USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume II > Part 25
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WILLIAM A. MARR, of Ashland, Pennsylvania, was born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, of parents who were among the best known people in that section of the State. His father was Phineas B., and his mother Mary G. Marr. His paternal ancestry was Scotch, and that branch of the family had given to the community some of its sturdiest and brainiest men. From his mother's peo- ple Mr. Marr inherited north of Ireland blood and brawn, and the combination of qualities with which he was thus endowed fitted him for the severest battles of life. From his earliest days he displayed a determination to succeed, and he let pass no legitimate opportunity to make himself a worthy son of worthy parents. He attended the common school, and, after receiving a fundamental
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education here, went to the Lewisburg University, now known as Bucknell, graduating in 1860. When but sixteen years of age Mr. Marr taught school that he might lay by sufficient means to enable him to successfully prosecute those studies upon which he had determined. He had a natural liking for the profession of law, and, at an early age, he determined to apply himself most studiously in that direction. After he had graduated from the University of Lewisburg, although possessed of a splendid educa- tion, he did not feel, for financial reasons, as though he was yet able to begin the study of law. Consequently he went to Dan- ville, Pennsylvania, where he taught school for three years, study- ing in the meantime in the law offices of George A. Miller, of Lewisburg. By 1865 he had completed his studies and had also laid by sufficient funds to enable him to enter into the practice of his profession. In that year he was admitted to the Bar at Ashland, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and opened a law office there. He speedily acquired quite a reputation, and, as he was thoroughly acquainted with business methods and commercial affairs, he was made the attorney for a number of banks and similar institutions. Eventually he was made Director of a num- ber of these banks, and before long his application and close attention to business and the duties of his profession established him upon a basis of permanent prosperity. Mr. Marr is now a Director in and attorney for the Citizens' National Bank, of Ash- land, and he has been connected, in various capacities, with sev- eral other enterprises.
Such abilities as Mr. Marr possessed could not long allow of his being overlooked in the political affairs of the Keystone State, and soon after his admission to the Bar his party called upon him for service. He has always been an active Democrat, and his eloquence has, upon more than one occasion, been used to advance the party's interests. More important than this have been his offices in behalf of Democracy as Chairman of a number of important committees in Western Pennsylvania. However, Mr. Marr has had no ambition whatever to shine as a leader in poli- tics, but he has rather refrained from accepting such honors as
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his admirers have from time to time wished to bestow upon him. Notwithstanding this, he has been elected and served as Delegate to many State conventions, in the successful conduct of which he has invariably been an important and able factor. He repre- sented the Democracy of his District at the National conventions in 1888 and 1896. Mr. Marr has three times been Chairman of the Schuylkill County Democratic Committee, although he has always been elected against his wishes. On the other hand, once elected he has uniformly given the duties incumbent upon him his most careful and conscientious attention.
Mr. Marr has never been married, although he is socially as well as politically in high favor. His large law practice occupies by far the greater portion of his time, and his identification with one of the leading financial institutions of his city also calls for considerable attention. The esteem in which he is held by the people of Schuylkill County is probably the greatest tribute which can be paid to the character of this thoroughly progressive Penn- sylvanian.
. E.Francis &Co.
AM, Marshall
ARCHIBALD M. MARSHALL.
HE great Flour Mills of the Marshall-Kennedy Mill- ing Company, of Pittsburg, were among the first enterprises of the kind established in Pennsyl- vania, and they are now among the leading in the country. The subject of this sketch, Archi- bald M. Marshall, was the organizer of this concern in 1865, and through his progressive business methods and honorable course of life he rose to a position of prominence in the Commonwealth, at the time of his death being rated as worth $2,000,000.
