Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 91

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

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E DWARD G. CONNER, superintendent of the Lackawanna Knitting Mills of Scran- ton, was born near Annapolis, Md., Feb- ruary 22, 1856, the son of Gilbert M. and Jane Caroline (Taylor) Conner. His father, who was a native of Saratoga County, N. Y., was an ex- tensive tobacco planter and miller in Maryland and also for a time manufactured water wheels in Baltimore. Prospered financially for many years, he was finally ruined in business by the Rebellion, during which his buildings were de- stroyed, his plantation laid waste and the accu- mulations of years lost. About 1863 he went back to Saratoga County, where he began the manufacture of water wheels on a small scale. There he died at the age of about fifty-one years. The first of his family to settle in the United States was Edward Conner, who established his home in the Mohawk Valley in 1700.

J. J. BILHEIMER, M. D.

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The mother of our subject was born in Charl- ton, Saratoga County, N. Y., and now, at the age of seventy-six years, makes her home in Pittsburg, Pa. The family of which she is a member originated in England, whence Edward Taylor, son of John and Mary Taylor, emigrated to America in 1688. His eldest son, Edward, was born August 8, 1678, and married Catherine Norford, by whom he had eleven children. Their son, Joseph, born in March, 1720, resided in Upper Freehold, N. J., married Elizabeth Ash- ton, by whom he had eight children, and died in 1766. Next in line of descent was John, born in August, 1749, and died in April, 1829; he was a resident of Charlton, N. Y., from 1752 until his death at eighty years of age, and was the first judge of county court in Saratoga County, fill- ing the office from 1809 to 1818. He also served in the legislature and his brother was the first speaker of the house. Our subject's maternal grandparents were Edward and Eunice (Curtis) Taylor, the former born in February, 1781, and died in December, 1866.

During the progress of the war our subject was taken to the north by his parents and settled with them near Albany, N. Y. His education was ob- tained principally in Egbert's Institute in Cohoes, his home town. When about eighteen years of age he went to Oswego, N. Y., where for three years he was employed in a mill for the manufac- ture of underwear, being foreman during a part of the time. In 1882 he was given charge of a woolen mill in Valatie, Columbia County, and was employed there as superintendent about nine years. From that place he went to Rome, N. Y., where he was in charge of a mill about two years. In 1879 he came to Scranton and has since been the superintendent of the Lackawanna Knitting Mills, a very responsible position and one which he fills with credit to himself. The mill is one of the largest. in the country for the manufacture of underwear and has an extensive trade among the jobbers throughout the United States.

November 29, 1879, Mr. Conner married Har- riet Marsh, of Amsterdam, N. Y., and they and their daughter, Ada C., occupy a comfortable residence in Cedar Avenue. While he is not ac- tive in politics, he is a firm Republican and al-

ways votes that ticket in local and general elec- tions. He is not identified with any church, but contributes to the Baptist Church, with which his wife is identified.

J. · J. BILHEIMER, Ph. G., M. D. In com- parison of the relative value to mankind

· of the various professions and pursuits, it is widely recognized that none is so important as the medical profession. From the cradle to the grave human destiny is largely in the hands of the physician. Our subject is a worthy repre- sentative of this noble calling, and has built up a large and lucrative practice in Priceburg, his present home.

The Doctor was born at Bath, Northampton County, Pa., in 1867, and comes of a family that was early established in that county, where many of the name still live. The first to locate there was John Bilheimer, the great-grandfather of our subject, who was a native of Germany and a Lutheran in religious belief. By occupa- tion he was a farmer and blacksmith, as was also the grandfather of the Doctor, John Bilheimer, Jr., who was born in Northampton County, and carried on business near Bath. The birth of the father, Christian Bilheimer occurred at that place, and after reaching manhood he came into posses- sion of the old homestead, which is now occu- pied by his son, Milton, while both parents now live with the Doctor in Priceburg. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Louisa Shive, was also born in Northampton County, and is a daughter of John Shive, a native of Bucks Coun- ty, Pa., who engaged in farming in the vicinity of Bath. His father, George Shive, was also a native of Bucks County, and removed with his family to Bath at an early day. The Shive fam- ily were mostly members of the Reformed Church. Christian Bilheimer was twice married, having by the first wife three sons and three daughters, of whom two sons and two daughters are still living, while by the second union there were three children, the Doctor being the second of these.

