USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume III > Part 27
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Mr. Robinson is a prime factor in public enterprises and exhibits his interest in the common welfare of Scranton through his member- ship in its Board of Trade. In the organization of the Scranton Hook and Ladder Company, No. I, he took an active part and is still con- nected with it.
JONATHAN ROWLAND.
MANUFACTURING the products of Pennsylvania's M vast iron mines into many merchantable shapes has demanded the bulk of the time and attention of the subject of this sketch for the past fourteen years, during which he has been connected with the great iron-working establishments of Morris, Tasker & Company, Incor- porated, of Philadelphia, which has mills both in that city and at New Castle. Trained in some of the best educational institutions of the country, and with extensive experience in every quarter of the globe, Jonathan Rowland has risen to the honorable post of Vice-President and General Manager, and a large part of the corporation's success has, doubtless, been due to his capability and energy.
JONATHAN ROWLAND, of Philadelphia, was born in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, on the 28th day of March, 1856. His father was Max- well Rowland, of Holmesburg, whose father established the Maxwell Rowland Shovel Works in 1826, and which are still in active operation. Maxwell Rowland was the only Democrat ever elected from his ward (the Twenty-third) as Select Councilman. His mother was Matilda Horner, of a well-known family of Burlington, New Jersey. The early education of the subject of this biography was obtained in the public schools of Philadelphia, where he took a thorough course, and, having passed through all the successive grades, was graduated from the Central High School of Philadelphia in 1872. After the completion of his course in this institution a professional career having seemed particularly desirable, and the bent of his talents inclining him in that direction, he was entered for a course in the Polytechnic College, from which he graduated in 1874 as a civil engineer ; he followed this pro- fession with a considerable degree of success in the employ of various
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railroad and other corporations in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Thoroughly equipped, then, not only in theory but in practice as well, he took up the business of railroad contracting, in which his knowledge of civil engineering was of inestim- able advantage, and, in 1880, built a division of the Norfolk and West- ern Railroad from Luray to Port Republic, the New River division of the same road, also the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, running into the Cranberry ore mines in North Carolina. Altogether, he spent about four years in the South, returning to Phila- delphia in 1883. In 1885 he became connected with one of the most extensive iron-working plants in the East, that of Morris, Tasker & Company, Incorporated, in whose service he made such an enviable record that he has risen through several successive grades, until now he holds the responsible post of Vice-President and General Manager. In the interest of Morris, Tasker & Company, Mr. Rowland has done considerable traveling through Europe, spending one winter in Russia, where his firm's interests are very large, as, indeed, they are in all Europe. Morris, Tasker & Company were the first manufacturers to introduce the overhead electric system in England. They have sup- plied the same system to points in Egypt, Ireland, France, South America, Isle of Man, Australia, Africa and other countries. They built, equipped and sent from this country to Russia a complete pipe mill, which is now being actively operated by the Russian Government.
Mr. Rowland has taken an active part in the political life of Phila- delphia and has always been allied with the Democratic party, of which he has long been an influential member. He was twice the Demo- cratic nominee for the post of Councilman, at one time almost over- coming the solid Republican majority of two thousand in his ward.
He takes a keen interest in church work and is one of the Vestry- men of the Emmanuel Church of Holmesburg. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Lower Dublin Academy. Socially he is very popular and is connected with some of the most important organ- izations of the East. He is a member and has been a Director of the Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia. He is also on the membership roll of the Engineers' and of the Knickerbocker Athletic clubs of New York, Jerusalem Lodge, No. 506, Free and Accepted Masons, of
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Frankford, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Holmes- burg, of which his father was a charter member. Mr. Rowland's scientific connections are expressed in his membership in the Amer- ican Society of Naval Engineers.
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FRANK SAMUEL.
