Area History: History of Schuylkill County, Pa: W. W. Munsell, 1881 Township and Borough Histories pp. 293 - 305a Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by R. Steffey. Typing and editing by Jo Garzelloni and Carole Carr. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. New York: W. W. Munsell & Co., 36 Vesey Street, 1881 Press of George Macnamara, 36 Vesey Street, N.Y. ____________________________________________________________ page 293 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES--POTTSVILLE. _______________________________________________________________ BENJAMIN BANNAN. The following sketch of the life of the late Benjamin Bannan is essentially the same as that published in the "Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania." A few additions and alterations were necessary on account of Mr. Bannan's having died since the article was originally written. Benjamin Bannan, journalist and political economist, was born in Union township, Berks county, Pa., April 22nd, 1807, and died July 29, 1875 His father was a farmer and teacher, occupied in agricultural pursuits during the spring, summer and fall, and teaching in the winter. He died when his son was but eight years old. Benjamin went to school only about two years all together during the next seven years; for at that time schools were open only for three or four months, during cold weather. It was at Unionville that he was inspired with the idea of becoming a printer and editor, from reading the Village Record, to which the teacher subscribed. Having learned the utmost that was taught in the schools of that day, at the age of fifteen he was indentured to learn the print- ing business in the office of the Berks and Schuylkill Journal, of which George Getz was proprietor, where he remained six years. During his term of service the same industry and honesty of purpose and action which characterized his whole life won the regard of his preceptor, who asked him to become his partner and associate in the business. Meanwhile, at the close of his ap- prenticeship, he had repaired to Philadelphia where he worked in several printing offices, finally being engaged in the establish- ment of Lawrence Johnson, the celebrated type founder, where he added the art of stereotyping to his already thorough knowledge of printing. After a visit to Reading, where he received the offer already noted, he thought it advisable to decline it and directed his steps to Pottsville. On his arrival there he found the office of the Miners' Journal in the hands of the sheriff; and, believing that this was a fair opportunity and a field for future operations, concluded to purchase it. Almost all his ready funds were invested in this enterprise, and the subscrip- tion list numbered but 250. This took place in April, 1829, and he was connected with this one paper nearly forty-four years. On July 1st, 1866, he disposed of a one-half interest in the establishment, and wishing to retire from business in January, 1873, sold the other moiety; nevertheless his attachment to the Journal was so great that he continued writing for the paper and attending to the coal statistics, as when he was sole owner. The number of subscribers had increased to over 4,000, and its weekly circulation was only exceeded by that of three other political journals in the State, outside of the large cities. Mr. Bannan's first vote was cast for John Quincy Adams for President, in 1828, and he voted at every succeeding presidential election as long as he lived, and always in opposition to the Democracy. Indeed, during his whole life he never voted for a Democrat when there was a contest between the political parties. He was always a firm and undeviating supporter of protection to American indus- try, and proposed and organized the first tariff league, in 1840, after the disastrous effects of the first compromise bill had become apparent; which led to the adoption of the tariff of 1842, the most beneficial measure, in many respects, ever passed by Congress, In 1841 and also in 1861 he collected signatures to the longest petitions ever laid before the national legislature, praying for protection to home industry. For a period of fifteen years he held the position of school director and for fourteen years was president of the board. During this period he suggest- ed to Governor Pollock the present admirable normal school system of the State, in all its details, which was afterward adopted. It is justly claimed for him that he was the first to propose plan for a national currency; as far back as 1857 he first origi- nated it and published a series of articles on the subject. His views were communicated to several prominent bankers, who acqui- esced in his suggestions and admitted that such a currency as he proposed would be the best obtainable, but thought his scheme could not be carried out, as the States had usurped from the general government the power to issue money, and as the latter had so long acquiesced in their action the States would never surrender it. He even prepared circulars embodying his views and distributed them through the two houses of Congress, but they received very little attention from any of the members. Four years elapsed, and the war of the Rebellion broke out and a national currency became a necessity. He communicated with and afterward visited Secretary Chase, recalled the circular and compared it with the bill Secretary Chase had prepared, and the latter was found to be in perfect accordance with Mr. Bannan's plan of 1857, except in a few unimportant particulars and one important feature, which was not incorporated in the bill--the introduction of an expanding limit. This was not done as it was impossible to foresee what the exigencies of the country might demand. The idea of having an issue of currency in proportion to the wealth of the country and expanding it in that basis seems to have been original with him. It was submitted to the late Ste- phen Colwell, of Philadelphia, who was also a writer on currency, and who had collected all the works written on currency and money, in all languages, from all countries, numbering more than 700 volumes and pamphlets, and in none of them had he observed the expression of a similar idea. As a thinker and writer on important public matters Mr. Bannan belonged to an advanced school, and earned for himself an honored and respected name; and wherever he was known, either at home or abroad, his opinions and advice were solicited and made use of. As a practical reformer he was farseeing and liberal, and was ever among the foremost in proposing and carrying out ideas and projects tending to _____________end age 293._______________ page 294 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. _______________________________________________________________ the improvement and advancement of his fellow men, particularly of the laboring classes. As a writer on matters pertaining to the coal trade, his experience of over two score years in the anthracite region fitted him with special and peculiar qualifica- tions. As a coal statistician he was the foremost in the coun- try. The trade had grown up with himself and in reality it had almost become second nature to him; particularly on account of the use he made of the opportunities that fell in his way in the matter of statistics. On coal his figures and tables are made use of in every publication of any importance in this country and abroad. We have in mind at this time two large works in which he is not only quoted, but highly complimented, and his tabular statements given are conclusive. As a high test of the value of the statistics he has collect- ed in the coal trade, e need only refer to the fact that the Bureau of Statistics at Washington on several occasions honored him by asking him to furnish them with information on this impor- tant subject. The great work which he undertook to publish and which he had prepared for publication principally by Samuel H. Daddow, mining engineer, he only furnishing the statistics and outlines for the same, is entitled "Coal, Iron and Oil." It was the most expen- sive single volume issued by any publisher during the Rebellion, reflects great credit upon him and has elicited from the London Mining Journal the statement that no single volume ever published in England affords so much information on the subjects treated of in that publication. Influenced by the peculiar circumstances of the time, Mr. Bannan, about seven years ago, published a monograph on "Our national Currency and how to Improve it," which takes the ground as originally suggested in his first circular of 1857, of adopt- ing an expanding limit to its issue, keeping the paper issue unconvertible into coin on demand hereafter, but allowing a proportion of it to be received in payment of duties; the legal tenders of the government to be received in payment of taxes and debts due to the government; the issue of national bank notes to be apportioned to the several banks in proportion to their wealth; the fractional currency to be canceled and a debased silver coinage substituted which would, therefore, always remain at home; this was done in England nearly fifty years ago, and as a consequence England has always retained her silver. These features may strike the average reader as being somewhat novel and startling at first, but Mr. Bannan discussed his propositions so clearly and forcibly that by many it is believed they will be received with more favor as they are studied and comprehended by impartial and unbiased minds. Mr. Bannan was a worker all his life; it was only when he could no longer hold the pen that he at last suffered it to drop from his fingers. In losing him the country lost a man whom it cannot soon replace, and whose merits will always be acknowledged. ______________ SAMUEL GRISCOM. Andrew Griscom, according to a tradition of the family, came from Wales; another tradition says from Wales or Scotland; still another, from England. As there is no trace of the Welsh lan- guage having been spoken in the family, it has not been deemed probably that it is of Welsh origin, even if at some remote date it was located there. The name, however, is not found among either old or modern lists of English names. A member of the family was told that at one time there was a Lord Griscom in Scotland, another that there were Griscoms in Liverpool, England. "Leeds's almanac," printed by William Bradford, in New York, in 1694, says, "It is now eleven years since Andrew Griscom built the first brick house in Philadelphia." In "Watson's Annals of Philadelphia," it is stated that "on Second street, on the south-west corner of Lodge alley (now Bank street), stood D. Griscom's house, of antiquated construction, called in an old almanac (Leeds's) the first house of brick erected in Philadel- phia." Andrew Griscom, the builder of this house, was a member of the first grand jury of Pennsylvania, empanneled (sic) Decem- ber 27th, 1683. Tobias Griscom was the only son of Andrew known to have any descendants living at the present time. He was a land speculator, and moved from Philadelphia to Burlington, New Jersey. His sons were: Samuel, a master carpenter, of Philadel- phia; William, a saddler, of Hadonfield, New Jersey; and Andrew, farmer and blacksmith, of Stowe Creek, New Jersey. Only the descendants of Andrew are known to bear the family name, those of William being all dead. Samuel had sixteen children, and it has been found impossible to ascertain the names of all of them. His daughters have numerous descendants, one of whom (Betsey Clay- pole) made the first flag authorized by the Congress of the United States. Her last husband was a lineal descendant of Oliver Cromwell, a fact which adds another element of historical interest in this connection. Andrew Griscom, of Stowe Creek, New Jersey, was noted for his great strength and agility, and was a celebrated hunter in his day. Samuel Griscom was born about three miles north of Salem, Salem county, New Jersey, February 4th, 1787, and was a great- grandson of Andrew and Sarah (Dole) Griscom. His wife (Ann Powell) was born in the same county, September 23d, 1788. In after years he became prominent in the history of internal im- provements in Pennsylvania, then in their infancy, and was long and conspicuously identified with the Schuylkill canal, which provided the earliest means of transportation from Schuylkill county to southern markets, for the vast quantities of coal which had until its day been practically unavailable. His father was a farmer, and as a farmer's boy Samuel passed the first few years of his life. Afterward he learned the bricklayer's trade, and, removing to Philadelphia, was for some years employed very exten- sively in erecting block of brick houses in that city. About 1822 he purchased a farm of three hundred acres in Chester coun- ty, and, removing there, was engaged two years in cultivating and improving it. Successful as his early training rendered him as a farmer, his natural bent for mechanics again led him to Philadel- phia, where he leased, embanked and reclaimed a large tract of land at "Point No-Point," a locality on the Delaware, about three miles north of Philadelphia; so named on account of the fact that what from a distance appeared to be a conspicuous point of land projecting into the river was really, when viewed at shorter range, only a swampy and useless piece of ground, which until then, no one had attempted to render available. At this time portions of Schuylkill canal had been for some years in operation, with only moderate success on account of frequent breaks and consequent impassability at various points. Casting about for a man of good judgment, executive ability and a knowledge of the construction of divers devices to strengthen the banks of the canal, the managers probably had their attention directed to the enterprise just mentioned, which had been prose- cuted with such judgment and success that it was apparent that Mr. Griscom was the man they sought. His services were engaged, and he removed to ____________end page 294._____________ page 295 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-SAMUEL AND SAMUEL E. GRISCOM. ______________________________________________________________ Reading, Pa., in 1826, and assumed the superintendency of a section of the canal about forty miles in length. So signally successful was his administration of the affairs connected with his section that it was only a few years later that he was ap- pointed general superintendent of the Schuylkill navigation. From the beginning of his connection with this enterprise (one of the most important in the whole country at the time) he had always advocated the improvement and enlargement of the canal. Under his direction the locks along its entire length were strengthened, Lewis's dam below Reading, the dam four miles above Norristown and other dams were rebuilt wholly or in part, and the canal was deepened so as to admit an increase in the tonnage of the boats from forty or fifty to eighty. Later (in the beginning of 1846) the locks were widened and the canal was enlarged to such an extent as to admit boats of two hundred tons burden. When contractors who had engaged to build locks failed to fulfill their contracts, as some of them did when they discovered that they could do so only at a loss financially, Mr. Griscom, in addition to the regular duties devolving upon him, took the jobs into his own hands, and gave to each one as close attention as though he was simply a contractor with no other responsibilities. With all of the multifarious perplexities which were unavoidably attendant upon the prosecution of each one of these numerous enterprises connected with the enlargement of the canal and with the general supervision of the whole, it is to be presumed that Mr. Griscom often felt he was burdened more heavily than one man ought to be; yet, with indomitable perseverance and unfaltering energy, he pressed forward planning managing and directing, and working betimes as hard as any laborer on the job, until at last he had the satisfaction of beholding his task completed. But the very measures which were adopted to render the canal more avail- able to the public, and more useful than ever before to shippers of coal, operated, at least temporarily, to cause the withdrawal of much of its former patronage. During the period while naviga- tion had been closed on account of the repairs going on (in 1847), the railroad, which was already a formidable competitor for the coal-shipping patronage of the Schuylkill region, drew away and bade fair to retain the bulk of it. In this emergency it was dreamed necessary by the managers of the canal to send to Pottsville some energetic business man in whom the coal men could have unbounded confidence, to prevail upon them to withdraw their patronage from the railroad and again bestow it on it on the canal, which now afforded much better facilities than it had ever done before. The man of all men to successfully undertake this difficult task, it was believed, was Mr. Griscom; and to Potts- ville he was induced to remove, and during the early part of 1848 he labored there earnestly and with such persuasiveness as to be to a considerable degree successful. But the burden of cares and responsibilities that had for years rested on his shoulders, and the ceaseless work in which he had been so long engaged, were proving too much for his physical constitution, which demanded rest long before his active mind and strong will so far relented as to counsel a season of quiet. During the summer he went to Philadelphia to attend to some of the interests of the Schuylkill navigation, and while there his health gave out entirely and he was obliged to return to his home in Pottsville. This was his first and final relinquishment of business cares; his life work was done and his life itself was nearly worn out. April 19th, 1849, he died, deeply regretted by people of all classes. He had been a man of tireless energy; of an iron will; of almost ex- haustless resources; a man who regarded no obstacle too great to surmount in the prosecution of any enterprise with which he had been identified; who planned wisely and executed unhesitatingly. He had been respectful and considerate in his association with his co-workers and always just and generous toward those who were placed under his supervision. His integrity was never called in question. In reply to a letter of inquiry concerning him, the cashier of the Farmers' Bank of Reading wrote as follows: "His word is as good as his bond and his bond is as good as gold!" His management of the canal had been characterized by remarkable economy, and it is not probable that there were many men who could have accomplished as much as he did and at so small an expenditure of means. In the fall of 1849 his widow removed to Reading, where she died January 8th, 1860. Both Mr. and Mrs. Griscom, as have been the family for generations, were members of the Society of Friends, and held to the simple, unquestioning faith and lived the honest, godly life of their sect. SAMUEL E. GRISCOM. Samuel E. Griscom, son of Samuel and Ann (Powell) Griscom, was born December 6th, 1817, in a house built and then owned by his father and yet standing on Sixth street, near Wood, Philadel- phia, a locality then at the limit of the city in that direction. At the age of twelve he was placed in the family of an uncle, a nice farmer, in Salem county, New Jersey, where he remained three years, working on the farm during the spring, summer and autumn, and attending school during the winter. Young as he was, before leaving there he did a man's work at everything except mowing and cradling. At fifteen he returned to the home of his parents, which was at the time in Reading, Pa., where he tarried a year, going thence to Clermont Academy, about three miles north of Philadelphia, then under the management of his cousin Samuel S. Griscom, in which he was a diligent student until he reached the age of nineteen, when he assumed the dignity and responsibility of the position of assistant teacher in the institution. After two years spent thus, with the confinement which was inseparable from his duties as preceptor, together with over-exertion in study when not engaged in school, Mr. Griscom found his health considerably impaired, and was obliged to seek employment which would necessitate his being much out of doors. He surveyed several thousand acres of wild land owned by his father and General George De B. Keim. Later he aided his father in his duties as superintendent of the Schuylkill canal, and in 1843 succeeded his brother Powell Griscom, as assistant superintend- ent. In 1848 he removed to Pottsville, where he had been ap- pointed collector of tolls. The following year the collectors' offices at Pottsville and Schuylkill Haven were consolidated, and Mr. Griscom was placed in charge, with headquarters at Schuylkill Haven. Again close confinement to indoor business proved detri- mental to his health, and in the spring of 1850 he resigned the position and undertook the management of his father's estate, a duty to which he had been assigned by his father just previous to his death. Between Llewellyn and Minersville was a large tract of timber owned jointly by his father's estate and the Farmers' Bank of Reading, familiarly known as the May and Lightfoot Tract. On this property he built a saw-mill, in which was placed it is probable, the first circular saw used in any mill east of the Alleghanies (hundreds of them are now in use in the coal regions of Pennsylvania), and cut the timber on the ____________end page 295._____________ page 296 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ tract and manufactured it into lumber. A little later he became the proprietor of a mercantile business at Wiconisco, Dauphin county, which he purchased of Henry Sheafer, father of Peter W. Sheafer, of Pottsville, which was managed for him by others until he finally disposed of it. These interests engrossed his atten- tion until 1863. During this period the timber tract referred to became involved in a renewed lawsuit of twenty years' standing, which was a source of anxiety and infinite trouble to him from 1853 to 1861, when it was finally compromised, Mr. Griscom repre- senting during the entire period of litigation the interests of both his father's estate and the Farmers' Bank of Reading. Bringing his lumbering enterprise to a successful termination, he was for about a year afterward interested with others in a simi- lar one at White Haven, Luzerne county, where the company owned a mill on the Lehigh. In 1863 the firm of Samuel E. Griscom & Co. was organized. The members were Samuel E. Griscom, E. G. Brooke, of Birdsboro, Pa., and Seyfert, McManus & Co. (now known as the Reading Iron Works), of Reading, Pa. Its purpose was to mine coal in the Schuylkill region for use in manufacturing iron at Reading and Birdsboro. The responsibility of selecting a suitable locality for mining purposes devolved upon Mr. Giscom, who effected ar- rangements by which leases were secured in 1864, of lands two miles southwest of Shenandoah City. Extensive operations were set on foot by the firm, and it was due largely to Mr. Griscom's management that they in time assumed such gigantic proportions as to entitle William Penn colliery to a place among the leading collieries of the anthracite coal region. At the close of 1872 Mr. Griscom exchanged his interest in this enterprise for a one- third interest in the Pennsylvania Diamond Drill Company of Pottsville (in which all of the persons above mentioned were interested), of which extensive business he has since