History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 69

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

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MRS. JACOB KLINE.

301

HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.

JUDGE C. L. PERSHING.

Cyrus L. Pershing, president judge of the 21st judicial district of Pennsylvania, was born in Westmoreland county, Pa. When he was five years of age the family residence was changed to Johnstown, Pa., where his father died in 1836. Thrown upon his own resources, the subject of this sketch, by means of money earned in teaching school and clerking in offices connected with the State canal and railroad, paid his own way at Jeffer- son College, Pennsylvania, of which institution he is a graduate. After leaving college he entered as a student at law, the office of Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, in Somerset, Pa., where he was admitted to the bar, shortly after which time he commenced the practice of the law at his home, in Cambria county, Pa.

In September, 1856, Mr. Pershing was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Congress in the district composed of the counties of Somerset, Cambria, Blair and Huntington. The district was Republican by a clear majority of 2,500, and had been carried in 1854 by over 5,000 majority. After an energetic canvass in the limited time between the nomination and the election in October Mr. Pershing was defeated by only 284 majority. In 1858 he was again nominated for Congress and de- feated. The dissensions growing out of the Kansas slavery excitement that year brought disaster to the Dem- ocratic ticket, State and Congressional.

In 1861 Mr. Pershing was elected to represent Cambria county in the Legislature of the State, and was re-elected in 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865. During the whole period of his service he was a member of the ways and means, judiciary and other important committees, general and special. At the session of 1863 he was chairman of the committee on federal relations, and in 1864 was the nominee of the Democrats for speaker of the House. Mr. Pershing also represented his Congressional district in the Union national convention, which met in Philadelphia in August, 1866, of which General Dix was elected presi- dent, and where, for the first time after the war, the lead- ing men of both sections confronted each other in a de- liberative assembly. In 1868 he was placed on the Dem- ocratic electoral ticket in the Presidential contest of that year.

In 1869 Hon. Asa Packer and Mr. Pershing were placed in nomination as the Democratic candidates for governor and judge of the supreme court respectively. By the vote as counted both were defeated by small ma- jorities.

In 1872 Mr. Pershing was nominated for president judge of the judicial district composed of the county of Schuylkill, by the conventions of the Labor Reformers and Republicans. He also received a large vote for the same office in the Democratic convention. His election, which followed, necessitated his removal from Johnstown, in the western part of the State, to Pottsville, where he has since resided.

On the 10th of September, 1875, Judge Pershing was nominated for governor by the Democratic State con- vention, which met at Erie. Governor Hartranft was re- elected in consequence of the large majority which his party commanded in the city of Philadelphia. The State, outside of the city, gave Judge Pershing a hand- some majority.

Judge Pershing still presides over the courts of Schuyl- kill county. During the time he has occupied a seat on the bench, particularly in the years 1876 and 1877, the usual monotony of judicial life has been varied by a number of trials of Mollie Maguire conspirators, which excited great interest throughout the country.

JUDGE DAVID B. GREEN.

David B. Green was born in Reading, Berks county, Pa., December 22nd, 1831. His parents were John and Catharine (Bright) Green. After attending the schools of his native town he entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1852. Returning to Reading he read law in the office of John S. Richards, Esq., and was ad- mitted to the bar in January, 1855. In the following April he removed to Pottsville, where he began the practice of his profession and met with much success.

In 1862 he was appointed adjutant of the 129th regi- ment Pennsylvania volunteers, attached to the 5th army corps. He served nine months and was with the regi- ment at the second Bull Run battle, at the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and in other minor engagements.' In the summer of 1863, dur- ing the invasion of Pennsylvania by the rebel forces, at the organization of the "emergency " regiments Mr. Green was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 27th Pennsylvania regiment, with which he served until mus- tered out of service in August following.

Resuming the practice of his profession in Pottsville, in 1865 he formed a law partnership with the late Hon. Lin Bartholomew, which was amicably dissolved in 1866. In 1867, upon the passage of the law creating a new criminal court for the counties of Schuylkill, Dauphin and Lebanon, he was, without solicitation on his part, appointed by Governor John W. Geary president judge of the court. In the fall of the same year, having re- ceived the nomination of the Republican party for the same office, he was elected for a term of ten years. Owing to bitter opposition it was some time before the court could go into effective operation, which was not effected until the Supreme Court had affirmed the con- stitutionality of the law creating it, when the entire crim- inal business of the county of Schuylkill came before the court and was dispatched there from 1870 to 1874; then the new constitution of the State abolished the court and Judge Green was transferred, under its operation, to the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill county, as a law judge, for the remainder of his term, which expired in January, 1878.

Receiving the nomination of the Republican party for the office of assistant law judge of Schuylkill county he was defeated by Hon. O. P. Bechtel, and has since then been engaged in the practice of his profession. As a lawyer Judge Green stands high among those who have been prominent at the bar of Schuylkill county. As a judge his administration was marked by careful, pains- taking consideration of such questions as were submitted to his decision, and his bitterest political opponents have never charged him with even unwitting perversion of justice. As a citizen he is honored and respected, and has ever been foremost among the active promoters of the best interests of Pottsville. December 8th, 1870, he married Kate, daughter of L. P. Brooke, then of Lynch- burg, Va., previously and now of Pottsville

HON. THOMAS H. WALKER.

Thomas H. Walker was born June 15th, 1823, in Win- sor, Lancaster county, Pa. His parents were Lewis and Sarah Y. (Hubley) Walker. He was a student in Penn- sylvania and La Fayette colleges, and later a civil engi- neer and a member of the engineer corps employed on the North Branch canal. In the spring of 1844 he came to Pottsville and entered as a student the law office of Horace Smith, Esq. In January, 1847, he was admitted to practice at the Luzerne county bar and soon opened

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Thorax Walken

ORBechtel

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.

an office, and has since enjoyed a successful career as an attorney. He was married May 18th, 1854, to Susan E. Schollenberger. In 1856 he was elected district attorney of Schuylkill county. He was a presidential elector in 1860 and in 1868. In 1866 he received the nomination in the Democratic convention of Schuylkill county for the office of representative in the national Congress, but with- drew in favor of Dr. Cyrus D. Gloninger, of Lebanon county. In 1871 he was elected additional law judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill county for a term of ten years. In May, 1878, he was appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania one of the delegates to the international prison congress, which convened at Stock- holm, Sweden, August 20th following, and while abroad visited all of the principal prisons of Europe, including those at London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Geneva, closely studying the systems upon which they were managed. Politically Judge Walker has been a lifelong Democrat and an active and influen- tial worker for the success of that party, making speeches in all parts of the county and elsewhere and attending State conventions frequently as a senatorial and repre- sentative delegate. His career has been one of honest endeavor which has reaped its legitimate reward. Left an orphan at an early age, he was thrown upon his own resources and has made his way in the world unaided by friends, except such as he has won among those with whom he has been associated in social, professional and political life.

HON. O. P. BECHTEL.

John Bechtel, father of Judge O. P. Bechtel, was born near Doylestown. Bucks county, Pa., October 6th, 1798. For many years he lived in Berks county, where for a long time he kept the "Half Way House" between Read- ing and Kulztown. During an extended period he was a mail contractor and stage proprietor, carrying passengers and mails between Easton and Harrisburg via Allen- town and Reading, and from Reading to Pottsville. At a later period he was for ten or eleven years a resident of Northumberland county, where he owned the " Warrior Run " farm, and kept the "stone tavern " which stood upon it, a few miles from Watsontown. From Northum- berland county he removed to Pottsville in 1847 and thence to Middleport in 1851. At Middleport he was postmaster during the administration of Presidents Pierce, Buchanan and Johnson. . The first three or four years of his residence in Middleport were passed in tav- ern keeping, which he abandoned never to resume again. Politically he was a Democrat and as such was well known in Schuylkill county. He was married twice, his second wife having been Eliza S. Beiber, mother of Judge O. P. Bechtel. This lady, a native of Berks county, in 1808 died at Middleport in June, 1880, her husband having died in the latter part of December, 1872.

O. P. Bechtel was born on his father's farm, in North- umberland county, Pa., June 31st, 1842. He attended the common schools, principally at Middleport, and in his eighteenth year began teaching school in Wayne township, Schuylkill county, and later taught in West Brunswick township. Two years later he was for a por- tion of a year a student at the Allentown Seminary, and in September, 1861, he began teaching in the Arcadian Institute at Orwigsburg, also reciting in several branches to the principal. In the fall of 1862 he went to Mahan- oy City and assumed charge of the leading school there, conducting it until April, 1864, when he entered the ser-

vice of the Preston Coal and Improvement Company, at Girardville, as book-keeper and paymaster, in which position he remained until March 20th, 1865. when he became a student in the law office of Messrs. Hughes & Dewees, at Pottsville, having been three years previously registered as a student in the office of his brother, James B. Bechtel, of Reading, Pa. April 12th, 1866, he passed an examination for admission to the bar very creditably, and May 10th following was formally admitted to prac- tice. Opening an office on Center street, Pottsville, without delay, he soon had a remunerative practice. He was tendered by his fellow citizens the nomination for the office of district attorney, but declined the same, preferring to preserve his independence as an attorney in private practice to accepting the emoluments arising from that position. In 1873 he was by a combination of cir- cumstances constrained to become the Democratic nom- inee for the office of State senator from the tenth dis- trict and was elected over three opposing candidates with a majority of nearly fifteen hundred and an excess of nearly one hundred votes over the combined ballot for his opponents. He served with signal eredit three years, often doing duty as a member of important com- mittees, among them those on "constitutional reform," " railroads," and "judiciary general," and was offered a re-nomination, which he declined on account of the pressure of his accumulating professional duties. In August, 1877, the Democratic convention gave him a unanimous nomination for the office of judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was elected by a majority of between sixteen and eighteen hundred and was sworn in in January, 1878. His career as a judge has more than met the most ardent expectations of his numerous personal and political friends, and when he retires from the bench it will be with honor. September 15th, 1868, he married Mary Elizabeth Epting, of Pottsville. On her mother's side this lady is of the Myer family, long well known in Pennsylvania, of which her grandfather, Philip Myer, and her great-grandfather, John Myer, both held the office of attorney-general. Mr. Bechtel occupies a high social position and as a citizen is much respected by all classes. He is known as a faithful servant of the people rather than as a politician.

ROBERT E. DIFFENDERFER.

Robert E. Diffenderfer, of Pottsville, was born in Lewisburg, Union county, June 7th, 1849. He graduated from the Lewisburg normal school, and for a while after- ward attended the Lewisburg University. He began to practice dentistry with Dr. R. E. Burlan, of Lewisburg, September 30th, 1867. He removed to Pottsville Sep- tember 30th, 1872, where he has since practiced his pro- fession. He was secretary of the Pennsylvania Dental Society in 1876, and was the first president of the Penn- sylvania Central Dental Association. He has served two terms as a member of the Pottsville borough council, and was a candidate on the Greenback Labor Reform ticket for the office of coroner of Schuylkill county. He has long been an earnest advocate of the issue of money by the government, and from his youth up has been strenu- ously opposed to monopolies of all kinds. April 17th, 1872, he married Miss Kate R., daughter of G. W. Proctor, of Lewisburg. As a dentist Dr. Diffenderfer is one of the most skillful; as a citizen he is respected by all, and in his business, political and social relations he has won many and earnest friends.

303

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-HON. WILLIAM DONALDSON.

HON. WILLIAM DONALDSON.

The subject of this sketch is a living example of the force of intellect when combined with great firmness and true courage.

William Donaldson was born in the town of Danville, Pa., July 28th, 1799, and is therefore now in his 82nd year. His grandfather, William Donaldson, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, throughout its entire period. His father, John Donaldson, died early, leaving him, at the age of seven years, with his widowed mother and sev- eral sisters, to struggle for support. They met with suc- cess, however, and in addition William acquired a fair English education. He learned the mercantile business with the venerable Matthew Newkirk, of Philadelphia, now deceased, and soon afterward started in that voca- tion in his native town. There he operated extensively in the purchase and sale of grain and other products of the country, which were then sent to market in arks, on the Susquehanna river. These transactions made him favor- ably known to all the leading merchants and dealers in that valley as far south as Baltimore.

In 1829 he married a daughter of John Cowden, Esq., a merchant of Northumberland, Pa. Their family con- sists of a son and three daughters.

Mr. Donaldson became in 1837 the principal owner of a very large body of coal lands in the western part of Schuylkill county, at that time comparatively a wilder- ness; and, almost unaided, conceived the project of de- veloping this portion of the anthracite coal fields. Its accomplishment by the construction of a railroad and the erection of colliery improvements necessarily involved the outlay of a very large amount of capital, and years of time and personal attention. Nothing daunted, this work was undertaken. The Swatara Railroad was built under his management. The Donaldson Improvement and Railroad Company was organized with the same president. Soon the railroad was finished which con- nected his and vast bodies of other coal lands with the Mine Hill Railroad and Union Canal, and numerous ex- tensive and costly collieries were erected on the land. The town of Donaldson also was laid out on the property. It now consists of machine shops, hotels, churches and houses, sufficient to accom- modate a population of several thousand inhabitants. The borough of Tremont, a mile south, and of equal population and similar industries, was also the direct re- sult of these improvements. Thus a wilderness was converted into a productive territory under his leader- ship. He remained in the control of the Swatara Rail- road Company and of the Donaldson Improvement and Railroad Company until 1863, when they were merged in the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company.

During this time he participated in one of the most important legal contests affecting land titles that ever took place in Pennsylvania. Its final termination in favor of Judge Donaldson well illustrates his great en- ergy and intellectual strength. The title to all his coal lands was involved in this suit. It is the great case of Grant vs. Levan, as reported in 4th Penn- sylvania State Reports, beginning on page 393. It embodies a ruling by the Supreme Court of that State which, although probably right according to mere technical legal logic, was shown through the ef- forts of Judge Donaldson to be a theory that the facts disproved. There were ten distinct legal propositions passed upon and determined in the case. These were mainly decided in his favor: but one, then seeming the most vital of all, was point blank against him. Certain deed polls from Robert Martin to Robert Morris (the great financier of the Revolution) were not and had never

been in the possession of the parties to the litigation. The opposing side claimed under Robert Martin, and the Donaldson title was under Robert Morris. The only evidence of conveyance by Martin to Morris was the en- dorsement in a connected draft of these lands. It was found in the possession of the representatives of Martin, after his decease and reads.

" These lands sold to Robert Morris, Esq., of Philadel- phia. Deed polls to him, purchase money pd. me. " ROBERT MARTIN."

"The over measure to be cast up and accounted for."

The Supreme Court decided that as this paper had not been delivered it had no greater effect than a verbal ad- mission, and therefore "under the circumstances the statute of frauds was a bar." The result of this decision, altogether unexpected, spread consternation among many who had acquired interests in these lands, and others indirectly affected by this seeming defeat of the Donaldson claim. Judge Donaldson, however, was posi- tive that the endorsement on the draft meant more than the Supreme Court thus said. Believing that the deed polls had been in existence he thought that, so far from being a " mere " verbal admission of a verbal sale, and therefore affected by the statute of frauds, the draft was in truth and fact a written declaration and admission by the grantor of formal written conveyances under seal, executed and delivered. Acting upon his convictions he determined that these deed polls should be discovered. This, as the result showed, involved years of search, and in the traveling expenses of himself from "Maine to Georgia," and the pay of assistants, many thou- sands of dollars were expended. His faith in his own conclusions and his determination therefore to find these papers never forsook him. Robert Morris had owned millions of acres of land in most of the then States of the Union. The papers of deceased lawyers and agents who had once represented Robert Morris or those claiming under him, in every State, were disinterred to find the lost deeds. Not a clue was thus obtained. At last it was discovered that Robert Morris had a son living, a sea captain, commanding a vessel in the New York and East India trade. This information was received one Saturday. That same day Captain Morris arrived in New York, and was visited at his hotel early the next morning. On being interrogated the cap- tain remembered that many years before, when in Phila- delphia, his mother had complained to him of the burden of many boxes and barrels containing quantities of his father's old papers. Believing them of no value she did not wish to preserve them. The captain, to relieve her, took them to New York city and placed them in an old storehouse No time was lost in making search among these papers, and the same morning, Sunday, there in a bundle, still bound together, were found the long lost documents. They were the ten deed polls for the ten tracts of land, the surveys of which were connected in the before mentioned draft, and which tracts were 4,500 acres of anthracite coal lands, worth over a million of dollars. The papers were delivered for a large con- sideration, and their genuineness was easily established. The other parties to the controversy thereupon withdrew from the contest, seeing that the decision of the Supreme Court was effectually reversed.

