Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 58

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 58
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 58

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Ira Mandeville Kirkendall, fourth son of

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William Wheeler and Maria (Dereamer) Kirk- .endall, was born in Dallas township, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. November 3, 1835. As soon as he was old enough he was put to work, and upon the death of his father in 1845 he began to make his own way in life. When he was nine years old he carried mail on horseback three days each week, and was so employed until he was twelve, having between his trips a little time to attend country school and acquire the rudiments of an education. At the age of fourteen years he went to Pittston and found employment as clerk in a store. He was there until 1856, when he went west to Nebraska, where he worked at farming and stage driving. In 1858 he returned to the east, worked one more year in Pittston, and then located at Bear Creek, where he engaged in lumbering until 1865, when he removed to Wilkes-Barre and continued in the same line of business until 1871. He was deputy sheriff of Luzerne county under his brother, William Penn Kirkendall, 1875-78. He was a member and head of the wholesale grocery firm of Kirken- dall & Whitman, 1880-83, and senior member of the firm of Kirkendall Brothers, wholesale flour and feed dealers, 1883-94. In the latter year the partnership was dissolved, and it at once reor- ganized under the style of Kirkendall & Son ( Ira M. and Frederick C. Kirkendall) by which name it has since been known in mercantile circles throughout the region of country of which Wilkes-Barre is the business center. In busi- ness Mr. Kirkendall has met with success, the reward of his own personal efforts. No man has been more closely identified than he with the poli- tical history of Wilkes-Barre, its improvement and its progress. He was elected burgess of the borough of Wilkes-Barre under the old system of government. 1870, and was elected first mayor of the city, 1871, under the new and advanced scheme of municipal government, and served in that capacity three years. He was elected coun- cilman of the fourth ward-the strongest Repub- lican ward in the city, 1883, and although himself a firm Democrat. he was re-elected to represent that ward for sixteen consecutive years, the long- est term any councilman ever served in the his- tory of the city. As councilman he gave his best services to the public welfare, often at the ex- pense of private interests, but he accepted the ob- ligations of the office with his election, and gave to municipal interests the same careful attention as was given his mercantile business, and neither ever suffered neglect at his hands. He is justly proud of a long and honorable record as an official of the city, a service which from its be-

ginning in 1883 was never financially compen- sated, but which was doubly repaid in the con- fidence and respect reposed in him by the people of the city without respect to party, and the con- sciousness on his own part of having done his duty.

When Mr. Kirkendall entered the council only a few streets in the city had any kind of pave- ment, but when he left that body there were twenty-five miles of paved streets, a work accom- plished very largely through his personal efforts. He was regarded as "the father" of the system of paving improvements in the city, and the citizens of the fourth ward kept him in the council full sixteen years and regretted his determination to retire at the end of that time. In the council he served longest on the street committee, but saw service on every committee of that body. He was prominent in the work which led to the erection of the new city hall, and was always an advocate of public improvement in every direc- tion. His opinion in the councils of the board were of weight with his associates. for they un- derstood the worth of his judgment, and knew that his greatest ambition in official life was the interests of Wilkes-Barre as a city. Mr. Kirken- dall is a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. He married (first), No- vember 3, 1868, Hannah C. Driesbach, born May 18, 1849, died January 26, 1880. He married (second). January 4, 1882, Sarah A. Bartlett, a native of New Jersey and descendant of Quaker ancestors. Mr. Kirkendall had, by first marriage : Grace Wisner, born August 19, 1869 ; married Charles A. Bartlett, real estate agent, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and had threee children : Fred- erick Charles, born August 10, 1871, of whom later.

William Penn Kirkendall, youngest child of William Wheeler and Maria ( Dereamer) Kirken- dall, was born in Dallas, Luzerne county. Penn- sylvania, April 13. 1843. He was educated in the Dallas township schools, and Wyoming Semi- nary, Kingston. From the schoolroom he went into business pursuits, and almost since child- hood he has been compelled to make his own way in life. He has always been fortunately asso- ciated in business relations. His earliest exper- ience was as partner with his brother, George. and Ephraim Troxell, lumber manufacturers and dealers in Wilkes-Barre. In the fall of 1874 he was elected sheriff of Luzerne county-the suc- cessful Democratic candidate for that office-and served from 1875 to 1878. his brother and former partner, Ira, being for a part of that term his deputy. He was the junior member of the firm

