USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 13
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house with such wisdom and prudence as to prevent the slightest derangement of its credit, his principle having always been that the surest way to preserve credit is not 8
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of Bailey & Co., and which occupies the magnificent | years later, in 1847, he retired from active membership in marble structure at the southeast corner of Twelfth and Chestnut streets. The store is one of the most extensive in the city, and the firm deal in jewelry and articles of vertu on a scale of magnitude scarcely surpassed in the country. A large proportion of their goods are manufactured by themselves, others are bought in the American market, and the remainder are imported from abroad. This remainder is considerable enough to give the house prominence as importers. The success of the founder of this establish- ment was owing entirely to his unblemished integrity, un- tiring energy, and liberal enterprize. He had no capital of his own, and he received no assistance in the way of capital from any one. He was literally a self-made man. A reference to the original books of Bailey & Co., in the year of their commencement, 1832, will disclose entries showing that his entire capital on entering business con- sisted of tools valued at twenty-eight dollars and a half, and the small sum of fifty dollars in money. He was a man of very strict habits. Ile never smoked, nor drank a drop of intoxicating liquor, and was singularly domestic in his dis- position. Economical and saving in his early days, enter- prizing yet prudent in his ventures as he advanced in pros- perity, and always close in his application to whatever' he undertook, his progress was steady and uninterrupted from the beginning of his career.
the firm, but still retained an interest in the business which he had contributed so largely to build up, and furnished, as special partner, sufficient capital to ensure its continued success. In 1849, he finally withdrew from the firm, and abandoned mercantile pursuits. But he only forsook one field of activity to enter upon another, and turned his ener- gies to the manufacture of iron, in the Portage Iron Works, near Hollidaysburgh, Pennsylvania. His interest in this extensive concern he sold out in 1864. Some years before he had purchased large tracts of anthracite coal land near Wilkesbarre, Luzerne County, and had also made invest- ments in the bituminous regions of the State. These lands he worked with great success. For some time he acted as President of the Kittanning Coal Company, a highly pros- perous corporation, managed its affairs with signal ability, and on vacating the Presidency still continued to serve as a Director. In 1872, his high reputation in financial circles brought him the offer of election to the Presidency of the Commonwealth National Bank, of Philadelphia; at the earnest solicitation of the stockholders, he consented to ac- cept the position, and since assuming its duties he has done much to consolidate and extend the prosperity of the insti- tution: He is also a Trustee of the Girard Life Insurance, Annuity and Trust Company, and holds a position as Di- rector in several other important corporations. Both as a private citizen and as a man of business, he occupies a de- servedly high position ; his character is irreproachable, his influence large and wholesome, and his personal popularity universal.
URROUGIIS, HORATIO NELSON, Merchant and Banker, was born at. Washington's Cross- ing, New Jersey, on the Delaware River. His father, John Burroughs, was an extensive and ILPIN, HENRY D., Lawyer, was descended from an English family of that name, who at a very carly period had settled at Kentmore, in the County of Westmoreland, England. His ances- tors came to this country in 1696, and settled on the borders of the counties of Chester and Dela- ware, on the banks of the Brandywine. Joshua Gilpin, his father, was a highly respectable merchant of Philadelphia ; his mother a native of Lancaster, England. At this latter city Henry D. Gilpin was born, April 14th, ISO1. In early infancy he was brought to the United States with the family, which remained here till ISII. All returned to England. Ile was placed at a school at Hemel-Hemp- stead, kept by Dr. Hamilton, a well known teacher, under whose efficient instruction he remained four years. In ISI6, he returned with the family to Philadelphia, which city became his permanent residence. He passed through an academic course at the University of Pennsylvania with distinguished honor, and was admitted to the practice of the law in 1822. Before this date, while still a student and under age, he had filled with credit the post of Secretary of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, of which he afterwards became one of the Directors. ITis diligence highly respected farmer; his mother's maiden name was Mary Howell. His early educa- tional facilities were limited, his time, in his youth, being divided between labor on his father's farm in summer and a brief attendance at the old-fashioned and not very thor- ough pay schools of New Jersey; but he was fortunately enabled to pass some time at the Pennington ( New Jer- sey) Academy, at which his education was completed. Soon after leaving school, he entered the employ of Mahlon K. Taylor, who kept a country store, and with whom he re- mained several months. He then abandoned the country, and came to Philadelphia in search of a more profitable situation. This he found in the establishment of I. V. Williamson, at No. 9 North Second Street. With him he remained until 1833, when, having completed his twenty- first year, he received an interest in the business, which thenceforth prospered greatly. Mr. I. V. Williamson re- tired from the firm in 1836, and in January of the ensuing year a new co-partnership was formed between Mr. Bur- roughs, a younger brother of his former employer and part- ner, and others, under the style of Williamson, Burroughs & Clark, the place of business being removed to a more eligible location on Market street above Second. Ten land talents gradually increased his reputation at the bar
Galaxy Fub. Co. Plitada.
