Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 99

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

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then settled at Warren, Pa., where he died in 1899 aged sixty-two years. His wife, Jane (Thompson), had died in 1889, aged forty- nine years, and is interred with him in Forest Lawn cemetery at Buffalo, N. Y. Of their four children, Dr. E. G. Mease lives in Dun- kirk, N. Y .; and Laura is the wife of Alfred Smedley, of Oil City, Pa. The parents sup- ported the Methodist Church, and Dr. Mease was a Republican in political sentiment.

Mrs. Jane (Thompson) Mease was a native of England, born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was ten years old when she accompanied her parents to this country, the family coming first to New Orleans and later settling in California, where both her parents are buried. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson had two children, Jane (Mrs. U. G. Mease) and Elizabeth (Mrs. James F. Brown). They were Episcopalians in religion.

FREDERIC WILLIAM HAYS, attorney, of Oil City, has the distinction of being the oldest member of the Venango county bar in active practice, but his title to honorable men- tion among its most creditable representa- tives does not rest upon that fact alone. His life has been practically devoted to his chosen profession, and the special achievements which have enhanced his personal reputation have been in the line of his calling, regarding which he has always held to the highest standards, theoretically and in practice.

Mr. Hays belongs to a family established in Pennsylvania shortly after the close of the Revolution, his ancestors coming from the North of Ireland. They were of Scotch origin, the name in ancient days having been written De La Haye and De La Haya, later Hay and Hays. The Hay coat of arms was, Argent three escutcheon gules, to which was added the badge of office of Hay, Earl of Errol, Lord High Constable of Ireland, which was crossed arms, each hand grasping a short sword and supporting the escutcheon gules, surmounted by a crown.

William Hay, the first ancestor of this line of whom we have definite account, was born in Scotland, but during the religious persecu- tion left that country and settled in County Tyrone, Ireland. He was at the siege of Derry and endured all its trials until relief came, be- ing separated from his family for twenty-two months. His wife and two small children were of the number of those who had been driven to the walls, she having been obliged to walk with her little ones twenty English miles, dur- ing which their only food was a little oatmeal which she had secreted on her person. A piece

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of horsehide purchased during the siege, for garet Rebecca Moore, and died May 18, 1855; a guinea, just before relief came, was pre- served in the family. William Hay's children were Martha (married John Wallace) and James.

James Hays, son of William Hay, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland. He married and had children, among whom was John.

John Hays, son of James, was the great- grandfather of Frederic William Hays. He was born in 1740, and came to America in 1789, arriving at Philadelphia in September of that year. He spent the winter at Maytown, Lan- caster Co., Pa., and then purchased a farm at the head of Yellow Breeches creek, on the Walnut Bottom road, in Cumberland county, upon which he resided for ten or twelve years. But he was unable to secure a proper title to the property, and his first payment of five hun- dred pounds was lost. Later he bought three hundred acres in Path Valley, Franklin county, this State, where some of his posterity still re- side. He lived there until his death, in 1814, at the age of seventy-four years. In 1766 John Hays married Eleanor Leach, a native of the North of Ireland, who died in 1826. They were the parents of a large family, viz .: Mar- garet, born March 16, 1767, married John Gib- son, and died Dec. 15. 1823; 'Frances, born Aug. 24, 1768, married Robert Patterson, and died Jan. 9. 1851 : James, born Jan. 4. 1770, married and went to South Carolina : John was the grandfather of Frederic William Hays; Elizabeth, born Nov. 29, 1773, died Dec. 5. 1779; William, born Oct. 17, 1775, resided on the old homestead in Path valley, and died May 1. 1864 : Dickey, born March 15, 1777, married Margaret Lindsey ; Jennett was born Dec. 12. 1778; Elizabeth (2), born 1782, died Jan. 21. 1872, unmarried : Eleanor, born in 1785, died Feb. 12, 1877, the wife of William Gamble: Sarah, born in 1787, married John Little. and died Dec. 15, 1860: Jane, born July 2. 1780), died April 20, 1864. unmarried.

John Hays. son of John and Eleanor (Leach) Hays, was born Oct. 14, 1771. in County Tyrone, Ireland. and died June 15, 1811. at Somerset. Pa. In December, 1797, he married Martha Wallace, daughter of Capt. Samuel Wallace ( who served in the Revolu- tionary war) and his wife Margaret ( Patton) and granddaughter of John and Martha ( Hays) Wallace. Mrs. Hays was born April 23, 1773. in Allen township. Cumberland Co., Pa., and survived her husband many years. dying Sept. 25. 1843, at Harrisburg, Pa. They had a family of six children : Samuel Wallace. born Oct. 30, 1799, married Sept. 2, 1834, Mar-

John Lutton, born Dec. 28, 1801, married Sept. 17, 1835, Jane Gibson, and (second) April 14, 1858, Margaret Camblin, and died July 2, 1892 ; William Patton, born Feb. 3, 1804, married Oct. 27, 1831, Rosanna Keller, and died March 5. 1844; Margaret, born March 27, 1806, died Nov. 20, 1892, unmarried ; Eleanor, born Sept. 16, 1807, died in November, 1808; Joseph Cald- well was the father of Frederic W. Hays.

