USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume I > Part 8
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WILLIAM H. ARMSTRONG.
of the State in a strongly Democratic District, and, in 1861, was the candidate for Speaker. He gave way, however, to John Rowe, of Franklin County, the candidate of the "War Democrats," who held the balance of power, in order to secure the Republican organization of the House and their support of Republican measures. In January, 1861, Mr. Armstrong was appointed one of the Joint Committee of the Legislature to meet President Lin- coln at Pittsburg on his memorable journey to Washington for his first inauguration. He came in frequent contact with the martyred President, and attained a high place of prominence in his State. In the same session Mr. Armstrong was Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. In 1862 he was tendered a commission as President Judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, which he declined. In the spring of 1864 Mr. Armstrong accompanied General Cameron to Fortress Monroe to interview General Benjamin F. Butler, then in com- mand, in relation to his nomination for Vice-President on the ticket with President Lincoln. It is, of course, a matter of history that General Butler declined, preferring to remain in the military service. In 1870 Mr. Armstrong was elected to the Forty-first Congress from the Eighteenth Congressional Dis- trict, in which session he played an important part. On January 30, 1871, Mr. Armstrong offered in the House what was practically the pioneer civil service bill which became a law, and from which the present civil service system gradually devel- oped. During the same session the condition of Indian affairs received much attention, and was not a little complicated by con- troversy of many years' standing between the Senate and the House touching the right of the Senate to bind the government by treaty in Indian affairs. While this disagreement was still active, Mr. Armstrong, on February 11, 1871, introduced a reso- lution which provided that no Indian Nation or Tribe within the territory of the United States should be recognized as an i
independent nation, tribe or power with which the United States would contract by treaty. In the election for the next Congress Mr. Armstrong was again the Republican candidate, but, owing
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to a split in the party, was defeated by a majority of only 27 votes. For the third time he was requested to be a candidate, but he declined and withdrew from politics to pursue the practice of his profession. In 1872 he was elected a Delegate-at-Large to the Convention to revise the Constitution of the State. He was Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary, and was the author of the provision of the Constitution establishing separate Orphans' Courts. He was a Delegate from his Congressional District to the Republican Presidential Convention of Chicago in 1880. On the thirty-sixth ballot of this Convention Garfield was nomi- nated for President of the United States. Mr. Armstrong, however, was one of the 306 who steadfastly adhered to Grant on every ballot. On the first, 755 votes were cast, 376 being neces- sary to a choice. Of these Grant received 304, Blaine 284 and Garfield I, cast by W. A. M. Grier, of Hazelton, who adhered persistently to him until the thirty-sixth ballot, when Garfield received 399, Grant "306" and Blaine 42, the rest scattering. It has often been wondered why the friends of General Grant so persistently adhered to him during the balloting. Mr. Armstrong, expressing the sentiment of Grant's adherents, has said that it was the general impression, strongly asserted by Southern delegates, that Grant was the only candidate who could successfully break the " Solid South," which was one of the controlling reasons why the "306" remained steadfast in their faith.
Mr. Armstrong was appointed by President Arthur, United States Commissioner of Railroads, resigning shortly after the inauguration of President Cleveland, being succeeded by General Joseph E. Johnston. Upon the death of his wife, and after the marriage of his daughters and the removal of his sons to distant parts of the country, he retired from his profession, and, after remaining some two years in Washington, removed to Philadelphia, where he has since lived. When resident in Williamsport he drew the charter, purchased the water right, and organized the Williamsport Water Company. He organized the "Williamsport Library Association," built its first Market House, and laid the first block of stone pavement in its streets.
W. N. ASHMAN.
UDICIAL positions are rightly considered the high- est that can be attained by members of the Bar and the greatest compliments that can be paid their personal integrity and legal ability. Since the successful Judge must not only be endowed with talents of a marked order, but must be of a peculiar analyt- ical turn of mind, it is only the exceptional man who can figure as a prominent advocate at the Bar and make as conspicuous a record when elevated to the Bench. These qualities are possessed in full by Judge W. N. Ashman, of the Orphans' Court, of Phil- adelphia. For many years he held a high place in the public esteem, both while serving in public office and as the attorney for private clients, winning an enviable reputation as a pleader, and by his keen insight into the gist of the cases which demanded his attention. That he had won the approval of the people at large was amply evidenced when he was elected for a second term on the Bench, as the candidate of both the dominant political parties.
W. N. ASHMAN, of the Orphans' Court, of Philadelphia, is a native of the Quaker City and the son of Thomas Ashman, who was born in England, and Eliza Barry, formerly of Charles- ton, South Carolina. His grandfather left England to escape prosecution for the publication of a libel against the Government, and came to America, bringing with him his son, Thomas Ash- man, who was the father of the subject of this biography. Judge Ashman was born in Philadelphia. He was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, in which he made commendable progress, and in due time entered the High School of the city,
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W. N. ASHMAN.
graduating with the class of 1850. His first intention was to enter upon a commercial career, and, with this object in view, he secured a place in the counting house of a mercantile establishment on Market Street, Philadelphia, but later abandoned it to enter upon the study of law, as he deemed the legal profession a better field for his energies and ambitions. He pursued the course in the office of P. P. Morris, and was admitted to the Bar in 1857. Judge Ashman, while he never entered into the active military operations, performed efficient service for the Government as Solic- itor for the United States Sanitary Commission, the duties of which office he attended to with his accustomed thoroughness. His first entrance into conspicuous public office was as Assistant City Solicitor of Philadelphia, in which post he made such a creditable record that, in January, 1878, he was appointed, and subsequently elected, Judge of the Orphans' Court, being re-elected in 1888, at which time he headed the list, having had the honor of being nominated by both the Democrats and Republicans and having the endorsement of every party at that time having candi- dates in the race. Although he was never a student at the Penn- sylvania College at Gettysburg, that institution has recognized his many legal abilities by conferring upon Judge Ashman the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Few public speakers who have engaged the attention of audiences in Pennsylvania better deserve the title of natural orator than he, and his addresses, polished in diction and delivered with an ease and grace that seem natural to him, invariably hold the close attention of his audiences, so that there are few more popular speakers in the State. As a contributor to the literature of his profession Judge Ashman has made a record of which he may justly feel proud, many of his addresses and treatises having been published in various legal and other magazines.
Aside from his legal duties, Judge Ashman has proven his public spirit by the prominent place he has taken in many of the well known institutions of the city. He is on the Board of Man- agers of several hospitals and charitable organizations, in whose interest and welfare he takes a deep and sincere concern. Judge Ashman's wife was formerly Miss Mary Elizabeth Hahn, a mem-
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ber of a prominent Montgomery County family. They have three children, of whom one daughter and a son are married, and another daughter is now living with her father.
JOEL J. BAILY.
HERE are in Philadelphia several names which T stand for generations of progress and for present- day prominence of the highest type, and of these none is more assertive than Joel J. Baily. The Joel J. Baily of to-day, who holds a record of a half century of active business life, is the fifth in descent bearing the same name. His great-great-grandfather was Joel J. Baily, and one of his descendants, through each generation, through a direct line, down to the subject of this review, bore the same name. In 1685 Joel J. Baily's great-great-grandfather came to America, and two years later married a young woman who had been a pas- senger with William Penn on the ship "Welcome." From that time on the Baily family has been prominent in the development of American resources and in patriotism, and in his capacity of a leading citizen and business man Mr. Baily carries out the ten- dency of his people.
