History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 123

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 123

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JOSEPH OGLEVEE.

Joseph Oglevee, Esq., a remarkably successful mer- chant and business man of East Liberty, is the grand- son of Joseph Oglevee. who migrated from Cecil County, Md., in the spring of 1789, and settled in Fayette County, on the farm on which he lived till his death, which occurred Sept. 14, 1835, in the sev- enty-first year of his age, Ann Barricklow, his wife, surviving him. She died Oct. 16, 1845, in her seventy- eighth year. Their son, Jesse Oglevee, father of the present Joseph, died Jan. 26, 1876, in the seventy- third year of his age. He was well known through- out the county as one of its most upright citizens, and was for many years a ruling elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of East Liberty, and of which he was one of the main supporters. Mr. Oglevee's mother (married May 14, 1826) was Elizabeth Galley (born Oct. 3, 1807, died Aug. 14, 1858), a daughter of Philip Galley, widely and favorably known in the county. Mr. Oglevee was born June 2, 1827, on the same spot where his father was born and lived all his lifetime, the family residence standing on both sides of the line (which divides the house about equally ) between Dunbar and Franklin townships, and brought up by his parents under strictly moral and religious rules, and at the age of fourteen years united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he has ever since been a faithful working member, doing at least as much as any other one of the con- gregation towards defraying expenses, paying the minister's salary, etc.

Mr. Oglevee's early education was gotten by the hardest, he being till he had nearly reached manhood the only son of his parents, and his father being a lame man, the work of the farm devolved upon him, and he was obliged to obtain his education by study-

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

ing at night. By that means, and one session at Greene Academy, he succeeded in providing himself with a fair English education.

Mr. Oglevee is a man of great energy and deter- mination, which together with large native intellect- uality, disciplined by acute general observation and considerable reading, have doubtless been the main factors of his success. His chief ambition or de- sire in active life seems to be to accomplish whatever he undertakes, whether it relates to matters of the church or worldly affairs. As evidence of the per- sistent traits of his character and his untiring energy, as well as a matter of local history, it may be added here that he went into the mercantile business at East Liberty about 1854, having nothing as capital but his hard-earned, slender means to begin with, and with no one to " bail " or help him, and prac- tically unconversant with the business, having then " never stood in a store a day in his life," and in face of the fact that several persons who had started in like enterprises at the same place just previous to his undertaking it had successively and utterly failed. Undaunted by all obstacles he gradually wrought out complete success, and has been obliged, in order to accommodate his business, to enlarge the capacity of his store building from time to time, and it is still too stall for the extensive business he carries on. The profits of his mercantile and other business Mr. Ogle- vee applies in good part to the erection of houses and the improvement of the town.

Another instance of his great energy and enter- prise, and which, too, may be cited as an interesting matter of local history, was his laying hold of the old mill property of Jacob Leighty, Sr., on Dickerson River, Dunbar township, when it had become so com- pletely wrecked that no one else could be induced to attempt to revive it or even consider it, and not only repairing it but making it better than ever before. Hle put into it a new engine, new boilers, new machinery, and a new first-class miller, and it was not long before custom poured in so fast that he had to enlarge the mill, which he did by an addition thereto as large as the old mill itself, and he is now doing there an extensive business, grinding more wheat in a single month than had been ground for many years before.

Oct. 25, 1850, Mr. Oglevee married Rebecca Stoner, of Dunbar township. They have had seven children -Leroy Woods, born Oct. 9, 1851, died Feb. 16, 1874; Emeline, born Sept. 18, 1853; Anna E., born Feb. 5, 1856; Jesse A., born Feb. 25, 1860; Wm. G., born Nov. 19, 1865; Christopher S., born March 24, 1868; Stark D., born Dec. 15, 1873, died March 80, 1875.

MAURICE HEALY.

A short biography of Maurice Healy, the bold and shocking murder of whom, on the evening of June 26, 1881, was a tragic episode in the usually peaceful

life of Fayette County, merits a place here, not only because he was the victim of murderous hate, but be- cause he ably filled posts of duty in his sphere of life. The brief tale of his murder, with the alleged animus thereof, is that, on the evening above noted, he was ;first suddenly >truck down by a " billy" in the hands of one of a band of conspirators, and then by some one fatally shot, the murder taking place near the west end of the side-cut of the Furnace Branch of the Bal- timore and Ohio Railroad, at Dunbar. The motive of the murder is supposed to be found in the fact that Healy had with great earnestness opposed the grant- : ing by the authorities of a license to sell intoxicating liquors, asked for by Patrick McFarlane, of Dunbar. Charged with the crime, Patrick Dolan, James Mc- Farlane, John Kaine, John Collins, James Rogan, Michael Dolan, and Bernard Flood were arrested in September, 1881, and indicted as Healy's murderers. Patrick Dolan was subsequently put on trial, and by the jury found guilty of murder in the second degree. McFarlane was tried before another jury, and under evidence almost identical with that by which Dolan was convicted was acquitted. Of the remainder, John Kaine is in jail, and the rest are released under $4900 bonds each (now, February, 1882), their trial being set down for the April term of court.1

Mr. Healy was born in Ireland, and came to Amer- ica when quite young. Before first coming to Dun- bar he worked at Jones & Laughlin's furnace, Pitts- burgh, for some time, after which he was engaged as furnace-keeper by the Dunbar Furnace Company, in 1868, when he was about twenty-seven years of age, it is thought. After a short time he left the company, and returned in 1871, and was engaged as furnace- manager, or foundry-man, having charge of the fur- nace, in which capacity he continned till some time in 1875, when he left Dunbar and went to Riverside Iron-Works, West Virginia, being occupied there about a year as furnace-man. Leaving West Vir- ginia he was next engaged in like capacity at Lemont Furnace, remaining there till Feb. 22, 1877, when he was again engaged by the Dunbar Furnace Company, and continued with it till the time of bis murder.

In 1879 he, with others, purchased a sand-mill near Dunbar Furnace, he taking charge of the same. The same parties also bought, about the same time, what is now called "The Percy Mine," at Percy Station. Both purchases proved good investments. Just prior to his death, Mr. Healy took considerable stock in the Fayette Furnace Company, at Oliphant's Station. By industry and economy he had accumulated a com- petence. He left a wife, who is in comfortable cir- cumstances, but had no children.

Healy is described by those who knew him well as, though making no claim to education in books, very

1 At the Ajail term the district attorney found that he had been in a measure misled by the false statements of certain detectives, and was therefore unprepared to pro-eente the cases, which were for the present suspended by a nolie prosegui.

Maurice Hesly

HOLTE

Ally of Hill

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DUNBAR TOWNSHIP.

intelligent, genial, and straightforward, a warm and ,and would always do for them what he said he would. faithful friend, a man of great force of character, true to the important business trusts which were confided to his care, and a good citizen.

COL. ALEXANDER M. AND COL. ALEXANDER J. HILL.

Alexander J. Hill, of Dunbar, a portrait of whom appears in these pages, would have preferred that a picture representing his late father, Col. Alexander M. Hill, be presented in its stead. But, as in the case of not a few people of character and note, no good likeness of the latter could be procured; but with appreciative filial affection, Mr. A. J. Hill desires biographical space herein to be accorded to the mem- ory of his father rather than comment upon himself. We therefore currently remark only that Alexander J. Hill is a robust, active man, who was reared a farmer; that he is at present principally occupied with the superintendency of the works of the Rainey Bank Coal and Coke Company, at Fort Hill, East Liberty, Fayette Co .; and is popularly known as "Col." A. J. Hill, but says that the title is not his by right of any military commission. But he has been so long "baptized" under the sobriquet or title of " colonel" by the popular will that to overlook the title would be little else than overlooking him.

Col. Alexander McClelland Ilill was the son of Rev. George Hill, who was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland Co. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. In the appendix of Ellicott's "Life of Macurdy" it is stated that George Hill was born in York County, Pa., March 13, 1764. When about nineteen years of age le removed with his father and family to Fayette County, and settled within the bounds of the congregation of Georges Creek. Rev. George Hill's wife was Eliza- beth McClelland, a daughter of Alexander McClel- land, of Fayette County, after whom Col. A. M. was named.

Col. A. M. Hill, who died in 1863, at the age of about sixty years, was a very remarkable man, re- garding whom it is to be regretted that but few de- tails of his life and deeds can at this time be readily gathered. He was in early life a tanner, and became an extensive farmer. His father left him a small farm near Laurel Hill Church, but by his energy and tact Col. Hill acquired a very considerable domain, and at the time of his death was possessed of a farm lying in Dunbar township of about three hundred and fifty acres, of which probably six-sevenths part is underlaid with coking coal ; and of another farm of a hundred and eighty-nine acres, all coal land; and of another (now owned by the Dunbar Furnace Com- pany) of a hundred and thirty acres.

