Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin, 1837-1917; Hand, Alfred, 1835-; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1026

USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 10
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

CAPTAIN W. A. MAY, a civil engineer of high accomplishments, has long been prominently identified with many of the most important com- mercial and other interests of the city of Scran- ton, and vicinity. In addition he has borne a large share in the larger concerns of the community, having served efficiently on the board of educa- tion, and rendered service of signal value as president of the board of trade during the most important era in the history of that body.

He was born December 3, 1850, in Hollidays- burg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, son of the Rev. Lewis and Louisa ( Haines) May. His father was born in Offenberg, Germany, and was finely educated in his native land. Lewis May came to the United States a single man. in the year 1820,

at the age of twenty years, and settled in Balti- more, Maryland, whence he removed to Holli- daysburg, and later to Lycoming county, where he died. He was an Evangelical clergyman, and held various charges in Pennsylvania. He mar- ried Louisa Haines, of an old Philadelphia fam- ily, whose parents resided upon a farm where is now located the borough of Frankford.

W. A. May, one of the four sons of Rev. Lewis and Louisa (Haines) May, attended the public schools in the various places in which his father's ministerial life was passed. His father died when young May was fourteen years old. and his mother passed away three years later, and thenceforward his education was obtained through his own effort. He prepared for college at Dickinson Seminary, where he won the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He now entered the employ of the Hillside Coal & Iron Company, and this may be taken as marking the beginning of a most successful career. While a seminary student he had made a special study of civil and mining en- gineering, and, his capabilities becoming known, it was his unusual distinction to be appointed chief of the engineering department of the Hill- side Company, before he had attained the age of twenty-three years. He subsequently suspended woork in order to make more ample preparation for his life work, and entered Lafayette College, from which he was graduated in 1876 with the degree of civil engineer, and later he received that of Master of Arts from the same institution. He then resumed his position as chief engineer for the Hillside Coal & Iron Company, and two years later added to his duties in that capacity the more responsible place of chief engineer for the North Western Mining & Exchange Com- pany, in Elk county, Pennsylvania, and yet later also had charge of the civil engineering for the Meredith Run Coal Company and the Gaines Coal and Coke Company, in Tioga county. He efficiently discharged these multifarious duties until 1883, when he accepted the position of su- perintendent of the Hillside Coal & Iron Com- pany, and served as such until 1901 when he was made general manager of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, the New York, Susquehanna & Western Coal Company (of which he was su- perintendent from 1898 to 1901), and is now in charge of the combined interests, one of the very largest in the Scranton coal region, if, indeed, it does not exceed in magnitude any other. These three great corporations con- trol thirty thousand acres of coal land, twenty- four coal mines in operation, having an annual

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output of five million tons, and in addition handle one and a half million tons purchased under con- tract. To carry on these stupendous operations Captain May has under his direction an army of twelve to fourteen thousand men.

While such weighty responsibilties would seemingly fully tax the energies and endurance of any one man, Captain May is actively identified with various other large interests, being secretary and treasurer of the Walburn Land Company, and secretary of the Schuylkill Anthracite Coal Royalty Company. He has also borne a promi- nent and most useful part in the general affairs of the community, and particularly in connection with the Scranton board of trade, where he dis- played such masterly abilities that he was re- tained in the presidency for five successive terms, 1893 to 1897, inclusive. It was in his first presi- denial term that the board was aroused from its lethargy following the disastrous financial panic of that year, when so many of Scranton's indus- trial and commercial enterprises were languishing and stood in need of stimulation, and under the brilliant administration of Captain May stands out as the most important epoch in the history of the board. Under him the plans for the splendid new board building were formulated and put into execution. and the present stately edifice stands as an impressive monument to his sagacity and untiring energy. With Secretary Atherton he made a house-to-house canvass for the pro- curement of subscriptions to the building fund, and this collection, amounting to about forty thousand dollars, was the financial foundation of this praiseworthy enterprise. Captain May was vice-president of the Board of Trade Building Company; and he also served upon the leading board committees, and was instrumental in secur- ing for the city the location of various large in- dustries. In addition to the Board of Trade Building, Captain May was largely instrumental in forwarding the erection of three other of the most important edifices in the city, the Thir- teenth Regiment Armory, the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Elm Park Meth- odist Church buildings. He served most capa- bly as a member of the select council of the city from the Ninth ward, for two terms of two years each, and also upon the board of school control.

