Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 8

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 972

USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II > Part 8

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Marienville, Forest county, and then came back to Jefferson county, where for two years he was supervisory principal of the Young township schools, during which time he com- pleted his legal studies, which he had begun in the office of A. J. Truitt. He was admitted to practice in 1900, and at once became asso- ciated with W. B. Adams as senior member of the firm of Mitchell and Adams with offices on Mahoning street, opposite the public square in Punxsutawney. They conducted a general insurance 'and real estate agency in conjunction with their law business. As a legal practi- tioner, Mr. Mitchell has thrived from the out-« set. He took up his work with the enthusiasm and zeal created by sincere interest, and has always found it much to his taste. With ability developed and strengthened by experience, and increased familiarity with the routine of prac- tice, he has made a showing gratifying even to his ambition. He is industrious in his prepara- tion of all cases which come into his hands, painstaking in protecting the rights of his clients, and absolutely honorable in all his deal- ings, a fact which is conceded by those who have met him in opposition as well as by his associates. His courtesy and pleasant person- ality have gone far to make him popular wherever known. He is a member of the Superior and Supreme courts of the State, and the United States courts, and at present ac- tively engaged in the practice of his profession.

Mr. Mitchell's talents as an orator have been in demand in the prosecution of many a local, State and national political campaign. He is considered one of the most valuable workers the Republican party has in this section, and from young manhood has been taking an ac- tive part in securing the success of the ticket. He has taken part in every national campaign since 1896, making a record for effective speechmaking which gained him many com- pliments from party leaders and followers alike. He was elected as a Roosevelt delegate to the Republican State convention in 1912, a delegate at large to the Republican National convention in 1912, and chosen by the Penn- sylvania delegation as its representative on the Credentials committee of the Republican Na- tional convention in June of the same year; was a delegate at large to the Progressive Na- tional convention in 1912, and active in the organization of the Progressive party in the nation and the Washington ( Progressive ) party in the State. He presided at the organi- zation of the Progressive League of Pennsyl- vania, at the Progressive Conference held in Philadelphia in March, 1912, and was chair-

man of the Progressive Conference held at Harrisburg in January, 1914.

In 1914 he was a candidate for congressman at large on the Progressive ( Washington ) party ticket, making over one hundred speeches in this campaign in various parts of the State, accompanying and speaking with Colonel Roosevelt in his trip over the State in October of the same year. He was nominated on the Progressive and Republican tickets for the General Assembly from Jefferson county and elected at the November election in the year 1916, and is at present serving as one of the representatives from his home county.

Mr. Mitchell is a director of and counsel for the Farmers & Miners Trust Company of Punxsutawney, Pa., a member of the Y. M. C. A., Progressive League of Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Chamber of Commerce, Pro- gressive Volunteers. Pennsylvania Society of New York, Civil Service Reform Association of Pennsylvania, Commercial Law League of America, Punxsutawney Country Club, O. U. A. M., Modern Woodmen, Maccabees, and other social, civic. religious or business or- ganizations. He is a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Punxsutawney.

Mr. Mitchell has been twice married. His first wife, Ella Hamilton, daughter of J. J. Hamilton, of Perrysville, Pa., died in 1892, leaving a daughter, now Mrs. James L. Smey- ers, of Ambridge, Pa. In 1898 he was mar- ried to L. Blanche Simpson, daughter of W. E. Simpson, of Horatio, Pa. Three children have been born to this union. William Thomas, Har- vev Lex ( deceased ) and Mary Louise.

Mr. Mitchell was chairman of the Anti- Saloon League of Jefferson County in 1910, and has for years been active in the cause of temperance. He is an advocate of local option, State-wide prohibition and national prohibi- tion.

WALTER STILSON BLAISDELL, M. D. Though Dr. Blaisdell fortified himself thoroughly for the practice of medicine and achieved definite success in his work as a phy- sician and surgeon, his initiative has led him into the field of industrial enterprise and he has become a representative force in connec- tion with coal mining operations in north-

western Pennsylvania. In this commercial do- main he has been associated with the exploit- ing and development of important mines, be- ing now an interested principal in a number of the leading corporations that are successfully carrying forward mining operations in this section of the State. So varied are his busi-

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ness interests that he has retired from the active practice of his profession, and while engaged in the supervision of these important affairs maintains his residence on his country estate in Young township, one of the most beautiful rural homes in this favored section. The Doctor is specially eligible for recognition in this history by reason of his extensive and important associations with the industrial activities of Jefferson county as a coal oper- ator.

Dr. Blaisdell was born at Macomb, McDon- ough Co .. Ill., May 21, 1866. After a course of study in the Abbott preparatory school at Farmington, Maine, he pursued a higher academic course in the University of Michi- gan, at Ann Arbor. In preparation for his chosen profession he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1887, in which in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1890 and from which he received the degree of doctor of medicine. For a period of eighteen months thereafter he was engaged in the practice of his profession in the City Hospital of Baltimore, Md., and for the ensu- ing four months was retained by a corpora- tion as its official surgeon in the West Indies. Upon his return to the United States he came to Jefferson county, Pa., and became assistant to the resident physician at the Adrian Hospi- tal, in Punxsutawney borough. Some time later he became the official physician and sur- geon of the Helvetia colliery, at Helvetia. Clearfield county, a position of which he con- tinued the incumbent for a period of eight months. He then returned to Jefferson county and assumed a similar position in con- nection with the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company at Walston. While thus in close association with the coal mining industry in this section of Pennsylvania Dr. Blaisdell discerned the incidental opportunities open to him in this connection. and he became per- sonally interested in the acquirement and de- velopment of coal lands. He organized the Punxsutawney Coal Mining Company in com- pany with Harry Yates, of Buffalo, N. Y., which is carrying forward the development work on its coal lands at Frances, Indiana county. The Doctor is also owner of the Horatio mines, at Horatio, Jefferson county, and of the Williams Run Coal Company, with mines and headquarters at Punxsutawney. and his coal interests further involve opera- tions in the vicinity of Marion Center, Indiana county.

In establishing for himself a home eligibly located for the supervision of his industrial

interests, Dr. Blaisdell manifested discrimina- tion in the purchase of the fine old home- stead farm known as the William Long place. which he has developed into one of the most beautiful country homes in this section of the Keystone State. The property came into his possession in 1912, since when he has made many improvements upon it, and the modern house which is the family home is ideally lo- cated, commanding a beautiful view of the picturesque country which surrounds it. The residence is situated on the State road leading from Punxsutawney to Indiana, Indiana county, and here the Doctor and his family delight to extend hospitality to their many friends. The Doctor is interested in all that concerns the civic and material welfare of his home county, where his interests are of broad scope and importance.

In the Masonic fraternity Dr. Blaisdell has received the thirty-second degree of the An- cient Accepted Scottish Rite, as a member of the consistory in the city of Pittsburgh. His affiliations are with John W. Jenks Lodge, No. 534, F. & A. M., at Punxsutawney ; Jef- ferson Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; and Ridgway Commandery, K. T .; besides which, in the city of Erie, this State, he holds mem- bership in Zem Zem Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Punxsutawney Lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Punxsutawney Club and the Punxsu- tawney Country Club; the Buffalo Club and Country Club at Buffalo, N. Y. ; the Harris- burg Club, in Pennsylvania's capital city ; the Racquet Club in the city of Philadelphia ; and the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh.

In the year 1893 Dr. Blaisdell married Nellie Russell, of Brooklyn. N. Y. They have two children, Ralph and Frances.

JOSEPH BUFFINGTON HENDER- SON, of Brookville, holds an important rela- tion to the business interests of his borough and county. During his long association with its financial affairs as executive head of the Jefferson County National Bank he has main- tained its prestige and his own by a most con- mendable course, and he has been equally successful in his other ventures. Indeed, he and his brothers have made the name of Hen- derson famous in their generation for initia- tive and ability.

Mr. Henderson was born at Brookville Sept. 14. 1842, son of Joseph Washington and Nancy ( Wilson) Henderson, and received his early education there. After attending com-

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

mon schools taught by G. A. Jenks and A. L. Gordon until fourteen years of age, he went to work in the office of the Jefferson Star (now the Brookville Republican), published by John Scott, until 1858. For a short time he attended the Brookville Academy, taught by Rev. John Todd and a Mr. Polk. In the fall or winter of 1858 he went to Clarion, Pa., and became foreman in the office of The Cla- rion Democrat, published by William G. Alex- ander, printing twelve hundred papers on an old Washington hand press. In the winter of 1860 or spring of 1861 he took a course of bookkeeping at the Iron City Commercial Col- lege, Pittsburgh, where he heard Abraham Lincoln make an address when on his way to Washington to be inaugurated president. He was a youth of cighteen when the Civil war broke out, and he enlisted April 24, 1861, on the first call for troops, in Company I, 8th Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serv- ing three months and receiving an honorable discharge at Harrisburg July 29, 1861. In the fall of 1861 Mr. Henderson entered the pro- thonotary's office as clerk for his father, being so engaged until the fall of 1863, when appointed clerk to the board of enrollment located at Waterford, Erie Co., Pa. The office was removed to Ridgway, Elk Co., Pa., in 1864. The officers of the board were Colonel Campbell, Jerome Powell and Dr. C. M. Mat- son. Mr. Henderson remained in this service until August, 1865, resigning to accept a posi- tion in the First National Bank of Brookville (capitalized at $100.000) as bookkeeper and teller. He continued this association with that institution until October, 1872, when, hav- ing been elected prothonotary of Jefferson county, he resigned to assume his official responsibilities. At that time the work of register, recorder and clerk of the several courts was combined with the prothonotary's office, and he discharged its numerous duties faithfully as well as efficiently for two suc- cessive terms, having been honored with re- election in 1875. Meantime, when the Jeffer- son County National Bank of Brookville was organized, July 27, 1878, he was active in the organization, and became cashier, in which capacity he was retained until made president, on Jan. 9. 1883. He has filled that position without interruption since, for over thirty years, with such wise judgment and clear conception regarding its obligations that he has a strong position among the ablest financiers in Jefferson county. With others he was also instrumental in organizing the First National Bank of Punxsutawney. Pa., the First Na- 3

tional Bank of Reynoldsville, Pa., and the Union Banking and Trust Company of DuBois, Pa., and was for a time a stockholder and director in each. Aside from banking, his most important business interest is as one of the owners of the Pocahontas Lumber Com- pany, who have large timber holdings in Poca- hontas county, W. Va., and a mill at Burner, that county. His brother Samuel S. Hender- son is one of his partners in this concern. He has engaged in the coal as well as the lumber business in company with others. As a young man he made many trips on rafts and fleets on the creek and river to Pittsburgh.

Mr. Henderson has always been associated with the Republican party, and has attended National, State and Congressional conventions as a delegate. For about thirty years, from the time he was elected to office in the seven- ties, he took a very active part in politics, and perhaps there was no other local Republican more frequently consulted or influential than he in political affairs, or more capable of giving sound advice. Reliable and safe in counsel, and honorable to the last degree, he has always had the confidence of all who know him. He is held in popular esteem as one who has never failed to contribute liberally to any worthy object or enterprise which may be of benefit to the community, using his large means wisely but with an open hand. In fact, his generosity has been most marked, and well exercised in furthering the interests of his town and com- munity. He has been unstinting in charity, and his friends in all classes are numerous.

On July 13, 1863, Mr. Henderson married Mary S. Bennett, of Brookville, and they have had a family of five children: Ella, born Sept. 10, 1864, now the wife of B. Mack Mar- lin ; Blanch, born Feb. 11, 1869, who died May IS, 1895; Frank B., born Oct. 22, 1870, who married Anna Arthurs; Alice, born June 24, I872, wife of R. Van Tassel; and Mary J., born Aug. 30, 1884.

BUELL B. WHITEHILL, until recently a resident of Brookville, attained a place among the live members of the Jefferson county bar, finding his own life work in the profession which his father honored there for almost forty years. Few men of the community have had the reputation of living closer to their ex- pressed convictions of right than the late Stewart H. Whitehill. Ile held to high prin- ciples and endeavored to practice them. A man of vigorous intellect, energetic and force- ful personality, a profound thinker, and gifted in the expression of his views by word or pen,

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

he exerted an appreciable power for good in the course of his busy life, which may well be classed among the influences of permanent value in the development of this region.

