USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 31
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*The author makes no apology for here suggesting to the curious in literary remains that wherever in our locality rare old books, pamphlets, or manuscripts are in the hands of persons who do not value them, or where sueh are likely to be destroyed, that such books or doeuments be presented to Mr. Cassel, who will treasure and preserve them. His collection will doubtless be handed down to posterity entire, as it should be. This note is added without the knowledge of Mr. C., and is dictated alone by a love of letters as such.
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ABRAHAM H. CASSEL.
of Penn, sallying from his log cabin to reclaim the forest while: his thoughts were busied with the trials of that long journey" from the Rhine, the forgotten pastor who tended his little flock a century and a half ago, are as familiar in the events of their lives as is the present owner of the adjacent farm. To him the past, like the sea of which we are told, has given up. the dead which were in it, and with a generosity as unselfish. as it is rare, his information is at the service of all who care to. seek it.
Mr. Cassel's reputation has extended to all parts of the world. wherever men are enlightened enough to take an interest in books. He has been a member of the Pennsylvania Histori -. cal Society since 1858, and has contributed valuable articles to. its publications. On the Ist of April, 1843, he married Eliza- beth, daughter of Issachar and Elizabeth Rhodes, and they have had eight children. In addition to his library he owns a. farm of seventy-five acres, and by industry and frugality has- accumulated what is considered a competence by the unpre- tentious people among whom he lives.
His descent from the emigrant, Hupert Kassel, is traced thus *: From Hupert to Yellis, and from the latter to Hupert: again, and from Hupert of the third generation back once more: to Yellis of the fifth, who was the father of Abraham H. Cassel' of the sixth. Abraham H. and Elizabeth Cassel's eight children, of the seventh generation, are named as follows: Yellis, the eldest, is married to Sarah Harley, and they have two children living, Edwin and Elizabeth, they occupying the homestead and farming the place; Henry, the second child, died when only seven years of age; Sarah, the third, is intermarried with. Daniel Boorse, and now (1879) resides at Lanark, Illinois; the next, Mary Ellen, died in her fourth year; Priscilla, the fifth, is the wife of Levi Stauffer, and they have five children, Abra- ham, Yellis, Elizabeth, Clayton, and Laurence; the sixth, sev- enth and eighth are Amanda, Hannah, and Rosalinda, respect- ively. Hannah received a liberal education at a normal school ..
*The author adds this record of the offspring of Abraham H. and Elizabeth Cassel ...
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329
HON. JOHN WOOD.
HON. JOHN WOOD.
Civilization is symbolized by one word-Labor!
John Wood, son of James and Ann W. Wood, was born in Philadelphia on the 6th of September, IS16. His parents be- ing members of Friends' meeting, he received a moderate edu- cation at their school in New street, after which, at the early age of fourteen years, he entered his father's store as book- keeper. He had, however, during this brief period, made such good use of time as to be able to assume almost the entire charge of the books of the concern-quite a responsibility for a youth of that age. His father being at that time extensively engaged in the manufacture of spades, shovels, agricultural im- plements, and the like, the factory in Philadelphia proved in- adequate to the rapidly increasing business. It was decided therefore, to erect larger and more complete works at Consho- hocken, which were finished about 1832, with additional ma- chinery for manufacturing sheet and boiler iron, a branch of the iron trade then in its infancy in this country. Under the energetic direction of Mr. Wood, then a young man of twenty years, the business was in a short time more than doubled .. He was also connected at that time with Lewis A. Lukens in the manufacture of blooms at New Market Forge, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania.
In 1840 he married Miss Elizabeth K. Wells, a highly ac- complished and estimable young lady, daughter of James; Wells, ex-Sheriff of the county, with whom he lived happil until her death in 1864.
In 1841, in connection with his brother, William W. Wood, he leased the old Delaware Iron Works, on Red Clay creek,. State of Delaware, at which place, however, he only remained a few years, returning to Conshohocken in 1844 to superin- tend the building of the new mill, the other having become. old and dilapidated. By his able management it was entirely built in a few months, and filled with new and improved ma- chinery. This more than doubled its previous capacity, and
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HON. JOHN WOOD.
also established a reputation for the manufacture of superior sheet iron, which has ever since been maintained by the con- cern. About this time he began to experiment upon the manu- facture of "imitation Russia sheet iron." He finally succeeded, after many disheartening failures, in producing an article equal in finish to the genuine Russia manufacture, and for which he obtained a patent. Many attempts had been previously made by other manufacturers to imitate it, but without success. Mr. Wood's plan was the only one to compete successfully with the Russian article, and it is now known as "Wood's process." During the Crimean war the firm of J. Wood & Brothers ran four pairs of rolls upon it.
Upon the death of his father, James Wood, in 1851, Mr. W. became senior member of the firm of J. Wood & Brothers. He then erected the large steam mills at Conshohocken, with a capacity of five thousand tons per annum, which have been running almost continuously ever since, employing from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred hands.
Mr. Wood possesses a large share of inventive genius. He has always taken a great interest in mechanical pursuits, per- forming in his younger days much of the machine work about his mills himself. He has been all his life an eminently prac- tical and working man, to which fact his successful career is largely due.
In 1858 Mr. Wood reluctantly consented to become a can- didate for Congress from the Fifth district, on the "People's ticket," the nomination being almost forced upon him by his friends. After one of the most exciting campaigns in the po- litical history of Montgomery county, he was elected by a ma- jority of two thousand five hundred and sixty-four votes over Hon. Owen Jones, the then Democratic incumbent, who had been elected in 1856 in the same district by over two thousand majority. Mr. Wood's majority in Montgomery county was
nine hundred and thirty-eight. This exhibited a change of forty-five hundred votes in the district in two years. This bril- liant triumph exceeded the most sanguine expectations of his party and friends, affording the most gratifying evidence of the
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HON. JOHN WOOD.
high esteem with which he was regarded throughout the dis- trict .*
On the assembling of Congress, in December, 1859, neither Republicans nor Democrats had a clear majority, there being a few "Americans" from the North and South who chose to act independently, thus having the balance of power. Accord- ingly John W. Forney, who was the clerk holding over, called the roll from the first Monday in December till February 2d, about fifty-eight days, the Republicans all the time supporting the caucus nominee, John Sherman, of Ohio, and the opposi- tion Mr. Bocock, of Virginia.
The district that elected Mr. Wood was partly composed of several very conservative wards of Philadelphia, the people of which were too fearful of "abolition" and the "Southern trade" to act squarely against slave propagandism as Republicans did, but called themselves "Unionists," or "the people's party." A large part of the former Whig element of Montgomery county were also of the same sentiment. So when the bootless con- test or dead-lock had begun to run into months, and every- body became tired of the rule of faction, five members, Mor- ris, Junken, Scranton, and Wood, of Pennsylvania, with Nixon, of New Jersey, conceived the idea of breaking the dead-lock, and began to vote for Smith (American), of North Carolina. The Democrats or pro-slavery men, supposing they had the enemy at a disadvantage, and a " sure thing," filed in, and be- gan to vote for Smith also, actually electing him. Mr. Wood and some others, suspecting Mr. Smith to be unsound on the tariff, changed their votes before the result was announced. This showed Republicans the danger they incurred in adher- ing to an extreme man; whereupon a Democrat from New York and the Americans from the South agreed to support Pennington, of New Jersey, a moderate Republican, instead of Sherman, and upon the next trial he was elected by one hun-
*While attending a mass meeting during the Congressional campaign in which he ·was elected, he chanced to stop with a few friends at a blacksmith shop, and while watch- ing the workmen at their anvils, remarked, "I have worked a little at this business my- self." The blacksmith, with an incredulous smile, requested him to exercise himself nt the forge a little. Mr. Wood, nothing loth, threw off' his coat, and immediately accepted the good-humored challenge, asking the blacksmith to blow for him. In a few minutes he produced a neatly turned horse-shoe, with nails enough to drive it, much to the sur- prise of the blacksmith and bystanders, who had hardly expected a Congressional can- didate to prove such a practical workingman. This little episode made Mr. Wood more votes that day than all the speeches of the occasion.
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HON. JOHN WOOD.
dred and seventeen against one hundred and sixteen for the Democratic nominee.
