USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Bridgeport > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 16
USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > West Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 16
USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 16
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1 cannot forbear with grateful feelings, to reciprocate the kind benediction you have invoked from the Almighty disposer of events, for the restoration of my health, and my eternal happiness, and beg to assure you that
I am with great respect your friend and fellow citizen,
ANDREW JACKSON.
To Messrs.
Henry J. Rigden, IV. Y. Roberts, Eli Abrams, Benedict Kimber. Committee.
Wm. Y. Roberts was a prominent Democrat and was (the fourth) post- master (in 1838), and I think was also sent to the Legislature from Fayette County.
Eli Abrams was associate judge of this county, and taught school in Brownsville in his young days. He also was a Democrat.
Benedict Kimber was engaged in the glass business here and for a time was commander of some of the boats running on the Monongahela River. son, I believe, lived and probably still lives in Morgantown, W. Va.
Henry J. Rigden was the sixth postmaster of Brownsville (in 1845), was for many years a justice of the peace here and died in 1887 at the age of 99. Rigden was also in the war of 1812 and had charge of the work at Presque Isle harbor from Nov. 25, 1839 to Nov. 21, 1840. He was a Democrat of the old school.
I am not sure about Kimber's politics but am told by all the old people here who knew the Kimber family that they were all Democrats.
I give you this short sketch of the committee to show that "Old Hickory" was not forgotten by the Democrats of Brownsville.
Very respectfully yours,
JAMES RISBECK.
OUR POSTMASTERS
Wm. C. Steele, Brownsville
J. Bennett Moffitt, West Brownsville
Solomon G. Kreeps, Sr., Cadwallader
BURGESSES OF OUR TOWNS
Win. H. Fisher, Brownsville Christian Snyder, West Brownsville
Thomas. A. Jeffries, Bridgeport
PRESIDENTS OF COUNCILS
W. Vint. Winans, Bridgeport Byron Moffitt, West Brownsville
Harry Kisinger, Brownsville
SECRETARIES OF COUNCILS
Chas. W. Coulter, Brownsville Edward Gregg, West Brownsville
Edwin P. Couse, Bridgeport
PRESIDENTS OF SCHOOL BOARDS
Geo. I. Moore, Bridgeport Thomas. H. Moffitt, West Brownsville
Wmn. A. Edmiston, Brownsville
OUR ASSESSORS
Edw. S. DeLaney, Brownsville William Delaney, Bridgeport (Elect)
Levi C. Waggoner, Bridgeport ( Retiring) J. Will Harrison, West Brownsville
SOME OF OUR AUDITORS
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Joseph Grafinger, Brownsville
Emmett R. Axton, West Brownsville (Retiring) Henry Mossett, Bridgeport
TAX COLLECTORS
George C. Steele, Brownsville
James Fulton, West Brownsville
POLICE OFFICERS OF THE THREE TOWNS
John Thompson, Constable, Bridgeport
A. C. Patterson, Chief of Police, Brownsville
Alex. Labin, Policeman, Brownsville
George Brock, Constable, West Brownsville Eli Cope, Chief of Police, Bridgeport
Clyde Worcester, Policeman, Brownsville
MEMBERS COUNCIL, BROWNSVILLE
.
1
Edw. T. Brashear Willard A. Griffin
A. A, Carmack
Chas. 1. Snowden
James F. Collier Benjamin F. Hibbs
MEMBERS COUNCIL, BRIDGEPORT
A. M. Sargent las. I. Thornton
Geo. M. Rathmell
Harry Marshall
B. R. A. Tilghman
Oliver K. Martin
MEMBERS COUNCIL, WEST BROWNSVILLE
Harry Chamberlain David M. French
Chris. Bakewell
David J. Province John Daugherty
Wilbur Dwyer Wm. Snyder
MEMBERS SCHOOL BOARD, BROWNSVILLE
J. A. Huston Chas. W. Gregg
Frank Gabler Frank Gadd
MEMBERS SCHOOL BOARD, BRIDGEPORT
Geo. I. Stewart Alexander Lockhart
U. F. Higinbotham Caleb J. Miller
James HI. Gray Win. Levy
MEMBERS SCHOOL BOARD, WEST BROWNSVILLE
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Edward Gregg Edward Baird
George Young David W. French
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE
David M. Hart, Bridgeport
J. D. S. Pringle, West Brownsville
Edw. I., Moorhouse, Bridgeport
MEMBERS BOARD OF HEALTH, BROWNSVILLE
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J. T. Ross Dr. Colley Miller
Dr. L. N. Reichard, Sec'y Dr. C. C. Reichard, Pres.
