USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 30
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 30
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(V) John, eldest child of Nicholas Still- well, was born on Long Island about 1735, and resided in Sussex and Morris counties, New Jer- sey. During the Revolution he served in Captain James Tucker's company, and also in the artillery of Hunterdon county, New Jersey. February 21, 1769, he married Mary, daughter of John Mul- liner, of Kingwood, New Jersey. He died in 1799, leaving issue : Richard, see forward ; Nich- olas, born April 4. 1771 ; John, June 24, 1772; Joseph, about 1778; David, 1780, died in New York, 1814: Mary, Rebecca and Abigail.
(VI) Richard, eldest child of John Stillwell, was born in New York, January 30, 1771. He was a wheelwright early in life, and afterward a farmer. He resided at Sucassunny Plains, Mor- ris county, New Jersey, where his children were born. He removed to Cooper's Mills (now
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Milldale), and thence to Chester, where he died June 15, 1847. At the time of the battle of Mon- mouth, in New Jersey, during the Revolution, with other boys he drove the farmers' cattle into the woods to save them from the British soldiers. He was a colonel of Morris county militia during the War of 1812. April 16, 1796, he married Charity, daughter of Cornelius Slaight, of Drakesville, New Jersey ; she was born April 16, 1776, and died October 1, 1854, surviving her husband, and was buried at Belvidere, New Jer- sey, by his side. Their children were: Asa, born May 14, 1798, died young : John, born April II, 1800; Joseph, April 21, 1802: Cath Marie, June 26, 1804: David Blakely, September 4, 1806; Eliza, July 20, 1808: Rebecca, July 12, 1810; Jerome E., August 27, 1812; Manning F., Sep- tember 4, 1814: Susan, August 9, 1816; Mar- garet, October 29, 1818: Absalom, November 3, 1820. All died prior to 1894 except Margaret. (VII) John, second child of Richard Still- well, was born in Morris county, New Jersey, April II, 1800. He resided at Hope, New Jer- sey, and Easton, Pennsylvania, where he operated a carriage manufactory until 1852, when he re- tired. He removed to Stroudsburg. Pennsyl- vania, and thence to Frenchtown, New Jersey, where he died March 31, 1884, and was buried at Easton, Pennsylvania. He was a lieutenant of Morris county (New Jersey) cavalry in 1823. He married, March 4, 1824, Eliza, daughter of John and Clarissa Buckley. of Hope, New Jersey ; she was born July 27, 1804, and died at Strouds- burg, Pennsylvania, January 19, 1859. He mar- ried (second) Sarah Stillwell, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His children were by his first wife: Richard, born December 16, 1824; John H., October 31, 1834; Saron B., April 21, 1840; Eliza, October 16, 1844.
CAPT. RICHARD STILLWELL, recently deceased, was a typical representative of that earnest and courageous generation which faced the great problems of the Civil war period, and whose gallantry upon the field of battle found a counterpart in conscientious devotion to the duties of civil life. For a half century he was an hon- ored resident of Scranton, bearing a full share in its upbuilding and development, and occupying various honorable stations. During this period he was actively and intimately associated with a splendid group of pioneers, among them the Scrantons-Colonel George W., Selden T. and Joseph H. : Charles F. Mattes, William W. Man- ness, and others-men who transformed a wilder- ness, making it a hive of industry and the abode
of a vast population ; men who cleared away the forests, opened the mines, built the railroads, and erected the first homes, schools and churches of the now dense community. Among these men Captain Stillwell stood a figure honored for his sterling character, marked industry, great ability as a constructor, and genius as an inventor.
Captain Stillwell was born in Hope, New Jer- sey, December 16, 1824, eldest son of John and Eliza (Buckley) Stillwell, and his illustrious an- cestry is the theme of a preceding narrative. When he was about six years old his parents re- moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he re- ceived a simple education in the common schools of that primitive day. However, he amply sup- plied his deficiencies by careful reading and close observation from his youth throughout his life, and in his mature years might well have passed for one who had been liberally endowed by teach- ers. On reaching manhood his father and him- self purchased a large tract of timber land on the Pocono Mountain, near Tobyhanna, and engaged in a lumber business which they prosecuted with success for some years. Early in the fifties Cap- tain Stillwell located in Scranton and took em- ployment with the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company as superintendent of construction. Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil war he built the old Oxford breaker for Selden T. and George W. Scranton, and, to provide for the ventilation of the headings driven from the bottom of the shaft, he designed, erected and put in operation, at the top of the shaft, an ex- hanst fan-this being a notable innovation, the first fan used for the ventilation of a mine. It is possible that the principle had been put in application elsewhere, but so far as Captain Stillwell was concerned the idea was purely of his own conception, as was its successful working out. Certainly it was entirely new in the Pennsylvania coal fields, and his device found instant recognition as an important ad- junct to mining methods, and was put to gen- eral use.
