USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume I > Part 20
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filled, but after the first battle of Bull Run President Lincoln issued a call for additional troops, and Mr. Hancock again entered the service of the country as First Lieutenant of Company H, Ninth Pennsylvania (Lochiel) Volunteer Cavalry. For nearly four years, and until the war was thoroughly over, he remained in the army, doing valiant service and rising to the rank of Major. He was many times commended by his superior officers both for personal gallantry and for able and efficient discharge of duties, being several times mentioned and commended in the dispatches to the War Department. During his army service Major Hancock par- ticipated in fifty battles and upwards, principally while with the Department of the Cumberland, serving on the staffs of Generals R. B. Mitchell and E. M. McCook. He took an active part in opera- tions against Morgan's forces in his several raids; in the battle of Perryville, and in the battle of Chickamauga. He was with the Federal army in their victorious march to the sea, and was wounded while in command of the Third Battalion at Averysborough, North Carolina, March 16, 1865, the wound resulting in the amputation of his left leg. He was mustered out at the close of the war, in July, 1865, with a record equalled by few of the nation's heroes. After the restoration of peace, Major Hancock returned to his home in the Wyoming Valley, where he spent a year recovering from the effects of his wound.
His disabled condition having induced him to seek a mercan- tile occupation, he opened a mining supply store at Plains, Penn- sylvania, in 1866. For nine years he continued in this business, removing to Wilkes-Barre in 1875, and forming a partnership with his brother, a resident of Peoria, Illinois. Together they entered the grain shipping trade in a modest, unassuming way. In 1878 the firm of Hancock & Company was merged into that of Han- cock, Grier & Company. In 1884 it was again established as Hancock & Company, with only the original partners, J. and E. A. Hancock. By pursuing strictly legitimate business methods and refraining from all hazardous speculations, slowly and step by step this firm, having first laid a broad and substantial foundation, has raised up a mercantile and exporting house second to no grain
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shipping firm in the United States. Straightforwardness in every transaction, promptness in all engagements and instant payment of all just demands are the principles which have always governed its numerous transactions and won for it high place in commer- cial circles.
Major Hancock had been in Philadelphia but four years when he was unanimously elected to the Presidency of the Commercial Exchange. Governor Hoyt, on assuming the Gubernatorial office, appointed Major Hancock as Quartermaster-General of the State of Pennsylvania with the rank of Colonel, a position in which he served during the Governor's term. While a resident of Wilkes- Barre, Colonel Hancock assisted in the organization of the People's Bank, was a Director of the institution and held the place until he left the city. He was one of the founders and is now a Director of the Fourth Street National Bank of Philadelphia. He was also a Director in the Merchants' Beneficial Association, but voluntarily resigned in order to devote his attention to other busi- ness. For several years he was a Director of the Pennsylvania and New York Canal and Railroad Company, a part of the Lehigh Valley system. Governor Hastings appointed Colonel Hancock as the representative of Pennsylvania on the staff of Major-General Dodge at the inauguration of President Mckinley.
Major Hancock's engaging personality and his high standing in social and mercantile circles have won for him many friends. He filled the office of Director and Vice-President of the Union League of Philadelphia, of which organization he is still a mem- ber, as he is also of the Loyal Legion, the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Rittenhouse and Country clubs. During the summer of 1897 Major Hancock took a much needed rest, recruiting his health and finding delightful recreation in a European trip of several months' duration.
JAMES D. HANCOCK.
ARIED interests have demanded the attention of James Denton Hancock during his busy career, but uniform success and the respect of the people of the Commonwealth have been his just rewards. The sixty years of his life have been very event- ful, filled with accomplishment, until to-day he is universally acknowledged to be an eminent exemplar of one of the strongest and best types of the American citizen. The arena of his services and triumphs has been wide, and he has won recognition as a college professor, a member of the Bar, a public official, an author, a leader in the railway world, and a developer of the vast natural resources of the State. Although a strong supporter of the poli- cies of the Democratic party, he has never failed to assert his independence of thought and action when he deemed that his duty demanded it.
JAMES DENTON HANCOCK was born on the 9th day of June, 1837, in the beautiful Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County, Penn- sylvania. He is the son of James Hancock and Mary Perkins. His grandfather on his father's side was Jonathan Hancock, a prominent resident of Wilkes-Barre and well known in financial circles as a Director in the Branch National Bank of Wilkes- Barre. John Perkins, the maternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the original settlers of the valley, and was one of the victims slain during the historic massacre at Wyoming in 1778. James Denton Hancock was brought up on a farm and, when he was sixteen years of age, the family moved to Wilkes-Barre. His early education was acquired in the common schools of the neighborhood, being rounded out by a short course
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at Wyoming Institute and Wyoming Seminary. Even thus early he gave bright promise of an eminent future. Such notable prog- ress did he make with his studies and such interest did he dis- play in the acquisition of knowledge that he was entered as a student at Kenyon College, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated in 1859. For the two years and a half succeeding, Mr. Hancock was a tutor and Professor of Mathematics in the Western University of Pennsylvania but, not desiring to make pedagogy his profession in life, during the years of his professorship he utilized his spare moments in the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar in Pittsburg in 1861, and there continued in the practice of his profession until January, 1865, at which time he removed to Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania, with the progress and prosperity of which thriving community he has since been actively identified. Indeed, many of the enterprises of the city owe to his knowledge and foresight much of their success. Mr. Hancock was nominated by the Democratic Party for Congress in the Twenty- seventh District of Pennsylvania in 1892, and also had the honor of being the nominee of his party in the State for Congressman- at-Large in the spring of 1894. In 1871 Governor Hoyt appointed Mr. Hancock to the position of Trustee of the Insane Hospital at Warren. In this capacity he served for thirteen years and until Governor Hastings appointed his successor. In 1896 Mr. Han- cock was nominated by the Democratic party in Pennsylvania for Elector-at-Large on the Presidential ticket but, as he could not subscribe to some of the planks in the Chicago platform, he dis- played that independence of character which has ever been among his most marked traits, and declined the honor. He thereupon allied himself with the National Democratic party and was elected a delegate to the Indianapolis Convention which nominated Palmer and Buckner.
In 1877 Mr. Hancock became the Solicitor of the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, which he served with singular zeal and fidelity, resigning the post, however, in 1888. He was appointed Solicitor of the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad Com- pany in 1878. In 1887 the post of General Solicitor of the road
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came to him as a fitting recognition of his services in a legal capacity. This post, however, was resigned in December, 1890.
Mr. Hancock was adopted by the Seneca Nation of Indians of the New York and Pennsylvania reservations on the Allegheny River in 1879, under the name of "Nya Gua Hai," or "Grizzly Bear."
Mr. Hancock finds his principal interests in the coal and oil industries, devoting, however, considerable attention to railroad affairs and to those of various other corporations. He has written much upon economic subjects, for which he holds the medal and honorary membership in the famous Cobden Club. The Reform Club of New York and the Civil Service Reform Association of Pennsylvania, in both of which organizations he is a prominent member, also have the benefit of his research and talents as applied to political and social economics. Mr. Hancock's distin- guished ancestry through his mother's family has made him eligible to membership in the Society of the Sons of the American Rev- olution of Pennsylvania, with which he is also actively identified. While many public positions have come to him, he has aspired to no office and sought no recognition for his services. All the nominations for public positions which have come to Mr. Han- cock have been forced upon him against his wish; yet he did not deem it consistent with his duties as a citizen to finally and irrevocably refuse, especially as he had always taken an active part in advocating such economic and social measures as com- mended themselves to him, and in discussing the issues in elec- tion contests wherein they were involved.
Mr. Hancock's first wife was Miss Ella C. Hitchcock, of Pitts- burg, to whom he was married in September, 1865. His second marriage was to Miss Mary Kate Hitchcock, the sister of his first wife. They were married in 1873. Mr. Hancock has one son and two daughters, Lawrence P., Ella C. and Mary E. Hancock.
WILLIAM B. HANNA.
EW members of the judiciary in the country are more worthy of the high office which they hold than William Brantly Hanna, President Judge of the Orphans' Court of Philadelphia. Judge Hanna has been on the Bench in his present capacity since the new Constitution of 1874, providing for the establish- ment of an Orphans' Court of Common Pleas, and has had a long and splendid service.
