USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 19
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 19
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February 20, 1838, Colonel Tripp married Miss Rosanna Shoemaker, who was, like him- self, a descendant of an old Pennsylvania fam- ily. Her grandfather, Isaac Shoemaker, was of German extraction, and settled in Wyom- ing. His son, Jacob I., was born in Easton, went to Wyoming with his parents, and be- came the proprietor of Shoemaker's hotel, at the foot of the mountains, and where he passed the remainder of his life. His wife was a native of the state of New York. They were
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the parents of the following children: Isaac, who became a leading farmer in Luzerne county ; William, a farmer, who died in Wy- oming ; Mrs. Mary A. Tuttle; Margaret, who became the wife of Isaac Tripp, and died in Forty Fort; Rosanna, who became the wife of Col. Ira Tripp, and survived all her brothers and sisters ; and Sallie, who became the wife of Hol- den Tripp, and died in Wyoming.
To Colonel and Mrs. Ira Tripp were born four children. Isaac C. was a gallant soldier for the Union during the rebellion, and rose to the rank of corporal; he was an active Grand Army man and died in Scranton. Lean- der S. became an engineer 'on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railway, and died in Scranton, leaving a widow and two children. William died in infancy. The only daughter, Gertrude, died at the age of twenty-six. She was a woman of remarkable personality and loveliness of character. She was liberally edu- cated in Kingston Seminary and a convent in Rochester, New York, and her mind had been broadened by extensive travel. A friend said of her in a local newspaper, after her death, "She was a lady tiny in form, and beautiful as the young fawn. Nature had given her a dis- position of singular sweetness, and charm of no ordinary character. She was a home girl in her tastes and habits. Who that ever saw her can forget the pleasant face and the ex- pressive eyes with which she welcomed her friends, and riveted them to her by the strong- est bonds of affection? Ushered into the school of womanhood early, she grew lovelier in her maturity, and became the little sun of the circle in which she moved, at home and abroad. She tended the mignonette which grew in her window, admired and arranged the flowers in her elegant conservatory, then turned from their beauties to her pillow, to bid her friends and him who had breathed soft and passionate words into her soul, and to whom she was shortly to have been united in holy wedlock. farewell-a last farewell." At the funeral the Rev. A. A. Marple spoke touch- ingly of the lovely dead, and none who heard him felt that the encomiums he pronounced were words of adulation, but rather fell short of the beautiful character of her whom he eulogized. Among the tributes to her mem- ory none was so pathetically and consolingly sweet as that expressed in verse by her poet friend, "Stella," concluding with the stanza :
Sweet anchor thou has found, but I Drift on a stream where false sands lie ; And little matters what wild night
Shall sweep my shivering bark from sight ; If through the gates of paradise,
Where thou dost draw me with thine eyes ; Watch for me, darling. till I come, As wanderer to a waiting home.
The wife of Colonel Tripp survived him several years, and died widely and sincerely mourned. She was of broad education and all womanly graces, besides possessed of excellent business qualifications which enabled her to conduct her estate affairs with method and ac- curacy. Her mental powers had been further expanded by extensive travel. She usually spent her winters in California, and she had also been abroad. In childhood she attended the Presbyterian Church, but during the greater part of her mature life she was identi- fied with St. Luke's ( Protestant Episcopal) Church. It was her bitter grief to survive all who had been nearest to her-the husband of her youth, and all of her children, and in her declining days she found her consolation in her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, upon whom she lavished all the affection of her ardently loving nature.
LEANDER SHOEMAKER TRIPP, de- ceased, was a man of marked ability, and in his character he reflected the excellent traits which distinguished his estimable ancestry and par- entage.
The second son of Colonel Ira and Rosanna (Shoemaker) Tripp, he was born on the family homestead on North Main avenue, Providence, in 1841. His youth was passed in Scranton, where he laid the foundations of his education. in the public schools and he completed his studies in Wyoming Seminary. From an early age he evinced a liking for a railway life, and he began his active career in the service of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway, rising by merit to the position of locomotive engineer in which capacity he continued until his voluntary retirement. He was accom- plished in his profession, and enjoyed the full- est confidence of the railway company, and the esteem of all with whom he was in any man- ner associated. A man of more than ordinary intelligence, he was fully in sympathy with all movements for the welfare of the community, and gave to them a cordial support. He died
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in 1876, at the age of thirty-five years, his early demise being undoubtedly hastened by reason of the arduous duties imposed by his calling, and the mental strain incident to his sense of the responsibilities imposed upon him.
