USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume III > Part 15
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In May, 1882, Mr. Hopkins was married to Julia Taylor, daugh- ter of B. Holden Taylor, of Williamsport, and granddaughter of ex-United States Senator Mckean. Two sons were born as the result of this union, one, Albert Joseph, February 12, 1885, and the other, William Patton, his only living child, on May 23, 1886. The older boy died on January 15, 1891. Mrs. Hopkins died on July 22, 1896.
Mr. Hopkins was again married on June 2, 1897, to Matilda Givens MacDonald, daughter of David MacDonald, of Glasgow, Scot- land. He is a member of the New England Society of Pennsylvania.
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Allegheny County, New York, leaving that institution in 1856. He resided at Jamestown, Westfield and Forestville, giving his attention to mercantile pursuits until 1862, when he moved to Troy, Pennsyl- vania, where he had been, in 1856 and 1857, an instructor in the Troy Academy, and became interested as a merchant, with his brother-in- law, G. D. Long, in the firm of Long & Hopkins. In 1867, on account of failing health, he removed to Lock Haven, his present home, becoming actively engaged in lumbering. Beginning in a small way, he gave the business his undivided attention, gradually mastering all its details, and has for a number of years enjoyed the distinction of being among the most successful manufacturers of lumber in Pennsyl- vania. His name is known to the trade of the whole country, his operations as a member of the firm of Hopkins & Weymouth and Hopkins & Irvin being among the most extensive in Clinton, Clearfield, Cambria and Jefferson counties, where the lumber industry gives employment to thousands of men, and from whose forests a large proportion of all the Pennsylvania lumber is sent to the market. His partner is George Weymouth, with whom he has been associated twenty-six years.
While Mr. Hopkins has devoted himself mostly to the manage- ment of his lumbering interests, he has not confined himself entirely to that business. He is extensively engaged in the cattle trade in north- western Kansas; has large interests in Michigan timber; in California sugar pine timber lands, owning 40,000 acres on the Klamath River, over the State line in Oregon, and is the owner of valuable property in Washington, D. C.
Mr. Hopkins has always taken an active interest in the affairs of his city, State and nation, giving his best thought and efforts to the advancement of the interests of the common people. Although frequently solicited to serve his neighbors in a public capacity, it was not until 1890 that he could be prevailed upon to do so. In October of that year he was the Republican nominee for Congress in the Sixteenth Pennsylvania District, composed of the counties of Clinton, Lycoming, Potter and Tioga. His Democratic opponent was Mortimer F. Elliott, of Tioga County, whose personal popularity on several former occasions secured him the votes of a majority of the
GEORGE A. HUHN.
S a leading representative of the important business of A banking and brokerage, the name of George A. Huhn is well and favorably known through all the great financial centers of the country. For more than a score of years he has been closely identified with the bankers and brokers of Philadelphia, during which time many millions of dollars have passed through his hands. Even before he had risen from the desk of broker's clerk to the dignity and responsibility of actual membership in a banking firm, he possessed the complete con- fidence of his employers, handling for them some of the largest trans- actions made at the stock exchanges of that time. Energetic, and yet cautious, and supplied with a broad, deep and clear knowledge of his chosen business, he is thoroughly equipped for engagement either in the affairs of the great exchanges or at the desk in his office. Pos- sessed of a thorough knowledge of all the minor as well as the impor- tant details of the business, secured by experience and supplemented by a knowledge of the general conditions of the country, he is emi- nently fitted for the business in which he is engaged. Mr. Huhn's quick perception and good judgment have opened for him a place in the front rank of the financiers of the country.
