Address Of Charles Clement at the 1895 Lycoming Centennial
On Day 1, July 2 1895
[Photos were not from the original publication, they were added by me]
ADDRESS BY CHARL.ES M. CLEMENT, ESQ.
Ladies and Gentlemen: — It would seem at first thought unreasonable to ask the Mother County to rejoice at this centennial birthday of her greater daughter. There has seldom been in this state any rejoicing by mother counties at the creation of their daughters, but one of the twenty-seven daughters and granddaughters of Old Northumberland entered upon its career of independent countyhood amid paeans of joy on the maternal side, and that one was Luzerne, whose recent struggles over the proposed erection of another severed member from her territory reminds us forcibly of the unbroken history of these events.
In fact political ambitions have been the potent factors on each side of every county contest, and political jealousies have furnished the sauce piquante which has embittered every severance of the provincial domain. The love of office, the pride of territorial position, desire for power and authority, these are the mothers of counties. But a calm review of the past clearly demonstrates that both the original Northumberland and all that is left of her, small and irregular though it be, can justly share in the rejoicings of this day, for the erection of Lycoming County was a most important step in the development of the northern tier, that array of counties whose sturdy sons have so nobly maintained the honor of their native Commonwealth at home and abroad, in peace and in war, thereby glorifying the history of both your county and mine.
So dear was this mountain fastness, with its wealth of wooded hills, its placid waters and its noble scenery to the Indian, that he jealously withheld its sale to the Penns. With that keen intuition that took in every strategic point, they located their council fire and their principal armed camp at the Forks* of the Susquehanna a little above the falls of "Shaumauking."
Here they established a vice-regal government and installed the noble Shikellimy, the Christian Indian, who was the friend of the Proprietaries and the foe of intemperance and vice.
From this, the largest Indian town south of Tioga Point, he governed wisely and well for a quarter of a century. To his home he invited the white man, and from 1728 to the present date the valley of the Susquehanna has been tributary to the greatness of the colony and the Commonwealth.
Into this wilderness pressed the most venturesome of the pioneers, trappers, traders, hunters and settlers; the men who chafed at the restraints of even colonial civilization and wanted to be beyond the pale of any government. With them came the Moravian Missionaries, always foremost in the work of propagating the church and zealous for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of alike the red and the white.
Conrad Weiser was sent here by the Penns, on his way to a council at Onandago, to negotiate for this very territory, but the astute Shikellimy persuaded him that these hunting grounds of the Indian were not yet for sale.
In 1744 the first English building in this valley was erected by Weiser for Shikellimy, and the next year Rev. Martin Mack became a resident missionary, the first of a noble army who have since carried the cross through every nook and vale of this part of our state. The difficulty of the task can be easily understood from the concise entry in Mack's diary that he arrived at "the very seat of the Prince of Darkness."
After Braddock's defeat, fearing the French and Indians allied with them, the friendly Indians removed their council to Wyoming, but urged upon the government that a fort be built at the Forks. After years of urging, so deaf were the assembly to the appeals and so blind to the wisdom of the Indian, Fort Augusta was built in 1756, the strongest of the colonial defenses and the only one of which there are any substantial remains.
In 1768 the purchase was consummated of the territory including all that remains of both Northumberland and Lycoming Counties and much more. The territory thus annexed to the counties of Berks, Bedford, Lancaster and Northampton was not viewed with any favor, therefore, when in 1772 the county of Northumberland was erected she came into existence without any struggle to retain her; they were glad to get rid of a daughter whose peace was marred by Indian marauders upon one hand and Connecticut settlers upon the other.
She was considered by them an inaccessible wilderness, but not so did she seem to the astute Penns; her great area was a subject of constant thought and care in the governor's council, which represented the spirit of the Proprietaries far better than the assembly, which was then yearning for freedom from foreign control as represented rather by an alien landlord than a distant sovereign.
With the glory of the Provincial government at its height, and apparently a long era of peace in prospect and all danger from French and Indians abated, this last but one, and the greatest of all the Provincial countries, was formed and with true English pride was named after the northern border county of their home beyond the sea. Away upon the frontier of the settlements, it was to keep off the marauders as its prototype of the mother land had done. This much was understood, but that the struggle was to be between the mother land and her united daughters, and that it was in this new county to be one of unparalleled cruelty and rapacity, was unguessed.
