Portrait and biographical record of Wyoming and Lackawanna counties, Pennsylvania : containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties, Part 114

Author: Chapman Publishing Company (NY)
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1068

USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > Portrait and biographical record of Wyoming and Lackawanna counties, Pennsylvania : containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties > Part 114
USA > Pennsylvania > Wyoming County > Portrait and biographical record of Wyoming and Lackawanna counties, Pennsylvania : containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties > Part 114

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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making improvements to reduce the cost and im- prove the article manufactured, in order to meet competition, or lose its business. Such was the case with the Lackawanna iron works, and con- sequently more capital was needed, as before. This time the capital was increased to $400,000." It was not only in the matter of churches that he was interested. His sympathies took an even wider turn and in March, 1848, he became a char- ter member of Lackawanna Lodge No. 291, I. O. O. F. The same year the new furnaces were put into operation and the store building over which he presided was doubled in size. It had been built in 1844-45. These things show how the infant settlement was growing and expanding. March 16, 1849, he became a charter member of Scranton Encampment No. 81.

But the new settlement wanted an outlet. It wanted communication with the outer world. New York was having railroads, why should not Scranton. Meetings were held, and at a meeting for the organization of the Liggett's Gap Rail- road, in January, 1850, Mr. Platt was elected a director in the new enterprise. At a meeting held in December, 1850, he was elected a director in the Cobb's Gap & Delaware Railroad. These two movements were to connect Scranton on the one hand with Binghamton on the west, on the other with New York. And now comes the proof of the far-sightedness of the man and his faith in the ultimate success of the city he and his asso- ciates were building on the banks of the Lacka- wanna, among the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. In 1841 William Henry had made a plot for a village site, but the arrangement was not satisfactory and the map was never used to any extent. By this time the young storekeeper had his business well systematized, and could sell land as well as groceries. Their employes wanted to build homes of their own and were anxious to purchase lots. As Mr. Platt modestly puts it: "In 1850, when the first steps were taken to lay out the village plot, I felt it a matter of import- ance to start aright, and held many consultations with Joel Amsden, the engineer. Mr. Amsden, appreciating the interest evinced, probably con- sulted me more than the other members of the firm; consequently being better informed in the

details, the lot business naturally devolved upon me and I had charge of it for Scranton & Platt until the dissolution of the firm. To Mr. Amsden is due the credit of the plan of door yards which is so universally popular and which a number are disposed to abuse by putting small shops there- on, which they have no right to do. Mr. Ams- den made three sketches for selection and was instructed to adopt the one best suited to ex- tend the plot up and down the valley, regardless of the side lines of the tracts belonging to the firm." This shows conclusively the views he then held as to the future growth of the city, and to his large and sound ideas on the subject we are in- debted to-day for the wide straight streets and regular plots. One does not have to go far from the central city to realize how different this might all have been had there not been sound judg- ment and broad views at the head of the real es- tate department. His partners found he was in- deed posted in the details and he retained charge of the company's real estate interests until the day of his death.

In 1851 the first postoffice was opened in Scranton proper, and Mr. Platt received the first letter and the first newspaper handed out by "Uncle Sam," in the discharge of his duties in Scranton, as the new settlement had come at last to be called. In the fall of that year the first sale of lots is recorded to Grant, Champion & Chase, being for two lots on the north corner of Lack- awanna and Wyoming Avenues for $2,000. The affairs of the new company continued to grow in size and importance under the vigorous adminis- tration of the men who had now assumed con- trol. It was growing too large to be any longer a small country concern and in 1853 a charter for the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company was ob- tained, and in March of that year a reorganiza- tion was again effected. Mr. Platt was an origi- nal and influential stockholder in the new com- pany and June 10 became the official real estate agent and storekeeper of it, as he had been of the old firm. This was a responsible position for a young man of thirty-seven, but he had shown his ability to manage the affairs of the two offices, and the control of them came to him because he was the man best fitted to assume it. With the

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growth of the company the village had kept pace. It too had outgrown its first estate. A more sta- ble form of government was required and in 1856 Scranton was incorporated as a borough. Others besides his partners had come to see the true worth of Mr. Platt and in March, when the bor- ough council was organized, he was chosen as one of its first members.

