USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume I > Part 37
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years. After having occupied several minor positions of trust, he was, in 1874, selected as Cashier of the Scranton Savings Bank and Trust Company, in which capacity he served for five years.
His desire for knowledge and his determination to better his position were still unsatisfied, and during these five years he denied himself the pleasure of society, applying himself assidu- ously to the study of the law, and was admitted to practice in Lackawanna County in 1879. He was a close student, and soon occupied an enviable position at the Bar. In 1881 he was elected County Solicitor of Lackawanna County, which position he held continuously for nine years.
Although the Twentieth Senatorial District was strongly Dem- ocratic, Mr. Watres had the distinguished honor to be elected to the State Senate in 1882 and 1886 upon the Republican ticket by a handsome majority. As an able, conservative and successful worker in the Senate he has had few equals. While a member of this body he served on the Judiciary General, Appropriations and others of the most important committees.
In 1890 his useful and eminent career in the Senate led to his nomination by the Republican State Convention for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth. Although the Republican candidate for Governor was defeated by 17,000 votes, Mr. Watres was triumphantly elected by a majority of over 23,000. Mr. Watres served as Lieutenant-Governor, President of the Senate, and President of the Board of Pardons with such credit and satisfaction to the people that his constituents in his senatorial district and in the legislative districts of his section passed with earnestness and enthusiasm resolutions urging him to become a candidate for the United States Senate to succeed J. Donald Cameron, in 1897. His astuteness as a political manager and his wide reputation throughout the State led to his selection, in 1891, as Chairman of the Republican State Committee, at the head of which organization he conducted a most successful cam- paign. For fourteen years Mr. Watres was an active and influ- ential member of the National Guard of the State, the last four years of which time he served on the staff of Governor Beaver
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as General Inspector of Rifle Practice, with the rank of Colonel. Besides the active part which he has always taken in the public affairs of the State, he has found time to devote considerable attention to progressive movements throughout Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, and has been the moving spirit in the con- struction of several street railways and water works throughout that region. The Spring Brook Water Supply Company, of which he is the President, is probably the largest corporation of its kind in the Commonwealth.
The prominent position which he has taken in the financial world and the esteem in which he is held by the investors of the city is aptly shown by his selection as President of some of the most enterprising corporations in the State, prominent among them being the Scranton Savings Bank and Trust Company, of which he was formerly Cashier; the Brookside Coal Company, the Scran- ton and Pittston Traction Company, the Spring Brook Water Sup- ply Company and the Mansfield Water Company. He is also a Director in the Economy Light, Heat and Power Company, and in many other corporations, in the conduct of the affairs of all of which he has vindicated the judgment of the stockholders to whose votes he owes his appointment.
Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Watres is one of the busiest and most active men in the State, he finds time to devote to a wide range of reading, and possesses a splendidly equipped private library. He is known as one of the best read of Biblical scholars.
On the 20th day of May, 1874, he was married to Miss Effie J. Hawley. They have three children, Harold Arthur, Laurence Hawley, and Reyburn.
Mr. Watres is now devoting his attention to these divers interests, limiting his law practice to equity and corporation cases.
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JAMES V. WATSON.
0 F the men to-day living, who helped by their magnifi- cent and untiring efforts in the fields of financial and industrial enterprise to mould the fortunes of the great State of Pennsylvania, there is none who played a more active part in the early history of the Commonwealth than James V. Watson, the subject of this sketch. It has been said, and truly, that the financial interests of Pennsylvania which were focused and channeled less than half a century ago in the establishment of the since perfected Clearing House system, was one of the most potent factors in the estab- ment of the State's permanent prosperity. Mr. Watson was one of the organizers of this splendid system.
JAMES VERREE WATSON was born in Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1817, his early ances- tors on the father's side having emigrated from Cumberlandshire, England, in 1701, bringing a highly endorsed certificate from Paidsay Cragg Monthly Meeting of Friends, addressed to Friends in Pennsylvania. His mother's family emigrated from France in 1690 and were French Huguenots. His maternal grandfather was Thomas Watson, a physician residing in Buckingham, Bucks County, who married Mary Verree, daughter of Robert Verree, of Lower Dublin Township, now in the Thirty-fifth Ward, Philadel- phia. His paternal grandfather was John Watson, a farmer of Buckingham, Bucks County, who married Mary Jackson, of Welsh parentage, the marriages of both parties being recorded in the books of Buckingham Monthly Meeting of Friends, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. James V. Watson was educated in country schools in early life and finished his education at John Neville's Classical 486
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JAMES V. WATSON.
