History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 105

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 105

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W. S. Duncan Mr. b.

Samuel State

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BROWNSVILLE BOROUGH AND TOWNSHIP.

human life and subject it to risks rather than under- take 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 has done loyal and royal honor to the profession by honoring himself in an unstinted manner with the proper appointments and equipments for practice, and the universal credit which is accorded him as a strong man in his profession implies the fact ; for such a man as he is ever ready to acknowl- edge that much of whatever he is he owes to his silent, richly-endowed friends, able books.

For what follows we are indebted to two books in which professional notice of Dr. Duncan is made, one of which is entitled "Physicians and Surgeons of the United States," edited by William B. Atkin- son, M.D., 1878; the other a record of the "Trans- actions of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association," with biographies of the members, by J. M. Toner, M.D., a leading physician of Washington, D. C. (1877).

Dr. Duncan was liberally educated at Mount Union College, Stark Co., Ohio. His medical studies were commenced in 1855 with Dr. M. O. Jones, then of Bridgeport. Matriculating in the University of Pennsylvania, he took full courses 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 Presi- dent Garfield in his last illness), in the special study of pathology, anatomy, and microscopy. In June, 1858, he formed a partnership with his preceptor in Bridgeport and commenced practice. The part- nership continued for about two and a half years, when the doctor entered upon business alone, and he has since remained by himself. He still occupies the office in which he wrote his first prescription. Dr. Duncan served as a volunteer surgeon at Gettysburg, was captured by the Confederate troops, but suc- ceeded in escaping. Latterly his labors have been 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 engages in general practice, including surgery, and has per- formed a number of important operations,-for hernia nine times, and tracheotomy seven times, and has suc- cessfully performed the operation of excision of the head of the humerus, and of the lower part of the radius. Dr. Duncan is a member of the Fayette County Medical Society, and has held in turn all its offices; also a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and is at present one of its censors. He is a member of the American Medical Associa- tion, and of the Rocky Mountain Medical Associa- tion, and is an honorary member of the California State Medical Society.

Dr. Duncan is a close student, and has contributed 30

quite extensively to medical literature. Among his numerous and able papers those entitled as follows merit special mention : " Malformation of the Genito- Urinary Organs" (American Journal of Medical Science, 1859) ; " Belladonna as an Antidote for Opi- um-Poisoning" (Ibid., 1862) ; " Medical Delusions" (a pamphlet published at Pittsburgh, 1869); "Re- ports of Cases to Pennsylvania Medical Society" (1870-72); " Iliac Aneurism Cured by Electrolysis" (Transactions of the same society, 1875) ; a paper on " The Physiology of Death" (1876).

Dr. Duncan was married March 21, 1861, to Miss Amanda Leonard, daughter of Benjamin and Mary Berry Leonard, of Brownsville. They have one child, a daughter.

SAMUEL STEELE.

Mr. Samuel Steele, of Brownsville, is of Scotch- Irish extraction. His great-grandparents came to America from the north of Ireland about 1740, and settled, it is believed, in Eastern Pennsylvania. On the passage over the Atlantic Mrs. Steele presented her husband with a son, who was given the name William, and who was the grandfather of Mr. Sam- uel Steele. William grew up to manhood and found his way into Maryland, where he married and resided for a period of time, the precise record of which is lost; but there several children were born to him, one of whom, and the oldest son, was John, the father of Samuel Steele. About 1783 or 1784, Wil- liam Steele removed from Maryland with his family to Fayette County, to a point on the "Old Pack- horse road" about six miles east of Brownsville, where he purchased a tract of land, which is now divided into several excellent farms, occupied by Thomas Murphy, who resides upon the old Steele homestead site, and others. William Steele eventually removed to Ros- traver township, Westmoreland Co., where he died in 1806.

Some years prior to his death Mr. William Steele purchased for his sons John and William a tract of land in what is now Jefferson township, and em- braced the farms now owned and occupied by John Steele and Joseph S. Elliott. John Steele (the father of Mr. Samuel S.) eventually married Miss Agnes (often called "Nancy") Happer, by whom he had eight children, of whom Samuel was the fourth in number, and was born June 15, 1814. Mr. John Steele died June 6, 1856, at about the age of eighty- three.