WILLIAM BRANTLY HANNA was born in Philadelphia, Novem- ber 23, 1835. He is the eldest son of John Hanna, now deceased, and who was a distinguished practitioner of the Philadelphia Bar for over forty years, and a nephew of the late James Hanna, also a prominent member of the Bar of Philadelphia, and who subse- quently became a leader of the Bar in California. Judge Hanna comes from old Scotch-Irish stock, his grandparents having settled in this city in their early life, at the close of the Revolutionary War. On his maternal side, he is descended from the Cook family, who were among the earliest settlers in east Jersey, his mother being a daughter of the Rev. Joseph Stephens, Pastor of the Upper Freehold Baptist Church, Monmouth County, New Jer- sey, from 1789 to 1793. His education was received in public.and private schools in Philadelphia, and, in July, 1853, he was grad- uated from the Central High School of Philadelphia, and later from the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied under such distinguished jurists as the late Chief Justice Sharswood, Peter McCall, E. Spencer Miller and P. Pem- berton Morris. He began the study of the law in the office of his father, and was admitted to the Bar on October 14, 1857.
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Judge Hanna at once began to take an active part in the political and public affairs of his native city. Shortly after his admission to the Bar, he became one of the Assistants of the then District Attorney, Col. William B. Mann, who for many years ably prosecuted the pleas of the Commonwealth, and who subse- quently was appointed Prothonotary of its Courts of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County. In 1867 Judge Hanna was elected to Common Council, and re-elected in 1870. Before the expiration of his term, he was chosen a member of the upper body, the Select Council. It was while serving in the upper chamber that Judge Hanna became a member of the Constitutional Convention which framed the organic law, subsequently submitted to and ratified by the people, and now known as the Constitution of 1874. In this con- vention of distinguished membership, he was the colleague of such eminent jurists and lawyers as the late ex-Chief Justice Jeremiah S. Black, ex-Chief Justice George W. Woodward, William M. Mere- dith, Theodore Cuyler, George W. Biddle, Henry Green, Silas W. Clark, Wayne MacVeagh, and others alike distinguished for their learning, ability and public service.
After his re-election to Select Council, for the term beginning January 1, 1874, Judge Hanna was nominated and elected as one of the Judges to compose the Orphans' Court, provided under the new Constitution, his colleagues being the late Dennis W. O'Brien and T. Bradford Dwight, both now deceased. In 1884 he was, without opposition, re-nominated for re-election by both the Repub- lican and Democratic parties, and again, in 1894, the same honor was paid him, at a time when party lines were so strictly drawn that other judicial candidates failed to receive a similar nomina- tion from the opposing political organizations. Although he has now attained his majority on the Bench, by his almost twenty- three years of continuous service, Judge Hanna, by reason of his active labors, vigorous and learned opinions, and uniform courtesy and cordiality, gives promise of many additional years of continued usefulness and eminent service, as the President of a Court, exer- cising such important functions in the administration of justice and the adjudication of varied interests.
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While in the municipal legislature, Judge Hanna was the author of the ordinance of 1870, establishing the paid Fire Depart- ment, in lieu of the old volunteer system. He also served with distinction as Chairman of the Committee on Law. He has been prominently identified with the Masonic Order for more than a third of a century, being a Past Master of Washington Lodge, No. 59, a member of the Committee on Appeals of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and lately representative therein from the Grand Lodge of Vermont. Judge Hanna is a valued member of the Hibernian, St. Andrew's, Scotch-Irish, Horticultural, Humane and Historical societies ; a Manager of the Home Mission Society of Philadelphia, and of the Working Home for Blind Men; Pres- ident of the Trustees of the Hahnemann College and Hospital ; Vice-President of the West Philadelphia Institute; Trustee of the Baptist Home, and President of the Pennsylvania Baptist Educa- tion Society ; and is also a Director, and for many years has been the efficient Secretary, of the Penn Club. He is a general favorite, and it may be said of him that he is not only revered as a Judge, respected for his great learning and ability, honored for his emi- nent public services, but loved as a man. In June, 1885, Bucknell University conferred upon Judge Hanna the degree of D.C.L.
