USA > Pennsylvania > Portraits of the heads of state departments and portraits and sketches of members of the legislature of Pennsylvania, 1893-1894 > Part 20
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In 1889 MIr. Seely resigned as president of the school board to take his seat as Representative. He was elected by a very large majority and served in the sessions of 1890-91 so acceptably that he was re-nominated and elected for anothor term. Mr. Seely was converted when sixteen years old and joined the Methodist church. At the age of twenty-two he was appointed steward, and has held either that office or that of trustee ever since, and has always given liberally of his means to its support.
216
House of Representatives.
GEORGE GLENN. WOOD, M. D., was D born near Muncy, Pa., March 19, 1848. He was reared on his father's farm. His ancestry has many historical asso- ciations. Captain John Wood accompan- ied King William to Ireland, and fought under him at the battle of Boyne in 1690, and was rewarded for gallantry by a grant of land in county Caven. He married Isabella Bruce, a Scotch lady, and had two sons -- George, whose descendents now reside in county Dub- lin, Ireland, and James, who came to America with 'his wife, Jane, in 1730, and was among the first settlers in Cum- berland county, Pa. They settled near Mechanicsburg, where he died in 1750. His tombstone, ¿a brown sandstone, is among the oldest in the Silver Spring Meeting House graveyard. His eldest son, George, married a McMeans and removed to the banks of the Juniata river in Juniata county, and died there in 1808, an old man. His son, William, married Grizzy Dunlap, only daughter of Jolın Dunlap, a revolutionary soldier, who was mortally wounded December 4, 1779, at battle of Chestnut Hill. Her mother belonged to the celebrated Orr family, county Antrim, Ireland ; one of whom, William Orr, was the first martyr and victim of English tyranny in the Irish rebellion of 1798, and the account of whose fate is preserved in Irish song and history of that period. Another, John Orr and his nephew, William Orr, condemned to transportation for high treason in the same cause, the former dying on board ship whilst chained to the nephew. The latter, released in 1804, was shipwrecked while on his way to what he de- scribed as " the land of freedom," America, and was never heard from afterwards. The sufferings of this noted family in behalf of Irish freedom are set forth in their letters carefully preserved. William Wood removed his little family to Muncy, Pa., in 1814, where he soon died. Thomas Wood, his eldest son, grew to man- hood and obtained his education under peculiar difficulties. He was noted all his life for great mental powers and excellent citizenship. He married Margaret Beeber, daughter of Colonel Jacob Beeber. He held several county offices and was elected from Lycoming county to the legislative session of 1855. George G. Wood, his son, studied medicine and graduated from Jefferson Medical College March 13, 1872. He has continued to practice at Muncy for the past twenty years. In 1888 he was first elected to the Legislature from Lycoming county, having the largest majority of any man on that ticket. In 1892 he was re-elected by 1,600 majority, double that which he received the first time. He has paid especial at- tention to fire insurance legislature, because of the abuses so prevalent in settling losses after fires by the adjuster, and has sought to place our state in line with the insurance laws of neighboring states. A great lover of books, he has helped to place our state library in its present position, which is now the best state library in the Union. Fond of travel, there are few states in which he has not set foot.
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217
House of Representatives.
W TILLIAM E. BURDICK was born at Alfred, N. Y., September 6, 1856, at which place his father was en- gaged in mercantile business. He came of old New England stock, dating back to about the time of the landing of the Mayflower, his father emigrating from Rhode Island to New York in early life. Mr. Burdick was educated in the common schools and Alfred University, graduating from the latter in 1876. He studied law in New York and Pennsyl- vania and was admitted to the bar at Smethport, Mckean county, Pa., in 1879 and has'since maintained a law office at Bradford, in the same county. He was chairman of the Mckean County Republican Committee in 1886 and 1887 and a delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1888 and was first elected a member of the Legislature in that year. He was re-elected by a complimentary majority in 1890 and again in 1892. In the session of 1891 he introduced and had charge of the famous Burdick bill regulating oil pipe lines, limiting the powers of such carrying companies and fix- ing maximum charges for their services. In the session of 1893 he introduced several important measures and was appointed chairman of the Committee on Cor- porations. He was also an active member of the General Judiciary and Appropri- ations Committees, being assigned the chairmanship of one of the most important sub-committee of the last named general committee. He was also a member of the Committees on Ways and Means and Federal Relations. Mr. Bnrdick is a ready debater and has taken an active part on the floor of the House in discussing legal and economic questions which have been made subjects for legislation. He has been a popular and influential member throngh three sessions, being known as a conscientious and energetic worker. In addition to his law business he has important business interests at home and is thoroughly identified with the pros- perous progress of his county.
