USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania; also containing a separate account of the several boroughs and townships in the county, with biographical sketches, 2nd ed > Part 26
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During 1882 and 1883, Mr. Bevan occupied the posi- tion of principal of the public schools of Leviston, Banks township, while in 1885 he was elected to the principalship of the schools of Mauch Chunk, in which capacity he served until called to the superintendency of the schools of the county, in 1902.
That he has filled this responsible position accept- ably and well is attested by the fact that he is now serving his fourth term, having been thrice re-elected with scarcely any opposition. During his incumbency he has had an eye single to the advancement of the cause of education throughout the county, and he has labored with especial diligence for the uplift of the rural schools. He proceeds on the assumption that the schools in towns and boroughs under his jurisdic- tion, being governed by the principal in charge, do not stand as much in need of supervision and encourage- ment, perhaps, as do the rural schools, often officered by recruits in the educational ranks, who are com-
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pelled to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that confront them as best they may, without the guiding care and supervision of a principal.
Largely through his influence, agriculture is now being taught in most of the schools of the rural dis- tricts of the county, giving those in attendance a better understanding of their environment and opportunities, and tending toward the solution of the problem which is presented by overcrowding in cities and the conse- quent increase in the cost of living. He also lays spe- cial stress on the importance of thorough training in English, holding that the highest accomplishment a boy or girl can have is to know well the mother tongue.
Mr. Bevan is now the president of the Association of County Superintendents of Pennsylvania, and has for years taken an active interest in the work of the State Educational Association.
He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a communicant of the Presbyterian church.
In 1889 he was married to Francesca L., daughter of Reuben Cole, of Northampton county. Mary F. Bevan, a graduate of Bloomsburg State Normal School, is their only child.
Bittner, John C., a retired farmer of Packer town- ship, and a veteran of the Civil War, is the son of Martin and Eva (Crat) Bittner, both natives of Ger- many. The family emigrated to this country about 1830, settling in Columbia county, Pa. The father was a carpenter. Removing to Cressona, Schuylkill county, the parents both died there.
John C. Bittner was born in Columbia county on February 24, 1836. He was about eight years of age when the death of his father occurred, and he grew to maturity on a farm near Orwigsburg, Schuylkill
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county. Learning the carpenter trade, he pursued his vocation until 1864. During March of that year he en- listed in Company I, One hundred and eighty-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, attached to the Army of the Potomac. He participated in all the engagements and maneuvers of his regiment from this time forth, including the battle of Cold Harbor, the siege of Petersburg, and the fighting about the Weldon Railroad, to the fall of Richmond and the close of the war.
Returning to civil life he came to Quakake Valley and purchased from John Faust, his father-in-law, the old grist mill now owned by William S. Dietrich, con- ducting the same until 1869, when he disposed of the mill to Henry Gerhard.
Mr. Bittner then devoted himself to agricultural pur- suits, acquiring title to the farm on which his father- in-law had settled when he came to Quakake Valley in 1829. He is still the owner of this farm, which is one of the most desirable in the district.
On April 7, 1860, he was married to Caroline Faust, and they became the parents of the following children : Charles, deceased; William H., owning a ranch near Louisville, Col .; Allen D., living on the old homestead and conducting the farm; Mary, the wife of Joel Lein- inger, of Packer township; Elvin D., a railway mail clerk, located at Harrisburg, Pa .; Ida, the wife of Samuel Behler, of Nuremberg, Schuylkill county; Clara E. and Jere, deceased; Edgar, a mechanical en- gineer in the service of the New Jersey Foundry and Machine Company, of New York; George, deceased; Agnes, who married Allen Gerhard; Milton, a sten- ographer, of Idaho Springs, Col .; Arthur, operating a farm in Packer township; Jennie, wife of Wallace O. Gerhard, and Laura, who wedded Truman Musselman.
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William, Allen, Elvin, Jere, Edgar and Milton were all educated at the Valparaiso Normal School, now known as Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, and became school teachers. All of these, excepting Jere, who died at the age of twenty-two, married school teachers.
Jennie attended the Polytechnic Institute, of Gil- berts, Monroe county, Pa. She taught school for sev- eral years, and the man whom she married had been a school teacher.