He was for ten years a member of the Na- tional Guard of Pennsylvania and is holder of a marksmanship medal commemorating that per- iod of service. He enlisted as a private in the Thirteenth Regiment, in February, 1878. and was mustered out in November, 1888, as captain of

Company D. He has always maintained a deep loyalty to the old regiment, and has always given liberal aid to every movement in its interest. He is a member of the Elm Park Methodist Episcopal Church, and of its board of trustees, and super- intendent of its Sunday school. He has exerted himself usefully in behalf of the Young Men's Christian Association. and is trustee of that body. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Scranton Engineers' Club, the Scranton Club, the Country Club, and the Westmoreland Club of Wilkes-Barre, and is connected with the Masonic fraternity. Held in honor as one of the foremost of Scranton's citizens in point of public spirit, energy and enterprise, he is universally popular for those excellent traits of personal character which mark the ideal neighbor and friend.

Captain May married Miss Emma Louise, daughter of B. L. Richards, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Of this marriage has been born a daughter. Maud Richards May.

WILLIAM H. TAYLOR was born in Pat- erson. New Jersey. son of William H. and Cath- erine G. (Deeths) Taylor. In the paternal line he came of an English family of great antiquity. Time has wrought many changes in the orthog- raphy of the Taylor name, which. in its original form of Taillerfer, was brought to England by one of the Norman barons who came with Will- iam the Conqueror. At the battle of Hastings, as graphically depicted by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton in "The Last of the Saxon Kings," Tail- lerfer, a warrior of gigantic height, led his fol- lowers upon the foe, many of whom he slew be- fore he fell, transfixed by the spear of Leofivine, the brother of the Saxon king. The right of the Taylor family. to bear arms is officially attested by the records of the Herald's College, where is registered the elaborate blazonry with its signif- icant crest-a dexter arm embossed in armor. the hand in a gauntlet, grasping a javelin, with the motto, "Consequitor quodcunque petit"-"He accomplishes what he undertakes." The Tailler- fer family received from the Conqueror large landed estates in Kent, England, which descend- ed to Hanger Taylefer, 1256, from whom the American family of Taylor claims to be de- scended.

The Taylor family first appeared in America in 1692, a few years after the Dutch were sup- planted by the English. The family was related by marriage to Sir George Carteret, proprietor of East Jersey, under the English crown. Lady

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

Carteret purchased from the Indians, in trust for Mathew Taylor and others, a tract of land four miles in depth on both sides of the Raritan river. Mathew died shortly afterward, and be- queathed his holdings to his brother Edward, then living in London. In 1692 Edward, "of Briggs House, York county, England, residing in London," came to the country, entered upon possession of the property and became the pro- genitor of the Taylor family in America. He brought with him his wife, Catherine (family name unknown), and five children. The old Taylor homestead, built in 1729 by George, son of the immigrant, still stands in the village of Middletown, Monmouth county, New Jersey, and as late as 1880 was occupied by a lineal descend- ant of the first settler. It was then in good con- dition, with the old pictured Dutch tiles in the spacious fireplace.

Of the descendants of Edward were grand- sons who were among the pioneer settlers in New York, Ohio, and elsewhere in the west and south. Most of them became useful and prosperous cit- izens, many of them filled places of distinction, and it is said that none, so far as known, was ever convicted of a crime. The family was rep- resented in the Revolutionary war by various members, among whom was Major Richard Cox, of the New Jersey line, whose mother was Mercy Taylor, granddaughter of the immigrant settler. Elisha Taylor was an officer in the war of 1812; he was a pioneer in the cause of total abstinence in a day when the thought was a heresy, spent ten years of his life in advocating his temperance principles, and for many years devoted one- fourth of his annual income for that purpose and for the spread of the gospel. Of this fam- ily were two eminent divines, Rev. Jeremy Tay- lor and the late Bishop Frederick W. Taylor, Protestant Episcopal bishop of Illinois. John Taylor, of New York, was a member of Congress uninterruptedly from 1813 to 1833, and was twice speaker of the house. On the admission of Missouri to the Union he delivered the first speech in congress in which was expressed in- flexible opposition to the extension of slavery. He was a man of excellent judgment, and was consulted upon national affairs by Presidents Madison, Monroe and Adams, and also by Clay, Webster and Everett. He accompanied General Lafayette through New England on his last visit to this country. Jacob Taylor published, 1702-46, an almanac which was the predecessor of Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac," and for which he made his own astronomical calcula-

