History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 68

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell
Number of Pages: 604

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with which he had been identified; who planned wisely and executed unhesitatingly. He had been respectful and considerate in his association with his co-workers and always just and generous toward those who were placed under his supervision. His integrity was never called in question. In reply to a letter of inquiry concerning him, the cashier of the Farmers' Bank of Reading wrote as follows: " His word is as good as his bond and his bond is as good as gold!" His management of the canal had been characterized by remarkable economy, and it is not probable that there were many men who could have ac- complished as much as he did and at so small an ex- penditure of means. In the fall of 1849 his widow re- moved to Reading, where she died January 8th, 1860. Both Mr. and Mrs. Griscom, as have been the family for generations, were members of the Society of Friends, and held to the simple, unquestioning faith and lived the hon- est, godly life of their sect.

SAMUEL E. GRISCOM.

Samuel E. Griscom, son of Samuel and Ann (Powell) Griscom, was born December 6th, 1817, in a house built and then owned by his father and yet standing on Sixth street, near Wood, Philadelphia, a locality then at the limit of the city in that direction. At the age of twelve he was placed in the family of an uncle, a farmer, in Salem county, New Jersey, where he remained three years, working on the farm during the spring, summer and au- tumn, and attending school during the winter. Young as he was, before leaving there he did a man's work at everything except mowing and cradling. At fifteen he returned to the home of his parents, which was at the time in Reading, Pa., where he tarried a year, going thence to Clermont Academy, about three miles north of Philadelphia, then under the management of his cousin Samuel S. Griscom, in which he was a diligent student until he reached the age of nineteen, when he assumed the dignity and responsibility of the position of assistant teacher in the institution After two years spent thus, with the confinement which was inseparable from his duties as preceptor, together with over-exertion in study when not engaged in school, Mr. Griscom found his health considerably impaired, and was obliged to seek employment which would necessitate his being much out of doors. He surveyed several thousand acres of wild land owned by his father and General George De B. Keim. Later he aided his father in his duties as super- intendent of the Schuylkill canal, and in 1843 succeeded his brother, Powell Griscom, as assistant superintendent. In 1848 he removed to Pottsville, where he had been ap- pointed collector of tolls. The following year the col- lectors' offices at Pottsville and Schuylkill Haven were consolidated, and Mr. Griscom was placed in charge, with headquarters at Schuylkill Haven. Again close confinement to indoor business proved detrimental to his health, and in the spring of 1850 he resigned the position and undertook the management of his father's estate, a duty to which he had been assigned by his father just previous to his death. Between Llewellyn and Miners- ville was a large tract of timber owned jointly by his father's estate and the Farmers' Bank of Reading, famil- iarly known as the May and Lightfoot Tract. On this property he built a saw-mill, in which was placed, it is probable, the first circular saw used in any mill east of the Alleghanies (hundreds of them are now in use in the coal regions of Pennsylvania), and cut the timber on the

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY

tract and manufactured it into lumber. A little later he became the proprietor of a mercantile business at Wicon- isco, Dauphin county, which he purchased of Henry Sheafer, father of Peter W. Sheafer, of Pottsville, which was managed for him by others until he finally disposed of it. These interests engrossed his attention until 1863. During this period the timber tract referred to became involved in a renewed lawsuit of twenty years' standing, which was a source of anxiety and infinite trouble to him from 1853 to 1861, when it was finally compromised, Mr. Griscom representing during the entire period of litiga- tion the interests of both his father's estate and the Far- mers' Bank of Reading. Bringing his lumbering enter- prise to a successful termination, he was for about a year afterward interested with others in a similar one at White Haven, Luzerne county, where the company owned a mill on the Lehigh.

In 1863 the firm of Samuel E. Griscom & Co. was or- ganized. The members were Samuel E. Griscom, E. G. Brooke, of Birdsboro, Pa., and Seyfert, McManus & Co. his chosen profession in the several courts of Schuylkill

(now known as the Reading Iron Works), of Reading, Pa. Its purpose was to mine coal in the Schuylkill re- gion for use in manufacturing iron at Reading and Birdsboro. The responsibility of selecting a suitable locality for mining purposes devolved upon Mr. Griscom, who effected arrangements by which leases were secured in 1864, of lands two miles southwest of Shenandoah City. Extensive operations were set on foot by the firm, and it was due largely to Mr. Griscom's management that they in time assumed such gigantic proportions as to entitle William Penn colliery to a place among the lead- ing collieries of the anthracite coal region. At the close of 1872 Mr. Griscom exchanged his interest in this enter- prise for a one-third interest in the Pennsylvania Dia-

mond Drill Company of Pottsville (in which all of the in pursuance of his appointment served in that position persons above mentioned were interested), of whose ex- at York, Pa., and Cockeysville, Md. His commission was annulled by the War department under a general

tensive business he has since been manager. In the summer of 1876 he went to California in the interest of order revoking and restricting appointments of that na- the company, and while there was induced by a gentle- ture by State authority. He was then appointed by the Secretary of War, General Cameron, to the perma- nent and responsible position of his private secretary. and served in that capacity until some time after the first battle of Bull Run, when he resigned and returned to Pottsville to resume the practice of his profession. man who had done the company, through him, a valua- ble service to undertake the sale of the stock of the Bloomer Ditch and Grand Mining Company. In 1878 he became interested in selling the stock of another gold mining company, located in Georgia. During the fol- lowing year he bought a tract of land there and began a mining enterprise, which has been actively prosecuted to the present time. In another and very profitable Georgia gold mine Mr. Griscom owns a one-tenth interest. In 1873 he identified himself with an enterprise having for its object the manufacture and sale of diamond mill- stone dressing machinery, originally invented by Daniel Larer, of Pottsville, who was for a time his partner. The business is now carried on quite successfully by Griscom & Co., under the management of Walter Griscom, a nephew of the senior member of the firm.

Mr. Griscom's life thus far has been a busy and a use- ful one. His administration of the affairs of important enterprises has resulted so favorably in every instance as to mark him as one of the most successful business men of the State. Like his forefathers, he is a member of the Society of Friends, and is remarkable for the simplicity of his manners and the directness and frankness which characterize his transactions of a business nature.

Politically he was in early life an advocate of Whig prin- ciples. Since the organization of the Republican party he has, from a deep conviction as to the mission of that party, been identified with it.

HON. LIN BARTHOLOMEW.

Mr. Bartholomew was born at Brookville, Jefferson county, Pa. He was the third son of Benjamin Bartholomew, of Philadelphia, who, like our subject, was a lawyer, and member of the State Legislature in 1846, representing the district of which Jefferson county was a part, and was afterward district attorney of Schuylkill county, to which he removed with his family. Mr. Bartholomew received a liberal education, mainly at the Pottsville Academy, then under the charge of Elias Snyder, well known throughout eastern Pennsylvania. The celebrated Dan- iel Kirkwood was at that time one of the professors. As a boy after leaving school Mr. Bartholomew engaged in active business for a short time, but under the advice of friends and following the bent of his own inclination he commenced the study of law in the office of his father, and was admitted to the practice of

county in the year 1857. By force of circumstances and education he connected himself with the Republican party in its inception, and very soon after his admission to the bar, by ability and inclination he occupied a prominent position in county politics. He was an aspir- ant for the office of district attorney in 1859, but failed to secure the nomination of his party. In 1860 he was nominated and elected a member of the lower branch of the Legislature, and served on the committee of judic- iary (general), and also ways and means during the criti- cal juncture in the nation's history, when South Carolina and sister States passed ordinances of secession. In 1861 he received the commission of aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Wynkoop from Governor Curtin, and

In September, 1862, he was at the battle of Antietam, and in 1863, when the State was invaded by the Confed- erate army, he served in the 27th regiment Pennsylvania militia, Colonel J. G. Frick. He served as a delegate to a number of State conventions, and was in 1868 a dele- gate at large from the State of Pennsylvania to the Chi- cago convention, where he supported General Grant for the Presidential nomination. In 1872 he was elected one of the members at large of the convention to amend the constitution of Pennsylvania, in which convention he was on the judiciary committee, and also chairman of the committee on schedules. He was well known through- out the State as a political speaker and as a lawyer. He was possessed of a fine flow of language and good per- ceptive faculties, understood human nature and had a keen sense of humor. He was forcible as a speaker, and sometimes rose to eloquence; was a good debater, ready in argument, and quick at repartee. The esteem and admiration in which he was held by his fellow townsmen were evidenced in the fall of 1879, upon the occasion of his return from a trip of a few months to Europe. His fellow citizens, of all shades of politics, united in giving him a public reception, which amounted to an ovation.

He died suddenly on the 22nd of August, 1880, of heart disease, at Atlantic City, N. J.

Lin. Bartholomew

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-JOHN W. RYON.

297

JOHN W. RYON, of Pottsville, was born at Elkland, Tioga county, Pa., March 4th, 1825. He was educated at Millville Academy, Orleans county, N. Y., and Wells- boro Academy, Wellsboro, Tioga county, Pa. He stud- ied law under Hon., John C. Knox, at Wellsboro, Pa., until Judge Knox was elected to the lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature, when he studied under Hon. James Lowrey, and was admitted to the Tioga county bar in December, 1846.

His father, John Ryon, was born on the first day of January, 1787, in Hanover township, Luzerne county, a short distance from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and remained there until he was fourteen years old, when his father moved to Newtown, near Elmira, N. Y. At that day Elmira was far west. There were no public roads, and young John had the task of driving the cattle from Hanover to Newtown. In making this trip it was necessary frequent- ly to cross the Susquehanna river, and as there were no bridges he often had to swim across. Remaining at

Newtown until ISTI, John Ryon moved to Elkland, Tioga county, Pa., about twenty-four miles from New- town, where he went to farming. He was one of the pio- neers of that beautiful valley, which is now one of the finest and wealthiest agricultural districts in Pennsylvania. Being an active business man he was called upon by the people to serve them in public positions. He was elected to several terms in the lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature, served four years in the State Senate, was superintendent of canals of Pennsylvania four years (under him was constructed a portion of the West Branch Canal), and was associate judge in Tioga county fifteen years. During the long period of public trusts his official integrity was never doubted or questioned.

John W. Ryon, after his admission to the bar, settled in Lawrenceville, Tioga county, and commenced the

practice of his profession. This he pursued with untir- ing zeal and industry, and he soon exhibited a force and power as a lawyer which showed that he had not mistak- en his calling. In 1850 he was nominated by the Dem- ocratic party as a candidate for district attorney and was elected by a large vote. He served the term with emi- nent satisfaction to the people, and was re-elected by the same party in 1853 to the same office, by an increased majority. This was a valuable school for so young a man, for the bar of Tioga county in that day had some of the ablest lawyers in Pennsylvania, and the custom then pre- vailed of eminent counsel traveling the circuit, and dis- tinguished lawyers living in other parts of the State were accustomed to come to Tioga county. Among them were Judge Williston, Judge Elwell, Judge John W. May- nard, Judge Mercur, now of our Supreme Court, Johnson, of Warren, and others. Judge John N. Conyngham was president judge for a portion of the time, after him Judge Williston, later Judge R. G. White, all among the ablest of the old Pennsylvania judges. Having not only this experience in the criminal court, but a long practice in the civil side of the court, and associating with the ablest of the profession and having the benefit of their riper experience, gave Mr. Ryon an opportunity to im- prove and grow in the profession. At that period Tioga county produced immense quantities of lumber, and the mining of bituminous coal was carried on quite largely. These gave rise to important litigations, involving large amounts, and the best legal talent was employed. There was also a great deal of ejectment litigation, and this branch of the law occupied his attention and enlisted his enthusiasm; he would frequently go into the woods with the surveyors and examine the lines of the lands in the suit, which gave him great advantage upon the trial and also valuable experience which few lawyers have. His practice became large, his experience ripened and his reputation grew. He was called into adjoining counties, and had in the later years of his experience in Tioga county a large practice in Potter, Mckean and Cameron counties. This extended practice kept him from the comforts of home a large portion of the time, and he could not get rid of it as long as he remained in that county; and, having grown weary of it, he decided to come to Pottsville, where his practice would permit him to enjoy his home comforts.

John W. Ryon was an active Union man, and at the breaking out of the war in 1861 took an active part in raising troops. He assisted in the raising of Company A of the famous Bucktail regiment, and accompanied it to Harrisburg. General Cameron, then Secretary of War, refused to receive any more troops. This company, with others, was encamped at Harrisburg, with no prospect of employment, and the project of organizing a reserve corps of 15,000 troops for Pennsylvania was originated. Mr. Ryon took an active part in procuring the passage of a bill through the Pennsylvania Legislature for that purpose. The corps was raised as a State organization, and Governor Curtin appointed Mr. Ryon paymaster of the corps, with the rank of major; he held that position until this corps was mustered into the United States ser- vice and fully paid off, which was in November, 1861. This corps reached Washington in time to save the capital after the national defeat at the first battle of Bull Run. This famous corps needs no fulsome praise; its history is written in blood, and its deeds of gallantry and fortitude are attested by the great battle fields of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Very few sur- vived the war, and most of them are scarred and maimed.

Mr. Ryon came to Pottsville in January, 1863, and re- sumed the practice of the law. His experience; and qualifications placed him among the leaders of the bar;

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he has been on one side of almost every important case tried in that court. In 1878 he was nominated for Con- gress by the Democratic party of Schuylkill county, comprising the 13th district. After an exciting canvass against the Republican and Greenback-Labor candidates he was elected by a small majority, the communistic doctrines of the last named party finding specially favor- able conditions among the mining population. To these new dogmas Mr. Ryon refused to assent, but stood upon the true principle that labor is best protected when the laboring man is free to make his own contracts; that all the laws which interfere with this right are hostile to the laboring man; that the wages of labor should be fully protected, and that the proprietors of mines, manufac- tories, etc., should be required to secure their employes against damages; that capital and labor have a common interest; that capital should pay fair wages for an honest day's work, and wages should be paid in honest money; that paper money not redeemable in gold or silver is not money.

In Congress Mr. Ryon was regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in that body. In the State his reputation stands very high and he is regarded as one of the ablest, ripest, and most thorough lawyers at the Pennsylvania bar.

Afe

HON. ROBERT M. PALMER.

The following biographical sketch of the late Hon. Robert M. Palmer is, with a few necessary alterations, the same that appeared in the "Biographical Encyclo- pedia of Pennsylvania":

Robert M. Palmer was born in Mount Holly, N. J., in 1820. He was a son of the late Judge Strange N. Palm-

er, who, having settled in Pottsville, Pa., in 1829, was during thirty-six years a resident of that place; and a grandson of Hon. Nathan Palmer (a lineal descendant of Miles Standish), who, born in Plainfield, Conn., in early manhood removed to Pennsylvania and served in the Senate of his adopted State three years, having been chosen thereto by his constituents of Luzerne and Northumberland counties, as holding the views and politi- cal faith of Thomas Jefferson. He also had been pre- viously commissioned by Governor Mckean, whose elec- tion he had warmly seconded, as prothonotary of Luzerne county. Robert was but nine years of age when his father removed to Pottsville, and inherited the same tastes as his parent and grandfather, both of whom had been connected with the typographical and editorial fraternity. He served successfully in various positions in the printing office and finally reached the editorial chair of the Emporium. While so occupied he studied law, and in 1845 was admitted to practice. In his political faith he a firm supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, and so continued until 1854. In 1850 he was elected district attorney of Schuylkill county, for the period of three years, and from that time took a high position as a lawyer, and stood, at a later date, in the front rank of his profession in the commonwealth. In 1854 he allied himself to the "People's Party," which opposed the pro- slavery dogma of the modern Democracy. In 1856 he was a member of the Union State Central Committee and chairman pro tem. of the committee to arrange the electoral ticket. In 1858 he was elected to the State Senate from Schuylkill county, and during his term, and mainly through his exertions, that county received more local legislation of a reformatory character than any other in the State outside of Philadelphia, amounting to an annual saving of $50,000 to the people in taxes. He was elected speaker of the Senate during his last year of service, and filled the chair with distinguished ability. A half century before, his grandfather had occu- pied the same position. In the spring of 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln minister to the Argentine Confederation, and sailed for that country in May of the same year. His health was not good during his residence there, and in less than a year he resolved to go home, his physicians trusting that the sea air might be ot benefit to him. He died April 26th, 1862, on the thirteenth day out, and on the following day his remains were committed to the deep. He left a widow and six children, four of whom are living. His second son in the order of birth, but the eldest now living, Dr. Charles T. Palmer, a well- known oculist and aurist, after serving two years as resi- dent physician of Mills Ophthalmic Hospital, Philadelphia, returned to Pottsville, and in 1871 was elected coroner of Schuylkill county, which position he filled with much credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the people at large.

BENJAMIN SPAYD.

Benjamin Spayd (whose great-grandfather was Chris- tian Spayd, a settler in Hummelstown, Dauphin county, Pa., in 1727) canie to Schuylkill county in 1815, and set- tling in Port Carbon in that year engaged in the business of coal mining. He removed to Pottsville in 1830, and in March of that year was commissioned a magistrate, " to hold the office so long as he behaves himself well." He was elected in 1841 for five years. His office and residence was on Norwegian street, below Center street, where his son, William H. Spayd (now a resident of Phil- adelphia), was born in 1833. Benjamin Spayd died in 1843, and was buried in the old graveyard of the Luther- an church, at the lower end of Pine Grove.

C. H. Hassler ML

DR. CHARLES HERMAN HAESELER was born March 30th, 1830, at Nordheim, in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany. When he was three years of age his parents emigrated to this country, and after short residences in various other parts of Pennsylvania, located themselves in Pottsville, where his father, the late Dr. Charles Haese- ler, who was a graduate of the University of Goettingen, engaged in the practice of medicine, and, in conjunction with Dr. B. Becker, was the first who introduced the new system of homœopathy in this part of the State.

The subject of this sketch likewise studied medicine, and after graduating in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York, pursued the practice of his profession in that city five years, after which he removed, in 1857, to Pottsville, where he established a large and lucrative practice and an influential reputation as a physician. During the Civil War he twice entered the service of his country with the militia, and for the third time during the emergency after the Gettysburg battle, when he served as assistant surgeon in the 20th Pennsylvania cavalry, a six months regiment. At the expiration of his terni of service he was presented with a sword in recognition of his suc- cessful management of an epidemic of diptheria, which broke out in the regiment.

In 1871, having been elected to the chair of Pathology and Practice of Medicine, by the faculty of the Hahne- mann College, of Philadelphia, he removed to that city in order to perform the functions thus devolving upon him; but his private professional business soon attained such proportions that he could not attend adequately thereto and at the same time do justice to his duties as a professor in the college. He therefore resigned the latter position and devoted himself exclusively to the former.

In 1877, his health being greatly impaired, he left Philadelphia and again took up his residence in Potts- ville, where he hoped by a semi-retirement from active business to recover his lost health, in which he has now measurably succeeded.

The doctor has also occupied himself at intervals, amid his professional duties, with literary pursuits, having con- tributed largely to the medical and other periodicals of the country. Of the year 1867 he spent the greater part in Europe, where he visited the hospitals and medical institutions of nearly all the great cities, such as London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Heidelberg, Rome, etc. After his return to America he published an account of his travels abroad in a book entitled "Across the Atlantic," issued by the Petersons of Philadelphia.

farol Kline

JUDGE JACOB KLINE.

Jacob Kline was born in Berks county, Pa., October 18th, 1798. He came to Pottsville, when young, and lived there up to the time of his death. He held the office of justice of the peace for a number of years, and was an associate judge of Schuylkill county fifteen years, taking an active part in politics, espousing the Democratic cause. He died Friday, March 26th, 1880, of paralysis, at the age of eighty-two, and was buried in the Odd Fellows' Cemetery, Pottsville. He was married twice, his second wife, who survives him, having been Miss Maria Lewis, of Orwigsburg, Pa., to whom he was married April 3d, 1855. Mrs. Kline was for many years a teacher at Orwigsburg and elsewhere, and during her career as such, taught many men who afterward became well known in the county and in the west. She is now past three-score and ten years, and is honored and respected by a wide circle of acquaintances and relations, who hope she may long be spared to them.

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History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 68

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell Number of Pages: 604

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell
Number of Pages: 604