Sullivan-Luzerne-Wyoming County PA Archives Biographies.....JENNINGS, William N. and sons 1854 - 1898 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 17, 2007, 10:01 am Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1899) JENNINGS BROTHERS. - In this age of colossal enterprise and marked intellectual energy, the prominent and successful men are those whose abilities, persistence and courage lead them into large undertakings and to assume the responsibilities and labors of leaders in their respective vocations. Success is methodical and resultant, and however much we may indulge in fantastic theorizing as to its elements and causation in any isolated instance yet in the light of sober investigation we will find it to be but a result of determined application of one's abilities and powers in the rigidly defined lines of labor. Prominent among the men who have done so much to advance the material welfare of Sullivan county is the firm of Jennings Brothers, extensive manufacturers and wholesale dealers in lumber, at Lopez, Pennsylvania. The American pioneer of this branch of the Jennings family was Paul Bishop Jennings, a native of Wiltshire, England, who came to the United States in 1816 - a lad of eighteen years - and found employment as a farm hand near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He saved a little money and for a short time attended school, it being for the first time in his life. He then went to the lumber woods of Northampton county, Pennsylvania, on the Lehigh river, where he worked as a teamster, and later as a jobber; he saved money enough to buy a farm and gristmill at Mehoopany, Wyoming county, that state. There he began his independent career as a business man, established a store and built a sawmill, which he operated in connection with his gristmill and farm and became a successful and prominent business man, leaving a large estate at the time of his death, which occurred in 1864. He married Miss Elizabeth Tuttle, of Kingston, Pennsylvania, and to them were born four children: Joseph T., a resident of Mehoopany, Pennsylvania, and a prominent lumberman; William N., the father of our subjects; Caroline, wife of E. W. Sturdevant, of Wilkesbarre; and Mary A., deceased. William N. Jennings was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1829, and acquired a business education. In the memorable days of 1849 and 1850, when twenty-one years of age, he went to California, but after a year returned to the Keystone state. For a time he was employed as foreman in the construction of the Horseracre dam at Mehoopany, and soon afterwards, in connection with his brother Joseph T., began extensive lumber operations at Jenningsville, Wyoming county, a thriving little town named in honor of the brothers. About three years later, in 1857, William N. Jennings removed to Pittstown, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where he conducted a lumber yard, flour, feed and provision store, and in 1865 moved to Wilkesbarre, where he continued in the same line of business until 1877. A year later, in 1878, he moved to the new oil fields of Pennsylvania, at Bradford, and for three years manufactured lumber, doing a very successful business. Again returning to Wilkesbarre, in 1883, he has since made his home there, enjoying all the comforts and esteem a successful business man could wish. He married Miss Sarah Ann Hicks, of Wyoming county, and they have four children, as follows: Cortez H. and B. Worth, who compose the firm of Jennings Brothers; William L.; and Eleanor, wife of Dr. N. A. Rinebold, of Wilkesbarre. Cortez H. Jennings, the elder son, was born in Jenningsville, Wyoming county, December 1, 1855, and was educated in the public schools of Pittston and Wilkesbarre, in the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, and spent three years at the West Point Military Academy. From the age of sixteen years he worked, during vacations, in his father's office, and in the summer of 1875 was captain of the steamer Hendrick B. Wright, running between Wilkesbarre and Nanticoke. From 1875 until 1879 he attended school, and from 1879 until 1881 he assisted his father in the latter's business interests. In the fall of 1881 he came to Sullivan county, where he purchased of James McFarlane & Company, a large tract of timber land. In December of the same year he came to the county, and in partnership with his brother, B. Worth, erected the necessary buildings and equipments, and began lumbering. In the spring of 1882 they erected their first saw mill, which had a capacity of thirty thousand feet of lumber per day, and from time to time they have purchased large tracts of timber land. In the fall of 1887 they built a part of the present hemlock mill, with a capacity of forty-five thousand feet of lumber per day, and three years later enlarged the mill, putting in gang saws and increasing the capacity to seventy-five thousand feet. They also constructed a part of their logging railroad along the banks of the Loyal Sock creek, and have since extended the road until its length is sixteen miles. In 1884 they established a store in Lopez, which has been increased from time to its