USA > Pennsylvania > Portraits of the heads of state departments and portraits and sketches of members of the legislature of Pennsylvania, 1893-1894 > Part 17
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181
House of Representatives.
M. A. FOLTZ is of German ancestry and is a native of Franklin county, where he was born July 2, 1837. His education was obtained in the common schools of the county, and select and academic schools of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he spent three years. Upon his return home and another year spent on the farm, he learned the printing trade in the Chambersburg Transcript and Re- pository offices, becoming the foreman of the latter. In 1859 he purchased a half interest in The Times with P. Dock Frey. In 1860 he accepted the superin- tendency of the Reformed Church Pub- lication House, a position he held until 1864, when on the burning of Cham- bersburg the establishment was trans- ferred to Philadelphia. While em- LEVYTYPE GO PHIL ployed as such he was pressed into the service of the Confederacy for the print- ing at Lee's headquarters just before the battle of Gettysburg. A year later he was one of the citizens arrested as hostages for the money demand made upon Chambersburg prior to its burning. In May, 1866, he started a job printing office in connection therewith publishing a business sheet called The Country Merchant which prepared the way for Public Opinion, the first number of which appeared in July, 1869.
In his long journalistic career and as editor of Public Opinion for the last twenty- five years, Mr. Foltz has done much for the advancement of the business and ma- terial interests of Franklin county, taking the initiative in the local railroad en- terprises, the erection of the water works in Chambersburg, the reorganization of the Agricultural Society, the transfer to Chambersburg of the Taylor & Wolf Co., manufacturing establishments, etc. His counsel was frequently sought by the founders of the manufacturing establishments which are to-day the pride of Waynesboro' and the largest in Southern Pennsylvania. He has through his paper always been in close touch with the farmer and working man, and won many political battles for his party. Republican in politics, he has never hesitated to assert his independence when the public welfare demanded. The memorable campaign of 1882 made hin the target of violent attack, but those who were fiercest in denunciation of his course are to-day his most devoted friends and political adherents. Mr. Foltz was before the people for the first time for political preferment in the campaign of 1892 when the Republicans nominated him for the Legislature and he was elected by a large majority. He has frequently repre- sented his party in county, district and state conventions, and once as a member of the State Committee. In all these years the paper he owns and edits has held its own with the representative weeklies of Pennsylvania, and it has a constitu- ency and circulation second to none in the Cumberland Valley.
182
House of Representatives.
G EORGE W. SKINNER, of Fulton, is the son of a farmer and was born January 13, 1846, at Dry Run, Frank- lin county, Pa. He was educated in the public schools, at Dr. Shumaker's Academy and at Washington and Jeffer- son College. He has at varions times been engaged as a lawyer, farmer, editor and tanner. In 1862 Mr. Skinner ran away from college to enter the army as a private. He was promoted to a first lieutenant in 1864 and captain the fol- lowing year. In January, 1866, he was mustered out of service at Victoria, Texas. Mr. Skinner's military record is thus spoken of by his regimental commander in the following letter, which speaks for itself :
CAMP GRANT, RICHMOND, VA .. August 31, 1867.
GENERAL U. S. GRANT, Secretary of War :
GENERAL :- I have the honor to recommend Mr. G. Washington Skinner, of Pennsylvania, formerly captain in the Seventy-seventh regiment, Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, for a position as commissioned officer in the regular United States Army. Mr. Skinner enlisted in the Seventy-seventh when a student in Washington College, Pa., and was promoted to captain for his gallantry and good conduct in the field on the Atlanta Campaign, as well as for his intelligence and previous faithful service. When his regiment was mustered out of service he returned to college and completed his studies. I regard him as a young man of great promise and one that will be valuable to the service.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS E. ROSE,
Captain Elerenth U. S. Inf , Br. Lt. Col. U. S. A., formerly Colonel Seventy-seventh regiment. Pennsylvania Infantry.
