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 36
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 36
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 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
456
Robert Emeroy Umbel
ROBERT EMEROY UMBLE, judge of the 14th Judicial District, is a native of Henry Clay Township, Fayette County, Pa., where he was born over thirty-six years ago and is therefore now in the very prime of life. His carly years were spent in the quietude of the country near the village of Markleys- burg, and the physical vigor that has encouraged his years of toil was devel- oped by the simple customs, quiet life and healthful climate of his mountain home. The Umbles came originally from Wales and settled in New Jersey in 1770, later moving to Pennsylvania in 1802, the grandfather of Robert E. was born in Henry Clay Township; the other branch of the family name was Thomas, and they were of Welsh extraction also; coming to America about 1772, they located in the Conemaugh Valley. The elder Umble's wife was of German descent, while the wife of the elder Thomas was a native of Ire- land. This was the Anglo-Saxon blood predominant in their family, which was among the pioneers in the settlement of the mountainous part of Fayette County. His mother's maiden name was Brown and her people were of English descent. S. C. Umble, father of Robert E., was born in 1835, in Henry Clay Township. In 1856 he was ordained into the ministry. Ap- preciating the value of a good education, he attended to the early instructions of his children. The school facilities of that mountain district were neces- sarily limited. Young Umble attended the public schools in the winter and spent the summer in working among the farmers for twenty-five conts per day, doing such work as was expected of a boy of his years. His last year in the public school was 1878-'79, under the instruction of John A. Artis of Dunbar, Pa.
The young man's ambition was to secure an education and what he lacked in money he made up in pluck, and so determined to work during the winter of 1879-'80 and earn sufficient funds to attend school the next spring, and prepare himself for a teacher, and accordingly he spent the days of that winter chopping and hauling timber, working on a portable steam sawmill and digging coal in a country mine at fifty cents per day. The next spring he was a student at the Georges Creek Academy at Smithfield, Pa., with O. J. Sturgis, now editor of the Uniontown News-Standard, as his teacher.
At the end of the term he obtained a teacher's certificate and secured a school in his native township. Here he was employed several years as a teacher and spent the summer months clerking in a country store, always spending his spare moments with his books. At that time he taught 22 days each month and received a salary of twenty-two dollars per month. In the spring of 1883, he entered the Western Pennsylvania Institute at Mt. Pleasant, Pa., and after examination was made a member of the class that would graduate in June, 1885.
While a student in 1884 he entered the competitive examination for a vacant cadetship at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and secured the appointment. In the class were twenty-one aspirants for military honors. His mother having serious objections to his entering upon a military course and in consequence of their close family ties and of his regard for his parents he yielded to her wishes, and gave up what was a most prom- ising prospect.
457
Frank M. Fuller
In September, 1885, Mr. Umble registered as a law student in the office of Boyle & Mestrezat. His legal course was completed in 1887, when he was admitted to the bar. In January, 1888 Hon. Albert D. Boyd, one of Fayette's ablest lawyers, tendered Umble desk room in his office along with the position of assistant. This offer was gladly accepted. Boyd's large and varied practice furnished Umble with an excellent opportunity to win public recognition. His clear comprehension of the law, sound judgment and capacity for work brought him immediately into prominence. In 1889, the borough council of Connellsville elected him solicitor, and in August of the same year he formed a partnership with Mr. Boyd. The firm of Boyd & Umble has continued ever since and is known to the legal profession through- out the State, and the Supreme and Superior Courts reports contain scores of cases in which it has been interested.
Mr. Umble is a member of the bar of the United States Circuit and District Courts, and in 1894, on motion of Hon. William E. Maury, then First As- sistant Attorney-General of the United States, was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest legal tribunal in the world. In all lines of practice Mr. Umble is strong. He is a fluent and effective speaker, gaining the confidence of his hearers by his earnestness and winning verdicts by his logic and array of facts.
Entertaining the broadest views upon all subjects, narrow in nothing, possessing a big brain and a big heart, Mr. Umble is a fit representative of the character of men that should wear the judicial ermine.
