History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 105

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1532

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THOMAS CHARLTON, inside superintendent for M. S. Kimmerer & Co., Sandy Run. This gentleman, who is one of the veteran anthracite coal men, was born in New Butler, County of Durham, England, April 4, 1827. He was reared and edu- cated in his native land, and began working in the mines when only about eight years of age. After going through the entire preliminary drill, he became a miner at the age of fifteen, and worked in the mines of England until 1850, when he came to America. At first he located at Mill Creek, Schuylkill Co., Pa., where he worked in the mines one year. He then went to Mt. Jeffry, where he remained twelve years, being fire-boss there about seven years. He then went to Highland, and in 1875 came to Sandy Run, in the employ of M. S. Kimmerer & Co. When he first came here he was prospecting for that company. He contended from the first that there was coal at Sandy Run, but his theory was rejected by the major- ity of the anthracite prospectors; still Mr. Charlton continued with his work, and in 1875 proved coal and conducted the sinking of a slope, and two years later the mine at Sandy Run was in full operation. Mr. Charlton's field of labor has not been confined to Sandy Run; but he proved coal of over half of the Shamokin Mines at Mt. Carmel, and many other places, and is constantly engaged in prospecting throughout the anthracite coal regions. Since the mine was opened at Sandy Run he has had charge of the inside work. Mr. Charlton was married, November 22, 1848, to Miss Margaret Wilson, a native of Bancroft, England, and they have had seven children, viz. : William, a miner, at St. Clair; Thomas (deceased); Lizzie, married to Joseph Seaicks, of Sandy Run; Thomas, an engineer, in Alden; Mar- garet J., married to Clarence T. Hoover, of Mead Valley; Mary, married to Nathan Hoodmacher, also of Mead Valley, and Isabella, married to Richard Redton, of Sandy Run.

EDWARD H. CHASE, a prominent attorney of Wilkes-Barre, was born in Haverhill, Essex Co., Mass., February 28, 1835, and is a son of Samuel Chase, a native of Hampstead, New Hampshire. His paternal grandfather, Benjamin Chase, a native of Newbury, Mass., was a musician during the Revolutionary war, whose ancestor,

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Aquilla Chase, emigrated from Cornwall, England, in 1640, and in 1646 settled in Newbury on a grant of a four-acre house-lot, in consideration of his services as a mariner to the colony. His progeny have since overrun the States, and from him the numerous families of Chases throughout the United States derive their ancestry. Our subject was educated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., where he was graduated in 1855. He then taught one year in the Aurora Academy (now Wells College) at Aurora, N. Y., and in 1857 removed to Pennsylvania, entered the law office of Hon. Edmund L. Dana, at Wilkes-Barre, and January 4, 1859, was admitted to practice. At the breaking out of the Civil war, he was a member of the Wyoming Light Dragoons, and left with his company for the seat of war April 18, 1861. On April 22, they were organized as Company E, Eighth Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and were enrolled for three months, Mr. Chase being appointed colonel's clerk. On June 19, he was taken prisoner at Falling Waters, on the Potomac river, while reconnoitering in sight of camp; was taken to Winchester, and thence to Richmond, where he was on parole two weeks. After the battle of Bull Run he was transferred to Raleigh, and thence to Salisbury, N. C., where he was finally surrendered without exchange May 22, 1862. In April, 1865, he was appointed postmaster at Wilkes-Barre, but was removed by President Johnson in July, 1866. During the years 1868, '69 and '70, he was clerk and attorney for the borough of Wilkes-Barre, and when the place became a city was appointed attorney and clerk, in which capacity he served in 1871, '72 and '73. In October, 1873, he was appointed United States collector of Internal Revenue, which office he held until 1885. His district comprised twenty counties including Luzerne. He has been a member of the State or County Republican Committee since 1862. He has served as a director of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital, and Wilkes-Barre Academy, and has also been a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of the city. On June 18, 1863, he married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Hon. Edmund Taylor, of Wilkes-Barre, and by her he has four children-two sons and two daughters.

