History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 191

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

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THEODORE RENSHAW, ice dealer and liveryman, Plymouth, was born in that town November 11, 1836, and is a son of William and Martha (Jenkins) Renshaw, natives of Pennsylvania, who settled at Plymouth before the mining industry was developed and when the place was simply a little country town. They, like many other early settlers, were compelled to endure many privations connected with that period. There were seven children in this family, the subject of this sketch being the second in order of birth, and there are five now living. Mr. Renshaw was educated in the public schools of Plymouth, and commenced life by engaging in the ice trade with the Plymouth Ice Co., finally succeeding to the entire business, and afterward estab- lishing a livery, which is carried on in connection with his ice trade. He keeps

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between fourteen and eighteen fine horses. In 1880 he built and launched the river steamer "May Flower," and also purchased the " Marshland." These steamers ply the river from Wilkes-Barre to Nanticoke, making regular trips except during the winter season. Mr. Renshaw was first married January 9, 1839, to Miss Emily, daughter of Samuel Bangs, a native of Luzerne county, and one child was born to this union, William Elmer, who resides in Colorado. Mrs. Renshaw died in 1860, and Mr. Renshaw was married in 1862 to Charity C., daughter of Benjamin F. and Mary E. (Hicks) Smith, natives of Jackson township, Luzerne county. This mar- riage has been blessed with children as follows: Emily (deceased), Ira Marvin, John J., Charles Irwin, Celia, Blanche, Theodore Raymond and Gertrude H. Mr. Ren- shaw was chief of police for some years when Plymouth borough was first incor- porated. The family attend the Christian Church. Mr. Renshaw is a member of the F. & A. M., and of the Order of Elks. In politics he is a Republican.

FRED REUTELHUBER, flour broker and councilman of the Twelfth Ward, Wilkes- Barre, was born in Lambsheim, Rhine, Bavaria, Germany, March 2, 1846, a sou of Peter and Gretchen (King) Reutelhuber. He was reared and educated in his native country; came to America in 1865, and in 1870 located in Wilkes-Barre where he has since been a permanent resident, carrying on flour business in that city. On March 10, 1874, he was married to Anna, daughter of Herman and Christiana (Werling) Frank, of Hawley, Wayne county. They have three children: Fred, Willie and Mamie. In politics, Mr. Reutelhuber is a Republican, and is now serving his second term as a member of the city council.

FRED L. REYNOLDS, engineer at No. 5 Shaft, Delaware & Hudson Canal Com- pany, Plymouth. Among the many trusted engineers employed by the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company is the young man whose name heads this sketch. He was born, January 24, 1860, at Factoryville, Wyoming Co., Pa., and is a son of Elias S. and Caroline (Spencer) Reynolds, natives of Pennsylvania. He was educated in the public schools of his native county, and at the Keystone Academy at Factoryville. In 1880 our subject came to Plymouth, where he was engaged as fireman at the Nottingham, and worked at the Howell Drill Company Machine Shop during slack times at the breaker. At these places he continued for nine years, and then took a position as pump-engineer at the Delaware & Hudson No. 2 Shaft, where he remained until February, 1892, when he was promoted to the position of hoisting engineer at Colliery No. 5, which place he has since creditably filled. Mr. Reynolds was united in marriage, March 25, 1884, with Miss Jennie Weisley, of Plymouth, and three children have been born to them, viz. : Ashley S., Edith and Caroline. Our subject is the second in a family of three children as follows: Steward E., a machinist employed at Howell's; Fred L .; and Emma E., now Mrs. F. L. Bailey, of La Plume, Pa. Mr. Reynolds in his political preference is a Republican. The family attend the Baptist Church.

JOHN BUTLER REYNOLDS is a scion of the numerous family of the name, several of whom are sketched in this book, and one or more of whom have been closely and prominently identitied with the history of Wilkes-Barre, and near-by towns, during every period thereof, from its earliest settlement to the present time. His father was Elijah W. Reynolds, who was long a leading merchant in Wilkes-Barre, and his grandfather was the Benjamin Reynolds, who in the early "thirties" was sheriff of Luzerne, and was otherwise conspicuously concerned in the affairs of the county and city. John Butler Reynolds, descended, through his mother, from Col. Zebulon Butler of Revolutionary fame. She was a daughter of Pierce Butler, who was a grandson of Zebulon Butler. John Butler Reynolds was born in Wilkes-Barre, August 5, 1850, and after a course at the Wyoming Seminary, entered La Fayette College at Easton, Pennsylvania. He read law with W. W. Lathrope, and. was admitted to practice November 15, 1875. Mr. Reynolds soon achieved a good reputation in the profession, as was demonstrated when, in 1881, he was chosen one of the examiners of the Orphan's Court of Luzerne County, a position he held con- tinuously for a number of years, being, for a part of the time, the only examiner.