been manag- er. In the summer of 1876 he went to California in the interest of the company, and while there was induced by a gentleman who had done the company, through him, a valuable service to under- take the sale of the stock of the Bloomer Ditch and Grand Mining Company. In 1878 he became interested in selling the stock of another gold mining company, located in Georgia. During the following year he bought a tract of land there and began a mining enterprise, which has been actively prosecuted to the present time. In another and very profitable Georgia gold mine Mr. Griscom owns a one-tenth interest. In 1873 he identified himself with an enterprise having for its object the manufacture and sale of diamond mill-stone dressing machinery, originally invented by Daniel Larer, of Pottsville, who was for a time his partner. The business is now carried on quite successfully by Griscom & Co., under the management of Walter Griscom, a nephew of the senior member of the firm. Mr. Griscom's life thus far has been a busy and a useful one. His administration of the affairs of important enterprises has resulted so favorably in every instance as to mark him as one of the most successful business men of the State. Like his forefa- thers, he is a member of the Society if Friends, and is remarka- ble for the simplicity of his manners and the directness and frankness which characterize his transactions of a business nature. Politically he was in early life an advocate of Whig princi- ples. Since the organization of the Republican party he has, from a deep conviction as to the mission of that party, been identified with it. HON. LIN BARTHOLOMEW Mr. Bartholomew was born at Brookville, Jefferson county, Pa. He was the third son of Benjamin Bartholomew, of Philadelphia, who, like our subject, was a lawyer, and member of the State Legislature in 1846, representing the district of which Jefferson county was a part, and was afterward district attorney of Schuyl- kill county, to which he removed with his family. Mr. Bartholo- mew received a liberal education, mainly at the Pottsville Acade- my, then under the charge of Elias Snyder, well known throughout eastern Pennsylvania. The celebrated Daniel Kirkwood was at that time one of the professors. As a boy after leaving school Mr. Bartholomew engaged in active business for a short time, but under the advice of friends and following the bent of his own inclination he commenced the study of law in the office of his father, and was admitted to the practice of his chosen profession in the several courts of Schuylkill county in the year 1857. By force of circumstances and education he connected himself with the Republican party in its inception, and very soon after his admission to the bar, by ability and inclination he occupied a prominent position in county politics. He was an aspirant for the office of district attorney in 1859, but failed to secure the nomination of his party. In 1860 he was nominated and elected a member of the lower branch of the Legislature, and served on the committee of judiciary (general), and also ways and means during the critical juncture in the nation's history, when South Caroli- na and sister States passed ordinances of secession. In 1861 he received the commission of aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Wynkoop from Governor Curtin, and in pursuance of his appointment served in that position at York, Pa., and Cockeysville, Md. His commission was annulled by the War department served in that nature by State authority. He was then appointed by the Secre- tary of War, General Caneron, to the permanent and responsible position of his private secretary, and served in that capacity until some time after the first battle of Bull Run, when he resigned and returned to Pottsville to resume the practice of his profession. In September, 1862,he was at the battle of Antietam, and in 1863, when the State was invaded by the Confederate army, he served in the 27th regiment Pennsylvania militia, Colonel J.G. Frick. He served as a delegate to a number of State conventions, and was in 1868 a delegate at large from the State of Pennsylva- nia to the Chicago convention, where he supported General Grant for the Presidential nomination. In 1872 he was elected one of the members at large of the convention to amend the constitution of Pennsylvania, in which convention he was on the judiciary committee, and also chairman of the committee on schedules. He was well known throughout the State as a political speaker and as a lawyer. He was possessed of a fine flow of language and good perceptive faculties, understood human nature and had a keen sense of humor. He was forcible as a speaker, and sometimes rose to eloquence; was a food debater, ready in argument, and quick at repartee. The esteem and admiration in which he was held by his fellow townsmen were evidence in the fall of 1879, upon the occasion of his return from a trip of a few months to Europe. His fellow citizens, of all shades of politics, united in giving him a public reception, which amounted to an ovation. He died suddenly on the 22nd of August, 1880, of heart dis- ease, at Atlantic City, N. J. __________end page 296.___________ page 297 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-JOHN W. RYON. ______________________________________________________________ A line drawing of JOHN W. RYON is in this position in the original book. In the Table of Contents it is listed on this same page. Original text follows the divider line. _________________ John W. Ryon, of Pottsville, was born at Elkland, Tioga coun- ty, Pa., March 4th, 1825. He was educated at Millville Academy, Orleans county, N.Y., and Wellsboro Academy, Wellsboro, Tioga county, Pa. He studied law under Hon. John C. Knox, at Wells- boro, Pa., until Judge Knox was elected to the lower house of the Pennsylvania legislature, when he studied under Hon. James Lo- wrey, and was admitted to the Tioga county bar in December, 1846. His father, John Ryon, was born on the first day of January, 1787, in Hanover township, Luzerne county, a short distance from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and remained there until he was fourteen years old, when his father moved to Newtown, near Elmira, N.Y. At that day Elmira was far west. There were no public roads, and young John had the task of driving the cattle from Hanover to Newtown. In making this trip it was necessary frequently cross the Susque- hanna river, and as there were no bridges he often had to swim across. Remaining at Newtown until 1811, John Ryon moved to Elkland, Tioga county, Pa., about twenty-four miles from Newtown, where he went to farming. He was one of the pioneers of that beautiful valley, which is now one of the finest and wealthiest agricultural districts in Pennsylvania. Being an active business man he was called upon by the people to serve them in public positions. He was elected to several terms in the lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature, served four years in the State Senate, was superintendent of canals of Pennsylvania four years (under him was constructed a portion of the West Branch Canal), and was associate judge in Tioga county fifteen years. During the long period of public trusts his official integrity was never doubted or questioned. John W. Ryon, after his admission to the bar, settled in Lawrenceville, Tioga county, and commenced the practice of his profession. This he pursued with untiring zeal and industry, and he soon exhibited a force and power as a lawyer which showed that he had not mistaken his calling. In 1850 he was nominated by the Democratic party as a candidate for district attorney and was elected by a large vote. He served the term with eminent satis- faction to the people, and was re-elected by the same party in 1853 to the same office, by an increased majority. This was a valuable school for so young a man, for the bar of Tioga county in that day had some of the ablest lawyers in Pennsylvania, and the custom then prevailed of eminent counsel traveling the cir- cuit, and distinguished lawyers living in other parts of the State were accustomed to come to Tioga county. Among them were Judge Williston, Judge Elwell, Judge John W. Maynard, Judge Mercur, now of our Supreme Court, Johnson of Warren, and others. Judge John N. Conyngham was president judge for a portion of the time, after him Judge Williston, later Judge R.G. White, all among the ablest of the old Pennsylvania judges. Having not only this experience in the criminal court, but a long practice in the civil side of the court, and associating with the ablest of the profession and having the benefit of their riper experience, gave Mr. Ryon an opportunity to improve and grow in the profession. At that period Tioga county produced immense quantities of lum- ber, and the mining of bituminous coal was carried on quite largely. These gave rise to important litigations, involving large amounts, and the best legal talent was employed. There was also a great deal of ejectment litigation, and this branch of the law occupied his attention and enlisted his enthusiasm; he would frequently go into the woods with the surveyors and examine the lines of the lands in the suit, which gave him great advantage upon the trial and also valuable experience which few lawyers have. His practice became large, his experience ripened and his reputation grew. He was called into adjoining counties, and had in the later years of his experience in Tioga county a large practice in Potter, McKean and Cameron counties. This extended practice kept him from the comforts of home a large portion of the time, and he could not get rid of it as long as he remained in that county; and, having grown weary of it, he decided to come to Pottsville, where his practice would permit him to enjoy his home comforts. John W. Ryon was an active Union man, and at the breaking out of the war in 1861 took an active part in raising troops. He assisted in the raising of Company A of the famous Bucktail regiment, and accompanied it to Harrisburg. General Cameron, then Secretary of War, refused to receive any more troops. This company, with others, was encamped at Harrisburg, with no pros- pect of employment, and the project of organizing a reserve corps of 15,000 troops for Pennsylvania was originated. Mr. Ryon took an active part in procuring the passage of a bill through the Pennsylvania legislature for that purpose. the corps was raised as a State organization, and Governor Curtin appointed Mr. Ryon paymaster of the corps, with the rank of major; he held that position until this corps was mustered into the United States service and fully paid off, which was in November, 1861. This corps reached Washington in time to save the capital after the national defeat at the first battle of Bull Run. This famous corps needs no fulsome praise; its history is written in blood, and its deeds of gallantry and fortitude are attested by the great battle fields of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Very few survived the war, and most of them are scarred an maimed. Mr. Ryon came to Pottsville in January, 1863, and resumed the practice of the law. His experience and qualifications placed him among the leaders of the bar; _________end page 297.