USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 13
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his seat in the House, he, as Chairman of the Select Com- mittee on the Pacific Railroad, reported in favor of the middle route (the Southern being deemed impracticable on account of the attitude of the Southern States), and reported a bill complete in all its details ; and by his tact, ability, and personal popularity, carried that great measure to a success- ful conclusion. In 1863, during the Invasion of Pennsyl- vania by General Lee, in connection with the late lamented General James Nagle, he raised a regiment of 1100 men, and proceeded to the seat of conflict. General Nagle, then Colonel of the 39th Pennsylvania Volunteers, was appointed a Brigadier-General, and James 11. Campbell was left in command of the 39th, as its Lieutenant-Colonel. After it was mustered out of service, he was tendered the appoint- ment, by Secretary Seward, of Judge, under the Treaty with Great Britain, of the Court for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, to reside at Capetown, Africa, but he declined. In 1864, he was named by President Lincoln, United States Minister to Sweden and Norway, which he accepted, took up his residence in Stockholm, and continued there three years. Ile acquired the language, and made himself familiar with their laws, customs, traditions, and commerce. lle travelled in 1865, far up the coast of Norway, within the Arctic Circle, and witnessed that grand spectacle-the midnight sun. In March, 1867, he was tendered, by President Johnson, the Mission to the United States of Colombia, South America; but he declined, giving as his reason that his " views of public and political questions were not in harmony with those of the Executive." He returned to the United States in the autumn of 1867, and has since resided in Philadelphia, pursuing the practice of his profes- sion. He was married, in 1843, to Juliet II. L., a daughter of Chief Justice Ellis Lewis, a lady of rare intellectual culture.
RMSTRONG, WILLIAM II., Lawyer, was born at Williamsport, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, September 7th, 1824, and is a son of Hon. James Armstrong, an eminent jurist who was appointed by Governor Pollock a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and remained on the bench until the office became elective, when he declined being a candidate. William was educated at the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, and graduated therefrom at the centennial commencement in 1847. He was a classmate of Secretary Robeson, and while a member of the senior class, Secretary Belknap was a junior. A warm personal friendship was entertained by him for these two prominent gentlemen, and it has been maintained to the present time. HIe studied law under the preceptorship of his father, and was admitted to the bar of Lycoming county, in 1850. Having married a Philadelphia lady, he removed to that city in I854, opened a law-office, and rapidly acquired a
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lucrative practice ; but, in 1856, he was stricken down with sickness, from which he did not entirely recover for years. Convalescing in 1857, he passed a year abroad, travelling through many countries in Europe, beside paying a visit to Egypt, and returned to America via Cuba. Ile now located at Williamsport, for the benefit of the country air, and gradually resumed the practice of his profession. Ile served in the Legislature, during the memorable sessions of 1861-'62, the first year of the rebellion; and in 1862, was the Republican candidate for Speaker. He was Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and had the honor of having his report passed through three readings in one day, and adopted without amendment. In 1863, he was tendered the nomination as President Judge of the Twenty- sixth Judicial District, but he declined the same. In 1868, he was elected to the Forty-first Congress, and served in that body for two years with pronounced distinction. While a member, he introduced the measure which has resulted in National Civil-Service Legislation ; and also, another which settled the long vexed question between the Senate and the Ilouse as to the right of the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to conclude Treaties with the Indians. The long subsequent debates which ensued on this measure have become matters of history, and now show that which was gracefully conceded by his contemporaries, namely, that the measures were of the utmost natural and national importance. In 1870, he was nominated for re-election, but owing to local troubles was defeated by only twenty- seven votes. Ile was urged to contest the seat, but cm- phatically refused, nor would he consent to be again a candidate. In 1872, he was nominated with great unanimity as a candidate for the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth, to which he was elected. When that body as- sembled, he was prominently named for President, and would have been the choice of the members, had they not remem- bered that William M. Meredith was the oldest survivor of the Convention of 1837-'38, and accordingly unanimously chosen that distinguished statesman. In this body, he was an able and zealous member, and served upon the Commit- tee on the Executive Department, also as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Ile has been prominently named for a seat in the Cabinet of President Grant, and has been fre- quently urged for other positions in the State and National Governments.
