USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 22
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CONKEY, DAVID, Banker and Conveyaneer, was born at Howellville-now Chester Valley Post-Office-Tredyffian township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, May 5th, 1800. IIis parents were of .limited means, and while he was quite young, they removed to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where his early life was passed in assisting his father on the farm. Owing to a lack of public schools in those days,
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his educational advantages were limited, and he only ae- quired the rudiments of learning from the village school. In the spring of 1824, he proceeded to Westchester, seek- ing employment, for now he had his own way to make in the world. At that time the duties of Recorder and Pro- thonotary were performed by Joseph Pierce, who tendered the young stranger a clerkship in his office; which being ac- cepted, he remained during the entire term of three years of this incumbent. He was re-appointed by William Wil- liamson, who next filled the office, and continued during his term, and also for two months of his successor, Darling- ton. ffis sterling integrity, and his business qualifications were now recognized and acknowledged by the many with whom he had been brought in contact. On his retirement from the county office, he left Westchester, and passed about four years on a farm near his birthplace. In 1833, he was solicited by Thomas Williamson to return to West- chester and take charge of his business-that of general banking and conveyancing, the latter branch being the spe- cialty of the firm of Williamson & Weaver. . The latter having died, while the former was desirous of removing to Philadelphia, an arrangement was entered into and David McConkey assumed charge of the concern-then the only banking and conveyancing office in Westchester. Ifis many years of service in the Recorder's and Prothonotary's office fitted him admirably for the new position he occupied. Ile soon began to develop the rare business genius of which he was possessed ; and his ability and success in the man- agement of all financial matters entrusted to his care added greatly to his business, and he soon became the acknow- ledged authority on all matters in that line. Ile erected for himself a handsome marble building for a banking house, superior to any edifice in the town at that time; and subse- quently he built a fine brown-stone dwelling on the same street and opposite his former location, with his banking house adjoining. This message is now occupied by his amiable widow. As a citizen, he was exemplary, although confining himself arduously and strictly to the prosecution of his business. IIe steadily declined all public office, al- though at the same time he was keenly alive to all enter- prises that tended towards public improvements. Ile never took any active part in political matters, although previously to the Rebellion he was a Democrat in predilection ; but when the safety of the Union was imperilled, he was most active in advancing its cause, and aided it very materially by liberal contributions from his means-which had become very ample. fle was married, in 1839, to Catherine W. Jones of Chester Valley, who died in 1851. Ilis second wife and present widow was Sarah Brinton, who belonged to one of the well-known and opulent families of that name and section. IIe died February 27th, 1867, and the press throughout the State eulogized his memory. Ife was in the fullest sense of the term a self-made man, rising from the straitened circumstances of his early life by his own unaided ability, industry, and perseverance.
cFARLAND, DAVID McCONKEY, Banker and Conveyancer, was born in Treddyffrin township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, May 6th, IS39, and is a son of James and Mary (McConkey) McFarland of that section. ITis early years were spent on his parents' firm, and his education was acquired partly at the Frceland Seminary in Perkiomen, Montgomery county, and finally at the academy of W. F. Wyers in the same county. In the autumn of 1855, when in his seventeenth year, he left school and entered the Re- corder's office in Westchester, where he remained about six months, and then became a clerk in the banking house of his maternal unele, David McConkey. Here he acquired those superior business habits which, with close attention to his duties in the office, have resulted in his becoming the . proprietor of the present prosperous and ably managed finan- cial establishment, having on the death of his uncle, Feb- ruary 27th, 1567, succeeded to the business. Personally, he is of medium height, pleasant in conversation and man- ners, in all business dealings prompt to act, paying strict at- tention to all its various details ; making his daily labors his chief study, and avoiding all outside matters, IIe was married, in September, 1866, to Mary Mifflin, daughter of Dr. Abram Rothrock, of McVeytown, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania.
