Plymouth Warren Snyder (1851-1943)

Portrait from the Altoona Mirror, 1943.

  Another standout figure in the history of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Plymouth Warren Snyder was an oddly named contemporary of Tarring Spurgeon Davis, who was profiled a few days ago. A pharmacist in Hollidaysburg for over fifty years,  Snyder served as a member of the Blair County Board of Health and began his political career with his election to the first of two terms in his state's house of representatives in 1910. These terms were followed by three consecutive terms in the Pennsylvania Senate, where he was viewed as a "commanding presence." Like Tarring S. Davis, Snyder lived a long life and was devoted to the history of his native county, being a founding member and past president of the Blair County Historical Society. 

   Born on March 1, 1851, in Hollidaysburg, Plymouth Warren Snyder was the son of druggist Jacob and Sarah Cecilia (Bowers) Snyder. A student at the Hollidaysburg Seminary, Snyder followed in his father's stead and decided on a career as a pharmacist, studying at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy from 1871-72. After the completion of his studies, Snyder returned to Hollidaysburg and joined with his father in the latter's pharmacy, which had been established in 1842. Snyder would take the reigns of this store following his father's death and conducted business for fifty-two years, operating out of a "large and handsome store" on Allegheny Street. Snyder and his pharmacy received extensive mention in the 1887 Industrial and Commercial Resources of Pennsylvania, which relates:

"The prescription department is presided over by Mr. Snyder in person, who learned the science of the apothecary and pharmacist from his able and accomplished father. He exerts the utmost care and most scrupulous accuracy in preparing and compounding even the simplest remedy, and many of the leading physicians prefer to have all their prescriptions filled by this painstaking pharmacist." 

   In  August 1888 Plymouth Snyder married to Cora Eleanor McClellan (1859-1933), and the couple's forty-five-year marriage saw the birth of one daughter, Mabel (birthday unknown). Snyder's 1943 obituary also gives notice to the couple having a foster daughter, Florence. A longtime member of the Pennsylvania Pharmaceutical Association, Snyder attained prominent rank in the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member for over sixty years. In 1879 he served as a worshipful master of the Juniata Lodge, No 282 and also held memberships in the Mount Moriah Royal Arch Masons, the Mountain Commandry No. 10, the Jaffa Shrine Temple, and the Mountain Council, No. 9., of the Royal and Select Masons. Snyder's status as a leading Presbyterian in Hollidaysburg is also attested to in his 1943 Altoona Mirror obituary, which details his thirty-six-year tenure as a church elder and his past service as treasurer of the Presbytery of Huntingdon in Hollidaysburg.

Snyder during his legislative service.

  A member of the Blair County Board of Public Health for a number of years, Plymouth Snyder's first foray into elective office came in 1910 when he announced his candidacy for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Blair County's 2nd district. That November he won out at the polls, garnering 3,101 votes, and during his first term (1911-13) held seats on the following committees: Centennial Affairs, Constitutional Reform, Counties and Townships, Pensions and Gratuities, Public Buildings, Public Health and Sanitation, and Public Roads. Snyder won a second term in the house in 1912 and during the 1913-15 session served as chairman of the committee on Pensions and Gratuities.

  In the 1914 election year, Plymouth W. Snyder advanced to a seat in the state senate, where he would have considerable impact. He would serve three consecutive four-year terms (1915-27) and this period of service saw him acknowledged as a stalwart backer of prohibition and an advocate for improved roadways, with the Altoona Mirror remarking:

"He was a sturdy champion of good roads, the public schools, forests, dry law enforcement, pure food, old age pensions, health and sanitation, and he always opposed with great vigor any tampering with the Sunday laws." 

