History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 179

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 179

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In the spring of 1837, on one occasion, when young His purpose having become known to Christopher 1. Ward, president of the Bank of Towanda, the latter invited him to visit him before his departure. He did so, and while at Towanda Mr. Ward and the other directors of the bank intrusted him with the charge of important landed interests in various parts of Illi- nois and Wisconsin, and in Chicago, which at that time was a town of only five thousand inhabitants. With this trust, and the most sanguine hopes, the young man started for the West early in May, 1843. At that time such a journey as he proposed to make, was regarded as so serious a matter that on his de- parture he was bidden good-by by many of his friends, who believed that the farewell was to be a final one. Traveling by stage and canal for eight days, he reached Buffalo, N. Y., whence he proceeded by way of the Lakes, and was landed at Milwaukee in sixteen days from the time of his leaving Towanda. From Mil- waukee to Janesville, sixty miles over mud roads, the conveyance was a mail-wagon which ran three Wright was engaged in trading his butter and eggs at the village store, he was particularly noticed by a gentleman who was visiting there from the eastern part of the county, and who, after the lad's departure, made inquiries of the merchant concerning him, re- ceiving very favorable replies. On the following day he visited the Wright homestead, and, in the absence of the boy and his father, informed Mrs. Wright that he was the proprietor of a trading-post, or store of general merchandise, at Le Raysville, on the border of Susquehanna County; that he had seen her son, and being very favorably impressed by his appearance, had come to offer him a position as clerk in his store. This information Mrs. Wright imparted to her husband and son on their return, and by the boy it was received with delight. During the second year of their residence on the farm he had begun to grow restless. The growth of the crops was too slow a pro- cess for him ; it was taking too long a time for the steers (which his father had given him) to become ; times a week. After a stay of about two weeks, he oxen ; in short, the quiet farm-life had begun to be distasteful to him, and he therefore eagerly urged the acceptance of the merchant's proposal.

Mr. Wright, however, opposed it, telling his son that he wished him to remain on the farm, and in a few years to assume its management. The mother also opposed the plan, but Charles reasoned with her, begging so earnestly that she finally gave her assent, which also secured that of her husband. though both yielded in the full belief that homesickness would very soon bring their boy back to them, to settle down and be contented with the farmer's life. The next day Charles met the merchant at the village, where the arrangement was made for him to go to Le Rays- ville in about thirty days. At the end of that time he took the stage (then the only means of conveyance), and after a long day's ride reached the place of his destination, tired, sad and already feeling the pang of homesickness, which, however, was soon dispelled on meeting his employer's wife, a kind and pleasant lady, who had no children, and who received him cordially, assuring him that he was to be one of their family trio. Afterwards, for a little time, symptoms of homesick- ness returned at intervals, but he resolutely repressed them. Hehad read the " Life of Benjamin Franklin,"

traveled on horseback to Chicago, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles, much of the route being through a region where there were neither settlements nor roads, and where his only guide was his pocket compass.

Attending to the business with which he had been entrusted, he remained in Chicago two years. At the end of about that time he received intelligence of the death of his father, and returned to his old home in the Susquehanna Valley. The estate was soon settled, and he again set out for the West, having, while in Pennsylvania, purchased (on time) the lands of which he had had charge in Chicago and vicinity, and which, in consequence of the great western emigra- tion in the years 1845-46, appreciated so rapidly in value that he was enabled to dispose of them during those years at a price which, after paying all his in- debtedness, left him a profit of about ten thousand dollars, which was then a considerable fortune for a young man of twenty-four years.

In his travels, backward and forward, between the East and the West, Mr. Wright had repeatedly visited his mother's brother, Dr. Beebe, at Erie, Pa. There he formed the acquaintance of Miss Cordelia Wil- liams, daughter of an old merchant- of that place.

CBlight-

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CHELTENHAM TOWNSHIP.