__________ page 298 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ he has been on one side of almost every important case tried in that court. In 1878 he was nominated for Congress by the Demo- cratic party of Schuylkill county, comprising the 13th district. After an exciting canvass against the Republican and Greenback- Labor candidates he was elected by a small majority, the commu- nistic doctrines of the last named party finding specially fa- vorable conditions among the mining population. To these new dogmas Mr. Ryon refused to assent, but stood upon the true prin- ciple that labor is best protected when the laboring man is free to make his own contracts; that all the laws which interfere with this right are hostile to the laboring man; that the wages of labor should be fully protected, and that the proprietors of mines, manufactories, etc., should be required to secure their employes against damages; that capital and labor have a common interest; that capital should pay fair wages for an honest day's work, and wages should be paid in honest money; that paper money not redeemable in gold or silver is not money. In Congress Mr. Ryon was regarded as one of the ablest law- yers in that body. In the State his reputation stands very high and he is regarded as one of the ablest, ripest, and most thor- ough lawyers at the Pennsylvania bar. ____________ A line drawing of Hon. ROBERT M. PALMER is in this place in the original book. It is listed on PAGE 298 in the Table of Contents. ___________ The following biographical sketch of the late Hon. Robert M. Palmer is, with a few necessary alterations, the same that ap- peared in the "Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania": Robert M. Palmer was born in Mount Holly, N.J., in 1820. He was a son of the late Judge Strange N. Palmer, who, having set- tled in Pottsville, Pa., in 1829, was during thirty-six years a resident of that place; and a grandson of Hon. Nathan Palmer (a lineal descendant of Miles Standish), who, born in Plainfield, Conn., in early manhood removed to Pennsylvania and served in the Senate of his adopted State three years, having been chosen thereto by his constituents of Luzerne and Northumberland coun- ties, as holding the views and political faith of Thomas Jeffer- son. He also had been previously commissioned by Governor McKean, whose election he had warmly seconded, as prothonotary of Luzerne county. Robert was but nine years of age when his father removed to Pottsville, and inherited the same tastes as his parent and grandfather, both of whom had been connected with the typographical and editorial fraternity. He served successfully in various positions in the in the printing office and finally reached the editorial chair of the Emporium. While so occupied he studied law, and in 1845 was admitted to practice. In his political faith he was a firm supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, and so continued until 1854. In 1850 he was elected district attorney of Schuylkill county, for the period of three years, and from that time took a high position as a lawyer, and stood, at a later date, in the front rank of his profession in the commonwealth. In 1854 he allied himself to the "People's Party," which occupied the pro-slavery dogma of the modern Democ- racy. In 1856 he was a member of the Union State Central Commit- tee and chairman protem. of the committee to arrange the elector- al ticket. In 1858 he was elected to the State Senate from Schuylkill county, and during his term, and mainly through his exertions, that county received more local legislation of a reformatory character than any other in the State outside of Philadelphia, amounting to an annual saving of $50,000 to the people in taxes. He was elected speaker of the Senate during his last year of service, and filled the chair with distinguished ability. A half century before, his grandfather had occupied the same position. In the spring of 1861 he was appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln minister to the Argentine Confederation, and sailed for that country in May of the same year. His health was not good during his residence there, and in less than a year he resolved to go home, his physicians trusting that the sea air might be of benefit to him. He died April 26th, 1862, on the thirteenth day out, and on the following day his remains were committed to the deep. He left a widow and six children, four of whom are living. His second son in the order of birth, but the eldest now living, Dr. Charles T. Palmer, a well-known oculist and aurist, after serving two years as resident physician of Mills Ophthalmic Hospital, Philadelphia, returned to Pottsville, and in 1871 was elected coroner of Schuylkill county, which position he filled with much credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the people at large. __________ BENJAMIN SPAYD. Benjamin Spayd (whose great-grandfather was Christian Spayd, a settler in Hummelstown, Dauphin county, Pa., in 1727) came to Schuylkill county in 1815, and settling in Port Carbon in that year engaged in the business of coal mining. He removed to Pottsville in 1830, and in March of that year was commissioned a magistrate, "to hold office so long as he behaves himself well." he was elected in 1841 for five years. His office and residence was on Norwegian street, below Center street, where his son, William H. Spayd (now a resident of Philadelphia), was born in 1833. Benjamin Spayd died in 1843, and was buried in the old graveyard of the Lutheran church, at the lower end of Pine Grove. _______________end page 298.________________ page 299 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ A line drawing of CHARLES HERMAN HAESELER was placed here in the original book. In the Table of Contents it is listed on this same page Original text follows the divider line. _______________ Dr. Charles Herman Haeseler was born March 30th, 1830, at Nordheim, in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany. When he was three years of age his parents emigrated to this country, and after short residences in various other parts of Pennsylvania, located themselves in Pottsville, where his father, the late Dr. Charles Haeseler, who was a graduate of the University of Goettingen, engaged in the practice of medicine, and, in conjunction with Dr. B. Becker, was the first who introduced the new system of homoe- opathy in this part of the State. The subject of this sketch likewise studied medicine, and after graduating in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York, pursued the practice of his profession in that city five years, after which he removed, in 1857, to Pottsville, where he established a large and lucrative practice and an influ- ential reputation as a physician. During the Civil War he twice entered the service of his country with the militia, and for the third time during the emergency after the Gettysburg battle, when he served as assistant surgeon in the 20th Pennsylvania cavalry, a six months regiment. At the expiration of his term of service he was presented with a sword in recognition of his successful management of an epidemic of diptheria (sic), which broke out in the regiment. In 1871, having been elected to the chair of Pathology and Practice of Medicine, by the faculty of the Hahnemann College, of Philadelphia, he removed to that city in order to perform the functions thus devolving upon him; but his private professional business soon attained such proportions that he could not attend adequately thereto and at the same time do justice to his duties as a professor in the college. He therefore resigned the latter position and devoted himself exclusively to the former. In 1877, his healthy being greatly impaired, he left Phila- delphia and again took up his residence in Pottsville, where he hoped by a semi-retirement, he left Philadelphia and again took up his residence in Pottsville, where he hoped by a semi-retire- ment from active business to recover his lost healthy, in which he has now measurable succeeded. The doctor has also occupied himself at intervals, amid his professional duties, with literary pursuits, having contributed largely to the medical and other periodicals of the country. Of the year 1867 he spent the greater part in Europe, where he visited the hospitals and medical institutions of nearly all the great cities, such as London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Heidelberg, Rome, etc. After his return to America he published an account of his travels abroad in a book entitled "Across the Atlantic," issued by the Petersons of Philadelphia. ______________end page 299._______________ page 300 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ A line drawing photo of JACOB KLINE was here in the original book. It is also listed on this page in the Table of Contents Original text follow the divider line. _________________ Judge JACOB KLINE. Jacob Kline was born in Berks county, Pa., October 18th, 1798. He came to Pottsville, when young, and lived there up to the time of his death. He held the office of justice of the peace for a number of years, and was an associate judge of Schuylkill county fifteen years, taking an active part in poli- tics, espousing the Democratic cause. He died Friday, Marcy 26th, 1880, of paralysis, at the age of eighty-two, and was buried in the Odd Fellows' Cemetery, Pottsville. He was married twice, his second wife, who survives him, having been Miss Maria Lewis, of Orwigsburg and elsewhere, and during her career as such, taught many men who afterward became well known in the county and in the west. She is now past three-score and ten years, and is honored and respected by a wide circle of acquaint- ances and relations, who hope she may long be spared to them. ______________end page 300._______________ page 301 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ JUDGE C.L. PERSHING. Cyrus L. Pershing, president judge of the 21st judicial dis- trict of Pennsylvania, was born in Westmoreland county, Pa. When he was five years of age the family residence was changed to Johnstown, Pa., where his father died in 1836. Thrown upon his own resources, the subject of this sketch, by means of money earned in teaching school and clerking in offices connected with the State canal and railroad, paid his own way at Jefferson Col- lege, Pennsylvania, of which institution he is a graduate. After leaving college he entered as a student at law, the office of Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, in Somerset, Pa., where he was admitted to the bar, shortly after which time he commenced the practice of the law at his home, in Cambria county, Pa. In September, 1856, Mr. Pershing was nominated as the Demo- cratic candidate for Congress in the district composed of the counties of Somerset, Cambria, Blair and Huntington. The dis- trict was Republican by a clear majority of 2,5000, and had carried in 1854 by over 5,000 majority. After an energetic can- vass in the limited time between the nomination and the election in October Mr. Pershing was defeated by only 284 majority. In 1858 he was again nominated for Congress and defeated. The dissensions growing out of the Kansas slavery excitement that year brought disaster to the Democratic ticket. State and Con- gressional. In 1861 Mr. Pershing was elected to represent Cambria county in the Legislature of the State, and was reelected in 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865. During the whole period of his service he was a member of the ways and means, judiciary and other important committees, general and special. At the session of 1863 he was chairman of the committee on federal relations, and in 1864 was the nominee of the Democrats for speaker of the House. Mr. Pershing also represented his Congressional district in the Union national convention, which met in Philadelphia in August, 1866, of which General Dix was elected president, and where, for the first time after the war, the leading men of both sections con- fronted each other in a deliberative assembly. In 1868 he was placed on the Democrats electoral ticket in the Presidential contest of that year. In 1869 Hon. Asa Packer and Mr. Pershing were placed in nomi- nation as the Democratic candidates for governor and judge of the supreme court respectively. By the vote as counted both were defeated by small majorities. In 1872 Mr. Pershing was nominated for president judge of the