USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 127
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Captain Jacob Jay Vandergrift. This prominent capitalist and business man of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, is a native of the city, born April 10, 1827, son of William K. and Sophia (Sarver) Vandergrift and grandson of Jacob and Mary (Hart) Vandergrift. The Vandergrifts have been prominent in the affairs of the State for many years and none more so than the subject of this sketch. He was the second of nine children born to his parents and at the age of six years was placed in a private school in Pittsburg near the present site of the Dollar Savings Bank. A year later he entered the Second Ward public school and at the age of thirteen was placed in a school on Fourth Avenue, where he remained two years. He then became cabin boy on the steamboat Bridgewater, but shortly after acted in the same capacity for his uncle, John Vandergrift, owner of the steamer Pinta; later was with the Herald; the Prairie Bird (owned by his uncle and later by Levi Miller of Wheeling, West Virginia); the Rhode Island (later the Hail Columbia); the Allegheny; in 1852 became commander of the side-wheel steamer Black Diamond and became distinguished as the only captain with sufficient courage and determination to utilize the space in front in towing coal barges down the river. In 1858 he became a part owner of the Red Fox, the Conestoga, 'and until 1861 was engaged in towing coal from Pittsburg to New Orleans. About this time he became deeply interested in the oil business (in West Vir- ginia) and began operations in the petroleum district but later when his plant was seized upon by the Confederate forces he returned to Pittsburg and soon after sold his barges to the National Government, fitted the Conestoga up as a gunboat and turned her over to Commodore Foote, U. S. N. Soon after he became sole owner of the Red Fox and put the vessel into the oil trade between Pittsburg and Oil City. This was the beginning of a very important, extensive and profit- able business, as an illustration of which it may be stated that one fleet of oil purchased in 1863, at one dollar per barrel, was sold a little later in the same year at Pittsburg for $12 per barrel, at a profit of $70,000. Later Captain Vander-
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grift began to acquire interests in oil producing "up Oil Creek," with Mr. Bush- nell as his partner, took up his residence at Oil City and threw himself with vigor into the work of producing oil and developing the oil country. For this purpose he formed one or two companies and became interested in a railroad and pipe- line, the latter taking the name of tlie "Star Pipe Line," which was the real com- mencement of the gigantic system which now prevails under the name of the "National Transit Company." This led to the establishment of other pipe-lines: Commonwealth Pipe-line, Sandy Pipe-line, Milton Pipe-line, Western Pipe-line and the Franklin Pipe-line, all of which were of the utmost importance. The Imperial Refinery, having a capacity of 2,000 barrels per day, and considered a huge enterprise at that time, was built by Captain Vandergrift and his partners. Another enterprise which the captain was active in organizing was the Oil City Trust Company, the capital of which was $120,000, after which the following additional pipe-lines were laid: Fairview Pipe-line, Raymilton Pipe-line, Cleve- land Pipe-line, and Millerstown Pipe-line, all controlled by Captain Vandergrift and his business associates. These were all finally united under the title of the United Pipe-line of Vandergrift, Forman & Co., and later with other lines as the United Pipe-lines. Of this association Captain Vandergrift was president until January 4, 1889, and to him, therefore, is attributable a very large share of the unbounded and well-merited confidence the company has always possessed, from not only the producers and holders of oil, but also the banking institutions of the country. Captain Vandergrift is associated with the leading oil companies of the State, has been the prime mover in organizing many of them, and he is also a large individual producer of oil. He has a beautiful home in East Liberty and there resides with his second wife, formerly Mrs. Frances G. (Anshutz) Hartley. His first wife was Henrietta V. Morrow, who bore him the following children: Kate V. (Mrs. Bingham of New York); Benjamin W. (deceased); Rebecca B. (de- ceased); Jacob J. (deceased); Daniel B. (deceased); Henrietta V. (Mrs. John- ston of West Point, New York); Margaret F. (Mrs. T. E. Murphy); Samuel H. and Joseph B. To Captain Vandergrift belongs the credit of introducing natural gas for industrial and fuel purposes in Pittsburg. He is a director in various fuel gas companies throughout the State, and had he rendered no other services to the business interests of Pennsylvania, his activity and enterprise in this di- rection alone would entitle him to distinguished consideration. Of his multitudi- nous business enterprises in Oil City and Pittsburg a volume might be written, suffice it to say that he has been a leader in many lines, banking, iron, oil, etc., and his rare business sagacity, his extraordinary vigor and energy, his uprightness and honor have largely figured in the success of the numerous enterprises with which he has connected himself. He is generous and philanthropic, a model American citizen and one whose friends are legion.
