USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 30
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succeed which was characteristic of him through life; so that as soon as he was admitted to practice at the bar, he rose very rapidly in his profession, and was most successful in the majority of cases confided to his care. When but thirty-one years of age, he was appointed Assistant District
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Attorney with C. Wallace Brooke, which position he ably filled to the satisfaction of the Court and Government, A few years afterwards, he was commissioned President Judge of the Court of General Sessions of the City and County of Philadelphia, which at that time was restricted to cases of misdemeanor. Ile remained on the Bench less than three years, having resigned the office to resume the practice of the law, preferring the active life of an attorney and barrister to the passive condition of a judge. Having determined to remain in the city of Philadelphia, he at once became one of the leading members, and enjoyed a most lucrative practice. But the restlessness of his early years returned, and, in the autumn of 1849, he sailed for San Francisco, then in its infancy. Having safely reached his destination, he opened an office in that city, and the same success which had attended him in his native State was vouchsafed him there, and he was rapidly becoming the leading star of his profession in California when, after a residence of but little over a year, he was stricken by death. Before he left Lancaster, in 1835, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of the late Thomas Clem- son, at that time a prominent citizen of Philadelphia.
OUGLASS, JOIIN WATKINSON, Lawyer, Commissioner of Interna! Revenue, son of Joseph M. and Martha A. Douglass, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 25th, IS27. Ten years subsequently his parents re- moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, where he remained during his youth and early manhood, receiving his educa- tion at the Erie Academy. On the completion of his aca- demic course he entered the law office of the late IIon. James Thompson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, under whom he pursued his legal studies until he was admitted to the bar, at Erie, in 1850. By diligence and perseverance, superior natural abilities and 6 ARVEY, SAMUEL, Merchant and Banker, was born June 16th, 1780, in Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Juniata, After receiving the rudi- ments of a good English education, he engaged himself as clerk at Springton Forge, Chester county, where he remained for several years. At the end of the century, he removed to Philadelphia, and took a clerkship in the importing house of Baker & Co- megys. Ile then established himself as a hardware mer- chant in that city, and for sixteen years conducted that business with marked success. In ISHI, he removed to Germantown, and there. began that active course of pub- lic usefulness which continued without intermission to his death, an event that occurred in 1848. He was the first President of the Bank of Germantown, and held the posi- tion while living. Ile was also the first Burgess of the proficiency in knowledge of the law, he at once attracted attention and soon acquired an extensive and lucrative prac- tice, Ile was also active in local and national politics, and, in September, 1862, was appointed by President Lincoln Collector of Internal Revenue for the 19th District of Penn- sylvania. The office being newly created, and the system adopted being a result of the exigency of the times, the or- ganization and details necessary for the proper prosecution of the important business of the Bureau called for executive ability, originality of conception, and a general knowledge not often met with in those upon whom devolves the ad- ministration of public affairs. When he entered upon the duties of his untried position he possessed the confidence and esteem of the entire community amongst whom he lived, nor did he disappoint the expectations of his friends. So thoroughly did he apply himself to the prosecution of his work, and such energy and ability did he display in the [then young and promising borough, and served in that
management of public affairs, that he attracted the attention of the authorities at Washington. In April, 1869, he was offered, and accepted, the position of Ist Deputy Commis- sioner of Internal Revenue under the Ion. Columbus Delano. The experience acquired while serving as Col- lector he brought to bear upon the difficulties and duties of the new post to which he had been raised, and he aided largely in laying the deep and strong foundation on which the vast Internal Revenue system of this country is built. In 1871, the office of Commissioner becoming vacant, he was appointed Chief of the Department, and so unanimous was public sentiment in favor of his promotion that the endorsement of this act of the President was general, re- gardless of politics or locality. The details of official busi- ness in this department are most complicated and varied, new questions are constantly arising, numberless complaints of the law and its administrators are daily brought before the Commissioner, and unforeseen circumstances require modifications of old or the creation of new rules or regula- tions, Mr. Douglass combines the necessary qualities of mind enabling him to meet these heavy requirements, and has conclusively demonstrated his fitness to control the re- venue system. He has popularized it by correcting abuses ; introduced economical measures lessening greatly the per- centage of cost in the collection of the revenue; reduced the number of his employes from 8000 to 3000, and has greatly advanced the department toward perfection. Ilis integrity and the efficiency of his Bureau have never been questioned, even in the heat of political debate; on the contrary, he has been the subject of frequent eulogy as an exceptionally honest and able official. Originally he was a Democrat, but early uniting with the Republican party he has since been an active, advanced, hard-working mem- ber of that organization. Ile was married, in 1851, to Margaret M. Lyon, daughter of Rev. G. A. Lyon, D. D., of Erie, Pennsylvania.