judicial district composed of the county of Schuylkill, by the conventions of the Labor Reformers and Republicans. He also received a large vote for the same office in the Democratic convention. His election which followed, necessitated his remov- al from Johnstown, in the western part of the State, to Potts- ville, where he has since resided. On the 10th of September, 1875, Judge Pershing was nominated for governor by the Democratic State convention, which met at Erie. Governor Hartranft was reelected in consequence of the large majority which his party commanded in the city of Philadel- phia. The State, outside of the city, gave Judge Pershing a handsome majority. Judge Pershing still presides over the courts of Schuylkill county. During the time he has occupied a seat in the bench, particularly in the years 1876 and 1877, the usual monotony of judicial life has been varied by a number of trials of Mollie Maguire conspirators, which excited great interest throughout the county. JUDGE DAVID B. GREEN. David B. Green was born in Reading, Berks county, Pa., Decem- ber 22nd, 1831. His parents were John and Catharine (Bright) Green. After attending the schools of his native town he entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1852. Returning to Reading he read law in the office of John S. Richards, Esq., and was and was admitted to the bar in January, 1855. In the follow- ing April he removed to Pottsville, where he began the practice of his profession and met with much success. In 1862 he was appointed adjutant of the 129th regiment Penn- sylvania volunteers, attached to the 5th army corps. He served nine months and was with the regiment at the second Bull Run battle, at the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancel- lorsville, and in other minor engagements. In the summer of 1863, during the invasion of Pennsylvania by the rebel forces, at the organization of the "emergency" regiments Mr. Green was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 27th Pennsylvania regiment, with which he served until mustered out of service in August following. Resuming the practice of his profession in Pottsville, in 1865 he formed a law partnership with the late Hon. Lin Bartholo- mew, which was amicably dissolved in 1866. In 1867, upon the passage of the law creating a new criminal court for the counties of Schuylkill, Dauphin and Lebanon, he was, without solicitation on his part, appointed by Governor John W. Geary president judge of the court. In the fall of the same year, having received the nomination of the Republican party for the same office, he was elected for a term of ten years. Owing to bitter opposition it was some time before the court could go into effective operation, which was not effected until the Supreme Court had affirmed the constitutionality of the law creating it, when the entire crimi- nal business of the county of Schuylkill came before the court and was dispatched there from 1870 to 1874; then the new consti- tution of the State abolished the court and Judge Green was transferred, under its operation, to the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill county, as a law judge, for the remainder of his term, which expired in January, 1878. Receiving the nomination of the Republican party for the office of assistant law judge of Schuylkill county he was defeat- ed by Hon. O.P. Bechtel, and has since then been engaged in the practice of his profession. As a lawyer Judge Green stands high among those who have been prominent at the bar of Schuylkill county. As a judge his administration was marked by careful, painstaking consideration of such questions as were submitted to his decision, and his bitterest political opponents have never charged him with even unwitting perversion of justice. As a citizen he is honored and respected, and has ever been foremost among the active promoters of the best interests of Pottsville. December 8th, 1870, he married Kate, daughter of L.P. Brooke, then of Lynchburg, Va., previously and now of Pottsville. HON. THOMAS H. WALKER. Thomas H. Walker was born June 15th, 1823, in Winsor, Lancas- ter county, Pa. His parents were Lewis and Sarah Y. (Hubley) Walker. He was a student in Pennsylvania and La Fayette col- leges, and later a civil engineer and a member of the engineer corps employed on the North Branch canal. In the spring of 1844 he came to Pottsville and entered as a student the law office of Horace Smith, Esq. In January, 1847, he was admitted to practice at the Luzerne county bar and soon opened ____________end page 301.____________ page 302 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ an office, and has since enjoyed a successful career as an attor- ney. He was married May 18th, 1854, to Susan E. Schollenberger. In 1856 he was elected district attorney of Schuylkill county. He was a presidential elector in 1860 and in 1868. In 1866 he received the nomination in the Democratic convention of Schuyl- kill county for the office of representative in the national Congress, but withdrew in favor of Dr. Cyrus D. Gloninger, of Lebanon county. In 1871 he was elected additional law judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill county for a term of ten years. In May, 1878, he was appointed by the governor of Penn- sylvania one of the delegates to the international prison con- gress, which convened at Stockholm Sweden, August 20th following, and while abroad visited all of the principal prisons of Europe, including those at London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Geneva, closely studying the systems upon which they were managed. Politically Judge Walker has been a lifelong Democrat and an active and influential worker for the success of that party, making speeches in all parts of the county and else- where and attending State conventions frequently as a senatorial and representative delegate. His career has been one of honest endeavor which has reaped its legitimate reward. Left an orphan at an early age, he was thrown upon his own resources and has made his way in the world unaided by friends, except such as he has won among those with whom he has been associated in social, professional and political life. HON. O. P. BECHTEL. John Bechtel, father of Judge O. P. Bechtel, was born near Doylestown, Bucks county, Pa., October 6th, 1798. For many years he lived in Berks county, where for a long time he kept the "Half Way House" between Reading and Kulztown. During an extended period he was a mail contractor and stage proprietor, carrying passengers and mails between Easton and Harrisburg via Allentown and Reading, and from Reading to Pottsville. At a later period he was for ten or eleven years a resident of Northumberland county, where he owned the "Warrior Run" farm, and kept the "stone tavern" which stood upon it, a few miles from Watsontown. From Northumberland county he removed to Pottsville in 1847 and thence to Middleport in 1851. At Middleport he was postmaster during the administration of Presidents Pierce, Buchanan and Johnson. The first three or four years of his residence in Middleport were passed in tavern keeping, which he abandoned never to resume again. Politically he was a Democrat and as such was well known in Schuylkill county. He was married twice, his second wife having been Eliza S. Beiber, mother of Judge O.P. Bechtel. This lady, a native of Berks county, in 1808 died at Middleport in June, 1880, her husband having died in the latter part of December, 1872. O.P. Bechtel was born on his father's farm, in Northumberland county, Pa., June 31st, 1842. He attended the common schools, principally at Middleport, and in his eighteenth year began teaching school in Wayne township, Schuylkill county, and later taught in West Brunswick township. Two years later he was for a portion of a year a student at the Allentown Seminary, and in September, 1861, he began teaching in the Arcadian Institute at Orwigsburg, also reciting in several branches to the principal. In the fall of 1862 he went to Mahanoy City and assumed charge of the leading school there, conducting it until April, 1864, when he entered the service of the Preston Coal and Improvement Compa- ny, at Girardville, as book-keeper and paymaster, in which posi- tion he remained until March 20th, 1865, when he became a student in the law office of Messrs. Hughes & Dewees, at Pottsville, having been three years previously registered as a student in the office of his brother, James B. Bechtel, of Reading, Pa. April 12th, 1866, he passed an examination for admission to the bar very creditably, and May 10th following was formally admitted to practice. Opening an office on Center street, Pottsville, with- out delay, he soon had a remunerative practice. He was tendered by his fellow citizens the nomination for the office of district attorney, but declined the same, preferring to preserve his independence as an attorney in private practice to accepting the emoluments arising from that position. In 1873 he was by a combination of circumstances constrained to become the Democratic nominee for the office of State senator from the tenth district and was elected over three opposing candidates with a majority of nearly fifteen hundred and an excess of nearly one hundred votes over the combined ballot for his opponents. He served with signal credit three years, often doing duty as a member of impor- tant committees, among them those on "constitutional reform," "railroads," and "judiciary general," and was offered a re-nomi- nation, which he declined on account of the pressure of his accumulating professional duties. In August, 1877, the Democrat- ic convention gave him a unanimous nomination for the office of judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was elected by a majority of between sixteen and eighteen hundred and was sworn in January, 1978. His career as a judge has more that met the most ardent expectations of his numerous personal and political friends, and when he retires from the bench it will be with be with honor. September 15th, 1868, he married Mary Elizabeth Epting, of Potts- ville. On her mother's side this lady is of the Myer family, long well known in Pennsylvania, of which her grandfather, Philip Myer, and her great-grandfather, John Myer, both held the office of attorney-general. Mr Bechtel occupies a high social position and as a citizen is much respected by all classed. He is known as a faithful servant of the people rather than as a politician. ROBERT E. DIFFENDERFER. Robert E. Diffenderfer, of Pottsville, was born in Lewisburg, Union county, June 7th, 1849. He graduated from the Lewisburg normal school, and for a while afterward attended the Lewisburg University. He began to practice dentistry with Dr. R.E. Burlan, of Lewisburg, September 30th, 1867. He removed to Pottsville September 30th, 1872, where he has since practiced his profes- sion. He was secretary of the Pennsylvania Dental Society in 1876, and was the first president of the Pennsylvania Central Dental Association. He has served two terms as a member of the Pottsville borough council, and was a candidate on the Greenback Labor reform ticker for the office of coroner Schuylkill county. He has long been an earnest advocate of the issue of money by the government, and from his youth up, has been strenuously opposed to monopolies of all kinds. April 17th, 1872, he married Miss Kate R., daughter of G. W. Proctor, of Lewisburg. As a dentist Dr. Diffenderfer is one of the most skillful; as a citizen he is respected by all, and in his business, political and social relations he has won many and earnest friends. _____________end page 302.