Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 86

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

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Educated in the public schools, at an early age our subject began to work for himself, making his own way in the world. He was employed as a runner on the breakwater in Connecticut, then served as stationary and locomotive engineer in the Weehawken tunnel for eighteen months, and then returned to Scranton, where he started in the tobacco business on the corner of North Main Avenue and Jackson Street, Hyde Park. Five years were spent there, after which he was en- gaged as dynamo man for the Scranton Traction Company, and was engineer of the only plant they then had. In October, 1893, he took a po- sition with the Scranton Fire Brick Company, of which his brother, Daniel Ward, was one of the principal owners. He had charge of the comple- tion of the works and has since superintended their management. The plant is located in Nay- Aug Avenue near Green Ridge and has a capac- ity of one hundred and fifty thousand per month, the fire brick manufactured there being of the highest grade. About twenty-five hands are em- ployed. The sand is manufactured and mixed here, at fifty thousand pounds pressure to the square inch, and the brick is burned to four thou-

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sand degrees of heat. Recently a change has been made from hot air dryer to steam heat, which has been found beneficial.

In addition to this business, Mr. Connolly is identified with a livery trade, having the largest establishment of this kind in Providence, the boarding and livery stable of the Bristol House. Politically a Democrat, when his brother was postmaster under the first administration of Grover Cleveland, he held the position of money order clerk and general assistant. His residence at Arlington Heights was the first built on this plot, and is a comfortable home for himself, his wife and their two children, Allyn and Billie. Mrs. Connolly, who was Miss Fannie E. Stanton, was born, reared and married in Dunmore, and is a daughter of William and Kate Stanton. Her grandparents, Charles and Nancy Potter, lived in Dunmore, and left a large estate in coal lands in that place.

C HARLES W. PEARCE, a prosperous business man of Scranton, was born in Prompton, Wayne County, N. Y., Octo- ber 1, 1854, and is a son of John and Minerva (Alvard) Pearce. His father, who was born in 1826 sixteen miles from Plymouth, Cornwall, England, was a son of William Pearce, a butcher and farmer, who died in Cornwall at the age of fifty-four. Representing the generation preceding was William, also an agriculturist. In 1844 John Pearce came to America and settled in Honesdale, Pa., where he was engaged in farming and lumbering. Later he took a posi- tion in the carpenter's department of the Dela- ware & Hudson Canal Company. In 1855 he came to Scranton, where he helped to sink the von Storch shaft. Since April 15, 1863, he has been employed as an engineer. In Hawley, Pa., he married a daughter of Zenas Alvard, who moved by ox team from Connecticut to Hawley, where he engaged in farming. Prior to coming here he had served in the War of 1812.

The parental family consists of three sons and one daughter, namely: Charles W .; George, an engineer with the West Ridge Coal Company; Addie, who resides with her parents at No. 1832

Nay-Aug Avenue; and John, who died here in 1883. The subject of this sketch was brought by his parents to Scranton in infancy and here at- tended the public schools prior to the age of thir- teen. His first work was in the Delaware & Hudson mines, after which he served an appren- ticeship of five years to the machinist's trade. In 1873 he began to work in the locomotive depart- ment of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, where he remained until the shop was burned down, and later he was with the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company as fireman. For about eight years he was employed as machin- ist and engineer in the Manville (formerly Jer- myn) mines, and then spent two years in the em- ploy of J. B. Van Bergen & Co., of Carbondale, after which he returned to the Delaware & Hud- son.

About 1889 Mr. Pearce started for himself as a machinist in Green Ridge Street and after three years took in a partner, the firm becoming Rob- inson & Pearce. The connection continued until April 1, 1896, when the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Pearce taking the ma- chine business and removing to his present loca- tion, corner of Green Ridge Street and Meylert Avenue. Here he has a new fifteen-horse power engine and twenty-horse power boiler, as well as the other accessories of a first-class shop. He is an expert machinist and can construct anything in iron, steel or brass. Fraternally he is identi- fied with Hiram Lodge No. 261, F. & A. M., at Providence, and in politics is a firm Republican.

