USA > Pennsylvania > Portraits of the heads of state departments and portraits and sketches of members of the legislature of Pennsylvania, 1893-1894 > Part 13
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The people of Bradford county are, perhaps, the most restless and independent of any in the commonwealth. They dislike anything that smocks of bossism. In 1890 they concluded to rebuke the leaders and smash the party machine. A fusion ticket, composed of independent Republicans and Democrats, was nomi- nated and was triumphantly successful, sweeping away the usual magnificent Re- publican majority. It has required diplomacy to win the people back to their old allegiance to the Republican party. The fusionists tried the same experiment in 1892 that had worked so well in 1890, but through the influence of such conscien- tious Republicans as Mr. Moore, the "Old Guard" wheeled into line and he was elected Representative of that county by nearly 3,000 majority. He is on the Com- mittee on Agriculture, Compare Bills, Retrenchment and Reform and Vice and Immorality. He introduced a bill providing for the taxation of dogs and protec- tion of sheep, which was conceded to be the best of the many bills introduced on that subject, and which was taken as the basis of the measure that finally passed the House. He also introduced a school book bill which provided for a commis- sion consisting of the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction and three practical teachers to be appointed by the Governor. These five to constitute a commission to buy school books, providing they could be purchased at satisfactory prices from the publishing houses. If not, to advertise and procure copy rights, have the books printed by public contract and furnished to the people at cost of publication. Like nearly all other school book bills this one was negatived in committee. Mr. Moore is one of the youngest men in the House, and is a hard- working, conscientious member, adhering strictly to his duties. When he makes a speech upon any measure he says what he has to say in a clear and forcible manner and then stops.
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House of Representatives.
FLOYD LEE KINNER, one of the Republican members from Bradford county, hails originally from Flatbrook- ville, New Jersey, where he was born May 27, 1856. His father, while Floyd was but a lad, went to Pike county and engaged in the lumber business. He was an intense Union man and while celebrating the victory achieved by the Union forces at Gettsburg incurred the displeasure of Southern sympathizers whose attitude drove him from this in- hospitable clime. He came over to the more congenial atmosphere of Bradford county and settled at Ulster and later at what formerly was Tioga Point, in the early days of the commonwealth the rendezvous of the Six Nations, and now called by the more classical name of LEVYTYPE CA PHILA Athens, and engaged in the mercantile business. At his death he was suc- ceeded by his son Floyd, the subject of this sketch. Floyd received his education in the schools of Athens, in which he has ever taken a deep interest. He has served in his town in the capacity of school director and was a member of the board at the time the present magnificent school building was erected, which is considered the finest in Bradford county. He was also one of its promoters. After going through the schools of Athens he graduated at the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie. In 1892 he was elected a member of the House of Representa- tives by a handsome majority, particularly as the county had been represented in the session of 1891 by two Fusionists and a Democrat. He is on the Committee on Railroads, of which he is secretary; also a member of City Passenger Railways Committee, Vice and Immorality and Manufactures. He introduced a bill (and secured its passage) granting an appropriation to the Robert A. Packer Hospital, located at Sayre, of $10,000; also a bill making appropriation necessary to defray the expenses of transportation of Union veterans to Gettysburg on July 1 next, to to participate in the service commemorative of the great battle fought at that his- toric place, and a resolution asking for an investigation to inquire into the irregu- larity of charges in rates of transportation upon coal and plaster over the Lehigh Valley railroad from Coxton to points in Wyoming and Bradford counties. Mr. Kinner is one of the quiet and hard-working members who believes the most effi- cient and practical work is done in committees. He is distinctively a business man, one of the conservative majority which should always be most consulted in the enactment of our laws.
138
House of Representatives.
