USA > Pennsylvania > Lycoming County > Genealogical and personal history of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 19
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LYCOMING COUNTY
ized so large and excellent a German emigration of that day, when all who sought these shores were honest homeseekers and not vicious and degraded parasites and defiers of law and order. Leonard Shambacher was a farmer by occupation, at Liberty, Tioga county. In 1830 he married a Miss Hyde, and to them were born: Margaret, Christina, Mary, Kate, Charles, who was a soldier during the Civil war and died in Washington, while in service; and Jacob, who was also in the army, serving with the rank of first lieutenant; he is now in the insurance busi- ness in Ridgeway, Elk county, Pennsylvania. Of these children, Chris- tina was the wife of Leonard Shambacher.
To John and Christina (Shambacher) Winter were born the fol- lowing children :
I. Charles F., born March 14, 1857, who is a millwright with headquarters at Malvern, Arkansas.
2. Mary M., born December 8, 1858, now the wife of J. Ball, and residing two miles north of Montoursville, on the old Scott farm.
3. Samuel W., born October 7, 1860, died September 2, 1873.
4. Margaret C., born April 24, 1863, now the wife of William Rice, residing two miles north of Williamsport, on the Blooming Grove road.
5. Abraham Lincoln, born November 23, 1864, who resides on a farm just south of Montoursville.
6. Sarah Elizabeth, born October 22, 1866, residing two miles north of Williamsport, on the Blooming Grove road.
7. John Calvin, born August 24, 1868, to be further mentioned hereinafter.
8. Louisa H., born September 5, 1870, now the wife of Rev. H. M. Torrey, and residing at 204 South Spruce street, Nashville, Tennessee.
9. Laura Emma, born August 26, 1873.
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IO. Annie May, born December 25, 1875, now Mrs. B. S. Bower, residing on the Winter homestead, near Williamsport, on the Blooming Grove road.
II. William Edward, born March 6, 1878, now a student at the Moody school in Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts.
John C. Winter, seventh child and fourth son of John and Chris- tina (Shambacher) Winter, made his home upon the parental farm until he was eighteen years of age. His father died when he was thirteen, and he and an elder brother of seventeen assumed much of the labor and many of the cares in carrying on the farm and otherwise aiding their mother in the support of the family, and it was through this that he developed those traits of persistency and industry which afforded him an equipment for his subsequent useful and successful career. He acquired a thorough common school education, at the same time forming habits of reading and observation which further developed his character. At the age of eighteen he began carpentry, and became in turn an accom- plished mechanic, a capable foreman, a contractor and an architect, each step marked by increasing success. He began contracting, in a small way, in partnership with J. C. Schmoll, and subsequently entered into association with Jacob Neff in the business which they now conduct. Operating a planing mill and workshops at 1001 Market street, Will- iamsport, on the site of the entrance to the " Old Fair Grounds," they carry on a general contracting and building business, producing their own building materials, and giving employment to several crews of workmen, they themselves designing and superintending every descrip- tion of architectural work. The fruits of their labors. are visible in the many ornamental edifices, business and residential, which adorn the city, and have given it the modern air which attracts the gratified atten-
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tion of the visitor. December 2, 1902, they were incorporated under the name of Vallamont Building and Planing Mill Co.
Mr. Winter is owner of considerable real estate in various parts of the city. He is deeply interested in all pertaining to the interests of the community, and is among the foremost in the advancement of every worthy enterprise. His interest in educational affairs is marked, and for some time he rendered efficient aid to Albright College as a member of its board of trustees. He is a member of the United Evangelical church, and attends services at the First Church of Williamsport, and is an active member of the congregation.
Mr. Winter married. March 10, 1892, at Williamsport, Miss Mary Elizabeth Glosser, the Rev. H. A. Benfer performing the ceremony. Her parents, Peter and Hannah (Williamson) Glosser, reside on a farm in Loyalsock township. Her father is a member of the United Evan- gelical church; he is a Democrat in politics and has held a number of local offices. Her grandfather Williamson was a successful farmer, and an influential and highly respected citizen.
Mr. and Mrs. Winter are the parents of three children: Harry, born December 19, 1893; Ora, March 24, 1897; Wilber, May 19, 1900. The family occupy one of the most beautiful residential properties in the northern part of Williamsport.