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He was the prime mover and energetic spirit in the organization of the companies by which the New North Street Bridge connecting Wilkes-Barre with upper Kings- ton, and the West Side Railway Company were, respectively, constructed. One project was a collateral of the other, and Mr. Reynolds was the official head of both. He is a Democrat in politics, and was frequently spoken of as a candidate for district attorney and other offices. In 1888 he was the Presidential elector on the Demo- cratic ticket for the XIIth Congressional District, Pennsylvania, and in 1890 was nominated by his party as their candidate for Congress in the same District. His Republican opponent, Hon. George W. Shonk, was returned as elected, but Mr. Reynolds instituted a contest for the seat, on the ground that his defeat had been consummated by a corrupt use of money, which contest is still (May, 1892) pend- ing in the Committee on Elections, though it has already been ably argued by distinguished lawyers for both sides. Mr. Reynolds married, October 21, 1879, Emily Bradley Dain, a daughter of Nathaniel Dain, who is a native of Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin College, and was for a time a medical practitioner, but later, owing to ill health, he abandoned the profession and became a large and successful lumber dealer at Peekskill, N. Y. Five children have come of this union. JOHN F. REYNOLDS, inside foreman at the Pennsylvania Colliery, No. 6, with residence in Sebastopol, where he was born March 8, 1858, is a son of William E. and Anna (Jones) Reynolds, natives of South Wales. The family came to America in 1850, lived a short time in Hughestown and then removed to Sebastopol, where his father was foreman at No. 6, for ten years, and where he died in 1886, at the age of sixty-eight years. The mother died in 1888, at the age of sixty-six years. The family consisted of eight children, four of whom are living, viz .: Ann (Mrs. Isaac James), Miriam (Mrs. Thomas Pierce), John F., and Edward E., mine fore- man for Simpson & Watkins, Carbondale, Pa. Our subject was educated in the public schools, and began working in the mines at an early age, which occupation he has since followed, working chiefly inside, and has held his present position six years. In December, 1886, he was nearly burned to death. Mr. Reynolds was married, April 21, 1891, to Miss Nettie M., daughter of Frank Boon, of West Pitts- ton, and to their union has been born one child, Anna. Our subject and wife are members of the First Baptist Church of Pittston. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is a Republican in his political views.

SHELDON REYNOLDS is descended from James Reynolds, of Plymouth, Mass., 1643, and who moved twelve years later to Kingston, Rhode Island, where three genera- tions of the family continued to reside. About 1750 a branch of the family removed to Litchfield county, Conn., and came thence with the first settlers of the Wyoming Valley under the Connecticut charter in 1769. The family name is conspicuous in the records of the events of those early years, figuring in connection with the famous battle of Wyoming, and in the first lists of taxables in Plymouth, where Benjamin, grandfather of Sheldon Reynolds, was born February 4, 1780. On his mother's side he came of the Greenes, of Rhode Island, of which stock, Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame, was a notable example. Benjamin Reynolds married Lydia Fuller, a descendant of the "Mayflower " Fullers; was justice of the peace many years; sheriff of the county, and in other ways a prominent and useful citizen. He had five sous and three daughters. The eldest son, William C. Reynolds, was born in Plymouth in December, 1801, and educated at local schools and at Wilkes-Barre Academy. He taught school, and in 1820 began the shipping of coal to Harrisburg. Four years later he associated himself in business with his kinsman, Henderson Gaylord, and the firm of Gaylord & Reynolds continued the shipping of coal and other products, the conduct of two large general stores-one in Plymouth, the other in Kingston-until 1835. The shipments were wholly by river and turnpike, until the completion of the canal to Nanticoke. In 1835 the firm dissolved, and Mr. Reynolds continued the business in his own name until 1854. He was a prime mover in the securement of the charter for, and the construction of, the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad, from Sunbury to Scranton, now an important branch of the

