USA > Pennsylvania > Lycoming County > Genealogical and personal history of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 28
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John Phillip and Christain Quickel settled in Lancaster and the others in York county, Pennsylvania. Christain Quickel, who was probably a son of John Phillip, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and served in Colonel Swope's Battalion of the "Flying Camp " under General George Washington at Long Island, enlisting from Manheim township, Lancaster county, August 27, 1776. Reference to Christain Quickel can be found in Vol. 15, p. 40, of the Pennsylvania Archives. He had the following named children, although these may not complete. the list, to-wit :
I. Peter, also a soldier of the Revolution, removed to Ohio.
2. Balzer, removed to Northumberland, now Lycoming county, . and the ancestor of the Quigelville Quigels.
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4. Phillip, a soldier of the Revolution, the ancestor of the Pine Station, Clinton county, Quiggels.
5. Michael, who removed to Northumberland county, now Clin- ton county, the ancestor of the Hon. A. J. Quigley.
6. Catherine, who married John Myers.
From these six children of Christain Quickel and from other Quickels mentioned who first landed in Pennsylvania, Ohio, in- the west and in the south, among the more distinguished members being Hon. William B. Allison, U. S. Senator from Iowa; Hon. Hoke Smith, secre- tary of the interior in Cleveland's cabinet, and Maclaurin family of the South Carolina, as well as the Montgomery, Allen, Crawford, Crane, Stewart, McCormick, White, Williams, Grier, Baird, Welsh, Guise, Mobly, Hess, Simmons, Shaw, Hanna, and other well known families in this section of Pennsylvania, and many of the Quickel name are to be found in York and Lancaster counties and vicinity.
(V). Valentine W. Quigel, son of John and Julia Ann (Capple) Quigel, born at Quigelsville, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1862, came through the following line of genealogy :
(I). Christain Quickel, the American ancestor, who came from Rotterdam, Holland. The ancestry were German. He came to Phila- delphia in 1736, in the ship "Fantana," and settled in Lancaster county. Pennsylvania, in Manheim township. He was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war and served in Colonel Swope's Battalion of the "Flying Camp," under General George Washington, at Long Island. Chris- tain's father came from the Grand Duchy of Baden to Rotterdam, Hol- land. Christain married and had these children : I, Peter; 2, Balzer; 3, Nicholas; 4, Phillip; 5, Michael ; 6, Catherine.
(II). Balzer Quickel, son of Christain (I) and the great-grand-
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father of the subject, married Rosanna Fink, by whom were born: I, George Quigel; 2, John Quigel; 3, Michael Quigel.
(III). George Quigel, son of Balzer (II), married Leah Kinley. He died in 1884, aged ninety-six years, six months and twelve days. Their children were: Michael, Jesse, John, Ambrose, Mary Ann, Cath- arine, Lydia, and Sophia.
(IV). John Quigel married Julia Ann Capple and they had : I, Valentine W .; 2, Sylvstor I .; 3, Margaret E. John, the father, was born July 9, 1838, in Quigelsville, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. He is a farmer; had a good common-school education. In religion he is a Lutheran and in politics a Democrat. He served as a soldier in the Civil war from September, 1862, to August, 1863, in Captain Dodd's company, Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry. The mother of the subject, who was a native of Germany, came to America when but two years of age. She was the daughter of George and Margaret Capple. who resided in Lewis township, and these both died.
(V). Valentine W. Quigel, son of John (IV), born April 21, 1862, is by profession a bookkeeper. He obtained his education in the excellent schools of this county, including the Normal. He taught school three terms and in 1879 came to Williamsport, entering the employ of J. C. Green & Company, with whom he remained until 1885, when he entered the railway mail service and continued during Presi- dent Grover Cleveland's administration. He served two terms-six years-as county auditor, and two terms-six years-as city treasurer. He was employed on the Gazette and Bulletin for four years, and at this time is ably filling the position of Secretary of the Pennsylvania Bene- ficial Association. Politically Mr. Quigel is a staunch supporter of the Democratic party and has held the following offices : county auditor, city treasurer, secretary of county committee and a delegate to county,
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state and other conventions of his party. He is a member of St. Mark's Lutheran church of Williamsport. He is an honored member of the following civic societies : Royal Arcanum, of which he has been regent for a number of years, and its collector ; Modern Woodmen of America, of which he is a member of the board of managers; Knights of Golden Eagle, treasurer of A. G. Curtain Castle No. 22.
He has been twice married : first to Jennie L. Smith, July 8, 1886; she died January 5, 1887. She was the daughter of Rev. Benjamin and Estella E. Smith, of Montoursville, Pennsylvania. Before marriage she taught school. Her father was a chaplain in the United States army during the Rebellion. For his second wife Mr. Quigel married, January 3, 1889, Caroline Hadtner, who was the daughter of John and Christena K. Hadtner, natives of Germany, who came to this country, he in 1845, and she in 1856. They still reside at this time in Williams- port, Pennsylvania. By Mr. Quigel's second marriage one daughter has blessed the union, Beatrice E., born June 1I, 1890. She is now in school.
WILLIAM F. THOMPSON.
William F. Thompson, senior member of the mercantile firm of Thompson, Gibson & Company, Williamsport, and influentially useful in community affairs, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Salona, Clin- ton county, March 18, 1841, a son of John and Susan (Updegraff) Thompson. He comes from an old and honorable Pennsylvania an- cestry. His paternal grandfather, James Tomson, the original form of the family name, was born, as shown by the records, " April the 2d and on the 3d day of the week, Anno Domini 1751," in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania. His brothers and sisters were as follows: A., born December 19, 1752; Benjamin, January 7, 1756; Rachel, August
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5, 1758; Susannah, September 22, 1760; Mary, April 20, 1763; Anna, March 2, 1771. A member of the Tomson family married Susannah Boone, a sister of Daniel Boone, the pioneer settler of Kentucky. James Tomson married, and his children were as follows: Rachel, born July 18, 1782; Henry, May 16, 1784; Moses, June 19, 1787; James, April 25, 1789; Samuel, October 3, 1791 ; Sarah, May 14, 1794; John, to be fur- ther referred to.
John Thompson, youngest child of James Tomson, was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1797. He was a prudent and industrious man and was a tanner and currier by occupation, learn- ing the trade in Williamsport under Thomas Updegraff, whose daughter Susan he subsequently married, March 8, 1827. Shortly afterward he located in Salona and erected a tannery which he successfully conducted until 1841, when he purchased a farm in Muncy township, upon which he resided until 1856, removing that year to Williamsport, where his death occurred June 16, 1866. His ancestors were Democrats, but he supported the Republican party. He contributed to the support of the Methodist church and was a regular attendant at its services. His wife, Susan Updegraff, was born in Williamsport, May 13, 1800, and survived her husband several years, dying April 13, 1872. Her father, Thomas Updegraff, was born June 24, 1774, a son of Abraham and Mary (Key) Updegraff, and was reared in York, Pennsylvania, where he married, August 17, 1796, Elizabeth Rothrock, who died December 4, 1848, being survived by her husband, who died October 30, 1857, aged eighty-four years. He was a tanner and currier and an honorable Christian gentleman.
John and Susan ( Updegraff) Thompson reared a family of eight children :
I. Sarah, born January 14, 1828, died March 13, 1875. She
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married James G. Butler and resided in Muncy and Williamsport, dying in the last named place. Her children were Alonzo and John T., de- ceased, and William A. Butler.
2. James, born in Salona and reared upon a farm, later coming to Williamsport, where he was successfully engaged in a lumber and mercantile business, and is now living retired. He married Susan Field, who was born in Williamsport and died in Washington, D. C., without issue.
3. Thomas U., born December 24, 1830, died in Wakarusa, Kan- sas, June 28, 1893. He married Julia E. Hamilton, a daughter of John Hamilton, of Kansas, and resides in Topeka, in that state. Her children are: Elizabeth, now the widow of Mr. Norton; Mary, who is the wife of A. D. Lundy; Annie, married H. T. Chase, of Topeka, Kansas.
4. Elizabeth U., born in Salona, March 20, 1832, died at Muncy, July 30, 1885. She married Nathaniel Robb, and their children were : Thompson, who resides in Kansas; Susan, deceased, who married Thomas Swenk; Jennie, married Charles Meixel; James, residing in Kansas; Margaret, married Robert F. Peterman.
5-6. Lucy L. and Mary F., twins, born July 10, 1834. Lucy married Isaac B. Jones, and they were the parents of one child, Susan T., who married Charles C. Mussina. Lucy married (second) Samuel Achenbach, and they had one son, William T. Lucy, the mother, died May 29, 1891. Her twin sister, Mary F., married Charles Field, who was a tanner and currier, now deceased ; they had two children, William T. and Susan T.
7. William F. is a contractor and builder in Philadelphia.
William F. Thompson, youngest child of John and Susan ( Upde- graff ) Thompson, was reared upon a farm in Muncy township, to which
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his parents removed when he was an infant. His early schooling was by a Quaker woman, one who was lovable as well as intelligent and whose memory he has ever cherished. When he was fifteen years old his parents took up their residence in Williamsport, where he attended the public schools and afterward Dickinson Seminary. He had now acquired a good practical education, and in the spring of 1862 he took employment as a clerk in the United States quartermaster's department at Nashville, Tennessee. Returning home in June, on August 9 he was mustered in at Harrisburg and served a period of nine months in the capacity of quartermaster-sergeant of 13Ist Pennsylvania Volunteers. He subsequently served for a term of one hundred days under the emergency call of Governor Andrew G. Curtin, and witnessed the deadly battle at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was upon other sanguinary fields. During this enlistment he served in the quartermaster's department, a duty for which he was well fitted by reason of his business abilities and previous experience, and while engaged in the Virginia campaign had charge of one of the supply trains of the Army of the Potomac.
Returning home Mr. Thompson accepted a clerkship in a dry goods store in Williamsport, but occupied the position only a short time. January 1, 1867, he entered upon an independent career, and one for which he was admirably well fitted. He purchased an interest in the dry goods business of Thompson & Knapp, and from that day has been an active manager of that business, which has undergone various changes of the firm name. At his first association with it, the style was Knapp & Thompson, which in 1877 was changed to R. W. Gibson & Company, and ten years later, in 1887, to the present form of Thompson, Gibson & Company, now recognized as one of the most important mercantile houses in the Lycoming Valley. He is thoroughly alive to every com- munity interest, and affords his aid to the advancement of every worthy
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cause. He is particularly interested in educational concerns, and for the long period of twenty-three years has rendered efficient service as a member of the board of directors of the Williamsport-Dickinson Sem- inary, and the secretary of that body. With his family he is a member of the Pine Street Methodist Episcopal church, and his interest in its behalf is attested by the fact that he has constantly held official position in it and has served as its treasurer for about thirty years. He is a Republican in his political affiliations. He belongs to no secret societies, his domestic tastes giving him preference for the pleasures of home life. He is an ardent lover of nature in all her visible forms, particularly addicted to the study of flowers, shrubs and trees, upon which subjects he is regarded as an unusually well-informed authority.
November 1, 1865, Mr. Thompson married Miss Clara M. Otto, who was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, at Mount Hebron, April 26, 1842, and who died at Williamsport, July 14, 1903. She was the daughter of John A. and Caroline F. (Mohr) Otto. Her father was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, August 13, 1814, and died in Will- iamsport, October 1, 1889. He was a large investor in timber lands on the headwaters of the Susquehanna river, and was later a lumber manufacturer in Williamsport. His wife was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1821, and died December 12, 1894. They were the parents of ten children, of whom seven came to maturity : Clara M., who became the wife of William F. Thompson; Mary A., who married William Gibson; Luther M .; H. Howard; Esther A., who married Joseph H. B. Reese; John M., who married Elizabeth Ereig ; and Frank R. Otto. John M. Otto, paternal grandfather of Mrs. Will- iam F. Thompson, was born in Germany, and was a prominent physician, as was also his father, Dr. Bodo Otto. Dr. John B. Otto emigrated to the United States, settling in Philadelphia, and practiced his profession
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during the Revolutionary war. To Mr. and Mrs. William F. Thompson were born a family of six children, all in Williamsport: John Otto, born January 1, 1867, died April 26, 1876; Caroline Mohr, born August 17, 1868; Mary Harden, born August 29, 1873, married James R. Paine, of Baltimore, Maryland, October 27, 1896; William Funston, born November 3, 1880, died May 26, 1883; Esther, born September 25, 1885; Martha, born April 11, 1887.
CHARLES HENRY METZGER.
Charles Henry Metzger, a prominent business factor of Williams- port, whose business energy and successful operations have been phenom- enal and second to but perhaps one other character known to that place, was born August 10, 1852, in Wurtemberg, Germany, the son of John Metzger and wife. John was born in the same place in 1823 and was the son of John (I). About 1847 John (II) married Judith Erba. Their first child lived but three years. The next child was our subject, Charles Henry. The father came to America and located at Williams- port, Pennsylvania, in 1854, arriving in a packet. His wife and our subject came in 1855 to join him, landing at Williamsport in August of the same year. They came via the Elmira and Williamsport Railway, then a strap rail affair. They had eight children in all, three daughters and five sons. All died young except two sons, Abram F., now at home and unmarried, and Charles Henry, of whom this notice is written. The father was a blacksmith in Germany and followed it many years at Williamsport. He is now eighty-two years of age. His wife died about 1896, aged seventy-two years. The son, Abram F., learned the photog- raphy business, as did Charles H.
The only public school advantages gained by Charles H. was be-
Army Melain
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fore he was ten years old, for at that date he was " put to work " at the blacksmith's forge in his father's shop, where he remained until seven- teen years of age, when he learned the art of photography and attended night school and mastered bookkeeping, which in after life became very useful in his business career. In 1885 he entered the electric light business, which he still follows, with many other interests. He became a conspicuous and highly respected real estate dealer, seeming to possess a rare judgment in this line. He built many good houses at Williams- port, including the famous historic exposition building, erected in May, 1895, within twenty-five days' time. It stands on the corner of Pine and Fifth streets, and is a brick, two-story structure, 65 x 208 feet, costing $7,500, and was by him rented to the exposition company in which to celebrate the centennial year of the settlement of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for $1,500. It is due to Mr. Metzger to here state that there was an error published in McGinnis' History of this building, wherein he stated that it was built by Harriet Metzger, his wife. She simply owned the lot, and Mr. Metzger erected the building and was to pay a forfeit of fifty dollars per day for each day over thirty days named in the contract as the time in which it was to be completed; also the company agreed to pay him ten dollars per day for each day less than the thirty days he should have to build in. The sequel was that he completed it in twenty-five days' time and hence received his bonus of fifty dollars. D. P. Guise was the contractor. After the exposition closed he rented the place for a roller skating rink, but finally sold it and it is now used as a furniture factory.
Mr. Metzger was an active man and rapidly accumulated wealth by real estate and other speculations, including his organizing and promoting many manufacturing plants. He has been the secretary and treasurer of the United Water, Gas and Electric Company of his city;
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Sunbury Edison Electric Luminating Company ; Williams Valley Light Company of Lykens, Pennsylvania ; Williams Valley Water Company, of Williamstown, Pennsylvania, as well as superintendent and bookkeeper of the last two concerns. He organized the "Thompson Diphtheria Cure Company," about 1888. He was its secretary and aided in putting on the market this great and effective specific, both in the United States and in foreign lands. In the winter of 1904-5, he sold his stock in this, and had it not been for one dishonest man in their employ the venture would have proven highly successful, but as it was he lost thousands of dollars. He was a stockholder and promoter of the "Demorest Sewing Machine Company" of Williamsport ; the Henry Diston Musical Works ; Edison Electric Lighting Company; the Merchants National Bank, and Sunbury Trust Company. He purchased a building, formerly a resi- dence, later a hospital, and converted it into the St. Charles Hotel.
In 1891 he took a seven months' tour to the Pacific coast, also in 1902 went to California and up and down the Pacific country and in- vested in timber lands in Lynn county, Oregon, which he still owns. He erected several houses in that country at Fair Haven (now Billing- ham), which he rents. In making these two interstate trips he traveled via the four great rail routes-the Canadian Pacific, the Northern Pa- cific, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. He shipped the first carload of red cedar shingles from that country that came east of Chi- cago, and built up a great trade in them in this part of the east.
Mr. Metzger has been twice married, first to Harriet Hess in 1875, by whom four children were born, three dying in infancy and one, Rosina, born in 1882, married Dr. Albert H. Lamade of Williams- port and has a daughter Martha. Mrs. Metzger died in 1900 and he married Alice M. (Bate) Wilson, daughter of Robert Bate and widow of George Wilson, of Grenville, Michigan. She has a daughter Gretch-
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en by her former marriage to Mr. Wilson. Thomas Bate, father of Robert Bate, at one time owned the land where now stands the W. N. & P. railway depot in Buffalo, New York.
