History of Phoenixville, (Chester County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Biographies:

Dennis T. Flynn, delegate, was born in Phoenixville, Pa., Feb. 13, 1862; son of Dennis and Margaret Flynn. He was taken to Buffalo, N.Y., in 1864, and resided there until 1880, when he removed to Riverside, Iowa. He was admitted to the bar in 1880 and in the same year established the Riverside Leader. In 188l he removed to Kiowa, Kan., and founded the Kiowa Herald. He held various municipal offices and practised his profession there until 1889, when he removed to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, where he was appointed postmaster and elected a delegate to the 53d and 54th congresses, 1893-97, and to the 56th congress, 1899-1901.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Wayne Macveagh, cabinet officer, was born near Phoenixville, Pa., April 19, 1833. He was graduated from Yale in 1853, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1856. He settled in practice in Westchester; was district attorney for Chester county, Pa., 1859-62; and was chairman of the Republican state committee in 1863. He served as captain in the emergency infantry in 1863 and as major in the cavalry in 1863, and on the staff of General Couch. He was U.S. minister to Turkey by appointment of President Grant, 1870-71; and a delegate to the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1873. He was a member of the commission sent to Louisiana by President Hayes in April, 1877, to endeavor amicably to adjust the disputes of the conflicting state governments in the state and secured the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from New Orleans and the restoration of peace. He was attorney-general in the cabinet of President Garfield, March 4 to Sept. 19, 1881, when he resigned to resume the practice of law in Philadelphia. He was an Independent Republican until 1899, when he supported Grover Cleveland for the presidency. He was U.S. ambassador to Italy, 1893-97, by appointment of President Cleveland, and resigned March 1, 1897, resuming the practice of law in Washington, D.C. He was for many years chairman of the Civil Service Reform association of Philadelphia, and of the Indian Rights association of the same city. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Amherst in 1881, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1897, and from Harvard university in 1901.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, jurist, was born in Phoenixville, Pa., April 9, 1843; son of Dr. Isaac and Anna Maria (Whitaker) Pennypacker; grandson of Bishop Matthias and Sarah (Anderson) Pennypacker, and of Joseph and Grace Whitaker, and a descendant of Hendrick and Eve (Umstat) Pannebecker. Hendrick Pannebecker emigrated from Homborn, on the upper Rhine, to Pennsylvania, about 1699, and settled on Skippack Creek, where he became a large landholder and surveyor of public lands for the Penns. Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was educated in the West Philadelphia institute; served as a private in the 26th emergency regiment in 1863, and was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, LL.B., in 1866. He was married, Oct. 20, 1870, to Virginia Earl, daughter of Nathan B. Broomall, of Phoenixville, Pa. He was made president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia in 1868; served on the board of public education of Philadelphia and was controller of public schools for the 29th ward, 1886-89, and was admitted to practice in the U.S. supreme court in 1887. He was judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia, by appointment under Governor Beaver to fill a vacancy, 1889-90, and by election, 1890-1900, and served as president judge of the court. In 1902 he was elected governor of Pennsylvania by the Republican party. He was elected a member of numerous scientific, historical and patriotic societies; was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania from 1886; state commissioner of the Valley Forge reservation; founder and manager of the Pennsylvania society, Sons of the Revolution; a vice-provost of the Philadelphia Law academy, and a member of the supervisory committee on the restoration of Independence Hall. He received the honorary degree of LL.B. from Franklin and Marshall college. In his library he collected about 7000 printed books on early Pennsylvania, of which 260 were from the press of Benjamin Franklin, and his collection relating to the German colonization of Pennsylvania was the largest ever made. He compiled, together with E.G. Platt and Samuel S. Hollingsworth, a Digest of the English Common Law Reports (1879); Pennypacker's Supreme Court Cases (4 vols.); Pennsylvania Colonial Cases, and aided in the preparation of Weekly Notes of Cases (40 vols.). He is the author of the Annals of Phoenixville and Its Vicinity (1878); The Pennypacker Reunion (1878); Historical and Biographical Sketches, many of which have been translated in Dutch and German (1883), and The Settlement of Germantown.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor