USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 75
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September 3. 1873, Mr. Thackara married Mary Augusta McDowell, daughter of his old employer, the ex-postmaster above inentioned. The young couple's first child, Ada, was born November 22, 1876, and their only other child, Florence, was born exactly eleven years afterward, November 22, 1887. The elder daughter is the wife of James A. Johnson of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Thackara and daughters are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church and our subject is connected with the Society of Royal Templars. Mrs. Thackara's father makes his home with her. His grandfather, James McDowell, was one of the earliest settlers of western Pennsylvania, arr 1g in this county in 1795. He was the father of Alexander McDowell, who as a lad of nine years when the family came to the wilds of Crawford county, and he, in turn, was the father of J. B. McDowell.
Caleb P. Harris, son of Abraham and Susan (White) Harris, was born in the province of New Brunswick, May 24, 1842, was educated at common schools and Meadville Commercial College. In 1863 he went to Boston, where he remained two years, and removed to Oil City in 1865 and engaged
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in blacksmithing. He came to Meadville in 1866, and was in the employ of the Atlantic & Great Western and the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Rail- ways altogether for twenty-three years, when he engaged in the flour, feed and grain business.
He has held the offices of councilman, select councilman and chairman. In 1868 he married Catharine Kerbert, and lias a family of four children : William C., born in 1869, and married to Mary McNulty; Mary L., wife of H. G. Lampman of Pittsburg, this state; Gertrude E. and George M. William C. Harris is engineer on the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railway.
Thaddeus C. Joy was a native of Groton, New York, and was educated at the Groton Academy and brought up for a mercantile life. He married Miss Emeline W., a daughter of Orrin Clark. Coming to Titusville in the winter of 1865, he engaged for a time in building iron tanks for oil. Subse- quently he was engaged extensively in the oil-producing business. About 1880 he began the manufacture of steam heaters,-boilers and radiators,- and this business became the most important work of his life. His first plant in Titusville was located on South Perry street. The business grew to such proportions that he associated with him Daniel Colestock and purchased in the eastern part of the city several acres of land, upon which he erected large works ; and these, after his death, were purchased by the Titusville Iron Con- pany, Mr. Colestock retaining an interest in the establishment. Before Mr. Joy's death the plant had grown to large proportions. (An account of the works will be found elsewhere in this history, in a description of the Titus- ville Iron Company.) The radiator works are a monument to the enterprise of Mr. Joy. He died August 22. 1895, enjoying the respect of the community in which he had spent an active life. He loved his fellow men, and his highest ambition was to be useful in his day and generation. He was a member of the Presbyterian church. He had one son, Charles C., who died in 1890, leav- ing a wife. The surviving wife of our subject occupies the mansion which he had erected long before his death on West Elm street.
Burton Fisher Edwards was born June 22, 1844, in Wyalusing, near T' Landa, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, the eldest son of Burton and Deb- or (Taylor) Edwards. During his early boyhood his father moved with his family to the state of Iowa, and died there, in 1855. His only sister also died in that state three years later, in 1858, leaving the mother with two sons, -Burton F. and William H. Some time afterward Mrs. Edwards returned with her two sons to Bradford county, Pennsylvania.
Burton F. was graduated at the Binghamton Commercial College April 5, 1867, and came to Titusville in 1869, and for a time served as clerk for a coal firm. In 1874 he purchased the coal business of Morley & Brown, in Titusville, and for a few years carried on the business alone. In 1879 he asso-
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ciated with him his brother, William H., in a business partnership, under the firm name of Edwards Brothers. They dealt in coal, building material, lime, plaster, brick, cement, fertilizers, etc., and always had a good trade. From 1882 to 1887 inclusive Mr. Edwards was a member of the Titusville common council, and for a part of the time he was president of that body.
He was a member of the Shepherd Lodge of Masons and of the Rose Croix Commandery of Knights Templars, of which he was eminent com- mander; and for many years he was a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. He died July 16, 1898, and was buried under the auspices of the Knights Templars. As a citizen and business man he enjoyed in a high degree the respect of the community. It was in October, 1875, that he was married to Miss Helen M. Bartlett, daughter of George C. Bartlett. She survives, with three daughters,-Grace, Helen and Letta.
George Chapman Bartlett, a native of Oneida county, New York, was born October 4, 1825. and while in his native county he always lived on a farm. His parents. Horace and Clarissa ( Seward ) Bartlett, were from New Haven county, Connecticut, and lie was the third born of four children. In Septem- ber, 1851, he married Miss Mary A. Dennison of Essex, Connecticut, the daughter of Robert Fordyce and Fanny Maria (Griswold) Dennison. To Mr. Bartlett and wife have been born four children: Helen M., the wife of the late B. F. Edwards of Titusville; Mary G., wife of William H. Edwards of the same city: George A. and Carrie D. Mr. Bartlett's mother died in Oneida county. New York, in 1850, and his father. in his (the son's) own house in Hydetown, in 1881, beloved by his family and near relatives and respected by all his acquaintances.
The subject of this sketch came to Titusville in 1862 and drilled suc- cessively two wells for oil on Watson Flats; but as these wells did not prove profitable, he abandoned thein, moved the rig away and erected a refinery on the south side in Titusville. Both those wells, however, under more thor- ough operation, yielded oil afterward in paying quantities, and the new own- ers paid Mr. Bartlett one thousand dollars. He built a second refinery, bring- ing two stills from Erie. This undertaking proving successful he built still another refinery. the last one on Hemlock Run, which he called the Sunshine Oil Works. E. C. Bishop was his superintendent and was a good manager. After burning out he began drilling, first on the Griffin farm, and continued at the business, sinking many wells, for about twelve years. Then he started a soap factory, on the site of his first refinery, and in this enterprise the busi- ness was at first lucrative, because he used spent alkali from refineries, which he bought at a low figure, and for a time he produced a great deal of soap. After he had operated the works for about three years the refiners learned to cleanse their spent alkali and use it again in treating oil. Having lost the
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cheap alkali, he abandoned the soap business. In 1878 he purchased the Weed farm at Hydetown, which he has managed ever since.
Mr. Bartlett and all his family except the son George F., who lives at Hector. Minnesota, are devoted members of the Titusville Presbyterian church. Mr. Bartlett is a public-spirited citizen, possessing the respect and confidence of the community, and has held many local offices.
John Luke McKinney was born at Pittsfield, Warren county, Pennsyl- vania, June 21, 1842. His parents were James and Lydia Drury (Turner) Mckinney. His ancestry on the father's side was Scotch-Irish; on the mother's side, American and Holland mixed. The paternal grandfather, John Mckinney. came from Belfast, Ireland, to Philadelphia, about 1791, and from Philadelphia to Lancaster. In 1795 he came with commissioners ap- pointed by the Governor to survey the part of Warren county along the Alle- gheny river, and in that year he helped General William Irvine lay out the present borough of Warren. After making the surveys, for which he had been commissioned, he took up a large tract of land upon the Brokenstraw Creek, immediately west of what became Irvineton, the home of the Irvine family. Having established a home upon his new possessions, he returned to Lancaster and married a daughter of General Arthur, whose wife, the mother of the bride, was a sister of Daniel Boone. the famous Kentucky pioneer. When Mr. Mckinney brought his wife to a forest home, they had for their nearest neighbors the Irvines, a distinguished family, located where the Broken- straw empties into the Allegheny river, whose lands adjoined those of Mr. Mckinney. This was near the close of the last century. The pioneers of that period represented the best virtues of human nature. All his life upon the Brokenstraw, Mr. Mckinney kept an open house, to strangers as well as to acquaintances and friends. Courage, gallantry and generosity were the qualities for which he was distinguished among the people of Warren county, as is gathered from the unquestioned testimony of his contemporaries. He was a soldier in the American army in the war of 1812, and his son, James, the father of the subject of this sketch, was well versed in the history of his services.
The mother of the subject of this sketch bore the names of two pron- inent Massachusetts families, which by intermarriage unite the blood of two distinct lines of colonial ancestry in that commonwealth. Both the Turners and the Drurys were of English descent. Humphrey Turner, according to tradition, came from Essex, England, and, with his family. arrived at Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, about 1630. At the present time the Turner family tree covers a large part of the United States, and the work of compiling the Turner genealogy has been going on for some time. The line of the Drurys has a beginning in Massachusetts quite as early as that of the Turners. Colonel
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Luke Drury, of Grafton, Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, 1775, led the Grafton minute men to Lexington and Concord, and was in the engagements at those places. He also had a command at the battle of Bunker Hill follow- ing. He continued in the army of Washington at the siege of Boston, and afterward during the war he rendered valuable service, gaining the confidence and favor of Washington. Colonel William Turner served upon Washington's staff, and he was also aid to Lee, Greene, Lincoln and Knox.
Lydia Drury, whose name her descendant. the mother of Mr. Mckinney, bears, was the daughter of Colonel Luke Drury, and she married Joshua Turner, a descendant of Humphrey Turner. Luke Turner, named after his maternal grandfather, the son of Joshua and Lydia (Drury) Turner, married Elizabeth Cook. either herself a native of Holland, or the child of Dutch parents. Their daughter, the later Lydia Drury (Turner) Mckinney, was the mother of John L. Mckinney and J. C. Mckinney.
Having briefly traced the genealogy of Mr. Mckinney's family line, his domestic history may here be given. In 1867, John L. Mckinney was married to Miss Ida D. Ford, daughter of John C. and Jernsha Ford. She died May II, 1894, leaving two children, a son and a daughter. The son, Glenn Ford Mckinney, was born in 1869. He was graduated from the Titusville High School in 1886, and was the valedictorian of his class. He was graduated from Princeton University in 1891, and from the New York Law School in 1893. During his course in the Law School he was president of his class, and in the last year he was editor-in-chief of the Law Journal published by the school. In 1893-94 he was examined and admitted to the practice of law in the first division of New York City. Since then he has been engaged in the practice of his profession in that city. Ida Ethlyn McKinney, the daugh- ter, was born in 1871. She was graduated from Smith College, Northamp- ton, Massachusetts, in the class of 1895. For some time past she has been traveling in Europe, where she is still staying, engaged in studying music and languages. In 1896 Mr. Mckinney was married to Miss Alliene Ford, daugh- ter of D. W. and Jennie L. Ford.
The oil history of Mr. Mckinney, comprehensively given, appears else- where in this work. His life work in the past has been in oil production, and he is still to a considerable extent engaged in that business. He is president of the Midland Division of the South Pennsylvania Oil Company, one of the largest oil producing companies in the United States. But his business enter- prises outside of oil are extensive, and they occupy the greater part of his attention. Most of these undertakings are outside of Titusville, and they involve heavy transactions. At home he has been at the head of the Titusville Commercial Bank since its organization in the spring of 1882. He and his brother, J. C. Mckinney, own a large part of the stock of the institution, and he has mainly shaped the general policy of the bank. He has been supported
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by a board of directors, composed principally of strong men. The policy of the bank has been highly useful to the community. The management has evidently realized that the interests of the community and those of the bank are identical. Upon this policy the bank has prospered, and the community has been well accommodated. When Mr. Mckinney became president of this institution he was not wanting in experience in the banking business. He had previously been a director in several banking houses, and he brought to this institution a practical knowledge of the important requisites to be observed in the business. He selected, at the start, for cashier, Mr. E. C. Hoag, who has since held the position to the satisfaction of the managers and the public.
Mr. Mckinney is a large stockholder and a director of the Titusville Iron Company, one of the largest manufacturing institutions in northwestern Penn- sylvania. He is president of the Titusville Industrial Fund Association, and he is one of the ten citizens who subscribed each $10,000 to the stock of the company.
In politics, Mr. Mckinney has always been a Democrat, as were all his ancestors, so far as is known, on both sides. Colonel Luke Drury was a warm supporter of Thomas Jefferson. In 1884, Mr. Mckinney was the Democratic candidate in his district for Congress. It was the year for the election of a president. Party lines were tightly drawn, and the district was largely Republican. At the election, Mr. Mckinney carried Titusville by over five hundred plurality, and he carried, by two hundred plurality, Craw- ford county, which gave Blaine, the Republican candidate for President, fif- teen hundred plurality. In Crawford county, Mr. Mckinney ran ahead of his party ticket seventeen hundred votes, and in the district twenty-five hun- dred ahead. In 1884, Mr. Mckinney represented his congressional district in the Democratic national convention at Chicago, and gave an active and strong support to Grover Cleveland, who received the nomination for Presi- dent. Eight years later, in June, 1892, he was a delegate-at-large from Penn- sylvania at the Democratic national convention in Chicago, again supporting Cleveland, who was again nominated.
Mr. Mckinney has been a resident of Titusville continuously for the last thirty years. He has served the city upon the School Board. A few years ago, he and his brother, J. C. Mckinney, contributed $1,000 to the labora- tory of the Titusville High School. It is needless to say that he is a public- spirited citizen, and devoted to the interests of the community in which he lives.
Martin R. Rouse was born in Sheshequin, Bradford county, Pennsyl- vania, January 31, 1835. His parents moved from that county to Slaterville, New York, and afterward to Tioga, in Tioga county, same state. He attended school and was employed on a farm during his boyhood. His father, Rev.
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Noel Rouse, was a Universalist clergyman. The home of our subject was in Tioga until the fall of 1865. In 1862 he went south with a construction corps in the service of the government, building bridges, etc., and he continued in that service till the' close of the war. Soon afterward he came to the Miller farm, in Venango county. Pennsylvania, and a little later to Titusville. In the spring of 1866 he was put upon the police force and he patrolled for a year; and in the autumn of 1867 and the spring of 1868 lie was appointed chief of police,-a position which he held twenty years. From 1875 to 1890 he also held the office of street commissioner, to which office he was again appointed in 1896, and he still holds that position.
At the organization of Company K. Sixteenth Regiment of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, in July, 1883, he was elected its first lieutenant, and in July, 1885, he was promoted to the captaincy of the company ; he was re- elected captain in July, 1890 ; resigned April 8, 1895, but was re-elected July of the same year. He again resigned May 1, 1897. Soon after the organization of Company K he built the spacious armory on East Central avenue, at which the headquarters of the company have since been established.
Mr. Rouse was first married to Miss Sarah M. Giles, who bore him one child, Lou G. In 1868 he married Miss Hortense D. Buggbee of Ellington, Chautauqua county, New York, who has borne him three children,-all daughters. Lou G., the eldest of the four. is married to T. E. Westgate, the Titusville refiner ; Jennie is married to D. M. Donehue of Titusville; Cora is married to William Teege, a partner of T. E. Westgate in the refining busi- ness.
Elias I'. Hummer, son of Adam Hummer, was born in New York, mar- ried Sarah A. Connover, and came to Rome township about 1832, settling on the farm now owned by his son, George W.
E. T. Mason, prothonotary of the court of common pleas, Crawford county, was born in Conneautville, this county, November 6, 1860. He is the son of Andrew J. and Alma ( Terrel) Mason. The former, born in 1831, be- longed to the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- teers, and was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg. Mr. Mason's ancestors were originally from Connecticut ; his grandfather, Charles Terrel, located in Crawford county in 1819.
Mr. Mason was educated at the Conneautville high school, and began teaching in the common schools in 1879, continuing until 1893. During that time he was principal of the Conneautville high school and the Jamestown (Pennsylvania) Seminary. In September, 1889, he married Abbie, daughter of Myron and Ella (Lord) Ransom, of Conneautville. Mrs. Mason died in April, 1893, aged twenty-eight years. Mr. Mason was elected prothonotary
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on the Populist ticket in November, 1896, which office he now holds. In 1894 the degree of Ph. D. was conferred upon him by Grove City College.
Mr. Mason has two brothers,-W. L., of Kirkwood, Florida, and E. C., of Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Horace F. Nelson .- The Nelson family were early settlers in the vicinity of Owego. Tioga county, New York, and there the birth of Horace F. Nelson occurred on the 30th of June, 1830. His parents, James and Elizabeth ( Bur- ton) Nelson, were natives of the same place. In his early youth and man- hood he learned the blacksmith's trade, and in 1860 he determined to seek a new field of enterprise, and accordingly packed into a wagon some of the tools and appliances necessary in his calling and drove from Owego to Rome township, Crawford county. Here he placed his anvil under a tree, just across the road from his present well appointed shop, and at once started in business, in which he has been very successful. The land on which he located was a wilderness, and lie was obliged to clear a site for his house. In time he cleared the whole farm and greatly improved it, thus making it one of the best in the township.
On the 21st of April, 1853. Horace F. Nelson and Esther E. Olmstead were united in marriage, and for forty-one years they lived in harmonious companionship. The devoted wife and mother was summoned to her reward July 20, 1894. She was a daughter of George A. and Sally M. (Freligh) Olmstead of Concord township, Erie county, Pennsylvania. Six of the eight children born to our subject and wife are still living. George O. died October 25, 1870, and one died in Ashville, New York. Those who survive are Ida MI., Katie I., Frank G., Martha M., Ella N. and Otis J., who has been the town supervisor. Our subject is a loyal citizen and is a faithful member of the Free Baptist church.
Joseph H. Lenhart .- For years one of the most valued citizens of Mead- ville was Joseph H. Lenhart, who was prominent in the business, social and religious circles of this place. He was of German descent, was born January 22, 1821, in Perry county, Pennsylvania. When he was fifteen years of age he came to Meadville to live with his uncle, Joseph Derickson, from whom he received a thorough training in mercantile business.
In 1862 he received a commission from President Lincoln appointing him assessor of internal revenue for the twentieth district of Pennsylvania, which office he held until 1867, having been reappointed by President John- son. Later he was actively engaged in mercantile and banking business until his death, February 24, 1889.
June 24, 1880, he was appointed by John Jay Knox, then comptroller of the currency, as receiver of the First National Bank of Meadville, Pennsyl-
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vania. The settling up of the affairs of this bank was done so quickly and well that he received the highest praises of the treasury officials.
His life was well rounded and admirable in every particular, and all of the notable Christian virtues were exemplified in his character. He was a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of the Masonic order, the Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
In 1846 Mr. Lenhart married Sarah A. Donnely. Two children, Emma S. ( now deceased). and Clara J. ( now wife of Dr. Cyrus See), were born of this union. In 1850 Mr. Lenhart was united in marriage with Lenora Mor- lan, who still survives him. Mrs. Lenhart was a daughter of Mordecai and Eliza (Dean) Morlan, residents of Ohio. Her father lived to attain the advanced age of eighty-seven years, while her mother was four-score years old at the time of her death.
Six children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lenhart, namely : Lyde A., Edwin D., Frank M., Joseph M., Ada L., and Etta A., all of whom are now living.
Andrew Jackson Crawford is a son of James, whose Scottish ancestry dates back to the twelfth century. The family came early to America and settled in Pennsylvania. A branch of the family went to Ohio, where, in Del- aware, Delaware county. A. J. Crawford was born. His education was ob- tained from the excellent schools afforded in that county. He served under General Taylor in Mexico and later was a printer, also edited a paper printed at Marion, Ohio, and at Wooster, same state, but his health failing he settled on a farm for a time.
In 1866 or '7 he came to Titusville, where he was ticket agent on the Oil Creek railroad. Later he moved to Corry, and in 1871 to Spartansburg, where he was station agent. He died in 1877. His first wife was before marriage Elizabeth Jones, and by her he had two children: Emma (Mrs. Worth Winton), of Centerville, Pennsylvania; and Bertie, who died young. For his second wife he married Mrs. Elizabeth ( Thomas) Baker, by whom he had four children : Mary ( Mrs. W. C. Hilliard). Jennie (Mrs. Emory Blakes- lee ), and Annie and Eva, who are deceased.
Milton Stewart was born September 24, 1838, in Cherry Tree township. Venango county, Pennsylvania. His parents were William R. and Jane M. (Irwin) Stewart. William R. was the son of Elijah and Lydia ( Reynolds) Stewart. He was the grandson of William Reynolds and Lydia (Thom- as) Stewart, who came from England and settled in Cherry Tree town- ship in 1797. William R. Stewart was a tanner by trade ; and Milton, as he grew up. besides attending school, assisted his father at the tannery. He began drilling for oil in the early '6os, but at first met with little success. In the
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oil history of Titusville in this work is an account of his operations as a pro- ducer and also as a refiner. He is one of the few oil-producers who engaged in the oil development soon after Drake's discovery, and has continued in the business until the present time. He has resided in Titusville for the last thirty years.
On December 23, 1880, he was married to Miss Ella, the daughter of the late J. J. Marsh of this city.
John Theobold was born in Germany. He came with his parents to this country and settled at Wellsville, New York, where at first he followed farm- ing. He married, at Wellsville, Miss Frances Mayer, who also was a native of Germany and the daughter of John Mayer, a tanner of Wellsville. Mr. Theobold came to Titusville with his family about 1868. He had been at Pithole, where he kept a boot and shoe store, and had also oil interests. For a time he also kept a restaurant at Petroleum Center. He purchased the pres- ent Theobold brewery of Philip Hoenig, and continued to operate it until his death. Joseph Hoenig was once a partner in the brewery, also a Mr. Sprader. Mr. Theobold built up a good trade, and died in September, 1886. He left to his family a good property and twelve thousand dollars in life insurance. The children are George; John, who is married; Clara and Albert, who died young; Laura. Albert and Grace. John Theobold was strongly attached to his home and to his family, was genial and kind, a friend to everybody, while everybody was a friend to himn. His sons seem to manage well the business which he left to them.
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