INNEY, ASAHIEL CLARK, Banker and Lumber Merchant, was born at Shrewsbury, Rutland county, Vermont, in 1824, and when twenty-three years of age removed to Le Roy, Genessee county, New York. Subsequently, he settled at Mead- ville, Pennsylvania; was elected Cashier of the Crawford County Bank, and continued to fill the position while a resident there. In 1859, he went to Clearfield, where he established a private banking- house, which he
successfully operated until 1865, when in connection with others he founded the First National Bank of Clearfield, and subsequently engaged in the lumber business, which he still continues. In the fall of 1872, he was elected a dele- gate to the Convention to form a New Constitution for Pennsylvania, and in that body became Chairman of the Committee on Legislation. Not being a member of the legal fraternity, or gifted with that ready flow of language so essential to the forum, he contented himself with serving his constituents by being a hard worker in committee, and a punctual and steadfast attendant on the public sessions of the body, in which he won many friends by his liberal views, good, judgment, and toleration. Ilis brother, Darwin Finney, was for a long time a prominent member of Congress.
EATII, ROBERT BURNS, Surveyor-General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia, January 26th, 1839, of Scotch parentage and ancestry. Ilis education was obtained in the public schools until he was fifteen years old, when he was apprenticed to learn the trade of machine blacksmith, at Merrick's Southwark Foundry, in 1854, and worked there until the breaking out of the rebellion. IT'e enlisted as a private, April 20th, 1861, in the 23d Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, for three months' service. . On the expiration of his term, he again enlisted as a private, September 5th, 1861, in the 88th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, for three years' service ; was appointed . Third Sergeant, and subsequently Second, and First Sergeant. At the second battle of Bull Run, he was slightly wounded in the foot. Ile was commissioned Second Lieutenant, September 18th, 1862, and served through many bloody engagements with his command. On August 26th, 1863, after appearing before Casey's Board, for the examination of officers for colored troops, he was commissioned Captain of 6th Regiment, United States Colored Troops; and with his company and regiment par- ticipated in all the engagements in the army of the James, under General Butler, and in the siege of Petersburg was daily under fire. On September 2Sth, 1864, the regiment, depleted in numbers by many deaths, reported for duty to General Birney of the Tenth Corps, and he assigned to it the post of honor-to lead the charge on the rebel works at New Market, Virginia. The battle took place the next day, and the regiment came out of that desperate charge with hardly a third of its numbers unwounded or alive. Ile was severely wounded, and two days afterward, his right leg was amputated, in the hospital; he was subsequently attacked by gangrene, and his life, for a long time, was despaired of. In January, 1865, he was enabled to return home, and was assigned to duty at Camp William Penn, where he remained until able to wear an artificial leg. Ile returned to the regiment in August, 1865, and was then assigned to the
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charge of the counties of Brunswick and Hanover, North | Carolina, as Assistant Commissioner, Freedman's Bureau. He was mustered out of the service, as Captain, September 20th, 1865, receiving lis commission as Lieutenant-Colonel when the regiment was finally paid off in Philadelphia. Being unable to resume his former avocation, by reason of his physical condition, he studied book-keeping, and received an appointment in the office of Recorder of Deeds, and afterwards in the Philadelphia Post-office, as Sub-Postmaster at Station D. In July, 1867, he resigned from this position to accept a situation as book-keeper in a large colliery in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. On the formation of the Anthracite Board of Trade, he was elected its Secretary ; and so served until his removal to Harrisburg, to enter upon .
the duties of Surveyor- General of the Commonwealth, having been elected thereto, October, 1871, by a majority of 20,- 310 over the Democratic candidate. He is the youngest man ever elected on a State ticket in Pennsylvania, not having then attained his thirty-third year. He has served four years as Assistant. Adjutant-General, Department of Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic, and one term as Commander.
