History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 67

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 67
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 67
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 67

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).

He was in the first battle of Hatcher's Run, October 28th and 29th; on the Weldon raid from the 7th to the 12th of December, and in the second battle of Hatcher's Run, February 6th and 7th, 1865. Ilis regiment was sent with others on special service to Baltimore, and thence to Hart's Island, and was mustered out June 13th, 1865. The regiment and its officers received a most enthusiastic reception on its return home, after its nearly three years active and honorable service.

Colonel Dana was retained in the service, and detailed on court mar- tials, first at Elmira and then at Syracuse, N. Y. For his long, faithfuland approved services he was brevetted brigadier general, and honorably innstered out of the service August 23d, 1865.

As an officer his well earned reputation is attested by his comrades in aruns, the 143d regiment, who revere and worship him with a devotion rarely excelled.

After his return he again resumed the practice of law, and in the fall of 1867 was nominated and elected over Governor Hoyt to the office of additional law judge of Luzerne county. Upon the expiration of

Edm "L. Sanal

JUDGE GARRICK M HARDING

236 O

GENEALOGICAL RECORD, WILKES-BARRE.

his teri he was nominated by the Democratic and Republican cou- ventions, without opposition, for the same place, so well and satisfac- torily had he discharged the duties of his high office. But at that time a new party sprung into existence, known as the Greenback-Labor party, which by means of a most earnest and ellicient organization and «fort swept the county of Luzerne like a tornado and carried all their men into office over both the other political parties. Of course General Dana went down with the rest. But his defeat did not detract from his high character and reputation as a jurist, or from the regard of his friends and neighbors. He is a mim of fine culture, of scholastic tastes und acquirements, true and honorable, and a fitting representative of an old Wyoming family whose homestead he still retains as his residence.

Although not an active partisin, he has always acted with the Demo- cratie party. For more than thirty years he has been connected with St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, at Wilkes-Barre. He is an ardent lover of field sports, indulges much in hunting and fishing, tilling out his time snatched from the care of business in these his favorite pastimes.

He was married in 1812, and has one son, Charles Edmund, married and engaged in the study of art, in which he has made gratifying progress.

HON. HARRY HAKES.

Harry Hakes was born June 10th, 1825, at Harpersfield, Delaware county, N. Y. His father, Hon. Lyman Hakes, late of Delaware county, N. Y., was born in Massachusetts, in 1788. His mother, Nancy Dayton, was born in 1790, at Watertown, Litchfield county, Connecticut. The family of Judge Hakes consisted of eight children, four sons and four daughters Of the sons Harry was the youngest, and Lyman llakes, for many years a resident and prominent lawyer of Luzerne conuty, Pa., was the oldest. Homer Hakes, another of the sons, died in 1854. The remaining son, Hon. Harlo Hakes, resides at Hornellsville, N. Y. Two of the sisters are still living.

The boyhood of Harry Hakes combined the usual experiences of farin- ers' sons, work upon the farm during the summer and attendance nt the district school during the winter. His habit of study and taste for general reading made him a proficient in all the branches taught, and supplied him with a good English education.

Leaving the farm he entered the Castleton Medical College, of Vermont, and after completing the usual course of study gradnated in 1846, opened nn office at Davenport Centre, N. Y., and there began and for three years continued the practice of medicine with gratifying success. In June, 1849, he married Miss Maria E. Dana, eldest daughter of Anderson Dana, jr., then late of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., deceased. After her death, in the December following, he devoted the year 1850 to attendance at the schools and hospitals of New York city. He then removed to the rapidly growing village of Nanticoke, where he continued in active practice for three years, and in the fall of 1854 he visited Europe and spent another year of study in the medical institutions of London and Paris. Returning at the expiration of this period, he married Miss Harriet L. Lape of Nanticoke, his present wife; resumed his practice, interspersing with it the care and culture of his farm, and continued to be thus employed until the spring of 1857.