Thus after nearly two months, the longest contest in our history, the House was organized by the election of a Speaker .. The Senate had already received the message while the House was unorganized, an unknown thing up to that time. After both were in working order little or nothing was done in the. way of legislation while Mr. Wood's two sessions continued,. from the conviction that with the Democratic party divided as. it was, and the Republican looming up in mighty array, the. hour had nearly come for the slaveholders to leave the Union. Both houses were given up, therefore, to profitless wranglings, during which Southern men came into the chambers and made their speeches with loaded pistols in their pockets. Mr. Wood felt that such a bear garden was a very uncomfortable place, and when the next Congressional election came around he re- fused utterly to consent to a re-election, though importuned to do so. W. Morris Davis was taken up in his place, and elected over Harry Ingersoll, the Democratic nominee. Mr. W. was, also led to this decision by extensive business interests that demanded his whole time and attention.
At the time of the contest for Speaker some of Mr. Wood's extreme Republican constituents questioned the correctness of his course, but the result justified his action. Besides, it is not doubted that the break of the dead-lock met the approval of the mass of those who elected him. During the remainder of his term his votes were acceptable to all, and he left the posi- tion with credit as a faithful representative.
Mrs. Elizabeth K. Wood having died five years previously,. Mr. W. was married in January, 1866, to · Hettie, daughter of Benjamin Peterman, paper manufacturer, of Elkton, Maryland.
The surviving children of John and Elizabeth K. Wood are the following: Helen, intermarried with Major Mauch, United States Army; James W., married to Josie Hoffman, of Allen- town; Clara, wife of D. H. Merriman, of Williamsport; Wil- liam W .; John, Jr., whose wife was Ada Slingluff, of Norris- town; George W .; and Lizzie W., intermarried with William. H. Cresson, son of John Cresson, of Conshohocken. The off- spring of the second marriage are Mary P. and Walter D.
333
MORGAN WRIGHT.
MORGAN WRIGHT.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrrow, Is our destined end or way ; But to aet that each to-morrow Finds us farther than to-day .- Longfellow.
Morgan Wright, of Norristown, is the fourth child of Mor- ‘gan and Charlotte Wright, of what was then Lower Dublin, in Philadelphia county, and was born December 16th, 1823. His brothers and sisters are all living. Their names are as follows: Ellen, intermarried with William Walker, the latter of whom has been many years deceased; Charles W., who re- sides in Norristown; George N., of Frankford, Philadelphia; Comly, until recently in partnership with Morgan, and who is intermarried with Hannah G., daughter of John Hunt, a pub- dic Friend of New Jersey; Harriet, wife of Rev. Joseph Sage- beer, of Chester county; Lydia and Eliza, who reside in Nor- ristown; and J. Jones, who was married to Hannah, daughter of John Cowden.
Morgan Wright, the subject of this notice, received in boy- hood a good common school education, which was perfected by a period of higher instruction at Treemount Seminary, un- der Rev. Samuel Aaron.
About 1840, when a boy of seventeen, he came to Norris- town, where he had an uncle (Thomas Scattergood) in the gro- cery business at Main and Strawberry streets, and for a time he «vas store assistant with him, after which he held a like posi- tion for a year in a grocery store on Market street, Philadel- phia. Returning to Norristown in the spring of 1846, he ob- tained a situation as salesman in the dry goods store of David Sower, where he remained, enjoying the fullest confidence of this employer, till 1849, when he bought out a grocery then carried on in part of the old Rising Sun building, near Main and Swede streets, which he kept one year, and then sold it to Charles G. Cauffman. In the spring of 1850 he purchased the stock and succeeded to the dry goods business of David Sower, where he had been so long employed as assistant.
About this time he married Miss Cecilia Rinehart, wlio, be- ing in declining health, died within a year of her marriage. On
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MORGAN WRIGHT.
the 21st of November, 1854, he was married to Rachel W., .. daughter of Levi and Mary Wells Roberts, of Norristown. The children born of this union were as follows: Walter, who died' in infancy; Emma, born in 1856 and died in 1864; Elwood Roberts, born in 1858, and now assisting in the management of his father's business.