Robert E. Umble comes from a family of Democrats. Since the birth of the Republic, his ancestry has been among the firm defenders of those principles which made possible the stability of American institutions and the grandeur of the American government. The first contest in which Mr. Umble took any interest was in 1881, in the election of county superintend- ent of public schools, which both parties have always insisted should be non-partisan, and true to his convictions, he companioned the cause of his late teacher and friend, Prof. O. J. Sturgis, although not agreeing with him politically.
FRANK M. FULLER Was born in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa., April 7, 1853. He was educated in the public schools, Chambersburg Academy and La Fayette College, taking a special course in the latter institution. He read law with the Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, subsequently president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Fayette County, and was admitted to the bar in 1879. He followed the legal profession only a short time, and for the past twenty-five years has taken an active interest in Republican political affairs. He has been secretary and chairman of the Fayette County committee re- peatedly, and has been a delegate several times to Republican State Con- ventions, has been a member of the Republican State Committee continu- ously for about fifteen years, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated Harrison for President of the United States in 1892, and an alternate delegate to the National Convention which placed in nomination the late William Mckinley.
158
Allen Foster Cooper
Mr. Fuller was supervisor of the census for the Seventeenth District of Pennsylvania at the last enumeration and declined to accept the proffered position of United States Marshal for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
January 20, 1903, Mr. Fuller was appointed Secretary of the Common- wealth by Governor Pennypacker, and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
ALLEN FOSTER COOPER, attorney at law, was born in Franklin Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1862. He is a son of Joel and the late Eliza Jane (Fetz) Cooper, also natives of Fayette County, the former of English and the latter of German descent. Joel Cooper is a farmer of Franklin Township and a member of the Baptist Church at Flatwoods. His wife died August 24, 1874.
A. F. Cooper attended the public schools of his native township, was graduated from the State Normal school at California, class of 1882, attended Mount Union College at Alliance, Ohio, during the spring and summer of 1883, taught school for six years, latterly (two years) as principal of the Belle Vernon Schools, and during this time took partial post-graduate courses at California and Lock Haven. His law studies were begun under the precep- torship of Hon. A. D. Boyd, at Uniontown. He entered the law department of Michigan University, Ann Arbor, in 1886, and was graduated from that institution with the class of 1888, and admitted to practice in the Circuit and Supreme Courts of Michigan. Returning to Uniontown, he reentered the office of his preceptor and was admitted to practice December 4, 1888. January 1, 1889, he formed his present partnership association with J. Q. Van Swearingen, under the firm name of Cooper & Van Swearingen, with present offices at 25 East Main Street.
They have been solicitors and elerks of Uniontown since March, 1891, and have at various times acted as solicitors for Brownsville, Belle Vernon, Fayette City, Dunbar and other boroughs and townships. Mr. Cooper has been actively identified with the work of the Republican party in Fayette County, having served for a number of years as a member of the County committee, of which he was secretary through several campaigns. He has also represented the county in several State conventions as a delegate, and has been a member of every Congressional conference save one, since the formation of the 24th district. He has served twice as chairman of the county convention, in 1894 and 1898.
In the fall of 1902, Mr. Cooper was elected to Congress from the 24th dis- trict which is composed of Fayette, Somerset and Greene, on the Republican ticket by a handsome majority and is now the nominee of his party for re- election this fall.
Mr. Cooper was married March 26, 1890, to Miss Alice C. Lackey, a daughter of the late Thomas and Cynthia A. Lackey. They reside at 65 Wilson avenue, Uniontown, Pa.
BENJAMIN N. FREELAND, State Senator from the 40th senatorial district of Pennsylvania, which is composed of Fayette and Greene counties, was
459
Louis F. Areusberg
born in Mt. Morris, Greene County, Pa., March 18, 1858; he was educated in the public schools of his native town and at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from which institution he was graduated in 1876. At fifteen years of age he commenced teaching in the public schools of Greene County and continued in that work for a number of years. In 1893 he was appointed United States storekeeper in the Twenty-third District of Penn- sylvania, which position he held till 1896, when he was elected clerk of courts of Greene County, and reelected to the same office in 1899. In 1902, as before stated, he was elected to the State Senate from the 40th senatorial district.