Politically, Mr. Metzger, like his venerable father, was a Democrat until Cleveland's second election, when he voted against him and has ever since supported the National Republican party. He is a member of the Lutheran church, while his wife is an Episcopalian.
In all the various changes of this man's eventful career, he made but two bad business ventures, of much financial disaster to him. He has taken great chances at times, but per force a sound judgment and enterprising spirit has generally weathered every storm and came off the winner financially. One enterprise he promoted is worthy of an historic record though failure did mark its ending. In 1876 he attended the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and while there saw the great suffering endured by street car horses, and conceived of a plan whereby street cars could be operated by steam power, by the consump- tion of hard coal in conjunction with gasoline. He laid his plans before the street railway company and interested Senator J. J. Patterson of Baltimore, Maryland, and came home and founded a company to make experiments and had a conditional contract for hundreds of street car motors. The work was pursued for five long years, when all his part- ners dropped out, but he being possessed of that stick-to-it-iveness qual- ity, continued on two years longer alone, and finally completed his ma- chinery and operated a car by steam on the streets of his own city. But the brilliant mind of Thomas Edison had been busy, and just at that date brought forth the electric motor car, and soon the Chicago enter- prise had completed its cable lines, and those two systems made com- mercially valueless his inventions, which had been patented and were about to be purchased by street railways universally. But it should be
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said he smiled at the loss of these years of toil and thousands of dollars expended and turned his attention to things that have returned royal re- ceipts, and today, though still a comparatively young man, is possessed of a handsome competency. The lesson of his life should be well heeded by the rising generations who, if wise, will pattern after this man of business courage and aggressiveness.
THE HERDIC FAMILY.
If from among the families of Williamsport and Lycoming county there is one more prominent in the business affairs and general upbuild- ing of this portion of Pennsylvania than another, it is the Herdic family with its several members.
Peter Herdic was the son of Henry Herdic, who died when Peter was but eighteen months of age, the youngest of seven children, six sons and one daughter. The date of his death was in the summer of 1826. Peter Herdic was born December 14, 1824, at Fort Plains, New York. In 1826 the mother with her large family moved to Ithaca, New York, where Peter attended school for a short time only. In 1830 his mother married a second time, removing to a farm about five miles distant from Ithaca. From a small boy he displayed great pluck and unusual energy. When but ten years of age he could cut wood, and in addition walk to Ithaca to dispose of small game in the market. Early in his life he acquired the habit of saving his earnings. When thirteen years old his step-father died, and this second bereavement in his young life seemed to necessitate a radical change in family affairs, for soon thereafter his mother sold her interest in the farm and moved to the headwaters of Pipe Creek, New York, where she bought fifty acres of wild land for two hundred dollars, making a payment of fifty dollars ..
Carl Herci
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A log house was erected and efforts at once made to clear enough land upon which to erect a new, comfortable house. Here young Peter put in many a hard day's work in clearing and cultivating crops and in other ways aiding to support the family. When he was twenty years old he hired out to one Ransome Light, the agent of William Ransom, owner of a sawmill at the head of the creek. He worked faithfully for six weeks and made a demand for his wages, which were finally paid after a threat of suit was made. He continued to add to his capital by hard work. In 1846, when less than twenty-three years of age, he came to Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, with William Andress, to Cogan House township. They here bought a shingle mill and cleared about seven hundred and forty dollars each during the first year. At the end of three years Mr. Herdic had laid up two thousand five hundred dollars; he then bought a farm of one hundred and fifty-four acres on Lycoming creek, erected a modest house, and on Christmas day, 1849, married Amanda Taylor. In 1850 he erected a steam sawmill in company with Henry Hughes, whose interest he soon after purchased and later sold to James Wood. He realized from his lumber operations and the sale of his mill upwards of ten thousand dollars.
In 1853 he settled in Williamsport, then but a town of less than seventeen hundred people, and from the hour he landed here till the day of his death his busy brain and restless body worked and toiled for his own advancement and for others about him. What he accomplished and how through toil is well known to those who have survived him. Dur- ing the following decade he had purchased hundreds of acres of land and built mills and other useful factories, giving the sprightly town an impetus that sent it upward with a boom that was the wonder of out- siders and the pride of every home citizen.
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