Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 44

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 44

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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA 693

Capt. George Heinly's company of the old State impulsive and generous, he was one whom friends militia, and always attracted marked attention on loved and enemies hated. Soon after his marriage battalion days. In. 1833 lie witnessed the "fall- ing of the stars," about which heavenly phenomena he often - talked to his descendants, speaking of it as the "snowing of fire from heaven." He

the breaking out of the French and Indian war caused him to enlist in the service and defend his country from the merciless invaders. On July 19, 1763, he was commissioned captain, 2d Battalion was a member of St. Peter's German Reformed of the Pennsylvania regiments, commanded by Church, which he served as deacon and elder for many years. Jacob and Hannah (Ulrich), his ·wife, had eleven children, viz. : Hettie married Benjamin Banks; Jacob married Ann Miller ; Ephraim married Polly Strasser; Jolin married Harriet Wagonhorst; Hannalı married Ephraim Miller; Isaac U. married Elizabeth Mengel; Jos- .eph married Matilda Fraunfelder; Henry married Sophia Berg; Helena married Jacob Miller; Lucy Anna Margaret married Frank Goldstein ; Joshua .died young.

Gov. John Penn and Lieut. Cols. Asher Clayton and Tobias Frances. In 1764 he received his commission of captain in the 2d Pennsylvania Battalion, in Colonel Bouquet's expedition west of the Ohio, in which campaign he participated, and lie took part in the land grant to the officers in that service during the year 1766. He was ac- tively engaged against the Indians who made des- perate' slaughter in Bedford and Cumberland counties, and killed many of the settlers. When his regiment reached Bedford, the officers drew a Isaac U. Leiby, son of Jacob, was born Aug. 14, 1830, in Windsor township, on the farm where he spent all his life. He lived three fourths of a mile north of Virginville, in Berks county, and was the proprietor and owner of "Leiby's flagstone quarry." A stone-mason by trade, he followed that occupation for some years at different places. He sold his flagstone in Philadelphia and in Schuylkill and Carbon counties, Pa., many being used for curbstones in the cities and towns. Mr. Leiby died of apoplexy at his honie Nov. 13, 1910, :at the age of eighty years, and was buried at Dunkel's church. He was a member of the Re- formed congregation at that church, to which his family also belong, and was a Democrat in pol- "itics. written agreement, wherein they asked the pro- prietaries for sufficient land on which to erect a compact and defensible town, and give each a cominodious plantation on which to build a dwell- ing. Capt. John Brady was one of the officers who signed this petition. In 1768, "urged by the restless, mysterious impulse that moulds the des- tiny of the pioneer of civilization," he removed his family to Standing Stone, now Huntingdon, Pa. The following year he again changed his lo- cation to a site opposite the present town of Lew- isburg, Pa. At that period titles to uncultivated lands could be secured by erecting a house, and by cutting a few trees by way of improvement. In this manner he took up a vast tract of land on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and had hie On Feb .. ? , 1855, Mr. Leiby married Elizabeth, .daughter of Thomas and Catharine (Gruber) Mengel, of Windsor township, who survives him. "They had a large family, namely : lived longer he would have been one of the wealthi- est men in the State. Owing to the carelessness of those connected with the management of his Catharine affairs, his family was deprived of much benefit Ann married Mahlon Miller, of Pottstown; Han- from his exertions.

nah married James Baer, of Reading; Samuel mar- Stertzler : Hettie Ann married Jacob D. Dreibel- "bies, of Virginville: Susanna married Thomas G. Gruber, of Pottstown; Elizabeth died in infancy ; Emma died in infancy ; Jacob, who lives at home, married Amelia Schappell; Sarah died in child- hood; Thomas died in childhood; Milton married Mary Wagaman and they live in Tipton; Sarah E. married Horace Smith, of Reading.

In 1776 he took his wife and children and be- ried Priscilla Adam; Mary Ann married Alfred longings to Muncy manor, where he built a semi- fortified log house, known later as "Brady's Fort." It was a private affair and was not classed among the provincial fortifications. The spot on which it stood is in the borough of Muncy and a slight elevation in a field is pointed to as the exact plot of ground. After Northumberland county was formed, Capt. John Brady was appointed fore- man of the first grand jury, and served in many such capacities afterwards.