Mr. Tripp married, in April, 1865, in Scran- ton, Miss Jennie E. Pearce, the third of the six children of William and Martha ( Clathworthy) Pearce. She is a lady of refinement and ex- cellent attainments. She was born in Hones- dale, Wayne county, and was educated in Provi- dence, to which place her parents removed in her early youth, and she taught school there for a year prior to her marriage. She sur- vived her husband, and gave careful training to her two childrren. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a generous contributor to the wants of the poor and dis- tressed.
Walter Tripp, eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Leander S. Tripp, was a man of broad educa- tion, and by natural powers and training was well qualified for an active and brilliant career, which was unfortunately closed to him owing to his physicial frailty. He was born February 6, 1865, in Scranton, where he acquired his preliminary education. He pursued advanced branches in military schools, which he at- tended in the hope that the advantages of mili- tary drill and other outdoor pursuits would contribute to his health and physical develop- ment. He subsequently entered the Polytech- nic Institution in Troy, New York, where he was known as a conscientious and ambitious student. After completing his studies he went to San Diego, California, but owing to im- paired health was not permitted to enter upon business. His death occurred there June 17, 1901. With him at the time were his widow and her father, Mr. Williams, who brought the remains of their loved one to his boyhood home, where they were tenderly laid away in Forest Hill Cemetery. The last services were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Haughton, curate of St. Luke's (Protestant Episcopal) Church of Scranton. The sad event was deeply de- plored by a large circle of warmly attached friends, and it was remarked with sad interest that the lamented deceased had passed away at very nearly the same age as did his father-the latter being thirty-five and the former thirty-six years old. Walter Tripp married Miss Mar- garet Williams, of Omaha, Nebraska, and they were the parents of one child, Rozene.
Kathryn G., second child of Mr. and Mrs.
Leander S. Tripp, was born April 21, 1869. She became the wife of John F. Broadbent, a highly respected citizen of Scranton, engaged in an insurance business. Of this marriage were born three children-Kathryn R., Ira. Tripp and John Franklin Broadbent, Jr.
JOHN GEORGE FRUEHAN, D. D. S .. The dental profession in its wonderfully ad- vanced modern form represents both a science and a mechanic art, and he who would attain to success in its practice must have a thorough preliminary training and a natural predilection for both departments of its work. Among the representative members of the profession in the city of Scranton, Lackawanna county, is found Dr. Fruehan, who is a native of this city and who has here passed the entire period of his life thus far, being held in unqualified esteem in busi- ness, professional and social circles.
Dr. Fruehan was born in Scranton, December 25, 1878, and is a son of George, Jr., and Louise ( Brall) Fruehan, the former of whom was born in Germany, while the latter was born in Pitts- ton, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The father- of Dr. Fruehan was reared to maturity in his fatherland, whence he came to America when a young man, in company with his parents, George- and Elizabeth Fruehan, and his brothers Henry and Conrad, the family arriving in the new world in the year 1859. The grandparents of Dr. Fruehan continued to reside in Scranton during the remainder of their lives, the grandfather's death occurring in 1897, at the patriarchal age of eighty-six years. For a time after his arrival in Scranton, whither he came shortly after coming to America, George Fruehan, Jr., worked as a mill hand and eventually engaged in the general merchandise business, with which he continued to be identified for a period of nearly a quarter of a century, with distinctive success, becoming one of the representative business men and in- fluential citizens of his home city. He made a special study of music, in which line he devel- oped his fine talents, while he was for a number of years a successful teacher of music. His political faith' was that of the Republican party, in religion he was a member of the Presbyterian Church, while fraternally he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He died in 1890, honored by all who knew him and known as one of Scranton's loyal citizens, and his widow still resides in the attractive family home in this city. Of the eight children five are living, name- ly : Elizabeth, Emma, John G., Herman and Eva.
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Dr. Fruehan secured his early educational training in the public schools of Scranton, com- pleting a course in the high school, while he has ever since continued his educational work by that careful self-application and that experience which are the best of masters and tutors. In early life he entered a local drug establishment, where he made a special study of pharmacy, becoming skilled in the line and continuing to be employed in the connection for a period of seven years. In 1898 he matriculated in the Philadelphia College . of Dentistry, in the city of Philadelphia, where .he completed a thorough technical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1901. He forthwith took up the active practice of his profession in his native city, where he has suc- ceeded in building up a profitable and represen- tative business, his finely equipped offices being located at No. 632 Cedar avenue. In politics Dr. Fruehan gives his allegiance to the Independent party, and in a fraternal way is an appreciative affiliate of the Masonic order, being identified · with Lodge No. 345, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Keystone Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, at Scranton ; and Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mys- -tic Shrine, at Wilkes-Barre. He is also identi- fied with the Patriotic Order Sons of America, and the Patriotic Order of America. He is a Presbyterian in his church connections.
Dr. Fruehan married, August 3, 1904, Helen C. Scheuer, daughter of George and Mary Scheuer, well known residents of Scranton, in which city Mrs. Fruehan was born and reared.
HON. ELI EMORY HENDRICK. One of the most prominent and public spirited men in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, and one who has con- tributed largely toward the growth and material development of the city is Eli Emory Hen- drick.
Mr. Hendrick was born in Plymouth, Wayne county, Michigan, in 1832. His ancestors were . of Dutch extraction, and settled in Bucks or Berks county, Pennsylvania, at an early day, where his father, Peter Hendrick, was born in 1802. While Peter was still a child in arms, the family moved to Ohio, the journey being made on horseback, and settled in the "Western Reserve." On attaining his majority Peter Hendrick left the home of his father to make his own way in the world. Joining a drover who was going to Philadelphia with stock, he made his way east and subsequently by some means through New York state and Canada to Michigan, where he
secured a tract of land in Wayne county, then a wilderness. By dint of energy and perseverance he succeeded in clearing and cultivating the land, which later became productive and valuable. He went later to a farm near Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he died in the year 1890. Peter Hendrick was twice married, and was the father of four children : Edmund, Eliza J., Eli E., by his first wife, and by his second wife, Franklin, who was' drowned in 1864 in the Allegheny river in Frank- lin, Pennsylvania.
At the age of eleven years, after obtaining a limited education in the common schools of his birthplace, Eli E. Hendrick, the subject of this sketch, was hired out to a farmer to carry the United States mail on horseback. He was to carry the mail each alternate half day, and attend school the other half day, the remuneration being three dollars per month, but, boylike, he preferred to work on the farm in preference to going to school. He carried the mail to Ann Arbor and Wayne, and being a general favorite with the people along the route he was enabled to earn considerable money by performing errands and carrying messages. At the age of fourteen he secured a clerkship in a store in Plymouth, and when not otherwise engaged he would copy the writing on the hills of New York merchants, and in this way he became an expert penman. About this time he saw the necessity of acquiring an education, and consequently attended district school, supplementing the knowledge thus ob- tained by a course for one winter at the seminary, where he studied chemistry, philosophy, algebra and higher arithmetic, and other branches. He then accepted a position as clerk with a Mr. May, a merchant of Upper Plymouth, at a salary of ten dollars per month, and during the period he re- mained with him Mr. May was so impressed with his blameless conduct and executive ability that he secured his election as secretary of the Sunday school.
When seventeen years of age, having a great taste for mechanical work, he entered the employ of his brother to learn the trade of wood turner. Later he entered into partnership with his brother, and they established a shop for general wood turning and the manufacture of wooden hay rakes and other farming implements. The shop was destroyed by fire in 1853. but was soon rebuilt and enlarged to include a steam sawmill and the manufacture of barrel staves and barrels, and they gave employment to a large force of men. The panic of 1857 was very disastrous to their business, and shortly afterward they dis-
E. E. Hendrick.
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posed of it to Mr. May, the former employer of the younger brother. Mr. Hendrick then went to the western wilds of Michigan and engaged in the manufacture of flour barrel staves on a large scale for the western market. The firm with which he was connected soon failed, and dispos- ing of his stock of staves to a Niles firm he ac- cepted a position with them as manager of a large cooperage established at Davenport, Iowa. This venture not proving satisfactory, he re- turned east and secured an agency for the sale of a new invention, a governor for steam engines, and in this enterprise he achieved a large degree of success. While engaged in this line of business Mr. Hendrick made the acquaintance of a man who had originated a new kind of oil, manufact- ured out of one half oil and the other half water. Being assured of its merits, he purchased the receipt for ten dollars and spent the winter of 1861-62 in experimenting with oil. He finally discovered that the receipt was practically useless, but in his tests he discovered a formula which he thought would prove more satisfactory. He then went to Toronto, Canada, and experimented with it on machinery of a large rolling mill, and find- ing that it worked satisfactorily, the owners of the mill paid him fifty dollars for his receipt, with permission to manufacture for their own use.
On his return to Scranton, Pennsylvania, he introduced this oil in that locality, making ar- rangements with John B. Smith, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Coal Company's gravity road, to give it a test on the cars of the company. After a thorough test which extended over a period of several months, he succeeded in prov- ing to them that the use of his oil would be a saving to them of fifty per cent on lubrication, whereupon they decided to use the oil, paying him for the same five hundred dollars. This encour- aged Mr. Hendrick to make further experiments in the oil business which were uniformly suc- cessful. As a result of these experiments, Mr. Hendrick soon obtained a patent upon another lubricant, called Galena oil, which is still in use. Disposing of this patent and factory at a profit. he soon followed this up in 1876 with another improved oil, building a factory at Franklin, Pennsylvania, for its manufacture. Selling this out to the Standard Oil Company, he located in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, and erected an oil re- finery with a capacity of about eight hundred barrels crude oil per day. This in turn was sold to the Standard Oil Company, and soon thereaf- ter he was employed by said company to super- intend the erection of their refineries near New
York City. This position he held for about two 1 years, and then returned finally to Carbondale and devoted himself to the business in which he is still actively engaged.
In 1879 Mr. Hendrick established a small ma- chine shop in Carbondale, which has steadily grown and developed under his skillful manage- ment into the present extensive and widely known Hendrick Manufacturing Company. In the de- velopment of the business of this company Mr. Hendrick's inventive genius and marked ability along mechanical lines have had full sway and are seen at their best. No mechanical problem is too difficult for him to undertake, and he spares neither time nor money until he has accomplished everything he sets out to do along these lines, his tenacity of purpose and perseverance being marked characteristics. With the exception of the coal industry and the Delaware and Hud- son Company, the Hendrick Manufacturing Company is the largest employer of labor in the Lackawanna Valley north of Scranton, and has no doubt been a considerable factor in building up Carbondale to its present proportions. Aside from his own works, Mr. Hendrick is interested in nearly all of the enterprises in the city, as well as in many out of it. He is connected with the Carbondale Machine Company, as large stock- holder and director, is president of the Clover Leaf Manufacturing Company, a stockholder in the Klots Throwing Company, the Empire Silk Company, the Carbondale Milling Company, the Sperl Heater Company, and the Anthracite Land and Improvement Company. He assisted in or- ganizing the Miners and Mechanics' Savings Bank, of which he has been vice-president since its establishment. He aided in the promotion of the Los Angeles Ice and Cold Storage Company, of Los Angeles, California, of which he is pres- ident and in which he has a large amount of money invested.
The esteem in which he is held by the citizens of Carbondale is evidenced by the fact that in 1893 he was elected to the responsible position of mayor. During his term of office many im- provements were made in the paving of streets, and the beautifying of the city by the erection of bridges and other substantial improvements. Mr. Hendrick occupies one of the most commodious and comfortable residences in Carbondale. It stands almost in the heart of the city, surrounded by about ten acres of ground, and together with its highly cultivated gardens and its fine green- houses, forms one of the most attractive homes in this part of the state.