Mr. Wright continued to push the dry goods trade at the old stand for sixteen years, having his cousin, D. Jones Mc -- Vaugh, afterwards William Neiman, and then his own brother, Comly, as assistants, being some part of the time in partnership- with the last named. In 1866 he bought of his uncle, Thomas- Scattergood, the store-house, No. 14 East Main street, where he now is. This stand had been well established, first by- Thomas Scattergood & Son, afterwards by D. J. McVaugh, and Tatem & Roberts. He has made extensive alterations and improvements to this building, vacating the dwelling at- tached, and running the store room back one hundred feet to Middle alley. Here for twelve years he has kept one of the: heaviest-if not the heaviest-stock of dry goods in the bor -- ough, and of course has enjoyed a very extensive trade.
Quite early after commencing business, Mr. Wright began: to deal in real estate, handling some valuable properties, among" which may be named the purchase of the Stinson farm at Jef- fersonville in 1855, and the Shepherd property, part of which was bought by the East Pennsylvania Agricultural and Me- chanical Society for a fair ground, and the remainder sold to- others.
Mr. W. has also been for many years an extensive dealer in town lots, generally managing them with judgment and profit. During a recent period he has been engaged in building the- better sort of dwellings for sale. West Norristown is thus. largely indebted to his enterprise and public spirit for exten- sive improvements. In 1870 he erected for his own use a hand -- some dwelling on DeKalb street near Oak, which he now oc- cupies, and which is fitted up with most of the modern im- provements.
Morgan Wright, while devoted to his own business, has beena for years a man of genuine public spirit, entering, heartily into,
335 .
LUCRETIA MOTT.
all enterprises of a public nature calculated to build up and improve the town or conserve the highest interests of the peo- plc. In 1872 hic was elected to the town council, and re- elected in 1875 and 1878, which will conclude nine years of service. During all this time he has been on the chief com- mittee, that of Ways and Means, most of the time being chair- man of the same. Hc also holds at the hands of Council the post of attorney-in-fact for the borough of Norristown of the Bringhurst bequest for the poor of the town.
For many years he has been often selected to sit on arbitra- tions, road juries, and chosen guardian for trust funds and the like, and is fitted for such by reason of being a very quick and ready accountant.
As a careful, accurate business man, of integrity and un- blemished reputation, Mr. W. stands deservedly high. He is a man of social, kindly habits, fond of "the juveniles," which the latter have found out, of course, and appreciate.
Though not an inveterate partisan, Mr. Wright was origin- ally a Whig, but more recently a decided Republican. He was, however, never a seeker for public office.
LUCRETIA MOTT.
We have lived and loved together Through many changing years ; We have shared each other's gladness, And wept each other's tears .- Old Song. Beyond this vale of tears There is a hfe above, Unmeasured by the flight of years, And all that life is love .- Montgomery.
Certainly no woman in the State of Pennsylvania has wielded a wider influence upon the moral world for a period of nearly fifty years than Mrs. Lucretia Mott,* who for a considerable
*The title of our work is "The Eminent Men of Montgomery County." We have the following high authority that "men" includes women also: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God ereated He him : male and female created He them."-Genesis I, 27. We may add here that the preparation and insertion of this sketch is without authority of the subject, the liberty being assumed on the ground that our book would be incomplete without a notice of this distinguished lady, who for several years has been a resident of our county. Besides, her useful life and eminent example are in an important sense publie property.
. 336
LUCRETIA MOTT.
"time has been a resident of Cheltenham township, Montgomery county. This exerted power has been greatly enhanced by the fact that while maintaining her hold and standing among Friends, she has lent her countenance and aid to all the out- ·side reforms which, as reflexes of our common christianity, have been the outgrowth of all sects alike. It is but an easy task to show that sects, as distinguished in America, where thought and religion are comparatively free, are charged sever- ally with missions which none so well as themselves can per- form. The reforms, also, are but abstract christianity strug- gling outside of the churches for recognition; but being out Of the church, they are all liable to run into extremes and folly for lack of the "institutes." So "truth and falsehood grapple," and the world moves forward.
Lucretia Mott* is a daughter of New England, inheriting in a wonderful degree the rigid persistency and pluck of the old Independents joined to the meek trust and simplicity of the early Quakers.' She was born on the island of Nantucket in 1793, and is therefore now in her eighty-sixth year. Her fa- ther was a Friend before her, and probably captain of a fishing vessel, as he was a seaman from that town, where whaling was almost the universal business at that time. Her paternal an- cestors were of the Coffins and Macys, the former a distin- guished name in New England history, and on the maternal side, through the Folgers, claims a distant relationship with the family of Benjamin Franklin.
Not being born to wealth, she was early inured to the hard- ·ships of life in assisting her mother, who, in the absence of the father at sea, managed a small mercantile business for a liveli- hood. In her eleventh year her parents moved to Boston, where she had the best opportunities of instruction in the pub- lic and private schools of that city. In her fourteenth year she was placed in a Friends' boarding-school in Duchess county, New York, and remained two years, at the close of which term, a vacancy occurring among the instructors that she was com- petent to fill, she remained another year in the place, securing also the education of a sister as part of the consideration for
*For the material facts of this sketch we are indebted to "The Eminent Women of the Age," published by S. M. Betts & Co., Hartford, Connecticut, in 1868.
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LUCRETIA MOTT.
her services. While here she formed the acquaintance of James Mott, her future husband, and a year later, after she had re- moved with her parents to Philadelphia, married him.
James Mott left New York State and engaged in business with her father, but owing to the troubled state of the country at that time (1811-12), and the impending war, their mercan- tile ventures did not prosper, and shortly after her father died. This threw an increased responsibility upon her mother, which she and her husband shared, as the war troubles had made them all poor. Finally, however, James Mott succeeded in getting into profitable business, and in the course of years ac- quired a comfortable substance.
As early as 1818, when she had reached her twenty-fifth year, she began to speak in the meetings of Friends, and soon received an authorization from the select meeting as a "public Friend." These gifts she improved till the division of the so- ciety took place, which grew out of the Unitarian views of Elias Hicks, when, as she expresses it, "My convictions led me to adhere to the sufficiency of the light within us, resting on truth as authority rather than 'taking authority for truth.'" This, of course, took her with the side popularly known as the "Hicksite," and she continued to be an eminent preacher in that branch. About ten years after this the anti-slavery and tem- perance reforms demanded attention, and Lucretia and James Mott were in the very fore-front of battle. As the Hicksite branch of Friends relaxed theological teaching, they became more earnest for a higher standard of public morals, and the reform hosts went through an excited discussion of some years concerning the relative merits of "non-resistance," "power of truth," "no voting," "fighting for liberty," and the like, till, "made mad by the gods," slaveholders drew the sword in 1861, and the problem, so far as chattel servitude in our country was concerned, settled itself forever.
As a minister among Friends, or as a speaker, Lucretia Mott is a model of elegance, purity, and force. She never indulges in the sing-song tone addressed to the ear, but always in the purest Saxon, and speaks to the heart and judgment of her hearers. She also usually escapes the charge of mystifying,
-
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LUCRETIA MOTT.
often made against the ministers of her denomination, by spir- itualizing the facts of revelation. She prefers rather to leave out of sight doctrines that do not relate immediately to morals, applying the sternest reasoning to the commonest facts of life. Her biographer, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, quotes her, however, in this connection, as saying that "the popular doc- trine of human depravity never commended itself to my reason . or conscience." On this declaration the author ventures the comment that her life-long moral warfare against vice, oppres- sion and injustice, has certainly been a pretty strong indica- tion of depravity somewhere.
Her character, as read in her portrait, is a deep study. It is a visual synonym of strength, indicating a mind assured of the ground upon which it stands. To use phrenological language, it shows will-power under control of the moral sentiments. It tells also of strong social and domestic instincts, with an amount of quiet, unused combativeness that might warn off any one on a proselyting mission. The large, prominent eye, and broad,. high forehead, bear logic and rhetoric in every expression. In morals she comes nearer the stoic than any modern public character we can call to mind-that is, rigid, intellectual mo- rals, without passion or feeling. The face looks as if nothing could excite the mind of its owner to an ebullition of abnormal feeling; and then gentleness and benevolence beam from every lineament. Yet there is a slight dash of sarcasm mingled with pity and contempt stamped on those compressed lips. Still, using phrenological verbiage, she has enough secretiveness to make a wise and prudent counsellor. Hence she must have been the very Moses and Aaron combined to the woman move- ment. She is just enough masculine in her mentality to feel the wrongs of her sex, and has quite enough dogged courage to fight on, not "all summer," but for a life-time. She has lived, therefore, to see the cause of women-their right to equal suffrage-adopted by one political party, and favorably con- sidered by others.
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