Mr. Samuel Steele was brought up on the farm, and in his childhood attended the subscription schools. In his eighteenth year he left home and entered as an apprentice to the tanning and currying trade the establishment of Jesse Cunningham, his brother-in-law, a noted tanner of Brownsville, where he served three years in learning the business. After the expiration of his apprenticeship he entered upon

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the pursuit of various businesses, among which was flat-boating agricultural products, apples, etc., cider, and provisions of various kinds down the Mononga- hela to the Ohio, and on to Cincinnati and Louisville, where he usually sold his merchandise, but sometimes made trips to New Orleans. He followed the busi- ness in spring-time for some seven years, ending about February, 1843, when occurred the death of Mr. Jesse Cunningham. Mr. Steele then entered into partner- ship with his sister, Mrs. Cunningham, under the firm-name Samuel Steele & Co., and carried on the business at the old place till 1860, when the partner- ship was amicably dissolved, and Mr. Steele sank a new yard, a few blocks higher up the hill, wherein he has since that time conducted business. In 1880 he took into partnership with himself his son William, under the firm-name of " Samuel Steele & Son."

Feb. 11, 1852, Mr. Steele married Miss Elizabeth A. Conwell, of Brownsville, by whom he has had four sons and four daughters, all of whom are living.

In polities he was formerly an old-line Whig, and is now an ardent Republican. In religion he pre- serves the faith of his fathers, being a Presbyterian. His wife and daughters are members of the Episco- pal Church.

JOHN HERBERTSON.

John Herbertson, of Bridgeport, who has been for over fifty years one of the most active business men and substantial citizens of the borough in which he resides, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Sept. 16, 1805. In his childhood he attended the common schools, and had the good fortune to listen to many of the scientific lectures of the renowned Ure. At seven- teen years of age he left home for America. Having spent some time in learning the joiners' and cabinet- makers' trades, and the law at that time forbidding mechanies to leave the realm, young Herbertson got his tools smuggled on board the "Commerce," the ship on which he took passage, and which, after a voyage of five weeks and two days, landed him in New York, in July, 1823. He soon proceeded to Marietta, Ohio, to enter upon farming under the mis- representations of one Nahum Ward, a great scamp, who by misrepresentations induced many people of Glasgow and elsewhere to leave their homes and settle upon his lands. At Marietta, Mr. Herbertson "acquired" little else than fever and agne, and moved, after a few months, to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he arrived in April, 1824. He lived in Pittsburgh about five years, meanwhile learning the trade of steam-engine building. In 1829 he engaged with John Snowdon, of Brownsville, as foreman in his engine-shop. He remained with Mr. Snowdon about seven years. During this time Mr. Snowdon took the contract for putting up the iron bridge over Dunlap's Creek, believed to be the first iron bridge ever built in America, as it is the first of its kind ever built in

any country. For this bridge Mr. Herbertson did all the head-work, and, in fact, all the mechanical work. He designed the bridge, making the first drawing, which was sent on to West Point, and there accepted by the government construction engineers. He made the patterns, supervised the moulding, and also the erection of the bridge.

After the expiration of his engagement with Mr. Snowdon he went into the business of engine-build- ing with Thomas Faull, the firm-name being Faull & Herbertson. This was in 1837 or 1838. He con- tinued business with Mr. Faull till 1842, when the latter withdrew, and Mr. Herbertson has ever since then carried on the business on the same site. He has built a large number of steamboat- and mill-engines. His work has been ordered from distant parts of the United States and from Mexico. As a skilled me- chanie and designer of mechanical work, but few men, if any, in his line have excelled him. At the age of seventy-six he takes active interest in his busi- ness, and with the aid of his sons, all thoroughly in- structed in the business and competent to take their father's place and let him wholly retire, if he would, he still carries on an extensive work, which, however, has, since September, 1880, been conducted by him in partnership with his sons, George S. and William H. Herbertson, and his son-in-law, William H. Am- mon, and Mr. A. C. Cock, under the firm-name of John Herbertson & Co.

In politics Mr. Herbertson is a Republican, but has never taken active part as a politician ; in fact, he has had no time to waste as such. No man's reputation for integrity and the other virtues which go to make a noble and honorable man stands higher in his com- munity than that of Mr. Herbertson.

In 1830, Mr. Herbertson married Miss Eliza Nimon, daughter of Peter and Sarah Potts Nimon, of Pitts- burgh, Pa. Mrs. Herbertson is living, and at the age of seventy is active and thoroughly superintends her domestic affairs.

They have been the parents of twelve children, five of whom are living,-Sarah, first married to J. W. Kidney (deceased), and now the wife of A. J. Davis, of Pittsburgh ; John P., who married Frances Mar- eus, of Bridgeport; Mary, the wife of William H. Ammon ; George S., married to Sarah Bar, of Bridge- port ; and William H. Herbertson.

WILLIAM CHATLAND.

Mr. William Chatland, of Brownsville, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, June 9, 1811. He is the son of William Chatland, of Meriden, a borough six miles north of the city of Coventry, in the same shire, and of Priscilla Green Chatland, of Brier Hill, Staffordshire.

Mr. William Chatland, Sr., died in London about 1819, at the age of forty years, and some five years

John Herbertson

Miriam Chattand

WILLIAM H. MILLER.

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BROWNSVILLE BOROUGH AND TOWNSHIP.

subsequent to the death of his wife, which occurred in 1814. Mr. Chatland, who was but three years of age at the death of his mother, was placed in the charge of his grandmother, Mrs. Ann Chatland, by whom he was reared until about his tenth year, when his grandmother died. He was then taken by his uncle, Joseph Chatland, a prosperous baker of Cov- entry, with whom he resided until about his thir- teenth year, and was then apprenticed to Daniel Claridge, a famous baker of Coventry at that time, to learn the art of baking in all its branches. He remained with Mr. Claridge for seven years. After the expiration of his apprenticeship he went to London, and there, during a period of three years and a half, occupied positions in two first-class houses of that city. After finishing his stay in London he returned to Coventry, established himself in the baker's busi- ness, and married Miss Elizabeth Manton, the daughter of William Manton, a farmer of Berkswell, Warwickshire. He conducted business in Coventry for some six years, after which, and selling out, he migrated with his family-wife and three daughters- to the United States, arriving in New York April 20, 1844. In a few days thereafter he took the old "Bingham Line" for Pittsburgh, Pa. Tarrying there awhile prospecting, he eventually moved to the county- seat of Washington County, where he resided, carry- ing on both the baking and confectionery business, for about eight years, and in 1852 organized a com- pany of fifteen persons to go with him by the over- land route to California, where, at Sacramento, he bought out a baking business, which he conducted with great success until he was seized by fever and ague, and was compelled to leave the country. He returned to his family, who had remained meanwhile at Washington. Failing to find a suitable location for business in that town, he betook himself to Brownsville in 1854, where he has since resided, carrying on business by himself for about eighteen years, when he took into partnership his son-in-law, George W. Lenhart, the husband of his daughter Sarah. Under the firm-name of Chatland & Len- hart they do an extensive business, and enjoy the reputation of making the best water-cracker now in use. They manufacture products of every depart- ment of their trade.

Mrs. Elizabeth Chatland died at Brownsville, Jan. 28, 1874, in the sixty-first year of her age, leaving three daughters, all now living. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, married Theodore A. Bosler, a son of Dr. Bosler, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., and now residing in Dayton, Ohio. Miss Mary Ann, the second daughter, resides with her father. Sarah Ann Kate, the youngest daughter, is the wife of Geo. W. Lenhart, before men- tioned.

Mr. Chatland and his family are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he being now and for a long time having been a vestryman therein. Since 1848, Mr. Chatland has been a prominent member

of the Masonic fraternity. He was District Deputy Grand Master for Pennsylvania for the space of fifteen years, Distriet Deputy High Priest for sixteen years ; also Eminent Commander of St. Omer's Commandery, No. 7, held at Brownsville, for the period of about eighteen years. Mr. Chatland is justly proud of his record as a Mason.

WILLIAM H. MILLER.

