USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 76
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80
652
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
real estate in connection with his official duties. He was married, January 19th, 1812, to Eve Maria Myers, of Lan- caster. For forty-two years he was crier of the several courts, there having only been three since the organization of the court, nearly one hundred years ago. IIe was a man of genial disposition, great native wit, warm heart and general intelligence. Ile ever recalled with justifiable pride the fact that he was the author of the first petition ever written in favor of the Married Woman's Law. IIe presented the petition written in rhyme, and it excited much favorable comment at the time, and was conducive of such beneficial results that he might well claim to be the author of that most excellent law. He died August 12th, 1874, and the members of the Lancaster Bar, men eminent in law, society and politics, and also the School Board, in special meetings paid exceptionally high tribute to his memory.
ILLARD, JAMES R., Journalist, was born at Madison, Lake county, Ohio, Sept. 24th, 1844. Ile received his preparatory instruction at Olivet College, Michigan, and graduated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1867. lle attended law lectures at the University of Michigan in 1867-'68, and continued his legal studies under Judges Worden and Morris of Fort Wayne, Indiana, until June, IS68, when he became editor and part owner of the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette. The following year he pur- chased an interest in the Erie (Pennsylvania) Daily Dis- patch, with which paper he is now connected. In Febru- ary, 1873, he was sent to Copenhagen, as bearer of United States dispatches to Denmark. Ile received the appoint- ment of Collector of Customs of the District of Eric in Feb- ruary, 1874, and still holds that office. He was married in January, 1871, to Julia M. Hobart of Union City, Michigan.
AY'S, GENERAL ALEXANDER, Soldier and Engineer, was born in Venango county, Penn- sylvania, in 1820. IIe received a good English education, and being appointed in 1839, to West Point, graduated in the class of 1844, with Gene- ral Grant and others who subsequently won high distinction in military pursuits. July Ist, 1844, he was commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, 4th United States Infantry, and served with this organization until transferred to the Sth United States Infantry, June 18th, 1846, and commissioned First Lieutenant for " gallant conduct on the fields of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma." AAfterward, being assigned to recruiting service in western Pennsylvania, he raised in a short time a large body of men with which he proceeded to Vera Cruz, whence he marched to the relief of the garrison at Puebla, lle was subsequently
appointed Assistant Adjutant-General for the expedition under General Joe Lane, in its operations against Urrea and the guerillas infesting the country contiguous to the City of Mexico, and contributed greatly to its ultimate success. After the close of the Mexican War he resigned, April 12th, IS48, and became engaged as a civil engineer upon im- portant works in California, and later, in western Pennsyl- vania, where the outbreak of the Rebellion found him employed in the construction of a bridge for the Allegheny Valley Railroad. He was among the first to volunteer, anel speedily raised a company of three months' men, known as the City Guards, and composed mainly of the sons of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Pittsburgh. It was probably the first full company to depart for the seat of war, and was mustered in as a part of the 12th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. In the organization of the regi .. ment he was elected Major, with the express stipulation that he was not to separate himself from his company, more than two-thirds of which afterward entered the three years' service with commissions, of which proportion one-half became fieldl officers. In the summer of 1861, he was appointed Captain of the 16th United States Infantry, but at the expiration of the three months' service returned to Alle- gheny county where he recruited the 63d Regiment Penn- : sylvania Volunteers, with which he reported at Washington in the following fall, and was finally assigned to the com- mand of General Phil. Kearney, whose notice he soon attracted by his heroic conduct, and a close intimacy speedily grew up between the two soldiers. Ile led his command at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, Gaines' IIill, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill and Groveton, where he was severely wounded. While being borne from the field, though suffering excruciating pain, he could not repress the exuberant spirit ever animating him, and he ordered his negro servant " Pomp" to " bring him a cork and stop the hole in his leg or he would bleed to death." September 29th, 1862, he was commissioned Brigadier- General of Volunteers, and appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, United States Army. The Third Brigade, Casey's Division, Ilcintzelman's Corps, being in a state of confusion and mutiny, General Heintzelman, recognizing the executive abilities of " Sandy Hays," selected him for that command. Ile summarily quelled all signs of disorder, and, under him, the brigade did gallant service in many hard-fought struggles. After the action at Chancellorsville, Lee, by a daring strategic movement, forced his way into Maryland and Pennsylvania, until confronted at Gettysburg, July Ist, by the Union forces; General Hays, in command of the Third Division, Second Corps, was, July 3d, opposed by the Confederate Corps of General A. P. Hill, under whom was General George E. Picket, with other classmates and comrades; and it was his command that so gallantly hurled back the rebel cohorts of Hill in that desperate charge which, turning the tide of the battle, ensured a final victory. The trophies of that day were twenty banners and flags,
