History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 19

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1390

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Company, and of the York Hotel Company. There are also a number of minor enterprises with which he is connected. The business capacity has in Mr. Dempwolf been developed to an extent that entitles him to be considered

ter of Charles H. Smith ( deceased), a well- known lime manufacturer of York. To this union four children were born, as follows: C. H., Jr., a chemist ; Nellie C., who attended Wellesley College, in Massachusetts; Clara Agnes and Marion Louise, who are both in school. Mr. Dempwolf is a member of Christ Lutheran Church, while in the political field he affiliates with the Democratic party. He also belongs to the Lafayette and Country Clubs. The family residence on South George street is one of the most attractive and hospi- table in the city.

MATTHEW GARRETT COLLINS is the efficient general manager and treasurer of the York Silk Manufacturing Company, whose business has developed to its present propor- tions under his skillful care. He is one of the younger business men of York, and is a con- spicuous example of the success that waits on fidelity, intelligent enterprise and good judg- ment.

The Collins family in America was founded by five or six brothers who came to this coun- try from Scotland. One of these brothers set- tled near Pittsburgh, and became the great- grandfather of Matthew Garrett.

George M. Collins, grandfather of Matthew Garrett, was a contracting painter, a business which his son, Oliver C., also followed. The latter met his death prematurely, by a fall from a ladder, in his thirty-eighth year.

Oliver C. Collins married Elizabeth Rode- baugh, daughter of Samuel Rodebaugh, of West Newton, Pa. Of the seven children born to this marriage, three died in infancy. The other members of the family are: Samuel R., a merchant of Charleroi, Pa .: George McL., also of Charleroi: Oliver C., of Pittsburgh : and Matthew Garrett, of this sketch.

Matthew Garrett Collins was born Feb. 25, 1874, in Mckeesport, Pa., and was educated in the public schools. He took up his father's

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RESIDENCE OF M. ( G. COLLINS, YORK, PENNSYLVANIA

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BIOGRAPHICAL

business of painting, making a specialty of signs. But that work was not to his taste, and he gave it up and went to New York City, where he found employment as a messenger with a firm of bankers and brokers. After a year in this position he had so gained the con- fidence of his employers that they sent him to Pennsylvania, and in 1898 he built a silk mill at Fleetwood. The superintendent left soon after the mill was put in operation, and Mr. Collins took the management into his own hands. He soon put up another mill at Car- lisle, and in 1899 came to York, that "city of industries," where he built two more mills. These four mills, at Fleetwood, Carlisle and York, are now consolidated under the manage- ment of the York Silk Manufacturing Com- pany, with Mr. Collins as its general mana- ger. The concern makes a specialty of Money- bak black silk, which finds a ready market all over the United States. The enterprise was successful from the start, and paid the stock- holders a seven per cent dividend each year from the beginning of operations. The capa- city is ten thousand yards a day, and in 1904 the business amounted to two million dollars.

Mr. Collins married, Dec. 22, 1898, Effie L. Craig, daughter of Hugh Craig, superin- tendent of the mines of the Pittsburg Coal Company, at Charleroi. A daughter, Louise, was born in 1900 and died in 1901, aged fifteen months. One son, Craig, was also born to this marriage.

Mr. Collins is a Mason, a member of the Blue Lodge, and also a member of the Artis- ans. In politics he is a Republican, but has never been blindly partisan. He is an active member of the Methodist Church of York, of which he is a trustee : and in all of his affairs, social, business, political and religious, he is known and honored for his liberal and broad- minded views. The two magnificent silk mills in York of which he was the inceptor and founder will prove enduring monuments to his memory, employing, as they do, hundreds of skilled laborers whose comfortable homes are made more easily possible through their lu- crative wages, sending thousands of dollars through the avenues of trade; and no man in the community has done a better work in this direction than has Matthew Garrett Collins.

JOHN HAY WOGAN has been for more than twenty years past president of the York County Agricultural. Society, and has been largely instrumental in making a national reputation for that association.

An early American ancestor of the Wogan family was John Wogan, who, on June 18, 1737, secured irom John, Thomas and Will- iam Penn a grant of 318 acres of land in Lancaster county, Pa. A portion of this es- tate remains in the possession of the family to-day. By the will of this John Wogan, dated Dec. 20, 1747, a tract of 100 acres was be- queathed to the Protestant Church of the neighborhood "never to be sold, but always to be used for church purposes." The Wogan family is of Scotch-Irish descent, and the first emigrants to this country settled in Maryland, but moved to Pennsylvania early in the eigh- teenth century. The name was originally spelled Hogens, which was modified to Vogens and many generations ago became Wogan, as at present.

George Wogan, father of John Hay, was born on the ancestral farm, and died at York in 1879, at the age of seventy-nine. He mar- ried Margaret Hay, daughter of Col. John Hay, a veteran of the war of 1812 (a sketch of whom appears elsewhere), who died at the age of eighty. She was the mother of three children, of whom Anna H. died at the age of fifty-eight, and Rebecca at the age of seven. The third child was John Hay Wogan.

John Hay Wogan was born Dec. 15, 1837, in Manchester township, York county, was sent to boarding schools in Cumberland, York and Chester counties, and completed his studies in the York County Academy. After his mar- riage Mr. Wogan occupied himself for thirty years with farming. He then retired to Mount Wolf, and in 1902 removed to York, where he has since made his home. For more than twenty years he has been prominently be- fore the public as president of the York Coun- ty Agricultural Society, and is widely known in business circles as president of the West York Furniture Manufacturing Company.

In 1859 Mr. Wogan married Sarah Wolf, daughter of Adam Wolf, a merchant of what is now East Manchester, York county, and to this union six children have been born, as

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

follows: Caleb, general dealer in stocks; An- when but ten years of age. His first position na H., wife of Charles Sayres, a merchant of of importance was that of foreman in the paper York; George, a farmer, living on the home- stead farm; William W., D. D. S., a graduate of the University of Baltimore, class of 1887, now practicing dentistry in York; C. Edward, D. D. S., a graduate of the University of Bal- timore, class of 1889, now practicing dentistry in Carlisle, Pa. ; and I. Park, superintendent of a furniture factory at Mt. Hope, and also of the factory of the West York Furniture Com- pany.

John Hay Wogan is one of the most sub- stantial and progressive residents of York, a keen business man and public-spirited citizen. He is a Republican in politics. While living in Manchester township he was for six years one of the board of school directors. His father was one of the organizers of the York County Agricultural Society, of which Mr. Wogan has been for many years the efficient president.

JOHN McCOY is vice-president and man- ager of the York Card & Paper Company, of which he was one of the principal organizers and stockholders.

Mr. McCoy bears the full patronymic of his paternal grandfather, John McCoy, who was of Scotch-Irish descent and who was a successful gardener in the city of Philadelphia, where his death occurred. There was born his son Robert, father of our subject, and he be- came a leading contracting plumber in that city, where he died in 1899, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Wentz, was likewise born and reared in Philadelphia, and there she still maintains her home. Of the ten children of this union it is recorded that Elizabeth, Mar- tha. Catherine and Adam died in early child- hood, and, besides Mr. McCoy himself, the survivors are as follows: Hugh and Robert, who are employees of the York Card & Paper Co .; and Margaret, Mary and Anna, who re- main with their mother in Philadelphia. .

factory of the Janeway Company, at Bruns- wick, N. J., where he remained five years. At the expiration of that period he was similarly employed in the works of the A. A. Yerkes Paper Company, of Philadelphia. Still in the employ of the same company, he came to York in 1887, the factory of the concern be- ing there established in what is now known as the Codorus Paper Mill, while about three years after its locating there the business was sold to the national wallpaper trust. Shortly afterward, in 1892. Mr. McCoy associated him- self with Judge W. F. Bay Stewart, of York, in the organization of the York Card & Pa- per Co., of which the Judge became president and Mr. McCoy vice-president and general manager. The first building utilized by the new concern, which valiantly placed itself in opposition to the trust, was that now occupied by the York Wall Paper Company, while to- day the plant occupies a large and substantial modern structure, which was specially erected for the purpose, under the personal supervis- ion of Mr. McCoy. In the works employment is given to nearly 300 persons at the time of this writing, and the products of the vast con- cern, particularly in the line of wall paper, are sold in all sections of the Union, and an ex- port trade of important scope has been estab- lished and is constantly expanding. In addi- tion to his identification with this magnificent enterprise Mr. McCoy has signalized his pro- gressive spirit by associating himself with other important concerns. He is president of the Cecil Paper Company, and a member of the directorates of the Norway Steel & Iron Company and the Gypsum Product Company, of Buffalo, N. Y. Mr. McCoy was formerly a director of the Security Trust Company of York, resigning this office, in 1902. to become a candidate for the city treasurership. for which he was nominated on the Republican ticket. Though York was at that time normal- ly Democratic by a large majority he was de- feated only by the narrow margin of about fifty votes. He is a stockholder in the Safety Storage Company, of York. and also in the

John McCoy, son of Robert, was born in Philadelphia. Sept. 5. 1856, and in the public schools of his native city he secured his edu- cation, though he early began to assume the York Knitting Mills. He is a valued member practical responsibilities of life, having se- of the Royal Fire Company, of York, was cured work in a local wallpaper manufactory chairman of the building committee which sup-

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erintended the erection of the present fine en- he completed the course in the college depart- gine house, and is now a trustee and one of the ment of the University of Pennsylvania, re- vice-presidents of the company. As promoter of the York Card & Paper Co., Mr. McCoy may be said to have inaugurated the industrial boom, which has not only made West York a center of industrial activity but given the en- tire city an impetus of pronounced order. Few citizens in recent years have done more for the advancement of the city along industrial lines.

Mr. McCoy has ever accorded allegiance to the Republican party. Fraternally he is af- filiated with the Masonic order, being a mem- ber of Zeredatha Lodge, No. 451, also with the B. P. O. E. while socially he is a member of the Lafayette, the Country and the Bachelor Clubs, of York. He is held in the highest con- fidence and esteem in both business and social circles. Both he and his wife hold member- ship in the First Presbyterian Church.

On Feb. 9, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McCoy to Miss Catherine Wallace Smith, of Stirling, Scotland, where she was born and reared, daughter of John Smith, a prominent shoe manufacturer and an influential citizen of Glasgow. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy have three children, namely : John S., who is treasurer of the York Card & Paper Co .: Elizabeth Wallace, the wife of C. H. Emig, of York; and Robert Douglas, who is preparing himself to succeed his father as manager of the York Card & Paper Company.

JOHN S. McCOY. Ours is an age of pre- eminence for the young man in business. One of the most important of the industries of the city of York is that represented by the York Card & Paper Company, of which John S. Mc- Coy, although still on the sunny side of thirty, is secretary and treasurer. He is a son of John McCoy, the able vice-president and manager of the company above mentioned, and a mem- ber of an old and honored family.

John Smith McCoy was born in New Brunswick, N. J., Jan. 30, 1878, and was about eight years of age at the time of his parents' removal to York. in whose public schools he secured his preliminary education completing a course in the high school, and thereafter con- tinuing his studies in Mercersburg College. From the latter institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897, while in 1901

ceiving the degree of B. S. Soon afterward he became identified with the executive manage- ment of the York Card & Paper Company, his father being one of the stockholders of the con- cern, and in 1901 he was made secretary and treasurer of the company. An idea of the re- sponsible and exacting duties devolving upon him in this connection may be gained when is noted the fact that the annual output of wall paper is greater than that of any other factory in the world, having reached the stupendous aggregate of twenty-five millions of rolls a year. Farther than this, however, Mr. Mc- Coy finds demands on his time and attention as an executive officer, since he is treasurer of the York Safety Storage Company, director and secretary of the York Market Company, and secretary of the Royal Fire Company and general manager of the Cecil Paper Co. His capacity for detail work is large; he is a reli- able, progressive and energetic young busi- ness man and one who has won much prestige in a minimum period. He is a master Mason, being affiliated with Zeredatha Lodge, No. 451, A. F. & A. M., and the B. P. O. E., and, in a social way, is a popular member of the Bach- elor and the Country Clubs, of York. Both he and his wife are members of the First Presby- terian Church.

On May 22, 1902, Mr. McCoy was united in marriage to Miss Rose Elma Manifold, daughter of Sheriff S. M. Manifold, former general manager of the York Traction Com- pany and the Edison Electric Light Company, who resigned those positions to become the sheriff of the county, having been elected to that office in November, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy have one son, Samuel J., who was born Aug. 13, 1903.

JOHN EDWARD VANDERSLOOT. a promising and active member of the York coun- ty Bar, was born at Glen Rock, York county, Feb. 17. 1869, son of Dr. Frederick W. and Sarah G. G. (Fife) Vandersloot. The fam- ily is of German lineage, the first progenitor in Pennsylvania having been the Rev. Frederick WV. Vandersloot, who was born in Zerbst, a town in Anhalt-Dessau. a principality in Up- per Saxony, Germany, in 1743. He was the

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only son of Rev. Frederick Wilhelm Von-der-

sicians in York county, having been in active sloot, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1782, practice from 1855, in which year he graduated his wife and family remaining in Europe. His from the University of Maryland, until his death, in 1904. He married Sarah G. G. Fife, a daughter of Robert Fife, of Shrewsbury. Mrs. Vandersloot was born in Shrewsbury, Feb. 21, 1838, and was of Irish descent. She died Feb. 13, 1898, aged fifty-nine years. They reared a family of five children : Frederick W., Jr., Anna (who married John F. Kissinger ), Robert F., John Edward and Lewis. Dr. Van- dersloot died Jan. 13, 1904. first field of labor lay in Allen township, Northampton Co., Pa., and became known later as the "Dry Land Charge." From 1784 to 1786 he served as the German Reformed pas- tor of the Goshenhappen Church, in Upper Sal- lord township, Montgomery county. His first wife having died, he married, Jan. 29. 1784, Miss Anna Margaretta Reid, oldest daughter of Jacob Reid, of Hatfield township. Mr. Van- dersloot returned to Northampton county, where he died in 1803.

Rev. Frederick W. Vandersloot (III) was an eloquent and forceful preacher. He was born Nov. II, 1775, in Dessau, Germany. Af- ter finishing his education at Heidelberg Uni- versity he followed his father to Pennsylvania, where he married Catherine D. Pauli, daugh- ter of Rev. P. R. Pauli, of Reading, Pa. From 1812 to 1818 Mr. Vandersloot was the Ger- man Reformed pastor at Goshenhappen Church and also preached in Philadelphia, Pa., in West Virginia, and at other places, finally settling in York county, where he died Dec. 14. 1831. He was buried with his wife at Holz Schwamm Church, his last charge.

Frederick W. Vandersloot (IV) was born in Philadelphia, Jan. 8, 1804, and, following in the footsteps of his honored ancestors, became a minister. He upheld the high reputation gained in the pulpit by his predecessors, and proved himself worthy of their mantle. His labors were confined almost exclusively to York county, where he was widely known and greatly esteemed and beloved. His charges in York were numerous, among them being Sad- ler's Church. Ziegler's, near Seven Valley. Bli- myer's Church, Zion's Church, Springetsbury and Stahley's Church, Lower End. At the last named charge his ministry extended over a period of forty-four years. He married Mary A. Witman, and died Sept. 11. 1878. Both are interred in Prospect Hill cemetery, York, Pa.

John Edward Vandersloot was educated in the public schools. He became a clerk in the Pennsylvania Agricultural Works, and later ac- cepted a position with the York Dispatch as news reporter, continuing thus for several years. He acquired a knowledge of stenog- raphy and typewriting and, after leaving the Dispatch, became stenographer and clerk in the chain manufacturing establishment of J. C. Schmidt & Co., with whom he remained for a period of three years. At the expiration of that time he registered with George S. Schmidt as a law student, and was admitted to the York county Bar in October, 1893. Mr. Vander- sloot's clerical experience and his proficiency in typewriting and shorthand, as well as his legal knowledge, constitute an unusual and practical equipment for his legal duties, and have en- abled him to rapidly rise in his profession.

Mr. Vandersloot has for a number of years been a member of the Duke Street Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he holds official po- sition, and to whose extension and moral work he has given largely of his time. efforts and means. He is an earnest Republican in poli- tics, and gives liberal support to the principles and policies of his party. He was chairman of the York County Republican organization for several years. In December. 1903. he was appointed referee in bankruptcy for York and Adams counties, succeeding John B. McPher- son, who removed to Boston.

On June 5. 1895. Mr. Vandersloot was married to Miss Carolyn S. Helker, daughter of D. A. and Emily ( Sayres) Helker. of York. They have two children : Charles Edwin and Sarah Emily.

Dr. Frederick W. Vandersloot, the fifth of that name and the eldest son of his father. was the first in five generations to seek a profes- sional career outside of the ministry of the Ger- man Reformed Church. Dr. Vandersloot was JAMES GRAHAM GLESSNER. one of the leading lawyers of York, who holds the of- born in Windsor township, York county. Tan. 30. 1834. and lived to be one of the oldest phy- fice of district attorney, was born at Lewis-

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berry, York county, Nov. 9, 1865, son of Henry and Anna ( Graham) Glessner.