ARCHIBALD M. MARSHALL was born in Newton, Limavady, Ireland, February 7, 1814. His parents were James M. and Jean Peebles Marshall, who resided in Newton, and were among the best known people in Limavady District. When he was quite a lad his parents came to this country and settled in Western Pennsylvania, along with many others of the same class. He was educated in the Butler County public schools, where he received the foundation for a more thorough education. Rev. John Dickey, of Pittsburg, acted later on in the capacity of educator of the young man. When he left school he worked as a boy in his brother James' grocery store in Allegheny until 1838, when, hav- ing acquired a thorough understanding of the trade, he opened a similar establishment for himself. He attained great success in his business venture and afterwards conducted a large grocery on Federal Street, Allegheny. Within a short space of time he became one of the best known business men in the city of Alle- gheny, and, branching out into larger fields, he went into the dry- goods business, establishing a large store also on Federal Street. He met with great success in this, and before long had a thriv-
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ing business. He enjoyed a personal acquaintance with nearly every person living north of the Allegheny River, extending out to the town of Butler. Mr. Marshall was a natural business man and of a most enterprising spirit, and his methods were always in advance of the times. Consequently he became identified with the chief interests of his city to a great extent, and was counted one of the most public spirited business men in the place. Not- withstanding his success up to that time, Mr. Marshall, in 1856, decided to enter the manufacturing field, and accordingly estab- lished a flouring plant and devoted all his time and energy to the successful maintenance of it. It was not long before it was one of the most important industrial establishments of its kind in Pennsylvania. Every known improvement was introduced by Mr. Marshall as rapidly as its practicability was demonstrated, with the result that his flouring mills attracted general notice.
As President of the Marshall-Kennedy Milling Company of Pittsburg, Mr. Marshall up until the time of his death, April 28, 1897, was widely known in the business world. Although he gave the largest part of his time to the development of his enter- prise, he yet found time to identify himself with several other important organizations. He was one of the promoters of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad Company, and was a Director therein until it was merged into a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad system. Mr. Marshall's excellent administrative ability was a large factor in the success of this road. In Alle- gheny he occupied an honorable standing as one of its best and most progressive citizens. He was a Director in the Second National Bank of Allegheny, and a Director of the Dollar Sav- ings Bank.
Mr. Marshall's interest in the common cause of humanity led him many times to take a leading part in movements looking toward the betterment of the condition of the people. He was active in the administration of the affairs of several charitable institutions, and wherever his services were needed in work of a benevolent nature, they were always gladly tendered. He was President of the Western Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind,
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and under his management the affairs of this famous establish- ment were conducted on a most successful scale. Mr. Marshall never had any fancy for public office, and, in fact, steadily refused all offers of advancement in this direction. He served, however, as Councilman from the First Ward of the city of Allegheny, and while in that office his reputation for integrity and ability made itself felt. Mr. Marshall all his life was an earnest church and Sunday-school worker, taking a great interest in all matters pertaining to the dissemination of religion. He was an active member of the Covenanter Church until he was married, when he joined the Presbyterian Church. In the latter he was a Ruling Elder for thirty years and was one of the most valuable members of the Presbytery. He founded and established many Sunday- schools, always retaining an interest in the welfare of such organ- izations after his initial work had been successfully completed. In addition to this he helped to inaugurate many churches. Mr. Marshall was one of the leading spirits in the establishment of the Allegheny City parks, and was for years the guiding Director among those who turned the old Public Commons, about 1868, then a dumping ground for ashes, into the beautiful parks at present existing. Mr. Marshall was one of the foremost botanists of the State, and his knowledge in this line was invaluable to the city in the selection and maintenance of trees, shrubs and flowers for the parks. He was one of those private citizens who, in 1893, purchased the present Riverview Park, containing two hundred and thirty-two acres, and presented it to the city.
In 1845 Mr. Marshall was married to Mary J. Bell. Five children were the result of this union, three of whom died in their early years. The two remaining are Mrs. Arthur W. Bell and Mrs. Harmar D. Denny.
EDWIN A. MERRICK.
HE office of General Superintendent of the House of Correction is of the utmost importance, inasmuch as it exercises a direct and powerful influence on the good government of the people in general and the management and control of the vicious classes in particular. To hold such a post, a man must be specially endowed with all the qualities which severally combine to make a strong mind, a sturdy will and a steadfast faithfulness. Edwin A. Merrick has all of these, and is a Philadelphian whose career and character are in every sense praiseworthy.