tions. Other members of the family were: Pres- ident Zachary Taylor, Bayard Taylor, author and poet ; Brook Taylor, the "water poet," and Tom Taylor, once editor of the unique London Punch. In the American family was William H. Taylor, grandfather of him of the same name, and to whom this narrative principally relates. He was a native of Birmingham, England, the son of a silversmith, and came to the United States and located in Paterson, New Jersey. He brought with him considerable means and lived in pleasant retirement. He married Mary White, and to them were born children: William H., James, John. George, Charles, Joseph, Emma, Saralr and Mary. He died in Newark, New Jersey, at the venerable age of eighty-six years, surviving his wife, who died at the age of sixty- six years.

William H. Taylor, father of the subject of this sketch, son of William H. and Mary ( White) Taylor, was born in Birmingham, England, in 1826, and was six years old when his parents came to the United States. It is an agreeable task to epitomize so active and useful a life. Ed -- ucated in Paterson, New Jersey, he early evinced a special talent for mechanics, and at an early age was indentured to Charles Danforth, a me- chanical engineer in that city. After completing his apprenticeship he spent several years visiting the more important manufactories throughout the country, in quest of a larger technical knowledge. In 1852 he made a trip to California, but re- turned in a short time to assume a responsible position. In 1865, on account of the failing health of his wife, he visited Europe with her, and while there further added to his knowledge of mechanics. On his return in the following year he became associated with the Watson Man- ufacturing Company at Paterson, New Jersey, but discontinued his connection with this enter- prise a year later to embark in a new venture in the same city, and in which he was destined to lay the foundations for his subsequent extensive operations as a manufacturing dealer in ma- chinery and machinists' supplies A large pro- portion of his trade coming from Pennsylvania, and especially from the mining districts, he deemed it advisable to find a location more con- venient to that field, and in 1870 removed his business to Allentown, where he conducted it with great success until his death, June 4, 1880, having meantime (in 1876) made another tour of Europe for rest and recuperation. He was a man of the highest mechanical ability, and all his transactions were governed by the loftiest in-

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

tegrity, whether in the routine of mechanical labors or in his financial relations with those with whom he dealt. Of strong convictions of right, he was tenacious in maintaining what his judgment approved, and his strong intellect was fortified by a great will power. Yet he was ever just and considerate with his equals or his sub- ordinates, and never permitted pride or self- interest to lead him to the perpetration of an in- justice. He was a man of striking personality, commanding in figure, with a handsome coun- tenance reflecting strength of character, and a well dispositioned mind. He was a Republican in politics, and maintained the principles of his party with a degree of vigor and enthusiasm which admitted of no question of his sincerity in the conviction that upon them depended the interests and honor of the country. In 1851 he married Catherine G. Deeths, daughter of Nich- olas and Ann Deeths, and to them were born three children: Emma G., who became the wife of Arthur D. Troxell: Cassie G., who became the wife of Albert G. Wheeler, and William H. Taylor.

William H. Taylor, youngest child of William H. and Catherine G. (Deeths) Taylor, passed his early boyhood in Paterson, New Jersey, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, and attended the public schools in both these cities. He then pur- sued advanced studies in Dickinson Seminary. but left that institution when eighteen years old to enter his father's machinery supply house in a clerical capacity, and was thus closely associ- ated with the parent until the death of the lat- ter, when he took the business in charge. He had gained a familiar knowledge of its every de- partment, and constantly developed it to larger proportions, conducting it successfully

until 1884, when he established the Scranton Supply and Machinery Company at Scranton, Pennsyl- vania, and in 1889 opened the Hazelton Ma- chinery and Supply Company at Hazelton, Penn- sylvania. The offices and salesrooms are at 131 Wyoming avenue, while the major portion of the stock is stored in a large warehouse along the tracks of the Delaware & Hudson and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroads. The stock comprises tools of all kinds for me- chanics and machinists, mine and mill supplies of every description, and includes many special- ties from the most eminent manufacturers of the country in special lines.