The Whitehills are old Pennsylvania stock, established here since Provincial days, tracing their lineage back to James Whitehill, 1700- 1766, who lived in Pequea, Lancaster county. His children were: James, 1725-1757; John, 1729-1815; Robert, 1735-1813; Capt. David. 1743-1809; Joseph, 1746-1808.

John Whitehill, son of James, born 1729, died 1815, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His children were: William, George, James. Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Christiana and John Sanderson. Through William, the first named in this family, Buell B. Whitehill is descended, his great-great-grandfather. Stewart H. Whitehill, born about 1764 in Lan- caster county, Pa., being the son of William.

Stewart H. Whitehill (2), born in 1784 in central Pennsylvania, was the great-grand' father, and his son, Dr. Stewart Herbert Whitehill, born in 1818, was the grandfather. The latter's wife, Lavina, remarried, becoming the wife of Griswold B. Carrier, and she has ,been an honored resident of Brookville for many years. She was born March 4, 1831. and was eighty-five years old the day her son, Stewart H. Whitehill, passed away. Her chil- dren still surviving are: William W. White- hill, of Kane, Pa .; B. E. Carrier, of Salem, Oregon ; Mrs. O. R. Jordan, of Kane; Mrs. Frances C. Carroll, of Brookville; and Mrs. William J. Orme, of Pittsburgh.

Stewart Herbert Whitehill was the fourth in the family in direct line to bear the same name. He was a native of Jefferson county, born Dec. 5. 1850, in the borough of Summer- ville, and grew to manhood in the neighborhood of Brookville. His public school training was received at Summerville and Mount Pleasant, and he was later a student in the Corsica Academy and Carrier Seminary ( which later became the Clarion Normal School ), taking his higher course in the Indiana ( Pa. ) Normal School, of which he was one of the first grad- uates, being valedictorian of the class of 1876. His early ambition was for the legal profession, and he took up the study of law immediately upon his graduation from normal school, in the offices of Hons. William P. and George A. Jenks, preparing for the bar examination in an unusually short time and passing it suc- cessfully. He began independent practice in 1878, and carried it on to the end of his life. His lifelong acquaintanceship in the vicinity developed into popular esteem as the years

passed and his worth became more and more evident to his associates. The diligence with which he applied himself during his student days never relaxed when he assumed the seri- ous responsibilities of life. In his youth he had done farm work and lumbering, so he did not consider laborious exertion a hardship, and be- sides being a successful lawyer he found time for other interests, some in the way of his chosen calling, many which showed broader sympathies. In 1905 he was the Democratic nominee for judge in Jefferson county. In 1915 he was again a candidate for the nomina- tion for that office, and conducted a lively cam- paign, which was no doubt a severe tax on his already failing strength, his heart having been weak for a number of years before his death. Indeed. he had to give up work a number of times, but he always resumed his activities as soon as possible, and he accomplished many things which a less ambitious nature would have hesitated to undertake. At the time of his death a Brookville paper spoke thus of his life and work :

"Mr. Whitehill was a man who was known for honesty of purpose. When he believed in a principle he was fearless in the advocacy of what he believed was right. He was a kind and affectionate father and keenly enjoyed the companionship of his friends and loved ones. He will be much missed by a large circle of friends in this community who will remember him on account of the influence he always ex- erted for good. Many newspaper ar- ticles that he was the author of found their way into print ; most of these were prose, but a number were in verse. He was always deeply interested in the temperance cause, and all his life he was opposed to the liquor business. Most of his newspaper articles were on the evils of intemperance. and he never failed to oppose the saloon when he had the opportunity. The deceased was a member of the Brookville M. E. Church, having put his church certificate here from another church of the same denom- ination of which he became a member in his early youth. He was the superintendent of the Sunday school here for four years, a teacher of one of the Sunday school classes for over twenty years, a class leader for three years, and for thirty years in succession and up to the time of his death a member of the board of trustees." Mr. Whitehill died at his home in Brookville March 4. 1916, after a month's illness, and was buried in the Brook- ville cemetery. The funeral services were con- ducted by his pastor, Rev. Homer B. Potter, assisted by Rev. Dr. W. S. Fulton, and the

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

pallbearers were official members of the church.

