History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 95

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 95

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Mr. Barnes was a popular officer at the State capi- tal, was respected by all with whom he did business, and in war times was the confidential and trusted friend of Governor Curtin, rendering him special ser- vices, at one time carrying messages from him to all the Governors of the New England States. Mr. Barnes has been somewhat of a traveler, having climbed to the top of Mount Washington, in the White Monn- tains, and visited the battle-fields around Richmond, Va., and seen "considerable of the country besides."

In 1848, Mr. Barnes married Mary Jane Sherman, a daughter of Samuel Sherman, of Connellsville, a native of Connecticut, and related to the family of Roger Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have had nine children,-fonr sons and five daughters. Two of the daughters are dead. His eldest son, Andrew Stewart Barnes, served during the late war as a soldier in the Fifth Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. After the war he learned the machinist trade in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad shops. Thereafter he was appointed postmaster at Connellsville, and afterwards ronte agent between Washington City and Pittsburgh, which po- sition he still holds. Mr. Barnes thinks that boys should learn trades, and his son Samuel is a machinist, and William a carpenter. Irwin, another son, quite yonng, is devoted to music. Mary Elizabeth is mar- ried, and lives in Cuba, N. Y. Jennie and Hally, his other children, are very intelligent, and likely to grow up to be excellent citizens.

Mr. Barnes lost the nse of one of his legs when he was but ten years old, and says that his misfortune was "a godsend," as with his vitality and energy and two good legs he "might have become a brigand !" What is worse, he might have, and likely would have, gone into the late war, and would probably have been killed on the field. With the aid of his crutch he moves abont as lively as most men on two good legs, and at the age of sixty-three is as active as ever, and looks younger than most men at fifty. His " nerve" will probably carry him on into extreme old age, and keep him useful all the while.

JOHN D. FRISBEE.

John D. Frisbee, Esq., president of the First Na- tional Bank of Connellsville, and the leading iner- chant of that borough, is of New England stock on his paternal side; in his maternal line Scotch-Irish. His father, Samnel Frisbee, was born in Connecticut,

John F. Frisbee

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and became a ship-builder, and in 1813 moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., on the solicitation of Robert Fulton, of steamboat fame, and was for a time in his employ. He afterwards built a large number of boats, mostly steam-packets, which ran on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. About 1816 he married Miss Jane Davis, then of Allegheny County, but a native of the north of Ireland, and who came to America when about thirteen years of age. They had nine children, of whom Mr. Frisbee was the seventh, born Oct. 14, 1829.

Samuel Frisbee moved from Pittsburgh about 1838 to that part of the then Beaver County which is now included in Lawrence County, near the town of New Castle, and settled upon a farm, and remained there, leading the life of a farmer, though diverting himself meanwhile with more or less boat-building, until 1852, when he removed to Davisville (a village named in honor of the maternal grandfather of Mr. J. D. Fris- bee) in Allegheny County, and then in his old age rested from his labors, and died in 1854, at about eighty-four years of age, his wife surviving him. She remained at Davisville till about 1866, and moved to Mahoningtown, Lawrence Co., where she resided until her death in December, 1881, reaching upwards of ninety years of age.

Mr. John D. Frisbee attended in youth the common schools of Beaver and Lawrence Counties, and lived at home assisting his father on the farm till about 1853, when, having caught the "California fever," he left home for the new Ophir, and sailing from New York by the Nicarauga route duly arrived in San Francisco, at a time when it was only a small though intensely bustling city. Mr. Frisbee soon took up his residence in Placer County, where he embarked in merchandising, and uninterruptedly continued the business with satisfactory results until 1856, and then, leaving his business in the hands of others, returned to Davisville, Pa., his old home ; remained there till the spring of 1857, and went back to California, and there prosecuted his business till 1860. He then gave up his residence in California and came back to Pennsylva- nia, and in 1861 took up his abode in Connellsville, where he has since resided, and where he at once en- tered into partnership with Wm. Cooper & Co., then late of Pittsburgh, upon general merchandising, under the firm-name of John D. Frisbee & Co., in the store which he still occupies. This partnership continued under the same firm-name till 1865, when Joseph John- ston became a member of the firm, and the name was changed to Frisbee, Johnston & Co., and so continued till 1870, Mr. Johnston then retiring, and the firm- name becoming Frisbee, Cooper & Co. This firm car- ried on the business until 1880, when Messrs. Cooper and the other members withdrew, leaving Mr. Frisbee in exclusive ownership. The business of the house under the several firm-names above noted has been for several years larger than that of any other store in Fayette County. Mr. Frisbee's business is con-

stantly increasing in importance. He aims to keep in stock everything in the mercantile line that is demanded by the county.