Robert Peebles Nevin, the Nestor of the Pittsburg press, is one of a goodly family born to John Nevin of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He first saw the light on July 31, 1820, in the quaint old town in Cumberland County. When he was nine years old his father died and the family disintegrated, young Robert and his mother moving to Allegheny City. Here for a time mother and son made their home with Rev. John W. Nevin, D. D. Subsequently Robert went to live with his brother-in-law, Dr. John K. Finley, of Chillicothe, Ohio. Here he continued liis schooling which had just begun when he left Shippensburg, and for eighteen months attended the Chillicothe Academy. Following this he went to Niles, Michigan, and made his home with another brother-in-law, Rev. Dr. Alexander Blaine Brown. After a period of schooling there Robert returned to Pittsburg, and shortly afterward entered the home of his brother, the late William M. Nevin, LL. D., who was at the head of the Sewickley Academy. After attend-
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ing that institution for two years he entered Jefferson College, Canonsburg, taking the regular collegiate course, and graduated in 1842. Though of a decided literary bent, an opportunity to engage in business offered itself, and Mr. Nevin decided to accept that, instead of entering upon a professional career. He entered into a partnership with his brother, the late Theodore H. Nevin, the two carrying on successfully the drug and white lead business. Mr. Nevin's literary instincts evinced themselves at an early age. When a lad of twelve, he wrote some verses which were published in a New York paper. Throughout all his early years occasional poems were written and published, and when he went to college he was a valued correspondent to the Washington Reporter. Business life did not prevent Mr. Nevin from writing both verse and prose; his efforts in the latter finding a place in the Pittsburg Journal. Among the tales from his pen at this time was "Shandy's Shelf," a story with a local plot, wherein a peculiar rock, that jutted from a cliff near Courtney's-now Emsworth Station-figured, and gave title to the tale, "The Leap of the Lame Blacksmith," and a number of prose sketches, gave the young writer more than a local name, and the heat of the Clay Campaign (1844) found Mr. Nevin the most popular of campaign song and music composers. One of his songs, "Our Nominee," made a special hit. It was copied into the London Times and commented upon by that paper as a striking type of campaign song.
In more serious vein Mr. Nevin is at his best, as in the poem composed on the occasion of the dedication and opening of the Allegheny Cemetery, and many 'years later, in a similar poem, written for and delivered at the opening of Sewickley's beautiful cemetery. Mr. Nevin was a valued contributor to the pages of the Atlantic, the Knickerbocker, Lippincotts, and other magazines. His most important work, "Black Robes or Sketches of Missions," and "Ministers in the Wilderness and on the Border," appeared in 1872 from the publishing house of Lippincott. It met with a large sale and evoked a. storm of varying comment, not unmixed with censure. The latter may be attributed to its honesty.
About 1877 Mr. Nevin brought out "Les Trois Rois" (The Three Kings) in which a trio of ancient rulers-and patron saints-of Cologne were used as a simile for elucidating three industries of Pittsburg, and the designing of three men as the modern kings of their separate realms. These realms were set forth as Transportation, Iron and Natural Gas, with the late Willian Thaw, Andrew Carnegie and George Westinghouse, as the "Three Kings."
Mr. Nevin was one of the first, if not the very first, Pittsburger to become interested in the refining of petroleum. Before striking the first oil producing well by Colonel Drake, in fact, before a well had ever been bored for oil, Mr. Nevin had begun the refining of the fluid which subsequently figured so wonder- fully in the industrial history of his State and city. Way back in the middle fifties, Lewis Peterson entered the drug store of T. H. Nevin & Co., and told young Robert P. Nevin of the queer-smelling oil that came to the surface with the salt water from one of Peterson's wells at Tarentum. Mr. Nevin formed the idea that this oil would make an illuminant, and he subsequently obtained a supply from some other salt wells near Tarentum, and the firm invested in a three-bar- reled still and contracted for three barrels of oil per week. This was sold at sixty cents per gallon, and these three barrels per week seemed liable to overstock the market. The rude still was set to work at the firm's lead works in Allegheny. This was in 1855, three years before Colonel Samuel Drake put down the first oil well in Watson's Flats, near Titusville, Pennsylvania. To sell the distilled oil was the next problem, and Mr. Nevin visited Wheeling, Steubenville, Canons- burg, and other places in the interest of his venture. There were no lamps suited for the burning of the new product, yet the oil found a foothold, and finally Mr.