N OTHING shows more clearly the progress made by the State of Pennsylvania during the past decade or so than the reversal from the importation of certain articles of commerce to the exportation of large quan- tities of the same. Particularly is this true in the iron and steel trade, in which men of great energy and marked business capacity, like the subject of this sketch, Frank Samuel, have effected, through their untiring labors, a complete change. Not many years ago all the steel rails used in this country were imported ; but under present conditions, other nations look to the United States for a large propor- tion of their supply, the greater amount of which is furnished by firms doing business in the Keystone State, among which that directed by Mr. Samuel is conspicuously active.
FRANK SAMUEL was born in Philadelphia on the 4th day of Decem- ber, 1859. His parents were John and Rebecca Samuel. He is the great- grandson of John Moss, a prominent merchant in Philadelphia during his day, largely engaged in shipping interests and the owner of the cele- brated ship "Speedwell." Mr. Samuel is descended, on his mother's side, from Jacob De Leon, who was a famous surgeon during the Revo- lutionary period, being a special attendant upon General De Kalb at the time of his death, from wounds received at Camden, South Caro- lina. Mr. Samuel received his education at Doctor Fairies' private school in Philadelphia, and, after graduating, he went to New York, where he spent a year in studying the banking business. Later, he returned to Philadelphia and entered the employ of E. R. Wood, who was a prominent manufacturer of glass at that time. The latter after- wards instituted a glass factory in New Jersey and Mr. Samuel became, in time, the Vice-President of the Malaga and Millville Glass Company.
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Mr. Samuel resigned his position in 1888, to accept the Vice-Presidency of the North Branch Steel Company, where he continued for five years. It was the first company to produce the modern street-car rail, making a revolution in this line. He resigned this position in 1894 to enter into commerce, yet retaining a Directorship in the company for some time. He has since been engaged as a general iron merchant and represents one of the largest iron furnaces in the South. He was one of the pioneers in this country to export iron and steel to all parts of the world ; and he is one of the largest importers of ore, his various ships bringing in cargoes from Spain, Russia and Japan. Two years ago he took a trip abroad for the purpose of establishing business con- nections for the exportation of steel rails, and his immediate interests were centered in sending this commodity to Japan, Italy and India.
The firm of which Mr. Samuel is the head now exports steel rails and conducts a manufactory at Danville, making a special iron for steel- producing purposes. When the Union Traction Company changed its system a few years ago, Mr. Samuel had the contract for the renewal of all the rails used on the old lines and supplanted them with the modern production. At this writing, Mr. Samuel is about to sail for Europe to further enlarge his foreign trade. Other countries, in order to keep step with the modern progress of which the United States is a forerunner, have found it necessary to appeal to the manufactories on this side of the water for their steel products. Mr. Samuel is well versed in his line and there is not a detail connected with the industry with which he is not thoroughly familiar. Thus it is that he is espe- cially fitted to explain in other countries the achievements of the iron workers and steel manufacturers of the State of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Samuel is married, his wife being Mary Buchanan Snowden, daughter of Col. A. Loudon Snowden. Three children have been the result of this union, and it is in his home life that Mr. Samuel is found at his best. Although a member of the Young Men's Democratic Association and a member of the Reform Club, of New York, politics concern him very little. The interests of his fireside and his business occupy his entire attention. Yet he is not without his social inclinations, being a member of nearly all the prominent clubs of Philadelphia. He is enrolled in the Rittenhouse,
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the Country and Merion Clubs, and is Secretary and Treasurer of the Philadelphia Gun Club and the Centaur Bicycle Club. He is an athlete and an enthusiastic out-door sportsman, and loses no opportunity to promote the welfare of the athletic societies of which he is a member. In fact, his devotion to this pastime is only exceeded by his thorough energy in his particular line of business. Mr. Samuel bears the reputation, not only among his immediate associates, but in the city of his nativity, of being one of the most representative and progressive citizens of Pennsylvania. He has not yet reached the half-century mark of life, and has a host of friends who predict for him an exceptionally brilliant future.
DALLAS SANDERS.
