History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume III, Part 11

Author: Heller, William Jacob; American Historical Society, Inc
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Boston ; New York [etc.] : The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 574


USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume III > Part 11


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).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55


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Harvard (for whom Harvard College is named), in 1739, and was one of the founders of New Haven, Connecticut, and one of the "Seven Pillars." In Memorial Hall at Hartford three clergymen were selected for a special remem- brance in a memorial window installed at the expense of the State, those three being Thomas Hooker, John Davenport and Peter Prudden. He was also a founder of Milford, Connecticut, where a memorial tablet to him adorns the walls of the church, and on a memorial bridge over a beautiful stream in the town is a stone to his memory. His granddaughter Joanna, daughter of Rev. John Prudden, of Newark, married Nathaniel Moore, son of Capt. Samuel Moore, a man prominent in military and civil life on Long Island, serving in the Indian wars and in many public offices. His son, Nathaniel, bought five hundred acres two miles from Pennington, Mercer county, New Jersey, and there died September 6, 1759, aged seventy-two. He married Joanna Prudden, daughter of Rev. John Prudden, and granddaughter of Rev. Peter Prudden.


Capt. Samuel Moore was a son of Rev. John Moore, of England, who settled first in New England, and later at Newtown, Long Island, in 1652. He married Margaret, daughter of Edward Howell, of Marsh Gibbon, of Buckinghamshire, England, who came with his family to Boston in 1639, was a land owner in Lynn, and in 1639-40 settled in Long Island. Capt. Samuel Moore, son of Rev. John and Margaret (Howell) Moore, married Mary Reed; their son, Nathaniel Moore, married Joanna Prudden; their daughter, Phoebe Moore, married Richard Green; their son, Benjamin Green, married Elizabeth Traill; their daughter, Elizabeth Green, married John Stewart, and they were the parents of Clement Stewart, of Easton.


Elizabeth (Traill) Green descended from George Traill, a cadet of the family of Traill of Blebo, Fifeshire, Scotland, who emigrated to the Orkney Islands when a young man. Robert Traill, the head of the family in America, was a son of Rev. Thomas and Sabilla (Grant) Traill, his mother a daughter of Rev. Alexander Grant, of South Ronalday. He came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1763, being then nineteen years of age. Not liking that city he moved to Easton, where he taught school, studied law, was an ardent patriot, major and quartermaster of Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops, and after peace came was sheriff and judge of Northampton county-in fact, held about every office within the gift of the people. He married, March 3, 1774, Elizabeth Grotz, a woman of intelligence and energy, whose German thrift made her a true helpmate to her Scotch husband. Their daughter, Elizabeth Traill, married Benjamin Green, as stated.


Another line of descent to Clement Stewart is from Edward Farmar and William Dewees, through Rachael Dewees, wife of Thomas Stewart, and daughter of William and Rachael (Farmar) Dewees. Edward Farmar was a son of Major Jaspar Farmar, of the British army, and a resident of Cork, Ireland. Major Farmar bought five thousand acres from the Penns, but before coming to Pennsylvania to settle upon the land he died. Edward Farmar came to Pennsylvania with many other members of his family when fourteen years of age, and became one of the prominent men of Pennsylvania. His settlement at Whitemarsh was known as Farmarstown, and his grist- mill on the Wissahickon had an extended reputation as early as 1713. He was a justice of the peace for Philadelphia county for forty years, a member of the State Legislature from about 1710 to 1732, and for some time was county commissioner. He died November 3, 1745, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church at Whitemarsh, where a monument stands to his memory. He married Rachael, maiden name unknown, and their daughter Rachael married William (2) Dewees, son of William (I) and Anna (Christiansen) Dewees. These Farmars held their estate at Easton Neston, Northampton county, England, in 1480, and were a prominent family, who later were granted estates in Cork and Tip-


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perary, Ireland, and from that branch sprang Edward, father of Rachael (Farmar) Dewees. One of the family, Lady Juliana Farmar, married Thomas Penn, who ordered the plan of Easton, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, the name Easton being from Easton Neston, the Farmar family seat in Eng- land, the county also in Pennsylvania being named from Northampton county in England. In naming Easton streets, Thomas Penn used many family names : Second street was formerly Farmar street; Third street was Pomfret street ; Fourth street was Hamilton; and Fifth street was Juliana street.