Mr. Frisbee took active part in the organization of the First National Bank of Connellsville, which was opened for business April 17, 1876, and was elected its first president, and has since been re-elected as such at each of the successive annual meetings of the bank's directors. The capital stock of the bank is $50,000.

Aside from his special business, Mr. Frisbee has interested himself more or less in farming, and par- ticularly in the breeding of imported Jersey cattle, which he raises upon his Cedar Grove farm, a mile east of Connellsville, which farm was in part formerly the property of the late Mr. Hiram Herbert, the grandfather of Mrs. Frisbee, and upon which he erected a house, in which he resided for a long period.

In politics Mr. Frisbee is an old-time Democrat. He enjoys a high reputation for business integrity, and contributes liberally to the support of all such public measures and such works of charity, etc., as he regards with favor.

Dec. 22, 1863, Mr. Frisbee married Miss Catherine L. Herbert, daughter of George W. Herbert, of Con- nellsville, by whom he has five children,-Emma H., Jennie D., Herbert, Katie, and an infant son, at this writing unnamed.

GEORGE W. NEWCOMER, M.D.

The medical profession, like every other profession or vocation in life, comprises men of various mental calibres, various degrees of natural adaptability and acquired equipment for its pursuit. While every practicing physician may justly, perhaps, be accorded some special merit, however slight, some valuable peculiarity which determined him in the choice of his profession, the history of medical practitioners as a craft goes to show that only now and then one is possessed of that enthusiastic love of medical sci- ence and that certain intellectual capacity to wisely apply in practice what he has learned by study which win for him the popular confidence, and not only achieve for him an extended practice, but enable him to keep it and to add to it year by year. Two things especially seem to conspire to such success, to be necessary to it in fact, namely, keen insight into the nature or cause of disease, or what medical men term scientific " diagnosis," and the profound fore- casting of the course and event of a disease by par- ticular symptoms (enabling the true physician to effectively apply and vary remedies from time to time as the need of them is indicated), and which they call " prognosis." The skillful diagnostician and the like excellent prognoser, or "prognostician," must unite in the one physician if he be really able, and his success for a given period of years is the best possible assurance that the two do unite iu his pro-

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

fessional character and determine his career, who- ever he may be. Such a physician is Dr. George W. Newcomer, of Connellsville, who, though compara- tively a young man, enjoys a very extensive practice, and stands correspondingly high in the confidence of the community, as is made evident by the fact that his "office hours" are crowded with patients, and his town visitations and country ride out of office hours constant and laborions. Success like his is practical testimony of worth which cannot be gainsaid,-the visible crown of merit.

Dr. George W. Newcomer is on his paternal side of German descent; on his maternal of Scotch-Irish stock. His great-grandfather, John Newcomer, was born in Germany, and emigrating to America, settled in Maryland, where the doctor's grandfather, John Newcomer (Jr.), was born. The latter came to Fay- ette County abont 1790, and settled in Tyrone town- ship, on a farm on which the doctor's father, Jacob Newcomer, was born in 1809, and which he finally purchased, living upon it all his life, and on which the doctor himself was born.

Jacob Newcomer, who died March 8, 1871, was the second of a family of eight children, and the oldest son. On the 21st of September, 1830, he married Elizabeth Hershey, of Allegheny County, who was born April 22, 1812. Of this marriage were ten ehil- dren, of whom George W. is the seventh, and was born May 27, 1845. He was brought up on the farm till abont thirteen years of age, working in summers after he became old enough to work, and attending school in the winter seasons, and devouring at home what books he could get to read. When arrived at the age above mentioned he was placed as a elerk in the store of his nneles, John and Joseph Newcomer, in Connellsville, where he remained till seventeen years of age, attending school winters. He then entered Pleasant Valley Academy, Washington County, where he passed two years, taking a partial course of classical studies.

died), he returned to Connellsville, where he has ever since remained.

