USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume II > Part 25
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Dr. Richards married, June 12, 1890, Sarah Turner, daughter of Amos and Anna (Godley) Turner, and a cousin of Captain Godley, commander of the famous Easton Guards. Mrs. Richards is active in Red Cross and church charitable works, and is vice-president of the Easton New Century Club.
ARJAY DAVIES-When elected to the presidency of the H. G. Tom- bler Grocer Company of Easton, Pennsylvania, Mr. Davies came as a mer- chant with a record of efficiency and success achieved with large business houses in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in New Jersey. Nor was the H. G. Tombler Grocery Company a new, untried enterprise, but like Mr. Davies had passed through many experiences, having been founded in 1857, and incorporated in 1891, with a capital of $250,000. To this company Mr. Davies came as president in 1907, and during the eleven years that he has been in executive control the business of the company, wholesale groceries, has more than doubled. A radius of perhaps seventy-five miles is covered by the seven traveling salesmen of the company, and from its headquarters at Nos. 230-234 Ferry street, Easton, a constant stream of groceries flow into the channel of trade awaiting them. The officers of the company are: Arjay Davies, president; William A. Titus, vice-president and manager ; Henry G. Tombler, secretary-treasurer. The board of directors comprise the above, together with Henry G. Siegfried.
Arjay Davies is a son of John R. and Jane (Eynon) Davies, the former born in Wales, his father a mine superintendent after coming to Pennsyl- vania and settling in Lackawanna county, his home in Scranton. He was a man of education and literary ability, and until his death was a valued contributor to the Welsh newspapers. Both parents are now at rest. Arjay Davies was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1865, and there attended the public schools. After completing the commercial course at Wyoming Seminary, near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with graduation, he began his business as clerk in a Scranton general store. He developed the commercial instinct, and advanced so rapidly that his next position, which soon came, was that of manager of one of the two general stores owned and operated by Carson & Davis of Scranton.
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In 1890 Mr. Davies accepted the offer made to him by Robert F. Oram & Co. of Port Oram, New Jersey, resigned his position in Scranton, and until 1898 was manager of the Oram Company store at Port Oram. His reputation was made as an energetic, capable manager, but high as it was, it was greatly enhanced during the next nine years, 1898-1907, as manager of the Hibernia Supply Company, located at Hibernia, New Jersey. During this nine years' period the business under his management increased four hundred per cent., and three additional stores were added, one in New Jersey, one in Pennsylvania, and one in New York State. Mr. Davies maintained his home residence at Rockaway, New Jersey, a beautiful loca- tion forty miles west of New York City, on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.
With the surrendering of his position with the Hibernia Supply Com- pany in 1907, Mr. Davies passed from the ranks of employee to the presidency of the H. G. Tombler Grocery Company of Easton, and in that capacity he has repeated the successes of former years, but with his enlarged powers has greatly exceeded the record of his former years. In addition to his responsibilities, Mr. Davies is a director of the Easton Trust Company, vice-president of the Easton Board of Trade, chairman of its transportation committee, was two years president of the local Lehigh Valley Wholesale Grocers' Association, two years president of the Lehigh Valley Association of Credit Men, was elected a third time to the presidency of the Tri-State Association, more properly the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware Wholesale Grocers' Association, one of the most successful State organiza- tions of merchants in the entire country. While serving his third term as president of the Tri-State, he was elected president of the National Whole- sale Grocers' Association of the United States, at their 1918 convention at Cleveland, Ohio. This is an association of more than thirteen hundred members, representing the leading wholesale grocers of every State in the Union. These statements convey volumes, and present Mr. Davies as a State and national figure among merchants of prominence from all parts of the United States. He is affiliated with the Masonic order, is a Republi- can in politics, and with his family worships at Brainerd Union Church, Easton.
Mr. Davies married, December 20, 1888, Alice Watkins of Scranton, and has a very interesting family from present-day patriotic standards. He is interested in all movements tending to increase the power of our army and navy. Mrs. Davies is chairman of the executive committee of Easton's chapter of the Red Cross, president of the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, and is affiliated with many other charitable and civic organizations. Ewart G., their eldest son, is in the U. S. Army ; Robert W., the second son, is chief army inspector of the Ordnance Department on trench warfare materials ; Margaret Eynon was graduated from Emma Willard School, and is now attending Connecticut College, at New London, Connecticut ; Paul G., the youngest son, too young for service, is at the Tome School. Mr. Davies has won high standing among the public-spirited men of his adopted city, and has a ready, willing hand extended to aid in all worthy movements for civic improvement. The family home is at No. 325 Reeder street, Easton.