The year 1857 was signalized by Mr. Platt's removal to what a short time ago we termed the Platt homestead. It was then the best house in Scranton and always retained an air of individual- ity and refinement, even when the growth and roar of a great city crept closer and closer to it and finally engulfed it to make way for the long viaduct to the south side. Here he could watch the expansion of the settlement into the city whose coming his keen vision foresaw. The spiritual needs of the new community grew also. Young men were flocking thither, attracted by the prospect of work and that nameless fascina- tion a large city has for our American youth. A Young Men's Christian Association was needed and into the good movement Mr. Platt threw himself with his enthusiasm and judgment. The first one was organized August 27, 1858, with J. C. Platt as one of the managers. The growth of the great coal industries of the valley called for constant repairs to machinery and the constant supply of new engines, locomotives, etc., for the plants, collieries, railroads, etc., springing up everywhere, and accordingly there must be a great machine shop built here. It cost too much to have all this heavy freight brought from a dis- tance; accordingly, March 20, 1862, a number of gentlemen met to organize the Dickson Manu- facturing Company, and Mr. Platt was chosen one of the directors of the new concern at that meeting, a position he held until his death. For a number of years he also held the office of treas- urer. Indeed it was characteristic of him that once having become interested in a business or other venture, he identified himself fully with it, aided in its growth and development and con- tinued with it until death severed the connection, and we shall soon see with how many of the new enterprises of the growing community he became closely identified.

With other industries came the necessity for banking privileges, and in 1863 the First National Bank was organized, with Mr. Platt as director. In 1864 he became a partner in the firm of C. T. Weston & Co., in the grain and meal business. In 1865 he was made superintendent of the Sun- day-school of the First Presbyterian Church. He had always been a steady and stanch supporter of the church, but now he became still more closely allied with it, and it is not difficult to see how the school and church must have been benefited by the matured experience and sound judgment he had gained in his fifty years of life and forty years of business cares and responsibilities. As the mining industries of the valley needed a large ma- chine shop, so they also needed a large powder company, for a great amount of powder is con- sumed here every year, more than many people would imagine possible. In April, 1865, the Moosic Powder Company was formed and Mr. Platt became a director here also and so contin- ued until his death. He was also for a time treas- urer of the new company, for all his associates had come to repose peculiar confidence in him. In 1867-68 the present large stone building of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company was built, for the store had kept pace with the growth of the other industries. In 1871 he became a director in the People's Street Railway, for the people of the neighboring settlements wanted to come to Scranton and street railroads were a necessity. In August, 1872, he was elected vice-president of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, thus re- ceiving a deserved promotion from his business associates, with whom he had been connected for over a quarter of a century. The same year he was elected vice-president of the First National Bank, a position to which he was annually re- elected until his death. In 1874 the firm of C. T. Weston & Co. changed to the Weston Mill Com- pany and he became one of the directors of the new concern. In 1874 he became a director of the Lackawanna Hospital at the time of its reorgani- zation.

But his business cares and other responsibili- ties were growing upon him. Life had reached its noon and he felt that during the afternoon he was entitled to some degree of rest. Since the time

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over fifty years before when as a boy of eleven he took up the serious burden of life, his had been a busy, a useful and an energetic one. So in 1874 he resigned his position as vice-president of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, but he could not be idle if he tried. In 1876 he became a di- rector in the Riverton Mills Company of Virginia, an offshoot of the Weston Mill Company. In 1877 he resigned his position as superintendent of the First Presbyterian Sunday-school, after having held it for twelve years. In 1879 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the People's Street Railway Company and the same year was made a member of the first board of health of the city of Scranton. In 1880 he was made a director in the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, and two years later accepted a directorship in the new Moses Taylor Hospital, erected under the mu- nificent provisions of the will of the late Moses Taylor and the generous gifts of the Pynes and others. »

