Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 30

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 30

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began his career at Herndon in the most modest way, commencing housekeeping in a one-room house 16 by 16 feet in dimensions, and advancing his fortunes by diligenee and commendable thrift. He was married Oet. 24, 1860, to Eve Vanaman, daughter of George and Annie (Comfort) Vana- man, formerly of Lancaster county, Pa., later of Jersey Shore, Lycoming county, and finally of Re-

SPENCER H. DREHER, of Shamokin, who ward, Perry county, where Mr. Vanaman lived for is interested in the coal business but not as a local fifty-four years in one house, dying Dee. 3, 1899, at the age of eighty-three years ; he is buried near

operator, was born in that borough Sept. 8, 1858, and eomes of a family of German origin which that place, as is also his wife. Mr. Vanaman was founded in Pennsylvania during the early days. His paternal great-grandfather lived in

was a molder by oceupation. His father, Jacob Vanaman, was a native of Laneaster county, and both Schuylkill and Northumberland counties, moved to Jersey Shore on a canal boat, living and died in Sunbury, in Northumberland. county ; there the rest of his life; he followed the trade he is buried at the Stone church. His family eon- of moller. Three of George Vanaman's sons sisted of ten children, viz .: John, who is men- served in the Civil war, Thomas, George and tioned below ; Samuel and Joseph, who died in the David, one in the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

West; Isaae, who died in Shamokin township; Sophia, who married George Falek; Sallie, Mrs.

To Mr. and Mrs. Sipe were born children as follows: George died aged eighteen months, Fasold ; Tyson : Susan, Mrs. Renn ; Rachel, Mrs. four days; Annie E. died in . infancy; Ma- Kramer: Polly, Mrs. Joseph Shipman.

mie died in infancy; Bessie V. married C. M. Troutman and they live on Mr. Sipe's farm in Jackson township: Harry C., born April 1, 188?, at Herndon, was educated in the public schools and at Central Pennsylvania College, which he at- tended for four terms, afterward learning the trade of tailor under his father, with whom he is now in partnership (he is a member of Lodge No. 267, P. B. O. Elks, Sunbury ; of Polaris Lodge, No. John Dreher was born in 1801 in Schuylkill county, and while a resident of that county fol- lowed farmning and was engaged on the old canal- boats. In 1855 he moved to Mount Carmel, Northi. umberland county, where he was employed at the eollieries, and there he died in 1873. His wife, Sarah ( Kreiger), daughter of Christian Kreiger, died in 1868, and both are buried in the Mount Carmel cemetery. Their children were as follows : 765, I. O. O. F .: General Siekles Camp, No. Mary A. married Fred Fahrian and died in Mis- 57; and John B. Packer Council, No. 154, Jr. O. souri: Jacob is mentioned below: Andrew J. was U. A. M .; he married Feb. 23, 1904, Jennie A. killed by the Molly Maguires, it is supposed. he having disappeared from Mount Carmel and never High, daughter of W. H. High, and they have had three children. Carrie V., Mildred M., and one been heard from afterward : Edward died in Mount that died in infancy ) : Jennie A. married Harry Carmel : Daniel died in the West; John died near

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Richmond, Va., while serving in the Civil war; 1893 he moved to Carlisle, Pa., where he made Sarah J. married John Roup and is living in his home to the end of his days. He died while Mount Carmel; Aaron is a resident of Mount Carmel; Eliza married Williani Stillwagner and is living in St. Lonis; Eli lives at Mount Carmel. making a trip to his West Virginia mines, in 1896. His wife, Mary ( Mathews), died in 1910, and they are buried at Carlisle. The following children survive them: Catherine, William, George, Hannah ( Mrs. Dreher), Ehner, Sallie,

Jacob Dreher, son of John, was born Mareh 12, 1830. at Plum creek, near Stonington, North- umberland county, in Shamokin township. He Walter and Albert.

was well educated, and followed teaching during his earlier manhood, being thus engaged for a

THOMAS M. LAWLER, late of Sunbury, was - period of twelve years, in Shamokin and Mount filling the office of prothonotary of Northumber- Carmel. Later he became inside foreman at the land county at the time of his death, June 5, 1907. He was one of the most popular men in that com- munity, a typical representative of his race, genial, soeiable, friendly, known to many and liked by all who met him.