MEMBERS BOARD OF HEALTH, BRIDGEPORT
Dr. Alfred C. Smith, Sec's Geo. S. Herbertson
Dr. Henry Eastman. Pres.
Some of Our Business People and Establishments
Wm. D. Pratt
Rebecca D. Pratt
W. D. PRATT is a son of H. M. and Mary E. (Bowman) Pratt and was born near Smithfield, Fayette County, Pa., February 11, 1870. In his childhood his health was so delicate that he did not get to attend public shool till he was eleven years old, but in the meantime he had acquired as much knowledge of the common-school branches as most children would have done in school. After he was eleven years old he started to school, first attending the common schools and afterwards the Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific Institute at Mt. Pleasant, Pa., and at the age of sixteen we find him suc- cessfully teaching school.
Mr. Pratt taught ten terms in Fayette County, during the summer devoting his attention to carpentering and building at which he was remarkably successful. In the meantime he had been studying photography more for pastime and for love of the art than with a view to any pecuniary reward.
However, his love for the work and his success at it as an amateur, finally prompted him to scriously consider the advisability of taking it up as a business or profession, and having determined to do so, in May. 1899, he purchased the art studio he now owns and conducts, from the administrator of the Marshal Dawson estate and has conducted the business ever since with phenomenal success. His work ranks among the best in Western Pennsylvania and his studio is the rendezvous of lovers of art from far and near.
September 12, 1895, he married Rebecca Deusenberry, daughter of George and Alcinda (Dewalt) Deusenberry, a most estimable lady who like himself had been educated in the common schools of her native county, (Mononga- lia County, West Virginia), had afterwards taught school and who had not only a love for art but artistic ability as well. Mrs. Pratt in order to take a
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Harry A. Cottom, Attorney at Law
more active part in the work of the studio, took a course in the famous Wolfe art studio in Dayton, Ohio, and with the knowledge gained there has entered fully into the work with her husband and to her is due in great part, the success with which Mr. Pratt has met. With few exceptions the illus- trations in this work were made from photographs taken in the Pratt studio or by Mr. Pratt in his frequent excursions among the scenic splendors of Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Pratt has a large collection of negatives of scenery and points of historic interest in this part of the State and elsewhere and allows no opportunity to escape him to add to this collection.
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Attorney Harry A. Cottom
H. A. COTTOM, attorney at law, is one of the most promising young at- torneys at the Fayette County bar. At present he divides his time between Brownsville and Uniontown, being in Brownsville Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and in Uniontown Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Mr. Cottom was born in Lower Tyrone Township, Fayette County, Penn- sylvania, July 16, 1877, and was raised on the farm working in the summer and attending school in the winter. At the age of sixteen years he com- menced teaching at which he continued for six years, his last work in that line being in the West Newton and Scottdale high schools as instructor in mathematics.
At intervals from 1893 to 1899, Mr. Cottom attended the Waynesburg college and the Ohio Northern University graduating from the latter in 1899 in the A. B. course. Three years later the same institution conferred upon
215
Max Klein, Merchant Tailor
him the degree of A. M. He also attended the West Virginia University Law School in 1901 during which time he was president of his class.
In the spring of 1902 he entered the office of Attorney T. S. Lackey of Uniontown and on July 13, 1903, was admitted to practice at the Fayette County bar. He located in Brownsville in August, 1903, and has already built up a lucrative practice.
MAX KLEIN, Merchant Tailor
Among the most active and successful business men of the Three Towns, is the irrepressible Max Klein, now a large investor in real estate as well as proprietor of one of the best and most popular merchant tailoring estab- lishments in Brownsville. For some time after coming here Mr. Klein devoted himself exclusively to his trade, that of tailoring, and at which he is an expert, first working for S. H. Minchart as cutter and coatmaker, and later commencing business for himself. Mr. Klein has always had an eye to windward for any opportunity that might come his way and when it was assured that the Monongahela railroad would be built, he commenced to cast about for desirable investment in real estate. The result was that he soon accumulated considerable valuable real estate, doing so before the prices commenced to soar skyward and while others were yet hesitating as to whether it was good policy to enter the market and as a result has found his property rapidly increasing in value. His holdings are quite extensive and well selected and on some of his lots in desirable residence localities he is now having a number of very handsome houses built.