In 1883 a movement was started in Scranton to bring to the children of silence the gift of speech, and Mr. Platt became a director in the Pennsyl- vania Oral School for the Deaf, an institution whose growth and prosperity has been truly char- acteristic of Scranton's enterprises. In 1886 he became one of the directors of the newly formed Lackawanna Institute of History and Science. It will be noted how, as he had leisure, he was be- coming more and more interested in plans for the good of his fellowman. In 1887 he resigned his position as secretary and treasurer of the Peo- ple's Street Railway Company, but the same year became a director in the Scranton Forging Com- pany, a new concern transplanted from the state of Connecticut to flourish amid the Pennsyl- vanian hills.

And now a great grief came into the life of Mr. Platt. In July, 1887, his wife died. They had walked hand in hand together for forty-three years and her loss was one he did not himself long survive. He was in the full possession of all his mental and physical faculties when, in Oc- tober of the same year, he was stricken with par- alysis, that dread visitor which has carried off so many of America's highest and ablest men. He lingered for about four weeks, provided with

every comfort possible, and then quietly departed to rejoin his life's companion in another world. He died November 15, 1887, at the age of seven- ty-one years. At the time of his death he was a director in the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Com- pany, a director and vice-president of the First National Bank, vice-president and a director of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, a director in the Moosic Powder Company, the Weston Mill Company, the Riverton Mills Company, the Scranton Forging Company and the People's Street Railway Company. He was a director in the Lackawanna Hospital, a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association, director in the Lack- awanna Institute of History and Science, direc- tor in the Pennsylvania Oral School for the Deaf, and a director in the Moses Taylor Hospital. He took a deep interest in the events going on around him and found time even in his busy life to pre- serve and digest a mass of historical data, so that in 1886 he was able to contribute a very valuable historical paper to the archives of the Lacka- wanna Institute, which has since been published in pamphlet form.

The enumeration of the foregoing facts shows that Mr. Platt was a man of more than ordinary ability and sound judgment. He had well learned Dr. Van Dyke's rule:

"Four things a man must learn to do If he would make his record true:

To think without confusion clearly ;

To love his fellowmen sincerely;

To act from honest motives purely, And trust in God and heaven securely."

As was naturally to be expected, his associates mourned the loss of such a man and resolutions expressive of their regret were passed by the directors of the various organizations with which he was connected. He was buried in Dunmore cemetery. He left three children surviving him: Joseph C. Platt, Jr., a successful manufacturer of Waterford, N. Y., a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Miss Ella J., now residing in Scranton; and Frank E., also a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, N. Y. Frank E. Platt, after his graduation, engaged in the iron business, paying particular attention to the management of blast furnaces, in which he

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was very successful, but after six years of ex- perience he was called to Scranton by the ill- ness and death of his father, and the duties con- nected with the settlement of his estate. He has since made this city his residence and has suc- ceeded to some of the offices held by his father, being a director in the Moosic Powder Company, Weston Mill Company, Riverton Mills Company, Suburban Electric Light Company and the Scran- ton Electric Construction Company, and he was also president of the Lackawanna Institute of History and Science for two years. That he has the confidence and esteem of his associates, as his father had before him, is shown by the fact that he now occupies the position of treasurer of the following successful companies: New York & Scranton Coal Company; Suburban Electric Light Company; Scranton Electric Construction Company and Peckville Store Company, Lim- ited.

W ILLIAM A. CONNELL, an active young business man of Scranton, holds a very responsible position as general superintendent of the coal mines of Connell & Co. He is interested in several fraternal organizations, among these the Knights of Pythias and the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks. When the William A. Connell division of the first-named society was founded at Taylor, he became a char- ter member, and is still associated with it, having served as an officer. He is an active Republican, and at one time was a member of the county committee.