ATTERSON, JOHN DEAN, Mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was born at Williamsburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, November Ist, 1842; is a son of Thomas S., and Margaret Patterson, and of Scotch and Irish extraction. IIe received a common school education, and when eightcen, commenced the life of a teacher in his native county, so continuing for three years; in the last year, having proved himself thoroughly competent for the position, he was engaged by Professor Geddes, of the Williamsburg Academy, as his assistant. In August, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in a regiment, which became an integral part of the Army of the Potomac, and was stationed on the Virginia Peninsula. Ile participated in all the hard fought battles which took place during the several campaigns, including Antietam and Chancellorsville, and after closing an honor- able military record in defence of the union was mustered out of the service at the expiration of his term of enlistment. On returning to civil life, he entered the " Iron City Com- mercial School," in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and thoroughly mastered the course of studies in that college. Ilis abilities and aptitude for imparting the information he had acquired to others less informed was speedily recognized by his instructors, who retained him to fill the position of assistant in the school, which he held for a considerable period. IIe was subsequently tendered and accepted a position in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at Altoona, Pennsylvania, being afterwards transferred-still in the service of the same corporation-to the city of Harrisburg. He still remains with the company, always fulfilling the «Inties entrusted to him, so as to meet the requirements and
command the highest respect and approval of the officials of the company. In 1871, he was elected to the Common Council of the city, of which body he proved a valuable member, and of which he was chosen Chairman in the fall of 1872. Ile was not only the youngest member of Coun- cils, but the youngest man that had ever been elected to a position in that body. At the re-organization of councils in the fall of 1873, having given such general satisfaction as its presiding officer in the official year just closed, he was solicited to again become Chairman for a second term, but declined the honor. In January, 1874, he was nominated by the Republican party as their candidate for the Mayoralty, and after the most stoutly contested political campaign the city ever witnessed, was elected by a very handsome majority. He is a man of modest and unassuming bearing, of an affable and courteous disposition, and one who cannot fail to win and maintain the regard and respect of his associates.
LEMING, JAMES, M. D., D. D. S., Physician and Dental Surgeon, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and when very young removed to Harrisburg. On his father's side, he is of Scotch- Irish extraction, and his mother is descended from the Beckets, a family well known in Welsh history. Ilis education was commenced when he was but a child, and carefully attended to; a laudable ambition to excel in his studies being constantly encouraged. The influence of his mother, in this direction, was of great benefit to him, and its good effect has continued through his life, Being thrown upon his own resources, at the age of eighteen, he resolved to educate himself by alternately acting as teacher and pupil. For seven years he pursued this course, and acquired a considerable reputation as a teacher and scholar. Ile discovered that while he was instructing others, he was constantly improving himself; and he gradu- ally advanced in the several branches of an Academical course, taking up some as specialties, and teaching in private classes, Much of this time he passed in the West, including portions of Ohio and Kentucky. He was subse- quently engaged at the St. James Academy, in Maryland, where the higher branches of mathematics and ancient languages occupied the most of his attention ; at a later date he studied French. When about twenty-five years old, lie commenced the study of medicine, pursued it with ardor, . and graduated with special honor at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in the spring of 1838. This was the period, in the history of that school, when the experiment of written examinations was tried-but it was so severe a test, that it was soon abandoned. For about four years thereafter, he practised his profession, but found it too laborious for a slender constitution. About this time the specialty of dental surgery was in its infancy ; a few bright lights in the larger cities being all the profession contained.
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Observing the necessity for good operators in this field, he | city, but in the last named year he removed his family to repaired to Philadelphia, and expended much means and Philadelphia, still passing at least two-thirds of his time in Harrisburg, where his interests are located. During and since his residence in Harrisburg, he has been a trustee of several charitable institutions, and also a member of its councils; and has always taken a great interest in anything that, in his opinion, would advance the prosperity of the city, where he so long resided, and which he considers as destined to become a great manufacturing centre. In this connection it may be remarked that both himself and brother, in inaugurating their enterprise, gave the first impetus towards the establishment of industrial works in that city; and have probably done more than any others to advance its@manufacturing interests, as they recognized, at an early day, its advantages for the distribution of manufac- tured goods, He was married, in 1851, to a daughter of Benjamin .E. Valentine, of Philadelphia, and has a family of three daughters. time in acquiring a thorough knowledge of all that could be then learned. On his return to Harrisburg, he commenced the practice of this new profession, and with all the success that his most sanguine expectations ever anticipated. Ife has been, for a long time, a contributor to both medical and dental journals. Ile was a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Dental Surgeons, and one of the original advocates of the establishment of a dental college in Phila- delphia, in which he was subsequently tendered, but declined, a professorship. Ile has been a member of the American Society of Dental Surgeon3, and has been twice the recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. . Ile has never been ambitious for distinction or notoriety; but has accepted only such quiet, positions as he considered honorable. He is a Director in the Harrisburg National Bank; and is President of the Board of School Directors of the city. Ile is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and an elder of the same. Ile was married, in 1852, to Jeannette Street, of Cheshire, Connecticut, a lineal descen- dant of Rev. John Davenport, the founder of New Ilaven, and also of Oliver Walcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Ilis family consists of two children, a daughter and a son.