Col. A. M. Hill is represented as having been a man of high integrity, of great generosity, an obliging and liberal friend, a man who clung to his friends,

Of course he had warm friends, and, as is not sur- prising in the case of a positive, earnest man who fought his friends' battles, he had, it is said, bitter enemies. He was a man of strong common sense, great energy, extreme tact, cautious in business, but free-handed in the use of money when necessary. Ile was one of the earliest advocates of the extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad through Fayette County, and labored hard to effect it,-a recognized leader of the railroad party. He was among the pioneers of coke manufacture in the county, making it in pits in the ground and shipping it to Pittsburgh before coke- ovens were erected in Fayette County. He was a man of fine personal appearance, of good address, and popular manners. As a politician he was a force. He was twice a member of the State Legislature, representing the district of Fayette and Westmoreland Counties (1851-52) ; and in 1854 was the regular Democratic candidate for the State Senate from his district, but was beaten under a conspiracy of cir- eninstances not affecting his popularity by William E. Frazer (Native American). In 1860 he was again a candidate for the Senate, but ran against Dr. Smith Fuller, and was again defeated. As a legislator, C'ol. Hill is said to have been excellent.

ELLIS PHILLIPS.

Dr. Ellis Phillips, of New Haven, is of Welsh Quaker ancestry. His grandfather, Solomon Phillips, was born in the State of Delaware, where he married Martha Nichols, of Wilmington. About the year 1786 he removed to Washington County, Pa., locat- ing on a farm on the banks of the Monongahela River, opposite the mouth of Redstone Creek. Here Ellis Phillips, the father of Dr. E. Phillips, was born Nov. 12, 1798. In 1824 he married Phebe, daughter of Thomas Lilley, of Washington County, and re- moved to a farm in North Union township, Fayette Co., where Dr. Phillips was born Aug. 31, 1843, being the youngest son of his parents, who had eight chil- dren, five sons and three daughters.

Dr. Phillips remained on the farm, occasionally at- tending the public schools, till about sixteen years of age, when he commenced a course of preparatory studies at the academy at Uniontown, where he con- tinned for two years, and then entered Washington (now Washington and Jefferson, College, Pennay !- vania, from which institution he graduated in 1865. He then entered the office of Dr. Smith Fuller, of Uniontown, as a student of medicine. Having at- tended the regular courses of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, he received his degree in 1867. The same year he located in New Haven in partnership with Dr. James K. Rogers, a surgeon of more than ordinary ability. They remained partners for about three years until Dr. Rogers' death. Prior to the death of Dr. Rogers, Dr. Phillips returned to

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Philadelphia, where he remained several months, taking special private courses of study in his profes- sion. He then returned to his old location and to the firm's business, where he has ever since enjoyed an extensive and lucrative practice. On May 16, 1872, he married Ada A. MeIlvaine, daughter of Robert A. MeIlvaine, of New Haven. They immediately sailed for Europe, visiting England, Ireland, Scotland, and parts of the continent. While abroad he took advan- tage of his opportunity to improve himself profes- sionally by visiting the hospitals of London and Dublin, taking a special course in several of them as a student. Dr. Phillips has two children living, a daughter and a son.

MAJ. ARTHUR B. DE SAULLES.

Maj. Arthur B. De Saulles, of Dunbar, the vice- president of the Dunbar Iron Company, and superin- tendent of its works, is the son of an English gentle- man, Louis De Saulles, who is of French descent, and Armide Longer De Saulles, a Louisianian by birth, and, like her husband, of French lineage. Maj. De Saulles was born in New Orleans, Jan. 8, 1840, and was instructed at home by a private tutor until ten years of age, when he was placed in a German school at West Newton, Mass., and carefully trained in the German language, as well as other studies, for two years. This period of educational discipline was fol- lowed immediately by two years at Bolmar's French- English Institute at West Chester, Pa., and the latter period by a course of study at Cambridge, Mass., in preparation for an advanced course of scientific studies, which he made at the Rensselaer Polytechnic School at Troy, N. Y., from which institution he graduated in June, 1859. During his connection with the Polytechnic School he was engaged for five months as assistant in the geological survey of Ar- kansas.