A son of Hon. William Connell, our subject was born in Minooka, Pa., September 8, 1860. His boyhood days were passed there until No- vember, 1872, when the family removed to Scran- ton. Entering the School of the Lackawanna, he completed the course, and then attended the Military Academy of North Granville. In 1881 he entered Yale College and graduated from the classical course four years later. Upon his in- troduction into the world of trade, he was given a place as foreman in the business of which his father was the head, and in a short time was pro- moted to be general superintendent of the com-

pany's mines. In 1890 he assisted in the cere- monies attending the opening of the William A. and the Lawrence mines, situated on the west side of the Lackawanna River at Duryea. The Law- rence mine was named in honor of his mother, at the suggestion of William Musie, civil engineer for the company. On the eastern side of the river is the town of Lawrence, named in honor of the same lady, and laid out by William Con- nell, Sr. The William A. colliery has a capacity of fifteen hundred tons per day, and the Lawrence can turn out about twelve hundred tons a day.

Mr. Connell was united in marriage with Miss Tillie Keer, a cultured lady, who was born and grew to womanhood in Scranton, receiving good educational advantages. Her parents, Edwin and Elizabeth Keer, were natives of England, and her father settled in Pottsville a number of years ago, where he engaged in coal operations for some time, subsequently locating in this city, as an em- ploye of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. His death occurred here, and he is survived by his widow, whose home is in Scranton. Our subject and wife have one child, William. The family reside in a very pretty and tasteful home, which was built by Mr. Connell at No. 1I Eigh- teenth Street.

H ON. ELI E. HENDRICK, of Carbondale, was born in Plymouth, Wayne County, Mich., in 1832. Of the remote ancestry little is known, further than the fact that they originated in Holland and were represented among the early residents of Berks or Bucks County, Pa. His father, Peter Hendrick, was born in Pennsylvania in 1802 and in childhood accompanied his parents to the then far west, Ohio, the trip over the mountains being made on horseback. The family settled in the "West- ern Reserve," where he spent his early life in helping to run the grist and saw mill of his father. While yet a boy the hard work of carrying heavy sacks of grain on his shoulder caused him to be- come stoop-shouldered and he continued so dur- ing the remainder of his life.

When about twenty-one years of age Peter Hendrick left home to make his way in the

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world. He joined a drover going to Philadelphia with stock and then went through the State of New York and made his way to Michigan, where he secured a tract of land in the then wilderness of Wayne County near Plymouth. From the woods he hewed out a farm, and this he cultivated for many years, never, however, becoming well- to-do. He finally removed to a little truck farm in Ypsilanti, Mich., where he spent the remainder of his life, dying there in 1890. His first wife died in 1833. He married again in 1835.

The only brother of our subject, Edmund, who was a natural mechanic, learned the wood turning trade and later the carpenter's trade. Afterward he purchased timber land in Muske- gon County, Mich., which he converted into a farm, and some years later, on the death of their step-mother, he was induced by our subject to take charge of the little farm near Ypsilanti and look after his father, our subject promising him the deed to the place on the death of their father, and also putting him on his pay roll at $50 per month. The deed was afterward given to him and he now makes his home there. Our subject's sister married Hugh Strickland, a farmer first in Michigan and later in Illinois, and who was one of the first to go to Pike's Peak in 1860. Three years afterward he came to Carbondale and took a position in his brother-in-law's em- ploy, remaining with him until death. The sis- ter still lives in Carbondale.

With little fondness for school, the subject of this sketch avoided the school house whenever it was possible. At the age of eleven years he hired out to a farmer who had contracts to carry the mail on horseback. He was to carry the mail each alternate half day and go to school the other half days, for $3 per month, but boy- like, he preferred working on the farm the odd half days to going to school and the old farmer being willing he was thus occupied for three years, rain or shine, snow or hail.

On his first trip he was told by his employer not to ride too fast, and carrying out this in- struction to the letter, he did not reach Ann Arbor until seven o'clock, although due two hours before. The postmaster was angry and said he was too young to carry mail, that he

would report him, etc., but on receiving a prom- ise that the messenger would never be late again, he agreed to keep still. After that the boy was always on time. He soon became a favorite with people along the route, who found him obliging and trusty, and willing to do errands for them without charge. Many a shilling came to him from them, and other boys receiving the same wages wondered why he always had more money than they. The reason lay in the fact that they charged for errands, which made the farmers indignant, while he was willing to do little favors for nothing, and in the end received more than the boys who charged.