THOMAS JEROME CHASE, a scion of an old New England family, was born in the township of Benton, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pa., May 26, 1844. He is the son of the late Elisha W. Chase, a native of East Greenwich, Kent Co., R. I., who removed with his father, Gorton Chase, when a boy of six years of age, to Abington, Luzerne (now Lackawanna) county, Pa. He died in 1862. Gorton Chase died in 1835. His wife was Freelove Potter, of an old Rhode Island family. The maternal grandfather of T. J. Chase was Thomas Phillips, a native of the city of Bath. England, where he was born February 22, 1769. He removed to Abington in 1812, and died there in 1842. His second wife, the maternal grandmother of the subject of our sketch, was the widow of Curtis Phelps. Her maiden name was Betsy Patterson, and she was a native of Litchfield, Conn., born in 1781; she died in 1848. The mother of Mr. Chase was named Welthea. Mr. Chase was educated in the common schools of Benton, in a select school taught there for two years, and studied a brief term in the Madison Academy. Waverly, Pa. When not at school he did the ordinary work of a farmer's son until the age of eighteen years, when he enlisted, in August, 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and Thirty-Second Regi- ment, P. V. He participated in the battle of Antietam, and was mustered out at the expiration of his term of service in May, 1863. In 1864 he entered upon the study of law in the office of A. H. Winton and A. A. Chase, at Scranton, and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar November 12, 1866. He then entered the office of the late E. S. M. Hill (then mayor of Scranton), and remained until April, 1867, when he removed to Nicholson, Wyoming Co., Pa., and practiced until 1876, when he came to Wilkes-Barre, where he has been in continuous practice since. While at Nicholson he was elected and served as justice of the peace; was also one of the school directors of that borough. During a portion of the time he was read- ing law he taught a public school in order to secure the means to enable him to con- tinue his legal studies. Mr. Chase married, September 10, 1874, Czarina A. Rey-

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

nolds, daughter of S. P. Reynolds, a native of Benton, and they had one child that died in 1879, at the age of four years. Like a large proportion of the leading men, especially the professional men, of the Wyoming Valley, Mr. Chase, it will be noted, traces his ancestry to the hardy pioneers of New England, and, more remotely, to Old England. They were a hardy, determined and courageous people, these first settlers of the Yankee States, and have given to their children, and their children's children, qualities of mental and moral manhood and womanhood which go far to evince to the present generation that such was the case. Their flight from kingly persecution for refuge in a wilderness of itself tells a tale of devotion to religious conviction, of keen appreciation of the rights of manhood, and of willingness to bear heavy burdens and incur great sacrifices for the right of opinion; and the stalwart men and lovable, loyal women who have descended from their loins renew in their capabilities and virtnes the testimony to those of so proud and self-independent an ancestry. Like most of the others in our series of sketches "Tom " Chase, as he is familiarly called, is a worthy son of worthy sires. He has earned and fully merits the glorious title of "good fellow," which men apply to those in whom there is an ever-present readiness to suffer almost any loss rather than harm another by so much as a thought. He was a good soldier, though but a boy at the time of enlistment, and his superiors give willing attestation of his manly and dutiful bearing at every period of his term of service, and at every task it imposed or emergency it brought. He is a lawyer of no mean attainments, though totally indisposed to the " fuss and feathers," so to speak, which not a few in other pro- fessions seek to palm off upon their patrons as evidence of deep knowledge and the ebullitions of genius-in other words, he is not a showy advocate, but is a safe adviser.

HUGH CHESWORTH, manufacturer and coal operator, Wyoming borough, was born January 21, 1843, in Wales, and is a son of Thomas and Ann (Wiggins) Chesworth, natives of England and of English origin. Thomas and Ann Chesworth reared a family of four children. three now living, of whom our subject was second in order of birth. He was educated in the common schools of England, and began work at the age of fourteen, in the terra-cotta works, receiving thirteen cents a day; this work he followed until 1870, in which year he came to America and worked one year at brick making in Scranton, Pa. He then worked five years in the mines in that vicinity, when he moved to Wyoming, Pa., and worked in the Wyoming terra-cotta works for about ten years, then purchasing an interest in the works from Mr. Hutchins, his employer; the style of the firm is now Hutchins & Chesworth. Soon after this the firm purchased some coal land from Samuel R. Shoemaker, and opened a mine known as the Morning Star, in which they employ about 100 men and boys. Mr. Chesworth was married, March 12, 1865, to Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Hughes) Roberts, natives of Wales. This union was blessed with nine children, viz. : Thomas N., born December 1, 1866, works in the terra-cotta works at Lock Haven, Pa .; Anna (Mrs. Harry Saunders), born February 8, 1868; Sarah, born October 1, 1869; John E., born Angust 15, 1872; Mary, born January 6, 1875; Joseph, born April 27, 1877; Emma, born April 7, 1880; Alice, born October 3, 1882, and Arthur, born March 5, 1883. The family are members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Chesworth is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is independent in his political views.