Although Dr. Hakes was a zealous student of medicine, and a success- tul physician, he seemed to possess by hereditary transmission an apti- tude for the law. His father, as above intimated, was judge of the courts of Delaware county, N. Y .; his brother Hon. Harlo Hakes, of Hornellsville, a prominent lawyer in central and western New York; and his only other surviving brother, Lyman Hakes, Esq., was a promi- nent and successful lawyer, with a large clientage at Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Dr. Hakes began the study of the law in the office of the latter in 1857, and at. the January term of court in 186, after passing the usual ex- amination, was admitted to practice in the several courts of Luzerne county. Elected on the Democratic ticket, he represented the county of Luzerne in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, with ability and in- tegrity, during the eventful years of 1863 and 1864. After the close of his official termi he returned to the profession of the law, occasionally visiting, at their urgent request, his old patients, giving hisleisure to his farm and applying to its culture thorough practical knowledge, with all the aids derived from science and from modern agricultural appli- ances and improvements. In addition to raising the usual farming crops he planted a vineyard of several acres with choice varieties of grapes, from which the neighboring markets were supplied and con- siderable quantities of wine manufactured.

In 1874 he removed to thecity of Wilkes-Barre, and built for himself and family a tasteful and commodious residence, where he delights to wel- come his friends and to dispense a liberal hospitality. Although he still keeps up his relations with his brethren of the healing art, and takes au . active part in business and discussions as a member of the Luzerne

ty Medical Society, his attention and time are chiefly given to the with an ocensional digression at the proper season with the rod And ercel along some mountain stream, or un incursion with dog and gun into the haunts of the quail, the pheasant and other denizens of the wood.

The doctor is a life-long, earnest Democrat, and is always ready both in public and in private to give n reason for the faith that is in him.

He is a genial friend, a kind neighbor and a public spirited citizen.

Over six feet in height, he unites with a large frame a large heart, and a grasp, a vigor and independence of mind; which renders empiricism and the small arts and details of professional life distasteful, but espe- cially qualifies and inclines him to subject every question, whether in medicine, law or theology, to the rigid test of principle, and to that measure and amount of proof of which it is reasonably susceptible.

HON. GARRICK MAULERY HARDING.

Appropriate notices of living men are sometimes difficult to obtain. Such has been the case in a marked degree with respect to Judge Hard- ing. Aided by a recent publication entitled " Biographical Encyclope- dia of Pennsylvania," a personal friend of the judge has furnished the following sketch :

Hon. Garrick M. Harding, president judge of the eleventh judicial district of Pennsylvania, was born at Exeter, Luzerne county, on the 12th of July, 1830. He is of that strong New England stock which in the early days of the republic was transplanted from the rugged shores of Massachusetts Bay to the more congenial soil of Penn- sylvania. Exeter bears the same relation to Wyoming that Concord in Massachusetts bears to Bunker's Hill. Bunker's Hill becaine classical ground through the early struggles of the colonists, which began at. Concord ; and Wyoming's classical history dates from the massacre, which had its beginming at Exeter, wherein two of the Hardings were slaughtered, and whereof John Harding, the grandfather of Gar- rick M. Harding, was the only survivor. The latter graduated at Diek- inson college, Carlisle, Pa., in 1848, in the class with John A. J. Creswell, late Postmaster General. He was admitted to the bar in Wilkes-Barre, in 1830, when the bar of Luzerne county was conspicuous for the strength and ability of its members, among whom were the Hon. George W. Woodward, Hon. Luther Kidder and Hon. Oristus Collins, ex-judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Common Pleas, and Hon. Hendrick B. Wright, Hon. Henry M. Fuller, Harrisou Wright and H. W. Nicholson, men of great acquirements and marked abil- ity. Ilis tastes and temperament naturally led him into the active practice of the courts ; he speedily attained great success in jury trials, and as an advocate soon caine to be without an equal at the Luzerne bar. In 1858 he was elected district at- torney of Luzerne county on the Republican ticket by more than 1,700 majority, though the county was largely Democratie. On the 12th of July, 1870, at the exact age of forty years, he was appointed by Gov.Geary president judge of the eleventh judicial district (excepting Philadelphia and Allegheny the largest in the State) to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. J. N. Conyngham. In the fall of 1870 he was unanimously nominated by the Republicans of Luzerne for the same position ; and the election which followed fully demonstrated his strength and popularity. His competitor was the Hon. George W. Woodward, ex-chief justice of the Supreme Court, who had been elected to Congress in 1868 by a majority in Luzerne county of more than 3,000. Yet, notwithstanding there was a large Democratie majority in the dis- triet, and despite Judge Woodward's pre-eminent ability and pure and spotless character, Judge Harding was elected by a majority of 2,365. On the bench he was distinguished for his great dispatch of business, for his industry, his legal acquirements, his devotion to the public weal, his strong and even-handed dispensation of justice, and for that fearless, earnest and undeviating judicial course which comes from a clear mind, a vigorous body and an honest purpose. The period over which his dis- charge of official duty extended was a stormy one in the great coal county of Luzerne. After nine years and a half of service, and with another year of his term nnexpired, he determined to return to the more congenial practice of the law. Accordingly, ou the last day of the year 1879, his resignation, which had been previously filed with the governor, took etfeet. In private life he is generous and charitable, de- voted to his family and his books, a faithful friend and an outspoken opponent. In fine, he is a worthy representative of those men whose stont hearts and armis made the valley of Wyoming classical ground, and whose vigor of body and mind, force of character and uative integrity still bloom and flonrish among their children.

