USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume II > Part 21
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BUSHROD WASHINGTON JAMES.
He presented scientific papers before each Congress. Professor James has traveled quite extensively in the Old World and all over the New, making him an authority on climates, and in this respect alone the publication of his adventures would fill a good-sized volume.
Doctor James has resided for many years at the corner of Eighteenth and Green streets, and his time is still largely taken up as an oculist and author. Among the honors visited upon him were his election as an Honorary Member and Correspondent of the British Homoeopathic Society in 1896; also, as Honorary Member of the New York State Homoeopathic Society, and of the Homo- pathic Medical Society of Mexico. Being a member of the Amer- ican Public Health Association of the United States, Canada and Mexico, he was appointed by Governor Pattison a Quarantine Dele- gate to the convention held in the City of Mexico, when the important question of international quarantine was actively consid- ered. Professor James is a prominent Freemason, holding many important honors and titles in Masonic associations. He is also a member of the American Authors' Guild, the oldest Trustee of the Spring Garden Institute, a member and ex-President of the American Literary Union, a member of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, the Union League, the Sons of the Revolution of Pennsylvania, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, American Academy of Social and Political Science, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; Franklin Institute, Philadelphia ; Pennsyl- vania Horticultural Society, Historical and Ethnological Society of Sitka, Alaska, and many minor medical and lay associations. He has written many important letters upon his travels, and his book "American Health Resorts and Climates," is now being revised for its next edition. Several other works in poetry and prose, including "Alaskana; or the Legends of Alaska," "Echoes of Battle," "Dawn of a New Era in America," "Alaska, Its Neglected Past and Its Brilliant Future," have also testified to his versatility.
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JAMES M. JEITLES.
HE development of the manufacturing interests of T Pennsylvania, including its financial ramifications, has engaged for a score of years the persistent and untiring attention of James M. Jeitles, the subject of this biography, who, in advancing the affairs of his own business, has operated at the same time for the general good. JAMES M. JEITLES was born in New York on May 24, 1845. He is a pioneer in the development of the tobacco trade, and as a student and promoter of financial enterprise he is widely known. His able talents and marked enterprise have gained him a place well to the front in Pennsylvania's affairs. The parents of James M. Jeitles were born in Prague, Bohemia, Austria. His father, Jacob Jeitles, was a man of practical ideas, but no seeker after money. His mother was possessed of a well trained classical mind. Their ancestry consisted of a family of Rabbis, some of whom were highly noted for their erudition. When James Jeitles was four years old he was enrolled in a public school, and at the age of eleven graduated from the Grammar Department, being then too young, as well as too poor, to enter what was known as the Free Academy, in New York, now called the Free College. His parents therefore apprenticed him to the trade of cigar making. Being desirous of studying French and music, and without means to carry out his plans, but fortunately inheriting a good voice, he obtained a situation in a choir. The salary earned aided him in carrying out his desires. It was then required to be able to read music at sight, as no organ or instrument of any kind was permitted in that particular denomination, which was known as the Portuguese Synagogue, on Nineteenth Street, near
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Fifth Avenue, New York City, and which was strictly ortho- doxical, the only guide to aid in singing being the old-fashioned tuning-fork. But he won recognition for his talents there as elsewhere.
Imbued with the determination to succeed, Mr. Jeitles left New York and traveled through the West, eventually locating in Wisconsin, in what was then a new tobacco-growing section. The value of the plant was not appreciated in the East to its fullest extent at that time, and the Western farmers deputized Mr. Jeitles to take their samples of tobacco to New York and find a market for their product. This he successfully performed and gave the trade a large impetus, which has since been greatly extended. In fact, the tobacco trade owes much to Mr. Jeitles for the attain- ment of its present vast proportions, while the financial details contingent upon the increase of the business have come under his direct control several times. Mr. Jeitles was invariably chosen, among others, to represent the cigar manufacturers of Pennsyl- vania before the Ways and Means Committee in Washington, in reference to the tariff on tobacco, in which capacity he has shown ability. In 1872 Mr. Jeitles married a very estimable young woman, Miss Edna Jane Luckey, a member of the Universalist Church. After a happy union of seventeen years she died March 4, 1889. Her father was a retired merchant and her mother was a Miss Caroline Moulton Newcomb, a lineal descendant of Benja- min Franklin. Three children survive the death of Mrs. Jeitles, -Edwin, Ralph and Hamlet, all born in the house in which they now reside, 859 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, and all possess the energetic qualities of their father, along with not a little of his ability. Edwin, the eldest, when fourteen years of age, received a prize offered by the Honorables Wanamaker, Fitler and McCreary for an oration on the "Declaration of Independence."