  Snyder's productivity in the senate was marked by his backing of improved highway legislation, and he "ever was a champion of measures designed to promote the cause of education and the upbuilding of the public school system." Both prior to and after his senate terms Snyder was a leader in historic preservation in Blair County, being a charter member and former president of the Blair County Historical Society. Snyder would contribute to Tarring S. Davis' 1931 History of Blair County, authoring a chapter in Volume I of that work devoted to the "History of Presbyterians in the County". Snyder's 1943 obituary further notes his figuring prominently in the historical society's acquisition of the Baker Mansion in Altoona, the former home of local iron magnate Elias Baker, and in 1922 was a featured speaker at the dedication of a memorial marker near the site of Fort Fetter, a Revolutionary War-era fortification in Duncansville, Pennsylvania.
  Widowed in 1933, Plymouth Snyder continued residency in Hollidaysburg following his wife's death and in March 1941 celebrated his 9oth birthday. Remarked as being in fair health even in his ninth decade, Snyder was largely housebound during the final years of his life and died aged 92 on December 19, 1943, at his home. He was survived by his daughters Mabel and Florence and was interred alongside his wife at the Hollidaysburg Presbyterian Cemetery.

Snyder's obituary from the Altoona Mirror, December 20, 1943.

Scholley Pace Alexander (1902-1974)

Portrait courtesy of www.legis.state.pa.us.

   A prominent Philadelphia, Pennsylvania real estate broker and one-term Democratic state representative, Scholley Pace Alexander was also a U.S. Army veteran and member of the Philadelphia Housing Association for several years. The son of former slaves Hilliard Boone and Martha Alexander (both natives of Virginia), Scholley Pace Alexander was born in Philadephia on June 8, 1902. In addition to the man profiled here, the Alexander family would also boast Raymond Pace Alexander (1897-1974), a noted civil rights leader, lawyer, and jurist. A defense attorney who gained wide distinction for his defense of six black defendants in the Trenton Six re-trial of 1951, Raymond Alexander was later elected to the Philadelphia City Council and in 1959 was appointed as a judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, becoming the first African-American to serve in that capacity.

  Scholley P. Alexander attended the Temple University High School in Philadelphia in 1920 and married in Manhattan on March 26, 1923, to Ethel B. Watson, to whom he was wed until her death from a heart attack in August 1955. Following his marriage, Alexander became the business manager for Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life in 1928, and by the early 1930s  was employed as a clerk in his brother's law office. Sources also detail that Scholley Alexander had earned a law degree by 1934, as he is listed as an attorney in the August 8th edition of the Pittsburgh Courier.

  The 1936 election year saw Scholley Alexander made his first foray into Pennsylvania politics, announcing his candidacy for the state house of representatives from Philadelphia's 7th ward. In a special assembly election held that April, Alexander was defeated (3,639 votes to 1,311) by another black attorney, former Philadelphia city councilman Richard A. Cooper. 

  In the years following this legislative defeat, Scholley Alexander gained prominence as a realtor in Philadelphia, work that later saw him become a member of the Philadelphia Housing Commission and the Citizens Committee on City Planning. In 1950 he launched another candidacy for the Pennsylvania legislature but was dealt another loss that November, being defeated by Republican Lewis Meade Mintess, 4,924 votes to 3, 662.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 5, 1952.

   Alexander's political fortunes changed in 1952 when he successfully won a seat in the Pennsylvania house of representatives, besting the man who had defeated him two years previously, Lewis M. Mintess. Serving during the 1953-55 session, Alexander (along with several other Philadelphia Democrats) introduced house resolution in May 1953 asking the U.S. House of Representatives to "support the U.N.'s human rights covenant". Alexander wasn't a candidate for renomination in November 1954 and at the conclusion of his term was appointed by Governor George M. Leader as a workmen's compensation referee for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, serving from 1955-56.

  The later years of Scholley Alexander's life saw him gain local distinction as a patron of the arts, with he and his second wife Marian's Philadelphia home playing host to the "Expressing the Feminine Mystique In Art", an all-female art showing which benefitted the Student Welfare Council. Alexander died in Philadelphia in February 1974, aged 71, and a burial location for both he and his wife Marian remains unknown at this time.

Scholley P. Alexander as he appeared in Jet Magazine, February 1964.