Mr. Bittner and his family have been among the leading spirits of St. Matthew's Lutheran and Reform- ed church, and the Sunday school connected therewith, situated on ground originally belonging to the old homestead, while being otherwise influential in the community. During his long residence in Packer town- ship, Mr. Bittner successively filled most of the offices in the gift of the people of that district.
Blakslee, Hon. James I., fourth assistant postmaster general, and a prominent Democratic leader, also oper- ating the municipal electric light plant of Lehighton, is of Scotch antecedents, and the family from which he springs has been identified with the interests and activi- ties of Pennsylvania since early in the eighteenth cen- tury.
Zopher Blakslee, his great grandfather, was a native of Vermont, but spent the major portion of his life in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer by occupation.
One of the ten children of Zopher Blakslee, James I. Blakslee was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsyl- vania, February 10, 1815. About 1833 he removed to Mauch Chunk with his brother-in-law, Asa Packer, and for a time was a boatman on the Lehigh Canal. In 1839 he engaged in the mining and shipping of coal in
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Schuylkill county. Returning to Mauch Chunk after an absence of five years, he engaged in the preparation and shipping of coal from the Nesquehoning mines, worked under contract with the Lehigh Coal and Nav- igation Company by Messrs. Mapes, Packer & Harlan.
Mr. Blakslee assisted in the building of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and was the conductor of the first coal train that ran over the road. In 1863 he was appointed superintendent of the Mahanoy division of this rail- road, which position he relinquished to superintend the construction of the Montrose Railroad in northeastern Pennsylvania. He was elected president of this rail- road in 1871. In 1878 he was elected a director of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and for a time was a member of the executive committee of the board.
Mr. Blakslee was a trustee of Lehigh University, in which position he ably seconded the plans of its foun- der, Asa Packer.
As the candidate of the Democratic party, he was elected to the office of treasurer of Carbon county in 1851. He was married in 1838 to Caroline Ashley, a native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. Their children were: Eugene H., Alonzo P., Asa P., and Charles A. Blakslee.
James I. Blakslee, the father of this family, died in 1901.
Alonzo P. Blakslee received his early education in the schools of Mauch Chunk and Bethlehem. Subse- quently he was a student in the military academy at Eagleswood, New Jersey. In 1866 he entered the em- ploy of the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad, which soon thereafter was absorbed by the Lehigh Valley system. He remained with the company as the superintendent of the Mahanoy division until 1898, when he resigned to become the general manager of the famous Switch-
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back Railroad, taking up his residence at Mauch Chunk, where he also engaged in other enterprises.
Alonzo P. Blakslee was united in wedlock in 1869 to Elizabeth Bond. Four children were born to them, James I. and Annie K. Blakslee alone surviving. The father died in 1911.
James I. Blakslee was born at Mauch Chunk on De- cember 17, 1870. During his first year the family re- moved to Delano, Schuylkill county, where James at- tended the public schools. Subsequently he was a stu- dent at the Bethlehem Preparatory School and at the Cheltham Military Academy, finishing his education at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
Upon leaving school, Mr. Blakslee became a clerk in the office of the division superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Delano. Later he became a tele- graph operator, and was the station agent for that company at Delano. Entering the service of the Penn- sylvania Railroad at Philadelphia, he soon returned to Delano to become the yardmaster of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at that place.
Having previously been commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company E, Eighth Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, Mr. Blakslee volunteered in that capacity for the war with Spain. During the prog- ress of the war, he was transferred to the regular army as quartermaster and commissary of the reserve hos- pital company, attached to the Second Army Corps. The command to which he belonged was successively stationed at Falls Church and Dunloring, Virginia; Middletown, Pennsylvania, and at Augusta, Georgia. He was mustered out on May 12, 1899.
Returning to civil life, Mr. Blakslee took up his resi- dence at Mauch Chunk, and purchased the property of the Carbon County Improvement Company at Weiss-
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port, consisting of various interests and industries. The plant was partially destroyed by fire soon there- after. It had scarcely been rebuilt when it was again destroyed by the destructive flood of 1901. Mr. Blak- slee then abandoned the property, and secured a lease on the electric light plant of the borough of Lehighton, which he is still conducting, furnishing light and power to both Lehighton and Weissport.
He made his first excursion into the field of politics at Delano, in 1897, when he was chosen as a delegate to the Schuylkill county Democratic convention, held at Pottsville. He received 109 votes out of 110 votes cast, and had the honor of nominating O. P. Bechtel for his last term as president judge of the Schuylkill county courts. He was for some years a member of the Schuylkill county Democratic executive committee, and was repeatedly urged to accept the nomination for state senator in his district, but declined.
Mr. Blakslee was elected chairman of the Carbon county Democratic committee in 1905, and is still so serving. He was elected to the legislature in 1906, receiving 925 out of 1,030 votes cast in Lehighton, his home town. As a member of the legislature he played an active part in all the important measures before the House, acquitting himself with credit and ability. He was a member of the Democratic state executive com- mittee for a number of years, and in 1910 was the can- didate of his party for the office of secretary of inter- nal affairs, but was defeated with the rest of the ticket.
Together with George W. Guthrie, Vance McCor- mick, A. Mitchell Palmer, and others, he took a promi- nent part in reorganizing the Democratic party in Pennsylvania after the gubernatorial election of 1910, when he was chosen as the secretary of the state com- mittee. Much of his time and energy has since been
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
devoted to the work of this position. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Baltimore, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for the presidency.
Mr. Blakslee has for years taken an active interest in the work of the Episcopal church, of which he is a member. He has been connected with All Saints church at Lehighton since its organization in 1902.
During this time he has also been the superintendent of the Sunday school of this association. He is now a member of the Sunday school commission of the dio- cese of Bethlehem.
In 1901 Mr. Blakslee was married to Henrietta W. Bunting, daughter of the late Doctor Thomas C. Bunt- ing and his wife Lizzie, of East Mauch Chunk.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and be- longs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1903 he was one of the leading spirits in the organi- zation of Lehighton Engine Company, No. 2, of which he has since been the president. Mr. Blakslee was ap- pointed to the position of fourth assistant postmaster general by President Wilson in 1913, and is still serv- ing.
Blakslee, William Wallace, who for nearly half a century was a foremost citizen and successful business man of Weatherly, was born at Springville, Susque- hanna county, Pa., in 1821. He was a son of Zopher Blakslee, and one of a family of sixteen children.
Reared and partially educated in the place of his nativity, he remained beneath the paternal roof until his twelfth year, when he determined that the time had come for him to make his own way in the world. Manch Chunk was then becoming a great coal center, and young Blakslee, like so many other enterprising spirits of that day, was lured thither by the bright prospects opening before the wonderful mountain town on the
Mr. M. Blakeslee
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banks of the Lehigh. He made the journey to Mauch Chunk in the fall of 1833 in company with Charles Ash- ley and wife, a sister of Mr. Blakslee's, who brought with them all their worldly possessions, loaded upon a wagon to which three horses were attached. The ambitious boy rode the lead horse the entire distance from Susquehanna county.
Arriving at Manch Chunk the youth found a loyal friend in his brother-in-law, Asa Packer, the bold and sagacious pioneer, who subsequently became a leading individual factor in the development of the Lehigh Val- ley, and whose name became a household word all over eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Packer took him into his home, and sent him to school. His instructor was the most famous of the early schoolmasters of Carbon county, James Nowlins, and under him he laid the foundations for his life of usefulness and success.
During the boating season he was employed as a mule driver on the towpath of the Lehigh Canal. It was in this capacity, one starlight night, that he wit- nessed one of the memorable natural phenomena of the nineteenth century, the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833.
At the age of fifteen, having won the confidence of Mr. Packer, he was given a clerical position in a store at Rockport, which was conducted by the firm of which Mr. Packer was the head. He remained with this firm until 1857, being successively located at White Haven, Mauch Chunk and Nesquehoning, having full charge of the store at the latter place for many years.
Coming to Weatherly at the expiration of this pe- riod, Mr. Blakslee embarked in business for himself, succeeding Richard D. Stiles, who was the only mer- chant in the town. This venture proved a gratifying success, and, in addition thereto Mr. Blakslee engaged
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in the real estate business and various other enter- prises. He was a leader in the establishment of the Weatherly Water Company, of which he was the pres- ident from the time of its organization until his death. having also been one of the promoters of the Read and Lovatt silk mill at Weatherly. About the year 1898 the Blakslee Store Company was organized, he being the nominal head. From this time forth he lived in retirement.
During his long residence in Weatherly he was hon- ored with most of the offices in the gift of her people, and he was associated with every movement calculated to advance the interests of the town. He was one of the founders of the Episcopal church at Weatherly, which was erected principally through his influence.
On April S, 1849, Mr. Blakslee was united in mar- riage at Mt. Lafee, Schuylkill county, to Miss Tamar Beadle, an estimable English lady of culture and re- finement. From this happy union sprang nine chil- dren, five of whom survive: Mrs. Grant E. Pryor, Mrs. Harry A. Butler, Mrs. Charles W. Keiser, William Wallace, Jr., and Rollin Ashley Blakslee.
The father's death occurred on September 26, 1904, the result of a fall he sustained a few weeks previously, and from the shock of which he never rallied. His re- mains repose in Union Cemetery at Weatherly. Mr. Blakslee was prominent in Masonic circles.
Blose, Fulton J., a foreman for Swift and Company at Lehighton, and serving his second term as a member of the board of county auditors, was born in Lower Towamensing township, October 12, 1870.
He is one of the eight surviving children of Jacob and Salinda (Peters) Blose, both natives of Carbon county, and whose ancestors came to this country from Germany.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
His first employment was with the Parryville Iron Works, when he was fifteen years of age. Subsequent- ly he was in the service of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. During the past fifteen years he has been with Swift and Company at Lehighton, being the foreman of a department.
During his residence in Lower Towamensing town- ship, he filled various township offices. He was elected as a member of the board of county auditors on the Democratic ticket in 1911. Four years later he was reelected and was chosen president of the board.
Mr. Blose has an interest in the Wentz Company, manufacturers of memorials and tombstones, of Allen- town.
He is active in patriotic and fraternal society circles.
Blunt, Harrison N., general agent for The Palmer Land Company, came to Palmerton from New York in the fall of 1899, to design and construct the sewers and sewage disposal works for the then proposed vil- lage. Mr. Blunt was at this time associated with the well known firm of engineers of which the late Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., was the senior member.
In September, 1900, after completing this work, he entered the services of The Palmer Land Company at Palmerton, as assistant to the general agent. He was soon thereafter promoted to the general agency, which position he still holds.
In this capacity he has done much toward making Palmerton the model town that it is, most of the im- provements of a general nature there having been made under his supervision and direction.
Bower, Charles W., one of Lehighton's most public- spirited citizens, an ex-burgess of that borough, and owning a controlling interest in the Crescent Stone and
25
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Manufacturing Company, of which he is secretary and treasury, was born at Lehighton, April 16, 1855.
He is the grandson of one of Lehighton's pioneer residents, Charles G. Bower, who emigrated from Wurtemberg, Germany, to this country during the early years of the last century. Settling in Lehighton, he worked at his trade as a saddler and was also a farmer. He was the father of ten children, his oldest son being Charles H. Bower, who was successively a farmer, boat builder and contractor.
Charles H. Bower was married to Matilda Savitz, of Lehighton, where the couple made their home. Their children were Charles and Sarah, who is the wife of Charles Seifert, of Lehighton,
Having received a public school education, Charles W. Bower began life as a clerk in a general store. He was also employed in a clerical capacity by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company at Packerton for a time. Entering the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Bower was graduated with the class of 1880. He is also a graduate of the medical school of the University of Vermont.
After successfully practicing his profession for sev- eral years, Doctor Bower acquired a taste for some- thing different, and opened a machine shop, which he conducted for abont two years.
In 1904 he organized the Crescent Store and Mann- facturing Company, becoming its secretary and treas- urer. This concern manufactures cook stoves and ranges which find a market nearly all over the world. The industry employs about thirty men.
Doctor Bower has taken quite an active part in municipal affairs, and in addition to having served as chief burgess, he has been secretary of the board of health, of town council, and of the Carbon County In-
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dustrial Society, under the auspices of which the Car- bon county fair is annually held. He is an adherent of the Republican party.
Mr. Bower is a member of the Odd Fellows and is prominent in Masonic circles, belonging to Lehighton Lodge, No. 621; Packer Commandery, No. 23, K. T., of Mauch Chunk; Philadelphia Consistory, S. P. R. S., and Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Reading.
He was married to Clara Hibbler, a daughter of Ed- mund Hibbler and his wife Susan, of Lehighton, in 1903. They live on South First street, occupying the house in which Doctor Bower was born.
Bowman, Maurice, a well known and public spirited citizen of Bowmanstown, was born on October 20, 1858, in the village where he now lives. He is a direct descendant of John Deter (Hans Teter) Bowman, who was one of the first of the sturdy settlers to brave the dangers and hardships of the wilderness which lay un- conquered in what is now Carbon county. He came to Towamensing, as this whole region was then known, about the time of the French and Indian War.
Maurice is the fourth son of Henry Bowman, who was one of the twelve children of John Deter Bowman, a grandson of the first settler, who was also thus named.
Henry Bowman was born in 1814 in the place which has since been called Bowmanstown. He became a boat builder on the Lehigh Canal, profitably engaging in this pursuit for more than twenty years.
About the year 1855, acting upon the suggestion of a man named George Ziegenfuss, he began prospecting for iron ore in the Stony Ridge, where he found a min- eral which, after some experimenting, proved to be bet- ter adapted for the making of paint.
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The knowledge gained in these experiments made him the father of an industry which has since grown to important proportions-the manufacture of metallic brown paint. First engaging in this business on his own account, he later organized the Poco Metallic Paint Company, subsequently called the Carbon Me- tallie Paint Company, which is still in existence. Mr. Bowman and a number of his brothers were the princi- pal stockholders of this concern.
He was also a well known contractor for many years. After the freshet of 1841, he rebuilt a large portion of the Lehigh Canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven, while taking part in the building of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Lehigh and Sus- quehanna Railroad. He was the contractor who erect- ed the county prison at Mauch Chunk, and, in his day built numerous houses, churches and bridges, besides mining large quantities of coal and iron ore.
As a member of the firm of Bowman Brothers and Company, he was one of the founders of the iron works at Parryville. In later years he became an extensive producer of building and foundry sand.
Henry Bowman was united in marriage to Lavina, daughter of Henry Peters, of East Penn township, Carbon county, in 1844. Nine children were born to them. The father died on October 12, 1889.
Maurice Bowman was educated in the public schools and at the Carbon Academy, later spending a year as a student of theology at Franklin and Marshall Col- lege. For a time he and his brother, Fulton, engaged with their father in the sand business, and upon the death of the latter, Maurice and Roger Bowman ear- ried on the enterprise until 1892, when Maurice pur- chased the interest of the other and has since conduct- ed the business as sole owner. One of his sand quar-
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ries is located at Ashfield, East Penn township, while he operates another at Hazard. He is also a dealer in clay and building stone.
Besides his other interests, he is the owner of the water system of Bowmanstown, having supplied the place with this necessity since 1892. The source of supply is a tunnel about one thousand feet long, driven into the Stony Ridge by his father for the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, which formerly secured ore therefrom. The water is characterized by its purity and is rich in health-giving mineral properties. It runs into the town by gravity. Altogether the system is one of the most exceptional and inexpensive to be found anywhere.
Mr. Bowman was one of the prime movers in the building of St. John's Evangelical church, of Bow- manstown, dedicated in 1892. He contributed liberally to the project, and has been a local preacher of the denomination for many years.
Politically speaking, he is a loyal Prohibitionist, hav- ing served as the county chairman of that party.
In 1881 he was wedded to Clara A. Eckert, of Parry- ville, Carbon county. Four children begotten of this union survive. The death of the wife and mother oc- curred in 1902, and on March 16, 1904, Mr. Bowman was married to Carrie S., daughter of Elijah Heisler, of Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county. Three children have been born to them, one of whom died in infancy.
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