When Mr. Jeitles came to Philadelphia he embarked in a small way in the cigar business, but gradually advanced step by step from first employing two hands until he had two hundred and more. Much of the credit for the promotion of the cigar industry in Pennsylvania is due to Mr. Jeitles. The firm of
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which he was a member was the first in Philadelphia to use Sumatra tobacco in the manufacture of cigars. After acquiring a modest competence, Mr. Jeitles, at the age of thirty-eight, com- menced the study of law, and entered the office of the late E. Coppee Mitchell, passing a successful examination before the Board of Examiners. In 1887 the Chestnut Street National Bank was formed by Mr. Jeitles, with a capital of $500,000. Mr. Jeitles had obtained most of the subscriptions. The work, however, was very laborious, as a number of hindrances were placed in the way. Notwithstanding this Mr. Jeitles won success in this, as in all his other projects. In National politics Mr. Jeitles has always been a Republican. In State elections the exceptions were in voting for Governor Pattison and William M. Singerly. Mr. Jeitles was a member of the Committee of Fifty from its birth until its disbandment.
During the Harrison regime, an opportunity was given him of accepting one of three desirable Consulships in Europe, but he preferred to stay at home. The manufacturing cigar firm in which he is still a partner, is the Jeitles-Sulzberger Company, Limited, controlled by his brother, Harry A. Jeitles, and Joseph E. Sulzberger, brother of that able jurist, Judge Mayer Sulzberger. At present Mr. Jeitles is devoting much of his time to the Secur- ity Trust and Life Insurance Company and to office law practice. He is a member of the Lawyers' Club and Mercantile Club, and is a man of great energy, occupying a position in his community as one of the most progressive Pennsylvanians of his day.
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MORRIS L. KAUFFMAN.
THE general progress of Pennsylvania during the past score of years is reflected in the great im- provement and growth of a number of its leading municipalities. The city of Allentown has made rapid strides during the past few years, and that it has done so is due much to the efforts of Morris L. Kauffman, the subject of this biography.
MORRIS L. KAUFFMAN was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, June II, 1848. He comes of an old family, his father, Franklin E. Kauffman, being a native of Allentown, and for many years a leading real estate man of that city. The son's early knowledge was acquired in the Allentown Academy, and later he graduated from the Highland Military Academy of Massachusetts. He re- ceived a supplementary education at the Hudson River Institute and at the Clavenack College of New York. He decided that the profession of law should be his life-work, and imbued with the ambition to attain a position of prominence in the legal world, he began to fit himself for the law in the office of Robert E. Wright, Sr., being admitted to the bar of Lehigh County, on April 4, 1870.
Like many other of the State's prominent attorneys, Mr. Kauffman's talents particularly equipped him for an active parti- cipation in the political affairs of Pennsylvania. For many years he has been active in the Republican party and is to-day one of the most influential members in his section of the State. The party leaders have frequently sought his advice and influence, and he has done much to advance the interests of the organization. Many of his addresses in the courts of law have been pronounced
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models of what legal oratory should be. He has been identified with the Republican party in an official sense as Councilman, but has otherwise refused to accept office. While in Europe, however, he was nominated by the Republican State Committee of 1891 as a Delegate to the proposed Constitutional Convention. Mr. Kauff- man's interest in his State is further indicated by his prominence in military matters. He was commissioned by Governor Hoyt as Paymaster and Instructor of the Fourth Regiment, N. G. P., with the rank of Captain, and afterward as Aid-de-Camp to General J. F. Hartranft, Division Commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, with the rank of Major. While identified with regimental matters Mr. Kauffman was noted for his activity in all movements tending to further the prosperity of the organization, and he was one of the most popular members of the National Guard.
In the prosperity of the city of Allentown Mr. Kauffman has played a most important part. While he has given the larger part of his attention to the legal practice, he has also devoted much time to the business interests of his city. He has aided materially in the growth of new industries, and has been instru- mental in a great many instances in bringing capital into Allen- town for investment. In former years he was engaged to a con- siderable extent in real estate dealings, and in this way he con- tributed to the advancement of his native place. He was one of the original committee sent to Paterson to induce the Phoenix Manufacturing Company to locate its silk mill, the " Adelaide," at Allentown. It was his individual check of fifteen hundred dollars, given before any money was subscribed by the citizens, as a pledge of good faith, that secured the signing of the contract. It was largely through his instrumentality that the Iowa Barb Wire Company and the Allentown Spinning Company located in his city. Mr. Kauffman's business ability and knowledge of financial matters have found an excellent field in other institu- tions and industrial enterprises to a large number. He is a Director in the Allentown Gas Company, the Allentown Spinning Company, the Bethlehem Silk Company, and for many years was
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a Director in the Allentown National Bank. Among the other enterprises in which he is interested may be mentioned the Allen- town Steam, Heat and Power Company, of which he is Treasurer, and the Lehigh Valley Trust and Safe Deposit Company, of which he is Trust Officer. He was one of the promoters and directors of the Lehigh Valley Traction Company. Mr. Kauffman is identified with the following corporations as a Director : The Lehigh Valley Traction Company, the Allentown and Lehigh Valley Traction Company, the Bethlehem and South Bethlehem Electric Railway Company, the Allentown Passenger Railway Company, the Man- hattan Hotel Company, and the Catasauqua and Northern Electric Railway Company. Of late years his interests in these organiza- tions have increased to such an extent that he has been elected in many of them to their highest office. He is President of the Lehigh Valley Traction Company, the Bethlehem and Allentown Street Railway Company, the Allentown Passenger Railway Com- pany, the Bethlehem and South Bethlehem Street Railway Com- pany, and the Catasauqua and Northern Street Railway Company.
In October, 1875, Mr. Kauffman married Miss Arabelle, daughter of Stephen Balliet, formerly one of the most prominent iron ore and furnace operators in the Lehigh Valley. The family is descended from French Huguenots who settled in this country prior to the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Kauffman belongs to the order of the Daughters of the Revolution. The marriage has resulted in two daughters, Leila M. and Adele B. Socially, Mr. Kauffman is very popular, belonging to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic Order, being a Past Eminent Commander of Allen Commandery, No. 20, Knights Templar, and he was the second President of the Livingston Club, of Allentown, which is one of the finest in the State, outside of Philadelphia.
WILLIAM HENRY KEECH.
OMPARATIVELY few cities are more progressive than Pittsburg, the metropolis of Western Penn- € sylvania. At the confluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers, where their combined waters join in forming the Ohio, which with the Mississippi forms the greatest system of inland waterways on the globe, its location has done much in making it such a centre of trade and industry, but it owes its prosperity in a scarcely less appreciable extent to the energetic and far-sighted men who make up its commercial class and to the efforts of those of its public- spirited citizens who have been fortunate enough to seek to aug- ment favorable geographical location with an energy and enterprise that sought to promote the interests of the city and the comfort and welfare of its people, rather than their own financial advan- tage. A striking figure in the financial, corporation and commer- cial circles of Pittsburg is William Henry Keech, a brief sketch of whose successful career as a business man and public-spirited citizen follows. From a modest beginning as a merchant, in less than two decades, his discernment and discretion, coupled with a pleasing personality and a character beyond reproach, have enabled him to rise by rapid strides to the eminent place he now occupies in the estimation of his associates in every walk of life.