After completing his literary education in a select school at Bath, Dr. Bilheimer secured a

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teacher's certificate, and for one winter followed that profession in Monroe County. In 1885 he began the study of pharmacy in his native place, and two years and a half later entered the Phil- adelphia College of Pharmacy, from which he graduated with the degree of Ph. G. He matric- ulated at Jefferson Medical College of the same city, and graduated from that noted institution with the class of 1891, receiving the degree of M. D. In May of the same year he opened an office at Priceburg, where his skill and ability soon won recognition so that he now enjoys an extensive practice. He is an honored and prom- inent member of the Lackawanna County Medi- cal Society; the State Medical Society; the American Medical Association, Golden Chain Lodge No. 945, I. O. O. F., of Priceburg; Knights of the Golden Eagle and Foresters, being medi- cal examiner for the last two, and junior past chief of the Foresters.

In Shenandoah, Pa., Dr. Bilheimer led to the marriage altar Miss Mary A. Pearson, who was born near Bath in Northampton County, where her father, John Pearson, follows agricultural pursuits. Of the three children born of this union only one is now living, Esther. The par- ents are both consistent members of the Luther- an Church, occupy an enviable position in the social circles of Priceburg, and in politics the Doctor is an ardent Republican. He is a pleas- ant, genial gentleman and has made many friends in his adopted city.

G. J. CHAMBERLAIN, M. D., a promi- nent physician and surgeon, has long successfully engaged in practice in Dunmore. He was born near what is now Line's Station, Luzerne County, Pa., January 18, 1824, and comes of an honored pioneer family of this region. His parents, James and Susan (Roach) Chamberlain, natives of Bristol, England (where he was known as a corn factor), emigrated to America soon after their marriage in 1818, and located first in Philadelphia, where the father en- gaged in the mercantile business. In 1820 he went to Luzerne County, taking up his residence at what is now Blakely, Lackawanna County.

Purchasing one hundred and forty acres of land, he erected thereon a log house, where he contin- ued to reside until it was destroyed by fire, when he removed to Scranton (then called Slocum's Hollow), though he still kept his farm. He en- gaged in teaching for some years at that place and in Hanover Township, but died in Wilkes- barre in September, 1828, at the early age of thir- ty-six years, leaving his widow with the care of three small children: Jane T., who became the wife of Rev. Mr. Lafferty, and died in North Car- olina; Elizabeth M., now Mrs. Wilder, of Pitts- ton, Pa .; and G. J., of this sketch. Mrs. Cham- berlain reared his family in Wilkesbarre, where she remained until her removal to Pittston, in 1846, making her home with a daughter for a time. Later she went to Center County, Pa., but spent her last days in Dunmore, dying in April, 1876, at the age of eighty-two years. Her fath- er, John Roach, was a native of Ireland, but spent almost his entire life in England, being ex- tensively engaged in milling and the manufac- ture of starch at Bristol on the Avon.

The Doctor spent the days of his boyhood and youth in Wilkesbarre, and after completing his literary studies he engaged in teaching for four years, having charge of schools in Sugar Loaf Valley, Nesquehoning, Carbon County, Ashley, Pa., and also the Plymouth Academy and Wilkes- barre private schools. Going to Schuylkill Coun- ty, in 1846, he become chief clerk of the super- intendent of upper division of Schuylkill naviga- tion, with whom he remained until 1848, settling up their accounts and paying out $400,000. Dur- ing this time he began the study of medicine with Dr. John G. Koehler, of Schuylkill Haven, and in 1848 entered the Pennsylvania Medical Col- lege of Philadelphia, a branch of the Pennsyl- vania College of Gettysburg, graduating from that institution in 1850 with the degree of M. D. For twenty-one years he successfully engaged in practice in Philadelphia, during a part of which time he had charge of a ward in Volunteer Hos- pital, on the corner of Broad and Prime Streets. In 1871 he removed to Dunmore and opened an office at his present site on the corner of Blake- ly and Bloom Streets, where he has since engaged in general practice with the exception of eighteen

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months spent in Nobletown, Wayne County, to which place he removed in 1878. He holds an enviable position in the ranks of the medical fra- ternity of Lackawanna County, and is one of the most skillful and popular practitioners of this sec- tion of the state. The special object which brought Dr. Chamberlain to Dunmore was to look after property which his father had bought in this valley, but he was defrauded out of his rights by unscrupulous parties. Under the name of the Chamberlain Coal Company, he sunk a shaft and built a breaker, but was obliged to re- linquish these.