It was Colonel Rose, the writer of the above, who planned and carried into suc- , cessful operation the famous Libby Prison tunnel, being the first officer to pass through it and being re-captured within sight of the Union lines. Having been elected treasurer of Franklin county in October, 1867, when less than twenty- two years old, the effort to have Mr. Skinner commissioned an officer in the regular army was abandoned. He was elected to the Legislature from Franklin county in 1869 and 1870. He served as Journal Clerk of the House of Representatives in 1875 and 1876. In 1872 he was a candidate for election-at-large on the Greely electorial ticket. Mr. Skinner moved to Fulton county in 1872. He was the editor of the Fulton Democrat from 1876 to 1880, and from 1891 to the present time. He was elected to the Legislature from that county in 1888, 1889 and 1892. In 1890, while a candidate for the Legislature, Mr. Skinner was nominated for Congress in the Eighteenth district against his wishes, but made the fight and was defeated by 609 majority in a district that gave 5,000 Republican majority the previous year. He has been a member of the Soldiers' Orphans School Com- mission since its creation by the Legislature. He has been a delegate to a number of State Democratic Conventions, and in 1891 he was permanent chair- man of the State Convention held by his party at Harrisburg. Mr. Skinner was the nominee of the Democratic Legislative Caucus for Speaker of the House at the session of 1891. Mr. Skinner is one of the most forcible and eloquent speakers on the floor of the House. He is scarcely out of his seat and is always on the alert to further such legislation as will benefit his constituents and the community at large. He is a member of the Committee on Rules, Elections, Ways and Means, Corporations, Railroads and Judiciary General.
183
House of Representatives.
NOAH M. HARTLEY, the Repre- sentative from Greene county, was born October 23, 1844, in Cumberland township, Greene county, Pa. He was educated in the common schools and at the California Normal School, and de- voted his time when not acquiring edu- cational information, in working on his father's farm. When between eighteen and nineteen years old he began teach- ing school, which avocation he pursued until two years since. During most of this period he taught in his native county, one year in West Virginia and two years in Illinois. In addition to instructing the youth for thirty years, he exhibited much interest in all mat- ters calculated to advance the cause of education. Through him a model school systeni has been established in LEVYTYPE LO PHILÁ Greene county which has wrought much good. He also started a movement in Monongahela township, in which he now resides, appropriating an acre of ground to each school house, thus affording the pupils ample means for sport and exercise. He has been school director in his township for eighteen years and was appointed postmaster at Ceylon, Greene county, by President Garfield and filled the position for ten years. He was a member of the House in 1891, and in 1892 was re-elected and received over three hundred more majority than at the previous election. He has always displayed a keen interest in legislation intended to benefit the farming population of the State and especially took an active part in the framing of a bill for the improvement of country roads. He was a member of the sub-committee of the agricultural delga- tion at the session of 1893 which evolved from the various road bills the one which bears the name of Mr. Nesbit, of Allegheny, and was also a member of the com- mittee charged with the advancement of the Niles equalization tax bill on the floor of the House. He is a member of the following committees : Agriculture, Pensions and Gratuities, Labor and Industry and Counties and Townships. He introduced a bill to provide for county uniformity in text books and another to require the State to furnish school books free to the pupils in the various districts. All legislation to promote temperance principles found in Mr. Hartley an earnest advocate.
184
House of Representatives.
P M. LYTLE was first elected to · represent Huntingdon county in the Legislature in 1888, and has been twice re-elected. He had not been a politician and had never been a candi- date for office prior to his election as a Representative. He was given, how- ever, a larger vote by the people of his - county at his three successive elections than was received by the Republican State or National ticket in the same year. Mr. Lytle was born February 6, 1840, in Franklin township, Hunting- don county. His father, Nathaniel Lytle, was the son of William Lytle, a soldier of the revolutionary war, and was for many years a prominent and influential citizen of the county. P. M. Lytle spent his early years in the public school and at the academy at Juniata county, then under the manage- ment of that well-known and excellent instructor, Professor I. H. Shumaker. At about the age of seventeen years he began school teaching, and soon afterward took up the study of the law, pursuing that study and teaching at the same time. He was admitted to the bar at Huntingdon August 11, 1862, and has since with but short intervals devoted himself to the practice. During the latter part of the war he filled an important position in the department of United States military railroads at Chattanooga, Tennessee. He has taken an active part in the pro- ceedings of the House, and his worth has been recognized by his appointment as a member of several of the most important committees. Legislation has received the attention and consideration from Mr. Lytle which its importance has de- manded. As a debater, lie has well earned the distinction he enjoys among his fellow members of the House.
