USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume III > Part 31
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In railroad circles Mr. Tennis is known as a thoroughly conscien- tious workman, and his contracts have invariably been carried out to the letter, the result having been that success has continuously smiled upon him. Among his important contracts have been several from the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Philadelphia and Reading, Lehigh Valley, South Penn, Huntingdon and Broad Top, Altoona and Phillipsburg, Connecting, South Jersey, Northern Central, Norfolk and
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Western and the Pennsylvania Midland railroads; the Philadelphia and Bristol, Montoursville, and Lewisburgh, Milton and Watsontown passenger railways.
For ten years he was senior partner in the firm of E. A. Tennis & Brother, controlling a large grain, lumber and coal trade, which was profitable until the destruction of the Pennsylvania Canal, in 1889. The boats of this firm, during the last year of the canal's existence, carried freight equal to fifteen hundred carloads from Thompsontown wharf alone. While Mr. Tennis was actively engaged as a railroad contractor and manager of the large business of his firm in conjunction, he yet found time to identify himself with numerous projects of an important nature. Several construction companies conducted a large business under his management, and in the building of railroads and the development of branch lines he was particularly active and progressive. Among the offices of this nature which he has filled, have been the Presidency of the Tennis Construction Company, Vice-Presidency of the Philadelphia and Bristol Passenger Railway Company, a Directorship in the South Jersey Railroad Company, Presidency of the Montoursville Passenger Railway Company, Presidency of the Southwestern Passenger Railway Company, and Vice-Presidency of the Lewisburgh, Milton and Watsontown Passenger Railway Company. These important business enterprises have constituted Mr. Tennis' chief interests for a number of years. While he has had no political ambition, he is always active in the affairs of his party (Democracy), being so firm an adherent to the tenets of his political faith that, in 1896, he enjoyed the distinction of voting the only Palmer and Buckner Sound Money ticket in his district. The only political office to which Mr. Tennis has thus far aspired has been that of School Director, to which post he was elected by a large majority. In the affairs of the church, as well as of the State, Mr. Tennis takes an absorbing interest. When he was eleven years of age he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for twenty-two years he has been a Sunday-School Superintendent. For eighteen years Mr. Tennis has been Trustee and Steward of this church. In secret society affairs he is a prominent figure and is well known as a Mason, being a Knight Templar, a Scottish Rite Mason of the
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Thirty-second Degree, and is at present the Junior Grand Warden of the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of Masons in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Tennis' business, Masonic and church work give him but little time for social duties, although he is frequently a participant in affairs of a social nature in and around his section. He is a charter member of the Harrisburg Club. Among his earlier experiences were some exciting ones with the Hatfield and McCoy families while he was constructing the railroad through Logan County, West Virginia, in 1890 and 1891. The extent of his jurisdiction as a Mason of such high prominence has been indicated upon several occasions, and most strongly when, by virtue of his position as Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania, in 1893, he made his father, aged eighty years, a Royal Arch Mason at sight, a prerogative of the Grand High Priest, exercised but once formerly in one hundred years.
Mr. Tennis was married, April 3, 1888, to Anna Louise Hassen- plug, daughter of Dr. J. H. Hassenplug, of Philadelphia. They have had two children, Marguerite and Ellgarda.
HENRY C. TERRY.
HILADELPHIA'S reputation as a center of legal learn- ing is largely due to the fact that such attorneys as Henry C. Terry make their home in that city and practice largely in its courts. He is one of the many, however, who by no means confine their usefulness to the field presented by the Quaker City, for he is almost as well known in the courts of the adjoining Commonwealths and in the tribunals of the United States, District and Supreme, as at home, and has successfully prosecuted some of the most intricate and interesting cases ever on the dockets of many of them.
