USA > Pennsylvania > Lycoming County > Genealogical and personal history of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 36
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SUSQUEHANNA TRUST & SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY.
The Susquehanna Trust & Safe Deposit Company was incorporated in February, 1890, with an authorized capital stock of $500,000.00, of which sum $300,000.00 was paid up and constitutes the capital stock of the company. It began business in the rooms formerly occupied by the Lumbermen's National Bank, situate in what is known as the Weight- man block, at the corner of West Fourth and Campbell streets, in the city of Williamsport.
The officers at its incorporation were: president, R. P. Allen; first vice president, B. C. Bowman ; second vice president, Hon. John Lawshe; treasurer, Samuel Jones, and secretary, Hiram Mudge. All of these officers have since died. The directors at the organization of the com- pany were, in addition to the officers named, E. A. Rowley, Hon. Henry Rawle, James B. Coryell, G. E. Otto Siess, Hon. R. J. C. Walker, John M. Young and Thomas Duffy.
Shortly after the organization of the company it purchased a lot on West Fourth street, between Pine and Laurel streets, in the business portion of the city, and erected thereon its five story banking and office building, in which it moved within less than two years after its organ- ization. The company started with but a small amount of deposits which have been increased. from time to time so that as this time they amount to approximately $1,300,000.00. The company has now in surplus and undivided profits upwards of $90,000.00. The company also has in its trust department about $350,000.00 of trust funds.
The company is organized under the trust company laws of the state of Pennsylvania, and does a general trust company, safe deposit and banking business as authorized by the acts of assembly. It occupies its own building, as above stated, and has pleasant and abundant accom-
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modations for its business for the present and for the considerable development of it. It has large safe deposit vaults in which are boxes and safes which are rented. Its present officers are: John G. Reading, president ; G. E. Otto Siess, first vice president ; J. Roman Way, second vice president; E. C. Emerick, treasurer ; A. E. Eschenbach, secretary. Its directors are: John G. Reading, G. E. Otto Siess, J. Roman Way, A. H. Heilman, H. F. William Flock, Alex. Beede, Fred M. Lamade, J. W. Bowman, Dr. E. B. Campbell, W. L. King and Auguste Laed- lein.
JOHN B. EMERY.
John B. Emery, president of the Emery Lumber Company, other- wise prominent in business affairs in Williamsport and Lycoming county, and a public-spirited citizen, traces his ancestry through Josiah, Moses, John, John, John, John, Nathan, to Josiah, his father.
Josiah Emery, last named, was born in Canterbury, New Hamp- shire, November 30, 1801, and was the third of sixteen children born to Nathan and Betsy (McCrillis) Emery. He was a man of superior education, and made for himself a most honorable career. After at- tending the common schools and Kimball Union Academy in his native state, at the age of nineteen years he entered Dartmouth College, and was a student there until he attained his majority. He served as a school teacher for about six years, and then took a course in Union College, Schenectady, New York, graduating from that institution in 1828. In the following year he located in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, where he read law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and was actively engaged in professional practice there until 1871, besides acting efficient- ly in various official capacities-as postmaster during the administration of President Polk, as district attorney for Tioga county, as commis-
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sioner of bankruptcy, and, during the Civil war, in the United States provost-marshal's department, aiding in filling the quota of the county for troops, in enforcement of the draft laws, and the apprehension of deserters. He took an active interest in literary work, was trustee of the Wellsboro Academy for many years, frequently wrote for various literary journals, and published his recollections of Tioga county, which attracted much attention.
Mr. Emery located in Williamsport in 1871, but practiced his pro- fession only a short time. He took a particularly useful part in com- munity affairs, especially those connected with education. For nine years he was a member of the school board, and was for some time presi- dent of that body. He was the founder of the public school library in Williamsport, and the Emery school building was named in his honor. In politics he was a Whig, and voted for General William Henry Har- rison for president. His abhorrence of human slavery led him to con- nect himself with the Republican party at its organization in 1856, and he was one of its most faithful and earnest adherents during the remain- der of his life. He and his wife were prominent members of the Prot- estant Episcopal church. He was married, February 12, 1830, to Julia Ann, daughter of Hon. John Beecher, of Tioga county, Pennsylvania. She died July 24, 1871, her husband surviving her twenty years and dying April 8, 1891. They were the parents of eleven children, and those who came to maturity all took highly honorable and useful sta- tions in life :
I. Mary C. Emery was a woman of great nobility of character, and at her death was proclaimed the most loved woman in Williamsport. She was born in Wellsboro, November 27, 1830. She was exceedingly well educated, and displayed her versatility of talent in various fields of usefulness. She was married December 21, 1854, to I. M. Ruckman,
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and to them was born a daughter, Annie E., who died November 16 1860. At the age of twenty-five years she edited "The Balance," an influential weekly journal at Mansfield. Prior to the Civil war she taught mathematics in the Huntsville (Alabama) Female Academy. Returning home on account of the war, she was for a short time precep- tress in the Dickinson ( Williamsport) Seminary, soon resigning to open a private school in the Vanderbilt Block, now the site of the First Presby- terian church. June 6, 1865, at Wellsboro, she was married to George S. Ransom. Mr. Ransom was born in Warren county, New York, July I, I'820, and died in Williamsport in 1888. He was an extensive lum- berman, locating in the business at Montoursville in 1863, whence he removed in 1865 to Williamsport. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and a Republican in politics. To him his wife bore a son, Will- iam E., who is a lawyer. For more than thirty years Mrs. Ransom de- voted herself to practical charity and religious work. Hers was a mind that could fire others, and in whatever she engaged she was its guiding force. In the Church of the Covenant she was a tower of strength. Her Bible class in the Sunday school swelled to a large membership, and many of its members held to it even after their marriages. She was a prime mover in the organization of the Home for the Friendless. For more than thirty years she gave it her energies unsparingly, acting upon its board of managers, as well as secretary. As chairman of the building committee she labored with almost superhuman energy, and the consummation of the work satisfied one of the warmest yearnings of her heart. She died July 7, 1902, universally mourned.
2. Charles D. Emery studied law and was admitted to the bar of Lycoming county, where he practiced law for many years. He was elected district attorney of Lycoming county, serving one term. He served for a time as acting consul in South America. He was married
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March 8, 1858, to Lavina D. Evans. He died May 15, 1902, at Seattle, Washington.
3. Martha P. Emery was educated at Wellsboro Academy and Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She married Charles S. Bundy, and now resides in Washington, D. C.
4. Eva V. Emery married Rev. E. J. Gray, president of Dickin- son Seminary, and died September 7, 1905.
5. Elizabeth Emery was graduated from Dickinson Seminary, and was married to Joshua Knapp, who was born January 27, 1837, and died May 7, 1869. Their son, Anson D. Knapp, is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has been prominently connected with lumbering in- terests for many years. Mrs. Knapp went west in 1880 as a missionary under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal church, and for a time was principal of Hope School, an Episcopal missionary school for In- dian children, at Springfield, Dakota.
6. John B. Emery, to be further mentioned hereinafter.
7. William V. Emery, who is associated with his brother, John B. Emery, as secretary and treasurer of the Emery Lumber Company. He married Emily J. Leas, daughter of W. B. Leas, and they are the parents of three children : William L., Mary S., and Eugene M. Emery.
8. Clara B. Emery, married John H. Price, and died June 7, 1884.
9. Frank B. Emery, born 1855, now living in Chicago, Illinois; he has been actively identified with railway freight service for many years.
IO. George, died in 1863, aged eleven years.
II. Annie, died in infancy.
John B. Emery, sixth child and second son of Josiah and Julia Ann (Beecher) Emery, was born December 28, 1843. He was educated in the common schools and the Wellsboro Academy. At the outbreak of
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the Rebellion, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in Company I, Forty- fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and performed faithful service throughout the entire war. He participated in the South Carolina cam- paign of 1862, and in the battle of James Island, June 10, and that of Secessionville (or Fort Johnson) on James Island, June 16. He also served in the severe engagements of Bull Run (second), South Moun- tain and Antietam, his regiment being a part of the Army of the Poto- mac. For meritorious conduct in the battle last named he was promoted to corporal, and was subsequently further promoted to the rank of first sergeant. In 1863 his regiment was transferred to the southwest, and he served with it, as a part of the Ninth Corps, in the operations in Ken- tucky and East Tennessee, and Mississippi, participating in the siege of Vicksburg, under General Grant, and the battle of Jackson, Mississippi. He was captured by the enemy at Flat Gap, East Tennessee, and was confined in the prison pens on Belle Isle and in Richmond until April 2, 1864, when he was exchanged. He was one of fourteen men of his regiment who became prisoners, and of the number only three (himself and two others) came out of prison alive, the others dying from ill- ness caused by starvation and exposure. After his exchange Sergeant Emery served with the Army of the Potomac from Cold Harbor to Petersburg, and was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service, the war being practically over. He had received from Governor Andrew G. Curtin a commission as first lieutenant of Company G in his own regiment, but refused it and remained with his own company to the end. (The issuance of this commission is noted in the report of the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, 1866). The arduous nature of Mr. Emery's war service is eloquently attested by evidence contained in Colonel Fox's " Casualties of the Civil War," a statistical volume com- piled entirely from the official records in the War Department, and
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authenticated by it as unquestionable authority. From the tabulations in this monumental work it appears that the list of casualties in the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment during its term of service were:
Killed in action : Commissioned officers 13
214 Enlisted men
Died of disease, accidents, and in Confederate prisons. 252
Total 479
Total killed and wounded 873
Died in prison 98
Total loss 97I
The total enrollment of the regiment was 1960, this number includ- ing all new enlistments, extending to the close of the war, many of the later recruits joining the regiment near the close of the Rebellion, and seeing little if any actual service. The greater part of the losses above enumerated were among the original roster, at the muster-in of the regi- ment. In the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, the regimental loss in killed and wounded was 57.4 per cent. of the total number en- gaged, and Mr. Emery's company (I) lost in killed and wounded twenty-two of the thirty-eight men who went into action that day. Truly a magnificent record of courage and soldierly devotion.
