USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume III > Part 16
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Mr. Jones is descended from a long line of distinguished colonial and revolutionary ancestors on both sides of his house. His father, J. Glancy Jones, was an able lawyer and a distinguished Member of Congress from Berks County from 1850 to 1859, during his last term being Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. He resigned his seat in Congress to accept the appointment of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria, which office he held during the trying times of the commencement of the Civil War, when our relations with foreign countries were extremely delicate.
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His great-grandfather, Col. Jonathan Jones, was the senior captain of the first regiment raised in Pennsylvania, in October, 1775, for the Continental Army. He participated in the winter campaign for the relief of the Army at Quebec, after the death of Montgomery, and also in many important engagements. For distinguished services he was promoted to the rank of Major and later to that of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Pennsylvania line. Mr. Jones' great-great-grandfather, David Jones, came from Wales to Pennsylvania in 1721 and bought a large tract of land in Caernarvon Township, where he opened and devel- oped iron ore mines, which still bear his name. Mr. Jones' mother was the daughter of William Rodman, of Bucks County, who was a Brigade Quartermaster in the Army of the Revolution, and afterwards a member of the Senate of Pennsylvania, and of the Twelfth Con- gress of the United States. The Rodman family is one of the oldest in the New World, having settled in America in the early part of the Seventeenth Century and contributed to the colonies many of their most distinguished citizens.
He has attained marked distinction in his profession, having tried and won many cases involving important principles of law, which are now widely quoted as precedents. The Reading street railway sys- tem, with its suburban adjuncts, and the electric light and gas systems, owe their marked success largely to the genius and ability displayed by Mr. Jones in their organization and development. He is general counsel also for the Electric Light Association of Pennsylvania. His services to the public have been equally notable, and the prosperous community in which he lives cheerfully acknowledges many substantial benefits largely due to his well-directed energy and the wisdom of his counsel. It was mainly through his efforts that the city of Reading recovered the tract of land, lost for nearly a hundred years, at the foot of Penn's Mount, the head of the city, now beautifully improved as the city park and known as Penn Common; and that the free public library of the city, of which he is President, was rescued from obscurity and sacrifice, placed upon an enduring foundation by liberal private contributions headed with his name, and then adopted by the public as worthy of maintenance out of the common purse.
In 1862, on the invasion of Maryland by the Confederate Army,
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Mr. Jones enlisted as a private soldier and was present at the battle of Antietam, and, in 1863, he was made Captain of a company of Pennsylvania Volunteers. In 1866 he was elected a member of the Legislature from the County of Berks, and was twice re-elected; but a distaste for politics and a preference for the work of his profession induced him to retire from public life and he has since held no public office. The political party to which he belonged was in the minority in the House of Representatives, but in 1868, his second term, he received his party's nomination for the Speakership, having forty-six votes on twenty-five ballots, which, owing to dissensions in the major- ity party, was the highest vote cast for any candidate. His speeches on the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, then being considered, were widely read and ranked with the best arguments upon that subject.
Mr. Jones is a Vestryman of Christ Episcopal Church, Reading, and is a Director in many local organizations. He is also a member of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, and Grand Army of the Republic. On November 26, 1870, he married Margaret Ellen McCarty, daughter of James McCarty, a prominent iron-master of Reading, and Rebecca MacVeagh, his wife. He has onc daughter, who is the wife of Nathaniel Ferguson, of Reading.
WILLIAM H. KEYSER.
CONSPICUOUS service in the halls of legislation has made the name of the subject of this review a familiar one throughout the Keystone State. Besides his other eminent public services, William H. Keyser, who is a well-known merchant of Philadelphia, repre- sented the city of his birth in the Pennsylvania House of Representa- tives for fourteen years, during which time he labored earnestly and effectively to further the interests of his constituents in every way possible, and left the impress of his energetic efforts upon the statute books of the Commonwealth.