653
BIOGRAPHIICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
with three thousand stands of arms, and he killed and [ to his enterprise. Being an extensive landholder, he, about captured nearly twice the number of his own force, During 1850, laid out a great many building lots which he disposed of at moderate rates, thereby affording the poor and thrifty an opportunity to acquire a homestead. He was a staunch Whig in politics, and afterwards a Republican, being elected by the latter party to the State Legislature in 185S, Ile was active in party politics, but never sought or desired office. In religious faith and doctrine he was a Presbyterian of the old school, Ile was unostentatious, conscientious and liberal, a friend to the poor and deserving, an honest, strong, sensible gentleman, He died at his home, Decem- ber 4th, 1867. the action he had two horses killed under him, while every member of his staff was unhorsed ; he lost fourteen of his twenty mounted orderlies, and all his colonels ; lieutenant- colonels commanded his brigades, and lieutenants his regi. ments. Ile participated also at Auburn, Bristoe Station, Locust Grove, Morton's Ford and the Wilderness, where, Thursday, May 5th, 1864, he was slain-the hero of thirty-two battles-at the head of his own regiment while cheering and sustaining his men against an overwhelming and desperate array of enemies. He was married, in April, 1848, to Anna, daughter of John B. McFadden, an old and respected citizen of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
ORRIS, JOHN F., Prothonotary for Crawford county, Pennsylvania, was born in Meadville, August 22d, IS35, his parents being Levi L., and Nancy (MeKnight) Morris. His father came from England, and his mother from Northampton county, Pennsylvania; the former died when J. F.
Morris was a child. He was educated at a local private school. Ile entered the army August 15th, 1861, as cap- tain of Company B, 83d Pennsylvania Volunteers; was wounded in three places at the battle of Gaines' Mill, and was taken prisoner. Exchanged after two months, he was discharged September, 1862, on account of wounds which rendered him unfit for service. In 1863, he was elected Register and Recorder for Crawford county, declin- ing in consequence an appointment as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Invalid Corps; the office he held three years. Ile then engaged in mercantile pursuits till December, 1872, when he was elected Prothonotary for Crawford county. Ile holds a commission as major in the State militia. Mar- ried to Libbie A. Otterstatter of Meadville, September 15th, IS61, he has had six children, three of whom survive.
EGLEY, DANIEL, Capitalist, Merchant, etc., was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 10th, 1802, His father Jacob, was a native of Frank- fort, Germany, his more remote ancestors having been prominent in the Reformation. Ilis educa- tion was limited, but he possessed great natural intelligence, energy and industry, and having inherited large wealth, he from early life, carried on suceessfully at the same time, mercantile business, the manufacture of bricks, coal trade, and transportation of goods east and west by road-teams, before the days of railroads. The portion of Pittsburgh known as East Liberty, (founded by his father), in which his life was spent, owes its success mainly
AGNER, CHARLES V., Manufacturer, was born in Philadelphia, January 13th, 1796, being the son of Philip Ilagner, and the grandson of Frederick Hagner, who emigrated to America from Ger- many in 1745. Both his father and grandfather were prominent citizens of Philadelphia, and served as commissioned officers in the Revolutionary War. Charles V. Ilagner received his education at the University of Pennsylvania, and commenced life as clerk in a mer- chant's office. After about a year spent in this position, he entered his father's mill at the Falls of Schuylkill, and re- mained there in a subordinate capacity until 1817, in which year his father retired, and he assumed the absolute control of the business. In 1820, he bought a water power at Manayunk, of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, removed there, and erected a mill especially adapted to the manu- facture of oils and the grinding of drugs. Before this time the grinding or powdering of drugs had been done by hand exclusively, with pestle and mortar, and to him belongs the distinction of being the founder of the system of powdering drugs by machinery. He successfully introduced the int- provement, for many years held an entire monopoly of this whole trade, and notwithstanding much adverse criticism, brought it to a favorable issue. In 1823, he added to his works a fulling mill, and caused to be made a number of power looms for weaving satinets, which were the first power looms ever used in Pennsylvania for weaving woollen goods. Thus he was also the pioneer in the introduction of looms, and his establishment became the birthplace of the vast woollen manufacturing industry, which now sends forth its busy hum not only along the banks of the Schuyl- kill, but throughout the entire Keystone State. In 1838, his factories were burned down, and he then left Manayunk, and in the following year removed to Philadelphia, where he took, for the purposes of his business, the old Lancas- terian School Building, which he fitted with every possible appliance for the grinding of heavy drugs. The business has been continued with the greatest success to the present time (1874), and it is the representative house in this branch of trade. In addition to his prominence as an enterprising merchant, he became noteworthy for his public spirit, and
