsel) Len- hart and granddaughter of George Lenhart, and they have had two children, Charles A. and Em- ma, the latter the wife of Arthur IIeiser and living at Shamokin Dam. The Hartman family are Methodists in religious eonneetion.

Charles A. Hartman was born Oct. 5, 1877, in Monroe township (at Shamokin Dam), Snyder county, and received his early education in the publie schools of the neighborhood. Later he at- tended Susquehanna University, at Selinsgrove. He then began to learn the hardware business, at which he was employed for a year in Philadelphia, thenee coming to Sunbury, in 1895. For the next nine years he was in the employ of George W. Hackett, a leading hardware merchant of this place, remaining with him until he formed a part- nership with Mr. C. J. Ives, under the firm name of Ives & Hartman. On June 28, 1904, they opened a new furniture and undertaking estab-

Thomas Seott, son of John and Mary (Pat- ton) Seott, was born Feb. 24, 1836, in Northum- berlandshire, England, and was brought to Amer- ica by his parents the next year. In 1861 he, too, settled at Locust Gap, where he was engaged at the mines as outside superintendent of a breaker lishment in the two-story building at Nos. 421-423. for three years. He next engaged in the hotel Market street where Mr. Hartman is still loeated, putting in a fine stoek of furniture and house furnishings of all kinds, and all modern applianees - for the eonduet of an up-to-date undertaking de- partment. . They continued in partnership until January, 1910, when the association was dissolved by mutual agreement, Mr. Hartman buying his partner's interest in the furniture business. He has sinee added materially to his stoek, which in- cludes the finest furniture in the market, and eon- tinues to do a thriving business, his customers coming from a wide radius around Sunbury.

Though his business interests have always re- ceived the most eonseientious attention. Mr. Hart- man has found time for participation in loeal pub- lic affairs, was auditor of the borough two terms, and member of the couneil from the First ward three years. He has been an efficient worker in the Republiean organization for years, having been bor- ough chairman for two terms, and is prominently identified with the workings of the party in eity and county.

On June 8, 1898, Mr. Hartman married Ger- trude S. Savage, daughter of Martin L. and Mary (Batehler) Savage, of Northumberland. They have one daughter, Mary Helen.

In 1862 Mr. Seott married Sarah A. Gunsett, Mr. Hartman has been a member of Lodge No. daughter of Christian Gunsett, of Loeust Gap, 267, B. P. O. E., of Sunbury, sinee 1898, and also and they reared a family of seven children, name- belongs to the Conelave.

GEORGE W. SCOTT, of Mount Carmel, teller. George W .: Katie, and Sallie.

of the First National Bank of that plaee. member of the borough council, is a type of the best citizen- (Gunsett) Seott, was born Feb. 21. 1812. in

John and Mary (Fatton) Seott, grandparents of George W. Seott, eame to America from Eng- land in 1837. They first settled at Mine Hill Gap, Schuylkill Co., Pa., where Mr. Seott was engaged in mining for ten years. He then moved to what was then known as Payne's Pateh, where he sunk the second slope in the valley and remained for seven years, thenee moving to Plymouth, Luzerne Co., Pa. There he also spent seven years. as su- perintendent of mines, was located at Hazleton, saine eounty, for a short time, and in 1861 eame to Loeust Gap, Northumberland county, where he was superintendent of mines until his death, in 1869. His family consisted of five children, Thomas, Mary A. (Mrs. Henry Eckman), Eliza- beth (Mrs. George Roudenbush), George and James.

business there, continuing same until he sold out in June. 1867, at which time he settled down to farming in New Britain, Bucks Co., Pa. He was thus engaged eighteen months, in 1869 taking up his residence in Mount Carmel. For fifteen years he earried on a hotel business in the borough, in the spring of 1885 giving up that line to enter the wholesale liquor business, in which he was inter- ested the rest of his aetive life. In June, 1889, when the Progress Hat and Cap Manufacturing Company was established, he became president and treasurer, and he was also associated with other loeal enterprises, having been one of the prime movers in the organization of the Mount Carmel Water Company, of which he was a ehar- ter member, and which he served as superintend- ent from the beginning. He was a director of the Citizens' Building and Loan Association and a stoekholder in the Edison Electrie Illuminating Company. He proved himself a leader in all his undertakings. and he is remembered as one of the most useful eitizens the borough has known. Mr. Seott died Aug. 28, 1905. He was a mem- ber of the I. O. O. F., and a Republican in political convietion.

ly: Minnie: Osear J .. a furniture manufacturer and dealer of Mount Carmel; Frank: Alexander;

George W. Seott, son of Thomas and Sarah A.