JACOB A. NEFF.
Jacob Arthur Neff, numbered among the most active and enter- prising of the business men of Williamsport, was born in Loyalsock township, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. May 27, 1874, a son of Jonathan and Harriet (Winter) Neff. He is of German ancestry, his paternal grandfather, Abram Neff, having been born in Stuttgart, Ger-
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many, whence he came to the United States after his marriage with Mary Daller, who was born in the same city with himself. Abram Neff came with a company of colonists and settled in Blooming Grove, where he passed his life as a farmer, and there died, as did his wife. They were members of the Lutheran church. They were the parents of ten children : Abram, David, Frederick, Jacob, Jonathan, Michael, Isaac, Barbara, Margaret, Mary. Several of these children located in Indiana, where they followed farming, and all were known as industrious and upright men.
Jonathan Neff, of the above named family, was born in Upper Fair- field township, Lycoming county, in 1832, and was reared upon the paternal farm and learned the carpenter's trade near there. He married Miss Harriet Winter, daughter of John Winter, whose ancestry is noted in sketch of John C. Winter, preceding this. Shortly after their mar- riage they removed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he conducted a grocery store for a number of years. About 1866 he disposed of his business and purchased the farm upon which he now resides, situated in Loyalsock township. His wife died July 16, 1889. He is a Repub- lican, as are all his sons, and a member of the Evangelical church. They were the parents of twelve children, all of whom came to maturity and entered upon honorable and successful careers: I. Hiram, a farmer in Rochester, Indiana; 2. William, a roofing and paint manufacturer in Denver, Colorado; 3. Margaret, wife of Oscar Wilder, a merchant in Newberry, Pennsylvania ; 4. Annie, unmarried; 5. Albert, died at the age of thirty-five years; 6. Addie, unmarried; 7. Charles, a practicing physician at St. Mary's, Pennsylvania ; 8. Jacob A., to be further men . tioned hereinafter : 9. Samuel, at home; 10. Howard, who is prospecting in Oregon : II. Carrie, wife of George Kober, residing in Williamsport,
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Pennsylvania; 12. Ernest, at home. All the sons are of the same polit- ical faith as the father.
Jacob Arthur Neff, eighth child and fifth son of Jonathan and Har- riet (Winter) Neff, passed his boyhood days upon the home farm and attended the district schools. He afterward completed a course in the county normal school at Muncy, Pennsylvania, and for a number of years taught school in various places in the county, making an excellent record as an instructor. He subsequently took a business course in the Williamsport Commercial College, and broadened his literary education by pursuing advanced branches in the Dickinson Seminary. After leav- ing that institution, he became associated with John C. Winter in the planing mill and building business, which under their industrious and sagacious management has long been recognized as among the most im- portant enterprises of the city, and which has been a potent factor in its development and growth. Mr. Neff takes an active and intelligent interest in community affairs, and bears a full share in advancing every cause which contributes to its prosperity, along moral and intellectual as well as material lines. In politics he is a Republican, and he is affili- ated with Amazon Lodge No. 662, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
March 22, 1905, Mr. Neff married Miss Carrie Oberfell, who was born in Williamsport, a daughter of George and Maggie (Hughes) Oberfell, natives of Lycoming county, and numbered among its most honored citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Neff are members of the Evangelical church. Their residence is one of the most beautiful pieces of home property in the northern part of the city.
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HENRY C. GREEN.
Henry C. Green of the Ralston Brick Company, born at Williams- port, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1844, comes of the following ancestry :
Some time in the seventeenth century there emigrated from Provi- dence, Rhode Island, to Westchester, New York, one Green (I). From him descended John Green (II), born 1709 and died 1792. He married and had six sons. Isaiah Green (III), son of John (II), born 1750, died in 1832. He married and had three daughters and four sons. (IV) John Green, son of Isaiah (III), born 1785, died 1865. He was married in 1819.at New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Eliza Shear- man, daughter of David and Anna Shearman, who bore him ten children, as follows :
I, Ann; 2, Elizabeth, died in infancy; 3, David, who became a prominent surveyor and later in life in the employ of the United States treasury department ; he died in 1878; 4, Mary, died 1890; 5, John R., who died in childhood; 6, Charles, a resident of Roaring Branch, Penn- sylvania ; 7, John B., a resident of the same place ; 8, Montgomery ; 9, Hannah, both deceased: 10, Henry C. John Green and wife were both members of the Society of Friends. Mrs. Green died 1862.