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office with great acceptance and usefulness for several years. For a considerable period he was also the Treasurer of the Philadelphia AAlmshouse; and in every possible way was thoroughly identified with the improvement and develop. ment of his adopted home. The present Town Hall of Germantown is located on the Harvey property; and a street which bears his name is also designed to perpetuate the public sense of his services. From a very early period he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was long known as a highly useful and acceptable local minister of that denomination. He was in every respect a most estimable and worthy member of the social and re- ligious community.
OARDMAN, HENRY AUGUSTUS, D. D., Clergyman, was born January 9th, ISOS, at Troy, New York State. He was educated at Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut, where he graduated with honors, in 1829, having been selected to pronounce the Valedictory address of his class. In the fall of 1830, he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, and was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of New York, in April, 1$33. On returning to the Seminary, with his license in his pocket, he was met by Dr. Alexander, whose turn it was to preach in the village church on the Sunday follow- ing, who so strongly insisted that he should become his sub- stitute, that he consented and preached his first sermon on that day. During his stay at Princeton various offers of a settlement were made him, from New York and elsewhere, but he declined them all, being resolved not to undertake the pastorate of a church in a large city. But matters fell out differently. In the year last mentioned, the Tenth Presbyterian Church, at Twelfth and Walnut streets, Phila- delphia, was without a pastor, owing to the resignation of the Rev. Dr. MeAuley, and he was invited by the session of that church to temporarily fill the vacancy. Ile com- plied and preached his first sermon there, July 28th, and his second August 18th, 1833. On the 2d of September, the congregation met together and resolved to offer him the pastorate of their church, a charge which he ultimately accepted after inch hesitation and deliberation. He was duly ordained to the ministry, and installed as Pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church on the 8th of November following, and has since presided over the congregation, with a few intermissions occasioned by the state of his health and his temporary absence in Europe. During the long interval of forty years, between that time and the present, many tempting offers of change have been made him-the most remarkable and flattering being his appointment, by the General Assembly of 1853, to the Chair of Pastoral Theology in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, va- cited by the death of the Rev. Dr. Alexander-but he has steadily refused them all, preferring to remain with a con-
gregation to which he has become endeared by his talents and personal character. During his occupation of this pul- pit many events of an important nature have occurred. The schism in the Presbyterian ranks, which was com- mencing at the date of his ordination, continued to augment till it culminated, in. 1838, by a division in the church. But his prudence and piety led him safely through this trial. Ile is an ardent advocate of colonization, and several new congregations have gone forth from the parent stock during his pastorate. lle was a decided opponent of the so-called Oxford Tract movement, and wrote a series of letters on the subject. On Sunday, November 7th, 1858, he delivered a discourse on.the occasion of the quarter-century anniver- sary of his being ordained pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church, in which he ably and eloquently reviewed the events that had transpired during that period, and exhibited (per- haps unconsciously) those'qualities which have won for him the affection of the flock he has so long conducted. This discourse, against his wishes, but at the earnest re- quest of the congregation, was published and obtained wide circulation. On November Sth, 1873, he preached his fortieth anniversary sermon, in which he gave a re- sume of all that had transpired since his quarter-centennial had been pronounced, including the period of the War of the Rebellion, it; fruits, and also of the restoration and union of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church of the North, adding thereto his hopes and expectations of the speedy return of the Southern branch of that communion, which had held aloof from its Northern brethren since the separation at the outbreak of the Civil War. This also was published. His publications have been numerous, Among them may be mentioned, as being some of the principal : " The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, 1839; " " Let- ters to Bishop Donne on the Oxford Tracts, 1841; " " The Prelatical Doctrine of the Apostolical Succession Exa- mined, 1844;" " The Importance of Religion to the Le- gal Profession, 1849; " " The Bible in the Family, 1851 ;" " The Bible in the Counting- House ; a Course of Lectures to Merchants, 1853; " etc., etc.
AWLE, WILLIAM HENRY, Lawyer, and Author, was born in Philadelphia, on the 31st of August, 1823. Hle belongs to one of the oldest and most distinguished families of the city, his paternal ancestor having settled in Phila- delphia in 1686, while his family on the mo- ther's side settled in Maryland as early as 1661. He is the grandson of two of the most celebrated lawyers which the State has produced. One of these, William Rawle, served as United States District Attorney for Pennsylvania, by appointment of President Washington, and was the author of Al Treatise on the Constitution of the United States, and of other works of a high order of merit, while the other
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was the celebrated jurist, Edward Tilghman, whose name is cherished as one of " The Leaders of the Old Bar" in Philadelphia. William Rawle, Jr., his father, also attained eminence in the profession, having served for many years as Reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of l'enn- sylvania. After receiving a thorough preliminary educa- tion, William Henry Rawle entered the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in July, 1841. He then devoted three years to the study of the law in the office of his father, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1844. Inheriting the judicial turn of mind which had been so markedly developed in his ancestors, his career at the bar has been a brilliant success, and his name is fre- quently found in the State reports as counsel in the most important class of cases. Ile has also attained a high rank as a writer on legal subjects. Ilis first work was a Practi- cal Treatise on the Law of Covenants for Title, first pub- lished in Philadelphia, in 1852. Of this work the late Chief Justice Tancy remarked, that it displayed " great in- dustry and research, and sound legal learning." ' A second edition was published in 1854; a third, in Boston, in 1860; and a fourth in 1873. It has secured a place in every com- plete law library, as an indispensable and unquestioned authority, and has often been commended by the ablest jurists of the country in terms as unqualified as those used by Chief Justice Taney. In 1853, he published the third American edition of the celebrated English work on the Law of Contracts, by John William Smith, adding many original notes, which greatly increased its value, and have been commended highly by leading jurists. In 1857, he published the second American edition of Joshua Williams' Law of Real Property, adding valuable notes thereto; and, in 1868, gave to the public a work on Equity in Pennsyl- vania, to which was appended the Registrar's Book of Governor Keith's Court of Chancery, this volume, like its predecessors, taking a high rank. In 1849, he married a daughter of the lon. John Cadwalader, Judge of the United States District Court, who was also a grand-daughter of the venerable llorace Binney. His first wife died in 1861, and, in 1869, he married a daughter of General Thomas Cadwal- ader, of New Jersey. His life has been devoted to the pro- fession of which he has proved such a brilliant ornament, and his career at the bar has been crowned with that large share of success which his profound learning and patient industry have so richly merited.
IIROOP, BENJAMIN IL., M. D., Physician, one of Scranton's earliest and most distinguished residents, was born in Oxford, Chenango county, New York, November 9th, ISHI, to which place his parents removed from Connecticut, in 1800. llis father engaged in mercantile pursuits, and for the times, was successful ; but, in a little settlement only slowly emerging from the wilderness, a fortune was not
easily secured. Although the recipient of but a very ordi- nary school education, the lad combined with great force of character, indomitable energy and perseverance, and, by the proper use of these united qualities, he was soon quali- fied to enter the office of Dr. Packer, where he began his course of medical studies, in 1829. Here, as in the school room, he exhibited those commendable traits of a strong and nervous temperament that had ever distinguished him, and which rarely fail to bring to their possessor success and renown. At the age of twenty-one, he graduated at Fair- fickl Medical College, in New York, and carried with him into the outer world the highest honors of his Alma Mater. In February, 1832, he made his professional début in llonesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, then a small but thriving village at the head of the Delaware & Hudson Canal. Here, aided by a thorough acquaintance with the ,intricacies of his profession, he rose rapidly to the position of leader among his medical brethren, and soon secured a remunerative practice; but, this field being too small to content him, he removed, in 1835, to Oswego, New York, leaving behind him many regretful friends and acquaint- ances who had learned to confide in and esteem him. In 1836, he resided in the city of New York, where he com- peted successfully with its most able and renowned prac- titioners. His residence here gained him many friends and considerable reputation, and, at the expiration of four years, he removed to Providence, Luzerne county, Penn- sylvania; in 1840, a hamlet of a dozen or more buildings. The Lackawanna Iron Company was then in progress of formation, and Mr. Throop's intimate connection and ac- quaintance with the original founders of the city of Scran- ton qualified him admirably to assist this company in various and important ways. llis practice here was large and exacting; but, without in the slightest degree neglect- ing its demands, he took an energetic part in the work of building up the new town, and of opening and developing a country which had too long remained in a state of barren sterility for the want of suitable and vigorous minds. In 1845, he made Scranton proper his place of residence, erecting there the first dwelling outside of the iron com- pany's buildings. At the period of his advent in this vicinity, the population of the whole township of Provi- dence comprised but a few hundred souls, with crude agricultural facilities, and a questionable indulgence in polities as the chief employment of the people. Now, the integral portion of this township is a teeming and flourish- ing city. The Harrison on paper soon metamorphosed itself into bustling Scranton, with its 50,000 inhabitants, - its furnaces, its foundries and machine shops, its hundreds of factories, and its general thrift and industry ; and it is to the tireless energy of Dr. Throop that the major portion of this desirable result must be credited. During the whole of this marvellous 'growth, bounded but by thirty-four years, no Christian or humane development was inaugu- rated without his hearty co-operation and substantial aid;
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and he appeared to surmise intuitively what was requisite to make the locality attractive as a place of residence, or business, or as a point where the tourist might delight to tarry and study the magnitude of nature's hidden wealth, as it was bared by industrious and far-seeing workers. He introduced the first supply of milk, the first livery stable, the first drug store, the first railroad package express, and, finally, established the first post-office. In the building of ro.uds, the opening of fresh coal mines, and the laying out and sale on easy terms of town lots, he took an active part ; and was the originator of the Scranton Gas and Water Company, whose charter he framed and secured. As a physician and surgeon, his superior judgment, great medi- cal and surgical skill, and his coolness and unfailing self- possession under the most trying circumstances, have earned for him the esteem of the most eminent schools and professors. While continuing to hold the positions of Chief Surgeon to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the Delaware & Hudson Railroad and Canal Com- panies, he has retired from the active work of his profession, and now would rather assist his younger brethren to secure a remunerative practice than labor himself in the field where he has gleaned so much profit and fame. Though in principle a firm Episcopalian, he not only assisted the Presbyterian Church to erect its place of worship, but in many ways generously assisted the deserving brethren of other denominations whose tenets were radically opposed to his own. St. Luke's, one of the most beautiful church structures of the State, stands as an enduring witness to his pioncership and liberality in the cause of Christianity, and it was with his money that the first preacher in Scranton was remunerated. Descended from Revolutionary stock, he has always evinced unswerving loyalty and indepen- dence; and, when President Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the Rebellion, he was the first to enroll himself as Surgeon from Luzerne county. On the 23d of April, 1861, he was commissioned Surgeon of the Sth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and while absent from home not one man was lost by disease; a fact which needs no com- ment. He continued with his regiment until after the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, when, troubled by failing health, he returned to his home and ordinary pursuits. Later, he established the Odd Fellows organi- zation, and the Lackawanna Hospital, afterward endowed by Pennsylvania as a State institution, with its founder as its head and ruler; subsequently, he was appointed by Governor Hartranft, Trustee of the Danville Insane Hos- pital, a position which at present he fills with advantage to the institution and honor to him self. In private life, he is noted for his unsectarian humanity and cheerful hospitality; while his learning, brilliant conversational powers, and suave courtesy make him a valued and entertaining com- panion. As a thinker, he is acute, penetrative, and power- ful; as a writer, terse, pointed, and logical. Although already beyond the three-score, and within but a few years
of the remaining ten which mark the span of human life, he is still more vigorous and energetic than many of his younger cotemporaries.