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House of Representatives.
TJERMAN H. NORTH is one of the well-known attorneys of Mc- Kean county, who has gained for himself an enviable reputation. He was born in Patterson, Juniata county, Pa., 1852, and is the son of Hon. James North, who continues to reside in Juni- ata county. The subject of this sketch was given a liberal education, having successfully attended Airy View Acad- emy, at Port Royal, Pa., and Chambers- burg Academy, at Chambersburg, Pa., from which latter institution he entered the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, graduating in 1873. Subsequently he entered the Albany Law School, Albany, New York, and after a full course, gradu- ated in 1875.
In 1875 Mr. North located at Indian- LEVY TYPE CO. PHILA apolis, Ind., entering the office of Mc- Donald & Butler, one of 'the foremost law firms of that state, the senior member of the firm, Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, being at the time United States Senator. Owing to the climate, Mr. North was unable to remain in Indianapolis, and returned the following year to Pennsyl- vania. For a number of years his health was so poor that he was incapacitated for office business, and in 1880 removed to Bradford, Mckean county, where he became extensively engaged in the oil industry, and in the course of three or four years regained his health and commenced the practice of his profession. He has been identified with many of the most prominent litigations in the county and enjoys the confidence of all who know him.
Mr. North has always taken considerable interest in politics, having served as committeeman in his native county of Juniata; also as a member of the Republi- can State committee in 1878, and for a number of years as a member and secretary of the City Republican committee of Bradford. He was elected chairman of the Republican county committee of Mckean connty in 1890 and 1891, and managed the campaigns of those years in a highly satisfactory manner. At the meeting of the Republican county convention of Mckean county in July, 1892, Mr. North was unanimously chosen one of the candidates of his party for member of Assen- bly and was elected the following November by a handsome majority. In 1891 Mr. North was elected city solicitor of the city of Bradford, and served as such until January, 1893, when he resigned to assume the office of Representative in the State Legislature.
During the session of the Legislature of 1893 Mr. North took an active and prominent part in the most interesting discussions before the House. He is a man of positive convictions, and, although having expressed himself to a degree of de- fiance, he neither merited nor received the ill-will of any one of his fellow mem- bers, but on the contrary won for himself their friendship and esteem.
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House of Representatives.
W ILLIAM H. MILLER, one of the three members who represent Mercer county in the House, was born October 29, 1846, near Newburg, Orange county, New York, on a farm along the Hudson river. In 1856 he made his home in Honesdale, Wayne county, Pa., and remained there until 1869, when he removed to Sharon, Mercer county. After passing a short time at Youngs- town, Ohio, he located at Greenville, his present home. In 1872, after re- turning to Mercer county, he married the oldest daughter of William Laird, the founder of the opera house at Green- ville. Mr. Miller's father was a de- scendant of the Huguenots, and settled in Connecticut, and his grandfather fought in the revolutionary war. His LEYVTVPĚ TO AHILA mother, whose maiden name was Alice McCormick, was born in Ireland. Mr. Miller was educated in common and private schools and taught one term at Cas- tor school house in Crawford county. He is a horse shoer by trade and earries on the business at his home. He does only light shoeing, for which he has a reputation excelled by none. He is prominently connected with workingmen's organizations. The esteem in which he is held by labor associations materially contributed to the large majority by which he was elected a member of the House, having received the next highest vote on the Republican ticket and having run ahead of President Harrison. In the town of Greenville, his home, he was given the largest vote ever polled for a candidate for office. He has been a devoted sup- porter of the principles of the Republican party and has defended it on the plat- form, and in the press and in debates, and has gained considerable prominence as a debater on the tariff question. He is a firm believer in high protection, in ex- cluding all foreign productions the like of which can be produced in this country, and admitting free only those which we can not produce. He has figured con- spicuously in the loeal polities of his county. Mr. Miller has been a regular at- tendant on the sessions of the House and has made a useful and popular member of it. He served on the Committees of Labor and Industry, Elections, Constitu- tional Reform, Accounts and Library, and was a member of the sub-committee which inquired into the contested election case originated by Mr. Okell, of Scran- ton, to oust Representative Quinnan.
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House of Representatives.
W TILLIAM F. REED, one of the Rep- resentatives from Mercer county, was born in Coolspring township, in that county, October 10, 1849. He re- ceived a common school education in the public schools of that county. He also attended the academy at New Leb- anon, Pa. He is engaged in farming and dealing in stock and has been very successful in both. As a Republican he has always been a faithful and tireless worker for the cause of the party. He was a delegate to the State Republican Convention which met in Harrisburg in 1885. He has frequently been a dele- gate to county Republican conventions.
Mr. Reed was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1892 and is serving his first term. He is a member of the Committees on Ways and Means, Insurance, Banks, Centennial Affairs and Agriculture. He takes a keen interest in the affairs of the House and is rarely out of his seat. He is a good talker and never fails to cast his vote for the bills in which his constituents are directly interested. Mr. Reed occupies a seat on the minority side of the hall of the House by the side of his colleague. He was mar- ried in 1871 and has five children.
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House of Representatives.
ISAAC H. ROBB, of Mercer county, born in Mill Creek, Mercer county, Pa., and was educated in the publie schools and at the New Lebanon Academy, which institution he attended for four years. He taught school with much snecess for several years and then began the study of the law with Grif- fith & Mason. He was admitted to the bar of Mercer county on October 23, 1873, and has since been engaged in the practice of his profession at Sandy Lake, Pa. He has been twice elected burgess of Sandy Lake and has served two terms as school director and two terms as councilman.
Mr. Robb takes an active interest in politics and in recognition of his party service he was nominated by the Repub- licans of his county in 1892 for the Leg- islature and elected by a large ma- jority. He is a member of the Committees on Judiciary Local, Counties and Townships, Iron and Coal and Congressional Apportionment. Among the most important bills introduced by Mr. Robb was one which empowers courts of com- mon pleas to decree a private sale in the case of an assignment for the benefit of creditors. The bill has already passed in the House and has gone to the Senate for concurrence. Mr. Robb is married and has three children. He has served re- peatediy as a delegate to county Republican conventions.
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House of Representatives.
JOSEPH H. MCCLINTIC, of Mifflin county, was born in Union township, : that county, on June 23, 1846. His father, of Irish extraction, was a farmer and a native of this state. The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of his native township but be- fore his studies had been completed in December, 1862, when only sixteen years of age, enlisted as private in the army and served nine months in the Nineteenth regular infantry, company B, when he was promoted to a lieutenancy and detached from his command, in which he was at the time serving, and transferred to a camp of instruction be- low Washington, D. C., for the purpose of giving instructions to and drilling the colored troops assigned to him for the Union armies. He remained at this place only four months, when he re- signed his position as instructor, for the purpose of entering the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania volunteer infantry service, in which command he was assigned to company A, and with his regiment participated in the battles of Monocacy Junc- tion, Berrysville and Cedar Creek. In the latter engagement he was so seriously wounded, October 19, 1864, that he lost his right leg, which was amputated at the hip-joint. The operation was performed on the field and three days and three nights elapsed before he was removed to the hospital for treatment. After his re- covery he was placed in command of an invalid corps and served in it until his discharge by reason of the close of the war. After his discharge from the army he attended school for several terms at Baltimore, Md., and Reading, Pa., and subse- quently engaged in the calling of school teacher. He also followed the occupation of a farmer. Mr. McClintic is a Republican in politics and has filled various town- ship offices in Mifflin connty. He takes an active part in the political contests of his party and has twice been returned to the House, serving in that capacity in the sessions of 1891 and 1893. At the latter session he was chairman of the Pen- sions and Gratuities committee and a member of Appropriations, Counties and Townships and Compare Bills committees. When not engaged with his legislative duties he follows the occupation of a farmer. A fact worthy of note is that Mr. McClintic's paternal and maternal great-grandfathers served in the armies of the Colonies during the revolutionary war on the American side. J
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House of Representatives.
RICHARD F. SCHWARZ, represent- ing the county of Monroe, was born near Berlin, Germany, October 31. 1853. His father, Frederick Schwarz, who, after a limited education, started in life as a commercial traveler had, before his marriage, founded a wall- paper factory and became one the largest manufacturers in his line in Germany. The government, recognizing his ability in commercial pursuits, created him in 1872 a "counselor of commerce," a position of high honor in that land. Representative Schwarz received a thor- ough education in the Ducal primary and high schools at Dessau Germany, and was fitted for commercial life in the Ducal College,'located at the same place. His father, thoroughly believing in the educational effect of travel, yearly took his son on trips to various parts of Europe. While the eldest son entered and finally took entire charge of the great business built up by the father, the younger son, Richard F. Schwarz, came to New York early in 1871, traveled commercially over the greater part of the States. Tiring of this, became book-keeper of a great Chicago firm, but was finally forced by ill health to give up city and traveling life. It was then, in 1875, that he settled in Monroe county, and on a modest scale started market gardening and fruit growing, a business which he has since successfully developed. Since his natura- lization he has been active in politics as an ardent Democrat, represented his township in the county committee for a number of years, and his county on the State Central Committee for three years, and as a delegate in several of the state conventions. He was a member of the State Committee under Mr. Hensel which conducted the first election of Governor Pattison. He has successively held the office of school director, auditor and justice of the peace, the 'latter of which he hield at the time of his election to the Legislature. After a hard-fought battle for the nomination he was elected to the House by a majority of 1,702, his Republi- can opponent being one of the most popular young lawyers of the county. Mr. Schwarz was appointed on the Committees on Geological Survey, Pension and Gratuities, Fish and Game and Counties and Townships. In the latter commit- tee he took so prominent a part in the discussion of new road legislation that he was appointed by the chairman of the agricultural delegation one of six House members on a joint committee of House and Senate to formulate a general road law.
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House of Representatives.
FRANKLIN A. COMLY was a son of the late Samuel Willett Comly and nephew and namesake of the late Franklin A. Comly, president of the North Pennsylvania railroad from 1857 until his death, in 1887. His father was in the milling business at the old Spruce mill, on the Wissahickon creek, below Thorp's lane, Chestnut Hill. In 1850 he moved to the mill in White Marsh, where Franklin A. Comly was born February 17, 1856. He acquired his schooling in the district until he went to Swarthmore College, Delaware county, in 1872. After serving two terms he entered the Friends' Central school, Fifteenth and Race streets, and then took a business course at Bryant & Staf- fon's, Tenth and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia. after which he became connected with the Bound Brook rail- road in the freight depot, when the road opened in 1876, at Second and Berks streets. In 1878 he received the contract to deliver all the New York freight of the Bound Brooke railroad in Philadelphia. After two years he connected himself with the Produce Commission business on South Water street, Philadelphia. In May, 1884, his father died, and he took charge of the farm until, in 1890, the Pennsylvania railroad bought the farm, as the New Trenton Cut-off railroad runs through it. Mr. Comly was born in White Marsh township, and lived in the same district when elected to the Legislature in November, 1892. Montgomery county was exceptionally close, three candidates being elected by less than ten votes, one of them (the sheriff) only having one majority in a vote of over 28,000. Mr. Comly took great interest in the Norristown Insane Asylum appropriation and the Boyer bill relating to fraternal societies. He is a Republican and does not take much stock in reformers or independents.
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225
House of Representatives.
JOHN BEANS GOENTNER was born
J' in Lancaster county June 27, 1847, his parents soon after returning to the old homestead farm near Hatboro, Mont- gomery county, where his ancestors have lived over one hundred years and where his mother still resides. He was brought upon the farm, educated at the public schools and in old Loller Acad- emy. From the age of fifteen to twell- ty-two lie worked on his father's farm. He then taught school successfully in Chettenham, Horsham and White Marsh townships for several years. He has always been actively interested in the advancement of literature. While teach- ing he organized a successful lyceum in each of the schools. In 1878 he mar- ried, purchased and moved to " Willow- brook," a farm in Abington township, where he still resides. He has always taken an active part in politics, being a delegate to a county convention before he cast his first vote. He was delegate to the State Republican League at Scranton in 1891 and alternate from the Seventh congressional district to the National Re- publican League Convention at Buffalo, N. Y., in September, 1892. He was school director and justice of the peace a number of years, which latter position he resigned on his election to the Legislature. He was candidate for Legislature in 1890, receiving 227 of the 241 votes in the nominating convention, and althoughi over one thousand votes allead of liis party candidate for Governor, was defeated by eight votes, receiving 12,541 votes to 12,549 for his opponent. In 1892 he was re-nominated and elected, receiving the highest vote on the legislative ticket. He has been in his seat at every session. He is secretary of the Committee on Geo- logical Survey and an active member on the Committees on Education, Health and Sanitation and Fish and Game, and carefully watched the interests of liis constitu- ents on the Legislative and Congressional Apportionment Committees. He intro- duced a bill to form a 'new Normal school district so as to provide a school for Montgomery county at Souderton ; also a bill on road legislation ; one to increase powers of justices of the peace; one to provide for an additional officer in the Ag- ricultural Department to be known as Dairy and Food Commissioner. He is in- terested actively in the passage of the following bills : To purchase Valley Forge as a 'National park; to place control of hospitals for insane receiving State aid under control of trustees; providing female physicians for female patients; one for the aid of secret societies. While teaching he spent part of his vacation travel- ing through the western states and territories and came back and settled in Montgomery county which he says is the "garden of the world," and his own district the flower bed of the garden.
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226
House of Representatives.
B. WITMAN DAMBLY was born in the village of Skippack, Mont- gomery county, [Pa., August 26, 1864. His education was received in the pub- lic schools of that village, which he at- tended until his fourteenth year, when he entered the printing office of his father, the late A. E. Dambly, who published the German Der Neutralist, one of the oldest German weeklies in the state. In 1885 Mr. Dambly's father died, when he undertook the manage- ment of the business and assumed edi- torial control of the paper. In 1888 the estate, in the name of which the busi- ness was continued and still is, started an English weekly paper in connection with the German and named it The Montgomery Transcript. Mr. Dambly also assumed the editorial management of this paper, which, although less than five years old, is one of the most successful. weeklies in that county of many pa- pers, there being upwards of forty. Both papers have large and influential circu- lations and are stalwart Republican. Der Neutralist is the German Republican or- gan of the county.
Mr. Dambly served as secretary of the Republican county committee of Mont- gomery county from 1889 to 1892. He was a member of the Republican Executive committee for three years and its secretary in 1891. In 1889 he was elected dele- gate to the Republican state convention at Harrisburg. He has been serving as school director of his township since 1891. He is a director of the Perkiomen Val- ley Building and Loan Association of Collegeville and president of the Skippack Society for the Recovery of Stolen Horses. Since 1887 he has been superintendent of the Sunday School of his native village.
At the Republican county convention of his county in the fall of 1892 there were twelve candidates for the Assembly. Mr. Dambly was one of the five named on the first ballot for that office, his vote being third highest. At the November election he was elected by eight majority. Mr. Dambly is unmarried.
During the session of the Legislature"Mr. Dambly served on the following com- mittees: Banks, Centennial Affairs, Geological Survey, Printing, Public Health and Sanitation. His part in legislation consisted in the introduction of the follow- ing bills: "To amend section sixth of the act extending the power of the several conrts of the commonwealth to appoint election officers in certain cases;" "to provide for the discharge from any hospital for the insane of insane persons charged with and acquitted of crime;" "to continue the state weather service in this com- monwealth for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of the United States signal service and making an appropriation of $8,000." Mr. Dambly is in possession of his family history, which dates from the year 1112. The first known member of the family was Gibon of Ambly, who was a resident of the province of Champagne, where he owned large estates. Representative Dambly is the third youngest mem- ber of the House.
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