HE public-spirited citizen who is willing to lay aside his private business and devote his time and atten- tion, and that often without remuneration, to the public good, especially in such unappreciated matters as hygiene, education and others, is rare, and it is not often that a lawyer with a large and lucrative practice can be found to take the lead in these affairs, which really require a trained legal mind to carry them to a successful termination. Service rendered in such fields is little appreciated by the general world, yet the man who devotes himself to furthering plans for the benefit of the public is undoubtedly entitled to the admiration of the community. Such a man is Dallas Sanders, the subject of this biography, who, an attorney and standing high in his profession, has been public-spirited enough to devote a great deal of his valuable time to the welfare of his fellow-men.
DALLAS SANDERS was born in the city of Philadelphia on the 13th day of January, 1848. He was the son of Major John Sanders, an officer in the Engineer Corps of the United States Army, and Maria Wilkins, the daughter of Judge William Wilkins, well known as one of the most learned members of the Bench and Bar of Pittsburg. Upon the death of his father, which occurred when young Sanders was ten years old, his mother moved to Pittsburg, where, in the household of his grandfather, he passed his boyhood. After a preliminary course of instruction in the preparatory schools of his adopted city, he entered the University of Western Pennsylvania. Just as he was reaching his senior year, the death of his grandfather, which occurred in 1865, compelled him to leave the institution. He chose the Bar as his objective pursuit and, returning to Philadelphia, began the study of law in the office of his cousin, George M. Dallas. Here he devoted
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himself with such assiduity that, in January, 1869, he was admitted to practice in the courts. He has been at different times the Secretary, Prothonotary and President of the Law Academy, in the affairs of which he has, since his student days, taken an intense interest. He became Associate Editor of the Legal Intelligencer two years after his admission to the Bar. He was appointed Assistant District Attorney in 1878 under Henry S. Hagert, serving three years in that respon- sible post. In 1882 he was elected a member of Common Council of Philadelphia, from the Seventh Ward, which, though strongly Repub- lican, elected him as an independent candidate. In this body he served for two years, taking an especial interest in legislation relating to sanitary matters, drainage and sewerage. For one year he was Chairman of the Committee on Surveys, and while in this position accomplished much towards improvements and the healthfulness of the city. Thoroughly imbued with the idea that proper sanitary con- ditions were necessary to preserve the health of the people, he took every possible step to bring about clean and healthy conditions. He was a strong advocate of laws which would prevent injury of the health of the community arising from careless plumbing. With this object in view, he favored the adoption of laws requiring the registry of plumbers and the adoption of the most improved drainage and sewer- age methods. In February, 1882, the Attorney-General of the United States, Benjamin Harris Brewster, impressed with Mr. Sanders' sincerity and legal attainments, sent him to South Carolina, to assist the United States District Attorney in prosecuting a number of offenders against the election laws. On his return from the South, he took his seat in Councils and resumed his efforts to better prevailing sanitary conditions.
For years Mr. Sanders has taken a prominent position in political circles and an active interest in municipal affairs. He has always been an ardent Democrat, and has frequently represented his party in county and State conventions-in 1880 sitting in the National Con- vention which nominated General Hancock for the Presidency. In 1885 he was the Democratic candidate for the office of Sheriff of Philadelphia, but, after a memorable campaign, was defeated, although he ran a great many thousands ahead of his ticket. In 1887 he was III .- 24
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elected Chairman of the Democratic State Committee, serving in that capacity until 1888. On March 6, 1893, he was appointed by the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia to the honorable and important position of membership in the Board of City Trusts, where he has carried out his well-known ideas in educational matters, being especially active since his appointment in procuring for the boys technical or manual training and all out-of-door sports, includ- ing the summer military encampment. In the matter of municipal improvements he is progressive in the highest degree, and small parks scattered all over the city have in him a most enthusiastic advocate. He is also father of the ordinance requiring that all sewers hereafter constructed shall be built egg-shaped. As a member of the Public Educational Society, he has for years been deeply interested in having cooking, sewing and other technical or manual work taught in the public schools, and earnest in his efforts to get women on the School Boards. That he is a recognized authority in municipal affairs and a public-spirited citizen is proved by his selection to respond to the toast of Philadelphia, at the annual banquet of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in 1897.
A. J. SCHISSLER.
THOROUGH course in a business college has of late years been an almost indispensable part of the pre- liminary training of those who have wished to enter commercial life or mercantile pursuits. Indeed, the knowledge of business forms and methods of pro- cedure, that even years of experience in actual - commercial affairs would not impart, can be acquired during a comparatively short course in one of these excellently conceived schools. Pennsylvania has quite a number of such institutions of learning, but the two founded by A. J. Schissler, M.A., are among the most highly regarded.
ALOYSIUS J. SCHISSLER was born in Philadelphia County, Penn- sylvania, November 23, 1864. He is the second youngest son of the eight children of John M. Schissler and Mary Schall. His father was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, February 2, 1818, and emigrated to the United States while still a young man. In 1844 he settled in Philadelphia and entered the mercantile world as a grocer. For a short time he continued in this pursuit and then embarked in the baking business. In political affairs he affiliated with the Democratic party, and, like so many of the most intelligent of his race, was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He died at Manayunk, Philadelphia, March 2, 1887, in the seventieth year of his age. His wife, and the mother of the subject of this biography, was Mary Schall, the daughter of Anthony S. and Mar- garetta Nieumer Schall, also of Manayunk. Professor Schissler was reared in his native county, and in the public schools of Manayunk he received the groundwork of a thorough education. To this he sub- sequently added whatever knowledge he could glean from the books
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within his reach. Later he entered a business college in the city of Philadelphia, where he took a full course of instruction in every department, and developed those business characteristics for which he has since become famous, graduating in 1887. On leaving this institution he began the actual battle of life as bookkeeper for McClain & Vautier, of Philadelphia, Penrose A. McClain, of that firm, now being Internal Revenue Collector. Mr. Schissler shortly afterwards resigned from this position to enter the employ of J. Ripka & Company, cotton and woolen manufacturers, of Manayunk, whom he served in the diverse capacities of bookkeeper, salesman and general manager. He remained with the company for a period of over three years and until their retirement from business. During the time in which Mr. Schissler had been with them he had become thoroughly conversant with every detail of the business, and when his employers retired he became the owner of the factory. The same year that he completed his business course he had established the Schissler College of Business and Shorthand at Manayunk. Of this he has since disposed, but until the completion of the school year of 1893-94, in addition to his extensive interests, he maintained a close personal supervision over the institution. His success in this latter undertaking prompted him to found a like institution, which he opened on September 14, 1891, at Norristown, also under the title of the Schissler College of Business and Shorthand, which school has since received his entire time and attention. The first session opened with but ten pupils, but by the end of the year this number had been increased to twenty-five. In 1892 this number had grown to seventy-six, and two years later the enrollment had reached five hundred and ten-a growth that speaks eloquently for the facilities for first-class business training which are offered. The Schissler College at Norristown is one of the largest and best equipped institutions of its kind in the United States. Its corps of teachers has been continually increased to meet the demands of its growing patronage, and every facility for practical business operations has been provided in liberal abundance. Short- hand, typewriting and bookkeeping are among the specialties taught here, and its Philadelphia office, situated in the Bourse Building, is
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calling the attention of hundreds of young men and women to the institution. The reputation that Professor Schissler has acquired among the prominent bankers, professional and business men of Pennsylvania is indicated by the fact that when he incorporated the institution, to widen its scope he secured among its stockholders and directors some of the best known citizens of the State, and the institution has gained a national reputation. In political affairs Mr. Schissler, while extremely liberal in his views, has always leaned toward the Republican party, supporting the general policy of that organization. In local affairs, however, he is decidedly inclined to independence, and casts his ballot for the men who he thinks will best serve the interests of the people. In his business affairs he has shown ability and talent for general management, and has built up an establishment which entitles him to rank with the enterprising and progressive citizens of the Commonwealth.
