USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume III > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
ROLAND G. CURTIN.
ROMINENT in scientific research and a recognized authority in half a dozen branches of medicine, Dr. Roland G. Curtin, of Philadelphia, has, by tireless energy, earned the reputation of being one of the few really original investigators of the day.
ROLAND GIDEON CURTIN was born, October 29, 1839, in Belle- fonte, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Dr. Constans Curtin, formerly of Dysart, County Clare, Ireland, an accomplished member of the medical profession, who, after graduating from Surgeons' Hall, in Dublin, entered the British Navy, but, resigning immediately, in 1807 came to the United States, where he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1809. He died in 1842 at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Doctor Curtin's mother was Mary Anne Kinne. She was a lineal descendant of Thomas Welles, one of the earliest Governors of the State of Connecticut, and William Pynchon, Colonial Governor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Her grandfather, Aaron Kinne, was Chaplain at Fort Griswold, Groton, Connecticut, in 1781, when the British, under the traitor, Benedict Arnold, massacred the Continental garrison. Doctor Curtin was educated in the Bellefonte public schools and Academy, and then entered the Scientific Department of Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1859. For a short time Doctor Curtin was engaged in the iron business, but on the outbreak of the Civil War was appointed United States Naval Storekeeper at the League Island Navy Yard, where he remained until the War's end. He entered the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1866. He was appointed Resident Physician in the Philadelphia Hospital, where he spent eighteen months. Desiring wider experience, he toured Great Britain
77
78
ROLAND G. CURTIN.
and Continental Europe, making a minute inspection of hospitals. Upon his return to America he was appointed Assistant United States Geologist, under Prof. F. V. Hayden, with whom he headed a scientific exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains. It was not until 1869 that he began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia, where he soon became widely known. He was Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the Wagner Free Institute from 1871 until 1873 ; Professor of Geology at George's Institute, in Philadelphia, in 1873 ; Assistant Physician of Philadelphia Lying-in Charity from 1871 until 1882; Chief of the Medical Dispensary of the Hospital of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania for ten years; Assistant to the Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania from 1879 until 1887 ; Physician in the Throat and Chest Department of Howard Hospital from 1876 until 1882 ; Visiting Physician to the Maternity Hospital, Philadelphia, for twenty years; has been Lecturer on Physical Diagnosis, University of Pennsylvania, and Visiting Physi- cian to the University Hospital since 1877, and Visiting Physician to the Presbyterian Hospital for the past ten years. He has been on the Medical Staff of the Philadelphia Hospital since 1880, and has been President of its Medical Board for the past seven years. He is now Consulting Physician to the Rush Hospital for Consumption, and to St. Timothy's Hospital, Philadelphia. During the Centennial Exhibition he served as Assistant Medical Director.
Doctor Curtin is a Fellow of the College of Physicians ; a mem- ber of the Philadelphia Obstetrical Society, Pathological Society, the American Medical Association, Medical Society of the State of Penn- sylvania, and the American Climatological Society, having served as its Vice-President in 1885 and 1886, and as its President in 1892 and 1893. In 1871 the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D., and, in 1883, Lafayette College the honorary title of A.M. He is an ex-President of the Alumni Association of the Auxiliary Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania ; an ex-President of the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia Graduates of the Medical Department, and President of the Grand Chapter of the Alpha Mu Pi Omega Medical Fraternity. He is President of the Asso- ciation of Hospital Surgeons and Physicians of Philadelphia. Doctor
79
ROLAND G. CURTIN.
Curtin has written many papers, among them the following: "Address of the President, delivered before the American Climatological Associa- tion " (1893) ; "Heredity as a Primary Factor in Graves' Diseases, with Remarks on Other Etiological Influences " (1896) ; " Hemor- rhagic Typhoid Fever: Its Treatment, and a Review of the Tabulation of Seventeen Cases" (1893) ; "Congenital Narrowing of the Mitral Orifices as a Cause of Dwarfed Lives and Irritable Heart" (1896) ; " Clinical Study of Tachycardia and Its Relation to Uremia and Graves' Diseases" (1897) ; "Statistics of Sixty Cases of Typhoid Fever Complicated with Hemorrhage from the Bowels " (1897).