654
BIOGRAPHIICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
his exertions for the welfare of the community. Ile it was who established the first post-office at Manayunk, and kept it running for several years by his own individual efforts. Ile was commissioned by Governor Wolfe as a magistrate of Manayunk, and it was through him that the first stage was run between Manayunk and Philadelphia. In 1832, during the cholera epidemic, he exerted himself manfully for the sufferers, Ile has been conspicuous among the schools of the State, and done much to increase their effi- ciency. Ile has made his mark in his generation, and in common with many successful men attributes no small share of that success to the powerful influence for good exerted upon him in his young days by his mother. He is the author of Early History of Falls of Schuylkill and Manayunk, an interesting record of the men and customs of early times.
ILFILLAN, HON. CALVIN W., Lawyer and Banker, was born in Lawrence county, Pennsyl- vania, February 20th, 1832. ITis father was a native of the same county ; his mother, Jane (Adams) was a resident of Beaver county. ITis preliminary education was acquired in neighbor- ing schools, and while in his twentieth year, he commenced a four years course of studies at Westminster College, in New Wilmington, Lawrence county, after which he was engaged in teaching for about two years. In 1857, he was elected County Superintendent of Schools in and for Mercer county, continuing to discharge the duties of that office until 1859, when he resigned. In the same year he removed to Venango county, and commenced the practice of law, hav- ing previously perfected himself in the theory of that profes- sion. In 1861, he was appointed District Attorney of this county, vice Charles E. Taylor, who resigned from that posi- tion in order to enter the army, and with whom he eventu- ally became associated as a law partner. In 1862, he was regularly nominated and elected to the same office, and held it for three succeeding years. In 1868, he was elected to Congress from the then twentieth district of Pennsylva- nia, for the term of two years, by the Republican party. In 1870, he was renominated, but owing to local dissen- sions, failed to secure an election ; during his term as rep- resentative, he was placed on several important committees, notably, those on the District of Columbia, and on Pensions. Ile is largely interested in banking, and in real estate opera- tions, and is President of the Lamberton Savings Bank of Franklin. Ile was one of the organizers of the Penn Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, and by his influence caused a large subscription, from his locality, to the stock of that corporation. In the advancement of all matters of public improvement, he is warmly interested, and is noted as a generous and carnest worker. Ile was married in 1858, to Lizzie Lamberton of Franklin, Pensylvania.
ETTIS, IION. S. NEWTON, was born at Lenox, Ohio, October 10th, 1827, the son of Solomon and Ruth ( House) Pettis. He was educated at Farming and Jefferson Academies, Ohio, and, after reading law with the Hon. Joshua R. Gid- dings, was admitted to the bar, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1850. Ile was appointed counsel for the county of Crawford in 1856, 1857, and 1858, and defended the county in most important suits. In 1860, he was a member of the conventions that nominated President Lin- coln and Governor Curtin. March 25th, 1861, he was appointed, by President Lincoln, an Associate Judge of the United States Supreme Court of Colorado Territory; his resignation thereof was accepted in 1862. Ile was an intimate personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and the eulogy of the President's character delivered before the court at Meadville was one of the most able efforts called forth by the memorable assassination. In 1864, under authority, he recruited, from the rebel prisoners at Rock Island, Illinois, eighteen hundred men, and placed them in the Union army, crediting them to his own congressional district and thus saving the men and money of his section. In 1866, he was elected to the Fortieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ilon. D. A. Finney, and, in 1868, he refused a renomination. In 1871, he was ap- pointed Attorney for the Atlantic & Great Western Rail- road. In 1872, he again refused to be a candidate for con- gressional honors, but, in 1874, he yielded to the solicita- tions of the Republicans of his district and was duly nomi- nated by the Convention of Crawford county. Since his admission to the bar he has always enjoyed an extensive and lucrative practice. He was married to Emma, daughter of Jolin Wightman, of Rosedale, Crawford county, Pennsyl- vania, and three children have been born to them : Ger- trude W., Herbert Ray, and Rush Iluidekoper.