In August, 1847, they were married, and, in accord- ance with a condition exacted by the bride's mother, took up their residence in Erie ; but in a few months the young wife was prostrated by a violent hemor- rhage of the lungs, resulting in a lingering but fatal consumption. At Erie Mr. Wright was associated in partnership in mercantile business with his father- in-law, under the firm name of Williams & Wright. Since the autumn of 1873 perhaps no one connected with the Northern Pacific Railroad has given its affairs closer attention than the subject of this narrative. When the financial crash of that year fell upon the whole country Mr. Wright was acting in the capacity of vice-president. The financial agents had disposed of nearly or quite thirty millions of first mortgage bonds ; the company had a floating debt of five mil- This was continued for about three years, after which . lion six hundred thousand dollars; there were about six hundred miles of completed road, including one

they opened, at Erie, the first banking-house ever established in Pennsylvania northwest of Pittsburg. | hundred miles on the Pacific coast; some two hun- It proved successful, and Mr. Wright retained his in- terest in it for about eight years, though in the mean- time engaged in other business enterprises. In 1855 he opened a branch of the Erie bank in Third Street, Philadelphia, and the business was continued under the firm-name of C. B. Wright & Co., Mr. Williams retiring from the coneern.

In the year 1855, Charles B. Wright was made a director of the Sunbury and Erie (now Philadelphia and Erie) Railroad, representing the entire interest of the road west of the Alleghenies. In February, 1857, he sailed for Europe as bearer of dispatches from the United States government to its ministers at London, Paris, Rome, Naples and the Ilague, and while engaged in the duties of this mission, and after they were com- pleted, he made an extended tour of six months' dura- tion on the Continent. While at Naples, Italy, he met Miss Sue Townsend, daughter of the late William Townsend, of Sandusky, Ohio. After his return to the United States he was married (in August, 1858), to Miss Townsend, at Sandusky. He then retired from the Erie banking firm, (which had been very successful in its business), and devoted most of his time and energies to the construction of the Philadelphia and Erie Rail- road, which was completed in 1863, and leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

During this period the discovery of oil had been made in Venango County, and Mr. Wright, with a few associates, commenced the construction of the Warren and Franklin Railroad, to run from a point ou the Philadelphia and Erie line, near Warren, down the Allegheny River. to Oil City. This enterprise was quickly carried through, and the road was consolidated with the Oil Creek road, under the name of the Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railroad. Mr. Wright took sole charge of the finances of the company, as also of the auditing department, and he had supervision of the other departments. This road yielded an immense revenue for seven years, covering the period of the oil excitement in that region. In February, 1870, Mr. Wright sold the control of the road to the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, and ! on the 2d of March following, entered the direction of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, representing the five million syndicate raised by Jay Cooke & Co. This fund was the first money that went into the construction of the road, the amount being subse- quently increased to more than twenty millions.

dred miles could not pay its running expenses, and, with hungry contractors, the situation was critical. To prevent the creditors from seizing the road by foreclosure, through the United States Courts at St. Paul, Mr. Wright, with his counsel, took prompt action before the United States Court at New York, threw the company into bankruptcy, and immediately asked for a receiver. The president of the road, General George W. Cass, was made receiver, and Mr. Wright was elected president. The fortunes of the enterprise were at their lowest ebb at that time; the company had no credit, and was pressed with debts it could not pay.

By skillful and conciliatory management Mr. Wright managed to retire the floating debt, trading the assets of the company, of various sorts, with the ereditors for its obligations. He operated the road with great economy, so that it began to earn a steadily increasing surplus over its expenses. In 1876, to satisfy the people of Washington Territory that the company had not abandoned its original purpose of building a transcontinental line, he ordered work to be begun at Tacoma, on Puget Sound, and the portion of the Caseade Branch reaching from that town to the Puyallup coal- fields was constructed. It was important to promptly disarm the opposition to the company in Congress and on the Pacific coast, and Mr. Wright purchased the first cargo of iron for the new work on his own credit, the company having none at the tinie.

In 1877, Mr. Wright secured for the Northern Pacific a terminus in St. Paul, an important point which had been overlooked in the charter, by purchasing the franchise of a local Minnesota road, reorganizing the corporation under the name of the Western Railroad Company, securing for the Northern Pacific Company a majority of its capital stock and building a line from Brainerd southward to Sauk Rapids, a dis- tanee of sixty miles. He let this work, purchased the rails on his own responsibility, aud in less than five months opened the connection between the main line at Brainerd, and St. Paul, a distance of one hun- dred and thirty-seven miles.

In 1878 the credit of the Northern Pacifie Company had been restored to such an extent that a plan for resuming construction on the main line west of the Missouri River was adopted, and ways and means provided to build two hundred and ten miles to the Yellowstone River. A similar plan was also adopted

824

IIISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

to construct two hundred miles from the head of navi- gation on the Columbia River, on the Pacific slope, to Spokane Falls. The whole four hundred and ten miles were at once placed under contract and pushed to completion.

In the spring of 1879 the long-continued strain for six coutinnous years had made such an inroad upon his physical condition that it became necessary for him to retire from his active duties, and, contrary to the wishes of the entire board of directors, Mr. Wright decided to be relieved from the responsibility as president, and on the 24th of May, 1879, addressed the following letter to the board of directors :

"' GENTLEMEN,-Duty to myself and family compels me to resign my position as President of the Company. A long-continued strain upon me, mentally aud physically, makes withdrawal for a time from active labor necessary to establish a condition favorable to the success of a critical operation which I am advised to have performed for the restoration of my sight.

" Io retiring from the Presidency of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company I beg to express my gratitude for the confidence you have be- stowed upon me during the entire period eince the reorganization, and for the kind, considerate and efficient support you have at all times given to my efforts.

" My constant desire has been to see the affairs of the Company estab- lished upon such a basis as would, with due regard to prudence and safety, enable the work of constructivo to be resumed. And now it is highly gratifying to be able to say that the time has arrived when this great enterprise may be vigorously pushed, with every prospect of speedy completioo.

" The finances of the Company are io a healthy condition. No cash liabilities exist, except those recently incurred for materials for construc- tion, and to meet these ample means are provided.

" On the 19thi of September, 1873, the Company's bills payalde and other floating indebtedness amounted to five and a half millions of dollars. Many of these dehts were of a peculiarly sacred character, such as wages due for labor, the cost of materials purchased on credit and for construc- tion, moneys borrowed under circumstances that demanded payment on every principle of good faith. There was also a large amount due on the Pacific coast for wages and materials, which was afterwards increased by reason of the extraordinary efforts made to reach Puget Sound within the time limited by law.

" The larger part of these debts and liabilities of the old organization were secured by collaterale, which were of more value than the particular debts they severally secured ; and so it was for the interest and advantage of the reorganized Company to pay these in order to protect and save the collaterals. I am happy to say that all these debts and liabilities have been settled and wiped out of existence, except that about $40,000 (the payment of which has been postponed one or two years) has been carried to the account of Bills Payable in the new organization. The last matter in litigation growing ont of that old indebtedness has been ecttled by the payment of $500. The present financial condition of the Company is a subject on which you well may be congratulated.

"It is also a pleasure to mo to say that my official and personal relations with the officers of the Company have been, without exception, uninterruptedly harmonious ; und to each of them 1 extend my thanks and best wishes. Although 1 resign the office of President of the Company, my interest in its affairs will never he abated, and its future prosperity and final success will remain objects of my most cherished hopes.

" With great respeet, Iam, " Yours faithfully, "CHARLES B. WRIGHT, President."

In June, 1879, Mr. Wright sailed for Europe, where he made a somewhat extended tour for the restoration of his health. On his return home, in the autumn of that year, a committee of the directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company presented him with a handsomely-bound book, containing the following words, beautifully engrossed :

" The Directore of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company have listened with great regret to the announcement by their l'resident, Charles B. Wright, of his resignation of that office. While the Board have not been unprepared for this decision on his part, they had hoped that it might not have been found imperatively necessary, but that Mr. Wright might have been able by temporary absence to have obtained the repose needed.

" It cannot but be a source of special sorrow to us all that the skillful and prudent pilot who took the helm in the darkest moments of the storm in which our company bid fair at one time to be engulfed, should now, spent by his labors for our enterprise, be compelled to quit the cootrol and guidance of the company at the time when he has, hy hie caution, watchfuloess and uuceasing care, brought us into smooth and clear waters, and when every breeze seems to waft prosperity.