A LVY KROUSE, a resident of Ransom Township, is one of the progressive farm- ers to whom it owes its rank among the divisions of the county. By wise rotation of mar- ket produce and mixed crops raised on his place, it has not only retained its fertility, but has in- creased in productiveness. He was reared among the surroundings of rural life and at an early age became acquainted with methods of agriculture. Therefore he understands his vocation and is able to follow it successfully.

The son of Joseph and Catharine (Huthmaker) Krouse, who settled upon a farm in Ransom

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Township, and died near our subject's present home, Alvy Krouse was born here August 14, 1849, and was one of six children. Five are now living and all are married, two living here, while the other three are scattered from the Atlantic to Illinois. His early years were full of sad and trying experiences. At the age of nine he lost his mother by death, and afterward was bound out, but two or three years later his guardian took him away from his employer. At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, receiving sixty cents a day, and soon gained a thorough knowledge of the occupation, which he has since followed. With the exception of four years spent in Wilkesbarre, he has made his home continuously in Ransom Township.

May 1, 1875, Mr. Krouse married Miss Mary Etta Michael, who was born in Monroe County, the daughter of Samuel and Mary Michael. This estimable lady has been her husband's faithful helpmate in every labor and by her assistance has greatly enhanced his prosperity. In her neigh- borhood she is noted for culinary skill and is said to be one of the best housekeepers for miles around. Since 1876 Mr. Krouse has made his home on his present farm, which he has culti- vated in addition to working at his trade. While in Wilkesbarre, in 1872, he cast his first vote, and supported Democratic principles until 1888, when he became a Prohibitionist. In 1885 he was made assessor, and is now auditor. In 1895 he became supervisor of the township, and was re-elected to this office February 16, 1897. In 1877 he and his wife united with the Evangelical Church and have since been active in church and Sunday-school work.

A NNA LAW, M. D., is a worthy example of the women of this progressive age, and of what can be accomplished when op- portunity is afforded. She possesses those at- tributes' necessary for a successful career as a medical practitioner, for she is naturally kind- hearted and sympathetic and has the happy fac- ulty of inspiring hope and courage in those whom she is called to attend, while her native intelli- gence and practical knowledge of her profession

cannot be denied. In the fall of 1895 she came to Scranton, where she has an office at No. 308 Wyoming Avenue, and carries on a general practice, making a specialty of obstetrics.

The Law family is of Scotch origin. The Doc- tor's father, William Law, was born in Dum- friesshire, Scotland, and was a son of John Law, who was interested in mining. When seventeen years of age William came to America and pro- ceeding to Carbondale, Pa., secured work with the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company. Later he was employed at Dunmore, then re- turned to Carbondale, and in 1854 went to Pitts- ton as superintendent of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, continuing in that capacity until his death, December 25, 1889, at the age of sixty-five years. Politically he affiliated with the Repub- licans and in religion was a Presbyterian.

The mother of our subject was Catherine Bry- den, a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, and a daugh- ter of Alexander Bryden, who after coming to America was employed as superintendent for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad at Carbondale. There were seven children in the family, name- ly: Mrs. Alexander Bryden, whose husband is superintendent of the Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany at Dunmore; John B., civil engineer and general manager of the Newtown Coal Company at West Pittston; Mrs. Harkness, who died in Pittston; Mrs. C. C. Bowman, whose husband is a member of the Avoca Coal Company; Alexan- der, civil engineer and superintendent of the Gi- rard Coal Company; Mrs. W. R. Teeter, of Dun- more; and Anna.

After completing her literary studies in Wyom- ing Seminary our subject in 1888 entered the Philadelphia Hospital Training School for Nurses, where she graduated after fifteen months. She was then employed as nurse in the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore until December, 1889, when the death of her father caused her to return home. In the fall of 1891 she entered the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, from which she graduated in 1894, with the degree of M. D. Later she took a post- graduate course at the Lying-In Charity Hospital of Philadelphia, where she perfected herself in her specialties of obstetrics and gynecology. She

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also attended clinics at other hospitals in that city. In the fall of 1895 she opened an office in Scranton, where she is winning recognition, not only as a talented physician, but also as a cul- tured lady. Interested in everything pertaining to her profession, she united with the Lackawan- na County Medical Society, of which she is an ac- tive member. In religion she belongs to the Presbyterian Church.