WILLIAM HENRY KEECH was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on the 17th day of July, 1854, of sturdy stock which had been for several generations in this country and had for a hundred years been prominent in the affairs of the western por- tion of the State, his ancestors on both sides having settled in Cambria County at about the same time, 1790. His father's gene-
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alogy was largely Anglo-Saxon, both his parents tracing their ancestry back to old English families. The father of Mr. Keech's mother was a native of Ireland, but on her mother's side her family history is lost in the imperfectly kept records of the early colonial period. Descended thus from the earliest pioneers in the region about the headwaters of the Ohio, Mr. Keech had naturally taken a deep interest in that section of the State, and, though still a com- paratively young man, had done much to advance its material wel- fare. For a long time he has been one of Pittsburg's best known merchants and most progressive citizens, identifying himself for many years with almost every enterprise that has looked to the pro- motion of the prosperity of that thriving city. He was educated in the public schools of western Pennsylvania, where he laid up a store of knowledge that has been a factor of no inconsiderable importance in securing his present prominent position in commer- cial and financial circles. It was in 1879 that he first entered the mercantile business on his own responsibility, opening the stores on Fourth Avenue, Pittsburg, which he still continues to manage. As a merchant, Mr. Keech has been alert and progressive and has always proven himself to be fully in touch with the enterprising spirit of the times. By close attention to his commercial affairs, and a strict adherence to those fundamental principles of business which are indispensable to permanent success, he has built up a mercantile establishment of which he may well be proud, and has won the esteem of his associates and the confidence of the public.
Ever progressive and foremost in aiding the permanent im- provement of Pittsburg, Mr. Keech has always found time to lay aside the cares of counting-room and warehouse to take a place and assume responsibilities in the management of public enterprises. It is to his sagacity and foresight that Pittsburg is largely indebted for her excellent system of street railways, in the construction and management of which he has for years taken an active interest and prominent part, having been, at various times, an officer of many of the different lines that gridiron the city. He is to-day foremost in the Directorate of the United Traction and of the Second Avenue Traction companies, as well as Presi-
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dent of the Federal Street and Pleasant Valley Passenger railways. Occupying a conspicuous position alike in commercial and cor- poration circles, Mr. Keech is also a prominent figure in the finan- cial world, where his sterling integrity and discerning judgment have gained for him many proofs of the confidence universally reposed in his honor and sagacity. He is a Director of the Pitts- burg National Bank of Commerce, as well as a prominent mem- ber of the Directorate of the City Insurance Company, in both of which corporations he is a large stockholder.
Although Mr. Keech has so long been identified with the business life of Pittsburg and with so many of its improvements, beyond his ardent interest in good government in city, State and nation, he has never taken an active position in politics, and has never accepted a nomination for a public office at the hands of his party.
He was married, in September, 1880, to Miss Elizabeth Bru- back, also of Pittsburg. They have three children, two sons and a daughter, aged, respectively, eleven, thirteen and fifteen years.
To sum up Mr. Keech's career, though but little more than forty years old, he has won an enviable place in the commercial world, where his fair dealing and progressive methods have made his name a synonym for success; in the larger and perhaps more exacting field of corporation management he has won so great recognition as an astute man of affairs that the future has doubt- less many honors in store for him.
FE.Fr incis& Co
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CHARLES H. KEMP.
HE astonishing progress made in recent years by T some of the smaller cities and towns of Western Pennsylvania is one of the most convincing evi- dences of the growth of the great Commonwealth in every direction. The greater wealth of the State is naturally confined to the larger cities, but its material resources and its leading enterprises are distributed throughout its entire territory. The city of Kane, Pennsylvania, is one of those which have grown up within recent years to a remarkable extent, and one of the chief causes of its progress is found in the person of Charles H. Kemp, Vice-President of the Board of Trade of that city and Cashier of the First National Bank. He has been an important factor in its industries and is one of the largest real estate holders and operators in that section. Mr. Kemp is a representative Pennsylvanian in every sense, for to his energy and enterprise may be attributed much of the success of his city and the general progress of his State.