WILLIAM HENRY JENNINGS-William Henry Jennings, late of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, was one of the most prominent business men of this community and for a number of years closely identified with the great Portland cement industry in this country, his death, which occurred January 21, 1918, being felt as a severe loss both in industrial circles generally and in the life of the community in which he had chosen to reside. William H. Jennings was a native of South Orange, New Jersey, where his birth N. H. BIOG .- 5
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occurred July 15, 1876, a son of William H. and Marion A. (Carter) Jen- nings, old and highly respected residents of that place. The early education of Mr. Jennings was obtained in the local public schools, and upon complet- ing his studies at these institutions he attended Stevens Institute at Hobo- ken, and at that famous institution studied for his degree as M.E. He suc- cessfully completed this course and almost immediately afterward engaged in the business of constructing cement plants in association with the late Robert F. Wentz, of Nazareth. His first important work was the building and equipment of the Nazareth Cement Company plant at Nazareth, Penn- sylvania, the first of the local enterprises of this kind.
From that time Mr. Jennings continued to be very active in this line of business at Nazareth and assisted in the building and outfitting, as well as the organization of all the cement plants in this vicinity. So successful was Mr. Jennings in his work that before a great time had passed, he became well known outside of the immediate district in which he had been active, and it was not long before he was in demand as the designer and constructor of cement plants in various other parts of the country. He was engaged on a large scale at Bay City, Michigan, in the erection of these mills, and won the attention and approbation of the Allis-Chalmers Company of Chi- cago. When that great concern decided to establish cement works in Spain, Mr. Jennings was secured to conduct these operations and went to Barcelona in the year 1902, spending that and the following two years in Spain. The difficulties of construction in that country were much greater than any that he had met with in America up to that time, and involved a great many problems which he had no experience with ; but the young man exhibited positive genius in overcoming these, and brought the work to a highly successful conclusion. One of the greatest difficulties he surmounted was the problem of transportation of the heavy incumbent machinery used in these plants. He imported these from America, and the transportation was a comparatively easy matter as far as the ocean voyage was concerned, but the plant itself was erected among the mountains far back from the coast, and it was between these latter that it was so difficult. The machin- ery had to be taken apart to the last point possible, and even then many of the pieces were so heavy that it made their transportation by mule almost impossible. However, it was eventually accomplished and this became the nucleus of such manufactories in Spain, proving a brilliant success, and eventually resulting in the establishment of a large industry there. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Jennings went to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he was appointed assistant of construction of the Atlas No. 2 plant there. Upon bringing this to a successful termination he then was sent to Riverside, California, by the same company, where he was assistant engineer in the erection of the Southern California Cement plant. He was then appointed superintendent of the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Portland Cement plant, where he remained for one year and then returned to Nazareth as superintendent of the Atlantic Potash Works, a concern that was formerly the Stockertown Cement Company, and in the original construction of which he had assisted. Mr. Jennings was thus engaged when he was taken with pneumonia, to which he finally succumbed after only thirty-six hours of sickness. Mr. Jennings was in the prime of life at the tme of his death, his mental and physical powers and abilities at their height, and the future promised great and brilliant successes for him. It was, therefore, the more tragic that a career so brilliantly begun should be brought to so abrupt a termination, and the entire community felt keenly the loss of one of its most representative and energetic citizens.
William H. Jennings was united in marriage December 25, 1901, with Ellen A. Mack, a daughter of the late Professor Edwin T. Mack, of Nazareth Hall Military Academy, Nazareth, Pennsylvania, who is himself the subject
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of extended mention in the following sketch. To Mr. and Mrs. Jennings three children were born as follows: Albert Edward, born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 8, 1904; William Henry, born in Easton, Pennsylvania, November 16, 1905; and Marion Augusta, born August 10, 1912, at Nazareth.