Aside from the practice of medicine, the doctor has engaged more or less in real estate speculations with excellent results.

Dr. Newcomer is in politics an ardent Republican, and though he does not claim to have done his coun- try great service during the war of the Rebellion, it may be mentioned here that he studied Republican- ism in the field for about three months in war times, being then a member of Company B of the Fifty- fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a three months' regiment, organized about the time of the battle of Gettysburg, but in which battle it did not participate, the company at that time being mius- tered in at Pittsburgh and awaiting equipments. But shortly afterwards it was sent with other compa- nies to attempt the capture of the " Morgan raiders" in Ohio, and succeeded in cutting off Morgan at Sa- linesville, in that State,-a good lesson in politics, the doctor thinks.

SMITH BUTTERMORE, M.D.

Dr. Smith Buttermore, of Connellsville, an excel- lent gentleman, courteous, intelligent, and compan- ionable, and a leading physician in his part of the county, is on his father's side of German stock. His grandfather, Jacob Buttermore, came to America when a boy, and settled in the eastern part of Penn- sylvania. In the war of the Revolution he served as a soldier in Gen. Wayne's division, and after the war resided in Westmoreland County, near Ligonier, and eventually moved to Connellsville, where George Buttermore, the father of Dr. Buttermore, was born in 1798 and died in 1868. George B. married, about 1822, Barbara Smith, daughter of Henry Smith, of Connellsville.

Dr. Buttermore was born in February, 1830, and received his education other than professional in the common schools and at Jefferson Academy. When eighteen years of age he entered the office of Dr. Lutellus Lindley, of Connellsville, and read med- icine during the required period, and attended regu- lar courses of lectures at Cleveland (Ohio) Medical College, from which institution he graduated in 1854.

At nineteen years of age he commeneed the study of medicine with Dr. John R. Nickel, of Connells- ville, one of the most eminent physicians of the re- gion, and at one time Professor of Anatomy and Sur- gery in the Physio-Medical College (now Institute) of Cincinnati. He continued with Dr. Niekel during the usual period of medical office study, and in due . Immediately after graduation he went to the State of time took the regular course of medical lectures at California, wherein he practiced medicine for five years, and then returned home to Connellsville. Spending a summer there, he removed to Harrison County, Va., and entered into the practice of his profession there. When the war broke out all busi- ness, on the border especially, was thrown into con- fusion, and he, being unable therefore to prosecute his profession in the old way, accepted a commission in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gens. Lee and Jackson, where he became noted as a surgeon, and held his commission through the war. After the war he resumed practice in Harrison the Physio-Medical Institute of Cincinnati, from which institution he received his diploma, graduating Feb. 7, 1867. He then returned to Connellsville and opened an office for the practice of medicine, which he there pursued for about five years, and then, upon the call of friends, he removed to Mount Vernon, Ohio, to take the practice of Dr. James Loar, who was about to remove farther West. Dr. Newcomer remained in practice at Mount Vernon till the spring of 1874, when, at the urgent request of his old pre- ceptor, Dr. Nickel (who in a few weeks thereafter

DAVID CUMMINGS.

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CONNELLSVILLE BOROUGH AND TOWNSHIP.

County, and continued it till the death of his father, in 1868, when he returned to Connellsville to settle the estate. He has since resided in that borough, and enjoys a fine practice, having in fact all the practice which he is able to attend to.

In politics Dr. Buttermore is a Democrat, and rep- resented Fayette County in the State Legislature in the session of 1881.

In 1857 he married Miss Mary Lamb, a native of Washington County, Pa., by whom he has two chil- dren,-Nevada, born in Virginia, and Virginia, born in Connellsville.

MAJ. DAVID CUMMINGS.

Maj. David Cummings, who became a citizen of Connellsville about 1820, and lived there for several years, where four of his children now reside, was born in Cecil County, Md., April 23, 1777, and was the son of James Cummings, by birth a Scotchman of dis- tinguished family, who coming to America became an officer in the war of the Revolution. David Cum- mings was a gentleman of classical education, and in early life taught select schools. He was an officer in the army during the war of 1812, and was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Beaver Dam, in Canada, and with other captive American officers carried to England, where he was held for six months, until exchanged, suffering great hardships. After the war he became a mail contractor under the govern- ment, and as such first found his way into Western Pennsylvania, and eventually settled at Connellsville, where he soon became a man of note. He represented' Fayette County in the Legislature at the sessions of 1823 and 1824, and was the first man in the legislative body who made an effort to establish a general system of education by common schools. That system being a matter of contest, he was at the next election de- feated.