William H. Miller, of Bridgeport, is of English Quaker descent on his paternal side. His great- grandfather, Solomon Miller, who was a miller by trade, was born in England, married there, and emi- grated with his family to America prior to 1750, and settled in York County, Pa. Of his children was Robert Miller, who was born in York County, Pa., and in early manhood removed to Frederick County, near Frederick City, Md., and purchased a farm, and soon after married Miss Cassandra Wood, a Virginia lady, who lived near Winchester, Va. They resided upon the farm near Frederick City till 1796, when they removed to Berkeley County, Va., where they remained about three years, and then, in 1799, came into Fayette County and settled in Luzerne township, on a farm purchased of one Joseph Briggs, and now owned by Capt. Isaac Woodward. Residing there for several years, his wife meanwhile dying, Robert Miller eventually moved into Brownsville, and took up his residence on Front Street, upon property now belonging to the heirs of Thomas Morehouse, and there died about 1832. He was the father of four sons and four daughters, all of whom grew to ma- turity. Of these was William Miller, who was born Sept. 9, 1782, in Frederick County, Md. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk in a dry-goods store belonging to his uncle, William Wood, in New Mar- ket, Va., and in 1799 came with his father into Fayette County. He soon after took up the avoca- tion of school-teaching, and pursued it near Perry- opolis, in the old Friends' Church, known as " Red- stone Church," in Bridgeport, on what was formerly called "Peace Hill," and elsewhere. He followed teaching until 1810, when he married Miss Rebecca Johnson, daughter of Squire Daniel Johnson, of Menallen, and at once settled on a farm in that town- ship, near New Salem, and lived there till March, 1837. He then removed to Brownsville and pur- chased a woolen-factory (no longer standing) and a flouring-mill; then standing on the site whereon is located the present flouring-mill of his son, W. H. Miller. He pursued milling till 1855, when he retired from business and led a private life until his death, which occurred June 7, 1866. Mrs. Rebecca Miller died Nov. 14, 1833, and in 1834 Mr. Miller married Ann Johnson, his first wife's half-sister, who, child- less herself, made a good mother for her sister's chil- dren. She is still living, nearly eighty years of age, cheerful and buoyant in spirits.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Mr. William and Mrs. Rebecca Johnson Miller were the parents of nine children, all of whom grew to maturity, eight still living,-Warwick, born Dec. 11, 1811 ; Hiram, born Dec. 31, 1813 ; Sarah, born Sept. 7, 1816; Mary, born Feb. 5, 1819; Cassandra (deceased), born March 3, 1821 ; Lydia, born Jan. 14, 1823 ; Jane, born June 30, 1825; William H., born March 6, 1829 ; and Oliver, born Dec. 13, 1831.

William H. Miller, the eighth in the above list, was educated in the common, and the Friends' school, and learned the milling business, upon which he en- tered in partnership with his brother Oliver in 1855 in the mill before named, and which he and his brother inherited from their father. The partnership continued for five years, when Mr. Miller bought out the interest of his brother, who removed to a farm in Luzerne township. In January, 1866, a fire destroyed both the flouring-mill and the old woolen-factory be- fore referred to. The buildings being uninsured the loss was total. Mr. Miller immediately put up a new and better building on the old site, and to this time conducts business therein. As is noted above, Mr. Miller's great-grandfather, Solomon, was a miller by trade, and from his day down to the present the trade has been practically and continuously repre- sented by his descendants.

Mr. Miller has held several town and borough offices, and was for eight years director in the Deposit and Discount Bank of Brownsville, which two years ago gave up its charter, a portion of its stockholders uniting in the organization of the National Deposit Bank of Brownsville, of which bank Mr. Wiliam H. Miller is the president, the National Bank doing business in the same house formerly occupied by the bank the place of which it took.

May 16, 1855, Mr. Miller married Miss Margaret J. Gibson, daughter of Alexander and Mary Hibbs Gib- son, of Luzerne township. They have two children, -A. Gibson Miller, born Feb. 7, 1861, and Sarah Helen Miller.

Mr. Miller was brought up an Orthodox Friend, observing the faith of his fathers, but is now a member, as is also his wife, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In politics he is a Republican.

IION. JOHN L. DAWSON.

pointed by Governor Porter deputy attorney-general for Fayette County, and discharged the duties of the office with fidelity and ability. In 1845, President Polk appointed him United States district attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, which office he held during the whole of Polk's administration, and discharged its duties with signal ability. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conven- tions of 1844, 1848, 1856, and 1860. During the Kansas troubles President Pierce tendered him the Governorship of that Territory, but he declined to accept it.

