Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 37

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 988

USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 37
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 37

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).

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

ern expedition, under charge of Lewis Cass, or- ganized to explore the country bordering upon Lake Superior and the head waters of the Mis- sissippi. August 29, 1820, he was appointed to succeed Major Andrew Ellicott, deceased, as pro- fessor of mathematics in the United States Mili- tary Academy ; May 1, 1823, was appointed pro- fessor of engineering and resigned March I, 1831. He was well known as an engineer in con- nection with the various public works. In 1826- 27 he was employed by the board of internal im- provements in Pennsylvania to make surveys and estimates for a canal in Pennsylvania from Con- neaut Lake to Lake Erie, and for the French Creek feeder. In 1828 he was employed upon the surveys and location of the Upper Delaware canal, Pennsylvania, and the Sandy and Beaver canal, Ohio. In 1829 he made a survey and re- port to settle the terminus of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Philadelphia. In 1829-31 he solved on the Morris & Essex canal, New Jersey, the problem of successfully applying the inclined plane to canal navigation over long slopes. In 1831 he directed the reconnoissance necessary for uniting the city of Pittsburg with the Ohio canal by railroad. In 1831-32 he surveyed the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown rail- road. In 1832 he was professor of natural phil- osophy in the New York University. In 1833 he surveyed the route of the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, and made the preliminary surveys for supplying the city of New York with pure water. In 1834-36, as first chief engineer of the Croton water works, he made the surveys and pro- jected the outlines of that great work. In 1836- 37 he was professor of architecture and civil en- gineering in the New York University. In 1837- 38 he examined and reported on the hydraulic power of the Monmouth purchase, and made a reconnaissance of the coal region of the Upper Potomac. In 1838-39 he laid out Greenwood cemetery, and was first president of its corpora- tion. In 1840-44 he was president of Kenyon College, Ohio. In 1841 he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale College, August 3. and from Geneva College on August 4, and was made an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa in 1842. In 1844-48 he was engaged in various professional works, including the laying out of the Albany Rural Cemetery and the Quebec Protestant Cemetery, and improvements in Brooklyn. He was professor of mathematics in Geneva College in 1848-49. He possessed great powers of analysis which he exercised not in a captious or doubting spirit, but that he might better know and form the material whereon to

exercise that faculty of his intellect which was more peculiarly his characteristic, the construc- tive talent. Hence, in conversation he was still the teacher, and, without any of the forms of ar- gument, his discourse, clear in its own light, was full of information. A sketch of his life will be found in Appleton's Encyclopedia, Johnson's En- cyclopedia, Stuart's "Lives of the Civil and Mil- itary Engineers of America," in a manuscript . life of David Bates Douglas by the late Rev. Benjamin Hale, D. D., president of Geneva Col- lege ; and in a work on "The Engineer Corps, U. S. A."

Major Douglas and Ann E. Ellicott had eight children : Sarah, born at West Point, August II, 1817, died July 26, 1877; Charles Edward, born September 6, 1818; Andrew Ellicott, born No- vember 18, 1819; Malcolm, born July 19, 1825 ; Henry, born March 9, 1827, of whom later ; Emily, born at West Point, December 10, 1828; Ellen, born at West Point, January 24, 1829; Mary Louisa, born at Brooklyn, October 9, 1832.

(V) Colonel Henry Douglas, (David 3, Na- thaniel 2, David I), fifth child of Major David Bates and Ann (Ellicott) Douglas, was born at West Point, New York, March 9, 1827. He was graduated from the United States Military Acad- emy, West Point, June 30, 1852, was commis- sioned brevet second lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment Infantry, and served in the Indian Territory. December 31, 1853, he was promoted to second lieutenant Eighth Infantry, and served on the Rio Grande, in Texas. He was trans- ferred March 3, 1855. to the Ninth Infantry, and served with his regiment in Washington Terri- tory and Oregon. He was promoted to first lieutenant Ninth Infantry, September 10, 1856. From May to December, 1857, he served as quar- termaster with the escort of the Northwestern Boundary Survey. He was assistant professor of drawing in the United States Military Acad- emy, West Point, January 1, 1858, to July I, 1861. He was promoted to captain Eighteenth Infantry on May 14, 1861, and at once went to the field. In the first battle of Bull Run, July I, 1861, he commanded a company of the Third United States Infantry. From September I to November 30 he was on provost guard duty in Washington City. He joined the Eighteenth In- fantry in December, assigned to the command of Company A. From December, 1861, to May, 1862, he commanded the First Battalion of the Eighteenth Infantry, and was acting field officer of same from May, 1862, to December, 1863, and commanded the battalion until April of that year. His military service included the operations