Rachael Farmar married William (2) Dewees, of a family believed to be identical with the D'Ewees, of French Huguenot descent, and famed in French history. In 1742, William Dewees owned and operated a paper mill in the neighborhood of Germantown, Pennsylvania. He built a stone man- sion at Whitemarsh, and on the gable end can be seen the initials W. D. R. He married Anna Christiansen, and they were the parents of William (2) Dewees, who married Rachael Farmar. One of the daughters of William (2) Dewees, Rachael, born in 1760, died in 1816, married Thomas Stewart, then a lieutenant in the Continental army. One of the sons, William (3) Dewees, was a colonel, and when General Washington intrenched the army at Valley Forge, Colonel Dewees' family was residing there. The Valley Forge burned by the British in September, 1777, belonged to Colonel Dewees. This, in brief, is the ancestry of Clement Stewart, and reveals the fact that the Stew- arts, Farmars, Traills, Dewees, Elys, Howells, Greens and Stewarts were men of character and force, ready with pen or sword to uphold the cause of liberty and the land they loved. All were represented in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars, and Princeton College has been liberally endowed by two members of the Green family.


Clement Stewart, son of John and Elizabeth (Green) Stewart, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1842. He acquired his early educa- tion in the private schools conducted by Dr. Lehman and the Rev. Dr. Mc- Phail, and also studied under Professors Edsall Ferriet and R. B. Youngman, of Lafayette College. He was so well prepared that upon matriculation at Princeton he entered the sophomore class in 1862, and was graduated A.B., class of 1864. Following graduation he entered the employ of Stewart & Company, manufacturers of wire, his father, John Stewart, being the capable head of that firm. The young man began at the bottom, but rose to the position of assistant superintendent after mastering the work of several departments of the business. He continued as assistant superintendent until 1892, when he resigned after twenty-eight years of active connection with Stewart & Company, during which time he gave to the business his energy and devotion. In 1889, Mr. Stewart was appointed assistant postmaster of Easton, and for seventeen years he held that position. Mr. Stewart, in 1863, enlisted in Company D, Thirty-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania, known as the "Iron Regiment," recruited when Pennsylvania was invaded by the Con- federates. The regiment was mustered into the service in June, 1863, and honorably discharged August 7, 1863. He was for years a member of McKeen Post, Grand Army of the Republic, but later transferred to the staff of the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, for one year with the rank of colonel ; was adjutant of McKeen Post six years, and officer of the day two years. In politics a Republican, he has always been actively interested in party success, and has served as a member of the School Board and Easton Town Council. Through his patriotic ancestry he gained admis+ sion to the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution, and is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Dallas Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Easton, the Mckinley Club, Cliosophic Society of Princeton, and to the Greek letter fraternity, Zeta Psi. He is also a member of the Mckinley Club of Easton, and the Stewart Society of Edinburgh, Scotland.


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Clement Stewart married, June 27, 1867, Harriet Heist Drinkhouse, daughter of Samuel and Maria (Tindall) Drinkhouse. Mrs. Stewart was born in Easton, was educated in Madam Clement's school, and has always made Easton her home. Samuel Drinkhouse was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, April 17, 1804, died January 24, 1904, a grandson of George Heist, who served as a private in the Sixth Pennsylvania Battalion in the Revolutionary War, commanded by Col. Joseph Heister, of Berks county, Pennsylvania. Samuel Drinkhouse left Reading, Pennsylvania, at the age of eighteen, with $800, intending to go to New York city. He stopped at Easton overnight and was so pleased with the city that he decided to remain. He invested his $800 in a hat factory, and as a manufacturer of hats acquired a fortune. When Gen- eral Lafayette visited the United States in 1824, Mr. Drinkhouse went with the Easton Rifles, of which he was a member, to call upon the great French- man, making the trip from Easton to Philadelphia in one day in a Durham boat. Each member of the company was presented to General Lafayette and honored with a handgrasp. On their return, the Rifles visited another distinguished Frenchman, Jerome Bonaparte, then living at Bordentown, New Jersey. For many years Mr. Drinkhouse was a member of the Lutheran church, and was a man thoroughly respected and admired. He lived well into his hundredth year, but died January 24, 1904, his one hundredth birthday, had he lived, coming on the following April 17th.