CHARLES H. KEMP was born in Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania, July 29, 1839, and spent his youth upon a farm near Somer- field, Somerset County. He received a common school education in the neighborhood and worked away earnestly, but not quite contented, until the beginning of the War gave him an opportunity to make his first step toward success, and, at the age of twenty- two, his spirit was just at the restless pitch to settle the question of enlisting without a second thought. In August, 1861, he became a private in Company H, Third West Virginia Infantry, at Cum- berland, Maryland, and was soon working through West Virginia, to Romney, where, on October 26th, he faced his first battle fire
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under General B. F. Kelley. The next engagement was at Cedar Mountain, near Culpeper Court House, in August, 1862, when his company was in General Pope's command, in Milroy's Brigade. He was assigned to duty at Brigade Headquarters, with Captain Mark L. Dermott, Assistant Quartermaster. Thus it happened that not long afterward, at Callet Station, where the Confederate forces burned the bridges and captured General Pope's headquarter trains, that Mr. Kemp was in the engagement. He escaped capture and fought later through the battle of Bull Run, still as a private. He served in turn in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, and, in the following winter, 1862 and 1863, was stationed at Win- chester, Virginia, as Assistant Master of Transportation. The station was attacked, in June, 1863, by the Confederate forces that were advancing toward Gettysburg. The small Union force made a brave defence and held the enemy back for several days. The station was finally surrounded and many of its defenders captured. Kemp made his way through the line to Pennsylvania and reached Harrisburg on July 3d, and started the next day-the last day of the great battle-with a train load of supplies for the army at Pine Grove. He remained in the Quartermaster's Department at Harrisburg until the fall of 1863, when he was ordered to rejoin his company in West Virginia. Before he reached there he was detailed at New Creek, then at Cumberland, Maryland; and Charles- town, West Virginia. In July, 1864, when he was ordered to Wheeling to be mustered out, he was among those to whom West Virginia voted medals. More than once he had been offered pro- motion from the ranks, but had steadily refused it, and he left the army as he had entered it, a private. Mr. Kemp was at once engaged by Acting Quartermaster Mark L. Dermott as Assistant Master of Transportation at Martinsburg, West Virginia, and was in that position at the time of Sheridan's victory in the Shenan- doah Valley. The office was then moved to Stevenson's Depot, four miles east of Winchester, where Kemp was on duty until the campaign ended.
For a while he was in business in Winchester and Strouds- burg, but his experience in housing and providing for large num-
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bers of men had fitted him for other occupation than that of a merchant. On November 1, 1867, he became manager of the Bolton Hotel, in Harrisburg, and held that post for eight years. In the summer of 1875 he became the Manager of the Columbia Hotel, at Cape May, and, in 1876, Centennial Year, managed the old Wash- ington House, at Seventh and Chestnut streets, and its branches. He went to Kane in May, 1877, to take charge of the Thomson House, which he managed until March, 1896, with the exception of five years spent as Manager of the Belmont House, at Ebens- burg, Pennsylvania. He was soon recognized as one of the most influential men in Kane, and when, in October, 1896, the First National Bank of Kane was being organized, he became one of the heaviest stockholders, was elected a Director at the first meeting, and soon afterward was appointed Cashier. For several years he has been active in the Board of Trade of Kane and is now First Vice-President of that body. His principal efforts toward the busi- ness growth of that city have taken the form of inducing new industries and new investments to locate there. For several years he was a Trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, and has always been an effective worker in church matters.
JOHN L. KINSEY.
HE Bar of Pennsylvania has given to the State many of the brightest men who are now occu- pying elective offices of a responsible order, and this is particularly true in Philadelphia, where by far the greater number of high political honors is held by graduates from the ranks of the legal profession. John L. Kinsey, the subject of this biography, is a notable example of this. Born and reared in Philadelphia, and educated in his own city for the profession of law, he advanced in it until he gained the widest recognition for his ability and soundness of judgment. In 1896 he was elected to his latest post of responsibility, that of City Solicitor of Philadelphia.
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