EDWIN A. MERRICK was born February 15, 1829, in the old District of Southwark, and resided within its boundaries for upwards of forty-eight years. He is the son of Captain Alex- ander P. and Ann Merrick. Captain Merrick contracted the yellow fever and died in Mobile, Alabama, leaving the son father- less when he was two years old. Edwin A. Merrick's mother, whose maiden name was Bickham, lived to be eighty-nine years old. The Bickhams were Quakers, but, early in life, she embraced the religious teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, under the influ- ence of which the son received his early training and the mould- ing of his character. His first educational training he received as a student in the Ringgold Public School, from there entering the Philadelphia Central High School. He graduated at the closing of a two years' term in order to enter early upon life's sterner duties.
At the age of sixteen Edwin A. Merrick obtained employ- ment in a dry-goods commission house, a business conducted by Cyrus Hillborn, in Church Alley, and remained there until he
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reached manhood, after which he accepted a position as book- keeper for the firm of A. & R. See. He remained with this firm a number of years and continued with them after they became the owners and publishers of Graham's Monthly Magazine, and until they disposed of their ownership to McLaughlin Brothers, with whom he was employed for a short period before entering business on his own account. Mr. Merrick has been connected with three of Philadelphia's banking institutions in the capacity of Director, and is a senior member of the Board of Directors of the Southwark National Bank. In the fall of 1864 he was nomi- nated by the Union Republican Party and elected to the office of Clerk of the Orphans' Court. In 1876 he was elected, by the Councils of the City of Philadelphia, a member of the Board of Managers of the House of Correction, Employment and Reforma- tion. In this important institution he has ever since found his leading interests, and from that time dates a career of great ser- vice to Philadelphia.
In 1877 the Board of Managers of the House of Correction, Employment and Reformation, desirous of correcting abuses and the defective discipline at that time existing in the institution, and impressed with Mr. Merrick's peculiar characteristics and adaptation for such a service, prevailed upon him to accept a position specially created with power conferred, under rules unan- imously adopted to aid in accomplishing the objects specified. Shortly after Mr. Merrick entered upon his duties, the desired changes in the administration of the institution's affairs became apparent and discipline has been always since maintained.
In his younger days Mr. Merrick took an active interest in politics, serving the Republican party and his friends in ward, city and State executive committees and nominating conventions for several years. He was instrumental, whilst a member of the City Committee, in having a convention called to revise the rules, and create division organizations. He was a leading spirit in working to consolidate all the elements of opposition to the Democracy, and was a member of one of the three conventions assembled, viz. : Native American, Republican and People's. These
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each nominated the same ticket, headed by Alexander Henry for Mayor. Mr. Merrick was a member of the City Committee during this campaign, which was one of the most important in the city's political history.
On February 22, 1854, Mr. Merrick married Susan Crowell, daughter of the late Thomas E. Crowell, attorney at law. He is the father of three sons and two daughters: Ida A., Emily J., Howard, Lincoln and Herbert Garfield, the two latter bearing the names of the assassinated Presidents.
B. D. Meyers
BENJAMIN F. MEYERS.
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O workers in the journalistic field have been more uniformly successful than those who have entered the newspaper world by the pathway that leads through the law. There seems to be something in the keen analysis of legal cases that a success- ful lawyer must make before he will venture to express an opinion of its merits, and the thorough marshaling of all the facts that might affect the question at issue, of especial value to the editor of a newspaper. The grave study from every viewpoint, the dis- passionate consideration of his opponent's strong points and the gathering of facts and the devising of arguments with which to undermine opposition, are of inestimable value to him, since his opinions, once expressed in print, are almost irrevocably spread broadcast. Having had the benefits of such a training, it naturally followed that upon becoming successful at the Bar, Benjamin F. Meyers, of Harrisburg, should also have achieved a notable repu- tation as a journalist. With such excellent preparation, his dis- tinguished career, both as a statesman and lawmaker and as an energetic and successful business man, followed almost as a matter of course.