Some years thereafter, leaving Connellsville, he re- moved to Mifflin County, where he was at first en- gaged in the building of the Pennsylvania Canal, from Huntingdon to Lewistown, he afterwards be- coming superintendent of the canal, as also collector of the port of Harrisburg. He died at Lewistown, Feb. 5, 1848, and his remains were brought to Con- nellsville and interred in the family burying-ground beside those of his wife, who had died some years be- fore him.

Maj. Cummings was married June 30, 1801, to Elizabeth Cathers, of Cecil County, Md., by whom he had six sons and six daughters, of whom five daughters and two sons are living,-Hannah M., who married the late Thomas R. Mckee; Margaret Eliza, widow of Thomas MeLaughlin; Sophia, widow of Josiah Simmons, who died about 1863; Mary Ann, who first married Dr. Bresee, of New York, now dead, and as her second husband, Andrew Patterson, of Jn- niata County ; Ellen, wife of Robert T. Galloway, of

Fayette County ; and Jonathan W., once a govern- ment surveyor, now of Uvalde Connty, Texas; and John A., who resides in Connellsville with his oldest sister, Mrs. McKee. Of the sons deceased was the late Dr. James C. Cummings, who died in Connells- ville, July 28, 1872. He was born in Maryland in 1802, and moved with his parents to Fayette County about 1820, and was educated at Jefferson College, and studied medicine under Dr. Robert D. Moore, then a distinguished physician of Connellsville, where he himself afterwards became equally distinguished in his profession. He was coroner of Fayette County for several terms, and a member of the Legislature during the sessions of 1843 and 1844. He was never married.

JAMES K. ROGERS, M.D.

Dr. James K. Rogers was the son of Dr. Joseph Rogers, deceased, and Elizabeth Johnstone Rogers, still living, and of Connellsville. He was born Feb. 5, 1832, and was educated at the common schools and at the academy of Dr. Mccluskey, at West Alexander, Washington Co., Pa. At about seventeen years of age he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. James Cummings, of Connellsville, eventually matric- ulating in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which institution he graduated in March, 1852, a month after arriving at the age of twenty years. Immediately after graduation he commenced practice in Connellsville, and there followed his profession with signal snecess until the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, soon after which he took his departure from home withont apprising his friends of his intention and offered his services to the government. Being accepted he received appointment as surgeon and at once entered upon duty, and not long after wrote an affectionate letter to his parents, informing them of his new field of duty. During the war he held regu- lar correspondence with his mother. His official po- sitions in the service were those of assistant surgeon and surgeon under appointment by President Lincoln and confirmation by the Senate; and lieutenant-colo- nel by brevet under commission of Andrew Johnson, countersigned by Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, ranking him as such from the 1st day of November, 1865. During a portion of his career he was corps surgeon under Gen. Heintzelman. He at one time had charge of the hospitals at Chambersburg and Hagers- town, and was the chief commissioned officer present upon the capture and burning of the former town by MeCausland's cavalry, July, 1864. He also hield the post of assistant medical director of the Depart- ment of Missouri. Dr. Rogers visited various parts of the theatre of war, inspecting hospitals, etc. Dur- ing his life in the army and elsewhere he performed over a thousand amputations of limbs, besides a large number of other surgical operations. He prepared some time before his death a manuscript work on

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

surgery intended for publication, but which was un- fortunately lost.

After the surrender and the war was practically over Dr. Rogers was stationed in the government hos- pital at St. Louis, Mo., for about a year ; but suffering under malarial fever contracted while on duty in South Carolina and Florida, he returned to Connells- ville, and entered upon practice there, at once securing his old clientage. But he was ever a great sufferer, and on March 18, 1870, died from the effects of the fever which he had so long undergone. Dr. Rogers was not only a man of excellent intellect, but of great generosity and kindness of heart. He habitually gave away with free hand the money he earned in his practice. There was no avarice in his composition. His devotion to his profession as a whole was remark- able. but his chief love was surgery, in which his natural ability, disciplined by his experience in the army, made him eminently accomplished.