CAPT. JOHN BRADY, one of the most dis- tingnished of the early settlers of the West Branch Valley, was the second son of Hugh Brady and Hannah Brady, and was born in 1733 near Newark, Del., where he received a good education and taught school. He came with his parents to Pennsylvania, and soon won the love of Mary Quigley. At twenty-two, the age of his marriage, he was six feet in height, well formed. with black hair, hazel eyes and a dark complexion. Fearless,

Not slow to respond to the call to arms in de- fense of home and the independence of the nation, he marched to the front in some of the bloodiest engagements of the war of the Revolution. He fought with Washington at Brandywine. where his two sons. Samuel and John, were with him. and he was wounded in the mouth. The loss of some teeth was the result, but he was disabled by an attack of pleurisy and sent home.

In 1725 Colonel Plunkett made his famous ex-

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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

pedition to the Wyoming Valley, and John Brady was one of his ablest assistants. The Connecti- cut settlers claimed under their charter the terri- tory of the Province of Pennsylvania as far south

horse of his commander and escaped to the woods unharmed, and on to the settlement. It was not known what Indians did the shooting, but proof was evident that a party had followed him with as the 41st degree of latitude, which ran a mile intent to kill. ' In their haste, they did not scalp north of Lewisburg, and determined to enforce him, nor take his money, a gold watch, and his commission, which he wore in a bag suspended from his neck, his dearest earthly possession. Thus perished one of the most skilled and daring Indian fighters, as well as one of the most es- teemed and respected of men, on whose sterling qualities and sound judgment the pioneers of the their rights. In 1772 a party of them reached the present town of Milton, but were driven back by Colonel Plunkett. The settlers were not subdued and the contest was waged many years. They ad- vanced to the Muncy Valley and made a settle- ment where the town was later located. In order to punish the intruders for their presumption in entire settlement depended. occupying this part of the West Branch region, blood was shed and lives were lost.

John Brady was a surveyor of land in Cumber- land, Buffalo and White Deer Valleys, and in the possession of his descendant, Mrs. Charles Gustav Ernst, nee Mollie Brady Cooper, of Punxsutawney, on the 8th of August of the preceding year.

Pa., is a surveyor's guide book, entitled "Tables of Difference of Latitude and Departure," for navigators, land surveyors, etc., "compiled at the instance of a committee of the Dublin Society, by John Hood, Land Surveyor. Published in Dublin in 1772." She has also an account book which has on the inside of the leather cover the words, Backus, U. S. A. Prior to 1830, at Halls, a heavy printed in ink, "John Brady, his book, Cumber- granite marker was erected bearing the inscription land County, 1765."

On March 3, 1776, he was commissioned major of the battalion commanded by Colonel Plunkett, and on Oct. 14, 1776, captain in the 12th regi- ment of the Pennsylvania Line, commanded by Col. William Cooke, whose two daughters became

on the invasion of the Wyoming Valley, he went with his family to Sunbury, and Sept. 1, 1778, returned to the army. In the spring of 1779 he re- ceived orders to join Colonel Hartley on the West Branch, and on the 11th of April, 1779, was killed by a concealed body of Indians. He had taken an active part in efforts to snbdue their atrocities, and his daring and repeated endeavors intensified their. hatred and desire to capture him, resulting fatally on that springtime morning. With a guard and wagon he went up the river to Wallis' to procure supplies. His family was living at the "Fort" at Muncy during the winter and early spring, and from his home to the provision house was only a few hours' ride. On their return trip, about three miles from Fort Brady, at Wolf Run, they stopped to wait for the wagon, which was coming another way. Peter Smith, whose family was massacred on the 10th of June, and on whose farm young James Brady was mortally wounded, was by his side. Capt. John Brady said : "This would be a good place for Indians to hide." Smith replied in the affirmative. when the report of three rifles was heard, and the Captain fell without uttering a sound. He was shot with two balls between the shoulders. Smith mounted the

Carried to his home at Fort Brady, which he built, and is now within the borough limits of Muncy, his heroic little wife looked the second time upon the blood-stained form of one of her family, her son James having met the same fate

Laid to rest on the hillside, where few inter- ments had been made, his grave was well nigh forgotten, and weeds and briars hid the lonely mound of earth, until the spot was identified through the efforts of a granddaughter of Capt. John Brady, Mrs. Backus, wife of Gen. Electus

Captain John Brady Fell in defense of our forefathers at Wolf Run, April 11, 1779 Aged 46 years

An old comrade who was present at his burial pointed to the site and requested that he be laid wives of two of Capt. John Brady's sons. In 1778, by his side. His request was granted, and near by Capt. John Brady's grave is that of his friend Henry Lebo. The Lycoming Chapter, D. A. R., recently honored his memory by placing an appro- priate marker between his grave and that of his faithful comrade.

