The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 32

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

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of the winds, his mind was actively and continuously engaged for thirty years. In his Winds of the Northern Hemisphere, published in 1853, he announced his great discovery of the existence of three principal zones of winds in this hemisphere, and of a meteorological pole situated in latitude 84° and longitude 105° west of Greenwich. Of this work the physicist Maury said, that it " contained myriads of observations on land and sea." The results of this discovery have been employed as the basis of the wind- charts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, published by the English Board of Trade. His posthumous work, The Winds of the Globe, completed by his son, and issued by the Smithsonian Institution, extends these researches over the entire globe, and includes records made at 4000 places. Besides his more important literary productions on scientific subjects, he also published four mathematical works, and read many valuable papers before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which association he was Vice-President, and had been a member from its com- mencement. Ile was also a member of the National Academy of Science. Of him and his services to science, Professor Henry, the eminent head of the Smithsonian In- stitution, says: " The premature death of Professor Coffin is a loss to the world ; and in reviewing what may be called his extra labors, we cannot refrain from an endeavor to im- press upon the general public that men of his character, who do honor to humanity, ought not to be suffered to expend their energies in the drilling of youth in the mere elements of knowledge, and with a compensation not more than sufficient to secure the necessaries of life; that they should be consecrated as officiating priests in the temple of knowledge, and be furnished with all the appliances and assistance necessary to the accomplishment of their objects -namely, the extension of the bounds of human thought and of human power."

INDERMAN, GARRETT B., Physician, Coal Operator, and Banker, was born October 15th, 1829, in Pike county, Pennsylvania. His father, John J. Linderman, of Scotch descent, was a physician, and actively engaged in the practice of medicine for over fifty years in that connty. Ilis mother was a daughter of the Hon. Richard Brodhead, granddaughter of Garrett Brodhead, an officer of the Revo- lution, and sister of the late Senator Richard Brodhead. After receiving an academie education, he read medicine with his father, and graduated in March, 1851, at the Uni- versity of New York. He first practised his profession at Unionville, Orange county, New York, but left it in 1854 and settled in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. In August of the same year the cholera reaching that borough, carried off the resident practitioners there, and he soon advanced to a leading position among the physicians of that section of

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the State. In 1860, the daily rounds and night work of a | Congress, in 1862, by the Republican party of the Seventh large practice having told on his health, he withdrew from District of Pennsylvania, and was successively re-elected to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty- first Congresses, where he served in many important committees, and took an active part in all the proceedings of the House. Having been returned as a Republican from the State at large to the Forty-third Congress, in 1872, he was appointed Chair- man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and has served with marked ability. the profession and devoted a part of his time to commercial pursuits. In 1863, he became the active partner in the East Sugar Loaf Colliery, worked by Packer, Linderman & Co., and a partner in the Room Run Colliery, worked by Douglas, Skeer & Co., taking charge of all the business of the first named firm. , In 1865, on the retirement of Mr. Douglas, he also took charge of the Room Run Colliery. The coal of these two collieries, which reached tide-water, was sold by E. A. Packer & Co. (composed of the same partners), until 1867, when E. A. Packer withdrew, and the name of the firm became G. B. Linderman & Co. After this Dr. Linderman took charge of the sale, as well as of the production of coal, and spent most of his time in New York. Looking the ground over, he found that all the coal produced in the Lehigh Valley was being sold by a number of firms, without any concert of action-a state of affairs detrimental to all. AAccordingly, he devoted him- self to the organization of the Ichigh Coal Exchange, of which he was elected President, and has so remained to the present time. The Lehigh Coal Exchange regulates the price of all coal that reaches tide-water from the middle coal-field, and thereby fixes the wages paid to the miners in the same district. In ISGS, he organized the banking house of G. B. Linderman & Co., at Mauch Chunk. In IS70, he moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In iS72, he organized the Lehigh Valley National Bank of Bethlehem, and was elected its President. Ile was married to Lucy, daughter of Judge Packer. Ile is one of the Trustees of the Lehigh University, at Bethlehem, and has the reputation of being one of the most progressive and sound business men in Eastern Pennsylvania.

LAIR, JAMES, President of the Scranton Savings Bank, Merchant, and Railroad Manager, was born in Warren county, New Jersey, May 15th, 1 Sog. Ile is a son of James Blair, and Rachel (Inslce) Blair, both of the same county and State, and whose antecedents are Scotch and German. Ilis education was only of that primary and elementary kind obtainable in the common schools of his birthplace. At eighteen years of age, he engaged in busi- ness as a country storekeeper at Marksborough, Warren county, New Jersey. Here he remained for thirty five years, and, during twenty-five years of this time, his was the only store established in that vicinity. In 1864, he removed to Scranton, and engaged in banking, also operating largely, meanwhile, in real estate. In 1867, he, with several other influential associates, originated and founded the Scranton Savings Bank, of which he was chosen President ; to his credit be it observed that he is now, as then, the first officer of this well known institution. Ile projected and built, chiefly on his own account, and at his own personal risk, the various street railroads in Scranton, the stock in which has since been divided among others. In connection with various other capitalists, he 'became one of the originators of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company; also one of the first subscribers interested in the building of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, and has been a Director of this road for many years. He has, moreover, been largely interested with his brother, John J. Blair, in all his railroad operations in the West, and they contracted to build in that section of the country over seven hundred miles of railroad. Throughout Scranton and elsewhere, he is known as a wise patron, a generous friend, a loyal and exemplary citizen, and a busi- ness man of great ability and tact. Wherever and whenever alterations or improvements have been deemed needful or desirable, his has always been the first brain to conceive, the first hand to perform ; and what the one conceived, the other has shown itself quick in performing. His success in life may be justly attributed to constant and cheerful indus- try, shrewd economy, good management, at once cautious Few men are able to point to so many examples of weighty

RTII, HON. GODLOVE S., Lawyer, and Congress- mn.in, was born near Lebanon, Pennsylvania, April 22d, 1817. Ile is of German descent, his family having emigrated to Pennsylvania as early as 1729, under the auspices of the celebrated Mora- vian Count Zinzendorf. Ile was educated at Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, and removed to Indiana in 1839. Having studied law with Hon. James Cooper, of Gettysburg, he was admitted to the bar in IS39, and commenced practice at Lafayette, Indiana. IIe entered upon the political arena early in life, and esponsed the principles of the Whig party, which elected him to the State Senate for the years 1843-'41-'45-'46-'47 and IS.18; during one year of this period he was President of that body. He was a Presidential elector in 1848, after which he devoted himself to practice for a number of years. Ile was a member of the Peace Conference of 1861, and having ! and decided, and entire and exclusive attention to business. subsequently raised a company of volunteers, served with them as Captain. He was elected to the Thirty-eighth [ projects matured so successfully, and in the face of so many

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and such perplexing difficulties as those which he has repeatedly conquered; and still fewer may, as he may, be credited with so many acts tending to develop the resources of the country, and to benefit his brethren. In 1834, he was married to Elizabeth P. Locke, of Warren county, New Jersey ; and again, in 1864, to Margaret J. Mckinney, of Scranton, formerly of New Jersey, who is his present wife.

UL.ICK, DERRICK, Merchant, was born in War- ren county, New Jersey, November 28th, 1814. llis father, Ilenry D. Hulick, was a native of New Jersey; his mother, Phoebe (Morgan), of Pennsylvania. He enjoyed but few school ad- vantages, the meagre education he received being obtained at the country schools in the neighborhood of Oxford, Warren county, New Jersey, where, until his early manhood, he lived and worked upon a farm. Nevertheless, being naturally of a strong mind and quick perception, he had the faculty of utilizing what little preparatory education he acquired; and hence this elementary teaching, though limited, was sufficient to be of great advantage to him in subsequent life. Upon attaining his majority, he was taken into partnership with John Drake, of Easton, Pennsylvania, in whose employ he had for some time previously been engaged. Being energetic and prompt in all his business relations, he soon established a large trade for the house of Drake & In'ick. The existence of this firm being before the general introduction of railroads, the transportation, trade, and barter of merchandize was done by the now- considered slow means of wagons. He assumed the outside operations of the concern, and not only monopolized the trade of the Lehigh Valley, but even with his teams pene- trated into the State of New York, thus extending the busi- ness connections of the firm throughout Eastern Pennsylva- nia and the southern portions of New York. His social qualities gained him great personal popularity, which, together with his high character as a business man, aided him greatly in the acquisition of wealth. Although the business of the firm was not confined to any particular branch of merchandize, it being a country store in which all commodities were bought and sold, yet he became such a noted adept in his knowledge of the qualities of teas, that his opinion as a judge of the article was frequently sought by large importers of New York city, who would forward him their samples for inspection and rely on his report in the purchase and sale of them. He was, in connection with his partner, one of the largest stockholders in the Thomas Iron Company, and also in the Carbon Iron Company. For many years he was a Director in the First National Bank of Easton, in which institution his fine busi. ness qualifications and extensive knowledge of men gave him great influence. He was also a Director in the Warren Foundry, and was actively interested in public improve-

ments generally. Indeed by his personal efforts and the influence which wealth always commands, he rendered much valuable assistance in the development of the country, infusing a spirit of energy and enterprise amongst his neigh- bors by his words and example. He could not be called a politician in the commonly accepted sense of that word, yet he was a firm party man, always voting, formerly the Whig, and subsequently the Republican ticket. To the principles of these parties he adhered from conviction, and not from policy, as he never desired nor sought office. IIe was married in December, 1839, to Ruth Swayze, of War- ren county, New Jersey. Ile died in July, 1872. Like his partner, he commenced at the bottom the ladder and gradually ascended it round by round until he reached, in a commercial sense, its top. He left an estate valued at half a million of dollars. It is to be regarded as a noteworthy fact, that during the thirty-five years Drake and Hulick were in partnership, there never was a difference of opinion between them as to business transactions. The extensive trade which they so successfully established, is now con- ducted by their respective sons, under the old firm name of Drake & Ilulick.

ILIDSEY, RUSSELL SMITHI, Manufacturer, was born at Foxon, New Haven county, Connecticut, June 4th, ISO2. IIe was a lineal descendant of John Chidsey, who came from England to Con- necticut in 1644; and, maternally, from William Ilolt, who also came to Connecticut from England about 1640. Ile was educated in and about New Haven, and upon completing his course of studies, taught school until elected Sheriff of New Haven county. This office he finally abandoned, and, with eighty dollars as his capital, started in business as a pedler of oysters. While engaged in this traffic, he was married to Eliza Wooden, of Columbus county, New York, August 14th, IS31. From this union sprang three sons and three daughters. He then was mar- ried again, September 16th, 1847, to Lucy M. Street, of Connecticut, by whom he had two sons. Forsaking the business of pedler, he engaged in that of a stove and tin- ware dealer, at Geneva, New York ; and, upon removing to Easton, Pennsylvania, continued to carry on this trade until fresh and onerous duties compelled him to turn it over entirely to his son. Ile was one of the founders of the Thomas Iron Works, at Nokendaqua, Pennsylvania ; of the Warren Foundry, at present the largest pipe works in America, located at Phillipsburg, New Jersey; and of the First National Bank of Easton, Pennsylvania. In all of these institutions he was a director and large stockholder at the time of his decease. He was also the leading founder, and one of the most liberal supporters, of the First Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Easton, Pennsy !. vania, and was one of its most influential elders and uphollers. This church is known at present as the American

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Reformed. Throughout his life, he was a respected, ener- getic, and enterprising business man, and was ever ready to push forward any and every public work which he thought could redound to the common good. In politics, he was early in favor of the total abolition of slavery in the United States, and warmly supported the Whig and Re- publican policies. During the war, he was an active Unionist, sending his son, Charles, to battle for the Union, and spending his means freely for its cause. Upon the oc- casion of his funeral, the merchants of Easton, acting simultaneously, closed their places of business, thus show- ing the csteem in which he was held by his neighbors and fellow citizens. He was killed by an accident, which befell him on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, December Ist, 1865, while in his sixty-fourth year. Ile left an estate valued at about a half million of dollars; an honorable fortune, accumulated by dint of praiseworthy industry and shrewd ability. His remains are interred in the family vault at the cemetery of Easton, his grave being marked by an imposing monument of Rhode Island granite.

cCARTNEY, HON. WASHINGTON, LL. D., Lawyer and Judge, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, August 24th, 1812; died July 15th, 1856. At the time of his death, he was President Judge of the Third Judicial Dis- trict of Pennsylvania, composed of the counties of Northampton and Lehigh ; also Principal of the Union Law School, founded by him and located at Easton. He graduated with high honors at Jefferson College, Cannons- burg, Pennsylvania, in 1834; and, in the same year, was appointed Professor of Mathematics in Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. In IS36, he was appointed Profes- sor of Mathematics and Modern Languages at Jefferson College, his alma mater. These honorable positions he filled creditably for one year, and on the 15th of August, IS37, resumed his Professorship at Lafayette College, which position he resigned, September 30th, IS43. On the 1Sth of September, IS44, he was re-appointed to the same Professorship, which he again resigned in 1846. In March, IS49, he was appointed to the Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the same college, a post which he filled during several years. Prior to this, on the ISth of January, IS38, he was admitted to the bar of Northampton county; and, during 1846-7-8, was Deputy Attorney-Gene- tal for that county, and was elected President Judge of the Third Judicial District, as before mentioned, in the fall of IS51. Hle commenced his Law School in IS46; in 1854, it was incorporated by the Legislature, under the name of the " Union Law School," and at his decease was in full and successful operation. The degree of I.L. D. was conferred upon him in 1852, by the Marshall College.

| April 18th, IS39, he was married, at Easton, to Mary E. Maxwell, daughter of William Maxwell, of New Jersey. In 1844, he published his celebrated work upon the Differential Calculus, which at once was adopted as a text-book in many of our leading academies and colleges, and which elicited high encomiums from our most learned mathematical scholars. He published, in 1847, the His- tory of the Origin and Progress of the United States, pro- nounced the best and most thoughtful work on that subject ever issued by the American press, and considered far more philosophie in structure, and more satisfactory in its nature, to the student than Bancroft's History of the United States. He delivered, in Easton, and before the ladies of Mrs. Willard's Seminary, in Troy, New York, a course of eloquent and able lectures on Europe and the United States ; one of them, particularly noteworthy, called, " How to read a Book," was highly lauded, and contains a mine of information and sound, practical advice. His oration before the Literary Societies of Marshall College, in 1852, called forth merited encomiums and applause. He left be- hind him numerous manuscripts upon mathematics, logic, rhetoric, optics, and sundry other interesting subjects; also various papers, evincing a rare and varied acquaintance with law and legal formalities and informalities. Shortly before his decease, he was preparing for publication an ex- cellent work upon Evidence, which has been pronounced both accurate and exhaustive, From IS51 until his death, he held the office of President Judge, and upon all occa- sions exhibited scholarly profundity, moderation, and firm- ness. As a citizen, he was eminently affable and guileless, and may be cited as a type of morality, as a truc and courteous Christian gentleman. As a linguist, he was in- ferior to few of his cotemporarics, and explored widely the field of theological literature; in German, French, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, he was an accurate and finished scholar ; and with all his manifold duties on the Bench, in the Law School, and elsewhere, he had commenced and-when stricken down-had partially mastered the Russian lan- guage. Yet, with all his gifts and attainments, arrogance had no part in his nature, while his pupils learned from him to deport themselves with gravity, modesty, and deco- rum. Without aspiring to leadership in anything, he was incessantly devising means whereby his fellow men might be benefited ; and, in the history of the region where he re- sided for twenty years, there was scarcely a moral or benevolent enterprise with which he was not identified, or in which he was not interested. In the lecture room, Bible room, college and school room, at the forum and on the Bench-everywhere-his good influence was felt and ac- knowledged. His remains were interred in the Easton Cemetery, and an immense concourse of mourners attended at his funeral ceremonies. Since his decease, a marble tablet has been inscribed to his memory, and placed in the wall of the main room of the High School building, where it testifies to his good heart and sterling gifts.

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HIAPMAN, WILLIAM, Founder of the Borough | eight children. To him must be awarded the great merit of Chapman, on the Ichigh & Lackawanna of having demonstrated, beyond all cavil or question, that slate is hereafter to be a leading mineral export from Northampton ; also, of having thereby converted a barren 6.10 region of country into a rich and populous district, swarm- ing with laborers and teeming with increasing industries. The good indirectly done by such a man is inestimable. Hundreds of honest and industrious laborers from the over- stocked mines of Wales and England have found with him constant employment and generous wages; and, through his efforts to secure trusty and sober workmen, the yet un- developed resonrees of one section of Pennsylvania have received a needed impetus, fraught with benefits to all. Finally, he is an enthusiastic advocate of the Total Absti- nence movement, and, by his representations and persua- sions, has greatly furthered the eanse of temperance among all under his charge, and earned the thanks of mothers and of wives who greet him as their common friend and benefactor. Railroad, near Bath, was born at Mount Bornen- shawn, France, June 26th, 1816. Ilis father, William Chapman, was a slate quarryman of Cornwall, England, who, at the time of Eng- land's war with France, became First Lieutenant of an English company, and was shot in the lungs. His wife, fearing for her husband's life, hastened immediately to France, and, while nursing him there, William was born, On his recovery, Lieutenant Chapman returned to Corn- wall, with his wife and child, and here William passed his boyhood, and during many years was busily occupied in the slate business. llis education he acquired entirely while attending varions night schools, where, after working laboriously during the day, he studied with untiring appli- ention and delight. In 1842, he emigrated to the United States; landing at New York, in company with a number of Welsh laborers, he ultimately succeeded in reaching a slate quarry in Northampton county, and undertook a con- traet in slate working which promised to be remunerative. This speculation proving only moderately profitable, he EED, JOHN K., Banker, was born in Elizabeth township, Lancaster county, Pa., October 7th, IS16, Ilis father, George Reed, was one of the pro- minent men of that township, having been Justice of the Peace for many years, in the time when that appointment was in the hands of the Gover- nor of the Commonwealth. Ilis mother was the daughter of a well known merchant in the State of Virginia, and the grand-daughter of Baltzer Startzer, one of the chief citizens of Lancaster. He received his education in the schools of Lancaster, and at eighteen years of age left school and went to work in his father's tan-yard, remaining at that business until he was twenty, when he was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Laneaster county. This position he held for five years, at the end of which time he resigned it, and married, Ile then opened a country store in the village of Earlville, Lancaster county, in partnership with his brother-in-law, William Carpenter, under the style of Car- penter & Reed. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, after two years, and he purchased what was known as the " Earlville property," consisting of the store in which he had been doing business, a farm, and a hotel building. Ile retained the hotel himself, and rented the farm and store. In 1846, the hotel was burned, and he then sold the property and hought a farm, which he worked until the autumn of 1851. In this year he became a candi- date, upon the Whig ticket, for Prothonotary of the county, and, notwithstanding a very formidable opposition, was nominated upon the first ballot and subsequently elected by a majority of nearly Sooo. Ile held this position for three years, and, in 1855 commenced a banking business, which he has continued to the present time, extending and developing it until he now is recognised as one of the leading baukers of this country. Ile is eminently a self- sought a business opening, and invested his first savings in fifty acres of woodland, which he afterward sold to advan- lage. Continuing his quarrying, and shrewdly foresceing the future value of bark, he invested more largely in wood- land, generally paying for the land by the money realized from timher and bark. In 1863, the extensive quarries owned by him, near Bath, were turned into a joint stock concern, and he was elected President, which office he continues to fill, having exclusive control thereof, and own- ing the greater portion of the stock. The reputation of the slate from this quarry is almost world-wide; and, although many veins have been opened in its vicinity, none yet dis- covered are equal to its slate in that mineral's most valu- able characteristics. The Borough of Chapman, at the quarries, was then named in honor of the able man to whom it was mainly indebted for its existence. The great- est dificulty which W. Chapman has had to surmount, consisted in procuring capable and reliable laborers ; this he overcame by sending abroad several energetie agents, who have sent to this country many hundreds of sturdy and efficient workmen. In addition to the Presidency of these slate quarries, he is President of the Union Savings Bank of East Pennsylvania, a position which he accepted only after much pressing and entreaty. Ilimself a workman, his warmest sympathies are with them, and the kindly per- sisteney that has characterized his efforts to ameliorate their condition, his liberal system of wages, and his count- less gifts to needy but deserving laborers, entitle him to the unqualified praise of all philanthropists, and the gratitude of every workman. He is emphatically the workingman's friend. In religion, he is a zealous member of the Mora- vian Church; in politics, a Demoerat. In 1857, he was married to Emily F. Cary, of Bethlehem, and by her has

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 32

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