USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume III > Part 22
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HENRY JEFFERSON MCCARTHY was born on the 11th day of October, 1845, in the city of Philadelphia, and is the eldest son of John McCarthy, a well-known and highly respected gentleman, now retired, but for many years a prominent leader of the Democratic Party in the State of Pennsylvania. Receiving his early education in the public schools, he graduated in 1863, with pronounced honors, from the Cen- tral High School. Three years later he was admitted to the Bar and at once became associated with his preceptor, the late William A. Porter, who had been a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and was afterward a Judge of the Court of Commissioners of the
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Alabama Claims. During the association with Judge Porter he gained valuable experience in the trial of a number of important cases. Later, in 1875, he entered into a partnership with the late William Nelson West, City Solicitor, which ended with the death of Mr. West, in August, 1891. Shortly thereafter the firm of McCarthy, Work & DeHaven was formed. In 1895 he was selected as the Democratic Judge of the Superior Court and appointed by Governor Hastings, the Act creating that Court also requiring that one of the seven Judges should be a Democrat. He served with much distinction throughout the term of his appointment; but, not having the nomination of his party for election to a succeeding term, he resumed the practice of law at the head of his former firm.
Judge McCarthy has taken part in a number of causes celebres and has shown rare ability and keen judgment in cases involving obscure and difficult points of law. In fact, a number of famous decis- ions have been rendered upon lines closely following his arguments. Among these may be mentioned the case of Megargee vs. the Mutual Life Insurance Company, which was in litigation for nine years and tried no less than five times before a jury and argued four times in the Supreme Court, the final decision justifying the position Judge McCarthy and his associates had assumed ; and the not less famous Neill Will contest, involving over $400,000, which was in the Courts for ten years, and established the principle that, in a case of a bequest to a stranger to the blood, who was decedent's confidential advisor, there must be affirmative proof of the absence of undue influence, and that the testator was laboring under no mistaken apprehension as to the value of the bequest. Other cases were those of the Chester Tube and Iron Company vs. the Chester Rolling Mills, which involved a large sum, and Morris' Appeal, which settled the law that an article indispensable in carrying on a specific business becomes a fixture without physical annexation to the realty. The most widely known of these cases, however, was the famous Gas Trust Equity case, which resulted in the overthrow of the Gas Ring, at that day one of the great political powers. Judge McCarthy was recently appointed Master in the injunction suit against the Quaker City Elevated Railway Company, to restrain erection of elevated railroads in Philadelphia,
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and in a very able and elaborate report decided against the Company and was unanimously sustained by the Supreme Court. In July, 1897, by an argument of exceptional strength, he secured from the Superior Court the reversal of the License Court of Philadelphia in the matter of Jeremiah G. Donoghue's application for a liquor license, a decision which attracted attention throughout the entire State.
Judge McCarthy is a prominent and active Mason, being Past Master of Lodge No. 2, the oldest in Pennsylvania; Past High Priest of Signet Chapter ; Representative from those bodies to the Grand Lodge, and Grand Chapter, and also a member of St. John's Com- mandery, and of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Socially, Judge McCarthy is the center of a wide circle of friends. As a brilliant after-dinner orator he has acquired a reputation as wide- spread as it is worthy and befitting his vigorous personality. Possess- ing a vast fund of genuine wit, and being a most enjoyable raconteur, he is a great favorite among his colleagues and associates. He is a member and ex-President of the famous Five O'clock Club. He is also a member of the Penn and Columbia clubs, and a Director of the Commonwealth Title Insurance and Trust Company.
LEVI G. McCAULEY.
A S a rule, men who win promotion for meritorious con- duct amid the dangers of battle, prove exception- ally worthy citizens when they enter the field of politics and accept positions of public trust. A point in illustration is furnished in the brilliant career of Levi G. McCauley. Minus an arm lost in fighting for his country's cause, he gained the reputation of being one of the bravest and most trustworthy men in the regiment with which at various times he was associated. His devotion to duty in the time of war has been equalled only by his reliability and faithfulness as an official of the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania, and, in fact, he has justly earned the reputation of being a thoroughly representative citizen of his native State.