MY. Junroughs
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until the year 1830, when the successful management of a | the auspices of Congress, of the Madison Papers, which he case involving the official standing of two Portuguese minis- did with great skill and fidelity, in three volumes, 8vo, 1840. Other works which he edited or prepared were : Opinions of the Attorneys-General of the United States, 1841; A Northern Tour, being a Guide to Saratoga, Lake George, etc., 1825; an Autobiography of Walter Scott, compiled from passages in his writings, 1831 ; a translation of Chaptal's Essays on Import Duties and Prohibitions, 1821; Life of Martin Van Buren, 1844; besides numerous published ad- dres es, speeches and reviews. Of these the following have been preserved : 1826, November 29th, Annual Dis- course before the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts ; 1836, January 8th, Speech at the Union and Harmony Celebration by Democratic Citizens of Philadelphia ; 1836, July 4th, Speech at the Democratic Celebration of the Sec- ond Congressional District ; 1845, May 23d, Address be- fore the Philomathean Society of the University of Penn- sylvania; 1847, November 22nd, Eulogy on Silas Wright before the Young Men's Democratic Association; 1851, June 2d, Address before the Academy of the Fine Arts; 1851, November 13th, Address before the Society of the Alumni, on the occasion of their Annual Celebration at the University ; 1856, October 13th, On the American Mis- sions in Greece, at St. Luke's Church; 1856, December 4th, Address on the Character of Franklin, before the Franklin Institute. In the latter part of his life, he took an extended tour of Europe, Egypt, and the East, and en- joyed the friendship of many eminent scholars of England and the Continent. Ile married, in 1835, Eliza Johnston, the widow of the HIon. J. S. Johnston, of the Senate, from Louisiana, a union productive of unalloyed happiness. Ilis death occurred January 29th, 1860, in his fifty-ninth year. The ample fortune which he had accumulated he directed of Pennsylvania and Chicago and the Academy of the Fine Arts, and he bequeathed his magnificent library to the sec- ond named of these institutions. After the death of Mrs. Gilpin, his family will be liberally provided for. In his manners, he was amiable and accomplished. In his knowledge, he was well read and diversified, kin lly in his feelings, a fine writer and an eloquent speaker, courte- ous in all the relations of life, firm and gentle, just and honorable in his dealings, a ripe scholar and an accom- plished gentleman. He was widely respected and esteemed. ters, each accredited to the United States by a claimant to sovereign power, secured him the high regard of President Andrew Jackson and the confidence of the Supreme Court. In the following year he was appointed to succeed Mr. Dallas as District Attorney of the United States at Phila- delphia. This office he held for more than five years, dis- charging its duties with great ability. During part of the time he was also one of the Government Directors of the Bank of the United States, a trying position, which brought him into conflict with many local interests, but in which he assisted General Jackson with unbending perseverance in his efforts to suppress that moneyed monopoly. The Presi- dent appointed him a second time as Director and also as Governor of Michigan, but the Senate refused to confirm these appointments, being bitterly opposed to him in con- sequence of his attitude toward the bank and his strong Democratie principles. Nevertheless, that body, a short time afterwards, unanimously confirmed his re-appointment to the District Attorneyship of Pennsylvania. In May, 1837, Mr. Van Buren, then President, offered him the of- fice of Solicitor of the Treasury, which he accepted, and removed to Washington. One year later he was appointed Attorney General of the United States, attaining that ele- vated position when not yet forty years of age. In this capacity a large number of cases demanded his attention, many of them involving profound points of law, in all of which he acquitted himself with distinguished ability. One of the most celebrated of these cases was that of Grover vs. Slaughter, involving the prohibition of the importation of slaves into Mississippi. In this professional conflict there were on the side of the Government two Pennsylvanians, Henry D. Gilpin and Robert J. Walker, pitted against | to be divided ultimately between the Historical Societies Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. At the close of President Van Buren's terms, he retired from political life; and having already laid the foundation for an ample competency from his professional successes, especially as the advocate of large claims before the Commissioners under the Mexican Treaty, he devoted much of the remainder of his days to a broad study of literature and art, and to the fulfilment of offices of social and municipal trust. Ile was for a con- siderable length of time Director, and afterwards President, of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; a Director and Vice President of the Historical Society of Pennsyl vania; a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1858; and a Director of Girard College from 1856 to 1858. A taste for art, history, and general literature DERBYSHIRE, ALEXANDER J., Merchant, was born in Philadelphia, December 29th, 1808. His parents were Quakers. He received a good plain education at the Friends' School on Fourth street, below Chestnut. On July 29th, 1824, being then in his sixteenth year, he entered the office of Timothy Paxson & Son, commission merchants, No. 15 North Water street, old number, as an apprentice. characterized him from early life. In 1826, he completed the Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, and soon after prepared a new edition of it with an original preface and many additions. The American Quar- terly Reviews, the Democratic Reviewo, and the North Ameri- can Review received frequent contributions from his pen. He was authorized to superintend the publication, under
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This concern was the oldest flour house in Philadelphia. engaged his warmest sympathies; when it was merged into the Pennsylvania Hospital, he became a Director of that noble charity. But though a public spirited citizen, lie has never been in any sense a politician. Personally, he is a man of plain and modest appearance. In speak- ing and writing, he adheres to the style of the Friends, of which Society he is a strict member. His face is elo- quent of thoughtfulness, shrewdness, and indomitable en- ergy. His business powers, unimpeachable integrity, great benevolence, and kindliness have won general respect and esteem. In 1780, it was conducted by Samuel Smith. Two years later Timothy Paxson took it and continued at the same place for forty-seven years. With this firm the subject of this sketch served as an apprentice until he attained the age of twenty-one years. Subsequently he remained in its employment for seven years as clerk. Ile soon manifested great shrewdness and business capacity, qual- ities which his employers recognized and appreciated by promoting him from one position to another, until he oc- cupied the responsible post of book-keeper, for which his systematic habits and scrupulous accuracy especially fitted him. In 1836, Mr. Paxson retired from the business with a fortune of eighty thousand dollars, and, his son having died some time previously, it was carried on by Mr. OORE, WILLIAM HILL, of Philadelphia, was born in Trenton, New Jersey, July 15, 1804. Ilis father was of Scotch descent, his mother of English. His maternal grandfather hield a com- mission under the British government, until the Declaration of Independence, in 1776. From his fourteenth year he has been dependent solely upon his own exertions, for money for any purpose. In his fifteenth year-shortly before the death of his father-he resolved to earn his own support. He came to Philadelphia, in April, 1819, and with his little bundle, containing all his worldly goods, beneath his arm, walked the streets of Philadelphia seeking employment. In his first situation-that in the Philadelphia Cabinet Works-his compensation consisted of his board and working clothes, but he was allowed to do overwork in order to earn money for the purchase of his Sunday suit. His employer furnished the coffins, and had the contract for the burial of the dead among the poor of several districts, during the prevalence of the yellow fever, in 1819-20. He was one of four boys, who attended to the burying of the victims of this terrible scourge. It required just such intrepid courage as he possessed to expose himself to all the forms of this dread disease, as well as no little self-denial, accompanied as the work was by severe and protracted labor, for all who fell a prey to the ravages of the fever were required to be interred between 10 P. M. and sunrise. His labor an l sacrifice were not unappreciated, and he received many evidences of the grateful remembrance of his services, from the relatives and friends of the deceased. Having passed unscathed through the dangers and exposures of this period, he felt that, for the future, he need feel no timidity in coming in contact with any contagious disease. This assurance has enabled him, for fifty years, to encounter, with calmness, the perils of every form of epidemic. His regular and careful habits of living, and his total abstinence from every kind of stimulant, as well as from the use of tobacco, have contributed to give him a vigor attained by few. When he was eighteen years of age, having pur- chased the balance of his time from his master, he ac- Derbyshire, who, for the purpose, entered into partnership with Watson Jenks. For ten years this co-partnership was maintained, and proved very prosperous. It was dissolved on January Ist, 1846, and Mr. Derbyshire for some years went on alone. Uniting with a thorough knowledge of the flour trade, an active spirit and large enterprize, he enlarged the. business from year to year, his tact and judgment in the market, and his fortunate ventures gaining him a high reputation, and endowing him with considerable influence in the commercial and financial world. In January, 1850, he took in his cousin, John Derbyshire, as partner, the title of the firm then" becoming A. J. Derbyshire & Co. About this period he erected two very spacious and handsome warehouses, at Nos. 108 and 110 North Delaware avenue. "Some while subsequently the house, independently of the regular business, turned their attention to the development of the railroad and mining interests of Pennsylvania and other States. For some time prior to this, the senior partner had been an active member of the Board of Trade, and had been instrumental in securing various improvements in its organization. This position enabled him to be of great service to the Pennsylvania Central Railroad scheme, of which he was an earnest promoter, and towards the com- pletion and success of which he contributed very mate- rially. Seeing how great an impetus the proposed railroad would give to the trade of the city, he warmly advocated its construction before the Board of Trade, and did good service in collecting subscriptions for the purpose. . In rer, cognition of his valuable assistance, he was elected one of the Directors of the road, and served for two years. IIe also interested himself in other beneficial railroad enter- prises, and has been a Director of the Mine Hill Railroad, and President of the Little Schuylkill Railroad Company. In public affairs, he has always taken a deep and intelli- gent interest. For three years he held a seat in City Coun- cils, where he manifested an eye single to the public good, and proved a consistent advocate of city improvements and of true economy. Ile accepted the position of Secretary of the Humane Society, a philanthropic institution which | cepted a position at five dollars a month for six months, in
Galaxy Pub. Co. Philzia.
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order that he might get a better knowledge of fine work. Having no resources to rely upon, he necessarily became very careful of his expenditures, and that experience, followed up, has enabled him to say, that since that time, he has neither bought nor smoked a single cigar, nor has he purchased or used any intoxicants. When he first thought of going into business on his own account, his friends endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, for they feared that he would only lose the little money he had already saved. Perhaps the kindly admonitions of his many friends had the effect of increasing his caution in business matters, and contributed somewhat to his suc- cess in after life. fie was not to be deterred from his purpose, and, in April, 1826, though only in his twenty- second year, he embarked in business on his own account, and established himself in the same square on Arch street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, in which his business is still conducted. It was here that he originated the busi- ness of furnishing undertaking, and began to supply all the requisites for the burial of the dead. Previously, undertaking had been carried on by cabinet makers, as it is in country localities to this day. The accommodation to the public, from the diligent prosecution of this entirely new business, was fully appreciated in the community, and he began, at once, to reap the fruits of his enterprise and labor. By the closest application to business, and by mnak- ing it his invariable rule to furnish only good work and material, he speedily came into the possession of a large and increasing patronage, and, for many years, has conducted, on an average, one hundred funerals a month. He attended to all the public demonstrations in the City of Philadelphia, up to the year 1865. Ile had charge of the obsequies of Bushrod Washington and John Marshall, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Generals William Henry Har- rison and Zachary Taylor, Presidents of the United States, Commodores Brainbridge, Elliot, and Hull, and Admiral Stewart, of the United States Navy, Ex-President John Quincy Adams, and many other distinguished public men and private individuals. From the indigent youth, who first set his foot in Philadelphia as a stranger to seek his fortune in life, he has risen, by the force of his own energy, and by the exercise of the strictest integrity, to wealth and independence
ARRISH, JOSEPH, Physician, was born in Phila- delphia, September 2d, 1779. His parents and family were members of the Society of Friends, and he was brought up in the rules of that deno- mination. In early life he enjoyed the best edu- cational facilities attainable at that time in Phila- delphia, acquiring, in addition to a sound English education, some knowledge of Latin, French, and even Hebrew. In
his twenty-first year he entered the office of Dr. Caspar Wistar, and received his Degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1805. Recognizing early the wisdom of popularizing sci- ence, he delivered a public course of chemical lectures in 1807-8, which brought him favourably to the notice of his fellow citizens. His professional rise was rapid, and in 1816 he was appointed to succeed Dr. Physick as Sur- geon to the Pennsylvania Hospital. His charitable dispo- sition and strict sense of duty led him to take an active part in numerous plans of benevolence and public aid. Long a member, he was ultimately President of the Penn- sylvania Abolition Society, in which office his predecessors were Drs. Wistar, Rush, and Franklin. Many students entered his office to receive professional instruction, among whom were not a few who themselves achieved eminence in after years. He married, in 1808, Susanna Cox, daughter of John Cox, of Burlington, New Jersey. His death oc- curred March 18th, 1840.
ARRISHI, ISAAC, Physician, second son of Dr. Isaac Parrish, of Philadelphia, was born in that city March 19th, 1811. Having received a clas- sical as well as an English education, he began the study of medicine with his father in 1829, and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1832. Two years later he was elected one of the sur- geons to Wills Hospital, which position he occupied for eighteen years. He gave the first regular course of instruc- tion in ophthalmic surgery in that institution in the winter of 1839-40. As a teacher, he was instructive and impres- sive, and popular with the students. His humane dispo- sition caused him to take an active part in the Philadelphia Society for Relieving the Miseries of Prisons, a subject of almost hereditary interest, as his grandfather, Isaac Par- rish, had been during the Revolutionary war also conspicu- ous in this charitable employment. In 1846 and 1847, he made a tour through Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, in order to study the disci- pline of the State prisons, the results of which observations he embodied in an article in the Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline, 1849. Shortly afterwards he called the attention of the Judiciary and the public to the dispropor- tionate mortality and relative length of sentences between the white and colored prisoners of this Commonwealth. These and similar labors brought forth beneficent results, and the correction of many abuses, even if in some in- stances such fruits were long delayed. In his religious convictions, he was a Friend, of the primitive model of Fox, Barclay an'd Penn, but observed, in all his intercourse, that toleration for the honest sentiments of others which, when rightly understood, lies at the basis of Friends' doc- trines. Early in his career ( 1834) he married Sarah Red- wood Longstreth, daughter of Samuel Longstreth, a re-
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spected merchant of his own city. Of naturally delicate frame, his unsparing labors for the benefit of others bore heavily on his health, and in his forty-second year, after many months of failing physical strength, he succumbed to an acute attack of dysentery, passing away July 31st, 1852.
BBEY, WILLIAM MAXWELL, Merchant, son of Roswell and Elizabeth Abbey, was born in New York, on March 8th, 1827. The Abbeys were ori- ginally French IInguenots in their extraction, and the name was formerly known as Abbaye. Ros- well Abbey was a man of great mechanical genius, who even at a very early age displayed much abil- ity, having invented most ingenious Cotton Machinery. Ile also invented the first Type-casting Machine, and was the originator of the application of Electrotype to the making of Type Matrices. He was a well read man, as also something of an artist, combining a talent for portrait painting inherited by his son, and which he exer- cised up to the time of his death, in 1858. The early training of William M. Abbey was obtained at the infant school of Miss Sarah Labree ; he later became the pupil of Roswell C. Smith, Francis M. Lubbren, and the Rev. William Mann. When the Central High School opened, in October, 1838, he was one of the original thirty pupils then admitted. Having graduated in 1842, he removed to Baltimore, and there learned the drug business in the store of Charles P. Rogers; but his health failing, he obtained a situation with B. A. Muzzy, Importer and Commission Merchant. In 1846, he removed to Philadelphia, and was employed by Wilcox, Billings & Co., Commission Mer- chants, where he remained until 1851, when he engaged in the Drug business, at Ellicott's Mills, Maryland. It was not until 1853 that he returned to Philadelphia and entered the establishment of Sailor & Sank, and finally became a member of the firm of J. Rinaldo Sank & Co., where he is successfully engaged at present. As a boy, he attended the Sunday school of the Dutch Reformed Church under the care of the Rev. Dr. IIardenburg. In 1860, he joined Calvary Episcopal Church, and became Superintendent of the Sunday school, which position he held for nine years, afterwards holding the same post at St. Jude's ; he also led the choir in both parishes. At Calvary, he was for six years Rector's Warden, and has been a Deputy of the yearly Diocesan Convention since 1861. Having joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1849, he passed the chairs in Star of Bethlehem Lodge, No. 190, and was Representative to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. He is now President of the Handel and Haydn Society of Philadelphia, and during eight years held the position of Director of said society. He was one of the originators of the Tobacco Board of Trade. As a business man, he is quoted for his integrity and energy, which is also mani-
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