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 35
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 35
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134
The mother of our subject was Mary, daughter of William H. Sayre, and born in Philadelphia. Her father, a native of Bordentown, N. J., settled in Mauchchunk in 1829, and was for many years identified with the Lehigh Valley Coal & Navi- gation Company. His father, Dr. Francis R. Sayre, was a distinguished physician of Philadel- phia. Mrs. Mary Cox resides in Bethlehem, as does also her son, Walter E., who is line agent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and her brother, Robert H. Sayre, second vice-president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and general man- ager for the Bethlehem Iron Company.
The youngest of five children, John S. Cox spent his boyhood years in Bethlehem and at other places along the line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In 1872 he entered Lehigh University and took a special course in chemistry, which he completed four years later. He then engaged in civil engineering in Illinois on the Grayville & Mattoon Railroad. In 1878 he joined an expedi- tion sent to South America for the purpose of surveying a line around the numerous cataracts
of the Madeira, so that the railroad might be built into Bolivia. The expedition proceeded up the Amazon and Madeira, reaching the head of that river after a trip of six weeks, and continuing to work through the forest until ordered to stop, on account of the Bolivian government not filling its part of the contract. At first the expedition num- bered seven hundred men, but within one year disease and death, resultant from the unhealthful climate, had reduced the number to three hun- dred, and some of these died during the voyage home.
Having received no remuneration for his ser- vices, Mr. Cox was obliged to make his way back home on credit. He journeyed on a three-masted schooner down the Amazon and at Para received from the American consul a sufficient amount of money to pay his expenses to New York, for which place he at once sailed on the "City of Para." He returned to Bethlehem after an ab- sence of less than twelve months. This expedi- tion was one of the greatest peril and attended with many privations such as, fortunately, fall to the lot of but few. In 1879-80, during the ex- citement at Silver Cliff, Colo., he practiced in those regions as chemist and assayer, assaying the ores of different mines, and also engaged in prospecting. In 1880 he went to Mexico as as- sistant engineer in charge of construction of a subdivision of the Mexican National Railroad, and remained there until operations were sus- pended, when he returned to Pennsylvania. When work was resumed on the road he went back and spent two and one-half years there. The line has since been completed and is now in operation.
After a stay of two years with the Bethlehem Iron Company as chemist, in December, 1887, Mr. Cox came to Scranton as chief chemist for the Scranton Steel Company. His headquarters . were in the south mill until the consolidation. In August, 1895, he was made chemist of both the north and south mills, in each of which he now has laboratories. His attention has been given unreservedly to his business affairs and he has found no time for participation in politics, though he supports Republican principles at elec- tions. In New York City he married Miss Miriam
315
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Franklin, who was born in Flushing, L. I., and received an excellent education in New York City, where her father, Joseph Fitch Franklin, was a broker. They are the parents of two chil- dren, Donald and Anita. A man of kind heart and liberal views, Mr. Cox is universally respect- ed by the people of Scranton, as well as in the other places to which business has taken him temporarily.
UDGE WILLIAM J. LEWIS, general man- ager of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Coal Company at Scranton, and one of the most influential citizens of the city and county, was born in Carbondale, Pa., August 27, 1843, and is a son of John D. and Ann (Hop- kins) Lewis, natives of Wales. His paternal grandfather, David J. Lewis, died at Carbondale in 1854, aged seventy-six years. During the early days of the history of Carbondale, John D. Lewis established his home there, and being a practical miner, he was of great assistance in the develop- ment of the coal industry, then in its incipiency. For some years he was in the employ of the Dela- ware & Hudson Canal Company, but in 1858 abandoned mining and turned his attention to farming in the township of Clifford, Susquehanna County. In 1866 he retired from active labors and returned to Carbondale, where he resided until the death of his wife, and then came to Scranton, where his last years were spent in the home of his son, William J. Here he died in May, 1880, aged seventy-three. His wife passed away in March, 1876, at the age of seventy-six.