At the age of fourteen Mr. Hendrick secured a clerkship in a store in Plymouth. When not otherwise employed, he would take the bills of goods purchased by the merchant in New York and would copy the fine and accurate hand- writing. In this way he became an expert pen- man. About this time he was seized with a de- sire for learning and attended a district school one winter and the seminary another winter. Chemistry, philosophy, higher arithmetic and algebra had a fascination for him and he de- voured every book he could get. After having spent a year or more there, he attracted the at- tention of a merchant in Upper Plymouth vil- lage, who offered him the position of clerk in place of our subject's former school teacher. He accepted this place with a salary of $10 per month. His employer, Mr. May, was interested in Sunday-school work and liking the young clerk secured his election as secretary of the Sun- day-school. This was done without the boy's knowledge or consent. When informed of what had been done, he said he could not accept the position, as he had no shoes and no clothes suit- able to wear to Sunday-school. The merchant said in reply that, while in most instances it was wrong to buy clothes until you have earned them, in this case he intended to advance him a suit of clothes, in order that he might accept the po- . sition. So it happened that the next Sunday he donned a new tailor-made suit and went to the Sunday-school. When Mrs. May, the mer- chant's wife, saw him in the new suit, she said, "Eli, you will always scratch a poor man's head,"

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The boy inquired what made her think so and she replied, "Because you are too liberal to your- self. You have not paid for the clothes you have on."

When seventeen years of age, having a great taste for mechanical work, Mr. Hendrick en- tered his brother's shop to learn the turner's trade. Later the two started a shop for the man- ufacture of wooden hay rakes and other farm- ing implements. The shop was burned down in 1853, but they rebuilt it and employed a large force of men for some time. The panic of 1857 destroyed the business and it was sold to his former employer, May. Soon afterward he went to Davenport, Iowa, to take charge of a barrel factory, but the farther west he went, the harder he found the times to be. Deciding that the place to do business was where the money was most plentiful, he returned east, having pro- cured the agency for the sale of a new invention, a governor for steam engines. He succeeded in that very well.

While engaged in this business Mr. Hendrick met a man who had originated a new kind of oil, manufactured out of one-half water and the other half oil. Being assured of its merit, be bought the receipt for $10, and spent the winter of 1860- 61 in Michigan, experimenting on oil. He dis- covered the receipt was practically useless, but finding a formula that seemed to have merit, he went to Toronto, Canada, and experimented with it on the machinery of a large rolling mill. It worked to the satisfaction of the owners of the mill, who paid him $50 for the receipt and the right to make it. On his return to Scranton he introduced it in this locality. Going to John B. Smith, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Coal Company's Gravity road, he secured permission to give it a test on the cars of that road, assur- ing him that it would lessen his oil bills by half. After a thorough test extending over several months, they made an arrangement with him for the use of it on the road and paid him on the start $500.

Mr. Hendrick was led to make further experi- ments in the oil business and they proved very satisfactory. Through his efforts with others, the Great Northern Oil Company was organized,

he getting $33,000 in cash and $200,000 of the stock of the company, and he went into the Venango fields to manufacture the oil. It was agreed by the stockholders that none of the pri- vate stock should be put on the market until the $200,000 capital stock for the running of the works was sold. A bull pool was formed in New York in 1864 and the stock was the sensation of the hour. He was offered $120,000 for his stock, but refused to sell it, as the agreement was that it should not be sold until the capital stock was all disposed of. By this time he had used $20,000 of his own money in the company's business, and he called for that sum, but found there was no money in the treasury. Satisfied that there was something wrong, he went to New York and found that while the stock was boom- ing, none of the capital stock had been sold, but that the promoters had broken faith and had been selling their private stock. When he found this was being done he was enraged and threw his stock on the market, causing a collapse of the boom.

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Portrait and biographical record of Wyoming and Lackawanna counties, Pennsylvania : containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties, Part 114

Author: Chapman Publishing Company (NY) Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Chapman Publishing Company (NY)
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1068