That it would greatly swell their personal wealth and the might and glory of their province by the Delaware was well seen, since they selected the land at the Forks, which commanded the whole central and northern part of the colony, as their own Manor of Pomfret, being land reserved from the Provincial government as the personal estate of the Penns, part of their royal tenth in all the land they had bought.
To perpetuate the personal ascendency in this new county, they caused the donation lands to be laid out and much of the older part of the county was then peopled by the officers of the colonial wars, who accepted the acres offered as the reward for their services under the royal flag. Naturally, therefore, this new county at once took a prominent place in the affairs of the day. The Proprietaries sent here their best soldiers, their shrewdest lawyers and surveyors, to start the machinery of this county, to control its affairs and further their own interests.
Between the official families settled around Sunbury and its ancient fort, and the military settlers located along the West Branch there existed a natural companionship; they were the representatives of the pride and aristocracy of the day and were of the governing class in every provincial assembly. The officials at Fort Augusta gladly aided these people in the establishment of outposts at Muncy, Freeland and elsewhere, even yielding up the armament of the fort for this purpose, so certain were they that it would tend to enhance the value of their own possessions at the Forks, and also the newer purchases up the river, in which they were largely interested.
The fertile valleys and wooded hills of the West Branch attracted the land speculators of the day, who purchased large blocks to hold for future profit, but the prominence in this work of development must be given to those actually living in the county. The Penns deputed the talented Maclay, who prided himself upon his simplicity, to lay out their town of Sunbury; he vied with his rival, the commandant at Fort Augusta, Col. Samuel Hunter, in efforts to develop the Otzinachson vale. Each was seeking to add to possessions he should leave to his descendants and to his influence with the government, and realized that the power lodged at the county seat was his best auxiliary in this campaign of territorial aggrandizement and political supremacy.
It was these men and their associates, rather than the land speculators of Philadelphia, who perceived what a tributary to the greatness of the town at the Forks this wonderful West Branch Valley would be, and they fostered the idea of dependence by every expedient that suggested itself, fully purposing to bend all to their own advantages.
The outbreak of the Revolution found these men squarely planted on the side of the colonies and actively promoting the organization of troops, of which the most renowned regiment was the Twelfth of the Continental Line, whose descendants can be found in every part of the Commonwealth. These patriot organizers called the hardy mountaineer and the patient farmer to stand side by side in fighting for a common country, and they so denuded the land of settlers, in their zeal to help Washington, that it became an easy prey to the marauders from the north. Ere long they were calling for troops to defend this very valley from the British and their fiendish allies. Owing to the hardly pressed condition of the Continental army these calls went unheeded for more than two years. In the meantime the patriot citizens of the county, than whom none were more zealous than the representatives of your own territory, were actively organizing the militia, and several battalions of these troops were formed ; the capture of New York and the repulses on every side brought on more calls for troops, and even these home guards were pressed into service and marched away to New Jersey. The helpless condition of Central Pennsylvania was soon perceived by the wily savage, the word was carried to the mixed camp in New York and the attack was made on Wyoming.
Colonel Hunter at once sent messengers to the settlers to gather at Fort Augusta; then followed what has been since known as the "Big Runaway." The Indians were on every little party, killed and scalped anyone found a hundred yards from succor. The people became desperate and fled.
The principal politicians of the county did not stop until safe in Lancaster; then they sat down and abused Colonel Hunter; none of the officers or men who remained on the scene of action ever questioned his course, and it is now apparent that but for his warnings the valley of the West Branch would have seen a repetition of the Wyoming massacre. William Maclay wrote in a letter of July 12th, 1778: "I never saw such scenes of distress, the river and roads covered with men, women and children flying for their lives. In short, Northumberland County is broken up. Colonel Hunter alone remains, using his utmost endeavors to rally the inhabitants and make a stand against the enemy. For God's sake, for the sake of the country let Colonel Hunter be reinforced at Sunbury; send but a single company if you can do no more."
Hunter himself, in his report, of that date, said: "Sunbury is the frontier where a few venturesome inhabitants and fugitives are determined to stand, tho' doubtful whether to-morrow's sun will rise on them freemen, captives or in eternity."
