Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 104

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York : Chapman Publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1068

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A LEXANDER CONNELL, deceased, was the youngest of the three Connell broth- ers whose history is so intimately con- nected with that of Scranton and Lackawanna County, one having represented this district in congress. The reputation for strict integrity, cor- rect business principles and fidelity to all inter- ests entrusted to them, he shared in common with the others, and though he was called upon to lay down the cares of life while yet in his prime, he had already attained success. And not alone such success as many reach in a financial way,. but that truer and greater success-a right per- ception and cheerful performance of his duties to his fellow men, himself being always held sec- ondary in importance.

A son of James and Susan (Melvin) Connell, our subject was born in Sidney, Nova Scotia, June 30, 1840. His two brothers were William and James, and with them he was taught sturdi- ness and independence, industry and persever- ance and other useful lessons, which too many have to reach only after long and painful expe- rience has been their teacher. The honored father died at the home of Alexander Connell in 1884 and the mother departed this life while living in Minooka.

From carly years our subject was a resident of Pennsylvania, as he was brought hither when a mere child by his parents, who for a time dwelt

in Schuylkill County. As he grew to manhood it became evident that he possessed unusual busi- ness talent and his first venture was in connec- tion with his elder brothers at their mines. There he was employed as an engineer, but a better opportunity presenting itself he left there and devoted his attention to mercantile pursuits. With several firms he was manager and afterwards he became a partner in the wholesale grocery of Megargel & Connell, attending to the financial management. Until his death, which occurred January 6, 1883, he made his home in the neigh- boring town of Minooka, where he was a most honored citizen. He was a faithful supporter of the tenets of the Republican party and was a thor- oughly patriotic man. Belonging to both the Odd Fellows and Masonic societies, he was buried with their rites at Forest Hill. For years he was a member of Taylorville Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Hyde Park Lodge, F. & A. M.

March 6, 1867, Mr. Connell was married at the home of the bride's parents, in Minooka, to Miss Elizabeth Campbell. Her father, Robert, was a native of Scotland, and an early settler of Miners- ville and Minooka. To the last-mentioned town he removed in 1857 and is still living there. His business in his active years was that of mining, but he is now enjoying the fruits of his former toil. He is a veteran of the Civil War, as he served under the three months' call, and then enlisted in Company B, Forty-eighth Pennsylva- nia Infantry, and was on active duty from then until the close of the conflict, three years or more later. He rose from the ranks to be first sergeant, and when serving in a campaign with Burnside, received two wounds. Since the war he has been a meniber of the Grand Army of the Republic. His father, Robert Campbell, Sr., came to Amer- ica, and died in Minersville, Pa. The wife of Robert Campbell, Jr., bore the maiden name of Mary Billington, and was born in Newcastle, England. Their five living children are all resi- dents of the Lackawanna Valley.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Connell was blessed with two children, a son and a daughter. Victo- ria is the wife of E. E. Pryor, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Robert Charles, who lives at home, attends the Lackawanna School. Like lier husband, Mrs.

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Connell is a member of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, and is now connected with the Elm Park Church. A lady of modest and retiring disposition, her genuine worth is acknowledged by all who have the pleasure of her acquaintance. In society, church and home she exercises an influence for good that is far-reaching and her friends may be numbered by the score.

G EORGE C. BROWN, M. D., of Dun- more, was born April 23, 1859, in the town of Wethersfield, Wyoming Coun- ty, N. Y., and spent his childhood years in Gaines- ville, that county. The Browns came of old Puritan stock, their ancestors being among the early settlers of Massachusetts, contemporaneous with Miles Standish, and taking part in the Indian wars there. The great-grandfather of our sub- ject, Nathan Brown, was born in Providence, R. I., September 10, 1767. When a young man he emigrated to Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vt., where he engaged in farming. In 1836 he re- moved his family to western New York, to Gene- see County, where he engaged in farming, and died October 2, 1851. His son, Asa, grandfather of Dr. Brown, was born in Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vt., April 25, 1795. He removed to Genesee County, N. Y., with his father's family in 1836. Wyoming County was afterward set off from Genesee County, and Asa Brown be- came one of the pioneer farmers of Wyoming County, where he died in the town of Java, Au- gust 8, 1860.

Milton R. Brown, the father of our subject, was born in Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vt., De- cember 29, 1824. He removed with his father's family to New York State in 1836, and has been a resident of Wyoming County, that state, since the county was established. He was married to Caroline Harden in 1846. There were born of this marriage eight children: Emma S., Susan, Helen M., Edgar, Frank W., George C., Lewis and James, of whom Emma S., Edgar, Frank W. and George C. survive. Since 1870 M. R. Brown has been engaged in publishing atlases, publish- ing state works, besides the United States Atlas, the National Atlas, and is now the publisher of

the Continental Atlas, with headquarters in Phil- adelphia, though he retains his residence in Gainesville, Wyoming County, N. Y., where he has a salt well on his farm.

Caroline Harden, the mother of our subject, was born in Saratoga County, N. Y .; she died in Philadelphia in May, 1882. Her father, John K. Harden, was of Irish descent and was born in Washington County, N. Y., in 1805, was an early captain on the Erie Canal, and was for a time a contractor on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and later settled in Wyoming County, N. Y., where he engaged in farming to the time of his death in 1881.

Dr. George C. Brown is the youngest of the four living children in the parental family. He was educated in public schools, and at Gaines- ville Academy, a then noted institution of learn- ing of New York, afterward became a student at Cornell University, but a year later entered the medical department of the University of Penn- sylvania in Philadelphia, and graduated in the class of 1880, with the degree of M. D. Immedi- ately after leaving the university he spent one year as resident surgeon at the Philadelphia Dis- pensary in Philadelphia, after which he took a position as surgeon on the Red Star Line of trans- atlantic steamers, sailing between New York, Philadelphia and Antwerp. In 1884 he settled in Gainesville, N. Y., where he practiced his pro- fession. Meantime he was health officer and sur- geon to the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railroad. In December, 1891, he removed to Avoca, Luzerne County, Pa., where he built up a large practice. While in Avoca he took a special course in surgery from Dr. Joseph Price of Philadelphia, the most skillful abdominal sur- geon in America. In 1894 he located in Dun- more, Lackawanna County, where in connection with his practice he has a private hospital at the corner of Blakely and Green Ridge Streets. He is a member of the Lackawanna County Medical Society, and of the Lackawanna County Ana- tomical Society.

He was married to Florence Rowland, of Row- lands, Pike County, Pa., in April, 1884, a daugh- ter of the late Senator George H. Rowland. The latter was born in Saratoga County, N.

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Y., in 1827. Her grandfather, Samuel Row- land, came from an old eastern family. He re- moved from New York State to Pike County, Pa., in 1828, to accept a contract in building the Delaware & Hudson Canal. George H. Row- land, when young, engaged as teacher in the public schools of Pennsylvania. When he ar- rived at the age of twenty-one he was married to Katherine Ammerman, a daughter of Joseph Ammerman, of Wayne County, Pa., a member of an old Pennsylvania family, and Sahra (La Bar) Ammerman, of French descent. He soon after engaged in the mercantile business at Row- lands, a place named in his honor, where he be- came a large land owner, and opened extensive blue and freestone quarries. He was also post- master for many years; served in the house of representatives at Harrisburg for two terms and in the state senate for one term, and in the fall of 1885, was appointed to the state senate by Governor Pattison to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Biddis. In politics George H. Rowland was a stanch Democrat. To Mr. and Mrs. Rowland were born the following chil- dren: George F., of Wilkesbarre, Pa .; O. L., an attorney of Honesdale, Pa .; A. G., postmaster and engaged in the bluestone business at Row- lands; Miles C., merchant at Rowlands; Mrs. Brown; Ada K., and Madge E., of Rowlands; and Lucile, wife of Dr. A. H. Bernstein of Scranton.

P ATRICK MULHERIN. Years of con- stant application, years in which there was much adversity and physical suffering, have brought to Mr. Mulherin financial success and prominence among the Irish-American resi- dents of Scranton. His interests are extensive, including real estate in this city, Lackawanna and Old Forge Townships, and valuable timber land in North Carolina. In addition to the gen- eral mercantile establishment at Taylor with which he is connected as a member of the firm of Judge & Co., he and his brother-in-law, M. P. Judge, about 1893 bought out W. B. Hull's lum- ber yard at Nos. 1401-1441 Remington Avenue, where they have built and enlarged workshop,

sheds, barns, etc. In addition to the sale of lum- ber, they carry on a contracting business, and built Terrace Hotel, Duryea Catholic Church, Father Matthew's Hall at Minooka, several resi- dences in Taylor and on Sanderson Hill, Scran- ton.

The Mulherin family lived for generations near Lake Erin in Ireland, and this fact is indicated by their name, "mul" meaning clan. Our subject was born in County Mayo in February, 1851. His father, Patrick, and grandfather Thaddeus, and great-grandfather, were born in the same house, and the old structure is still standing, now the home of our subject's step-mother. Thaddeus Mulherin took part in the French Revolution and was a farmer by occupation. To the same calling Patrick Mulherin gave his attention, but made a specialty of stockraising, and often drove or shipped stock to England and Scotland; he died in October, 1895, at the age of eighty-seven. Twice married, his first wife was Mary, daughter of Patrick and Catherine (Madden) Henry, and granddaughter of Richard Madden, sheriff of that principality and a distinguished man of his day. Mrs. Mary Mulherin died in 1864, and afterward our subject's father was united with a Miss Mc- Dowell, who still lives at the old homestead.

Of six children now living, two in Ireland and John, Michael, Kate, and Patrick in Scranton, the subject of this sketch is next to the eldest, and was the first of the family who came to America. In boyhood he traveled with his father in Eng- land and Scotland, assisting in the care of the stock, and afterward was a clerk in a brother-in- law's employ. At the age of seventeen, in 1867, he left Liverpool on the steamer "Minnesota," and after a voyage of fourteen days landed in New York City, proceeding thence to Philadel- phia, from there to Schuylkill County and later to Luzerne County. He found employment on the North Branch Canal along the Susquehanna River between Pittston and Towanda and held the different positions up to that of captain. Meantime he learned telegraphy. When the Le- high Valley Railroad Company was extending their line north, he was employed as operator, and afterward was brakeman between Pittston and Waverly. In the fall of 1869 he took a posi-

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tion as brakeman on the Bloomsburg division of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, but one day, after he replaced a switch, a train from the rear struck him, running over him and depriving him of both feet. This severe affliction prevented him from working for four months. On his re- covery he became operator at Hyde Park for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and after a year there was transferred to Danville, then to Pittston, and later was station agent at Taylor. After five years in Taylor he entered into a part- nership with Al Woodworth and H. J. Cooper as Woodworth, Mulherin & Co., in the dry-goods and grocery business, this connection continu- ing for about six years.

In the meantime Mr. Mulherin formed a part- nership with John F. Taylor and Joseph Hannick in the lumber and building business; and, with Everett E. Dale, of Daleville, organized the firm of Mulherin & Dale, for the manufacture of lum- ber, having a saw mill in North Carolina and a planing mill in Baltimore. In 1892 the Baltimore business was sold, but he is still secretary and manager of the Scranton & North Carolina Land & Lumber Company, and its principal stock- holder. The company owns about thirty thou- sand acres on Pamlico Sound and a mill at Makelyville, with a capacity of fourteen million feet per year, also steam and dry kilns, and steam tugs and barges that carry the lumber to Balti- more and Philadelphia. The same company con- ducts a general mercantile business at Makely- ville, has developed the real estate business there, and brought the place into prominence as a winter resort for sportsmen.

Besides all these varied interests, Mr. Mulherin is president of the Taylor Silk Manufacturing Company at Taylor, of which he was one of the organizers and which was the first manufacturing industry established in that place. He is presi- dent of the Winchester (Va.) Lumber & Manu- facturing Company, which owns a large planing mill and manufactures sash, doors and blinds. Through his efforts, carried on unceasingly for ten years, he succeeded in having the town of Taylor incorporated as a borough and was a member of the first council until the organization was effected. He is a director in the Taylor, Equi-

table and Schiller Building & Loan Associations. In politics he is a "sound money" Democrat and has been chairman of the committee of the fifth legislative district, also delegate to conventions. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Minooka. In the last-named place he married Miss Cassie T. Judge, who was born in Minersville, Schuylkill County, and they are the parents of two children, Ethel Elizabeth and Pat- rick Henry. Prior to his marriage with Miss Judge he was married to Miss Mary Duggan and they became the parents of one child, Mary Loretta. Mrs. Mulherin died about 1875.

J OHN P. COOPER, superintendent of the Taylor mines owned by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railway Com- pany, was born in Tompkins County, N. Y., in 1827, and there spent the first eight years of his life. Two years were then spent in Vienna, N. Y., after which he went to Moorestown, N. J., and there remained until nineteen years of age. In Rondout, N. Y., he learned the machinist's trade, which he followed until twenty-two. He then secured employment as engineer on the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, where he remained for seven years, and afterward held a position as engineer on a steamboat running between Richmond and Norfolk.

Coming to Scranton in 1853, Mr. Cooper started a planing mill and this he operated until the breaking out of the war. In 1862 he received a commission from the United States govern- ment and became engineer on the United States steamship "Water Witch," which was captured by Confederate forces below Savannah, and our subject taken prisoner. His captors took him to Savannah, thence to Macon, later to the city prison in Charleston, and then to Libby prison, where he was exchanged after having been a prisoner for eight months. As soon as liberated, he went on board the United States steamer "Norwich," and continued its engineer until the end of the war. Afterward he was on the "Yuma" until December 26, 1867, when he resigned his position and came to Taylor, taking charge of the mines here.

MR. AND MRS. NATHANIEL HALSTEAD.

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October 15, 1857, Mr. Cooper married Miss Ellen Calloway, and they have two children: Harry J., assistant superintendent of the mines, and Austin T., who resides in San Francisco, and is in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. In the mine of which Mr. Cooper is outside superintendent there are employed five or six hundred men and an immense amount of business is carried on in the mining and sale of coal. Fraternally he is connected with Union Lodge No. 291, F. & A. M., of Scranton, and also with Lieut. Ezra S. Griffin Post, G. A. R., at Scranton. In political belief he is an advocate of Republican principles and invariably gives his support to the nominees of that party. The political questions of the age have received from him the consideration they demand and he has firm convictions upon all subjects of importance.

N ATHANIEL HALSTEAD is an honored old settler and straightforward business man of Scranton. In all the years that he has been engaged in building and contracting here, his integrity and high sense of honor have never been questioned. It is well known that whatever he undertakes to accomplish will be carried out to the letter and that full satisfaction is assured. His friends are numbered, not by the score, but by the hundreds, and it would be difficult to find a more popular citizen.

His paternal grandfather, who came from an old family in this country, was a hero of the Revo-' lutionary War, and went from Orange County, N. Y., to Wilkesbarre, when this state was little . better than a wilderness. He continued to live on a farm in Luzerne County many years. Alanson, father of our subject, was born on the old home- stead there, and early became familiar with pio- neer life. When he had arrived at maturity, he went to the vicinity of Clifford, Susquehanna County, and cleared a tract in the forest, cutting down the first tree on the place. With these logs he built a cabin, and later he developed a good farm. A few years before his death he sold the old home, but still dwelt in the township until his demise at the age of eighty-two years. His wife was Miss Phoebe Wells, who, like him, was

a native of Luzerne County. Her father, James Wells, who at one time owned a gristmill near Stroudsburg, Pa., was very kind to the poor and made it his business to see that the widows and orphans in that locality were always supplied with flour. Moving into Susquehanna County in after years, he died there when over ninety-one years old; his wife lived to be eighty-two years of age.

Of the twelve children born to Alanson and Phoebe Halstead, all but one grew to mature years. They were as follows: D. W., who died in Clifford; Mrs. Catherine Coleman, who died in Scranton; Mrs. Rachel Peck, who died in Clif- ford; John, now residing in Clifford Corners; Nathaniel; Mrs. Rebecca Arnold, of Clifford; Charles, a carpenter and contractor of Scranton; Margaret Doolittle, who died in Iowa; Mary, who died when twenty-three; Silas, of Clifford; Sid- ney, who died at nineteen, and H. H., who died when two years old.

Nathaniel Halstead was born in Clifford, De- cember 26, 1823, and at an early period began helping his father in the labor of clearing and im- proving the farm. He was an active, industrious lad, and from the time he was sixteen worked right along with grown men, doing as much as they. His father owned a saw mill and the youth was proud of the fact that he was consid- ered competent to operate it from boyhood. He also learned carpentering and when he had ar- rived at his majority he concluded to turn his at- tention to this branch of business. From 1844 until three years had passed he worked at his trade in his home township, but in the summer of 1847 he located in Carbondale. In the years that followed he took contracts and built many of the best houses in that place. He was his own archi- tect and among other structures erected by him there was the Manville House. It was in April, 1855, that he came to Scranton and put up a house on the present site of Megargel & Con- nell's store. Here he lived for five years and then built his present home, on Mifflin Avenue. At that time Lackawanna Avenue and Spruce Street were impassable after dark, owing to their be- ing unpaved. The only brick building on the former street was the then new Wyoming House and the place now occupied as a store by Hunt &

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

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Connell. Mr. Halstead has built enough houses, stores and other structures in various parts of Scranton to make a good-sized village. On his own account he also put up houses from time to time and invested in real estate which he im- proved.

When the Linden Street bridge, by one accord granted to be the finest in this portion of the state, was being erected, Mr. Halstead was ap- pointed by Mayor Connell (and his decision con- firmed by the council) to serve as city inspector, and attend to the interests of the public in watch- ing out for the proper construction of the bridge, He was very vigilant, and as the superintendent of the bridge company was desirous of doing just what was right in the matter, the whole enterprise was carried out without a cross word or misun- derstanding between them, and the council ap- proved and accepted the bridge. For a number of years Mr. Halstead engaged in the manufacture of lime at Portland, having a retail place here, and was also interested in a stone quarry at the railroad bridge. Since the founding of the Re- publican party, he has given his support to it, and has often served on committees and gone to conventions as a delegate. For ten years he has been assessor for the city and county in the six- teenth ward and represented it in the common council four years. During this period he was active on several committees and was chairman of the board of revision and repeal.

In October, 1894, the golden wedding anni- versary of Mr. and Mrs. Halstead was happily celebrated in their pleasant home. Among the four hundred friends who were present on this memorable occasion, there were some who had been at the marriage of the venerable couple half a century before. That event took place in Clif- ford, the bride being Miss F. A. Thatcher, whose father, Orrin, of Connecticut, was a pioneer in Clifford Township. Her mother, who was a Sco- field, had often heard her relatives tell of how, by secreting themselves, they were fortunate enough to escape the dreadful Wyoming mas- sacre. Five children were born to our subject and wife: Mrs. Phoebe M. Downing of Scran- ton; H. H., who died when but two years old; Mrs. Annie Kellar, who died at thirty in Port-

land; Frank N., assistant paymaster of the Dela- ware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, and for fifteen years an employe of that company here; and Mamie E., Mrs. C. F. Whittemore, whose husband is a member of the firm of L. B. Powell & Co. Mr. and Mrs. Halstead were two of the four charter members of the Penn Avenue Baptist Church, the former drawing up the plans and be- ginning the actual building. Since the organiza- tion of the congregation he has been a deacon and held the same office previously in the Hyde Park Baptist Church. He also has been on the board of trustees over thirty years and was clerk of the church eight years.

P D. MANLEY stands to-day at the head of the successful business men of Dun- more. Greater fortunes have been ac- cumulated, but few lives furnish so striking an example of the wise application of sound princi- ples and safe conservatism as does his. The story of his success is short and simple, containing no exciting chapters, but in it lies one of the most valuable secrets of the prosperity which it records, and his business and private life are full of inter- est, no matter how lacking in dramatic action. It is the record of a noble life, consistent with itself and its possibilities in every particular.

Mr. Manley is a native of Ireland. His father died three months after his arrival in this country, when the son was quite small. The mother, Mrs. Bridget Manley, settled in Wilkesbarre, but in a short time came to Dunmore, where the children were educated. She was a woman of great force of character and moral worth, and a devout mem- ber of the Catholic Church. Her death occurred in 1895 when she was sixty-five years of age. In the family were the following children: P. D., of this sketch; Rev. D. J., who was president of Epiphany College of Baltimore, Md., and as- sisted Rev. J. R. Slattery in building the seminary and college in that city, where white men are ed- ucated for missionaries to the negroes in both America and Africa; Dr. Peter C., of Jermyn, Pa .; Dr. J. A., of Scranton; Rev. J. B., who is a . professor in Mt. St. Mary's College, in Emmets- burg, Md .; Mary, who is now Sister Marita of

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Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 104

Author: Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York : Chapman Publishing co. Number of Pages: 1068

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York : Chapman Publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1068