AILEY, GEORGE, M. D., Iron Manufatcurer, is a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in the year IS27. Ile is a son of Joseph Bailey, who at that date was engaged' in farming, but, in 1838, removed to Coatesville, where he became interested in the production of boiler iron at the old " Lukens Mill," where the manu- facture of that description of iron was first carried on, to any extent, in this country. In 1844, Joseph Bailey removed to Berks county, near Pottstown, where he erected iron works, and where he is still engaged (April, 1874) in its manufac- ture. Ilis son, George, meanwhile, was receiving his edu- cation at an academy under the care of the (Orthodox) Friends, and afterwards taught Latin and Greek, for two years, in the same institution. Ile commenced the study of medicine, in 1848, at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom, in 1851, but never practised the pro- fession. It was at his father's works, in Berks county, that he obtained his first insight into the manufacture of iron ; and his preference lying in that direction, he abandoned medicine, and with his brother embarked in the enterprise, erecting their mill in Harrisburg, in 1852-'53. Here, in a small way, they entered upon the manufacture of boiler iron, gradually enlarging the works as time rolled on. In IS58, they added a nail factory to their works, and since that period have been largely engaged in the manufacture of plate and nails. From the date of the commencement of the works in Harrisburg, until 1866, he resided in that
LYMER, IIIESTER, of Reading, Pennsylvania, 'is a descendant of Richard Clymer, a shipping merchant and ship builder, of Philadelphia, who came from Bristol, England, in 1705. Richard Clymer had two sons, William and Christopher. The latter was the father of George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. William, who was a mariner, and a captain in the British Navy during the reign of George' II., married Anna Roberdeau, a sister of General Daniel Roberdeau, of the Revolution, by whom he had but one child, Daniel Cunyngham Clymer, who was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1747, and educated to the law. After practising for some time at the Philadelphia bar, he came to Reading, several years before the Revolu- tion, and was, up to the year ISIo, one of the leading lawyers of Berks and the adjoining counties. Ile was Secretary of the meeting of "The officers and privates of the fifty-three battalions of the Associators of the Colony of Pennsylvania," at which George Ross presided, held at Lancaster on the meniorable 4th of July, 1776, " to chose two Brigadier-Generals to command the battalions and forces in said colony," and at which his uncle, General Roberdeau, was elected First Brigadier-General. Ile was a Colonel and Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners during the Revolutionary War. Ilis first commission, as a Lieutenant Colonel, was issued by the Assembly of Penn- sylvania, April 8th, 1776, and was signed by John Morton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. IIe left one daughter, and two sons, William and Edward Tilghman Clymer. The latter married Maria Catharine, a daughter of William Iliester, of Bern township, Berks county, who was a cousin of Joseph Iliester, Governor of Pennsylvania from 1817 to 1820, and resided on his farm adjoining the village of Morgantown, in Caernarvon town- ship, Berks county, at the time of his death, in 1831.
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Iliester Clymer, one of the sons of Edward T. Clymer, was born in Caernarvon township, Berks county, November 3d, IS27. IIe received his preliminary education at Reading, and graduated in 1847, at the College of New Jersey, (Nassau Ilall) Princeton, at which institution his father and grandfather were also educated. He then commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to practice at the bar of Beiks county, April 6th, 1849. In 1851, he went to Pottsville, Schuylkill county, where he remained five years in successful practice. In 1856, he returned to Reading. In 1860, he served as a member of the Board of Revenue Commissioners, and was a Delegate to the National Demo- cratic Convention held at Charleston, in the spring of that year. In October, 1860, he was elected to the State Senate, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Benjamin Nune- macher. In October, 1861, he was elected for the full term ; and in October, 1864, re-elected for a third -term. IIis course as Senator was distinguished for dignity and courtesy of demeanor, readiness, force and eloquence in debate, and steadfast devotion to the best interests of the Commonwealth. Ilis discussion with Senator A. K. McClure, in February, 1861, on the repcal of the tonnage tax on the traffic of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company; brought him prominently before the people, and established for him an enduring reputation as a parliamentary debater and a statesman thoroughly informed in the grave questions of inter-State trade and domestic finance which that discussion involved. In March, 1866, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, and immediately resigned his seat in the Senate, He made a vigorous and remarkably energetic canvass of the State, speaking to large meetings of his fellow-citizens in nearly every county, and everywhere making a deep impression upon them by the nervous eloquence of his speech and his frank and forcible presentation of the various issues upon which their decision was invoked. Although he received a larger vote than had ever been previously given to any Democratic candidate for the same office, liis competitor, the late Governor Geary, was declared elected, In 1868, he was a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention, which met July 4th, in Tammany Hall, New York, and nominated Iloratio Sey- mour for President, In the spring of 1870, on the organi- zation of the Board of Public Charities, with supervisory powers over the treatment of the insane poor confined in the hospitals of the State, he was appointed by Governor Geary one of the Commissioners under the Act of Assembly creating that board-a graceful compliment from his former antagonist on the stump-in which position of trust he still continues. In the autumn of the same year, he visited Europe, and after a tour through England and the Continent, returned in the fall of 1871. In October, 1872, he was elected to represent the district of Berks county in the Forty-third Congress of the United States, and took his seat, December Ist, IS73. Ile is a member of the Committee on the Revision of the Laws ; the Committee on Public Lands,
and the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. IIe was married, in 1856, to Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Matthew Brooke, of Birdsboro', Berks county, and had two children-a son and daughter-both of whom are deceased. Mrs. Clymer died in October, 1870.
ANCOAST, JOSEPHI, M. D., Physician and Sur- geon, was born in Burlington county, New Jersey, in 1805. Adopting the profession of medicine and surgery, he studied the same at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom in 1828, with the degree of M. D. He at once commenced practice, and made surgery his specialty. IIe began teaching Practical Anatomy and Surgery, in 1831; and during the same year edited a Treatise on the'Structure, Functions, and Diseases of the Human Sympathetic Nerve, by J. Frederick Lobstein. In 1834, he was elected one of the Physicians of the Philadelphia Hospital, Blockley; shortly afterwards, Physician-in-Chief to the Children's IIospital, in the same institution : and from 1838 to 1845, he was one of the Visiting Surgeons to the same hospital. In 1838, he was elected Professor of Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College. In 1844, he published his Treatise on Operative Surgery, which he revised and enlarged in 1852, when it had passed to a third edition. During the first nine years of its existence, upwards of four thousand copies were sold. He also, in 1844, remodelled the able work-origin- ally written by Dr. Casper Wistar, to which the late Profes- sor. William E. Horner had made valuable additions- entitled, A System of Anatomy for the use of Students. On March 27th, 1854, he was elected one of the Surgeons of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and resigned that position on February 29th, 1864 ; in 1861, Professor of Anatomy in Jeffer- son Medical College, from which he resigned, in 1874, and was succceded by his son, Dr. William II. Pancoast. He thus filled for a period of thirty-six years, successively, two of the most important chairs in that celebrated school. He has also edited at sundry times, Manec on the Great Sym- pathetic Nerve, and the Cerebro-Spinal System in Man, by the same author; and subsequently, Quain's Anatomical Plates, He has been a voluminous contributor to the American Journal of the Medical Sciences ; the American Medical Intelligencer, and the Medical Examiner; beside publishing various monograph's, both pathological and sur- gical, and, at the time, the then novel department of plastic surgery. Ile has also published sundry essays and intro- ductory lectures to his class; the one of 1856, is entitled, Professional Glimpses Abroad. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, of the College of Pharmacy, and other scientific institutions. He is one of the most eminent of American surgeons : is bold, rapid, and skilful with the use of the knife, and in diagnosis almost invariably correct.
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