Clement and Harriet Heist (Drinkhouse) Stewart are the parents of a daughter and three sons: I. Marie, born May 9, 1868; married Bingham Hood Coryell, and has two children, Clement Stewart, first ("top") sergeant in the Quartermaster Department at Washington, District of Columbia, and Margaret Bingham. 2. Ralph Tindall, whose sketch follows. 3. Clarence Dudley, born January II, 1873, dicd December 3, 1914; married June II, 1907, Mrs. Clara M. (Evans) Arndt, widow of Dr. Oliver Arndt, of Easton; Clar- ence Dudley Stewart was educated in private schools in Easton; became a civil engineer and member of the R. T. and C. D. Stewart Contracting Com- pany ; he was a prominent business man of his city, popular socially and fraternally, affiliating with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. 4. Rodney Long (see sketch on following page). All the brothers are civil engineers and contractors.


Clement Stewart has devoted a great deal of time and research to his family lines, and has written a great deal which has been published. The work on "Families of the Lehigh Valley," published in 1905, contains many genealogies from his pen, which have been drawn upon by the writer for this review of his own life and ancestry.


RALPH TINDALL STEWART-Ralph Tindall Stewart, eldest son of Clement and Harriet Heist (Drinkhouse) Stewart, was born in Easton, Penn- sylvania, January 27, 1870. After attendance at the Misses Swayie's School, Track Academy and Lerch Preparatory School, he entered Lafayette College, whence he was graduated C.E., class of 1890. He began professional engi- neering with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, going thence to the Berlin Bridge Company, of Berlin, Connecticut, and from the latter to the Shiffler Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, serving the two last named companies as cost engineer. After leaving Pittsburgh he was for a time in the employ of the Pottsville Iron & Steel Company of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, then returned to Easton, where, in 1895, in association with his brother, Clarence Dudley Stewart, now deceased, he organized the Keystone Construction Company, which later was incorporated as the R. T. and C. D. Stewart Contracting Company, Incorporated, civil engineers and contractors. Ralph T. Stewart was chosen the first president of the company, which has had a very success- ful carecr, the chief activity of the company, solving the engineering problems met with in the construction of large manufacturing plants and their later


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construction. Reinforced concrete work has been a special problem solved successfully by the Stewart Brothers, and they having erected some of the largest plants in Easton, Pennsylvania, where that material was used. Mr. Stewart is also a director of the National Bag Company, and a man of recog- nized ability as both professional engineer and executive manager. For one year he served South Easton Borough as engineer, and he is a member of the Board of Trade, and Rotary Club, but his tastes are all professional and he takes little part in public affairs.


From college days, Mr. Stewart has been a devotee of athletic sports, and he now enjoys the recreation of the out-of-doors, hunting and motoring particularly appealing to him, while a good horse or a well trained dog always attracts his more than passing notice. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Sons of Veterans, the Pomfret Club, the Zeta Psi fraternity, Brainerd Union Presbyterian Church, and politically is a Republican.


From November 5, 1918, to May 26, 1919, Mr. Stewart was associated in civil capacity with the Ordnance Board, created by Congress to function in connection with and under the direction of the Ordnance Department, its members appointed by the Secretary of War, for the appraisal of about nine thousand five hundred claims resulting from the great explosion at the Gil- lespie Loading Plant, October 4, 1918. Mr. Stewart was one of three out of sixty chosen as special appraiser, and bore much of the burden in the import- ant work of placing the value of destroyed property in and about Perth Amboy, New Jersey. At the conclusion of his services, he received a gratify- ing letter of commendation and appreciation of his work from the chairman of the board.


Mr. Stewart married (first) November 1, 1899, Margaret Graham Clark, daughter of John and Catherine (Campbell) Clark, of Easton, both of Scotch ancestry. Mrs. Stewart died January 15, 1904, the mother of a son, Dudley Campbell, who died in infancy, and a daughter, Marie Stewart, now a high school student. He married (second) October 19, 1913, Sadie B., daughter of Allen and Frances (Burwell) Worthington, of Easton. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of a son, Ralph Tindall (2), and a daughter, Elizabeth.