" This Board is deeply sensibile of the obligations which both thie con- pauy and ourselves owe to Mr. Wright. From the moment of reorganiza- tion he has labored unceasingly, and with absolute unselfishness, for the common good. He has never spared himself, nor has he sought for bim- self either profit or glory.

Ile has even been satisfied not to receive honor well-merited for his services. If the company has obtained the benefit, he has not cared who reaped the praise.

" To have successfully brought the company to its present position has been a task which required talent of ne common order. To rebuild the fallen edifice of credit, which, when once ehakeo, is the most difficult of all things to restore ; to combine, as he bas done, a thorough and searching economy, with the full maintenance of efficiency ; to have preserved friendship where it existed, and to have conciliated almost every bostile element to be encountered, -these are indeed laurels to any administrator.

" But the directors are perhaps excusable for dwelling most at this time upon those qualities and characteristics of Mr. Wright which have most strongly come home to themselves, His uniform courtesy, urhaoity and kindness ; his readiness to listen fully and patiently to every one's view ; his total lack of pride of opinion; his just and equal balance of mind, have so especially endeared him to those over whom he has pre- sided for the past years that our personal regrets are as strong as those we feel for the great enterprise we have been laboring for together, and which now, for a season at least, loses the guidance of hie firm and gentle control.

" FREDERICK BILLINGS, President.

" SAM'L WILKESON, Secretary."

Mr. Wright still continues an active director in the Northern Pacific enterprise. He is, perhaps, the largest individual owner, and devotes much of his valuable time to its interests. He is also president of the Tacoma Land Company, which owns the Pacific coast terminus of the Northern Pacific road. He takes a warm interest in the growth of Tacoma, and has recently erected in that city a beautiful memorial church as a monument to his deceased wife and daughter, and he has also endowed a school for girls, bearing the name of the Annie Wright Seminary.

For the past twenty years Mr. Wright has resided during about seven months of each year on one of the Chelton Hills, in Cheltenham township, his railroad station being that of the old York Road, on the North Pennsylvania line. He has at that place fifteen acres of land, worked and cultivated as a miniature model farm. There he has a fine country house and com- modious stables, all built of stone and surrounded by spacious grounds, beautifully embellished. Ilis Phil- adelphia residence is the mansion formerly occupied by William G. Moorhead, on the southeast corner of Chestnut and Thirty-ninth Streets.

ANTHONY WILLIAMS.

The direct line of descent from the progenitors of the Williams family in America to Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams

825

DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.

is John (first), Anthony (second), Anthony (third) and Anthony (fourth).

John Williams was born in Wales, in 1671, and came to America about the time of William Penn's advent here. His wife, Eleanor, was born in 1670, and died Second Month 21, 1736. John Williams died Sixth Month 13, 1740.

His son Anthony was born Sixth Month 11, 1711, and died 1793. His wife, Sarah, was born 1717, and died 1758.

Anthony Williams, son of Anthony and Sarah Williams, was born Ninth Month 30, 1743, and died Fourth Month 29, 1805. IIe married Rachel Jarrett, daughter of John and Alice Jarrett, of Horsham township, Eleventh Month 25, 1772. She died First Month 12, 1818. They were the parents of seven children, all of whom died young excepting Joseph, John and Anthony.

Anthony, sou of Anthony and Rachel Jarrett Williams, was born Third Month 2, 1785, in Chelten- ham township, and resided during his youth upon the homestead. After very limited advantages of education derived from the country schools near his home, he assisted his father on the farm until about twenty-one years of age, when he removed to a tract of land adjoining the homestead, purchased by the latter. On this he erected a dwelling which he occupied, and during the remainder of his life fol- lowed the pursuits of a farmer. He married Eliza- beth, daughter of George ('raft and Rebecca, his wife, Tenth Month 10, 1811. They were residents of Up- per Dublin township. Elizabeth (Craft) Williams was born First Month 19, 1793. The children of this marriage are Rachel, born in 1812, who married Jolin Hallowell (their children were Williams, Eliza- beth and Frank) ; Reuben born in 1814, who died in 1843, having married Elizabeth Tyson, whose child- ren are Lydia, George, Rebecca and Anna; George C., born in 1817, who died in 1884, his wife being Susan Stokes, to whom were born children,-Eliza- beth, Israel, Frank and Harriet; Daniel, born in 1820, who died in 1821; Rebecca, born in 1822, who married Israel Hallowell, and has children,-Mary Anna and Henry ; Jane, born in 1827, wife of Hal- lowel Twining, whose children are Fanny, Harriet, A. Williams and Watson (deceased, the last two be- ing twins), Laura, Watson (second), Russell and Silas H .; Daniel, the youngest child, was born in 1830, and married Priseilla J., daughter of John and Tabitha Kirk, of Abington they have children Alfred K., Mary K., Edward C., Howard II., Walter and John K.