HENRY C. TERRY was born in Philadelphia, March 17, 1846. His father had had an extensive business in the South and had accumulated a considerable fortune before the breaking out of the Civil War. He afterwards removed to Woodbury, New Jersey, where the son pursued those studies which fitted him for entrance into the profession of law. During his school days Mr. Terry achieved a considerable reputation as a debater and elocutionist, giving evidence, even at an early age, of unusual dramatic ability. After preparing himself as best he could without assistance, in 1863 he returned to his native city and entered upon the study of law in the office of Judge Frederick Carroll Brewster. The progress which he had made showed that his hopes had had a tangible foundation, for before he had reached the age of twenty-one years Mr. Terry had passed his examination and was qualified to practice; but under the law he could not be admitted to the Bar until he had attained his lawful majority, and hence was not sworn in until March 16, 1867, the day he legally became of age. His legal attain- ments having attracted the attention of Judge Lynd, who was then City Solicitor, Mr. Terry was tendered a position as his Assistant and
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accepted the offer. In this capacity he continued until 1869, when he decided to open offices for himself and begin practice. While he has mainly concerned himself in litigation in the county and United States courts in Philadelphia and adjoining counties, and in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he is well and favorably known to the Bench of New Jersey, West Virginia and the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Court of Claims at Washington. An instinctive insight into business affairs has prompted him to make a specialty of cases for and against corporations, and, although he has a large mercantile and Orphans' Court practice, his most notable successes have been in cases of this character. In the suit of the Kensington and Oxford Turnpike Company against the City of Philadelphia, an action brought about by efforts to free from toll a road through a populous and fast-growing portion of the city, the judgment with which he conducted the matter resulted in opening property valued at $3,000,000 for municipal improvement. In this case he received a fee of $50,000. In damage cases against railroad companies he has taken an especial interest. One of his most notable suits of this kind was in 1887, when the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a verdict which gave $10,000 to a little child who lost his hand in passing between the coupled cars of a train. This was then the largest verdict for personal injuries ever paid to a child in Philadelphia County, and the awarding of this large sum was in a great measure due to the impression Mr. Terry's elo- quence made upon the jury. He successfully established his clients' title to their trade-mark, which was valued at one million dollars, in the Dobbins' Electric Soap case, which was tried in the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, despite the fact that some of the most eminent members of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bars were pitted against him. He organized and has since been the solicitor of the Berwind- White Coal Mining Company of Pennsylvania and New York, the largest bituminous coal company in the United States, if not in the world. He is also a solicitor for a number of other prominent coal- mining corporations and for many private firms.
Mr. Terry has long been a member of the Union League, the United Service and many other less known but extremely exclusive clubs. He is also connected with the Law Association and other
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similar institutions. He is a charter member, and has, since its organi- zation, been Treasurer and one of the Governors of the Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia ; a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution ; of the New England and the Pennsylvania Historical societies; Radnor Hunt, Devon Polo and Golf, and Merion Cricket clubs ; the French Benevolent Society, of which he is also Solicitor. The Masonic Fraternity has conferred many honors upon Mr. Terry, and he is a member of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania, and was Master of his Lodge (No. 51) in 1876.
Except as assistant to City Solicitor Lynd, Mr. Terry has never accepted a public office. He has always deemed political preferment incompatible with his professional duties, and, when urged by his fellow- members of the Bar to accept a judicial appointment, has invariably refused to even thus far deviate from his chosen career. The promi- nent place which Mr. Terry has taken in the legal world, especially as it has given him wide corporation practice, has naturally brought his services in large demand in financial circles. His clear insight into the principles which govern the management of railroads and similar organizations has caused his identification with several important railways in West Virginia. Of these, he is President of the Roaring Creek and Charleston Railway Company and the Roaring Creek and Belington Railway Company. There has been considerable litigation growing out of the varying interests of investors in the roads, but the courts have invariably sustained Mr. Terry in his management of the affairs of these corporations. He also represents a Receiver of a prominent coal railroad in West Virginia, appointed at his suggestion, to remove whom a determined effort was recently successfully opposed by Mr. Terry.