(IV) John Green, son of Isaiah Green (III), born in Dutchess county, New York, received a good common school education, and at an early age was placed in a wholesale cloth house in New York City, where he learned the business. Later he established himself in New York City in the same line of business, and with his brother, Jacob, carried on the business for many years, when he sold out and opened a store in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and at Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1836 he closed these stores out and retired to a farm two miles south of Poughkeepsie, New York, where he resided until 1841, when he
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moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He removed to Roaring Branch, ยท Pennsylvania, in 1861, where he owned a sawmill and timberlands, where he died 1865.
Henry C. Green, our subject, spent his boyhood days in Williams- port, where he attended the public schools and Dickinson Seminary. At the age of fifteen he went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, and clerked in a book store about four years, when he came to Roaring Branch, Pennsylvania, and worked on a farm and in a sawmill until 1864, when he enlisted in the 188th New York Volunteer Regiment, as a musician. He also served as a clerk at General Grant' headquarters, U. S. A. He rode with President Lincoln, Commodore Farragut, Commodore Porter and General Weitzel in a carriage, on Lincoln's memorable trip through Richmond, Virginia. He is the last survivor of that party. Mr. Green served until the end of that great conflict, when he returned home and went into the lumber business at Emporium, Pennsylvania, for three years. He next went to Roaring Branch and clerked in his brother's, C. S. Green's, general store, but after a short time he went to Grover, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the general store business on his own ac- count.
He was appointed postmaster and station agent for the Northern Central Railway Company, the first agent of that place. He served there three years and moved to Bodines, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in a general merchandise trade, continuing for twelve years, when he sold to C. P. Culver, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and moved to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the lumber business for four years, and then came to Ralston, Lycoming county, where he became superintendent for the Red Run Coal Company, in the lumber department. Also superintendent of the Ralston Brick Company, which position he still holds.
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Believing in the general principles of the Republican party, he casts this vote and works for its best interests. He is a member of Lodge No. 382, A. F. & A. M., of Emporium, Pennsylvania, and attends the Methodist Episcopal church. He is an exceptionally well read and gen- erally posted man, and held in high esteem by all within his community. In 1872 Mr. Green married Mary E. Merrell, who is the daughter of Elliot and Catherine Merrell, whose maiden name was Hebe. By this union three children were born: Charles E., who died when ten years old; John, died in infancy; Catherine, now Mrs. Dr. John Steele, of Gailton, Pennsylvania.
DR. CHARLES MURRAY ADAMS.
Dr. Adams, a leading factor in the medical fraternity of Williams- port, Pennsylvania, was born at Scottsburg, New York, October II, 1859, and comes from the Adams family to which President Adams belonged, and is a descendant of the Monroe, Peck, Otis, Harrison and Hubbard families, all of much prominence in American history. The Adams line runs to him as follows :
I. John Adams, born 1745, died February 26, 1849, aged one hundred and four years, one month and four days.
II. James Adams, born June 10, 1779; died April 30, 1855, aged seventy-five years and ten months. For his first wife he married Dolly Dickerson, born September 18, 1779; died January 18, 1818. His second wife was Lucy Sartell, born August 5, 1792; died September 21, 1864, aged seventy-two years.
III. John Sartell Adams, son of James and Lucy Sartell Adams, II, was born March 29, 1820. He married Nancy Peck, who was born February 28, 1825. She descended as follows: Ephraim Harrison,
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brother to the first President Harrison, had a daughter Hannah, born 1757, who married Elizabeth Peck, the son of Deacon Paul Peck, born 1608 and died 1695, aged eighty-seven years. He had a son Paul, who died in 1725, who married Elizabeth Bassy. They had a son Paul, who died in 1751, who married Leah Mowry, and they had Thomas Peck, the father of Elijah Peck, born June 24, 1792; died April 12, 1864. aged seventy-five years and ten months. His daughter, Nancy Peck, born February 28, 1825, became the wife of John Sartell Adams, and was the mother of Dr. Adams, of whom this memoir is written.