______________ page 303 HON. WILLIAM DONALDSON. ____________________________________________________________ The subject of this sketch is a living example of the force of intellect when combined with great firmness and true courage. William Donaldson was born in the town of Danville, Pa., July 28th, 1799, and is therefore now in his 82nd year. His grandfa- ther, William Donaldson, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, throughout its entire period. His father, John Donaldson, died early leaving him, at the age of seven years, with his widowed mother and several sisters, to struggle for support. They met with success, however, and in addition William acquired a fair English education. He learned the mercantile business with the venerable Matthew Newkirk, of Philadelphia, now deceased, and soon afterward started in that vocation in his native town. There he operated extensively in the purchase and sale of grain and other products of the country, which were then sent to market in arks, on the Susquehanna river. These transactions made him favorably known to all the leading merchants and dealers in that valley as far south as Baltimore. In 1829 he married a daughter of John Cowden, Esq., a merchant of Northumberland, Pa. Their family consists of a son and three daughters. Mr. Donaldson became in 1837, the principal owner of a very large body of coal lands in the western part of Schuylkill coun- ty, at that time comparatively a wilderness; and, almost unaided, conceived the project of developing this portion of the anthra- cite coal fields. Its accomplishment by the construction of a railroad and the erection of colliery improvements necessarily involved the outlay of a very large amount of capital, and years of time and personal attention. Nothing daunted, this work was undertaken. The Donaldson Improvement and Railroad Company was organized with the same president. Soon the railroad was fin- ished which connected his and vast bodies of other coal lands with the Mine Hill Railroad and Union Canal, and numerous exten- sive and costly collieries were erected on the land. The town of Donaldson also was laid out on the property. It now consists of machine shops, hotels, churches and houses, sufficient to accom- modate a population of several thousand inhabitants. The borough of Tremont, a mile south, and of equal population and similar industries, was also the direct result of these improvements. Thus a wilderness was converted into a productive territory under his leadership. He remained in the control of the Swatara Rail- road Company until 1863, when were merged in Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. During this time he participated in one of the most important legal contests affecting land titles that ever took place in Pennsylvania. Its final termination in favor of Judge Donaldson well illustrates his great energy and intellectual strength. The title to all his coal lands was involved in this suit. It is the great case of Grant vs. Levan, as reported in 4th Pennsylvania State Reports, beginning on page 393. It embodies a ruling by the Supreme Court of that State which, although probably right according to mere technical legal logic, was shown through the efforts of Judge Donaldson to be a theory that the facts dis- proved. There were ten distinct legal propositions passed upon and determined in the case. These were mainly decided in his favor; but one, then seeming the most vital of all, was point blank against him. Certain deed polls from Robert Martin to Robert Morris (the great financier of the Revolution) were not and had never been in the possession of the parties to the liti- gation. The opposing side claimed under Robert Martin, and the Donaldson title was under Robert Morris. The only evidence of conveyance by Martin to Morris was the endorsement in a connected draft of these lands. It was found in the possession of the representatives of Martin, after his decease and reads. " These lands sold to Robert Morris, Esq., of Philadelphia. Deed polls to him, purchase money pd. me. " Robert Martin." " The over measure to be cast up and accounted for." The Supreme Court decided that as this paper had not been delivered it had no greater effect than a verbal admission, and therefore " under the circumstances the statue of frauds was a bar." The results of this decision, altogether unexpected, spread consternation among many who had acquired interests in these lands, and others indirectly affected by this seeming defeat of the Donaldson claim. Judge Donaldson, however, was positive that the endorsement on the draft meant more than the Supreme Court thus said. Believing that the deed polls had been in existence he thought that, so far from being a "mere" verbal admission of a verbal sale, and therefore affected by the statute of frauds, the draft was in truth and fact a written declaration and a admission by the grantor of formal written conveyances under seal, executed and delivered. Acting upon his convictions he determined that these deed polls should be discovered. This, as the result showed, involved years of search, and in the trav- eling expenses of himself from "Maine to Georgia," and the pay of assistants, many thousands of dollars were expended. His faith in his own conclusions and his determination therefore to find these papers never forsook him. Robert Morris had owned millions of acres of land in most of the then States of the Union. The papers of deceased lawyers and agents who had once represented Robert Morris or those claiming under him, in every State, were disinterred to find the lost deeds. Not a clue was thus ob- tained. At last it was discovered that Robert Morris had a son living, a sea captain, commanding a vessel in the New York and East India trade. This information was received one Saturday. That same day Captain Morris arrived in New York, and was visited at his hotel early the next morning. On being interrogated the captain remembered that many years before, when in Philadelphia, his mother had complained to him of the burden of many boxes and barrels containing quantities of his father's old papers. Be- lieving them of no value she did not wish to preserve them. The captain, to relieve her, took them to New York city and placed them in an old storehouse. No time was lost in making search among these papers, and the same morning, Sunday, there in a bundle, still bound together, were found the long lost documents. They were the ten deed polls for the ten tracts of land, the surveys of which were connected in the before mentioned draft, and which tracts were 4,500 acres of anthracite coal lands, worth over a million of dollars. The papers were delivered for a large consideration, and their genuineness was easily estab- lished. The other parties to the controversy thereupon withdrew from the contest, seeing that the decision of the Supreme Court was effectually reversed. While at Danville he was appointed an associate judge for Columbia county by Governor David R. Porter, entirely without solicitation on his part or that of mere personal friends. this appointment was confirmed by the Senate unanimously. In politics for many years he was a Democrat of the "old school," but never sought office. He and the late _________end page 303.__________ page 304 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ Justice Grier, of the United States Supreme Court, participated in the first meeting held in Danville in support of General Andrew Jackson for the presidency. After that Judge Donaldson co-operated with the Democratic party until about 1848, when he was made an elector on the "Free-soil" ticket. Since then he has been a member of the Republican party. Since 1863 he was almost entirely retired from actual busi- ness pursuits, though idleness has been impossible for his active mind and temperament. For over sixty years he has been a member of the grand lodge of A.Y.M. of Pennsylvania. The charter for the Danville lodge, No. 224, was granted to him as worship master. He still retains his place as a member of the lodge. He is an active participant in the affairs and management of the Presbyterian church. He is especially interested in the "Second Church" at Pottsville, organized by Rev. I.D. Mitchell in 1857, now under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Dr. Smiley, and formerly of the Rev. W.S. Plumer, D.D. The warm, genial and social disposition of Judge Donaldson has surrounded him with a vast circle of devoted friends, and now, in the full possession of his physical and mental faculties, he enjoys, as he deservedly receives, the kindest sympathies and approval of all who know him. On Wednesday, September 19th, 1879, the crowning social event of this long and eventful life occurred. It was nothing less than the celebration, by himself and wife, of the 50th anniver- sary of their marriage. Socially the golden wedding was a bril- liant success; for, in addition to all the elite of Pottsville, the entire county was represented, and many friends and relatives came from distant points, particularly, Harrisburg, Reading, Danville, Trenton, N.J., and Elmira, N.Y., where the family has large connections. The celebration was given the form of a reception, and the guests vied with the children and grandchil- dren of the happy couple in offering hearty congratulations, sincere good wishes and tokens of esteem and friendship. Still the pleasantness had a tinge of pathos, for among all the throng there were only two-Mrs. Maria D. Colt, of Danville, and Mrs. S.J. Tuthill, of Elmira, N.Y.,-who had witnessed the original wedding. Since then the judge's only sister, Mrs. Colt, has died. This leaves him and his wife the last living members of their respective families. And so, literally alone together, they tread in peace and prosperity the well know paths which have been made by many years of quiet endeavor to do faithfully that only which is honorable and right. GEN. J.K. SIGFRIED. Joshua K. Sigfried was born in Orwigburg, then the seat of justice of Schuylkill county, July 4th, 1832. His father, Jonas Sigfried, was a native of Pennsylvania and a wheelwright by trade. He died about 1840. His mother, who previous to her marriage was Miss Susan Krater, was a native of Schuylkill coun- ty. She died at Orwigsburg in 1863. General Sigfried attended school between the ages of six and ten years, and then embarked on the sea of business life as store boy in the employ of Messrs. Lyon & Rishel, at Port Clinton, where he remained five years. At the expiration of this time, realizing the need of more schooling than he had been enabled to obtain, he entered the old Pottsville academy as a student. It was only a year, however, before he found it necessary to again find employment and resume the labo- rious task of making his way in the world. Going to Lykens, Dauphin county, he entered the store of William H. Hetherington, who two years afterward disposed of the business to Lewis Heil- ner, with whom young Sigfried remained a year or thereabouts. Then he was in the flour and feed trade at Port Carbon a year and an half, when he abandoned the mercantile career he had entered upon and engaged for year with Bacon, Price & Co., as a shipper of coal. The next year he passed as bookkeeper for Tobias H. Wintersteen, the Port Carbon machinist. Then until the outbreak of the Rebellion he was engaged in shipping coal for Sillyman & Myers, Samuel Sillyman and George H. Potts & Co., at Port Carbon, and for Lewis Audenreid & Co., at Schuylkill Haven. General Sigfried early formed a taste for military life. In April, 1857, he attached himself to the old Marion rifle company as a private. In the following October he was promoted to the first lieutenancy of the company, and April 20th, 1860, he was appointed major of the 3rd regiment, attached to the 1st brigade of the 6th division of Pennsylvania militia. When treason raised her black flag over our land General Sigfried was among the very first to consecrate his influence, his time, his best energies and his life itself to his county. The following interesting of account of his patriotic and gallant military career during the late war is extracted from Wallace's "Memorial of the Patriotism of Schuylkill County in the American Slaveholders' Rebellion." General Sigfried entered the service in April, 1861, as cap- tain in the 6th Pennsylvania regiment, Colonel James Nagle, for a period of three months, at the expiration of which he was mus- tered out at Harrisburg. After his return home he assisted to organize the 48th Pennsylvania regiment, of which he was commis- sioned major, and mustered into the service on the 1st of Octo- ber, 1861. He moved with the regiment to Hatteras on the 11th of November, 1861. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel by election on the 30th of that month. He was ordered to the command of Camp Winfield, Hatteras, on the 9th of December. He moved with the regiment to Newbern, N.C., on the 11th of March, 1862. In April, 1862, he took command of the regiment, Colonel Nagle having been detached to command the 1st brigade, 2nd division of what was afterwards the 9th corps. The regiment left Newbern on the 6th of July, and reached Newport News on the 9th. Colonel Sigfried spent the month here in placing his regiment in an effective condition. He left with his regiment for Fredericksburg, to join General Pope, on the 2nd of August. The regiment left Freder- icksburg on the 12th, marched to Culpepper and joined General Pope on the 14th. It was immediately thrown forward to Cedar Mountain, and performed picket duty when General Pope's retreat commenced. The regiment moved from there on the retreat on the 18th. It moved toward and occupied Kelly's Ford on the Rappahan- nock, Lieutenant-Colonel Sigfried, with a portion of his regi- ment, recrossed the river in support of Buford's cavalry, who were engaged in a sharp skirmish with the enemy. The regiment remained at Kelly's Ford until the 22nd, when it moved up the river. The regiment, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sig- fried, was in the second battle of Bull Run, August 29th and 30th, 1862. It fought gallantly and lost heavily. September 1st he maneuvered the regiment skillfully at the battle of Chantilly. He commanded the regiment through the Maryland campaign of 1862, participating in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. After the last engagement he was promoted colonel, to date from the 10th of September, 1862. He commanded the regiment at the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13th, 1862. After the battle he was complimented by Generals _____________end page 304._____________ page 304a BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-GEN. J.K. SIGFRIED. ______________________________________________________________ Sturgess, Ferrero and Nagle for the manner in which he took the regiment into and for the ability with which he handled it while in action. March 25th, 1863, Colonel Sigfried left Newport News with his regiment for the west. He reached Lexington, Ky., April 1st, where the regiment remained on provost duty until September 10th, 1863. During that time Colonel Sigfried was provost mar- shal of the city and military commandant. He left Lexington on the 10th of September, as colonel commanding the 1st brigade, 2nd division, 9th army corps, on the march to East Tennessee, to join Burnside's forces at Knoxville. The distance (two hundred and twenty-six miles) was marched in eighteen days, without fatigue or straggling, in consequence of an admirable plan adopted by Colonel Sigfried upon starting. The brigade arrived at Knox- ville, September 28th, and reached Bull's Gap October 14th. From there it marched to Lick Creek and Blue Springs. Colonel Sig- fried commanded the brigade in the battle of Blue Springs, fought October 10th. He returned to Knoxville October 15th, shortly after which he was ordered to take command of the 2nd division, 9th corps. On the 22nd, with his division, Colonel Sigfried moved to Louden; then to Lenoir, where it remained until the 14th, when the division returned to Louden, and covered the retreat of the army on the 15th from Lenoir to Campbell's Sta- tion. At this point Colonel Sigfried resumed command of the 1st brigade, Colonel Hartranft taking command of the division. At the battle of Campbell's Station, fought on the 16th, Colonel Sigfried's brigade opened the engagement, and participated in it all day, retreating at night to Knoxville, reaching that place on the following morning. At this time the siege of Knoxville by the rebel General Longstreet commenced. The key of the defenses was held by the ninth corps-a very important point in the line of works being held by the brigade of Colonel Sigfried. The siege was raised on the 5th of December, the rebels retreating towards Virginia, and our forces following. January 3rd, 1864, the 48th regiment, having reenlisted for three years, left its camp near Blaine's Cross Roads, Tenn., for home on veteran leave, for reorganization, and it arrived at Pottsville February 3rd. Having recruited its ranks to the maximum number the regiment left Pottsville March 14th, 1864, under command of Colonel Sig- fried, for Annapolis, where it was ordered to rendezvous. It left Annapolis, to co-operate with General Grant in his great Virginia campaign, April 23rd, 1864. On the 4th of May Colonel Sigfried was appointed to command the 1st brigade, 4th division (colored), ninth army corps, the duty of which was to guard the immense trains necessary to facilitate Grant's operations. That duty ceasing after the army had crossed the James and established itself in front of Petersburg, Col. Sigfried's brigade was as- signed to other important duty. The circumstances under which he received this brigade command, and the manner in which he dis- charged the duties of the office, will be learned from the fol- lowing letter: U. S. Senate, Washington, April 30th, 1818. General J. K. Sigfried. My dear General: I learned that a " History of Schuylkill County, Pa.," is about to be published, and I would be glad to have a copy of it, for I am sure it will contain honorable mention of its gallant soldiers who served with me during the late war for the suppres- sion of the Rebellion. You, my dear general, will be prominently mentioned if the compilers of the work know as much of your skill, gallantry, and unselfish co-operation as I do. I shall never forget the disinterested patriotism which actuated you when you were asked by me to take command of the 1st brigade of the 4th division of the 9th corps. It was composed of colored troops, and I naturally wanted to give it my best officers for brigade commandeers. I well remembered the desire you had to remain with your old command, and with what reluctance you yield- ed to my desire and order. I wanted you with the 4th division because you were one of my best officers, and commanded my entire confidence and esteem. Please have a copy of the work, when it comes out, sent to me at Bristol, R. I. With kind regards to your family, I remain, my dear general, Faithfully your friend, A.E. Burnside. At the explosion of the mine at Petersburg Colonel Sigfried, with his brigade, participated in the charge on the enemy's works. Subsequently he was brevetted brigadier-general by Presi- dent Lincoln for his gallantry in this action. He continued in command of the brigade until mustered out of service, October 2nd, 1864, by reason of the expiration of his term of service. During his career in the army General Sigfried won the highest encomiums from his superior officers for the fidelity, prudence and ability with which he discharged the duties developing upon him. Without his knowledge, they recommended him for promotion from colonel to brigadier, for meritorious conduct in the field. October 1st, 1870, General Sigfried was appointed major- general of the 6th division National Guards of Pennsylvania, in which capacity he served until the fall of 1878, doing good, service as commander of troops in subduing the riots which pre- vailed in various parts of the States during that period. Octo- ber 22nd, 1878, when the officers were reduced to one major- general and five brigadiers, he was commissioned brigadier-gener- al of the 3rd brigade, and he is yet serving in that position. His whole administration during his connection with the National Guard of Pennsylvania has been so efficient and successful as to win for him the commendation of men and officers under his com- mand and the superior authorities to which he is answerable for the performance of his responsible duties. Since the close of the war the general has been most of the time prominently identified with various mining enterprises. In December, 1865, he assumed the management of the Wolf Creek Diamond Coal Company's collieries near Minersville. In 1868 he formed a copartnership with George C. Potts and reared and oper- ated the Mount Laffee colliery. Later Mr. Potts disposed of his interest in the business to Messrs. Powell & Wigton, of Philadel- phia, and General Sigfried managed the enterprise until he sold his interest to the same parties, in 1872. From that time until in 1874 he owned a one-third interest in the Tunnel colliery, at Ashland, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company owning the remaining two-thirds. During the year last mentioned the corpo- ration became, by purchase, the sole owners of the colliery. General Sigfried served a term in the Port Carbon school board and another in the town council before the war, and after the war on full term (three years) and a portion of a term in the Pottsville school board as its president. From the very inception of the Republican party General Sig- fried has been an ardent advocate of its principles and an active worker for its success. In 1874 he was nominated for the office of State senator, but was defeated by the Democratic nominee, Judge O.P. Bechtel. In 1875 he was appointed boiler inspector for the district comprising the counties of Schuylkill, Columbia and Northumberland, and reappointed in 1878 and 1881. He was chosen chairman of the Republican county commit- ____________end page 304a.