WILLIAM H. KEYSER was born in the old district of Spring Garden, Philadelphia, on the 19th day of May, 1855. His father, Andrew J. Keyser, was a joiner and worked at that occupation in the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, from 1860 until shortly after the inauguration of President Cleveland, in 1885, when he was removed from office. During the twenty-five years of service to the Govern- ment he rose to the position of master joiner of the League Island Yard, which post he held at the time of his removal from the service. The subject of this biography is a descendant, too, of James Small- man, who built the engine for Robert Fulton's first steamboat. After nine years' attendance in the public schools of his native city, part of which time was spent in the primary department and part in the Wyoming Grammar School, young Keyser, when less than fifteen years of age, started out to earn his own living. He secured a posi- tion in 1870, in Leary's Old Book Store, Philadelphia. He remained here until 1879, having among his fellow sales-clerks Edwin S. Stuart, since Mayor of the city and now the proprietor of the establishment in which he had formerly held a minor position.
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After nearly a decade spent in this business, during which time he acquired a thorough insight into all its details, Mr. Keyser's ambition and progressive tendencies led him to seek an opportunity to enter the commercial field on his own account. Accordingly he established, at Tenth and Arch streets, the widely known firm of William H. Keyser & Company, wholesale dealers in school books, later remov- ing, when the press of business demanded greater facilities, to the present store, which is located at 1231 Filbert Street.
The affairs of government always held the deepest interest for Mr. Keyser and he took an active part and soon won a wide influence in the councils of the Republican party, with which organization he allied himself, and in furthering whose interest he has rendered much effective service. His prominent position in his party led to his nomination, in 1882, for the position of Representative in the Legis- lature of the State. He and Samuel A. Boyle, afterwards Assistant District Attorney, were nominated against Messrs. Hall and Abbett, the candidates of the Democracy, but were defeated in the Demo- cratic landslide which swept Robert E. Pattison into the Governorship. In 1884, however, he was re-nominated by his party, which readily recognized the fact that his previous defeat was due in no measure to any fault on Mr. Keyser's part, but was the result of a general revolt against the Republicans. He was elected, and served with such marked ability that he was given biennial re-nominations in 1886, 1888, 1890, 1892, 1894 and 1896, being widely recognized as one of the most capable, efficient and energetic members Philadelphia ever had in the halls of the House of Representatives. His position as legislator, however, does not sum up his usefulness to his party, which selected him as a member of the State Committee in 1888, and he has represented the Third Senatorial District in the Committee continuously since that date. Mr. Keyser was Secretary of the City Convention that nominated Magistrate Devlin, and has long been a leader in the politics of the Twentieth Ward, his residence having been continuously in the Twenty-ninth Division. He was an influ- ential Delegate in the convention that nominated John W. Morrison for State Treasurer and Gen. D. McM. Gregg for Auditor-General, as well as in that nominating Henry K. Boyer for State Treasurer.
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In the State Convention which named Judge John Dean for the Supreme Bench, and Gen. William Lilly and Alexander McDowell for Congressmen-at-large, Mr. Keyser was a hard-working Delegate. He was chairman of the committee appointed by the State Convention of 1891 to elect delegates-at-large for the proposed constitutional con- vention. He was a member of the investigating committee which went over the accounts of Auditor-General McCalmont and Treasurer Boyer, at the time of the Bardsley affair. He was also on the investi- gating committee which audited the books of Auditor-General Mylin and State Treasurer Haywood in 1897.
Among the many measures that owe their place on the statute books of the State to Mr. Keyser's efforts is the bill that gave Phil- adelphia an additional Orphans' Court Judge, which was passed in 1887, during which year Mr. Keyser also held the Chairmanship of the Insurance Committee. After three terms he was Chairman of the Committee on Passenger Railways. In 1889 he successfully piloted, among other bills, those giving wheelmen right of way, and enabling foreign steamboat and transportation companies to hold real estate in Pennsylvania, also the bill known as the General Street Passenger Railway Act, to remedy defective and narrowly drafted laws. The Sheriff's Fee Bill, which had been defeated in the sessions of 1883 and 1885, was, largely through Mr. Keyser's energy and influence, enacted into law during the session of 1887. A special tribute to his sagacity and trustworthiness was paid in 1885, when he was the only member of the Judiciary General Committee who was not a lawyer. During his legislative term he has figured on many other of the most impor- tant committees of the House of Representatives. Among these were the Ways and Means, Education and Geological Surveys. His whole legislative life, as well as his entire commercial career, has been characterized by bed-rock common sense, tireless industry and vigi- lance, and fidelity to his friends.