Doctor Curtin was a member of the Committee of Arrangements of the International Medical Congress, held in Philadelphia in 1876; Vice-President of the Section of Climatology and Demography of the International Medical Congress, Washington, 1887; Honorary Presi- dent of the Medico-Climatology Division of the World's Congress, auxiliary to the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 ; and a member of the First Pan-American Medical Congress, held in Wash- ington, and the Second Congress, in the City of Mexico, in 1896. Among the social orders of which Doctor Curtin is a member are the Sons of the American Revolution; the Masonic Fraternity, in which he is a Past Master ; the Knights Templar; the Scottish Rite, in which he has taken the Thirty-second Degree, and the Grand Army of the Republic. He is prominent in the affairs of the Historical and Genea- logical Societies of Pennsylvania, and is a life member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Doctor Curtin was married, March 21, 1882, to Julia Robinson Taylor, daughter of the late Edwin Taylor, of Hartford, Connecticut. They have had two children, Roland G. Curtin, Jr., and Mary Con- stance Curtin.
SAMUEL GERALD DeCOURSEY.
CAREFUL, conservative and yet active and progressive as a merchant, and alert, energetic and always in advance as a railroad manager, the subject of this biographical sketch, Samuel G. DeCoursey, is recog- nized as one of the most able men in the Keystone Commonwealth. For a number of years before taking active part in the management of a very important railway line, he was engaged in the mercantile business in Philadelphia, and in this he acquired a notable standing. His success in a trade which brought him into contact with transportation lines caused him to take an interest in railroads, and, once he entered this field, comparatively new to him though it was, his ability soon caused him to be placed at the head of a great corporation. Largely through his efforts, the company of which he is President greatly increased its business and extended its lines of road. As a result, Mr. DeCoursey is justly numbered among the leading railroad men of the country.
SAMUEL GERALD DECOURSEY was born at Queenstown, Queen Anne County, Maryland, September 28, 1839. His parents were Thomas Wickes DeCoursey and Sarah F. (Nicols) DeCoursey. Mr. DeCoursey is of good old Maryland stock, the first members of his ancestral family having come to this country with Lord Baltimore, and his great uncle, Capt. Lambert Wickes, of Maryland, had the honor of commanding the sloop of war "Reprisal," it being the first vessel commissioned in the navy of the United States. It was Captain Wickes, who, in the "Reprisal," took Benjamin Franklin to France as United States Minister to that country in 1776. Mr. DeCoursey was educated at St. James College, in Washington County, Maryland, and there gave every evidence of a natural brightness and quickness
80
٠
81
SAMUEL GERALD DECOURSEY.
of perception. At the age of fifteen years he came to Philadelphia, where he entered the dry-goods house of Henry Farnum & Company, in August, 1854, with whom he learned the business. Eight years later he founded the firm of DeCoursey, Hamilton & Evans, dry- goods commission merchants. This firm quickly rose to prominence in that line of business. He acquired considerable financial interest in the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway Company, and was selected as one of the directors of that corporation in 1888. The marked ability shown by him as a member of the Board of Directors led to his election to the office of Vice-President of the company, a position which he filled for nearly four years. This trust he cared for so well, and with such entire satisfaction to the directors and stockholders, that he was chosen President of the company in 1892.
The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway Company has aided very greatly in the material development of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Its system covers a distance of about six hundred and fifty miles, and reaches from its two largest terminals, Buffalo and Rochester, down to the large cities of Western Pennsylvania and New York. The road, under the Presidency of Mr. DeCoursey, has steadily extended its business connections. The line, through its connections with the Philadelphia and Erie Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Emporium, forms the shortest route between Buffalo and the southeastern cities. Over its lines the Chautauqua Assembly grounds, at Mayville, are reached. Through its connection the road reaches the bituminous coal regions in the Fairmount, Reynoldsville and Mercer County districts of Pennsyl- vania. The great oil regions of Bradford, Pennsylvania, and Olean, New York, are reached by the road of which Mr. DeCoursey is the official head, as are also the large salt mines of New York and the great lumber districts of Pennsylvania. Through its connection made at New Castle, Pennsylvania, the most southerly point on the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway, with the Pennsylvania Company and connections of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, all the important points east, south and southwest are reached.
In the development of this important system, President DeCoursey has taken the greatest interest, and his ability as a railroad manager III .- 6
82
SAMUEL GERALD DECOURSEY.
and financier has greatly assisted in perfecting the system. He is always well informed upon all great questions of transportation and is an active participant in the important conferences of railway officials.
Mr. DeCoursey and Lizzie Otto Barclay, daughter of the late Andrew C. Barclay and Myra M. Kennedy, were married on Novem- ber 23, 1864. They have had four children, Antoinette, who is married to Thomas H. Hoge Patterson; Andrew C., who died in infancy ; Emily and John B. DeCoursey. Mrs. DeCoursey died April 24, 1895.
"Fis Perdiranit' Ung-Co Phe
WILLIAM H. DENLINGER.
F the great mineral trio of coal, iron and oil, the one that, though the last to be discovered, has done the most, probably, to spread the fame of Pennsylvania to the ends of the earth, is petroleum. Found in large quantities only within the past forty years, it has transformed an almost unbroken wilderness into a thickly settled region. The firm of Denlinger Brothers, of which William H. Den- linger, the subject of this review, is senior member, is one that has done much to bring about the present prosperous state of affairs in the oil industry and to make the discovery bring material wealth to the people of Pennsylvania. For almost a quarter of a century they have been steadily gaining ground, and to-day are accounted among the largest refiners of petroleum and dealers in manufactured oils in the State, a fact that is due, in a great measure, to the unerring business instincts of the senior Denlinger.
WILLIAM HENRY DENLINGER was born in Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, November 13, 1853. His parents were Christian Denlinger and Fannie Shidle. His father was a member of the old Pennsylvania German family of that name which has figured so prominently in the history of Lancaster County, in which locality many of them yet reside. His grandfather, C. Denlinger, settled in Blair County about the time the father of William Henry Denlinger was born. C. Denlinger's wife was formerly Jane Holliday, of the family which founded the town of Hollidaysburg. His mother, also, was of German descent and belonged to one of the oldest families in Pittsburg. Mr. Den- linger's early life was spent in Pittsburg and vicinity, with the excep- tion of six years, which were passed in Minnesota. As soon as he was old enough to enter the public schools he began his education,
83
84
WILLIAM HENRY DENLINGER.
but, owing to the financial condition of his father, was compelled to go to work, when but fourteen, in the oil-refineries near Pittsburg, where he did every kind of common work that a boy could do. But the fire of ambition still burned in Mr. Denlinger's breast, and he determined, at any sacrifice and however great the labor, to increase his knowledge as far as he was able. With this object in view, he enrolled himself as a student in the night-schools and, after he had completed a hard day's work, was wont to spend hours delving in his books. For two winters he maintained this with persistence, backed by a sincere desire for knowledge and a determination to learn. For three years he labored in humble capacities about the oil-refineries near Pittsburg, at the end of which time, in the year 1870, he was tendered a position in the City Gauger's office in Pittsburg, where it was his duty to gauge oils and all other liquid merchandise, excepting spirituous liquors. He remained in this capacity for a few years and was promoted to the position of Deputy Gauger, in which posi- tion he gave eminent satisfaction. He resigned this latter post in July, 1879, to engage in the oil business, and, in connection with his brother, James S., he organized the firm of Denlinger Brothers, becoming the senior member of the company. Since the formation of the firm he has spent the bulk of his time traveling in its interest, and his affable manners, not less than his business capacity, has built up an immense business. To accommodate this it has been necessary for them to form a branch establishment at Philipsburg, Centre County, under his direct control. Mr. Denlinger is President of the Philipsburg Board of Trade, the Citizens' Building and Loan Associa- tion and of the Philipsburg Furniture Manufacturing Company. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Welivar Manufacturing Company of Philipsburg. For several years Mr. Denlinger has been active and prominent in the affairs of the Masonic fraternity. Though a pronounced Democrat, he has never prominently identified himself with partisan politics and has never accepted any office except such as would enable him to further the interests of the city of his adoption. As illustrative of this he was elected a member of the Philipsburg Council in February, 1895. His associates elected him President of the Council the following year, for the term which expires in February,
85
WILLIAM HENRY DENLINGER.
1898. Mr. Denlinger's military service was a comparatively brief one, for he was a mere boy even at the close of the War. In October, 1864, however, before he had completed his tenth year, his father was sent to the hospital at Annapolis, Maryland. The son was sent on to see his parent, and, desiring to be near his father, he secured a position as Orderly to the commanding officer and was placed on the pay-roll of the United States Army. He remained in that position until the close of the War, when he returned to Pittsburg
Mr. Denlinger's life has been one continual struggle for success. His mother died in 1865 and, when his father returned from the War, he found himself without money and with three small children to support. Thus it was that the son was compelled to go to work at the age of fourteen. But at no time since has he known what it was to seek a position, for he has always found employment, often at low wages, but always earning a little more than his expenses. What success he has attained in life may be attributed not to any special advantages nor to fair opportunity even, but to one thing in particular : early in life he recognized that, if he hoped to prosper, he would be enabled to do so only by his own endeavors-that he had to make his own living and carve out his own career. At this he went with a determination to win, always seeking to give his employers a little more service than they asked or expected, and has always been (pos- sibly to his own disadvantage) very careful to earn all he got, and the great secret of his success has been that he has always lived within his means.