LEVI GHEEN MCCAULEY was born, September 2, 1837, on a farm near Whitford, West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsyl- vania. His father, John McCauley, was born, July 29, 1804, at Con- cord, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and lived to the ripe age of eighty-five years. His mother, Lydia G. McCauley, died when the subject of this sketch was thirteen years of age. He received his early education in the public schools of Luzerne County. Afterwards he attended, in succession, Abington Seminary, Berwick Academy and Wyoming Seminary. After leaving school he became a practical mechanical engineer, working as a machinist at the Vulcan Iron Works, Wilkes-Barre. Later he worked for a while at Montgomery, Alabama. Returning to his native State when the War broke out, he joined the battalion of two hundred men raised by the senior McCau- ley, in Susquehanna County. On account of his age, the commission was refused the elder McCauley by Governor Curtin, and his son left that battalion and joined a company of men at Wilkes-Barre which
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had been recruited by Col. E. B. Harvey. This was in the spring of 1861, the company being known as Company F, Seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves (Thirty-sixth Volunteers). Young McCauley was mustered into service at Camp Wayne, West Chester, as a pri- vate soldier. He was rapidly promoted to First Sergeant, then to First Lieutenant, Company C, Seventh Reserves. On July 20, 1863, he was commissioned a Captain and, through General Orders, No. 65, War Department, he was brevetted Major on November 7, 1865, for meritorious service. It was at the battle of Charles City Cross Roads that Major McCauley lost his right arm, which was shattered by a rifle ball. He was mustered out of service on January 30, 1866. His army service was exceptionally noteworthy. He served in the field with McCall's Division, Pennsylvania Reserves, and went on a skirmish expedition to Great Falls, Maryland, September 4, 1861. For eight days on the following month he went on an expedition to Gunnell's farm, near Drainsville, Virginia. He was later assigned to the Second Brigade, Second Division, First Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, and then to the Third Division, Fifth Corps, and afterwards to the Third Division, First Corps. He served with his regiment in the seven days' operation before Richmond, Virginia, from June 25th to June 30th. It was on the last-named date, just at sundown, that he received the gun-shot wound that crippled him for life. Later he was captured and made a prisoner of war in Libby Prison. He was paroled on August 13, 1862, at City Point, and later was transferred to David Island Hos- pital, New York harbor. He returned to duty with his regiment in February, 1863, and was assigned to the Second Division, Twenty- second Army Corps. On November 25, 1863, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve, and, when his services were no longer required, June 30, 1866, he was finally discharged.
Mr. McCauley made his first entrance into public life when he was elected Register of Wills in Chester County, Pennsylvania. This was in 1869 and he served for three years. He was Chairman of the Republican County Executive Committee during 1886, 1887, 1888 and 1889, and he has always been an active worker in the field of politics. He was a Delegate to the Republican State Gubernatorial Convention in 1886, 1890 and 1894. He was nominated on August
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26, 1897, for the important post of Auditor-General, and was duly elected in the following November, receiving 412,652 votes, a majority over all opponents of 79,456. His plurality over his Democratic oppo- nent was 144,311, and he led the ticket by 40,214 votes. In May, 1891, he was appointed Trustee of the West Chester State Normal School to represent the State. He was appointed a member of the Valley Forge Commission in 1895, and two years later he was made a member of the Soldiers' Orphans School Commission.
He was married to Isabella, eldest daughter of William Darling- ton and Catharine Paxson Darlington, on October 6, 1870. They have no children.
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WILLIAM C. McCONNELL.
TORTHEASTERN Pennsylvania has few citizens who have been more energetic or who have had more useful careers than the subject of this review, who, although he has yet hardly reached the prime of life, has long been known as one of the most prosperous business men of Northumberland County. As an active participant in the political life of the Commonwealth, he has been identified with every public movement calculated to increase the comfort and welfare of the people of his neighborhood. Besides the commercial operations in which he is interested, the water, electric light and banking com- panies of Shamokin and nearby towns have received a large share of his energetic efforts, and it is in no small degree to his financial fore- sight that the prosperous condition of many of the most successful of these corporations is due.