Mr. Taylor is one of the largest individual coal operators in the state. He was counsellor for the St. Clair Coal Company; of which he is

president, in the anthracite strike commission. He is also president of the Franklin Coal Com- pany, and is actively identified with many other local commercial and financial enterprises, nd is also president of the Goodwin Car Company of New York, is a director in the Coal and Iron National Bank of New York City, and a mem- ber of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Scranton Club, the Coun- try Club, both of Scranton ; the National Geo- graphic Society, the American Academy of Po- litical and Social Science, and others. He is an active Free Mason, having attained the thirty- second degree, Scottish Rite. He is a member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, and in politics is a Republican.

Mr. Taylor married Miss Nellie G. Barker, daughter of the late Samuel G. Barker, sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Of this marriage have been born four children : Nel- lie Grace, deceased ; Alice Marion, William H., Jr., and John D. Higgins.

ELIAS W. THOMPSON, one of the pro- gressive business men of Factoryville, Pennsyl- vania, where he has resided since 1886, was born in Union, Broome county, New York, March 17, 1876, a son of William H. and Sophia (Winans) Thompson, natives and residents of New York State, whose family consisted of three other chil- dren, namely: Fred M., Elizabeth and Anna. He is a grandson of Hugh and Elizabeth Thomp- son, both natives of Ireland, and great-grandson of William Thompson, the founder of the Amer- ican branch of the family, who emigrated from his native country, Ireland, to the United States, settling in New York State, where he devoted his time and attention to agricultural pursuits.

Elias W. Thompson is indebted to the com- mon schools of his native township for a prac- tical education, which qualified him for a life of usefulness and activity. At the early age of twelve years he engaged in the flouring mill busi- ness at Lisle, New York, remaining three years. He then returned to his home in Union, New York, where he was employed in the same busi- ness up to his removal to Factoryville, Pennsyl- vania, in 1886. He at once secured employment with Christopher Matthewson, who was one of the prominent business men of that city, owning and operating an extensive flouring mill. This gentleman later became his father-in-law, and he continued his connection with the business up to the time of the decease of Mr. Matthewson, in 1901, when he took entire control of the es-

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

tate, which is quite extensive, consisting of farms, mill and village property. Mr. Thompson added improved machinery of the best and latest pat- tern to the plant operated by Mr. Matthewson, and by this means the business increased to a large extent. From 1899 to 1903, a period of four years, Mr. Thompson, in connection with his milling and other industries, was engaged in mercantile business at Factoryville, but on ac- count of the extensive increase in his milling business was forced to dispose of his store, sell- ing the same to Mr. Walton.

In addition to looking after his own interests, Mr. Thompson is actively and prominently iden- tified with the growth and development of the borough of Factoryville. He was the prime mover in the erection of the Factoryville Tele- phone Company, which later was consolidated with the Centermoreland Telephone Company, with a stock capital of fifty thousand dollars, in which corporation he is a large stockholder. He is serving in the capacity of secretary and treas- urer of the Nokomis Water Company of Fac- toryville. In politics he is at heart a Prohibi- tionist, but in great issues casts his vote with the Republican party, in the ranks of which or- ganization may be found many who are in sym- pathy with and assist in promulgating the prin- ciples of the Prohibition party. Mr. Thompson is a man of strict integrity, honorable and up- right alike in his business dealings and social re- lations.

In 1889 Mr. Thompson was united in mar- riage to Emma Matthewson, daughter of Chris- topher and Lorinda (Reynolds) Matthewson. They are the parents of one daughter, Ruth Thompson.

GEORGE SANDERSON. Edward Sander- son, Sr., the progenitor of the Sanderson family in America, is mentioned in early records found in Hampton, Massachusetts, from which place he removed to Watertown, Massachusetts, as early as 1643, and where, October 15, 1645, he mar- ried Mary Eggleston. How long he had lived in Hampton, whether born there or England, or whether he was the first of the ancestors to reach this country, is not definitely known.

