The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 2

Author: Robson, Charles. 4n; Galaxy Publishing Company. 4n
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Philadelphia : Galaxy Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 894

USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 2

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EAFIE, JACOB G., Marine Engine and Ship Builder, was born on Christmas day, 1815, in Monmouth county, New Jersey ; his parents being John G. and Margaret (Garrabrant) Neafie. While he was quite young, his family removed from New Jersey to New York city, where his father died, in 1834. Ilis education was obtained at a common school in New York, and, in 1831, when sixteen years of age, he left school and commenced to learn the trade of a blacksmith and machinist. He had shown from an early age a strongly-marked mechanical bias, which, as he grew older, displayed itself in the making of models and patterns. This circumstance was the means of determining the special direction for his talents, and of inducing him to select Philadelphia as his future field of labor. In 1832, while he was on a holiday visit at Barnegat, on the New Jersey coast, the steamboat " Norfolk," owned by Thomas Ilalloway, marine engine builder, of Philadelphia, put into the inlet at that place. The owner of the boat was him- self on board, and while there some of the models made by Jacob G. Neafie were shown to him. Ile was attracted by the ingenuity and talent which they displayed, and offered the young machinist a position in his engine works in Phila- delphia. The offer was accepted, and he left with his new employer on board the " Norfolk," which then completed her voyage to New York, and in due course returned to Philadelphia. Ilis indentures were made out, and he com- menced his apprenticeship. IIis great natural aptitude for the trade enabled him to master its details very rapidly, and within a short time he became foreman of the establishment. Ile served with this employer until attaining his majority, in December, 1836. IIe then left this employment, and for two years worked as a journeyman in other machine shops. In 1838, he started in business on his own account, by renting a workshop on the corner of Germantown road and Second street. It was immediately after the disastrous commercial panic of 1837, and every kind of business was in a most prostrated condition. Ile persevered, however, taking any sort of mechanical work which he could get, and continued steadily on until his trade had so increased as to require larger accommodation. In 1844, he took a lease of a portion of the premises now occupied by his firm on Beach street, and removed there, forming a partnership with Thomas Reaney and William Smith, under the style of Reaney, Neafie & Co. The firm continued thus until 1861. In 1845, Captain Jolmn P. Levy was admitted into the copartnership, as financial partner, the style remaining the same. In 1849, the firm built the engines for several Government ships engaged in the Mexican War, and, in 1850 and 1851, when the discovery of gold in California directed attention so largely to that point, did an extensive trade in manufacturing stamping mills, and other machinery for separating the gold from the ore. A large business has also been developed by the firm in propeller wheels for steamships, for which they have a patent. This department

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of the business has been in a particular manner extended in | majority. In 1851, he was selected as the Compromise the West, there being a great demand for these propellers for the steamships on the Western Lakes. The trade was secured by J. G. Neafie while on a pleasure tour through the Western States. It may here be mentioned that the first propeller tugboat built in America was constructed by him. The firm have made the machinery for several Government vessels, among others, for the sloops of war " Lancaster " and " Pawnee," and in the merchant service their name as engine builders is universally known. The steamships " Havanna" and "Oriental," of the New York and Hla- vanna trade, may be mentioned, among very many others, as supplied with engines by this firm. The number of com- plete engines built by them is now over 650. In 1861, Thomas Reaney retired from the firm, and the style became Nenfie & Levy. Captain Levy died in 1868. Among the noteworthy men of Pennsylvania Jacob G. Neafie holds a conspicuous place; not only as one of its most successful men, and as the head of a large house engaged in a most important industry of which he has been the pioneer, but also for his personal worth and benevolence.

LIFER, ELI, Manufacturer, and Ex-Secretary of the Commonwealth, was born in Coventry town- ship, Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1818. 1Ie was left an orphan at an early age without fortune or influential friends, dependent only on his own energics. In 1834, he was apprenticed to the hatting trade in Lewisburg, and served his time, afterwards continuing as a journeyman in the same calling for three years. ITis leisure hours were devoted to reading and study, and he acquired a fair amount of knowledge, although pre- viously deficient in even the rudiments of an English edu- cation. In 1841, he removed to Northumberland, Pennsyl- vania, and engaged in the boat building business. In 1845, he returned to Lewisburg, and in partnership with William Frick established the same business on a larger scale, sub- sequently adding the manufacture of lumber. The firm of Frick & Slifer became well known in commercial circles, gave employment to over 100 men, and was quite success- ful, so much so that after some years Eli Slifer retired with a reasonable competency. Subsequently, and with several others, he became interested in a foundry and machine shop for the manufacture of agricultural implements, in which business he is still engaged. In 1848, he first participated in political matters as a leader, and displayed a high mea- sure of ability in the public discussions in favor of the prin- ciples and candidates of the Whig party. In 1849, he was unanimously nominated as the Whig candidate for the Le- gislature in the district now composed of Union, Snyder and Juniata counties, and was elected by a decided ma- jority. His Legislative career was so heartily approved that he was re- nominated and re-elected by an overwhelming

