USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume III > Part 41
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John Daniel Hoffman was united in marriage, August 6, 1905, with Min- nie I. Schadt, a daughter of John and Annie (Berger) Schadt, old and highly respected residents of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Mr. Schadt was for many years a blacksmith at that place, and was noted throughout the country about as an artist at his work. He designed and fashioned a set of artistic horse- shoes which he presented to President Cleveland. He is now retired from business, but still makes his home at Allentown at the advanced age of eighty years. His wife, who was Annie Berger before her marriage, was a member of the pioneer families in this region. Her death occurred in the month of November, 1903. Seven children were born to them, of whom one died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman are the parents of one child, Michael John Samuel, born May 19, 1906, and now a student at the Moravian Pre- paratory School. Mrs. Hoffman is a member of the Reformed church.
WILLIAM HUGHES-When Hugh Hughes, a young Welshman, came to this country from his native Wales, he located in Warren county, New Jersey, and having been an iron worker in Wales he chose the iron ore district of New Jersey in which to start a forge and make iron. The location of that torge is now the village of Hughesville, and there prior to and during the Revolution, Hugh Hughes made iron and managed his farm. He married a Kentucky girl, Martha Breckinbridge, and both were buried in the Hughes burial plot on what is now the William Hughes farm in Warren county, New Jersey. Hugh Hughes was naturally a prominent figure of his day, an iron master, being a person of consequence, and in addition he became pos- sessed of considerable real estate which passed to his sons, Dr. John and Isaac. He was the great-grandfather of William Hughes, now living a retired life in Easton, Pennsylvania, the line of descent being through the founder's son, Isaac, his son, Henry G., his son, William.
Isaac Hughes was born at Hughesville, Warren county, New Jersey, and there spent his life as a farmer, inheriting lands from his father. He married Rachel Gulich, of Warren county, and they were the parents of: Hugh; Henry G., of whom further mention will be made; Joseph; Harriet, married John G. Fine ; Mary, married Burrough Riley ; Martha, married John Robbins. The family were members of Greenwich Presbyterian Church and faithful in the performance of their Christian obligations.
Henry G. Hughes, son of Isaac and Rachel (Gulich) Hughes, was born at the homestead in Warren county, New Jersey, there spent his long life of ninety-one years and there died. He married Mary B. Stewart and they were the parents of six children: Isaac; Samuel; William, of whom further men- tion will be made; Sarah, married Isaac Zeller; Ann, never married; and Edward, deceased.
William Hughes, of the fourth generation of the family in the United
William Hughes
Henry G. Hughes
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States, son of Henry G. and Mary B. (Stewart) Hughes, was born at the homestead at Hughesville, Warren county, New Jersey, August 27, 1837, and is now living retired in the city of Easton, Pennsylvania, an octogenarian, having just completed his eighty-first year. He remained at the home farm during his minority and obtained his education in the district schools. He was variously engaged in Hughesville until 1869, then came to Pennsylvania, locating in Easton, where he spent two and a half years as a grocer's clerk. In 1872 he engaged in business for himself as a grocer, and for about twenty years he very successfully prosecuted that enterprise, then retired. During his active years he took a deep interest in public affairs and in the church, his public spirit and progressive nature keeping him in close touch with the march of improvement. He prospered in his business and won the confidence of his patrons, who were also his friends. He is a Republican in politics, and in religious faith a Presbyterian.
William Hughes married (first) Lizzie Purcell, of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, who died July 29, 1884. He married (second), February 16, 1887, Emma McGraw, of Milford, New Jersey, daughter of John and Mary (White) McGraw, both of whom died while their daughter was quite young. By the second marriage Mr. Hughes has a son, William Stewart Hughes, born in Easton, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1892. He was educated in the public schools of Easton, preparatory schools, and Bliss Electrical School at Washington, District of Columbia, and is now, 1918, in the employ of the Bethlehem Steel Works, an inspector. He married, April 17, 1917, Cecilia Fullmer, of Easton, and resides in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The home of William and Emma (McGraw) Hughes is No. 3 South Front street, Easton, Pennsylvania.
