History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 123

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 123
USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 123
USA > Pennsylvania > Wyoming County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 123

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Connolly's parents located at Hyde Park in 1849, when the subject of this sketch was only two years old. No man more fully possessed the confidence and respect of those with whom he came in contact than John Connolly, and when he died, in October, 1873, the whole community mourned his loss.

I). W. Connolly received his education in the public schools of Hyde Park. He was always bright and in- telligent and stood high in his class. At the age of sev- enteen years he left school and removed with his parents to Little Neck, Long Island. Here he was engaged as clerk and book-keeper in a country store, and remained in that position for about six months. Returning to Scranton he entered the office of the Lackawanna Herald, a Democratic paper, edited by the late Hon. E. S. M. Hill, where he filled the position of clerk and proof- reader. He remained with Mr. Hill for some time, and upon leaving received a most flattering letter of recom- mendation from his employer.

In 1872 considerable opposition was shown to the tickets nominated by the Democratic and Republican parties in the city of Scranton, and a new party was formed under the name of the " Labor Reform party." This party placed a ticket in the field with Mr Connolly for district attorney. Although defeated he received a vote 600 in excess of that for the Republican candidate. In his own district, which was strongly Republican, he received a large majority. In 1878 Mr. Connolly was nominated by the Democratic and National Greenback Labor parties of Lackawanna county for president judge. His opponent was Judge Benjamin S. Bentley, of Williams- port. Again his popularity was shown by his receiving a much larger vote than any other candidate upon the ticket. Although elected by a large majority a question was raised as to a vacancy existing in the office of president judge, and the matter was carried to the Supreme Court, where it was decided that no vacancy existed. By this decision Mr. Connolly was deprived of his seat upon the bench.

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DR. HORACE HOLLISTER.

This gentleman was born in [Salem, Wayne county, Pa., November 2nd, 1822. His parents, Alanson and Sally Hollister, came from Connecticut some years pre- vious, and made their way into the Salein forest before the wolf and the bear had deigned to leave its solitude. He was reared amidst the peaceful scenes of his father's farm, re- ceiving a common school education at his home and an academic one at Bethany and Honesdale in 1840-43. He spent the summers of 1837 and 1838 in boating on the North Branch canal, Union canal and Schuylkill canal as Captain Hollister, transporting general merchan- dise from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre and Pittston, with whiskey, staves and grain as return freight. He then read medicine alternatively with Doctor Charles Burr, of Salem, Dr. Ebenezer T. Losey, of Honesdale, and Dr. Benjamin H. Throop, then of Providence; graduated at the University of the City of New York in March, 1846, entering at once into the practice of his profession in Providence, Pa., where for the last thirty-four years he has devoted his time and talent to the often thankless duties of his profession with acknowledged fidelity and skill. In the original five-mile-square township of Provi- dence, of which the city of Scranton embraces but a part, no physician but the late Silas B. Robinson and Dr. Hollister essayed to practice medicine as late as 1846, where now some fifty medical men sustain their own ani- mation. Dr. Throop had temporarily removed to Car- bondale. The subject of our sketch is of an original and somewhat eccentric character, blunt and even rude in his manners, yet kind, true and benevolent. His literary taste and thorough knowledge of the valley have enabled him to write the " History of the Lackawanna Valley," "Coal Notes," "History of the Delaware and

Hudson Canal Company," " Recollections of our Physi- cians " and many newspaper and magazine articles of interest. He is also proprietor of "Dr. Hollister's Family Medicines", which have great local repute. The doctor is a great student and lover of archaeological matters. No person within the commonwealth of Penn- sylvania has given such assiduous attention to collecting and arranging the Indian stone relics of the country as has the doctor; whose immense collection, open and free to all, acknowledged to be the largest and most complete in Europe or America, embraces 20,000 pieces of stone, burned clay, bone and copper, representing every known weapon of Indian warfare and every variety of stone im- plement once used by the skin-clad savages. The collec- tion is valued at $10,000, and yet an insurance company willing for years to renew the policy and receive the premium annually declared through its agent that Indian relics had no value and if burned up they would be worth just as much ! The late Professor Henry, of the Smith- sonian Institution, at Washington, and his learned succes- sor Prof. Baird, made repeated and unsuccessful efforts to obtain this unequaled collection for that institution. Dr. Hollister affiliates with no church, accepts no creeds, dogmas or doctrines recognized by the majority, believes in the golden rule and looks carefully and gratuitously after the physical needs of all ministers of the gospel, indigent widows and children living within his precinct. He is a member of several State historical societies; a nephew of P. G. Goodrich, author of the History of Wayne County, Pa., and brother of Mrs. Harriet G. Watres, of Scranton-" Stella of Lackawanna," a poetess whose tender songs and sonnets will carry her name far into the future.

Henry Roberts 11.8.

DR. HENRY ROBERTS.

We have presented an admirable likeness of Dr. Henry Roberts, of Scranton, a man who has been prominently identified with the interests of this county for more than thirty years. He took up his residence in Providence in May, 1850, when it was but a rural village, and when the land now composing Scranton was an almost uninhabited swampy forest. Though naturally retiring and modest he has ever been active in promoting what in his judg- ment seemed to be for the pecuniary, political and moral interests of the county. He was born of Welsh and Eng- lish parents, on the 14th of June, 1821, in the township of Eaton, Wyoming county, Pa. The history of his fam- ily is easily traceable four generations back, to the latter part of the sixteenth century, when three brothers from the north of Wales came to America, two of whom settled, lived and died in New England. A third one followed a life upon the sea till all traces of his whereabouts were finally lost. Dr. Henry Roberts is a direct descendant of one of the two brothers who early in life took up their abode in Massachusetts. His grandfather when a young man moved from Orange county, N. Y., to Tague's Hill, now Washington township, Wyoming county, Pa. From thence he moved to Providence township, now Hyde Park, Lackawanna county, Pa. Having resided there about twelve years he moved to the township of Pittston, from whence shortly afterward he moved to the township of Eaton, Wyoming county.

Hon. Henry Roberts, father of the subject of our sketch, was born on Tague's Hill, July 28th, 1794. March 16th, 1817, he married Miss Nancy Wilson, daughter of Rev. John Wilson, and in the summer fol- lowing they moved on to the farm formerly occupied by his mother's father, David Morehouse, Esq. It is here he has already spent more than sixty years of his life, and where at the present time, with his wife, he is still in the enjoyment of unusual health, and with remarkable vigor is able to prosecute the work incidental to the life of the agriculturist. Though aspiring only to be a pros- perous farmer he has all his life occupied various positions of trust and confidence in the community. He was one of the first commissioners of Wyoming county, for many years associate judge in the courts of Wyoming county, postmaster at Falls during several terms, and for a long time justice of the peace, the duties of which he discharg- ed with promptness and unusual favor. Indeed it is not overdrawing the picture to say that for nearly three quarters of a century he has enjoyed the uninterrupted respect of all who have known him, and that stranger and friend have ever been welcome to the hospitality of his home.

Dr. Henry Roberts is the third of a family of fourteen children (eight brothers and six sisters), all of whom ex- cepting one brother and two sisters are now living. His early years were spent at the home of his parents, where he received the ordinary advantages of a common school education. At the age of nineteen he entered the store of Sinton, Tracey & Co., at Wilkes-Barre, as a clerk. It was while in the employ of this firm that he made the acquaintance of the Hon. L. D. Shoemaker, then a rising young lawyer, through whose friendship and counsel he was greatly benefited in the prosecution of studies pre-