Dr. Adams' early life was spent on a farm, and in his boyhood days he attended the Harford graded school in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, until 1876. He then taught school for several months, after which he pursued a course in the State Normal School at Mans- field, Tioga county, Pennsylvania. From 1879 to 1881 he was again engaged in school teaching, until 1885 was in business life, as an account- ant, but finally entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, now a part of New York University, and was graduated Doctor of Medicine, in March, 1888. Since that date he has been in the active practice of medicine and surgery in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. In April and May, 1899, he took a special course in surgery in the New York Poly- technic. Another school to which he attributes much of his education was that of poverty and hard work, having entered that school, unaided, at the age of seventeen years.
He was elected president of the Lycoming County Medical So- ciety in 1901. He is one of the chief surgeons to the Williamsport Hospital, and a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society ; the American Medical Association; medical examiner for the Union Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Provident Savings Life Assurance Society, of New York. Politically Dr. Adams
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has always been a Republican. In religious matters he is a member of the First Baptist Church of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He is a member of Lodge No. 106, Free and Accepted Masons, of Williamsport, and belongs to the Chapter, Council and Commandery, also the Scottish Rite, of Williamsport, having attained the thirty-second degree. He is a member of Irem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Wilkesbarre.
He was married at Mansfield, Pennsylvania, to Miss Emma Fer- guson, a student of the State Normal School of that place. She died at Williamsport, April 29, 1901, leaving no children.
PATRICK B. FLANAGAN.
Patrick B. Flanagan, superintendent of the Elk Tannery Company at Ralston, Pennsylvania, was born in Tioga county, New York, Febru- ary 16, 1845, a son of John and Ellen ( Barey) Flanagan, natives of County Clare, Ireland, where their marriage occurred. They reared a family of nine children, as follows: Patrick B., mentioned hereinafter ; Mary, wife of Robert Graham, and they reside in Sullivan county, New York; Bridget, wife of Thomas Murrey, residents of Tioga county, New York; Susan, wife of John Murphy, residents of Tioga county, New York ; Nellie, unmarried; John, an orange grower in Florida; and three children now deceased. John Flanagan and his wife, upon their emigration to the United States, settled in Tioga county, New York, and there spent the remainder of their lives. He followed the occupa- tion of vegetable gardening.
Patrick B. Flanagan was reared and educated in Tioga county, New York, attending the public schools thereof. After completing his studies, he learned the tannery business, working with the Howe & Lincoln Tannery Company, of Newark Valley, with whom he remained
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about nine years. He then came to Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, about 1871, and followed his trade at Proctorville, with the Thomas E. Proctor Company, remaining an employe there about eleven years. He then came to Ralston, Pennsylvania, and accepted a position as foreman of the tannery owned and operated by Mr. Proctor, but in 1893, when it became absorbed by the trusts, the name was changed to the Elk Tan- nery Company. Mr. Flanagan continued to serve in the capacity of foreman up to 1903, in which year he was appointed superintendent of the concern, his position at the present time (1905). He has mastered the business in all its details, and is recognized as an authority in that line of trade. Mr. Flanagan is a member of the Roman Catholic church at Ralston, and a Democrat in politics. .
Mr. Flanagan was united in marriage to Catharine McNamee, who was born in Cascade township, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. Their children are: John, who is engaged in the business of railroading ; Mary, wife of Frank Burton; and Ida, unmarried.
WILLIAM G. CARPENTER.
William G. Carpenter, deceased, who, throughout his residence of half a century in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, was recognized as an industrious and honorable citizen, a man whose character was above re- proach, and whose success was attained by a conscientious performance of duty, was born in Dutchess county, New York, a son of John and Amy (Green) Carpenter, who were also natives of Dutchess county and members of Friends Meeting, Hicksite (Quakers). John and Amy (Green) Carpenter were the parents of five children: Leonard, Caleb, Jacob G., William G., and John G. Carpenter.
William G. Carpenter was reared on a farm in his native county,
.