little inclination for speculative enterprises. He was in politics a stanch Whig and later a Republican, but did not aspire to official position in either town- ship or county. As a man of undoubted integrity and business eapacity, he wielded a commanding influence in the community. Anthony Williams was a birth- right member of the Society of Friends and worshiped with the Abington Monthly Meeting. Ilis death or- curred Second Month 15, 1868, in his eighty-third year, and that of his wife Third Month 31, 1875.

The parents of Elizabeth Craft, wife of the third Anthony Williams, were George Craft, son of Bernard Craft, who was born in 1764 and died Second Month 4, 1798, and Rebecca Tyson, daughter of Joseph Tyson.

Rebecca Tyson was born Second Month 14, 1767, and died Fourth Month 10, 1851.

George and Rebecca (Tyson) Craft, were married Sixth Month 10, 1790.

CHAPTER LIII.

DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.

THIS township is situated in the northwestern part of the county, adjoining Upper Hanover, New Ilanover and Pottsgrove townships. It also adjoins Douglas, Cole- brookdale and Washington townships of Berks County. The area is fifteen square miles, or nine thousand six hundred acres. The population, as shown by the census of 1880, was sixteen hundred and seventy-six. The surface is rolling, the soil red shale. The natural or surface drainage is good, and perpetual springs rise in many places, forming the head-waters of streams known as the Swamp, West Branch of Perkiomen and Middle Creeks. There is considerable fall in these streams in their passage through the township, affording water-power and mill-sites, which are utilized for the convenience and advantage of the farmers, many of whom are remote from railroad stations.

In the year 1701, William Penn conveyed to his son, John Penn, a tract of twelve thousand acres of land, bounded and described as follows, viz. :

"Beginning at corner of the German's tract of land on the bank of the Schuylkill and on the east side thereof, and extending north forty degrees east 312 1 perches to a hickory tree, near the west branch of Per- kiomen creek ; thence, crossing said branch, north fifty degrees west 620 perches ; thence out ; south forty degrees west 3840 perches to the aforesaid river, and thence down by the same on the several courses 840 perches to the place of beginning."

Thirty-four years later (1735) John Penn sold and conveyed his interest in this tract to George MeCall, a merchant then residing in Philadelphia. Upon a new survey, McCall found the tract to contain two thousand and sixty acres more land than the grant was supposed to describe. The price paid was two thousand guineas. For several years thereafter this

Anthony Williams was from the date of marriage until his death, actively interested in the cultivation of his farm, though its management during the later years of his life was transferred to his son, Geo. C. Williams. He was on all occasions publie-spirited and earnest in the promotion of the best interests of society and diligent in the prosecution of his business, with | purchase was known as "MeCall's Manor," and

826

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

subsequently as Douglas township. It appears to have been decreed a township as early as 1741, when fifty-eight ;taxables were returned to the commis- sioners' office, at Philadelphia, as permanently located on improved lands therein. In 1776 the township appears to have been generally settled, as Colonel Burd's battalion of infantry troops was credited to it, and are referred to incidentally by the Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg, whose journal contains the following : " August 16, 1776,-Colonel Burd's battalion, from Douglas township, marched past, among which there are many members of our congregation from Potts- grove and New Hanover, who took leave of me with emotion." The population in 1810 was 687; in 1830, 941; in 1850, 1265; in 1870, 1604; in 1880, 1676.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 179

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534