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At Plymouth, Michigan, in 1853, Mr. Hen- drick married Miss Caroline P. Hackett, who died in 1895, leaving two daughters-Mary, now the wife of A. P. Trautwein, president of the Carbondale Machine Company ; and Lillian, now the wife of William T. Colville, treasurer of the Hendrick Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Hendrick's benevolences, both public and private, are many. He is generous to a fault with his money. Many a young man and young woman owes to him, in whole or in part, the op- portunity to get an education, and together with numerous others to whom he has extended an ever ready helping hand, will long bear him in grateful memory.
WILLIAM PEARCE. Prominent among those who were identified with the Scranton region at the beginning of its industrial de- velopment was William Pearce, who was not only a man of remarkable industry and endur- ance, but was also a strong personality in the life of the community. His moral fibre finds exemplification in the splendid patriotism which moved him, although then well along in years, to take up arms for his country dur- ing the great rebellion. How deeply his own traits of character were implanted in his chil- dren is attested in the fact that all his sons, three in number, also entered the army, and all made excellent records as courageous and faithful soldiers.
The Pearce family originated in England, and has been distinguished by fine soldierly qualities throughout all its recorded genera- tions. The grandfather of William Pearce was a colonel in the British army, stationed in Cornwall, where he reared his family. Will- iam Pearce, the immediate subject of this nar- rative, had for brothers-in-law (brothers of his wife) two who bore commissions as lieutenants in the British army during the Crimean war; one was killed in the storming of Sebastapol ; and the other wounded in the same engage- ment, died from his injuries on the Island of Malta, while on his way home.
William Pearce was born in Liskeard, Cornwall, January 21, 1818, son of a farmer and butcher. April 6, 1841, he married Martha Clathworthy, daughter of a large ship- builder at Davenport, England, where she was born. Shortly after their marriage they came to the United States, settling in Bethany, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, where their first child was born. Mr. Pearce cultivated
a farm for a period of twelve years, and in 1852 removed to Scranton, where he con- ducted a meat market for four years. In 1856 he was employed to assist in opening up the first coal slope, in the hollow at the Notch, and that came to be known as the Luzerne mines. Later he was similarly employed in the be- ginning of the Von Storch shaft, and yet later (in 1857) the slope. On the breaking out of the rebellion he enlisted in the Fiftieth Regi- ment New York Volunteers, with which he performed faithful and meritorious service un- til the end of the war. His regiment was an engineer body, whose numbers were selected with special reference to their ability along mechanical lines. Upon it fell the arduous duty of constructing field entrenchments, and frequently under fire; erecting approaches against permanent fortifications, together with sapping and mining in order to blow up the enemy's works. After returning to civil life Mr. Pearce was employed by the Delaware & Hudson Coal Company in the capacity of gen- eral coal inspector, and he gave faithful per- formance to his duties for a period of twenty- seven years, ending with his voluntary retire- ment in 1892. He was now seventy-four years. old, and notwithstanding his more than a half century of arduous and unremitting labors, preserved a robust physique, and cheery dis- position, and passed his later days in happy companionship with a large circle of relations and chosen friends who held him in high es- teem. He and his wife celebrated their six- tieth wedding anniversary on April 6, 1901, and the occasion was one of great joyfulness, although it was evident that the venerable husband could not long be spared to his loved ones. His death occurred October 3. 1901, in his eighty-fifth year, and was due to the infirmities of age which culminated in a para- lytic stroke. It is pathetic, to note that he was an ardent admirer of President McKin- ley. He was deeply affected when that hon- ored man fell a victim to the assassin, and while he was on his sick bed Mr. Pearce made frequent reference to that awful event. The funeral of Mr. Pearce was attended by a host of people who held him in affectionate regard, and the hearse used for Mr. Mckinley also carried Mr. Pearce to his last resting place. a most strange coincidence. The services weree conducted by the pastor of the Providence Presbyterian Church, of which the deceased was a most exemplary member. In all his life
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