The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 70

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

USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 70

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EISS, CHARLES, Coal Merchant, was horn Feb- ruary 10th, 1812, at Nicetown, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, his parents being George Weiss and Sarah ( Nice) Weiss. Ile received his education at the old Germantown Academy, and on leaving there, when ahout seventeen years of age, was apprenticed to learn the trade of a lapidary. At the expiration of his term he went (about 1838) to Phila- delphia, and there hecame engaged in the business of hotel keeping, which he continued to carry on until 1846, when he became a coal merchant, his location being on Ninth street, above Poplar. In 1850, he removed to Germantown, and has continued the business there up to the present time (1874). lle has engaged extensively in real estate operations in Germantown, in which he has been very sue-

cessful. Ile is a Director of the National Bank of Ger- mantown, and of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Germantown, and is also intimately connected with all the important local enterprises of the town, in which he holds an honorable and conspicuous position. In politics he is a Republican. Hle was married, in 1838, to Susan R., daughter of Jacob Ilortter, of Germantown.

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CHILUNDECKER, GENERAL MATHEW, Treasurer of the German Savings Bank, Eric, Pennsylvania, was born in Bavaria, July 10th, IS29. Educated in the public schools of his native country, he came to seek his fortune in America when he was twenty years of age. Ile settled in Erie and engaged in mercantile pursuits till the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, when, though previously General of the State militia and well versed in military tactics, he set an example to the community by en- listing as a private, on April 19th, 1861. Ile was, how- ever, soon promoted to the commission of Major, and was afterwards elected Colonel of the 11th Regiment Pennsyl- vania Volunteers. As remarked by a fellow. citizen, the energy, public spirit and sagacity of General Schlundecker have been manifested to the great advantage of Eric. Many of its improvements have originated with him, and all have received his support. Of large means and irre- pressihle energy, he is always ardent in the support of measures that commend themselves to his judgment. Still in the ascendance of life, with broad financial schemes re- quiring time to mature, the better part of his career has probably yet to be told.

WING, HON. THOMAS, Lawyer and President Judge of the United States District Court of Al- Jegheny County, Pennsylvania, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, July 3d, 1827. Ilis parents were both of Scotch- Irish descent, and when he was about three years of age they settled in Allegheny. His education, which was thorough and extended, was completed by his graduation from Jeffer- son College, Pennsylvania, in the class of 1853. For one year following he was an assistant Teacher in a school in his native State, and for the next three years Principal of the Natchez (Mississippi) Institute. Having occupied his leisure in legal studies and gained admittance to the bar, he commenced, in 1857, the practice of the law in Pitts- burgh, and soon succeeded in establishing a professional connection which has brought him wealth and high honor professionally and politically. Ile was a Republican Dele- gate, representing the Thirty-third Senatorial District, com- posed of the county of Allegheny, in the Constitutional Convention of 1873-'73, and occupied an influential position

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therein, being a member of the Committees on Legislation and Revenue, Taxation and Finance. Ile was for many years a School Director, and takes a great interest in all matters pertaining to popular education. Ile was married, in 1859, to Miss Hufnagel, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Ile was elected to his present high position during his term of service as a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion, and assumed the duties of the post on the Ist day of March, 1873.

AMPTON, JOHN HENRY, Lawyer, etc., son of llon. Moses Hampton, was born at Union- town, Pennsylvania, October 25th, 1828. ITis father's means being ample, he was afforded peculiar educational advantages. ITis prelimi- nary studies were pursued at the Western Uni- versity of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in 1842 he was placed at the West Alexander Academy, where, under the tuition of Dr. John McCloskey, he was prepared for college. In the fall of 1844, he entered the Sophomore class of Washington College, and graduated from that institution with the highest honors in September, 1847. In the spring of that year he was selected to deliver the original oration in the contest between the literary societies of the college, and succeeded in winning for his society the honor which for the five preceding years it had been unable to attain. lle began the study of law with IIon. James Todd, in Philadelphia, but, his health failing, he returned to Pitts- burgh, where, later, he resumed his studies under the llon. Edwin 11. Stowe, and was admitted to the bat February 15th, 1851. Ile at once engaged in practice with his father, but the connection was severed by the elevation of the latter to the bench. On the completion of the Penn- sylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh, in 1852, he was appointed Assistant Solicitor, and since has almost exclusively de- voted his attention to the interests of that great corporation. In 1857, upon the resignation of General William .1. Stokes, then Solicitor, he was placed at the head of his department, where he still remains. The same year he was also appointed Solicitor of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Rail- road, and upon the leasing of that road to the Pennsylvania Company retained his position. From the completion of the Pan Handle and the Western Pennsylvania Railroads ISHIER, IION. ROBERT J., Lawyer and Presi- dent Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, was born in Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, in May, ISOS. Ilis father, George Fisher, also of Harrisburg, was one of the first lawyers admitted to the bar in Dauphin county, was in active practice there for more than sixty years, and during one period of his lifetime practised in all the counties of the State from Lancaster to the New York State line on the Susquehanna ; noted for his aversion to political office-holding, he repeatedly declined to accept public he has been Solicitor for both, and he holds a like office in the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Company. In 1872, with his then partner, he added the solicitorship of the Pittsburgh, Virginia & Charleston Railroad Com- pany to his long list of corporation clients, and it was sup- plemented in 1874 by the Allegheny Valley Railroad. In politics, he has through life been an active, working Whig and Republican. He was frequently a member of State conventions, and his services were greatly in demand as a campaign speaker; but of late years his professional en- gagements have prevented him from appearing as actively | positions of honor and emolument, and on one occasion,

in the political arena, though he still continues warmly in- terested in and firmly attached to the party he has done so much to serve. He was the projector of the Allegheny County Law Library, and has been its President ever since its organization. Ile delivered the oration, October 2151, 1873, on behalf of Washington College, at the laying of the cornerstone of. the Washington and Jefferson College; Ilon. Cyrus L. Pershing one on behalf of Jefferson College, and Hon. John Scott another. . Mr. Hampton's oration was largely quoted by the leading papers of the country and elicited much favorable comment.

LLISON, JOSEPH, President Judge of the Courts of Common Pleas and Oyer and Terminer of the City and County of Philadelphia, was born in ISzo, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, his parents being then residents of that city. When in his nineteenth year he began the study of the law under John B. Adams, and was admitted to the bar on November 23d, 1843. Although not the recipient of a collegiate or classical education, he, in company with such men as David Rittenhouse and Chancellor Walworth, may assert that he was his own tutor, and graduated upon a farm. Taking into consideration the difficulties encoun- tered by him at the outset of his professional career, his efforts were soon crowned with success, and when unex- pectedly placed in nomination for a judicial seat he had succeeded in acquiring a lucrative and widening practice. From 1846 to 1851 he was Solicitor of the District of Spring Garden. In October of the latter year, he was nominated by the Know Nothing party, and was elected to the bench as Associate Law Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia; to this position he was again re- turned in October, IS61. Subsequently, he was appointed by Governor Curtin to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of President Judge Oswald Thompson. In October, 1866, he was elected for a term of ten years to the position which he at present occupies.