JOEL J. BAILY was born in Brandywine, Wilmington, Dela- ware, in 1826, his parents moving to Chester County, Pennsylvania, when he was less than a year old. When he was old enough he started to work on a farm, continuing in that humble capacity until he was seventeen years of age, meanwhile attending the public and private schools in the vicinity. He came to Philadel- phia in March, 1844, when he entered the employ of M. Morris Marple, at No. 12 North Second Street. His progress was rapid, and before he was of age, or three years later, April 1, 1847, he acquired ownership of the business, and started out for himself. Through a half century of uninterrupted and sustained progress, Mr. Baily has continued in this capacity, being the only man
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ever in Philadelphia engaged in the dry-goods, or notions, busi- ness who has followed in the same line, under the same name, for as long a period. In 1853 Mr. Baily moved from his original establishment, on Second Street, to 207 Market Street. But his business grew immensely, and he found it necessary, in 1857, to move to more commodious quarters at 219 Market Street, at which time, for the purpose of further developing his rapidly growing business, he associated with himself, in partnership, Henry J. Davis and Elton B. Gifford, under the present name of Joel J. Baily & Company, and these gentlemen are still partners of the firm. In 1863 Mr. Baily again moved, this time to 28 North Third Street, but, owing to the rapid increase of his business, he purchased the property and built at his present quarters, 719 to 721 Market Street. Mr. Baily's enterprises were prosperous from the first, and although he commenced with a business which amounted to only about ten thousand dollars a year, it has grown and extended under his judicious management until it now repre- sents in its transactions three million dollars per annum. Con- tinuing on the lines of his original success, his chief business interests are comprised in his extensive establishment, 719 to 721 Market Street, where the business of importing and jobbing hosiery, notions, furnishing goods and white goods is carried on with every State in the Union. Mr. Baily is one of the most remarkable men in Pennsylvania. Commencing over a half cen- tury ago, he has carried on an uninterrupted business successfully through the various changes of several generations, and by close application and strict, honest and fair dealing has attained a rep- utation and a record which stand out boldly. This was indicated on April 1, 1897, perhaps as strongly as at any other time during his mercantile career. At the tables of the Union League, of which Mr. Baily has been a member since 1863, were seated the professional, business and financial leaders of the State and city, gathered there to give him tribute in a reception and banquet. At his place of business the esteem in which he was held by his employés was manifested in a reception given him, at which time business was suspended for the day, in order to pay the tributes
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of genuine good-will and sincere devotion. From all over this country and abroad congratulatory letters were sent him, express- ing a loving remembrance of so useful a man. These celebrations in honor of Mr. Baily were significant from the fact that they were tendered a citizen who had no place in the politics of the State or city, but whose distinction it was to have been, for half a century, one of the most energetic and remarkable citizens in his great municipality and Commonwealth. -
Mr. Baily's citizenship and his public life are of the highest character, and are demonstrated by his connection with some of the most important institutions in Philadelphia. He is a Director in the Pennsylvania Society for the Protection of Children from Cruelty, Vice-President of the Fairmount Park Association and of the Pennsylvania Humane Society ; he is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Historical Society, the Art Club, the Manufacturers' Club, the Country Club, the Bel- mont Driving Club; he is a member of the Sons of Delaware, the Anti-Vivisection Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the Hibernian Society, the Horticultural Society, the Merion Cricket Club, the Pennsylvania Museum of Science and Industrial Art; he is Vice- President of the Philadelphia Horse Show. Mr. Baily is an active member of the Board of Trade, is Chairman of the Citizens' Muni- cipal Association, is a Director in the Delaware Mutual Fire and Marine Insurance Company, of the Pennsylvania Mortgage Trust Company, of the Bell Telephone Company, is Vice-President of the City Parks Association, is a Director of the Home for Incurables, of the Valley Forge Commission, is a Manager of the Home for Blind Women, and is founder of the Home for Aged Couples. He is a member and Trustee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Broad and Arch streets, and a Vestryman of St. James' Church, at Kingsessing. In 1876 he was one of the promoters of the Cen- tennial, and was a member of the Committee on Finance. In politics he is an active and contributing Republican, but in the practical management of the party's affairs he does not participate.
JAMES E. BARNETT.
HE subject of this review has already carved out a career for himself that is a standing proof that a man who is possessed of energy, backed by ability and integrity, can win even the highest rank in the professions and in politics, if devotion to the interests committed to his charge be his sole aim and purpose. The descendant of an old and distinguished family, Col. James Elder Barnett had much in his favor when he entered the larger fields of active legal practice and political life, but his success in so few years is ample evidence that he possesses the happy faculty of making the most of every opportunity.