P. S. NEWMYER.

One of the most enterprising gentlemen of Con- nellsville, or whom she has numbered among her in- habitants for many years past, the common declaration of her citizens names Porter S. Newmyer, Esq., lawyer and business man, and still young. His ancestors were German, he being the great-grandson of Peter Newmyer, who came to America from Germany about the middle of the eighteenth century, and eventu- ally settled near Pennsville, Fayette Co. His grand- father's name was Jacob. Mr. Newmyer is the son of Joseph (born about 1820) and Elizabeth Strickler Newmyer, now residing at Dawson, and was born in Tyrone township, Oct. 8, 1847.

He was educated at home and at the Southwest Normal College, in California, Washington Co., Pa., and at Alliance College, Stark County, Ohio, which latter college he left in the spring of 1868, and en- tered upon the study of the law under the direction of Hon. W. H. Playford, of Uniontown, with whom he remained until admitted to the bar at the March term of court, Fayette County, 1871. May 5th of the same year he located in Connellsville and com- menced the practice of his profession, at which place he has continued to this time, enjoying an extensive and Incrative business. In politics Mr. Newmyer is a Democrat, and has several times been elected repre- sentative delegate for Fayette County, and onee sen- atorial delegate from Fayette and Greene Counties to State Conventions.

While prosecuting his professional business he has also been largely and profitably engaged in the real estate business and other important affairs. He or- ganized the gas company of his borough, and origi- nated the First National Bank of Connellsville; was its vice-president from 1876 to January, 1882, and one of its heaviest stockholders until the last-men-

tioned date, when he sold out his stock. Mr. New- myer was one of the projectors of the Keystone Courier, one of the best county papers of Western Pennsyl- vania, and was one of the organizers of the Dawson Bridge Company across the Youghiogheny River. He recently erected the extensive and theretofore much- needed structure known as "Newmyer's Opera-House Block," on Pittsburgh Street, and is connected with Hood Brothers & Co. in the dry-goods business, and lends his assistance to various measures for the ad- vancement of the interests of Connellsville. He is one of the trustees of Bethany College, West Vir- ginia, elected in May, 1880.

On the 10th of April, 1873, Mr. Newmyer married Miss Mary A. Davidson, daughter of Thomas R. and Isabella Davidson, of Connellsville, by whom he has a son, Thomas D., and a daughter, Isabella D.

JOSEPH SOISSON.

Of those of our fellow-citizens of foreign birth whose energy and ambition demand a less cramped field of action than Europe generally affords her most enterprising children, is Mr. Joseph Soisson, of Con- nellsville. Mr. Soisson was born in 1827 in Alsace, then a province of France, but since 1872 under the dominion of Germany, where he was educated in both the German and French tongue, and when about eighteen years of age came to America, at that time unable to speak English. Finding employment in New York he in a few months acquired a competent knowledge of our language and moved to Philadel- phia, where he remained about eighteen months, and thence went to Hollidaysburg, Blair Co., Pa., in the employ of Charles Hughes, a briek-maker, continuing with him about a year and a half, whereafter he visited New Orleans, La., tarrying there a few months, and returning to Mr. Hughes, who finally went into busi- ness with Dr. Rodrick, of which firm Mr. Soisson soon took contracts for making briek. This business he prosecuted for about two years, and then went into partnership with Hughes, Rodrick retiring, on the Allegheny Mountain, Plane No. 8, the firm-name being Hughes & Soisson. The business continued at No. 8 till about 1860, when Hughes & Soisson insti- tuted another brick-making partnership at Milten- berger, Fayette Co., which lasted about nine years, the firm dissolving about 1869. Mr. Soisson then carried on the business alone for about six years, and next entered into partnership with Spriggs & Wil- helm, briek-makers at White Rock, Connellsville, under the style of Soisson, Spriggs & Co., which after sundry changes in copartners became Soisson & Co., Mr. Soisson buying out some of his partners, and his young son, John F., purchasing the interests of others in 1876 (with capital which he had the business energy and courage to borrow), the firm continuing under the name of Soisson & Co. till December, 1879,

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 95

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