History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 90

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424

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BENJAMIN HENDRICKS was born, September 25, 1811, in Snyder county, Pennsylvania, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Duese) Hendricks. He re- ceived a common school education and learned the trade of cigar making. His active life, however, was principally spent at farming, merchandising, and the manufacture of lime. He removed to Sunbury in 1824, locating in a house which stood near the present site of the residence of John Haas. He at one time owned what is known as the Hunter farm, on which Fort Augusta was located, and at his death, in 1883, he possessed some good property in Caroline county, Virginia. He was a director in the Sunbury, Hazelton and Wilkesbarre Railroad Company during the construction of that railroad, now owned by the Pennsylvania Company, and held that position until the latter made the purchase. He married Anna M. Shindel, and to this union were born twelve children: Samuel S., deceased; William M., deceased; Jacob S .; Elizabeth, wife of S. P. Wolverton; Martin L .; Susan A., deceased; Louisa, wife of M. R. Hemperly; Mary, wife of Samuel Faust; Catherine, deceased; Isaac N .; John P. S., and Ann M. Mrs. Hendricks died, December 9, 1877, and with her husband belonged to the Lutheran church.

BENJAMIN HECKERT, funeral director and furniture dealer, was born in Lower Mahanoy township, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1835, son of Peter and Hannah (Witmer) Heckert. The former was a son of Michael Heckert, whose father emigrated from Germany and settled in Lower Mahanoy at an early period in its history. He owned a considera- ble body of land, some of which is still in the possession of his descendants, who are numerous in this county and in the western States. Peter and Han- nah Heckert were the parents of fourteen children, of whom Benjamin Heck- ert, the subject of this sketch, was the twelfth in order of birth. He ob- tained a limited education in the local schools, learned the trade of cabinet making in his native township and under Sebastian Haupt at Sunbury (with whom he was employed eight years), and engaged in the furniture and under- taking business at Northumberland in 1862; there he remained until 1871, when he established his present business at Sunbury. In 1859 he married Sarah J., daughter of Andrew and Nancy (Mahany) Durst, and they are the parents of six children: William . N., deceased; Rev. Charles G., a clergy- man in the Lutheran church, a graduate of Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, and professor at that institution; Emma D., wife of William Savidge, of Sunbury; Jennie M .; B. Franklin, and Harry N. Mr. Heckert is a mem- ber of the Lutheran church and independent in politics.

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IRA HILE, carpenter, contractor, and builder, was born in Rush township, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, July 19, 1824, and his parents, John and Elizabeth (Johnson) Hile, were natives of Pennsylvania and New Jer- sey, respectively. The senior Mr. Hile, a farmer by occupation, died in 1843 at the age of fifty-five years; his widow lived until 1873 and died at the age of seventy-six years. They reared three sons and four daughters, John be- ing the youngest of the former. He was brought up to farm life and edu- cated somewhat meagerly in the common schools. He learned the carpenter trade.in his native township and divided his time thereat with farming. Since 1866, in which year he moved to Sunbury, he has followed his trade exclu- sively. April 2, 1848, he was married to Christiana Moore, daughter of Garret Moore, of Rush township, this county, and has had borne to him four children: Margaret F., who was born, February 8, 1849, and died, Decem- ber 16, 1859; Ida Florence, who was born, May 1, 1855, and died, Novem- ber 2, 1863; George M., who was born, September 20, 1863, and is a mer- chant, and Lillie Dale, who was born, January 14, 1867. Mr. Hile and family are members of the Baptist church, in which he holds the position of deacon, treasurer, and trustee.

GEORGE GUYER, deceased, was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1829, and died, April 20, 1887. He was nineteen years of age when his father immigrated to Illinois; the family were passengers on the ill-fated Belle of the West which burned to the water's edge on the Missis- sippi, and were the only whole family rescued out of a large number. George Guyer's father was a miller and transmitted the trade to his son, who fol- lowed it until 1870, in the spring of which year he came to Sunbury. Here he conducted the Fairmount Hotel a year; thence he removed successively to Middleburg and conducted the Fairmount seven years, thence to Selins- grove, where he conducted the Keystone two years and the National about the same length of time, and thence to Sunbury, where he purchased the Central from Henry Haas. Here he spent the most of his life, increasing the capacity of his hotel and building up for it a patronage that rapidly brought him wealth and enabled him to leave his family a substantial com- petency. The Central is to-day one of the first-class hotels of Sunbury. Mr. Guyer was married in Dauphin county, October 4, 1857, to Catharine Hoke, who survives him, and his children are as follows: Alice M., Mrs. S. J. Paw- ling; Ella R., Mrs. George W. Gilbert; Irvin F .; Ida C .; Cora B., Mrs. E. A. Herr; Harry. W., and George Scott. Irvin F., the eldest son, is the pop- ular manager of the Central Hotel under his mother, who succeeded to its ownership at the death of her husband.

CONRAD RIPPEL, photographer, was born, November 27, 1854, in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, son of John and Louisa Rippel. He received a com- mon school education, learned photography in his native county, and has fol- lowed the same since he was twenty years old. In 1878 he removed from

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Muncy, Lycoming county, this State, to Milton, where he did business under the firm name of Rippel Brothers until 1880, when their establishment was consumed by the great fire. He soon after located in Sunbury, where he had done the leading trade. He is a member of the F. & A. M. Lodge, Milton, and the I. O. O. F. Lodge and Encampment and Knights of the Golden Eagle, all of Sunbury. He was married in 1881 to Kate Dillman and has three children: John; Gny L., and Clyde B. He and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church.

CHAPTER XLIII. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

SHAMOKIN.

WILLIAM AND REUBEN FAGELY belonged. to that sturdy German race that settled eastern Pennsylvania, cleared its lands, and developed its wonderful resources. They were born in Shamokin township, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, January 5, 1806, and July 25, 1814, respectively, sons of Christian and Magdalena (Lehman) Fagely, natives of Berks county, who were among the first settlers of Shamokin township. The family consisted of thirteen children, twelve of whom reached maturity, but only one, Hannah, is now living. William and Reuben Fagely were reared upon the homestead farm, and obtained a very limited education at the rude log school house of the neighborhood. But both possessed vigorous constitutions and plenty of strong common sense, which answered well their needs in the days that were to come. On arriving at the age of manhood William engaged in keeping a small store at Snufftown, and in due time he and Reuben opened a store at Paxinos, which they conducted until their removal to Shamokin. They were well known railroad contractors, and built a portion of the road-bed of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad; they also had a similar contract on the Northern Central railway at Ralston, Lycoming county, and between 1853 and 1857 constructed four miles of the Northern Central south of Sunbury. All of these contracts they carried to a successful completion. In 1835 the Danville and Pottsville railroad was built from Sunbury to Paxinos with the intention of tapping the great coal fields around Shamokin, to which point it was completed in August, 1838. After being in operation a few years the road was sold and bought in by the creditors, who leased it in 1842 to the Fagelys. They at once converted it into a tramway operated by horses, using the same cars as before, and ran it until 1852. During this

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period Reuben spent most of his time at Sunbury, while William remained at Shamokin.

In the meantime they disposed of their business interests at Paxinos, and in April, 1838, located in Shamokin, and in 1839 opened one of the first stores in that town. For many years they carried on a general mercantile business in connection with their extensive coal interests, and were connected with merchandising more or less up to their decease. They gave employ- ment to a large force of men, and throughout the earlier years of Shamokin's history the Fagelys were the principal employers of its labor. And dur- ing the occasional periods of financial and business depression they were looked upon as public benefactors, because no needy miner ever left their store empty-handed, and no case of suffering or distress ever sought their assistance in vain. They commenced the coal business in 1841 at the Gap, now Cameron mines, and subsequently leased Green Ridge. They after- wards opened Locust Gap mine, subsequently operated Luke Fidler, and also leased the Gap mines. In later years Reuben was interested in operat- ing the Big Mountain. While engaged in these enterprises they established coal yards at Baltimore, Maryland, to which city they made very large ship- ments. Thoroughly familiar with the economic laws governing the coal and iron trade, they were seldom wrong in their calculations, and their success was largely the natural outgrowth of an experienced and sound knowledge of the business. It must not be supposed, however, that all their ventures were successful. They met with the usual reverses incident to a long busi- ness career, but, with characteristic energy, untiring industry, and undaunted perseverance, they overcame such obstacles to success, and accumulated through the passing years a very large and valuable estate.