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extensive Delaware, Lackawanna & Western sytem. He was its first president, bold- ing the office until the completion of the road, when he resigned, though continuing a director until 1865. He was a Democrat, and served in the State Legislature 1837-38, during which time he introduced the bill under which the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's railroad, connecting the head of navigation, on the Lehigh river, with the North Branch Canal at Wilkes-Barre, was constructed. He was associate judge of Luzerne county 1841-46, for thirteen years a trustee of the Wyoming Sem- inary, and held many other important places in the community. He was a Democrat and a Presbyterian. His wife's father was John Smith, who came from Derby, Conn., and with his brother Abijah began the shipment of coal to Columbia in 1807- or thirteen years before coal shipments are popularly supposed to have begun-con- tinuing in the business through a long life. He was the first to use powder in min- ing coal. In 1834 he placed the first steam engine ever used in the county, in a gristmill he owned. Sheldon Reynolds was the fourth of five children-four sons and a daughter-and was born in Kingston, February 22, 1845. His earlier studies were pursued in the Luzerne Presbyterian Institute at Wyoming, and the Wyoming Seminary, and he was prepared for Yale at the Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, Conn. He was graduated A. B. from Yale in 1867, and later received the degree of A. M. He read law in the Columbia College Law School, and afterward with the late Andrew T. McClintock, LL. D., and was admitted to the bar October 16, 1871. He has given his attention rather to general business and scientific pur- suits than to the practice of the law for which, however, he is regarded as admirably adapted. He has for a number of years been the secretary, one of the trustees and a mainstay of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, among whose publi- cations are many valuable papers from Mr. Reynolds' pen. He is also one of the trustees ef the Osterhout Free Library, and a member of many Historical and Scientific Societies through the country; he has been president of the Wilkes- Barre Electric Light Company for several years, and is a director of the District Telegraph and Messenger Company; is president of the Wilkes-Barre Water Company; was for many years a director of the Wyoming National Bank, and is now its president. He was a school director in 1875 to 1876; was chairman of the Democratic Committee of the city of Wilkes-Barre in 1880, and of the Democratic Committe of Luzerne county in 1881. During his term in the latter position, he introduced a number of reforms in the party management, and a new code of rules for the party was adopted, which have proven very advantageous in many particu- lars, and are still in force. He has been repeatedly solicited, but has persistently refused, to become a candidate for State, Senate or Congress. On November 23, 1876, Mr. Reynolds married Annie Buckingham, only daughter of the late Col. Charles Dorrance, and has one son, Dorrance, born September 9, 1877.

SIMON REYNOLDS, merchant, Plymouth, was born in Cornwall, England, August 8, 1842, and is a son of Simon and James (Samson) Reynolds, also natives of England. Our subject was educated at his birthplace, and at the age of twenty years came to America, locating in the State of Michigan, where he was engaged in mining seven years. He then removed to Dover, N. J., where he worked in the iron mines for one year, afterward removing to Philipsburg, Pa., and there engaged in coal mining for a short time, coming from there to Plymouth, same State, where he continued his occupation as a coal miner at various collieries in the Valley. During the time of his residence in Luzerne county, Mr. Reynolds made two distant trips, the first one being in April, 1875, from Plymouth to Georgetown, Colo., where he worked in the silver mines a short time, and then returned to Plym- outh; his second trip was in May, 1879, when he proceeded from the same borough to Newfoundland, where he worked in the copper mines one and one-half years, at the end of which time he once more returned to Plymouth. In 1889 he established his present business, occupying the basement of his neat brick block as a general store, where he commands a growing trade. Mr. Reynolds was united in marriage, in January, 1881, with Miss Lizzie, daughter of William and Anna (Brunt) Ellis,

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natives of Nottinghamshire, England, and two children have blessed this union, namely: Simon Fuller, born September 5, 1886, and John Stewart, born October 24, 1889. In politics, Mr. Reynolds is a Republican. The family attend the Primitive Methodist Church.

JACOB RHINEHART, outside foreman, Stanton Shaft, Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, Wilkes-Barre, was born in that city July 29, 1846. He is a son of Jacob and Mary (Steinhauer) Rhinehart, natives of Bavaria, Germany, who came to Amer- ica in 1842, settling in Wilkes Barre, where the father worked as carpenter until 1889, when he retired. Their children were: Elizabeth, Matilda (Mrs. Anthony Baker), Jacob and John. Our subject was reared in his native town, educated in the public schools, learned the carpenter's trade and engineering. For ten years he was a stationary engineer at the Franklin, Hartford and Sugar Notch Shafts. From 1868 to 1871 he was outside foreman of the Germania Breaker at Ashley; was outside foreman at Sugar Notch three years, and has been at the Stanton Shaft in Wilkes- Barre since 1886. He was married, July 29, 1869. Mr. Rhinehart married Miss Catharine, daughter of William and Mary (Devenny) Gillen, of County Sligo, Ire- land, and has five children: Harry, Josephine, Carl, Theodore and John E. Mr. Rhinehart and his family are members of the St. Nicholas German Catholic Church of Wilkes-Barre. In politics he is a Democrat.