In Schuylkill Haven was solemnized the mar- riage of Dr. Chamberlain and Miss Sarah Lewis, a daughter of David D. Lewis, a native of Bucks County, Pa., who was superintendent of the up- per division of the Schuylkill Navigation Com- pany. His father, Robert Lewis, of Bucks Coun- ty, was a member of the Society of Friends, and married Sarah Fish, the daughter of a widow who resided in Wilkesbarre in the old Red House, a noted landmark on South River Street. During the Wyoming massacre, Mrs. Fish fled with Colonel Sullivan's party over the mountains, and after the war she married Col. Zebulon Butler, who commanded the American forces during that struggle. Mrs. Chamberlain's mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary B. Youch, was born in Reightlingen, Wurtemberg, Germany, and came to America with an uncle, Lewis Wernwag, a bridge builder for the United States govern- ment, who invented a bridge, the model of which may still be seen in Washington, D. C. He built the bridge across the Schuylkill River at Phila- delphia, which was the largest single span bridge at that time in the United States. Mr. Lewis, the father of Mrs. Chamberlain, patented a railroad frog, known as the Lewis Improved Frog, which he sold to different railroad companies. He died in Philadelphia at the age of sixty-six years, and his wife in Schuylkill Haven, at the age of fifty-six. Mrs. Chamberlain was born at Waterloo, Schuyl- kill County, Pa., and by her marriage to the Doc- tor has become the mother of five children, name- ly: Edwin, who was educated at Lafayette Col- lege, and is now city engineer of Reading, Pa .; William W., a jeweler, who died in Dunmore at

the age of thirty-two; David L., an expert ma- chinist residing in Philadelphia; Grace L., at home; and George L., who was killed at the age of twelve years by falling from a cherry tree in Philadelphia.

For some years, Dr. Chamberlain was the health officer of Dunmore, but resigned when the opposite party got into power. He has al- ways been a Republican with temperance senti- ments, and is an active and prominent member of the Presbyterian Church of Dunmore, of which he is ruling elder, and has been for many years, and also a teacher in the Sunday-school.

C ORNELIUS COMEGYS is engaged in the practice of the legal profession in Scranton, with his office in the Republic- an Building. From his first residence in this city he has been identified with the social, intellectual, humanitarian and material interests of the place, and by his recognized public spirit has contrib- uted to the promotion of many enterprises cal- culated to benefit the people. His firm, quiet, reasoning faculties, which are his by education and training, enable him to grapple with the sal- ient points of a case and the technicalities of le- gal jurisprudence, and have secured for him a position of prominence at the bar of Lackawanna County.

Of southern ancestry, and the son of Dr. Henry C. Comegys, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, Cornelius Comegys was born in Greensboro, Md., October 25, 1858. The years of boyhood were spent in attendance at the pub- lic schools of his native place and at the age of fourteen he entered St. John's College, Annapo- lis, from which he graduated with the class of 1877. Fortified by the possession of general in- formation of a wide range, he began his prepa- ration for a professional career by entering the office of Edward Ridgeley, an attorney of Do- ver, Del., with whom he remained about three years. He was admitted to the bar in the April term of court, 1882, at Denton, Md.

After having traveled for a few months in search of a suitable location, Mr. Comegys fixed upon Scranton as affording the best opportunity

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for a young lawyer, and accordingly came to this city, where he was admitted to the bar in the Oc- tober term of 1883. He at once opened an office and began the practice of his profession. In a short time he received the appointment of assist- ant district attorney to Judge Edwards and filled that position about five years, when his increas- ing private practice obliged him to resign. He has been in continuous practice here and is one of the popular attorneys of the city. In 1889 he married Miss Sarah J., daughter of Thomas D. Bevin, of Scranton, and they have two children, Margaret Bevin and Cornelius Breck. The fam- ily attend the Episcopal Church.