______________ page 305 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. _______________________________________________________________ tee in 1880 and is the present incumbent of that position (1881). General Sigfried's life has been a busy and a useful one and the results of his exertion cannot but encourage others who are struggling against difficulties which threaten to be insurmount- able. His advancement is due almost entirely to his own energy and personal worth, for he may be said to have made his way unaided from childhood. Among the many self-made men of the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania General Sigfried takes a prominent position. His career marks him as a man of enterprise, perseverance and ability. Whether in civil, political or mili- tary life he has been successful and is one of notable Pennsylva- nians of his generation. March 10th, 1851, he married a lady of Scotch extraction, Miss Elizabeth P. Sim, a native and then a resident of Port Carbon. Their children have been seven in number: Maggie, David B., Ida S., Cora P., W. Elmer, J. Reno, and Carrie. The first and last born have died. GEORGE H. POTTS Half a century before the beginning of the Revolutionary was John Potts, great-grandfather of the subject of this memoir, lived at Sandy Run, about ten miles from Philadelphia, in the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. The family had then been nearly sixty years in America, having emigrated from England under the auspices of William Penn, in 1668. Thomas Potts, the youngest son of John and grandfather of George H. Potts, about 1750, married Elizabeth Lukens, a daughter of William Lukens, whose estate adjoined that of his father at Sandy Run. The Lukens family was one of the most notable of the early Pennsylvania families, and was of Holland descent. Joseph and John Lukens were brothers-in-law of Thomas Potts. The first mentioned was a life-long resident on the Lukens estate, at Sandy Run, a man of wealth, held in high esteem for many good equali- ties. The later studied civil engineering, and later was ap- pointed to the responsible position of surveyor-general of Penn- sylvania, under the King. Upon the agitation of the momentous question which prepared the way for American independence, he espoused the cause of the patriots, and so closely identified was he with the leaders in the revolutionary movement that it was in one of the apartments of his residence, in Philadelphia, that the Declaration of Independence was drawn up by Thomas Jefferson. His granddaughter, the celebrated beauty, Sally McKean, became the wife of the Marquis D'Yrujo, the first minister from Spain to the United States under the constitution. By his marriage with Miss Lukens Thomas Potts received a handsome fortune. He removed to the beautiful Musconetcong valley, in New Jersey, near the mouth of the river, where he purchased a large estate, on which he erected a forge and fur- nace, and conducted, until his death in 1777, an extensive and successful iron manufacturing enterprise. To an almost immeas- urable degree he had the confidence of all who knew him. He was trusted as a man of honor and unyielding fidelity; he was admired as a man of unwearying enterprise and brilliant talents. He is distinguished as having been a member of the Continental Con- gress, which convened in Philadelphia in 1775 to petition the King to redress the grievances which had long been suffered by the colonists. He was in all essential respects a patriot; he had at heart the cause of the struggling colonies, and deprecated as deeply as any of his liberty loving contemporaries the severi- ty with which they were oppressed; but he was a consistent adher- ent to the religious principles of the Society of Friends, and finding it impossible to regard the Declaration of Independence as anything short of a practical declaration of war he refused to affix his signature to that historical document, not wishing to co-operate in an act which would precipitate bloodshed and rapine upon the colonies. His widow, Elizabeth Lukens Potts, married Doctor John Rock- hill, of Pittstown, Hunterdon county, N.J., where her descendants by both her marriages resided continuously until ten years since, when Hon. Frederick A. Potts, son of George H. Potts, and late a candidate for the office of governor of the State of New Jersey, purchased the old homestead, where he has since lived. A remark- able circumstance in the history of the Potts and Rockhill fami- lies is that members of them have intermarried for five genera- tions, during which they have lived on the same estate. Hugh H. Potts, father of George H. Potts, was born at the Chelsea Iron Works, on his father's estate, in New Jersey, in 1773, and, having a natural proclivity for a military career, became an officer in the first United States army raised under the newly organized government and served as such for many years. In 1800, at Carlisle, Pa., he married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain John Hughes, of Revolutionary memory, a distinguished officer who participated in every engagement from that at Three Rivers, Canada, to the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, during nearly all of which eventful period he was in the compan- ionship of General Washington. Captain Hughes recruited a compa- ny at Carlisle, which was attached to the 10th Pennsylvania regiment, and entered the service as its captain, but was soon promoted to the office of paymaster-general, a position which the history of those times would indicate a depended more on the possession of ample means and a patriotic willingness to disburse them as occasion required, for the relief of the ill paid and often suffering soldiers, than the mere desire and ability to transact its simple routine duties in consideration of the sal- ary, which under more favorable circumstances might have been a desideratum to one less generous and more self-seeking. Captain Hugh H. Potts his son-in-law, subsequently resigned his commis- sion and purchased an estate on the Delaware river, in Bucks county, where he resided until the death of his wife, in 1813. Near the close of the war of 1812-14 he was reappointed to a captaincy in the United States army service, but just as he was about join his company and report for duty peace was declared. He died in 1842. George H. Potts, the subject of this biographical article, was born in 1811, on his father's estate on the Delaware. Left an orphan by the death of his mother in 1813, he found a home in Pittstown, Hunterdon county, N.J., in the family of his father's sister, Mrs. Judge Rockhill. He early gave evidence of the possession of that innate enterprise which has since placed him prominently among the most successful business men of the United States, and at fifteen, an age when most youths are thinking only of boyish amusement, we find him an assistant in an extensive mercantile house in Philadelphia, receiving a practical business training. Here he remained three years, laying the foundation of a busy, useful, and in many respects remarkable career. With the advantages of good birth and fine social connection, he was yet not wealthy, and his position as a self-made man was only the better assured by the opportunities for early training and educa- tion which he had enjoyed. In 1829 he removed to Pottsville, Pa., and at once engaged in mining operations. At that time everything connected with the anthracite coal interest was in a very primitive condition. Practical mining as it is now known was yet to be introduced. What coal was mined was _____________end page 305.______________ page 305a BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH GEORGE H. POTTS. _______________________________________________________________ brought to the surface only in limited quantities and by the hardest physical exertion. Its preparation for market was equal- ly crude in its processes. The facilities for conveying it to the sea-board cities were of the most primitive description. Only 44,000 tons of anthracite was mined in 1828. The aggregate in 1879 was 26,000,000 tons and it will reach nearly 30,000,000 tons in 1881. In the remarkable series of improvements which have made such a stupendous growth possible Mr. Potts has been a pioneer. From 1829 until to-day he has been continuously inter- ested in the production of coal, and he enjoys the distinction of being the oldest miner of anthracite in the United States in view of the number of consecutive years he has been engaged in the business. From 1834 to 1845 he was the most extensive individual coal operator in the union. He erected the first engine for mining purposes in Pennsylvania. It was built by Messrs. Haywood & Snyder, at their establishment in Pottsville, and is yet in use. He was the first to use plates of iron for breaking coal, and erected the second breaker ever put in operation. He built the first boat which was employed to convey coal to the city of New York direct from the Schuylkill region, and which opened the way for the immense inland water transportation of a later date. He was one of ten men to subscribe $300 each to be used in exper- iments in making anthracite iron, which were crowned with suc- cess. The history of these experiments, which were so important in the development of the leading interests of the country, are given elsewhere in this volume. In 1836 he surveyed the first railroad from Pottsville to New York. After a residence of twenty-four years in Pottsville, in 1853, Mr. Potts removed to New York, as the local representative of the extensive coal and iron firm of Lewis Audenreid & Co., with which he has associated himself, and of which he became the senior member. While occupying this position his excellent judgment, business qualifications and executive ability placed the firm at the head of the coal and iron trade of the United States and won the frequent admiration and applause of those with whom he came in contact. By the death of Lewis Audenreid, in 1873, the firm was dissolved, Mr. Potts retiring and his son, Hon. Frederick A. Potts, who has since continued the business with remarkable success, becoming sole proprietor. The regret manifested on all sides at Mr. Potts's retirement from active business life in 1873, will not soon be forgotten, as it was felt that the loss of such a man to the coal and iron industries of America could not be readily replaced. With an ample fortune, won by a life of unintermitted industry, Mr. Potts determined to pass his remaining years in ease and quiet, but so great was the pressure brought to bear upon him to induce him to accept the vacant presidency of the National Park Bank of New York, of which he had been one of the organizers, and had long been a director, that he finally consented to assume its duties and responsibilities. His election in September, 1879, to the position of president of one of the wealthiest and most prominent banking corporations in the union was welcomed with unbounded satisfaction by stockholders and customers, and was the subject of much favorable comment by the press of New York and the other great financial centers of the country. That the public confi- dence in Mr. Pott's financial abilities had not been misplaced is indicated by his successful management of the affairs of the bank, whose stock, from par in 1879, has advanced to 1.60 and whose surplus has been increased from $200,000 to $1,000,000. Mr. Potts is in every way fitted to creditably occupy his recog- nized high position in the financial and social circles of New York. In person he is above medium height and of striking personal appearance; his years rest lightly upon him. He has that combi- nation of admirable qualities which have marked successful and popular men in all ages of the world-dignity, courtesy, shrewd- ness and decision. His geniality and generosity have won him innumerable friends. His strict, undeviating integrity has been remarked during his entire business career. Among the early friends of Mr. Potts in Pottersville, Pa., the following incident illustrative of his unyielding probity is current. It is related here in the hope that it may serve as an example to others in their days of disastrous business failures: In 1848 by the failure of a gentleman in Philadelphia, with whom Mr. Potts was connected in business, he lost $104,000. He was forced to call his creditors together, and settle with them at fifty cents on the dollar, and was obliged to borrow the money to enable him to do even this. Sixteen years later he paid these compromised claims, amounting to over one hundred thousand dollars, although he had been legally exonerated when he made the compromise, compelling his old creditors to accept interest on the balances, in spite of the fact that they repeatedly refused it and used their utmost powers of persuasion in attempts to convince him that he ought not to pay it. In 1832 he married the eldest daughter of George M. Cummings, of Pottsville, who bore him seven children. In 1863 he was again married, to a daughter of Judge Gideon Hard, of Albion, Orleans county, N. Y., who has represent- ed his district in the State Assembly and in the National Con- gress, and has long been prominent in judicial and political cir- cles. By his present wife Mr. Potts has had three children, and all of his children by both marriages are living. The family home is in New York city, but they have and elegant summer resi- dence near Somerville, N.J., which, from its admirable location on a gentle eminence, commands most enchanting views in every direction.