Captain Stillwell's industrial career was ac- companied with commensurate activity in com- munity affairs, and he rendered efficient ser- vice as a member of the council in the early days of the city, and as chief of the fire depart- ment. He was particularly interested in mili- tary affairs from his seventeenth year and while a resident of Easton, when he enlisted as a private in Captain (afterward Governor) Reeder's company of state militia, and served therewith with fidelity until 1848, when he re- moved from that city, and when he was honor-
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ably discharged was serving as orderly ser- geant. In 1854 he organized the original Scran- ton Guard, a company attached to the Third Battalion, Forty-eighth Regiment Pennsyl- vania Militia. He was the original captain of this company, and served as such until the company was mustered out of service in July, 1859. He brought it to a highly effective con- dition, and it was regarded as unexcelled in the. military establishment of the state. In 1862 (August 18) he recruited Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-second Regiment Penn- sylvania Volunteers, a nine months regiment, which during its period of service performed many deeds of distinguished gallantry, and suffered unusual loss-more than forty per cent of its rank and file-through death and wounds in battle. Its first engagement was the hard contested battle of Antietam, which saved the north from a rebel invasion, and in which Com- pany K particularly distinguished itself, as did Company I, also of Scranton. Company K was of that splendid forlorn hope which stormed the deadly Mary's Heights at Fred- ericksburg, Virginia, charging across the open under an awful musketry and artillery fire from behind a stone wall, and in thirty minutes los- ing one-third of its numbers engaged, killed or wounded. In this assault Captain Stillwell re- ceived a very serious wound which incapaci- tated him for further service in the field, and necessitated his return home. After recover- ing to some degree he received the appoint- ment of assistant provost marshal of the twelfth district. and during the remainder of the war performed service of great usefulness in aiding to enforce the various drafts, promote enlistments to fill up depleted regiments, and arrest deserters from the army.
After the war was ended Captain Stillwell be- came superintendent of coal breakers for the Pennsylvania Coal Company, a position which he occupied until he had reached the age of seventy- five years, when he voluntarily retired, bearing with him the esteem of all with whom he had been in any way associated. He married Margaret Snyder, and to them were born three children who are now living: Harry E., Lewis B. and Colonel Frederick W. Stillwell. Mrs. Stillwell was a representative of one of the most prominent German families of the colonial period. Her grandfather, General Peter Kichlein, born 1722, died 1789, was a member of the committee of safety. 1774-76; he greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Long Island, and fought on the
ground now occupied by the city of Brooklyn, where he commanded a regiment of Pennsylva- nia riflemen, which at the cost of nearly one-half its numbers held its position until the American line was broken elsewhere, when practically the entire remnant of the regiment, including its commander, was captured.
Captain Stillwell became a member of the First Presbyterian Church on June 6, 1858, and in 1873 he and his wife withdrew therefrom to form, with others, the nucleus of the now pros- perous and influential Second Church. Captain Stillwell passed away February 17, 1905, univer- sally loved and honored. Among the mourners at his funeral were few who had known him in the early days-in great number they had pre- ceded him to the great beyond. But the entire community was aware of his active and useful life through all his years, of his beauty of per- sonal character, and mourned his departure as that of "mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted." His heart was ever warm with human sympathy for sorrow and distress, and his aid was freely extended to all whose needs came to his knowledge. He took a genuine pride in the city with which he had been identified for so many years, and among its many ardent and ac- tive supporters he was ever accounted one of the most useful and dependable. In all the relations of life he shed lustre upon the name he bore- that of a family which in all its generations held steadfast to the principles of true manhood and ideal citizenship.
