USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 62
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ITTLETON, WILLIAM E., Lawyer and Poli- tician, was born January Ist, 1838. He was educated at Girard College, from which he gra- duated in September, 1853. ; Being intended for the legal profession, he was placed in a convey- ancer's office, at the same time reading law. un- der Richard C. McMurtrie, of Philadelphia. He was ad -. mitted to the bar in March, 1861, and by his talents and devotion to the best interests of his clients he soon acquired a very excellent professional standing. At an early period in his career he began to manifest a large and intelligent interest in public affairs, and his ability and character have gained for him many positions of trust and honor. In 1866, he was elected a member of the Common Council from the Twelfth Ward, on the Republican ticket, to which he had always proved true. At the expiration of his term, in 1868, he was again a candidate, but the political complexion of his ward undergoing some changes in that year, he was unsuccessful. In the following year he was elected a Director of Girard College, being the first and only gra- duate who ever held that position ; and he was a member of the last Board appointed by Councils previous to the creation of the Board of City Trusts. In 1870, he was again returned to Councils from his own ward, this time being chosen to represent it in the Select branch. On January Ist, 1872, so greatly had his powers made themselves felt in that body, he was elected President, receiving the un- animous nomination of the Republican caucus. ITis course in this responsible position proved so eminently satisfactory that, at the beginning of 1873, he was unanimously re- elected to preside over the deliberations of the Select Council for another year. In virtue of this Presidency, he was a member of the Board of City Trusts, of the Public Building
Commission, and of the Park Commission, in which capa- cities he rendered marked services to the city. In 1871, he received a further evidence of public estimation in being elected from the Third Senatorial District a delegate to the Convention called to revise the Constitution of the State. He has also been for two or three years a member of the Board of Directors of the Union League. A man of a high order of intelligence and sterling integrity, he exercises considerable influence in local politics, and is, without a question, one of the most deservedly esteemed men con- nected with the politics of the city of Philadelphia.
TICHTER, JOSEPH LYBRAND, Merchant, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, October 30th, 1813. Ile is a son of Peter Stichter and his second wife Elizabeth ( Lybrand), and grandson of Conrad Stichter, who emigrated to America from Lubeck, Germany, in the year 1750, and settled in Reading. Peter Stichter was born in Reading, 1761, and educated in the schools of the neighborhood. When he was sixteen years of age he entered the Revolutionary army, becoming a private in Lieutenant Miller's Company of Berks County Militia. He subsequently served in a com- pany attached to General Irwin's command at Flourtown, and was also with Washington at Valley Forge. He was a man of sterling integrity and great usefulness in his day, a Commissioner of the county, and a prominent and leading member in the Lutheran Church, also of the Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania. Joseph L. was educated in the German and English schools of the place, and when fifteen years old entered the iron store of Keim & Drenkle as an apprentice. He remained with them and Daniel M. Keim & Co. until 1837, when he formed a copartnership with John M. Keim, under the style of Keim & Stichter. This house so continued until 1841, when the former dis- posed of his interest to James McKnight, and the style was then changed to Stichter & McKnight. This association was dissolved in 1858, the senior partner purchasing the interest of the junior and becoming sole proprietor. In 1871, by the admission of his son, Thomas D., the firm became as it now stands, Joseph L. Stichter & Son. These several firms al- ways occupied the same premises, which in former days were known as the residence and Indian rendezvous of Colonel Conrad Weiser, who was the interpreter duly commissioned by the Provincial Governor from 1731 to 1753. The house underwent from time to time various improvements and en- largements, until finally it was accidentally destroyed by fire January 16th, 1872. The site is now occupied by a remark- ably fine structure, which is believed to be one of the most elegant in the interior of the State. The business now carried on is the same as in former years, es.bracing hardware, iron, steel, paints, drugs, tin plates, metals, etc. The house hos always maintained a high position at home and abroad for
