USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 46
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We now continue the record proper of Captain Jesse B. Da- vis. For a number of years after he had completed his educa- tion, he worked his father's farm, as has already been stated, while the latter attended to his practice. Very soon after, hav- ing a military education, he joined the Democratic troop, Cap -- tain Matheys, in which he trained seven years. At the con- clusion of that service he organized a company of artillery called the "Washington Greys," and was elected their Captain. During the twelve years he held this command, he served in the "Native" riots of 1844 in Philadelphia. Shortly after his company disbanded, and in 1855 he was elected Clerk of the. Courts, which post he filled three years. During the legisla- tive session of 1858-59 he was made transcribing clerk of the. State Senate. In 1860 he began dealing in live stock, and in
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CAPTAIN JESSE B. DAVIS.
1868 purchased a lot, erected buildings, and founded a stock yard near Jeffersonville for the sale of cattle, sheep, and hogs. This business he has pushed so vigorously, and with such courtesy, punctuality and judgment, that he has been for quite a long time the leading provider of meat for this locality, which does not rear a tithe of the animal food consumed by its people.
It ought to have been stated elsewhere that while Captain of the Washington Greys he was elected Colonel of the One Hundred and Ninth Regiment of Pennsylvania volunteer mili- tia, and also at one time was Major of the First Battalion of the same.
Several times Captain Davis has been a prominent candidate for the Legislature, but was crowded back. He was, however, in the fall of 1878 nominated by his party and elected County Commissioner, an office for which his familiarity with accounts, affability, integrity, and general business tact, eminently fit him to fill to public satisfaction. Captain Davis has his grand- father's sword, his father's, and his own, as also his father's commission signed by James Madison, "hung up for monu- ments."
He was appointed prison inspector by Judge Chapman about 1868, and reappointed by Judge Ross in 1871, serving six years, during which time he was elected President of the Board. In this position he was an earnest and energetic advo- cate for economy, being thus largely instrumental in inaugu- rating the recently adopted policy of retrenchment of expenses, which is being applied to all branches of the county adminis- tration.
494
ABRAHAM MARKLEY.
ABRAHAM MARKLEY.
Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, And stars to set ;- but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O, Death !- Mrs. Hemans.
Of the origin of the Markley family-all doubtless sprung from a common ancestry-we have written elsewhere in this; volume in the life of Hon. Philip S. Markley.
Abraham Markley, the son of Isaac and Mary Heiser Mark- ley, was born in Limerick township, Montgomery county, on the 3d of June, 1796, and was trained a farmer. On the 10th of April, 1817, when twenty-one years of age, he married Mary Ann, daughter of Archibald Darrah, an influential citizen liv- ing at Jeffersonville, and who was Register of Wills and Re- corder of Deeds of the county from 1809 to 1818. The Isaac Markley above mentioned was born in 1773, and late in life removed to the Jeffersonville hotel, which he kept at the time of his death in 1817. His son Abraham, the subject of this memorial, soon after his marriage rented the Darrah farm near by, owned by his father-in-law, the latter removing to the brick mansion a short distance below, where he resided until they all came to Norristown in 1837. The children born to Abra- ham and Mary Ann Darrah Markley are the following: Sarah D., Isaac, Rebecca D., Samuel M., and A. Thomson. Of these Sarah D. is intermarried with Dr. Ephraim L. Acker, of Nor- ristown; Isaac lives in Wyoming, Chisago county, Minnesota, follows farming, and is intermarried with Fannie, daughter of Dr. J. Wolmer Comfort; Rebecca is the wife of Charles P. Harry, dental surgeon, of Norristown, and they have five child- ren, Mary, Charles Howard, Edwin M., A. Markley, and Anna; Samuel, who received the title of Major by appointment of the Governor, is married to Harriet Potts, and they had one child, now deceased; A. Thomson is married to Elizabeth M., the daughter of the late Philip Koplin, of Norristown, and they have one daughter, Sallie M.
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ABRAHAM MARKLEY.
We return now to further narrate the life of Abraham Mark- ley. As before stated, he removed to Norristown in April, 1837, and rented the Washington House (the building now occupied by Quillman & Koplin), which had just been vacated. by "old Johnny Brock," the pleasant German inn-keeper so long domiciled there. Mr. Markley kept that house for six years. It had extensive stables adjoining on the east side. It. was owned by Robert Stinson, Esq., and had a large country custom when court was held. Its main business, however, was: in boarding lawyers and store-keepers' clerks. Among themz. we recall the names of Hon. Joseph Fornance, Lloyd Jones,. and others.
Walter Paxson having left the Montgomery House about 1840, it was then kept for a year or two by William L. Twin- ing, who removed to it from Spang's hotel, and kept it until 1843. Mr. Markley then purchased it of John Freedley, Esq., removed there, and set about improving and making additions. to it. He erected of brick a wing running back over seventy feet to Middle alley, and built also a stable, ice-house, and other rear conveniences, thus putting the house and surroundings in. complete repair. Here he remained until 1852, keeping what by common consent was "the first hotel of the town." During this period Mr. Sterigere, Mr. Fox, and a number of the attor- neys and other leading citizens boarded there, the house being unusually full. At the date just mentioned Mr. Markley sold it to Daniel R. Brower, then of Phoenixville, who occu- pied it at once. The former and his family removed to Swede street, where he rented a house and lived retired for one year, though not then unemployed, as he had become interested in. the various corporations organized to provide water, gas, and the like, and was also assisting in the management of the Ridge turnpike road, the DeKalb street bridge, and the Montgomery Cemetery companies. When the Norristown Insurance and! Water Company was stretching its net-work of pipes over the- borough, Mr. Markley was the superintendent, overseeing the- hands and looking after the interests of the corporation. He- was in like manner employed in the laying of the gas-pipes: after both works had been finished, and was a sort of general
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ABRAHAM MARKLEY.
superintendent of both. In all these he displayed great ad- ministrative ability; indeed, he served in these employments till near the time of his death.
Very soon after Mr. M. came to Norristown he was elected to the Town Council, and often re-elected to the same. He was also Borough Treasurer for many years, filling the post with exactitude and fidelity. He possessed a remarkable con- trol over his tongue and temper, and was therefore eminently fitted to keep a hotel and manage public business with the people. For a number of years after coming to Norristown, Mrs. Markley's aged and infirm uncle, Mark Thomson, lived with them as one of the family until his death. Miss Rebecca Darrah, a sister, also lived with them, but subsequently with her niece, Sarah D. Acker, until her death, which occurred in August, 1878, at the age of eighty-four. In 1853 Mr. Mark- ley purchased a dwelling on Swede street, and removed to it, remaining there till April, 1864, when he and his family went to boarding at the Veranda House. In July, 1866, he bought the dwelling, No. 518 Swede street, to which he removed, and where he died February 14th, 1872, at the age of seventy-six years.
One of Abraham Markley's characteristics was his uniform kindness to the sick and his cheerful assistance and co-opera- tion at funerals as a matter of charity or social duty. In this respect his death caused a vacancy in the list of those capable and willing to serve on such occasions. In person he was of medium height, dark florid complexion, and a man of quiet and placid deportment. The father-in-law, Archibald Darrah, also lived with the Markley family until his death in 1843.
To complete the family record we give as far as known all of Abraham Markley's brothers and sisters. . They were born and intermarried as follows: Samuel, born January 14th, 1798, and married to Ellen Saylor; Lydia, born in 1799, and mar- ried to John Lehman; Frederick, born in 1801, and married to Susannah Casselberry; Sarah, born in 1803; Isaac, born in 1805, married to Lydia Williams, and who lived and died in Norristown, leaving a number of children; Elizabeth, born in
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ABRAHAM MARKLEY.
1807; Mary, intermarried with Charles McClennan, of Norris- town, and who died in January, 1872, leaving four children; John, born in 1812.
The sisters of Mrs. Markley, whose mother was a Thomson, are as follows: Hannah T., born in 1792; Rebecca D., born in 1794, and died unmarried in Norristown in 1878, as stated be- fore; Mary Ann, the youngest, already described as the wife of the subject of this notice.
Major Samuel Markley, before described, has a military re- cord, which is here given. At the breaking out of the rebel- lion he was in the ranks of Company F, Fourth Regiment, but soon after going into service was detailed as Orderly under General Franklin, which post he filled till mustered out at the end of the three months' service. On the organization of the Fifty-first he enlisted again, and served in the ranks for some time till detailed by Colonel Hartranft as Orderly at regimental headquarters. Losing his health, however, after about two years, he was discharged for disability.
On the reorganization of the volunteer militia after the war, and the appointment of Major General Bolton to the command of the Second Division, Mr. Markley was appointed aid-de- camp, and subsequently paymaster, with the rank of Major, on the General's staff, which he held till the recent reorgani- zation of the State militia and the mustering out of the old of- ficers in 1878.
498
GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
A soldier from necessity, like Washington; successful in arms by prudence, cour- age, and patriotism. As a politician, shrewd, cautious, and lucky. In statesmanship- or policy, a friend of the common people by instinct, like Jefferson. As a citizen, look- ing to the public good rather than his own emolument.
Major General John Frederic Hartranft, late Governor of Penn- sylvania, is the only child of Samuel Engle and Lydia Bucher Hart- ranft, of Norristown, where they have lived since 1844. John F. was born in New Hanover township, Montgomery county, on the 16th of December, 1830. At the time of the removal of his parents to Norristown, he was a school-boy of fourteen, and for some years attended our male seminaries, under the care of Rev. Samuel Aaron. Afterwards he passed Freshman year at Marshall College, at Mer- cersburg, where he was prepared for entrance to Union College, at . Schenectady, New York. He sedulously pursued his studies there for three years, and graduated at that institution in 1853, in his twenty-third year.
John F. Hartranft had always been a quiet, thoughtful, manly boy, with none of those flashy qualities, born of conceit, which at- tract young men to the learned professions with the expectation of immediate distinction. His was rather the purpose to apply edu- cational and natural gifts to some industrial employment, such as civil engineering, which looks to the material progress of the coun- try. Accordingly he directed his studies to surveying and engineer- ing, and his first employment after leaving college was in assisting to run a line for a railroad from Chestnut Hill to New Hope, via Doylestown, as also a road between Mauch Chunk and White Haven. The following year Sheriff Michael C. Boyer, of our county, selected him as his deputy, which post he filled until the expiration of Mr. B.'s term in 1856. He was continued in the same position for three years by Sheriff Rudy, Boyer's successor.
During this latter period Mr. Hartranft commenced the study of law, doubtless with the view of becoming more professionally famil- iar with the duties of the office he then held. The post of Deputy Sheriff is one of great delicacy, involving heavy responsibility, and requiring much firmness, joined to mildness, that the hand of the law may not rudely distress the unfortunate. Mr. H.'s proper dis- charge of those duties, so far as we know, was never called in ques- tion. On the 4th of October, 1860, therefore, he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office.
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499
GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
Some time previously he had joined the Norris City Rifles, being chosen Lieutenant, and afterwards Captain. He soon showed an aptitude and taste for military matters, and as the Rifles was a flour- ishing company, Captain Hartranft, at the next election held by the line officers of the county volunteer militia, was chosen Colonel. This was in the spring of 1859. There were five companies already organized in the vicinity of Norristown, and these formed the main. part of the regiment of which he was chosen commander.
During the whole previous winter the conspirators at Montgom- ery, Alabama, had been organizing what they called the "Confed- erate States," and seeking a pretext to resist and defy the authority of President Lincoln, who had just been inaugurated. Accordingly early in April a telegram was sent from the rebel leaders to Charles- ton to open fire from their batteries on Fort Sumter, which fell on the 14th. This attack, which was expected to fire the Southern heart, as effectually aroused the Northern ; for no sooner had Presi- dent Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand men than our home militia, with Colonel Hartranft at their head, offered them- selves to the government through our patriotic Governor, Andrew G. Curtin. Colonel Hartranft went to Harrisburg on Tuesday, the 16th of April, leaving his company commanders at home filling up their ranks by extra enlistments. Being accepted by the Governor, the "Fourth Regiment of Pennsylvania Militia," as it was then numbered and called, consisting of seven companies, rendezvoused at Harrisburg on the 20th, and in a day or two was on its way to Washington, via Perryville and Annapolis. Here the regiment re- ported to General Butler, and did good service in keeping up our communication with the national capital.
After making Washington secure for the new administration, and driving the rebels from the approaches to it, General Scott and the government did not order an advance upon the insurgents until al- most the expiration of the three months for which our regiment was enlisted. The order to advance on Bull Run, therefore, did not issue till the very day the Fourth Regiment was ordered to the rear to be mustered out. A few, however, were willing to go into the fight as volunteers. Among them was Colonel Hartranft, who was accepted as a volunteer aid to Colonel Franklin, who afterwards spoke of him in his report in words of commendation. He passed through the fray unhurt, and immediately returned home to recruit for the new call for three years. His gallantry and courage in the ยท first encounter with the enemy pointed him out as a leader, and he:
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GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
had no difficulty in soon completing arrangements for the forma- tion of the afterwards famous Fifty-first. Five of the companies of the regiment consisted of Montgomery county men and five from eastern and middle counties of the State .* The regiment was or- ganized at Harrisburg late in September, and at once assigned to the command of General Burnside, who had been ordered to under- take a winter campaign in North Carolina. The expedition left An- napolis by sea early in January, 1862, and on the roth of February Colonel Hartranft led his men into the first battle in the swamps and thickets of Roanoke Island. The rebels supposed their de- fences impregnable. Foster's and Reno's troops, of which the Fifty-first was part, not only carried the works on the first assault, but secured nearly all the garrison as prisoners. At the attack on Newbern, a few days later, Hartranft's force was held as a reserve at first, but soon participated in the final assault, which carried the very strong works of the enemy, and the whole coast was in our hands.
Shortly after this, as the army lay inactive after its victory, Colo- nel H., learning that two of his children were dying, obtained leave of absence for a few days, and returned home to find them already buried. While he was thus absent twenty days from his com- mand, it was sent under Lieutenant Colonel Bell on the expedition to Camden, North Carolina, on the 16th of April, a movement and battle which were undertaken as a feint to draw the attention of the enemy from the attack of General Wool then being made on Nor- folk, Virginia. As such it was entirely successful, though it cost the Fifty-first fearful hardships and some losses, the killed, wounded and missing numbering thirty men. Camden was the only engage- ment of Hartranft's command (regiment, brigade, or division) from which he was absent.
This was the last active operation of the Burnside expedition. A period of rest followed, and the force did not return till some time in the summer, when the Army of the Potomac had been transferred from McClellan to Pope. This was a period when treachery and treason to the Union cause were busy. Accordingly, in June, Colonel Hartranft being known as a loyal Democrat and true sol- dier, some persons in Pennsylvania tried to tempt him from his fidelity to the war by proposing to nominate him for Surveyor Gen- eral of the State. To this offer he replied in part as follows: "I
*For the company and staff officers of this regiment see sketch of Major General W. J. Bolton.
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50k
GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
desire to serve my country in no other position during the continu- ance of the rebellion than that in which I now am."
Early in August Burnside's force of eight thousand men was sud- denly ordered to come northward to the rescue of McClellan's dis- organized and dispirited army, which had just been repulsed before- Richmond, and placed in Pope's hands only to be sacrificed again. by Fitz John Porter's treachery (if not treason) at the second bat- tle of Bull Run. Here Reno's brigade, including Hartranft's regi- ment, did efficient service in repairing the results of Porter's in- famy, and covering the retreat of the betrayed army on Washington and the North. At Chantilly, on the Ist of September, two days, after, they gathered fresh laurels, effectually guarding the capital from attack, and compelling Lee to make a long detour in his ad- vance on Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Fitz John Porter and Franklin having thus, after a sort, demon- strated that nobody but McClellan could command the Army of the Potomac, the latter was restored to his old place. South Moun- tain and Antietam followed, of course without results, just as Mal- vern Hill had done on the Chickahominy.
It is very difficult even now to write of the stupidly managed bat- tle of Antietam with coolness, where brave men were sacrificed for nothing, and when they had at last won victory by sheer endurance, to see the repulsed enemy quietly allowed to steal back over the Potomac unmolested by an army flushed with victory, put the en - tire nation out of patience and outraged every loyal heart. And it is still more mortifying to remember that Hooker, of the right wing of the army, was kept engaged alone at Antietam until late in the. day, and then to turn the tide of battle our Fifty-first and other brave troops were remorselessly slaughtered at the bridge. During all those weary hours of combat fifteen thousand of our men stood aside and never pulled a trigger. At this distance, and looking back at that battle, it seems almost a miracle that Hartranft's and. Bolton's lives (as was the gallant Bell's) were not sacrificed, both being on the lead in that terrible charge. Other troops had been repulsed in the attempt to take the bridge, when McClellan sent word that it must be carried. So General Ferrero came dashing up and said, "General Burnside orders the Fifty-first Pennsylvania, Colonel Hartranft, to storm the bridge." Burnside knew from what he had seen of that regiment in North Carolina that he could rely upon it for a forlorn hope, and hence the explicit order for it to make the attempt. The result showed that he did not err in the.
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GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
choice. The three principal officers dashed over with their men, and the key to the battle was secured, but with the loss of Lieuten- ant Colonel Bell killed and Captain Bolton desperately wounded, as also the sacrifice of many other valuable lives. The actual cas- ualties were twenty-one killed and fifty-eight wounded, whose names are in the report, though the official account places the number of both at one hundred and twenty-five.
In making his report to McClellan, Burnside commended Colo- nel Hartranft's bravery, skill, and faithful service, and strongly urged that he be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. This manifest demand of justice was delayed for a year.
McClellan having still further demonstrated his inefficiency, was superceded, too late in the season to accomplish anything, by the appointment of Burnside to the command of the Army of the Poto- mac on the Ioth of November. Late in December, when the win- ter was too far advanced, the ill starred forward movement was made on Fredericksburg. In the attack on that city Hartranft commanded his regiment, but on picket the next night and day and night following, he commanded four out of the five regiments of his brigade on the front line and was required to assault a height under a terrible storm of shot. From his position in the retreat, his was the last body of troops to recross the river under the fire of the enemy. Here also the loss in killed and wounded reached ninety out of two hundred and seventy men. The army now lay encamped on the Rappahannock through the winter. Early in the spring of 1863, General Burnside, at his own request, was relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, and with the Ninth Corps, temporarily under the orders of General Parke, was sent to make a diversion in favor of General Grant, who was then besieging Vicks- burg. Accordingly Colonel Hartranft and the Fifty-first started West by railroad early in April, via Cincinnati, and for a short time were posted in detachment at various points in Kentucky to pro- tect Unionists against guerrillas.
In June Hartranft and his regiment were ordered to the Missis- sippi to operate on the Big Black in the rear of Vicksburg, there to keep the rebel General Johnston from relieving that beleagured city. Here they operated, enduring incredible hardship from the hot climate, want of food, and pure water, till Grant took Pember- ton and all his troops prisoners of war. During the subsequent marches of General Sherman against Jackson, on whose capitol the stars and stripes were again planted, Colonel Hartranft, then in
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GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT.
command of the brigade, was prostrated by the enervating climate, and compelled to go to the hospital.
After the successes just described, the Ninth Corps, with the brig- ade commanded by Hartranft, who had been acting Brigadier with only the rank of Colonel, was returned to Kentucky and West Ten- nessee, whence they marched over the mountains to Knoxville, in East Tennessee. And this march on foot was really a race with Longstreet for the possession of that loyal little city of the moun- tains. Reaching Campbell's Station, his brigade arrived just in time to keep Longstreet from intercepting Burnside's march to Knoxville, thus saving that important place for the cause of the Union. Here a spirited fight ensued, in which Hartranft, who had returned to his command the night before the battle, maintained his early reputation for courage and endurance. Being the senior officer he was assigned to the command of the division, in which the Fifty-first was serving. In these operations, too, our army was outnumbered by the enemy nearly three to one; yet, with the aid of Hartranft's engineering skill, Knoxville was successfully held. After nearly a month's effort, the rebel commander retired from the fruitless siege, and our Fifty-first regiment came home early in Jan- uary to recruit their depleted ranks and re-enlist for the end of the war .*
Here, to use the language of historic eulogy, General Hartranft closed the second act of his military career with all the glory that a soldier can win who honestly fights for the liberty and the preserva- tion of his country. In welcoming him home, his fellow-townsman, B. E. Chain, Esq., on behalf of the citizens of Norristown, said : "It is to you, Colonel Hartranft, that the regiment owes the char- acter it bears. Your discipline in the camp, your foresight on the march, your coolness, bravery and judgment on the battle-field, have won the confidence and love of your men, and made them heroes in the fight. They knew you never ordered when you did not lead."
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