R INEHART, WILLIAM, Merchant, was born in Mifflin township, Pennsylvania, October Ist, 1808. Ilis mother was a native of Ireland; his grand- father and father (who moved to Pittsburgh in ISII) were natives of Chester county, Pennsyl- vania. From five to ten years of age, he attended the common schools, and after that for about nine months a night school; this was all his education. In his tenth year with his brother, he went to work for forty-four cents per week. le cut wood, worked at the paper-staining trade, and learned the tobacco business as a boy. When free, he walked from Pittsburgh, through Philadelphia, to New York, and returned on foot, in order to see the great cities. Ile then went to work at the tobacco business until 1833, when he was appointed clerk in the post-office where he remained three years ; next he went as clerk to Attwood & Jones in the commission forwarding trade. In October,
655
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
1834, with four others he visited and located government lands in Hardin county, Ohio. In 1837, Attwood & Jones sent him West to collect money due them, and he travelled from St. Louis about 700 miles over the prairie to Illinois, on horseback. In 1838, he formed a partnership in the tobacco trade with his brother David. In 1849, he was elected a member of the Select Council from the Fourth Ward, and in 1868 became a Manager of the House of Refuge. Ile is an active member of the Methodist Church. David Rinehart, his brother, was born in the same locality, September 23d, IS10. Except that in 1863, he went to California to wind up an estate, his life has been so thoroughly identified with that of his brother and partner, that the record of one answers for the other. They have been partners through life, their earnings, great and small, have always belonged equally to both, even though the labor of only one acquired the money. They present a rare instance of brotherly affection, and success earned by steady application and unswerving integrity.
ERR, REV. DAVID R., D. D., Professor of Ecclesiastieal History and Church Government in the Theologieal Seminary of the United Pres- byterian Church, Allegheny Gity, Pennsylvania, and Editor-in-chief of the United Presbyterian, was born in Pittsburgh, April Ist, 1817. Ilis father, Rev. Joseph Kerr, D. D., was born in County Derry, Ireland, in 1778, and was the son of an eminent divine connected with the Burgher Division of the Associate Synod in Ireland; he graduated from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1794; eame to the United States in ISor; and, in 1825, was elected the first Professor of Theology of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the West, in Pittsburgh; shortly after, he received from the Western University of Pennsylvania the honorary degree of D. D .; he died November 15th, 1829. Rev. Joseph Reynolds Kerr was born in St. Clair township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, January 18th, 1807, and was educated at the Western University of Pennsylvania, where, at the time of his graduation, in July, 1826, he was awarded the highest honors of his elass; after studying for the ministry in the Presbyterian Synod, where he had cn'ered in 1827, he was licensed to preach the gospel as a Probationer, September 20, 1829. July 29th, 1830, he was ordained, and at once installed as Pastor of the con- gregation formerly under the care of his father, then re- cently deceased. Ile was married, August 24th, IS35, to Harriet Snowden, daughter of Ilon. John M. Snowden, a prominent eitizen of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; from this union sprang three children. Ilis publications are, An Address before the Alumni Association of the Western Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, on the Responsibility of Literary Men ; and A Sermon on Duelling, published in 1838;
about this time the literary degree of M. D. was conferred upon him by the last-named institution. His last sermon was preached in March, 1843, and June 14th, following he died in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Rev. Moses Kerr, born in St. Clair, Pennsylvania, June 30th, 1811, was honorably graduated from the Western University of Pennsylvania in 1828, and studied theology in the Theo- logical Seminary of Allegheny City, under his father's guidance, and later under that of the learned Rev. Mungo Dick. April 28th, 1831, he was licensed to preach as a Probationer, by the Presbytery of Monongahela, and in the same year became the Pastor of the Allegheny Con- gregation ; on the 9th of October, he was ordained to the office of the ministry. Upon his return from a visit to Ireland, he was called to the Pastorship of the Congrega- tion of Robinson's Run, near Pittsburgh, and, in October, 1834, was duly installed as its Pastor; six months later, he was attacked