candidate for the Senate, cach county in the Senatorial district having put forth a candidate. He was elected with- out opposition, and that in a district which was successfully contested by the Democratic party the same year for im- portant offices, a fact indicating the universal confidence reposed in him by the people of all political faiths. In 1855, he was elected State Treasurer, but retired in 1856, his party being in the minority. In 1859, the first Legislature in which the Republicans predominated, he was again elected State Treasurer, and re-elected in 1860. In January, 1861, four months prior to the close of his term, he resigned to accept the important office of Secretary of the Common- wealth, under Governor Curtin, which position he held during the war, and to the close of the Governor's second term, in 1867, when he retired with his health irretrievably shattered, and has since sought rest. He passed nearly a year in Europe, going on a Government vessel by invita- tion of the National authorities. The services he rendered his State during the Rebellion were excessively arduous, exacting and untiring, and all were performed with notable unselfishness and a patriotic devotion to the public weal. Since his retirement he has not been able to participate actively in political matters, although, in the fall of 1872, lie delivered an address to his neighbors in defence of Libe- ral Republican principles. IIe is a man of rare unobtru- siveness, never seeking office, and only accepting the posi- tions he has filled when tendered to him. He was married, in 1840, to Catharine Frick, of Northumberland.

(CLELLAN, GEORGE, A. M., M. D., Physician and Surgeon, was born in Woodstock, Windham county, Connecticut, December 22d, 1796. IIe was of Gaelic lineage on his father's side, and of Anglo-Saxon on the maternal. Ilis primary studies were pursued at the academy in his native township, under the patronage of his father, and there he made such progress as to be fully prepared to enter Yale College when but fourteen years of age. After the usual curriculum of four years in that institution he graduated therefrom, in 1815, with distinguished honor. Soon after this event he applied himself to the study of medicine, and selected as his preceptor Dr. Thomas Hubbard, of Pomfret, Connecticut, one of the most distinguished surgeons of that State, and subsequently Professor of Surgery in the Medical College of New Haven. Ile remained with him one year, and, in 1817, went to Philadelphia, and became the private pupil of the late Dr. John Syng Dorsey, the nephew and as. soeinte of the celebrated Dr. Physick, and at that time Pro- fessor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania, in which school-then the only medical college in Philadel- phia-he matriculated. After two years of study, and at- tendance upon the regular courses of lectures delivered in

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the University, he graduated in 1819, the subject of his thesis being "Tying of Arteries," which was especially worthy of commendation, and deemed by them deserving of publication. He entered at once upon the practice of his profession in the city of his adoption, paying particular attention to surgical cases, and was soon rewarded by a very large and lucrative patronage. He also attained con- siderable celebrity as a lecturer and teacher of Anatomy and Surgery. He was one of the founders of the Jefferson Medical College. The brilliancy of his lectures, his great surgical skill, and the remarkable success of his operations spread his fame both at home and abroad. Ile contributed to the medical press of the day various original medico- chirurgical reports, and was one of the conductors of the American Medical Reviews and Journal. He was a most peculiar man ; but his peculiarities were the guilelessness, unceremoniousness, and unsuspiciousness of a child of genius, perpetually burning with a chirurgical zeal. As he continued to the day of his death in the laborious duties of an immense practice, he was also a persevering and enthu- siastic student, leaving behind him an unfinished MS. on the Principles and Practice of Surgery, which was after- wards published by his son. He was married, in 1821 ; and among his children are the eminent surgeon, Dr. John II. B. McClellan, his eldest, and George B. McClellan, late Major-General, United States Army, and General-in-Chief of the army of the Potomac. IIe died, May Sth, 1847, after a short illness.