BENJAMIN F. MEYERS, the subject of this sketch, was born near New Centreville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on the 6th day of July, 1833. He was the son of Michael D. and Sarah Meyers, and his ancestry is German in almost unbroken strain. However, the father of his father's mother, whose name was Dickey, was from sturdy north of Ireland stock. His mother's family was originally from the vine-covered hills of Rhenish Bavaria. Mr. Meyers' ancestors, however, have been in this country since the II .- 22
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Colonial days, one progenitor, Jacob Meyers, having served his country as a soldier through the struggle that gained for the Colonies independence and a place in the family of nations.
His early training was received in the common schools near his childhood's home, and as he displayed marked aptitude and even at that age gave promise of a studious nature, he was entered in the Somerset Academy. Here, too young Meyers showed such application to his books that upon the completion of his course, he continued his studies at Jefferson College. On leaving his Alma Mater he entered enthusiastically into the study of law and in November, 1855, was admitted to the Bar at Somerset. Having practiced law as a member of the firm of Weyand & Meyers with considerable success, two years later he concluded to abandon his profession for that of journalism, becoming editor of the Bedford Gazette in 1857. This journal was successfully conducted, first by Meyers & Bedford and later by Meyers & Mengel, for eleven years, Mr. Meyers in all this time acquiring an enviable reputation for clear and concise editorial work and thorough business manage- ment. In 1868 he entered the firm of Meyers, Brown & Moore, publishers and proprietors of the Harrisburg Patriot, where his forceful work, his keen insight into political affairs, the comprehen- siveness born of his legal training, his genial personality and, withal, his sterling integrity, soon made him a power in central Pennsylvania journalism. In 1891 he retired from the Patriot, and he has since been the proprietor of the Star-Independent, as well as its editor-in-chief. The Star-Independent is a daily afternoon paper, and it, too, by the aid of those qualities that had already won him distinction, he rapidly placed in the front rank.
Of legal and journalistic training, his mind naturally turned to political affairs, and his personal popularity soon opened up for him a career as a lawmaker. In 1864 he went from Bedford County to the State Legislature. From 1870 until 1873 he repre- sented his District in the Congress of the United States, and upon his retirement from the legislative halls he became State Printer, which position he held from 1874 to 1877. He was Postmaster of Harrisburg from 1887 to 1892, and has been twice the Delegate-at-
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Large and frequently District Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, as well as Delegate to almost every Democratic State Convention held in recent years. Among the many honors that have come to him Mr. Meyers esteems not the least the confidence his fellow newspaper workers showed in him when, in 1875, they elected him to the Presidency of the State Editorial Association, and re-elected him in 1876. Besides his journalistic and publish- ing interests, Mr. Meyers is prominently known as one of the most progressive and enterprising business men in the State, his especial forte being the electric railway business. He has served as Vice- President of the Harrisburg Traction Company; President of the Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley Traction Company; the South Harrisburg Chain Works; the Brelsford Packing Company of Harris- burg; the Riverton Water Company, and is a Director in the Clover- dale Lithia Water Company and the Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg Street Railway Company. In 1896 he was President of the Penn- sylvania Street Railway Association. He was married to Susan C. Koontz, April 4, 1854. Their children are Rosa S., now the wife of Ellis L. Mumma ; Edwin K., Henry S., Susan Irene, who married B. F. Africa, of Huntingdon, and William K. Meyers. Mr. Meyers at present, aside from his intense interest in public affairs, devotes almost the whole of his time and attention to his afternoon news- paper and to his interests in the electric railway, which system, his foresight early led him to perceive, was destined to become the general method of local transportation. He is also the author of a volume of unpublished poems, including a translation of the Sap- phic odes of Horace, in imitation of the Sapphic and Adonic metre, and numerous translations from the German of Goethe and Uhland and from the Pennsylvania German of Rev. H. Harbaugh.
JOHN D. MISHLER.