ALEXANDER SMITH-As president of the Alexander Smith & Son Warping & Weaving Company, Mr. Smith held an important position in the business life of his city. He is a son of Robert Smith, of Renfrewshire, a maritime county of Scotland, famous as the seat of a vast shipbuilding indus- try located on the River Clyde. Robert Smith was the son of James and Sarah (Barr) Smith, of Renfrewshire, where Robert was born on October 16, 1828. He learned the weaver's trade and other branches of mill work, and for a time was engaged in business for himself as a manufacturer. After coming to the United States he established a home in Paterson, New Jersey, but later went to the State of Vermont, and engaged in farming until his death, September 19, 1882. His wife, Elizabeth (Scobie) Smith, was also born in Renfrewshire, and died in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1908, aged seventy- nine years. They were the parents of twelve children, four of whom are living: Robert, of Paterson, New Jersey; Alexander, of further mention ; Margaret; and Sarah.
Alexander Smith was born in Paisley, one of the principal towns of Renfrewshire, Scotland, July 30, 1862, and there lived until 1875, when he was brought to the United States by his parents. They arrived in New York, May 20, 1875, on the Anchor Line steamship Bolivia. From 1865 until coming to the United States his parents lived in Glasgow, and there he attended a private school taught by Miss Cochran, later going under the instruction of Miss Mason in another school. Although but a lad of fifteen when he arrived in the United States, he was already a worker, for at the age of thir- teen he had been employed in a woolen mill four miles distant from his home, which distance he walked every day to and from his work, hours beginning at 6 A. M. and continuing for twelve hours with intermission for breakfast and dinner. In Scotland he was later employed as a telegraph messenger boy. and in Paterson, New Jersey, his first American home, he was employed in a cotton mill, becoming a weaver, operating three looms. He later was a silk weaver, then a warper, becoming foreman of warpers at the Stewart Silk Mills. continuing in Paterson until 1903, then removed to Easton, Pennsylvania,
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where he was employed in his own line of business until 1913, when he began business for himself as a weaver and warper, the first plant being in a build- ing at Front and Ferry streets. The business prospered, and a year later, in October, 1914, he built the present plant of the company, located at Center and Glendale streets. The business is operated as the Alexander Smith & Son Company, his son, Robert A. Smith, an equal partner and general manager of the plant. Mr. Smith is master of the business he conducts, and is a recognized authority on its details. He is a member of the South Presbyterian Church; is a Republican in politics; is affiliated with Easton Lodge No. 152, Free and Accepted Masons ; Easton Chapter No. 173, Royal Arch Masons ; and Passaic Lodge No. 331, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Paterson, New Jersey.
Mr. Smith married, in Paterson, New Jersey, Agnes Haytock, daughter of Benjamin and Helen (Richardson) Haytock, of Paterson. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the parents of three children: I. Robert Alexander, whose sketch follows. 2. Benjamin Haytock, a member of Battery C, Fifty-ninth Regi- ment of Artillery, C. A. C., was with his command in Flanders, over- seas. 3. Helen Richardson, now a student at the Pennsylvania State School at Westchester. The family home is located at No. 809 Grant street, Easton, Pennsylvania.
ROBERT ALEXANDER SMITH-Now general manager of the Alex- ander Smith & Son Company of Easton, Pennsylvania, weavers and warp- sters, Robert A. Smith has the advantage of close association with his capable father, a practical weaver and manufcturer of long standing.
Robert Alexander Smith, eldest child of Alexander and Agnes (Haytock) Smith, was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He was educated in the public schools of Paterson and Easton, and in the preparatory school at Mount Her- man, Massachusetts. He then entered the textile business, and in association with his father owns and operates the Alexander Smith & Son weaving and warping plant, of which Robert A. Smith is general manager. He is an energetic, capable young business man, and devoted to his manufacturing interests. In politics he is a Republican, but takes no active part in public affairs.
Mr. Smith married, in Easton, May 10, 1913, Corinne Miller, of Easton, and they are the parents of two children: Agnes Ellen and Robert Alex- ander (2).
JACOB WILLIAM KLINE, M.D .- Since graduation, in 1892, Dr. Kline has continuously practiced his profession at Martins Creek, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, there developing a very large practice in the village and the surrounding county. In 1918 he moved his residence to Easton, but continues his office and practice at Martins Creek as before. He is a son of Benjamin M. Kline, born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, his family early settling at Kline's Corners, in that county. Benjamin M. Kline located in Easton when a young man, and here for many years was engaged in the wholesale marble and granite business. He married Sarah Louise Knauss, daughter of William Thomas Knauss, of a pioneer family of Nazareth, Penn- sylvania. The Knauss family was founded in America by Ludwig and Anna Margaretha Knauss, who came from Wetleravia, Germany, in 1723, settling in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. They were accompanied to Pennsyl- vania by their sons Johannes, Heinrich and Sebastian Heinrich Knauss, the last-named born in Germany, October 6, 1714. He settled at Emaus, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, and married Anna Catherine Transue, who bore him thirteen children. He gave the ground upon which the Moravian church and schoolhouse were built, and was an honorable, hard-working farmer all his adult life. His third son, Johannes Knauss, born in Emaus, November 6, 1748,
Chud G. Rankey.
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married Catherine Romig, and their second son, Johannes Knauss, born May 22, 1775, married Maria Theresa Tool, and had eight children. Their third son, William Thomas Knauss, born February 12, 1816, was the father of Sarah Louisa Knauss, wife of Benjamin M. Kline, of previous mention. Mr. and Mrs. Kline were the parents of three children, the youngest and only sur- vivor being Dr. Jacob W. Kline, of Martins Ferry and Easton, Pennsylvania.
Jacob W. Kline was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1869. He was educated in the public schools of Easton, Lerch's Academy and Lafayette College, completing the freshman and sophomore years, class of 1891. He then left Lafayette and entered Medico-Chirurgical Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, and was graduated M.D., class of 1892. During his senior year he was assistant to Dr. La Place, of the Medico-Chirurgical Medical College, and following graduation he at once began practice at Martins Creek, Northampton county. For more than a quarter of a century he has been in continuous general practice there, known and loved in that com- munity as only the country doctor of long years of service is loved in that com- respected. For many years he was surgeon to the Lehigh & New England railroad, and the Lehigh Navigation & Electric Company ; was medical inspec- tor of the public schools of Lower Bethel township, and ministers to the bodily ills of a large clientele. During his long residence at Martins Creek, Dr. Kline has been in the forefront of all civic movements, and for twenty years served as a member of the school board. He is a member of the local and State medical associations; Easton Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; the Improved Order of Red Men; and Third Street Reformed Church of Easton.
Dr. Kline married, September 2, 1891, Kate L. Laubach, daughter of Owen and Elizabeth (Gross) Laubach, of Easton, and a member of an old and prominent county family. Dr. and Mrs. Kline are the parents of two chil- dren : Sarah Elizabeth, who married Walter Hutchinson, of Easton, and they have a daughter, Frances Louise Hutchinson; Edgar Laubach, student in Lafayette College, class of 1919, enlisted with the Lafayette Unit, United States Ambulance Corps, and was on active duty for one year, overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces. The family home in Easton is at No. 249 Spring Garden street. Dr. Kline, in his college days, was a football and baseball player on one of the class teams, and has never outlived his love for out-of-door recreation.
EDWARD GEORGE RANKEY-Over a quarter of a century ago Edward G. Rankey and his brother, Francis O., started a paper box manu- factory in Bethlehem, the original plant occupying the same site as the present one. The business then started was small in extent, but prospered from its beginning and has grown in size and volume with each succeeding year.
Edward G. Rankey is a son of John Christian Rankey, a pioneer settler in South Bethlehem, who was born in Saxony, Germany, August 2, 1830, died in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, December 22, 1902. John C. Rankey came to the United States in the spring of 1852, located in Pennsylvania, and later was employed by the Lehigh Valley railroad, then under construction. After leaving the Lehigh he located in Lockport, Pennsylvania, there conducting a blacksmith shop for ten years. He then resided in South Bethlehem for a time, then moved to Berlinsville, Pennsylvania. In 1872 he returned to South Bethlehem, where he resided until his death. He was one of the earliest blacksmiths in South Bethlehem, and there, where best known, he was highly esteemed and appreciated as a man of integrity and ability. He retired from his trade to become proprietor of the Lehigh Valley Hotel, and later was manager of the Marshall House. At the time of his death he was president of the Mountain Water Company. John C. Rankey married Emma
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Burkhardt, who was born in Baden, Germany, and died in Bethlehem, Penn- sylvania, January 21, 1913. Children: Josephine, married C. A. Buck, vice- president of the Bethlehem Steel Company, and they are the parents of nine children ; Alvin Marcus, a blacksmith, now operating the shop owned by his father forty-five years ago; Gertrude Karolyne, married Paul Starkey, presi- dent of the Harrisburg Pipe & Pipe Bending Company, and they are the parents of four children ; Francis O., died in April, 1913, having long been in business with his brother, Edward G., he married Celia Markle and left one daughter ; Louisa, married Elmer Smith, and died January 25, 1916, leaving five chil- dren ; Edward George, of further mention.
