USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 33
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made man, having worked his way up to his present posi- tion entirely by his own exertions. He has been elected and re-elected, during a period of six years, to the office of Director of the Poor of the County, and has also held the position of County Commissioner. To this latter office he was elected withont opposition of any kind from either political party, a fact which shows the high estimation in which he is held by all his fellow-citizens. He is one of the Trustees of the " Home for Friendless Children," of Lancaster county, and one of the Board of Health of the City of Lancaster. During the war he was a strong sup- porter of the Government, and had two sons in the Union Army, both of whom were wounded at the battle of Chan- cellorsville. Ile was married, May 4th, 1841, to a daughter of Christian Carpenter, ex-Sheriff of Lancaster County.
ALE, JAMES W., D. D., Clergyman, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, October 16th, 1812, his parents being Richard C. Dale, M. D., of Maryland, and Margaret Fitzgerald, of Phila- delphi .. His family removed from Wilmington to Philadelphia while he was yet quite young, and in this city he received his education. He graduated with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania, and imme- diately afterwards entered the office of J. R. Ingersoll to study law. Among his fellow-students in the same office were several who have attained eminence in the legal pro- fession-Judge Thompson, Charles Gilpin, Charles E. Lex, and others. While prosecuting this course of study, he he- came concerned on the subject of religion, and united him- self with the Arch Street Presbyterian Church. Ilis im- pressions on this subject gradually deepened and caused him to entirely change his course in life. He felt called upon to preach the Gospel, and, with this view, abandoned his legal studies, and entered upon a theological course at Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, which col- lege afforded peculiar facilities for the study of Greek and Ilebrew, in which he attained great proficiency. lle also studied for some time at Princeton Theological Seminary. Having completed his curriculum, he desired to become a missionary to the heathen, and offered his services to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. From them he received a commission for Rajpootana, in Ilindostan, but the accomplishment of the plan was prevented by pecuniary difficulties, and in the meanwhile he com- menced the study of medicine as a further preparation for his intended missionary work, in due time receiving his degree of M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. The Board of Foreign Missions being still unable to send him abroad, he obtained an appointment from the Bible Society of Philadelphia to superintend the Bible distribution through- ont the State of Pennsylvania. Ile continned thus engaged for about seven years, and at the end of that time, finding
his plan for employment in Foreign Missions still impracti- cable, he finally relinquished it, and accepted an invitation to the pastorate from Ridley and Middletown Presbyterian Churches, in Delaware county, which two churches were united in one pastoral charge. He entered npon this work, June 21st, 1845, and labored zealously in it during more than twenty-five years. The duties of the pulpit in this charge were very heavy ; not only did he preach three times every Sunday regularly in his own church, but beyond the limits of the church building he was to be found preaching everywhere. Ile founded the First Church of Chester, and also the church at Media, both of which he fostered and greatly assisted to maintain-using all his efforts both as preacher and financier in their behalf, and more than once he has mortgaged his own property to secure the payment of the church indebtedness. He is an uncompromising ad- vocate of the temperance cause, and his untiring eloquence has been mainly instrumental in the securing for the town of Media a law prohibiting the sale of liquors. Besides the publication of a great number of sermons-which have had an extensive circulation and a deserved popularity-he has also written several volumes on Baptism, which have been received with very high commendation by the best classi- cal and biblical scholars of the day. The work comprises three volumes, divided into, " Classic Baptism ; " " Judaic Baptism ; " and " Johannie Baptism ; " which it is intended to supplement by a fourth volume, to be called " Christian Baptism." Shortly after the publication of the first of these volumes, the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Hampden Sidney College of Virginia, and also by his own alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. On June 19th, 1871, he received a call to undertake the pastorate of the Wayne Presbyterian Church, at Wayne Hall, Delaware county, which pulpit he now fills. He was married, on May 14th, 1844, to Mary G., daughter of Andrew Gray of Newcastle county, Delaware.
ARLINGTON, WILLIAM, Lawyer, was born in Thornbury township, near Westchester, Chester county, Pennsylvania, on October 19th, 1804. llis parents were Abraham Darlington and Su- sanna (Chandler) Darlington, both of whom were of English extraction ; his grandfather, who was also named Abraham Darlington, emigrated to America from Cheshire, England, about 1710. He is the youngest of twelve children, and passed his early years on his father's farm. His elementary education was received at a day- school in the neighborhood, after which he attended for several years a private classical academy, where he per- fected himself in Latin, French, and mathematics. Upon leaving school, when about eighteen years of age, he com- meneed the study of the law with his eldest brother, Isaac, who afterwards became the distinguished jurist, Judge
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Darlington, whose scholarship and legal ability gained him a national reputation, and who at this time resided in West- chester. IIere William Darlington studied law, and, after passing a creditable examination, was admitted to the bar, February Ist, 1826, since which time he has been constantly engaged in the active pursuit of his profession in West- chester. In the autumn of 1836, he was elected to the Constitutional (then called Reform) Convention, which met in the State Capital, on May 2d, 1837, and closed its session at the Musical Fund HIall, in Philadelphia, on February 22d, 1838, under the administration of Governor Ritner. From the autumn of 1836 to that of 1839, he held the ap- pointment of Deputy Attorncy-General of Chester County, with which exception (and that of Chief Burgess of West- chester) he has declined all political office. In October, 1872, he was clected a delegate to the second Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, and in his place in that body has illustrated the principles of his life; he stoutly advo- cated thercin the claim of women to the ballot. He has been for many years a Director of the National Bank of Chester County, the Westchester Gas Company, and some insurance companies. IIe has also been attorney for some of the leading railroad companies. In the early part of his life the political parties of the country were divided into Federalists and Democrats, and his family connections and associations being with the former, he naturally adhered to that side. On the rise of the Republican party he be- came a firm supporter of its principles. He also took part strongly with the Anti-Masonie party, which came into existence in the earlier part of the century, being greatly opposed to all secret societies. Ile was married, in March, IS29, to Catharine S., daughter of Charles Paxson, formerly of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a member of a family long and favorably known in the State.
REEN, IION. HENRY, Lawyer, was born August 29th, 1828, in Warren county, New Jersey. Ilis father, Enoch Green, was a native of Easton, Pennsylvania, of which town his grandfather was one of the original settlers, having located there about the year 1770, at which time he married Mary Beidleman of that place. After a preparatory course of study at the school of John Vandeveer (who still resides in Easton), he entered Lafayette College in the fall of 1842, and graduated with honor from that institution, in 1846. The succeeding three years he devoted to the study of law in the office and under the tuition of the IIon. Washington McCartney, late Judge of that Judicial District. In Sep- tember, 1849, he was admitted to the bar in Easton, and has since continued without intermission to practise in the courts of Northampton and adjoining counties. Ilis atten- tion to business as well as his reputation soon brought him a large and lucrative practice in the Supreme Court of the State, as well as in the Courts of Common Pleas. Ile is
now one of the leading lawyers of Northampton ; the man- tle of Judge Porter, A. II. Reeder, Alexander Brown, Judge McCartney and their contemporaries, being now grace- fully worn by him and his professional associates. For many years Easton has boasted of an able bar, and with him as one of its leading members the same well-earned reputation still clings to the place. In one aspect he is an active politician, and in another he is not. Ile has always been a working, efficient Republican, and is a most influcn- tial member of that party in h.s section. IIe was one of the originators of the Republican party-yet he has always refused nomination for office. He was a member of the National Republican Convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President, in 1856, and was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, in 1872; in this body he occupied a prominent position and exerted a marked influence. Being strictly a lawyer, with little sympathy for politics, except as a matter of principle, he has devoted most of his life to the business of his profession. Ile is counsel for many large corporations, the Lehigh Val- ley Railroad, Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, North Pennsylvania Railroad, and other considerable corporate bodies. These important interests almost exclusively oc- cupy his time in the direct pursuit of his professional du- ties. Ile was married in 1853, and is as domestic in his habits as he is conscientious in the discharge of his business engagements. Yet in the prime of life, a sound lawyer, industrious and careful, he cannot fail to continue to oc- eupy a prominent position among the jurists of Pennsylvania.
ATSON, JOHN FANNING, Antiquarian and Author, was born July 13th, 1779, in Burlington county, New Jersey. Among his ancestors were some of the earliest settlers of our country, of whom honorable mention is made by Onderdonk, Lossing, Wheeler and Lee. All were devoted patriots, with the exception of one, a distinguished Tory (General Edmund Fanning), a graduate of Yale, in 1757, of whom the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1818, says, " the world contained no better man." The late IIon. John Wickham, of Richmond, Virginia, was a nephew of the former. After completing the usual course of education to qualify himself for mercantile pursuits, Jolin Fanning Wat- son entered the counting-house of James Vanuxem, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, with whom he remained but a short time, having offended the French interests of that firm by becoming a member of the Macpherson Blues, of which body he was one of the last six survivors at the time of his decease. Ile was now nineteen years of age. A clerkship in the War Department at Washington was offered him, which he accepted, and held until 1804, when he engaged himself in business with General James O'Hara, formerly Quartermaster-General to General Wayne's In-
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dian Army, and chief founder of the city of Pittsburgh. During this connection he resided at New Orleans, hokling the responsible position of Commissary of Provisions for the United States Army at all the posts in Louisiana. At this period there was no Protestant worship in that city, and to remedy this, together with Edward Livingston, he be- came the prime mover in establishing the Protestant Epis- copal Church by giving a call to the Rev. Mr. Chase, since the venerable Bishop of Ohio an 1 Illinois. Sudden do- mestic affliction caused his return to Philadelphia to the support of his widowed mother, and to this event the pub- lic are probably indebted for his invaluable services as a local historian of the olden time. As such his works will ever be enduring monuments of his wonderful assiduity and laborious research. He now became engaged in the publi- cation and sale of various works, among which were Dr. Adam Clark's Commentary on the Oll and New Testament, the Select Reviews of Literature, etc., contributing frequently to the columns of various literary, scientific, historical, and ecclesiastical serials. Besides historical works, he has left some unpublished manuscript volumes on theology, showing great originality of thought and deep and varied research. Ile also devoted some pages to the vindication of Cromwell, in connection with some foreign correspondence. A letter of his to Dr. Adam Clark ou this subject, written in IS21, was recently advertised for sale in London. To his mar- riage with a lineal descendant of the Lord Protector may be attributed some of the interest he evinced on this subject. For some thirty years of his later life he held the position of Cashier of the Bank of Germantown, Pennsylvania. It was when in freedom from the cares of this office, and often by the midnight lamp, that the Annals of Philadelphia and New York were begun and completed. Of which he says, " My writings have their peculiarities and imperfec- tions, but they were written amid the pressure of daily offi- cial duties, and were pablished without revision." A note- worthy characteristic of the man was his reverence for the graves of great and good men, who had been useful in their generation, as illustrated in the removal of the remains of Thomas Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, and family from a neglected spot on his old firm to Laurel Hill, where a suitable monument was erected by subscription to his memory. Colonel Wheeler, in his History of North Carolina, says, " I cannot close without again expressing my admiration of the conduct of Mr. Watson, a stranger to our State and our people, gathering with patriotie reverence the bones of her gallant sons, and marking the hallowed spot that holds their mutilated remains This Congress ne- glected to do, but private patriotism has been more faith- ful." These remarks were made in relation to the graves of General Nash, Colonel Irwin and Captain Turner, killed in the battle of Germantown. A valuable collection of autograph letters and relics of the olden time made his house the frequent resort of kindred spirits. One of the brother- hood, Mr. Lossing, the historiain, thus expressed himself
before the Historical Society of New York : " Mr. Watson was one of those useful men who work lovingly for the good of the world. He was an enthusiastic delver in the mines where antiquarian treasures are to be found; but he never hoarded his earnings with a miser's meanness. Every gem which he gathered from the dark recesses, was laid in all its attractiveness upon his open palm in the bright sunlight, a free gift to the first applicant who would promise to wear it generously, where its beauty might gratify the world. Yet he was not a blind enthusiast ready to worship a torso because it is a torso, but an in- telligent co-worker in gathering into permanent receptacles, such perfections and fragments of the past as might be valuable in the future." In social life, and in the domestic circle, he was kind, genial, considerate, generous, and simple. His career was by no means unmarked by trials and adversity, but of firm faith he bore them manfully, and died peacefully, at his residence in Germantown, December 23d, ISGo, in the eighty-second year of his age.
AMILTON, JAMES, Marine and Landscape Painter, was born near Belfast, Ireland, October Ist, ISI9. Ilis father, David Hamilton, and mother, Isabella (Winter) Ilamilton, with James, then a lad of thirteen years, came to America, in IS32, and settled in the city of Philadelphia. Soon after their arrival, William Erwin, a worthy English gentleman, became interested in James' welfare, received him into his family, assumed the charge of his education, and placed him in Mr. Luddington's school in Pine street above Second street, where his diligence and rapid progress in his studies fully justified the anticipations of his gener- ous patron. Ilis fondness for delineative art led to his being placed in a Drawing school, not with any view to the ultimate pursuit of art as a profession, but to give proper direction to a taste and aptitude so marked as to invite culture and careful supervision. His is the old story -- the oft-repeated experience of the enthuiastic student of art; an ardent devotee at her shrine, he could bring to other employments only constrained application and en- forced service. Placed by Mr. Erwin in a counting house, his attention was reluctantly concentrated upon day-books and ledgers, while his mind and sympathies were else- where. He remained in the family of his friend some years, when the bent of his inclination and his tastes defied further restraint. Various sketches in water colors made at this period attracted the attention of Thomas Birch, the marine artist ; John Nagle, the portrait painter; John Sar- tain, the engraver; and Joshua Shaw, the landscape painter, who gave to him the encouragement of their approval, and assisted him in the sale of several of his first efforts. Enamoured of his art, its pursuit was his delight; study, toil, and practice were his pleasures. Whilst engaged in
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perfecting himself in its principles and details, he found / pleasure in imparting instruction to others less gifted than himself, and was for a time occupied in teaching drawing and painting. Of an active and ardent temperament, an indefatigable worker, and a rigid economist of time, he found leisure for the study of the best writers and works on art. At intervals, he practised drawing on stone, upon the block for wood engraving, and also made designs illus- trative of poems, annals, and of remarkable seenes and events in history, fiction, and travel. About the year 1850, he established himself as a painter in water colors, when a number of his sketches were purchased by the Artists' and Amateur,' Association, of Philadelphia. But the public taste assigning to oil painting the preference, to this branch his attention was thereafter principally directed. With an unerring eye and hand, and a facility acquired by long and judicious practice, he grasps at once the charae- teristie and distinguishing features of the subject for de- lineation, and with a few bold lines transfers them to his canvas. Fortified by disciplined habits of observation, he has visited all accessible points of interest, and made num- crous sketches in the vicinity of Philadelphia, along the Delaware Bay, and on the sea coast. Penetrating into the valleys, the glens, and the mountains of Pennsylvania, he has toiled gladly, at dawn and at dark; in sunshine and in storm; in spring, summer, autumn, and winter-often beset by difficulties harassing and dispiriting. In 1854, he visited England, and sketched many of its coast scenes, with those also of Wales ; while along the Thames, in the vicinity of London, he gleaned many charming studies. Early in life he was married to Elizabeth Deamer. She died, in August, 1871, leaving a son and two daughters. Ile has devoted much attention to marine subjects, and in this department has evinced rare talent and true poetic sentiment. During his last trip to the United States, Charles Dickens visited an art gallery in Philadelphia, and his attention was arrested by a picture of Mr. Hamilton's on the subject suggested by the words of little Paul, in Dombey and Son, " What are the Wild Waves Saying ?" Ile expressed a desire to meet the artist, and an interview having been effected through the agency of Grace Green- wood, the novelist wished to purchase the study of the picture. It was immediately presented to him. In return, Dickens presented the painter with a favorite edition of his complete works. This picture, during the novelist's life, was assigned a conspicuous position in the author's study ; and at the sale of his effects, it brought -- although a mere sketch in colors-over three hundred dollars. IIamilton is not less successful in his treatment of land- seapes than in his representations of sea and coast views. Ilis illustrations of the " Arctic Explorations," published in 1856, attracted general admiration at home and abroad, and were highly praised by competent critics. His paint- ing of the " Old Ironsides," is a spirited translation to canvas of Dr. Holmes' well-known lines. " The Capture
of the Serapis," -- a brilliant incident in the career of John Paul Jones-is delineated with great effect and power. AAmong the best known and most admired of his pictures, are, " Solitude," " An Egyptian Sunset," " The Haunts of the Sea-fowl," " Wrecked Hopes," "The Finding of Perdita," " Moonlight Seene near Veniec," "On such a Night as This," " Portia's House at Belmont," and several subjects from the Tempest, " The Sceptre of Egypt shall Depart," " The Equinoetial on Brigantine Shoals," and " Boston Harbor."
E SCHWEINITZ, EDMUND, Bishop of the Moravian Church, was born at Bethlehem, Penn- sylvania, March 20th, 1825. IIe is the third son of Louis David Von Schweinitz, who was the first Superintendent of the secular affairs of the Moravians, after the dissolution of the " Econ- omy; " and the great great-grandson of Lewis, the Count Zinzendorf, who was the Restorer of the Moravian Church, in Saxony, and founder of the seet in America. ITis two surviving brothers are also prominently connected with this church ; one, Emil A., being Fiscal Agent of the Moravians, at Salem, North Carolina, and the other, Robert, being President of the Provincial Ellers' Conference of the Mor- avian Church, at Bethlehem. The family are also related to General Alexander Von Schweinitz, Prussian Minister at Vienna. Hle received his education firstly at Nazareth IIall, the Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, and afterwards at the University of Berlin, in Prussia. He returned from Europe, in 1846, and became teacher in Nazareth Ilall Seminary, in which position he remained until 1850, when he entered the ministry, and was first stationed at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, after which he was successively at Litiz, Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and, in 1864, at Bethlehem. ITis several congregations have held him in the highest estimation, both for his fervid elo- quenee, for which he has been distinguished from the com- mencement of his pastorate, and which is unusual in that denomination, and also for his great amiability of charac- ter. Besides his other labors, his church thought fit to entrust to him the establishment of its paper, called the Moravian, which is the leading and accredited organ of the society, of which he was editor for ten years. In 1867, he was appointed President of the Moravian Theological Seminary, which office he still holds. In 1870, he became Bishop, by the selection of the Unity's Elders' Conference, in Heronhnt, and is now one of the only four Bishops of the Moravian Church in Amerien. In addition to many sermons and articles in cyclopsdias, both religious and secular, he has written numerous works, chiefly ceelesias- tical in their character. In IS58, he published, by author- ity of the church, The Moravian Manual, of which a second edition was issued in 1869. In 1870, appeared, The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, published by
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Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia. This work established his reputation as an exact historian, and is exhaustive in its treatment of a difficult subject. Ile also is writing all the Moravian articles in the German Conversations Lexi- con. In 1871, the degree of S. T. D. was conferred upon him by Columbia College, New York-a deserved tribute to his thorough and liberal culture. He has been married twice; in 1850, to Lydia De Zschirschky, and again, in 1868, to Isabel Boggs, of Green Castle, Pennsylvania.
ICKEY, IION. OLIVER J., Lawyer, was born in Beaver Falls, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, April 6th, 1823. Ilis father, John Dickey, was a prominent politician, and nicmber of the State Senate during several sessions, and Congressman. during two terms; his mother was a daughter of Dr. Samuel Adams, of the family of Massachusetts Adams. On his father's side, he is of Scotch-Irish, and on his mother's of English descent. Ile was cducated at the Beaver Academy until his fifteenth year, when he entered Dickinson College, where he remained three years, leaving at the end of his junior year. He then commenced the study of the law, in the office of James Allison, in Beaver Falls. In 1846, he was admitted to the bar, and removed to Lancaster, where he entered the office of the Ilon. Thaddeus Stevens, remaining with him for thirteen years, during the last eight of which he was his partner; he was also one of his executors. In 1856, he was elected District Attorney for Lancaster county, and, in 1868, was returned to Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his friend and partner, of whom, in his first speech in Congress, he thus spoke: "This distinguished statesman was not merely my predecessor in this body, but was the instructor and guide of my youth, and the friend of my maturer years. If an intimacy with wise and noble men be one of the greatest blessings that can crown a man, then in no part of my career have I been so fortunate as in my association with Thaddeus Stevens. It was in his office, and in connection with him, that I commenced my profes- sional life, and from that moment down to the moment when, in his will, he selected me to perform the last service one man can ask from his fellow, through the turmoil of many legal and political contests, our friendship suffered neither diminution nor interruption." He was also elected for the succeeding term, and, in 1870, was re elected by a large majority to the Forty-first Congress, during which he was a member of the Committee on Appropriations. So greatly satisfied were his constituents with his service in Congress that he was strongly urged by them to consent to again allow himself to be elected. This honor he declined, considering that the duties of his profession claimed his at- tention. In Congress, he seldom occupied the time of the House with formal speeches, but made brief a:d incisive
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