Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 13

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 13
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 13

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).

Judge Edward C. Lovell, of Elgin, Illinois,. and died in the winter of 1896.

Louis Arthur Watres was born April 21, 1851, in what is now Winton, Lackawanna county, and his early common school privi- leges were cut short by the necessity of earn- ing his own livelihood. He was employed in va- rious ways, meanwhile attending night school, and at an early age he secured a position as teller with the Merchants' and Mechanics' Bank of Scranton, and later became cashier of the County Saving Bank and Trust Company of Scranton. It was his ambition, however, to become a member of the legal fraternity, and applying himself assiduously to the mastery of the legal principles he was enabled to suc- cessfully pass the examinations that secured him admission to the Lackawanna bar in 1878. He entered upon practice with a laudable am- bition to win a foremost place among the at- torneys of Scranton, and gradually advanced. until he had gained a distinctively representa- tive clientage. His knowledge of the law is comprehensive and exact. The energy and de- termination which he manifested in his early business career aided him greatly in fitting himself for his chosen profession. Various business enterprises have also felt the stimu- lus of his efforts and keen business foresight, and have benefited by his wise counsel and- discernment. He is a stockholder and director in various corporations in the Scranton and Lackawanna Valley, and assisted in the organ- ization of the Scranton Passenger Railway Company, of which he became president. He is the president of the County Savings & Trust Company, of the Title Guarantee & Trust Com" pany, of the Spring Brook Water Supply Com- pany, of the Mansfield Water Company, of the Economy Light, Heat & Power Company, of the Pittston Slate Company, and of the Boulevard Company.

His study of the political issues and ques- tions of the day and his fitness for leadership have won him prominence as a representative of the Republican party of Pennsylvania, and his political career has been an honor to the state that has honored him. In 1881 he was elected county solicitor of Lackawanna county and retained that office until 1890. He was state senator from 1883 to 1891, exercising a commanding influence in that body. and ini- tiating and aiding in the enactment of the most important measures during that long and

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

eventful period. His retirement from the sen- ate was only due to his advancement, he be- ing elected lieutenant-governor in the last year of his senatorial service. His election to the more august position was a splendid tribute to his character and worth, his plurality being 22,365, while the candidate for governor (Pat- tison) on the opposing Democratic ticket was elected by a plurality of 17,000. He held his high office for a term of four years, being ex- officio president of the senate and ex-officio president of the board of pardons. All these weighty responsibilities were worthily borne, and his official record was pronounced as praiseworthy in the highest degree. By act of the general assembly he was made a commis- sioner from Pennsylvania to the World's Co- lumbian Exposition at Chicago, and subse- quently he was elected vice-president of the board. In August, 1891, he was chosen chair- man of the Republican state committee, and has for a third of a century been active in molding the affairs of the Republican party and guiding its interests in Pennsylvania. For many years he was an earnest advocate of per- sonal registration and uniform primary laws, which have just been enacted into laws, and he has always stood for the best and purest politics.

Colonel Watres has long been actively identified with the National Guard of the state, and during his military career has been largely instrumental in promoting the efficiency of that magnificent corps. His service began in 1877, continuing until 1891, and he again served from August, 1898, to August, 1904. For seven years he was captain of Company A. Thirteenth Regiment. From 1887 to 1891 he was a member of the governor's staff, as in- spector of rifle practice, with the rank of colo- nel. He subsequently became colonel of the Eleventh Regiment Provisional Guard, and on its return from the field and muster-out of ser- vice, he became coonel of the Thirteenth Reg- iment National Guard of Pennsylvania. He was the first president of the National Guard Association of Pennsylvania, and held the office for two years.

In 1874 Mr. Watres was married to Miss Effie Hawley, and they have three sons: Har- old, recently deceased ; Laurence and Reyburn. Colonel Watres has a wide and favorable acquaintance throughout the state, having been the associate and co-laborer of many of the most distinguished men of Pennsylvania, while in his home locality where he is best

known he has secured that closer warmer feel- ing which is termed friendship, and which arises from the commendable personal traits of the individual.

HAROLD A. WATRES. In the death of Harold A. Watres, the city of Scranton suffers the loss of one of the most talented and promis- ing of its young men, while the father, who had fondly hoped to witness his rise to emi- nence in the profession which he himself has adorned, is called to sustain an infliction it were an intrusion to dwell upon. Endowed with natural qualifications of the highest order. with the best collegiate equipment the leading higher schools could afford, and adorned with the noblest traits of personal character, the young lawyer was a first favorite with the bar of Lackawanna county, by whose members he was held in admiration for what he was, as well as for what he was expected to achieve in a career which had opened to him unusually brilliant prospects.

Harold A. Watres was born in Scranton, March 23, 1879, eldest son of Hon. Louis A. and Effie (Hawley) Watres. He was afforded every educational advantage, and of these he made the best possible use. He began his ed11- cation in the public schools and graduated with honor from the high school. Even in those early days his strength of character was ap- parent, as appears from an incident related by Hon. John M. McCourt in his eulogy before the Lackawanna Bar Association after the young lawyer's decease. Said he: "He (Har- old A. Watres) was almost too gentle and re- served, and yet, where a principle was involv- ed, he defended it with a flash and force that stood out lurid against his usually calm and quiet disposition. I very well recall his spir- ited opposition as a mere school boy to certain partisan doctrines set forth in a "Political Economy" then in use in the high school. And it was that very incident that immediately in- spired the discussion of the subject in the pub- lic prints of the city, and ultimated in the text- book being supplanted by a non-partisan one. It was then that I learned that the gentle hand of Harold Watres could be a firm and heavy one."

After leaving the high school, young Watres spent some time abroad, receiving tutorial instructions at various educational centres. Returning home he entered Prince- ton College, from which he was graduated in

At &Paine

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

1901, at the age of twenty-two years. He prepared for his chosen profession, that of the law, in the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia (New York) University, having reg- istered as an student at law with the firm of Willard, Warren & Knapp. He had mean- time received the great benefits of his father's counsel and aid, and it is not improbable that no young lawyer in the state ever came to the bar with more ample preparation. He was admitted to practice before the courts of Lack- awanna county, and at once entered upon ac- tive professional work. How well he ac- quitted himself during the pitifully brief per- iod allowed him, was eloquently affirmed by his fellows of the Lackawanna Bar Associa- tion, at their assembling to pay the last tribute of respect and affection to his memory. Cer- tain it is that talented body never before agreed in such lofty estimate of one so young. Judge H. M. Edwards, who presided, referred to the clearness and lucidity of the briefs sub- mitted by the young attorney, and said that he seemed destined to become a very great lawyer. Major Everitt Warren, with whom the lamented deceased had been associated in practice, said: "He truly performed in the highest degree his oath of office as a lawyer, and he was in every relation of life .a true christian gentleman. He had a cast of mind eminently practical but accurate, and, had he lived, I am sure he would have taken high rank in the legal fraternity of the commonwealth." And the concensus of opinion of all was truth- fully and forcefully epitomized in the reso- lutions adopted by the Association :

"Mr. Watres, although young in years and in the practice of the law, was well and sound- ly versed in its foundation principles ; his education was the result of hard and continu- ous study in the best universities and law schools ; he came to the bar thoroughly and well prepared, so far as exceptional personal qualification and a knowledge of the principles of law could fit him, to take one of its highest places. Even after he was admitted he re- mained a diligent and devoted student of the law, and gave promise of a noble, honorable and successful career as a practictioner. His well trained mind, upright character, unfail- ing courtesy and devotion to his profession. »Il bespoke for him the eminent position which he might have commanded had his life been spared. As his life was to us an inspiration. so his sudden and untimely death, just at tle

threshold of his life work, should be taken as an admonition, and make us realize our high duty and privileges in upholding the legal principles to which his life was devoted."

Mr. Watres died on September 16, 1905, in the twenty-sixth year of his age. The fun- eral services were held in the family residence, 331 Quincy avenue, Scranton, and were at- tended by a large concourse, which included some fifty members of the bar. The officiat- ing clergyman was the Rev. Dr. James Mc- Leod, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, whose remarks were remarkable for their fer- vor. Dwelling upon the words of the Saviour, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," the deeply affected speaker said, "If ever a lad had a pure heart, that lad was Harold Watres, one of the truest and best young Christian men whom I have ever met."

To again quote from the touching tribute of the dead man's school day friend, (Mr. Mc- Court) :

" His life is rounded with a sleep. He has taken his wages and gone his way. He leaves behind him no frailties for us to write in sand. He leaves no enemies to forgive him injuries for the good that was of him. And in the face of this catastrophe which makes a ghastly jest of all earthly standards for judging men and their achievements, shall we be so material as to regret that his hour came before he could strike his blow or snatch his laurels? Had he not al- ready done the greatest thing? Had he not builded of himself a man? Harold Watres sleeps tonight upon his shield as surely as any Grecian youth who marched from the gates of Lacedaemon. There is nothing that we can say that will deflect even slightly the heavy blow from which his family will long reel. They shall surely find their greatest comfort in the calm assurance that

"'Life is ever Lord of Death, And love can never lose its own.'

"The rude hand of Time may seek, as it will, to sprinkle dust and ashes upon his name, but in the care of those who were his friends and knew him best, the memory of Harold Watres is secure, and I think we may safely leave it so."

HENDRICK ELSWORTH PAINE. The Paine family bears one of the oldest and most honored names in the country, and has been equally distinguished in the professional and mili- tary life. It furnished one signer to the Declara-

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

tion of Independence, Robert Treat Paine. The Paines are first mentioned in Bloomfield's "His- tory of Norfolk County, England," printed in 1316. This shire was the earliest recorded seat of the family, which traces its lineage to the an- cient Britons, or Angles. The name has been spelled variously : Pain, Payn, Paine and Payne. Stephen Paine, the immigrant progenitor of the family, settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in the year 1635. His son, Stephen the second, re- moved to a little village then called Indian Sea- couck, and changed the name to Rehoboth. The fourth Stephen removed to Pomfret, Connecticut. He served in the old colonial wars, fought at the battle of Louisburg, and was with Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham. His son, Stephen the fifth, removed to East Windsor, Connecticut, and was residing there at the time of the Revolution.

The last Stephen served two enlistments dur- ing the long continued struggle for American In- dependence.

Eleazer Paine, son of the preceding, was born in East Windsor, Connecticut. When but a lad he enlisted as a drummer boy and drummed to good purpose. He was present at the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga. After the close of that great struggle he manifested an interest in mili- tary affairs, and was promoted from one position to another, until he was finally commissioned col- onel of the Nineteenth Connecticut Regiment, re- ceiving his commission from the hand of Gover- nor Jonathan Trumbull in the year 1803. Soon after the close of the Revolution he married Auriel Elsworth, daughter of Job Elsworth, of East Windsor, Connecticut.

The Elsworth family held a conspicuous posi- tion in the early history of Connecticut as well as the nation, one reaching the honored position of chief justice of the United States supreme court, and another one, that of governor of Con- necticut. Colonel Eleazer Paine early caught the western spirit, which was caused by the proposed admission of Ohio into the Union. In the year 1801 he traveled on horseback from East Wind- sor to the wilds of northern Ohio, and purchased a large tract of land embracing about three thous- and acres, located around the mouth of Grand river. In 1803 he removed with his family to this location, and founded what is now the city of Painesville. He was a surveyor by profession, and had high hopes of accomplishing a great work in the new Western Reserve, but his ca- reer was cut short, for he died in February, 1804, and was buried on the banks of Grand river.

Colonel Hendrick Elsworth Paine, son of Eleazer Paine, was born in East Windsor, Con- necticut, and was brought with his father's family to Painesville, Ohio, in the year 1803. He was the eldest of a family of four sons and one daughter. He was but fourteen years old at the time of the death of his father. He thus became the head of the family in assisting his mother in rearing the younger members of the family. His military instinct developed early, and he joined the local military organizations and was promoted from one position to another until he was commis- sioned colonel of his regiment. At the time of Hull's surrender at Detroit, during the war of 1812, his regiment was called cut and served for a time at the front between Sandusky and Detroit. He built the first forge for the manufacture of merchant bar iron that was erected in northern Ohio and thus became the pioneer ironmaster in a field that is now one of the greatest iron and steel centres of the world. In 1809 he married Harriet Phelps, a member of the old and distin- guished Phelps family of Connecticut. Colonel Paine lived to the ripe old age of ninety-three and finally passed away at Monmouth, Warren country, Illinois. He was the father of five chil- dren, all growing to maturity :

I. Henry, to be referred to hereafter.

2. Elizabeth Elsworth Paine, married Ja- mon Smith, and lived in Illinois.

3. General Eleazer A. Paine, who, like his ancestors, was possessed of a military spirit, and at the age of eighteen received an appointment as cadet at West Point, where he graduated with honors four years later. He served for a time at the Academy after his graduation, as instructor of cadets, and was then transferred to Florida and other border stations. Becoming tired of such service he resigned his commission and re- turned to civil life, read law, and located at Mon- mouth, Illinois, where he was living at time of the breaking out of the war of the rebellion. When the first shot was fired he went to Springfield, tendered his services to Governor Richard Yates, and was placed in charge of organizing the re- cruits into companies and regiments and sending them to the front. After eight regiments had been forwarded, he then went out as colonel of Ninth regiment, and was in constant service from then until the end of the war. He was pro- moted to brigadier-general, and commanded a di- vision in the Army of the Cumberland.

4. Barton F. Paine, a farmer, who emigrated and was living in Nebraska at the time of his death.

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

5. Hendrick E. Painc, at the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, was residing near Monmouth, Illinois. He raised a company and took it to the front, saw hard and constant ser- vice to the end of the war, and was mustered out of the service at the close of the war with the rank of major. He then located in the city of Omaha, was chief of police of that city for a time, and then entered the police and detective service of the Union Pacific Railroad, in which service he remained to the time of his death.

Henry, the eldest child of Colonel Hendrick E. and Harriet (Phelps) Paine, was born in Painesville, Ohio, February 4, 1810. He was ed- ucated in the common schools and at Eagleville Academy. He was a man possessed of the con- fidence of the entire community in which he re- sided. He held successively the offices of justice of the peace, coroner and county commissioner, being elected to the latter office three successive terms, and was in office at the time of his death. He succeeded his father in the management of the iron business, and operated the works very profitably. He was also engaged in the lumber- ing business and in farming. Like all of his an- cestors he took an interest in military matters, and was advanced to the rank of major in the reg- iment to which he belonged. In religion he was a firm believer in the Protestant faith, inclining rather to Methodist views, but at the time of his death was not a member of any regular church. In his twenty-fourth year he married Harriet N. Tuttle, daughter of Ira and Charry (Mills) Tut- tle, of Ashtabula county, Ohio. He formed the acquaintance of this gifted woman while attend- ing school at Eagleville Academy, near her fa- ther's home. She was from old Connecticut fam- ilies, both Tuttle and Mills. She was most gifted by nature, gentle and effeminate in all her ways, domestic and lovable by nature, religious in every thought, and devoted all that she was to the raising of a family of ten children, three sons and seven daughters. She early turned their young minds into a religious channel. She taught them the highest principles of personal, moral honor. She lived her early life during the days of American slavery, and early instilled into the minds of her children an abhorrence of the institution of slavery. She read the best litera- ture, and encouraged her children to do the same. She took a keen interest in politics and knew the position of every public man of note on all the questions before the people. She read the annual messages of the presidents, and had a clear un- derstanding of the matters treated in these docu- ments. Major Henry Paine lost his life by an accident at the age of fifty-eight years. His

wife Harriet survived him eleven years, and both are resting in the cemetery on the banks of Grand River, at Painesville, Ohio.

Hendrick Elsworth, eldest son of Major Henry and Harriet (Tuttle) Paine, was born on March 12, 1845, at Paine's Hollow, near Paines- ville, Ohio. He was one of a family of twelve children. The two eldest died in infancy, the re- maining ten grew to manhood and womanhood, and were all living when the youngest one was forty-eight years old. The names of this family in order are as follows: Elizabeth E., Auriel, Mary D., Charlotte 1., Hendrick E., Ira T., Charry M., Harriet N., Stella A., and Henry. At this writing nine of this family are living.

Hendrick E. was the seventh child and the first son born to his parents. His early life ran peaceful as the creek by which he sported. He enjoyed ample opportunity to enjoy those sports so dear to the heart of the American boy-skat- ing, swimming, coasting, hunting and fishing were his for the asking. When five years old he began attendance at the country district school, and usually stood at the head of his class. When ten years old he had ample opportunity to begin a course of reading of substantial works. At this time the state of Ohio provided a school library for every school in the state. These works were mostly history and biography by able writers. For years the boy waded through thousands of pages of these standard works, and early stored his mind with some knowledge of the great world that lay out beyond his own vision. At this period of his life the one great question before the American people was human slavery. His sur- roundings were anti-slavery in the extreme, and it is no wonder that he became a rank abolitionist. When sixteen years old he entered Madison Sem- inary, near his home, but after one term his edu- cation was cut short by enlisting in the army and marching away to the front in the defense of his country.

When Fort Sumter was fired upon, in the spring of 1861, and President Lincoln called for volunteers, he tried to enlist, but the government wanted men, and not stripling boys. So he waited as best he could, and one year later was accepted as a drummer boy in Company D, 105th Reg- iment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He enlisted July 31, 1862, for three years, but was discharged for physical disability at Gallatin, Tennessee, February 26, 1863. His service at the front was a creditable one. Though only a drummer boy he performed many of the duties of the soldier. The regiment in which he served was hastily re- cruited and rushed to the front without one days delay. No time for drill, or the preparations for

2-5

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

the duties of the soldier. Bragg, with his Con- federate army was invading Kentucky, and every available regiment was rushed to the front. Then began the hard exacting duties of the soldier -marches by day and by night ; scorching heat, in rain and mud all day and all night and all day again, until bodily strength was exhausted. This campaign culminated in the pitched battle at Perryville, Kentucky, between the forces of Gen- eral Bragg, Confederate, and General Buell, Union. In this engagement the drummer boy acquitted himself with signal gallantry. During a few moments of lull in the firing, he volun- teered to go out between the lines and bring from the field a wounded soldier. In this terrible bat- tle the regiment suffered a loss of one-half of its number but the drummer boy escaped. From this time on he was constantly at the front with his regiment. In the winter of 1862 and 1863, while the army was marching from Kentucky to Tennessee, he was attacked with the measles. The army was on the move, snow was on the ground, and all the discomforts of army life had to be endured by the lad, who was deathly sick during the whole campaign. Human nature could not stand it, and in order to save his life the govern- ment gave him a discharge, and he returned to his home, a mere skeleton of his former self. It took a year for him to recover his usual health, when he enlisted the second time, for one hun- dred days, in Company E. 17Ist Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served his full term, and when discharged went to the oil fields of Pennsylvania. For the next eighteen years he was actively engaged in drilling and operating oil wells, and mastered the business in all its details. He rose step by step until he became the man- ager of companies amongst the largest in the oil field. He also operated for himself. In 1882 he sold his oil wells and retired from the business.

In the year 1883 he located in Scranton and engaged in the fire insurance business, and is yet giving this business his principal considera- tion. In the year 1890 he admitted his only son into the business, which is now conducted under the firm name of H. E. Paine & Son. This firm does a general agency business, and their field of operations covers all northeastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Paine has interested himself in other lines of business, and is largely interested in several of the best known corporations of Scranton. In politics a Republican, he has always reserved the right to oppose both men and measures that he considered wrong. If his party nominates un- worthy men for office he refuses to vote for them. For a good many years he has represented his ward in the city councils and has taken a great

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 13

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