USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 38
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 38
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dore Roosevelt was nominated for the presi- dency. Colonel Phillips is a Mason of high rank, and has attained to the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite.
Colonel Phillips married Miss Mary Ruane, daughter of Daniel Ruane, of Scranton.
JAMES N. RICE, M. D., passing away at the meridian of his life, in full possession of his faculties and in the height of his usefulness, oc- cupied a commanding position as a man of un- usual versatility. In his youth he was a gallant soldier, and he became an accomplished physi- cian, an inventor, and one of the most expert authorities in mining operations in the entire anthracite region.
Dr. Rice was born in Factoryville, in 1845, a son of William and Sarah (Reynolds) Rice. The father was one of the earliest settlers of Abing- ton, living on a farm at Factoryville, and was one of the most highly respected men in Wyoming county. He was a devout Christian, and his ad- vocacy of the cause of temperance was wide and enduring. His wife was Sarah Reynolds, daughter of George Reynolds, who was also one of the earliest of the Abington settlers. She was a woman. of beautiful qualities of heart and mind, and great force of character. For forty- six years she was a devout member of the Baptist Church, active in all religious and charitable work and thoroughout her life zealous in her advocacy of temperance. Her husband died in 1858, and upon her alone devolved the training and educat- ing of her children, a sacred duty which she dis- charged with the highest degree of self-abnegat- ing conscientiousness. During the Civil war per- iod her patriotism was most ardent and intense. She freely gave to her country three of her four sons, one of whom. Captain Edson J. Rice (of whom his superiors and comrades testified that no braver officer ever drew sword in behalf of the Union), courageously met a soldier's death in the battle of Chancellorsville. This splendid young soldier entered the service as first lieuten- ant, and participated in nearly all the battles 'un- der General McClellan, and also in that at Fred- ericksburg under General Burnside. He was slightly wounded at Fair Oaks, and was pro- moted to captain a few months before his un- timely but glorious death. The mother met this dreadful affliction with christian resignation, and found some surcease of sorrow in devoting her- self with redoubled energy to the work in which she had been foremost from the beginning, the providing of comforts for the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals, and of necessities for the
families whose bread-earners were at the front. She was one of the most devoted of friends, and kindest of neighbors. Her death occurred in 1874. She was the mother of seven children : Norman, Edson, Freelove, Elvira, Nicholas, James N. and Stephen, of whom those surviving are Elvira (Mrs. Green), Nicholas and Stephen.
Dr. James N. Rice was reared in his native- village and was there educated in the public schools. He was only about sixteen years old when the Civil war broke out, but his intense patriotismn moved him to enroll himself among the defenders of the Union as a member of Battery L. Second Pennsylvania Artillery. With this command he participated in the various stirring campaigns and hard fought hattles which marked the annals of the Army of the Potomac, serving with fidelity and conspicuous gallantry. He was severely wounded in the battle of Cold Harbor, but after his recovery resumed his place in the field and served until the expiration of his term of enlistment.
After his return home Dr. Rice entered the medical department of the University of Michi- gan, at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated" on the completion of the course, and he subse- quently took a post-graduate course at the Belle- vue Medical College, New York City, from which he graduated in 1867. His initial practice was in his native town of Factoryville, but in 1870 he re- moved to Pittston. There he was actively en- gaged in his profession for a period of nineteen. years, caring for a large practice, and winning high commendation for his ability and conscien- tious devotion to his patients.
His interest had been long attracted to the- coal industries of the valley, and he had made a close study of all relating thereto. At Pittston he had acquired a small mine known as the Cork and Bottle, which he operated successfully for- some years. In 1889 he decided to devote his principal attention to coal properties, having be- come interested in the development of the prop- erty of the Mt. Lookout Coal Company at Wy- oming, Pennsylvania, and he retired from his: profession and located in Scranton to enter upon a new career, one in which he was destined to become most conspicuous. Soon after his com- ing he organized the Blue Ridge Coal Company, which operated a mine at Peckville. This was subsequently sold to the Ontario & Western Coal Company, and Dr. Rice became interested in the Riverside Coal Company and the West End Coal Company. in the former of which he held a con- trolling interest, acting as general manager of the latter, each operating one mine. He was succes-
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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.
sively at the head of some of the largest individ- ual coal enterprises in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, and at one time was also extensively in- terested in mining operations in Schuylkill county. He brought to these enterprises the same energy and prompt decision of character that has made him successful in his profession, and his success was almost phenomenal. One of his properties (the Blue Ridge colliery) was one of the best paying coal properties in the valley ; its stock was quoted as high as 230, and for years it paid dividends of from two to two and a half per cent. a month. He was not only successful as a manager, but was entirely familiar with both existent conditions and possibilities, and was rec- ognized as one of the most expert authorities in the entire anthracite region. President Fowler, of the Ontario & Western Railroad, said of him, at one time, that his views with reference to the coal industry were fully four years in advance of the average thought of coal operators. An evi- dence of his practical ability is afforded in the in- stance of the coal breaker at Riverside, which was built after his own ideas and under his own supervision, and which enabled twenty boys to secure the same results which had previously re- quired five times that number. Inventive skill was one of liis marked traits, and one of his de- vices is now in general use, the Rice coil carriage spring, including the machine to make it, which was for some years manufactured in Pittston by a company of which he was the head, and which has since been made by Columbus Buggy Com- pany. But his coal interests claimed his first at- tention, and he devoted himself to them up to the very moment when he was stricken down by death. He also gave his attention to those large affairs which relate to all mining interests of the coal region, and was a leading spirit in the work of the strike commission for the independent min- ing companies.
Dr. Rice died suddenly, of heart failure, De- cember 9, 1902, at Scranton, after an illness of but a few hours. His death created a profound sensation not only in the city with whose prin- cipal interests he had been so long identified, but throughout the entire coal region. The expres- sions of sorrow were profound and sincere. Aside from his conspicuously useful professional and industrial career, he was held in high regard for his many admirable traits of personal character. He was a genial and wholesouled gentleman of the old school, who would never suffer his im- mersement in business to separate him from his fellows in social intercourse. He lived an ideal
home life, and found his relaxation and principal enjoyment with his family.
He is survived by his widow, their three chil- dren, Homer Cake, Earl Leroy, and Marion Helene, two brothers, S. L. Rice, of Scranton, and N. E. Rice, who resides in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia ; and a sister, Mrs. William D. Green, of Green Ridge. The sons, Homer Cake and Earl Leroy, have inherited much o. the inventive gen- ius of the father, and are preparing for electrical engineering pursuits. Mrs. Rice maintains the family home on Webster avenue, one of the most beautiful residences in the entire city, and to which she is deeply attached for the sake of the tender recollections which cluster about it.
RT. REV. FRANCIS HODUR. Every age has its martyrs, heroes and reformers, men who take their proper places and maintain against all odds the great principles in whose defense or upholding they are enlisted. These men not only make for themselves a place in history but in the vital affairs of their day and generation they also play an important part unrecorded on writ- ten page, touching and winning the great pulsing heart of humanity. Their worth and goodness are not always soon recognized. It is often de- cades, and sometimes centuries, before the world awakes to the fact that a hiero had stepped into the arena and grappled with some great evil or force which has menaced the wellbeing of human- ity. When Martin Luther inaugurated his great work of reformation he met all of opposition and endured all of danger and obloquy for the sake of his faith, and not till he had long been gathered to his fathers did the full force of his labors, ex- ample and inspiration come to fruition. All along down the ages great minds have been at work with this idea in view, more liberty of thought, more freedom of will, more love to God, more justice to man. They have been leading men out of darkness into the light : out of chaos into order and harmony ; out of the mystical and esoteric into the open day of clear thought, Such a man as this is Bishop Hodur, who was for six years a worker in the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, and who was chosen by a num- ber of his countrymen and members of said church to be their standard bearer in a victorious and untrammeled march to greater light and bet- ter things.
In March, 1897, there was presented to Father Hodur, who was at that time pastor of Holy Trinity Church, Roman Catholic, at Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, a petition signed by two hundred
Franciszek Hodet
189,
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and thirty-seven members of his denomination from Scranton and other places, importuning and urging him to head their cause, to withdraw from the church of Rome and to organize an independ- ent Catholic Church. This movement culminated in the organization of what is now known as the Polish National Church, and the attitude which Bishop Hodur assumed in replying to the petition mentioned is indicated in the position which he now holds. The church has come forward with a definite aim, and among its most important func- tions are the spreading of a spirit of love and fra- ternity in each Christian community and the aid- ing of the Polish people to become more demo- cratic, or more American, in their church and civic relations and personality. The Polish Na- tional Church believes that the laity should have equal representation in the government of the church. The highest power or authority in the church is vested in the synod, instead of the pope, and the synod convenes every five years, while a special session may be called by the bishop on request of one-third of the membership. This synod is composed of an equal number of laymen and clergy and is presided over by the bishop. who is elected by the body. The bishop will have control and supervision of the priests, parochial schools and church societies. The question of the celibacy of the priesthood has been taken up and the abolition of the ordinance is altogether prob- able, while the liturgy of the church will be changed from the Latin to the Polish language. It is expected that a cathedral will be erected in Scranton in the near future, while the establishing of a seminary at South Scranton has been under- taken, while an orphan asylum or home is in pro- cess of erection at the time of this writing. Bishop Hodur is a man of marked iniative and executive ability, and the church and synod made an execl- lent choice in calling him to his present high office for the temporal and spiritual affairs of the church are certain to be forwarded and vitalized through his apostolic and administrative control. The bishop has the right mettle and temperament to head so important a reformatory movement as that with which he has identified himself, and personal sacrifice and labor cannot be to him too great if the good of the world and work can be advanced through his efforts. Under his effect- ive dispensation the work of the new organization has gone steadily forward, the membership hav- ing been augmented from the original two hun- dred and thirty-seven members until there are now represented twenty-four hundred and fifty families and two thousand and twenty single
members. The church has the one bishop and twelve priests, and Pennsylvania has six churches,. Massachusetts four, New Jersey two and the city of Baltimore one.
Bishop Hodur was born in Zarki, Poland,. April 1, 1866, and was educated in the Roman Catholic seminary and college in the city of Cra- cow, Poland, having been graduated in this insti- tution in 1892, and having been ordained to the priesthood in the following year. In 1893 he immigrated to America and located in Scranton .. Here Bishop O'Hara appointed his assistant to Father Aust, rector of the Polish Roman Catho- lic Church in South Scranton. In 1894 he was given charge of a church in Green Ridge, a sub- urb of Scranton, and in the following year be- came rector of Holy Trinity Church, in Nanti- coke, where he remained until he identified him- self with the new church and movement, as has been already noted. He is a son of John and Mary Hodur, who still remain in Poland, as do all of their five children except the bishop, who is the only representative of the family in America.
ANTON SCHULTHEIS. One of the lead- ing florists of Lackawanna county is Anton Schultheis, of Scranton. He is of German par- entage. His father, Henry Schultheis, at the age of twenty-five years emigrated to the United States. During the greater part of his life he- was engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was a good citizen and held some minor township offi- ces. He married Elizabeth Schultheis, also a na- tive of Germany, and much longer than himself a resident of the United States, she having been brought hither in 1852, while he did not arrive until 1867. Although of the same name they were in no degree related. Their children were : Amelia, Anton, mentioned hereafter ; Lydia, Dor- athea, Louis, Gertrude, Henry, Frederick and Marie. The parents of these children are still living and reside at Taylor, Pennsylvania.
Anton Schultheis, son of Henry and Eliza- beth (Schultheis) Schultheis, was born Septem- ber 3. 1873, in Lackawanna county, and was edu- cated in the common schools of Taylor, Pennsyl- vania. His early life was spent on his father's farm, where in addition to the agricultural labors a dairy business was carried on. In 1898 he con- ceived the idea of learning the florist's business. including landscape gardening. In order to do. this he spent some time at College Point, Long Island, New York, and then went to Dorrance- ton, where he entered the service of B. F. Dor --
THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.
rance, in the nursery business. There he re- mained until 1901, when he went to Scranton and purchased seven lots on which he erected suit- able buildings and established himself in business. He has sixteen thousand square feet under glass. His years of training and experience in the prop- . agation and cultivation of flowers and plants have made him thoroughly conversant with his business, and he has an extensive patronage. He . makes a specialty of carnations, roses and Easter lilies. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Schultheis married, December 31, 1903, Carrie, daughter of Herman and Lora (Hart) Wagner. The former is a native of Germany, and the latter of New Jersey. For a number of years they have resided in Scranton. Their chil- dren are: George, Henry, Carrie, mentioned . above as the wife of Anton Schultheis; Lora, Emma and Minnie.
EDWARD SPENCER, deceased, who lived a life of great activity and usefulness, was one of the most widely known residents of the Lack- awanna Valley, and was held in universal honor for his nobility of character and genial person- - ality.
He was one of the comparatively few among the active men of his day who was "native and to the manner born," his birth having occurred at Providence, now a part of Scranton. His chris- tian name has been borne in the family through all the successive generations from the founder of the family, Edward Spencer, who came from England and settled in Connecticut in colonial days. From him descended Edward, who was born in Connecticut, November 4, 1711 ; he re- moved to Pennsylvania, settling in Shawnee, Lu- zerne county, where he followed farming; he died in 1800. His son Edward was born in Con- necticut, May 7, 1753, and was an early settler in the Wyoming Valley. During the early In- dian troubles he took refuge at Sunbury. After -General Sullivan's army had driven the Indians out of the valley, he returned to find his home burned, and for six weeks he and a sister lived in the hollow of a fallen buttonwood tree. He was a valiant soldier in the Revolutionary war. He died in Providence, Pennsylvania, December 29, 1829. He married Mary Finch.
Edward Spencer, son of Edward and Mary (Finch) Spencer, was born October 3, 1805. His life was one of arduous toil from the beginning. He remained at home until he was fourteen years of age, when he went to live with Joseph Hutch- ings, a cooper nearby, with whom he remained for one winter, attending school, and paying his
board with his labor in the cooper shop mornings and nights. At the age of eighteen he took em- ployment hauling coal from Carbondale to Hones- dale, and was so engaged for two years. For two years thereafter he traveled through the country with a horse and wagon, peddling goods which he purchased from a brother in Providence. For several months in 1823 he drove a team between Providence and Newburgh, New York, taking wheat from the valley to the Hudson river, and bringing back goods for his brother Eliphas. On coming of age, in 1824, he took a clerkship at a place known as Brown's on the Delaware & Hud- son Canal. In the following year he built a store building at Lockport, New York, and es- tablished a mercantile business. Returning to Providence in 1827. he opened a general store which he conducted for several years. He also purchased his father's farm, saw mill and grist mill, and cared for all these interests until 1842, when he disposed of his properties and removed to Dunmore. there settling on a farm which he bought from Stoddard Judd. He soon afterward opened the Roaring Brook mine, which he oper- ated until 1863. then leasing it to others. In 1864 he purchased the John Brisbin residence, No. 126 Wyoming avenue, which was his home during the remainder of his life.
During these years Mr. Spencer had accum- ulated considerable property, and in all ways was comfortably circumstanced. He had made fre- quent visits to Texas, where he was largely inter- ested, with his son Calvin and others of his fam- ily, in . a twelve thousand acre tract of land near Caney, in the southwestern part of the state, fifteen miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Thither Mr. Spencer. ac- companied by his wife, went in Feb- ruary, 1883. He had now reached the advanced age of seventy-eight years, yet, notwithstanding his long life of arduous effort, enjoyed remark- ably robust health, frequently walking ten or fifteen miles in a day, and his appearance giving every promise of many more years. Soon after reaching his destination, however, he was seized with an attack of malarial fever. He rallied, and his speedy recovery was hoped for, when he suf- fered a severe relapse, and death came to him suddenly, on August IIth. The remains of the deceased were interred at the place of his death, and in the following winter were removed to Scranton.
Mr. Spencer was twice married. His first wife, to whom he was united November 10, 1825, was Miss Elizabeth De Ved, daughter of An- drew De Ved, of Mammakting, Sullivan county,
Edward Spencer
END BY . HA. HALL.NEW YORK
Then Bemich
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New York. She was born October 30, 1807, and died December 8, 1846, having borne to her hus- band eight children, among whom were the fol- lowing : Calvin A., deceased, resided at Caney, Texas ; Edward B.,of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, A. D. and Mehitabel, of Dunmore, Pennsylva- nia. His second wife, who survived him, was Miss Susan Hinds, a daughter of George Hinds, of Dunmore, and of this marriage were born four children, all of whom are living: Ambrose L., of Scranton, Pennsylvania; Charles W .; Mrs. Curtis Crane, of Brookline, Massachusetts, and Frank M., of Scranton, a coal operator.
Of splendid physique, Mr. Spencer was a man of strong character, a fine representative of that class of men through whose industry, endurance, perseverance and hopefulness the Lackawanna region was developed from its primeval wilder- ness and loneliness into a scene of remarkable industrial activity which has commanded the at- tention and admiration of the world. Such men are to be classed among the world's benefactors, for their effort has resulted in making homes for thousands, and adding millions in property to the commonwealth. In all the relations of life Mr. Spencer was a most exemplary character, a man of the strictest integrity, warmhearted and com- passionate, who contributed liberally of his means to the suffering and distressed, and who dis- pensed his benefactions with modesty and self- effacement.
JOHN B. SMITH. The late John B. Smith was known throughout the state of Pennsylvania as one of its most enterprising and successful coal operators, and one of the foremost authori- ties in the country upon all pertaining to anthra- cite coal mining. He was a potent factor in the development of the upper anthracite fields, and to his effort was largely due the transformation of a rugged wilderness into a vast hive of indus- try, and of inconsequential villages into cities of commanding industrial and financial importance. His career affords a shining example of what may be accomplished through untiring industry and intelligent effort, and his name will be held in lasting honor for his nobility of personal char- acter, and his broad benevolence and all-compre- hending philanthropy.
He was a native of the state of New York. born in Wirtsboro, Sullivan county, June 7, 1815. His father, Charles Smith, was born in Wind- ham, Connecticut. He was a man of ability and character. In his young manhood he bore an honorable part with the American army in the
war with Great Britain in 1812. As a contractor he aided in the construction of the Delaware and Hudson canal, and he was identified for many years thereafter with the interests of that corpo- ration. In the prime of life he removed to Car- bondale, where he died.
John B. Smith began his education in the common schools in the neighborhood of his birth- place, and further pursued his studies in the school in Carbondale. When fifteen years of age he entered the service of the Delaware and Hud- son Company, and a year later took employment in its machine shops, where he remained until he had completed an apprenticeship of five years, ending with his coming of age, and becoming a proficient mechanic. He remained with the com- pany for several years, and in 1848 became me- chanical draftsman and superintendent of ma- chinery for the Pennsylvania Coal Company. He occupied this position until 1850, when he was made general superintendent of the Pennsylva- nia Coal Company in Pennsylvania, and served in that capacity uninterruptedly until his death. In November, 1882, he was elected to the presidency of the Erie & Wyoming Valley Railroad Com- pany, and in this position he also served to the end of his life. A notable incident of his connection with railroad affairs was his designing a three- cylinder locomotive engine, which he covered by patent, the first of the kind, and which have since been in extensive and successful use upon the railroad for which they were first designed, the Erie & Wyoming Valley.
The foregoing simple narrative would testify to the fact that Mr. Smith was in many respects a remarkable man. Through no accident of for- tune or favoritism was due his elevation from the humble position of a shop mechanic to the hon- ored and responsible headship of two great cor- porations, with their immense properties and their thousands of servants. Energetic, clear- headed, of quick perception and discerning judg- ment, he unstintingly devoted his splendid tal- ents to his weighty tasks, and, in all probability, his ambition led him to unconsciously overtax his powers and shorten his life thereby. An invalua- ble servant of the companies with which he was connected, he commanded the constant and un- failing confidence of their officers and directo- rates, while at the same time his genuine human- ity was manifested in the solicitude which he ever manifested toward those who were in any manner associated with him, to the humblest la- borer. To all these, and to their families (and he was personally known to all in Dunmore) he
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