School and Academy at Bustleton, now the Thirty-fifth Ward, Philadelphia, afterwards learning the carpentering trade. In 1839 he commenced the building business, designing and contracting for many structures in the city of Philadelphia and elsewhere, and, in 1849, in connection with building, he entered the lumber busi- ness under the firm name of Scholfield & Watson, which was closed in 1863. In 1855 the Consolidation Bank was incorporated, taking its name from the then popular scheme of the consolida- tion of the city districts. It was called the Lumber Bank, as it was started by the lumber interests of Philadelphia. He was active in getting the charter through the Legislature, was elected the bank's first President and continued so until 1864, when the institution was changed into a national bank, retaining its original name with the same officers. In 1897 Mr. Watson still continues its President. He assisted in the organization of the Clearing House Association of the Banks of Philadelphia in 1858, and was elected a member of the Clearing House Committee, and so con- tinued until the death of President of the Association, Joseph Patter- son, in 1887, when he was elected President, a position he now holds. He has been a member of the Board of Managers of the Providence Life and Trust Company for ten years, and a member of the Board of Managers of the Western Saving Fund Society for eleven years. He was elected a member of the Union League in March, 1863, and was for several years a member of its Board of Directors, for two years acting as one of its Vice-Presidents. He still continues a member. Mr. Watson was appointed a mem- ber of the Board of Public Education in 1879 and represented the thirteenth section in that body until 1884, when he resigned. He has been a member of the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College since 1872, and for twenty-two years has been one of the Managing Committee of Friends' Central School and of the George School, since its organization, in 1892; all of these being under the control of the Society of Friends.
In addition to the numerous interests herein nominated, Mr. Watson has been identified for a number of years as a very active executive official with some of the most noteworthy and admirable I .- 32.
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institutions devoted to the cause of charity in the city of Phila- delphia. For twenty-four years he has been one of the Board of Managers of the Philadelphia House of Refuge, and is now Chairman of the Board and Vice-President of the institution. He has been for a long time a member of the Board of Managers of the Northern Dispensary and is now its President. As far as his religious convictions are concerned, he is also active, having been a member of the Green Street Monthly Meeting of Friends, at Fourth and Green streets, Philadelphia, and a regular attendant of the meeting for a period of sixty-four years. Mr. Watson was married, in 1840, to Elizabeth Middleton Pitman, daughter of Aaron and Matilda Pitman, farmers of Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. She is still living. They have had six children, two of whom died in infancy. The eldest son, Rudulph Justice Watson, of the lumber firm of Watson & Gillingham, died, in 1888, in his forty-eighth year. His wife was Sallie Jane Bockius, of Germantown, Philadelphia, who died in 1896. Mr. Watson's second son, William Joseph Watson, is a manufacturer and dealer in railroad supplies, and is Vice-President of the Metropolitan National Bank, of Chicago, Illinois. His third son, John Verree Watson, is living in Duluth, Minnesota. He has one . daughter, Susan Verree Watson.
In his social life, although Mr. Watson has very little time to devote to the functions commonly controlled by society, he is very popular; and in those institutions with which he has so long been connected and in the management of which his advice is so often followed to a successful issue, he is both esteemed and honored. Few men indeed have any greater claim to recognition as model Pennsylvanians, than James Verree Watson, with so splendid a record behind him of activity in the affairs of his city and State.
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Theore Wernwag
THEODORE WERNWAG.
N the commercial history of the State of Pennsyl- vania the name of Wernwag is an important one. Theodore Wernwag, the subject of this biography, is one of the best known men in his section of the State, through a long identification with some of the most important financial and mercantile institutions. His ancestors settled in Pennsylvania. His granduncle, Lewis Wern- wag, who was the first of the family to arrive in America, was a pioneer in the work of material improvement and general progress. He was the first to discover the practicability of burning anthra- cite coal as a fuel at his nail works at Phoenixville, and he in- duced George Shoemaker, of Pottsville, to bring his first loads of coal to Philadelphia, stating that he could use his influence with his friends there for its introduction. I
THEODORE WERNWAG was born at 1717 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, June 29, 1831. His father, William Wernwag, was born at Reutlingen, about twenty miles south of Stuttgart, on September 29, 1800. His mother, Anna Margaretta Besserer, was born September 21, 1804, near Heidelberg, Germany. His father came to Philadelphia in the ship "Susquehanna," from Amsterdam, with his grandfather, who was also named William Wernwag, and his family and two young men, neighbors, whose passage he paid to prevent them from being conscripted in the army. The vessel arrived at Philadelphia in 1818, and they immediately went to Phoenixville, where Lewis Wernwag had his nail works on French Creek, and where William, the father, then a lad of eighteen, learned bridge building from his uncle, Lewis Wernwag, who was a noted civil engineer and bridge builder of his day. William 48g
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worked on the bridge across the Brandywine at Wilmington, Dela- ware, in 1819, and also on the bridge across the Susquehanna at Conowingo in 1819-1822. After the elder William Wernwag arrived in Phoenixville he wished to buy a farm. His brother Lewis took him up to where Pottsville is now situated and offered to sell him land there at $1.25 per acre, which he refused, saying that it was too stony for farming purposes. His brother told him that it was all underlaid with stone coal, and also that it would come into general use as an article of fuel, as he had successfully burned it at his nail works. Lewis Wernwag, who thus outlined the general use into which coal would come, was one of the most practical men of his day, and was identified with the largest material interests of the State in many capacities. He was born in Alteburg, Wurtemburg, Germany, December 4, 1769, and came to Philadelphia in 1786. In 1810 he erected a bridge across Neshaminy Creek and after that built a large number of bridges, thirty-two, in different parts of the country. His most noted work was the single span wooden bridge across the Schuylkill River at the place now known as Fairmount, then called Morris Street, in 1812, which involved an entirely new principle in bridge building. It was burned in 1838. This structure, known as the "Colossus," consisted of a single arch, the span of which was 340 feet, and it had no other support than that of the two abutments. It was considered the most remarkable wooden bridge in the world in its time.
Lewis Wernwag was in many other ways identified with pio- neer improvements in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He drew up the plans and constructed the models of the Fairmount Water Works, and sent in his proposals for the entire work. After receiving the plans the committee requested the models which he made for them and they then divided the contract and gave it to different builders. The contract for the dam was given to Ariel Cooley. They afterward sent Lewis Wernwag a check for $100 for the plans and models, which he returned to them, stating that if they had so much money to give away to give it to the poor of the city. He was also one of the original
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subscribers to the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and con- structed that portion between Reading and Pottsville. It was while engaged in this work that he came to Philadelphia and made the models for the water works. He purchased the Isle of Virginius, near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, where he died on August 12, 1843.
Theodore Wernwag was educated principally at private schools, among others, Lewis' Mathematical and Engineering School, Fourth Street, below Chestnut, and Ross' Commercial College, Chestnut below Fifth Street. From Ross' Commercial College he went, on December 1, 1847, into a wholesale silk house, and from there, as salesman, into the silk and woolen importing house of Schniewind & Company, at the southeast corner of Third and Market streets. He succeeded to the business on January 1, 1856, under the firm of Shuff & Wernwag, as dry-goods and silk importers and com- mission merchants. From there the firm removed, on January I, 1859, to 233 Chestnut Street, and from there again, on January I, 1860, to 242 and 244 Chestnut Street, where Mr. Wernwag continues. On October 31, 1864, the firm of Shuff & Wernwag dissolved and, on November 1, 1864, a new firm was formed under the name of Wernwag & Company, consisting of Theodore Wernwag and his brother, William P. Wernwag. The latter with- drew from the firm on December 31, 1877, and, continuing the dry-goods, importing and commission business, formed the partner- ship with T. R. Dawson, under the firm of Wernwag & Dawson, 242 and 244 Chestnut Street, and 45 Leonard Street, New York. Theodore Wernwag continued the firm of Wernwag & Company. His brother died on March 16, 1887, and, on January 1, 1888, in addition to his own business, Mr. Wernwag formed a connection with T. R. Dawson to continue the business of Wernwag & Daw- son in Philadelphia and New York, which was finally dissolved April 1, 1892. The firm of Wernwag & Company is still con- tinued at the same place in Philadelphia by Theodore Wernwag.
When yet in his teens Mr. Wernwag was obliged every year to visit and look after his father's property, consisting of about 15,000 acres of coal and timber lands in Mckean and Elk coun-
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ties, Pennsylvania, before any railroad was built beyond Harris- burg and when that section of the country was yet a wilderness and almost impassable. In his early trips he would often meet capitalists from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont seeking white pine timber lands for which they paid about ten dollars per acre. They would cut about what they considered worth cutting, and then let the lands go, allowing them to be sold for taxes. Mr. Wernwag's father called his attention to the size of the logs as they floated down the Susquehanna, and told him to take notice how they would diminish in size from year to year. During his lifetime he has had the opportunity of witnessing the almost total destruction of the forests of Pennsylvania and the consequent dry- ing up of many of the streams.
Through his long career Mr. Wernwag has always adhered strictly to his truthful and upright business principles, and his success has been mainly attributable to this course of action. As a man of affairs he occupies a leading place in the community in which he lives.
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GEORGE I. WHITNEY.
ITHIN the past decade the material interests of Pennsylvania have been greatly advanced, not only by the extension of its vast industrial enterprises, its great iron and coal fields, and the increase of its colossal manufacturing facilities, but by the establishment of many new towns and villages for commercial pur- poses, many of which have risen in recent years to the dignity of small cities. Two of these towns are Hostetter and Whitney, in Westmoreland County. The latter is a post-office town, and is the principal office of the Hostetter-Connellsville Coke Company. The distinction of having built them belongs to George I. Whit- ney, who is one of the best known stock-brokers and organizers to-day in Western Pennsylvania. The story of his life is one which points out the way of success which is sure to be opened to ambitious energy when rightly applied.
GEORGE I. WHITNEY was born at Pittsburg, November 24, 1847. His father was William Hopkins Whitney, and his mother Matilda Eleanor Irwin. William H. Whitney was born at Stock- bridge, Massachusetts, in 1818; his wife was a native of Pittsburg. Their son, George, received his primary-school education first at the Second Ward Public School, of Pittsburg, and then at the Stockbridge Academy, Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachu- setts. He returned to his studies at the Sixth Ward Public School, in Pittsburg, graduating from there to the Pittsburg Central High School. He matriculated later at the Western University, of Pitts- burg, from which, in 1868, having passed through all the examina- tions with high honors, he received the degree of Master of Arts. With this equipment for the battle of life, he started in the busi-
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ness world as a clerk for Kountz & Mertz, bankers. He was subsequently with Myers, Schoyer & Company, stationers, and in these two occupations he acquired a thorough business knowledge. He was employed, until 1871, by the Citizens' National Bank of Pittsburg, in that year opening an office for himself at Fifth and Wood streets, Pittsburg, where he soon became a widely known and successful broker. His understanding of financial matters, and his taste for business pursuits, thoroughly fitted him for the duties of even more important offices, and, in 1873, he became one of the organizers of the St. Clair Banking Company of Pittsburg, now the Fifth National Bank of that city. He was one of the organizers, also, of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company, now known as the Bell Telephone, and is still a Direc- tor in it. In 1881 he built the water works at New Castle, Penn- sylvania, and this was one of his most important operations up until that time. He is at present President of the New Castle Water Company.
Having gained a large experience and more material wealth, he bought the Central Passenger Railway Company of Pittsburg, in 1882, and was President of it until 1889, when it changed its title to the Central Traction Company, the concern becoming a cable railroad. He was President of that company until 1896, when it merged into the Consolidated Traction Company, of which he is now (1897) Treasurer and a member of the Board of Direc- tors. His business interests demanded that he extend the scope of his operations in 1884, and in that year he became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, having been a member of the Pittsburg Stock Exchange from its organization. In 1886 Mr. Whitney organized an enterprise which has now assumed a mag- nitude of the highest importance. He bought some 4,000 acres of Connellsville coal land from the late Dr. David Hostetter and Ralph Baggaley, and incorporated the Hostetter-Connellsville Coke Company. This is now the second coke company in size and importance of operations in Pennsylvania. It was then that Mr. Whitney built the two towns, one of which bears his name, and the other that of the original owner of the ground, Dr. Hostetter.