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

against Corinth, April and May, 1862; the battle of Chaplin Hills, Kentucky, October 8, 1862; and the battles at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, December 31, 1862, and January 1 and 2, 1863. He was wounded in action, at the battle of Mur- freesborough, and. being incapacitated for field service, was placed on mustering and disbursing duty in April, 1863, and so served until relieved, in 1866. He was promoted major of the Third Infantry, July 28, 1866, and was in command at Fort Dodge, Kansas, from December of that year to May. 1869. From November, 1869, to December, 1870, he was superintendent of Indian Affairs for Nevada. He was assigned to the Eleventh Infantry January 1, 1871. He was in command of Fort Concho, Texas, from May, 1874, to May, 1875, when he was given sick leave of absence until November of the same year. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Fourteenth United States Infantry January 10, 1876, and was in command of Fort Cameron, Utah, May 16, 1876, also cantonment on Uncom- pahgre, Colorado, and Fort Townsend, Washing- ton. He was promoted to colonel of the Tenth Infantry July 1, 1885, commanding Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Union, New Mexico; relin- quished command January 24, 1890, to go on sick leave ; retired.

Colonel Henry Douglas married (first) July 13, 1858, Isadore, daughter of Captain Francis L. and Angelina C. Bowman, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, her father being a captain of in- fantry in the United States army. Mrs. Douglas died August 1, 1867. Colonel Douglas married (second) October 29, 1873, Mary, daughter of Samuel F. and Lucy Bossard, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The children of Henry Douglas were: Henry Bowman, born at West Point, New York, June 29, 1859: Francis, born at West Point, December 2, 1860; of whom later ; Charles Edward, born at Columbus, Ohio, August 26, 1866; George Patterson, born at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, February 26, 1878; Ellen, born, Fort Cameron, Utah, December 10, 1879.

(VI) Francis Douglas, second child of Col- onel Henry and Isadore (Bowman) Douglas, began his education at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylva- nia, and afterward attended DeVaux College, at Suspension Bridge, New York. After gradua- tion he taught mathematics in that institution, and also military tactics, bearing the title of cap- tain of cadets. He was subsequently engaged for three years in a clerical capacity in the United States quartermaster's department under his father, at Cantonment on the Uncompahgre river, in Colorado. April 15, 1885, he came to

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and entered the First National Bank as messenger, and was advanced to various positions to that of assistant cashier in 1899, and of cashier in 1901, which office he holds at the present time. His period of service with this institution has extended over twenty years, and he is its oldest attache in point of time. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, is an independent in politics, and is a member of the Westmoreland Club and the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.

Mr. Douglas married, September 15, 1888, Annie E. Ellicott, of Batavia, New York, a daughter of George and Mira (Sears) Ellicott. Her father was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is one of a number of children ; her brother George resides, in Chicago, Illinois, and is the electrical engineer who installed the electrical work in the St. Louis Exposition.

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas have one child, Grace Reynolds Douglas. H. E. H.

LANING FAMILY. Three brothers Lan- ing came from Wales to America and settled first on Long Island, and thence removed to New Jer- sey. One bought land in the northern part, an- other in the southern part, and the third, Robert, settled in what is now Lawrenceville, New Jer- sev. This Robert is thought to have married a Miss Hart. His name appears among the grantees of land in 1698-99. Among the child- ren of Robert was a son, Daniel Laning, baptized at Lawrenceville in 1713. His will was recorded in 1771. His wife was a sister of Jonathan Fur- man, but her Christian name is lost. This Daniel was a surveyor and lived near Ewingville.