After his graduation Maj. De Saulles' father sent him on a tour of inspection through the State of Pennsylvania to examine mining and metallurgical operations therein, and make report thereof to him, after which experience and report he sent him to Europe in December, 1859, and in January, 1860, De Saulles entered the École des Mines, Paris, where he remained till September, 1861, when he returned to New Orleans, and three days after his arrival there entered the Confederate service, and was placed on the staff of Maj. Lovell in the engineer corps, and was put in charge of the construction of fortifications on Lake Pontchartrain and on Plaine Chalmette, south of New Orleans. With the Confederate forces he remained on active duty (with the exception of a short time when furloughed on account of a wound received in a skirmish) until the surrender of the Army of the Tennessee in North Carolina, at which time he was its chief engineer. During this period of service he was mainly employed in the construc- !

tion of fortifications at various points, and in the building of pontoon trains for the Army of the Ten- nessee, to which he was most of the time attached, and wherein he acted as major from the fall of 1864 till the time of its surrender.

Soon after the war he went to Europe, where he re- mained till April, 1866, when he returned to America and took the position of engineer of the New York and Schuylkill Coal Company's works, after a year being placed in charge, and remaining with the com- pany till it sold out to the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, in October, 1871, whereupon he moved to New York City, and engaged in profes- sional pursuits till March, 1876, when he became con- nected with the Dunbar Furnace Works. Aside from his connection with these works he is manager of the Perey Mining Company, and one of the executive committee of the Fayette Coke and Furnace Company at Oliphant, which works in all employ about a thon- sand hands.

He was one of the seven organizers (1868) of the American Institute of Mining, which now embraces about one thousand members and associates, and also one of the original members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is a member of the American Meteorological Society.

In politics he is "a good old-fashioned Democrat," and in religion not a " communicant," but takes in- terest in the little Episcopal Church which his wife built and presented to the parish at Dunbar Furnace in 1880.

Ang. 19, 1869, he married Miss Catharine Heck- scher, daughter of Charles A. Heckscher, of New York City, by whom he had three sons and two daughters.

JOSEPH TAYLOR SHEPLER, M.D.

In Fayette County, as in most other old divisions of States throughout the Union, there are enterprising and talented young men, who have already taken the first steps to distinction and are fast " making history," and destined to add important pages to that already made by the honored dead and the remarkable aged living. Of these is notably Dr. Joseph T. Shepler, of Dunbar, who is on his paternal side of German, and on his maternal of Scotch, descent. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Rostraver town- ship, Westmoreland Co., coming there some time be- fore Braddock's defeat. His great-grandfather's Chris- ti in name was Mathias, that of his grandfather, Isaac. Dr. Shepler's father's maternal grandfather, Joseph Hill, was a colonial soldier in the French and Indian war, and also a soldier in the Revolutionary war; and his son, Joseph Hill, Jr., served as a soldier in the war of 1812. Dr. Shepler's great-grandfather's brother, Joseph Shepler, was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war.

Dr. Shepler is the fourth child of Samuel and Eve-

Phillips

Antun B. deGaulles

The Blackstone las

A, R. Banning

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DUNBAR TOWNSHIP.

lina Steele Shepler, both Presbyterians, and was born near Rehoboth Church, in Rostraver township, March 20, 1847, and was brought up on a farm, attending common and select schools in winter seasons, and a commercial college at Syracuse, N. Y., meanwhile gratifying as well as he was able a strong desire for general reading, until he became about nineteen years of age, when he entered as clerk a store for general merchandising in Belle Vernon, Fayette Co., where he remained somewhat over two years ; but being uneasy in his pursuit, and ambitious to excel in something beside merchandising, he went as a student into the office of Dr. S. A. Conklin, of that place, with whom he remained prosecuting his studies with closest at- tention for two years, and then attended a course of lectures at the Medical Department of the University of Michigan. In the autumn of 1871 he located for the practice of his profession in Dunbar, being the first physician who settled at that place. There he continued, securing a good practice, till September, 1873, when he went to New York City, and attended a course of lectures at Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- lege, wherefrom he graduated in March, 1874, and after a period of practice of about two and a half years at Canton, Ohio, returned to Dunbar, where he has since followed his profession, enjoying a large and lucrative practice.

In connection with his practice, Dr. Shepler, in partnership with Dr. R. W. Clark (his professional partner also), carries on the drug business. He has also engaged somewhat in the purchase and sale of real estate with profitable results, and from 1878 to 1880, both inelusive, he was coroner of Fayette County, and discharged the duties thereof honorably and credit- ably. He is the surgeon of the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company for its Southwest Branch, extending from Greensburg to Fairchance.