T. SPEER DICKSON.
ITH those who have succeeded by energy and faithful- ness is included the subject of this biographical sketch, T. Speer Dickson, the keynote of whose ster- ling character is shown in the following incident in his career. His father, late in life, without the knowl- edge of his family, endorsed largely for a friend, who failed in busi- ness, and the Dickson farm had to go to meet the endorsement. The son, by careful management and from hard earnings as a teacher, redeemed the homestead and provided comfortably for his parents during their natural lives. This one act points out the way of his entire career.
T. SPEER DICKSON was born in Wells' Township, Bedford (now Fulton) County, Pennsylvania, his ancestors having been Scotch-Irish settlers. His grandfather was Thomas Speer, who came from Done- gal, Ireland, about the year 1783, and associated in the mercantile business in the town of Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, with the father of President Buchanan, the latter marrying Elizabeth Speer, a relative of his co-partner in business. Mr. Dickson's parents, John and Eliza Ann, lived on a farm, where the son worked and attended school, until 1864, when, at the age of sixteen years, he asked permission of his father to enlist in the army at the time of the Rebel- lion. Young Dickson joined Company K, Two-hundred-and-second Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, Volunteers, September 1, 1864, and served until the close of the war. His regiment was under fire of Moseby's Guerillas nearly the whole time during its service. At the close of the war his regiment was not discharged, but sent to the anthracite coal fields in Northeastern Pennsylvania, to quell the brutalities and murders then existing among the "Molly
86
S. Speer Dickson .
1
87
T. SPEER DICKSON.
Maguires." He was honorably discharged with his regiment on August 3, 1865, at Harrisburg. He entered school again and prepared him- self for teaching. In connection with a common school and academic education, he has had advantage of State Normal training and has held the highest grades of certificates granted by the State Depart- ments of Pennsylvania and Ohio. He has taught in all grades of the public schools for twenty successive years, from the elementary to the high school, including normal schools and collegiate institutes. He was Principal, for several terms each, of the public schools of McVey- town, Woodbury, Janesville, Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, and also taught in the Juniata Collegiate Institute at the latter place, and the Brethren's Normal and Collegiate Institute, Huntingdon. In 1881 he was elected Principal of the public schools of St. Paris, Ohio, and re-elected a second term at an increase of salary. Before his term closed he was, on April 17, 1883, appointed by the Court, School Examiner for Champaign County, Ohio, for the full term of three years. While filling this position an effort was made in the Eighth Ohio Con- gressional District, in which Mr. Dickson was then located, to have Gen. J. Warren Keifer returned to Congress. There was not a single newspaper in the district favorable to the General's candidacy, and Mr. Dickson and a St. Paris banker, E. V. Rhoads, purchased the St. Paris Dispatch, starting a boom for the General's re-election, which proved victorious. This was Mr. Dickson's entrance into journalism, and so well pleased was he with it, that he soon mastered the various departments of country journalism, afterwards selling his interest in the paper and returning to his Pennsylvania home. He took up the study of law and was admitted to the Bar in 1886, in McConnells- burg, Pennsylvania. The same year he was tendered the clerkship of the Court of the Sixth Judicial District of the Territory of Dakota, which he accepted and filled with credit. During his stay in the Northwest he was admitted to the Courts of the Territory, including the Supreme Court, and had a lucrative practice before the Depart- ment of the Interior. He was elected a Territorial Delegate to the Republican Convention in 1886. At the expiration of his term of office there he returned to Pennsylvania and established, in Mifflin County, The Star, a Republican newspaper, which made itself felt in
-
88
T. SPEER DICKSON.
that section. He was nominated for District Attorney in 1889, but was defeated at the polls with all the other Republican candidates on the ticket, save one. In 1893 he sold his paper and associated himself with Congressman John B. Robinson, of Media, Pennsylvania. He is the Managing Editor of Mr. Robinson's paper, the Media Ledger, and junior member of the law firm of Robinson & Dickson.