185
House of Representatives.
JOHN S. BARE, of Huntingdon county, was born in Shirley township, of that county, April 3, 1847, being the oldest son of Peter M. Bare, who was for many years a manufacturer of woolens and a country merchant in Huntingdon county, Pa. His paternal ancestors came to America from Switzerland about the middle of the eighteenth century, set- tling originally in York county, Pa., Mr. Bare's father removing to Huntingdon county in 1832. His maternal ancestors came from Germany and settled at War- rior'smark, in what is now the northi- westernpartof Huntingdoncounty, before the revolutionary war-Mr. Bare's great- great-grandfather being a soldier in the wars with the Indians and French of that period. Mr. Bare attended the township schools until twelve years of age, when he entered his father's store in Mount Union. The life in a store-room being much more congenial to the lad than that of the school-room, he was permitted to spend most of his youth as a clerk. At the age of eighteen his father sent him to the Quaker City Business College at Philadelphia, where he graduated from the commercial and banking department. ' 'After that he again engaged in the general merchandise and grain business. In 1874 he married Miss Elsie J. Shaver, a descendant of one of the early settlers of the Juniata Valley. During the years of the civil war he was an ardent young supporter of the Union, and at the age of fifteen tried to enter the service in a company of volunteers of which his uncle, Frank Bare, was a lieuten- ant. His father interposed on account of his youthfulness and prevented his en- listment. He is now captain of company A, Fifth regiment, N. G. P. Mr. Bare took an active interest in politics several years before he became of age and was elected a delegate to the Republican County convention the year he became a voter. He was elected register and recorder of Huntingdon county in 1884 and re-elected in 1887, having no opposition either for nomination or election, the Democrats making no nomination. He was elected to the Legislature in 1892.
He is a member of the Committees on Education, Military, Legislative Appor- tionment, Pensions and Gratuities and Compare Bills. Among the more important bills introduced by him was one for a more equitable distribution of the State ap- propriation to the public schools. He has strongly advocated better common school facilities, better public roads, re-adjustment of taxation, protection of game and a bill for the partial re-imbursement to counties of the cost of replacing bridges swept away by the great floods of 1889.
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186
House of Representatives.
N SEANOR, of Indiana, was born in 1844, in Westmoreland county, where his parents then resided on a farm. His father died leaving him, at the age of seven years, to fight the bat- tle of life alone. With only the assist- ance of a widowed mother, Mr. Seanor worked principally on the farm and attended the public schools of his town- ship and county until the war broke out. He then enlisted in' the Four- teenth Pennsylvania cavalry. His com- pany withdrew shortly after his enlist- ment and was organized with the Eighteenth Pennsylvania cavalry. He was taken prisoner near the Chantilla battlefield by the First Virginia cavalry, commanded by Captain Mosby. The opportunity was given him to take his parole or go to Libby prison. He ac- cepted the former, and, in the summer of 1863, was discharged and moved to Indiana county in 1864, and the following winter he re-enlisted and joined the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania volunteers and served with his regiment to the close of the war. Mr. Seanor then resumed farm- ing and stock raising and also shipping all kinds of live stock, in which he is still engaged. He has always taken an active interest in all matters pertaining to farming and is one of the best informed men in the State on agricultural subjects. He has served a term as one of the managers of the Indiana and Dayton Agricultural Societies and has also been president of the latter organization. He was unani- monsly chosen by the Dayton Agricultural Society to represent Armstrong county on the State Board in the year 1890. In 1892 he was elected as a member of the State Board of Agriculture from Indiana county. In the same year he was chosen as one of the vice-presidents and also re-elected again in 1893. Mr. Seanor was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1890 and re-elected in 1892. During his first term he served on the Committees on Agriculture, Railroads, Cor- porations, Bureau of Statistics and Constitutional Reform. At the organization of the session of 1893 Mr. Seanor was appointed chairman of the Committee on Geo- ological Survey and selected to serve on the Committees on Agriculture, Health and Sanitation, Vice and Immorality, Military, Game and Fish. Mr. Seanor is an earnest champion of the cause of the farmer whose wants he thoroughly under- stands. He is an active and energetic member of the Legislature, always in his seat and ever ready to serve and advocate such bills as are for the public good. In the session of 1891 he made a hard, but ineffective fight for the passage of an anti- discrimination bill. He was one of the most fearless exponents of the hill to ahol- ish the sale and gift of liquor on Decoration Day, which was defeated on second reading. Mr. Seanor is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
187
House of Representatives.