Having returned home, Mr. Emery accepted a clerkship in the freight office of the Northern Central Railroad at Williamsport. In March, 1866, he went to Kansas, and in company with thirteen others set out to cross the plains, July 28, with a wagon train destined for Salt Lake City, Utah. On September 4, on Lodge Pole creek, they were at- tacked by Sioux Indians, who drove off their animals, and kept the little band of whites surrounded until September 11, when troops from Fort John Buford, on the Laramie plains, came to their relief. Mr. Emery
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acted as night herder for a Mormon mule train from September 16 to October 16, when they reached Salt Lake City. He returned to Will- iamsport in the spring of 1867, and became clerk for the Northern Cen- tral Railroad. In 1870 he went to Wisconsin, where he took enploy- ment with a large lumber concern. Returning home in the spring of 1871 he was appointed agent for the Catawissa Railroad at Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, and in 1872 became general agent for the West Branch Lumber Company and freight solicitor for the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1881 he established the lumber firm of J. B. Emery & Company, which was merged into the Emery Lumber Company on December 7, 1891, and which under his efficient management has become one of the leading industrial and commercial enterprises of the city of Williams- port. He has also long been actively identified with various other im- portant interests which are large factors in the business life of the com- munity. He aided in organizing the Lycoming Wireless Umbrella Company, of which he is one of the largest stockholders, is president of the Williamsport Machine and Supply Company, and was one of the founders of the Williamsport Daily Republican. He was appointed post- master by President Harrison, April 1, 1890, and during his term of of- fice greatly improved the local postal service, among his innovations being the addition of two mounted letter carriers, and the establishment of a sub-postoffice and two stamp stations. He is an active and saga- cious member of the board of trade, and has largely contributed to the usefulness of that body. He was one of the organizers of the Ross Club, is a stockholder in the Athletic Park Association, a charter mem- ber of Reno Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Union Vet- eran Legion, and is a member of Lodge No. 173, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. In politics he is a stalwart Republican, and an able and influential exponent of his party, and has served as chairman
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of its county committee. His services to the community in a public capacity include useful labors as auditor, select councilman, and member of the board of school directors. He contemplates an early retirement from his more exacting business responsibilities, and will yet have suffi- cient to care for in his large real estate and other interests in Williams- port and vicinity. He stands in high honor in the community for the usefulness of his career, liberality of effort and means for the advance- ment of the best interests of the people at large, and for his fine social traits, broad intelligence, and general worth as a representative citizen of the best type.
Mr. Emery was married to Miss Helen A. Otto, and to them have been born two children: Frank O., who in 1902 married Susan Walters Shadle, and they are the parents of one child, John B. Emery, Jr .; and Julia, who in 1902 became the wife of John H. Foresman; of the latter marriage was born one child, Helen Emery Foresman, who died in 1905.
THE CHAMPION FAMILY.
The Lycoming branch of the Champion family is descended from Joseph Champion (II), son of Thomas (I) and his wife, Elizabeth (Hunter) Champion. Thomas was an Englishman of reputed French ancestry, who settled at or near Tuckahoe, Cape May county, New Jersey, where the family engaged in the charcoal iron industry.
Joseph Champion was the youngest of twenty-one children, his mother being the second wife of Thomas Champion. He was born at Tuckahoe, March 11, 1789, and married Elizabeth Adams, daughter of Mark and (Cameron) Adams, born at Tuckahoe, March 19, 1799. Mark Adams was a soldier in the war for independence, and lived many years thereafter in the enjoyment of his Revolutionary pension.
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To Joseph and Elizabeth (Adams) Champion were born ten children, five of whom grew to maturity, viz. : Jane (Budd), Andrew Hunter, Robert Cameron, Mark Adams and William James Champion.
Joseph Champion was a stove moulder and with his family in 1838 emigrated from Tuckahoe to the "Walker Furnace," on Pine creek, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, four miles north of Jersey Shore, now known as Safe Harbor Mills, where Walker & Vicars, of Philadelphia, owned a great scope of " coaling lands " and operated a blast furnace, foundry, grist mill, blacksmith shop, store, etc. The firm was the owner of the furnace at Tuckahoe, and had induced a number of its employes to make the trip to Pine Creek by a promise of good wages, two hundred acres of farming land, etc. At the time he was induced to move to Lycoming county, Joseph Champion was preparing to "go west " to- join three of his brothers who had preceded him to the " Ohio Country " and were settled in Cincinnati. These brothers were the progenitors of the Cape May branch of the Champion family, now found through the central west. The trip to their Pine Creek home was made by the family with one of the Walker & Vicar six mule teams and a coaling wagon, occupying a full week, via Reading, Catawissa and Williamsport. The three youngest children were taken sick en route, and " Mother Cham- pion " remained with them for three months at the home of her brother, Samuel Adams, at Reading, Pennsylvania, where the youngest child died.
The Champion family remained at the Walker furnace for two years, making ten-plate stove. Robert C. often told how, as a small boy, he assisted in making the hay-cores used in casting these stoves, frequently falling asleep while turning the twister. The attempt to send the stoves down the river in " arks " to Columbia for shipment to Philadelphia frequently proved disastrous, the boats wrecking in the
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turbulent Susquehanna. The panic of '37-40 brought the iron industry to one of the recurrent "pauper periods," and Walker & Vicars failed disastrously. While at the furnace the youngest of the children becom- ing ill, the old family doctor was summoned from Jersey Shore, and coming in an intoxicated condition, gave the child a dose of medicine which threw it into convulsions from which it died next day.
In 1840 Joseph Champion removed to "Mckinney's Forge," on Lycoming creek, four miles north of New Berry, at what is now Hesh- bon, Loyalsock township, Lycoming county. Here William Mckinney, one of the early iron masters of this section, operated a charcoal fur- nace and forge. The Mckinney iron enjoyed an unrivaled reputation. Owing to its superior quality it took the place of Swedish iron for the " rib " or backs of mowing scythes, a test of the severest character. Many years after the forge had disappeared, the Champion brothers, five of whom became blacksmiths, would recognize by the " feel under the hammer " that a piece of scrap was from " Mckinney's," and lay it carefully aside for some special use requiring great tensile strength. The ore for the forge was brought from Center county to Jaysburg (New Berry) by boat and hauled to the forge over the "old strap rail- road," then the Williamsport & Elmira, now the Northern Central Rail- way. This road, begun in 1833, the second in the state, was to extend from the West Branch canal at Williamsport, to Elmira, New York, but was only completed to Ralston, twenty-seven miles. It was graded for a double track, with hammer-dressed stone bridge abutments, a model of dirt and stone work even to this day. By the time Ralston was reached, requiring fourteen bridges over the serpentine Lycoming, the money was exhausted and building ceased for nearly twenty years. The rails were of wood with an iron-strap on top. The company owned an engine, but shippers were required to furnish their own cars and
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sidings and do their own switching by horse or mule power, the cars being dropped from the rear of the train on the main track. The engine soon broke down, and for years the Mckinneys used the track for the transportation of their iron and raw materials to and from the forge, using horses to draw the cars. The Champion boys were early at work in and about the forge and assisted in hauling on the " old strap rail- road." About 1845 the family moved to Danville, Pennsylvania, work- ing for the Grove Bros. in their rail mill, where the first railroad rails rolled in America were made. In a year or two they were all again back at Mckinney's, where Joseph (father) died in 1851, and was buried in the "Old Lycoming burial ground " at New Berry. Eliza- beth Champion (mother ) survived her husband thirty-two years, making her home with her son, Mark Adams Champion, until her death, at Warrensville, Lycoming county, April 10, 1883, having outlived all but three of her ten children, and being hale and hearty to the last week of her long and useful life. She is buried at "Christian Hill burial ground," at Warrensville. The following is a brief account of the children of Joseph and Elizabeth (Adams) Champion :
(I) Jane, born at Tuckahoe, New Jersey, 1821, married John Wesley Budd, captain of a coasting vessel hailing from Tuckahoe, who was drowned at sea, his body never recovered, by his vessel overturning in attempting to cross the bar at Longport, New Jersey, in a terrific gale, in 1846. She died at the home of her son, Joseph Champion Budd, at Loyalsockville, Lycoming county, October 9, 1903; never having remarried and ever keeping in fond remembrance the young husband and father who so early met the fate of those who go down to the sea in ships. She had two sons, Eli Wesley Budd, born at Tuckahoe, Sep- tember 25, 1842, who is the father of John Wesley Budd, born 1865; and Joseph Champion Budd, born at Tuckahoe, September 20, 1845,
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married Etta Milnor ; father of Abbie Budd (Souter), and Annie Budd, and is engaged in the mercantile business at Loyalsockville, where he has long been postmaster.
(2.) Andrew Hunter Champion was born at Tuckahoe, New Jersey, in 1823. He learned blacksmithing, later becoming a " roller " when the Mckinney forge was changed into a "rolling mill." After the Mckinneys failed and the plant was abandoned, he removed to the Crescent Nail Works, in Hepburn township, Lycoming county, where he had charge of the " rolls " until his death in 1877. He mar- ried Maria Yoxheimer, of Trout Run, Pennsylvania, by whom he had two sons and nine daughters, viz .: Mary Jane, married Harry Egolf, of Franklin, Pennsylvania; Emma, married Fred Hopper; Amelia, mar- ried Rev. Noah Young; Rose, married George W. Kase; Frank, de- ceased, married Margaret Stitchter, leaving a son, Edgar Champion; An- nie, married Francis Graham; William J., deceased; Minnie, deceased ; Etta, married William C. Campbell; Rebecca, married William Sharp; Ruth, unmarried.
(3.) Robert Cameron Champion was born at Tuckahoe, New Jersey, September 2, 1826, died at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Jan- uary 18, 1892, and is buried at " Christian Hill burial ground." He spent his life at the forge, being an expert iron worker, frequently say- ing that he had done everything with iron except the digging of the ore. From Mckinney's he went to Danville where he worked for the Grove Bros. for several years, and then came to Williamsport, working at his trade at the West Branch foundry, conducted by the late John B. Hall. Returning to Danville he did the smithing for Grove Bros. in the erection of their " big mill." In 1863 he removed to Warrensville, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, where he actively engaged in black- smithing and wagon building until 1890, when he removed to Williams-
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port. He married Catharine, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Ameria) Hanger, born at Liberty, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1829, and died at Warrensville, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1900. Her parents were born in Wittenberg, Germany. To Robert Cameron and Catharine (Hanger) Champion were born the following children :
James Elwood, born at Heshbon, Lycoming county, June 30, 1851, died at Franklin, Pennsylvania, 1884, leaving a son and a daughter. Myron Holley, born at Williamsport, June 30, 1853, died at Warrens- ville, April 23, 1865. Irving Robert, born at Danville, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1856, died at Warrensville, 1882. John Orion, born at Dan- ville, November 6, 1858, died at Warrensville, August 28, 1868. Ar- thur Mark, born at Danville, February 23, 1861, married Elizabeth Kuens, and have a son Robert Kuens, born 1903. William Walters, born at Warrensville, May 3, 1863, married Frances Bird, born May 20, 1863, daughter of John Derick and Mary Jane (Pass) Bird. They have a son, George Becht Champion, born at Montoursville, Lycoming county, September 7, 1894, and a daughter, Elizabeth Bird Champion, born at Williamsport, September 11, 1896. He was admitted to the Lycoming county bar, January, 1891. Ada, born at Warrensville, July 12, 1865; married Dr. Maholn Taylor Milnor; they have three sons, Guy Champion, Mark Taylor, and Sidney Davis Milnor. Joseph Budd, born at Warrensville, September 11, 1867; a member of the Lycom- ing county bar, and a graduate of the medical department of the Uni- versity of Indianapolis, and engaged in the practice of medicine at Indianapolis, Indiana. Harriet Belle, born at Warrensville, August 3, 1870; married Cameron W. Paulhamus, and they have three children, Russell, Fay and Myra. Mary Annis, born at Warrensville, Septem- ber 30, 1872; married Frank W. Ely; they have a daughter, Helen, and a son, Frank W., Jr.
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