Elymus Hackett (1822-1915)

Portrait from www.legis.state.pa.us

    One-term Pennsylvania state representative Elymus Hackett served in the same legislative session as that of Pennell Coombe Evans, who was profiled here a few days ago. A New Yorker by birth, Hackett moved to Potter County while still a child and after attaining maturity operated a mercantile firm, lumbering business, and a foundry. Late in his life, Hackett removed from Pennsylvania to Washington state, where he died aged 93. Born on April 8, 1822, in Broome County, New York, Elymus Hackett was the son of John E. and Ruth (Baker) Hackett.

   At age six Hackett relocated with his family to the town of Ulysses in Potter County, Pennsylvania, and would receive his education in schools local to that area. Little is known of Hackett's formative years, except notice of his residing on a farm during his youth. In the late 1840s, he is recorded as operating a mercantile business in Potter County with Daniel Baker, who would later become his brother-in-law. Elymus Hackett married in 1849 to Mary Monroe (1823-1868), and the couple would remain childless.

   Towards the end of the Civil War, Hackett enlisted for service in Co. F., 210th Reg., Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which had been organized at Harrisburg in September 1864. Over forty years old at the time of his enlistment, the particulars of Hackett's service with this company remain largely unknown, although it is known the 210th Regiment took part in the Siege of Petersburg, and several lesser battles.

  Honorably discharged in 1865, Hackett would suffer the death of his wife Mary in 1868 and in the succeeding years was engaged in the mercantile business in several different Potter County towns, including Genesee, Sweden Valley, and Borie. In 1873 he was awarded his first patent (for improvement in water wheels) and in 1884 made his first entrance on the Pennsylvania political stage, becoming a Republican candidate for the state house of representatives from Potter County. Hackett won the election in November of that year and during the 1885-87 session was a member of the house committees on Centennial Affairs, Elections, the Geological Survey, and Vice and Immorality. He would also have some oddly named company during this term, serving alongside Symington Phillips, Mungo Montgomery Dick, and Pennell Coombe Evans, the latter two being profiled here in years past.

   Hackett left the legislature in 1887 and would attempt one further political candidacy in 1895, being the Populist candidate for Associate Judge of Potter County. In a Potter Enterprise writeup concerning his candidacy, Hackett took to riding a bicycle around the county to court voters, and was remarked as "an old soldier and deserves, and will have, the support of every battle scarred veteran in the county." He was defeated in that contest and around 1900 relocated to Washington state, later residing in North Yakima. While a resident of that town he was awarded a second patent in 1907 for an "amalgamator", and celebrated his 90th birthday in 1912. 

  A resident of the Washington Soldier's Home during his final years, Elymus Hackett suffered a debilitating fall in July 1914, breaking his shoulder. He survived for a year following this accident, dying at age 93 on August 2, 1915, in Orting, Washington. He was later interred at the Washington Soldier's Home Cemetery in Orting.

From the Whitehill Allegany County News, August 19, 1915.

Pennell Coombe Evans (1848-1919)

Portrait from www.legis.state.pa.us

  A prominent son of Easton, Pennsylvania, Pennell Coombe Evans represented that city for two terms in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and later served as its postmaster for four years. In addition to those posts, Evans was a three-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention and would also be an aspirant for Northampton County Judge and an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in the 1914 Democratic primary. Born in Easton on May 31, 1848, Pennell Coombe Evans was the son of John and Mary Isabella (Horn) Evans. 

  Pennell C. Evans was a student in Northampton County public schools and later enrolled at the Millersville State Normal School. He went on to study at the Lafayette College (graduating in 1874) and for two years following his graduation taught school in Easton, and by age twenty had assumed the role of assistant principal for the county's grammar schools. During this time Evans read law locally and was admitted to the bar in 1876. In that same year, he married Caroline Wolslayer (1850-1936), and the couple later had two daughters, Emily (1877-1950) and Ida (1879-1956).

   In 1882 Pennell Evans took his first steps into Keystone State politics, winning election to the Pennsylvania House of  Representatives that November with 8,738 votes. The 1883-85 session saw him serving on the committees on Constitutional Reform, Corporations, General Judiciary, and Legislative Apportionment. Evans won his second house term in 1884 and during the 1885-87 session sat on three new committees, those being Iron and Coal, Local Judiciary, and the Library. Evans wasn't a candidate for reelection in 1886 and after his term returned to practicing law in Easton.

