USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 19
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AMISON, J. MILES, Merchant, was born in Rich- boro', Bucks county, Pennsylvania, November Ist, 1844, and was educated in the common school of the district. While yet a youth, he went to Philadelphia, where he engaged in the notion business, and subsequently learned the art of pho- tography in Gutekunst's establishment. In 1864, he removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he opened a photographic gallery, and continued in that line for four years, when he returned to Richboro' and succeeded his father in the mer- cantile business. In political faith, he is a Democrat of the old Jeffersonian school; but although greatly interested in the political movements of the day, is no politician, or, as the term is generally defined, an office-seeker. On the con- trary, the office or position sought him from among the ranks of the people, and he was nominated, in the fall of 1873, to represent the citizens of his district in the lower branch of the State Legislature. He took his seat in that body, on January Ist, 1874, and was attentive and zealous in the discharge of his duties. Ile served acceptably on the Committee on Appropriations, and also on that of Counties and Townships. Honest, capable, and genial in his man- ners, he has secured the friendship of all whom he has en- countered, both in the walks of mercantile life and in the Legislative chamber ; and it is but fair to presume that one
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who has thus early entered upon a career of usefulness will! be honored in the future with a more exalted station in the service of the Commonwealth.
LLEN, ORRIN C., Lawyer, and Merchant, was born in the town of Russellburg, Warren county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1840, and is a son of Samuel P. and Mary (Thompson) Allen. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, and his grand- father was a nephew of the celebrated Revolu- tionary General, Anthony Wayne; on his mother's side he is partly of German extraction. llis younger years were passed on a farm, attending the district school during the winter months. In 1859 and 1860, he was a student in the academy at Jamestown, New York, in company with his brother, Samuel T. Allen, and during the winter fionths he taught school with aptitude and excellent success. In. 1862, he entered the office of Judge Schofield & Brown, with whom he engaged in the study of law, and was admitted to prac- tice at the bar, in 1865. Shortly thereafter he was nomi -; nated by the Republican party and elected to the office of . District Attorney, which position lic held for three-years. In ISGS, an ocular affection compelled him to relinquish the legal profession. Ile shortly afterwards embarked in the lumber and petroleum business, and has been very successful.
Senator of the Tenth District, and was elected in the fall of that year. During the session of IS74, he served on the Constitutional Reform, and other important Committecs.
ULLEN, WILLIAM JAMES, Philanthropist, and Prison Agent of the State of Pennsylvania, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May 20th, 1805, and is the only child of Charles and Mary Mul- len. When William was nine years old his father became disabled-having been wounded in the War of 1812-and could no longer support his family. Thereupon, the mother took her son to Philadelphia, where a situation was procured for him as errand boy. While engaged in this vocation, a permanent impression was pro- duced upon his character by a false accusation, the conse- quent cruel treatment, and the difficulty in establishing his innocence, in which, however, he succeeded at last, and most triumphantly. A providential circumstance revealed the true culprit-and but for this, he might have been im- prisoned., To this incident he attributes much of his sym- pathy for prisoners wrongfully incarcerated, and also for the African; slaves, for whose freedom he so industriously labored while slavery existed. At the age of sixteen, he was apprenticed toja, jeweler named Bruno, in whose em- ploy he soon -distinguished himself by his superior work- manship. When he attained his majority, he commenced business >on his own account as a manufacturer of jewelry. At an early period.of his business career he invented a new method of manufacturing gold watch dials, which proved eminently successful, and brought him a handsome income. In 1827, he began his public career by taking an important part in the measures which subsequently led to the reform of the State Constitution by the abolition of life offices. Ile was elected the President of the first County Conven- tion-this was hekl in Philadelphia; and was chosen Secre- tary of the first State Convention, which assembled at Harrisburg, in 1832. He was also the prime mover in a scheme for the erection of a monument to Washington, the corner stone of which was laid February 22d, 1833, in Washington Square; the money then collected has been New York, and established his business on a large scale in that city. While residing there he was a member and director of the American Institute, and also of the Mecha- nies' Institute; and both these organizations awarded him a gold medal for his superior mechanical skill and inven- tions. His business standing was excellent, his affairs pros- perous, and his charities many in number. In 1837, he took quite a leading part in the liberation of the Canadian patriot, Mckenzie. This was his first effort to secure free- dom for a prisoner unjustly incarcerated, and it was success- ful; he had Mckenzie released from the " Tombs." His
ECIITEL, OLIVER PERRY, Lawyer, and Sena- tor from the Tenth Senatorial District of Penn- sylvania, was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, January 31st, 1842, and when six years of age removed with his parents to Schuyl- kill county, where he has ever since resided. lle received his preliminary education in the common schools of the district, and completed it in Muhlenberg Col- lege, Allentown, Pennsylvania. At the age of seventeen years he commenced teaching, and was so occupied for a considerable period in various localities, among others, at the Arcadian Institute in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county, in 1861; he was subsequently the Principal of various. since invested for that purpose. In 1834, he removed to academies. lle afterwards selected Hon. Francis W. Hughes of Pottsville as his preceptor, and studied law in his office until his admission to the bar, May 10th, 1866. He began the practice of his profession in Pottsville, and soon won success, his able and earnest efforts in behalf of his clients being rewarded by a constantly increasing and remunerative patronage. He was tendered by his fellow- citizens the nomination for the office of District Attorney, but declined the same, preferring to preserve his indepen- dence as a private counsellor at law to the emoluments arising from this publie position. In 1873, however, he yielded to the pressure, became the Democratic nominee for | business in New York was broken up in the great financial
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crisis of 1837-'38, and, in 1840, he returned to Philadelphia, | where he resumed the manufacture of gold dials for watches. Ilis exertions on behalf of the suffering were zealously con- tinned, and in a few years began to take a definite shape, a lasting form, and an extended usefulness. The old Dis- trict of Moyamensing-now a part of the consolidated eity of Philadelphia-was the scene of his labors. He began by relieving the immediate wants of the poor by donations at his own expense, and also by the establishment of a Dis- pensary, which has since given relief to over 100,000 per- sons. Ile obtained the use of a deserted church, which he converted into a lodging-house by night and workshop by day ; thus experimenting upon the ability of the indigent, if properly aided, to support themselves wholly or in part. The enterprise was a success, and at the end of three months, during which time hundreds of persons had been assisted, the expenses exceeded the earnings only about '$30. This satisfactory result led, through his continued exertions, to the founding of the Philadelphia Society for the Employ- ment and Instruction of the Poor, of which he served as President for a period of more than seven years. The House of Industry, erected by this society; in 1848, was used the same year as a cholera hospital ; and, In: 1862; for the sick and wounded soldiers of the" Army of the Potomac. This institution has afforded relief to more than i 50,000 poor persons. In this building were found the offices of the Moyamensing Dispensary and Soup Society, of which he was for several years the President About this time; he added to his own business the profession of Dentistry, attending a course of medical lectures at the Pennsylvania College of Medicine. The importance of this fact in the record of his life lies in its results. His professional at- tainments led him to become the founder of the Female Medical College of Philadelphia, the first of its kind ever established. The Dean of the Faculty, Dr. McCloskey, in his address at the opening of the institution, in 1850, publicly acknowledged " his strenuous exertions, indomit- able perseverance, and liberal donations." He was the first President of the College, and held that position for three years. He also founded the first Lying.in Hospital ; this was in connection with the college, and was located at 239 Arch street. He bad the honor of conferring the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon the first class of ladies who ever graduated in a regularly constituted Woman's Medical College ; the institution having been chartered by the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania in 1850. IIe next-turned his at- tention to the great work of his life, the visiting of the prisoner in his cell, thus becoming an active member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Pub- lie Prisons, His eminent usefulness attracted much atten- tion, and the Judges of the Criminal Court were consulted as to the expediency of creating for him the office of Prison Agent. In 1854, he retired from business to accept this post, and in the space of the twenty years he has held it, his official interference has resulted in the liberation of over
35,000 persons who had been wrongfully or unnecessarily incarcerated. This was done at a saving to the tax-payers of the city of Philadelphia of the sum of $352,000, which would have been expended for their maintenance in prison, prior to the ignoring of their cases, had they been de- tained in ward to be regularly disposed of by the courts. In a letter-dated March 14th, 1874, emanating from the Court of Quarter Sessions, written by Judge Peirce to the Chairman of the Finance Committee of City Councils and endorsed by Judges Allison, Ludlow, Finletter and Paxson -Judge Peirce states that he has " known William J. Mullen more than thirty years; and no gentleman is en- titled to greater confidence for humanity, integrity, industry and capacity for the work in which he is engaged as Prison Agent than he ; " and the judges unite in saying that "in his particular work he is without a peer-his sympathies for the poor and unfortunate, his earnest Christian char- acter, and: his untiring devotion to the distressed prisoners entitle 'him to the sympathy and approbation of every right- minded inan." He still acts as Prison Agent; and each Governor, in succession for twenty years past, has renewed his appointment to visit the various prisons of the State. Previous to his being commissioned by the Executive au- thority, he had been . also appointed thereto, by both the Prison Society and the Inspectors of the County Prison. There is another class of works of benevolence in which he is engaged, which, however, are less likely to attract the notice of the public ; and these are the charities of private life. The helping of the ruined merchant, the befriending of the unfortunate widow,.the education of a poor boy for the ministry, the liousing of a homeless outcast, who after- wards worked hard, studied, was admitted to the bar, rose to eminence, and was elected to Congress. During his mercantile life he had a clerk who left him to open a rival establishment ; he failed, and went down at a frightful pace through intemperance. But he was rescued by William J. Mullen, who was appointed his guardian by the Court. For many years he has been an earnest advocate of the temperance cause. In 1829, he organized the first County Total Abstinence Society in the State. He also organized, among other enterprizes, a Temperance School, into which he gathered the young lads of the District of Moyamensing, and had them taught carefully prepared lessons upon the subject, principally Bible selections; thus making war, at its very source, upon the great evil which has produced most of the misery that he has striven to alleviate. To spe- cify the amount of good he has accomplished, or all the noble charities in which he has been engaged during his long and eventful career, would far exceed the limits here assigned. It may be stated, however, that he has been, and still is, a member of forty-four organizations of a useful or benevolent character, chief officer of sixteen, and founder of seven. Ile is a good public speaker, and it is said that he has spoken upwards of five hundred times in a single year in addressing public assemblies upon the subject of temper-
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Milliand Mullen
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ance and works of benevolence. The chief strength of his | completed his legal course, and was admitted to the bar. speeches consists in their terseness, simplicity, and truth- fulness, which seldom fail to convince; it is this, in con- nection with the purity of his character and purpose, that constitutes his true greatness, He has been a communicant member of the Protestant Episcopal Church since 1836, and is a prominent vestryman in the Church of the Evangelists, in the immediate neighborhood of the House of Industry, above referred to. During the War of the Rebellion he served as Chaplain in Company " E," 3d Regiment Reserve Brigade. Ile was married, in 1326, to Sarah Ann, daughter of Jeffrey and Agnes Chew of Philadelphia. She brought him twelve children, eight sons and four daughters; seven of these yet survive. His eldest son, Charles, entered the army, and after serving for two years and nine months as a member of Company " A," Sist Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, fell at the battle of the Wilderness, May 12th, 1864. Ile left a wife and two children. His younger bro- ther, Albert, also entered the army, and was a Lieutentant in the 192d Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers; he ren- dered good service at Chambersburg and other places, and remained with his regiment until the close of the war. The life-size statue of William J. Mullen, as recently exhibited in Philadelphia, was made in Rome by the eminent sculptor, A. E. Harnish, and is carved from a solid block of pure white marble. The editor of the Evening Bulletin, in an article alluding to this statue, states that " he has never seen a better portrait statue than this. Though the marble may give way to the ravages of time, to which insatiate power all things on earth must yield, yet the name and character, and the many good deeds of the original of the copy, will endure in imperishable record. It will be said of him, in the lan- guage of Shakespeare :
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' His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world-this was a man,' "
lle commenced the practice of his profession in Westchester, and so continued until 1849, when he went abroad, and remained in Europe about three years, during which time he travelled extensively through the three divisions of Great Britain, and all over the Continent, besides making the tour of Egypt, going up the Nile; journeying through the Holy Land as far as Jerusalem, visiting Constantinople, etc. Ile also resided in Berlin for three months, and during this period entered the university there as a student. On his re- turn home he re-commenced the practice of the law, and so continued until 1860. Ilis cases were principally confined to the Chester and Delaware county courts, and also to the Supreme Court of the State. During these years he was engaged on the defence in several cases of homicide, which he managed with great ability and success; one case in par- ticular may be mentioned, where he succeeded in securing a new trial for a person convicted of murder in the first de- gree in a poisoning case, and a verdict of murder in the second degree. During the War of the Rebellion, just prior to the battle of Antietam, and during the first invasion of Pennsylvania, he raised a company for the emergency, of which he was Captain, and remained in the field until the enemy left the State. Again, in 1863, during the period of the second invasion, he raised another company, and pro- ceeded to Harrisburg, where a regiment of " Emergency Men " was organized under the command of Colonel Haw- ley, and of it he was elected Major. For a time they were stationed at Altoona, and thence were ordered to the neighborhood of Bedford Springs. After guarding the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad for a considerable period, they were ordered to encamp at Loudon, and at the expiration of about three months' service the regiment was disbanded. His political faith is Republican, and he has made a large number of political speeches, contributing materially to the success of the party, but he has never held any office. He is an able speaker, his language being highly rhetorical and elegant, and withal logical and to the point. He has de- livercd many lectures before various literary societies ; and has also been of late solicited to address agricultural and historical assemblies, but has been compelled to decline on the score of ill-health. He is an author of note, having, in 1862, published a book of Miscellanies, being sketches of men and travels, 300 pp. 12mo., which was most favor- ably received, eliciting encomiums not only from the public press, but from such able scholars and classic writers as the late Edward Everett and Nathaniel P. Willis. This was followed, six years later, by Poems, a volume of 150 pp. 12mo., which, by those capable of judging, are characterized as " real gems," as bearing the " stamp of poetic genius," and as having a "vein of charming melody" running through every piece. In the present year (1874), he has given to the public The Fox Chase, the scene of which is laid on the battle-ground of Brandywine, up that stream,
VERIIART, JAMES BOWEN, Lawyer, and Author, was born in West Whiteland township, near Westchester, Chester county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of William E. and Hannah (Mat- lack), and grandson of James Everhart, who at the age of eighteen years enlisted in the Ameri- can Army during the Revolutionary War. He is of Ger- man descent on his father's side, and his mother's people were originally from England. llis early education was acquired in A. Bolmar's celebrated academy in Westchester; he subsequently entered Princeton College, New Jersey, whence he graduated, in 1842. After leaving college, he entered the office of J. J. Lewis, of Westchester, with whom he studied law about one year, and then repaired to Har- vard University, remaining at this institution nine months; afterwards he placed himself under the preceporship of the Iate William M. Meredith of Philadelphia, with whom he lalong its hills and valleys. It is an animated description
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of a sport celebrated in England and well domesticated and repeated in a region peopled by descendants of British families. Personally, he is an amiable and sociable gentle- man, gifted with rare conversational powers, and much quiet humor. Ile is unmarried.
UILFORD, SIMEON, Civil Engineer, and Iron Master, was born near Northampton, in IIamp- shire county, Massachusetts, in the year ISor. He was the youngest son of Simeon Guilford, Senior, who had served in the Revolutionary army for six years, and after its close had been en- gaged in the vocation of a teacher. Simeon, the younger, when he reached the age of fourtecn, realized the necessity of assisting his parents ; he soon had the ability, and availed himself thereof to make their declining years happy. Ilis mother had numbered eighty-three years at her death, and his father reached the patriarchal age of ninety-three. Pre- vious io 1823, he was engaged as Engineer on the Erie Canal, then in process of construction, but at this date hc went to Pennsylvania and became principal assistant to Canvas White, the Chief Engineer of the Union Canal. By a happy accident he discovered a superior route to that already selected, which greatly diminished the cost of the work by affording a better water supply, and by diminishing the waste of water or leakage occasioned by the interstitial character of the limestone region. Ile was also able to pro- vide a superior hydraulic cement, manufactured from an argillaceous limestone which he had discovered on the line of the work, and which was used on the same, saving to the company many thousands of dollars. In consequence of this important service rendered the company, he was pre- sented by them with, a copy of Rees' Cyclopedia, 46 vols. 4to, and a complimentary resolution. In 1827, he accepted the appointment of principal Engineer in the service of the State, tendered him by the Board of Canal Commissioners. Ilis first work, in this connection, was to survey the route for a canal from Clark's Ferry, on the Susquehanna, to Northumberland. In the short space embraced between May 31st and June 26th, 1827, he surveyed both sides of the river, locating, plotting, estimating and reporting seventy- nine miles of canal, besides side-levels, alterations, ctc., amounting to fifteen miles more, and also determining the locality of a dam of 2200 feet across the river near Sunbury, a bridge of the same dimensions at Duncan's Island, and a dam and inlet lock at the mouth of Penn's Creek at Selins. grove. Before leaving the line he was tendered by the citizens and contractors a public dinner, at which he was presented with a pair of silver pitchers with an appropriate inscription. On various occasions he was called upon to make surveys, locate, and render estimates of proposed im- provements ; among these the Conestoga river, the Codoves creek, locks and dams; a similar work on the Rancocas
creek, New Jersey, and the Sandy and Beaver canal and reservoirs, Ohio. Between 1825 and 1832, he discovered the celebrated Chestnut Hill iron ore on the Greider farm, near Columbia, Pennsylvania, which he owned for some years; also three other fine deposits of hematite ore in Lebanon county, now being worked, and also others of less importance. In 1830-'31, in partnership with the late Dr. George N. Eckert, he erected, in the Swatara Valley, in Schuylkill county, the " Swatara Furnace," for the manu- facture of iron by charcoal ; and here pig-iron, besides castings -- such as stoves, water pipes, etc .- were produced in considerable quantities, and this establishment remained in operation for twenty two years. In 1853, for sundry good reasons, the partnership was terminated and the works abandoned. In 1855, in connection with others, he started a blast furnace at Lebanon, using anthracite coal as a fuel, and the " Cornwall ore." This was known as the " Dud- ley Furnace," and is now operated by the heirs of Robert WV. Coleman, and termed the " Donoghmore Furnace." Since he retired from the iron business he has given his attention to his Illinois properties. In 1843, he received the nomination of the Whig party as Canal Commissioner, but failed to be elected. Ile was married, May, 1830, to Catherine E. Doll, a nicce of Judge Andrew Graff of Lan- caster, and has three children living : Dr. W. M. Guilford, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Dr. S. H. Guilford, dentist, of Philadelphia; and Robert E. Guilford, merchant, Shelby- ville, Illinois. ITis wife died October 8th, 1858.
AUFMAN, WILLIAM M., Iron Manufacturer, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, July 24th, 1834, and is the son of John G. Kaufman, of Leesport, who is also extensively engaged in the same business. Ile was educated in various schools, including Buckman's Academy at Cler- mont, continuing a pupil after it was removed to White HIall, near Bristol, and he completed his studies at the Seminary in Norristown, Pennsylvania, presided over by the Rev. Samuel Aaron. At the age of fifteen he left school, and went into the dry-goods business with Darrah & Jones at Leesport, Berks county, with whom he remained three years, and then obtained a position as clerk at Mose- lem and Leesport Furnaces, where he continued for four years. When he was twenty-two years old he engaged in the iron business, on his own account, at the Mount Penn Furnace, in Berks county, which he conducted for six years. IIe next removed to Sheridan, Lebanon county, and began the manufacture of pig-iron at the furnace, in February, 1863, this establishment having commenced operations in September, 1862; there he continues to re- side. For seven years he was a Director of the Farmers' Bank of Reading; and was one of the corporators of the Jamestown Bank in Lebanon county when it organized, in
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