W TILLIAM HOSACK, one of the rep- resentatives from Indiana county, was born at Black Lick, in the same county, February 10, 1843. He received a common school education, after which, when only eighteen years old, he en- tered the Union army and fought in the hardest battles of the war. His regi- ment was attached to the Army of the Potomac and served over three years with it, when on May 30, 1864, he was taken prisoner. Nine months afterward he returned to his home. In order to pick up what he lost in education by becoming a soldier, he attended Glenade Run Academy in Armstrong county for three years. During the war he was a member of Eleventh regiment, Penn- sylvania reserves, company I. This or- .LEVYYYET SH PHIL A ganization was first commanded by Colonel Gallagher, of Alexander, West- moreland county, but he having been wounded in battle, resigned his position and was succeeded by S. M. Jackson. Mr. Hosack participated in the seven days' fight before Richmond, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Ann and Bethesda Church, near Richmond, where he was captured by the Rebels on the evening of the regiment's last day's service. He was taken to Libby prison, but soon afterward was transferred to Andersonville, where he endured the horrors incident to incarceration in that den for nine months. Under a general exchange of prisoners he was liberated and was permitted to make his home again among his friends in Indiana county. He subsequently taught school, read medicine and graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in March, 1874. Since that time he has been practicing medicine in West Lebanon and Indiana. He served nine years as a member of the United States Pension Examining Board, resigning January 1, 1893, because of his election as a member of the House. He never filled any office outside of his present position, except minor ones at his home. He was a useful and influen- tial member of the Committees on Corporations, Public Health and Sanitation, Insurance, Education and Iron and Coal, and also in the House.
188
House of Representatives.
W ILLIAM ORLANDO SMITH, of Jefferson county, was born at Reynoldsville, Jefferson county, Pa., June 13, 1859. His father was a civil engineer. The public schools of Jeffer- son county gave young Smith his edu- cation and after graduating he learned the art of printing and has pursued his trade continuously ever since. For a short time he published the Reynolds Herald, a Republican paper in Jefferson county. He then accepted a position in the Government printing office at Wash- ington and remained there six years. While in Washington he was one of a company of ten printers, connected with the office of public printing, to estab- lish a paper called the Washington Craftsman which was published in the interests of and as the official organ of the International Typographical Union and devoted to the interests of the prin- ters connected with the Typographical Union. Mr. Smith was the first assistant editor of this paper. After the election of President Cleveland in 1884 he re- turned to his native county and connected himself with the Punxsutawney Tribune and the Punxsutawney Spirit, which papers he successfully edited. He was elected to the House in 1889 to fill the unexpired term of Hon. Francis Weaver, who re- signed his seat as the Representative from Jefferson county. In 1890 he was re- elected. After the close of the session of 1891, and during the summer immed- iately following, he was connected with and edited the Bradford Era, Mckean county. In January of the following year, 1892, Mr. Smith purchased a one-half in- terest in the Punxsutawney Spirit, an independent newspaper, and he is at the present time connected with and editor of that paper. In 1892 Mr. Smith was re- elected to the House of Representatives. He has always taken a prominent part in the political affairs of his own party and in the Legislature is exceedingly popular. Mr. Smith is not a debator but carefully guards the interests of his own constituents. He is a member of the following House committees : Printing (chairman), Appropriations, Judicial Apportionment, Mines and Mining and Pen- sions and Gratuities.
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189
House of Representatives.
H. LATIMER WILSON was born in McAllisterville, Juniata county, Pa., October 20, 1831. His parents were of Scotch-Irish extraction and resided in this country for many years. Mr. Wil- son received his education in the pub- lic schools of his native county and after graduating he engaged in the merchan- dizing business and has followed it for the greater portion of his life. For the past few years he has been living on a farm and followed the life of a farmer. He resides on and owns a beautiful farm containing about two hundred and fifty acres of well-tilled and productive land, adjoining a small town called Van Wert, in Juniata county, and within six miles of Mifflintown. During the war of the rebellion he furnished horses for the TYPE CO PH United States Army. Mr. Wilson is an active Republican. He served on the following committees at the session of 1893 : Compare Bills, Congressional Appor- tionment, Constitutional Reform, Iron and Coal and Bureau of Statistics.
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190
House of Representatives.
JOHN R. FARR, of the First district,
Lackawanna, was born in Hyde Park, Scranton, July 18, 1857. After receiving an ordinary public school education he learned type-setting. On the completion of his apprenticeship he prepared himself in classical course for college and entered Lafayette, but did not complete the course. He was after- ward city editor of the Scranton Re- publican and is now editor and proprietor of the Courier-Progress, Scranton. He served four years as a member of the board of control of that city, of which he was assistant secretary part of two years and secretary one year.
Mr. Farr has given particular at- tention to educational matters, and in the session of 1891 he introduced and LEVYTYPECAPEL championed a bill providing for the at- tendance of children between the ages of eight and twelve years at some school for at least sixteen weeks a year. The bill passed both branches of the Legislature, and was the first to pass in the State, but to the great disappointment of the friends of education it was vetoed by Gov- ernor Pattison. In the session of 1893 Mr. Farr introduced a free text book bill providing for furnishing, free of cost, to pupils of public schools books and other necessary school supplies, which is the first bill of the kind to pass the Pennsylva- nia Legislature, though various efforts in the past have been made to accomplish the purpose, also a bill appropriating a large sum to aid the school districts in the purchase of books. He also re-introduced a compulsory education measure, which is practically the same as that vetoed by the Governor ; this passed the House and Senate. Mr. Farr is chairman of the Committee on Education, a position he has filled with much credit and marked ability.
Mr. Farr was a member of the session of 1891 and was re-elected in 1892 under peculiar and most disadvantageous circumstances. Sectional troubles resulted in the Republicans of his district having two nominees, though it was generally con- ceded that Mr. Farr's claim to nomination were indisputable. Secretary of the Commonwealth Harrity, who had final disposition of the matter, within ten days of election, refused to certify either Mr. Farr's nomination or that of his rival on the official ballot. The only candidate for representative on the ballot was the Democratic nominee. Mr. Farr decided to make the fight by the use of stickers and was elected by 627 majority, a great and wonderful victory, notwithstanding that fully 500 votes for him were thrown out on account of misplaced stickers in a dis- trict whose Republican majority was between 350 and 400. Mr. Farr's educational bills have given him a state reputation. Few measures before the Legislature have awakened a greater interest in the State than those championed by Mr. Farr. He has also introduced a mechanics' lien bill which has been indorsed by the la- bor unions of the State. He is one of the most active and intelligent members of the House and has a promising future.
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191
House of Representatives.
JOHN P. QUINNAN is serving his first term in the House, representing the Second district of Lackawanna county. He was born April 18, 1859, in the Twelfth ward of the city of Scranton and was educated in the public schools of that city, graduating from the high school in 1877, being the valedictorian of his class. He has been engaged in teaching school in Scranton for a number of years and enjoys the credit of being one of the best and most successful pedagogues in that section of the state. During the administration of Mayor Beamish Mr. Quinnan was a member of the Scranton Board of Health. For a number of years lie has been a member of the Permanent Certificate Committee of Lackawanna county. He is also a member of the commission for the ex- amination of candidates for West Point. In 1889 he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Scranton, and, although defeated, made a very creditable showing.
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