Columbia-Schuylkill County PA Archives Biographies.....HERRING, Grant 1862 - living in 1899 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com June 29, 2005, 4:42 pm Author: Biographical Publishing Co. HON. GRANT HERRING, who has attained much prominence as a practitioner of law and in politics in the town of Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pa., was formerly collector of internal revenue for the Twelfth District of Pennsylvania and recently served as president law judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District. He represented the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District in the State Senate for a term of four years. He is a son of George A. and Mary A. (Hess) Herring, and was born at Centerville, now known as Limeridge, Columbia County, May 19, 1862. The Herrings were originally a family of German peasants, and Christopher Herring, his wife, and their eight children were brought to this country prior to the Revolutionary War as "redemptioners," their services being sold to pay their passage. Of these children two were killed in the battle of Brandywine and another, Ludwick, who was the great-grandfather of our subject, settled in Orangeville, Columbia County, Pa., in 1800. He was a teamster and was engaged in hauling produce and goods from Orangeville and Pottsville to Reading before the introduction of the railroad system in that section. John Herring, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Orangeville, Pa., in 1808 and there resided throughout his active life. He was a carpenter by occupation and for twenty years was foreman of carpentering on the Pennsylvania Canal, between Nanticoke and Sunbury. Politically he was a Jacksonian Democrat, casting his first vote for Jackson, and adhered to the Democratic party until his demise. For ten years he was justice of the peace at Orangeville. He moved to Bloomsburg in 1889 and during the following years lived in retirement, dying in 1893. He married Rebecca Snyder, a sister of the late Sheriff John Snyder of Orangeville, and they had eight children, six sons and two daughters. George A. Herring, the father of our subject, was born in Orangeville, December 24, 1833, and obtained his education in the academy at that place. At the age of twenty years he moved to Bloomsburg and learned the trade of a molder, which he followed for a period of four years in Bloomsburg, Ill., and in Michigan. He then returned home and engaged in carpentering with his father, building canalboats at Limeridge, Columbia County. He continued carpenter work and boat building until 1864, when he purchased a colliery, now known as No. 3, at Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, Pa., in connection with J. W. Williams, Esq., operating it for a few years under the firm name of Williams & Herring. He then met with a serious accident which nearly resulted in his death and which terminated his connection with the mine. He disposed of his interest and engaged in merchandising in Shenandoah up to the year 1876, when he sold out. During this period he was elected treasurer of Schuylkill County, serving from 1870 to 1873. He was one of the organizers and a director of the Shenandoah Water Company; also a director of the Shenandoah Valley Bank. In 1876, owing to poor health, he sold his store and moved to Bloomsburg, purchasing a farm two miles from there and also renting a tannery, which he operated until 1882. He then disposed of the tannery, but has since owned the farm. From 1881 to 1887 he served as deputy treasurer of Columbia County and for the following three years as treasurer. In 1894 he was made deputy collector of internal revenue for the Twelfth District of Pennsylvania, with office at Scranton, under his son Grant, and he has since held that office. Politically Mr. Herring is a firm supporter of Democratic principles and has frequently served as delegate to state conventions from Columbia and Schuylkill Counties. He was a delegate to the convention which nominated Pattison for governor, and the delegation from Columbia County, being the last to cast its vote, had the distinction of naming the Democratic candidate, as the vote was very close. Mr. Herring married Mary A. Hess, who died in 1893 at the age of fifty-seven years, and they became the parents of three children: Grant, the subject of this biographical record; Ida, who resides with her father at Bloomsburg; and John, who died in March, 1890, at the age of twenty-two years. The latter was graduated from Lafayette College in June, 1889, and during his Junior year in college he received three honors in oratorical contests. Upon leaving school he began the study of law with our subject and continued it until his death. Grant Herring attended the common schools of Shenandoah until 1876, when he entered the Bloomsburg State Normal School to prepare for college, remaining there until 1879. He then took a classical course in Lafayette College, graduating therefrom in June, 1883. He is an excellent speaker and a fluent writer, and in his Junior year took first honors in the oratorical contest. In September, 1883, he began the study of law with E. R. Ikeler, Esq., afterwards president judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, being the immediate predecessor of our subject in that office at Bloomsburg, being admitted to the bar in February, 1885. He formed a partnership with Mr. Ikeler on the same day under the firm name Ikeler & Herring, and they continued together for four years, until Mr. Herring was elected to the bench. He has since practiced alone, and has admission to the County, United States, State and District Supreme Courts. He had a good corporation practice, being solicitor for the Farmers' National Bank, attorney for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, for The Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company of Berwick, and a number of other prominent firms. He possesses essentially a legal mind and is indefatigable in the prosecution of cases which he undertakes, and has met with unusual success. Politically he has been quite active in the affairs of the Democratic party, and represented the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District of Pennsylvania in the State Senate from 1890 to 1894, being in the extra session called by Gov. Pattison in 1893 for the investigation of state officers. He was delegate-at-large from Pennsylvania to the Democratic National Convention in 1892 which chose Cleveland as the party candidate, and was also a delegate from his district in 1896 to the Chicago Convention. He was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Twelfth District of Pennsylvania, assuming the duties of office on February 3, 1894. He was appointed judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District August 12, 1898, but was not a candidate for election at the polls in November. He resumed the practice of his profession in January, 1899. On September 4, 1885, Mr. Herring was united in marriage to Emma Jones of Bloomsburg, and they are the parents of three children, as follows: Donald, born September 25. 1886, who attends the Bloomsburg High School; Laura, born December 24, 1887: and Mildred, born September 24, 1893. Our subject is a man of strong personality and has a large following in Eastern Pennsylvania, and it is with pleasure that we announce that his portrait is presented on another page of this work. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District Published by Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899) This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 7.8 Kb