Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 21

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 21
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 21

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).

Jonathan Fisher, the eldest son, was a man of most unusual parts. He seemed to excel in

everything that he undertook. He wrote a work on the animals and birds of New England and il- lustrated it himself. He was a surveyor and laid out the lines between the town of Blue Hill and the surrounding towns. He was a minister of the gospel and a most excellent Hebrew scholar. He manufactured and mixed the paints where- with to paint his house and barns. He graduated at Harvard College in 1792, and was licensed to- preach in Brookline, Massachusetts. He became- pastor of the Blue Hill Congregational Church of Maine, July 13, 1796. A beautiful story of this town of Blue Hill and its first minister en- titled "A Down East Village and. Memorable Pastorate," from which we quote this description of Mr. Fisher, says: "It would be instructive to, know how much of this quiet and good order is the result of the faithful and prolonged minis- try of their first pastor, the Rev. Jonathan Fisher, who came into the place when it was a wilderness in 1793 and for forty-one years was settled over this parish and whom the venerable Doctor Bond pronounced the most remarkable man he ever know. He was an author, an artist and a poet, and he was one of the founders and trustees of the Bangor Theological Seminary. He is spoken of as a remarkable man, a good farmer, a carpenter, a clock maker, a portrait painter, a wood engraver, a poet, and well versed in He- brew. He wrote three thousand sermons, was an early riser, a great walker, a faithful chris -. tian. Under him the town became noted for in- dustry, good morals and religious principles. When preaching at a salary of two hundred dol- lars a year and certain wood, etc., in all amount- ing to not more than three hundred dollars, he brought up a family of seven children, sent his . daughter to boarding school, gave one son, Rev. Josiah Fisher of Princeton, New Jersey, a lib- eral education, and saved enough money to pay the debt contracted while getting his own edu- cation. He invented a shorthand, in which he wrote his three thousand sermons."

Rev. Samuel Fisher, D. D., second child of Jonathan and Catherine (Avery) Fisher was graduated at Williams College in 1799, was li- censed to preach by the Berkshire session, Oc- tober 3, 1804. His first pastorate was at Wilton,. Connecticut, where he was ordained October 31, 1804. In 1809 he was sent by the general ses- sion of Connecticut to represent that body in the general assembly of the Presbyterian church at Philadelphia. He was next pastor of the church at Morristown, and afterwards pastor of the. First Presbyterian Church in Paterson, New- Jersey. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon

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him by Nassau Hall, College of New Jersey, in . At the breaking out of the Civil war he was 1827. He was the first moderator of the new school division of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, at the time of the division between the old and new schoools. He married, August 22, 1805, Alice, only child of Dr. James and Elizabeth (Davenport) Cogswell, of Preston, Connecticut. Elizabeth Davenport was the daughter of John Davenport, the Dark Day man celebrated in Whittier's poem of John Dav- enport. Dr. Cogswell was a son of Rev. James and Alice Cogswell, of Windham, Connecticut, and the brother of Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, the founder of the Hartford Asylum for Deaf Mutes. Doctor Cogswell was prominently identified with the Revolutionary cause in the state of Connecti- cut. Rev. Samuel and Alice Fisher had sons, Samuel W. and James Cogswell.

Samuel Ware Fisher, eldest son of Rev. Sam- nel and Alice Fisher, afterwards became presi- dent of Hamilton College, and was one of the committee of reunion appointed at St. Louis in 1870 to bring about the union between the old and new schools of the Presbyterian Church. He was also moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which met at Cleveland, Ohio, when the southern synods withdrew and formed themselves into a separate body ; this be- ing one of the eight or nine families in America who have contributed two moderators of the gen- eral assembly to the Presbyterian Church.

Dr. James Cogswell Fisher, second son of Rev. Samuel and Alice (Cogswell) Fisher, was born in Wilton, Connecticut, April 6, 1808. He entered Yale College at the age of fourteen and graduated with the class of 1826. He entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City and graduated from there in 1831. He married, at Paterson, New Jersey, May 9, 1831, Eliza Sparks. Her father was Major Samuel Sparks, a shipping merchant of Philadelphia, who served with credit in the war of 1812, at- taining the rank of major. In 1836 Dr. Fisher was appointed professor of chemistry and miner- alogy in the University of New York. He was associated with Professor S. B. Morse in the con- struction and introduction of the electric tele- graphı. Dr. Fisher always claimed that he was the first to suggest stretching wires on poles to avoid the great cost of putting them in pipes underground, which at first seemed likely to pre- vent the telegraph being generally used. Subse- quently he was associated with Colonel Samuel Colt in experiments in electricity applied to sub- marine purposes, during the course of which he blew up some old vessels in New York harbor.

made surgeon of the Fifth Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers; was soon afterwards made brigade surgeon of the Second New Jersey Brig- ade, and upon the abolishment of the rank of brigade surgeon was made medical director of Heintzleman's division of Sumner's Corps, and subsequently served on the staff of Generals Pat- terson and Hooker. He was made medical in- spector of the Veteran Reserve Corps of the De- partment of the Gulf and was with General Banks on his Red River expedition. He was surgeon in charge at Springville Landing, below Port Hudson, before and at the time of the sur- render of that post, and all the wounded of both armies passed under his supervision. He was sub- sequently surgeon in charge of Camp Parole at Annapolis, Maryland, during the time of the ex- change of the ten thousand prisoners from south- ern prisons, about the time of the close of the war, and was honorably mustered out of the ser- vice January 9, 1865, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel. He had a remarkable mind and his memory was phenomenal. He was called the "Walking Encyclopedia" by those who knew him well. He attended the fiftieth reunion of his class at Yale in 1876. He was a ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church. He died in 1881 and is buried in the family plot at Woodlands ceme- tery, Philadelphia. They had among other chil- dren, Samuel S. and James H.

Samuel S. Fisher, his oldest son, studied law under Judge Taft, of Cincinnati, and was a pat- ent lawyer of prominence in the United States. He was colonel of the One Hundred and Twen- ty-eighth Ohio Regiment, was commissioner of patents under General Grant for eighteen months, and was drowned in the Susquehanna river while on a canoe trip with his oldest son Robbie, at the Falls of the Connewago, below Harrisburg, in August, 1874. Dr. Fisher's daughter, Alice Cogswell, living in Washington, D. C., is the fourth Alice Cogswell by name in the family from that Alice Cogswell, a deaf mute who was taught by Professor E. M. Gallaudet, a monument to record which event now stands in Washington, D. C.

James Henry Fisher, sixth son of Dr. James Cogswell Fisher, was born at No. 1313 Chest- nut street. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 2, 1845. He studied in the public schools and prepared for Princeton College under Samuel Gummere at Burlington, New Jersey. His pro- fession is that of civil engineer and surveyor. He was for thirteen years the surveyor of the real estate department of the Delaware and Hud-

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son Company. At present his time is largely taken up with the purchase of rights of way for different railroad companies, the preparation of important mining and land cases for trial, and abstracting of titles. He is a Presbyterian in re- ligion, a Republican in politics ; has been city ed- itor of the Scranton Republican, secretary of the Scranton Board of Trade, is a member and ex- president of the Princeton Alumni Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania, secretary of the New England Society of Northeastern Penn- sylvania, secretary of the Lackawanna Institute of History and Science, is a member of the Scranton Engineers' Club, the Wyoming Geolog- ical and Historical Society of Luzerne County, the Scranton Club of Scranton, the Westmore- land Club of Wilkes-Barre, the Pennsylvania So- ciety of the Sons of the Revolution and Sigma Chapter of the order of Chi Phi. He married. August 24, 1899, Alice Marie Falkenbury, widow of Wallace Jay Falkenbury, a merchant of Suis- quehanna, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of DeWayne Norton, who was engaged in the lumber business at Susque- hanna. Her mother is Hannah Annis Norton (nce Church), who is still ( 1906) living, at the age of seventy-seven years, with her daughter, Mrs. Fisher. Mr. and Mrs. Norton were mar- ried at Maine, Broome county, New York, March 21, 1846.

HON. JOHN H. FELLOWS, who has been for many years numbered among the most enter- prising and public-spirited citizens of Scranton, is descended in the paternal line from English an- cestry, while in the maternal line he comes of Scotch lineage and also from one of the historic families founded in the new world by the May- flower voyagers.

Joseph Fellows, founder of the American family of that name, was born near Sheffield, England, sailed for America in 1790, accom- panied by his family, and that year established his home in Scranton, where he figured prom- inently in public affairs in his locality, serving as justice of the peace and conveyancer of lands. His home was located in that district of the city known as Hyde Park. He had extensive farm- ing interests, speculated largely in lands and ob- tained many tracts. His possessions included a vast acreage of coal lands, which he sold before he knew their value. He was about eighty years of age when he became involved in litigation with Dr. Malone. Winning his suit he thereby in- curred the bitter enmity of the physician, who in a fit of rage struck Mr. Fellows with a club, the

blow resulting in his death. In the family were four sons and four daughters: Nancy, Lydia, Catherine T., Elizabeth, Benjamin, Henry and Sylvanus, who were farmers; and Joseph, who succeeded his father in his real estate transac- tions, founded Hyde Park and died unmarried at the age of ninety-one years.

Benjamin Fellows, son of Joseph Fellows, was born in England, and was but two years of age at the time of his parents' emigration to the new world. His boyhood days were spent at the fam- ily home which was then a farm in what is now the west side of the city. He devoted his energies throughout his entire life to agricultural pursuits, was an honored and respected citizen of his com- munity and passed away at the age of eighty-five years. He did not care to figure in public life, but served for some time as justice of the peace. He married a La France, who was of French extraction, and was born in the Wyoming Val- ley. Their children were : 1. Joseph T., a farmer, who lived on the homestead. 2. Benjamin B., who located in Ottawa, LaSalle county, Illinois, and engaged in the coal business there. He mar- ried, and his children were Joseph, William, and four daughters. 3. Sallie, married (first), a Mr. Knickerbocker, and they had three sons, among whom was Jay, and a daughter Helen. Her sec- ond husband was Daniel Way, and the marriage was without issue.

John Fellows, son of Benjamin Fellows and father of Hon. John H. Fellows, was a native of Scranton, his birthplace being his father's home- stead farm in what is now Hyde Park. There he was reared to the labors of field and meadow and assisted in clearing one hundred acres of land in the western district of the city. He did not con- fine his attention, however, entirely to agricul- tural pursuits, but also engaged in the manufac- ture of brick. Becoming an advocate of the Republican party upon its organization, he re- mained one of its stalwart champions until his death, and at the time of the Civil war he was likewise an inflexible advocate of the Union cause and gave liberally of his means for its support. His religious faith was that of the Universalist Church. He was accidentally killed in 1887 by being thrown from his carriage, receiving injur- ies which caused his death, at the age of seventy- two years and four months.

John Fellows married Cynthia J. Pierce, born in Cooperstown, New York, a daughter of Levi Pierce, a native of the state of New York, but for many years a resident of Scranton, where he owned a distillery. He was of Scotch ancestry, and a descendant of one of the Mayflower im-

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migrants, as was also his wife, a Miss Ingles. Their children were: 1. Orin, a farmer and tan- ner at Cooperstown, New York, where he died. 2. Albert, a carpenter, who lived and died in Cooperstown. 3. Horatio S., who was a financier, having been president of a bank in Carbondale, and later president of the Scranton Trust Com- pany and Savings Bank. He died in Scranton, leaving a daughter, now Mrs. Sophronia Wisner, a resident of Brooklyn, New York. 4. Levi J., a speculator and capitalist, who lived at Forest- ville, Chautauqua county, New York. 5. Louisa, married Harvey Perkins, a carpenter. 6. Harriet, married Austin Knapp, and they had three chil- dren.

John and Cynthia J. (Pierce) Fellows were the parents of nine children :

I. Harriet, died May, 1903; she married Peter Wolcott, and their children were Pierce, John, Jeanette, Elizabeth, Electa, Jessie and Bessie.

2. Sarah, married George W. Carlton, a native of New Hampshire, and a carpenter and builder ; their children were Edward, Robert and Edith.

3. Electa E., married Fernando Oram, of Scranton, an engineer on the Delaware, Lacka- wanna & Western Railroad ; their children were : Jessie and Hattie.

4. Levi P., died aged seventeen years.

5. John H., to be further mentioned here- after.

6. Horatio T., a railroad conductor ; he mar- ried Ann Alida Thirlwell, and their children were Carrie, Pierce, Jennie, Frank, Alida and John.

7. George H., an engineer and machinist ; he married Hannah Weaver, and their children were Hattie, Gertrude, Eva, Bertha and Ruth.

8. Charles D., who was in the insurance business and died in 1891; he married Lucy Williams, and their children were Albert, Ethel and Lucy.

9. Eddie, died at the age of six years. The mother of these children did not long survive her husband, dying at the age of seventy-three years. She was a woman of noble Christian char- acter, and a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

John H. Fellows, throughout his entire life a resident of Scranton, was born July 23, 1849, in the family home not far from his present place of residence at No. 418 Tenth streeet. He was a district school student through the winter months until he attained the age of fifteen years and through the summer seasons he assisted in

farm work. He was only fourteen at the time of the Civil war, when he left home without per- mission and went to Harrisburg, where he en- deavored to enlist in the army, but was rejected on account of his youth and diminutive stature. He began learning the painter's trade, which he followed until twenty years of age, when, de- sirous of advancement along lines demanding a broader intellectuality, and more thorough prep- aration, he became a student in Gardner's Busi- ness College. Completing his course there he entered the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company and after a brief service with that corporation became a represen- tative of the German Fire Insurance Company of Erie, developing the largest agency in Scranton. In 1882 he sold his business to Norman & Moore, and turned his attention to the settlement of the estate of Joseph Fellows, his great uncle, which

had been in litigation for many years. He snc- ceeded in effecting a settlement, saving what was left of the property, and he continues to act as agent for the estate, in addition to which he has had large real estate interests. He has operated very extensively in realty in the placing of invest- ments and in the sale of property in various por- tions of the country. He is now president of the J. W. Browning Land Company, owners of land at Arlington Heights, below North Park; the Shawnee Land Company, incorporated in 1894, by which the boulevard of South Wilkes-Barre was laid out ; and the Ontario Land Company, which was organized with a capital of fifty thousand dollars that has since been increased to four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and which operates in Duluth, Minnesota, and vicin- ity. This company also owns realty at Spokane and Tacoma, Washington, and at Atlanta, Georgia. This company had as its founders John H. Fellows and Harry C. Heermans, of Corning, New York, and the office of the com- pany is at Duluth.

While interested in business affairs in various parts of the country, Mr. Fellows has remained loyal to his native city and has co-operated in many movements for its upbuilding. He has also figured in its political circles, and in 1886 was elected on the People's ticket a member of the board of school commissioners, but was legis- lated out of office. He was afterward chosen for the same position on the Republican ticket, endorsed by the Democrats, and served until February, 1890, when he was honored by election to the mayoralty of Scranton. In April of that year he entered upon a three years term, giving to the city a business-like and progressive ad-

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ministration that won him high encomiums from many representative men. In 1894 he was his party's candidate for congress and received a large support, but was defeated. He has served in city and county committees of the Republi- can party, and his opinions have carried weight in its councils, while his efforts have guided Re- publican action in his district. He is a valued representative of various fraternal organizations, including Union Lodge, No. 291, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a past- master, and he likewise belongs to Lackawanna Chapter, No. 185, Royal Arch Masons. He is identified with both the lodge and encampment of the Odd Fellows, being a past noble grand of the former, and has membership relations with Le-ha-hanna, Tribe of Red Men ; the Elks ; Hyde Park Lodge, No. 301, Sons of St. George, and Washington Camp, No. 72, Patriot Order Sons of America. He is popular in his home city be- cause of his approachability, genial and cour- teous manners, his entire reliability in business, his inflexible adherence to his convictions, and his loyal and progressive citizenship.

At Meshoppen, Mr. Fellows married Gene- vieve Overfield, who was there born, a daughter of Benjamin Overfield, a farmer and a descen- dant of German ancestry. Their children were: I. Winfield H .. a graduate of Lafayette College, and now an electrical engineer ; he married Fan- nie Kennedy, and they reside in Washington, D. C. ; their children are Winfield H. and Kenneth. 2. Nellie, married John W. Howell, of Scran- ton, who has charge of the Pintsch department of the Laclede Gas Light plant in St. Louis, Mis- souri ; they have a daughter, Lois. 3. Lois, married A. E. Morse, who is an "ad" specialist and a musician, and they reside in Scranton. 4. Louise A., a teacher in the county public schools. 5. Emma, who lives at home. 6.

Raymond. 7. Alwilda. All these children graduated from the Scranton high school. The mother died July 21, 1893, aged forty years. Mr. Fellows subsequently married Miss Laura L. Gray, daughter of Alonzo Gray, a farmer and dairyman of Tuscorora township, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and a granddaughter of Elder Gray, a Baptist minister at Laceyville. The children of this marriage were John H. and Marguerite Mae.

JAMES ALBERT LANSING, for many years actively identified with various important industrial and commercial enterprises in Scran- ton, has also during his long residence in the city exerted a potent and salutary influence

in community affairs, contributing in no small degree to that development which has won for the metropolis of the Lackawanna Valley a world- wide fame.

To Mr. Lansing belongs a remarkable ances- tral distinction, being a lineal descendant of some of the earliest representatives on American soil of two distinct races-English and Dutch-races which, dissimilar in many respects, were equally noted for the best individual traits of character, stern integrity, devotion to religious ideals, and unflinching loyalty to ideas of political freedom. The progenitor of the American branch of the Lansing family was Gerrit Frederick Lansing, whose father, Frederick Lansing, was a resident of the village of Hassel, province of Overyssel, Holland. Gerrit Frederick came to America with his three sons and three daughters about 1650, settling in New Amsterdam (now the city. of New York), under the governorship of sturdy Peter Stuyvesant, holding authority of the States- General of Holland. It is presumable that this Lansing, a man of years and family, took a full share with his fellows in their protest against the arbitrary rule of "Peter the Headstrong," as the governor was termed. Lansing had been four- teen years in this country when it passed under English rule (in 1664) under Governor Nicolls, and he died fifteen years later (about October 3, 1679), at Rensselaerwick, New York. How well preserved were the national and family traits among the Lansings is apparent from the fact that, since the first pulpit of the First Dutch Re- formed Church in Albany was set up, brought from Holland, there has not been a time when there was not a Lansing in the consistory of this historic church, the one which Theodore Roose- velt attended while he was governor of New York. While the Dutch kept with scrupulous care all records of births, baptismns, marriages and deaths, thev attached little importance to other data, and little is known of the part taken by them in governmental and military affairs. That they contributed largely to the successful issue of the Revolutionary war is evident from the large numbers (upwards of forty thousand) they contributed to the patriot army.

The line of descent from the immigrant an- cestor to James A. Lansing is thus traced : Hen- drick G. Lansing (2), second son of Gerrit Fred- erick (I), was the father of three children, and the eldest son among these, Jacob Lansing (3), was the first in this line born on American soil. Jacob Lansing married Helena, daughter of Frans Janse and Alida Pruyn, September 27, 1701, and they became the parents of ten chil-

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dren. The eldest son in this family, Hendrick (4), was born December 1, 1703; he married, February 23, 1735, Annetye, daughter of Isaac and Mayke (Van Nes) Onderkirk, of Kinder- hook, and later of Half Moon. To them were born four children; the mother dying, Hendrick Lansing married Metty, daughter of Abraham Onderkirk. Jacob H., (5). third child of Hen- drick and Annetye ( Onderkirk) Lansing, was born April 4. 1742, and died in Watervliet (now Cohoes), February 7, 1826. The house in which he lived and reared his family is yet standing. He married in 1763. Maria, daughter of Johannes and Helena (Fonda) Onderkirk, and to them were born five children. The youngest child and only son of this family was William (6), born May 12, 1774, in Cohoes, and died January 23. 1853, in Mayfield, New York. He married Alida Fonda, who survived him some years, dying in 1858. Eight children were born to them, of whom the eldest was Jacob W. (7), born in Co- hoes. September 7. 1795, died November 5. 1848. His wife, who was Helena Wynkoop, died before him, in 1843. having borne to her husband eleven children, and of these was William J. Lansing (8), who was the second son.

The last named William J. Lansing was born in Cohoes, New York, August 12, 1818, and died in Champion, New York, January 29, 1864. By occupation he was a carriage manufacturer. He was a man of quiet disposition, and of sterling integrity. He was throughout his life an ex- emplary member of the church of his forefathers, the Dutch Reformed. Originally a Whig in poli- etics, his antipathy to slavery made him an un- compromising abolitionist. He was an original Republican. connecting himself with that party at its formation, voting for its first presidential candidate. John C. Fremont, and casting his last ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He married Miss Almira Smith Cornwall. May 1, 1842. and to them were born nine children, among whom was James Albert Lansing.

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 21

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