   Eight years following his time in state government Pennell Evans was called back to public service when he was appointed as U.S. Postmaster at Easton by then-President Grover Cleveland. During his tenure, he served as part of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic National Convention of 1896, which saw William Jennings Bryan nominated for the Presidency. Evans would subsequently serve as a delegate to the Democratic Conventions of 1900 and 1912, both of which saw Bryan again nominated as the party standard-bearer. Evans' time as postmaster extended until 1898, and in 1903 was elected as a solicitor for the board of the Northampton County Commissioners, serving until 1907. 

From the Pike County Dispatch, September 26, 1907

    In 1907 "Pen" Evans received the nomination for Judge of the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas, this occurring due to the previous nominee, Parke H. Davis, withdrawing from the contest. Evans would lose that contest to Republican candidate Russell C. Stewart, and in 1909 joined with Clarence Beck to found the law firm of Evans and Beck. In 1914 Evans launched a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 26th congressional district but failed to get his candidacy to extend beyond the Democratic primary. Pennell Coombe Evans died in Easton on March 18, 1919, aged 70. He was survived by his wife Caroline, who, following her death in 1936, was interred alongside her husband at the Easton Cemetery. 

Sharpless Morgan Dietz (1867-1931)

Portrait from the Danville Morning News, January 21, 1931

   A standout citizen in the history of Danville, Pennsylvania, Sharpless Morgan Dietz was a prominent businessman in this Montour County city for over thirty years, being the proprietor of two hotels as well as a leader in the local Moose lodge. A two-term member of the Pennsylvania State Assembly from Montour County, Dietz's life ended tragically via a car accident near Liverpool, Pennsylvania in January 1931, an accident that also claimed the life of the man who had preceded him the legislature, Jesse Beaver Gearhart (1868-1931). 

   Born in Danville on November 15, 1867,  Sharpless M. Dietz was the son of John George and Mary Anna Dietz.  He attended schools local to the Danville area and first entered the workforce in the mid-1880s as a rolling mill employee. In 1887 he traveled to Ft. Worth, Texas and for nine years was employed as an engineer and fireman for the Texas and Pacific railroad. He married sometime in the early 1890s to Ms. Rachel Crumb (1869-1911), with whom he had three children, Oscar William (1894-1969), George (died in infancy in 1908), and a daughter, listed as Mrs. Ralph Jenkins.

   Sharpless Dietz returned to Pennsylvania in the late 1890s and around 1899 entered into the hotel business, becoming the owner and operator of the "Glendower House". He operated that hotel for nine years and around 1907 took ownership of the Riverview Hotel, operating it until his death two decades later. Active in a number of civic organizations in Danville, Dietz was a longstanding member of the local Moose Lodge and was its past director. He also held memberships in the local Eagles and Elks lodges and for over three decades was a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotives Engineers and Firemen.

   Dietz first entered the political life of Danville in November 1920 when he became a candidate for the Pennsylvania General Assembly from Montour County. Dietz's opponent that year was Republican Jesse Beaver Gearheart, a veteran of both the Spanish American and First World Wars. On election day 1920 it was Gearhart who eked out a narrow win over Dietz, besting him by a margin of just 13 votes--2,134 to 2,121!

   Two years following his loss Dietz launched another campaign for the assembly and was this time successful, defeating J. Beaver Gearhart. Taking his seat at the start of the 1923 session, Dietz would serve two assembly terms and was defeated for reelection in November 1926. 

   After leaving the legislature Sharpless Dietz continued to be a citizen of prominent standing in Danville and died in tragic circumstances in January 1931 via an automobile accident. On January 19th of that year he, J. Beaver Gearhart, and Montour County Associate Judge Victor Olsen left the Riverview Hotel and began traveling to the state capitol to attend the inauguration of Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot. The trio made it as far as Liverpool, Pennsylvania, and on January 20th the Buick coupe they were traveling in encountered icy pavement, which in turn sent the vehicle plunging into a culvert. The Danville Morning News reported on the particulars of the accident, stating that:

"The driver lost control of the car and it started to slide crossways in the road towards the abutment. The four passenger coupe struck the abutment in the center of the right side, demolishing every window and bending the frame into a half moon shape around the end of the abutment."