paratory to a contemplated entry upon the study of medicine. In the year 1842 he entered, as a student, the office of I. M. Roberts, his uncle, of Cardington, Ohio, with whom he remained until the fall of 1843, when he entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Having faithfully and successfully followed the course of instruction there he graduated with honor in 1845, and in the succeeding summer located at Laceyville, Wyom- ing county, Pa., where he entered upon an extensive practice in his profession. Three years afterward, on the 14th of June, 1848, his twenty-eighth birthday, he was married to Lucetta H. Hartley, daughter of Judge William Hartley, of Susquehanna county, the ceremony being per- formed by Rev. Everett E. Guild, of Wayne county. From this happy union have been born six children, three of whom are now living, the eldest being the wife of Dr. Furman B. Gulick, of Scranton. Having passed five years in the practice of his profession at Laceyville he disposed of his property there and spent the winter of 1849-50 at Philadelphia in hospital study and practice. In the following May he took up his residence in Provi- dence, his present home. The year of 1853 and part of 1854 he spent in New York city. In the summer of 1854 he embarked in mercantile business at Fleetville, Pa., with Hon. William Hartley, where he remained four years. At the end of this time he disposed of his interests at that place and removed to Illinois, near Dixon, from which point he was engaged in 1859 in fitting out a party to Pike's Peak and across the plains to California. The object of the expedition was to explore that vast section of country lying west of Missouri and extending in wild- ness even to the Pacific coast. The doctor with his party celebrated the 4th of July, 1859, at Independence Rock-so named by Captain John C. Fremont in his memorable expedition through that then unexplored country. It was just after this that, while in camp at the fifth crossing of the Sweetwater river-a tributary of the Platte-a thousand miles beyond the Missouri, on the eve of July Irth he was wounded, resulting in the loss of the use of his right arm, by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of a friend and companion, from whom he received the closest attention during a long suffering in that wild, romantic country. Shortly after the accident he was carried to South Pass, an Indian trading post, where he received kind hospitality at the hands of Gen- eral Landers, who at that time was opening a govern- ment wagon road from this point into the Walla-Walla valley. Here he remained about two months, when he removed to Salt Lake City, where he for a short season was the guest of Brigham Young's family physician. From Salt Lake he pursued a southerly and entirely new route to California, reaching there late in the fall of 1859. After a six months sojourn among the principal cities and various places of interest in that State he returned east by way of Panama. In the spring of 1861 he again took up his residence in Providence, where he resumed the practice of medicine, and where ever since he has been regarded as a physician of eminent judgment and success. Perhaps nowhere are the sterling worth, candid judgment and extraordinary mental capacity of Dr. Rob- erts more clearly seen than in his public life of more than a quarter of a century. At the present time the Ameri-

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can people are inclined to treat with suspicion the name of nearly every one associated with the public interests of a community, especially when those interests are of a political nature. It has been observed that for the past twenty-five years many men who have lived honest lives while private citizens have in public office been utterly disregardful of either honesty or shame. But as Dr. Rob- erts has been in private life-thoroughly conscientious and open in all his dealings-so has he ever been in public life. When as a representative of the community he has had in charge any of its interests his course has been re- garded with respect by both friends and opponents. There is hardly one in his section of the State whose judgment has been so constantly consulted by men of every class as his, and whose counsel has been so univer- sally approved; and this is not saying too much, even though we bear in mind that he has taken a prominent part in the encouragement of railroad facilities, in the es- tablishment of schools, in securing proper accommodation for the poor of the county and promulgating through the county and State-in their purity-the principles of a republican form of government. In politics he was in the earlier part of his life of the Clay and Webster school, and took an active part as a young man in the Henry Clay campaign of 1844. Clay was the first Presidential candidate for whom he voted, and from that time until the old Whig party days ended he was conspicuous in the organization. He attended the last Whig convention in Luzerne county, and was foremost in the organization of the Republican party in this section of the State, which immediately followed the national convention as- sembled at Chicago in 1856 and which adopted that name for the party.

In 1857, along with the late Henderson Gaylord, of Plymouth, and Daniel Driesbach, of Beach Haven, he was the unanimous choice of a convention of representa- tives of the new party as their first candidate for election to the Legislature. His great popularity is observed in the result of that contest, when he received-excepting sixteen-the combined vote of all parties in the borough of Providence, and in the county over three hundred more than David Wilmot, candidate for governor.

Early in the war he was appointed one of the State marshals for enrolling men subject to military duty. During the invasion of the State in 1863 he enrolled in less than twenty-four hours a full company of men for the emergency, and accompanied them immediately to Camp Curtin, at Harrisburg, where he organized the 30th regiment Pennsylvania State troops, with W. N. Monies as its colonel, and with it served as volunteer surgeon until the discharge of the regiment. In 1864 he was appointed a commissioner to the army for supplying blanks and gathering the returns of the elections held in the army. In April of the same year he was commission- ed by President Lincoln an examining surgeon for claim- ants for pensions, which position he continues to hold as president of the Scranton board. In 1866 he was elected a member of the select council of the newly formed city of Scranton, and was re-elected to that office for nine consecutive years. In April, 1868, he was appointed by Hon. John A. J. Cresswell, then Postmaster. General, as postmaster at Providence, and he now holds his fourth commission, signed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, and dated in January, 1880. As has been said, Dr. Roberts comes of the good old Whig stock and was an active worker in the party; likewise when the Repub- lican party came into existence he was at once one of its leaders, and he has never wavered in his devotion to the principles, policies, and measures of that party; and sel-

dom indeed does it happen that we find a man who has ever been as willing as he to sacrifice self interest for the welfare of his party. In 1878 he accepted through con- ferrees the nomination for Congress from the XIIth dis- trict of Pennsylvania; and as an evidence that he has more than sustained his well deserved popularity it is noticed that in a canvass of three weeks he secured not only his full party vote, but drew largely from the ranks of the opposite party.