BRADLEY CHILDS, lumber dealer, White Haven borough, was born in Luzerne county, December 5, 1819, a son of Archippus P. and Margaret (Sax) Childs, natives, respectively, of New York and Pennsylvania, of English and German origin, respect- ively. The father was a millwright by occupation; he died in 1862, his widow surviv- ing till June 11, 1892, when she too passed away, at the patriarchal age of ninety years. Our subject is a grandson of Captain Timothy and Amy (Parish) Childs, whose names were prominently connected with the Revolution. Bradley Childs is the eldest in a family of nine children, was educated in the common schools, and, at nineteen years of age, engaged with P. A. Philips to learn the trade of millwright.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

He worked for five years with Mr. Philips, and then, after building a mill for Esquire Blakesley, built a lath and picket mill, which he conducted for five years, and then sold to Joseph Yardley. He then followed his trade for about five years, when, with several other gentlemen, he purchased a large timber business, and devoted his time to lumbering until 1882, after which he spent a few years handling lumber at wholesale. He then purchased from his son the fruit and confectionery store he now carries on. On January 4, 1849, Mr. Childs was married to Margery S., daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Wilson. This union has been blessed with five children, three of whom are now living: Nora (Mrs. G. W. Koons); Archie P. (married to Miss Ella Bechtell, of Allentown), and Bradley W. (married to Addie F. Redfield, of Philadelphia). The family attend the Presbyterian Church, and politic ally Mr. Childs is a sound Republican.

E. G. CHRISMAN, station agent at the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad depot, Luzerne, was born in Columbia county, Pa., January 24, 1864, and was edu- cated in his native county. He began his career by studying telegraphy in an office at Bloomsburg, where he served for a period of nine months. He afterward removed to Plymouth, where he was employed for two years as operator, at the end of which period he came to Luzerne, and has been employed as station agent at that place ever since. Mr. Chrisman is the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Esseck) Chris- man, natives of Pennsylvania. He was married, June 10, 1891, to Miss Ella Sterner, daughter of William Sterner, and they have one child, a girl. Mr. Chris- man is a member of the I. O. O. F., Plymouth Lodge No. 642, and in politics is a champion of the principles of the Democratic party.

GEORGE S. CHRISTIAN, Freeland, is a native of Bradford county, Pa., born in Tuscarora township, November 30, 1864. He is a son of M. V. and Helen (Spauld- ing) Christian, the former a native of New Jersey, and the latter of New England. Mr. Christian received his education in the public schools, at the Susquehanna Col- legiate Institute, and at the State Normal School, at Mansfield. He taught school four terms in Bradford county, afterward securing a position as bookkeeper for H. R. Lacey & Co., commission merchants, at Wilkes-Barre. He remained in that city three years, when he came to Freeland as agent for H. R. Lacey, who was handling Armour's Chicago dressed beef at Wilkes-Barre. He worked here for Mr. Lacey a short time, when, in March, 1891, he entered into partnership with him, under the firm name of the Freeland Beef Company. They carry on a large trade in all kinds of western meats, including dressed beef. The territory which their trade covers extends around Freeland for a radius of ten miles. Mr. Christian was married June 8, 1892, to Miss Sarah Oliver, of Drifton. In politics he is a Democrat.

ADDISON C. CHURCH, manufacturer, Luzerne, was born at Forty Fort, September 25, 1841, and is a son of Anson A. and Fannie (Smith) Church, natives of Pennsyl- vania, and of New England origin. Our subject was educated at the State College, located at Bellefonte, Pa., where he was graduated in the class of '61, which was the first class to be graduated from that institution. He then returned to Luzerne county and engaged in the coal trade; in 1891 he embarked in the manufacturing business. Mr. Church was married, December, 1866, to Miss Deborah, daughter of Andrew Raub, of Luzerne, and they have two children, Harry and Laura. He is a member of the F. & A. M., and his political views are Republican.

I. MONROE CHURCH, lessee and operator of the Shickshinny Stone Quarries, P. O., Shickshinny, was born at Danville, Pa., April 29, 1869, and is a son of Austin H. and Mary M. (Monroe) Church. The paternal grandfather, William A. Church, was a farmer at Forty Fort, this county, and the maternal grandfather, Isaac S. Monroe, of Catawissa, Columbia Co., Pa., was a prominent lumberman, manufacturer of powder kegs, agent for E. I. Dupont Powder Company, and served one term as associate judge of Columbia county. The father of our subject was a native of Forty Fort, this county, and for years was a prominent railroad contractor. He died at Ashland, Schuylkill county, October 18, 1888. and left a family of three children: Lizzie (Mrs. H. W. Search), I. Monroe and Ellen M. Our subject was

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

reared in his native State, educated in public schools, and at the age of nineteen years took up the business of railroad contracting, which he followed three years. In February, 1892, he located in Shickshinny, where he has since operated the Shickshinny Stone Quarries. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, and in pol- ities is a Republican.