COLONEL FREDERICK W. STILL- WELL, of Scranton, who has made a most brill- iant military record, and enjoys wide acquaint- ance in the National Guard of Pennsylvania, among whom he is regarded with peculiar admi- ration for his fine soldierly qualities and his valuable services in the field, was born in Scran- ton, June 14, 1865, a son of the late Captain Rich- ard Stillwell, whose life record appears on a fore- going page of this work.
Colonel Stillwell was educated in the public schools of his native city, and at the age of six- teen years entered the First National Bank in the capacity of messenger. He acquitted himself with marked fidelity, and in 1893 was advanced to the position of receiving teller, and in which he has continuously served to the present time. It is, however, principally with his military record that this narrative has to deal. In his case the doctrine of heredity would seen to find an ample illustration, for each of his ancestors in
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the male line, beginning with the immigrant pro- genitor of the family in America, was a soldier of approved courage and worth, and the greater number of them performed deeds of genuine valor. January 12, 1885, at the age of twenty years, he enlisted as a private in Company A, Thirteenth Regiment National Guard Pennsylva- nia, was promoted to corporal, July 5, 1886, and to sergeant, January 22, 1888. He was com- missioned second lieutenant January 14, 1889, and in July, 1892, Lieutenant Stillwell, with his company, performed cighteen days duty at the scene of the Homestead riots. He was promoted to the captaincy of his company, January 22, 1894. He was again promoted, April 9, 1897, to the rank of major, and in September of that year performed duty as such for seventeen days in the coal fields during the Lattimer riots. When the Spanish-American war was precipitated by the explosion of the battleship "Maine" in the har- bor of Havana, six companies from Scranton (A. B, C, D, F and H, of the Thirteenth Regiment ) volunteered in response to President Mckinley's call for troops, and with them Major Stillwell. The regiment, under command of Colonel H. A. Courson, was mustered into the service of the United States at Camp Hastings, near Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1898, and was transported to Camp Alger, Virginia, reaching there May 19, and remaining until August 30, 1898. The regiment was then moved to Camp Meade, at Middletown, Pennsylvania, where, on October 21, Major Stillwell was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. November 14, 1898, the regiment removed to Camp Mckenzie, at Augusta, Georgia, there to make preparations for a campaign in Cuba. The war, however, came to an abrupt close, and Lieutenant Colonel Stillwell was mustered out of the service of the United States with his regiment March 11, 1899. During its term of service the command suffered severely from disease, losing by death nineteen men, and twelve officers out of thirty-six were in hospital at one time. Officers and men, whatever their disappointment in not being participants in the active operations in Cuba, had the proud sat- isfaction that comes of doing all that a soldier may - obey the call of their country, and perform such service as might be demanded of them. The Thirteenth Regiment returned to its place in the National Guard establishment, Lieutenant Colo- nel Stillwell retaining his rank therein. In 1902, during the coal strike, he served for forty days at Olyphant, taking the regiment to that point and commanding it until the arrival of Colonel
L. A. Watres. He was commissioned colonel August 25, 1904.
The foregoing presents an unusual record of service, long and honorable, without a tinge of personal vainglory. Colonel Stillwell takes a laudable pride in the splendid body of citizen sol- diery with which he has been so long identified, and it is the consensus of opinion of both officers and men that its excellent condition and esprit de- corps is in very large degree due to his military ability and the enthusiasm which he has awak- ened. Within six months after he assumed com- mand the regiment had attained such a degree of efficiency that it passed from the ninth to the third place among the regiments of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and it is confidently pre- dicted of it that it will before long be awarded the first place. It now stands first in point of marksmanship, the last record (that of 1904) being eighty-two and eighty-five one-hundredths. as compared with that of the next highest regi- ment of seventy-three and twenty-six one-hun- dredths. Of Colonel Stillwell personally, it is. to be said that throughout his career his various promotions have been solely upon merit, and he holds his subordinates to the same lofty standards which at the beginning he set up for himself, and all appointments and promotions recommended by him are based only upon demonstrated ability and deservingness, his judgment uncolored by aught of a personal or political nature. With a well selected corps of officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, constituted through his un- yielding adherence to these tenets, his ample technical knowledge, and his strict disciplina- rianism, the Thirteenth stands forth as a regi- ment not to be surpassed in the National Guard establishment of any state in the Union.
SARON B. STILLWELL, deceased, was during a long and intensely active career one of the most useful and honored citizens of Scranton. For forty years he held the highly responsible position of claim agent for the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western Railroad Company. He was frequently solicited to enter upon a public career, but his devotion to his work with the railway company forbade his dividing his attention be- tween private and public duties. To this rule of his life he made but one exception, serving long and efficiently as a member of the State Fisheries Commission, of which body he was. chairman at the time of his death.
Mr. Stillwell was born in Easton, Pennsyl- vania, April 21, 1840, a son of John and Eliza
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(Buckley) Stillwell. He came of an excellent ancestry, as outlined in a preceding narrative, largely drawn from a valuable work prepared by Mr. Stillwell-"The Stillwell Family in England and America," a most interesting volume of two hundred pages, dedicated to his grandson, Saron B. Warman, Christmas, 1899. Mr. Stillwell was reared in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where he obtained a thorough practical education. There he married Mrs. Catherine J. Edinger (nee Tropp), a daughter of John and Julia E. Edinger. Shortly after his marriage he removed to Scran- ton and entered the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and a few years later was appointed claim agent of the same, a position in which he acquitted himself with masterly ability for a period of forty years, and his service, acceptable and highly appreci- ated, terminated only with his death. He was a marked figure in the life of the community, and left his impress upon all with whom he was in any way associated. He accomplished much for the adequate organization and efficiency of the fire department. He was one of the prime mov- ers in the organization of the Nay Aug Hose Company, of which he was the first foreman ; and his efficiency in its management and equipment led to his appointment as the first chief of the Scranton Fire Department. This place he adorned for a period of fifteen years, and many of its most useful features and its admirable esprit de corps were due to his effort and his strong personality. In 1893 he was appointed by the governor to membership on the State Fisher- ies Commission, and was its chairman during the last six years of his life. To his duties with this hody he brought lofty conceptions of right, seek- ing conservation of the interests entrusted to him, not only upon economic grounds, but also upon esthetic ideas based in his love of nature. He was of broad, sturdy physique, and heart and mind were in entire harmony with his splendid physical personality. To those on intimate terms with him he was affectionately known as "Sandy," the term implying no undignified famil- iarity, but that brotherly companionship having its foundation in lovable traits of character. To do a favor to another was with him a principal joy : to do right in all things was with him a re- ligious principle ; and his broad humane sympathy for the needy and unfortunate found expression in countless benefactions, of which he took no note save performance of the kindly deed and be- stowal of the needed gratuity. Eminently domes-
tic in his tastes, he found his principal happiness in his home, and in contributing to the happiness of those of his household. Death came to him when he was in the fullness of his physical and mental powers, and when it seemed as though there were yet for him many more years of useful and honored life. He had been slightly ill for about six months, but nothing to create alarm. A month prior to his death, he was apparently all but entirely recovered, and went to Strouds- burg to attend to legal business in his official capacity. He suffered a relapse, and a month later passed away, May 30, 1903. The sad event came as a personal bereavement to the entire community, and with particular weight upon the older class of citizens, who had been his friends and associates during a period which witnessed the creation of the city in which they all took a genuine pride.
Mr. Stillwell left to survive him the woman who was the bride of his youth, and their only child, Mrs. A. B. Warman.
REV. A. S. CERRUTI. For many years Italy has been sending her sons and daughters to this country, which grants them many priv- ileges denied them in their own sunny land. Many of the thousands who emigrate find their way into the coal belt of Pennsylvania, where they turn their attention to mining and other vo- cations where skilled labor is not an essential requisite. A large colony of these peope have settled in and around Carbondale, where for many years they have been deprived of that spir- itual care and instruction which the mother church bestowed on them in their own country. Occasionally a priest would visit them and in a temporary way look after their spiritual neces- sities. During those visitations a committee was formed to look forward to the erection of an edi- fice in which to worship. Prior to 1900 an ex- cavation was made for a foundation under the direction of Reverend Father Dominick Landro, then parish priest in Scranton, but nothing was begun until the Rev. A. S. Cerruti was sent to them in the year 1900. Since that time he has erected a beautiful house of worship at a cost of eight thousand dollars that now, with all the furniture and many inside and outside im- provements, can be estimated at twenty-five thousand dollars. His parish extends over Car- bondale, Forest City, Mayfield, Jermyn and Edgerton. In this extensive parish there are two hundred and fifty families, embracing fifteen
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hundred souls. This gives the reader some idea of the responsibility which rests on Father Cer- ruti.