Judge Hanna married Mary Vanderslice Hopper, a daughter of Samuel M. Hopper, and has three children, two daughters and a son. The latter, William Meredith Hanna, is a graduate of the Penn Charter School and the University of Pennsylvania, and associate editor of the American Law Register and Review.
Way. Hannity
WILLIAM F. HARRITY.
T HE story of William F. Harrity's career, to those familiar with his personality, must be a story half told ; little more than the enumeration of many suc- cesses and advancements ; a story lacking its main key-the character on which the success is founded. WILLIAM F. HARRITY was born in Wilmington, Delaware, October 19, 1850, and received his early education in the public schools, in Clarkson Taylor's Academy and at St. Mary's College, Wilmington, Delaware, graduating from La Salle College, Phila- delphia, as Master of Arts, in June, 1871. From that time he has been a resident of Philadelphia. He studied law in the offices of Lewis C. Cassidy and Pierce Archer, and, on December 27, 1873, was admitted to the Bar. He remained for six years with his preceptors as their assistant and, in 1880, formed a law part- nership with James Gay Gordon, now Judge, which was dissolved four years later. The demands of his political duties had already begun to take much of his time, but always, through the busiest campaigns in which he has participated, he has held his active practice. With his first step in the study of the law he had taken his first step in politics, and, young as he was, was already recognized as a leader, when, in 1882, he was elected Chairman of the Democratic City Committee. In that campaign Robert E. Pattison, the candidate of the Democracy, defeated General James A. Beaver for Governor, a fact which is largely due to the efficient efforts of the Committee headed by Mr. Harrity, which did its work so thoroughly that the normally large Republican majority in Philadelphia was cut down to but 3,464. In 1884 Mr. Harrity was Delegate-at-Large to the Convention which nominated Grover
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Cleveland for President, and, in December, 1885, he was appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia and served four years. In 1890 he formed The Equitable Trust Company and was elected its Presi- dent, an office which he still holds. This year saw the beginning of his advancement in political power. He was Permanent Chair- man of the State Convention which nominated Mr. Pattison for the second term, and, on July 2d, was unanimously elected Chair- man of the State Committee, a position which he was obliged to relinquish, two weeks later, owing to pressure of business. On January 20, 1891, by the Senate's unanimous confirmation of Mr. Pattison's appointment, he became Secretary of State of Pennsyl- vania. The two positions, Postmaster of Philadelphia and Secre- tary of State of Pennsylvania, were the only public offices that he ever held, though other important positions have been within his reach. In 1891 he was chosen by the Democratic State Central Committee to succeed the late W. L. Scott as the representative of Pennsylvania in the Democratic National Committee, and, in the April following, the Democratic State Convention re-elected him to the National Committee for the full term, a choice that was unanimously ratified by the Pennsylvania delegation to the Chicago Convention, in June, 1892. When the National Com- mittee met in New York, a month later, Mr. Harrity was unani- mously elected Chairman, and conducted the Presidential campaign that resulted in the second election of Grover Cleveland. When dissatisfaction and personal enmity in the Chicago Convention threatened Mr. Cleveland's nomination, Mr. Harrity's steadfastness and political astuteness brought confusion to the men who would otherwise have turned the Convention. That victory confirmed his reputation as a leader, and it was generally understood that he might have been a member of President Cleveland's Cabinet had he not indicated his disinclination. He preferred to continue as Secretary of State of Pennsylvania until the end of his term, in 1895. In the Democratic National Convention of 1896 he was again Chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation and was again elected a member of the National Committee. As Chairman he held the gavel over the turbulent thousands in the Convention
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Hall for three hours, and acquitted himself with the same tact and firmness that had marked his action in the previous National Convention. The difficulty of his position in presiding over fac- tions so radically at variance as those created by the money question was appreciated by his opponents, who, in the first moments of their control of the meeting, passed a unanimous vote of thanks to the man who had just relinquished the Chairman- ship. "I am sure," said Senator John W. Daniel, of Virginia, who received the gavel from him, "that no convention was ever presided over with more ability, or with more fairness, or with more dignity." The Vice-Presidential nomination was within his reach. Delegates from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and South Dakota cast their votes, twenty-one in all, for him. Pennsylvania would have cast its sixty-four, but Mr. Harrity declined. He was not willing to stand on the Chicago platform, and refused the offers of the silver leaders. While there was no actual tender of the Chairmanship of the National Committee, it is known that the silver members friendly to him would have elected him to that place had Mr. Harrity not announced that he would not accept, no matter what the platform or who the candi- dates. A few weeks later he announced his retirement from politics. Mr. Harrity has been successful in all his undertakings in law, finance and politics. His law practice is principally attended to by his partner, United States District Attorney James M. Beck, and a corps of assistants.
