USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume I > Part 35
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He is a Past Master of Stephen Bayard Lodge, No. 526, Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of Shiloh Chapter, No. 257, also a member of Lodge No. 136, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Thompson is Major of the "Celebrated Six Footers," or "C. L. Magee's Guards," a Republican Club of Pittsburg, the members of which are all over six feet high. Mr. Thompson is also a prominent member of the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics. One of his important offices is that of Secre- tary of the Board of Prison Inspectors of Allegheny County, and he is likewise Secretary of the Sinking Fund Commission of Alle- gheny County.
Major Thompson was married to Miss Mary F. Applegate on October 7, 1872, and eight children have resulted from the union, namely: Harvey A., Malinda Y., Mary F., Lillian B., Jean M., Sarah A., Lila L. and William E. Thompson, Jr. In the midst of this large and interesting family he spends most of his leisure time.
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BENJAMIN H. THROOP.
ROM generation to generation the ancestry of Dr. Benjamin H. Throop, who died June 26, 1897, is traceable to the year 1668. Adam Scrope, one of the regicide judges who condemned Charles I., fleeing from his country, landed, with others, in America, and, to conceal his identity, changed his name to Throop. There were three Benjamin Throops, of the three different gene- rations, who were Congregational clergymen at various points in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Dr. Throop's grandfather, also named Benjamin, served through the War of the Revolution. He was a Major in the Fourth Connecticut Volunteers, and was brev- etted Colonel, for gallant conduct, on the recommendation of Gen- eral Washington. His commission, signed by John Jay in 1779, at Philadelphia, is now in the possession of Dr. Throop's heirs. He was a pensioner until his death, in 1825. The father of Dr. Throop served also in the same regiment as a fifer.
BENJAMIN H. THROOP, the subject of this sketch, was born November 9, 1811, at Oxford, Chenango County, New York, to which his parents had emigrated in 1800. He was the youngest of six sons. When he was twelve years of age his father died and he was left to the care of his mother. She died in 1842, aged seventy-three years. The early years of Dr. Throop were beset by the trials of adversity, but he came successfully out of the ordeal. Dr. Throop was educated in the old Oxford Academy, and when he had finished his academic training he turned his attention to the study of medicine, which he prosecuted in the office of Dr. Perez Packer, and also at the Fairfield Medical Col- lege, where he graduated in 1832. He decided to locate at Hones- 456
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dale, Pennsylvania, then a little village. The thorns in his pathway were an impoverished purse, youth and inexperience, together with several old and able physicians, long established in Wayne County, but despite these he made his way by degrees to prominence as a surgeon as well as a physician.
Yet he was not satisfied with his location, and, in 1835, went to Oswego, New York, where he spent nearly a year, and then went to New York and continued to practice there until the fall of 1840, when he again visited Honesdale for a few weeks. Here he found prompt call for his professional services, and he con- cluded to accede to the demand. He determined to make it his future home, and removed thither October 8, 1840, establishing himself at Providence, which at that early day was in violent con- trast to what it has since become. There was but one man in the town who practiced medicine, and he was never licensed nor graduated. A much needed impetus was given to the place, a short time before Dr. Throop's arrival in it, by the purchase of Slocum Hollow by the late G. W. and Selden Scranton, Sanford Grant and others. The doctor soon became intimately acquainted with these gentlemen, and was allied to one soon after by mar- riage with Mr. Grant's wife's sister. In 1847 he was induced, by the owners of the iron company, to remove to Scranton. Dr. Throop was the first to take possession, with consent and request of its owners, of land for a homestead-in the woods at that time -and to him belonged also the remarkable honor of being the first person to build a house in Scranton proper, outside of what was owned by the iron company. His practice extended over a large territory, and was very exacting and laborious. In 1853 and 1854 Dr. Throop embarked largely in the purchase and sale of coal lands. He sold many valuable properties, and also assisted in organizing several mining companies. By degrees he became the owner of a considerable landed possession in and about Scran- ton, which soon grew very valuable by reason of the completion of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad direct to New York and the extension of the Delaware and Hudson, as well as the Pennsylvania Coal Company, into that section. In
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1854 he personally obtained from the legislature charters for a gas and water company, and also for the Lackawanna Hospital. With a business energy rarely found in a professional man, he engaged in most extensive real estate operations, including a large lumbering business near Scranton; and as the place grew in pop- ulation and wealth he made additions at Hyde Park and Provi- dence and Dunmore, and laid out, in the town of Blakely, the village of Priceburg, his operations including also the founding of the town of Throop. For years Dr. Throop was an active force in securing much needed local improvements. In 1861, when President Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the rebel- lion, Dr. Throop was the first surgeon in old Luzerne to respond to the call. He was commissioned by his friend, Governor Curtin, Surgeon of the Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. It is a remarkable fact that, owing to the thorough enforcement of the laws of hygiene by Dr. Throop, the regiment did not lose a man by disease while absent from home. To the doctor also belonged the honor of being the first to found field hospitals during the rebellion.