The council ordered Colonel Hartley, with about a thousand men, to Sunbury. Colonel J. P. DeHaas started as a volunteer and with his troops was soon on the scene. Colonel Brodhead, who was on the road to Fort Pitt, was diverted and sent to Sunbury, and thus the onslaught was averted. Those venturesome spirits who returned to their homes were but targets for the Indians who resumed their marauding the following spring, and on the strength of the report of Robert Kovenhoven all the women and children along the West Branch were sent to Fort Augusta; nor was this done any too soon, as Fort Freeland was attacked and captured and the inmates carried captive to Canada. The country was ravaged in every direction until in a few weeks there was not an inhabitant north of Northumberland town.
When peace at last stilled the savage warriors, the settlers again radiated from Sunbury and the same skillful hands sought to perpetuate the influences of the county town, and by reason of their political skill were able to maintain in the assembly the prestige so hardly won during all these years of warfare.
But the hardy race that were peopling the waters of the West Branch were too independent to submit to domination; the free air of their mountain homes bade them throw off the yoke that bound them to the county town and its caste of officialism and its circle of Revolutionary officers. They desired to rule over this vast domain of Northern Pennsylvania without let or hindrance from the "back settlements," among which they numbered Sunbury and Northumberland town, which latter place was being repopulated.
Forgetful of its protecting influence during the seven years of warfare, the miles to be traversed, the streams to be forded, the distance from their homes to the seat of justice became the potent themes in their renewed argument for separation. The main-spring of their conduct was the desire for self-government and for a voice in the councils of the infant Commonwealth.
So long as the older hands and these most, skillful men of affairs remained around Sunbury, their efforts were fruitless, although persisted in for years, but with Ma clay in the Senate beginning his contests with Adams and against Federalism, and Colonel Hunter gathered to his fathers beneath the shadows of his crumbling fort, the power of the old regime was badly shattered. The rapid influx of settlers after the Revolution gave increased voting power to the outlying districts and at last they captured the State Senator in William Hepburn, and, behold Lycoming was born!
Your own historian has told you how these struggles to be separated from us were renewed and continued over the location of the new county town, and this contest emphasizes the proposition that political ambitions and political jealousy were the advocates and opponents of division. With these contests in the new county I have nothing to do. I have thus briefly outlined the history of the Mother County, so far as it seems to be of common interest, and in the hope that you may be again reminded of the great obligations due to the Old County of Northumberland from the county of Lycoming, and I trust that this can now be done without rekindling any of the former misunderstandings.
I came here to-day to tell you that the jealousies and contentions of the past are buried in a common grave. The broader view we take of all American institutions teaches us that county lines are not to-day divisional lines in any sense, but exist solely for convenience of administration and the execution of the process of the law. Sectionalism lias ceased along the waters of the Susquehanna, and we look with pride upon the vast area we filled on the early maps. We feel a common interest in your prosperity and advancement. We look beyond your present confines to the territory lopped away and say, all these are ours, the uncut jewels of our provincial glory, which became resplendent only when severed and polished in a lapidary of political strife.
We all realize in our quiet way, and being German in descent on some side, we are all quiet and undemonstrative, that the greatest glory of Old Northumberland are those northern and western daughters who hold within their boundaries the West Branch, the pride of old Lycoming, the pathway through which she was settled and by whose waters the forests that have made her rich have floated to market. We forgive her for her floods and freshets as we recall how she has freighted the pines and oaks to market and returned the gold to her hardy
mountaineers, making this whole valley a prosperous and successful mart of trade. From the date when William Penn beheld the waters of the Susquehanna at Swatara to the present, it has been the main artery for the development of Central and Northern Pennsylvania. Wisely the Proprietaries located their principal fort at the Forks, where the commerce on the stream could be protected. The stage route, the canal and the railroad alike in turn sought out the confluence of the branches as the place to gather in the wealth that would flow out from this West Branch Valley.
We share in the glory and triumphs of this day, because we know that in these modern days the bars of steel and the wires that join our towns have obliterated distance and bring all the children of Old Northumberland into closer union and most friendly relations; that county lines are obliterated and a closer bond of sympathy unites us today than could possibly have existed, had the prayers for division been denied and you continued unwilling children of an ungracious mother. We glory that you have outstripped us in the race for material prosperity.
The hardiest and bravest spirits always pressed to the front, and here in the northern border of the state they found their permanent home and have stirred the very soil on which they lived to renewed activities, and their descendants continue conquerors of the forces of nature among these mountains and streams. What would have been a burden to us has at the hands of your fathers and yourselves become one of the greatest glories of the Commonwealth.
If we look into the councils of the state, we find that your sons and the sons of your daughter counties fill the most responsible positions in the state government, maintaining the spirit and dignity of the Commonwealth and adding luster to the long list of faithful officials, and we rejoice that they are sons of Old Northumberland. If we gaze abroad at the smoking
chimneys of your mills and factories we see that master minds are bending the forces of nature to work out the human will, and that the wealth and comfort of the state are alike promoted by your endeavors, and our hearts swell with pride that leads us to demand goods marked "Lycoming-' in every market, feeling that that name is a guarantee of honest work and good material.
We appreciate the unprecedented development of this vast territory and in all sincerity declare that but for the promotion secured through this division of territory this growth would have been stunted, and that the division of Old Northumberland was the most potent agent in the accomplishment of this material triumph which has dimmed the political lustre of earlier triumphs and entirely effaced the bitterness of the past.
In the past quarter of a century this Commonwealth has advanced with mighty strides, and in no part has the development been so marked as within that part of Old Northumberland which became the Old Lycoming.
We come here, then, with your children to receive the homage due a parent, to ask from you a continued, kindly thought for that old Northumberland which, shorn of her miles upon miles of territory, is justly proud of her daughters, treasures up her record weighty with the past, and sitting, now as then, at the Forks of the river, presides calmly over its waters, gathers up and disburses the stores of grain and lumber and oil which come by water, by rail and by pipe line, all within her shortened boundaries.
We proudly rejoice that vast, rich and grand as you are, you cannot pass by the Mother County, but that all your contributions to the markets of the world must now, as they did a hundred years ago, be carried by Fort Augusta, while all you get in return must take the same route.
As children of a venerable parent who is retiring and modest, as all nineteenth century parents are in the presence of their daughters, we solicit your loving consideration and we ask you to perpetuate in your rejoicing over this birthday a spirit of loyal allegiance to the history, the traditions and the glory of that triumph of provincial political architecture, the County of Northumberland."
When the oration was concluded the choir sang a selection, after which the benediction was pronounced by Rev. L. C. Rutter.
===================
Find An Index Of Posts From The 1895 Lycoming Centennial, here:
=================
READ MORE
==================
==============
Charles Maxwell Clement
1855-1934
From his obituary in 1934:
GEN. C. M. CLEMENT DIES AT SUNBURY
Commander of Pennsylvania National Guard General Charles M. Clement, 79, lawyer, soldier and churchman, died yesterday In his home at Sunbury from stroke.
During 40 years of military service, General Clement t served in almost every position in the army from a private to a major general. as commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard, the post he held when he retired in 1917. He led the Pennsylvania National Guard to the Mexican border in 1916 and the next year was placed in command of the Seventh Division of the U. S. Army.
Later in the year he was transferred to command of the 28th Division and trained the staff that directed the division in its role in military history. Later he toured the European fronts with General Pershing in September 1917, returning to United States in December of the same year. He was chancellor of the Harrisburg diocese of the Episcopal church and past grand commander of the Pennsylvania Knights Templar. He was a 33rd degree Mason and a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Sons of Union and the United Spanish American War Veterans. Surviving are four sons, Major J.
K. Clement, attached to Picatinny Arsenal, Dover, N. J.; M. W. Clement, vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Charles F.
Clement and Theron B. Clement, all of Philadelphia. General Clement's wife, the former Mary Withington, died about a year ago. Funeral services will be held in St. Mathews' Episcopal Church at 2 o'clock Tuesday.
Bishop Wyatt Brown of the Harrisburg diocese, will officiate..