There were five sons and two daughters in the parental family, of whom the eldest son, David, left home for California in 1852 and his subse- quent history to 1871 has been traced, but since then nothing has been heard of him. Another son, Lewis, died in 1860; the eldest daughter, Gwennie, died in 1856; John F. is with the American Safety Lamp and Mine Supply Com- pany in Scranton; Thomas lives in San Francis- co, as does also the only surviving daughter, Margaret E. Kenvin. William J., the youngest of the family, attended the Carbondale schools until nine years of age, after which he began to work
in the coal mines, but the work was distasteful and at an early age he left home and secured work on a farm. When his father purchased a farm, he returned home, where he remained until his enlistment in the Union army in the fall of 1862. He entered Company B, One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, and was mustered into service at Montrose as a pri- vate, serving nine months.
The company served principally along the dis- mal swamp in southern Virginia. When the bat- tle of Gettysburg was fought they were on their way to that place to reinforce the Army of the Potomac, and later were assigned to General Slocuni's corps. They were mustered out at Har- risburg in September, 1863. Mr. Lewis returned home after about a year's absence. Though his opportunities for attending school were very lim- ited, yet by self-culture and careful reading he acquired a fair education, and became a success- ful teacher in the public schools. As labor was very scarce in the coal mines and the work was profitable, he and his brother, John F., late in 1864 engaged in mining coal in Jermyn. Early in 1866 he came to Scranton and embarked in the general mercantile business in that portion of the city commonly known as Providence. Soon, however, selling out, he started a hardware busi- ness in the same vicinity and for two years was a member of the firm of Lewis & Fish, after which he continued alone for five years. The venture proved unfortunate financially.
Starting out again without capital, Mr. Lewis began as a fire insurance agent and conveyancer in Providence, and built up a large business, con- tinuing until 1886. In 1875 Governor Hartranft appointed him paymaster of the Ninth Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, and in 1879 the same governor appointed him one of the first auditors of Lackawanna County, but he did not accept the position. On the separation of the county from Luzerne he was elected associate judge, and with Judges Handley, Hand and As- sociate Moffit, held court in Washington Hall in Lackawanna Avenue for five years, when, under the provisions of the new constitution, the office was abolished. In the fall of 1885, after a most hotly contested fight, he was nominated on the
II
316
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Republican ticket for county sheriff and was elect- ed by a majority of nearly one thousand, notwith- standing the fact that his predecessor, Randolph Crippen, a Democrat, had been elected by a ma- jority of seventeen hundred, while his successor, Robinson, Democrat, was elected by more than two thousand majority. In January, 1886, he took the oath of office and served for three years, retiring in January, 1889, with a record for effi- ciency second to no similar officer in the com- monwealth. In 1889, after the failure of the Scranton City Bank, Judge Lewis, representing the depositors, and Dr. Throop, representing the stockholders, were appointed trustees of the prop- erties, then known as the "Jessup leases," and it was largely through the able management of Judge Lewis in disposing of these properties that a speedy payment of the claims of the deposi- tors of the bank was made possible. October I, 1890, Judge Lewis accepted the position of gen- eral manager of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Coal Company. This company takes the output of eighteen collieries, which in 1895 amounted to one and one-half million tons, the capacity being two and one-half million tons per annum. Besides being general manager, he is a director of the company. He is one of the in- corporators and has been chosen president of the Susquehanna Connecting Railroad Company, which was chartered in 1896, with a capital of $500,000, for the construction and operation of a railroad from a point on the Wilkesbarre & Eastern Railroad, eleven miles easterly from Wilkesbarre and extending through the counties of Luzerne and Lackawanna to a point in the borough of Winton, and which will probably be constructed and in operation before the close of 1897. He is a director of the Dime Deposit and Discount Bank, and is largely interested in many of the industries in and about Scranton.
December 31, 1863, Judge Lewis married Miss Adeline Wells, who was born in Susquehanna County and died there April 14, 1864. His sec- ond marriage took place in Scranton in March, 1867, his wife being Miss Cassanda, daughter of William Bloss, a contractor and builder, and member of an old Pennsylvania family. Mrs. Cassanda Lewis died May 30, 1877, leaving two
children, William J., Jr., assistant general inspec- tor of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Coal Company, and Effie, a graduate of Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa. June 2, 1882, Judge Lewis married Miss Mary Griffith, a native of Wales, and they are the parents of a son, Walford C. The family reside in a substantial home in Edna Avenue, commanding one of the most ex- tensive and finest views obtainable in the city.