PROF. EDWIN TIMOTHY MACK-There has been no more com- manding figure in the life of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, during the generation just passed, nor any more respected and loved than that of Professor Edwin T. Mack, for many years identified with the famous Nazareth Hall Military Academy of this place, where his influence upon the youth of the community and of those other communities that have sent children to study at this institution, has been of the greatest value, not only in their individual lives but in planting in cach one his high ideals and motives which unfailingly in later years formed petals for expanding culture and Christian sympathies in whatever part of the world they may find their home. Professor Mack was born at the town of Canaan, in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, June 15, 1851. He was a son of the Rev. Edward Mack, a missionary to the Cherokees, and was sent out to preach among those people by the Moravian church from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was compelled to abandon his work among the Indians, and withdrew during that period to Missouri, from which place he later returned to North Carolina. His son, Professor Edwin T. Mack, of this sketch, was sent to the famous Moravian school, Nazareth Hall, which he entered August 15, 1865, as a pupil. He graduated from this institution with the class of 1868, and the following autumn became a member of its teaching staff. Professor Mack was naturally qualified for his chosen profession and became very closely identified with the school, maintaining his position there as professor and instructor for more than half a century. At the end of that long time Professor Mack's health, which was failing rapidly, compelled him to suspend his staff work at the end of the first month in 1918, and his death occurred April 30 of that year, only a few weeks later. A fellow classmate of Professor Mack, who with him was graduated in 1868, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blum, also became identified with the teaching force of Nazareth Hall and was his coadjutor in that school and its principal for twenty years. For several years after beginning his duties at Nazareth Hall, Pro- fessor Mack, then a young prefector, lived at the Hall and thus came into the closest contact with his pupils. This relationship with its daily associa- tion was unquestionably one of the greatest value and exercised a most beneficent influence upon the youthful minds of which he had charge. His strong personality made him naturally a leader, and the high ideals which he represented found a ready acceptance among the young people brought in intimate contact with them. Throughout his long career at Nazareth Hall he was looked up to and respected in an unusual degree by the under- graduate forces, and he enjoyed no less completely the respect and affection of his colleagues, who recognized in him a form of unusual potency for the maintenance and preservation of the highest traditions of the institution.
Professor Edwin T. Mack was united in marriage on March 20. 1876, with Mary Milchsack, a daughter of Henry T. and Ellen A. (Beitel) Milch- sack, old and highly respected residents of Nazareth. Mrs. Mack survives her husband, as do four children as follows: Ellen A., who became the wife of William H. Jennings, of Nazareth, himself a subject of extended mention on preceding pages; Edith L., who is following the profession of trained nurse, and is now employed at the Ilahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia; Edwin A., who is now employed as a draftsman at Ingersoll-Rand, in Easton, Pennsylvania; Eugene, who lately was with the First Army Engineers, U. S. Army, at Brest, France. A brother of Professor Mack, Mr. Samuel Mack, is engaged in business on a large scale as contractor at Bethlehem,
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Pennsylvania, and at that place also resides a sister of his, Mrs. Emma Smith. It is difficult to overestimate the value of the services of the true educator, for they are formed of that intangible stuff to which we can apply no definite standard of measurement. They are unlike those of the business man or financier which may be measured to a large degree in dollars and cents, or even from those of the inventor which may be gauged in a measure by potent and material progress gained. The educator, on the contrary, like the office, contributes towards spiritual things which can be expressed only in terms of increased human happiness and the exaltation of human ideals which it is beyond the power of any man to reckon out. It was such an influence that Professor Mack inserted in the community where he lived and worked for so many years. He was a man of the highest cultural attainment, the typical scholar who loved the subject in which he dealt. But he was more than this; he possessed that rare combination of strength of character and insight into the character of others which makes the ideal teacher, or the transmitter of knowledge, an enlightenment so that his suc- cess in his chosen line was quite phenomenal. He gave up his best to the young folks who came under his charge, and felt his influence most potently, and of this influence you can say only in addition to the facts that it was a great one, that it is continuing and is still today, after his death, producing its effect upon the community at large through the lives of many, who, coming in contact with it, have been given a higher outlook on life and a better understanding of their own worth and the value of service.