GEORGE A. HUHN was born in Philadelphia, April 15, 1850, his parents being Charles Huhn and Cecilia Huhn. His father was descended from a Philadelphia family, who traced their ancestry back through several generations, and his mother came from an old and influential Virginia family. Entering the public schools of Philadelphia when quite young, quick to learn, he had, at the age of twelve years, passed through various grades and, in 1862, entered the office of W. H: Travis & Company, stock brokers. He remained with that firm
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until 1866, when he resigned his desk to accept a more responsible position with the firm of Cooper & Graff in the same line of business. For thirteen years he remained with the latter, passing up through the various grades in the office. In 1879 he formed a co-partnership with W. H. Tevis, who was the junior partner of the firm of N. H. Tevis & Company. Three years later, in 1882, he retired from that firm and became the partner of Robert Glendenning, under the title of Robert Glendenning & Company. This was dissolved upon the death of Mr. Glendenning in 1893, and a new firm was organized under the name of Huhn & Glendenning. Mr. Huhn's partner at this time was Robert E. Glendenning, a son of his former associate in business. Two years later, this, too, was dissolved and, in May, 1895, a new co-partnership was organized, George A. Huhn & Sons, com- posed of Mr. Huhn and his sons, George A., Jr., and Samuel Parham. This successful firm is not only very active in the business of Philadel- phia, but is recognized as an important factor in the exchanges of New York, Chicago and other cities. Mr. Huhn, personally, is a mem- ber of the Philadelphia, New York and Chicago Stock Exchanges. The firm of George A. Huhn & Sons is one of the most important of the banking and brokerage concerns in Philadelphia. As financiers they have prominently figured in a number of great transactions, espe- cially in the matter of passenger railway lines. Several other large financial measures have been successfully carried through by them, through Mr. Huhn as the active head, and the organization enjoys the entire and absolute confidence of those whom it represents. Mr. Huhn is a Republican in politics, but does not take an active interest in party work. Only when matters of especial moment are at stake does he take any real part in politics.
He is a member of the Union League, Art Club, Columbia Club, Merion Cricket Club and Country Club, and also of the New York Club of New York. Mr. Huhn is pleasant, though somewhat reserved in his manner, an entertaining conversationalist, and is, by reading and observation, always fully abreast of the times. He is an admirer of the fine arts and a close reader of contemporaneous literature.
In 1868 Mr. Huhn was united in marriage with Emma Parham, daughter of Samuel P. and Mary Parham. Their children are George A. Jr., Samuel Parham, Louisa Florence and William Tevis.
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GREENE R. HULSIZER.
MONG the young men of Pennsylvania who have gained distinction for themselves in the practice of medicine, stands prominently Greene R. Hulsizer, the subject of this biography. Though he will not have reached the age of forty until the Twentieth Century is in its second year, he has earned for himself an excel- lent reputation as a physician and surgeon, has secured a large and well-paying practice, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow-members of the medical profession. As a District Police Surgeon, Doctor Hulsizer rendered excellent service to the city, and, in the other and even more important public positions filled by him, he has acquitted himself with honor and credit, winning the approbation of those with whom he acted. He is one of the original organizers of that very valuable department of the muni- cipal government, the Philadelphia Medical Emergency Corps, the wisdom of the organization of which has been proven in many instances.
GREENE ROBBINS HULSIZER was born at Easton, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1862. His parents were Peter S. Hulsizer and Rachel (Hughes) Hulsizer, his father being a prominent citizen of Easton. Mr. Hulsizer's father is of French-German blood, his paternal ancestor being one of the DeRaunsvilles, who came to this country from France in 1790, settled near Bloomsbury, New Jersey, and became a prominent family in that section. His maternal grand- father was Hugh Breckenridge Hughes, who emigrated from Wales in the Eighteenth Century and made his home at what is now Hughesville, Pennsylvania, the town having been named in his honor. He and his family secured large tracts of land and afterward
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became very prominent in Easton society. Mr. Hulsizer attended the public schools of Easton and graduated from the Easton High School in 1880. His father was anxious that he should make the law his profession, and with that object in view he entered Lafayette College, but his personal inclinations were strongly in the direction of the medical profession, and, at the completion of his sophomore year at Lafayette, he left that institution and began studying medicine at home and at the office of his cousin, A. H. Hulsizer, M.D., under the latter's preceptorship. Meanwhile, he was teaching school at Reddington, Pennsylvania, and for two years he thus continued to acquire medical knowledge and to instruct the public school pupils. With the money thus earned, and with his mind well stored with the knowledge of medicine, Mr. Hulsizer entered the Jefferson Medical College and paid his way through that institution, graduating in 1887, at the age of twenty-five years. As a student he displayed unusual interest in the science of surgery, and by competitive examination was, immediately after graduation, appointed Resident Physician at the Jefferson Medical Hospital. Here he had the opportunity, which he so much desired, of securing hospital practice, thus supplementing his excellent theo- retical knowledge with the thoroughly practical, and under the best possible conditions.
Upon leaving the hospital Doctor Hulsizer opened an office in Philadelphia, and shortly after was appointed Police Surgeon of the Seventh District. A year later he was made Assistant Chief Surgeon of the Philadelphia Police and Fire Department. In 1892 Doctor Hulsizer was appointed Assistant Medical Inspector of the Philadelphia Board of Health. He brought to those offices medical and surgical skill of a high order, and these qualifications, coupled with originality and excellent executive ability, thoroughly well fitted him for the proper discharge of his duties. In 1895, together with Dr. Thomas H. Andrews, he organized the Philadelphia Medical Emergency Corps, the membership of which is composed of District Police Surgeons, the object being to render all possible assistance in all cases of accidents at fires, railroad wrecks and other calamities. Doctor Hulsizer is the Commander of the Corps,
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the whole being under the direction of the Department of Public Safety, and a thoroughly efficient force it has proven to be. The Corps is the first of its kind in the country, and has met with favorable comment and unqualified approval in all the large cities. In a measure, some of the more important cities have inaugurated a similar corps, but not one of them has been brought to anything like the perfect system which Philadelphia enjoys, and for which it is largely indebted to Doctor Hulsizer.
With a large and increasing private practice to attend to, and with the important duties of the offices of the Police and Fire Departments to discharge, Doctor Hulsizer's time is occupied to such an extent that he has very little to spare for social clubs and similar organizations. The office of Assistant Medical Inspector of the Board of Health imposes exceedingly important duties upon him, the health of the city depending, in a large degree, upon the care with which he investigates and reports.
Doctor Hulsizer is a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the Medical Club of Philadelphia, and the Pen and Pencil Club, to which organizations he devotes as much of what little spare time he has as possible. He is not married.
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CHARLES HUNSICKER.
HARLES HUNSICKER, for nearly forty years a C leading member of the Montgomery County Bar, was a son of Judge Joseph and Elizabeth (Meyer) Hun- sicker, and was born in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1835. His paternal ancestry was of Swiss origin. The first of the family to come to America was Valentine Hunsicker, an orphan boy, who, when seventeen years old, came over with a party of friends from Switzerland, and settled on the Perkiomen in 1717. A few years after, he built a mill, one of the earliest in the region, and now one of the landmarks on Perkiomen Creek. This primitive mill is still owned by the Hunsicker family. Valentine Hunsicker amassed considerable property, married and reared a large family, and to him all the Hunsickers in Eastern Pennsylvania trace their American ancestry.
One of his descendants, in the third generation, was Rev. John Hunsicker, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Rev. John Hunsicker was a zealous minister of the Mennonite Church, a large landholder and a man of great wealth and influence. Being of upright character, scrupulous, honest and of benevolent disposition, he was held in high esteem, and became widely known for his earnest and successful Christian work. By his active ministry he was largely instrumental in the upbuilding of the Mennonite Church in Eastern Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Detweiler and reared a family of six children, one of whom was Judge Joseph Hunsicker, who was born near Trappe, Montgomery County, May 29, 1798. He received a liberal English education, and on reaching manhood engaged in agricultural pursuits ; later, for some years, he was the leading lumber
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merchant in his locality. In 1849 he was appointed Associate Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Montgomery County, and served five years. He married Elizabeth Meyer in 1819, and by that union had a family of seven children, of whom Charles Hunsicker was one.
Charles Hunsicker received his early instruction in the common schools of his native township, and later attended the Washington Hall Institute at Trappe, and Freeland Seminary, now Ursinus Col- lege, Collegeville. When fifteen years old he entered the Sophomore Class of Union College, Schenectady, New York, from which he graduated, with high honors, in 1855. He then entered the law office of Col. James Boyd, of Norristown. Two years later, in August, 1857, when only twenty-one years old, he was admitted to the Mont- gomery County Bar. He soon came into prominence, being espe- cially successful in jury trials. His integrity, zeal, industry and ability as an advocate were quickly recognized, and secured for him a large general practice.