IN the vast State of Pennsylvania the prominence and progressiveness which have made it famous throughout the world are characteristics by no means confined to those of its sons who are engaged in the development of its resources, or who are identified with its industrial facilities. There are many of its citizens who have reached fame by other lines just as direct, although more favored with the romantic. John D. Mishler, the subject of this sketch, is well known throughout the State and the entire country in his profession, particularly in its eastern division, for his creative spirit, his liberality, and the original qualities of his mind; and these, no less than the fact that he has made an enviable reputation for himself and built up a splendid competence with practically nothing to start on save the gifts which nature gave him, have tended to make him a truly representative Pennsylvanian.
JOHN D. MISHLER was born at Newmanstown, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, on April 28, 1847. In 1848, his parents, Joseph Mishler and wife, who was Rebecca Zimmerman, of old Pennsylvanian stock, moved to Reading, taking their son with them. After receiving an ordinary education in the pay schools of the city, he entered the services of the then leading dry-goods house of John S. Pearson & Company in 1864, as package boy, at a salary of $75 per year. In this position he carried or deliv- ered on a wheelbarrow to residences all the goods sold by the firm, and such was the ambition which characterized him, even at that early age, that between times he sold over $15,000 worth of dry-goods during the first year, and the firm increased his salary
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to $100. Being desirous of increasing his fund of knowledge, especially in his own line of business, he sailed for Europe on May 4, 1867, making a four months' tour. The following year, at Reading, he commenced the retail dry-goods business, which he continued until the latter part of 1873, introducing many new ideas to attract customers. He was always a liberal, original advertiser, and was the first business man in Reading to insert a column advertisement. This was in 1868, and later larger ones appeared, which at that time seemed an astonishing venture, notably one of an entire page. In this and similar departures he out- lined the plan of operations followed with much success by similar establishments in later years. In 1873 Mr. Mishler discontinued the dry-goods business. His interest in the prosperity of Reading was manifested in many ways. He was one of the leading men, and one of the first Directors of the Penn Street Passenger Railway Company in 1874. January 6, 1891, he organized the Berks County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and was its President for three years. He was a member of the organization of the Board of Health of that city in 1873. In April, 1875, chiefly through his advocacy, the Reading Fair grounds were transformed into a public park, which is now one of the most beautiful spots of the city, being located at the head of its leading business thorough- fare. By the erection of a marble public drinking fountain in 1871, in the financial assistance he gave Professor Washington Donaldson, the well known æronaut, for his important experiments in paper balloon ascensions in 1873, through his liberal services and by his many active public works Mr. Mishler has thoroughly demonstrated that he is a model citizen, and a credit to his city and State. Politically he is a Republican. In local elections, however, he supports those candidates whom he thinks most com- petent to fill the offices to which they aspire, irrespective of political affiliations, having never voted a "straight ticket." He is in religion a Lutheran, but is a liberal friend to the members of every other faith. He is a member of the Philadelphia Sover- eign Consistory, S. P. R. S., Thirty-second Degree Mason, and all the lodges and degrees of the various orders to that elevation.
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He is also a member of Rajah Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and Protective Order of Elks. For twenty-five years he has been most liberal and foremost in charities of all kinds, and on several occasions he has entertained hundreds of poor children in Christmas dinners or summer excursions.
John D. Mishler is perhaps best known as one of the leading theatrical managers of the State. In 1872 his father erected the first modern theatre in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Mr. Mishler managed this until 1886, when he had it removed, and, with a stock company, had erected the present Academy of Music, which he now controls. Aside from his suc- cessful conduct of the local enterprise, Mr. Mishler has managed some of the most successful traveling organizations throughout the country, and, in 1873, he established the Mishler Theatrical Circuit of eastern Pennsylvania, comprising nine of the principal cities, which he now controls. Mr. Mishler is one of the most conscientious men of his calling in the United States. It is gen- erally known that he will not countenance any theatrical enterprise which has not thorough artistic merit, and he eschews all adventi- tious aid in accomplishing the success of his ventures.
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