USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
STEPHEN LESLIE MESTREZAT is the descendant of a distin- guished French family, ancient, rich and powerful. One of his early progenitors, Leger Mestrezat, settled in Geneva in the early part of the Sixteenth Century and rendered great service in the war for independence which won Switzerland's freedom. His descendants were long prominent in the Republic and in the early Protestant Church. One of these, Jean Mestrezat, born in 1592, had the remarkable record of becoming a minister at the Church at Paris immediately on his admission to the ministry, Historian Bayle pronouncing him one of the ablest men of the church. Cardinal Richelieu, placing his hand on Mestrezat's shoulder, once said, "Behold the boldest minister in France." Charles Alexandre Mestrezat, born in 1766, was the son of Jacob Mestrezat, a famous French divine, and Henriette Eve Six, of a notable family of Holland. The son came to America in 1794, having prior thereto married Miss Louise Elizabeth Dufresne. In Europe his family and that of Albert Gallatin had been close and intimate friends, and when he arrived in the New World he naturally sought Mr. Gallatin. Settling at Mapletown, Greene County, near Mr. Gal- latin's home, he successfully engaged in merchandising and died in 1815, leaving a widow and ten children. One of these was Jean
309
310
STEPHEN L. MESTREZAT.
Louis Guillaume Mestrezat, born in Mapletown in 1809, and who became also a successful merchant and a stock raiser. He married Mary Ann Hartley, with whom he had five children, viz .: Charles Alexander, Harriet Louisa, now the widow of Samuel Hudson, deceased, Stephen Leslie, Charlotte Amanda, now the wife of James M. John, of Colorado, and Jean Louis Guillaume, now deceased.
Judge Mestrezat was born at Mapletown, February 19, 1848, and his boyhood was spent upon his father's farm and in attend- ing the public schools of the village. Later he entered Waynes- burg College, graduating with high rank in 1869. His Alma Mater has since conferred upon him the degree of A.M.
He then entered the Law Department of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, graduating third in a large class with the degree of B.L. The two who finished above him had studied and practiced several years before entering the University. He returned to Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and, in September, 1871, was admitted to practice in the Courts of the County. He went to Illinois a few months later and spent the winter, return- ing to Waynesburg in the spring. Here he practiced until December, 1872, when he went to Uniontown, Fayette County, where he began to practice the following month. Despite the difficulties and discouragements he, a stranger, encountered, he made rapid progress towards success. In 1875 he entered into partnership with the late Charles E. Boyle, at his solicitation, the association continuing until 1888, when Mr. Boyle assumed the Chief Justice- ship of Washington Territory. Mr. Boyle was in Congress for four years, which threw the bulk of the labor upon Judge Mes- trezat, who performed his duty so ably that upon the retirement of his partner he retained the clients of the firm and gained many new ones, among them some of the largest corporations of the country. His practice extended to the Supreme Court of the State, the District, Circuit and Supreme courts of the United States. In 1877 he was chosen District Attorney of the County.
Judge Mestrezat is an active Democrat, and on the election of Robert E. Pattison as Governor, in 1890, was strongly endorsed
STEPHEN L. MESTREZAT.
= 3II
by leading lawyers and judges for the position of Attorney-General. He conducted the campaigns of 1884 and 1885 as Chairman of the Democratic County Committee, and his energy and enthusiasm contributed much to the success of the party. He has been a frequent Delegate to State Conventions and, in 1892, was a Dele- gate to the National Convention at Chicago. In 1893 he was elected Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District for a term of ten years, having nearly 2,000 majority over his opponent, James Inghram, then President Judge of the District, which included Fayette and Green Counties. The ability and habits of industry which won Judge Mestrezat such marked success as a lawyer have redounded to the benefit of the people of the district since he ascended the Bench and the legal business of the County is disposed of promptly. In 1898 he will become the President Judge of the District.
Judge Mestrezat was married on the Ist day of August, 1888, to Miss Eliza Willson Ewing, daughter of Judge John K. Ewing, and a sister of Judge Nathaniel Ewing, who is Judge Mestrezat's colleague on the Bench. She died on January 15, 1890. Their only child, Raymond William, was born January 6, 1890, and died on the 15th of July following.