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GEORGE HENRY KOBLER.
C OURAGE is always admired and is applauded, even though the object sought is not attained. The world admires and encourages the man who possesses that nobility of character which enables him to face, time and again, obstacles and oppositions which to the average man appear insurmountable, and who, overcoming them, forces his way to the front. George H. Kobler, the subject of this biography, in his profession, that of medicine, is a careful, cautious practitioner as well as a student, and in politics he is widely known as a bold, vigorous, uncompromising fighter. Though defeated more than once by the faction of the party to which he was opposed, even though the means to bring about the defeat were believed by him to be trickery, he was willing to meet his opponents in open fight again. As an outspoken and uncompromising antagonist of the Philadelphia Combine, in the face of great odds in his own ward, he kept steadily at it, opposing what he believed to be wrong and fighting for what he conceived to be right, until his faction won a great municipal and a greater State victory, even though he was not victorious in his ward fights. In his struggle for eminence in his profession, from the day that he determined to become a physician until he had thoroughly established himself with a large clientele and a lucrative practice, the same indomitable determination to win was manifested that was afterward apparent when he enlisted in the Anti Combine ranks and engaged to remain in the service until the war was ended. His fight- ing qualities are probably inherited from his maternal ancestors, his mother being the daughter of a General who distinguished himself under Napoleon and whose name has gone down to posterity through the memoirs of the great conqueror. A comparatively poor boy, he III .- 14 209
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won his way, paid his passage and, unaided, earned the position which he holds, not only in the medical profession, but in the community.
GEORGE HENRY KOBLER was born at Abbottstown, Adams County, Pennsylvania, February 4, 1851. His parents were Henry Kobler and Caroline Jordan. The former was a strong, vigorous, capable man, who honestly struggled against adversity, and his mother was full of the fire of her father, General Jordan, who followed the great Napoleon in his various campaigns and earned for himself a niche in the gallery of famous fighters. Mr. Kobler received his ele- mentary education in the schools of his native town, and at an early age, being compelled to depend entirely upon himself, he fought with as much determination for a higher education as his maternal grandsire had fought for the success of the French leader. His ambition was to secure an education and an honorable position in the medical profes- sion, and through his own exertions he succeeded in getting what he desired. Diligence, perseverance, frugality and ingenuity are admir- able characteristics of Doctor Kobler, and they successfully carried him through. By personally earned money he paid his way through the State Normal School at Millersville, and then entered the Jefferson Medical College, from which institution he was graduated in 1877. As a student he was alert and observing and quick to absorb informa- tion, and upon receiving his diploma at once engaged with a whole- sale dry-goods house in the capacity of a salesman, in order to get sufficient funds to enable him to open an office. He first began the practice of medicine at 249 Pine Street, where he remained for two years, when he removed to 305 Pine Street, where he still resides and has his office. In the practice of medicine he has been very successful, having during the eighteen years built up one of the most lucrative practices in Philadelphia.
Doctor Kobler early in life took an active interest in politics, both State and National, and allied himself to the Republican party. Though a partisan in all the important National issues, he is an inde- pendent in municipal matters, and, above all, is strenuously opposed to everything that savors of what he considers bossism. When the first fight against the Combine was opened, Doctor Kobler was active on the side of the Antis, and his influence and personal work went far
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toward winning the first important battle. In the State Chairmanship fight-virtually between Quay and Hastings-he took the side of the Senator, and to his work, both in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Senator Quay is largely indebted for his victory. Doctor Kobler was the can- didate of the Anti-Combine element for Coroner in 1895, but his dele- gates were not admitted to the Convention. He was also the choice of the Anti-Combine for Select Council in 1896, but was defeated at the polls, having fought against big odds. Doctor Kobler was associ- ated for several years with the Out Ward of the Episcopal Hospital, in the capacity of Medical Director of the Dispensary Department. He was Physician-in-chief of the Home for Consumptives for five years, and was also Clinical Professor at the Medico-Chirurgical College for four years. His increasing private practice compelled his resignation from that office.