present large proportions. It is to-day one of the most complete mercantile establishments in Sullivan county, and gives employment to nine men. The offices of the company are on the second floor of the store building and are equal to any in the state as to convenience, finish and furnishings. In the offices they employ four assistants, and their pay-roll shows the names of four hundred in their service. In 1895 the Jennings Brothers purchased a controlling interest in the clothes-pin factory conducted under the name of the Lopez Manufacturing Company, a concern which employs fifty operatives. In 1896 they bought the Trexler & Terrell mill, put in band saws and other modern machinery, and now use it as their hardwood mill. It has a capacity of thirty thousand feet of lumber per day and furnishes employment to thirty-five men. The Jennings plant is one of the most complete and largest of its kind in this section of the country. They own over one hundred and fifty houses occupied by their men; and in fact everything used by the concern is theirs. Their homes are models of comfort and convenience, and the brothers are public-spirited, energetic, progressive, generous, kind-hearted, and in fact possess all the qualities that go to make business men successful and popular. Cortez H. Jennings is an active member of the Republican party, has served as postmaster of Lopez, and in 1898 was the county's nominee for congress. He affiliates with the Masonic fraternity, and is an active member of the Lopez Athletic Association. He has been twice married - first in June, 1880, to Miss Florence N., daughter of Captain A. B. Mott, of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. She died in January, 1883, and on the 21st of September, 1885, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Louise Bowman, a daughter of Harry H. and Jane (Gregg) Bowman, of Towanda, Pennsylvania. This union has been blessed with three children: Donald Hicks, who died in infancy, Sarah Hicks, and Paul Bishop. Mrs. Jennings is a member of the Episcopal church. Bishop Worth Jennings, junior member of the firm of Jennings Brothers, was born at West Pittston, Pennsylvania, May 4, 1862, and was educated in the public schools of Wilkesbarre, in the Bloomsburg State Normal and the Wyoming Seminary. At the age of seventeen he entered his father's office, where he worked one year, and then spent the following year in the employ of his uncle, Joseph T. Jennings, at Mehoopany. Following this he joined his brother in the lumber business in Sullivan county. He has charge of all the office work of the company, and is a stockholder and president of the Dushore bank. Socially, he belongs to the Masonic order, is an active member of the Lopez Athletic Association, and is captain of the Lopez Baseball Team, a famous organization which has lost but one game in two seasons. In 1894 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the state legislature, and re-elected in 1896. He has also served four years as postmaster of Lopez, several years as justice of the peace, seven years as school director, and during that time was president and secretary of the board. On the 5th of December, 1883, B. Worth Jennings was married to Miss Ella M. Castle, daughter of John Castle, of Kiantone, New York, and to them have been born two children: William Worth, who was born October 25, 1884, and Ethel May, who was born May 10, 1889, and died May 12, 1897. Mrs. Jennings is a communicant of the Episcopal church. William L. Jennings, foreman and superintendent of the Jennings Brothers Hemlock Mill, of Lopez, was born at Wilkesbarre, October 24, 1865. He pursued his studies in the public schools of that place; in the Chamberlain Institute, of Cattaraugus county, New York; the Riverside Seminary, of Wellsville, New York; the Keystone Academy, of Factoryville, Pennsylvania, and the Wyoming Seminary, of Kingston, Pennsylvania. He worked for one year in his father's sawmill in Bradford, McKean county, this state, and in April, 1882, entered the employ of his brothers at Lopez. He began by burning brush and piling lumber, and from the lowest place has worked his way upward, step by step, to his present responsible position. He has sole charge of all the work, from the rough saw-log in the pond to the finished lumber loaded on the cars ready for market, using ninety-four men in his department. Politically he, too, is a Republican, and socially is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the K. O. T. M. In 1897 he was elected school director, was president of the board the first year, and is now secretary. He was married January 22, 1889, to Miss Fidelia Agnes Myers, who was born January 22, 1867, a daughter of C. C. Myers, of Mehoopany. With the Episcopal church she holds membership. By her marriage she has become the mother of three children, namely: William Hicks, Victoria and Florence; but the last named died in infancy. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Sullivan County Pennsylvania by Thomas J. Ingham Compendium of Biography The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago: 1899 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 10.6 Kb