In the meantime his merchant tailoring establishment is not neglected and continues to prosper and increase in business and popularity. Mr. Klein is a busy man but is never too busy to show every courtesy to his friends and
216
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
those with whom he does business and it is with pleasure that his contem- poraries note his success.
The story of Mr. Klein's life reads almost like a romance and the fact that he started out in the world lone-handed at the age of eight years and without any monetary assistance has achieved the degree of success he now enjoys, is almost incredible.
Max Klein was born at Tisa Corod in Hungary, January 17, 1869 and was imbued with a migratory spirit prompted by a desire to see something of the great wide world about him, from his infancy. Accordingly when he was only eight years old, he crossed the paternal threshold, turned his back upon the scenes of his childhood days and alone faced the world to do battle for himself. Nothing daunted by his youth or rather infancy, for he was little more than an infant, nor by the obstacles that confronted him he went forth confident of success, and though his parents had means to assist him, he never called upon them for aid or advice.
At the age of ten, he entered a tailoring establishment as an apprentice and served there five years for his board and clothes. At the end of this time his close application to business and natural aptitude had given him a good practical knowledge of the business and he went to Glasgow, Scotland where he worked at his trade sixteen months, but in the meantime his thoughts and attention had been directed to the vast area of the new world on this side of the water and he accordingly set sail for New York landing in Castle Garden in May 1883. From there he went direct to Mckeesport where he remained for two years. He then visited Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Texas and many other points in the west and south and finally returning north worked a short time at Youngstown, Ohio, after which he came to Brownsville. With his career here every citizen of the Three Towns, is familiar and an admirer.
METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK.
ASSETS, $105,656,311.60. Ed. Taylor, Assistant Superintendent, Brownsville, Pa.
The company of the people, by the people, for the people. Proof of public confidence: The number of policies in force is greater than that of any other company in America, greater than that of all the regular life insurance companies put together (less one) and can only be appreciated by comparison. It has a greater number of policies in force than the combined population of Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, District of Columbia, Indian Territory, Oklahoma and Hawaii; or, as to cities it has as many as the population of Greater New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and St. Louis, combined. This company has more premium paying business in force in the United States than any other company, and for cach of the last ten years has had more new insurances accepted and issued than any other company in the world.
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Edward Taylor, Insurance Agent
Edward Taylor, Asst. Supt. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
SIGNIFICANT FACTS.
This company's policy claims paid in 1903 average in number one for cach minute a third of each business day of 8 hours each and in amount, $89.00 a minute the year through. The following is the daily average of business for 1903:
359 per day in number of claims paid.
6,297 per day in number of policies issued.
$1,303,559.06 per day in new insurance written.
$98,582.76 per day in payment to policy holders and addition to reserve. $33,841.18 per day in insurance of assets as to the home trade at Browns- ville. Mr. Taylor located here two years and six months ago, starting with some 400 policy holders. During this time there has been added to this number of members of over 1,400 on Mr. Taylor's books.
They write policies on people from one year to seventy years old, and from $800 to $100,000.00. If you wish life insurance of any kind, and an insurance of which you need not be ashamed, call on Mr. Taylor at Room 1 Monongahela National Bank Building, or inquire of any of his agents and they will be pleased to explain any of their many contracts about which you wish to learn. and you will find out to your satisfaction, that they do business with an honesty and a fairness that is excelled by none.
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Howard B. Johnston, News Dealer
Howard B. Johnston
HOWARD B. JOHNSTON, the subject of this sketch, is a native of Browns- ville, Pennsylvania, having been born in the house where he now resides, April 21, 1803. He is a son of William Henry and Eliza J. (Brown) John- ston, who were among the most prominent and highly respected citizens of Brownsville.
Mr. Johnston received his early education in the public schools of Browns- ville and in the Brownsville high school and the State Normal at Kutztown, Pa., graduating from the latter two with the highest honors. On completing his education Mr. Johnston took his position in the ranks of our leading educators and was a prominent figure in educational circles for about ten years, six years of which time he was principal of the Johnstown, Pennsyl- vania, high school, filling the position to the entire satisfaction of all con- cerned and with great credit to himself.
While Mr. Johnston has always affiliated with the Republican party and taken an active interest in the work and success of his party, he has never aspired to political office.
Two years ago Mr. Johnston bought and assumed control of the news agency of the Pittsburgh papers at this place and has since conducted the business with marked success, rendering efficient and highly appreciated service to the hundreds of readers he daily supplies. He is an active, ener- getic man, with progressive ideas, and is ever ready and willing to lend a helping hand in promoting the welfare of the community in which he lives.