Gap eolliery (where David Llewellyn was then outside foreman) and was employed there for sev- eral years. He died Oct. S, 1865, at his home in the Irish Valley, in Shamokin township, and was buried at the Sunmit ehureh in that township. An intelligent, industrious, Christian citizen, he was a leader in his community and thoroughly respected for his upright life. He married Eliza- beth Sober, daughter of Michael M. Sober, and she survived him, after his death marrying Lewis Chamberlin, of Shamokin township. She passed away April 8, 1905, at the age of seventy-one years, and is also buried at the Summit ehureh. To Jacob and Elizabeth (Sober) Dreher were born the following named children : Mary F., wife of Lemuel Tharp : Harris M., who is living in Sham- okin township : Spencer H. ; William H., of Sham- okin township: Clara, wife of O. C. Wilson, of Philadelphia; and Jacob G., a teacher, of Sham- okin township.

Spencer H. Dreher attended sehool in Shamokin township and was reared upon a farm. When he started work on his own aecount he followed farm- ing in that township and also engaged to some ex- · tent in the dairy business, owning a fine tract of 100 acres in the neighborhood of the Summit church, upon which property he erected a fine residence in 1898. In time he sold this farm to Mr. Yordy, the present owner, and on Oct. 22, 1908, he settled in Shamokin, where he has es- tablished his home. Since 1894 he has been in- terested in the coal business, as part owner of three collieries in Quinnimont, W. Va., all of which are in a thriving condition, yielding an abundance of soft coal for which a ready market is found.

Mr. Dreher married Hannah Lawton, and they have one son, Charles Edgar, who is a member of the elass of 1912 at Bucknell University, at Lewis- burg, Pa. Mr. Dreher is a Republican in politics and in religion a member of the M. E. Church.

JOSEPH LAWTON. father of Mrs. Hannah (Law- ton) Drelier, was born in England and came to Ameriea when a young man, and lived for a time in the Irish Valley in Northumberland eounty. He became interested in the eoal business in West Virginia and met with success in that line. In

Mr. Lawler was born Nov. 30, 1856, in County Wicklow, Ireland, son of William Lawler, a na- tive of the same country, who came to Ameriea with his family in the year 1862. Thomas M. Lawler was ten years old when brought to America by his parents, the family settling in Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa., where the boy attended public school. When twelve years old he started to learn the printing trade in the office of the Sun- bury American, at that time owned and edited by Emanuel Wilvert, and he completed a five years' apprenticeship with the Northumberland County Democrat and Sunbury Daily in 1875. The next two years he spent in Pittsburg, returning to Sunbury to become foreman in the establishment of the Democrat and Daily, which he held for over ten years, until March, 1888. For the following years, until October, 1898, he was in the Gov- ernment printing offiee at Washington, D. C., after which lie was engaged on the Washington Post. having charge of the mechanical work on the advertisements. In September, 1894, during Cleveland's second administration, he was appoint- ed foreman of the night bill force in the printing office. He received the appointment on recognized merit and ability, and held it until the administra- tion changed. Though he had done well at the printing business, Mr. Lawler upon his return to Sunbury did not return to that occupation, but entered into the restaurant business on Market Square, the Park Restaurant being one of the most popular places of the kind in Sunbury. Mr. Law- ler was "Tom" to the many who knew and loved him, and his wide circle of acquaintances extended beyond the limits of Northumberland into neigh- boring eounties. His personality will not be readi- ly forgotten. The Sunbury Daily Item of June 5, 1907. said : "He was a man whom you liked to meet : he put sunshine into the day by his kindly greeting and enjoyed a bit of pleasantry that eased many a heart with his ready wit and humor." His genial disposition. thoughtfulness, fidelity to his friends, sincerity and naturalness won him a last-

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ing place in the hearts of all with whom he came in contact.

Mr. Lawler was a stanch Demoerat and always active in politics, and on June 12, 1905, he was nominated for the office of prothonotary, to which he was elected the following November. At the time of his death he had served seventeen months of his termu of three years. He filled the office with credit to himself and to his constituents, though for some time he suffered so with rheuma- tism that he was unable to attend to its duties personally. However. he recovered sufficiently sev- eral months before his death to return to its ac- tivities, and although he was far from being a well man he kept up so well that his friends were hopeful his recovery would be complete. But he succumbed to a sudden relapse and grew rapidly worse until his death. The Evening Standard of Milton, this county, in an editorial written by one of Mr. Lawler's friends, said :

"Few people perhaps, either in public or private life, in eentral Pennsylvania, were more generally known or more universally beloved. In many 'respects he was a most remarkable man. Of com- - manding presence and genial disposition, he quick- ly enlisted the lasting good will of all with whom he came in contact. Endowed with a high order of natural intelligence, his aequired information, coupled with that unfailing fund of humor so characteristic of the people of his raee, attracted to him a multitude of friends and admirers.

"His open handed charities (oft abused) were dispensed with a lavishness wholly disproportioned to his means. A partisan, in political warfare, his powerful personality was a tower of strength to those whose eause he so unselfishly espoused. But when the storm of confliet subsided, if. as some- times occurred, his was the portion of the van- quished, he never failed to greet the victor with a warmth of feeling that at onee established an 'entente cordiale' which no future embroilments could dissolve. ITis public life was characterized by the same distinguishing traits that made him such a conspicuous figure in private life. His eap- tivating manners and graceful courtesy made him easily approachable at all times.

"Fidelity to duty, strict integrity and thorough- ness in method in his official duties, establishes a record in the important department over which he was called to preside. * *

* The standard of his sterling manhood was never lowered. Purity of thought and action were the high ideals ever be- fore him, such indeed was the active principle of his life, the shrine of his devotion.

"To the bereaved wife, the venerable mother, the sorrowing sister and brothers. the full measure of publie sympathy will go forth. Some solace for them will be found in the knowledge that an entire community shares their grief, and most

profoundly regret the passing of one whose like they will never see again."

Mr. Lawler was a member of the Elks, the Eagles, the Typographical Union, Good Intent Fire Company and the Board of Trade, which lat- ter body had been newly organized just before his death and with which he had been actively iden- tified. His active association with labor organiza- tions began in 1875, when he joined the Interna- tional Typographical Union, and he was mainly instrumental in starting the Knights of Labor in Sunbury in 1876, serving as first president of the loeal organization, No. 400. He was a regularly commissioned organizer of the American Federa- tion of Labor. For two terms he was viee-presi- dent of the Washington Typographieal Union, which he represented at Louisville, Ky., in 1894, and just before his death he had been chosen as a delegate to the approaching convention of the Union to be held at Hot Springs, Ark., in August, 1907.

In 1886 Mr. Lawler married Virginia Mills, daughter of Henry and Mary ( Brown) Mills, the former a native of England, who, at the age of sixteen, upon coming to this country, first settled in Baltimore, Md., in 1873, coming to Sunbury, . Pa., where he resided until his death in 1886. Mrs. Mills is also deceased, and they are interred in Pomfret Manor cemetery. They were the par- ents of eight children, all of whom died young except Virginia, Mrs. Lawler. Mr. Lawler was a member of the Catholic Church, to which his widow also belongs. He is buried in Pomfret Manor cemetery.

Besides his wife. Mr. Lawler was survived by his mother, sister, Miss Mary Lawler, and broth- ers William, John, Charles and James Lawler, all of Sunbury.

SMITH. This family has been identified with Lower Augusta township and that vicinity for over eighty years. Robert Smith, whose parents came from Ireland, lived at Lewisburg, Pa., then called "Derrstown," until 1830, when he came to Lower Augusta township, Northumberland county. Here he lived and died. He was born in 1972, and died Sept. 24, 1844, aged sixty-seven years. He was a tall, heavily built man, very strong, and was engaged as a boatman. His wife, Mary, died Jan. 13, 1861, aged sixty-six years, nine months, three , days. They are buried at the Mountain Presby- terian church in Lower Angusta township. Mary Smith was a daughter of James and Barbara Ann ( Weinhold) Smith, both natives of Berks county. They were Germans, and spoke German. Robert and Mary Smith had children as follows: . James. Washington, William, Sarah, Charles, Robert, Mary. Barbara Ann and John.

Robert Smith, son of Robert, was born at Lewis-

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burg, Pa., Aug. 20, 1822. When he was eight min, Cora, Lottie, Florence, Peter, James, Mary, years old his parents settled in Lower Augusta John and Sarah.

township, where he was reared to manhood, and there later he purchased 300 acres of land. This