HERBERT F. LAUB-George has been a persistent name in the Laub family of Northampton, and with the middle letter, W, leads to the con- clusion that Washington, the greatest of all Americans, was the model the first George Laub presented for his children to follow. Herbert F. Laub, of Easton, Pennsylvania, an honored attorney of the Northampton bar, is a son of George W., grandson of George WV., and great-grandson of George Laub, the founder of the family in Pennsylvania, he settling in Moore township, Northampton county. George W. Laub, son of George, was born in Moore township, Northampton county, in 1818, was a farmer all his active life, and in 1891 passed to his reward. He was an active member of the Lutheran church, a man highly respected and esteemed in his com- munity. He married Annie M. Leisenring, born in Lehigh county, Penn- sylvania. They were the parents of a large family, several of their children dying at an early age. Others who grew to manhood and womanhood were: George W. (2), who is of further mention ; John A., of Belfast, Pennsylvania, a stone worker ; Elmer W., of Belfast, a merchant ; Edwin P., superintendent of a slate quarry at Belfast, and Alavesta, married Stephen Fehnel, of Moore township, whom she survives.
George W. Laub, son of George W. and Annie M. (Leisenring) Laub, was born at the homestead in Moore township, Northampton. Pennsyl- vania, July II, 1849, and now is a resident of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, deeply engrossed in business enterprises, although nearing his seventieth year. He was educated in the district schools, a private school in Bethlehem, and Keystone State Normal at Kutztown, Pennsylvania, finishing at the last- named school, then teaching for a time in Moore township. He began his business career as a clerk in the general store of Owen Rever, at Becrsville, Pennsylvania, continuing with that well known mercantile house in that capacity for thirteen years. He was then admitted a partner, the firm name becoming Reyer & Laub. He continued in business until 1887, then dis- posed of his interests there, and moved to Belfast. Pennsylvania, where he opened a general store. There he prospered greatly, and in addition to his merchandising became financially interested in important enterprises of that section. His store in Belfast was the business center of the village and the
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post-office, Mr. Laub being postmaster for many years. He prospered in his undertaking, finally retiring from mercantile life and removing to Naza- reth, his present home. He retains several of his old-time interests, particu- larly in the slate quarries, and is now vice-president of the Phoenix Portland Cement Company, president of the Northampton Hard Vein Slate Company, a director of the Nazareth National Bank, and ranks with the substantial, progressive men of his section. A Republican in politics, Mr. Laub was postmaster of Belfast from 1889 until 1895, and in religious faith is a Lutheran. He is a member of Aluta Lodge No. 488, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and Washington Camp, Patriotic Order Sons of America.
George W. Laub married Annie M. Geiser, daughter of Samuel Geiser, of Lehigh township, Northampton county, and they are the parents of two daughters: Amy F. and Ella C., both residing at home ; and a son, Herbert F., who is of further mention : a fourth child died in infancy.
Herbert F. Laub, only son of George W. and Annie M. (Geiser) Laub, was born at Beersville, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, December 26, ISSI, and there spent the first six years of his life. In 1887 his parents removed to Belfast, Pennsylvania, and in 1895 removed to Nazareth, Penn- sylvania, and there he completed the courses of the grade and high schools, finishing with graduation, class of 1898. After a year of preparation at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he entered Lafayette College, whence he was graduated A.B., class of 1903. He prepared for the profession of law at Dickinson Law School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and graduated from there in 1906, with the degree of LL.B. He was admitted to practice at the North- ampton county bar on October 1, 1906, and is now a qualified practitioner in the Pennsylvania Superior and Supreme courts, and in the United States District and United States Court of Appeals. He conducts a general law practice, has a large clientele, and is one of the strong men of the Northamp- ton bar. The law to him is a jealous mistress, and he has few outside interests of a political or business nature. He is a member of the county bar association and enjoys the social side of life in fraternity and club. He is affiliated with Whitfield Lodge No. 622, Free and Accepted Masons; Easton Chapter No. 173. Royal Arch Masons; Hugh De Payens Com- mandery No. 19, Knights Templar; Nazareth Lodge No. 1099, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Pomfret Club ; Phi Delta Theta, and Delta Chi fraternities ; and College Hill Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Laub married, October 20, 1909, Hannah A. Cooley, and they are the parents of a son, George C., and a daughter, Marjorie W. Laub. Mr. Laub is a member of the law firm, Smith, Paff & Laub, with offices in the Easton Trust Company building. The Laub family home is at 215 Pierce street, Easton.