While Judge Mestrezat has been a busy lawyer and Judge, and a successful business man, his capacity and love for labor have enabled him to accomplish much outside his profession. A lover of books, he has been a liberal buyer and reader of standard works upon a wide range of subjects. His vacations are spent chiefly in travel and study. In 1896 he made a tour of Europe, spending much time in his ancestral France. He visited Alaska and the northwestern part of this country in the summer of 1897, stopping at all places of interest on the Pacific Slope. In his summer outings he pursues the habit of his legal life, trying to glean all that comes in his way as a traveler, and his habits of careful observation and his retentive memory enable him to succeed admirably. Personally Judge Mestrezat is a most agreeable and companionable man, well loved by his many friends, in whose success and welfare he takes the deepest interest.
I .- 21.
EDWARD E. MONTGOMERY.
O other branch of science has advanced more rapidly in Pennsylvania during the century than that of medicine and identified with its practice and its progress have been some of the most brilliant and brainy men the Commonwealth has produced. In the special branch of abdominal surgery and ovariotomy Doctor Edward Emmet Montgomery, of Philadelphia, has been a leader for many years, and he holds a distinction of having been the surgeon to perform the first successful operation in ovariotomy before a public clinic in Philadelphia. Doctor Montgomery is identified with a large number of the leading medical institutions of both his city and the country at large, and he is recognized to-day as one of the foremost men in his profession and one of the most progressive Pennsylvanians of his day.
EDWARD EMMET MONTGOMERY was born in Newark, Ohio, May 15, 1849, being the second of ten children. His father is Henry A. Montgomery, and his mother was Mary E. Lemert. His father's family was Scotch-Irish, his grandfather having come to this country from Ireland at the age of nine in 1802. From his maternal ancestors he inherits a mixture of French and Scotch blood. Until sixteen years of age he spent his life on the farm, attending the village school and supplementing this education one winter by a private tutor. When sixteen he entered Denison Uni- versity, and when he was twenty-two he received the degree of B.S., although he had been unable to attend college regularly on account of ill health. He was the President of the class while in college and a member of Sigma Chi, a Greek fraternity. During one winter he taught school, and upon graduating he entered the
312
:
I. E Montgomery
313
EDWARD E. MONTGOMERY.
office of Doctor J. J. Hamill, of Newark, Ohio, where he read medicine one year, teaching school meanwhile to help himself along. He entered Jefferson Medical College in the fall of 1872 and received the degree of M.D. in March, 1874, when he was President of the Graduating Class. In April, 1874, he entered the Philadelphia Hospital, where he remained as Resident Physician until July, 1875. He then entered upon the practice of medicine in the northwestern part of the city, having been elected to a Poor District, under the Guardians of the Poor. He began teaching private classes in Jefferson College immediately after his leaving the Philadelphia Hospital, where he taught for two years in physi- ology and two years in anatomy. During this period he was connected with the Eye and Ear Institute of Doctor George Straw- bridge, at Thirteenth and Chestnut streets. In 1878 and 1879 he taught private classes in Operative Surgery in the Women's Col- lege, was Clinical Surgeon to the Women's Hospital; and during the summer term gave a course of dermatology in the college. In 1878 Doctor Montgomery was elected to the Obstetrical Staff of the Philadelphia Hospital, which position he occupied for fifteen years. During his college days he had been strongly inclined toward surgery, and in his early years in practice performed tracheotomy some twenty-eight times for membraneous croup, ten of the last eighteen having recovered. He was the first in Phila- delphia to do intubation and performed this operation in some seventy cases, with about forty-five per cent. recovery. This work he gave up after having become largely interested in abdominal surgery.
In 1879 Doctor Montgomery performed the first ovariotomy to recover, from a public clinic, and the first successful ovariotomy in the Philadelphia Hospital. In 1886, then living at Broad and Thompson streets, he was elected Professor of Gynecology in the Medico-Chirurgical College, and a year later became Secretary of the Faculty and Executive Officer of the institution. He held the position of Secretary of the Faculty until 1891, when he volun- tarily relinquished the position. At this time he was elected Pro- fessor of Obstetrics in addition to that of Gynecology, which
314
EDWARD E. MONTGOMERY.
position he held until his resignation, upon his election as Profes- sor of Clinical Gynecology in Jefferson Medical College, in 1892. In the year 1894 he occupied the position of Medical Director of Jefferson Hospital, a position until that time unknown to the institution. He succeeded in reducing the running expenses some five thousand dollars, while the income was increased thirteen thou- sand dollars.
He is a member of the Philadelphia County, Philadelphia Obstetrical and Pennsylvania State Medical societies; of the Col- lege of Physicians; the American Medical and the American Gynecological associations; is an Honorary Member of the Delaware, New Jersey and New York State Medical societies; is ex-President of the Philadelphia Clinical Society, of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, of the Philadelphia Alumni Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and of the Alumni Associa- tion of Jefferson Medical College. He is now President of the Pennsylvania State Society, and serving his second term as Presi- dent of the Philadelphia Obstetrical Society. He is Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of The Journal of the American Medical Association ; is a member of the staff of the Jefferson Hospital, of St. Joseph's Hospital, and of the consulting staff of the Lying-In Charity, and he has, besides, a private hospital of his own.
Doctor Montgomery's work at present is largely given to his teaching and in the practice of his specialty, that of diseases of women and abdominal surgery. He was married, in 1876, to Helen Buckley, who on her mother's side was a descendant of the Duf- fields, who were among the early colonists of Pennsylvania. They have had two children, both daughters, one of whom died in infancy. The other is at present about completing her college course.
x
EFFINGHAM B. MORRIS.
IN the development of the resources of Pennsylvania during the past quarter of a century one of the most important factors has been found in the large financial institutions which have been organized from time to time to control the varied interests entailed in the management of large corporations and estates. Effingham Buckley Morris, President of the Girard Trust Company, one of the leading institutions of its kind, and, with one exception, the oldest in the State, is a Pennsylvanian of great progressiveness and ability. In December, 1896, Mr. Morris was made one of the Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and in that capacity has an additional interest in financial affairs.
EFFINGHAM BUCKLEY MORRIS was born in Philadelphia, August 23, 1856, in the old Morris house on Eighth, near Wal- nut Street, a mansion which at intervals of a generation has twice been occupied by four generations of the Morris family at the same time. His father, Israel W. Morris, is a direct descendant of Samuel Morris, Captain of the First City Troop, Philadelphia Cavalry, during the Revolution, and of Anthony Morris, who was the second Mayor of Philadelphia, and one of the Justices of the Supreme Court after the foundation of the colony by Penn. Israel W. Morris, the father of the subject of this biography, is a well known mining engineer, and is President of the Locust Mountain Coal Company and other mining corporations in connection with the. Lehigh Valley Railroad.
Mr. Morris was educated at Dr. Faires' School, in Philadel- phia, and at the University of Pennsylvania. He was very popu- lar at college, and on graduation received the "wooden spoon"
315
316
EFFINGHAM B. MORRIS.
that since the foundation of the University has been given annually to the greatest favorite among the students. He was the first President of the present Athletic Association, which was created by his class. He was on his class crew, pulling a strong oar. Mr. Morris was admitted to the Bar in June, 1878, entering the office of P. Pemberton Morris, LL. D., to whose practice he suc- ceeded on the latter's retirement. For a number of years he was General Attorney for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and Solicitor for the Girard Trust Company until his election as Presi- dent in 1887. In the criminal courts Mr. Morris made but few pleas, his most important case being his defense, in 1880, of Theodore J. McGurk, charged with the murder of James Neads, committed in 1861, which was tried twice, finally resulting in saving the prisoner's life. His civil practice was large and important, and as a cor- poration attorney he did specially good work. He served with Frederick Fraley as Receiver of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and arranged the settlement of that company's affairs in the re-organization of the Reading Railroad Company of 1888. In 1893 the Girard Trust Company was made Receiver, with Major L. S. Bent, for the Pennsylvania Steel Company, employing some 8,000 hands, and Mr. Morris was Chairman of the Re-organization Committee and became its President for the first year of its exist- ence as part of the plan for rehabilitation. He still remains upon its Board, and is a member of its Finance and Executive committees.
Mr. Morris' connection with political affairs dates back to 1878, when, on receiving the degree of M. A. from the University of Penn- sylvania, he delivered at the Academy of Music an address on " The Trade of Politics," which was widely quoted. In 1880 and 1881 he represented the Eighth Ward for two terms as a candidate of the "Committee of One Hundred " in Common Council. He declined a re-election in 1882, and, in 1883, he was elected as Trustee of the Gas Works, defeating David H. Lane, his com- petitor, by a large majority of both branches of Councils.
In this office, which was then the home of the most powerful political leaders in the city, he was the direct means of instituting many practical reforms through his personal tact. Since 1887 Mr.
317
EFFINGHAM B. MORRIS.
Morris' interest in politics has been confined to movements in con- nection with many of the best interests of the municipality. On December 31, 1896, Mr. Morris was unanimously elected a Director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Henry D. Welsh, and is the youngest member of the Board of Directors. His uncle, Wistar Morris, was a Director for thirty-five years, and for many years of this period and at the time of his death was Chairman of the Finance Committee.
Mr. Morris has been a Director of the Fourth Street National Bank almost since its organization; he is a Director of the Phil- adelphia Saving Fund Society, of the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company, and a manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the oldest in America. He has been President of the Girard Trust Com- pany since 1887, and it was under his direction that its present building, at Broad and Chestnut streets, was erected. He is also a Trustee of several large estates, notably that of William Bing- ham, Senator from Pennsylvania in the last century, and whose estate has been in the charge of well known men for one hundred years. Mr. Morris was a Director of the Union League for three years, is a member of the Philadelphia Club, the Rittenhouse Club, the University Club, the Senior and Junior Legal Clubs, and several others. Mr. Morris, in 1879, married Ellen Douglas, youngest daughter of H. N. Burroughs. They have four children, and reside in a delightful home in Lower Merion Township, Mont- gomery County. His wife is a direct descendant of Dr. Samuel Fuller, one of the Pilgrim Fathers on the "Mayflower," and the first physician in New England; and as such she is a member of the Mayflower Society and of the Colonial Dames.
EDWARD MORWITZ.
E ADWARD MORWITZ was born in Danszig, Prussia, June 12, 1815, his father being a wealthy mer- chant of that place. He had a thorough course of scholastic training and, in addition to the classics, was educated in the Semitic languages and Oriental literature. At the age of seventeen he began the study of medicine, which he completed at the University of Berlin, with studies also at Halle and Leipzig. He was admitted to prac- tice at Berlin in 1840, and was appointed Assistant Physician in the Clinics of the University. In 1843 he left Berlin for Konitz, where he found better opportunities for the treatment of his specialty-mental and nervous diseases. While thus engaged in practice he wrote several excellent essays on medical subjects and a highly appreciated "History of Medicine." When the revolu- tionary troubles of 1848 broke out, Dr. Morwitz joined the party of the people, and was prominent in it until disabled by a serious accident. During his slow recovery he pursued chemical and technical studies, and made some valuable inventions, particularly a breech-loading gun. Finding no field for this invention in Germany, in 1850 he visited England and the United States in search of a market, and, having determined to make America his future home, he soon returned and settled in Philadelphia. Here he shortly took up what was to be his future profession, that of journalism, purchasing, in 1853, the Philadelphia Democrat, the oldest daily German newspaper in the country. This paper was published under the firm name of Hoffman & Morwitz till 1874, in which year Mr. Hoffman retired, and the business was con- tinued under the firm name of Morwitz & Company. One of the 318
AEfron . ,Co
E. MORWITZ
319
EDWARD MORWITZ.
earliest public-spirited efforts of the new citizen was to advocate earnestly, in 1854, the consolidation of Philadelphia. In 1855 he started a weekly Democratic paper called the Vereinigte Staaten Zeitung, and, 1856, a literary Sunday paper entitled Die Neue Welt. By this time his political influence in controlling the Ger- man vote had grown great, and he is credited with causing the election of Mayor Vaux over his opponent, R. T. Conrad. In 1856 he worked earnestly among the German voters for the elec- tion of Mr. Buchanan to the Presidency, and had much to do with gaining a Democratic majority in Pennsylvania.
He was then urged to purchase the old Democratic organ of the State, the Pennsylvanian, and did so, running both papers till 1860, when, in consequence of the division in the ranks of the Democracy, he resolved to support neither of the candidates for the Presidency, and sold the Pennsylvanian at a sacrifice. During the war Dr. Morwitz, still an ardent Democrat, earnestly supported the Government, and aided in the formation of several German regiments and also in placing the Government loans. At the beginning of the war a German dispensary, in consequence of the business depression, was obliged to close. Dr. Morwitz at once re-opened it at his own expense, resumed his old profession, and gave medical advice and medicine free of charge until the improve- ment in business brought outside aid. In 1862 he took part in the organization of the "German Press Association of Pennsyl- vania," and, in 1870, at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, undertook to raise funds in America for the wounded and sick soldiers of the Fatherland, a movement which resulted in raising an aggregate sum of $600,000.
In 1872 Dr. Morwitz lent his assistance to the movement started by liberal Republicans in favor of reform in the municipal government of Philadelphia. He made the movement popular among the German Democrats, and, in 1874, purchased the Age, a growing newspaper, to assist in it. But the reformers disagreed, and their opponents triumphed. In 1875 he sold the Age to the Times Publishing Company, and joined in establishing the Times, with which he remained connected till 1881. The newspaper
320
EDWARD MORWITZ.
interests mentioned are only a few of those in which he became concerned. Eventually he owned or controlled nearly three hun- dred newspapers, eight of them dailies, which he had acquired or established since 1853; truly a remarkable record. The Doctor was, above everything else, fond of working out technical prob- lems, and he soon developed the technical side of newspaper making. He was one of the first in the United States to intro- duce printing from stereotype plates, and the moulds for these plates at first were made by himself. He fully understood the early attempts at making typesetting machines, and, as early as 1876, foretold their ultimate success; and he was one of the pio- neers in experimenting and, at last, discovering ways to illustrate newspapers with line drawings and half-tone pictures.
This tendency to investigate, observe and experiment he brought into other fields of activity. It enabled him to foresee the dangers arising from mistaken views concerning economic questions and to warn the people against them. An instance of this kind occurred in 1872, when he took a decided stand against Horace Greeley and the Greenback movement, forming the small group of independent Democrats who rallied around Mr. O'Connor. Mr. Tilden's genuine and clear-sighted reform policy brought him back into the Democratic camp in 1876.
To Dr. Morwitz a newspaper was a pulpit from which, with every issue, useful knowledge was to emanate. He measured the success of his newspapers by their success in this direction. He realized, of course, that there were many ways to gain the confi- dence of readers and of making use of this confidence so as to make them stronger and more energetic. But his liking for close investigation of all sorts of technical problems made him prefer generally the method just described. Viewed from this point, his ability of influencing so large a number of papers meant more than the mere gratification of a successful man's ambition. It meant an elevation in their moral and intellectual tone which could have been brought about hardly by any other means than the assistance of a central organization, in some way like the publishing house of Dr. Edward Morwitz.
ALEXANDER K. MCCLURE.
0 N December 9, 1896, there was gathered in the banquet hall of the Hotel Walton, in Philadelphia, nearly four hundred gentlemen, all of whom were distinguished in some special field of endeavor, and while the majority of them were journalists (from all parts of the country), yet here were found, too, many prominent representatives of the military, naval and other branches of the Government, together with the highest dignitaries of the bench and bar. The banquet was in honor of Alexander K. McClure, and marked the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance into journal- ism-a half century that ran side by side with the greatest incidents that have advanced and marked the progress of jour- nalism. Cabinet Ministers, United States Senators, Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, Judges, the General of the Army, were all there in an almost representative capacity to pay tribute to the brilliant life-work of a newspaper editor; for in modern journalism, as well as that of the past, Colonel McClure has been, and is, a conspicuous figure.
ALEXANDER KELLEY MCCLURE was born in Sherman's Valley, Perry County, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of January, 1828. He was a farmer's boy and his early years were spent upon a farm. His attendance at school was limited. At the age of fourteen, his school life ended and he was apprenticed to the tanner's trade. While an apprentice he became acquainted with Judge Baker, the editor of The Perry Freeman, and the Judge was his friend and adviser. He early betrayed a leaning toward politics, and he soon became so conversant with the issues of the day that he wrote several articles which were published in The Freeman. When the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.