LOUIS F. ARENSBERG was born in what is now the Second Ward of Pitts- burg. October 11, 1842. and was educated in the schools of that city and at the University of Michigan. The day after Fort Sumter was fired on he joined the Iron City Guards, afterwards enlisting in Hampton's Battery, "Third Independent Battery F." He took part in several battles, and was captured by General Early in 1864, and recaptured shortly afterwards by General Averill's command. He served several terms in the city councils of Pittsburgh. Mr. Arensberg practiced medicine in Pittsburgh from the close of the war until 1886, with marked success, when he was com- pelled, owing to ill health, to give up his practice. He removed to Fayette County, where he engaged in farming. He is Master of County Grange and President of the Southwestern Penn Mutual Fire Association. The doctor was elected on the Republican ticket to the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania in 1900, and again in 1902.
ANDREW A. THOMPSON was born in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa .. October 25, 1880; attended the public schools of that place and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1902, since which time he has assisted his father, Josiah V. Thompson, in the First National Bank of Uniontown. He was elected to the House of Representatives in November, 1902, on the Republican ticket, polling the largest vote cast for any Assembly- man. Mr. Thompson has the honor of being the youngest member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania. He is a candidate for re-election this fall.
SAMUEL E. FROCK, the present popular and efficient Sheriff of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was born in Carroll County, Maryland, November 8, 1861, and is of German descent. He received his education in the common schools of his native county and the first seventeen years of his life were spent on his father's farm. He then worked for a time in a stone quarry at Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, whither he had come from Maryland. He then came to Bullskin Township where he worked for some time on a sawmill.
About the year 1880 he went to Connellsville and for the first four years drove a team for John D. Frisbee. In 1891 Mr. Frock was selected tax col-
460
Biographies of County Chairmen
lector of Connellsville by the largest majority, up to that time, that had ever been given a candidate for any office in the county.
After completing his term as tax collector he became one of the lessees of the Central Hotel, Uniontown, which he successfully conducted for some time, when the lease was sold to Charles Rush.
After selling the lease of the Central Hotel, Mr. Frock returned to Con- nellsville and accepted the position of manager of the Connellsville Brewing Company, which position he retained till about two years ago, when that plant was absorbed by the Pittsburg Brewing Company. After that he pur- chased and operated the South Water Street coal yards and also dealt ex- tensively in real estate.
In 1901, Mr, Frock was selected by the Democrats of Fayette County as their candidate for sheriff and after one of the most hotly contested elections ever held in Fayette County he was elected over his opponent, Martin A. Keefer, by a majority of only 56 votes. While the majority was very small, considering the strong and popular opponent Mr. Frock had, the victory was a great credit to him.
Mr. Frock married Miss Louie Balsley in 1889 and to them were born two children, a son and daughter. The daughter is dead.
Samuel E. Frock is a gentleman whom it is a pleasure to know and his geniality has made for him many friends. He has never been known to turn away the worthy who have applied to him for succor, and has made a most efficient officer.
BIOGRAPHIES OF COUNTY CHAIRMEN.
DAVIS W. HENDERSON, a promising young attorney of Fayette County, practicing his profession with eminent success in Uniontown, was born in Franklin Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1875, and is a son of Stewart and Harriet (Woodman) Henderson. He was raised on the farm and received his early education in the township schools. Subse- quently, he attended the California Normal school and graduated with the class of 1894. He then entered Waynesburg College and graduated from that institution of learning with the class of 1897.
After completing his education, Mr. Henderson taught school one term in Redstone township and one term in Jefferson township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, after which he took up the study of law in the office of D. M. Hertzog in Uniontown. He was admitted to the bar December 4, 1900, and has practiced his chosen profession continuously since then.
Mr. Henderson is a staunch Republican and served as Secretary of the Republican Central Committee under W. E. Crow, succeeding him, as County Chairman in 1902, and was reelected in 1903.
On the 24th day of June, 1903, Mr. Henderson married Miss Knox, a step- daughter of Martin A. Keefer, present Republican candidate for Sheriff of Fayette County.