Henry Glessner and his wife were both natives of York county. He was of Swiss de- scent, while his wife's ancestors were of Scotch Irish origin. Henry Glessner was a painter and cabinetmaker by trade, lived a quiet and unassuming life at Lewisberry, and died Feb. 21, 1884, at the age of fifty-four years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Glessner affiliated with the Methodist Church. They became the parents of seven children.

James G. Glessner was reared in his native village and attended the common schools until he was sixteen years of age. He then taught school and afterward attended school at Lock Haven, Pa., and subsequently attended the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, Shippensburg, Pa., from which he was gradu- ated in the class of 1885. In the ensuing year he commenced the study of law with the firm of Kell & Kell, of York, and after teaching a term of school in 1887, was admitted to the Bar of York county in the following year. Im- mediately after his admission to the Bar he opened an office with Silas H. Forry, and took up his residence in York, where he has since made his home. Mr. Glessner's success was immediate and emphatic and he at once became prominent in both professional and public life. He is an ardent and energetic Republican and has been actively interested in the policies of his party since early manhood. In 1890 he was elected secretary of the Republican County Committee, and held that position through two active campaigns. Upon the death of the county chairman, in 1892, Mr. Glessner at once announced himself as a candidate for the va- cant position, and after a spirited contest was elected chairman. In this position he had to deal with new faces and factors in State and national politics, but acquitted himself with so much satisfaction and such undoubted ability for leadership that, during the four succeeding years, he was honored by unanimous re-elec- tion. During all these years, and especially in 1896, he fully sustained the well-earned dis- tinction of 1892. A vigorous and untiring worker, he has shown himself amply able to meet the exigencies of political campaigning, and has, by ability and sagacity, won a high reputation as a successful Republican leader.

In 1890 Mr. Glessner's party made him its

candidate for district attorney, but notwith- standing his advanced vote he was unable to overcome the large adverse majority in the county. Mr. Glessner was again nominated by the Republican party of York county for the office of district attorney, in 1904, and was triumphantly elected in the memorable cam- paign of November of that year, which wrested York county from Democratic control; and no voice or influence had more to do with effecting that radical change than had the voice and in- fluence of James G. Glessner. He is a tren- chant and eloquent speaker, of fine intellectual endowments, and with the marked forensic abil- ity he has shown has reached an eminent and secure position in the legal fraternity of his county.

Mr. Glessner is a stockholder, director and vice-president of the Drovers' & Mechanics' National Bank, and is also interested as a stockholder or director in a number of other concerns. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of the Golden Eagle and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a past exalted ruler of the last named order.

On June 18, 1891, Mr. Glessner was united in marriage with Joanna Bowen, daughter of Mrs. Mary M. Bowen, of Shippensburg, Pa., and two children, a son and a daughter, have been born to this union, namely: Hazel M. and Silas Forry.

H. C. BRENNEMAN; the well-known and successful lawyer of the York county Bar, is the eldest son of Jacob and Elizabeth ( Berk- heimer) Brenneman, and was born in Wash- ington township, York county, Jan. 14. 1858.

Mr. Brenneman's parents were of German extraction, and belonged to the sturdy class that have done much toward the industrial and ma- terial progress of Southern Pennsylvania. His father, Jacob Brenneman, was born in 1833, and was in early life a manufacturer of woolen goods, and afterward turned his attention to farming. He died in 1886, his wife surviving him until 1893. There were four children born to them, one of whom, the only daughter. Mary, died in infancy. The survivors are: Henry C., Martin L., and Andrew J.

Henry C. Brenneman left the public schools when sixteen years of age, and after attending Central Pennsylvania College at New Berlin,

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Union county, one term, entered the State Nor- mal school at Millersville, from which he was graduated in the class of 1880. He then took a post-graduate course at Millersville, and be- came principal of the Adamstown public school, Lancaster county, which position he acceptably. filled for one year. At the expiration of that time he was elected vice-principal of the York High school, in which he taught mathematics and history for a period of six years. In 1887 he became a candidate for, and was elected to, the superintendency of schools in York county, and his conduct of educational affairs during his first incumbency was such that he was unanimously re-elected in 1890.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 19

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1390