OLIVER H. FRETZ, M. D., is a son of William and Catharine (Hofford) Fretz, and was born in Richland town- ship, Bucks county, April 9, 1858, where he lived until he was ten years old, when he removed with his parents to Quakertown. He received the best school advantages the borough afforded, and was subsequently sent to Muhlen- berg College, Allentown, Pa., to com- plete his education. He began the study of medicine in 1879, first under that able practitioner and scientist, Dr. I. S. Moyer of Quakertown; afterward in the same year he entered the Jeffer- son Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa .. and after pursuing a three years' graded course of studies he graduated March 30, 1882, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He began the practice of MOPHILA medicine at Salfordville, Montgomery county, and is now successfully engaged in the drug business at Quakertown, and has a large office practice. In 1886 he took a post-graduate course of instruction at the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for graduates in medicine, fitting him- self as a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. In 1889 he completed a course in pharmacy at the National Institute of Pharmacy of Chicago, Ill. Dr. Fretz received the appointment of borough physician of Quakertown in 1888 and has been re-appointed annually since. He is a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, the Bucks County Medical Society, the Lelig h Valley Medical Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Forestry Association and the Bucks County School Directors' . Association, of which he served as vice president. Since 1886, when he was elected as school director of Quakertown borough, he has been closely identified with the educational interests of his town and the county. He was re-elected school direc- tor in 1889, and served one year as treasurer and three years as president of the board. He was a delegate to the state convention of school directors held several years ago at Harrisburg. In 1890 Dr. Fretz was nominated on the first ballot for Assembly by the Bucks county Democratic convention and elected by nearly 300 majority. Dr. Fretz represented his county in the Legislature of 1891 with marked ability and to the utmost satisfaction of his constituents. He was renominated by acclamation and re-elected by a largely increased majority. In the session of 1893 he served on the following committees: Educational, Municipal Corporation, Public Health and Sanitation, and Congressional Apportionment. Dr. Fretz intro- duced a number of bills in the Legislature, the most important of which was an act to authorize the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to grant permanent state teachers's certificates to graduates of recognized literary and scientific colleges.
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139
House of Representatives.
CARLILE SHEPHERD, one of the three representatives from Bucks county, was born 'October 19, 1834, in Buckingham township, of that county. Like his father, who was born nearly a hundred years ago in the same township, Mr. Shepherd has followed the occupa- tion of farming, a pursuit in which he takes great interest. He has for eighteen years been superintendent of the Friend- ship Sunday school in his township and is an elder in a Presbyterian church in Doylestown. This is the first time Mr. Shepherd has been a member of the Legislature, but the faithful manner in which he has represented his constitu- ents will likely result in his return to a seat in the House. In Bucks county the Democratic party, of which Mr. LEVYTYPECO PHILA Shepherd is a member, makes its selec- tions from the upper, lower and middle districts, and the subject of this brief sketch represents the latter. The normal Democratic majority in it is about 209, but notwithstanding the bitter fight made against him because of his temperance principles he received a majority of more than 500 over his Republican opponent in the middle district. Mr. Shepherd is a Granger and a member of the Legislative Agricultural delegation. He received his education in the public schools of his native township in the winter months, the rest of his time having been devoted to work on his father's farm. While he is a temperance man he is not a prohibitionist. As this is his first term in the Legislature he was assigned to only three committees-Centennial Affairs, Geological Survey and Accounts. He introduced no bills, but has carefully watched legisla- tion and intelligently and fearlessly voted on all questions under consideration. He was regular in his attendance on the sessions of the House and showed a par- ticular interest in the bill read in place in the Senate by Senator Ross to ensure the construction of a turnpike from Doylestown to Chalfant, a distance of five miles, a much needed improvement.
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House of Representatives.
JAMES L. FABIAN, Bucks, was born May 5, 1835, in the First precinct of the Twenty-sixth ward, Philadelphia, ormerly Passyunk township, and was educated in the common schools. His father was a basket-maker and a voter in this precinct for sixty-two years. Mr. Fabian learned the trade of a basket- maker and worked at it until the panic of 1857, when hewent to work in the old navy yard, working under the adminis- tration of President Buchanan until 1858. He then began to raise truck in which he was engaged until 1874. In this year Mr. Fabian removed to Bucks and turned his attention to the growing of seeds, onion sets, tobacco and the raising of horses and other thoroughbred stock. He bred and raised the noted trotting colts, Jim F, record 2:26} at four years old, and Brother Jim, record 2:293 at three years old, which were received on the Half-mile track at Trenton, New Jersey. Mr. Fabian's stock and seed farm, on which he resides, is one of the finest and best-equipped in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Mr. Fabian served as a school director in which he lives from 1878 to 1881. In November, 1890, he was elected to the Legislature, receiving the highest vote of any candidate on the county ticket. He was re-elected in 1892.