WILLIAM C. McCONNELL, of Shamokin, Northumberland County, was born in Halifax, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the 4th day of April, 1860. His family was one of the oldest in that section, both his father and his mother being natives of the county. His parents were George Washington McConnell and Sarah Marsh McConnell, both of whom are now deceased. The early days of the subject of this review were spent in his native county, and he received his primary education at the neighboring public schools. In these institu- tions he made such excellent progress and proved himself such a ready student that, in 1877, he entered Franklin and Marshall Academy, located at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in which institution he rounded out his education and prepared himself for admission into the Franklin and Marshall College, where he spent two years, during which he profited by every opportunity.
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On the Ist day of January, 1882, Mr. McConnell associated him- self as a partner with the firm of Kulp, McWilliams & Company, dealers in lumber, brick and ice. For more than four years he remained a member of this business house, and, in 1886, when the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Kulp continued the lumber busi- ness, Mr. McConnell and Mr. McWilliams, the remaining members of the firm, formed a partnership, under the title of McWilliams & McConnell, and continued in the ice and brick trade. This firm is now one of the best known in the northeastern section of the State.
The business capacity and indomitable energy of Mr. McConnell are best illustrated, however, by a statement of the many interests with which he is allied, and the public and semi-public enterprises which owe a large measure of their success to his ready guidance. He was one of the incorporators of the Roaring Creek, Anthracite and Bear Gap Water companies, and his associates in their management have indicated their confidence in his abilities by electing him to the Presidency of these corporations, which important position he has held for several years, fulfilling the duties thereof with rare fidelity. He has also been President of the Shamokin Water Company since May, 1886. The Edison Electric Illuminating Company, of Shamokin, and the Shamokin Arc Light Company have also had the benefit of his business experience through his connection with them as a member of their directorates. Mr. McConnell is a Director in the Shamokin Banking Company, Lewisburg and Buffalo Valley Railroad Company, . and a member of the Shamokin Board of Trade, three connections which aptly show how varied have been his interests and how diver- sified his energetic efforts.
Thoroughly imbued with the conviction that it is the duty of every citizen to show his public spirit by participating to the greatest extent possible in the political affairs of the country, Mr. McConnell early allied himself with the Republican party and has always been a stalwart member of that great political organization. Despite his active participation in partisan politics, he has never consented, how- ever, to hold either a municipal, county, State or governmental office, although, had he so chosen, many marks of the esteem of his fellow- citizens would doubtless have been conferred upon him. His activity
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has been confined to giving counsel and support to the organizations and to taking an active part in the nominating conventions. In 1890 he was a Delegate to the State Convention which placed George W. Delamater in nomination for the Governorship, and, in 1892, he represented the Seventeenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania in the Republican National Convention, held at Minneapolis, which renominated Benjamin Harrison for the Presidency of the Union.
He was appointed Aide-de-Camp, with the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel, on the staff of Governor Hastings on the 14th day of April, 1896. The Union League of Philadelphia elected him to membership in that famous social organization in February, 1897. Mr. McConnell and his family are members of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Shamokin. He is a member of Elysburg Lodge, No. 414, Free and Accepted Masons, of Shamokin; Chapter No. 264, Royal Arch Masons; and Shamokin Commandery, No. 77, Knights Templar.
On the 9th day of June, 1881, he was married to Ida V., daughter of Nathan F. and Eliza (Samuels) Martz, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Mrs. McConnell is a native of Northumberland County and is the mother of two children, William Donald, deceased, and Katharine Martz.
JAMES McCREA.
IN the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, that vast corporation, with its tentacles of traffic extending over a large portion of the United States, many of the most remarkable men of Pennsylvania have been reared and developed. The history of these representative railroad men points out the fact that a close attention to business and an honest desire to serve the vast interests of the organization with which they have begun their active business career unfailingly brings forth fruit in promotion and a rapid rise to prominence. A noteworthy instance of this fact is presented in the career of James McCrea, First Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the subject of this biography. Mr. McCrea entered rail- road service more than thirty years ago, at the age of seventeen, and he has had practical experience in every branch of railroading from that time on. To-day he ranks as one of the best informed railroaders in the United States, a fact due to his large experience and his indi- vidual energy and critical judgment.
JAMES McCREA was born in Philadelphia, May 1, 1848, his father being Doctor McCrea, a leading citizen of Pennsylvania. Mr. McCrea received a general education at the school of Rev. Jno. W. Fairies, which was completed at the Pennsylvania Polytechnic College. After his preparatory education on technical lines he entered the ser- vice of the Connellsville and Southern Pennsylvania Railroad, in June, 1865, as rodman. In December, 1867, he left the employ of this road and entered that of the Wilmington and Reading Railroad Company as a rodman in the engineer corps engaged in constructing that line. Ambitious to attain still greater progress, he left that service in Sep- tember, 1868, and engaged as Assistant Engineer in the construction
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of the Bennett's Branch of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, where he remained until March 1, 1871. In the various operations which were assigned to his care during this course of service, he demon- strated his thoroughness and capability to such an extent that he attracted the attention of higher railroad officials, and, upon severing his connection with the Allegheny Valley Railroad, entered the ser- vice of the then rapidly growing Pennsylvania Railroad Company in its Construction Department. Here he held the responsible position of Principal Assistant Engineer and was given large opportunities of demonstrating his ability.
Mr. McCrea's early railroad service afforded him large scope to develop his skill in the various operations with which he came in contact. Being invested with natural ability as well as adaptation to the work, his advancement in the Pennsylvania Railroad was very rapid. On the Ist day of August, 1874, he was transferred to the posi- tion of Assistant Engineer of the Philadelphia Division, continuing in this office until the Ist day of January, 1875, when he was made Super- intendent of the Middle Division, with headquarters at Harrisburg. In October, 1878, he was transferred to the Superintendency of the New York Division, with headquarters in Jersey City.
On May 1, 1882, Mr. McCrea was appointed to the management of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway and the Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburg Railroad, and on October 10, 1885, was advanced to the post of General Manager of all the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg. On November 1, 1887, he was elected Fourth Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburg. On March 1, 1890, he was advanced to the Second Vice-Presidency. On May 1, 1891, after the death of J. N. Mccullough, First Vice- President, Mr. McCrea was elected to succeed him, and this position he now holds.
Mr. McCrea married Ada Montgomery, a niece of Gen. James Kennedy and William G. Moorehead.
CHARLES McFADDEN.
0 ¡NE of the most important branches of the industrial development which has marked the progress of Penn- sylvania during the latter half of the Nineteenth Cen- tury has been the construction of the various railroad systems of the State, which, uniting one point with another, and bringing into closer contact the large cities and smaller towns, have exercised a potent influence over commerce and the manu- facturing interests. Charles McFadden, the subject of this biography, during his life, was known far and near as one of the most active agents in promoting the prosperity of the State; his was an arduous task, and during his busy career he made the record of having built and constructed more miles of railroad than any other contractor of his time.
CHARLES MCFADDEN was born in Liverpool, Perry County, Penn- sylvania, December 13, 1830, and died March 4, 1895, in Philadelphia, where he had attained a most prominent position in the financial and business world. He was the son of John McFadden, who emigrated from Ireland, and Ann McIntire, who was also a native of the Emerald Isle. His parents settled in Pennsylvania, and when their son was old enough to attend the public schools he was sent to the Adams Academy until he was about fifteen years of age. He then began working for his father in railroad and canal construction, the elder McFadden being widely known as a constructor in that line. When Charles McFadden was nineteen years old, his father, recogniz- ing his merit, ability and progressiveness, took him into partnership and, together, they contracted for some of the largest operations known in railroad construction for a number of years. The firm was organized as John McFadden & Sons, and after Charles McFadden
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The Reachrundt Ung. Co. Phila
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had served several years as a partner, he branched out in his indi- vidual operations. He was successively a member of Barnes & McFadden; Nead & McFadden; McFadden & Kelly, and then Charles McFadden & Sons, of which organization he was the senior partner.
Mr. McFadden began life as a poor boy and, by hard work and unremitting attention to whatever business cares and duties he had on hand, advanced himself into the recognition of the prominent men of the community. In his youth he had learned much of usefulness to him, and had succeeded in mastering the details of railroad construction most thoroughly. Through a number of years he advanced step by step in the estimation of capitalists until he had obtained a position in the business community as the largest railroad contractor in the State. A self-made man, he owed his success to close application to business and his indefatigable efforts to advance himself. He was a thoroughly conscientious worker and paid strict attention to business, with the result that he is referred to in the industrial world as having built and finished more lines of railroad in Pennsylvania than any other con- tractor of his day. Recognizing in the railroad systems of the Key- stone State one of the most important factors in the development of its commerce, the leading men of Pennsylvania were unanimous in according Mr. McFadden a prominent place in the roster of those who advanced its interests in a material manner. Mr. McFadden built nearly all the branch lines of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and was instrumental in completing some of the most successful branch roads in the State. Many hundreds of miles of rail, laid across mountain, plain and valley, through forests and over primeval districts, where the forces of civilization had not yet penetrated, were constructed by him. He wielded a vast force for the benefit of the people of his State, and was a notable aid to the leaders of commercial activity.
Not alone as a contractor was Mr. McFadden known in Pennsyl- vania, but his reputation as a business man was of the highest order. His judgment was at all times recognized as that of a clear-headed and logical man of experience, and his participation in the business affairs of several leading industrial and railroad companies largely served to advance their welfare. He was a Director of the Keystone National Bank and was also a Director in the Black Lick Mining
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Company. He was President of the Cornwall and Reading Railroad, and was also President of the Conshohocken Stone Quarry Company.
As a railroad constructor Mr. McFadden attained his widest recognition, however, and these systems comprise but a small part of his work : The Cape May Railroad; the tunnels at Hamburg, Phila- delphia and Reading; tunnel at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania Railroad ; tunnel, Summit, Allegheny Valley Railroad; and tunnel Allegheny Mountain, South Penn Railroad; Musconetcong tunnel, Easton and Amboy Railroad ; the South Penn Railroad, fifteen miles ; the Holmes- burg Bridge, Pennsylvania Railroad; the Lehigh Valley Railroad in New York, 10 miles ; the Cambria and Clearfield Railroad; the New York City and Northern Railroad; the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad, Schuylkill Valley at Hamburg; Ridgway and Clearfield Railroad, for Pennsylvania Railroad Company ; New York, Lake Erie and Western branches in Mckean, Elk and Jefferson Counties, Penn- sylvania; Ebensburg, Black Lick Branch, Pennsylvania Railroad. In addition, he has built, probably, thirty other lines and off-shoots thereof. While still a young man, Mr. McFadden was married to Sarah A. McIntire, whose ancestry united the racial characteristics of the Ger- man and Scotch-Irish. They had eleven children, six of whom are still living. Mr. McFadden was socially prominent and, in his later years, he rose to an enviable position in his city and State. He was well known as a lover of fine horse-flesh, and took delight in promoting various club and social connections. Always a strict business man, however, he was active up until the time of his much regretted demise.
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JOHN R. McFETRIDGE.
E „VER an earnest worker for the advancement of his native city, few business men in Philadelphia can point to a more active and successful career than John R. McFetridge, the subject of this biographical review. Besides being at the head of an extensive printing and publishing house, he is prominently identified with numerous enterprises of a corporate character and is in every respect a thoroughly progressive and representative citizen of the Keystone State.
JOHN R. McFETRIDGE is a native of Philadelphia. He is the son of Samuel Long and Jane Reed McFetridge. He received his element- ary education in the public schools, afterwards taking a course of study at Gregory's English and Classical Academy. After leaving school he accepted a position in the Internal Revenue Department under Jesper Harding, the Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District of Pennsylvania. Subsequently he became a superintendent of the Inquirer Paper Mills, owned and operated by William W. Harding, and located in that section of Philadelphia known as Manayunk. On September 15, 1877, Mr. McFetridge entered into partnership with William M. Burk, under the firm name of Burk & McFetridge, and they acquired the plant and business of the Inquirer Printing House, founded by Jesper Harding in 1810, and which, at the time of pur- chase, was being conducted by the latter's son, William W. Harding. The innate vigor and progressive ideas of Mr. McFetridge were at once felt when the new firm became the owners, and the concern soon attained a conspicuous prominence, which it continues to hold among the foremost enterprises of Philadelphia. The establishment at 306 and 308 Chestnut Street has from time to time been enlarged, the
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