   The force of the crash caused Dietz to be thrown from the vehicle and he was later found in the creek bed near the abutment in an unconscious state. Judge Olsen (who had been thrown into the highway upon initial impact) sustained injured ribs and lacerations. Only J. Beaver Gearhart remained in the vehicle, pinned in the wreckage. The Danville Morning News reported that Dietz showed "no signs of life" following the crash while Gearhart expired a short while later. A coroner's report later stated that both men had suffered skull fractures caused by being "thrown against the framework of the interior of the machine with such violence that the tops of their skulls were crushed like eggshells." Only Judge Olsen survived the accident. 
   After news reports of the accident reached Danville the outpouring of grief was immediate, as two of the city's most prominent figures had died suddenly and violently. Following funeral arrangements, Dietz's body was returned to Danville and was later interred at the Fairview Cemetery in that city. He had been preceded in death by his wife Rachel in 1911 and was also interred at the aforementioned cemetery.

From the Danville Morning News, January 21, 1931.

Howkin Bulkeley Beardslee (1820-1886)

Portrait courtesy of the Legislative Reference Library of Pennsylvania.

   Acknowledged as one of 19th century Pennsylvania's prominent public men, Howkin Bulkeley Beardslee was a newspaperman by trade, being the owner and editor of both the Wayne County Herald and the Luzerne County Herald. Active in politics in addition to newspaper work, Beardslee served in both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature and was even talked of as a candidate for Congress in the early 1870s.

   A lifelong Pennsylvania resident, Howkin B. Beardslee was the son of Bulkeley and Lucretia (Kimble) Beardslee, being born in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania on May 28, 1820. Recorded as receiving a "rural school education", Beardslee began reading law in the office of local attorney Charles Robinson and was admitted to the bar in 1844. Howkin Beardslee married in November 1846 to Charlotte Clark (1826-1909), with whom he would have several children: Clark (born 1847), Frank, John (born 1849), Charlotte Dollie (1852-1880), Minerva (born 1854), George Washington (born 1858), Clark, Jane (1854-1936) and Mary (1854-1923).

   Within a year of being admitted to the bar, Beardslee won election as Register and Recorder of Wayne County, taking office at the ripe old age of 23. He would hold that post from 1845-48 and during his term made his first venture into the publishing world, purchasing the Wayne County Herald in 1847. Beardslee and his partner J.H. Norton ran the Herald as a partnership until 1849, whereafter Beardslee purchased Norton's interest and continued on as both owner and editor until 1861 when he sold off his interest to assistant editors Thomas Ham and Charles Menner. Before this sale, Beardslee had been elected as Wayne County's representative to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1859 and served during the legislative session of 1860-61. 

   Howkin Beardslee would continue his political rise in 1862 when he was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate from the 10th senatorial district. He would serve one four-year term (1863-67) and held seats on the committees on Compare Bills, Estates and Escheats, Private Claims and Damages. Regarded as a "political power' in Wayne County due to his newspaper stewardship and assembly service, Beardslee was:

"Entitled fairly to all of the influence and esteem he gathered up. The elements of his power were not obscure. True, he was not an orator. There was no charm of manner or brilliancy of rhetoric in his speeches. He was not an elegant writer. What he accomplished was in virtue of his character, which eminently fitted him to guide and control."

   A staunch Democrat, Beardslee served for many years as a member of the Wayne County Democratic Committee and twice was considered as a candidate for Congress from his district, but failed "to secure the conference ratification." In 1869 he briefly served as District Attorney of Wayne County due to the resignation of William H. Dimick. 
   Having resumed his newspaper interests, Howkin Beardslee resettled in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1871 to take on the post of editor of the Luzerne Union. He later became the sole owner of this paper and remained affiliated with it until about 1882, when he established the Luzerne County Herald. In January 1886 health concerns forced him to relinquish control of that paper and in the following month, he moved back to his "old home" in Indian Orchard, Pennsylvania, where he died on March 11, 1886, at age 65. Beardslee was survived by his wife Charlotte and was interred at the Indian Orchard Cemetery.