RAHAM, JAMES HUTCHISON, Judge, was born, September 10th, 1809, in West Pens- borough township, Cumberland county, Pennsyl- vania. At Dickinson College, in the same county, he received a careful classical education, graduating in the class of 1827. Upon leaving this institution, he commenced the study of law in the office of Andrew Carothers, a prominent member of the Carlisle bar, and was admitted to practice, January, 1830. The skill he evinced in the management of his first eases, soon placed him among the most promising members of this very able bar, and in 1839, he was appointed by Gover- nor Porter, Deputy Attorney-General of the State, a posi- tion he held for six years with signal credit, as was testified in 1850, by his election as President Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Cumberland, Perry, and Juniata. To this honorable post he was again elected, in 1861, for another period of ten years, so that at his retirement from this office, in 1871, he had passed a score of years upon the bench. ITis decisions were char- acterized by marked ability and were rarely reversed by the Supreme Court upon review-probably as seldom as those of any District Judge in the State. After his retirement he resumed practice at the bar in Carlisle, where he still re- sides, associating with him his son, James Graham, Jr .; he has also actively interested himself in giving instruc- tion in the Law Department of Dickinson College. In 1862, his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of
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LL. D., an honor, in his instance, well-merited by a pro- found acquaintance with forensic literature, and uncommon skill in bringing its principles to bear on the practical ques- tions of life. He has been twice married, his second wife and a large family of children still surviving.
ATTERSON, BURD, Coal Operator and Iron Master, was born in Juniata county, Pennsyl- vania, on the Sth day of July, 1788. Ile was connected, both on the paternal and maternal sides, with a number of influential and well- known Pennsylvania families, among whom may be mentioned the Birds, Yates, Conynghams, Ilubleys, and Peales. He received a thorough classical, scientific, and English education. In his early manhood he was a Professor of the Latin language, at Mt. Airy College, near Philadelphia. He then engaged in manufacturing pursuits, but was, in the year 1826, attracted with other enterprising men to Pottsville, Schuylkill county, where he resided up to the time of his death. To have been a pioneer in the anthracite coal fields, helping to originate and foster a trade so far reaching in its effects, as to be almost at the founda- tion of the wealth of the Eastern sea board, is, in itself, a. high honor; and to this honor Burd Patterson was most emphatically entitled. But he was entitled to far more. lle was in a most wonderful degree the embodiment of enterprise and progress. When he came to Pottsville he had passed the heyday of youth-he was verging on middle life, having attained his thirty-eighth year. His pecuniary resources were not great, but he had large knowledge of men and things; good character, a mature and broad in- tellect, and keen insight into the future. Proud of his country and its resources, he was anxious for their develop- ment. Ile early engaged in the purchase and sale of town lots in Pottsville, and in extending the limits of the then village in the wilderness; indeed, up to the time of his death he was connected with much of its improvement, and in all the leading enterprises for its development. Ilis character and disposition was from his youth upwards essentially that of a leader, and the difficulties which de- terred others from entering into new enterprises, clothed them to him with a spirit of fascination. In Manayunk, now filled to overflowing with manufactories, he had em- barked in the manufacture of wool, and, before his removal to Pottsville, had put up the first spindle that was ever run there. It would be next to impossible to specify all he has done in the development of the coal regions. His mark was made and his influence felt in all directions. Earnest, enthusiastic, untiring, and far-seeing, he, not only by in- dividual enterprise, but by large personal influence and exertion, induced others to aid in the work of development. In the darkest days of the early history of the coal trade, when many of the boklest of the coal operators faltered.
he with undaunted nerve and rational hopefulness made clear the way before them. Understanding and appreciat- ing the necessity of railroad facilities in his work of de- velopment, an earnest and effective labor for their extension and increase was co-extensive with his residence in Potts- ville; through him old lines of road were extended, and by him new lines originated. But he did not confine him- self to Schuylkill county alone. At an early day he com- menced the development of the Shamokin Coal Basin, and was instrumental in introducing therc the men and the capital who carried out his views. The Ashland Coal Field next commanded his attention, and in connection with the Messrs. Brock, of Philadelphia (who were possessed of the requisite capital) he laid out the town of Ashland, and induced the development of a new source of immense wealth. With Dundas, Troutman, Biddle, of Philadelphia, and others, he laid out Mahanoy City. Ile invested largely in the Mahanoy Coal Field himself and induced invest- ments on the part of others. What has been cffected by these several enterprises can be best appreciated by those who, a few years since, gazed upon an almost unbroken wilderness, and who now see the wilderness replaced by thriving towns and villages, mines and manufactories; a country traversed in all directions by rival railroads, and peopled by nearly 100,000 souls. But cqually remarkable with his efforts in coal development has been his connec- tion with the manufacture of iron. Few of those who now mark the long line of furnaces in the Lehigh and Schuyl- kill Valleys, and who with unwondering eyes note the heavy shipments of anthracite coal used in the manufacture of iron, can realize the care and anxiety with which its use for that purpose was introduced. Ilow failure followed failure ; how the timid were in utter despair; and how even the sanguine lost faith and heart before success was plucked out of defeat. To Burd Patterson more than any other one man can that success be attributed. Ile believed, and believed earnestly, that iron could be so manufactured. With him such a belief was tantamount to action. In efforts from which others drew no lesson except that of failure, he saw the glimmer of success. Experiment after experiment shook the belief of nearly all except himself, and his influence in that direction was almost powerless, as, after repeated failures and heavy losses, one friend after another withdrew from the enterprise. Nearly every re- source had failed. Sustained by a few, at last success crowned an effort not to be over-estimated in its influence upon the material prosperity of the country. Iron had been manufactured from anthracite coal. It was upon the occasion of a banquet given in honor of this event, at which ITenry C. Carcy, Thomas Chambers, and others were present, that Nicholas Biddle gave his celebrated toast -- " Pennsylvania ; like her sons rough and rugged- plenty of coal to warm her friends, and plenty of iron to cool her enemies." Burd Patterson was the founder of the Pioneer Furnace at Pottsville (the nucleus of the extensive
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operation of C. M. Atkins), where he met his first success in the manufacture of iron. In connection with Thomas Chambers, and receiving efficient aid from Peter Baldy, he started the " Rough and Ready " Iron Works at Danville. lIe aided in the erection of the Shamokin Furnace, and also in the Furnace at Farnsville. IIe also built the Fur- nace at St. Clair, now owned by James Lanigan. Ile had himself, at an early day, conceived the idea of manufac- turing steel from pig metal, and as a consequence, when the Bessemer process was discovered his mind was pre- pared for it. IIe made earnest efforts for its introduction in this country. Ile published pamphlets containing re- liable information on the subject, which he forwarded to leading iron men and capitalists in this and other States. IIe sent, at his own expense, John Pott, in company with an Englishman, who professed knowledge of English Iron Works, to Great Britain for the purpose of getting full and accurate knowledge of the iron works of England, Scot- land, and Wales. To his mind no enterprise was too grand; and yet there was no detail but had its significance. For a period of forty years his life was devoted to the dis- covery of coal and iron ores, their production and manu- facturc, and the transportation of the same to market. HIeld in the highest estcem by all, his death, which occur- red at Pottsville, on March 31, 1867, was felt as a public loss. At a meeting attended by the most prominent citizens of Pottsville, resolutions were passed in commemoration of his services, and of condolence with his family. Ilis loss was felt, not only in his own home, but by a wide circle throughout the State.