Among the children of Daniel Laning was a son Robert, born June 5. 1779, who lived and died in Sussex county, New Jersey. His wife was Sarah Coryell, daughter of John Coryell, of French-Huguenot extraction, and whose lineage is traced to the nobility of France. Among the children of Robert Laning and Sarah Coryell was a son. John Laning, who lived in Owego, Tioga county, New York, who was the progenitor of one of the prominent families of the "Southern Tier" in New York State, and whose descendants in later years came to be recognized among the foremost families of the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.

John Laning, of Owego, New York, married, February or March, 1806, Mary Ann Deshong, widow of Welmar Godfrey Deshong, and daugh- ter of Colonel Mathias Hollenback, who was the third child and son of John Hollenback, the progenitor of this branch of the Hollenback fan-

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

ily in America. (See Welles Family). Mary Ann Hollenback was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. February 27, 1783, and died in Owego, New York, March 1, 1854. She mar- ried (first) June or July. 1799. Welmar Godfrey Deshong, and had by him three children: Mat- thias Hollenback Deshong, George Deshong, and John G. Deshong. all born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. After his death she married John Laning, and had by him the following children, all born in Owego, New York:

I. Mary Ann Laning. born February 28, 1807: died in New Jersey, January 2, 1880 ; mar- ried, March, 1824. John Roset.

2. Augustus C. Laning, born September 30, 1808 : died. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, May 29, 1875 ; married Amanda E. Christel.

3. Ellen Hollenback Laning, born March 8, 1810: died Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1850: married, November 14. 1827, George H. Bicking. a merchant of Philadelphia.

4. Matthias Laning, born April 20, 1812; died. Wysox, Pennsylvania, May 3. 1890: mar- ried. October 29. 1835, Ann H. Overton.

5. Saralı .Laning, born July, 1814; died, Owego, New York, November 3. 1842; married 1833. Dr. E. B. Phelps.

6. John C. Laning, born June 14. 1816 ; died Owego, New York, May, 1897 ; married, January 15. 1839. Juliette Truman.

7. Emily G. Laning, born October 5, 1818; died Owego, New York. November 25, 1879; married, May 18. 1837, John J. Taylor.

Augustus C. Laning removed from Owego, New York, to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1822 and made his home with the family of his uncle. George MI. Hollenback. He was employed as clerk in the mercantile establishment of his grandfather. Colonel Matthias Hollenback. In 1826 he began working in his uncle's store, but about 1830, when he became of age. he set up in business for himself in Kingston. He soon re- turned to Wilkes-Barre, however, and for a time carried on business on the east side of the public square. About 1833-34 he erected a stone build- ing for an iron foundry on the west side of the square, on the site where now stands the Laning building. Here he carried on business with good success until the early part of 1850, when (Jan- uary 3) the buildings were destroyed by fire. He then built a brick foundry and machine shop on the west side of the canal, north of Market street, and there began the manufacture of new and im- proved mechanical appliances, machines. boilers and castings, and here Samuel R. Marshall, for-

merly of Philadelphia, made his appearance in Wilkes-Barre industrial history in the capacity of superintendent of the Laning shops. About 1853 Mr. Marshall acquired an interest in the business, and then was formed the partnership of Laning & Marshall, which for the next fifteen or sixteen years was the leading house in its line of manu- facture in northeastern Pennsylvania. The firm continued in business until 1869, when its plant and machinery were sold to and became a part of the afterward famous Dickson Manufacturing Company of Scranton. Mr. Laning erected the first coalheater built in this section.

From this time until his death, Mr. Laning devoted his attention to the care of his real es- tate and other personal interests, and also to the enjoyment of his well deserved competency. He was one of the organizers in 1868 of the Miner's Saving Bank, and was its president from that time to his death in 1875 ; was treasurer and one of the managers of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, and for the last five years of his life. was a member of the board of commissioners of the Luzerne County prison. From May, 1844, to May, 1846, he was burgess of Wilkes-Barre; and from 1871 to 1874 was member at large of the Wilkes-Barre city council, and chairman of the finance committee of that body. About 1870. he presented the Wilkes-Barre municipal corpor- ation with the steam fire engine "Mechanic," and when the second steamer was purchased by the city in 1874 it was named the "A. C. Laning," in honor of one of the greatest benefactors the old department ever had.

Mr. Laning married. December 8, 1831,. Amanda Elizabeth Christel, born Hanover town- ship, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1814. died in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, No- vember 19, 1883. She was a daughter of Dr. Charles Francis Joseph Christel and wife Eliza- beth Stookey. Dr. Christel was born in Munich, Bavaria, February 12. 1776, son of Philip and Ce- cilia ( Roth) Christel. Dr. Christel came to Amer- ica when young and settled in Salem township .. Luzerne county, about 1797 or 1798. He studied medicine, and about 1800 or 1801 removed to. Huntington township. Luzerne county, and was the second resident physician there. About 1812 or 1813 he removed to Hanover township, same county. From 1822 to 1825 he practiced medi- cine and kept hotel in old Hanover, and then re- moved to Wilkes-Barre, where he was proprietor of the Wyoming Hotel. on the west side of South Main street. where the "Christel Block" was erected in 1882.

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Augustus C. and Amanda Elizabeth (Chris- tel) Laning had children, all born in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania :

I. Elizabeth Virginia Laning, born Novem- beh 5, 1832 ; married (first), November 12, 1856, Josiah H. Bradner, and had Fanny A. Bradner. born Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1858, died there November 29, 1864; married' (second), August 25, 1868, George Cotton Smith, and had Sarah P. Smith, born Chicago, Illinois, December 23, 1871 ; and Amanda M. Smith, born Morristown, New Jersey, August 5. 1877. George Cotton Smith was a native of St. Lawrence county, New York, and a prominent business man of Chicago, Illinois. In 1853 he established a manufacturing and wholesale paper business in Chicago under the name of Bradner, Smith & Company. The same firm continues business at this time ( 1905) and is the largest of the kind in the west, and one of the largest in the world. In 1860 Mr. Smith succeeded J. W. Drexel & Co., in the banking business under the firm name of George C. Smith and Brother.

2. Mary Ann Laning, born September 26, 1834; died August 31, 1838.

3. John Laning, born August 7, 1836 ; mar- ried, September, 19, 1865, Helen C. Brower of New York City, and had six children. (See post ). She died December 31, 1894.

4. Amanda Mary Laning, born December 21, 1841 ; died September 5, 1886 ; married (first) Rodney Merritt; married (second) William J. Harvey. (See Harvey Family).

John Laning, only son of Augustus C. and Amanda Elizabeth (Christel) Laning, was born in Wilkes-Barre, and has there spent his entire business life. He was educated in the old aca- demy that stood on the public square, and pre- pared there for college. In 1854 he entered La- fayette College, and at the end of a three years' course there he matriculated at Union College, Schenectady, New York, where he graduated in

I858. He was then employed by the firm of Laning & Marshall, first as draftsman, later as bookkeeper, and became thoroughly conversant with the business in every department and detail ; and after the sale of the firm's plant and property to the Dickson Manufacturing Company, 1869, and the death of his father, 1875, he succeeded to the management of the varied and extensive Laning properties and interests, which have been greatly enlarged and enhanced in value under his direction, the estate never having been divided but maintained intact, as it was when Augustus C. Laning died. Among his varied interests Mr. Laning is a director of the Miners' Saving Bank,

of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, and was also of the Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley Traction Company. He is a member of the Pres- byterian Church. He is prominent in Masonic circles. He has been a member of Wilkes-Barre Lodge, No. 61, since 1861, and has held all the chairs therein ; of Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, in which he has twice been high priest ; of the Coun- cil at Mauch Chunk ; of Dieu le Veut Command- ery, No. 45, Knights Templar; and has taken the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite. He was made a Noble of the Mystic Shrine in Lulu Temple of Philadelphia, and was a charter mem- ber of Irem Temple, No. 46, Wilkes-Barre, with which he is now affiliated.

Children of John and Helen C. (Brower) Laning, all born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania :

I. Augustus C. Laning, born June 19, 1866; married September 20, 1894, Eva M. Cole, daughter of Samuel B. Cole and Harriet M. Maxfield. Children : Helen Cobb, born May 7, 1895; Emily Harriet, born November II, 1896; Augustus Charles, born March 5, 1898; Eliza- beth Virginia, born August 12, 1899; Dorothy Roset, born April 3, 1901 ; Robert Hollenback, born March 8, 1902. 2. Emily B., born August 2, 1867 ; died October 15, 1867. 3. Elizabeth V., born October 12, 1868. 4. Horace P., born No- vember 2, 1869; died in infancy. 5. Helen B., born February 15, 1871 ; died in infancy. 6. John, born March 16, 1872. H. E. H.

GEORGE CHAHOON LEWIS, Wilkes- Barre. Ralph Lewis, with his wife Mary and family, emigrated from the parish of Illan, Glamorganshire, Wales, to Pennsylvania in company with John ap Bevan in 1683-4. and settled in Haverford township, Chester county. He was a member of the Society of Friends by convincement, as is attested by the certificate which he brought with him to the Friends here. This certificate is recorded in the minutes of the Friends Meeting at Radnor, and was given by the meeting at Treverig, Glamorganshire, 10, 7th mo., 1683, and reads as follows :

"In like manner doe we hereby certifie unto those concerned herein, That Ralph Lewis, with his family, passing ye same time with our friend John ap Bevan, for Pennsylvania, belonging to our meeting nere Treverigg Is such a man knowne unto us to be of an innocent life and conversation, walking amongst us as become one prophessing the truth ; not knowing by him, since we had ac- quaintance together in the Gospell, any failing or Infirmitie whereby ye truth dide in the least suffer by him, and that is much to our comfort wherever

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

* * "The prominence of the city of Phila- delphia as the seat of the Congress of the Con- federation, and her superiority in population and commerce, up to the removal of the seat of the Federal Government to the city of Wash- ington in 1801, may account in some degree for the diffusion of Mr. Lewis' celebrity, which partook of the distinction awarded to the city. But it was not in criminal law alone that he was deemed by-other cities to be the most able man at the Bar. He was a person of great intellect- ual ardor, and of strong grasp of mind ; and both in law and politics, and other matters too, he took firm hold of whatever interested him. His great devotion was, of course, to professional studies. *

"In February, 1794, he was counsel for the petitioners against the election of Albert Gal- latin to the Senate of the United States by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and was heard be- fore the Senate; the first occasion on which the Senate opened its doors to professional counsel, or to the public.

: * * "He achieved a great victory at the Bar and also in the legislature of Pennsylvania in the year 1788, when a spirit of factious jeal- ousy, under the lead of a very ardent and deter- mined man aspired to deprive the Supreme Court of the State of one of its most ancient and necessary powers-the right of the Court to pun- ish by fine and imprisonment, without trial by jury, for a contempt of court, in the columns of a newspaper. *

"When fully engaged in argument. he saw nothing and thought of nothing but his cause ; and, in that, would sometimes rise to the fervor and energy of a sybil. He was about six feet in height as he stood, and would have been more if he had been bent back to the perpendicular from the curve in which he habitually inclined forward. At the same time he was spare of flesh, and destitute of almost all dimensions but length. His countenance was intellectual, but its general effect was hurt by his spectacles. and by the alti- tude and length of his nose, of which, neverthe- Jess he was immensely proud. * *

"He abominated the Gallican invention. as he called it, of pantaloons, and stuck to knee- breeches all his life; and, under the same pre- judice. he adhered to hair powder and a que. because the French Revolutionists had first re- jected them from their armies. * He smoked cigars incessantly. He smoked at the fireplace in court. He smoked in the Court Library; in his · office : in the street ; in bed ; and he would have smoked in church if he had ever gone there." (Henry's History, Lodge 71, F. & A. M.)

David Paul Brown in his Forum says :

"Mr.Lewis' career was a manifestation of the aristocracy of mind. His powers of reasoning were of the highest order. His manner of speech was rough but most powerful. He spoke the English language with extraordinary purity. His wit was keen but rough, and in sarcasm he had no equal."

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 37

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin Publication date: 1906 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 988

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 988