461
Wooda Nicholas Carr
Mr. Henderson is associated in the practice of law, with Alfred E. Jones, District Attorney of Fayette County, and for the past three years has been attorney for the directors of the county home. Mr. Henderson has the dis- tinction of being the youngest county chairman in the State as well as one of the most active and efficient, and is rapidly winning his way to the front as a lawyer and a politician. He is a member of the Chapter, Blue Lodge and Commandery of the Masonic fraternity of Uniontown and a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church.
WOODA NICHOLAS CARR, now a prominent attorney at Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1872. He is a son of John D. and Amanda M. (Cook) Carr, both natives of Pennsylvania and of English, Irish and Scotch descent.
Mr. Carr attended successively Fayette City public schools, Knox School (Pittsburg), Uniontown public schools, Redstone Academy, Madison College, and finally Jefferson College, from which he graduated with the class of 1891. He was then engaged editorially on the Uniontown Democrat and Daily News until 1893, and during this period took up the study of law, which he continued under the preceptorship of D. M. Hertzog. He was admitted to practice in June, 1895. He is a Democrat and has been an active participant in the work of his party in Fayette County. He was secretary of the com- mittee in 1894 and 1895. During the campaign of 1896 he accompanied the Democratic National Committee on a tour of the Eastern States, and was in that year, Democratic nominee for the legislature. He is a member and Past Master of Fayette Lodge No. 228, F. and A. M .; P. E. R. of Uniontown Lodge No. 370, B. P. O. E., and of the Royal Arcanum.
Mr. Carr is at present Chairman of the Democratic County Committee of Fayette County and active and prominent in his party, in legal circles and as a citizen.
THOMAS SCOTT DUNN, county chairman of the Prohibition party, is a son of the late Thomas and Eleanor (Scoft) Dunn, and was born in Franklin Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, January 7, 1848. Mr. Dunn's great-grandfather secured the original patent for the land on which he now resides and built the house in which he lives, in 1796. It is the old Dunn homestead.
Mr. Dunn was raised on his father's farm and for many years followed farming. He received his education in the common schools of Franklin Township. For the past twenty-five or thirty years he has been engaged in the lumber business, sawing much of the lumber he handles.
In his earlier days, Mr. Dunn was a Republican, but being a teetotal abstainer and a Prohibitionist in principles, he affiliated himself with the Prohibition party and has ever since not only voted with that party, but has been an active worker in the cause of prohibition and temperance. He is also an active worker in the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a member, and has for many years been superintendent of the Sabbath school.
In 1869, Thomas Scott Dunn married Miss Jane A. Murphy, a daughter
462
Albert Gallatin
of Robinson and Margaret (Frasher) Murphy of Franklin Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Six children have blessed this union; they are, Clarence E., Olive B., now Mrs. Dr. J. O. Arnold of Philadelphia ; Thomas B., William R., James H., and Harriet.
Mr. Dunn is a musician of more than ordinary ability and has taught vocal music in various places in the county. His home is a place where one is always delighted to go. He started in life with little or nothing and by industry and frugality has made for himself a fortune and a home. He owns a handsome farm of three hundred acres with two dwellings and two barns on it, and it is otheriwse handsomely improved.
TWO MEN WHO HELPED MAKE FAYETTE COUNTY
ALBERT GALLATIN, a distinguished statesman of the United States and one of the illustrious citizens of Fayette County, was a native of Switzerland, born January 29, 1761, and was baptized on the 7th of February following, by the name of Arbaham Alfonze Albert Gallatin.
In 1755 his father, Jean Gallatin, married Sophia Albertine Rolaz du Rosey, of Rolle. They had two children, Albert and a daughter, who died young. Albert Gallatin was graduated in May, 1779, from the University of Geneva, first of his class in mathematics, natural philosophy and Latin translation. He declined the commission of lieutenant-colonel in a German command, and emigrated to America and landed at Cape Ann, Mass., July 14, 1780. In November of the same year he served his adopted country as commandant of a small fort at Machias, Maine; afterward taught the French language at Harvard University ; soon removed to Richmond, Va., where he acted as interpreter for a commercial house. At Richmond he became ac- quainted with many eminent Virginians, and, acting upon their advice, purchased lands in the Valley of the Monongahela, became the proprietor of "Friendship Hill" and a resident of Springhill Township, Fayette County, Pa.
In 1786 he purchased land, and in 1789 located here as a resident. He named the small village of New Geneva, in remembrance of his trans-Atlan- tic birthplace, and was largely engaged in the manufacture of glass.
In 1789 he was a member of the convention to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania, and served two terms as a member of the Pennsylvania as- sembly. In 1793 he was elected to the Senate of the United States, but by a strict party vote was excluded on the ground of constitutional ineligibility, as he had not been a naturalized citizen of the United States for nine years. He became somewhat involved in the "Whisky Insurrection," but fully acquitted himself of all intention to oppose the enforcement of the laws. From 1795 to 1800 he served as a member of Congress, where he was rccog- nized as the Republican leader and regarded as a logical debator and a sound statesman.
May 14, 1801, President Jefferson appointed him Secretary of the Treasury.
163
Henry Clay Frick
He successfully managed the financial affairs of the nation during Jefferson's administration, and under Madison's until 1813, when he resigned to accept service under his adopted country as minister in European courts.
In 1813 he was sent to St. Petersburg as one of the envoys to negotiate with Great Britain under the meditation of the Czar, and later was one of the commissioners who negotiated a treaty of peace with England in 1814, at Ghent. From 1816 to 1823 he was resident minister at the court of France, and during this period was employed successfully on important mis- sions to Great Britian and the Netherlands. In diplomatie services he never lacked in skill and judgment, and was always successful in protecting the rights of America. President Madison offered him the secretaryship of State, Monroe offered him the navy department, but Gallatin refused them both. In 1824 he refused the second highest office within the gift of the American people, by declining the nomination of Vice President of the United States offered him by the Democratic party. In 1824 he returned to " Friend- ship Hill" and there received and entertained his warm friend, the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1826 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to England. His mission to the court of St. James was successful, and was the elose of his long, arduous and successful political career. It was also the termination of his thirty-three years of residence in Fayette County. In 1828 he became a resident of New York City, became president of a bank, assisted in found- ing the New York Historical Society, the American Ethnological Society, and, a few days before his death, was elected one of the first members of the Smithsonian Institute. His long and eventful life came to a close at Astoria, Long Island, on August 12, 1849, at the age of over eighty-eight years.
HENRY CLAY FRICK of the celebrated firm of H. C. Frick & Co., manufacturers and dealers in coke, and whose name is familiar in every quarter of the civilized world, while not a native of Fayette County, has for many years been prominently identified with her most valued industry.
Mr. Frick was born in West Overton, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and first commenced active and extensive operations in coke at Broad Ford in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and has prosecuted it ever since till it is today of such gigantic proportions and of such vast extent that it is almost incomprehensible. His enterprises are not confined to coke alone, however, but are as numerous and varied as they are prominent and successful. He is a man of superior intelligence and business acumen, is ever active and tire- less in keeping in touch with his numerous interests, and is in short, a man worthy of emulation in every respect and one whom Fayette County may well honor for the impetus he has lent to her prime industrics.
Uniontown Business Directory
(Taken from Lant's Directory of Uniontown)
AGENTS, EXPRESS.
Adams Express Co., opp. P. R. depot. United States Express Co., 6 Pittsburg.
AGENTS, INSURANCE AND REAL ESTATE.
Blackburn, Edward J., 80 E. Main.
Caramer, Chas. T., First National Bank Building.
Dawson, L. M., 37 W. Main.
Douglas, J. S., 17 E. Main.
Frank, Isadore, 11 E. Main.
Herskovitz, Adolph, 26 E. Church, opp. High School.
Knotts, Arthur K., 37 E. Main.
Markle, O. P., 11 E. Main.
McCormick, C. J., 32 E. Main.
McCormick, Geo. A., 80 E. Main,
McCrum & Ingles, 51 W. Main.
Metropolitan Insurance Co, First National Bank Building.
Porter, George, 32 E. Main.
Prudential Insurance Co., 51 W. Main.
Rockwell, S. Lindsey, 14 Title and Trust Building.
Seaton, C. H., 2 E. Main.
Searight, James A., 9 E. Main.
Wolf, Joseph, 16 F. Title and Trust Building.
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.
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