FRANCIS H. THOLE.
IXTEEN years of practice in the courts of Philadel- phia and of the Superior and Supreme courts of the State have been sufficient to give Francis H. Thole a prominent position at the Philadelphia Bar. Young, ambitious, energetic and able, Mr. Thole has proven himself to be a foeman worthy of the steel of the best legal talent of Pennsylvania. He is a reader and a thinker. He is original, and does not follow closely in the ruts worn by lawyers who have preceded him. He prepares the cases in which he is engaged with the most scrupulous care, making a study of each separate feature, and is almost certain to discover any weak spot in his opponent's case and to take advantage of it. In one of the cases of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in which Mr. Thole was counsel, the interesting point was made and decided that, according to the law of the State, a non-resident alien cannot maintain a suit for damages. The Act of April 26, 1855, gives the right of action to members of a family of a person whose death is caused by a wrongful act, but, by the decision referred to, a non-resident alien has no standing in court. This point is con- sidered of international importance, inasmuch as foreigners are excluded from suing under the Act. It is in the knowledge of these apparently minor points of law that the superior attorney excels, and such a lawyer is Mr. Thole, the subject of this sketch.
FRANCIS H. THOLE was born in the old district of South- wark, Philadelphia, his parents being Francis H. Thole and Matilda (Hardick) Thole. The father is a German, having come to this country in early manhood, and his mother is of German extraction. His father was for years engaged in business in Philadelphia, and
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was active in several enterprises, being especially interested in building and loan associations, of six of which organizations he was President. Mr. Thole attended the public schools of Philadel- phia, passing through all the grades, and then entered the law office of the late William B. Mann, where he registered as a student. Under the preceptorship of that eminent criminal lawyer and sturdy, honest gentleman, Mr. Thole rapidly advanced in his reading. Perhaps no lawyer of his time took more interest in the young men at his office than he. An acknowledged leader of the Philadelphia Bar, and at that time probably without a peer as a criminal lawyer, Mr. Mann always found time to advise and encourage, and Mr. Thole was fortunate in having such a pre- ceptor. He acquired a deep and thorough knowledge of the law, and when Mr. Mann discontinued the practice of his profession to accept the office of Prothonotary in the Court of Common Pleas, he entered the office of Henry C. Terry, under whom he completed his studies, and upon whose motion, in July, 1882, he was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar. Since that time Mr. Thole has devoted his time and talents almost exclusively to the practice of the law, and his success is marked. He has a large and well paying clientele, which includes some of the largest and best known manufacturing concerns in Philadelphia.
Mr. Thole is the legal adviser of the Italian Consul at Phila- delphia, and is counsel also for twenty-seven Italian societies and organizations, a significant fact which proves the high esteem and regard, both as a lawyer and citizen, in which he is held by these people. They place implicit trust in him and never fail to act according to his advice, and that in doing so they have been emi- nently successful in legal contests is the best possible proof that their confidence has not been misplaced.
Mr. Thole resides in West Philadelphia, where he is prominent in the work of improving and beautifying that resident portion of the city. Largely through his efforts several organized move- ments for the erection of blocks of buildings and for the proper paving and lighting of streets have been planned and successfully executed. Mr. Thole is a sterling Republican, and upon all
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important occasions takes an active part in the affairs of his party, but he has invariably declined to accept repeatedly tendered nominations for office. The many business interests in which he is engaged occupy so much of his time that he has little to spare for social diversions. Mr. Thole and Helen A. Jones were married on November 22, 1887. Mrs. Thole is descended from one of the old Swedish families who held land in Philadelphia on grants direct from William Penn. Her great-grandfather, Peter Jones, held a commission in the Continental Army. They have no children.
JOEL THOMAS.