In 1876 Mr. Whitehill was married to Mary Shepherd, of Johnstown, Pa., who had been a fellow student at the Indiana Normal School, and who died in 1904. In 1914 he married ( second ) Twila C. Cale, who survives him, as do the following children : M. Madeline, wife of Dr. A. C. Whitehill : Buell B. ; W. Winona, teacher of music in the Brookville schools ; Elizabeth C., and Charles B., all residing in Brookville except Charles B. Whitehill, who is now located in Detroit, Mich., and Buell B., now a resident of Boston, Massachusetts.

Buell B. Whitehill was born Jan. 27, 1881, at Brookville, where practically all his life has been spent. His early education was obtained in the public schools of the borough, and after graduating from the Brookville high school, in 1897. he entered Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa., where he completed the course in 1904. Meantime he had become court sten- ographer for the courts of Jefferson county. and he continued to hold that position while attending college and while pursuing his law studies, in his father's office, being admitted to the bar in this county in March, 1912. He was official court stenographer of the Jefferson County courts for fifteen years, of Clarion County courts for three years, of Indiana County courts for five years, and has done a great deal of court and general official re- porting over central and western Pennsylvania in particular. He had law offices with his father until the latter's death, and subsequently cared for a lucrative general practice in Brook- ville, to which he devoted most of his time after he gave up his work as court stenog- rapher, in January, 1916. Mr. Whitehill has exhibited the substantial traits of character and intellect which have made the name re- spected in Brookville and Jefferson county, and he is associating himself with the most pro- gressive movements of the day, contributing generously to the promotion of various objects of interest to the community. He has been a constant, untiring worker for all civic and political betterment, both locally and in the larger fields of politics. He is active in the Presbyterian Church and Sunday school, and for the last five years of his residence in Brookville served as a member of the borough school board, having been elected President of the board in December, 1915. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to Hobah Lodge, No. 276, F. & A. M. (master in 1900, and later secretary) : Jefferson Chapter. No. 225, R. A. M., of Brookville (high priest in 1911, and

later secretary ) ; Bethany Commandery, No. 83, K. T., of DuBois, Pa. ; and Jaffa Temple, .. . A. O. N. M. S., of Altoona.

Mr. Whitehill married Lee M. Snook, daughter of Judge W. H. Snook, who pre- sided over the courts at Paulding. Ohio. They have one child, Buell B., Jr., now five years of age.

WILSON R. DARRAH. A native of the old Pine Tree State and a scion of a family that was founded in New England prior to the war of the Revolution, the late Wilson Robert Darrah was the eldest in a family of eight children and was but a boy at the time of his parents' removal to Pennsylvania. where he was reared to manhood and maintained his home during the remainder of his active, vig- orous, productive and upright life. He became a prominent factor in connection with the great lumber industry, and in this connection his operations, which grew to be of an extensive and important order, touched not only Penn- sylvania but also the splendid forest preserves of the States of Michigan and Washington, in which latter he was a pioneer representative of this line of enterprise. He made the pass- ing years count in large and worthy achieve- ment, was revered and honored of men and attained to venerable age. His home was for many years at Brookville, where his death oc- curred on the 18th of February, 1905.

Mr. Darrah was born at Bangor, Maine, on the 24th of December. 1824, and was the eldest of the eight children born to Robert and Tina ( Mitchell ) Darrah. His paternal grandfather. John Darrah, was born and reared in Scot- land, as a representative of one of the sterling old families of the "land of hills and heather.' and came to America as a young man. John Darrah established his residence in Massa- chusetts, whence he went forth to do loyal service as a patriot soldier in the war of the Revolution. Robert Darrah was born on the 23d of January. 1797, and in his early man- hood he became identified with lumbering operations in the State of Maine, whence'he eventually removed to Tioga county, N. Y .. where he continued his association with this line of enterprise for two years. He then came with his family to Pennsylvania and for a time lived at Carbondale, Luzerne county. In December. 1834, he settled at Brookville, and thereafter was engaged for a score of years in lumbering activities on Sandy Lick creek. Ilere his operations were successfully con- tinued until 1855. and then he removed to the great timber country of northern Michigan.

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 8

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918 Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers Number of Pages: 972

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 972