In his political views a Democrat, Mr. Com- egys has often stumped the surrounding country in the interests of the party and has long been in- fluential in its ranks. In his opinion regarding the tariff, he advocates a protective tariff, suf- ficient to keep the American workmen free and in- dependent, and favors the plan of taking the tar- iff issue out of politics, and placing it in the hands of a commission with a bureau attached to the de- partment of state, to which statistics be furnished regularly of the industries and condition of the people in this and other countries. From this statistical information the tariff may be judicious- ly regulated. His name has been mentioned as candidate for congress and in connection with other political nominations, and certainly it would be difficult for his party to find a man better equipped to represent its principles in a public office of trust.

T HADDEUS E. CARR, senior member of the firm of T. E. Carr & Son, of Scran- ton, was born in Unadilla, Otsego County, N. Y., July 24, 1832, and is a member of a Scotch family long resident in New England. His fath- er and grandfather, both named Hezekiah, were born in Rutland, Vt., and by occupation were farmers. The latter, who was a minute-man in the Revolution, removed to Unadilla, N. Y., in 1812, joining some Vermont acquaintances who had founded a settlement there. He was then quite old, but was active and vigorous, and culti- vated and improved a farm from the wilderness.

He died when lacking only one month of being one hundred years of age; his wife died when more than ninety-eight years of age.

The father of our subject, who was a lifelong farmer in Unadilla, died at seventy-six years. In religious belief he was a Baptist. He married Rhoda Hinsdale, who was born in Connecticut and died in early life. She was a daughter of Elias Hinsdale, a minute-man of the Revolution, who moved by team and wagon from his native place to Otsego County, N. Y., about 1812, and there engaged as a farmer and blacksmith until old age prevented further active work. He died when ninety years of age. Our subject was one of a family of three sons and one daughter, of whom the daughter and himself are living.

Reared on the home farm and educated in the public schools, Thaddeus E. Carr began for him- self at sixteen years of age. Having considerable natural ability as a stock dealer, he began to buy and sell on a small scale, but gradually increased as business prospered. He became a drover and followed cattle on the road forty days at a time, driving from Ohio and New York to Connecti- cut. While living in Oneonta, N. Y., he opened the first meat market there and carried it on for years, continuing at the same time his sheep and cattle business. In 1868 he removed to Bing- hamton, where he continued as a dealer and pro- prietor of a market. In November, 1873, he came to Scranton, and opened a market in Lackawan- na Avenue. In December, 1885, he bought and built at his present location, Nos. 213-215 North Washington Avenue, and in spite of the fact that people declared it was a foolish undertaking, he kept steadfastly on and soon built up a fine busi- ness. His was the first business house on this side of the court house square, but was soon followed by others, until the neighborhood is a recognized business center. For some years his son has been interested in the business and the firm name is now T. E. Carr & Son.

In addition to the market, the firm own a gar- den farm in Elmhurst, consisting of sixty-three acres planted to garden stuffs and with suitable buildings. The firm also own slaughter house, manufacturing place and ice house, and ship ice to the market by car. Six men are employed on

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the farm and eight in the market, while three de- livery wagons are used to accommodate custo- mers. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Carr has been engaged in the business about fifty years, he is still energetic, enthusiastic and enter- prising, with a heart and mind as young as most men of fifty.

The marriage of Mr. Carr, in Bainbridge, N. Y., united him with Miss Lorissa Birdsell, who was born in the town of Otsego, Otsego County, daughter of Daniel Birdsell, a farmer and old settler of that place. They are the parents of three children: Deatta, wife of L. M. Potter, who is associated in business with his father-in- law; Frank L .; and Belle, wife of Frank Coop- er, who is bookkeeper for the firm. The only son married Elizabeth Schanz, of this city, and they have three children: Blanche, T. E., Jr., and Hazel. Politically Mr. Carr is a stanch Demo- crat of the old Jeffersonian belief and holds de- cided opinions of his own regarding the public questions of the age. Fraternally he was made a Mason while in New York.