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Both Whitney and Hostetter, Pennsylvania, are known for their business enterprise, and the affairs of the coke company are largely carried on there. In 1884 Mr. Whitney became associated with Francis L. Stephenson, under the name of Whitney & Stephenson, brokers, which firm still continues in business at 209 Fourth Avenue, Pittsburg. Mr. Whitney is a Director of the Union Trust Company of Pittsburg, and a Director of the Fort Pitt Incline Plane Company, and of the Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph. In addition to this, he has several other important business con- nections.
In the city of Pittsburg, as well as throughout that section of the State of Pennsylvania, Mr. Whitney is known as a business man of talent, and as a thoroughly representative citizen. He is attendant at St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church. Socially, he is very popular. He is a member of the Pittsburg and Duquesne clubs, of the Chamber of Commerce, the Art Society of Pittsburg, and the Western Pennsylvania Exposition Society. In several other social organizations he is well known and highly esteemed. Upon attaining his majority, he joined the Masonic order, and is now a Thirty-second Degree Mason. Few men of his age have made a better record than George I. Whitney.
P. A. B. WIDENER.
EN of energy, push, foresight and judgment, and M who have at their command the control and ready use of large means, are necessary to the progress of a municipality. It is to these individuals that the community must look for the inaugura- tion and the successful carrying out of those colossal enterprises, which in a sense may be called public-enterprises which are designed for the service of the people. While these energetic capi- talists, of course, ultimately reap the reward of their efforts, yet, in many instances, their ventures are necessarily associated with a risk, and possible loss, which would deter the ordinary man. Philadelphia, whose rapid growth as a City of Homes has amazed the citizens of other places, has been specially fortunate in the number of men who do not hesitate to employ their energy, and hazard their capital, in great projects which prove of incalculable value to a large city, and from which immediate pecuniary results cannot be expected, although they come in time. And, in this connection, it may be said that the expansion of a town-the building up of the outlying districts-is more rapid and sure when the street railroad facilities are in advance of the builder. In this respect the name of P. A. B. Widener stands out with especial prominence in the history of the growth of Philadelphia.
PETER A. BROWN WIDENER was born in Philadelphia, November 13, 1834. The Widener family was of German extrac- tion, and in moderate circumstances. Young Widener received his early education in the public schools, and was a pupil in the Central High School. After leaving there he thoroughly learned the meat business, and his success in it was noted-in fact, his 496
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energy, executive ability and command over details would have made him successful in any branch of effort he might have selected. Early in manhood he developed a taste for politics, and, as he displayed sound judgment and good generalship, he made his influence felt. He soon became prominent in the councils of the Republican party, with which organization he has always been identified. He was appointed, in 1873, to serve out the unexpired term of Joseph F. Marcer, and in the following year was elected by the people for a full term. When he retired as City Treasurer he turned his attention to the development of street railroads. In 1875 he was among those who secured a controlling interest in what might be called the most important system in Philadelphia, and he, and his business associates, soon demonstrated that with skilful and intelligent management, and a careful looking after details, street railroad transportation would not only offer satisfac- tory profits, but could be run, too, as a greater convenience to the public. In fact, the public really shared in all that was done by him and those associated with him. Probably it was with the Philadelphia Traction Company-now an important feature of the Union Traction Company-that Mr. Widener's name has been most assertively identified, yet his efforts were by no means lim- ited to that corporation. He became a dominating factor in other companies, the success of which was largely due to the keen fore- sight, quick and accurate judgment and close supervision of details. While Philadelphia reaped largely of the benefits that sprang from his enterprise and venture, yet other cities have been the field of his movements, and he has been particularly successful in New York, Chicago, Baltimore and Pittsburg. There is no doubt that he and those directly interested with him have had direct control and direction of more lines of street railways than any other syn- dicate of business men formed in this country. It is due to him, too, to credit him with an improvement in the street car facilities of any city which he has made the basis of his efforts.
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