Though not politicians, in the common acceptation of that term, William and Reuben Fagely always took a very active interest in spreading the prin- ciples and upholding the measures of the Republican party. They wielded great influence in its local councils, and made their impress on the political affairs of the county. William was the first postmaster of Shamokin, serv- ing from 1838 to January, 1844, and Reuben filled the office of burgess two terms. Reuben was more reserved and dignified than his brother, who was very plain and unpretentious in his character; but both were eminently practical business men, imbued with a high sense of honor and a strong devotion to right and justice, and were among the best known and most respected pioneers of Shamokin. While ambitious to accumulate wealth, the Fagelys were nevertheless liberal givers, and always took an active interest in the social and material growth and development of this portion of Northumberland county. They were by far the largest contributors towards the erection of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church of Shamokin, which really owes its present financial prosperity to their liberality. They also made liberal donations to St. Peter's Lutheran church of Ralpho township.

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HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Before their death both united with Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church, and died consistent members of that denomination. Neither was ever mar- ried, and both died in Shamokin, William, February 17, 1874, and Reuben, February 21, 1880. Their large estate was inherited by their immediate relatives and friends, who should honor and revere the memory of their munificent benefactors.

KIMBER CLEAVER was the foremost figure of his time in the Western Middle anthracite coal fields within the bounds of his calling as civil and mining engineer and geologist, in which he attained extended fame, while his reputation as an inventor and patriot was scarcely second to his standing in his chosen profession. His character was, therefore, impressed upon the history, not only of the fields of his more active operations, but upon that of his State. He was born on the 17th of October, 1814, the youngest of five children born to Joseph and Sarah Cleaver, in a little log house hewn from the virgin forests by his father soon after his marriage, in Roaring Creek township, Columbia county, Pennsylvania. Joseph Cleaver was a son of John and Rebecca Cleaver, and was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1764. His wife, Sarah, daughter of Joseph and Anna Brook, was born in Bucks county, January 5, 1774. Both were members of the Society of Friends. Anna Brook had taught school, and her intellectual endowments were of a high order, so that while her children had not the advantages of schools such as now dot the land, their minds and hearts were not allowed to develop without that careful home training which no schooling can super- sede. Born near the close of America's second war with Great Britain, Kim- ber's mind became early imbued with that patriotic fervor which character- ized his future career. His boyhood days being spent amidst surroundings not calculated to stimulate mental acquirements and before the public school system was inaugurated, his opportunities for cultivating his mind were very meager and consisted of a few months' instruction during the winter at an ordinary country school. In his conversations and writings he frequently referred to the struggles, hopes, and disappointments of his youth, pleasantly designating them his "sweet uses of adversity." It is an allusion of this kind which we find in a communication from his pen to the American Banner, in 1855, when, in speaking of the scenes of his boyhood, he says: "Where a white-haired, unshod, frolicsome young American in the springtime of life, ere the rude buffeting and jostling against the sharp corners of the world had produced a sober second thought, chased the butterflies abroad and the cows home." It was on one of these boyish excursions that he stumbled and fell, a snag penetrating his knee. The wound became a chronic sore, and, not being of a robust physique, he was for many months unfitted for the employments of the farm.

But these days of exemption from physical labor were applied to study under the encouragement and assistance of his mother, whose facial and

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mental characteristics he largely inherited. Having access to but few books, the contents of which he made his own, his mind, though depressed by acute bodily pain, was ever active .and found employment in his favorite study, mechanics, his knowledge of which he applied to a good purpose while a boy and confined to bed, in the construction of a clock which served his father's family for many years as a time piece, the work of a jack-knife alone. He also about this time invented and made an apple-parer, which lightened the labor of his mother and that of others long after her hands ceased to toil.