RODNEY LONG STEWART-Rodney Long Stewart, youngest son of Clement and Harriet Heist (Drinkhouse) Stewart, was born in Easton, Penn- sylvania, January 13, 1881. He completed courses in the public schools with graduation from the high school in the class of 1899, then entered Lafayette College, being graduated C.E. in the class of 1903. After graduation he was for one year in the employ of the R. T. and C. D. Stewart Construction Com- pany, then becoming superintendent in charge of the construction of the South Side power plant of the Easton Power Company. Until June, 1907, he was engineer in charge of construction with the Edison Portland Cement Company, superintending the construction of one of the first reinforced con- crete power plants, reinforced concrete a method of building then in the first stages of its development. In June, 1907, he returned to the employ of the R. T. and C. D. Stewart Construction Company, remaining with the firm, of which he is now a member, for about eighteen months on general construc- tion work, then taking charge of the erection of the Hercules Plant at Stockertown, Pennsylvania. He subsequently became construction engineer for the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company at Philadelphia, where he erected a citric acid plant, a sulphuric acid plant, and several furnaces used in the industry. During the year and a half of his continuance in this posi- tion he made frequent trips to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to inspect furnaces being shipped to all parts of America and Europe. Afterward he went to Tennessee in the service of his brothers and erected the Clinchfield Portland Cement Company's plant at Kingsport, Tennessee, in the heart of a moun- tain wilderness. Returning to the employ of the Pennsylvania Salt Manu-


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facturing Company, he remained in Philadelphia until 1913, when he directed work on the Central Railroad at Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the interests of his brothers. Upon the death of C. D. Stewart, in December, 1914, he became a member of the firm of the R. T. and C. D. Stewart Construction Company in the office of secretary, which he fills at the present time (1919). He is a member of the Rotary Club, interested in the other business organizations of the city, and also belongs to the Sons of Veterans, the Zeta Psi fraternity, and the Brainerd Union Presbyterian Church. His sports are those of the open, hunting and fishing his favorite recreations.


Mr. Stewart married, September 2, 1903, Olive Reynolds, daughter of James R. and Sarah Ida (Tidybach) Reynolds, of Boston. Mrs. Stewart is a graduate of Easton High School, class of 1900, and is chairman of the membership committee of the Navy League, vice-chairman of the American- ization Committee of Northampton county, and a member of the Women's Committee of National Defense. She is interested and active in civic affairs, a loyal worker in the Red Cross and the church, and a strong friend of the Presbyterian Italian Mission Board of Easton. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of a daughter, Harriet.


JERE McCARTY-Jere McCarty was born in South Bethlehem forty- seven years ago, and has lived practically his whole life in the Bethlehem dis- trict, and his life has earned him substantial respect from a great number of Bethlehem residents. That he has had the interest of the city at heart has been evidenced by his public work and the hours he has given to honorary tasks in the municipal government; and that he has had the confidence of a majority of the electorate has been evidenced in his long continuance in public office, his record of public service including eleven years as councilman, three terms as county committeeman, and four years as the chairman of the Police Committee, during which he was instrumental in installing the Na- tional Police System in Bethlehem. That achievement may be considered to have been the most eventful in the public record of Mr. McCarty, and the one of greatest good to the city.


Jere McCarty was born August 29, 1872, at South Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, the son of Dennis and Anna (Donovan) McCarty. Both his parents were born in Ireland. They had eight children, three of whom are deceased. The living members of the family are: John, who is in the police department of the Bethlehem Steel Company, Redington, Pennsylvania; Bridget, who married August Ryer, who died in 1893, she the mother of four children; Lizzie, who married Pat Kaylor, since deceased; Nellie, who married Thomas Burns, who is associated with the city government of Pittsburgh, at present connected with the treasurer's office, and previous to her marriage Mrs. Burns was a school teacher, a graduate of Stroudsburg Normal School; and Jere, of whom further.