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solid credit and integrity. Originally a member of the | years in his father's office studying law, when war having Lutheran, Joseph L. Stichter joined the Episcopal Church in 1833, and has ever since continued an active member of the same, having served as Sunday-school teacher, vestry- man and chorister of the congregation. He has also fre- quently represented the congregation in Annual Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and was present at the session last presided over by the venerable Bishop White. In 1869, he origi- nated and carried into successful achievement a choral celebration of the Fourth of July, at which over ten thou- sand persons were present and in which six hundred singers participated. It was a memorable event in the history of the city. In works of charity and benevolence he has al- ways taken an active part, especially in the establishment of the Reading Benevolent Society, of which he was the Treasurer for over a quarter of a century. He has also been identified with all the prosperous enterprises of the city, and assisted in establishing the telegraph line to Philadelphia; in building and maintaining the Reading Cotton Factory, of which he was also a Director for many years. He was also among the earliest friends and supporters of the Phila- delphia & Reading Railroad, the Lebanon Valley Rail- road, and the Eastern Pennsylvania Railroad, of which latter he is a Director. ITis house helped to maintain the credit of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in 1841-'42, when the company was entirely prostrated and their pro- perty was seized by the sheriff, by supplying material when no money could be obtained by them in Phila- delphia. He has always encouraged all enterprises calcu- lated to enhance the material prosper ty of the city and county, and has ever been one of the most active and valu- able members of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of the county, and has served as its Vice-President. has been a leading member of the Masonic Order since 1834, and has filled various important offices in that body, including that of District Deputy Grand Master. The present high character and prosperity of Masonry in Berks county owes much to his zeal, labor, fatherly counsels and care. IIe has received many flattering demonstrations in his retirement from Masonic service, including testimonials from various lodges ; Lodge No. 254 at Pottstown is named Stichter Lodge. He was married, August 23d, 1845, to Elizabeth II., daughter of Thomas Dichl, a well-known Philadelphia merchant.
ALLAS, GEORGE MIFFLIN, Lawyer and States- man, was born in Philadelphia, July 10th, 1792. He was the son of Alexander James Dallas, an eminent lawyer, who was Secretary of the Trea- sury under the administration of President Madi- son. After a preliminary course of studies, he entered Princeton College, where he graduated with the highest honors in 1810. He passed the two subsequent
been declared against Great Britain he patriotically enlisted for the defence of his country. His military service, how- ever, was of short duration, as he was soon after discharged to enable him to become the private secretary of Albert Gallatin, then about sailing for Russia, on the mission which terminated in the negotiations of the British and American Commissioners at Ghent. Previous to his de- parture he was admitted, in 1813, to the bar. He returned to the United States in 1814 as bearer of despatches to the President. He now remained with his father, who had charge of the Treasury Department, assisting him in his arduous duties, for it was a time of peril and sore financial distress. He subsequently returned to Philadelphia and commenced the practice of his profession, and also entered into political life. On the Fourth of July, 1815, at the invi- tation of the Democrats, he delivered his first public oration, in which he fearlessly vindicated the policy of the United States in their controversy with Great Britain. This speech gained him immediate favor with the Democratic party, and in 1817 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of Philadelphia, which position he occupied several years. In 1824 and 1828, he advocated the election of General Jackson to the Presidency, and was rewarded by the latter, on his succeeding, in 1828, by being appointed United States District Attorney. He had a short time previously been elected Mayor of the city, an office rarely bestowed on one of his political creed. In 1831, he was elected United States Senator to fill an unexpired term, and during his residence in Washington promoted his intimacy with General Jackson, who remained his warm friend to the day of his death. On the occurrence of this event, he was chosen by the citizens of Philadelphia to pronounce the funeral oration, which was remarkable from its eloquent pathos. At the close of his Senatorial term he declined a re-election, and was appointed, by Governor Wolf, Attorney- General of Pennsylvania, but soon resigned it to become United States Minister to Russia. He remained in that distant country, filling the post with honor and credit to himself and the country, until he was recalled, at his own request, in 1839. He was now tendered the office of At- torney-General of the United States, but declined it. In 1844, he was elected Vice- President, and was inaugurated March 4th, 1845. ITis casting vote in favor of the Tariff of 1846 created great excitement for the time, and in the address he made previous to deciding the question he gave his reasons, which though much commented upon at the time proved in the end the truth of his assertions. During the Buchanan administration he filled the position of United States Minister at the British Court, and returned to the United States about the time when the Civil War com- menced. He was outspoken in favor of the Union, but did not live to witness its final triumph. He died January Ist, 1864. He was married to a daughter of the late Philip HI. Nicklin.