" Full-hearted, and heart-full of fire and soul, As rich in treasures of a searching mind ; The shells of beauty, where life's billows roll, And learning's pearls, leave trace of him behind ; In whom are blent, in happy union sweet, Genius, to shape those jewels into thought, And wondrous skill to find expression meet : Pouring them forth-in goklen words inwrought!

A jurist ripe, entrenched in generous views, Who scorns a flaw where justice makes it plain ; And legal truth with living warmth imbucs. With Orpheus' powers his audience to enchain, Apollo's bow, to speed his shafts at wrong, A great man, of a tender spirit-grandly strong !"

AUGUSTUS C. LANING (DECEASED).

The name of A. C. Laning has long been identified with the advance- ment of the iron and manufacturing industry of the Wyoming and

236 P

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Lackawanna valleys and the development and progress of Wilkes-Barre. Born in Owego, N. Y., September 30th, 1808, at the age of fourteen he made his adveut in Wilkes-Barre, a place afterwards to receive the im- press of his energy, his industry and his benevolence, and became an inmate of the family of his nucle, G. M. Hollenback, and an assistant in the business of his grandfather, Colonel Matthias Hollenback, of pioneer fame. At times he was sent upon important missions, the performance of which called for the exercise of that courage. perseverance and fidelity which were marked characteristics of his career, often going on horse- baek to Philadelphia, south, with his grandfather, and to Ehnira (then Newtown), Buffalo, Niagara and other places north. He frequently car- ried money secured in a belt on his person to complete purchases nego- tiated by his grandfather. Often, before there were any canals or rail- roads, he went down the river to southern markets with arks laden with grain and flour. These duties were varied by assisting his uuele in the conduct of the business of the Hollenback store, and he was identified with the important business of Colonel and G. M. Hollenback until he engaged in trade on his own account.

Opening a store in Kingston Mr. Laning soon removed to Wilkes-Barre, and for a time carried on a mercantile business on the east side of the publie square. His attention having been early directed to the possibil- ities of the iron industry in uortheastern Pennsylvania, in 1833 and 1834 he erected a foundry on the west side of the public square, a stone building which was burned on the night of January 3d, 1850, where he muanufac- tured part of the castings that went into the first rolling-mill at Scranton. The destruction of this building hastened the execution of long-formed plans for the extension of the business by Mr. Lauing by the erection of large buildings on Canal street and the introduction of new and im- proved facilities for manufacture. Mr. Samuel R. Marshall, an ex- perienced manufacturer from Philadelphia, was secured as foreman, and subsequently adınitted to partnership by Mr. Laning, and for a mimber of years the firm of Laning & Marshall was one well known throughout a wide extent of country, until the business was sold to and be- came a branch of the Dickson Manufacturing Company of Serantou.

Mr. Laning was twice in Europe, going first iu 1858 to store his mind with a knowledge of the vast iron and steel industries of England aud Wales, the effects of which have since been apparent in the advance- ment of those interests in the Wyoming aud Lackawanna valleys; aud again in 1865, accompanied by his daughter, spending the winter in Vienna and traveling on the continent, remaining uearly a year. With the intricate details of the important business of which he was manager he was thoroughly familiar, and by his long experience and constant familiarity with every branch of industry he comprehended at a glance its full extent and scope.

Nearly all of the enterprises which grew up in Wilkes-Barre had in Mr. Laning an active and efficient counsellor and supporter. Careful, shrewd and energetic, every detail of his enterprises received his con- stant and unwearied attention, and from their cares he took little recreation until his retirement, except what was afforded by an occa- sional hunting and camping expedition on the mountains environing Wilkes-Barre, the love for the wildwood which he had imbibed with the rugged experiences of his youth never lessening as he advanced in life; but his last years were free from the eares of business.

Politically Mr. Laning was a good " old line Whig." but took no part in politics and uever sought nor held any political office. Hisinterest in educational and charitable objects was active rather than ostentatious. His domestic life was such as to compensate him for the harder every day life of business. He was married December 8th, 183I, to Amauda E., daughter of Dr. C. J. Christel, of Wilkes-Barre, who survives him. Four children were born to them, three of whom-Elizabeth V. (Smith), John aud Amnauda M. (Merritt)-are living.

Mr. Laning's death occurred May 29th, 1875. Resolutions of respeet and condolence were passed by the directors of the Miners' Savings Bank, Wilkes-Barre, of which he had long been president; by the members of the Wilkes-Bridge Company, of which he had been treasurer and man- ager through an extended period; by the board of prison commissioners, of which body he had been a member, and by the directors of the Diek- sou Manufacturing Company, Scranton, and other organizations in the city and county. Commenting on his successful and useful business career, in the preamble to their resolutions, the directors of the Dickson Manufacturing Company said that Mr. Laning "was long identified prominently with the industrial interests of this region, extending over the period of an entire generation ; from the day that, as the pioneer manufacturer, he sent upward the first jet of steam from the then only engine of the valley, in the little foundry on the public square at Wilkes- Barre, on through the years of wonderful progress and amazing devel- opment to the present time, when the atmosphere in our sixty miles of valley is moistened with the vapor of a thousand engines, its railroads burdened aud the air made dusky by the products of innumerable mines." He was one of the few prominent men whose lives spanned the division between the old Wilkes-Barre and the Wilkes-Barre of the last decade. He had assisted in and witnessed the gradual development of those social and commercial elements which render it ene of the most noteworthy inland cities of the cast, and by its citizens he is held in grateful remembrance.

C. B. PRICE.

C. B. Price was born August Ist, 1819, in Bucks county, Pa., and is a son of George Price. He learned the carpenters' trade in Doylestown, and came toWilkes-Barre in 1841 and engaged in journeyman's work for Ira Marcy and afterward for Gilbert Barnes, on Main street. Returning to Bucks county he married Mary Ann Goucher, in the fall of 1841, and brought her to Wilkes-Barre, his home since that date, where he entered business as a carpenter and undertaker, in which he continued until he erected the first planing-inill in Luzerne county and embarked in the business which is elsewhere noticed in the history of the city. He has been identified with various projects and enterprises looking to the im- provement of the city and vicinity. He carly adopted Whig principles; has been connected with the Republican party since its organization, and long a member of the Methodist church.

HON. W. S. ROSS.

At a meeting of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society held on Monday evening, August 3d, 1868, at their room, Col. Hendrick B. Wright, from the committee appointed at a previous meeting, offered the following report, which was unanimously adopted, and ordered to be printed in pamphlet form and in the newspapers of the town :

William Sterling Ross was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on the 11th day of August, 1802. He died on the 11th day of July, 1868, lacking just one monthi of being sixty-six years of age. His birth and death occurred in the same room ; the southwest part of the Ross mansion-erected of oak materials, frame and clapboards, by Timothy Pickering, in the year 1787. He came into the world at an eventful and interesting period in the history of the Wyoming valley. The bitter and vindictive conflict between the Pennsylvania and Connecticut claimants, in which his father had borne so conspicuous a part, had culminated ; peace had suc- ceeded the desperate strife which at times was marked with blood. The supreme jurisdiction of Pennsylvania was established upon a firm basis, and the Connecticut settler yielded his resistance upon the con- firmation of his title by the State, and general quiet prevailed through- out the Wyoming valley for the first time during the third of a century.

The settlers upon the broad banks of the Susquehanna, for thirty years previous to this, had known but few comforts. The Revolution had done its work in the depopulation of more than half its fighting men ; everywhere were visible its blackened and charred monuments. The inroads, before and long after the colonial war, of the savages com- pelled the hardy pioneer to place sentinels around the field while he was engaged in planting and gathering his erops, and to reeline upon his trusty rifle at night. He must be ready at all hours to answer the alarm of battle; to these add the troubles growing out of the angry conflicts among the Pennsylvania and Connecticut people, and it made alinost a constant scene of discord and war. It was indeed the military, if not the chivalrous age of Wyoming .. The tradition of these exciting events, heightened by the narration of them by the inen who had passed through them, made a deep impression upon the young.

The father of the subject of our biographical notice, General William Ross, had participated in many of these scenes. Born in New London, Counecticut, in 1761, he emigrated with his father to the valley about 1775. Of too tender an age to carry a musket at " the massaere," he joined the retreating fugitives after that disastrous day, to return again to renewed seenes of anarchy and discord.

With the surrender of the sword of Cornwallis peace succeeded the Revolutionary strife, but not in Wyoming. The Indian border feud, aud the question whether Pennsylvania or Connecticut should rule, still agitated the valley of Wyoming. Timothy Pickering, a New England man by birth, clotlied with official power by the State, and invested withi all the county offices, was sent here to pacify and heal up the local strife. It only aggravated the Connecticut settlers ; they invaded his home, took him a prisoner by night and carried him away captive. He was rescued by General, then Captain, William Ross, at the head of a force of State militia, who received a serious wound in the struggle. He was rewarded by the State Executive Committee, who also pre- sented him with a sword, upon the scabbard of which is the following iuscription :

"CAPT. WM. ROSS :- The S. E. Council present this mark of their approbation acquired by your firmness in support of the laws of the Commonwealth on the 4th of July, 1788.

" C. BIDDLE, Secretary."

The mission of Mr. Pickering having ended in a failure, he was called into Washington's cabinet, and on the 9th of January, 1796, for the con- sideration of £2,600-Pennsylvania currency-he conveyed his real estate in this place and vicimty to William Ross. An estate at that time which changed hands for a consideration of $6,500 is worth probably to-day over $2,000,000! A progress in the increase in value which e; 'S

our wonder.

Stirring scenes were these truly which preceded the birth of the sub- ject of our notice. As the son of a man of wealth he inherited privileges which but a few at that early period in the valley possessed. Having passed the preparatory schools, he entered and was graduated at the College of New Jersey. His inclination, however, did not lead to a

William d. Chez,

JUDGE WILLIAM S. ROSS

Ruth D. Ross

GENEALOGICAL RECORD, WILKES-BARRE.

236 Q

learned profession. The pursuit of agriculture was his theme. In this he took great pride, and in it he excelled. le was a practical farmer- no man better understood its detail and theory-and no man produced better erops. And this was his chief occupation during a long and pros- perons life, an occupation suited to his mind, and one which conduced to his happiness and enjoyment.

At an early period of his life he conceived a fancy for military affairs. It was natural that this shoukl he ; the son of a military officer, born and educated at a time when the stirring events of a long continued, eventful and successful war were the household words of a united, happy people. He entered into the subject with a will, passed through all the official grades, from that of captain of volunteers to that of brigadier. For a period of thirty years General Ross was the acknowl- edged head of the volunteer system of this county. In this employment and the pursuit of military knowledge he took an especial delight, and his word in military affairs was ever regarded as authority. At his drills he always wore the sword which the executive council of Pennsyl- vania had presented to his father as a reward of merit. And there are few of the men in this county who were interested in military matters during the last forty years that have not often seen and (those of them now living) would not recognize this sword as an old and honorable ac- quaintance.

As the family name becomes extinct in the death of General Ross, would it he appropriate that this blade should he treasured up with the many other interesting local relies of, early tiques in this valley among the archives of the Historical and Geological Society ? As that same so- ciety was one of the objects of his watchful care and hounty, this sug- gestion is one that may well be considered hy those who have the care and control of his estate.

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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 67

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