Stogdell Stokes Staples (1859-1949)

From Portraits and Biographies of Members of the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1895.

   An obscure 19th Pennsylvania legislator, Stogdell Stokes Staples further distinguished himself in the business sector of Luzerne County. He was born in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1859, the son of Richard S. (1818-1893, a Pennsylvania state representative from 1872-73) and Mary (Thompson) Staples (1828-1900). Young Stogdell studied in both public and private schools, attending a seminary in Claverack, New York, and later attended the Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
   While still a young man, Staples is recorded as helping his father publish the Monroe Democrat in 1878, and after a year in publishing moved to Trenton, New Jersey. Once settled, Staples found employment at the Trenton China Works, and would later serve as the Superintendent of that company for four years. In the mid-1880s he returned to Pennsylvania, and in 1885 purchased the Luzerne Ochre Manufacturing Company. A portrait and biographical souvenir of the Pennsylvania legislature (published in 1895) notes that Staples was "given immediate management" of the plant, and he later became president of this business, as well as holding "a half interest in its enterprise". This business is also noted as "furnishing material to four-fifths of the oil-cloth manufacturers in the country."
  Staples married in March 1886 to Stroudsburg native Hattie Raubenald, and it is unknown at the time of this writing if any children were born to them. While his business exploits are of note, Staples also began seeking local political office, eventually winning election as Burgess of White Haven, Pennsylvania for two terms. He would later be named as Postmaster of the Borough of Moosehead and was still the incumbent in this post at the time of his election to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives.
   Staples was elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania legislature in November 1894, defeating Republican candidate Ellsworth L. Riley by only fifty-two votes! Two other candidates (representing both the Prohibition and People's parties) also ran for this seat, and the blurb featuring those election results has been posted below.

   Staples's election to the legislature is recorded as a "great triumph in view of the demoralized condition of the Democratic party" and during his one term in the legislature held a seat on the following committees: Congressional Apportionment, Corporations, Insurance, Iron and Coal, Mines and Mining, Railroads, and Rules. His two-year term was characterized by the earlier mentioned legislative souvenir as one of "close attention to the details of lawmaking, and displayed to advantage his unusual business qualities". Staples would also take a firm stand against a proposal for the establishment of a new county in Pennsylvania called Quay (named after Matthew Quay, then serving in the U.S. Senate), which was later shot down by a house vote of 92 to 82.

Stogdell Staples in old age, from the Wilkes-Barre Record, April 13, 1949.

  After the conclusion of his term in January 1897, Staples would lose a 1900 race for state representative by a wide margin and continued prominence in his region well into his eighties. From 1914-1919 he served as U.S. Postmaster of White Haven, and in 1917 partnered with G. Robert Baetz and Robert Teel to establish the White Haven weekly newspaper. In the mid-1930s Staples was appointed to a vacant seat on the White Haven borough council. Several months prior to his death he suffered a fall at his home in White Haven, and in March 1949 celebrated his 90th birthday. He died a few weeks later on April 12, as a result of the fall he'd suffered. Staples was preceded in death by his wife Hattie in 1946 and both were interred at the Stroudsburg Cemetery.

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily Record, April 13, 1949.

  

A visit with Stogdell Stokes Staples at the Stroudsburg Cemetery

 In a postscript to the seven-year-old article above, I was able to visit and photograph the gravesite of Stogdell S. Staples in Stroudsburg on September 15, 2019. After twenty or so minutes of searching by car and on foot, the Staples plot was found. Buried beneath an unassuming, modest headstone, no mention is given on this stone to Staples's assembly service or business successes. Buried next to him is his wife Hattie, and behind their stones are the oblong gravestones belonging to Staples' parents  Richard and Mary, the former having served a term in the Pennsylvania legislature in the 1870s. And now some photos from the trip!

September 15, 2019.