A hundred years after his death. through a dollar subscription fund, raised by Mr. J. M. M. Gernerd, a monument was placed in the cemetery at Muncy, and unveiled Oct. 15, 1879. The date 1779 is on the front of the shaft, the name "John Brady" in the die, and the date of erection, 1879, in the sub-base. In closing his oration at the un- veiling of the monument, Hon. John Blair Linn, of Bellefonte. Pa., said: "To Captain Brady's descendants. time fails me in paying a proper trib- ute. When border tales have lost their charm for the evening hour; when oblivion blots from the historic page the glorious record of Pennsylvania. in the Revolution of 1776, then and then only will Captain Samuel Brady of the Rangers be for- gotten. In private life, in public office, at the bar. in the Senate of Pennsylvania, in the House of Representatives of the U. S .. in the ranks of battle. Captain John Brady's sons and grandsons and great-grandsons have flung far forward into the future the light of their family fame .?

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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

tlement, and his untimely death was a sore afflic- tion. When the inmates of the fort heard the re- port of the rifles that ended his life, they, with his wife, ran to ask Smith, who was with him, where he was, and his reply, "In heaven or hell or on his way to Tioga," showed his rapid flight, for he did not wait to see whether Captain Brady was killed or taken prisoner. His was a remarkable career, and death, claiming him in the prime of manhood, robbed the earth of one of her strongest sons, and the nation of one of her mnost loyal sub- jects, but in the lives and life work of his children were continued and completed the blessings and benefits to mankind commenced so unselfishly by him.

Capt. John Brady had an older brother, Sam- uel, who was also a noted Indian fighter. He was one of the two inen who escaped from Fort Free- land at the time of its capture by the Indians. He afterward moved to Indiana county, where he died in 1811, after having spent more than fifty years in defence of the Pennsylvania frontiers.

Capt. John Brady and his wife were the par- ents of thirteen children: Capt. Samuel Brady, the noted Indian fighter; James Brady, who was mortally wounded by the Indians near Muney in 1778; William, who died in infancy ; John Brady, afterward sheriff of Northumberland county, and and of William Perry Brady and Samuel Brady, both of whom distinguished themselves in the ters. war of 1812; Mary Brady, who married Capt. William Gray, of Sunbury: William P. Brady, who was the father of Col. Hugh Brady and grandfather of Capt. Evan Rive Evans Brady; Gen. Hugli Brady, who distinguished himself in the war of 1812 and rose to a major generalship in the regular army; Jane Brady, who started the first Sunday school in Sunbury; Robert Brady; Agnes Brady, who died in infancy ; Hannah Brady, who married Maj. Robert Gray, of Sunbury ; Jo- seph Brady, who died in infancy; and Liberty Brady, who married Maj. William Dewart, of Sunbury. Cyrus Townsend Brady, the author, is a direct descendant of Capt. John Brady .- Contributed by W. G. MURDOCK.

HON. SIMON P. WOLVERTON, late of Sun- bury, who ranked among the leading attorneys of that borough, was one of the most successful cor- poration lawyers in this State, and as a former rep- resentative in Congress from the Seventeenth Con- gressional district was widely known in this sec- tion. He was born in Rush township, Northum- berland county, Jan. 28, 1837, son of Joseph and Charity (Kase) Wolverton, and on the paternal side is of English Quaker origin.

According to well authenticated tradition three

Capt. John Brady was foremost in all expedi- brothers emigrated from Wolverhampton. England, tions that went out from the West Branch set- about 1700, and settled on Long Island, New York. The family was then, as now, one of dis- tinction, and its coat of arms bore the wolf's head. The descendants are scattered, being found in nearly every state in the Union, and many are residents of Canada. Many members of the fam- ily have attained prominence in business, political and professional circles. Of the three brothers who originally came to this country Charles Wol- verton, the lineal ancestor of Simon P. Wolver- ton, in 1714 moved to Hunterdon county, N. J., where the family resided for several generations.

Charles Wolverton, a descendant of the Charles Wolverton who was one of the original immi- grants, was the great-grandfather of Simon P. Wolverton. He served in. the war of the Revolu- tion. He owned a large tract of land in Hunter- don county, N. J., which he granted to his son Isaac on Feb. 12, 1816.

Isaac Wolverton was born in Hunterdon coun- ty, N. J., Aug. 11, 1777, and in 1800 came with his father and family to Augusta township, North- umberland county, where he died. The father died in Augusta township, as did the son, who passed away in 1855. Isaac was a prosperous and successful farmer. He was a Democrat in pol- ities and served as county commissioner. He was a devout Baptist and filled numerous offices in the church society of which he was a member. who was the father of Hon. Jasper Ewing Brady, He married Lucretia Chamberlain and reared a

family of five children, two sons and three daugh-

Joseph Wolverton, son of Isaac and father of Simon P. Wolverton, was born in Augusta town- ship, Northumberland county, Sept. 25, 1803, and died in Sunbury in the eighties. He spent his lifetime in his native township and in the neigh- boring township of Rush, and was engaged in agri- cultural pursuits. He was a Baptist. He married Charity Kase, also a native of Northumberland county, daughter of William Kase, who was of German descent, and resided in Rush township, where he was a farmer and also served as a justice of the peace. The family of Joseph and Charity Wolverton consisted of two sons and three daugh- ters. Mrs. Wolverton died in 1862.

Simon P. Wolverton was truly a self-made man. Starting out to make his way in youth he had as his resources an unusually brilliant intellect. a sturdy physique and a constitution which seemed to have been built as of iron. From comparative obscurity, by his untiring industry and his person- al merit and effort, he rose to a position in the front rank of Pennsylvania's men of great attain- ments, and all who knew him and realized his worth as a man and a citizen rejoiced that he won the honors and the success to which he was so justly entitled. In his youth Mr. Wolverton, who had secured a fairly good schooling, taught school,

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receiving a meager salary, determined to earn tee on Judiciary. He introduced and secured the enough to pay his expenses through college.

In his young manhood Mr. Wolverton completed his education at Danville Academy and Lewisburg University, where he doubled his studies and by hard work and persistent effort accomplished the work of the junior and senior courses in one year, doing that which ordinarily requires two years' study in a single year, and graduating from the institution in 1860. Following his graduation from the university he entered the law office of Hon. Alexander Jordan in Sunbury, Mr. Jordan then being the presiding judge in the Eighth Ju- dicial district as then constituted. He read day and night, so eager was he to enter the profession to which he was attracted and for which his strong and logical intellect seemed so well to fit him. As in his youth, Mr. Wolverton in his young manliood continued to be a diligent student and a hard worker, and the same traits of character served him well through the remarkably successful career he enjoyed as a lawyer and as a statesman. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1862, and im- mediately entered upon the practice of law. His practice was interrupted by two periods of service during the Civil war, the first when General Stu- art made his raid into the State, Mr. Wolverton raising a company of emergency men (of which he was captain) who did effective service. When a second invasion of the State was threatened by Lee's army Mr. Wolverton again went out as cap- tain with the emergency company known as Com- pany F, 36th Pennsylvania Regiment. The com- pany was mustered into the service July 4, 1863, and mustered out August 11th of the same year. While in the military service Mr. Wolverton kept in touch with his law business, and on his dis- charge from the army immediately resumed it, and he afterward followed it to the exclusion of prac- tically all else. He acquired a very large and lu- crative clientage. A man of even temper, of in- domitable will and possessing the best of health, he knew no such thing as failure, nor did he en- counter defeat. As a lawyer Mr. Wolverton was very thorough in the preparation of his cases and in the courts hc handled them with masterly skill.

passage of what is known as the "Married Wom- an's Act" in 1887. Mr. Wolverton's great pop- ularity with the people of the Twenty-seventh Sen- atorial district may be estimated by his election to the Senate for three successive terms in a district which had a normal Republican plurality of over 1,000. For two years after his retirement from the State Senate Mr. Wolverton devoted his en- tire time to his profession. Then he was again obliged to respond to the popular demands of his friends and neighbors, and in 1890 he was elected representative in Congress from the Seventeenth district, which includes Northumberland, Colum- bia, Montour and Sullivan counties. He served in the Fifty-second Congress and in 189? was re- elected, to the Fifty-third Congress. As represen- tative he was an untiring worker in the interest of his district, faithfully and most ably representing those who had so strenuously insisted upon again bestowing upon him political honors. At the ex- piration of his second term in Congress Mr. Wol- verton's legal business had attained such magni- tude that he realized he either must abandon law and its practice or give up political position. He decided to abandon politics, except as he might participate in political affairs as a citizen, and to devote his entire time and energy to the practice of his profession.

No better indorsement of the great ability of Mr. Wolverton as a lawyer could be put forward than the statement that he was attorney for a number of very large corporations, including the following: Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company ; Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company; Lehigh Valley Railroad Company; Le- high Valley Coal Company; Cox Bros. & Com- pany, the largest coal operators in Pennsylvania ; the Delaware, Sunbury & Schuylkill Railroad Company, and many other corporations of less magnitude. He was among those prominent in organizing and constructing the Sunbury, Hazle- ton & Wilkes-Barre railroad and the Shamokin. Sunbury & Lewisburg railroad, of which he was president, and which is now a part of the Reading

system. Mr. Wolverton built the Sunbury & Northumberland Electric railway and continued to be interested in it. He was also interested in the Sunbury Elcetric Light & Power Company. the Northumberland Illuminating Company, and other local enterprises which are of a semi-public and beneficial character as greatly aiding in the development and growth of Sunbury. He died Oct. 25. 1910.