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residing there until fourteen years of age, when he came to New York City and for a number of years served as clerk in the dry goods store of Jager & Skidmore. Later he and his brother, Leonard Carpenter, took a three-mile section of canal and contracted to build it, i. e., the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and he and two others named the city of Port Jarvis, New York, for John Jarvis, who served as engineer of the work. About 1832 he located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, built up a large dry goods business, but, the work proving too confining, he dis- posed of the same after a period of three years to Jacob Heivly. He then turned his attention to the purchase of land in various places both for himself and others, the greater portion of it being in the vicinity of Ralston and Roaring Branch, Pennsylvania. He then advocated the building of a railroad from Elmira, New York, to Williamsport, Penn- sylvania, and as a result of his efforts and the use of his capital, the United States government sent a corps of engineers to make an experi- mental survey. Mr. Carpenter visited the cities along the proposed line, and secured the promise of the citizens to furnish the money, but they failed to do so, and he was obliged to contribute the capital himself, but the result was that he became broken down in health and capital also. He labored exceedingly hard to get this road through, secured the in- fluence of the prominent men of the state, and by his thorough business methods and intelligence accomplished much, but, failing in achieving the object of his life, he returned to his old business of buying and selling land for himself and others. He was called the father of the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad.
Mr. Carpenter purchased coal lands for McIntyre and Robertson, the former of Albany, New York, and the latter of Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, the lands being located in Lycoming county, near Ralston, and subsequently these were known as the McIntyre Mines. He also had
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extensive holdings of his own in the same section. He engaged in the manufacture of lumber, owning and operating a sawmill at a place called Carpenter, which was named in honor of him, and this business he con- tinued up to the time of his decease. He was a Whig and Republican in his political affiliations, but never sought or held public office. He was a great admirer of Horace Greeley, whose paper, the " New York Tribune," he read for many years; " it was his Bible." He was an in- cessant reader and possessed the faculty of remembering everything he read, being almost able to repeat in verbatim. He acquired this power early in life by carefully studying and reading everything that came within his reach. His friends were his books, and geology was his most interesting study, and when walking in the fields with his wife would pick up a stone and explain its formation, etc., which proved both a pleasant and instructive way of passing the time. His influential friends in New York City gave him " carte-blanche " to the leading library in that city, which was a source of gratification to him. Religiously he followed in the footsteps of his parents, believing in the doctrines of the Friends' faith. He was a broad-minded, well-balanced man and liberal in his views. He was a great admirer of Thomas Payne. Nature was his Bible, nature his religion.
Mr. Carpenter married, June 21, 1844, Miss Pamelia Alden, who was born at Cold Springs-on-the-Hudson, a daughter of Manoah and Sarah (Nead) Alden, the former having been born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a son of Noah Alden, who was a farmer by occupation, settled at Monroeton, Pennsylvania, but later removed to Steuben county, New York, where he died, and the latter was a native of Litchfield, Con- necticut, a daughter of John Nead, an iron founder. Manoah Alden learned the blacksmith trade at West Point, New York, where he met and married Sarah Nead. Later they resided for some time at Cold
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Spring, from whence they removed to New York City, where he met a friend who induced him to come to Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, where he followed his trade in a foundry for three years, and then located in Williamsport, Lycoming county, where he followed his trade. Here his daughter, Pamelia Alden, met William G. Carpenter, and they were united in marriage in Ralston, where she has since made her home, and where she is highly honored, being a lady of rare intel- lectual attainments and liberal in her views of men and affairs. Three children were the issue of this marriage: Emery, who resides in Oak- land, California; Archibald, who resides at Salida, Colorado, at the foot of Marshall Pass, engaged in the real estate business; and Alice C., wife of Dr. James Bullock, a medical practitioner, and they reside at Lona- coning, Maryland. William G. Carpenter, after a long and useful life, died February, 1882.
FRANK F. CASTLEBURY, M. D.
Dr. Frank Follmer Castlebury, a successful physician and prominent citizen at Roaring Branch, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, was born in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, May 24, 1862, son of John and Elizabeth (Follmer) Castlebury.
The Castlebury family is of long residence in Pennsylvania, and its members have preserved an unblemished record. The tradition is that its progenitor in America was a youth who came to Pennsylvania with a colony of Quakers from near London, England. The early generations were all members of the Society of Friends. Jacob, great- grandfather of Dr. Castlebury, lived and died in Catawissa, Pennsylva- nia, where he was a farmer by occupation. He married Mary Cleaver, of that village. Because of his religious scruples he did no fighting
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