ORTIIINGTON, HON. WILMER, Physician, was born in what is now West Goshen township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 220, 1804. Ilis ancestors emigrated from England about 1700, and settled within the present eorpora- tion limits of Philadelphia, in Byberry township. Subsequently they removed to the forks of the Neshamony creek, and at a later date, one branch of the family settled in Chester county. IIe received a thorough general and elassieal education at the West Chester Academy, on leav- ing which institution he commenced the study of medi- cine, under the preceptorship of Dr. William Darlington, eminent both as a physician, linguist, and naturalist. The medical department of the University of Pennsylvania con- ferred a diploma upon him at his graduation, April, 1825, when he settled in West Chester, and applied himself with assiduity and success to the practice of his profession. At .the outbreak of the Asiatic Cholera in Philadelphia, in 1832, he voluntarily quitted his business to visit that city, and render aid in the overcrowded and pestilential hos- pitals. Some years later, in 1839, having been appointed Lazaretto Physician of the Port of Philadelphia, by Gover-
nor Porter, he again left his increasing practice, and for three years served with untiring fidelity in this onerous post, until failing health warned him to resign. From early life he took a warm interest in political questions, and his readiness and force as a public speaker gave him great influence in the party of his adoption. He was elected, in 1833, to the State Legislature, by a party composed of Whigs and Democrats in opposition to the Anti-Masonic party, then quite powerful in the State. During his term of service lie was one of the Joint Committee appointed to frame a bill for the establishment of Publie Schools on a plan offered by Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia, which passed the Lower llouse with but one dissenting vote. Near the close of the Session of 1833-4, he presented a memorial from the Chester county Academy of Science, asking legislation for a geological survey of the State. On his recommendation a bill was passed by both houses mak- ing an appropriation for this purpose, and authorizing the survey to be made. Professor Rogers was placed in charge of this undertaking so important to the industrial resources of the State; and his Report, in three large volumes, re- mains as a monument of judicious legislation. On the expiration of his first term of office he was offered a renomi- nation, but deelined it, preferring to give liis energies to his professional duties. Though previously a Democrat in principle, he was an ardent advocate of the Union cause in the war of the Rebellion, and attached himself at its outset to the Republican party. In 1863, he was elected by this party, to represent the district composed of Chester and Delaware counties in the State Senate; and again, in 1866, was re-elected to the same office, the district then including Montgomery county. During his senatorial career he was Chairman of the Committees on Education and on the Library, and a member of the Finance Committee. In the caucus of the Republican party, in 1869, he was the unani- mous choice of his colleagues for Speaker of the Senate; he was elected, and discharged the duties of that responsi- ble position to the great satisfaction of both parties. While in the Senate at this time he reported and had passed the bill creating the Soldiers' Orphan Schools, and also the bill creating the Board of Public Charities, both of them most useful and beneficent enactments. In 1869, he was ap- pointed by General Grant, Appraiser of the Port of Phila- delphia, which post he resigned in the fall of the same year to accept a commission as General Agent and Secre- tary of the Board of Public Charities. In the discharge of the duties of this office he has visited every prison, poor house, insane asylum, house of refuge, eleemosynary insti- tution, and local charity in the State, and has prepared and submitted to the Board voluminous and valuable reports, which have been published from time to time. These pur- suits have naturally obliged him to cease the practice of his profession, in which he had achieved unusual distinction, as was evidenced by his election to the Presidency of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and to the Vice-Presi-
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dency of the Alumni Association of the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania. Ile has also been President of the Chester county Medieal Society, and a contributor to the periodical literature of the profession. From his youth he has been an earnest member of the Presbyterian Church, and, since 1834, an elder. On several occasions the Presbytery has elected him Commissioner to represent it in the General Assembly. Ile was married, September 28th, 1826, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Hemphill, a lawyer of West Chester.
OLWELL, STEPHEN, Lawyer and Author, was born in Brooke county, West Virginia, March 25th, 1800. Ilis classical education was ob- tained at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1819. Choosing law as his profession, he studied under the direction of Judge Ilalleck, in Steuben- ville, Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1821, practised seven years in St. Clairsville, Ohio; in 1828, removed to Pittsburg, where he resided as a lawyer, until 1836. The practice of law was not, however, the sphere in which he won his chief honors, though its study doubtless formed an admirable preparation for the investigations in social science, to which his later life was chiefly devoted. In his thirty-sixth year he abandoned law, and became a manu- facturer of iron, first at Weymouth, Atlantic county, New Jersey, and afterwards at Conshohocken, on the Schuylkill. Thenceforward throughout a quarter of a century of vicis- situdes, resulting from the inconstant and often ur.friendly governmental policy toward iron manufacture, he had ample opportunity for studying the interests of productive industry. Before entering upon this pursuit he had visited Europe, and there had studied the art and management of its advanced and varied industries. In addition to con- ducting the affairs of his own business, he was much occu- pied during many years, in the settlement of the large es- tate of his father-in-law, the late Samuel Richards, and the administration of those of several other members of his family. Ile also took a prominent position in various public associations, industrial, mercantile, benevolent, and educational. He was a working member of the American Iron and Steel Association from its origin to the close of his life; of the African Colonization Society for more than twenty years; of the management of the House of Refuge for several years; a Director of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad for nearly twenty years; a Director of the Read- ing and Pennsylvania Central Railroads; a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and the Princeton Theological Seminary for years, also of the Presbyterian General As- sembly, and a member of the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church. During the war he contributed liberally to the Sanitary and Christian Commissions; after- economy he cultivated as a theory of benevolence. His
ward both in money and service to the Freedmen's Aid Society. In service and sacrifice he was one of the earliest, most constant, persistent, and efficient of the men in pri- vate life who gave themselves unreservedly to the salvation of the Union. Ile took an active part in the organization of the Union League; presided at the first formal meeting that led to its establishment; his name headed the list of signers of its constitution, and he was ever a zealous worker in any movement planned by it for aiding the Union cause. These various duties, public and private, gave him that sound practical experience which, woven into the studies of his life, made him the eminent economist he be- came. Ile was ever an earnest student. On commencing his business life, if not even earlier, he began to collect a li- brary of works on social science, political economy, finance, pauperism, organized charities, productive industries, and associate and cognate departments of science. It is now the largest and best to be found in the country, considerably ex- ceeding five thousand volumes, and is valued for the purpose of insurance at $20,000. To this library, and to the books, pamphlets, periodical, and newspaper articles of his own production, he devoted all his leisure. Ile was especially a collector of pamphlets on Political Economy, regarding them as containing the best thoughts of the writers in the most condensed form, and as more likely to be widely and atten- tively read. Naturally, therefore, he put his own publica- tions on social and economic subjects principally into pam- phlet form. He possessed rare judgment, of which an admirable illustration is to be found in his Essay Prelimi- nary to List's Political Economy. Ilis literary industry is exhibited not only in the number, but also in the value of his publications. In addition to his own writings he pub- lished translations, with annotations of such books as by their treatment of important scientific truths bearing upon social welfare, seemed to him to deserve extensive circula- tion. Among these may especially be mentioned the trans- lation of List's National System of Political Economy, and Chastel's Charity of the Primitive Churches. Ile also re- published The Race for Riches, by William Arnot, of Glas- gow, with corroborative preface and notes by himself. His published writings are thirty-two in number, the most im- portant being, The Ways and Means of Payment, an octavo of 644 pages, published in 1859, in which he con- tends against the doctrine that prices are wholly dependent on the supply of money, and maintains that "among the innumerable influences which go to determine the general range of prices, the quantity of money or currency is found to be one of the least effective." Another important work is, Nero Themes for the Protestant Clergy, with Notes on the Literature of Charity, a duodecimo of 384 pages, which quickly ran through two editions, and created a great sensation in the religious world, on account of its boldness and originality. Ile was a deep student of re- ligious literature, and a devoted Christian, Political
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labors of mind and pen, his endeavors, services, and sub- | them under control, does not forf. it their affectionate es- sidies in aid of the establishment and extension of collegiate teem. Fertile with the pen and Quent in the pulpit, he has contributed many valuable articles to theological litera- ture, and has exercised a powerful and excellent influence in the various churches to which he has been attached. education ; his influence, donations, and legacies were all devoted to the propagation of sound doctrine in social duty, and its enforcement in the education not only of scholars, but also of the reading people. For this he gave his library to the University of Pennsylvania, coupling it with a condition requiring the endowment of a chair of social science, waived for the present. He largely assisted in the establishment of the present professorship of Chris- tian Ethics and Apologetics in the Theological Seminary of Princeton. In his sixty-fifth year he was appointed upon the Revenue Commission, authorized by Congress, in June, IS65. For over twelve months he labored so faithfully and incessantly as to impair his health and to end in great measure his life-long pursuits as student and writer. Ile submitted special and most valuable reports on The Influ- ence of Duplication of Taxes upon American Industry ; The Relations of Foreign Trade to Domestic Industry and Internal Revenue ; Iron and Steel ; Wool and Woollens ; Iligh Prices and their Relations with Currency and Taxa- tion ; and Overimportation and Relief. Ile died in Phila- delphia, January 15th, IS71.
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