Beardslee's death notice from the Port Jervis Evening Gazette, March 19, 1886.

Geter Crosby Shidle (1831-1889)

Portrait from the Proceedings of the Supreme Council, 1889.

   Prominent Pennsylvania masonic leader Geter Crosby Shidle receives a write-up today, and in addition to his being a leading figure in Pennsylvania masonry served as a member of his state's legislature for one term beginning in 1874. A lifelong resident of the Keystone State, Geter Crosby Shidle was born in Pittsburgh on October 14, 1831, being the eldest of six children born to James (1800-1879) and Elmira Crosby Shidle. 

   Little could be found in regards to Shidle's early life in Pittsburgh or his education. After "attaining his majority" he joined his father in the latter's wallpaper business, operating under the name of Jas. Shidle & Son. Their partnership continued until James Shidle died in 1878, whereafter Geter "carried on the business under his own name". In the early 1860s, Geter Shidle married to Annie Rachel Jackson (1839-1894). The couple were wed for nearly thirty years and had a total of six children: Henry B. (1862-1864), Hunt Mills Butler (died in infancy in 1867), Annie (1871-1875), Geter Crosby (died aged 4 months in 1875), William L. (1876-1878) and Geter Crosby (1879-1945).

   Joining the Masonic order in 1854, Geter C. Shidle became a member of the Milnor Lodge No. 287 in May of that year and would serve that lodge as both Worshipful Master and Secretary. He was Knighted into the Pittsburgh Commandery in 1859 and in that same year became a member of the Zerubabbel Royal Arch Chapter, No. 162, of which he would serve as treasurer. Shidle would continue his rise through the masonic ranks and in 1872 became Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Pennsylvania. Acknowledged as having a career "honorable to himself and useful to his fraternity", Shidle also held the post of President of the Masonic Veterans of Pennsylvania and was a trustee of the Masonic Fund Society.

   In addition to his wallpapering business, Shidle made headway into other areas of Pittsburgh public life, including being a charter member of the Masonic Deposit Savings Bank of Pittsburgh in 1869.  He would later be named as a Director of the Dollar Savings Bank and Union Insurance Company and in 1874 made his first move into city politics when he was elected to the Common Council of Pittsburgh. In that same year, he was elected as one of Allegheny County's representatives to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

   Taking his seat at the start of the 1875-76 session, Shidle sat on the house committees on Banks, the Library, and Retrenchment and Reform. Following his term, Shidle was elected as the President of the Masonic Bank of Pittsburgh (serving from 1886 until his death) and in 1887 was appointed by then-Governor James Beaver to the Pennsylvania State Board of Charities. Shidle would turn down that job, however, citing a contract to paper the Allegheny County Workhouse as making the position "incompatible." After many years of prominence in Pittsburgh public life, Geter Crosby Shidle died on June 11, 1889, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, having gone there out of health concerns. He was survived by his wife Annie and following her own death in 1894 was interred alongside her husband at the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

Portrait from "A Library of Freemasonry", Vol. 4. 1906.

Survellon Burr Holcomb (1871-1952)

Portrait courtesy of www.legis.state.pa.us.

    The proud possessor of a truly unusual first name, Survellon Burr Holcombe served twelve consecutive years as Sullivan County's representative in the Pennsylvania State Assembly. The son of Pierson Alonzo and Sophia Elizabeth Mott Holcombe, Survellon B. Holcombe's birth occurred in the town of LeRoy, Pennsylvania on March 16, 1871. Unfortunately, I have no interesting tidbits to share with you as to where the name "Survellon" originated from. Despite this, it looks as if Survellon himself preferred going by the abbreviated name 'Vell", as most of the period resources mentioning him record this name.