J ACOB BOWMAN holds a very desirable position with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Company, and superintended the grading and entire construction of the break- ers at shafts Nos. 1, 2 and 3 of the Storrs mine, owned by the company. This plant is consid- ered the best one which this corporation pos- sesses, as about three thousand tons of coal are taken out every ten hours and over eleven hun- dred and fifty hands are given employment. The breakers before alluded to, are as fine as any that the writer, himself no novice in the line, has ever seen, and the whole credit of the plan is due to Mr. Bowman.

Since he was a youth of about twelve years, our subject has had to "paddle his own canoe," as at that time he was left an orphan. He was born in Canton Argou, Switzerland, in the city of Lenzburg, May 28, 1840, being a son of Isaac and Elizabeth Bowman. The mother died when the boy was only seven years old and left three chil- dren. Rosa and Annie, the others, are now liv- ing in Alma, Wis. The father of this family was of an old German-Swiss line of ancestors and by trade was a manufacturer of ropes.

Until he was about fifteen years old young Bowman continued his studies in the excellent schools of his native land, and the knowledge that he thus obtained led him to desire to try his fortunes in the New World. Having secured a passport he left Havre in the fall of 1855, and dur- ing the five weeks' trip he became well acquaint- ed with the captain and his wife, who took a fancy to the bright, ambitious boy. The home of Cap- tain Johnson, for that was the name he bore, was near Middle Haddam, Conn., and here he was invited to spend a year or more. He accepted the

kindly advances of the worthy couple and im- proved his scanty knowledge of the English lan- guage by attending school. Then, with Orrin Whitmore, a cousin of his new friends, he went to Carbondale, Pa., and stayed on the latter's farm until he had reached his majority.

In 1861 Mr. Bowman took a place as a sta- tionary engine fireman at Rushdale (now Jer- myn), Pa., and in less than a year was promoted to be engineer. In May, 1863, he came into the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna & West- ern as stationary engineer at the Luzerne slope mines, now Storrs No. 3, and was here six years. He was then appointed to take charge of the building of the breakers and was outside fore- man. In 1883 he went to Nanticoke, for the Sus- quehanna Coal Company, and after a time super- intended the building of the breakers at Morgan- town, Luzerne County. When these were well under way, he continued as a foreman there until he saw fit to resign at the end of a year, and re- entered the employ of the Delaware, Lackawan- na & Western. For a short period he was weigh- master at the Brisbin mine, but in the fall of 1885 the company made him outside foreman. In this position he gave good satisfaction and his superiors did not suggest a change until Sep- tember 1, 1889, when he was set to work super- intending the construction of the grades and breakers of the Storrs mines. The grades are so arranged that cars containing the output of the mines are propelled by simple gravitation from the shaft, without the aid of mules. Four pairs of engines are in use, one pair at each shaft and the others at the breaker. Two single engines and three small locomotives are also used in and about the shaft.

In 1872 Mr. Bowman married Jennie Coad, in this city. She was born in Falmouth, England, and was a daughter of John Coad, a sea captain. She died in 1880, leaving two sons: Charles, a locomotive engineer at No. 3 shaft, and Frank, who died in 1893, when only nineteen years old. He was weigh master and clerk at the Storrs mines. The present wife of our subject was Hulda, daughter of William and Catharine (Struble) Wyker, her father a farmer near Fred- ericktown, Knox County, Ohio. Mrs. Bowman

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was born in Knox County, and her parents were natives of New Jersey. Three children have come to bless this union: Katie, Alice and Blanche.

Mr. Bowman did effective service as a member of the poor board of the Scranton district, to which office he was appointed by Judge Rice of Wilkesbarre. He belonged to the board three years, one of which he was its president, and dur- ing this time the project of erecting a separate department for insane patients received such at- tention that the first buildings for them were put up. For a number of years Mr. Bowman resided in Providence, but he now lives in Dickson City. He belongs to the Providence Presbyterian Church. In politics he is a Republican, and so- cially he is past officer of Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., and was a member of Lackawanna Chapter and of the Commandery, but is not active in the two last mentioned orders now.