R ICHARD BUSTEED, JR., was born in the city of New York in 1854, in the house built by his father on the southwest cor- ner of Madison Avenue and Thirtieth Street, which, notwithstanding the great changes of the last forty-five years in the then residential por- tion of that city, remains to the present time un- altered. His mother was Miss Cordelia F. Doane, daughter of Philo Doane, a retired mem- ber of the firm of Doane & Sturgis, ship owners. Her mother was a Miss Nichols and one of the heirs of the famous Nichols patent of the state of New York.

Mr. Busteed's father, Hon.Richard Busteed, was the son of Colonel Busteed of the British army, a native of Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, who was appointed a governor of the Island of St. Lucia, a British possession in the West Indies. Dis- agreeing with the British government upon ac- count of the natural political proclivities of his nativity, he removed his family to Canada, there founding and editing a newspaper, the conduct of which eventually ruined him financially on ac-

count of the continued hostility of its owner to the British government. Being left in destitute cir- cumstances, his children migrated to New York, where Richard, a mere lad, became a printer. He soon commenced the study of law, and aided by his relative, Thomas Addis Emmett, and hav- ing become the favorite pupil of Charles O'Con- nor, he was admitted to the bar at twenty-three years of age, and at once achieved phenomenal success, popularity and renown even for those times. Commencing with nothing at twenty- three, he was a rich man and elected corporation counsel (it was then an elective office) of the city of New York, by the largest Democratic major- ity up to then ever given, having defeated Samuel J. Tilden for the nomination at the age of thirty- two. At the breaking out of the war he became a war Democrat and shortly thereafter a most vigorous Republican. He was in several nation- al conventions and became the intimate friend and companion of Lincoln, Seward, Stanton, Blaine and Andrew G. Curtin, and was one of the most prominent men of that day. During the reconstruction period, at the solicitation of Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet, he relinquished one of the most lucrative practices in New York, and accepted the position of United States district judge of the state of Alabama. His career in this position is part of the history of the country of that time, and is too well known to require men- tion here. Although a life position, he resigned it in 1875 to enter into a partnership with his only son, Richard Busteed, Jr., the subject of this sketch, who at that time was in the senior class of the law school of Columbia College of the city of New York, having returned from Europe, where he had been sent to die by such physicians of this country as Agnew, Hammond and Sayre, but having been saved by those of international repu- tation, Veneuil of France, and Sir William Fer- guson of England.

Deprived by ill-health from acquiring the rudi- mentary elements of a common school education, the subject of our sketch, when he returned to this country from his prolonged sojourn abroad, had acquired all the habits, customs and mannerisms of a man of the world, yet was unfamiliar with the elementary principles of a student. Handi-

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capped by ever constant physical pain and the lack of knowledge of how to study, Mr. Busteed entered a class of such men as has never before or since been graduated from Columbia. College Law School, men who upon graduation at once achieved national fame, and who even in his re- tirement pay him the greatest possible respect. He practiced law in New York until 1887 as a partner of his father, both living together at Ja- maica, Queens County, Long Island, where he had actively entered into politics, and where meeting with the most violent opposition from the notorious ring that had there unopposed ex- isted for twenty-five years, he was enabled to ob- tain a controlling position and became noted for his finesse and ability to coalesce antagonistic fac- tions and disrupt deals made by his enemies. Constantly crushing under foot the excruciating physical pain under which he always labored, Mr. Busteed succeeded in this decade of his life in be- coming probably the best known Mason, politi- cian, lawyer and man of the world of his age in the state of New York; but family dissensions over which he had no control and which had been a carking care at his soul during the entire period, overcame him in 1887, and his futile ef- forts since he was a little child to keep his family together, occasioned him to leave New York. Although not desiring to resume the practice of his profession, yet having suffered from extra- malignant attacks of his chronic disease of rheu- matism, he was compelled to relinquish his tem- porary occupation of a traveling salesman, in which capacity he had made a success, and had traveled from Maine to Mexico, and upon the solicitation of several attorneys in Scranton, he came to this place and has opened a law office, where in a dilettante way he practices law.

Since his arrival Mr. Busteed has met with so many extraordinary and unusual misfortunes that it is very distasteful to him to be quoted, and while we are not at liberty to state that he is a pessimist, yet we gather from his conversation that he feels as though his biography more ap- propriately belongs in our history of Long Island and Queens County than it does in this of Lacka- wanna County, where he feels as though he were but a bird of passage.

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Portrait and biographical record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 91

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