Dr. Roberts is still in the prime of life and continues to take deep interest in whatever concerns the social, moral and political interests of the county and community; al- ways stands ready with a word of caution or encourage- ment according as in his judgment the circumstances of the case may deserve. In social life he is exceptionally cordial and sincere, being easy of approach and winning the implicit confidence of all who come in contact with him. He retains with unusual affection the associations and associates of his younger days, but enjoys none the less friendships formed more recently in life and scenes that have marked his later years. In a single sentence,-Dr. Henry Roberts is a man; and that, says an old philoso- pher of the Greek school, is exceptionally true among men.

HON. J. A. SCRANTON.

Joseph Augustine Scranton, journalist, born July 26th, 1838, at Madison, Conn., is the only son of Joseph H. Scranton by his first wife, Eliza Maria, daughter of Col- onel J. S Wilcox, of Madison, Conn. He was liberally educated in New England schools, fitted for college under Dr. Taylor at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., gradu- ating in the class of 1857, and entered Yale College in the class of 1861. Hemorrhage of the lungs compelled his withdrawal from college during the freshman year and terminated his educational course. He married Ada Elizabeth, eldest daughter of General A. N. Meylert, of Scranton, Pa., July 23d, 1863. They have two children, Robert Meylert, born June 11th, 1865, and Eliza, born July 20th, 1868.

Mr. Scranton was internal revenue collector in 1862-66, under President Lincoln, for the XIIth Congressional district of Pennsylvania, which then comprised the counties of Luzerne and Susquehanna. In September, 1867, he purchased an interest in the Scranton Republican and founded the daily edition of that paper, issuing the initial number on the Ist of November following. In March, 1869, he assumed sole proprietorship of the con- cern, which, under his personal supervision, has become a large and successful establishment. In 1871 he built the elegant and commodious printing-house on Wyoming avenue since occupied by his extensive business. His paper is the leading journal in northeastern Pennsylvania, and has been of signal and generally recognized service to the Republican party.

Mr. Scranton was appointed postmaster of Scranton by President Grant April Ist, 1874, and received a re- appointment from President Hayes in 1878. He has been active in politics for twenty years, always a Republican. He was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Philadelphia in 1872; has repeatedly been a delegate to State and county conventions, and a successful chair- man of county committees in both Luzerne and Lacka- wanna counties. He was elected as a Republican in 1880 to represent the XIIth district, comprising parts of Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, in the Forty-seventh Congress, receiving 13,455 votes to 10,948 for D). W. Con- nolly, Democrat and National Greenback-Labor, and 4, 1 74 votes for Hendrick B. Wright, independent Democrat.

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Very Truly Yours Aut Prantow

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NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALISTS OF SCRANTON.

ment called preparatory was established, intermediate between the grammar and high school departments, and the annual graduation of a class from the high school was inaugurated with suitable commencement exercises at the close of the school year of 1876-77.

The school boards of the separate districts consolida- ted at the commencement of the ycar ending June Ist, 1878: In November, 1878. Joseph Roney was commis- sioned city superintendent of the Scranton school dis- trict. Under him the grades were classified alike, a uniform system of books was adopted throughout the city, and a scmi-monthly teachers' institute was estab- lished. The report for the term ending with January, 1880, shows the number of school buildings in the Scran- ton school district to be 29, 16 of which are frame and 13 brick; number of teachers 158; number of pupils en- rolled 7,673.

THE PRESS AND BOOKS AND LITERARY PEOPLE.

No printing press was set up within the present city limits until the winter of 1845, when a paper called the Providence Mirror and Lackawaunian was issued at Providence. It was a bright sheet, everywhere welcomed, but the good it did was more than counterbalanced by the hostile feeling it engendered against the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, then mining coal in Arch- bald. Franklin B. Woodward, who two years later found a grave in Virginia, was the editor. The paper was es- tablished to advocate the erection of a new county, and if possible prevent the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- pany from beginning any mining operations below the village of Archbald. Harrison (as Scranton was then called) was represented by only one advertisement in this paper. Its publication ceased in 1846 or 1847.

February 5th, 1853, Charles E. Lathrop issued a pros- pectus for an independent weekly paper. The first number appeared April 3d following. It was called the Lackawanna Herald, and was the first journalistic ven- ture in the borough of Scranton. January 25th, 1855, the first issue of a Democratic paper named the Spirit of the Valley appeared. It was published a year by Thomas A. Alleger and J. B. Adams, from an office next door to that of the Lackawanna Herald. At the expiration of that time it was consolidated with the Lackawanna IIer- ald under the title of the Herald of the Union. This paper was purchased by Ezra B. Chase, a gentleman of superior literary attainments, who on account of failing health disposed of it to Dr. A. Davis and J. B. Adams. Dr. Davis purchased the interest of Mr. Adams in the spring of 1859 and sold it to Dr. Silas M. Wheeler, and the two physicians published a paper into which they in- fused, it is said, "a degree of originality and spiciness rarely seen in a country newspaper." February Ist, 1855, the initial number of a paper called the Tri- Weekly Experiment was issued, ostensibly by F. Dilly, from the office of the Lackawanna Ilerald. It was never any- thing but an experiment, and if it was in existence at the time of the consolidation of the Herald and the Spirit, it probably lost its identity then. In 1866 J. B. Adams

begun the publication of a daily called the Morning Herald, which had a brief career. The last number of the Herald of the Union under that title appeared Janu- ary 27th, 1860; but it had a subsequent existence in the Scranton Register, owned by E. S. M. Hill, who estab- lished the Daily Register, edited in its local department by J. B. Adams, which he sold in the summer of 1868 to Carl & Burtch. It subsequently passed into the hands of J. H. Burtch, Mr. Carl selling out and returning to Binghamton, whence he had come in 1868, and its publi- cation ceased about a year later.

In August, 1856, when the Know-Nothing party was in its glory, and the whole country was in a heated Presi- dential contest, the first number of the Scranton Republi- can, a sheet 22 by 32 inches, was issued by Theodore Smith, of Montrose. The Lackawanna Herald, a Know- Nothing organ, was its only local opponent. The cam- paign in this section was a bitter one, and by its opposi- tion to the Know- Nothing ticket the Republican gained somewhat in public favor; but progressed indifferently until the spring of 1858, when it was purchased by F. A. Macartney, who enlarged it and made other material changes and improvements. It was ably conducted by Mr. Macartney from 1858 to 1863, though not a success- ful financial enterprise, and in the summer of 1863 Thomas J. Alleger purchased the concern, and published a very inferior paper until 1866. In March of that year Mr. F. A. Crandall came from Utica, N. Y., and pur- chased a half interest with Mr. Alleger, and shortly after- wards became sole proprietor. During the same year Mr. Crandall disposed of a half interest to Mr. R. N. Eddy, of Cazenovia, N. Y., and in September, 1867, Mr. J. A. Scranton, the present proprietor, purchased Mr. Eddy's interest, and the first number of the Morning Republican was issued the first of the following No- vember.

February 5th, 1868, the office was burned, with nearly all its contents. Fifteen days later the publication of the paper was resumed, and it has since been continued un- interruptedly. In March, 1869, Mr. Scranton purchased the interest of Mr. Crandall and he has since been sole proprietor. The general business of the Republican so steadily increased that in 1871 Mr. Seranton commenced the erection of the imposing and costly five-story brick and stone structure known as the Republican building, which stands as a monument to his tact, ability, enterprise and perseverance. The total value of the establishment, including the building, amounts to $100,000. The edi- torial and reportorial staffs of the Republican have always been chosen from competent grades, and have done much to mould opinion in the two coal valleys. The corps of paid writers, reporters and correspondents is much larger than that of any other Pennsylvania journal outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburg, and its political utterances are a power in its party. The annual outlay for tele -. graphic news and special reports is large, and the unri- valed circulation of the daily in Democratic localities is the best evidence of its value as a newspaper.

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History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 123

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York Publication date: 1880 Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co. Number of Pages: 900

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900