H S. COOPER, M. D. Of the professions in which men engage none require a more thorough and complete prepara- tion and course of training than that which has materia medica for its basis. Besides the acquire- ment of scientific knowledge, there should be the cultivation of the intellectual faculties and of those virtues which are innate in every noble heart. In this way alone can true success be achieved. Of Dr. Cooper it may be said that he is an honor to the profession and a model to those beginning in practice. With few advantages in youth, by self-reliance and personal effort he was enabled to enter college and pursue a thorough course of study there. This same self-reliant spirit assisted him when beginning in practice and has been of untold value to him in the years that have since followed.

With the exception of -eight years in Waverly, Dr. Cooper has spent his entire professional life, covering a period of more than fifty years, in Newton Township, where he still resides. He was born in Pittston Township, Luzerne Coun- ty, August 29, 1822, a son of Benjamin and Sarah (Phelps) Cooper. His paternal grandparents, George and Phoebe Cooper, were New England people, and he experienced all the horrors of the

Wyoming massacre, being one of its few surviv- ors. When urged by friends to flee, he begged for one more shot, turned, fired and saw an In- dian drop; then ran and jumped into the Sus- quehanna River and dived to escape the shots that rattled like hail around him. In this way he swam until he reached a place of safety.

At the old homestead in Pittston Township, Benjamin Cooper was born and reared, and there his active life was spent in farm work. He died at the home of our subject when eighty-two years of age. His wife, who was born in New Haven, Conn., died in Tunkhannock, Pa., aged seventy. Of their six children, only two are living, our subject and another son in Rhode Island. The father was a participant in the War of 1812, and a number of the ancestors took an active part in the Revolution. The maternal grandparents of our subject, Bishop and Martha Phelps, were early settlers of Tunkhannock, Pa., where they died at the age of about seventy-seven; both were buried on the same day at that place.

Reared on a farm, our subject went to Tunk- hannock in youth and about 1842 began the study of medicine with Dr. B. A. Bouton, after which he attended lectures in Philadelphia, grad- uating from a medical college there. In 1844 he settled at Bald Mount, Newton Township, where he still resides. In Waverly, in 1847, he mar- ried Miss Irene Green, who was born in Ben- ton Township and died in Waverly, aged thir- ty-seven years. Of their five children, three are living: Frances Louise, who is married and has two children; William H., a business man of Scranton, where he and his family reside; and Sarah, who is married and has three children. Mrs. Irene Cooper was a daughter of Robert and Melissa (Rice) Green, members of old New Eng- land families, both of whom died in this county. Her paternal grandfather was one of the first settlers in this section, and served for seven years in the army during the Revolution.

December 29, 1858, Dr. Cooper married Miss Anna A., daughter of Nathan and Rhoda (See- ley) Weed, and a native of Pound Ridge Town- ship, Westchester County, N. Y. Her parents were connected with old Connecticut families, but spent much of their lives in New York, where

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they were respected by their acquaintances as a worthy couple. Fraternally Dr. Cooper is con- nected with the Masonic lodge at Clarks Summit. In earlier days he was identified actively with a number of medical societies and is one of the oldest practicing physicians of the county. In religious views he is connected with the Baptist Church. His first presidential ballot was cast for James K. Polk and he has identified himself with the old-line Democracy. For a number of years he served as justice of the peace.

J OHN W. MARSHALL is breaker foreman in mine No. 5 of the Pennsylvania Coal Company at Dunmore. He was born Sep- tember II, 1839, in Kilmarnockshire, Scotland. His father, John Marshall, was twice married and by his first wife had several children, who re- mained in Scotland. For his second wife he mar- ried a Miss Wright, and our subject is the only issue of this marriage. His mother died when he was but a babe, and when he was two years of age his father, who was a stone cutter there, also passed away, and he was reared by an uncle, Gil- bert Cooper, who was a mine foreman in May- bold, Ayrshire. He attended the common school there, but while yet but a boy went to work with his uncle in the mine for the sake of company. When he was thirteen years of age he came to America with his uncle, crossing the ocean on a sailor bound from Glasgow to New York City. They went direct to Carbondale, but after a two months' stay removed to Dunmore in 1852 and he attended public school in Bucktown. He re- mained there less than a year, however, when he went to Pittston and began to work for the Penn- sylvania Coal Company.

Mr. Marshall was first employed in running light cars from the stock pile back and around to the mine, and was kept at this employment most of the time until he returned to Dunmore, when he went to work as a helper in a blacksmith's shop for the same company. Upon the first call for volunteers in 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Infantry, and was mus- tered in at Harrisburg for the three months' call.