Joseph Caldwell Hays was born July 4, 1810, at Somerset, Pa .. and received the principal part of his schooling at Harrisburg Academy. He learned the printer's trade, and was soon in editorial work. he and George Fleming, of Car- lisle, being associated in the publication of The Expositor at that place. In 1836 he removed to Meadville, Pa., where he made a permanent home, residing there until his death, Nov. 3. 1891. There, too, he followed his favorite pro- fession, in July, 1836, beginning the publica- tion of The Statesman. Early in 1841 he be- came postmaster but was removed after Har- rison's death, which occurred later in that year. and he then followed merchandising for sev- eral years. But on Jan. 13, 1848. he brought out the first number of the Crawford Journal. of which he made a success, himself continu- ing as its editor until 1864. Meantime he had taken considerable direct part in public affairs, having been elected county treasurer in 1859 and sent as a delegate to the National Republi- can convention in 1860, when Lincoln was nominated. In 1861 he received his second appointment as postmaster of Meadville, and in 1864 he was made assistant quartermaster. U. S. A., resigning reluctantly after a few months' service, however, having been inca- pacitated by an accident at Chambersburg. He had previously been aide de camp under Gov- ernors Pollock and Curtin, with the rank of colonel. In 1872 he was appointed post office inspector, serving in that capacity until 1883. and during that period visiting all parts of the United States in his round of duties. In 1873. after unearthing a large deficiency in the post office at New Orleans, he was put in charge there as postmaster until a regular appointment could be made. Ever true to his convictions. he had in this case reported the defalcations against the urgent advice of Republicans who feared the effect of exposure of misfeasance of friends in office. The true condition of affairs had been kept obscured for some time, and he was warned not to make the exposure in case his examination disclosed it. but he did his duty regardless of the effect on his party. caus- ing an upheaval which cast opprobrium on the

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Republican organization in that section of the South which took years to overcome. It was a trial which few men would have had the courage to face, and it was typical of him that he carried it through. Mr. Hays con- tinued to be a prominent figure in the social and political life of Meadville to the end of his days, and never really severed his connection with the newspaper world, on July 27, 1886, being presented with a gold-headed cane to commemorate the completion of his half-cen- tury of work therein. For many years he was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Meadville.

On April 17, 1838, Mr. Hays was married, at Meadville, to Anna Maria Betts, who was born Oct. 13. 1808, and died Feb. 20, 1892. Of the six children born to this union. (1) John Betts, born March 12, 1839, served with distinction in the Civil war, and married, May 26, 1864, Fannie Mead, daughter of Alexander J. Mead and granddaughter of Gen. Daniel Mead, founder of Meadville. They had four children, born as follows: Joseph M., April 16. 1866; Fannie M., Aug. 13, 1868; Anna Louise, July 20. 1870 (died Jan. 13, 1871) : Marion M., Feb. 20, 1876. (2) Samuel Wal- lace, the second in the family, was born Feb. 10, 1841. (3) Frederic William, the third, is mentioned below. (4) Anna Elizabeth, born Dec. 2, 1844, married Oct. 20, 1868. David Compton Dunn, and had children, William Compton (born Dec. 7, 1869), Anna (born May 18, 1871). Ellen (born May 31. 1873). Wallace Hays (born July 10, 1876) and Ruth (born June 27, 1885). (5) Joseph Wallace, born May 22. 1847, died Jan. 13, 1854. (6) Wilson Dick, born Aug. 23. 1849, married, July 7, 1881, Ida M. Stewart, and had one son. Frederick Wallace. born July 24. 1882.

Mrs. Anna Maria (Betts) Hays was de- scended from Thomas Betts, one of three brothers who settled in Guilford, Conn., com- ing to this country in 1650. He had a son James, who married Hannah Bouton, and they had two sons, Benjamin and Elias. Of these, Benjamin, who married Rebecca Taylor, died about 1785. He had a son Benjamin, born Nov. 7. 1733, died 1822, who married, Sept. 16, 1762, Abigail Lockwood, their children being Ebenezer, Elias, Eliphalet. Abigail and Dolly. Of these. Ebenezer Betts married, Dec. 6, 1796, Sally Gregory. of Norwalk, Conn .. and had children: Caroline, born Jan. 10, 1802; Elizabeth, March 25. 1804: Matilda, Aug. 6. 1806: Anna Maria : Frederick Gregory. Aug. 14, 1812.

Mrs. Sally (Gregory) Betts was descended

from Matthew Gregory, who settled in Nor- walk, Conn., and who had a son, Deacon Mat- thew Gregory, born 1673, died 1777. Deacon Matthew Gregory had sons Ezra, Isaiah and Matthew. Ezra Gregory, born Feb. 21, 1726, married Hannah Betts, and had children born as follows: Abram, Oct. 16, 1752 ; Ezra, Oct. 17, 1754: Matthew, Aug. 21, 1757 (died June 5, 1848) ; Hannah, July 27. 1760; Moses, Sept. 13, 1762; Ira, Aug. 12, 1765: Levi, Sept. 7, 1767; Sally, May 21, 1770 (wife of Ebenezer Betts) ; Benjamin, July 27. 1774.

Frederic William Hays was born March 17, 1842, at Meadville, Crawford Co., Pa. He re- ceived an excellent education, taking his col- legiate course at Allegheny College, where he was graduated in June, 1861, in the same class with James D. Chadwick, of Franklin, and Rev. B. F. Delo, who became well known and popular in Venango county as a minister of the Methodist Church. During the next few years Mr. Hays did some reportorial and editorial work on his father's paper, and in 1868 became assistant assessor of internal revenue under his brother, John B. Hays. the assessor for the district, devoting some months to the duties of this position at Oil City. Meanwhile he had commenced the study of law with Der- rickson & Brawley. of Meadville, and on Sept. 20. 1870. was admitted to practice in the Craw- ford county courts, receiving admission to the Venango county bar in October of the same year. On April 10. 1871. he located at Oil City, where he has been in active practice ever since. Some of his early contemporaries at the Ve- nango county bar were John Galbraith, Isaac Ash, William McNair. David Sterritt. Henry A. Converse. John B. McAllister and Hugh C. Graham, and the district (then consisting of V'enango and Mercer counties) was presided over by Judge Trunkev. The first case which Mr. Hays had involved the ownership of a pig worth three dollars, the litigants being Thomas McCash, plaintiff, whose lawyer was James Dorworth, another young attorney, and Alex- ander Cameron, whose cause was handled by Mr. Hays. Many witnesses gave testimony before the Squire, the peculiarities of that pig being described with wonderful minuteness, and the deciding testimony was the substantia- tion of a few freckles on the pig's back. Judg- ment was accorded the plaintiff. Such was the modest beginning of a career devoted to useful and serious legal labors. In 1871 Mr. Hays was commissioned notary public, serving as such until he went to the legislature. In 1874 he became city solicitor, filling the posi- tion for ten years, during part of which time

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the city was governed under the charter as re- written by him. Oil City had received its first charter in 1871, and this in 1872 was redrawn by Mr. Hays, by action of the legislature be- coming a new charter, which served its pur- pose until 1881, when the general law regulat- ing cities of the third class superseded it. In this connection it is interesting to note that Mr. Hays has continued to be a close student of the law all his life, and he was yet in the early part of his legal career when he compiled a digest of the various acts of the legislature affecting cities of the third class, a work of value and convenient for reference which has received copious commendation at the hands of many leading jurists.

Mr. Hays has served two terms in the State legislature, having been first elected in 1888 and reelected in 1890, on the Republican ticket. His colleague during the first session was Oliver P. Morrow, of Rockland, and during the second session Henry James, of Franklin. It is noteworthy that the first resolution intro- duced in the legislature looking to the sub- mittal of a prohibition amendment was pre- sented during his first session, and his own vote was cast for it ; and previous to a special election to pass on such amendment his voice was heard in earnest advocacy of its accept- ance. It was rejected, but he takes pride in the fact that Oil City even then cast a majority vote of over two hundred in its favor. In the second session Mr. Hays served as chairman of the Reapportionment committee, to reappor- tion House members, the bill which the com- mittee presented becoming a law, while one affecting the senators was defeated in the Senate. Mr. Hays was also one of the twenty 'chosen as a steering committee, whose activities resulted in more systematic and harmonious legislative action by his party.