by hemorrhage of the lungs, and April 15th, 1835, demitted his pastoral charge. He then became Professor of Languages in the Western University of Peun- sylvania, and later, of Biblical Literature and Criticism in the Theological Seminary of Allegheny. Ile then ac- eepted a eall from the Third Church, Pittsburgh, October 18th, 1837, and, in that office, closed his life, January 20th, 1840. Rev. David R. Kerr, D. D., studied theology in the Allegheny Seminary, under Dr. John D. Pressley, who had succeeded the Rev. Joseph Kerr, and was licensed to preach, April 15th, 1840; January 21st, 1842, he was cluly ordained to the office of the ministry, and, for a time, preached to the First Associate Reformed Church of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania. In 1846, he took charge of the weekly paper of the church, The Preacher. In 1851, he was elected Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government, in the Associate Reformed Theological Semi- nary, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and still continues to dis- charge the onerous duties of that responsible position with marked learning and ability. Ile continues also to act as editor-in-chief of The Preacher, now known as The United Presbyterian, and recognized as a church organ of superior merit, authority, and interest.
UNTON, ISAAC N., Merchant, was born in Pittsburgh, June 28th, 1841, and is the eldest son of James Bunton, a steamboat joiner, and saw and planing mill operator. Ile acquired his education in the local public schools; and subsequently, was in the employ, as clerk, of William F. Richardson until the breaking out of the Re- bellion. IIe then enlisted for a term of three years in the celebrated Sielles' Excelsior Brigade, with which he served faithfully during the term of his enlistment. Upon his return he became bookkeeper for J. P. Haigh, coal opera- tor, remaining with him until 1868, when he was engaged
656
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
by Joseph Walton as bookkeeper. In 1870, J. Walton purchased the steamboat " Niagara" and barges, with 100,000 bushels of coal, and forming a copartnership known as the Niagara Coal Company, associated I. N. Buntou with him as partner, and manager of the company. Upon the reorganization, October Ist, 1872, of the firm of Joseph Walton & Co., the two companies were con- solidated, and he secured an interest in the general busi- ness. lle is an able accountant, and has been repeatedly entrusted with the settlement of a number of important extension and other settlements of a complicated and deli- cate nature, in all of which he has evinced admirable judgment and ability. At the age of twenty-five, he was married to Jennie Hendrickson, the eldest daughter of Captain D. L. Hendrickson, and is the father of two boys, his eldest child, a daughter, being dead.
EYNOLDS, JOIIN, Lawyer, was boru at Col- chester, England, June 18th, 1782; and came to this country in 1795, to join his parents, set- tling at Lansingburg, New York. His grand- father inherited a large entailed estate in Wor- cestershire, England, and married Sarah Fox, of London, England, by whom he had nine children, the eldest of whom, John, inherited the estate; William, the third son, married Lydia, daughter of John Thomas, a Baptist minister, by whom he had seven daughters and four sons, the eldest being the first-mentioned John. The Reynolds family in England, was composed of strict high church people, and William's emigration to the United States was caused by his separation from the established church, also by his sympathy with the Baptists, and the French Republican movement of that period. John Rey- nolds was educated in Birmingham and Leaminster by private tutors ; in 1797, he came to Venango county, Penn- sylvania, and resided on a tract of land bought from the Holland Land Company, at Cherry Tree Run. In 1805, he removed to Meadville, and was engaged as assistant teacher in the academy of that place. In 1807, he was connected with Colonel Merlin in surveying the property of the Holland Land Company, and continued thus occu- pied for a number of years. Subsequently, he began the study of law under the direction of Colonel Merlin, and in 1812, was admitted to the bar, but devoted little time to the practice of his profession, applying himself almost exclusively to the real estate business. In 1814, he was married to the widow of Dr. Kennedy, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; she died, November 27th, 1845, and his demise occurred July 230, 1871. His eldest son, John V., born April 12th, 1815, graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in the class of 1834; at Princeton, in Theology, in 1838, and in 1852, received from the for- mer institution the degree of D. D. Ile is a Presbyterian
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.