He has made the Ledger one of the most successful weeklies in Eastern Pennsylvania. The law firm is the counsel for the County Commissioners, Mr. Dickson being the integral part. He made him- self very popular among the tax-payers of the county by his method of paring down the fees of all those who worked under the fee system, and so vigilant was he along that line that he saved the county thou- sands of dollars and earned the title of the "watchdog of the treasury."
In December, 1893, Mr. Dickson, in order to get an expression of Republican sentiment on the choice of a candidate for Gov- ernor, addressed a circular letter on the subject to editors of Republican papers throughout the State. Answers to the questions showed that Gen. D. H. Hastings was the decided choice; in fact, so marked was the expression that all other candidates, one by one, dropped out of the race. Later the General wrote a strong letter of acknowledgment to Editor Dickson. As the youngest member of Horton Post, No. 413, Grand Army of the Republic, Wells' Tannery, Mr. Dickson is also proud of being the youngest soldier to enlist in the war from his county. He is a member of Woodberry Lodge, No. 539, Free and Accepted Masons. He married Laura Cecelia, daughter of Nathan W. Horton, formerly of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. They have four children, two girls and two boys.
TheRembrandtEngCo-Philo
Grace It Denham
ISRAEL W. DURHAM.
G ENIAL, engaging, entertaining and unruffled are words which well describe the personality of Israel W. Durham. These qualities, coupled with keen insight into human nature, quick and almost unerring per- ception, and knowledge secured by experience in personally conducted campaigns, eminently fit a man for the field of politics. Senator Durham possesses these traits to a remarkable degree. Not only is he thus well equipped for playing the game of politics, but his reputation for truth and honesty secures for him the respect and admiration of even his political opponents. Of him Alexander K. McClure said: " His word is his bond under all circum- stances,"-high praise, indeed, but not a whit exaggerated; for Senator Durham is entitled to the respect of his community, both by reason of his excellent record and his personal attainments. In the affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania he plays an important part, and as lasting success in public life depends largely upon the keeping of promises, it is quite likely that the subject of this biography will in later years be heard from in wider and more important fields.
ISRAEL WILSON DURHAM was born in Philadelphia, October 24, 1856. His father is a retired flour merchant, whose ancestors came from Belfast, Ireland. His mother was Jane Elizabeth Norris. They sent their son to the public schools, where he obtained his only school- ing. This early instruction has been supplemented by a practical education secured through keen observation and by close application to books. While not a student in the strictest sense of the word, he is a reader of wide range and has a wonderfully retentive memory. He has stored in his mind a great deal of useful knowledge of the
89
90
ISRAEL W. DURHAM.
kind that mere academic education cannot furnish. Upon leaving the public schools he was apprenticed to and learned the trade of brick- laying. He soon ceased working at this trade, however, and became connected with his father in the flour business. He here gave evi- dence of the possession of considerable business judgment and a per- ception of existing conditions that marked him as a young man of great promise. Early in life he took an active interest in political matters and was a leader almost as soon as he was able to vote. Though on several occasions he was urged to stand for office, he declined to do so until 1885, when he was nominated by the Republicans of Philadelphia for Magistrate and, after an active personal campaign, was elected. He was re-elected in 1890, but declined re-nomination in 1895. As a Magistrate Mr. Durham erred, if he erred at all, on the side of mercy. He always held that there was something good even in the worst of those who came before him, and to his interest in them quite a number owe their reformation. In 1897 Mr. Durham was elected as Senator at Harrisburg to succeed Boies Penrose, Senator Penrose having been elected to the Senate of the United States. Mr. Durham's election was practically unanimous, only seventy-two votes in all being polled against him. He has frequently been elected to represent his District in Republican State and National Conven- tions, and has for years been high in the councils of his party in Penn- sylvania. He was a Delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Louis in 1896, in which Mr. Mckinley was nominated for the Presidency. During the exciting contest for the office of Sheriff be- tween Alexander Crow and Samuel H. Ashbridge, which resulted in the success of the former, Mr. Durham was the acknowledged leader of the element of the Republican party which elected Mr. Crow. He is a bachelor. His home life is the antithesis of his active political and business life, and there he takes rest, throwing off for the time all troublous matters, and declines to be drawn, during his period of relaxation, into the consideration of weighty affairs. Only to help a friend, it is said, will he interrupt his time of rest. During exciting political campaigns, his hours of recreation are few, and days and nights frequently pass without cessation from physical or mental labor. Action, not talk, is a condensed rule of life closely followed by Mr.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.