COTT, HON. JOHN, Lawyer, and United States Senator, was born in Alexandria, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, July 14th, 1824. His ancestors, both paternal and maternal, were Scotch-Irish ; his father was a Major of Volun- teers in the War of 1812, and a member of the Twenty-first Congress. He attended the common schools of his native town, enjoying, moreover, the advantage of private instruction in Latin and Greek. Ile carly ex- hibited his powers as a forcible public speaker, and, before attaining his eighteenth year, had acquired some celebrity as an earnest advocate of the " Washingtonian Temperance Movement." His talents and taste led him to select the legal profession, and he entered the office of IIon. Alex- ander Thomson, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1842. Having been admitted to the bar in June, 1846, he imme- diately engaged in practice at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. lle was the same year appointed Deputy Attorney-General for Huntingdon county, and continued until 1849 rising rapidly in his profession and acquiring a large professional practice. In 1851, he was the youngest and one of the most active members of the Board of Revenue Commis- sioners; and, in 1852, a member of the Democratic State Convention, where he spoke earnestly against the nomina- tion of James Buchanan for the Presidency. His health having failed considerably, he visited Europe in 1853, and in 1854 was nominated by the Citizens Convention for the State Legislature, but, refusing to affiliate with the " Know Nothings," when organized, after his nomination, he was by them defeated. He strenuously opposed the Kansas policy of Mr. Buchanan, and constantly endeavored to thwart and nullify its measures. Unsuccessfully nominated as a " Douglas Democrat " for the State Senate, in 1860, in 1861, he accepted the nomination of both political par- ties for the State Legislature; having been elected without opposition, he worked to effect a non-partisan organization of the House, and warmly supported the Government in its determined measures to suppress the Rebellion. The Democratic Caucus having declined to act in unison with him, he, with other War Democrats, took sides with the Republicans, and was appointed Chairman of the Judiciary Committee for the session, at the expiration of which he declined a re-election. Although not a politician, strictly speaking, he felt that so much was at stake that he became an earnest advocate of the re-election of Governor Curtin, in 1863, and participated warmly in the support of Abraham Lincoln in the Presidential campaign of 1864. Ile was elected a delegate to the National Republican Convention of ISGS, but was at this time engaged in the argument
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before the Supreme Court of a question of vital importance, and his .position was otherwise filled. Having taken a very active part in the political canvass of that year, he was prominently named for the United States Senate, to succeed llon. C. R. Buckalew; elected finally by the Legislature, he took his seat in the House, March 4th, 1869. He has served on many of the most important committees, and has proved himself to be a diligent, fearless, and able Senator. Ile was Chairman of the Select Committee appointed to investigate the alleged outrages in the Southern States; and since has been Chairman of the Committee on Claims, as well as an industrious and effective member of the Com- mittees on Finance and Railroads. Ilis voice is generally heard upon all momentous occasions when important questions come before the Senate; and, in his speeches, or addresses, there is a laudable avoidance of all straining for oratorical display, while his remarks are lucid, concise and pointed.
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