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Nevin decided that it would be a good idea to buy a salt well for the oil it yielded. In this venture he was aided by Mr. R. H. Davis and John Irwin, Jr., of Sewickley. After a great deal of prospecting, with but slight and discouraging results and much expense, came the winter of 1858-9 and Colonel Drake's first oil well was struck. Mr. Nevin read the brief account of the event to his friend Mr. Davis, and the two decided that Oil Creek was the place to visit, and that if Drake could find oil there they could, and so kept the still going, to supply the increas- ing demand for the new illuminant. After a trip of much hardship Messrs. Nevin and Davis reached Titusville and proceeded to look up some land. The day before Brewer & Watson had leased pretty much all the land in the vicinity of Drake's well, but Mr. Nevin succeeded in leasing for $1,000 the McClintock farm. Then the Pittsburgers formed the Cornplanter's Oil Company, secured another quarter of the McClintock farm and proceeded to put down a well of their own. The first well was an embarrassing success. At a few hundred feet the drill struck the first flowing well that ever poured oil on the surface of this continent. There was more oil than they were prepared to handle and the surplus ran down Oil Creek into the Allegheny. It covered the water all the way to Pittsburg and the sight created no end of excitement here. Three hundred barrels were brought down to the city and the Cornplanter's Company felt stocked for all time to come, as well as embarrassed with the cost of the barrels. This oil was stored in the base- ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad freight depot at the point. A careless employe started a fire that wiped the big depot from the face of the earth, and the oil contributed greatly to the conflagration. The demand for the refined, or rather the distilled oil kept on increasing, but Mr. Nevin did not long continue in the business, for in 1857 or 1858 this pioneer refinery was sold to William McKeown and Mr. Finley, and Mr. Nevin relinquished his interest in the Cornplanter's Company and devoted himself to more congenial affairs. In 1870 Mr. Nevin's literary bent and active brain led him naturally into journalism, an underlying motive in his first step was a desire to make a place in newspaper work for his nephew, the late Colonel John I. Nevin. With this in view Mr. Nevin purchased an interest in the Sunday Leader. Another point gained by the transaction was the securing of a telegraphic franchise for the daily Leader, which Mr. Nevin had in mind and which was launched a few months later. Finally Mr. Nevin carried out an idea whose correctness was soon shown in the betterment of the Leader. He established a rule that brought to the service of the people the brightest of its correspondents, to do duty on the reportorial staff. An out-of-town corres- pondent of any Pittsburg paper who displayed any ability was certain to hear from "Uncle Robert," and very often to be placed upon his regular city force. For Mr. Nevin the "boys" felt an absolute affection, and when in 1880 he founded the Times this feeling found manifestation among the men he had trained, and their services and hearty good will were at his disposal in his new venture. Mr. Nevin's busy pen and brain can not be idle. He is engaged upon a true descrip- tion of early backwoods life, wherein the plot is laid upon local scenes. Having relinquished the responsibilities and cares of active journalistic life, "Uncle Rob- ert's" later years find him in the enjoyment of his existence to an extent well above the measure usually permitted mortals. He is active in mind and body; possessed at once of refined tastes and the means of gratifying them, as well as of that higher heritage of an honorable life, the respect, esteem and affection of all who know him.
