Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 133

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 133

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James Verner. The life of James Verner, who was born August 30, 1818, at what is now Monongahela City, Pennsylvania, has been devoid of much of the turmoil and strife which characterizes the career of many men who have at- tained wealth and prominence. While this is true, a lesson may be learned while reading it; the more prominent features therein displayed being honesty, quiet industry, and a just observance of the rights of his fellow man. Mr. Verner is of Irish ancestry, and is a son of James and Elizabeth (Doyle) Verner, who came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1806. In 1820 the family located permanently in the then small city of Pittsburg. It was in this city that he was reared, educated, and has passed almost his entire life. In 1831 he wedded Miss Anna Montgomery, daughter of General James Murry, of Murrysville, Pennsyl- vania, and, purchasing a farm of 400 acres, on which is now situated Verona

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(formerly Verner's Station, Allegheny Valley Railroad), engaged in clearing and fencing it and raising farm produce. Upon the completion of the Allegheny Valley Railroad he, with others, laid out a village which now constitutes the First Ward of Verona borough, and secured for the place the shops of the rail- road company. Later, Mr. Verner returned to Pittsburg, and was, for a time, engaged in the brewing business, after which he, in connection with Thomas A. Scott and Nathaniel Holmes, operated a line of omnibuses, transferring passen- gers and baggage to and from the different railroad stations. In 1859 he obtained a charter for the Citizens' Passenger Railway Company, which was the first street railway in actual use west of the Alleghany Mountains. He organized the Pittsburg Forge and Iron Company with J. H. Mccullough, George W. Cass, Springer Harbaugh and William P. Porter as directors, and was president four years, and was for many years a director. In politics he was first a Whig, but upon the birth of the Republican party, in 1856, cast his influence toward the election of the "Pathfinder," and has ever since been an advocate of the principles of the party of Lincoln, Grant and Mckinley. He has never sought office, pre- ferring to look after his private business, and the quietude of his home to the turmoil and strife of a public career; but has served with credit as a member of the Fourth Ward in the City Council. A great lover of field sports, Mr. Verner, when yet a boy, became celebrated as a superior "wing shot," and his gamebag was invariably filled whenever he returned from a hunting trip in the woods. Mr. Verner is one of the few remaining of the pioneers of Pittsburg. His life lias been a temperate one, filled with many good deeds, and the quality of his mind, like wine, "improves with age." In April, 1881, he was called upon to mourn the death of his wife. Their union resulted in the birth of five sons and five daughters, of whom the following lived to maturity: Priscilla, Mrs. Charles C. Scaife, of Allegheny; Amelia, Mrs. Arthur Malcom, of Philadelphia; Murry A., and Morris Scott, of Pittsburg; James K. died in 1891.

Edward H. Jennings, president of the Columbia National Bank, but better known as a member of the oil-producing firm of E. H. Jennings & Brothers, is a native of Brady's Bend, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, where he was born August 10, 1852. Richard Jennings, his father, was of English birth, was a mining engineer by occupation, and for a number of years was employed in the mines at Cornwall. Upon attaining his majority he came to this country, first locating at Brady's Bend, Pennsylvania, but later accepting a position with the late Dr. C. G. Hussey, for whom he went to the Lake Superior country, where he remained two years. Returning, then, to his former home in Arm- strong County, remaining with the Brady's Bend Iron Company for many years, later he moved to Queenstown and entered into the oil-producing business, and continuing thus until his death in 1891. He married Catharine Evans, who vet survives him, and a family of four sons and five daughters were born to them. Edward H. Jennings, the eldest of this family, received a practical edu- cation in youth, and was engaged with his father in the oil-producing business. As time passed the firm found it necessary, with their increasing business, to establish offices at Petrolia, Bradford and Pittsburg, but of late years the Pitts- burg office, established in 1888, has been the headquarters of all their business transactions. After the death of Richard Jennings, in 1891, the firm became E. H. Jennings & Brothers, comprising Edward H., Richard M. and John G. Jennings, and they are among the best known of the oil producers. Aside from his interest in this firm, Mr. Jennings, the immediate subject of this sketch, is president of the Columbia National Bank and the Pennsylvania Title and Trust Company; is a director in the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce; with his broth- ers is the principal stock owner of the Kanawha Oil Company, also a member

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of M. Murphy & Co., and of the firm of Jennings, Guffey & Co. Mr. Jennings has confined his attention almost wholly to matters of business. He was mar- ried in 1879 to Miss Mary Colwell, daughter of John Colwell, of Kittanning, a most estimable lady, who bore him a family of six children, five of whom are yet living. Mrs. Jennings was a member of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church. She died on August 4, 1896.

George B. Hill. An excellent example of the self-made American citizen is found in the life of George B. Hill, who was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, August 1, 1874, the youngest of ten children born to the marriage of John Hill and Mrs. Elizabeth Rickards Burton, both of whom are now deceased. George B. Hill left Wheeling with his parents when but a small lad, and until seven- teen years of age his life was spent on a farm in Monroe County, during which period he received such educational advantages as the common schools of his day afforded. At the above mentioned age he came to Pittsburg, where he had a sister living, and became a clerk in a produce and commission estab- lishment, but after a time he borrowed enough capital to establish himself in the tobacco jobbing business, but owing to very close competition at that time and margins of profit being so small, he abandoned this after a few months and. embarked in the real estate and brokerage business, which he continued until 1869, when he went to Memphis, Tennessee, to enter the cotton brokerage busi- ness. Upon his arrival there, however, the outlook was less favorable than he had expected, and he accordingly returned to Pittsburg and resumed his former occupation. In 1872 he added banking to his brokerage business, but after a trial of one year this occupation was given up, and since that time has devoted his entire attention to brokerage, confining his efforts largely to municipal bonds and railroad securities. The firm as it now stands is George B. Hill & Co., composed of George B. Hill, William I. Mustin and John D. Nicholson. Aside from this Mr. Hill is the president and a director of the Pittsburg, Allegheny and Manchester Traction Company, and the Allegheny Traction Company. He is a director of the Standard Underground Cable Company, of the Second Na- tional Bank of Allegheny, and is connected with various other institutions of less importance and magnitude. Mr. Hill has always been a Republican, is in- terested in various local benevolent organizations, and, with his wife, belongs to the United Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Hill was formerly Miss Maggie J. Nicholson, a daughter of Leonidas and Susan J. (Donaldson) Nicholson, and her marriage with Mr. Hill was celebrated November 1, 1870, and has resulted in the birth of two children-Charles K. and George B., the latter being deceased.

William Ferris Aull. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is dis- tinctively American, and so were his ancestors for generations. He comes of Revolutionary stock, for his paternal and maternal ancestors aided the colonists in their struggle for freedom. His great grandfather, John Aull, was of Scotch- Irish ancestry, and came to America when this country was still considered a possession of Great Britain, taking up his residence in Philadelphia. During the Revolutionary War he served in Captain Ashmead's Company, Second Pennsyl- vania Continental Line, under Colonel Walter Stewart. His son, William Aull, who was born in 1786, was one of the pioneers in Western Pennsylvania in the early part of the eighteenth century, was married in Westmoreland County in 1813 to Elizabeth Hunter, and spent the greater part of his married life in Western Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia. He kept a hostelry for many years at Frankfort, Virginia, was an extensive contractor on the construction of the old National pike, and in his day was one of the most prominent officials of the Masonic fraternity in the Old Dominion. His son, James Aull, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,

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February 27, 1817, is still living in the East End, Pittsburg, and is a prominent member of and one of the board of trustees in the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. For fifty years he was in the livestock business, and is known and respected by that fraternity in every livestock market from Chicago to New York as "honest Jimmy Aull." During his entire life he has never used tobacco in any form, liquor for any purpose, or profanity under any pretext, and has the well-merited reputation of never committing or countenancing a dishonest act. This record and a long life of consistent Christian devotion he will leave to his children as a heritage more valuable than fame or wealth. He was married to Miss Phoebe Ferris, a school-teacher of Portage County, Ohio, May 27, 1846. She was a woman of brilliant intellectual attainment, and of strong Christian character. Her birth occurred at Eaton, Madison County, New York, April Io, 1821, and her death occurred in Pittsburg, April 26, 1889. Her father, John Ferris, came from a prominent New York ancestry, and her maternal grand- father, Colonel Black, was an officer in the Revolutionary War. From this an- cestry the subject of this sketch inherits his military inclination.

The subject of this sketchi was born in Charleston, Portage County, Ohio, April 9, 1848, and was educated in the common schools of Allegheny City and Philadelphia. In the latter city he resided during the early part of the War of the Rebellion, where he constantly tried to enlist in the Union service, but was repeatedly rejected on account of his youth. In 1863 he joined an emergency 'regiment from Philadelphia, and with it spent several weeks around Harrisburg, called there to assist in protecting the capital when Lee penetrated Pennsylvania and fought the battle of Gettysburg. During the following winter he ran away from school and enlisted in the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry for three years, but his father, with the assistance of Hon. William D. Kelly, member of Congress from Philadelphia, procured his discharge "by direction of the President of the United States" under special order No. 132 from the War Department, dated March 30, 1864, His parents then sent him to relatives in Ohio to get him away from the recruiting offices of Philadelphia, but they had not fully calculated the spirit of patriotism nor the depth of loyalty that inspired the boy; May 2, 1864, he again enlisted in the One Hundred and Seventy-first Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which regiment he served until it was mustered out of service. He was captured after a severe engagement at Keller's Bridge near Cynthiana, Kentucky, June IIth, 1864, and was subsequently paroled. After the war he returned to Pittsburg, where he first graduated from the Iron City Commercial College, after which he studied civil engineering under a private instructor.

In 1867 he became assistant city engineer of Pittsburg, and the following year entered the employ of the Denny estate, and has been associated continu- ously with the management of that estate ever since. He is now and has been for the past seven years its attorney, in fact, and general agent. Under his able · management this vast estate has made rapid progress in improvement and pros- perity, and under his immediate supervision several hundred buildings have been erected in Pittsburg and Allegheny. In 1870 Mr. Aull enlisted in the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and served continuously for fourteen years, during which time he held every commission in line of promotion from second lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel. In the riots of 1877 he commanded the Eighteenth Regiment, N. G. P., during its long service in the anthracite coal regions, and he also served nearly three years on Major-General John F. Hartranft's official staff when that officer was commander of the National Guard of Pennsylvania. In 1872 he was elected a member of the Pittsburg City Council, and served continuously for seven years. In 1883 he was elected from the Forty-fourth district and served

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four years in the Pennsylvania State Senate. The Pittsburg Dispatch in its issue of March 19, 1885, speaking of the senators from Allegheny County, says: "Senator Aull is the orator of the Allegheny County delegation, he is a hustler- one of the few at Harrisburg this year. He does more work for the amount of health at his command than any man in the Senate." He is a member of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, of the Pittsburg Chamber of Com- merce and of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is also a thirty-second degree Mason and a Knight Templar in the same order. In 1868 he married Anna Martin, daughter of C. R. and Eliza J. Martin, of Pittsburg. Her father is a grandson of Lieutenant Benjamin Miller, who served in the Second Pennsylvania Battalion in the Revolution, and her mother, Eliza J. McFarland, was a direct descendant of Lord De-La-Ware, first Governor of Virginia, in 1610; of Henry Cornish, Lord Mayor of London in 1680, and of John McFarland, who served in the Fourth Regiment Light Dragoons United States Cavalry during the War of the Revolution. Sterns' published genealogy of the McFarland ancestry traces back in an unbroken chain Mrs. Aull's maternal ancestors for six hundred years. Mr. Aull is recognized as one of the successful business men of Pittsburg, resides in the East End, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has an interesting family of two sons and two daughters.

William Reed Thompson, of the banking house of William R. Thompson & Co., was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, March 30, 1845, the eldest of a family of eight children born to the marriage of Andrew P. Thompson (of Coven- anter descent, an Abolitionist, and "agent for the underground railroad,") who came to Pittsburg from York County, Pennsylvania, in 1835, and Elizabeth Don- aldson, of Washington County, this State. His father and mother having been sent as missionaries to the Island of Trinidad, West Indies, he was taken there as a child, and on their return to this country he attended the public schools until twelve years of age, and for the five succeeding years was employed by the United Presbyterian Board of Publication under the immediate direction of the Rev. Dr. Rodgers. During this time the horrors of civil war had spread its somber shadow over the land, and the boy, with youthful ardor, had twice enlisted in the Army of the Union, but was reclaimed by his father, owing to the son's immature age. In 1864 he again enlisted, becoming a member of Knapp's Independent Battalion. Upon his return Mr. Thompson found employment in the banking house of Hart, Caughey & Co., where he remained four years, meanwhile pur- suing a course of study after business hours in preparation for college; a hope that was defeated upon the threshold of entrance by a financial crisis at home which obliged him to go back again to work. Entering the Mechanics' National Bank as bookkeeper, he continued with this well-known institution for a period of fourteen years, being advanced, from time to time, until he was elected and served as its president. In 1881 he purchased the interest of John B. Jones in the banking firm of Semple & Jones, and shortly thereafter bought the interest of Mr. Semple, the firm then becoming William R. Thompson & Co .. Mr. Thomp- son is not merely a first-class business man, as is determined by his success in life; he has been identified with many public enterprises and charities, and enjoys the esteem of the public generally. He was made chairman of the Charlestown. earthquake relief fund, and came into national prominence as treasurer of the Johnstown relief fund, over one and one-half million dollars passing through his liands without loss or impairment. He also served as treasurer of the Russian famine fund, the Titusville and Oil City relief fund, and the fund for the relief of the unemployed in Pittsburg during the winter of 1893-4. He is a director of the Chamber of Commerce, a trustee of Washington and Jefferson College, the Western Theological Seminary, the Avery College and Industrial School (col- ored), is treasurer of the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, the Western

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Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Pittsburg Association for the Improvement of the Poor, and a number of others. All these treasurerships have been man- aged without remuneration, and in several instances the expense of the man- agement has been paid by him to insure the application of every penny sub- scribed by the public. This was notably so in the case of the Johnstown relief fund, of which task he is reported as saying: "It required one entire year's de- votion, and over $1,000 in cash; the hardest and yet most satisfactory work I was ever permitted to engage in." He is quite an art connoisseur, one of the original members of the Art Society, and for many years its president. Mr. Thompson is known as a great reader, and a finished speaker, and, like many other business men with a hobby, is especially interested in old English literature and philology. He married Mary Thaw, a daughter of the late William Thaw, the well-known philanthropist, and they have five children. In creed he is a Presbyterian; in politics an Independent Republican.

James J. Donnell was born in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, March 24, 1840, the youngest of four children of James and Mary (Rodgers) Donnell, who left the land of their birth in 1850, to seek a home in the United States. James Donnell died in 1873. His wife died in 1875. The subject of this sketch was ten years of age when he was brought to Pittsburg, and he was at once placed in the public schools of Allegheny, where he acquired his education. At the age of seventeen he secured employment as junior clerk in the banking house of Holmes & Sons, in which he rose step by step until admitted as a partner in '1872, and has since been very active in the direction of all its affairs. Although the bank has his first and best attention, he is interested in many other com- mercial and financial institutions of Pittsburg, among which may be mentioned the Fidelity Title and Trust Company, of which he is vice-president; the Mechan- ics' National Bank, of which he is a director, and the New York and Cleveland Gas-Coal Company, the largest shipper of coal from Pittsburg, of which he is a director. He is also director in the Allegheny General Hospital. Mr. Donnell was president of the Monongahela Navigation Company, which built and owned the dams and locks, and controlled the navigation of the Monongahela River. In 1897 this property was condemned and purchased by the Government. In pay- ment, the largest check ever received in Pittsburg, was rendered. Mr. Donnell has had the settlement of many large estates, and is now trustee in the manage- ment of several. He was one of the organizers and builders of the Citizens' Traction Railroad, which has helped to give Pittsburg one of the best systems of street railway of any city in the United States. In 1892 Mr. Donnell was united in marriage with Miss Anne Warden, a daughter of William G. Warden, of Philadelphia, one of the organizers of the Standard Oil Company. To Mr. and Mrs. Donnell has been born one child-Elizabeth.

Edward Manning Bigelow was born November 6, 1850, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, one in a family of five children, all living, born to the marriage of Edward .M. Bigelow and Mary Steel. His life has been passed in his native city. 'After attending the public schools he entered the Western University of Pennsyl- vania, but before it was time to graduate he withdrew from that institution to accept a position as civil engineer. He was later appointed engineer in charge of the surveys of the city, and in 1880 was made city engineer, a position he con- tinued to fill until the revision of the form of the municipal government, eight years afterward. He was then elected director of the Department of Public Works, in which capacity he has ever since served, being unanimously reelected every four years. In these ten years, during which Mr. Bigelow has had absolute direction of all municipal improvements, he has accomplished so much for the benefit of the people as to have earned the title of public benefactor. Under his

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administration, and largely by his initiative, a transformation has been wrought in Pittsburg such as Haussman wrought in Paris and Sheppard in Washington [without resorting to their objectionable methods]. Within his time of office all the important public works of the city which now exist, with the single excep- tion of the City Hall, from the water and sewer systems to the street pavements, have been either created or rebuilt. His greatest work, however, has been the creation of the public parks. When he took office the public park ground of the people of Pittsburg was composed of one narrow strip of unimproved ground, a square long, in the middle of a street. Never having enjoyed parks, the com- munity was not awake to their attractions, and he had to begin his work of park- making not only without public sentiment to support him, but rather in the face of it. From small beginnings, in the guise of improving and beautifying the ground about the reservoirs, Mr. Bigelow added one purchase of land after an- other, until out of a total of more than 60 purchases he has created a system of parks aggregating close to 900 acres, the largest being Schenley Park, of 419 acres. The nucleus of this was a gift of 300 acres, and the purchase of 100 acres more at a nominal price, from Mrs. Mary E. Schenley. His services in securing this gift, and in creating the park system have been so well appreciated by the citizens of Pittsburg that Mr. Bigelow has the rare distinction of being one of but two Americans to see a statute of himself erected during his lifetime, by public subscription. The movement to thus honor him was suggested by a member of the opposite political party, and in a few weeks over $12,000 was contributed, rich and poor sharing in the enterprise, the result of which is a life-size bronze statue of the "Father of the Parks," which stands near the main entrance to Schenley Park. Mr. Bigelow is married, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is prominent in all movements designed to advance the welfare of his native city.

William Witherow. When the history of a century of progress of Pennsyl- vania comes to be written, the stories of those of its sons who have earned the distinction of being self-made men must appear among the brightest pages of all. The western portion of the great Commonwealth affords many striking in- stances of this in some of the most prominent men of the State. William With- erow, who has become identified during the past quarter of a century with the political history of Pennsylvania and who has demonstrated his capacity and enterprise in the business affairs of the State, is numbered among the most rep- resentative citizens of the Commonwealth. He is one of those men who, starting out in life with but little encouragement, have advanced step by step to the goal of their ambition, and won permanent prosperity and public recognition. William Witherow was born November 7, 1843, in the City of Londonderry, Ireland. He is the son of James and Esther P. Witherow, who were highly respected members of their community. After a preparatory home training, which tended greatly to shape the course of his conduct in later years, he was sent to the common schools of Allegheny, where he received the ordinary educa- tion. At the age of fourteen years he started out to earn his living, determined to take advantage of every opportunity which might be afforded him, and with both the ambition to rise in life and the necessary ability born in him to accom- plish such progress, started out to attain the desired end. His first position was that of a clerk, from which, through various employments, public and private, he has risen, by his own efforts, to his present position of influence and wealth. In early life he was employed in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's, office, from which he went to the United States Depository as bookkeeper, and from that place he was appointed to a clerkship in the sheriff's office of Allegheny County. Each of these he filled with a fidelity and force that brought him into

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 133

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192