In addition to this property Judge Lewis owns valuable real estate in the city and county. He aided in the organization of the north end board of trade and was its president for several years, but finally declined further re-election. He is a member of Griffin Post No. 139, G. A. R., and a Free and Accepted Mason of the thirty-second degree, but since his business affairs have re- quired his entire attention, he has ceased to af- filiate with all the higher bodies, retaining a mem- bership only in Hiram Lodge No. 261, in which he was raised in 1867, and of which he is a life member. For fifteen consecutive years he was a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Provi- dence, during which time the handsome new edi- fice was erected and the finances of the church placed upon a solid foundation. His first vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, and since that time he has taken an active and prominent part, as a Republican, in politics; serving at vari- ous times on the county and state committees. He is possessed of an extensive store of general knowledge and is the owner of a valuable library. He ranks high among the active men of the day, both as a thinker and doer, and is of a genial and sunny disposition, with a kind word for all.
R OBERT McKENNA. Many years ago a young man of twenty-one years stood on the dock at Liverpool, undecided whether to seek a home in America or Australia. He had no friends in either land, and it seemed difficult to determine which ship to take. Finally he de- termined to leave his destiny to the flip of a penny and has never regretted that it turned "heads up" on the dock. America won and to America accordingly he came, taking passage on the sailer "Queen of the West," which reached New
317
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
York March 13, 1848, after a voyage of thirty-five days. A stranger in a strange land, he was nev- ertheless very fortunate in his experiences, obtain- ing a position in the first shop he entered, and from that time to this he has never been out of employment. He is now master car builder for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Company, and resides in Scranton.
The birth of Mr. McKenna occurred August 2, 1826, in Girvan, a burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, twenty-one miles from the city of Ayr. His fath- er, Robert, and grandfather, Fergus, both natives of the same place, were occupied respectively as farmer and carpenter, the former dying at seven- ty-three years. The mother, Jean McCreath, was born in Ayrshire, where her father, 'Gilbert, owned a farm. The McCreath family was of the old Covenanter faith and gave to the world sev- eral martyrs during the religious persecutions that troubled Scotland. Robert and Jean McKenna had four sons and two daughters, of whom John is foreman of the house department of the Hud- son River Railroad; Fergus, who occupies the old homestead, is employed in the freight depart- ment of a railroad there; Agnes, Mrs. Ferguson, resides in Rockland County, N. Y. The mother of these children died at the age of eighty-six years.
Educated in the parochial schools, at the age of thirteen our subject was . apprenticed to the carpenter's trade in Ayr, and served an appren- ticeship of seven years, becoming an expert car- penter, joiner and pattern maker. For two years afterward he was employed as a journeyman and saved his earnings until he had sufficient to pay his passage to another country. In February, 1848, he went from Greenock to Liverpool, where chance led him to take passage for Amer- ica. For eighteen months after his arrival in New York he was employed as a pattern maker in a shop in the heart of the city, after which he was occupied as a builder in Morrisania, N. Y. Re- turning to the pattern shop in a short time, in 1853 he became connected with the car shops of the Hudson River Railroad, and after six weeks there he was made foreman, in which capacity he was employed for seventeen years. June 15, 1870, he came to Scranton to accept the position of
master car builder for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, a position tendered him while with the Hudson River Company. At the time he came here these works were small, being about one-third of their present capacity, but now they are the largest of the city. Employment is fur- nished to nearly one thousand hands and cars of every description, except sleepers, are manufac- tured.
The residence of Mr. McKenna is situated at No. 318 Madison Avenue. He was united in marriage in New York City to Miss Ann Fer- guson, daughter of David Ferguson, both na- tives of Scotland. The latter, who was a stone mason by trade, brought his family to America, and settled in New York, where his last years were spent. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Kenna consists of five children, all of whom were educated in Scranton. They are Mrs. Janet Luce, of this city; Jeanie and Katie; Robert F., draughtsman and pattern maker in charge of the air brake department of the Delaware, Lacka- wanna & Western; and David A., a pattern mak- er in the machine shop of this road. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. McKenna is identified with the Republican party and fraternally is connected with the Master Car Builders' Association of the United States.