HENRY J. MAIER, merchant at Locust Gap, has now been divided into a number of tracts, Northumberland county, was born July 27, 1867. some of which are still in the family name. He at St. Clair, Schuylkill Co., Pa., but has lived at was a stonemason, and reputed to have been one Locust Gap from early boyhood. His father, Henry

of the very best mechanics of his time. He built the County jail at Sunbury, the law office of Simon P. Wolverton, Esq., the residence of the late Judge Rockefeller, and many more of the most notable structures in Northumberland and sur- rounding counties. In Connecticut he erected a large granite railroad bridge. He died Jan. 1, 1896, in his seventy-fourth year, and is buried

at Mount Zion U. B. church, in Lower Augusta Jacob, Mary, Margaret, Henry J., Frank, John, township. His wife, Isabella St. Clair, was born Nicholas, Elizabeth (deceased) and Peter (de- Oct. 11, 1823, and is still living, the oldest woman ceased ) . in her township. She has her home with a son. She is exceptionally well preserved, and has a re- markably clear memory. She was a daughter of Casper St. Clair and granddaughter of Daniel St. Clair, who was a Drum Major in the Revolutionary war. Robert and Isabella (St. Clair) Smith had ", eleven children: Charles (a stone mason), Kate, James H., Henry C., Newton, Wellington (who died in infancy) and Oliver (a stonemason), twins, Matilda, Andrew J., William, Henrietta (the two last named died in infancy).

Andrew J. Smith, son of Robert, Jr., was born Feb. 20, 1861. When he was seventeen years old he began teaching school, and in 1889 began work- ing at Honey Pot Scales, at Nanticoke, for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, with which he remained in all fourteen years, being their chief clerk there eight years. In 1903 he moved to one of his farms, a tract of 146 acres located in Rocke- feller township, formerly the Andrew Gonsor home- stead. Mr. Smith has another farm of 120 acres, near Fisher's Ferry in Lower Augusta township. He and his family are members of the German Reformed church. He married Carrie E. Heil- man, and they have a family of nine children : Ada (a school teacher), Edna, Harold, Maud, Helen, Robert, Walter, Lillian and Albert.

James H. Smith, son of Robert, Jr., was born Nov. 20, 1847. He worked for his parents until twenty-one years old, and then for eleven years farmed on shares in Lower Augusta township .where he has always lived. In February, 1882, he purchased his present 120-acre farm, which was the . Florence, Mary and Margaret.

Joseph Shipman tract. For the past thirty-eight years Mr. Smith has attended the Sunbury mark- ets. He is a Republican, was school director for twelve years, and has been overseer of the poor for the past twelve years. He and his family are mem- bers of the Mountain Presbyterian Church, which he has served officially for the past twenty years. In 1871 he married Matilda Snyder. and they have the following ten children : Martha, Benja-

Maier, came from Breitenbach, Germany, when a young man and settled first in Schuylkill county, where he followed mining at St. Clair and Girard- ville before his removal to Locust Gap, in 1871. There he also followed mining. He died in 1887 at Ashland, Schuylkill county, and his wife, Margaret (Schwartz), died in 1880. Their children were as follows : Louisa (Mrs. John Knauf),

Henry J. Maicr was reared and educated at Locust Gap. When only fourteen months old he met with a misfortune which disabled him phys- ically, a doctor administering medicine which was too strong for him and which so affected his nerves that the greater part of his body is paralyzed, though he does not suffer. He has the use of his right arm and left leg, however, and he has not al- lowed the unfortunate accident to check his am- bition or impair his usefulness to society in any way. In 1888 he began the grocery business on his own account, in the basement of the McCarthy hotel, and later removed to his present location, carrying a well selected and comprehensive general stock, chosen to meet the demands of his trade, which has increased steadily. In 1905 he built his home at Locust Gap, and he is one of the substan- tial and respected citizens of that place. His fel- low citizens have shown their confidence in his integrity and ability by electing him to various local positions of trust, he having served Mount Carmel township seven years as school director and filled all the offices of the board, and he was township auditor for a term. He is a Democrat in political connection and a Catholic in religion, belonging also to the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society and the Foresters.

On April 21, 1904, Mr. Maier married Mary Ruffing, daughter of Lambert Ruffing, and they have had seven children, four of whom, Catherine, Helen, Estella and Henry Joseph, Jr. (who died July 2, 1910), are deceased. The survivors are:

JOHN WESLEY HENRIE, of Shamokin. Northumberland county, manager and part owner of the "Windsor Hotel," is well known to the local and traveling public there in that connection as well as in his capacity of assessor, in which position he has served for the past twelve years, from the Second ward. Mr. Henrie is a native of Shamokin, . born March 9, 1870, at the old family home, No.

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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

120 North Shamokin street. His father, Harrison ber of the Pennsylvania State Firemen's Associa- Henrie, was a well known contractor and builder tion. In politics Mr. Henrie is a Republican, and of the city in his day, and his grandfather came to for the past twelve years has been assessor of the Second ward of Shamokin. this county many years ago.