UCKENBACH, CHIARLES AUGUSTUS, Bank President, was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 230, 1806, and is a son of the late Samuel Luckenbach of that borough. The latter was a blacksmith by trade, and amassed consider- able property. Ile gave his son a good German education, in Bethlehem, and subsequently an English course of study in Nazareth Hall. After a time he worked with his father, for two years in his shop, which doubtless aided to establish his fine physique. As there was no hat factory in the town, he established one, and it became a success. In 1830, he purchased the Old Moravian Grist Mill, and operated it for sixteen years, when he disposed of it to his kinsman, Jacob Luckenbach, whose sons still use it. Remaining unemployed a year, he purchased, in IS47-when the Moravian Society disposed of the property belonging to the congregation-1400 acres, paying therefor at the rate of $75 per acre. Among these was the tract termed the " Plantation annexed to the Crown Inn," on the south side of the Lehigh river, now in the occupancy of the Lehigh Zinc Company ; the Bethlehem Rolling Mill, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. ITis ancestor, Jolin Luckenbach, was the Moravian Society's tenant in April 1779; and his son, John Adam, succeeded to it in 1786. The latter retained it until 1845, when his son, John David,

received it, and held it until his relative and Charles A. Luckenbach purchased it in 1847. He laid his purchase out into town lots, and the three towns of Augusta, Netherill, and Bethlehem South occupied the ground ; but within a few years they have been consolidated, and form the borough of South Bethlehem. He was a member of the Legislature in 1848 and 1849, and opposed the Banking Bill. At the close of his term, in 1850, he became interested in iron manufacture, and founded the Hockenduaqua Works, which are the property of the Thomas Iron Com- pany. ire was the President of the corporation from its inception until 1860; they have proved very successful. Ilis position as a Director of the old Easton Bank, for many years, induced him to establish, with the aid of others, the First National Bank of Bethlehem; and he was chosen President, which position he still retains. Ile took an active part in founding the Gas Works; and was the first Burgess when the borough was incorporated. His political creed was Democratic, until the War of the Rebellion broke out, when he, like so many others, became a firm and con- sistent Republican. In religious belief, he is an original Moravian, and for a long series of years was President of the Board of Trustees of the congregation. Commanding and robust in person, he enjoys his hereditary vigor, and promises years of active usefulness. Ile was married, in 1830, to Matilda Jacobson, of New York, and has four children. ITis son James S., is teller in the First National Bank.

USIIONG, JACOB, Banker, was born in Lancas- ter county, Pennsylvania, October 28th, 1823. IIe is the son of Philip Bushong. He was edu- cated in Lancaster county, and, after completing his scholastic course, became assistant in a store, where he remained for some time. On abandon- ing that occupation, he found employment in his father's distillery, where he worked at the business till 1841. In that year he removed to Reading, where he continued in the same business, in partnership with his father. The operations of the firm were large and profitable, continuing so till the law, regulating the distillation of spirits, went into force. Its enactments were so stringent, that he found himself under the necessity of abandoning the manufacture, or of defrauding the government. As an honest man, he chose the former alternative and withdrew from the dis- tillery. In 1867, he formed a partnership with his brother, in the banking business, with the style of Bushong Bros., in Reading, sharing to-day, with his partner, in all the esteem and confidence which the large transactions, perfect probity, and fair dealing of that widely known establishment have so justly won from the community in which it is located. In politics, he is a Democrat, and, though strongly opposed to the war with the South, was a firm and steady supporter of the Union cause, to which he contributed liberally by his

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influence and wealth during its hour of trial, becoming what was termed a War Democrat. Ilis business career has been one of general prosperity, obtaining for him a position due to his abilities and the uniform uprightness of his character. He has been twice married ; the first time, in 1850, to Anna Markley, of Franklin county, by whom he has two children living, one of them, Hubert, being already engaged in the furnace business. llis second marriage was with Sarah Markley, a sister of his first wife, and by that union he has one child.

DWARDS, HION. SAMUEL, Lawyer, was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, March 12th, 1785. Ile was of English descent, and, with the exception of a brief period spent in a boarding school, was educated in the ordinary schools of his native country. Ilaving read law in Chester, he was admitted to the bar in 1806. IIe enlisted in the Milllin Guards, early in 1814, and served to the close of the Mexican war, being stationed at Camp Dupont. . Ile was elected to represent Delaware county in the Pennsylvania Legislature in the autumn of 1814, and was re-elected the following year. Ile represented his district in' Congress from 1818 to 1826. lle married Mary. A., daughter of Edward and Mary Engle, July 20th, 1824, and devoted the best energies of his life to the legal profession. .. In politics, he was originally a Federalist, but became a Democrat in Jackson's time, and was an intimate personal friend and colleague of James Buchanan. IIe was for many years.a Director of the old Delaware County Bank, and. also of the Delaware Mutual Insurance Company. Ile was President of many organizations, and held numerous positions of trust and honor. Ile was a public spirited and active man, and was an active promoter of Chester's interests. Ilis death left a gap in a large circle of friends.

which he always did, solely in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience. This conscientiousness and de- termination of character also pervaded his business life, and he was known as a man generally safe and correct in his judgment. IIe was never without friends, and was always liberal, benevolent, and charitable in his private life. Ile was married, firstly, to Miss Gray, and secondly, to Miss Meyers, both of Lancaster. Ey his first wife, he was the father of llenry and Jacob Bushong, the well known bankers of Reading.

IBBERD, JOIIN, Lawyer, was born near where Media now stands, in Delaware county, Pennsyl- vania, May 31st, 1821. lle is the only son of Thomas and Margaret Hibberd, whose only daughter died in Chester, October 19th, 1870. Ilis ancestors were members of the Society of Friends, and his mother, born in 1790, was the daughter of John and Amelia Powell, who died in 1819. John Powell was 'a man of decision, talent and culture, and, after attain- ing his majority, had obtained, by his own efforts, what was considered in his day a good education ; he carefully trained and instructed his daughter, who was a promising child, and she developed into a woman of remarkable qualities. Ilis paternal grandfather, Jacob Hibberd, who died in 1827, was a man of great benevolence and excellence of character, and exercised considerable influence in his neighborhood ; he had wedded Sarah Dutton, a descendant of John Dutton, who emigrated from Cheshire, England, in 1682, and settled in Pennsylvania, in order that he might enjoy his religious opinions without restraint. Authentic records indicate that the ancestor of John Dutton came over with William the Norman, and seated himself in Cheshire at the time of the conquest. John Iibberd was mathematically educated, his last instructor having been the late Enoch Lewis, a well known scholar and scientist, then residing in Chester county, Pennsylvania. After leaving school he was engaged for some time in teaching, and, in April, 1845, removed with his parents to Belmont county, Ohio, where he devoted himself assiduously to the study of the law, and in October, 1847, was admitted to practice at the bar of Belmont county. Ilis most interesting 'and notable case there, was one in which a bill in equity had been filed praying for a perpetual injunction against process 'on a judgment. It was a case of long standing, resolutely contested; the greatest vigilance was exercised in the securing of testimony, with strong efforts to impeach and sustain witnesses; the ability and patience with which the numerous facts were brought out excited much comment, and the case afforded an excellent opportunity for the exercise of the power of logical argu- ment. He formed the acquaintance of literary, scientific, and distinguished professional men, and from 1848 to the latter part of 1852, took an active and prominent part in the

USHIONG, PHILIP', Distiller, was born in Leba- non, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, April 14th 1800. Ile was the son of Jacob Bushong, a millwright, who-did all the work for the Cole- mans. lle commenced business by opening a small country store in Lancaster county, which, under his management proved very successful, and he made a considerable amount of money in that way. In 1841, he settled in Reading, where he started a distillery, in which he was again successful; and by good management and strict attention to business, amassed, in a few years, a fortune of over $700,000. In politics, he was somewhat prominent ; but always exhibited an entire independence of character in such matters, never allowing the prevailing custom of endeavoring to please patrons or employers to influence him in casting his vote or expressing his opinions, I political contests of his adopted State. As he became a

Biloy Fub Co. Mabulethua

John Hibbard

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champion of the free soil and anti-slavery movement, when the cause was unpopular in that part of the State, and there were few to defend its principles, much labor devolved upon him in those carly conflicts. Ile has been a member of the Republican party since its organization, and has ever taken a decided interest in the leading political questions of the day. He was a firm supporter of President Lincoln, and in a speech in Philadelphia, in October, 1864, pronounced a "glowing eulogium " on the character of that eminent man and wise ruler. He began to lecture on temperance, in 1849, and has since been identified with that cause. Upon the decease of his parents he permanently located in his native county, and since the early part of 1857, has been en- gaged in desirable legal business at Chester, where he still resides. Ile was elected District Attorney of Delaware county, by a large majority, in the fall of 1860, and during his term of three years, exercised the functions of that office with marked ability and acceptance. Having declined a re-election in 1863, he has since, in addition to his profes- sional duties, devoted much time to a fuller investigation of equity, constitutional and international law, as well as other branches of jurisprudence. Ile has ever condemned the practice of defeating the ends of justice by vexatious litigation, and has never ceased to cultivate those languages contributing to successful legal research, continuing also a chligent student of the English classics, history, biography, oratory, and political ceonomy.

RADFORD, IION. VINCENT LOOCKER- MANS, Lawyer and Railroad President, the eldest son of Hon. Thomas Bradford, LL. D., and Elizabeth Loockermans, his wife, was born in Philadelphia, September 24th, 180S. Ile graduated with the highest honor of his class, as B. A., in the University of Pennsylvania, in July, 1825. Ile immediately commenced the study of law, in the office of his father, and was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia, April 5th, 1829. lle received the degree of M. A., in July, IS2S. Ile married Juliet S. Rey, of the Island of St. Martins, West Indies, July 21st, 1831. Attracted by profit- able real estate investments, and the allurements of western life, in September, 1835, he with his family emigrated to the State of Michigan, and opened a law office in the town of Niles, in South Western Michigan. In the fall of 1837, he was elected a member of the Senate of Michigan. Ilis district was unusually large and populous, containing sixty thousand souls, consisting of all that part of Michigan which lies west of the meridian line of the survey made by the United States, in the former Territory of Michigan, and including " the upper Peninsula of Michigan." He took a prominent part in the legislation of Michigan, during his service in the Senate; among the legislative measures of importance which emanated from him, is the Act entirely abolishing Imprisonment for Debt, which soon became the office thus performed, so prostrated his nervous system, as

model of similar legislation in Pennsylvania and other States of the Union. Ile was active in a legislative adop- tion of the Revised Code of Michigan, in 1838, and in organizing the Penitentiary, University, and internal im- provement systems of the recently admitted State of Michi- gan, respectively. His professional engagements compelled his retirement from the Senate of Michigan, in 1840. During his professional career in Michigan, he held the offices of Master in Chancery and of Circuit Court Commis- sioner. Filial duty summoned him to become the law partner of his invalid father, in Philadelphia, in November, IS43, and the firm proved very successful. It was dissolved, by the death of its senior member, in October, 1851. Previous to that event the junior partner, IIon. Joel Jones, and James F. Johnson, had been placed by a convention of the Democratic party on their judicial ticket, as candi- dates for the Court of Common Pleas of the city and county of Philadelphia. The whole Democratic ticket in Philadel- phia, however, was defeated at the October election of 1851. After the demise of his father he continued to enjoy a large practice, until, in 1859, failing health induced him to accept the position of President of the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Company, unanimously tendered to him by the board of directors. He continued in that office, by succes- sive annual re-elections, until his tenure of it was determined, in January, 1872, by a lease of all the works and property of the company to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 999 years. Prior to that, in behalf of a number of the stockholders of the United Canal & Railroad Companies of New Jersey, who were opposed to the proposed lease, and in association with the Attorney.General of New Jersey, fon. Abraham Browning, Ex-Attorney-General of New Jer- sey, and Ilon. Jeremiah S. Black, Ex-Attorney-General of the United States, he argued before the Chancellor of the State of New Jersey, at Trenton, in September, 1871, a bill pray- ing for an injunction against an execution of said lease. As opening counsel for the complainants, he occupied two days, September 12th and 13th, 1871, in the delivery of a learned, able, and exhaustive argument, which is reported and published in an octavo (pamphlet form) of 180 pages, containing a citation of more than four hundred authorities. The case involved property estimated in value at sixty millions of dollars, besides politico-economical considera- tions of vast and most important moment to the city of Philadelphia, to the State of New Jersey, and to the people of the United States. The Chancellor of New Jersey, in his reported opinion in the case, acknowledged his "special indebtedness to the full and elaborate brief of Mr. Bradford, containing a summary of the law on the subject; " copies of said brief are preserved in the library of the Middle Temple, and of the British Museum, in the city of London, and in the library of the College of France, in the city of Paris, respectively. The extraordinary professional labor, in addition to the regular and ordinary requirements of his

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 2

Author: Robson, Charles. 4n; Galaxy Publishing Company. 4n Publication date: 1874 Publisher: Philadelphia : Galaxy Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 894

Author: Robson, Charles. 4n; Galaxy Publishing Company. 4n
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Philadelphia : Galaxy Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 894