When he assumed the duties of legislator Mr. Hays formed a legal partnership with John L. Mattox which lasted five years, but gen- erally he has preferred to practice alone. He has served a number of times in the city coun- cil, was president of that body in 1910 and 1911, and was city solicitor for two years, 1914 and 1915. While he was serving in the latter capacity the council passed an ordinance com- pelling all companies using low tension wires to place them in a conduit which had been laid by the Petroleum Telephone Company. One company refused upon the ground that the city could not compel them to make such use of a private conduit, and was sustained in the court of Common Pleas, but the decision was re- versed in the Superior court and the ordinance

upheld. In his private practice Mr. Hays has been equally courageous in upholding the rights of his clients against adverse decisions in the lower courts whenever he felt that an honest interpretation of the law would justify his stand.

Arriving at an early realization of the value to developing sections of well conducted build- ing and loan associations, encouraging the ownership of property and the construction of substantial homes, Mr. Hays devoted con- siderable time to the study of their legal prob- lems and to the promotion of such enterprises in his own community. He has been solicitor of local organizations of that kind since 1872, and helped to organize seven different asso- ciations, making it possible for hundreds of people of moderate means in Oil City to own their own homes and creating a thrifty class which raises the standards of living and citizen- ship appreciably. He is a stockholder in the Imperial Realty Company. For fifteen years he has been attorney for the Oil City Trust Company. Though he has made some good local investments Mr. Hays has found his ma- terial success principally through professional channels. His earlier investments, in oil prop- erties and stocks, were not particularly for- tunate, though they proved profitable eventual- ly, and his subsequent financial ventures have been in fields where there is less fluctuation in values and more satisfaction to the investor not actively associated with operations.

Like his father, Mr. Hays has been a prom- inent member of the Presbyterian Church, hav- ing been an elder of the First Church of that denomination at Oil City since June 3, 1877. For forty-seven years he has been an active worker in the Sunday school, having taught a class throughout that period except for the two years that he served as superintendent. Dur- ing all this time Mr. Hays has cooperated heart- ily in all church enterprises, supporting them with his means and giving freely of his own time and labor, and he has also participated in the wider work of the denomination, having served several times in the Erie Presbytery. from which he was twice sent to the Synod of Pennsylvania. He has also represented the Presbytery twice in the general assembly, at Springfield, Ill., in 1882, and at Los Angeles, Cal., in 1903. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason, affiliated with Petrolia Lodge, F. & A. M., of Oil City, the chapter, Calvert Com- mandery, K. T., and the Lodge of Perfection. He has served as a director of the Oil City Y. M. C. A.

On June 12, 1873, Mr. Hays married Eliza-

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beth Ida Lashells, of Meadville, Pa., who was born Nov. 26, 1850, daughter of George Ed- ward and Eliza (Baskin) Lashells, and sister of Dr. Theodore B. Lashells, well known throughout northwestern Pennsylvania. Of their two children, the eldest, Bessie, born June 13, 1875, died March 19, 1881. John Lashells, born May 24, 1878, received his education in Pennsylvania, graduating from Washington and Jefferson College in 1901. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1903, and for two years thereafter practiced with his father. But his health made a change of climate advisable, and he removed West, in 1906 becoming legal ad- viser and real estate manager for the Barns- dale . Oil Company, of Bartlesville, Okla., to which position he has since applied most of his energies, being now also assistant secretary and treasurer of that corporation, one of the lead- ing producers in the West. On Dec. 21, 1906, John L. Hays married Maude Walker, of Bar- tlesville, and they have two children, Frederic Walker (born Jan. 28, 1908) and Catherine Elizabeth (born July 8, 1915).

ALBERT PAWLING WHITAKER was born in Troy, N. Y., Oct. 11, 1817, and died in Franklin, Pa., Feb. 26, 1897. He was a son of John and Abigail (Sanford) Whitaker, of Chatham, Conn., and grandson of Ephraham Whitaker. of Troy, N. Y., a naval officer of the Revolutionary war. After a primary edu- cation in the common schools Albert went to academies in New Jersey and New York City, and subsequently graduated at Marion College, Missouri. In 1838 he came to Utica, Venango county, and clerked for his uncle, A. W. Ray- mond. In 1842 he removed to Meadville, and became associated with Samuel W. Magill in the Democratic Republican. In 1844 he re- sumed his former duties at Utica.

Mr. Whitaker's connection with newspaper work was resumed in 1849. On Jan. 10th of that year, having purchased the old material of the Democratic paper at Franklin, he issued the first number of the Venango Spectator (which suspended publication in 1917), and with slight exception was its editor and pub- lisher ever after until his death, his career in that capacity thus covering a period of more than forty-eight years.