He served five months, however, and then re- ceived his honorable discharge. In 1863, at Scranton, he volunteered in the Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, and served out that time. In the fall of 1863 he re-enlisted in Company G, One Hundred and Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania In- fantry, and was mustered in at Harrisburg. He took part in the battle of the Wilderness, Spott- sylvania, Petersburg, and was in the midst of the fighting in the charge of Fort Hell, and the bat- tle of Weldon Railroad, and the continual fight- ing and throwing up of breastworks at the siege of Petersburg. In the fall of 1864 he was ordered back to Philadelphia, and remained on garrison duty there until the close of the war. He re- ceived his honorable discharge in June, 1865, in Philadelphia, at Camp Discharge. In the charge at Weldon Railroad the Confederates were driv- en before them and while rushing to fill up the gap he became excited, and being a good runner got ahead of his company; noticing which fact but with no thought of dropping back, he turned around and called "Come on, boys!" For his bravery at that battle he was promoted to ser- geant, as stated in the commission.

After the close of the war Mr. Marshall re- turned to the employment of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and was made weighmaster at No. I shaft and later to the same position at No. 2, where he remained many years. He then came to No. 5 shaft in Dunmore and held the same place there until July, 1896, when he was made breaker foreman and has since had entire charge of No. 5 breaker. In Pittston he married Miss Clara Townsend, who was born in Falls Town- ship, Wyoming County, Pa., and they have four children, as follows: John C., fireman on the Erie & Western Railroad; Mary, Mrs. W. E. Cor- rell, of Dunmore; Ida, at home; and Grace, who is Mrs. W. J. Jones, and resides in Dunmore.

Mr. Marshall has never accepted any offices in political matters, but has always done what he could to aid the Republican cause. He has built a nice residence at No. 232 Cherry Street, where he is enabled to enjoy life with the satisfaction of having not only served his adopted country well, but earned his way up to a good position solely by his own merits. Fraternally he is a member of

SIDNEY BROADBENT.

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Dunmore Lodge No. 816, I. O. O. F., in which he has filled all the chairs; also a past officer in Scrantonia Encampment No. 81, and is past vice- commander in Lieut. Ezra S. Griffin Post No. 139, G. A. R. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian Church of Dunmore.

S IDNEY BROADBENT. After thirty-six years and three months in the employ of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, during fourteen years of which he was general superintendent of the works, Mr. Broadbent re- signed his position in 1896, and has since lived retired from active labors. He possesses con- siderable inventive genius and has devised a number, of useful articles that he has had pat- ented, among these being the Broadbent breaker roll, which has become the standard in its special line. With his family he occupies a comfortable residence at No. 343 North Washington Avenue, Scranton.

The grandparents of our subject were John and Martha (Higginbotham) Broadbent, the former a wealthy manufacturer of Yorkshire, England. The maternal grandparents, Jesse and Mary (Scofield) Jones, were members of old and prominent families of Yorkshire, the latter being a daughter of Joseph Scofield, a large woolen merchant and manufacturer, who died in Cadiz, Spain, during a business trip to that place. The father of our subject, Ralph Broadbent, was born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, England, in 1793, and became a noted and successful educator, for fifty years being principal and proprietor of Castle Shaw, a boarding school where boys were fitted for college. His death occurred in 1866.

In Saddleworth, August 9, 1820, Ralph Broad- bent married Elizabeth Jones, who was born in 1798 and died in 1879, aged eighty-one years. Their children were named as follows: Joseph S., a retired wholesale merchant residing in Old- ham, England; Ralph H., principal of a school in Australia; Sophia, Mrs. R. Lees, who died in Scranton; Franklin, who died in England at the age of eighteen; Sidney; Mrs. Mary Barlow, who passed away in England in 1894; Mrs. Salina McShane, a resident of Belfast, Ireland, where

her husband is a contractor and builder; Louis, who departed this life at eighteen years; Eliza- beth M. and Frederick, who died young; Mrs. Eliza Brierley, of Lancashire, England; Mrs. Catherine Wrigley, who died in England in 1880, and Caroline, who died young. Only two of the family ever came to America, Sophia and Sid- ney.

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Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 86

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