   Holcombe resided in the county of his birth until reaching age ten, whereafter he and his family relocated to Sullivan County. He attended school here for a period of three years, after which his family returned to LeRoy. A graduate of the Elmira School of Commerce, Vell Holcombe removed to Dushore, Pennsylvania in 1893, where he would take on the position as bookkeeper under Samuel Cole, a prominent local businessman. He remained in the employ of Cole until 1898, when he decided to go into business for himself. 

   In December 1898, he and Holcombe and Henry Obert partnered and purchased a furniture and undertaking business formerly owned by E.F. Taubach. Holcombe purchased his partner's interest the following year, and afterward the business would operate under the name Holcombe and Lauer. Vell Burr Holcombe married on November 29, 1900 in Dushore to Ms. Rosanna Jane "Jennie" Cook (1876-1969), to whom he was wed for over fifty years. The couple's lengthy union would see the births of five children, Pauline Cook (1903-1992), Alice Elizabeth (1905-1955), Pierson Joseph (1907-2002), Vell Carl (1913-1999), and Richard L. (1915-2014), who died just short of his 99th birthday. 

   Through the succeeding years, Holcombe built up a reputation as one of Dushore's most well-known businessmen. As a notable citizen in the town, Holcombe held several local offices, including stints as a member of the borough council, school board and board of health. In November 1920 he was elected to his first term in the Pennsylvania State House, garnering a total of 2,251 votes on election day. During the 1921-23 term, he served on several house committees, including Ways and Means, Mines and Mining, Education, Forestry, and Federal Relations. Sources relate that as an assemblyman Holcombe was an advocate of prohibition and favored "good roads for everybody" as well as "preserving the forests and game protection." 

   Vell Holcombe would continue to represent Sullivan County in the state assembly until 1933, having been an unsuccessful candidate for reelection the previous November. He continued to own and operate his furniture and undertaking business until 1947, when he retired and turned over the operation to his sons Richard and Vell Carl. Survellon Burr Holcombe died in Dushore in May 1952 at age 81 and was later interred at the St. Basil's Cemetery in that town. His widow Jennie survived him by nearly two decades, dying in 1969 at age 92.

Survellon and Roseanna Holcomb, courtesy of "Endless Mountains" on Rootsweb.

Elgie LaVernze Wasson (1875-1931)

Portrait from the "Book of Prominent Pennsylvanians".

    Pennsylvania yields another oddly named public figure in one Elgie LaVernze Wasson, a Butler County-based surgeon and businessman. A two-term member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Wasson served during the 1911-12 legislative term, a session which featured such interestingly named legislators as Artanus L. Snyder, Mandus Welles Reeser, Plymouth W. Snyder, Eckley Walter Klingerman, and Hillorious Kester Bender.

   Elgie LaVernze Wasson was born in the city of New Castle, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1874, being the son of William J. and Samantha Jane Wasson. He would begin his schooling in the public school system of Butler County and was later a graduate of the Sunbury Academy. Following his graduation, he entered into a teaching career and followed that vocation for three years before deciding upon a career in medicine.

   In the late 1890s, Wasson enrolled at the Baltimore Medical College and earned his medical degree in 1898. He continued study at Johns Hopkins University and after graduating in 1902 returned to Pennsylvania, establishing a medical practice in the town of Callery. Two years later he moved to the city of Butler, where he would continue to reside and practice for decades afterward. 

  Regarded as a "specialist in surgery and gynecology", Wasson served as head surgeon at the Butler County General Hospital and was also retained as a head surgeon for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company's Butler district. A member of both the Butler County and Pennsylvania State Medical Society, Wasson also made a name for himself in a number of business concerns, several of which were located in other states. For ten years, he actively engaged in the "oil producing business" and was a director of the Evershed Land and Improvement Company in Niagara Falls, New York. Wasson also served as a director and Vice-President of the Western Slope Copper  Mining and Land Company based in Colorado and for a time was affiliated with California Touring and Land Co. and the Sun Film Manufacturing Co., both of Pittsburgh.

   Elgie Wasson made his first step into Pennsylvania political life in the late 1900s, winning election as Butler County's representative to the Pennsylvania State Assembly in 1908. He would win reelection two years later and during his four years in the house served on the committees on Banks and Banking, Congressional Apportionment,  Mines and Mining, Good Roads, Education, Military Affairs, and Fish and Game. During the 1911-13 term Wasson chaired the Committee on Health and Sanitation. 

   Little is known of Wasson's life following his time in the legislature. Regarded as a prominent club man in the Butler area, he was an active Mason and was affiliated with the Elks, the Oil Men's Carnival Association, and the Butler Country Club. Elgie L. Wasson died in Pennsylvania on June 13, 1931, of "pulmonary edema" and was survived by his wife Henrietta, and a daughter, Joan (1917-2009).  He was later interred at North Side Cemetery in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Mungo Montgomery Dick (1821-1895)

Portrait from the Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County.

   A descendant of a Scottish family with its roots in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Mungo Montgomery Dick was a veteran of the Civil War, being a major in the 105th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. A farmer before his military service, Dick would later serve Westmoreland as a county commissioner for three years and in 1884 was elected as his county's representative in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, where he served one term.

  Born in the township of Sewickley, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1821, Mungo M. Dick inherited his unusual first name courtesy of his father, the Rev. Mungo Dick (1773-1839), a pastor of the Associated Reform Church of Sewickley, Pennsylvania from 1806-36. Born in Moray Firth, Scotland, Rev. Mungo Dick emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1806 and married in 1815 to Eliza Murray, with whom he would have eight children, our subject being the fourth born. Mungo M. Dick received his education in the "subscription schools", as well as a log house located on his father's property, and as a youth engaged in both farming and stock raising.

  Beginning in the early 1840s Dick entered into military service, becoming a captain in a local company of volunteers referred to as the "Sewickley artillery." He was affiliated with this unit until 1859, and in June of that year was named a "brigadier general of the first brigade of the seventeenth division" of the Pennsylvania militia, comprising the counties of Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, and Greene. At the dawn of the Civil War in 1861, Dick gathered together a company of men known as the "Sewickley Infantry", which later joined the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers. During his service, Dick and his company would see action during the Peninsula Campaign, as well as the "stubborn battles of Fair Oaks and the Seven Days Fight." 

  

  

                                                                    Major. M.M. Dick in his military uniform.

   Mungo M. Dick married his first wife Mary Ann Guffy (1846-1870) sometime in the 1860s and later had two sons, Jeremiah (died aged four in 1872) and Joseph (born January 1870 and died in July 1876). Mary Guffy Dick died shortly after Joseph's birth on January 12, 1870. He would wed Elizabeth Gaut (1847-1876) shortly after and would have one further son, Mungo M. Dick Jr., who died in infancy in November 1876. Elizabeth Gaut Dick died shortly after her son's birth in September 1876, leaving her husband a widower for the second time. 
   In addition to his military service both within Pennsylvania and in the Civil War, Mungo M. Dick operated a "banking house" in Sewickley, and was described in the Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County as having "acquired a handsome competency" through this business. Dick served Sewickley as its school director for many years and in 1876 was elected as one of three county commissioners for Westmoreland County, serving in this capacity until 1879. In November 1884 Dick was elected to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives as a Republican, garnering 8,840 votes on election day. Taking his seat at the start of the 1885 session, he would serve on the house committees on Agriculture, Elections, the Military, and the Geological Survey.
  Little is known of Dick's life following his service in the state assembly. He would marry for a third time in the mid-1880s to Emma Pentzer Goehring, later having one son, Mungo (born August 1889). After many years of prominence in the Westmoreland County vicinity, Mungo Montgomery Dick died at age 73 on June 5, 1895. He was survived by his wife Emma and was later buried at the Sewickley Union Cemetery in West Newton, Pennsylvania. 
   In an aside note, Dick's unusual first name Mungo (which was shared by his father) has its origins in ancient Scotland. Saint Mungo (also referred to as St. Kentigern) is noted as being the patron saint and founder of Glasgow, Scotland.