( II) Deacon Jonathan Sanderson, eldest child of Edward Sanderson, born in Watertown, September 15, 1646; married in Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, October 24, 1669, Abiah Bartolph, youngest daughter of Ensign Thomas and Han- nah Bartlett, of Watertown.

(III) Samuel Sanderson, sixth child of

Jonathan Sanderson, born May 28, 16SI, settled in Watertown; married, April 13, 1708, Mercy Gale ; was killed by lightning July 8, 1722.

(IV) Abraham Sanderson, son of Samuel Sanderson, born in Watertown, March 28, 1711; married December 6, 1733, to Patience Smith and settled in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. He had thirteen children, of whom Jacob was the fourth.

(V) Jacob Sanderson, fourth child of Ab- raham Sanderson, was born in 1738.

(VI) Jacob Sanderson, fourth child of Jacob Sanderson, married Elizabeth Childs, and set- tled in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.

(VII) Jacob Sanderson, their youngest child, born October 17, 1770 ; married, November 12, 1807. to Jerusha Gardner, a daughter of Cap- tain Lemuel Gardner, of Boston, and settled in that city. Captain Gardner was the first com- mander of the Ancient and Honorable Company of Artillery of Boston.

(VIII) Hon. George Sanderson, second son of Jacob and Jerusha Sanderson, was born in Boston, of Puritan stock, February 25, 1810, and received his education at the Boston Latin School .. Shortly after leaving this institution he went to New York, where for awhile he was in the em- ployment of a relative in commercial pursuits. From there his fortunes led him to Geneva, New York, where he married Marion Kingsbury, daughter of Colonel Joseph Kingsbury, of Shese- quin, Bradford county, Pennsylvania. (Colonel Kingsbury was a large landed proprietor, and the active general agent of other large owners. The homestead and part of the original estate is now occupied by the widow of his youngest son, hav- ing been purchased by O. D. Kinney, a son-in- law, of Minneapolis.) This marriage led Mr. Sanderson to Towanda, the county seat of Brad- ford, where he entered upon the practice of law, and soon took a leading position. He became district attorney, and for six years held the office, discharging its duties in the most able and con- scientious manner. At the expiration of that time he resigned in order to attend to his private business. Subsequently he was elected to the state senate, where in 1853 he made the acquaint- ance of Colonel George W. Scranton, with whom he co-operated in securing legislation that was deemed necessary for the success of the enterprise that the latter had undertaken, and who impressed him with the importance of Scranton and its probable future. On the solicitation of Colonel Scranton, Mr. Sanderson visited this city for the first time, in 1854, and again in 1855, when he purchased the Elisha Hitchcock farm, now cov-

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

ered by the finest residences in Scranton. Shortly after this he removed with his family from To- wanda, having first erected a residence (on the site of which now stands one of the handsomest Young Men's Christian Association buildings in the country), and organized the banking house of George Sanderson & Company, the firm con- sisting of himself and his brother-in-law, Burton Kingsbury, Esq. This house was merged into the Lackawanna Valley Savings Bank, and later into the Lackawanna Trust and Safe Deposit Company, one of the strongest and most conser- vative financial institutions in the city. He then commenced laying out streets, which resulted in ·opening Washington, Adams and Wyoming ave- nues, from Spruce to Vine streets, which to-day contain some of the most valuable residence prop- erty in the city. He donated to public use the lots upon which the new high school building is being erected, and was twice elected burgess of the place of his adoption. Having disposed of most of the Hitchcock farm and feeling ready to rest. he purchased a beautiful home in German- town, and moved there. But lifelong habits were strong, and he found what was intended for rest was, in reality, labor, so he again took up his work and became president of a coal company with offices in Philadelphia. On this being pur- chased by the Reading Coal Company, he moved back to Scranton, having purchased a large tract of land in the northern outskirts, where he erected a mansion, and developed what is now the most attractive suburban portion of the city. His policy in building up Green Ridge exhibited, in the strongest sense, his wisdom and foresight. Commencing himself by constructing the Scran- ton and Providence street railroad, he succeeded in drawing about him a delightful community of taste and refinement that has continued to grow chiefly on the lines he laid down for it.

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin, 1837-1917; Hand, Alfred, 1835-; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921; Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1906 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1026

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin, 1837-1917; Hand, Alfred, 1835-; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1026