REV. JOHN EDWARD McCANN-Although Father McCann's resi- dence in Easton began only in 1914, when he became rector of St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church, he has endcared himself to his own people, and has won the friendship of many outside his faith. An orator of more than ordinary force and ability, he is frequently called upon for addresses, and it is possible that no clergyman in the city has taken active part in more public demonstrations, and it may be truthfully said that no man in any walk of life has given so generously of his time and energy to any and all movements whose object was civic progress and public good.
Father McCann is a son of James McCann, born in Stackallen, County Meath, Ireland, who came to the United States when sixteen years of age, and located in New York City. Later he removed to Trenton, New Jersey, and there as a member of the firm, McCann & O'Brien, became noted as a manufacturer of saws of a superior quality. IIe remained in Trenton until 1870, then went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he formed a connec-
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tion with the great saw manufacturing corporation, Henry Disston & Sons, being superintendent of their Philadelphia plant for forty-eight years. He retired in 1909 and now (1919) reviews his long and useful life of eighty-two years from the safe vantage of his own comfortable home in Tacony. He is a son of Nicholas McCann, a man of fine character who cultivated his own lands in County Meath, Ireland. James McCann married Catherine Seery, born in Navan, County Meath, and came to the United States when but nine years of age, a relative of Bishop Nulty. They celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding-day in the Tacony home, receiving a cable of congratulation and blessing from his holiness Pope Pius X. Three months later the wife suddenly passed away at the age of sixty-eight. Thirteen children were born to James and Catherine McCann, four sons and nine daughters; seven of these children are now living. Father McCann is the seventh child in order of birth.
John Edward McCann was born in the Port Richmond section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1873. His early education was obtained in the parochial schools of St. Anne, Sisters of St. Joseph, Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Henry Disston public school for four years, and the Christian Brothers La Salle College. He was afterwards employed in the saw department of the Henry Disston Works for eight months. Then in 1889, at the age of sixteen years, he began his special study for the priesthood of the Roman Catholic church. He first entered St. Charles Rorromeo Seminary, and there pursued classics and humanities, and philosophical and theological studies until ordained a priest, September 23, 1899, finishing one year ahead of his class. The following day he cele- brated his first mass in St. Leo's Church at Tacony, Pennsylvania, after which he returned to the seminary as prefect under Monsignor Garvey, remaining one year, until his class was graduated and ordained in May. 1890. During that year he served also as a mission supply for foreign parishes in Carbon and Northampton counties, Pennsylvania. Among his teachers at the seminary were Bishop McCort, Archbishop Kennedy and Archbishop Denis Dougherty, D.D., of Philadelphia, Monsignors Garvey and Henry, Lit.D., and James Roberts, elocutionist. During his years at the seminary. Father McCann was awarded thirteen scholarship medals, for his standing as a student was unusually high. On the fifth anniversary of Father Mc- Cann's ordination, Samuel Disston, a member of the saw firm and a Protes- tant, presented him with a valuable solid gold chalice made in France, to show his pride in Father McCann's being a former employee. During the year 1900 he was for seven months assistant to the pastor of the Cathedral of St. l'eter and St. Paul, Philadelphia, and conducted a successful kermess for the Cathedral Day Nursery. Later he was assistant at St. Elizabeth's, where he was in charge of the school. The following four years were spent as assistant at St. Mary's in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where he received a puse of gold as a testimonial, and from 1905 to 1912 he was connected with the parish of St. Teresa in Philadelphia, whose clergy and laity pre- sented him a gold watch. For five of those years he was local director of the girls I. H. M. high school center, teaching English composition, Latin and Christian doctrine; and for two years he was president of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of Philadelphia. During the same period he was treasurer of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, and chaplain of Brownson Council of the Knights of Columbus, and on the fifth anniver- sary of his chaplainship he was presented with a handsome engraved purse containing $200 in gold, the gift of his friends of the council. He is also one of the leaders of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union in the United States, and has lectured throughout the East. From February, 1912, to November, 1914, he was assistant to Father Mellon, Vicar General, and to Monsignor Trainor at St. Thomas Aquinas, South Philadelphia, whose Holy
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