A CITY of diversified industries cannot be built up without the enterprise of far-sighted financiers and energetic business men, favored with a generous endowment of shrewdness and sagacity. On the judgment of the financiers in the manufacturing field much depends, for a progressive spirit may easily be thwarted by ill- advised attempts of investors to enter branches of industry in which opportunities are wanting, and failure in which would inspire a timidity likely to prove a heavy impediment to future projects. To the con- servative character, then, as well as to the enterprise of its earlier manufacturers, is due, to a very considerable degree, the post now held by Pennsylvania's chief city as a manufacturing center. Among the many enterprises which persevering effort has established in Phila- delphia, a prominent place is occupied by the manufacture of ruching and ruffling, the pioneer in the making of which is one of the Quaker City's best known business men, Joel Thomas, who established the first factory for the manufacture of these articles in the United States, and who might thus be truly considered the father of the business in this country.
JOEL THOMAS was born in Edgemont Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, January 6, 1820. He was the son of John Thomas and Elizabeth Worthington. His father's ancestors came from Wales about the year 1682, and, settling in the Welsh Barony district, which is now incorporated within the limits of Philadelphia and Chester counties, became the progenitors of a family which has since occupied a prominent place in the annals of the State. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch was Jacob Thomas, who served as a soldier in the French and Indian wars, and later joined the
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Continental Army in its efforts to throw off the yoke of Britain. His mother's family was of English origin, but prominent in this section for several generations.
Mr. Thomas was educated in the best private schools to be found in the city of Philadelphia at that early day, the system of public schools being at that time in its infancy, only two such institutions having then been established in the city. At the age of twenty-two he began the manufacture of mathematical instruments in company with his brother, but soon withdrew from the firm to engage in the cutlery business. This, however, not proving remunerative, in the spring of 1844 he embarked in the branch of industry in which he has since been engaged for half a century, the manufacture of rufflings for ladies' neckwear and ruching for bonnets. At that time he was sole manufacturer of this class of millinery goods in the United States, and so closely did he watch the trade and so thoroughly did he fill the demands of the dealers that, from 1845 until 1854, there was no other ruche maker in the United States. Although he has devoted almost the whole of his busy life to the development of his business, and has never been identified, to any considerable extent, in any other private undertaking, he has found ample opportunity to serve the Mount Moriah Cemetery Association, in which he has been a Director since its foundation, in 1853, and of which he is now President. He received many offers, in a general way, to take the headship of large financial and mercantile business concerns in New York and other places, by people knowing his capacity, but these were declined, as he preferred a middle course rather than a distinguished one and larger fortunes. For ten years he was a Director in the public schools of Philadelphia, but resigned because of his distaste for politics and polit- ical life. Several times since he has been earnestly solicited to re-enter the political field and accept a place in the City Councils, but has invari- ably declined.
Mr. Thomas was married, January 29, 1846, to Margaret Hetzell, of Bridgeton, New Jersey. Of his three children but one, a son, is now living, and on June 13, 1895, he was further bereaved by the death of his wife, within only a few months of their golden wedding anniversary.
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He has been one of the foremost men in developing the city's unimproved real estate and in making Philadelphia a city of homes. During all his long and eventful life Mr. Thomas has had but one serious illness, a very light case of varioloid, from a great exposure, in his early manhood. Upon his convalescence from this attack he took an extended European trip, visiting a number of points of inter- est in the Old World and acquiring a fund of experiences which it is still a pleasure to recall. Always of devout mind, he has long been known as a sincere churchman, having, at the early age of seven years, joined the Presbyterian denomination, in whose charities he has taken an intense interest. He has been a Mason since 1853, and an elective officer nearly twenty years, until he resigned. He was a Trustee of one of its charity funds, which, with its founder and one other, he helped largely to establish. He is a member of the Grand Lodge, and has been an appointed officer for many years.
As tending to show the astuteness and inventive genius that has characterized the family, it is worthy of note that A. W. Thomas, the brother of the subject of this biography, was the inventor of the pneu- matic tire, now so widely used, and which has brought the bicycle into such universal use for business and pleasure. The inventor, however, realized not more than five thousand dollars from the device which has brought fortunes to many who have profited by his skill.
Thomas No. Thompson
THOMAS M. THOMPSON.
N a great municipality, such as the city of Philadelphia, the Department of Public Works, with the direction RX- of its affairs, is necessarily one of the most important systems and positions that can fall under the charge of an individual. As its name implies, the depart- ment has control of all the public works of the city, and it is divided into a number of bureaus, each under the charge of a Chief, who daily reports to the Director on all work under construction, and, at the same time, receives the instructions which are necessary to keep the work progressing. This position at the head of all municipal works naturally requires a man of thorough business qualities and administra- tive ability. That the subject of this sketch, Thomas M. Thompson, possesses these traits to a high degree, has been amply attested by his excellent conduct of the office of Director of Public Works during the past three years, and his responsibility and devotion to the people's interests while holding other positions of trust in the gift of the people.
The importance of the work under Mr. Thompson's direction and supervision can be appreciated when the multitudinous nature of its affairs is considered. The department consists of the Bureau of Sur- veys, having in charge all the engineering work of the city, and the construction of bridges, sewers, embankments, dredging of rivers and the like; the Bureau of Highways, which has a general supervision of the highways, and has in charge all paving, re-paving, opening and grading of streets, roads and lanes ; the Bureau of Water, which must furnish for distribution water to 1,500,000 people, and, in addition, guard the water-courses from pollution, as well as prepare plans for storage and purification ; the Bureau of Street-Cleaning, having in
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charge the cleaning of streets and removal of garbage; the Bureau of Lighting, having in charge the lighting, and, prior to the recent lease of the gas works, the Bureau of Gas. In connection with the agitation for a pure water supply, Mr. Thompson has given to the city informa- tion almost beyond value, in a report on the various systems of filtra- tion, with their respective merits and defects.
THOMAS M. THOMPSON was born in the Fourteenth Ward, in the city of Philadelphia, on November 15, 1841. He is the son of Thomas and Mary A. Thompson, his father being a lineal descendant of Sir Christopher Wren, the famous architect of the London Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral. He received his elementary training in the public schools of Philadelphia, and, at the boarding-school of Rev. Matthew Meigs, of Pottstown, received a thorough collegiate course. Upon leaving school, at the age of sixteen years, he entered the whole- sale upholstery house of his father, and, at the age of twenty-one, became a partner, under the firm name of Thomas Thompson, Sons & Company. At the death of his father, which occurred in 1881, Mr. Thompson became the senior partner, the firm then consisting of himself and his brother, Lewis A. Thompson. He continued in busi- ness over thirty-five years, and only retired about two years ago.
Mr. Thompson made his first entrance into public life as a repre- sentative from the Fifteenth Ward in the Councils in 1880, serving for several terms. While in the Councils he held the important positions of Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Chairman of the Fire Committee and of the Municipal Government Committee. It was while serving in the capacity of Chairman of the Committee on Finance that he was nominated and elected City Controller, succeeding Gen. Robert P. Dechert. After serving one term he was re-nominated and re-elected for the second term, with the honor of not a single delegate voting against him at either convention. While serving as City Controller he was induced by Mayor Charles F. Warwick to accept the position of Director of the Department of Public Works. This position he has held for the past three years. He has always taken a very active interest in public matters, and has uniformly endeavored to advance the affairs of his native city. He was Chairman of the Manufacturers' Association, under whose auspices
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285 exhibits were sent to the exhibition at New Orleans in 1885, and through his personal efforts he was successful in taking four Pullman coaches of representative business men of this city to New Orleans, to show our Southern brethren that the people of the North were desirous of aiding and extending to them the hand of good-fellowship. As a result of the trip Mr. Thompson prizes highly a handsome testi- monial from the excursionists, who numbered many prominent Philadelphians.
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