T HOMAS F. MULLEN is the proprietor of a plumbing establishment situated at No. 315 Spruce Street, Scranton, where he has a commodious building, stocked with plumbers' supplies and steam and hot water heating appa- ratus. The Mullen family originated in Ireland. The first of the family to cross the Atlantic was James J., our subject's father and a native of County Tyrone. When a boy he came to Amer- ica and worked on the canal at Rondout, N. Y., later being employed as an engineer on the river. In 1866 he came to Scranton, where he was sta- tionary engineer for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company for many years. His death occurred in Hyde Park when he was seventy-one. For some time he was school con- troller from the third (now the twenty-first) ward. He was married in Carbondale to Alice Flanley,
318
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
a native of Ireland, whence she accompanied her parents to Pennsylvania. Her death occurred in Hyde Park. Of their twelve children five are now living, all sons.
Thomas F., who was the sixth in order of birth, was born in Ulster County, N. Y., in 1858, and in 1866 was brought by his parents to Scranton, where he attended the public schools a short tinie. Before he was nine years of age he began to work as a slate picker. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the plumber's and gas fitter's trade under Mr. Maloney, of Scranton, with whom he remained for a few years. In 1888 he started in business on Wyoming Avenue, as a member of the firm of Rollins & Mullen, but two years later the partnership was dissolved, and he has since been alone. He occupies the entire building at No. 315 Spruce Street, where he uses the first floor for office and salesroom, and the second floor for tin shop and stock. He had the contract for the plumbing in the Hotel Jermyn, the largest job of plumbing ever done in Lackawanna Coun- ty. Besides this, he had the contract for the plumbing in the Jermyn and Boies residences, the Blakely almshouse, and the heating of the Globe warehouse and the Keller, Blair, Rice and Jermyn residences. He is acting as agent for Richmond steam and hot water heaters, and is thoroughly informed regarding every detail of his work. At present he is a member of the Master Plumbers' Association of Scranton. In religious belief he is a Catholic and belongs to the Catholic Mutual Benevolent Association. He built the residence which he occupies at No. 337 North Sumner Avenue, Hyde Park, and here he and his wife, formerly Alice Quinnan, have a comfortable home. Five children comprise their family, James, Mabel, Alice, Thomas and Rose.
P ROF. WALTER H. BUELL, A. M. Prob- ably in northeastern Pennsylvania there is no educational institution better or more favorably known for effective work in preparation for college, than The School of the Lackawanna, of which Dr. Cann and Professor Buell are the principals. It is situated at No. 243 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, and is attended by pupils not
only from this city, but many from other parts of the state. There are three departments, higher, intermediate and preparatory, where may be ob- tained a thorough English and business course, and training in history and classics. From this school students have been admitted to about thirty different colleges, as many as sixteen col- leges receiving pupils in one year. A well- equipped physical laboratory is one of the valua- ble features of the institution. Many men now prominent in public life in this city and elsewhere laid the foundation of their knowledge here and look back upon the days spent in the school as among the happiest and most useful of their lives.
Born in Killingworth, Conn., Prof. Buell is the son of J. Sherman and Frances (Hull) Buell, na- tives of the same place, but now residents of Mad- ison, the same state. His father is of English and Welsh extraction, while his mother, the daughter of Dr. J. Hull, is of English descent. He is next to the eldest of the family, the others being Rev. Lewin F., a graduate of Yale and pastor of the Congregational Church at Mt. Vernon, N. Y .; Collin S., A. M., a graduate of Yale, and prin- cipal of the Williams Memorial Institute, of New London, Conn .; Ralph J., a business man of Mad- ison, Conn .; Gertrude F., a graduate of Smith College and now an instructor in the high school in Brooklyn; and Edith M., who is principal of a public school in Madison, Conn.