Political honors were forced upon Mr. Wolver- ton, the demand for his services being of such na- ture as to be imperative. In the fall of 1878 he was elected, as a Democrat, to fill out the unexpired term of State Senator A. H. Dill, Senator Dill having resigned to be a candidate for governor. Twice Mr. Wolverton was reelected, and he served ten years in the State Senate. He declined a re- nomination in 1888 because he preferred to re- On March 23, 1865, Mr. Wolverton was united in marriage with Elizabeth D. Hendricks, daugh- ter of Benjamin Hendricks, of Sunbury. They reared a family of three charming children : Mary G., wife of Biddle Arthurs, of Pittsburg. Pa .; sume the more active practice of his profession. During his term in the State Senate he was prom- inent in securing the enactment of many of the most important laws. For the ten years he was in the Legislature he was a member of the commit- Elizabeth K .; and Simon P., Jr., who was asso-

----

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NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ciated with and succeeded his father in the prac- licitor and a director of the People's and Central tice of law. The family belong to the Presbyterian Building and Loan Associations of Mount Car- Church. Mr. Wolverton was a Mason and an Odd mnel. Fellow in fraternal- connection.

Upon the formation of the Bastress, Vought & 'Co. organization in Brooklyn real estate, in 1906,

JOHN E. BASTRESS, attorney at law, and Mr. Bastress assumed the management. Since president of the Guarantee Trust & Safe Deposit then the Bastress Vought Company have merged Company, `at Mount Carmel, Pa., was born in with another concern, forming the largest and

Shamokin township, Northumberland county, Nov. 29, 1865. a son of Milton Bastress. His . grandfather, Solomon Bastress, resided in Mont- gomery county, Pa. On April 6, 1830, he mar- ried Rachel Miller, of Bucks county, Pa., and they had one son, Milton, who was born April 16, in 1910. 1833, in Montgomery county, where he spent his .

early life. Coming to Northumberland county he local lodge of Elks, K. of M. and P. O. S. of A. located in Rush township, following his trade at He is a member of the Lutheran Church.

Wolverton's tannery, near Snydertown. He was Politically Mr. Bastress is a Republican, served one year as county chairman, and for a time was one of the executive committee. For twelve years also a rural mail carrier in Rush township and be- came well known. He was a member of the Re- formed Church and in politics a Republican. He he was solicitor for the borough of Mount Carmel.

married Catherine Brocious, of Schuylkill county, His first wife, whom he married June 10, 1890, Pa., in 1857. Mrs. Bastress now makes her home was Sarah Brocious. She died in 1897, leaving with her daughter, Mrs. B. F. Culp, near Snyder- two children, Edgar R. and Clyde O. On Jan:

town. Mr. Bastress died May 25, 1900. They had these children : Minerva E., deceased wife of L. R. Parry; William, living in Shamokin township; caster Co., Pennsylvania. Samuel. living in Williamsport, Pa .; Alice. the wife of Benjamin F. Culp, and John E., whose name introduces this sketch.

John E. Bastress attended the public schools of his native township and Central Pennsylvania Col- lege, at New Berlin, Pa., thence going to the Ohio Normal University, at Ada, Ohio, and graduating from the latter institution in 1886. With this preparation he felt himself fitted for the duties of schoolmaster, and was employed as teacher at the Shipman school in Rockefeller township, holding an engagement for one year. He was next in Un- ion county, near Mifflinburg, teaching there one term; thence went to Point township, where he taught four terms, conchiding his career in the field of pedagogy as normal school instructor for four succeeding terins at Dalmatia, and making his final bow on retiring from his profession after three years' engagement in the high schools of Mount Carmel. He then took up the study of law with Hon. Voris Auten as preceptor and was ad- mitted to the Northumberland county bar in 1892, and since 1895 has been located in the Samuel building at Mount Carmel. doing a general law practice in connection with his numerous and varied enterprises. He was one of the original directors of the Mount Carmel Guarantee Trust & Safe Deposit Company, which was established in 1902, he serving as president since 1906, and also as chairman of the finance committee. He is pres- ident of the Mount Carmel Gas Company, and was at one time president of the Mount Carmel Iron Works, of which he is still a director. He is so-

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Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 44

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