On the 18th day of September, 1890, Professor Schissler was united in marriage to Louisa Cecilia Wunsch, daughter of Anselma and Margaretta Wunsch, of Manayunk, Philadelphia. To Mr. and Mrs. Schissler have been born two children, both daughters, named Marie Frances and Margaret Louisa.
HOWARD DAVIS SCHNURE.
0 VER a century's identification with the growth of the prosperous town of Selins Grove, Pennsylvania, adds luster to the life-work and ancestry of the subject of this sketch, Howard D. Schnure, who has achieved the distinction of being one of the most prominent and progressive citizens of Snyder County. Through his strict business integrity and untiring zeal he has risen to an honorable eminence in his native community and acquired a conspicuous place on the long roll of Pennsylvania's noted sons.
HOWARD DAVIS SCHNURE was born at Selins Grove, Snyder County, Pennsylvania, on the 30th day of October, 1850, and on his paternal side is a descendant of good old German stock. He is the son of George Schnure, whose father came to America from Duden- hoppen, Germany, in 1781, and settled in Berks County, Pennsyl- vania. Cornelia Davis was the maiden name of the mother of the subject of this sketch. She was a granddaughter of Major Anthony Selin, the founder of the town of Selins Grove, Pennsylvania, and a man of much prominence in the business and political circles of his day, being also a member of the famous Society of the Cincinnati. Mr. Schnure's boyhood was spent in the place of his nativity. He received his elementary education in the public schools of Snyder County, meanwhile increasing his store of knowledge through wide and varied courses of reading. The finishing touches to his school- ing were obtained at the educational institution now known as the Susquehanna University.
Mr. Schnure made his first entrance into business life as a clerk for the mercantile firm of McCarty, Moyer & Schnure, at Selins Grove. Later he joined the clerical forces of the First National Bank
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in the same town, retaining his position for a period of two years. In 1875 he entered into co-partnership with A. Kreeger, in the vocation of milling, the business of the firm being conducted as the "Isle of Que" Mills at Selins Grove. The partnership remained intact for a period of four years, and in 1879 the firm name was changed to G. & H. D. Schnure, the father of Mr. Schnure assuming the interest held by Mr. Kreeger. The business has since prospered immensely and is now regarded as one of the greatest of its kind in the State, the entire business of the mills being conducted under the name of H. D. Schnure, since his father's death. Mr. Schnure has always been progressive in his ideas and is a man of exceptional activity in his chosen walks of life. He has the honor of being the first to introduce electric lighting in Snyder County. He recognized the value of the modern system of illumination, and, in order to keep step with the march of progress, he established an individual plant of his own, for the exclusive purpose of supplying his dwelling and mill properties with light, the power for this plant being secured by the use of the water-power from his mills.
Mr. Schnure's close identification with the development of his native town has placed him in the front rank of its most valued and respected citizens. On January 16, 1883, he was elected a Director of the First National Bank of Selins Grove and continued in that capacity for a term of eleven years, when he was elected to the Presi- dency of that financial institution. His election to this honorable position took place on January 16, 1894. During the previous year he was made a Director of the First National Bank of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, a position he still retains, as well as that of the Presi- dency of the First National Bank at his home. At present Mr. Schnure's entire attention is devoted to his banking and milling inter- ests. Mr. Schnure has been a life-long Democrat, and he has often devoted his best endeavors to promoting the welfare of the party of his fealty. In 1895 he was sent as a Delegate to the State Convention at Williamsport, and in the following year he was again elected a Delegate to the State Convention at Allentown. His work in both gatherings was marked by his customary earnestness and energetic methods.
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Mr. Schnure was married on September 20, 1876, to Sara J. Six, of Thurmont (formerly Mechanicstown), Frederick County, Maryland. Two children have blessed this union, a son and a daughter, their names being William Marion and Mary Cordelia Schnure.
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