EDWARD F. RHOADES, pumpman at the Henry Shaft, Plainsville, was born at Port Carbon, Pa., June 6, 1857, and is a son of Samuel and Lucy (Frain) Rhoades, natives of Pennsylvania, and of New England origin. The father, who was a car- penter by trade, reared a family of six children, of whom our subject is the third. He received a common-school education, and at the age of twenty-one began his present business, which he has since followed; he has resided in Plainsville since 1869, and built his present residence in 1881. Mr. Rhodes was married, February 23, 1878, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Robert and Rosanna (Park) Curtis, and to their union have been born seven children, six of whom are living, viz .: Rosanna, Oscar O., Mary, Viola M., Warren A. and Olive. The family attend the Presby- terian Church, of which Mrs. Rhoades is a member; in his political views Mr. Rhoades is a Republican.

CAPTAIN SYLVESTER D. RHODES, line inspector for the Wilkes-Barre Water Works, was born in the borough of Parsons (then Plains township), December 6, 1842, a son of John and Mary A. (Rothrock) Rhodes, the former a native of Monroe county, the latter of Northampton county, Pa., both being of German lineage. Our subject was educated at the common schools of Plains, and April 18, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, Eighth P. V. for ninety days, which term he served. On September, 2, 1861, he re-enlisted, this time in Company L, Twenty-third P. V., and March 7, 1862, was transferred to Company D, Sixty-first P. V. He was first assigned to Williams' Brigade, Cadwalader's Division, Patterson's army, and later to the First Division, Fourth Corps, army of the Potomac, and in October, 1862, was again transferred, this time to the Second Division, Sixth Corps, army of the Potomac, later, to the Fourth Division, Sixth Army Corps, and finally to the Third Brigade, Second Division, of the Corps of the Army of the Potomac. In November, 1861, he was promoted to corporal; on July 23, 1862, to fourth sergeant; on April 25, 1864, to third sergeant; on July 12. 1864, to second sergeant; on September 15, 1864, to first sergeant; on October 20, 1864, to second lieutenant; on December 20, 1864, to first lieutenant, and on April 27, 1865, he was commissioned captain of Company D, Sixty-first P. V. During his term of service he participated in the following engagements: Falling Waters, Keys Ford, Siege of Yorktown, the recon- noissance to Bottom Bridge, Chickahominy, Fair Oaks, Seven Days fight before Richmond, Seven Pines, White Oak Swamp, Turkey Bend, Malvern Hill, Williams- burg, in the expedition up the Potomac, Fredericksburg, St. Mary's Heights, Salem Heights, Gettysburg, Fairfield Gap, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, Locust Grove, Brandy Station, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Bloody Angle, Cold Harbor, siege of Petersburg, the Weldon Railroad raid; was injured near the Yellow tavern,

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June 22 (1864), and was taken to City Point Hospital, where he remained until September 15 following, when he rejoined his regiment. Afterward he participated in the following battles: Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, second siege of Petersburg and fall of that city, Sailors' Creek, and Appomattox; he also did provost duty at Danville, Va., and was mustered out June 28, 1865. He then returned to Plains, and followed various pursuits, chiefly that of stationary engineering. Mr. Rhodes was married May 12, 1865, to Susan A., daughter of George and Margaret (Courtright) Huffman, of Plains, and they had six children, viz .: John S., born March 19, 1867, a conductor on the Lehigh Valley Railroad; Fred C., born October 16, 1868, died August 19, 1870; Charles S., born June 3, 1871, died May 3, 1875; Allan O., born April 19, 1873; Daisy B., born April 23, 1875, and Paul B., born July 27, 1878, died October 16, 1884. Captain Rhodes has been a soldier nearly all his life, having been a member of the Wyoming Artillerists, prior to the war, since when he has been second lieutenant of Company E, Ninth Regiment N. G. P., and during the Pennsylvania riots of 1869-70, was appointed to the coal and iron police. He is a member of the G. A. R., and in politics is a liberal Republican.