LesChinkendall

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of Kirkendall Brothers, when he retired from this concern, wholesale flour and feed dealers in Wilkes-Barre from 1883 to 1894. The Kingston Lumber Company was organized in 1888 by John C. Van Loan, Thomas Lawless, John T. Phillips and William Penn Kirkendall, and from that time the business of this company has engaged much of his attention; indeed, of the original company, he is now the only member connected with it. He has given his attention since 1894 to the business of the lumber company and his other personal concerns in Kingston and Dallas. He maintains his residence in Dallas, and both there and in Wilkes-Barre has taken an interest in public affairs. While living in Wilkes-Barre he was councilman three years, and later in Dal- las borough six years; was school director sev- eral terms ; president of the Dallas Agricultural Society one year, and president of the Luzerne County Agricultural Society five years. For twelve years he held the office of prison commis- sioner.

He married, January 1, 1866, Olive A. Pat- terson, born February 3, 1843, daughter of James and Lucinda (Honeywell) Patterson, of Dallas. They had one child, Cary E. Kirkendall, born April 15, 1870, died June, 1873. Upon the death of Mrs. Rice, sister of Mrs. Kirkendall, the former's daughter, Olive C. Rice, became a mem- ber of the Kirkendall household and family. She married Archibald Jones of Dallas, and they have one child, E. Elizabeth Jones.

Frederick Charles Kirkendall, son of Ira M. and Hannah Kirkendall, was born in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, August 10, 1871, and edu- cated in the public schools of that city, also in Lafayette College, where he graduated, 1894, with the degree of B. S. In the same year he became a partner with his father in the business formerly conducted by Kirkendall Brothers, the style of the firm then changing to Kirkendall & Son. Frederick Kirkendall at once assumed ac- tive management of the business and conducted it successfully up to 1904, when on account of his various other business enterprises, among them the Wilkes-Barre Leader, he was obliged to retire from the active management of the lat- ter, although still connected with, and exercising a prime influence in its affairs. He has been ac- tively associated with some of Wilkes-Barre's strongest and most progressive financial and in- dustrial institutions. He is president of the Leader Publishing Company, and a director of the Second National Bank and the Penn Tobacco Company. With other local capitalists he is in-

terested in several extensive telephone enterprises in other states. In 1903 he acquired an interest in the Wilkes-Barre Leader, and in the following year assumed with Edward Gunster the business management of this paper. Mr. Kirkendall is considered a leader in his party, and although a young man has proved himself well worthy of the title. He is a Democrat, of the same type as his. father, frank, outspoken, and honest in the ex- pression of his political opinions. He has been a member of the city and county committees for many years, was chairman of the former in 1897 and of the latter in 1900. In 1899 he was elected treasurer of Luzerne county, being the youngest incumbent of that office in the history of the county. In April of 1905 he was elected mayor of Wilkes-Barre by an overwhelming majority, being the second Democrat elected to that posi- tion since his father, Ira M. Kirkendall, carried the city thirty-three years before. Mayor Kirk- endall is a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.

Frederick C. Kirkendall married, January 10, 1897. Eleanor C. Gearhart, born November 10, 1873, daughter of George MI. Gearhart, cashier of the Danville National Bank. Their children are: Frederick Charles, Jr., born October 12, 1897. Eleanor, born April 2, 1899. Cordelia, born January 10, 1903. H. E. H.

RUTTER FAMILY-Conrad Rutter was a Prussian. On account of religious persecutions he left Prussia and went into England to live temporarily, where he married his wife. Jane Douglas, of Scotch descent, and emigrated to America in the year 1683, in the company of which Francis Daniel Pastorius was the guiding spirit. They reached Philadelphia, August 20, 1683, having made the voyage in the ship "Amer- ica," John Wasey, captain. He took up land where Germantown, Philadelphia, now stands, and laid out that town during the year of his ar- rival. He remained there until 1689, then re- moved up the Schuylkill to where Pottstown in Montgomery county now stands, took up lands there and improved them. In 1716 he gave this tract to his son Andrew, and with his other three sons-Joseph, Peter, and Conrad, Jr.,-went to what is now Leacock township. Lancaster county, where he took up five hundred and eighty-eight acres of land. His warrant for these lands bore the signature of Penn's sons, and was dated Jan- uary 3, 1733. The lands in Lancaster county Conrad Rutter divided in three parts, giving one of these, comprising one hundred and eighty-

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eight acres, to his son, Joseph, from whom the Rutter families of the Wyoming Valley are descended.

Conrad Rutter, the pioneer, was a persevering and farseeing man. His descendants in each succeeding generation from his time are classed with the first families of Pennsylvania. When we consider how he was driven from his native land because of his religious views, coming to America in 1683. helping to found Germantown, and afterward building for his children in what are now two counties in this great common- wealth, we can have none other than feelings of veneration for the immigrant ancestor of the Rut- ter family in America. When well advanced in years he helped to found and build ( 1729) the first Protestant Episcopal church in eastern Lan- caster county. His son Joseph, progenitor of the particular branch of the Rutter family of which these annals treat, built on his own farm tract at his own expense the first school house in Leacock township. It is handed down as tradition in the Rutter family that in this little school house one of Joseph's daughters educated her future husband, who, with their sons, in later years were prominent persons in the history of Lancaster county. Conrad Rutter and his wife Jane Douglas were the parents of four sons : Andrew, Joseph, Peter and Conrad, Jr.

Joseph Rutter, son of Conrad and Jane (Douglas) Rutter, was born in Leacock town- ship, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and mar- ried there Barbara Glenn, who bore him three children.

I. Henry, married Elizabeth Shultz, and had fourteen children, each of whom received a goodly inheritance under his will.

2. George, born in Leacock township, Lan- caster county, and died in Salisbury township. He married Margaret Lightner, daughter of Na- thaniel Lightner and his wife Margaret La Rue, who was born in France in 1713. Nathaniel Lightner was one of the prominent early settlers in Leacock township. Of the nineteen children of Nathaniel Lightner two sons and two daugh- ters married two sons and two daughters of Joseph Rutter. George and Margaret (Light- ner) Rutter had among other children, Adam Rutter, see forward.

3. Barbara, who became the wife of a Mr. Lightner, and the mother of the late Judge John Lightner.

Adam Rutter, son of George and Margaret (Lightner) Rutter, was born in Leacock township in 1763, and died in Salisbury township, No- vember 25, 1810. He was a farmer by occupa-

tion. He married Margaret Skiles, born May 15, 1773, died July 19, 1859. Their children were : James, born June, 1797, married Hannah Leaman; Jane, born May, 1799, married Will- iam Rhodes; George, born May, 1801, married Elizabeth Rutter ; Anna, born July 16, 1804, mar- ijed Henry Mcclellan; Nathaniel, born Novem- ber 14, 1806, mentioned hereafter; Adam, Jr., born November 26, 1808, married, 1828, Mar- garet Skiles : Rachel, born March 15, 1810, mar- ried Christian Weldy.

Nathaniel .Rutter, fifth child of Adam, Sr., and Margaret ( Skiles) Rutter, was born in the Pequa valley, fourteen miles below Lancaster, November 14. 1806, died October 14, 1899, aged ninety-three years. He came to Wilkes-Barre in 1825, and sometime between 1835 and 1840 as- sociated with George MI. Hollenback in a gen- eral merchandise business. The management of the business was in Mr. Rutter's hands until the death of his partner, November 7, 1866, and afterward Mr. Rutter carried on a general hard- ware store until 1888. He was for years presi- · dent of the Miners' Savings Bank and of the Hol- lenback Coal Company, and a director of the Vulcan Iron Works, and was also connected with various other business enterprises. He was at one time a member of the city council. On com- ing to Wilkes-Barre Mr. Rutter was identified with St. Stephen's Protesant Episcopal Church, but after his marriage he became a member of the First Presbyterian Church, and was for many years one of its elders. He was for many years a familiar figure on the streets of Wilkes-Barre, and many persons knew and admired him for his fine traits of character. Unassuming in all the relations of life, the spirit of religious culture took hold of his nature and enabled him as a Christian to fulfill in the community a most bene- ficent purpose. His example tended to exalt the dignity of man, and raised him in the scale of virtue, while his social and domestic life ever will be a blessed memory.

Nathaniel Rutter married January 13, 1831. Mary Ann Cist, born December 26, 1808, died March 18, 1846, daughter of Jacob Cist and his wife Sarah Hollenback. Their children were : I. Ellen Cist, born October 25, 1831. died un- married May 21. 1887. 2. Emily Hollenback. born December 16, 1833, married, September 29. 1859. Edward P. Darling, and died January 23, 1882. 3. Margaret, born January 24. 1836, married Eugene Beauharnais Beaumont, and died April 22, 1879. 4. Augusta, born August 23. 1837, married Clarence Michler, and died July 22, 1878. 5. George, died in infancy. 6.

of M Retter

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James May, see forward. Nathaniel Rutter mar-

After Gettysburg he returned with his regiment ried (second), February 19, 1850, Ellen Cist, . to Virginia, near Culpeper, where he was detailed sister of his first wife, and widow of the Rev. Robert Dunlap, born January 7, 1813, died Sep- tember 20, 1880, whose daughter by her first marriage, Sally H. Dunlap, became the wife of Isaac M. Thomas, of Wilkes-Barre. Mr. Rutter had by his second marriage Marian Natalie, of Wilkes-Barre, and Hervey Simmons, died April 4, 1889.