Edward George Rankey was born in South Bethlehem, June 14, 1873, and was there educated in the public schools. He early became interested in box manufacturing, and in 1892, at the age of nineteen years, began business as a box manufacturer, his brother, Francis O., being his partner until the latter's death in 1913. The plant is a large and important one, thorough equipped with modern box-making machinery, and well managed by its capable owner.
Mr. Rankey is a Democrat in politics; a school director of the borough of Fountain Hill since 1915; member of the Knights of Malta and a past commander; member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Beth- lehem Chamber of Commerce, and St. Peter's Lutheran Church of South Bethlehem.
Mr. Rankey married, March 23, 1909, Karolyn A. Amman, daughter of Gottleib and Anna (Giering) Amman, she a graduate nurse, class of 1909, of Lenox Hill Hospital, formerly the German Hospital of New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Rankey are the parents of three children: Emma Karolyn, born April 24, 1910; John Edward, born January 8, 1912; and Edward John, born March 26, 1918.
ALEXANDER MORRISON, SR .- Matthew Morrison was born in the North of Ireland, and came to the United States when a young man, settling in Glendon, Pennsylvania, where he died. He married, in Glendon, Anna Paul, and they were the parents of a family of seven children: Joseph, Wil- liam, Mary Ann, James, Isabell, Alexander and Oliver.
Alexander Morrison, son of Matthew and Anna (Paul) Morrison, was born in 1850, and at a very early age left an orphan to the care of his brothers and sisters. He attended the Glendon district school, and as an engineer he is now running over the site of the house in which he was born, the Morrison house built by his father, the first erected in Glendon, being sold to the Lehigh Valley road when that road was built through Glendon. His first work as a boy was in driving mules on a tow-path of the canal, and until a young man in his twenties he continued a canal boatman, operating three boats between Glendon and Buck Mountain. He then exchanged the old for the new method of transportation, and entered railroad service. He began as a fireman, and within a short time promotion came, and for thirty-eight years he rode on the right-hand side of the cab. As an engineer he has proved faithful and efficient, always to be relied upon and the soul of loyalty. Forty years have been spent in the service of the Lehigh, and soon the age of retirement under company rule will be reached, and Mr. Morrison's name will grace that roll of honor.
Alexander Morrison married, in Easton, Martha Cowles, who died at their home No. 731 Milton avenue, Easton, June 21, 1916, daughter of Friend and Emma Cowles, of Easton. Mr. and Mrs. Morrison were long-time mem- bers of the Presbyterian church. In politics he is a Democrat. Children : Bertha, married Edward Shaneberger; Mary, married Joseph Winters; Car- rie, married Forrest Hahn ; James ; Charles A .; Lydia, married M. V. Everett : Alexander, a sketch of whom follows; William; Helen, married Fred A. Weiskoff.
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ALEXANDER MORRISON, JR .- Alexander Morrison, Jr., son of Alexander and Martha (Cowles) Morrison, was born at the family home in Berwick street, South Easton, Pennsylvania, August 10, 1891, and began his school attendance in a little country school in Easton's West End. In 1899 his parents moved to Lehighton, Pennsylvania, in 1900 to Slatington, Penn- sylvania, and i11 1903 to Lansdowne, New Jersey, where he completed his education, to which the schools of all these towns had aided him in acquiring. He left school at the age of fourteen years, and from that time became self- supporting. He left home in 1905, came to Easton, secured a roundhouse position with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and has since been in the employ of that company. He spent four years in work preparatory to accomplishing the first stage of his upward journey, promotion to the posi- tion of locomotive fireman. He rode on the left-hand side of the cab until December, 1915, when he exchanged the fireman's seat for the engineer's. While his official beginning as fireman was in 1909, he really fired an engine at the age of thirteen years, while living in Lansdowne, his father being the engineer. His first run as a regularly appointed fireman was between Lehigh- ton, Pennsylvania, and Perth Amboy, New Jersey, a distance of one hundred and four miles, the engine No. 1456. His first run as engineer was made on Christmas Eve, 1915, between Easton and Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was a fireman before he was eighteen, and an engineer at twenty-four, his rapid progress due in a large measure to his strong liking for the work and a natural ability to comprehend and understand the principles which govern engine construction and operation. He was the third son to follow his father's example in the choice of an occupation, and since his entrance a younger brother, William, has become an engineer, making the fourth in the family. Mr. Morrison's present run is between Lehighton, Pennsylvania, and Jersey City, New Jersey. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
Mr. Morrison married, in Easton, February 24, 1910, Mae Irene Huff, born in Slatington, Pennsylvania, but later resided in Easton, where she was educated. She is a daughter of Calvin and Amanda (Kern) Huff, her father a painter, dying in Slatington when his daughter was but three years of age. Mrs. Amanda Huff married a second husband, O. E. Schaffer, of Easton. Calvin and Amanda (Kern) Huff were the parents of three children : Burton, of Easton ; Pearl, a student at Pennsylvania State Normal School, at West Chester, Pennsylvania ; and Mae Irene, wife of Alexander Morrison, Jr. Alexander and Mae Irene (Huff) Morrison are the parents of three children : Carl Oliver, Olive Mae and Vema Joyce Morrison. The family home is at No. 1012 Berwick street, Easton, and both the parents are members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
FRANCIS PATRICK McGINNIS-Francis Patrick McGinnis, proprie- tor of the East End Marble & Granite Works of South Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, and one of the influential citizens of this place, is a native of the town of Chapman, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, born January 26, 1871. Mr. McGinnis is one of nine children born to John and Winnie (Houston): McGinnis, the parents being natives of Ireland, from which country they came to the United States in early youth. Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis, Sr., are now both deceased, their deaths having occurred, respectively, in the year 1890 at the age of fifty-four, and in 1914 at the age of seventy-two. Their nine children were as follows: Francis Patrick, with whose career we are here especially concerned; Michael, who died in the year 1907 at the age of twenty-seven; Mary, who became the wife of James Durning, who is em- ployed in the position of janitor in the Quinn building at Bethlehem, and to whom she has borne eleven children; Kate, who became the wife of Michael McGouldrick, who is connected with the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and
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to whom she has borne four children; Hannah, who became the wife of Thomas Haggerty, also connected with the Bethlehem Steel Works, and to whom she has borne four children; Winnie ; John, now employed in the Beth- lehem Steel Works, and married Mealie Kole, of Allentown, by whom he has had four children; Thomas, who follows the profession of music at Phila- delphia; Lizzie, who became the wife of Peter Horn, who is employed as a boiler-maker at Scranton, Pennsylvania, and to whom she has borne two children.
Only the first few years of Francis Patrick McGinnis's life was spent at his native town of Chapman, his parents removing from that place and locat- ing in South Bethlehem when he was still a small child. It was at the latter place that he received his education, attending for that purpose the public schools, where he showed marked ability as a student and the same quick and alert intelligence which has since characterized him in the serious business of life. Upon completing his studies at these institutions, Mr. McGinnis was apprentice to N. B. Harvey, who was engaged in the marble trade on a large scale at South Bethlehem, and here he learned that trade. He afterwards was employed by the Easton Granite Company of Easton, Pennsylvania, where he learned the granite trade under the supervision of Mr. Benjamin Kline, the superintendent thereof. After this period of apprenticeship, Mr. McGinnis worked as a journeyman in his craft for Mr. S. T. Mann, who was engaged in the stone business in Bucks county, and continued in his employ for, a period of some ten years. But the young man was of a strongly ambitious nature, and it was his greatest desire to be engaged in business on his own account. . This he was able to realize when in 1908 he withdrew from the establishment of Mr. Mann and, returning to South Bethlehem, opened his own establishment, now located at No. 418 Webster street. When Mr. McGinnis first established himself at South Bethlehem, his operations were conducted on a small scale, but since that time they have grown steadily and quickly to their present great proportions. He has made a specialty of tombstones and cemetery work generally, and now conducts one of the largest businesses of the kind in this region. He is well and favorably known throughout the community both for the excellent quality of his work and for the high standards of business ethics which he always maintains in the con- duct of his establishment. He is in the best sense of the word a self-made man, and enjoys an enviable reputation with all his fellow citizens. Mr. Mc- Ginnis is a Democrat in politics, and is keenly interested in public questions and issues of all kinds, both local and general. His large business interests, however, render it impossible for him to take so active a part in public affairs as his talents and abilities would admirably fit him for, and he is quite unam- bitious for political preferment. Mr. McGinnis is a Roman Catholic in his religious belief, and attends the Holy Infancy Church of this denomination at South Bethlehem.
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