George Henrie, the grandfather, was born in one of the lower counties of Pennsylvania, and on com- ing to Northumberland county settled near Elys- burg. He died at the comparatively early age of thirty-five years. He and his wife, Kate, had six children: Samuel, Harriet (married Jacob Swank), Margaret (married a Mr. Kelly and a Mr. Startzel), Harrison, William and George.

Harrison Henrie, son of George, came to Sha- mokin when a young man and here spent the re- mainder of his days. He began his business career following his trade, that of bricklayer and plas- terer, and in time became a contractor, building many of the substantial residences and churches in that place. He was a prominent Democrat, and in 1875 was elected to the office of county commissioner, being re-elected in 1877, at the close of his first term. But he died shortly after- ward, and Philip Hile was appointed his suc- cessor. He was a member of the Methodist Church.

John Wesley Henrie received his education in the common and high schools of his native place. After commencing work he was employed by the Philadelphia & Reading Company for a period of six years, part of this time in the office of the superintendent. He then engaged in business, as a dealer in men's furnishings, continuing thus the "Windsor Hotel" began. He was clerk for several years, until the Windsor Hotel Company of Shamokin was incorporated, April 16, 1906, when he became a member of the company and manager of the hotel. His success in this incum- bency has been sufficient evidence of his fitness for the work. He is popular with the traveling public as well as with his fellow townsmen, both for his enterprise in conducting a satisfactory ho- high character as a man. Socially he is well known, having been one of the organizers of the Clover Club, in 1888, and a charter member, and he has filled all the offices in that body. He is a member of Elks Lodge No. 355 and of the Lib- erty Fire Company and for a time served as pres- ident of the Liberty Hose Company; he is a mem-

The Bird family, to which Mrs. Mary J. (Bird) Henrie, widow of Harrison Henrie, belongs, has been quite numerous and well known in this re- gion since lier grandfather, James Bird, came hith- er from New Jersey.

James Bird was born in Warren county, N. J., and was married in his native State, moving to . Northumberland county with his family and set- tling in Rush township in its pioneer days. He purchased a large and uncultivated tract of land on Little Roaring creek, and died in Rush town- ship, on the farm where he first settled. His children were : John, Joseph, James, William, Syl- vanus (born in 1796), Ziba, Susan (married Wil- liam Kimball), Sarah (Mrs. Scott), Rachel (mar- ried Jacob Shipman) and Nancy.

Ziba Bird, son of James, was born in Warren county, N. J., and came with his parents to North- umberland county. He assisted his father in the development of the farmn in Rush township and . Mr. Henrie married Mary J. Bird, daughter of Ziba Bird, and to them were born the following children : Margaret, wife of Charles F. Huth, an attorney practicing at the Northumberland county bar ; Edward, who died young ; William, of Blooms- burg, Pa. ; George, of Trenton, N. J .; Emma, wife of William Mutchler; Samuel, who died in infan- cy; John W .: Edna, who died in infancy; and Jennie, wife of William Harpel, of Rochester, New York. also learned the carpenter's trade. He followed farming for a time on Little Roaring creek, but later went to Shamokin to take charge of the mining operations there of John C. Boyd, a prom- inent citizen of Danville, and he became quite prominent in the early days of the town. He was one of the first settlers there, and erected the first two buildings in what is now Shamokin. H also did considerable building later, two double houses on the south side of Commercial street, between Franklin and Pearl, and probably others, being of his construction. He continued to be interested in coal operations for several years, but retired from that line when the town and busi- ness began to settle down to a level after the first wave of prosperity, and he then returned to Rush township, where he established himself as until May 12, 1902, when his connection with a farmer. He subsequently moved to Red Point, on the Susquehanna river, just on the Montour and Northumberland county line, below Danville, purchasing a home there in which he passed the remainder of his life. He died there at the age of sixty-five. His activity and usefulness in pro- moting Shamokin's interests in the early days of the town entitle him to be classed among the real founders of the place.

Mr. Bird married three times, and had in all tel, one that is a credit to Shamokin, and for his nineteen children. His first wife, Hannah Metz (Mentz or Metze), was the mother of six children : Annie; Joseph, born in 1814; Catharine; Sarah : Elizabeth, born in 1818. who married William Burkenbine and is still living, making her home in the borough of Northumberland : and James, who died in infancy. By his second wife. Eliza- beth Farley, Mr. Bird had the following children :

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Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 30

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