JOSEPH CHYNOWETH, Port Griffith, was born in Cornwall, England, June 7, 1856, and is a son of John and Mary (Oliver) Chynoweth. The father, who is superin- tendent of the New Granada Gold Mine, Bolivia, South America, reared a family of five children, viz .: Sampson (a blacksmith in Australia), Eliza J. (Mrs. Elisha Tyrell, in California), John (drowned at Mount Hope, N. J., at the age of eighteen years), Mary (Mrs. Sampson Chynoweth, in Jacob City, Utah), and Joseph O. The father emigrated in 1856, the mother and children in 1872. Our subject located at the Hibernia Mine, New Jersey, where he remained till 1884, when he came to Wyoming and to Port Griffith in 1886. Mr. Chynoweth was married March 12, 1876, to Mrs. Jane Pascal, daughter of William and Mary (Moyle) Searle (natives of Cornwall, England), and widow of Edward Pascal, by whom she had three children, viz .: Joseph, William and Richard. Mr. and Mrs. Chynoweth are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and in his political views is a Republican.

DAVID CLARK, master mechanic for the Reading Railroad system, Hazleton division, Hazleton, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., June 8, 1821, and is a son of John and Ann (Yeager) Clark, also natives of Pennsylvania. He was reared and educated at his birthplace, and at an early period learned the trade of machin- ist, which trade he followed at Reading for a short time, and then engaged as loco- motive engineer with the Reading Railroad. In 1850 he went to Philadelphia, where he entered the employ of the great Baldwin Locomotive Works. After three years at this position he became master mechanic for the Mine Hill & Schuylkill Haven Railroad. After one and a half years in this position he returned to the Baldwin Works, soon after which he became a locomotive engineer on the Philadel- phia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad. In 1855 he came to Hazleton and received the appointment of master mechanic for Ario Pardee & Co. In 1868 Par- dee's railroad passed into the hands of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, but Mr. Clark was retained as master mechanic, and served the latter company for twenty-four years. Under the Reading Company Mr. Clark still retains his position, thus making thirty-seven years' continuous service. Mr. Clark is one of the oldest railroad men in the State. He vividly remembers when cars were drawn by horses instead of engines, which latter were crude and illy constructed. Mr. Clark assisted to place the first cab which was ever put on a locomotive. Many improvements and patent railroad appliances have evolved from Mr. Clark's ingenious mind. The chief of his inventions are the Clark steam brake, which is operated by pedals, and a coal jig for separating slate from coal. Mr. Clark is three score and ten years old, but he possesses a robust constitution, and his memory is not impaired. He is a most delightful companion, his conversation abounding in anecdotes relating to episodes of early railroad days. In every thing which appertains to the well-being of the community, Mr. Clark is one of the most energetic of workers. He is a stanch supporter of the Presbyterian Church, and in his political preferences is a Republican.

GEORGE R. CLARK, merchant, Hazleton, was born in Downington, Chester Co., Pa., July 13, 1855, and is the second in the family of five children of David and Catharine Clark, also natives of Pennsylvania. When an infant Mr. Clark was removed from his birthplace to Hazleton, where he was reared, receiving his edu- cation in the public schools of that place and at Philadelphia. During his school- days he learned telegraphy, and after leaving school he became a machinist, which he followed until 1874, when he secured a position in the Lehigh Valley Railroad office as time-keeper and telegraph operator, which he held until February, 1892, when he resigned. In April of that year he was appointed store-keeper for the

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Reading Railroad Company, but being desirous of traveling through the West he again resigned this position, and now devotes his entire attention to the mercantile business which he established in Hazleton April 1, 1879. Mr. Clark is the owner of one of the best equipped and most carefully regulated general grocery stores in the section, and he carries on a large business with much success. On October 24, 1883, he was united in marriage with Alice J., daughter of S. D. Taylor, of Hazleton. In politics Mr. Clark is a Republican; socially he is a member of the Sons of America and the Knights of Malta, .and he is a Knight Templar.

D. S. CLARK, postmaster, Kingston. This gentleman, who is a descendant of one of the pioneer families of Luzerne county, was born in Plains township, this county, October 31, 1844, and is a son of Stephen and Mary (Wagner) Clark, both natives of Plains township, the former born April 5, 1816, the latter April 25, 1825; they still reside on the old homestead in that township. Mrs. Stephen Clark was of Pennsylvania-Dutch parentage, and he was of New England origin. His father, John Clark, was born at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and was married to Elizabeth Tompkins, of Pittston; he died at Plains, December 6, 1878. He was a son of John and Sarah (Osbourne) Clark, natives of New Providence, N. J., the former born Septem- ber 12, 1752, and died March 22, 1818; the latter born July 5, 1750, and died at about the age of sixty. The subject of this sketch is the second of nine children, of some of whom the following is a brief record: George D. is a farmer on the old home- stead, Plainsville; Mary Elizabeth was married to Henry Turn (deceased), merchant of Falls, Wyoming Co., Pa. ; Sarah A. is married to C. A. Ludlow, of Adrian, Iowa; Clara E. is deceased; John F. is superintendent of Merchant Mill, Pittston; Alice A. is married to Jackson Place, of Mayfield, Pa. Our subject was educated in the common schools, and at the age of eighteen began an apprenticeship at blacksmith- ing with Joseph Kleetz, of West Pittston. On February 26, 1863, he enlisted in Company E, Second Pennsylvania Cavalry. He participated in the following engagements, etc. : Wilderness, Weldon Railroad raid, Malvern Hill, South Side Railroad, Stanley Creek, Richmond raid, capture of Petersburg, Trevilian Station, Berks Station, with Sheridan in the Shenandoah, at the surrender of Lee, and in several minor engagements, making a total of forty-two. He received three wounds while in the service-a saber wound at Malvern Hill; a gunshot wound at the Wil- derness, and a gunshot wound at the siege of Richmond-and was mustered out of the service as a quartermaster-sergeant, July 21, 1865. Once more returning to the tranquil pursuits of civil life, Mr. Clark resumed his trade at Pittston for a time, when he went to Scranton and learned horse shoeing. He then proceeded to Falls, Pa., and embarked in business for his own account, blacksmithing, remaining there about two years, when he went to Centre Moreland, where he sojourned about three years; was postmaster there one year, and thence removed to Wilkes-Barre, where he followed his trade about a year. He then came to Kingston, and was foreman there about two years in the shops of C. W. Boughtin; thence he went to Plymouth, where he was again engaged in business for himself, and where he remained about two years. He then moved to Wyoming county, and was in the huckstering business there one year, when he removed to Laceyville, Pa., and entered into partnership in the blacksmith trade with G. W. Walters; remained one year, and then removed to Kingston, re-engaging as foreman with Mr. Boughtin, where he remained eight years more. His next move was to Wilkes-Barre, where he once more engaged in business for his own account, blacksmithing, remaining about two years, when, on account of failing health, he was obliged to abandon his trade. For a time he traveled with a patent wagon jack of his own invention, and April 16, 1890, he was commissioned postmaster of Kingston, which incumbency he is at present filling. Mr. Clark and his family are members of the M. E. Church; he is a member of the G. A. R., the I. O. O. F. and Encampment, and in politics he is a Republican.

EDWARD W. CLARK, blacksmith, Plains, was born in Plains township January 1, 1847, son of Stephen and Mary A. (Wagner) Clark. His father, who was a car- penter and farmer, reared a family of eight children, of whom he is the third in

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

order of birth. He was reared on the farm, and educated at the common schools, the Wyoming Seminary, and New Columbus, and at the age of twenty engaged with Joseph Klotz, of West Pittston, to learn the blacksmith trade. He remained with him eighteen months, and then worked at his trade as follows: With Jonah Howell, Main street, East Pittston, one year; with his brother, D. S. Clark, at North More- land, Pa., three months; at Pittston, in the employ of Alvin Tompkins, four years; at Hyde Park, in the employ of the D. L. & W. R. R., two years; at Scranton, in the employ of Timothy Gilhool, four and a half years; at Adrian, Minn., six months; at Kingston, in the employ of C. W. Boughtin, three years; at Mill Creek, in the employ of Thomas Waddell, four and a half years; and in 1888 engaged in business for himself in the village of Plains, where he has since remained. Mr. Clark was married, June 6, 1870, to Miss Adeline, daughter of Frederick K. and Anna (Kocher) Spear, natives of Pennsylvania, and of German and French origin respectively. They have nine children, viz. : Hubert F. (a druggist in Scranton), Arthur B., May E., Frederick S., Fannie E., Edgar L., Mable P., Alice A. and Anna B. Mr. and Mrs. Clark and four of their children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is trustee, steward, class-leader, and assistant superintendent of Sunday-school; he is a member of the P. O. S. of A. Politically he is a Repub- lican, and has held the office of treasurer in Plains township for two years.

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 105

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1532

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1532