Father Cerruti is a native of Campagna, It- aly, born in the year 1853, this town being the residence of the archbishop of that diocese. His education was acquired in the common schools and a seminary of prominence in his native town. In 1875 he was ordained to the priest- hood of the Roman Catholic Church. He spent the first fifteen years of his pastorate in his own country, during which time he served his church and people most acceptably, and at the expira- tion of this period of time emigrated to the United States, landing in Philadelphia, where he spent three years in mastering the English lan- guage and preparing himself for a life of use- fulness in his new home and country. His first appointment was at Bangor, Pennsylvania, but after a residence of one year there he was sent to Hammonton, New Jersey, where he remained until 1900, when he came to Scranton, Pennsyl- vania, and after four months to Carbondale, where he has endeared himself to his people and built for them the beautiful church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. His work has required pa- tience and persistence, and through the exercise of these qualities he has attained commendable success. As a preacher, his sermons show pains- taking thought and his illustrations are always to the point.
MICHAEL GOLDEN. Scranton has no more enterprising citizen than Michael Golden. Mr. Golden belongs to a family which has been resident in Scranton more than forty years, and is the bearer of a name which during all that period has ever been regarded with respect.
Patrick Golden was born in Ireland, and in 1861 located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he built Golden's Hotel, which he conducted in a creditable manner for eighteen years. He also erected several other buildings in different parts of the city. He was an active man both in busi- ness and politics. For eight years he was a member of the police force, was thrice elected councilman and served two years as school con- troller. He was a staunch supporter of the plat- form and principles of the Democratic party. His wife was Anna Lyons, and seven children were born to them: Michael, mentioned at length hereinafter : John, Patrick, Mary, Thomas (de- ceased), Annie and Martin. The death of Mr. Golden, the father of the family, occurred Feb- ruary 21, 1902. He is survived by his widow.
Michael Golden, son of Patric !: and Anna (Lyons) Golden, was born in 1879, in Scran- ton. and now conducts the hotel founded by his father. He is assisted in his duties by the oth- er members of his family, but it is upon him, as the eldest, that the burden of responsibility falls. The plans for the management of the hotel which were laid down and executed by the founder are still followed by his successor, in whose skillful hands the establishment has suffered no diminu- tion of patronage. Mr. Golden bids fair to rival his father's popularity as a citizen. In 1904 he was elected a member of the common council of the Sixth ward, an office which he fills with entire satisfaction to those whose votes placed him there and also to that of his fellow-citizens of the opposite party.
CHARLES P. MATTHEWS, a leading man of affairs in Scranton, prominently identified with many of its most important commercial and finan- cial interests, is a native of England, born in Penzance, Cornwall, May 22, 1836.
His paternal grandfather, Thomas Matthews, was a native of the same place, where he passed his entire life, following the occupation of a farmer. His family comprised three children : I. Robert, to be further mentioned. 2. Martin, who remained in Cornwall. 3. A sister who married a Mr. Stevens, of Cornwall, and came to Wayne county, Pennsylvania ; they reared a large family.
Robert Matthews, eldest son of Thomas Mat- thews, was born in the western part of Cornwall, England, where he married, and where his wife clied. He married (second) Anna Henwood, a native of the same county, a daughter of William Henwood, and they cmigrated to America with his four children born of his first marriage, as follows: I. Thomas, married Miss Pasco. and they resided in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. 2. Robert, single, who died in Providence, Lacka- wanna county. 3. Priscilla, married John Stur- gis, and lived in Providence. 4. Elizabeth, mar- ried Edward Pierce, and resided in Scranton. The children of Robert Matthews by his second wife were : 1. William, who was four times married. His first wife was Lottie Winton, of Honesdale, who bore him one child, Charles W., of the firm of Matthews Brothers, druggists. of Scranton. His second wife was Emma Birdsell, whose only child was Louise. His third wife, Alice Bailey, had children, Robert and William. His fourth and present wife was Mary Howell. William was a member of the firm of Matthews
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