Doctor Kobler and Elizabeth A. Kay, a daughter of Mr. Kay, of the firm of Beswick & Kay, were married December 16, 1885. They have no children.
ALPHA J. KYNETT.
ERY active in both ecclesiastical and secular work, Rev. A. J. Kynett, D.D., LL.D., the subject of this biography, possesses courage and strength of character to a remark- able degree. Being well equipped by nature, inclination and education for the work, he deservedly stands very high among the clergymen, not only of Pennsylvania, but of the whole country. A deep reasoner, sound logician and eloquent to a degree, he is unquestionably one of the greatest pulpit and platform orators of the day. That his efforts in the field of his labors have been fruit- ful, and that he is of far more than ordinary ability, is shown by his rapid rise in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
ALPHA JEFFERSON KYNETT was born in Adams County, Pennsyl- vania, near Gettysburg, August 12, 1829. His parents were John Kynett and Mary (Peterson) Kynett, both natives of this country, the father of German descent, while the mother descended from the Mary- land branch of the Peterson family. She was the daughter of Henry Peterson, a Revolutionary soldier and one of General Washington's personal body-guards. When a child of three years, Mr. Kynett's family removed to the "Western Reserve," Trumbull County, Ohio, and four years later, in 1838, they again moved, this time to Rush County, Indiana. Another four years and the parents of Mr. Kynett had gone to what was then Iowa Territory. He received his early education at the public schools of Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, in the latter place under the special private tuition of Oswald Warrington, a gradu- ate of Oxford University, England. He was quick to learn, and at the age of eighteen years was far advanced in his studies.
In early life Mr. Kynett worked on farms during the summer, and was kept busy with his father in the latter's cooper shop during the
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winter months, when not attending school. In his early manhood Mr. Kynett engaged in teaching in the public schools, continuing his gen- eral studies and adding theology during this time, having, when a youth, become a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his parents were active and influential members. In the spring of 1851 he entered the ministry of that denomination, being admitted to mem- bership in the Iowa Conference, and appointed to a charge in the summer of that year. From the beginning of his ministry Mr. Kynett's church work has been marked with success. His pastoral service for the first ten years was in the leading churches of Iowa. He was the originator, in fact the founder, of the Board of Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which is now recog- nized as one of the most important of the practical home missionary organizations of that or any other denomination. The organization was effected by act of the General Conference held in Philadelphia, in May, 1864. Three years later, in June, 1867, he was selected for the office of Corresponding Secretary, the executive officer of the Board, a very responsible position, which he has ever since filled, and in which he has created a permanent Loan Fund of over a million dollars.
During the War of the Rebellion, Mr. Kynett was an Aide-de. Camp, with rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, to Gov. Samuel J. Kirkwood, the War Governor of Iowa. He actively aided in the enlistment of soldiers, in organizing new regiments and in caring for the sick and wounded while they were in service. He was also a member of the United States Sanitary Commission, and labored day and night in this important branch of the service. When General Grant's Army was encamped at Young's Point, opposite Vicksburg, in 1863, Mr. Kynett officially visited the Iowa Regiments there, by order of the Governor of the State from which they had enlisted. The sickness and mortality there were fearful during the months of February and March. Only one regiment of that division of the Army could muster as many as one hundred men for duty. On Doctor Kynett's application, signed by regimental surgeons and other officers and approved by General Grant, a number of steamers were detailed by the United States Surgeon-General, and fitted up as floating hospitals by the United States Sanitary Commission. These steamers plied between the
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camps on the lower Mississippi and Northern hospitals, taking the sick and wounded North, and carrying sanitary supplies to the South. The result of this service was to greatly relieve the sick and wounded and save many lives, and was highly commended by the commanding officers.
Doctor Kynett was first chosen as a Delegate of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Philadelphia, May, 1864, and has ever since, in each four years, for nine consecutive terms, been a chosen representative in the General Conference. Thus he has been closely identified with all the important advanced move- ments of that church during the last thirty-four years. In 1892 he was made Chairman of the Permanent Committee on Temperance, appointed by the General Conference, and still continues as such. He led, in 1895, in connection with Archbishop Ireland and others, in the organization of the American Anti-Saloon League, and has been very prominent in this and kindred temperance work. Next to the administration of the work of Church Extension, as the executive officer of the Board of Church Extension, Doctor Kynett is interested most deeply in the temperance movement, being Chairman of the Board of Direction of the American Anti-Saloon League and Presi- dent of the Pennsylvania State League.
In 1867 the Ohio Wesleyan University conferred upon Doctor Kynett the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1886 Alle- gheny College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. His most important literary work is a volume entitled "The Religion of the Republic, and Laws of Religious Corporations."
Doctor Kynett and Pauline Gilruth, daughter of Rev. James Gilruth, a very prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the earlier history of the West, were married in 1854. Their children are three: Rev. Alpha Gilruth Kynett, of the Phila- delphia Methodist Episcopal Conference, Harold H. Kynett, M.D., Editor of the Medical and Surgical Reporter, of Philadelphia, and Geraldine (Kynett) Penfield, who died in 1896.
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ALBERT HENRY LADNER.
IN the administration of justice the minor judiciary play an important part. A man, to successfully fill the position of Magistrate, must be endowed with peculiar qualities; he must be astute and keen-witted ; stern and vigorous, but just at all times, and even lenient where clemency is prompted by mercy and not inhibited by justice, and, above all, of personal character beyond reproach. Among the judges of Phila- delphia's magisterial courts, one of the best known is Magistrate Ladner, of Court No. 11, who has been a prominent figure for many years, in the government of the municipality, in which he has had many positions of honor and trust.
ALBERT HENRY LADNER was born on the 4th day of January, 1846, in Plieningen, near Stuttgart, Germany. He was the youngest of the five children of Christopher Frederick Ladner and Christiana Magdelena. His father was proprietor of a large hotel in his native town, besides operating an extensive brewery. In 1851, however, they came to America, Albert H. being in his sixth year. Previous to his coming to this country the son had attended the Hohenheim Institute, a school of agriculture and forestry, for two years. Upon the arrival of the family in Philadelphia, Albert was sent to the public schools of the city, and pursued his studies until he was old enough to learn a trade. His first occupation was as a plumber and gas-fitter, he having mastered his trade and become an expert workman before he was twenty years of age. While he was serving his apprenticeship at this business, the War of the Rebellion broke out, and young Ladner, although but fifteen years of age, made many futile efforts to enlist. Eventually he succeeded and was taken into the Ninety-eighth Regi- ment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, under the care of his brother, who
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was an Adjutant in that command. He served as an attaché on the regimental staff during the battles of the Peninsula and soon distin- guished himself for gallantry. Since the War he has connected himself with a number of organizations of veterans, and is now a member of Meade Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Philadelphia, and is Commander of the Second Regiment, Old Guard. He early began to manifest an active interest in the politics and municipal government of Philadelphia, and was a member of its Common Council for three suc- cessive terms, serving, from 1870 until 1876, as the representative of the Twelfth Ward. It was during the last term of his Councilmanic service that the overthrow of a powerful opposition ring was accom- plished, and in that memorable conflict Mr. Ladner took a conspicuous part. He was the caucus nominee of the Democrats at the convention for President, and Joseph L. Caven was the reform candidate. Rising to the importance of the occasion, and filled with the spirit of true reform, Mr. Ladner gracefully withdrew in favor of Mr. Caven and the latter was triumphantly elected. During his service in the Council he also took an active interest in educational matters, and was a Director of the Public Schools. The faithfulness with which Magis- trate Ladner has served the city of his adoption, and the appreciation with which his efforts have been received, is amply evidenced by the fact that, while he is now serving his fourth term as Magistrate, having been successfully re-elected, with one exception, he has always received the highest vote of any candidate upon his party's ticket. In 1891 he was the nominee of the Democratic party for Mayor of Philadelphia. While, of course, failing of election, the Democracy being largely in the minority in the city, Magistrate Ladner received the hearty support of his party, running ahead of his ticket and polling about 70,000 votes.
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