COLONEL CHARLES M. CLEMENT , a prominent and influential lawyer of Sunbury, is a son of Gen. John Kay Clement, whose biographical sketch immediately precedes this, and was born in Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pa., October 28, 1855. He acquired a good education in the academies at Sunbury, Pa., and Burlington, N. J. Leaving school at the age of seventeen years he accepted a position as a clerk in the prothonotary's office and continued as such for six years. He then read law in the office of his father and after his admission to the bar, on March 11, 1878, he began practice, being associated with his father until the latter's death. He made a thorough study of legal principles and had the happy faculty of applying them to practical every-day business affairs. He soon acquired a good clientage, and has also succeeded to that of his father. His practice is general, but is in the main corporation law. He is attorney for the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, of which he is also president; attorney for the Shamokin Valley Telephone Company, and for the Shamokin & Mount Carmel Electric Railway. From April, 1891, to April, 1898, he was associated in practice with the Hon. S. P. Wolverton,a gentleman of distinction, whose life is recorded elsewhere in this Book of Biographies. Col. Clement is a firm supporter of the Republican party and has frequently been called upon to serve in official capacity. For several years he was a member of the council of Sun-bury and was assistant burgess for one term. He was also borough solicitor and solicitor for the school board for several years, and is solicitor for the overseers of the poor. On October 1, 1887, he was appointed corporation clerk of the State Department by Charles W. Stone, and on November 29, 1890, was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in which capacity he served with credit. From 1879 to 1883 he served as secretary of the county committee of the Republican party, and from 1883 to 1888 was chairman of the committee. He was one of the organizers of the Sunbury Guards, Company E, 12th Reg., N. G. P., in 1877, entering the service as a private, and was promoted in regular order to a captaincy, an office to which he was three times elected—in 1882, 1887, and in 1892. In 1896 he was elected Major of the i2th Regiment and in 1898 was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. Volunteering for service against Spain, he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the I2th Reg., Pa. Vol. Inf., which was mustered out of service October 28, 1898. Col. Clement's eldest son, John Kay Clement, seventeen years old, was a corporal in Company E of the same regiment. On November 19, 1879. Col. Clement was united in marriage to Alice Withington, a daughter of Martin J. D. Withington, and they are the parents of four sons, John Kay, Martin W., Charles Frances and Theron Ball. Socially, Col. Clement is a member of the Sons of Veterans, Sons of the Revolution and the Society of the War of 1812. He also is a trustee of the Mary M. Packer Hospital at Sunbury. The publishers of this work take pleasure in announcing that portraits of Gen. John K. and Col. Charles M. Clement are presented on preceding pages in connection with the above life histories.(Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District Published by Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY, 1899 , pg. 105 Transcribed by Tammy L. Clark) GEN. CHARLES M. CLEMENT , a leading lawyer of Sunbury, was born there Oct. 28, 1855, son of Gen. John Kay Clement. His ancestors were Friends, the Clements having been prominent members of that Society in England.Gregory Clement, the earliest ancestor of whom we have record, was a member of Parliament in 1646 and was one of the famous body of Regicides, and with four others was hanged. When Gregory Clement was arrested, in 1660, his son James escaped, and emigrating from his native land came to America, landing on Staten island. Subsequently he located near Camden, in Camden (then Gloucester) County, N.J. He became a large land owner and surveyor and his descendants also followed that occupation for a number of generations. He married Sarah Field, and their children included a son Jacob. Jacob Clement, son of James, married Ann Harrison.Samuel Clement, son of Jacob and Ann (Harrison), married Rebecca Collins, a granddaughter of Francis Collins, who came to America in 1678, locating in New Jersey, where he became a man of distinction. He served for a time in the capacity of judge and was a member of the Provincial Legislature of New Jersey.Samuel Clement (2), son of Samuel, married Mary Foster.Evan C. Clement, son of Samuel (2), was born in Camden County, N.J. He was associated with his father in the manufacture of glass and became a man of considerable means. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving as sergeant major. He passed all his life in his native County, where he died in 1827 at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven. He married Hannah Kay, great-great-granddaughter of John Kay, the first settler of the name in America, who came over in 1683, was speaker of the Provincial Assembly of New Jersey for several years, and one of the council for West Jersey. John Kay, Mrs. Clement’s father, married Kesiah Thorne, daughter of Capt. Joseph Thorne, a soldier of the Revolution.John Kay Clement, son of Evan C. and Hannah (Kay) Clement, was born Jan. 1, 1820, in Philadelphia, Pa., and was but seven years old when his father died. As the latter had failed a short time previously, the boy was thrown upon his own resources at an early age. He acquired his early education in the Friends’ school of his native city, and began the study of law when eighteen years old in the office of his cousin, Richard Howell, of Camden, N.J. In l842, at the age of twenty-two, he was admitted to the bar in Trenton, N.J. Soon afterward he removed to Schuylkill County, Pa., where he first made his home at Minersville, later at Pottsville, practicing law there until his removal to Sunbury, Northumberland County, in 1854. There he continued to live the remainder of his days, acquiring a very extensive practice and for many years holding a high place in public affairs. His legal work was mainly in the line of criminal law, in which special branch of the profession he was one of the foremost lawyers of the State, participating in many of the most famous cases tried in his section. He was not only versatile in the law, but gifted with unusual powers of eloquence, and as a pleader had few equals. He practiced law to the exclusion of almost every other interest, most of his public service being of a professional nature, and he won his high rank in the legal fraternity by unswerving devotion to the calling of his choice. His logic and eloquence, backed by a thorough understanding of the law, made him a powerful ally on either side of a case. From 1871 to 1878 he was engaged as counsel, on one side or the other, in every important criminal case tried here. “Bear” Dolan, the first “Molly Maguire” convicted, was successfully prosecuted by him in 1872, and he defended Peter McMannes, the last of that famous band to be tried. In 1859 General Clement was elected district attorney of Northumberland County, was again elected in 1871, and in 1877 again took the office by appointment.While a resident of Schuylkill County he was made brigadier general of the State militia, and during the Civil war he not only aided the Union by personal service as officer and private, but also used his influence throughout that period in support of the Northern cause. He was captain of the Pottsville Light Artillery, which organization still exists as Company F, 4th Regiment, P.N.G., served in the first baffle of Bull Run as aide to Colonel Cameron, and also served as a private of Company D, 4th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia. In 1862 he was made provost marshall of the 14th District of Pennsylvania and served efficiently until 1864. He was a Democrat in politics before the war, and subsequently a stanch Republican. He served some years as a member of the council of Sunbury. He died at Sunbury Oct. 15, 1882.On May 18, 1854, General Clement married Mary S. Zeigler, of Sunbury, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Eyer) Zeigler, the former of whom was once a prominent leather merchant of Sunbury. She survived him, making her home in Sunbury until her death, April 30, 1908. Five children were born to this union, Charles M. being the only survivor. General Clement was an Episcopalian in religion, and was a vestryman in St. Matthew’s Protestant Episcopal Church at the time of his death. Fraternally he was a Freemason.Charles M. Clement, only surviving member of the family of Gen. John Kay and Mary S. (Zeigler) Clement, received an excellent literary training in the academies at Sunbury, Pa., and Burlington, N.J., leaving school at the age of seventeen. For the next six years he was employed as clerk in the prothonotary’s office at Sunbury, and then read law with his father, being admitted to the bar March 11, 1878. The January following he began practice with his father, with whom he was associated in practice until the latter’s death. This relation was of the utmost value to him. His thorough study of legal principles gave him an excellent foundation for his work, and his aptitude for applying it to practical, everyday affairs made him popular with a large clientage who appreciate common sense interpretation of ordinary laws. But though he has engaged in general practice, corporation work has been his main line, particularly as a trial lawyer in causes affecting corporate interests. From April, 1891, to April, 1898, he was associated in practice with Hon. S. P. Wolverton.General Clement, has long been a leading member of the Republican party. From 1879 to 1883 he was secretary of the county committee, and from 1883 to 1888 was chairman of that body. He has served several years as member of the council, and one term as assistant burgess; he was borough solicitor, solicitor of the school and solicitor for the overseers of the poor for several years; is now a school director; on Oct. 1, 1887, he was appointed corporation clerk of the State department by Charles W. Stone; on Nov. 28, 1890, he was appointed by Governor Beaver deputy secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In all these offices his service was most creditable, showing the most intelligent citizenship and public spirited devotion to the general interest. He is president of the trustees of the Mary M. Packer hospital at Sunbury.In 1877 General Clement was one of the organizers of the Sunbury Guards, Company B, 12th Regiment P.N.G., which he joined as a private. He was promoted to the rank of captain in regular order and three times elected to serve in that capacity, in 1882, 1887 and 1892. In 1896 he was elected major of the 12th Regiment in 1898 elected lieutenant colonel, and volunteering for service during the Spanish American war was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 12th Pennsylvania Volunteers, which was mustered out Oct. 29, 1898. His eldest son, John Kay Clement then a boy of seventeen, was a corporal in Company F, same regiment. On Aug. 17, 1899, Charles M. Clement was elected colonel; was reelected in 1904 and 1909; was appointed brigadier general March 29, 1910; and on Sept. 1, 1910, was assigned to the command of the 3d Brigade. Socially, Colonel Clement belongs to the Sons of Veterans, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of the War of 1812, the Society of Foreign Wars and the Naval and Military Order of the. Spanish American war. He is a member of Maclay Lodge, No. 632, F. & A.M., Northumberland R. A. Chapter, No. 174, Mount Hermon Commandery, No. 85; K.T., Caldwell Consistory, thirty-second degree, and Zembo Temple, Mystic Shrine. He is a past master of his lodge and past commander of the commandery. General Clement is rector’s warden of St Matthew’s Church, Sunbury, secretary of the vestry, secretary of the diocesan convention; and has been a deputy to the general convention since 1898, serving therein on the committees on Admission of New Dioceses, on the Prayer Book, and on the Commission to Revise the Lectionary.On Nov. 19, 1879, General Clement was married at Northumberland to Alice V. Withington, daughter of Martin J. D. Withington. Four sons have been born to them: John Kay, Martin W., Charles Francis and Theron Ball. John Kay Clement married Isabel Colvin, and has one son, Charles M. Clement, 2d; he is captain of Company E, 18th Regiment, N.G.P. and is physicist in the Bureau of Mines; stationed at Pittsburg. Martin W. Clement married Irene H. Higbee, and they have one son, Martin W. Clement, Jr.; he is supervisor on the Pennsylvania railroad, stationed at Philadelphia, and is a captain in the quarter-master’s department, N.G.P. Charles Francis is practicing law with his father, and is first lieutenant of Company E, 12th Regiment, N.G.P. These three sons are graduates of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. John K. is also a graduate of the University of Gottingen, and Charles F. of the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. Theron B. is in the local high school. Genealogical and Biographical Annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, by J. L. Floyd Published Chicago, Ill., 1911. pg. 160
CHARLES M. CLEMENT, a lawyer of Sunbury and now deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, was born in Sunbury, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, October 23, 1855. His father was General John Kay Clement, one of the leading criminal lawyers of Pennsylvania, and his mother was Mary S., daughter of Isaac Zeigler, once a prominent merchant of Sunbury. General Clement died, October 15, 1882, at the age of sixty-three years. Charles M., his only son now living, was educated at Sunbury Academy and Burlington, New Jersey. After leaving school he clerked six years in the prothonotary's office, read law with his father, and was admitted to the bar, March 11, 1878. In January following he began the practice and was associated with his father until the death of the latter. Mr. Clement has been one term assistant burgess of Sunbury and five or six years a member of the borough council, was for several years borough solicitor, and is now solicitor for the school board. October 1, 1887, he was appointed by Charles W. Stone corporation clerk of the State department and November 29, 1890, was appointed by Governor Beaver to his present position. From 1879 to 1883 he was secretary of the county central committee, Republican, and from 1883 to 1888 was chairman of the committee. He was one of the organizers of the Sunbury Guards, Company B, Twelfth Regiment N.G.P., entered the service as a private, and was promoted in regular order to the captaincy, a position to which he has been twice chosen, first in 1882 and secondly in 1887. Mr. Clement is a member of the Sons of Veterans, Sons of the Revolution, Knights of the Golden Eagle, and the S.P.K. He was married at Northumberland, November 19, 1879, to Alice Withington, and has three children: John Kay; Martin W., and Charles Francis. (History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, edited by Herbert C. Bell, Published by Brown, Runk & Co. of Chicago, Ill, 1891 pg. 831)
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'll read the comments and approve them to post as soon as I can! Thanks for stopping by!