JAMES ELDER BARNETT was born on the Ist day of August, 1856, in Elders Ridge, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John Morrison Barnett and Martha Robinson Elder. The Barnetts are among the oldest of the Scotch-Irish families in America. The progenitor of the family in this country, John Barnett, who was Mayor of Dublin in 1685, emigrated to America in 1700 and located in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The family was ori- ginally Scotch, and settled in the north of Ireland in the early part of the Sixteenth Century, rising rapidly to prominence in Irish affairs and letters. The Elders are connected with the old Scotch clans of Stewart and Cameron, and, like so many of their families who perceived the lack of opportunities in the land of the thistle and heather, sought enlarged fields of endeavor in the north of Ireland, where the town of Ellerslie, named after them, was the place of their settlement. Perceiving, however, even greater opportunities in the land across the seas, they came to America in about the year 1700 and settled at Paxtang, and have since grown to be one of the most
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influential families in Dauphin County. Among the best known descendants of these hardy pioneers were Rev. John Elder, Judge Thomas Elder and a number of others whose names occupy high places in the annals of the Keystone Commonwealth. The fami- lies of Barnett and Elder are intermarried and connected with most of the prominent people of eastern Pennsylvania. On his father's side, too, the subject of this biography also traces his ancestry to the Gambles, a widely known and noble Irish family. James Elder Barnett's early education was received in the public schools and in the academy at Elders Ridge, Indiana County, and he prepared himself for entrance into the widely known Washing- ton and Jefferson College, from which institution he graduated in 1882. After graduating from this popular school, he served as clerk to the Commissioners of Washington County, engaging, to some extent, in the oil business. All this time, however, he had before him the ambition of making a place for himself in the legal profession, and he accordingly devoted such time as he could to preliminary studies, afterwards taking a thorough course at the Columbia Law School, from which he was graduated and promptly admitted to practice in the courts in 1890. Since then he has rapidly risen to a prominent position in his profession, and has been entrusted with many intricate cases, his conduct of all of which have evidenced his careful management and thorough acquaintance with the principles of legal jurisprudence. For the past twelve years he has been a member of the National Guard of the State. He entered the service as a private, but his mili- tary ardor and personal ability won for him rapid promotion through the ranks of Corporal, Sergeant, First Lieutenant, Captain, Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, in all of which positions he has served with great credit. The latter rank he now holds in the Tenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, under Col. A. L. Hawkins. The various riots which have occurred during his association with the Guard have always found him in charge of his command and one of the most faithful and efficient officers in the service.
In politics Colonel Barnett' is an ardent Republican, and has
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always taken a deep and sincere interest in party work. He has filled the Secretaryship of the Washington County Committee and has served on the Republican Executive Committee of the same county. In 1893 he was selected to meet a represen- tative from Beaver County in order to adjust the representative's claims of Washington and Beaver in priority to the State election of a candidate to the State Senate of that district. When Gover- nor Daniel H. Hastings formed his Cabinet, he selected General Frank Reeder as Secretary of the Commonwealth, who appointed Colonel Barnett to the responsible position of Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, the appointment taking effect July 1, 1895. He served as such with marked ability until General Reeder retired from the Cabinet, when he resigned his post October 19, 1897, to resume the practice of his profession.
Personally as well as politically, Colonel Barnett has a host of friends. He is upright and genial to all, and it is questionable if any man in his section is held in higher esteem.
Samuel Baugh
DANIEL BAUGH.
MONG the most important interests of Pennsylvania are those centered in the manufacture and develop- ment of various chemical compounds in the prep- aration of which several of the largest firms in the country, with immense plants, are engaged. The firm of Baugh & Sons, operating the Delaware River Chemical Works, is one of the most notable enterprises of the kind in the country, and at the head and front of this organization stands Daniel Baugh, who is a prominent figure not only in the indus- trial world, but in all that pertains to good citizenship and modern progress.
DANIEL BAUGH was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1836. His great-great-grandfather, who wrote his name " Bach," came to America from Germany a short time before the Revolution, bought some land and established a farm and home in Tredyffryn Township, Chester County. The family seat was near Paoli, which, during the War of Independence, became historic. The great-grandfather, John Baugh, the grandfather, Daniel Baugh, and the father, John Pugh Baugh, were all natives of Chester County, born on the original domain purchased by the emigrant Bach. The son, Daniel, was educated at a private academy in Chester County, which in the early fifties flourished under the tutelage of the late Professor James McClune. Upon the Profes- sor's removal to the Philadelphia High School, young Baugh was sent to Norristown, to continue his education at the Fremont Seminary. After several terms in the school, where he was fully prepared to enter college, he returned to his father's home and entered upon an active business life.
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DANIEL BAUGH.
The family, as long back as the great-grandfather's time, had always been engaged in tanning or connected in some way with the leather trade. The sons of the third generation owned four or five tanneries and pursued the business until the scarcity of bark, and the introduction of more advanced methods compelled the general abandonment of the business locally and its removal to the more sparsely settled and better wooded sections of Penn- sylvania. Thus it was, in 1853, that John Pugh Baugh, the father of the subject of this sketch, decided to turn his energy and facili- ties into some new channel. After a year or two of experimental and technical investigation on the subject of crop fertilization by artificial and chemical means prosecuted by the father and his two sons, Edwin P. and Daniel Baugh, the time seemed to have arrived when the new business might be safely installed in the place of the diminishing trade of the tannery. The power and machinery inci- dental to the old business were utilized in the new, and, in 1855, the firm of Baugh & Sons was established and the manufacture of super-phosphate begun. The product of the works was quickly absorbed by a purely local demand during the first year, and the facilities were plainly inadequate for the rapidly opening field of trade. In 1856, therefore, a special plant was erected on the Brandywine Creek, at Downingtown. In 1860 the plant was moved to Philadelphia, and the Delaware River Chemical Works estab- lished. New lines of manufacture pertaining to chemicals and kin- dred products were added as the years passed, until the business assumed a very high degree of scientific importance.
Meanwhile, in 1861, Daniel Baugh married Anna Wills, daughter of Allen Wood Wills, of Downingtown. In 1862, being a private in the ranks of the Grey Reserves, of Philadelphia, he was with his regiment when it was sent by Governor Curtin to the defence of Pennsylvania, when General Lee, with a vast army, was menacing the border. The Grey Reserves were sent over the State lines about the time the battle of South Mountain was fought and were moved from point to point between Williamsport, Maryland, and Boonsboro during the days immediately following that engagement. Mr. Baugh returned, after this active duty, to his business.
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DANIEL BAUGH.
In 1887 the firm was incorporated under the laws of Penn- sylvania, with Edwin P. Baugh as President, the father and senior partner having died, in 1881, at the age of eighty-five years. Edwin P. Baugh died in 1888, when Daniel Baugh became Presi- dent of Baugh & Sons Company, and is still at the head of a business greatly enlarged within the past ten years.
The Delaware River Chemical Works to-day comprises, in many respects, a unique and interesting group of scientific operations, which require a union policy of enterprise and conservatism. Mr. Baugh has achieved great success, and has held it in spite of many adverse conditions of trade for the past ten years or more. While doing this he has found time to co-operate with many of his fellow townsmen in the management of various Philadelphia institutions. For twelve years Mr. Baugh was President of the Sanitarium Association, during which time this noble charity out- grew its restricted quarters on Windmill Island, and was success- fully planted upon its own land in a beautiful park at Red Bank, on the Delaware. Mr. Baugh is a Director in the Girard National Bank, of the Delaware Insurance Company, of the Philadelphia Bourse, a member of the Permanent Relief Committee, of Phila- delphia; a member of the Board of Trustees of Jefferson Medical College, Vice-President of the Department of Archaeology and Paleontology of the University of Pennsylvania; a Trustee of the Philadelphia Museums, Vice-President of the School of Design for Women, President of the Art Club, of Philadelphia; Trustee of the Rush Hospital, and member of the Board of Managers of the Howard Hospital, as well as a member of the Union League, Art Club, Penn Club and Philadelphia County Club. Mr. Baugh has been visiting Europe, with three exceptions, for a period of over four months annually, since 1875. He has also been in China and Japan, and has traveled a great part of South America.
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