In 1861 Mr. Hunsicker entered the military service as Adjutant of Col. John F. Hartranft's famous regiment, the Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, Infantry, and served for a term of three months. Later he was twice in the field with the emergency men, first as Adjutant of his regiment, and on the second call as Lieutenant of Company F.
In politics Mr. Hunsicker was a Jeffersonian Democrat. In 1865 he was elected District Attorney for Montgomery County, and served with marked ability for three years. He was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1872-73 and took an active part in the deliberations of that body. While a member of the Constitutional Convention he introduced a section providing for a review of county criminal trials by the Supreme Court of the State. This was defeated by two votes, but its importance was so obvious that it was afterwards made a law by the Legislature. In 1884 Mr. Hunsicker was a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago, which nominated Grover Cleveland, and on other occasions was honored with the confidence of his party associates. In 1886 he was the Demo- cratic candidate for President Judge of Montgomery County, but was defeated with the entire ticket. He was a Trustee of the State Hospital for the Insane, having been originally appointed by Governor Pattison.
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In addition to his large practice, Mr. Hunsicker was Vice-President of the Montgomery Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Company of Norristown, and he took an active interest in the development of many laudable industrial enterprises in the community.
On June 13, 1865, Mr. Hunsicker was married to Margaret Schall, daughter of Gen. William Schall, of Norristown, Brigadier- General in the National Guard of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Margaret Schall Hunsicker is descended from a prominent Huguenot family that was driven from France by the religious troubles resulting from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Her mother was Caroline Trexler, a descendant of Capt. John Lesher, a member of the first Constitu- tional Convention, held in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, in 1776, and who afterwards served in the War of the Revolution. Mrs. Hunsicker is Regent of the Valley Forge Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. To Mr. and Mrs. Hunsicker were born two sons, Edwin Schall, a graduate of Union College, New York, and James Ritten- house, who was Lieutenant-Colonel on Governor Pattison's staff and at present First Lieutenant of Company F, Sixth Regiment Infantry.
After more than nine months of intense suffering, Mr. Hunsicker died of nervous prostration and heart failure, October 27, 1895, the morning after reaching his sixtieth year. He was a strict member of the Reformed Church, which he served as Trustee for nearly a quarter of a century.
HORACE C. JONES.
0 ₹ distinctively Quaker lineage, Horace C. Jones traces his ancestry back many generations. David Jones, the founder of this family in America, came, in 1699, from Haverford-West, Pembrokeshire, Wales, bring- ing with him his family and an interesting certificate from the Friends' Meeting there. He settled in Plymouth Township, and, in 1753, one of his sons, John, purchased two hundred acres of land along the Schuylkill River, upon which a portion of Conshohocken now stands. His son, Jonathan, inherited the farm, but outlived his father only a few years, and it came to his son, Isaac, who spent here most of his ninety-six years. He married Elizabeth Yerkes, a descendant of Anthony Jerghes, a Hollander, and to them was born a large family of children. In addition to farming, he carried on an extensive lime- burning business. He was a man of much force of character, a Whig in politics, and retained to the end of his long life the use of all his faculties and great clearness of mind. One of his sons, Jonathan, married Eliza Davis, a member of another old Quaker Welsh family. He engaged in farming and lime-burning in the vicinity of Consho- hocken, and when his sons, Evan D. and Elwood, reached manhood, started a lumber business under the firm name of Jonathan Jones & Sons. He was quite prosperous in business matters and enjoyed the respect of the community in which he lived to a rather unusual degree. His son, Elwood, the father of the subject of this biography, was born in 1830, and was educated at the public schools and at the school of Samuel Aaron, in Norristown. As a citizen he was pro- gressive and public-spirited and influential in his town and county. In politics he was a Republican, and took an intelligent, active interest in the success of the party. He was conscientious and fair in all his
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views, energetic and painstaking in the discharge of every duty, and highly esteemed by all with whom he came in contact. Elwood Jones married Rachel Roberts Conrad, a descendant of Thomas Kunders, one of the first German emigrants in America. On July 24, 1683, a little band of thirty-three people, with Francis Daniel Pastorius at their head, and hailing from Crefeld, near the Rhine, Germany, set sail in the good ship " Concord " for the New World. In this party were Thomas Kunders, his wife, Elin, and three children. Before starting from Germany, for ten pounds Thomas Kunders had purchased five hundred acres of land in Pennsylvania. Soon after his arrival, he built a home, the walls of which are still standing and form part of the house of No. 4357 Germantown Avenue. History tells us that here was held the first Friends' Meeting in Germantown, which was attended by the dignified Proprietor himself, William Penn. From this early settler the subject of this biography traces his descent.