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OUGHERTY, DANIEL, Lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, in 1826, of Irish parentage. The argumentative and oratorical bent of his talents was displayed early in life, and when he had obtained a careful preliminary education in his native city, he addressed himself to the study of law. Admitted to the bar in 1849, he soon attracted public notice by the force and fluency of his public addresses, his ability as a humorist, and his unusual control over the emo- tions of his auditors. These qualifications eminently adapted him for political life, and into this he threw him- self with characteristic ardor. Espousing the principles of the Democratic party, he gave forcible expression to the sentiments which they at that time entertained. One of his addresses, entitled " Fears for the Future of the Republic," which was delivered before the literary societies of Lafayette College in IS59, foreshadows so significantly the events which not long afterwards took place, that it was quoted sub)- sequently in the British House of Commons by Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer. When, however, all prospects of the mainten- ance of peace by kindly concessions had been destroyed by the guns of Fort Sumter, he felt that all thought of party should be sunk in love of country, and from that time on he became one of the warmest adherents of the Union cause. IIe lost no opportunity, public or private, to aid in the maintenance of the Union and to condemn in the strongest language the efforts of those who sought its destruction. In IS62, he was one of the original thirty individuals who founded the Union League of Philadelphia. A year after, when the rebels had invaded Pennsylvania and were threatening Philadelphia, the names of these gentlemen were placarded by the friends of Secession, in hopes that the advancing foe would punish them condignly. In the campaign which placed Abraham Lincoln a second time in the presidential chair he entered with untiring vigor. His orations in Faneuil IIall, Boston, where he spoke at the request of Edward Everett, and at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, were listened to by audiences as large as those spacious buildings could hold, and with wrapt attention. When the war was brought to a triumphant close, he retired from political life and gave his time to the calls of his profession, in which he has been eminently successful. Occasionally he has been induced to deliver lectures on topics of general interest, some of which, such as one on " Orators and Ora- tory," and another on " The Stage," have achieved quite unusual reputation. Ilis talents are equally well adapted to the demands of the legal profession and the calls of mixed audiences. The dramatic force of many of his passages proves him to be endowed with talents which would have brought him distinction on the stage had his tastes led him in that direction. But he has found for them abundant opportunity at the bar, at which he has taken a high position. In early life he married an estimable lady, and is surrounded by a pleasing family of children.
ORRIS, ROBERT, Author, Journalist, and Bank President, was born in Philadelphia, and is the eldest son of the late Captain Robert Morris, who died in Bordeaux, France, from the effects of a collision at sea. His son received a liberal edu- cation, which was followed by a thorough course of study in medicine, but conceiving, while yet a youth, a passionate love for literature, which increased as he ad- vanced in years, he abandoned the lecture and dissecting rooms and turned his entire attention to literary pursuits. HIis contributions to the press, when quite young, attracted much notice, and at the early age of twenty he was called upon to assume the editorial management of the Philadelphia Album, a popular weekly periodical on the plan of the New York Mirror. He labored here successfully for several years, and won a position among the foremost writers of the day. His earliest prose effort intended for the press was, A Dream of Heaven. A series of stories, entitled Sketches of Roseville, obtained wide popularity, and were followed by The Idiot Beauty, Roy Reckless, and other productions, which greatly added to his fame as a writer. Various poems contributed to the Boston Legendary, edited by N. P. Willis, were copied by almost every paper in the country. He obtained a number of premiumis for Ad- dresses written for dramatic festivals and other occasions. The Past and the Future, a poem delivered before the " William Wirt Institute," of Philadelphia, was received with enthusiastic applause, and obtained the warm com- mendation of the press. Man and the Universe, a lecture of great merit, was published in pamphlet form, but only for private circulation. He became attached to the Pennsyl- vania Inquirer, in an editorial capacity, in the early days of that journal. Here he won for himself an exalted repu- tation, and added to his already numerous circle of friends. Ilis leading articles, and his many essays upon solid sub- jects, won for the Inquirer an enviable character-that of a calm, conservative, influential and pure-toned family paper. A number of the essays which first appeared in that paper, with Sketches, Scenes and Experiences in Social Life, were collected and published in handsome style under the title of Courtship and Matrimony. This was the crown- ing work of his commendable career as an Editor, which extended over a quarter of a century. Ilis financial career, though brief, was uncommonly brilliant and satisfactory. The Commonwealth Bank, over which he was chosen to preside, went into operation in November, 1857, in the midst of a crisis and suspension of specie payments. Un- der his sagacious management, the young institution was navigated into the safe haven of the public confidence. It is rare to find combined in one and the same individual the power to control so dissimilar enterprises as a bank and a newspaper. Though for some time released from the editorial chair, he still manifests a disposition for literary pursuits. An unpublished poem entitled Expectation is his latest work.
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UIILENBERG, HENRY A., Lawyer, was born in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, July 21st, 1823. He was the son of Henry A. Muhlenberg, the elder, and Rebecca, daughter of Governor Joseph Iliester. Ile was instructed under the direction of his father, and received at his hands a most thorough education, enabling him, at the age of fourteen, to matriculate at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, where he remained a year, passing thence to Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he entered the Sophomore Class, and graduated therefrom with the highest honors in the autumn of 1841. He was a close student, especially in the classics and history. Of the latter he was particularly fond, as he considered that an accurate and complete knowledge of past events, their causes and consequences, was an indispensable requisite for those who hoped them- selves to assist in making history. He passed the three years, from 1841 to 1844, in the office of his preceptor, IIon. J. Pringle Jones, a ripe scholar and an eminent jurist, engaged in the study of the law. The examination for admission to the Reading bar was then conducted. in open court, and any member was allowed to examine the candi- date. He here acquitted himself so well as to receive the highest praise for his acquirements from the Hon. Wma Strong, John Banks, and other leading counsellors. His father, who had been, in March, 1844, nominated as the candidate of the Democratic party for the Gubernatorial chair of Pennsylvania, made his son his private secretary. The latter conducted all his father's correspondence during the canvass. The very sudden death, two months prior to the election, of his father, to whom he was devotedly attached, was such a shock to him, that for a year or more he could turn his attention to nothing save the duties of his profession. In 1846, when the Mexican War broke out, he raised a company of Volunteers in Reading, and per- sonally tendered their services to the Governor; but the complement of Pennsylvania having already been filled, the offer was declined. In the county convention of 1846, he, with his brother Iliester-the President of that body- was mainly instrumental in causing the adoption of a Reso- lution approving of the principles of the Tariff of 1842, and demanding " that as it was passed by Democratic votes, it should receive a fair consideration from a Democratic Congress," He also delivered a speech, in the same body, on the Oregon Question, in which he strongly favored the claims of the United States to all that district of country lying south of the parallel of 54° 40'. In 1847 and 1848 he was occupied in writing a life of General Peter Muhlen- berg, of Revolutionary fame, which was published, early in 1849, by Carey & Hart, Philadelphia. It was dedicated to Jared Sparks, as a slight recognition of his services in elucidating our Revolutionary history. The volume was favorably received by the public, and a complimentary notice appeared in the North American Review, of 1849, from the pen of Francis Bowen of Harvard University.
In the fall of 1849, he was elected to the Legislature as Senator from Berks county, and served the full term of three years. He there acquired such a reputation for integ- rity, eloquence and business ability as made him the leader of his party, in a body which contained within it some of the most brilliant men in Pennsylvania. Shortly after taking his seat, he delivered a powerful speech on the supplement to the Act incorporating the Philadelphia & Reading Rail- road Company, which greatly influenced the Senate in its decision to pass the measure, and by so doing prevented the impending ruin of that great corporation. He was, through- out his term, a member of the committees of Finance, the Judiciary and the Militia, and for two years chairman of the first-named body. In the second year of his Senatorial career' he was the Democratic candidate for Speaker, though the youngest member of that house, his competitor on the Whig side being Hon. John H. Walker of Erie (the President of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-'73). The Senate then contained sixteen Whigs, sixteen Demo- crats and one Native American, and a majority of all who voted was required to elect. On the eighth ballot -- and on the third day-when it was evident that no choice could be made unless the Whig candidate should vote for himself, the Democratic candidate, together with Messrs. Packer and Guernsey, also Democrats, out of political courtesy abstained froin voting.". Throughout the whole contest the two candi- dates respectively voted for Thomas Carson and William F. Packer. The early history of the Common wealth was always a subject of great interest to him, and as chairman of a select committee, to which was referred that portion of Governor Jolinston's message for 1851 treating of the care and preserva- tion of the State archives, he reported a Bill for the publica- tion, at the expense of the State, of the records of the Pro- prietary government, and of all papers relating to the Revo- lutionary war, down to 1783. The report of the committee, written by him, was considered by men of all parties a most able production. The bill afterwards became a law. He procured also the passage of an Act, making an appro- priation to continue the geological survey of the State, conducted by' Professor Rogers. Ile introduced many important bills to the notice of the Legislature; among others, one embodying all the provisions of our present pos- tal money-order system. He favored also the building of new railroads to develop the resources of the Common- wealth, though he was opposed to the State granting any direct aid to these objects. During the whole of his Sena- torial term, he was, in the words of Hon. C. R. Buckalew, " the bulwark of the Treasury against the assaults of out- side interested parties." He was strongly hostile to the enactment of a prohibitory law in Pennsylvania-similar to the Maine Liquor Law-as he considered that Government had no moral right to pass sumptuary laws, or to interfere with private or vested rights. He was ever outspoken in defence of a tariff of such amount and so levied as to pro- tect the great manufacturing interests of the country, and
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to enable them to enter into competition with the foreign made article. He also thought, that as iron was an indis- pensable requisite for any nation, to provide against the con- tingency of a war, and to render the United States indepen- dent of any other country, that a high, though not a prohibi- tory duty, should be imposed on that article. In the Senate, and in the County Conventions, he-in connection with Judge Strong and other distinguished Democrats-de- manded a modification of the Tariff of 1846, in favor of the Iron interest-in accordance with the views of Hon. Robert J. Walker, the author of that tariff, views ex- pressed at the time of its passage. IIe was an carnest opponent of Slavery, and considered it "a curse to that community on which it was inflicted ; no one could dislike it more than he did; nor did he ever wish to be thought the friend and advocate of the institution." In his devo- tion, however, to the Union, and in his desire to do away with all causes which might inflame one section of the country against the other, looking upon the compromise measures of 1850 as a solemn compact between the North and South, he thought those measures, and the laws re- sulting from them, should be executed fully, honestly and completely. His devotion to the Union was one of the cardinal principles of his political faith. The words used by his father, in Congress, at the time of Clay's Compromise Act of 1833, might be placed in his mouth also: " The Union is the first and greatest of our national blessings, and to preserve it nothing can or ought to be deemed too precious. I go for the Union, the whole Union, and noth- ing but the Union. It must be preserved, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." No one who knew him inti- mately een doubt for a moment that he would have been foremost in the van of those Democrats who in the hour of greatest dinger rushed to the rescue of their Government, and of their Union. At such a time he would not have been behind his brother Hiester, or his uncle, Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg of Lancaster, in forming that party which, in their opinion, held the true Democratic doctrine, in that it advocated the greatest good to the greatest masses. In July, 1852, he was nominated by acclamation the Demo- cratic candidate for Congress, in Berks county, and was elected in the following October by a large majority. IIe left Reading, late in November, 1853, for Washington, and was present at the opening of the 34th Congress, but had scarcely taken his seat ere he was stricken down by illness. Everything was done for him that was possible, and it was believed at one time that he was materially improved : but a relapse occured, and he died January 9th, I854, of hemorrhage and congestion of the lungs. ITis remains were laid to rest in the Charles Evans Cemetery near Read- ing. He was a warm and true friend; no act of kindness was ever forgotten by him, and nothing within the limits of possibility was deemed too difficult when done in the cause of a friend. His fearlessness in all departments of life was one of the most marked traits of his character ; he
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