While at Danville he was appointed an associate judge for Columbia county by Governor David R. Porter, en- tirely without solicitation on his part or that of mere per- sonal friends. This appointment was confirmed by the Senate unanimously.

In politics for many years he was a Democrat of the " old school," but never sought office. He and the late

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY

Justice Grier, of the United States Supreme Court, par- ticipated in the first meeting held in Danville in support of General Andrew Jackson for the presidency. After that Judge Donaldson co-operated with the Democratic party until about 1848, when he was made an elector on the "Free-soil " ticket. Since then he has been a member of the Republican party.

Since 1863 he has almost entirely retired from actual business pursuits, though idleness has been impossible for his active mind and temperament.

For over sixty years he has been a member of the grand lodge of A. Y. M. of Pennsylvania. The charter for the Danville lodge, No. 224, was granted to him as worshipful master. He still retains his place as a mem- ber of that lodge.

He is an active participant in the affairs and manage- ment of the Presbyterian church. He is especially in- terested in the " Second Church " at Pottsville, organized by Rev. I. D. Mitchell in 1857, now under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Dr. Smiley, and formerly of the Rev. W. S. Plumer, D. D.

The warm, genial and social disposition of Judge Don- aldson has surrounded him with a vast circle of devoted friends, and now, in the full possession of his physical and mental faculties, he enjoys, as he deservedly receives, the kindest sympathies and approval of all who know him.

On Wednesday, September 10th, 1879, the crowning social event of this long and eventful life occurred. It was nothing less than the celebration, by himself and wife, of the 50th anniversary of their marriage. Socially the golden wedding was a brilliant success; for, in addi- tion to all the elite of Pottsville, the entire county was represented, and many friends and relatives came from distant points, particularly Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Reading, Danville, Trenton, N. J., and Elmira, N. Y., where the family has large connections. The celebra- tion was given the form of a reception, and the guests vied with the children and grandchildren of the happy couple in offering hearty congratulations, sincere good wishes and tokens of esteem and friendship. Still the pleasantness had a tinge of pathos, for among all the throng there were only two-Mrs. Maria D. Colt, of Danville, and Mrs. S. J. Tuthill, of Elmira, N. Y.,-who had witnessed the original wedding. Since then the judge's only sister, Mrs. Colt, has died. This leaves him and his wife the last living members of their respective families. And so, literally alone together, they tread in peace and prosperity the well known paths which have been made by many years of quiet endeavor to do faith- fully that only which is honorable and right.

GEN. J. K. SIGFRIED.

Joshua K. Sigfried was born in Orwigsburg, then the seat of justice of Schuylkill county, July 4th, 1832. His father, Jonas Sigfried, was a native of Pennsylvania and a wheelwright by trade. He died about 1840. His mother, who previous to her marriage was Miss Susan Krater, was a native of Schuylkill county. She died at Orwigsburg in 1863. General Sigfried attended school between the ages of six and ten years, and then embarked on the sea of business life as a store boy in the employ of Messrs. Lyon & Rishel, at Port Clinton, where he remain- ed five years. At the expiration of this time, realizing the need of more schooling than he had been enabled to obtain, he entered the old Pottsville academy as a student. It was only a year, however, before he found it necessary to again find employment and resume the laborious task of making his way in the world. Going to Lykens,

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History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 69

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