April 28, 1897, he married Miss Amanda Brixner, the popular and accom- plished daughter of Christian and Anna B. (Sammatt) Brixner, of Johns- town, Pennsylvania. To this union there have been born two children, Howard Brixner Johnston and Edna Lillian Johnston. Mr. Johnston is an honored and active member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Brownsville.
Biographical
SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF MANY OF OUR EARLY CITIZENS, NOW DE- CEASED; ALSO OF SOME OF OUR PRESENT RESIDENTS, AND A NUMBER WHO NOW CLAIM OTHER PLACES AS THEIR HOMES.
JUDGE THOMAS DUNCAN .- Among the venerable men of Bridgeport, highly esteemed by all who knew him, and identified with the interests of the borough and its twin sister, Brownsville, by over half a century's residence and active business life within their limits, and participating in the best measures, well performing the duties and dignifiedly bearing the responsi- bilities of good citizenship therein, watchful over the weal and social good order of the place where he so long made his home, was Judge Thomas Duncan. He was of Scotch-Irish extraction. His father, Arthur Duncan, emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland about 1793, to America, and found his way into Fayette County as a soldier in the service of the United States among the troops sent hither by the government to suppress the Whisky Insurrection. After the troops were disbanded he settled in Franklin Township, near Upper Middletown (then known as " Plumsock"), Menallen Township, and married Sophia Wharton, daughter of Arthur Wharton, of Franklin Township, but a native of England, who held a large tract of land in that township, and was a man of strong individuality. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Duncan passed the greater portion of their lives in Upper Middletown, but Mrs. Duncan died about 1845, in Pittsburg, to which place the family had removed, and Mr. Duncan, about in 1850, in Moundsville, Va., at the residence of one of his daughters, Mrs. Nancy Rosell.
Mr. and Mrs. Duncan were the parents of ten children, the second in number of whom was Judge Thomas Duncan, who was born in Franklin Township, August 22, 1807. He received his early education in the Thorn Bottom schoolhouse, in those days often pompously or ironically dubbed "The Thorn Bottom Seminary," on Buck Run, in his native township. During his boyhood he wrought more or less in the Plumseck Rolling Mill, and at eighteen years of age was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker, Thomas Hatfield, an expert mechanic, with whom he remained three years, and three more as a partner. He then removed to Bridgeport, where he resided until his death, February 21, 1894, carrying on as his principal business that in which he first engaged.
NOTE .- We regret that we are unable to print biographies of all of the prominent citizens of the Three Towns, both living and deceased, but it is practically impossible to do so. Were we to attempt such a thing it would require not less than two years to complete the work .- ED.
8
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Judge Thomas Duncan
Judge Duncan always took an active part in public affairs. He was a member of the first board of school directors in Bridgeport chosen under the present law organizing the common schools, and carnestly advocated the enactment of the law long before it was made. He was frequently a member of the Common Council, and several times burgess of Bridgeport. He also took prominent part as a Democrat in the politics of the county, was county commissioner from 1841 to 1843, both inclusive, and was elected in 1851 associate judge of Fayette County for a period of five years, and re- elected in the fall of 1856 for a like term, and fulfilled the duties of his office throughout both terms.
In 1837, Judge Duncan joined the Masonic order, uniting with Browns- ville Lodge No. 60, and filled all the offices of the lodge. He was a member of Brownsville Chapter. He was also a member of St. Omer's Commandery No. 7, of Brownsville, and also a member of Brownsville Lodge, No. 51, of the Order of Odd Fellows from 1834 to his death. Judge Duncan was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from the last-named year until his death.
In May, 1829, he married Priscilla Stevens, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Stevens of Uniontown, whose father, Benjamin Stevens, came to Fayette County from Maryland, and was also a physician. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan became the parents of five children, two of whom are living-Mrs. Elizabeth Worrell, of Bridgeport, and Thomas J. Duncan, a lawyer practicing his pro- fession at Washington, Pa.
DR. W. S. DUNCAN, of Bridgeport, was the son of Judge Thomas Duncan. Dr. Duncan was born May 24, 1834; and here it may quite as properly as anywhere else be noted that the date of his birth was the only fact or item of the following biographical sketch which the doctor has independently furnished, he being decidedly averse, as he expressed it, to countenancing any "representation of himself in such manner as shall secm to have been suggested in whole or part by himself," or, "through favorable facts which, it will be obvious, were furnished by himself." So the interviewer was ad- vised to refer to others, and if there are found any errors of opinion or state- ment in this sketch they must be attributed to the writer's source of infor- mation.
Dr. Duncan, though long since gone to his reward, merits more emphatic notice in a work of this kind than is usually accorded to the living of any profession or vocation, for he occupied a place not only in the front rank of the physicians of Fayette County, but among the profession at large. He was a very careful and comprehensive investigator, and a progressive man, keeping pace with the advance in medicine and its allied sciences by the only means feasible and practicable, especially to a country physician at a dis- tance from the colleges, lecture rooms, and hospitals, namely, books. The caller-in at Dr. Duncan's office, though he came from the city, where the best private medical libraries exist, was surprised at the extent of the doctor's library which contained the most valuable standard medical works of the past, and was richly supplied with the most approved works newly issued in this country and Europe. Probably not a score of physicians in such cities as
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Dr. W. S. Duncan
New York or Philadelphia, individually possess libraries comparable in value to that of Dr. Duncan, and it was probable that out of all the other medical libraries in Fayette County not one-half as many separate works, or works ly different authors, could be gleaned as were contained in his. Medical books are just as much a positive necessity for the integral understanding and scientific practice of medicine as are good sound "horse sense," an ex- cellent fundamental education in medical science, prudence, etc., which were too apt to be supposed all that a physician needs. He must keep up with the advancement of medical science if he would be truly successful and great, and he should be unwilling to be less. Books were practically his only source of information. No one physician's "experience," though it cover a half century of practice, and countless cases of experiment and speculation, can afford any considerable information or "scientific facts," in comparison with what books supply, made up as they are out of the ex- perienees and studies of armies of doctors and professors of medical science. The sick everywhere should consider these things, and the physician of large practice, it may be, but who is too indolent to read, or too penurious to provide himself with books, or he who is too poor, it may be, to be well equipped with books, should be shunned; the former as dangerous, specula- tive, and who indolently "sets himself up" above the ripest books and the best philosophers, and so deliberately defrauds his patients by failing to fur- nish what they have a right to expect; the latter as a subject of pity, of too weak parts to know his duty to himself and the public, and so willing to trifle with human life and subject it to risks rather than undertake to borrow what he cannot do without, and be what he pretends to be, a " doctor, " or learned man in medicine. It is no more than honorably due to Dr. Duncan to say that he did loyal and royal honor to the profession by providing himself in an unstinted manner with the proper appointments and equipments for practice, and the universal credit which was accorded him as a strong man in his profession implies the fact; for such a man as he was, is ever ready to acknowledge that much of whatever he is he owes to his silent, richly endowed friends, able books.
For what follows posterity is indebted to two books in which professional notice of Dr. Duncan is made, one of which was entitled, "Physicians and Surgeons of the United States," edited by William B. Atkinson, M. D., 1878; the other a record of the "Transactions of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association," with biographies of the members, by J. H. Toner, M. D., a leading physician of Washington, D C. (1877) :
" Dr. Duncan was liberally educated at Mount Union College, Stark County. Ohio. His medical studies were commenced in 1855 with Dr. M. O. Jones, then of Bridgeport. Matriculating in the university of Pennsyl- vania, he took a full course of lectures, and received his degree of M. D. therefrom in March, 1858. During the last year of his medical course he was a member of the private class of Dr. J. J. Woodward (one of the medical attendants of President Garfield in his last illness), in the special study of pathology, anatomy, and microscopy. In June, 1858, he formed a part- nership with his preceptor in Bridgeport and commenced practice. The
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Dr. James B. Grooms
partnership continued for about two and a half years, when the doctor entered upon business alone, and remained by himself, in the office where he wrote his first prescription, until his death which occurred May 16, 1892.
" Dr. Duncan served as a volunteer surgeon at Gettysburg, was captured by the Confederate troops, but succeeded in escaping. In the latter part of his life, his labores were occasionally interrupted by excursions, the winter months being spent in Florida or other parts of the South, and part of the summers in New England and Canada. Like most country practitioners, he engaged in general practice, including surgery, and performed a number of important operations-for hernia nine times, and treacheotomy seven times, and successfully performed the operation of excision of the head of the humerus, and of the lower part of the radius. Dr. Duncan was a member of the Fayette County Medical Society, and held in turn all its offices; also a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and was one of its censors. He was a member of the American Medical Association, and of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association, and was an honorary member of the California State Medical Society."
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