In politics Mr. Whitaker was always an ac- tive Democrat. He was appointed an inspector of customs in Philadelphia in 1856 under President Buchanan's administration, having previously held a clerkship in the surveyor general's office in 1852, and he resigned from the inspector's place to resume charge of the

Spectator in 1860. He was elected burgess of Franklin in 1852 and 1853; was a school di- rector in 1868 and for the two succeeding terms ; was clerk to the county commissioners, and at times he was the choice of his party for county offices.

As a writer Mr. Whitaker held a recognized place among those in the first rank of his pro- fession. His mental eye had keen and swift perception of all the points of his subject. Forming clear ideas, he expressed them with accuracy, force and a grace that came from a fine taste and a well cultivated fancy. There was a purity, conciseness and pungency in his literary style charming to the lover of good English. No forced fancy, no bungled meta- phors, no cheap tricks of verbosity, played any part in his literary products. He was always a student, expanding and strengthening his mind. Thus it was that, after a service far beyond the period of life when most men have dropped from the active list, his pen still re- tained its cunning and its point. He was not only the Nestor of the press in this part of the State, but up to the last he could bend the bow of Ulysses. In his persistent process of edu- cation Mr. Whitaker not only became an all- round scholar in his native tongue, but besides acquainted himself with the French language and literature. He was also an expert fisher and woodsman. His inherent poetical faculty placed him in touch with the masters, from Shakespeare to Tennyson, and from Tenny- son to Halleck. A retentive memory gave him wonderful command of their treasures. Hence it was that while he was a master of sarcasm and invective, he was none the less at home in the realm of the affections and of the ideal. His friends knew Mr. Whitaker as an adept in the range of conversation. The general public were aware of his peculiar gift of pungent wit and ready repartee. Without changing his facial expression he could crush a conceit with a droll sentence or skewer a humbug on a point of irony. He was never in a hurry or a flurry, and yet never hung fire. Beneath the surface of his wit and invective, however, was a tender and sensitive nature, a generous, sympathetic heart, attuned to "the still, sad music of humanity."

On July 31, 1845. Mr. Whitaker was mar- ried in Sandy Creek township, Venango county. to Mary Simcox, a native of that township, born Oct. 28, 1824, daughter of William and Jane ( Marshall) Simcox. She died May 19, 1911. the mother of the follow- ing children: John Henry, born Nov. 11, 1846, married April 25, 1871, Maud Conser,

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and died Nov. 15, 1885; Jane Marshall, born April 19, 1848, married George W. Plumer, of Franklin, Pa., now of Cleveland, Ohio; Ann Eliza, born Aug. 5, 1849, was married Oct. 7, 1869, to Matthew H. Mercer, and lives at Yonkers, N. Y .; William Simcox, born May II, 1851, was married Nov. 28, 1878, to Mrs. Sarah Adams Beatty, and died in November, 1907; Mary, born Jan. 5, 1853, was married May 14, 1878, to Rev. Marcus Alden Tolman ; Emma, born Oct. 14, 1855, was married Dec. 18, 1878, to John V. Stephenson; Frances Adelaide, born Oct. 12, 1857, was married Sept. 2, 1891, to Joseph A. Hughston ; Albert P., born Dec. 8, 1863, died Dec. 22, 1874; Clara Eaton, born Feb. 3, 1867, was married Oct. 29, 1890, to Elmer E. Lyon.

JAMES BURTON CRAWFORD has filled a prominent position in the business circles of Oil City, winning and holding an important place on the strength of his own merits and improvements. Mr. Crawford be- longs to a family whose members have been strong workers among the forces for advance- ment in Venango county from the time of its formation, industrious, capable and self-re- liant in material affairs, and intelligent in their support of desirable social standards and in- stitutions. The family was founded in Ve- nango county by his great-grandfather, John Crawford, whose posterity have stood high among the influential residents of this section, James B. Crawford being a typical representa- tive of the name.

John Crawford, born Nov. 1, 1748, died Feb. 18, 1812. He was one of the first settlers in Greene county, Pa., moving thence to Butler county and eventually to what is now Venango county, where in 1797 he made a permanent settlement in Allegheny township (then com- prising most of the county), on the Allegheny river below Emlenton. The tract of four hun- dred acres which he had entered as his home- stead extended on the west into Butler county, on the east into Armstrong county, lying in what is now the extreme southern portion of V'enango. The first year, assisted by several of his sons, he made a small clearing and planted a crop on what afterward became the homestead farm, two miles south of Emlenton (at what was later the home of William T. Crawford), and the following year brought most of his family. Some of the married sons remained for a time in Greene county, but eventually all except Alexander secured homes in the vicinity of the paternal residence, Wil- liam locating on the farm near Emlenton, in

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 99

Author: Babcock, Charles A. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: