History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 66

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 66
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 66
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 66

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).

April 7th, 1824, he married Clorinda Starr Catlin, of New Marlboro, Mass. " He died as he had lived, December 15th, 1868, aged sixty-two, a man of unblemished integrity, upright in his dealings, and a worthy Christian member of society." llis wife died April 28th, 1870.

They left three sous, Elijah Catlin, Calvin and Moses, and one daug ht- ter, Esther Waller. who married Hon. L. D. Shoemaker, of Wilkes-Barre. To Mr. and Mrs. L. D. Shoemaker have been born nine children, of whom six are living.

Calvin was born December 14th, 1833, aud is an attorney at law. lle has one son living, having buried three children.

Moses was born November 23d, 1836, and died March 28th, 1878, leaving a widow, his second wife, and an only daughter by his first wife.

Hon. Elijah Catlin Wadhams was born in Plymouth, July 17th, 1825, in the same house where his father, Samuel Wadhams, was born. This house, a view of which is shown on another page, was built about 1807, by his granfather, Calvin Wadhams, third son of Rev. Noah Wadhams, and stands onsland adjoining the homestead. The barn across the street was built during Washington's administration. Mr. Wadhams was ed- ucated at Dana's Academy, Wilkes-Barre, and Dickinson College, Car- lisle, and graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1847. Locatiug in Plymouth he embarked in a succesful mercantile career, and was justice of the peace in Plymouth borough twenty years and burgess seven years. While a resident of Plymouth he was active in developing and supporting all interests tending to the advancement

of the public prosperity, and has been identified as a member and officer with the leading social and secret societies there. For many years he has been a director of the Wyoming National Bank and he is now a di- rector of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre. In 1873 he removed to Wilkes-Barre aud in 1874-75 erected his residence, No. 330 South Franklin street. fu November, 1876, he was elected a senator of the State of Pennsylvania. A marked characteristic of Mr. Wadhams, one which it has been seen has been developed in many generations of the family, is industry, which he recognizes as the key to success in life under any and all circumstances.

October 7th, 1851, he married Esther Taylor French, daughter of Sam- nel French, who was the son of Samuel and Francis Holberton French, of Bridgeport, Conn. Other branches of the family now reside near Vergennes, Vt. All of them are descendants of Samuel and Sarah Hall French, of Derby, Conn.

His children are: Samuel French Wadhams, attorney-at-law, who graduated at Dartmouth College, N. H., in 1875; Ellen Hendrick Wad- hams, a graduate of Drew Ladies' Seminary, Carmel, N. Y. ; Cornelia Franees Wadhams, a graduate of Bordentown Female College, N. J .; Moses Waller Wadhams, a graduate of Dartmouth College, N. H., of the class of 1880; Stella Catlin Wadhams, Lydia French Wadhams and Ralph Holberton Wadhams.

HON. CHARLES MINER-WILLIAM P. MINER.

Born at Norwich, Conn., on the first day of February, 1780, Charles Miner came to Pennsylvania at the age of nineteen to take charge of lands held by his father, Seth Miner, under the Connecticut elaiin, in the wild forests of Luzerne, now in Susquehanna connty.

The question of jurisdiction had been settled by the decree at Trenton, 1782, and surveys were progressing under the compromise laws securing title to Yankee claimants. Mr. Miner worked in a sugar camp after his arrival in February, 1799, uutil he earned one hundred and five pounds of maple sugar, which be carried on his back to the Wyalusing and exchanged for provisions, and then begau chopping timber and making a clearing for a farm three miles west of Montrose.

Ambitious to be an editor, Mr. Miner sold his improvements soon after he came of age and removed to Wilkes-Barre, where his brother, Asher Miner, had established the Luzerne County Federalist in piace of the Wilkes-Barre Gazette, which had been the only paper of the town since 1797, owned by Thomas Wright, Esq., a large landed proprietor, and pub- lished until the elose of 1800 by his son, Joseph Wright. Asher Miner married the only daughter of Thomas Wright, and Charles, after teach- ing school two terms, married one of his pupils, Letitia, daughter of Joseph Wright. The brothers had been apprentices in the office of Master Samuel Green, who published the Connecticut Gazette and Com- mercial Intelligencer of New London. The Wrights were Democrats; the Miners Federalists.

The first contribution to the Federalist was received by the elder brother with hesitation; but when it returned in the columns of a Phila- delphia daily doubt vanished, and in a year afterward, May 3d, 1802, the Federalist was " printed by A. & C. Miner," the partnership continuing two years, when Asher removed to Doylestown.

In October, 1807, Charles was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature, which then mnet at Lancaster. The proprietor of the only newspaper in the county, he announced that his columns were tree to his opponents . to " taunt my faults with such full license as truth and malice have power to utter." Re-elected in 1808, he became the early advocate of the rights aud liberties of the people, and was a fair debater. He op- posed the circulation of small notes of banks in other States, and pro- posed that excellent law exempting tools of the poor mechanic, the spin- uing wheel, cow and bed, from execution and sale for debt.

Foreseeing the growth of the coal trade ata very early day, he advo- cated the improvement of the Susquehanna and the Lehigh, predicting the connection of their waters by a railroad long before such roads were generally known or thought of.

In May, 1810, Messrs. Sidney Tracy and Steuben Butler, who had been apprentices, assumed control of the Federalist, and under their manage- ment September 7th appeared the first of a series of essays from the pen of Mr. Miner, entitled, "Essays from the Desk of Poor Robert the Seribe," which became very popular, and his first one, " Who'll Turn Grindstone?" still goes its annual rounds of the press ascribed to the pen of Dr. Franklin.

Mr. Miner resumed the editorial chair in 1811, and in 1816 disposed of the establishment to Isaac A. Chapman, Esq., to take charge of the editorial columns of the True American, under an agreement of part- nership with the proprietor, Mr. Thomas T. Stiles, at Philadelphia ; an arrangement which was not lasting, as Mr. Miuer founded the Village Record in the pleasant village of West Chester, Chester county, Pa., in August, 1817.

The young Yankee printer, ridiculed by the democracy of Chester as a " Yankee tin peddler," won his way to the esteem and confidence of the plain and practical members of the society of Friends in that fine old county; and in 1824 he was elected to represent the district composed of Laneuster, Chester and Delaware counties in Congress, with James Buchanan and Samuel Edwards. Re-elected in 1826, he served four years, retiring in 1829, on the inauguration of General Jackson.

86. Wadhams

GENEALOGICAL RECORD, WILKES-BARRE.

236 M

In July, 1825, brother Asher came from Doylestown, where he had for twenty years published the Doylestown Correspondent. (now the Intelli- gencer), and from that time the Record was published by Asher & Charles Miner till 1834, when it was sold to Henry S. Evans, Esq.

Charles returned to Wyoming valley in 1832. Asher followed on dis- posal of the paper and they ended their lives on adjoining farms near Wilkes-Barre.

Before the day of fast presses of Hoe and Campbell the country press was not so over-shadowed by the inummense circulation of the city dailies, and Mr. Miner's position as editor and representative in the Legislature and in Congress was highly respectable and influential, as indicated by his correspondence with Webster, Clay, John Quincy Adams, Rush, Sergeant and others. A warm friend of internal improvements and of home industry, he becameattached to Mr. Clay, the great advocate of our Amerienn system. Asa Yankee, when circumstances induced a cool- ness between the eminent Kentuckian and the Defender of the Cousti- tution his sympathies went ont warmly towards his brother Yankee, who long after sent him bis portrait endorsed " To my highly vamed friend the Hon. Charles Miner. Daniel Webster."

Mr. Miner advocated the encouragement of wool growing while dress- ed in hemespumu in the Pennsylvania Legislature. In Congress he intro- duced a bill for the suppression of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, which he advocated in an able speech, contrary to the wishes and advice of timid friends. He procured the signatures of a majority of property owners of the District to a memorial in its favor; but the slave power, not seriously objecting to the suppression, thought best to defend every ontpost in view of the coming coufliet, and defeated it.

Mr. Miner had joined Lodge 61, Ancient York Masons, at an early day in Wilkes-Barre. When the wave of anti-masonry swept, the land and carried Mr. Adams from the side of his old political friends, he wrote a long letter to Mr. Miner, deprecating any estrangement or breach of personal friendship on that account, and enclosed some verses which concluded with the following lines :

Be thine the compass and the square, While 1 discard them both ; And thou shalt take, while I forbear, The sceret and the oath.

Mr. Miner's pen eontinned actively engaged on subjects of interest until after his eightieth year. His " History of Wyoming," published in 1845, was written at the request of many friends interested, who knew how carly and intimate his knowledge had been of its progress, his acquaintance with survivors of the battle, and with the civil con- fliets of the generation before him.

The Philadelphia Press, in notieing his decease, said: "Charles Miner was a model journalist and statesman ; the father of a school of sound thinkers, and the most practical philanthropist of his time."

He quietly passed away in his eighty-sixth year, at his Retreat, on the 26th day of October, 1865. The accompanying portrait was paiuted in 1822 by a rising artist, B. Otis, who died young. Among his memoranda was a paper requesting to be laid in the old grave yard in Wilkes-Barre, where the mould was soft and pleasant and he would be surrounded by dear friends who had gone before ; and a plain stone from the mountains surrounding to mark the spot, inscribed :

"CHARLES MINER, Born Feburary Ist, 1780, Died October 26th, 1865. THE HISTORIAN OF WYOMING."

William Penn Miner, son of Charles Miner, has been, like his father before him, a prominent figure in the history of Wilkes-Barre journal- isin. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, September Sth, 1816, and married Miss Elizabeth D. Liggett, of Philadelphia, Pa. He has served Luzerne county as prothonotary, and in 1846 was elected clerk of the courts for three years.

Ile began publishing the Weekly Record of the Times April 19th, 1853, and started the daily edition October 5th, 1873. Mr. Miner is the author of the very interesting and valuable history of the coal trade embraced in chapter X of this work.

HON. CHARLES A. MINER.

Hon. Charles A. Miner, a son of Robert and a grandson of Asher Miner, both of whom were well and favorably known to the inhabitants of Wyoming valley, was boro in Plains township, Angust 30th, 1830, and received his education at the academies of Wilkes-Barre and West- chester, Pa. Since attaining his majority he has been engaged in milling with an interregnum of only a few years, The first grist-mill erected at the place now known as Miner's Station, near Wilkes-Barre, was built. by Mr. Miner's great grandfather, Thomas Wright, who emigrated from Ireland und settled at that place, which was long known as Wrightsville. Mr. Miner's partner in his milling operations is his cousin, 1. M. Thomas,

Much time and attention have been devoted by Mr. Miner to rent estate transactions in Wilkes-Barre and in cout lands adjacent, in which he has been fortunate. He has been connected with most of the sne- cessFul business enterprises of Wilkes-Carre, having been president of a

street railway company, director of the Wyoming National and People's Banks, and president and for years a member of the city council. He is president of the Luzerne County Agricultural Society and of the Penn- sylvania Millers' State Association, and in 1873 he represented the State as honorary commissioner at the world's exhibition at Vienna, Austria. He has been elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives three times in succession, and was almost, unanimously nominated by "the convention of ISSO to the State senate.

Mr. Miner was one of the first to take an interest in the establishment of a hospital for the relief of the anthracite coal regions centering at Wilkes-Barre, and he has been president of the board of managers of that institution since its incorporation. To this hospital he has secured appropriations of $15,000 since his first election to the Legislature in 1874, and he has secured other legislation of much value to his constituents and the coal interests of the valley. He is deservedly popular with his constituents, as well as with his fellow legislators of all parties, and is an upright and conscientious man in all the public and private relations of life.

a. R. Pam Tage

ASA R BRUNDAGE.

Mr. Brundage is a leading member of the bar of Luzerne county. 1 native of the county, educated at the University of Mississippi, where he became the valedictorian of his class, he removed to Wilkes-Barre immediately upon his gradnation and entered the office of Hon. H. B. Wright as a student at law. His father, the late M. S. Brundage, was among the early settlers of the county, and during a long life maintained an influential character. His mother was a daughter of Hon. Richard Brodhead, an early and distinguished settler on the Delaware river in Pike county, Pa., and a sister of Hon. Richard Brodhead, jr., late a U. S. senator of Pennsylvania.

Admitted to the bar very carty in life, Mr. Brundage was soon elected district attorney of the county, and has since pursued his profession with distinction and success. As an advocate before a jury he has taken front rank and will be classed among the leading lawyers of the bar of Luzerne, A gentleman of culture and retinement, he has honored the profession of which he is a member. For many years Mr. Brundage has been prominent in the politics of the State and county; of prononneed Democratie proclivities, he has frequently represented the county in State and National conventions, and whether as lawyer, citizen, or politician, his whole life has been prominent and influential, productive of good and not of evil. Such men are valuable as citizens and give character to the community in which they reside.

HON. XIBA BENNETT.

Ziba Bennett was born at Weston, Conn., November 10th, 1800. Ile was the son of Platt Bennett, who had a family of three daughters nud

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

two sons. During his childhood his parents moved to Westchester county, N. Y., but subsequently settled in Newtown (now Elmira), N. Y. Matthias Hollenback, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., had established a branch of his business there. In his store Mr. Bennett, at. a very early age, found employment as junior clerk. In 1815, when only fourteen years old, he was transferred to the main establishment. in Wilkes-Barre. It was located on South Main street and Mr. Bennett commenced his labors there June 16th, 1815.

Five years later Matthias Hollenback and his son George M. Hollen- back, who had become associated with him in business, moved into new quarters at the corner of River and Market streets, Mr. Bennett having in the mean time gained the position of chief clerk. In 1822 Mr. Bennett was admitted as a partner with the late George M. Hollenback, and in 1826 he purchased the property of Stephen Tuttle ou North Main street and started business on his own account. He continued the saine until his death, thus covering an actual mercantile experience of over sixty years and making him at his demise the oldest merchant in Luzerne county.

On the 25th of November, 1825, Mr. Bennett was married to Miss Han- nah F. Slocum, the eldest daughter of the late Joseph Slocum. Mrs. Bennett passed away on the 5th of February, 1855, leaving behind a pre- cious memory, fragrant of Christian deeds and noble virtues. Two children, Mrs. John C. Phelps and George S. Bennett, survive their parents. Mr. Beunett was married the second time, November 18th, 1856, to Miss Priscilla E. Lec, daughter of the late James Lee, an estimable and benevolent lady who survives him. Mr. Bennett was chosen to represent Luzerne county in the State Legislature in the years 1833 and 1834.

In 1842 he was called to assume judicial honors as the associate of Judge John N. Conynghain. On one or two occasions he wassolicited to accept a Cougressional nomination, but declined, as he preferred the duties and comforts of private life to the excitements incident to political concerns. During his life Mr. Bennett was identified with most of the large busi- ness enterprises and corporations of Wilkes-Barre. He was interested in the Wyoming Bank from its beginning, serving almost constantly as a director and holding for nearly a decade the office of president. He was president of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company and of the Hollen- back Cemetery Association, treasurer of the Luzerne County Bible So- ciety, and, up to the time of his death, senior partner of the hardware firm of Z. Bennett & Co.and of the banking firm of Bennett, Phelps & Co.

For over a half century Mr. Bennett was a most useful member and a prominent officer of the Methodist Episcopal church, having been con- verted when he was twenty-one years of age. His house was the home of the early itinerant and he gave largely of his means for the support of the church as well as to various benevolent causes. He was for many years superintendent of the First M. E. Church Sunday-school and suc- ceeded in making it one of the most flourishing institutions in the city. He was a trustee and officer of the Wyoming Seminary and founded its library, which now bears his name.

In 1872 he was sent as the first lay delegate from the Wyoming annual conference to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church held at Brooklyn, N. Y. He died November 4th, 1878, after several months of enfeebled health, and his body is buried in the cemetery which he took so much interest in starting and in maintaining. He was a noble man, a true friend, an honored citizen and a sincere Christian.

THE DANA FAMILY.

The Dana family came to America about 1640. Its various members all through the history of our country have borne a conspicuous and highly honorable part, as well in political positions they have occupied as in the paths of science, law and literature ; and through the pre-emi- nent literary accomplishments of Richard H. Dana the naihe has be- come endeared to every scholar and household throughout our land. To particularize and give the names and history of the various leading and prominent men of this family would lead too far from the purpose of this sketch, which is to give an account of the Danas of Wyoming.

The name of Anderson Dana is first found at Wyoming in "a list of the inhabitants of Pittstown, April 30th, 1772," where he owned a shareof the town. He soon sold out, purchased and removed to a farm at Wilkes-Barre, a part of which, including the old homestead, still remains in the family and name. When the enemy came to desolate the valley in 1778, he mounted his horse and rode through the settlement arousing and urging the people to the conflict. Although exempt he went out with the little force, acted as adjutant and aid to Colonel Zebulon But- ler on the field and fell in the midst of the hottest of the strife.

" He came from Ashford, Conn .; was a lawyer of handsome attain- ments and the leader in the establishment of free schools and a gospel ministry. He represented Wyoming in the Counecticut assembly and had just returned home when the news of the invasion reached the valley."

He left a family of children of whom his son Anderson became his successor in keeping the old homestead farm and raised there a large family of children. The latter married a daughter of Asa Stevens, who fell in the battle. Stephen Whiton, son-in-law of the elder Anderson, also fell in the battle. He was deputy sheriff nt the time. Captain Hez-

ckiah Parsons married his daughter, who was born several months after the battle.

Anderson Dana, the elder, was the grandson of Jacob Dana, of Cam- bridge, Mass., where the family first settled. One of the sons of Ander- son Dana, jr., Asa Stevens Dana, married Aun Primer, and to them was born in Wilkes-Barre, January 29th, 1817, a son, Edmund Lovell Dana ; and in the spring of 1819 they removed to Eaton, now Wyoming county, just opposite Tunkhannock, where they resided till their death. Herc Edmund L. with a number of brothers and sisters grew up, working on the farm and attending school in the winters. At the age of fifteen lic began preparing for college at Wilkes-Barre academy, entered the sopli- omore class in Yale in October, 1835, and graduated in 1838. He com- menced the study of law under Hon. Luther Kidder, April 7th, 1839; was admitted to the bar April 6th. 1911, and entered the office of Hon. George W. Woodward, late chief justice of Pennsylvania, on his appoint- ment to the bench, and took charge of his large business, which he suc- cessfully managed, and from that time to December, 1846, was actively engaged in practice in the counties of Luzerne and Wyoming.

In December, 1816, when a call was made by the government for troops to aid in prosecuting the war with Mexico, he tendered the services of the Wyoming Artillerists, of which company he was captain, which was accepted; started by canal boat. for Pittsburg December 7th, 1846, and was there inustered into the service to serve during the war, December 16th, 1846. His company was assigned to the Ist regiment Pennsylva- nia volunteers, and designated as Company I. Upou the arrival of the advance transport and troop: at Lobos Island on their way to Vera Cruz he was selected to make a survey of Lobos harbor. He was in the landing of the troops, participated actively in the siege of Vera Cruz, and his company was part of the troops assigned to receive the surren- der of the city and the castle of San Juan D'Ulloa. He accompanied General Scott into the interior of Mexico; was at the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18th, 1847; accompanied the movement to and occupation of Perote Castle and the cities of Jalapa and Puebla; in the siege of the latter was actively engaged and for good and soldierly conduct there he received special mention in general orders. Heled the charge at the pass of El Pinal ; marchied to the city of Mexico, remained there until peace in June, 1848, and returning was mustered out of service at Pittsburg, July 20th, 1848. He and his company were welcomed home with the highest honors by an inunense concourse of people. He at once resumed the practice of law.

At the breaking out of the late war he was major-general of the 9th division of Pennsylvania militia, and in the summer of 1863 was appointed by the governor commandant. of camp Luzerne, in Kingston; and upon the organization of the 143d regiment at the camp, October 18th, 1862, he was elected its colonel. November 7th the regiment broke camp and left for the seat of war; was assigned for a time to the defense of Wash- ington, and July 17th, 1863, went into camp at Belle Plain, where it was attached to the 2nd brigade of the 3d division of the 1st ariny corps, under Gen. John F. Reynolds; was in the march on Port Royal April 21st, in the skirmish below Fredericksburg April 28th and 29th, at the battle of Chancellorsville May 2nd, 3d and 4th, and at the battle of Gettysburg July 1st, 2nd and 3d. In this battle Colonel Dana commanded the 2nd brigade 3d division Ist corps, and at its close was active in fol- lowing Lee's forces, cneountering them in a skirmish at Funkstown.

During the winter of 1863-4 he was engaged in the several skirmishes at the fords of the Rappahannock. In the first day's battle of the Wil- derness, May 5th, 1864, he was wounded and taken prisoner, his horse being shot under him. He was taken to Danville, Lynchburg, Macon and Charleston, arriving June 15th, and was one of the fifty officers placed under fire in retaliation for our forces shelling the city. He was exchanged August- 3d, 1864, with fifty federal officers, for a like number and rank of Confederates, and rejoined his command at Petersburg, then a part of the 5th corps; was engaged in the several movements in the fall of 1864, and on the 8th of October was assigned to conduct an advance of the entire corps. He had a sharp encounter with the enemy's outposts, and for his conduct in the affair was com- plimented by the general commanding, in special orders, crediting him with "performing important, arduous and responsible duties with credit to himself and his command."

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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 66

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