For many years Mr. Fabian has attended the Bucks County Democratic Conven- tions. He has always been an active and enthusiastic Democrat, as was his father. He has seven sons, six of whom are voters and Democrats. As far back as he can trace, Mr. Fabian's family were Democrats. He is a hard-working, thoroughly-reliable business man, and in connection with his other enterprises he has been engaged in the oderless business in Philadelphia since 1860. Mr. Fa- bian is a member of the Committees on Public Health and Sanitation, Vice and Immorality, Constitutional Reform and Library.
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141
House of Representatives.
JAMES B. MATES was born on his father's farm in Muddy Creek town- ship, Butler county, Pa., on September 2, 1859. His father soon afterward re- moved to a farm in Penn township in the same county and there Mr. Mates spent the years of his youth, in the vicinity of the afterward famous Thorn Creek oil field. His parents were both born in Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Mates was educated in the common schools and at Witherspoon Institute, Butler, Pa. After leaving this institute the young man taught school from 1880 to 1884, during which time he read law under the direction of ex-Judge Charles McCandless and was admitted to prac- tice at the Butler county bar in 1883. He opened a law office in Butler, Pa., in LEVYTYPEDE MAL 1885, and has since practiced his profes- sion there and been identified with the interests of that city. Mr. Mates was married to Miss Nordena Wilson on August 31, 1887. He has always been an active Republican and has several times served on the county committee, being chairman of that organization in 1887. He was ap- pointed Census Supervisor for the Tenth district in 1890, and discharged his duties in a very satisfactory manner. He was elected a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania in November, 1892, by a handsome majority over his Democratic opponent. He is an active member of the committee on Judiciary General and also a member of the Committees on Railroads, Elections, Library and Accounts and has been ranked upon the floor as one of the useful, though unobtrusive men- bers during the session. Among the bills introduced by Mr. Mates was one making an appropriation to the Connoquenessing Valley hospital at Butler, Pa.
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142
House of Representatives.
DAVID B. DOUTHETT, of Butler county, is a native Pennsylvanian, having been born near Brownsdale, in the county in which he represents, on October 27, 1840. His parents were Joseph and Rebecca (Magee) Douthett, well known residents of that locality and highly esteemed by their neigh- bors and acquaintances. They always lived on the farm near Brownsdale. Mr. Douthett was educated in the com- mon schools and at Witherspoon Insti- tute at Butler, Pa. He then taught school from 1857 until 1861, when he enlisted at Brownsdale for three years in company H, One hundred and second regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, and served under General Mcclellan, Burn- side, Hooker, Meade and Grant. He took part in the battles of Williams- burg, Fair Oaks, White Oak Swamp, Charles City Cross Roads, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Williamsport, Second Freder- icksburg, Salem Heights, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Chantilly, the Wilderness and many other battles and skirmishes. He re-enlisted with his regiment near Brandy station, Va., and was given veteran furlough for thirty days, after which he rejoined his command, being finally mustered out with his regiment near Washington, D. C., June 28, 1865. Mr. Douthett was slightly wounded at Williamsburg-Fort Magruder-on the Peninsula, and his hat was perforated by a minnie ball at the second battle of Fredericksburg. He was severely wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, receiving a wound through the left thigh. He was treated for two months at Findlay Hospital, Washington, D. C then at Philadelphia and afterward at Pittsburg, Pa., and when only partially re- covered rejoined his regiment before Petersburg, Va., and participated in the closing campaign of the Army of the Potomac with General Grant. Mr. Douthett was justice of the peace for ten years, a school director for twelve years, and presi- dent of the board of school directors of his county for a number of years. He served three terms as postmaster at Brownsdale, was mercantile apraiser of Butler county in 1890, and was appointed by Governor Pattison as a delegate to the Farmers' National Congress, which met at Sedalia, Mo., in 1891. He is a member of Captain William Stuart Post No. 573, G. A. R., and of Encampment No. 45, Union Veteran Legion. He was nominated on the Republican ticket for the Legislature in 1862, and elected by a flattering majority, receiving 225 more votes than any other candidate, and running 100 ahead of the national ticket of his party. Early in the session Mr. Doutliett had a resolution passed condemning the effort to secure the repeal of the act of Congress prohibiting the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago on the Sabbath. Later, he secured the passage, on special order, of his bill to regulate and establish the fees to be charged by justices of the peace, aldermen, magistrates and constables to secure uniform- ity throughout the state. Mr. Douthett is always active in the politics of his county, and his political rewards by popular vote attest the estimation in which he is held better than anything that can be said.
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143
House of Representatives.
TACOB C. STINEMAN, of Cambria, is - a native of Richland township, Cam- bria county, Pa., where he was born April 9, 1842. He was raised on a farm and educated in the common schools. When seventeen years old Mr. Stine- man began teaching school, teaching in the winter and working on his father's farm in the summer. Mr. Stineman's grandfather was one of the early settlers of Cambria county locating on the waters of the South Fork of the Cone- maugh river in 1800. At one time the elder Stineman owned most of the land which in after years was covered by the waters of the South Fork reservoir, or Conemaugh lake, the breaking of which, in May, 1889, caused the losses of many lives and destruction of much valuable property in the Conemaugh valley. Mr. Stineman's grand parents on his mother's side, whose names were Croyle, settled in that part of Cambria county known for many years as Croyle's Mill, Croyle township. now Summerhill borough about 1798 or 1799. Here his mother, who is still living at the advaned age of ninety-two years, was born. Mr. Stineman's father died about twenty years ago.
Mr. Stineman enlisted in company F, One hundred and ninety-eighth regiment Pennsylvania volunteers, First brigade, First division of the Fifth army corps, Army of the Potomac. He served until the close of the war, being one of the victorious army who witnessed Lee's surrender to General Grant on that eventful Sunday morning, April 9, 1865. At the close of the war Mr. Stineman returned to his father's home and engaged in farming for a number of years. In 1868 he began working in the coal mines. He was soon advanced to mine foreman and subsequently to superintendent of the mines in which he first commenced work- ing. In 1873 he began operating coal mines for himself and is now the owner of , much valuable coal property, being one of the largest individual producers of bituminous coal in the state. His mines are situated along the line of the Penn- sylvania railroad at South Fork.
Mr. Stineman served fifteen consecutive years as a school director. He is a di- rector of the Citizen's National Bank of Johnstown. He has never been an aspir- ant for political honors or an office seeker, although having been chosen to a number of offices of trust and importance. In 1885 he was the Republican candidate for sheriff of Cambria county. He was defeated, but his vote was so far in excess of that of his colleagues on the Republican ticket that he was re-nominated in 1888. This time he was elected by a handsome majority and was the sheriff of the county at the time of the Johnstown flood. In 1889 Mr. Stineman was a delegate to the State Republican Convention. Two years subsequent he was chairman of the Cambria County Republican committee. He was elected to the Legislature in November, 1892, receiving the highest vote of any candidate of either party.
Mr. Stineman is a faithful and conscientious legislator. He is one of the most conspicuous, yet modest members of the House of Representatives. He is a mem- ber of the Committees on Mines and Mining, Iron and Coal, Judiciary Local, Fish and Game and Bureau of Statistics.
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House of Representatives.
JAMES J. THOMAS, the Democeatic Representative from Cambria county, was born October, 1836, in Munster township, in that county. He never attended school except to learn to spell, but acquired a practical education at the hands of his father, who taught school in Cambria county from 1820 to 1869 and fitted his son at his home for the same occupation. Representative Thomas became a pedagogue in 1858 and has followed teaching and farming ever since that period. He has thirty- four terms of school teaching in Cambria county to his credit, during which he educated many young men who have held important positions in the State and country. He filled several local offices in his township and in 1876 was elected to the House from Cambria county for two years and served in that body in 1877 and 1878 with John Downey, of Johnstown. He was United States storekeeper during President Cleveland's first term in the Twenty-third district, comprising a large portion of Western Pennsylvania, and filled the place for over four years. He is a member of the State Board of Agriculture and has worked at farming, in conjunction with school teaching, since he attained his majority except in two years, when he carried on the lumber business in West Virginia. Speaker Thompson appointed him a member of the Congressional and Judicial Apportion- ment, Vice and Immorality and Constitutional Reforin Committees, and he also served on the sub-Committee on Congressional Apportionment with Chairman Lawrence and Representatives Richmond, Cotton and Ritter. He was vice presi- dent of the agricultural delegation in the Legislature, which had for its president Representative Cessna and for its secretary Senator Critchfield. He introduced during the session the bill endorsed by the State Sportsmen's Association chang- ing the time for the shooting of squirrels from September 1 to October 15, whose main purpose was to prevent early hunting and thus protect pheasants and quail from slaughter. He also introduced a bill authorizing supervisors of townships to pay for the material necessary to erect wire fences to prevent snow-drifts in the coun- try districts, which have been found to work the most satisfactory results, and was a member of the sub-committee of the agriculture delegation which drafted the Nesbit road bill, and was afterward appointed by the same organization one of a committee of five to take charge of the Niles tax bill on the floor of the House.
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145
House of Representatives.
RVIN K. HOCKLEY, who represents 1
Cameron county as a member of the House, was born in Reading, Pa., in 1852. His ancestors were of German stock and settled in Pennsylvania shortly after the revolutionary war. His father is a farmer. Mr. Hockley received his early education in the schools of Lycoming and Northumber- land counties and finished it in the . county normal school at Muncy. He was a school teacher for seventeen years, twelve of which as principal of the Em- porium high school, extending from 1875 to 1887. He was married to Miss Debbie Logan, of Emporium, in 1877 and has two children, a girl and boy. From 1887 to 1891, he was treasurer of the Emporium board of trade. He is now merchant and coal dealer and fur- nislies builder's supplies at Emporium. He has been county and borongh auditor and was chairman of the Democratic county committee of Cameron county in 1891 and 1892. He was a delegate to the Democratic state convention which nominated E. H. Bigler, of Clearfield, for State Treasurer. Although Cameron county is Republican, and he had for his opponent Captain J.C. Johnson, chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the House of 1891, Mr. Hockley was elected by fifty-four majority. He is a member of Emporium lodge 382, F. and A. M., Emporium lodge 984, I. O. O. F. (which lodge he rep- resented in the grand lodges of that order at Allegheny in 1890 and at Sunbury in 1892), Emporium lodge 163, A. O. U. W., and the German Harri Garfi. He is a member of the new Game and Fish committee and also of the committees of Con- tennial Affairs, Geological Survey and Bureau of Statistics, and introduced a bill to repeal the special act in Cameron county relative to the collection of taxes, re- quiring the collector to add ten per cent. for collection if taxes are not paid within thirty days from the date the duplicates are placed into his hands, and a bill to provide for the election of county school superintendents by popular vote. .
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House of Representatives.
W ILLIAM F. BIERY, of Carbon county, is a native of Lehigh county, having been born at Catasau- qua, May 15, 1863. When five years of age he removed with his father, who had some lumbering interests in Carbon county, to a place called Hickory Run, in that county, and in 1876 he moved to Weissport, Carbon county, where he has resided ever since. Until he was six- teen years old he attended the public schools, and after he had given up his studies he worked in planing mills and in furniture factories. At his majority he entered the drug business, in which he is still now engaged. He was school director in his town for six years, and has at all times taken great interest in the development of the public school system. Mr. Biery is a Democrat and takes part in all the campaigns of his party. He has never aspired to any prominent political office, but, responding to the demands of his constituency in Carbon county, he submitted to the nomina- tion as the representative from his county to the House, and was elected in the fall of 1892 to serve during the sessions of 1893 and 1894. At the session of 1893 Mr. Biery carefully watched the vast interests of the Carbon county industries. He was assigned to the following House committees : Mines and Mining, Manu- factures and Legislative Apportionment.
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