WILLAM H. RHODES, carpenter, Parsons, was born at Nanticoke, January 22, 1834, a son of John and Mary A. (Rothrock) Rhodes, natives of Pennsylvania, of German descent. His parents removed from Nanticoke to Parsons, then a part of Plains township, when he was one year old, and here he has since resided. He was educated in the common schools, and at the age of twenty-one began life for himself at the carpenter's trade, in the employ of the Lehigh Valley and the Dela- ware & Hudson Railroad. He continued in their employ until within the last few years, during which time he has devoted himself to general carpenter jobbing. April 1, 1855, Mr. Rhodes married, for his first wife, Miss Hannah, daughter of George Yale, of Parsons. She died October 15, 1877, leaving six children, viz. : William A., born January 8, 1858, died May 12, 1859; George E., born February 1, 1860, died July 13, 1861; Mary A., born April 19, 1862, died December 19, 1890; Delilah, born August 3, 1865, died October 28, 1869; Ovid, born August 3, 1868, married Elizabeth Fletcher, of Parsons; and Burdie, born October 23, 1872, died February 20, 1874. He was again married, April 24, 1879, to Mrs. Elizabeth Sigman, daugh- ter of Richard and Catherine (Hough) Hinkle, of New Jersey. Mr. Rhodes and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; politically he is a Republican, and has held the office of school director.

HON. CHARLES EDMUND RICE was born at Fairfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y., Sep- tember 15, 1846, a son of Thomas Arnold and Vienna (Carr) Rice, and of old New England stock. His paternal grandfather, Moses Rice, a native of Wallingford, Conn., in early life removed to Salisbury, Herkimer Co., N. Y., where he died. His wife Roxanna, was a daughter of Atwater Cook, a descendant of Henry Cook, a native of Kent, England, who was a resident of Plymouth, Mass., prior to 1640. The father of subject was a resident of Fairfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y., for many years, was one of the leading men of the town, and served as trustee of Fairfield Academy and Fairfield Medical College. His wife was a daughter of Eleazar and Hannah Carr, natives of Herkimer Co., N. Y., and of an old Connecticut family. The subject of this sketch was prepared for college at Fairfield Academy, and was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., in 1867. He then taught school one year at the Bloomsburg Literary Institute, Bloomsburg, Pa., and at the same time read law; and in 1869 he was graduated from the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the State of New York. He then located in Wilkes-Barre, where he has since resided, and February 21, 1870, was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county. In 1876 he was elected district attorney of the county. In 1879 he was elected law judge, re-elected in 1889, and is now presi- dent judge of Luzerne county. Politically Judge Rice ie a Republican. He was one of the charter trustees of the Memorial Presbyterian Church, and is one of the trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Female Institute. On December 18, 1873, he married Maria Mills Fuller, daughter of Henry M. Fuller, of Luzerne county, and has two children living, Charles Edmund and Philip Sidney.

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CHARLES N. RICE, farmer, Lehman, was born June 11, 1848, in Trucksville, and was reared and educated partly in Trucksville and partly in Lehman. He is a son of Levi C. and Elizabeth (Carle) Rice, both born in this county, the latter in Kingston township. Levi was a son of Jacob, who came from New Jersey in the early history of the county, and owned most of the territory adjacent to Trucksville, where he first located, lived and died. He was a Methodist minister of some ability in his denomination. His family numbered five sone and three daughters, three of whom are now living: Charles L., a minister of the Gospel; Mary Ann, wife of Rev. L. James Phoenix; and Caroline, wife of Dr. J. J. Rogers, of Huntsville, Pa. His son Levi C., settled at Trucksville, but after a few years moved, in 1860, to Lehman, where he lived up to his death, which occurred in 1880. His family consisted of seven children, six of whom grew to maturity. Although a deaf mute he was a good business man, and especially when the disadvantage under which he labored was considered. Charles N. is the sixth in his family, and has always confined him- self to tilling the soil, at which vocation he has become an expert. At the age of twenty-two, April 2, 1871, he married Miss Emma J., daughter of Rev. Stephen A. and Dorinda C. Edwards, in Lehman. There were born to them four children, three of whom are living: Walter E., Clarice D. and Thomas M. Mrs. Rice was born in Ross township in 1849. In 1873 Mr. Rice moved on his present place, a farm of fifty acres, where there was no clearing, no building, nor shelter of any kind. He has succeeded by hard work and perseverance, and with the assistance of a help- meet for him in the person of his estimable wife, he has a well-cleared and fertile farm, upon which are a neat house and a commodious barn. Mr. Rice began life with nothing, but by a close application to business principles, he has succeeded in overcoming all obstacles. His entire surroundings, both indoors and out, show taste and refinement. He is a consistent member of the M. E. Church, and his wife is in full fellowship with the Christian Church. Politically he is a Republican.

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 191

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