Col. A. R. Banning, of New Haven, is the grandson of Rev. Anthony Mansfield Banning, one of the sc- called "pioneer preachers" of the Methodist Church west of the Allegheny Mountains, and who was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1768, and ran away from home at the age of sixteen years, just after having experienced religion at a Methodist camp- Eva Thompson. Dr. and Mrs. Shepler are members , meeting, and at once commenced a career of evan-

On the 18th of November, 1875, Dr. Shepler mar- ried a daughterof Jasper M. Thompson, Esq., president of the First National Bank of Uniontown, Miss Ruth A. Thompson, by whom he has one child, a daughter, of the Presbyterian Church.

JAMES BLACKSTONE.

the present James), who was born June 4, 1780. On the 13th of October, 1803, James (Jr.) married Miss Sarah Rogers, of Dunbar township, and going to Connellsville there engaged in merchandising, and built the house now occupied as a hotel by E. D .an, on Water Street, into which he moved. He died July 16, 1809, leaving three children, the youngest of whom (born July 19, 1808) is the chief subject of these notes.

Mr. Blackstone grew up under the care of his mother, a most estimable woman, and spent his youth in the village, except two years thereof passed at col- lege in New Athens, Ohio. After returning from col- lege, he spent some time as clerk in the store of David- son & Blackstone (the latter of whom was his brother, Henry), at Connellsville, and some time as clerk at Breakneck Furnace, then owned by Mr. William Davidson ; but farming was always more to his taste than merchandising.

On the 10th of June, 1834, he married Nancy C. Johnston, of Connellsville, and lived there till 1836, in the spring of which year he bought of Col. William L. Miller Roscommon Farm, moved to it June 23d, and has there lived ever since. Mr. and Mrs. Black- stone have nine children-four sons and five daughters -living.

Mr. Blackstone was an old-line Whig, and is now a Republican, but never was an active politician, never holding a publie office and never desiring one. He has ever led a quiet life, and enjoyed an enviable reputation for integrity.

COL. ANTIIONY ROGERS BANNING.

gelical exhortation. Hle betook himself to Fayette Connty about 1785-86, and before he reached the age of twenty married Sarah Murphy, a daughter of Jacob Murphy, a native of Maryland. Mr. Banning settled on lands which are now a part of the Mount Brad- dock farm, and became the father of eight children, among whom was James S. Banning, born Jan. 11, 1800, and who in March, 1825, married Miss Eliza A. Blackstone, only daughter of James Blackstone, of Connellsville, a lady of rare accomplishments, and with her removed at once to Mount Vernon, Ohio, they making the journey through the wil- derness ou the backs of two ponies. The trip ocenpied eight days. There Mr. Banning, being a tanner by trade, established a tan-yard and conducted the business of tanning, together with merchandising,

The venerable Mr. James Blackstone, of Dunbar township, near the line of New Haven, is of English descent. His grandfather, James Blackstone, came hither from the Eastern Shore of Maryland shortly after Col. William Crawford and his comrades found their way into Yohogania County, Va., as the region of which Fayette County is a part was then called. Mr. Blackstone was married before he left Maryland, and brought his family and some negroes with him, and settled in what is now Tyrone township, on the farm recently owned by Ebenezer Moore. He had four daughters and one son, James, Jr. (the father of , for several years, but eventually removed to Banning's

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Mills, a locality upon a large farm which he owned, of Dec. 11, 1881, in a lengthy obituary notice of Gen. Banning, said of him, " As a political organizer and manipulator, Gen. Banning never had his egnal in this State." and where most of his children were born, and all of them mainly reared. He had nine children,-Sarah D., who died in 1881, at about fifty-three years of age ; Capt. James B. Banning, one of the bravest soldiers whom the war of the Rebellion developed. He was attached to the One Hundred and Thirty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Anthony R. Banning, born in August, 1831 ; Priscilla, wife of Hon. John D. Thompson, of Mount Vernon, Ohio; Lieut. Wil- liam Davidson Banning, like his brothers, a brave soldier of the late war; Maj .- Gen. Henry Blackstone Banning, born in 1836; Eliza, wife of Gen. William In the buying, combining, and sale of Connellsville B. Brown, of Mount Vernon, Ohio; Thomas D. Ban- ning, adjutant of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the late war; Mary, wife of Mr. Frank Watkins, of Mount Vernon.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 123

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