HORACE C. JONES was born, June 16, 1857. He was educated at the public schools and graduated from the Conshohocken High School in June, 1873. After this he spent one year in the Scientific Department of the University of Pennsylvania, being a member of the class of 1877. Upon abandoning his studies he decided to embark in the business in which his father had been engaged, and he sub- sequently represented his father's interests in the firm of E. D. & E. Jones from 1874 to 1880. This firm was engaged in a large lumber business and was one of the best known in that section of the State at the time ; but, in 1880, under the firm name of H. C. Jones & Com- pany, Mr. Jones took the Schuylkill Woolen Mills, and from that time on has conducted them in such a successful manner that the establish- ment has come to be known as one of the foremost in the industrial circles of Philadelphia. He was associated with Stanley Lees for a period of five years in operating the Schuylkill Woolen Mills, but in 1885 Mr. Lees retired, and John Booth was given an interest as manager of the concern, remaining in that capacity up to the present time.
Perhaps the greatest tribute that can be paid to Mr. Jones' busi- ness ability is the statement of the fact that when he took hold of the Schuylkill Woolen Mills he was but twenty-three years of
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age, and, during a period of seventeen years since that time, he has operated this well-known establishment with a success that has been pronounced remarkable. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Jones has given a large part of his time to the development of the Schuylkill Woolen Mills, his energetic nature has naturally prompted him not to devote all of his attention to this one business. In the affairs of Conshohocken he has been a prominent figure, and has been identified with some of the most important interests of that section of the State. Particularly in the financial development of Conshohocken's resources has he been active. He is a Director of the First National Bank of Conshohocken, is a Director of the Conshohocken Woolen Company and the Conshohocken Gas Light Company. When the Conshohocken Electric Light and Power Com- pany was organized, Mr. Jones evidenced such an interest in its successful establishment and subsequent development that he was shortly afterward made Secretary and Treasurer of the organiza- tion, which position he still holds. He also holds the position of Director in the Norristown Title and Trust and Safe Deposit Com- pany. In all these varied interests Mr. Jones occupies his entire time, and in the progress of each one he is thoroughly interested, while, at the same time, he gives the larger part of his attention to the Schuyl- kill Woolen Mills, which establishment is a decided factor in the indus- trial development of the city of Philadelphia.
On February 5, 1889, Mr. Jones was married to Linda Loch, daughter of Dr. John W. Loch, of Treemount Seminary, Norristown. They have one son, Spencer Loch Jones. Mr. Jones takes consider- able interest in the industrial affairs of Pennsylvania, and in his own city he is recognized as a leading manufacturer, being one of the active members of the Manufacturers' Club. Mr. Jones is also a mem- ber of the Union League Club, and has other social and business affiliations which stamp him as a man of progressive tendencies.
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RICHMOND LEIGH JONES.
H IGH in repute in legal circles and widely known as one of the most public-spirited and philanthropic citizens of Reading, RICHMOND L. JONES, the subject of this biography, has done much to deserve his place among the progressive Pennsylvanians of the Nineteenth Century. He was born, February 17, 1840, and after a thorough training in the best schools of this country, completed his education at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Before entering that world- renowned institution, however, he went to South America with the United States expedition against Paraguay, visiting the islands of St. Thomas and Barbadoes in the West Indies, the principal cities of the West coast of South America, and, sailing a thousand miles up the Parana River to Ascuncion, was present at the capitulation of Lopez, which crowned the success of the expedition. After a sojourn of sev- eral years in Europe, he returned to America and entered the law office of his father as a student, and having been thoroughly qualified, was admitted to the Bar of Berks County, April 14, 1863. He was subsequently admitted to the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth and to the Bar of Philadelphia and other counties of the State.
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