After a partial restoration to health he taught school for some time, but his natural aptitude for mathematics and mechanics led his mind toward civil engineering, and when the first improvement of the Middle coal fields, that of constructing the Danville and Pottsville railroad, was commenced, he en- tered the corps of engineers engaged in locating its route, as a peg-driver. He faithfully discharged his duties, and while others in the corps were pass- ing their leisure time in idleness and folly, he was industriously engaged in acquiring the rudiments of an art and science that were afterwards to distin- guish him as the great engineer and surveyor of the anthracite coal regions. He was promoted from one station to another until 1835, when he began his career as an engineer on that road. He was a member of the firm of Fagely, Cleaver & Company until January, 1844, and was thus connected in a busi- ness as well as a professional capacity with the early development of the Shamokin coal field.

On the 1st of January, 1839, he married Elizabeth Montelius Taylor. She was the daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Taylor, and was born, Septem- ber 19, 1819, while they resided at Mifflinburg, Union county, Pennsylvania. She was possessed of a bright mind, was ambitious, and took great interest in the plans of her husband, to whom she was a helpmate in the truest sense of the term. Five sons and five daughters were born to this marriage, all of whom died in infancy and early childhood except Reynell Coates and Kate, the sixth and ninth born. The former was a little over ten years old when his father died, and the latter a few months over four years. While attending school at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Reynell C. went bathing in the Susquehanna river, August 19, 1865, and was drowned, the news reaching his grief-stricken mother only one hour before the remains of her boy. Kate grew to maturity and was married, December 13, 1876, to Elmer Heffelfinger, then editor of the Shamokin Herald, which he published until February 9, 1889, since which time he has been engaged in dealing in real estate. Mrs. Cleaver died, March 3, 1886, and was laid to rest by the side of her distin- guished husband.

From 1836 to 1844 Mr. Cleaver's time was divided on labors in North- umberland and Schuylkill counties, one of his chief projects being the sur- veys, carried forward at great personal cost and labor, from which he con- structed his splendid map of the Middle coal fields of Pennsylvania, which

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HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

was of eminent service to the capitalists interested in these rich mineral de- posits and rendered Mr. Cleaver one of the most useful and indispensable of men. The coal formations so accurately represented in the townships of Mt. Carmel, Coal, and Zerbe on the map of Northumberland county, was the work of Mr. Cleaver and was properly accredited to him by the publisher. But there are other maps of the anthracite deposits of the State on which the surveys of Mr. Cleaver carefully appear, but where his name has been as carefully omitted. The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company is now in possession of the original map and all other important surveys made by Mr. Cleaver of the region, having purchased them from his widow, and his lines are considered authority by the engineers of this great corpor- ation. During these years he located the route for a railroad from Shamokin to Danville, and also one from Shamokin to Pottsville by way of Ashland, avoiding all inclined planes. From 1844 to 1850 he resided in Pottsville, and devoted most of his time to professional labor in Schuylkill county.

In 1850 he came to Shamokin, which he had laid out for John C. Boyd in the spring of 1835, and became associated with all the improvements of this locality. In 1850 he laid out the town of Trevorton for Judge William L. Helfenstein, and was chief engineer in locating and building the railroad uniting Shamokin with the Susquehanna river. When Trevorton emerged from the wilderness and when Shamokin had finally awakened from an incu- bus of years, he was appointed engineer in chief of the Philadelphia and Sunbury railroad, the collieries, and the numerous lateral roads that were constructed. Thus he labored for years, and added many improvements which stand as proud monuments to his genius. In September, 1858, he was called to Schuylkill county to make surveys in the mines at the Glen Carbon and Thomaston collieries. Being much exposed to dampness and sometimes in water of an icy temperature up to his knees, he contracted typhoid fever, and was confined to his bed at the residence of his brother-in- law, B. T. Taylor, where he was tenderly nursed by his faithful wife until the doctor thought he was in a fair way to recovery. But the renewed hopes of those who loved him were vain. He suddenly died on Tuesday, October 19, 1858. His bereaved widow and two orphaned children returned to their desolate home in Shamokin, where his remains sleep in the beautiful ceme- tery his skill platted and a broken column stands to mark the devotion of a loyal wife to whom his memory was sacred until death claimed her. The

announcement of his death occasioned a pang of sorrow throughout the com- munity; and his loss to the coal region was felt to be irreparable. His decease was extensively noticed in the public press of the day, and the F. & A. M., the State camp of Pennsylvania, and other associations with which he was connected passed resolutions expressing their regret for the loss of more than an ordinary member. Thus in the prime of vigor and usefulness, in the midst of professional labors and scientific inquiries, the angel of death executed his commission.

Halden Chester

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

But few inventors have realized the pecuniary profit from their labors; such was the case with Kimber Cleaver. Some of his inventions should have repaid him well, but instead of that they kept him poor. They benefited the world, but to him were a loss of time and money. The engineering profes- sion is particularly indebted to Mr. Cleaver for the invention of that useful and indispensable instrument for drafting known as Cleaver's improved pro- tractor. Its use throughout the country has become general. The United States government, appreciating the value of this invention, kept the eminent maker of mathematical instruments, W. J. Young, of Philadelphia, a long time employed in manufacturing them for governmental service. Here we have an example where the profession is benefited and the maker rewarded, but the inventor profited merely by the bestowal of his name on the instru- ment. Mr. Cleaver devoted much study to the subject of electricity, with a view of introducing it as an agent in the propagation of news. He is enti- tled to the distinguished honor of having first conceived and suggested the idea of a submarine telegraph, and from his description of the apparatus we are justified in the opinion that he was not then aware of Morse's telegraph, which was invented in 1837 but not put in practical operation until 1844. The following article from the pen of Mr. Cleaver, over the signature of "Cosmopolite," and published in a Harrisburg paper in 1841, will show that much credit for this great American invention is due to him :-

MR. EDITOR :-

DEAR SIR: I believe the time has uow arrived when the postulatum will be admitted, that the more intelligent the people are and the better the facilities for con- veying that intelligence from State to State and from nation to nation, the sooner will all distrust and jealousy subside and the human family be united in one harmonious whole. I admit "the age of steam " affords facilities for conveying intelligence very rapidly and the broad Atlantic is traversed as a mill pond and Europe is brought to be our next door neighbor, but if we can employ a messenger more expeditious and equally truthful, then it certainly is our duty as peacemakers to do so. I meau elec- tricity, which, of all material agents that we are acquainted with, is the most fleet. Perhaps my readers will entertain some doubts as to the possibility of constructing an electric telegraph across the broad Atlantic, but only tell a Yankee boy that the project is impossible and he will be sure to try it. Neither do I view it as a thing impossible, and will therefore briefly describe the plau, as follows: Manufacture a number of cop- per wires equal in number to the letters in the alphabet and long enough to reach from the capitol at Washington to St. James Palace, each wire being separately cov- ered with silk or some other non-conductor, then all collectively covered with a strong waterproof covering, which would form a string of perhaps five inches in diameter; then assemble a sufficient number of water-crafts and extend this string across the Atlantic, and at intervals, say every two or three miles, fasten a weight sufficient to sink the string, and at a given signal let it down, retaining one end ou shore at Wash- ington and one in England, and arrange the wires at both ends ou a table, each wire pointing to a letter of the alphabet, somewhat after the fashion of the keys of a piano forte, and so constructed that when a current of electric fluid is communicated to either wire at one end of this string it will produce an effect perceptible to one of the senses (hear, see, taste, smell, or feel) at the other end. Then, if any boundary or com-

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HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

mercial treaties are to be negotiated, let the ministers of state of the respective coun- tries be seated on a " glass stool" at this alphabetical music table, and with an electri- fying machine supply the negotiator with the fluid. Then when he " strikes the lyre," in truth "the nations would hear entranced." Or, if a speech delivered in Congress is to be reported, let the reporters in the same way send it thrilling across the waters. It would be like uniting to the lightning's flash the thunder of our republican elo- quence, and "earth's loneliest bounds and ocean's wildest shore " would then be made vocal with the shouts of liberty.

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History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Part 90

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829- Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- ed; John, J. J., 1829-
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1424