After his return home with the regiment, at the close of the campaign, he was again sent back to the front by his friends to care for the wounded of the One Hundred and Thirty-second Pennsylvania. This time he established, in a forest, the Smoke- town Field Hospital. He remained with the wounded until they died or were sent north to their friends, or to other government quarters, and then followed the army to Harper's Ferry, where he remained, though worn out with care and fatigue, until attacked by fever, which compelled him to return home. Dr. Throop then withdrew from active practice, his business engagements absorbing his time and attention. After that he acted only in counsel and in such surgical cases as fell in his way. During the whole period covering the marvelous growth of Scranton-almost half a century-no Christian or humane movement failed to have his co-operation or substantial aid, and in his death Pennsylvania lost one of its most progressive sons.
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Charlemagne magne Tower
CHARLEMAGNE TOWER.
0 INE of Pennsylvania's most recent honors was con- ferred upon it in the appointment of Charlemagne Tower to be Minister of the United States to Austria-Hungary. Mr. Tower is one of the fore- most Pennsylvanians of the generation, and it is safe to say that there is no citizen of the United States better fitted to represent the country in its diplomatic relations at a foreign court.
CHARLEMAGNE TOWER was born in Philadelphia, April 17, 1843, being the son of Charlemagne and Malvinia Bartle Tower. His father was a very prominent business man of Pennsylvania, who had attained a prosperity through railway and mining enter- prises in his own and other States. He was a man of great patriotism, and at the outbreak of the war busily engaged himself in raising volunteers in the Pottsville regions to defend the Union. He was at one time United States Marshal in the Tenth Con- gressional District. The family is descended in the eighth gener- ation from John Tower, who emigrated from Norfolk, England, in 1637, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. The New England States have received through this family some of their best stock. Charlemagne Tower, Jr., was raised in Schuylkill County, where he received his early education, and after leaving the public schools he was sent to the Military Academy at New Haven, Connecticut. He afterwards went to the Military Academy at Exeter, New Hampshire, and from there to Harvard University, where he took his degree in 1872. To complete his education and increase his store of knowledge he was sent abroad and spent the three years following at the Continental schools of learning. In 1873 he
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was at the University of Madrid; in 1874, at Paris and Tours, and in 1875, at Frankfort-on-the-Main. He studied the languages and literature, as well as history, three branches of modern educa- tion in which he is especially well versed. He subsequently traveled through Denmark, Norway and Sweden, traversed Russia from St. Petersburg to the Black Sea to visit the scene of the Crimean War, and then went to Constantinople. He covered Syria to Jerusalem, spent some time in Greece, and thence went to Egypt, and by the Nile to Nubia. As a result of his observa- tions, Mr. Tower has become known as one of the most widely traveled and thoroughly educated men in Pennsylvania. When he returned to America, broadened in mind and strengthened in body by his years of travel, he decided to study law and he entered the office of William Henry Rawle, one of the most prominent attorneys of the time, as a student.
In 1878 Mr. Tower was admitted to the Bar, and in addition to his professional interests he had charge of his father's affairs, which had passed to him in the meantime. From that time on his career closely resembled that of his distinguished parent. He was in 1882 elected President of the Duluth Iron and Range Rail- road Company, removing to Duluth to accept that post. He held it for five years in conjunction with that of Manager and Director of the Minnesota Iron Company, and in that period of time he established himself in the financial world upon the sound basis of clear business judgment, prudence and foresight. In 1887 he returned to Philadelphia, becoming Vice-President of the Finance Company of Pennsylvania, and afterwards attaining its Presidency. From this company he retired in 1891, since which time he has given his chief attention to literary work and the affairs of a num- ber of institutions and societies of which he is a leading member and, in many, an important official. Among his connections were, and still are, Trusteeship of the University of Pennsylvania, Vice- Presidency of the Historical Society, membership in the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and also the Numismatic Society. Mr. Tower is President of the University of Pennsylvania's Depart- ment of Archaeology and Paleontology. He is a member of the
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American Philosophical Society. In clubdom Mr. Tower is an important figure, being a member of the Rittenhouse, Philadelphia and Penn Clubs, of Philadelphia, and the Metropolitan Club, of New York. He is also Vice-President of the Germantown Cricket Club.
In financial affairs Mr. Tower continues to be an important factor as well as in railway matters. He is a Director of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, of the Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company, and several other corporations. In literary circles Mr. Tower is favorably known as an author and historian. One of his most important and best known books is "The Marquis de la Fayette in the American Revolution." He has delivered from time to time in colleges and at banquets and meetings of various histori- cal societies addresses which have superior qualities of both literary merit and chronological correctness. He has delivered lectures of great interest in relation to episodes of the Revolutionary War and illustrative of the movements of the various generals therein, and one of his most scholarly addresses was that read before the Union League, in 1896, on "Washington and Lord Cornwallis." He bears the degree of LL.D., conferred upon him by Lafayette College. The culmination of Mr. Tower's career up to the present time was reached in March, 1897, when he was appointed United States Minister to Austria by President Mckinley. The appointment was made on March 29th, and the Senate later concurred in it. The title of the office to which Mr. Tower was appointed is that of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Austria-Hungary. In this advancement he has rounded out the prime of his manhood, and it is an office in which he is fitted to shine, both by natural abilities and acquired knowledge. In the higher political affairs of his party, Mr. Tower has demon- strated a rare ability, and he has been a factor in the more con- servative affairs of a political nature in the city for a number of years. During 1896 he served as Director of the Union League, succeeding C. Stuart Patterson as Secretary of the organization on September 9th of that year.
JE
HECTOR TYNDALE.
N the honorable roll of Pennsylvania heroes there 0 is no name which deserves more praise, none which is more entitled to rank high in the esteem of the people of the State than that of Brigadier- General Hector Tyndale. Coming from a family of the most distinguished type, and having united in his nature all the perfections of a noble race, Hector Tyndale represented one of the most admirable classes of prominent Pennsylvanians. The Tyndales were of Danish origin, and the earliest records of them in England placed them in Northumberlandshire, in the valley of the River Tyne; and it was from this locality that the surname of Tynedale was derived. This, in the course of generations, came to be known as Tyndale. All through the early English history the Tyndale family left a shining record of noble deeds. William Tyndale, the martyr, who first translated the New Testament into the English language, was one of the descendants of this race. Some of the Tyndales emigrated to Ireland, where several of their descendants still reside. During the insurrection in Ireland, in 1798, William Tyndale, the grandfather of the subject of this biography, raised and commanded a troop of cavalry, of which his son, Robinson, the father of Hector, was the Cornet. In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, Robinson Tyndale, who was still a young man, settled in Philadelphia, where he married Sarah Thorn, a native of the city, a descendant of a New Jersey family and a member of the Society of Friends.
HECTOR TYNDALE was born March 24, 1821, on Third Street, above Market, Philadelphia, where his father had established him- self in business. Early in life he gave evidence of the courage,
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energy and sound judgment which in later years made him the man he was. When sixteen years of age he was offered a cadet- ship at West Point, but, at his mother's request, declined it. Shortly afterwards he was sent to Texas on business, remaining there two years. When he returned to Philadelphia he engaged with his father in business; he was also an active member of the Artillery Corps of the Washington Grays, and at the age of twenty was elected Captain of another company, which he re-organized under the name of the "Cadwalader Grays." In August, 1842, he married Miss Julia Nowlen, of Philadelphia, sister of Major Garrett Nowlen, who was killed at the battle of Ream's Station, Virginia, in August, 1864. During the riots in May and July, 1844, he commanded the citizens' police force of the Middle Ward of Philadelphia, and his influence was one of the strongest in preserving law and order. His father dying in 1842, the business was continued by his mother, and, after a western cavalry expe- dition, Hector entered into co-partnership with his brother-in-law, the late Edward P. Mitchell, under the firm name of Tyndale & Mitchell, which business was continued until the Rebellion. In the year 1851 he spent several months in Europe, where he gained a clear insight into the manufacture of china, pottery and glass, bringing home some rare ceramics. In 1856 he was an active supporter of John C. Fremont for the Presidency, and was a member of the Republican City Executive Committee. In the stormy days of 1859, when riot and bloodshed were the result of John Brown's martyrdom, and Mrs. Brown went for her husband's body to Harper's Ferry, Hector Tyndale, who accompanied her, took a firm stand, and, in the face of the imprecations of the maddened mob, insisted that Mrs. Brown receive her rights, and, further, saw to it that she did. In July, 1860, he went to Europe, but when, after the election of Abraham Lincoln, the secession of the Southern States followed, he returned to his country, and, in 1861, he was mustered into service as Major of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers under Colonel John W. Geary. Through Major Tyndale's activity and earnestness this regiment was made one of the finest in the army, and it had one
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of the most brilliant records. Several times Major Tyndale by his acts of heroism helped to make this record. On April 29, 1862, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel. At Antietam, while charg- ing a part of "Stonewall " Jackson's corps, he was struck by a glancing shot upon the hip and again in the head, but his brigade captured the battle flags of seven regiments in action, an achieve- ment perhaps without a parallel in the Civil War. On November 29 Hector Tyndale was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, United States Volunteers, but from the wounds he received he never fully recovered, and, as a result, his physical condition com- pelled his retirement in August, 1864. In 1867 Governor Geary appointed him one of the Commissioners of the State of Pennsyl- vania to report on the proposed soldiers' cemeteries at Antietam and Gettysburg. In June, 1868, he was nominated Republican candidate for the Mayoralty of Philadelphia. A hard-fought cam- paign resulted in his defeat by sixty-eight votes. In 1872 his cousin, Professor John Tyndall, of the Royal Institute, London, appointed him one of the Trustees of the Tyndall Fund, which prospered exceedingly under his good management. He was Shrievalty candidate on a reform ticket in 1873, was one of the Judges in the Centennial Exhibition, and in various other offices received high honors. He was taken severely ill on March 15, 1880, and died on the morning of March 19th, and his funeral was one of the largest and most impressive of that time. Mrs. Tyndale died on the IIth day of August, 1897.
As late as May 30, 1893, his memory was revered in an oration delivered at his tomb in Laurel Hill Cemetery, before General Hector Tyndale Post, No. 160, Department of Pennsyl- vania, Grand Army of the Republic, which had been organized in his commemoration; and such tributes are still of frequent occur- rence. Besides his rank in the army, he was a Junior Vice Com- mander of the Loyal Legion, a member of the Philosophical Society, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sci- ences, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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TheREMbondiEng J
FRANK M. VANDLING.
ENNSYLVANIA has many sons who have won dis- * tinction as leaders in the political field, and among those most deserving of honorable standing is Frank M. Vandling, the Postmaster of Scranton, and one of the best known members of the Democratic Party in the eastern part of the State. He has attended every important convention for the last ten or twelve years, has been a representa- tive of a large Democratic constituency in Council for several terms, and has participated in the making of political history in the Keystone State ever since he was a mere lad. Few men of his age, and he is comparatively a young man, have attained a greater distinction in so short a period of time.
FRANK M. VANDLING was born at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 29, 1865. His father is John S. Vandling and his mother Sarah Jack Vandling. During his early age he attended the public schools at Harrisburg, availing himself of the educa- tional facilities thus afforded, until he reached his fourteenth year. Upon leaving school he entered the Western Union Telegraph office, where he learned telegraphy, and, making rapid progress in this field, which at that time afforded excellent opportunities, he was given a position, at the age of sixteen, with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company as operator at Providence, Pennsylvania. He evidenced so close an application and attention to business, and such a natural aptitude for the work, that lie was made weighmaster and coal inspector for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company during the year 1883. Having indicated his capa- bilities in this position to such a thorough extent that he was counted among the most valuable factors in the prosperous con-
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duct of its affairs, he was, in 1884, made General Coal Inspec- tor for the Company, serving in that office until 1893. His busi- ness necessitated his removal to Scranton in the early years of his connection with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and, upon locating there, he became interested so thoroughly in the administration of the city's affairs that he identified himself with the politics of Scranton and took an active part therein. He served two terms in the Common Councils, both of which were characterized by a close attention to the best interests of his constituents. In the affairs of the Democratic party he has been a notable figure for a number of years, and he has been a State Delegate to Democratic conventions for eleven years in succession. In 1892 he was a National Delegate to the Convention which nominated Cleveland. On June 1, 1893, Mr. Vandling took charge of the Post-Office at Scranton and has been in occupancy of the same ever since. His administration of the affairs of that impor- tant department of government work has been highly successful, and he has instituted many improvements in the management of its affairs.
Mr. Vandling's interest in politics dates back to his twenty- first birthday, when, upon assuming the rights of franchise, he began an active participation in the administration of his city's affairs. For several years prior to this, although not a voter, he was interested in politics, and in the party work was a valuable adjunct towards success. When he was twenty-one he was elected to Councils from a strong Republican ward on a Democratic ticket. He has been a member of the Democratic County Committee for ten years, serving as Chairman and Treasurer, and when he was elected a Delegate to the National Convention, in 1892, he served on several of the important sub-committees, and in many ways indicated his earnestness and close fealty to his party. As a mem- ber of the Democratic State Committee, in 1891, he was instru- mental in electing William F. Harrity, National Committeeman to succeed William L. Scott.
On October 26, 1888, Mr. Vandling was married to Miss Hellen J. Van Storch, as a result of which union two children
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have been born. Mr. Vandling is a man of great domestic habits, and although he is popular socially and is a valued member of several organizations of note, he devotes most of his leisure time, when not occupied with the duties of his office, to his own fire- side. Mr. Vandling is a man who has attained prominence and success solely through his own efforts and unsupported by any outside aid. He has occupied an important office in the ad- vancement of the affairs of the Democratic party during his poli- tical career, and through this connection he has been closely identified with the making of history in the State. For this alone he is entitled to a position upon the roll of honor whereon are found the names of Pennsylvania's prominent and progressive sons.
JOSEPH R. WAINWRIGHT.
B OTH as a merchant and a manufacturer Joseph R. Wainwright is prominent in the commercial life of his community, and as a public-spirited citizen is widely recognized among those who are familiar with his many excellent qualities and who have a knowledge of his useful career.
JOSEPH REEVES WAINWRIGHT is a native of Philadelphia, and his father was born in the same city, where his name, in commer- cial annals, stood for progress for many years. The elder Mr. Wainwright was President of the Commercial Bank, and was a leading merchant as long ago as the early "twenties." Mr. Wain- wright's father's ancestors came to America only two years later than the famous first expedition of William Penn, and the family has figured prominently in the history of the State since that time. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Mary Wood Reeves, and was the descendant of one of the oldest families of the State of New Jersey. Her mother's ancestor, Richard Wood, settled in that section of Gloucester County, New Jersey, known as Wood- bury, in the middle of the year 1681. The Wood family came from Bury, in Lancashire, England, and the settlement became known as Woodbury, being named after them. Joseph R. Wain- wright's ancestors belonged to the Society of Friends, and his early education was received in the educational institutions of that society, and in these excellent academies he made rapid progress. Upon the completion of his studies he entered the importing house of Price, Ferris & Company, where he remained a short time, leaving this firm to join his brothers, Clement R. and Israel R. Wainwright, and with whom he went into partnership, the firm
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