In 1848, Mr. Dawson was the candidate of the Democratic party for member of Congress in the dis- trict then composed of Fayette, Greene, and Somer- set Counties, but was defeated by his competitor, the Hon. A. J. Ogle, of Somerset. He was renominated in 1850, and triumphantly elected, the first and only time that district was carried by the Democrats. In 1852 he was again nominated for member of Con- gress, and was elected, the district then being com- posed of Fayette, Washington, and Greene Counties. At the end of this term he declined to re-enter the congressional arena, and remained in private life until 1862, when he was again elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1864, both these elections being for the district composed of the counties of Fay- ette, Westmoreland, and Indiana. Soon after his entrance into Congress he introduced the Home- stead bill, which had previously been defeated, and with the addition of a number of important provis- ions, originated by himself, he advocated the measure with great earnestness, eloquence, and ability, and continued to advocate it until he had the gratifica- tion of seeing it become a law. In the Thirty-eighth Congress he was a member of the Committee on For- eign Affairs. At the close of his term in the Thirty- ninth Congress, Mr. Dawson's public career ended. He had previously purchased the property formerly owned and occupied by the Hon.' Albert Gallatin, in Springhill township, Fayette Co., and there he re- sided with his family during the remainder of his life. He died at his residence, "Friendship Hill," on the 18th of September, 1870, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. At his death the Cincinnati En- quirer gave the following deserved tribute to his memory :

" He belonged to a school of great, good, and useful men, but a few of whom linger now to adorn and serve a conntry whose name their genius contributed so much to make glorious, and whose prosperity and happiness their wisdom and integrity ever sought to promote. Among political philosophers and practical statesmen, he was one of our profoundest thinkers. As an orator, whether on the mission of persuasion or conviction, he had but few rivals ; and as a private citizen, his exalted character was without a blemish. His career in Congress was in every respect brilliant.

Jolin L. Dawson was born in Uniontown on the 7th of February, 1813. When quite young he re- moved with his father's family to Brownsville, where he grew up and spent the greater part of his life. He was educated at Washington College, read law in Uniontown under the direction of his uncle, the Hon. John Dawson, and in due course was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of his profession. Entering into politics at an early age, he soon took a leading part on the Democratic side in all current questions and controversies. In 1838 he was ap- . The private friendships he there contracted, even in

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the face of the bitterest prejudices, the lapse of years served only to strengthen and brighten, and the pub- lic record that he made is a proud heritage for his family, and a shining example for future statesmen, and must grow brighter and brighter as time reveals -as reveal more and more each revolving year it surely will-the soundness of his judgment, the breadth of his comprehension, the clearness of his foresight, and the truth of his predictions. Always

dignified, debonair, and dispassionate in debate, no eruptions of temper ever ruffled the calm surface of his vigorous intellect. Endowed with an impressive and imposing presence, and those rare and peculiar gifts so prominently adapted to ad captandum discus- sion, he was not more honored by his own party as a leader than he was dreaded by the opposition as an adversary. The loss of such a man as John L. Daw- son amounts to a national calamity."

BRIDGEPORT BOROUGH AND TOWNSHIP.

BRIDGEPORT-borough and township, both cover- ing the same area and lying within the same limits -- is situated on the right bank of the Monongahela, extending up the river from the mouth of Dunlap's Creek. The latter stream forms its eastern and the river its northwestern boundary. On its other sides it is bounded by the township of Luzerne, from Dun- lap's Creek to the river.

For a period of more than half a century prior to the time when travel and traffie became diverted by the opening of the railway lines in Western Pennsyl- vania this town was a point of great comparative im- portance as a place of manufacturing industries, of flat-boat, keel-boat, and steamboat building, and as (practically ) the head of steamboat navigation on the river. By reason of the lack of railway facilities, for many years Bridgeport lost much of its relative importance, but it is still one of the principal busi- ness-points on the Monongahela, and the recent open- ing (in the spring of 1881) of the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad line from Pittsburgh to West Brownsville cannot fail to add materially to its pros- perity. Its population by the United States census of 1880 was 1134.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 105

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314