In the Morgan school, at Clinton, Conn., the subject of this sketch prepared for college. In 1876 he entered Yale College, and four years later graduated with the degree of A. B. and the honor of being chosen as one of the speakers at com- mencement. In 1883 he received the degree of A. M. At his graduation he became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In 1880 he was chosen principal of the Lee's Academy in Madi- son, Conn., and the following year became a teacher in The School of the Lackawanna, after which he did post-graduate work in Yale as Larned scholar. For one year he was prin- cipal of the Guilford (Conn.) Institute, and in 1884 returned to Scranton as one of the principals of The School of the Lackawanna. He is a member of the American Philological Association and a man of broad literary culture and extended
J. C. HENRY WEHRUM.
321
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
knowledge. In Scranton he married Miss Louise H., daughter of Dr. Cann; she was born in Wil- mington, Del., and received an excellent educa- tion in Frederick Seminary.
Actively connected with the Y. M. C. A., it is due in no small degree to his work that the past four years have seen a growth of membership from thirty-five to three hundred. For one year he has been educational director of the John Ray- mond Institute of Y. M. C. A., and has for four years been chairman of the educational committee of the association. He is identified with the New England Society and the Lackawanna Society of History and Science, and in religious connec- tions is associated with the Second Presbyterian Church. In 1890-91 he traveled in Europe, visit- ing the British Isles, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, The Netherlands, and matricu- lated at the University of Berlin, where he at- tended the lectures of Dr. Ernst Curtius upon Greek history and archeology. During his ab- sence abroad he contributed to American journals descriptions of the countries visited, their ad- vancement in educational work and methods adopted in their various institutions of learning.
J. C. HENRY WEHRUM, general man- ager of the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company at Scranton, was born in Pirma- sens, a town of Rhenish Bavaria, in the Vosges. His paternal ancestors for many successive gen- erations were identified with the history of that locality, and his father's maternal grandfather was the founder of the city of Pirmasens, served as its mayor and was an officer in the German army. He is the son of Henry and Charlotte (Schweit- zer) Wehrum, natives respectively of Pirmasens, Bavaria, and Büst, Alsace, the former of whom died when only twenty-eight years of age. The maternal grandfather was born in France, and spent his life principally in Alsace. Great-grand- father Kugler fought under the Great Napoleon, being one of the officers of his army.
From Alsace our subject's mother removed to Bavaria, and in Pirmasens was married to Henry Wehrum, but after a few years was left a widow with two children. Some time during the '50s,
she came to America with her son, Charles C., but died soon afterward in New York City, and was buried in Greenwood cemetery. Charles C., at the age of twenty years, enlisted in the Twelfthi Massachusetts Infantry, and served faithfully in defense of his adopted country. Both at Antie- tam and Gettysburg he received severe wounds. For faithful service he was promoted to the rank of captain and became acting adjutant on the gen- eral's staff. At the expiration of his term of ser- vice he returned to New York, where he resumed his business enterprises. Accumulating a compe- tency, for some years he has lived retired from active work. For many years he has held the po- sition of school conunissioner, and has wielded an influence in educational and public affairs in his city.
At the age of seven years, in 1850, our subject was taken to the province of Lorraine, but his education was received principally in the college of Bouxviller, Alsace. In 1859 he went back to Lorraine and secured employment in the steel works at Mutterhausen, where he became depart- ment superintendent and chief of construction. In 1871, at the time of the Franco-Prussian war, he deemed it prudent to change his occupation. Upon the close of the war he went to Strassburg, and established a wholesale and retail store. Later he became secretary of The Directorate and High Consistory of the Church of the Confession of Augsburg for the provinces of Alsace and Lor- raine, which office he held until he came to America.
In the fall of 1874 Mr. Wehrun crossed the Atlantic, landing in New York City, where he re- mained until the following year. He then became an engineer for the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, and in 1876 was made chief engineer. The plans of the new steel works were designed by him, and he was superintendent of construc- tion under W. W. Scranton, president of The Scranton Steel Company. On its consolidation with the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company as the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company in 1891, he remained in the service of Mr. Scranton until November, 1893, when he became chief engineer and superintendent of the consolidated concern. In February, 1896, he was made general mian-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.