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having acted as Judge of Election, would not receive the | soldiers to lay aside their arms; the judge replied that, re- compensation due to him for his services, saying that he gardless of the military present, he would discharge or remand the relator as the law required. In this, one of the earliest conflicts between the civil and the military power, he firmly sustained the majesty of the law, and the relator was discharged. On a similar occasion he again opposed a growing military despotism, and in a serions quarrel be- tween the military and civil authorities acted as a strict and fearless arbiter. While ardently anxions for the speedy overthrow of the Rebellion, he was determined to assert the supremacy of the civil law, and in no instance did he experience a defeat. Although strongly attached to the principles of the Democratic party, he has, since his acces- sion to the bench, retired from all active participation in local and State politics. Some of his legal opinions have been widely quoted in the newspapers and legal journals; among them may be cited Coorer's Appeal, 5 Casey, 10; Commonwealth vs. Ahl, 7 Wright, 34; York County vs. Dathousan, 9 Wright, 372; and Hill vs. Myers, 10 Wright, 15. Ile was married, January 28th, 1836, to Catherine Jameson, youngest daughter of Horatio Gates Jameson, Professor of Surgery in the Cincinnati Medical College and also in the Washington Medical College at Baltimore, Maryland; she dying May 28th, 1850, he was again married in Northbridge, Massachusetts, in Septem- ber, 1854, to Mary Sophia Cadwell, who is still living. " had never taken a dollar of public money, nor would take it"; he died in the entire possession of all his faculties, when in his eighty-seventh year. Ilis mother, Ann (Jones) Fisher, of Philadelphia, was a niece of Chief Justice Ship- pen, and a daughter of Robert S. Jones. Ilis brother, John Adams Fisher (now deceased), was for many years an able practitioner in the Twelfth Judicial District, com- posed of the counties of Dauphin and Lebanon, and pos- sessed a very extensive practice of the most honorable nature. Robert J. Fisher was educated at the Harrisburg Academy, and at the age of eighteen engaged in a course of legal studies under the able guidance of his father. In September, 1827, he entered the Law Department of Yale College, and in the fall of 1828 was admitted to the bar, when, removing immediately to York, Pennsylvania, he rapidly acquired a large and remunerative practice. From an carly date he has been uniformly identified with the Democratic party, and has several times represented York county in State conventions; but he has never been a member of any legislative body, declining on many occa- sions nominations for various responsible positions whose attendant duties might have interfered with his professional pursuits. In 1840, he was a delegate to the National Con- vention at Baltimore which nominated Martin Van Buren for President; and in 1847 was appointed as one of the Board of Visitors to the Military Academy at West Point; he was also on the committee appointed to prepare the final report, and the major portion of that part not relating to military affairs was written by him. In 1848, he was placed on the Democratic electoral ticket, but, Pennsyl- vania not recognizing General Cass's claims to the Presi- dency, he did not secure an election. He was first elected to the position of President Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial District in October, 1851, was re-elected to that important office in 1861, and was again chosen in 1871; on each of these occasions he received the unanimous nomination of the York County Convention and of the District Confer- ence. During the late Rebellion, he was an earnest Unionist, and in his charge to the Grand Jury at the April session of 1861 strongly recommended the raising of troops for the support of the National authority, urging also the advisability of ample appropriations for the support of the families of those who should vohmteer to sustain the Gov- ernment; in pursuance of this recommendation, the com- missioners subsequently appropriated a large sum of money, which was expended in accordance with his advice. Later, York was made a military station, and while such one of its citizens, Mr. Ilarris, was arrested by military authority and imprisoned in a guard-house ; application was made to Judge Fisher for a writ of habeas corpus, which was promptly granted. The prisoner, guarded by a file of sol- diers with fixed bayonets, was brought into the court room ; the counsel for the relator asked the court to order the

AULKNER, PETER, M. D., Physician, was born at Milton, Columbia county, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 21st, 1794. He springs from the same root as the eminent Charles J. Faulkner of West Virginia, though the connection between them is remote. At a very early age he removed with his parents to Steuben county, New York, and after receiv- ing a good English education, in a private school, entered his father's office to study medicine when but fifteen years old. His father, who was a man of fine parts, a graduate of Princeton and a member of the New York Legislature, enjoyed a large practice, which enabled him to give his son great clinical advantages, so that, besides an unusual . acquaintance for his years with the diagnosis and pathology of disease, the young man had, before the age of twenty- one, acquired a perfect theoretical and practical knowledge of anatomy, having with the other two students in his father's office made seven entire dissections, while three is about the most students at the medical colleges usually perform. To this rigid practical training in anatomy may doubtless be ascribed Dr. Faulkner's great success in opera- tive surgery. So skilful was his hand, and so rapid, that when it became necessary in later years to amputate the leg of a son who refused to permit any one else to perform the operation, it is related that, having applied the tourniquet and given himself an instant to command his nerves, he

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turned, performed the operation and removed the young man from the table in the almost incredibly short space of four minutes and a half. At the age of twenty-one he assumed the entire charge of his father's connection for a year, and afterwards proceeded to Danville, Pennsylvania, where he remained another year. Later, he removed to Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and thence to Dauphin county, where he practised four years at the village of Halifax. Then he stayed a short time at Erie, subsequently settling for twenty-three years in Crawford county. In 1844, he removed to the city of Erie, where he has since lived. After practising thirty-one years on the allopathic system, and acquiring a reputation that gave significance to his apostacy, he took up the study of homoeopathy, and after testing it quietly for a year, with the best results, renounced the allopathic treatment in a public letter to the news- papers, which for a time drew down upon him the severest animadversions of the school he had deserted. But he has lived to see homeopathy respected and to build up a sue- cessful practice. Already past fourscore years, he lives in the enjoyment of a clear mind and vigorous health. Im- paired sight, however, obliges him to relinquish surgical practice. IIe has been thrice married and is the father of three practising physicians. In 1815, he married Rebecca Merrick, of Maryland, who lived but three years ; in 1825, Jane Moody, of Erie, who died in 1863; and later, Mary B. Taggart, also of Erie.

AZZAM, JOSEPH M., Lawyer and Financier, of Pittsburgh, President of the Franklin Savings Fund and Safe Deposit Company, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 2d, 1842. ITis grandfather, William Gazzam, was a promi- nent English journalist of the Liberal school in ING, ALEXANDER, Merchant, was born in Milford, Donegal county, Ireland, in 1816. Attending various local private schools until seventeen years of age, he left his home, and about the year 1836 came to the United States. Landing in Baltimore, he got a situation as a clerl: in a grocery house, remaining for three years. He then moved to Pittsburgh, where he joined his brother, Robert Il. King, a merchant grocer. In two years he entered into partnership with John Watts, a resident of the town, under the firm-name of Watts & King, and they traded as general grocers. This connection lasted for three years, when, upon the dissolution of the firm, he prosecuted the business alone, meeting with great success. In 1843, he introduced soda-ash into this country, and subsequently furnished it in large quantities to various manufacturers of glass; that article he imported from England, and, by the exercise of energy and shrewdness combined, secured laige returns for his outlay. A few years later, he conceived the idea of manufacturing soda- the reign of George III .; and, having earnestly and per- sistently opposed the course of treatment adopted in the face of the American colonists, was compelled to leave England, and coming to this country settled in Pittsburgh. Ilis parents were Ion. Edward D. Gazzam and Elizabeth Antoinette (Bulen) Gazzam; the latter, married to the former in 1835, was the daughter of Constantine Antoine Bulen, the son of Baron de Bulen, who was the first Min- ister from Austria to this country. Ilis education was acquired in the Western University of Pennsylvania, and upon the completion of his course of studies in that insti- tution he read law with Hon. David Reed, January 4th, 1864, he was admitted to the Allegheny county courts; in 1866, to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; in 1867, to the United States Circuit and District Courts; and in 1870, to the Supreme Court of the United States, For several years he represented the First Ward in the City Councils, evincing marked energy and ability in the faith- ful fulfilment of his duties, lle is President of the Franklin Savings Fund and Safe Deposit Company; also Lash, and established for that purpose an extensive factory

President of the United States, the American and the In- ternational Building and Loan Associations. He is, more- over, the Director for Pennsylvania of the United States Law Association.

9 GOWEN, FRANKLIN B., Lawyer and President of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, was born at Mount Airy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 9th, 1836. Adopting the profession of the law, he was admitted to the bar of his native city in May, 1860, and quickly acquired an extensive and lucrative practice, which he retained until his acceptance of the Presidency of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, in 1870. IIe was for some time District Attorney of Schuylkill county. On the appoint- ment of the Constitutional Convention, in 1872, he was elected as a Democratic Delegate at Large. IIe dis- charged the duties of this position with zeal and assiduity, and continued to take part ably in all the debates of the convention until May, 1873, when he resigned. While in the convention he was Chairman of the Committee on Revision and Adjustment, and a member of the Com- mittee on County, Township and Borough Officers. ITis speeches, delivered while in this body, were vigorous, clear and to the point, and were hardly excelled for their effectiveness by any made on that floor. In his capacity as chief of one of the most important railroads of the State, he has displayed great administrative ability, to which is owing, in no small measure, the growing pros- perity of that valuable road.

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in Birmingham, Pittsburgh, associating with him, as part- | sought, his views adopted, and his word as an authority ner, Thomas Graham, under the firm-name of King & unquestioned. He served for several years as Correspond- ing Secretary of the York County Agricultural Society of Pennsylvania, and is at present the President of the Pennsylvania Fruit. Growers' Society. He has been fre- quently called upon to deliver lectures before Teachers' Conventions, in various sections of the State, and has held the position of Vice-President of the Teachers' Associa- tion of the State of Pennsylvania. By numerous scientific and literary societies of colleges and State normal schools, he has been elected and enrolled in honorary membership. Graham. That enterprise, however, was not successful, as the article could not be produced here to sell with fair profit beside the imported ash, and the business was abandoned. Since this time, the partners have continued the importing of soda-ash, and their efforts have resulted prosperously. Although disinclined to take an active part in political movements, A. King is warmly interested in the welfare of the Democratic party, and supports its measures and nominations. Ile is one of the Trustees of the Gas Works, and is the largest holder in the Fort Pitt Bank Company. He has been twice married.

EIGES, PROFESSOR S. B., Scholar, Scientist, etc., was born at Dillsbury, Pennsylvania, Feb- rnary 16th, 1837. In the local school he was scholar and teacher, until his sixteenth year, when he was placed in full charge of a school in Perry county. In 1854, the first year of the County Superintendeney in Pennsylvania, he became a teacher in Cumberland county; and the next year was assigned, as Principal, to an academy previously presided over by the superintendent of that county. During several years, he spent the summer seasons at the Cumberland Valley Institute, Mechanicsburg, then in a highly flourish- ing condition, and for a few sessions was there engaged in the capacity of tutor, availing himself, meanwhile, of the opportunity to pursue a course of instruction in natural sciences, under the able tuition of Professor Dornbough. He was next chosen Professor of Mathematics in the Cum- berland County Normal School, and occupied that chair during three sessions. In 1861, he removed to York, and organized a very flourishing school at Cottage Ilill College, where he remained until commissioned Superintendent of the Schools of York county, June 4th, 1863, to which position, three years subsequently, he was unanimously re-elected. After retiring he filled the chair of Professor of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in the York County Academy for three years, and for twelve months held the same post in the Iligh School of York. On the com- pletion of the York Collegiate Institute, the Professorship of the same branches was tendered to, and accepted by him; but the labor of both departments, in so extensive an establishment, proving too exacting, he, at the close of the first year, resigned the Professorship of Mathematics, retaining the chair of Natural Sciences, which he still ably fills. Much of his leisure time has been devoted to in- vestigations in vegetable and animal physiology, and his wide-spread reputation for deep learning in those branches has naturally brought him into prominence among the circles interested therein. As a member of numerous agricultural and 'horticultural societies, his opinion is

ROWN, DAVID PAUL, Lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, September 28th, 1795. Ilis an- cestors, who belonged to the Society of Friends, came from England with Lord Berkley, upon the first settlement of New Jersey, and resided at Berkley, in Gloucester county. His father, Paul Brown, born in 1767, settled in Philadelphia in 1790, and there was married to Rhoda Thackara, a native of Salem. He was the only offspring of this union, and until ISio, the date of his mother's decease, was educated under the instruction of private tutors; he was then sent to Massachusetts, to the Rev. Dr. Daggett, with whom he completed a term of classical studies, ultimately graduating with the highest honors. While in his seventeenth year, at the suggestion of his father, he began to study under Dr. Benjamin Rush. Later, after the death of his precep- tor, he took up legal studies under William Rawle; and, in September, 1816, was admitted to practice in the Dis- triet Court and Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia; and, soon after, in the Supreme Court of the State, and in the District, Circuit, and Supreme Courts of the United States. In 1819, he was appointed by the Washington Benevolent Society, Orator, to deliver the annual discourse upon the birthday of President Washington. In 1824, he was engaged by the Hon. Robert Porter, President Judge of the Common Pleas, in his defence upon an impeachment before the Senate of Pennsylvania; in 1832, in the cele- brated case of Mrs. Chapman, charged with the murder of her husband; and, on February 22d, 1833, delivered the address in the Washington Square, upon the occasion of laying the corner-stone for the monument erected to the memory of General Washington. In the memorable case of William Holmes, tried for the murder of Francis Askin, he was of counsel, and his speech delivered on that occasion excited great admiration and much comment throughout the State. He was engaged also in the case of Farkin, tried for murder in Philadelphia; and in that of Morgan Ilinchman, tried in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in March, IS.44; bis able management of both winning him fresh laurels. Constantly occupied in his profession, he carried to successful terminations many

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 70

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