John C. Kirkpatrick (deceased). This widely known and prominent iron manufacturer of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, was born in the vicinity of Turtle Creek, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1833, to John and Susan (Crawford) Kirkpatrick, natives of the North of Ireland. At an early day they
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sought a home in the United States and made a location in Western Pennsylvania, where a large tract of land was purchased and in due course of time put in a high state of cultivation. Upon the death of the husband and father, about 1838, Mrs. Kirkpatrick placed the farm in the hands of an agent, or the executors of the estate, and with her family returned to Ireland, and at once placed her son, John C., in school at Londonderry, where he remained until he reached the age of nineteen years. He then decided to return to Pennsylvania and after remaining here until he attained his majority, he returned to his mother in Ireland and soon after inherited a moderate legacy from an uncle. With the means thus left him he returned to Pennsylvania and embarked in the lamp and oil business, his first place of business being located on Third Avenue. In 1857 or 1858 he became associated with Samuel Kier in extensive oil enterprises and was among the first - to engage in the refining of oil in Pittsburg. Their business was conducted on an extensive scale in a large establishment on Forty-third Street near the Allegheny Valley Railway. He continued in this business successfully and prosperously until 1875, when he sold his large interests to the Standard Oil Company, and permanently retired from the oil and oil refining business. The next business venture of this active and enterprising man was to purchase the Rogers & Burch- field Iron Company's establishment at Leechburg, where he established the large iron manufacturing business, to which he devoted the remainder of his active years, and which is still conducted by his sons and comprises one of the largest industries of the kind in the country. This business was organized as the Kirk- patrick Company (limited), and Mr. Kirkpatrick was its chairman from the time of its organization until his death. He had also numerous other interests, among which was the Chartiers Iron Company of Carnegie, of which he was one of the largest stockholders. Upon his death the business came under the management of his sons John W. and James Lindsey and Malcolm W. Leech, a son-in-law, and is fulfilling the hopes of its organizer in the amount of business which is being done. In March, 1856, Mr. Kirkpatrick married Miss Flora J. Wallace, daughter of John and Jane Wallace, natives of North Ireland, and four children were born to them-Susan C .; John W .; Jennie (McCrea), and James L. Mr. Kirkpatrick was of very quiet demeanor and extremely unassuming but accomplished much good in his own unpretentious way and was very conscientious in discharging any duty laid upon him. Active in church work, he was for twenty years a trustee of the Seventh United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg. A useful life termi- nated with his death.
Charles Donnelly, a prominent, well-known and successful railroad and busi- ness man of Pittsburg, was born near Londonderry, County Tyrone, Ireland, April 16, 1841. His father, Charles Donnelly, was an officer in the English army, and after his death the widow and family came to America in 1849 and settled in Ohio. Young Charles attended the public schools, and received such instruction as they then afforded. He came to Pittsburg in 1865 and entered the Iron City College and after completing a course in book-keeping there was employed by James M. Cooper, Esq., as book-keeper for the National Mass, and other copper companies of which Mr. Cooper had charge. After two years of service he was offered a more remunerative position as book-keeper for H. Childs & Co., whole- sale boot and shoe house, on Wood Street, Pittsburg, which position he accepted and filled until 1868, when he entered the service of the Pittsburg and Connells- ville Railroad as auditor of disbursement, and remained in the service of that railroad for fourteen years, during which time he filled the position of auditor, treasurer and vice-president. He resigned from that service in 1882 and entered the partnership of McClure & Co. in the manufacture and sale of Connellsville coke, and was an active spirit in that company until 1895. Mr. Donnelly was mar-
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ried in 1872. After nineteen years of peaceful married life Mrs. Donnelly died in 1891, leaving six children-Charles, Nana, Bessie, Roselia, Louise and Alan. Mr. Donnelly was married the second time in 1892, to a sister of his former wife, and this union has been blessed with two children-Natalie and Dorwynne. The home of Mr. Donnelly is one of the handsomest in Pittsburg, and his art col- lection one of the largest in the city. Many of his paintings are highly valued and are products of the brush of famed and noted artists. Under such happy and refining influences the hours of Mr. Donnelly's home life are spent, and his children reared and educated.
George Whitten Jackson (deceased), for many years one of Pittsburg's most active, prominent and successful business men, was born in Ireland in the year 1801, and died in the city of Pittsburg in September, 1862. His father was John Jackson, a manufacturer of soap and candles, who came to America with his family in 1806, and in the same year settled in Pittsburg, which, even at that early day, was a thriving and busy place, already practically controlling the trade of the vast region west and southwest. Though not as yet a center of population-its inhabitants numbering scarcely more than four thousand-Pittsburg was growing rapidly, and intelligent traders and mechanics readily found within its precincts cheap homes and abundant employment for their energy and skill. It isn't likely that John Jackson had any competition in business in those early days, as statistics show that down to 1808 there was but one other person of his calling in the place. He prospered in his useful occupation, brought up his family in comfort, and gave his children all the educational advantages the custom of the day demanded. George, the subject of this article, finished his studies under the skillful tutorship of a Mr. Moody, who was generally recognized as the most thorough and accom- plished instructor in the town. An old French grammar bearing his signature attests that he had studied that language. His father witnessed his improvement with a parent's satisfaction and looked forward to the time when his manly and intelligent son would assist him in his business. But it happened that George greatly disliked this branch of manufacture, and to avoid being compelled to work at it, ran away from home, going to Wheeling. Yielding to the importunities of his mother, conveyed in a fond letter, brought to him by Mr. John Albree, a friend of the family, who followed him for the purpose of delivering it, and affected also by the persuasion of that gentleman, he returned to Pittsburg and was immediately provided with a situation in a grocery store owned by Mr. Albree, at the corner of Market Street and the "Diamond." In this concern, in which he became a partner, he remained until 1826, when his father died and left him the business he had founded and successfully carried on for many years. To protect the interest of the estate for his mother, he assumed the management of the business, but as his talents were not in that direction he disposed of it at the first opportunity. He then embarked his little fortune in the pork-packing busi- ness, in Pittsburg, but speedily extended his operations to Cincinnati and Co- lumbus. He remained in this business until his death-a period of thirty-five years -having as partner in the latter years of his life his nephew, Mr. George Jackson Townsend. As his wealth increased, Mr. Jackson broadened his field of enter- prise. In 1845 he associated himself with Mr. R. W. Cunningham of New Castle, Pennsylvania, with whom he remained connected till 1852. New Castle was a place of considerable importance at that time through its canal interests, and the point was a good one for the sale of all heavy goods. Messrs. Cunningham and Jackson did an extensive business as dealers in grain, iron, steel and glass. They also acted as general forwarders of merchandise, and in addition to their other enterprises, conducted a foundry. The business relations between the two gentlemen were founded in mutual respect and esteem. Among the earlier manufacturers of
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Pittsburg that of cotton spinning was quite generally regarded with high favor, and as affording a most promising outlook for investment. Mr. Jackson shared the belief in common with other wealthy citizens of Pittsburg, and in 1849 he bought a fourth interest in the Anchor Cotton Mills. Great improvenments were subsequently made in these mills, much valuable machinery added, and for a score of years it prospered and paid satisfactory dividends. At length the compe- tition of the mills in other parts of the country, notably in New England, diverted and diminished the trade to such an extent that this property greatly diminished in value, and in 1872 it was sold as it stood for $100,000, about its original cost. In the financial circle of Pittsburg, Mr. Jackson was well known as a gentleman whose sense of duty and honesty was of the most uncompromising character. He was associated in important monetary trusts with the ablest and best of his fellow citizens, and his judgment was held in the profoundest esteem by his colleagues. As far back as the great financial crisis of 1837, he was a member of the board of directors of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Bank. Although the institution was an exceptionally strong one, and perfectly prepared to redeem its circulation, the majority of the board voted to suspend. This step led Mr. Jackson to resign his directorship, he holding that it was wrong for the bank to evade the fulfillment of its promises when able to keep them. With the Bank of Pittsburg, the oldest banking institution of Pennsylvania, Mr. Jackson was also connected for many years, serving at different times as a member of its board of directors. His judgment early convinced him of the feasibility of constructing a railroad through the Valley of the Allegheny, to connect Pittsburg with the East, thus avoiding the steep grades of the mountains. He was one of the original party to examine the route, and upon the organization of the road, the Allegheny Valley Railroad, in 1852, he was elected a director, and as such took a prominent part in the management of its affairs until 1859, when, owing to failing health, he was obliged to decline reelection. In 1836 Mr. Jackson became a member of the Smithfield Street bridge board, and remained connected with it until his death, consequently during the building of the suspension bridge, which replaced the barn bridge destroyed by fire in 1845, and which in turn has given place to the present handsome structure.
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