Mr. Harrity is a member of the American Bar Association; the Law Association of Philadelphia and the Lawyers' Club; of the Art Club, of Philadelphia; of the Catholic Club; of the Man- hattan Club, of New York; of the Reform Club, of New York; of the Sons of Delaware; the Young Men's Democratic Associa- tion, and other social and political organizations. He is married and has four children, Mary Agnes, Marguerite, Isabel and Wil- liam F. Harrity, Jr. His home is at Overbrook, a suburb of Philadelphia.
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THOMAS L. HICKS.
HE talents that win, the will that conquers and the energy that knows no check, are all represented by Thomas L. Hicks, Postmaster of Philadelphia. His history teems with instances of indomitable perseverance, and his business career points out many triumphs. THOMAS L. HICKS was born February 18, 1852, in the old district of Southwark, and received his education in the public schools, passing through the Mount Vernon Grammar School. After leaving school he worked with his father, Robert C. Hicks, in the plumbing, steam and gas fitting business and attained a practical experience in these occupations. In 1877 Mr. Hicks was appointed Receiver for the West Philadelphia Passenger Railway Company, and continued in the performance of the duties of that office until 1881, when he resigned his position to accept the more advantageous offer of Secretary and Superintendent of the Fifth Street Market Company, the corporation controlling the great market house that occupied the site on which now stands The Philadelphia Bourse. The market house was an important institution in those days, and the position of Superintendent was one to which no small degree of responsibility was attached.
From the year in which he reached his majority he took an active part in the political affairs of his neighborhood, and of the city in general. He was always a stalwart Republican, and though a firm believer in civil service examinations as to ability, declared that competent men could always be found in the party that held the reins of government, and that there should be no question or hesitancy to giving this recognition to the rank and file. The earnestness of his belief in the necessity of appointing only com-
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The Rembrandt Eng. Co.Plun
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' petent public servants was shown when he assumed the offices both of Chief of Highways and Postmaster.
In 1884 he reaped his first political honors, after a long career as a working member of his party, being elected to Common Coun- cil from the Twenty-fourth Ward. His constituents returned him at every election, until December, 1895, when he resigned his seat in Councils to answer the call of the Director of Public Works. In his service of nearly twelve years the district represented by him was separated from the Twenty-fourth Ward and was num- bered the Thirty-fourth. Its rapid and prosperous growth, and the steady advance of public improvement were in a large measure due to the watchfulness and energy of Common Councilman Hicks. During his work in the Councils he considered that his duty was wider than the interests of his ward alone, and he worked as a repre- tative of the whole city, an attitude which was strengthened as he became successively Chairman of several important committees. In his first appointment as a committeeman he attracted notice as an active, far-sighted worker. He climbed the ladder of Council- manic Chairmanships in their traditional order: Surveys, High- ways and Finance. The series gave him an excellent training for the position to which he was to be appointed.
In 1895, when Mayor Warwick assumed the Executive Chair of City Government, Thomas M. Thompson was appointed Director of Public Works, and later, when the vacancy occurred, Mr. Hicks was appointed Acting Chief of the Bureau of Highways, to which position, after his civil service examination, he was permanently appointed. It was in his position as Chief of the Bureau of High- ways that Mr. Hicks pointed out the way of his greater advance- ment. He found the Bureau governed by loose methods. There was no system of keeping records. He saw that radical changes were necessary, and immediately began to bring them about. Order was brought out of disorder, and in the short space of little over a year, the Bureau reached such a state of perfection that those who formerly criticised its methods unhesitatingly described it as one of the best managed and most perfect running branches of the city departments. To accomplish this task in such a short space
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