James May Rutter, youngest son of Nathaniel and Mary Ann (Cist) Rutter, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1841. He was educated at an academic institution in Wy- oming, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. Leaving school he was apprenticed to Laning & Marshall to learn the machinist's trade, and finished his term of service May 13, 1862. During the Civil war he enlisted as private, August 4, 1862, and was made fifth sergeant of Company C, One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was attached to the Second Brigade, Third Division, First Corps, Army of the Potomac, then operating in Virginia. With that command he participated in the battles of Fitz Hugh Farm, Pollock's Mill, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Mine Run campaign. In March, 1864, the First Corps was disbanded, and the One Hundred and Forty-third Pennsylvania Regiment was transferred to the Fifth Corps, and afterward took part in the battles of the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania, North

Anna, Totapotomy, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, the siege and assault of Petersburg, Weldon Rail- road, Boydton Road, Hatcher's Run and other minor engagements. In 1863 'Sergeant Rutter was presented by resolution of Congress with a medal of honor for gallantry at Gettys- burg on July 1, 1863, in which battle he carried his wounded captain from the field and saved him from falling into the hands of the enemy .*

with twenty men to guard the signal station at Poney Mountain, which was beyond the Union picket lines. He was transferred to the United States Signal Corps, on March 20, 1864, and when in front of Petersburg, Virginia, shortly afterward, was promoted to sergeant, and was on detached service at corps headquarters under Generals Burnside, Park and Hartranft. He took part in all the battles in which his regiment par- ticipated up to General Lee's surrender. He was' honorably discharged and mustered out of service at Washington, D. C., June 27, 1865 ..

At the close of the war Sergeant Rutter re- turned to his home in Wilkes-Barre. He was ap- pointed May 27, 1874, to service on the Geological Survey west of the 100th meridian, under Lieu- tenant Wheeler, U. S. A., in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., which service occupied his time for the remainder of that year. He then engaged in the hardware business in Wilkes-Barre, and retired 1888. He is a charter member of Conyngham Post, No. 97, Grand Army of the Republic, and its past junior vice-commander, and a charter member of En-

was, fall into the hands of the enemy, and asked that some of the men should bring him off the field. There was no answer, until Sergeant Rutter jumped up and ran to his rescue, about twenty feet in advance of the firing line. Helping the captain to his feet, he brought him to the rail fence, under a heavy fire, where some of his comrades pulled down the rails and George Kinder assisted Rutter in taking the wounded officer to Gettysburg and placing him in a private house. Rutter made every effort to find a surgeon, and in his search narrowly escaped capture, the town being occupied by the Confederates, who fired at every blue uniform. Returning to the house, he reported his non-success to his disabled captain, and then took refuge for the night in the cemetery. In the morning'he rejoined his regiment, and on answering at roll call was told by Lieutenant Kropp that he had been given up for dead, and that none of his comrades expected to see him again. The same morning (July 2d) Sergeant Rutter, with his reg- iment, was in close action, and on the next day aided in repelling the magnificent but ill-fated charge of Gen- eral Pickett's division. The regiment to which Ser- geant Rutter belonged distinguished itself greatly during the entire three days battle, and came away with its colors, while two other regiments in the brigade lost theirs to the enemy. The monument of the regiment, on the Chambersburg pike, in front of where the brave General Reynolds fell, and near where General Han- cock was wounded, marks the line held by it on July 2 and 3, 1863, when the backbone of the rebellion was broken. The facts upon which the Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Sergeant Rutter were estab- lished by the sworn evidence of Captain Reichard him- self. and by Sergeant R. W. Marcy and Private Charles S. Shotten.

* The Congressional Medal of Honor was never bestowed except upon incontrovertible evidence of con- spicuous gallantry. The record in the case cited shows the following facts: Sergeant Rutter's regiment was in action on the Chambersburg pike, in front of McPher- son Woods, where General John F. Reynolds was killed. About 4 o'clock, p. m., General Doubleday's corps, to which the One Hundred and Forty-third Pennsylvania Regiment was attached, being left without support, was obliged to fall back to another line, where the men lay down, the enemy occupying the railroad cut in their immediate front. It was here that Captain (afterward Colonel) Reichard was wounded. Lieutenant John C. Kropp, of Sergeant Rutter's company, exclaimed that it was a pity to let Captain Reichard, wounded as he 21

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campment No. 135, Union Veteran Legion, of which he was colonel at one time ; a charter mem- ber of Landmark Lodge, No. 442, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, Wilkes-Barre; was president of the Wilkes-Barre school board; the first assistant engineer of the Wilkes-Barre fire department ; also a member of the Westmoreland Club.

James May Rutter married, October 16, 1866, Martha C. Burdett, daughter of Jacob Burdett, of New York, who died September 3, 1883. He married (second) April 24, 1886, Alvar- etta Wildoner. Alvaretta Wildoner was born in Shickshinny, January 30, 1856, a daughter of George and Lydia (Joslyn) Wildoner .. George was born in Luzerne county, and was son of George Wildoner, who was of Holland Dutch parentage and probably was himself a native born Hollander. Lydia Joslin came of an old Connec- ticut family, one of her ancestors being Ephraim White, who fought nobly through the revolti- tion but soon afterward allied himself to Daniel Shays, leader of what is known in history as "Shays' Rebellion," and by his part in this ill- advised uprising Ephraim White almost for- feited his revolutionary pension, which, however, was subsequently granted him. Another of Mrs. Rutter's ancestors was Nathaniel Joslin, of an old Connecticut family. Her father served dur- ing the Civil war as a private in Company F, One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment. Pennsylva- nia Volunteers, the same regiment in which Mr. Rutter served. He was honorably discharged after serving the full term of three years. He lived the greater part of his life in Shickshinny. The children of Mr. Rutter by his first marriage : (I) Ellen, married, January 20, 1892, John Ur- quhart Paine, who died June 18, 1892. She married, second, November 8, 1899, William H. McFadden, of Germantown, now engaged with the street engineering department of Philadel- phia. She had by her first marriage, Emily Ur- quhart Paine, by her second marriage, Eleanor E. McFadden. (2) Frances M. (3) Nathaniel Burdette, county surveyor of Luzerne county, elected for the second term of four years 1904, married, April 25, 1899, Stella G. Hann. (4) Augusta L., married, October 12, 1898, Harry Meyer Seitzinger, manufacturer of screens, Wilkes-Barre. They had Martha Rutter, and Josephine G. Children of Mr. Rutter by sec- ond marriage: (5) Miriam A., born April 5, 1887. (6) James May, Jr., born December 30, 1888.

Nathaniel B. Rutter, eldest son of James May and Martha ( Burdette) Rutter, born August 17, 1871, was educated in the public schools and

Harry Hillman Academy. For three years fol- lowing the completion of his studies he was em- ployed by Harry S. Reets, the well known min- ing and civil engineer, as assistant noteman and rodman, and later entered the employ of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company as assistant transitman, under the chief engineer, W. J. Richards, who later became general man- ager of the company, and who is now general manager of the Reading Railroad. Mr. Rutter was connected with the engineering department of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company for three years, during which time this company also controlled the interests of the Crystal Spring and Hanover Water companies, of which the engineering department of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company was in charge. Re- signing from the employ of the company he asso- ciated himself with A. Weeks, Jr., formerly resi- dent engineer of the construction of the Wilkes- Barre & Eastern Railroad Company. In April, 1896, he opened a general engineering office in the Laning Building, Wilkes-Barre, where he is at present located. He was appointed by the county commissioners of Luzerne county as civil and consulting engineer and has twice been elected to the office of county surveyor, his pres- ent term to expire in 1908. In 1899 he was · elected by the Hollenback Coal Company super- intendent and mining engineer, and is at present serving in that capacity. He has served as civil engineer for nearly all of the boroughs in Lu- zerne county ; and has been employed at various times as engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Le- high Valley Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ; New York, Susquehanna & Western (Erie) as an expert witness in the courts, and has been connected with some of the largest suits tried in this and other counties. During the past ten years of his business he has been employed as engineer witness more times than any other practicing engineer in northeast- ern Pennsylvania. He first being in the employ of an individual engineer, then in the employ of the engineering department of one of the largest corporations in the state, and later associating himself with a college graduate civil engineer for two years, has given him the experience few engineers have had.

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 58

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