After passing through the public schools of South Bethlehem, Jere McCarty followed the chief industry of the neighborhood, for more than twenty years working industriously in the steel plants of Bethlehem. A man of strong character, he soon interested himself actively in the civic affairs of the place, and his thoroughness and fellow-feeling soon brought him into public confidence and prominence. A Democrat of firm and staunch convic- tion, he early was brought into active participation in political movements, and his popularity among his fellow workers eventually brought him among the political leaders of the district. He has taken creditable and honorable part in many political campaigns, his following having weight in the decision of public issues. His record in civic office has been exemplary ; he was elected continuously for eleven years to the City Council; was successful in three elections for county committeeman, and his manly attributes, his knowledge of the people and his integrity in public office decided his colleagues in his


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favor for the presidency of the Police Committee of Bethlehem ; he presided as chairman for four years over the deliberations of that committee, being directly responsible for the introduction and installation of the police system before referred to herein. In 1917 he was particularly active in the City Council, advocating the early improvement of the city streets, and in 1918 he was approached by a strong faction of the county who sought to induce him to stand in the following November for the office of county commissioner.


Like his father, who lived to the venerable age of eighty-four years, hav- ing been born in 18II and his decease not occurring until 1895, Jere McCarty is a devout member of the Catholic church and substantial in his support thereof. And like his father, who from the time of his coming to Northamp- ton county in 1831, until the year of his retirement, applied himself steadily and industriously to honcst, manly labors in the district, Jere McCarty has throughout his long connection with the industrial life of Bethlehem applied himself manfully to a full man's work, his steady application to such bringing to him in course of time a fair return in profit. For twenty years he was a steel worker, and then acquired a hotel business, at which occupation he has since continued, conducting a reputable hostelry and exerting a controlling influence for good over the frailties of many of the weaker men who sought its service. That he succeeded in giving good service and would not counte- nance excesses by the patrons of his house is indicated by his public record as a license holder. He is interested in fraternal work, and is particularly identified with the local branch of the Loyal Order of Moose. And this article would not do full justice to the public record of Mr. McCarty if it omitted to state that he has the distinction of having been the youngest man ever elected to the City Council. He has given unselfish and long labors to the city, and as captain of the Fifth Ward Consolidation Team worked enthusi- astically and notably to accomplish the consolidation of the two Bethlehem boroughs.


On October 21, 1897, Mr. McCarty was married at Philipsburg, Penn- sylvania, to Annie Sullivan, daughter of Timothy and Mary Sullivan, both now deceased, of that place. They are the parents of four children: I. Anna, born December 27, 1898, at Bethlehem; she is a graduate of the parochial school, and is an accomplished pianist. 2. Robert, born in Bethlehem, April 15, 190I, and is now a trade apprentice at the Bethlehem Steel Works. 3. Vincent, born October 21, 1906, and still a student at the parochial school. 4. John, born January 2, 1909.


STEWART D. RITTER-Merchandising has been the business of both Stewart D. Ritter and his father, Benjamin F. Ritter, the latter, when a young man, opening the only general store in his neighborhood. In that store the son was instructed in business methods, and when he started busi- ness for himself he was in the same store as his father's successor. Benjamin F. Ritter was born at Santee Mills, Bethlehem township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1822, died December 31, 1887. For a number of years he was proprietor of a general store at Butztown, Pennsyl- vania, then opened a store in Freemansburg, there conducting a general mercantile business for forty years. He was a Democrat in politics and held about every office in the borough. He was a man of intelligence and good judgment, upright in his life and held in the very highest esteem by his friends and neighbors of practically a lifetime. He was treasurer of the Lutheran church for many years, and for many more and at all times foremost in every good work, church or civic. He married Mary Ann, daughter of William Frankenfield, a farmer of Bethlehem township. Mrs. Ritter died November 1I, 1893. Children : William B., born April 27, 1854, died June 30, 1884, in business with his father for many years, he married Belle Lawall, of Lower Nazareth township, and has a son, Harry L .; Stewart D., of further mention.


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Stewart D. Ritter was born in Freemansburg, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1859, and began his education, finishing at Bethlehem Preparatory School. He began business life in his father's general store in Freemansburg, and has been associated with that store as clerk, partner and owner for a long term of years, then changed to his present line of coal, wood, cement and builders' materials of other kinds. He has now an honorable place among Northampton merchants and is steadily increasing in both popularity and business prominence. He is a director of the Lehigh Valley National Bank, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Northampton County ; Agricultural Society of Northampton County, and its vice-president, and is one of the active influential members of these boards of direction.




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