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Mount Carmel, and there received his education in the public schools. He was employed as clerk and bookkeeper by Thomas M. Righter & Co. for several years before .assuming his present connee- tion, on April 13. 1896. He began as clerk at the bank, and in 1900 was made teller, which position he has since filled. He is a substantial and re- spected citizen. and has been serving in the bor- ough council for the past few years, having been elected to that body in 1908. In 1909 he was chosen president of the council, in which honorable position he sustained well the reputation his fam- ily has made for intelligent and efficient public service. In politics he is identified with the Re- publican party. Socially he is a well known Ma- son, being a member and past master of Mount Carmel Lodge, No. 378, F. & A. M .; member of Griscom Chapter, No. 219, R. A. M. ; of Prince of Peace Commandery, K. T., Ashland ; and of Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Reading. Ralpho township to him, this being the farm aft- erward occupied by his son George C., near the Blue church. Mr. Adams was a man of active mind, one who interested himself in the general welfare as well as in the promotion of his own interests, and he was one of the foremost men of his locality for many years, well known as a stancli Democrat and as one of the most liberal supporters of the Blue church, with which he was identified all his life; he served as elder of that church and was one of the most generous contributors toward the erection of the church edifice. He married Susanna Startzel (daughter of John), who was born March 14, 1800, and died Jan. 22. 1873: Mr. Adams died Jan. 28, 1882, and is buried at the Blue church. Their children were: Benjamin, who died in 1895, at the age of seventy-four years (his children were Edward, William F. and Lucin- da) : Daniel II .: Casper, deceased: George C .; David, born in 1830: Jacob, born in 1833, who On June 1, 1905, Mr. Scott niarried Mary M. Ferguson, daughter of Rev. W. G. Ferguson, a died in 1895; Samuel, deceased: William; Eliza- beth (deceased), who married William Smith : Su- Methodist minister, formerly of Harrisburg, Pa., sanna (deceased), who married William Klase ; who died at Milton, Pa. The family are mem- bers of the Episcopal Church. Polly, Mrs. Fry, deceased ; Angelina, who married William Smith (both were suffocated in a well in Cleveland township, Columbia Co., Pa.) ; and Harriet, deceased.

ADAMS. The ancestor of the Adams family, of Ralpho township, Northumberland county, was one of the earliest pioneers of that section. His descendants are still numerous there, among them being D. Alonzo and Allison C. Adams, brothers, and their consin, General G. Adams, who is pro- prietor of the "Elysburg Hotel." We give some account of the earlier generations in this country.

Casper Adams, their great-grandfather, was the first of the family in this country. He was born April 25, 1755, at Langendiebach, Offenburg, Germany. . Little is known of his early life. On coming to this country, he lived in Berks county, Pa., before coming to Northumberland county, where lic was one of the earliest pioneers in Ralpho township, owning s several hun- dred acres of land there. He cleared some of his land and followed farming. He died Jan. 26, 1832, and is buried at St. Peter's (the Blue) church in Ralpho township. Casper Adams married, in Berks county, Elizabeth Hinkle, of that county, and they had a large family, six sons and six daughters, namely: Frederick (1792-1853), John, Samuel, Casper, Leonard, Peter, Nellie, (married George Startzel), Susanna (married Samuel Startzel), Elizabeth (married Gilbert Liby), Polly (married Peter Stransser), Maria (married Jacob Kreher) and Catharine (married Samuel Anspach).

Casper Adams, fourth son of Casper and Eliza- beth (Hinkle) Adams, was born April 10, 1796. on the homestead farm in Ralpho township, and was there reared to farm life. When he became of age his father deeded 100 acres of land in

Daniel H. Adams, son of Casper and Susanna (Startzel) Adams, was born in 1822 on the old homestead near Elvsburg, in Ralpho township. He followed farming all his life, owning a tract of about fifty acres near the Blue church. and in connection with his agricultural work engaged in lime burning. . He died June 20, 1892. Mr. Adams married Sarah A. Pensyl, who was born in 1829, daughter of Leonard Pensyl, and died Jan. 4, 1908. They are buried at the Blue church. Twelve children were born to their union, viz. : Francis is a resident of Shamokin: John is de- ccased : Henry N. lives near Bear Gap. in Colum- bia county, Pa. : D. Alonzo is mentioned below : Leonard M. is a resident of Shamokin : Nathan G. is located at Paxinos : Allison C. is mentioned be- low; Marietta (deceased) was the wife of Frank Erdman, commissioner of Northumberland county ; Emma married George Erdman : Elizabeth mar- ried Philip Richard and they live at Elvsburg, Northumberland county: Lydia married Thomas Boughner, of Ralpho : Casper died young.

D. ALONZO ADAMIS. a respected resident of Ral- pho township, engaged in farming on the old home- stead, at the Blue church, was born there Oct. 2. 1854. He received his early training in the local schools, later attending Elysburg Academy, and for a short time was engaged in teaching school. having Kaseman's school for two terms and Mount I'nion school, in Ralpho township, one term. For eighteen years thereafter he was an employee of the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Companies, at the end of that period

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Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 25

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co. Number of Pages: 1024

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co.
Number of Pages: 1024