Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania Biographies
Most of the following biographies
were extracted from: Biographical review.: containing life sketches of leading
citizens of Pittsburg and the vicinity, Pennsylvania. Boston: Biographical
Review Pub. Co., 1897, Author:
Anonymous.
C
COCHRANE, Miss
Elizabeth, author, journalist and traveler, known the world over
by her pen-name, "Nellie Bly." born in Cochrane Mills, Pa., 5th May, 1867, a
place named after her father, who was a lawyer and for several terms filled the
office of associate judge of Armstrong county. Pa. She is a descendant on her
father's side of Lord Cochrane, the famous English admiral, who was noted for
his deeds of daring, and who was never happy unless engaged in some exciting
affair. Miss Cochrane's great-grandfather Cochrane was one of a number of men
who wrote a declaration of independence in Maryland near the South Mountains a
long time before the historic Declaration of Independence was delivered to the
world. Her great-grandfather, on her mother's side, was a man of wealth, owning
at one time almost all of Somerset county. Pa. His name was Kennedy, and his
wife was a nobleman's daughter. They eloped and fled to America. He was an
officer, as were his two sons, in the Revolutionary War. Afterward he was
sheriff of Somerset county repeatedly until old age compelled him to decline the
office. One of his sons, Thomas Kennedy, Miss Cochrane's grand-uncle, made a
flying trip around the word, starting from and returning to New York City, where
his wife awaited his arrival. It took him three years to make the trip, and he
returned in shattered health. He at once set about to write the history of his
trip, but his health became so bad that he had to give up his task. Her father
died while Elizabeth was yet a child. She was educated at home until 1880, when
she was sent to Indiana, Pa., where she remained in a boarding-school until
1881. Impaired health forced her to leave school, and she returned home. The
family moved to Pittsburgh, and there she began her literary career. She saw an
article in the Pittsburgh "Dispatch " entitled "What Girls are Good For." She
wrote a reply to the article, and though the reply was not published, a
paragraph appeared in the "Dispatch" the day after she sent the communication,
asking for the writer's name. Miss Cochrane sent her name and received a letter
from the editor, requesting her to write an article on the subject of girls and
their spheres in life for the "Sunday Dispatch." This she did. The article was
printed, and the same week she received a check for it and a request for
something else.
Her next subject was "Divorce," and at the end of the article appeared the now famous signature, "Nellie Bly." Miss Cochrane assumed it on the suggestion of George A. Madden, managing editor of the "Dispatch," who got it from Stephen Foster's popular song. The divorce article attracted attention. She was invited to the office and made arrangements to accept a salary and devote her time to the "Dispatch." Taking an artist with her, she went through the factories and workshops of Pittsburgh, and described and pictured the condition of the working girls. The articles made a hit. Miss Cochrane became society editor of the "Dispatch" and also looked after the dramatic and art department, all for a salary often dollars per week. She decided to go to Mexico to write about its people. At that time she was receiving fifteen dollars per week. She went, and her letters printed in the "Dispatch" were full of interest and were widely copied. She had never been out of her State before, but she traveled everywhere in Mexico that a railroad could take her. Her mother was her companion on that trip. Returning to Pittsburgh, she became dissatisfied with that field, quit the "Dispatch," and went to New York City. She did syndicate work for a while. One day she lost her pocketbook and all the money she possessed. She was too proud to let her friends know, and she sat down and thought. Before that she had written to the "World," asking the privilege of going in the balloon the "World" was about sending up at St. Louis, but, as final arrangements had been completed, her suggestion was not favorably received. Now finding herself penniless, she made a list of a half-dozen original ideas and went to the "World" office, determined to see Mr. Pulitzer and offer them to him. Having no letter of introduction and being unknown, she found it almost an impossibility to gain an audience. For three hours she talked and expostulated with different employes, before she finally exhausted their denials and was ushered into the unwilling presence of Mr. Pulitzer and his editor, John A. Cockerill. Once there, they listened to her ideas and immediately offered her twenty-five dollars to give them three days in which to consider her suggestions. At the end of that time she was told that her idea to feign insanity and, as a patient, investigate the treatment of the insane in the Blackwell Island Asylum was accepted. Miss Bly did that with such marked success and originality of treatment, and attracted so much attention, that she secured a permanent place on the "World" staff. She originated a new field in journalism, which has since been copied all over the world by her many imitators. Her achievements since her asylum expos£ have been many and brilliant. Scarcely a week passed that she had not some novel feature in the "World." Her fame grew and her tasks enlarged, until they culminated in the wonderful tour of the world in 72 days, 6 hours, n minutes and 14 seconds. That idea she proposed to Mr. Pulitzer one year before he approved and accepted it. Owing to delayed steamers, Miss Bly lost fifteen days on land, but she was the first to conceive and establish a record for a fast trip around the world. Since Miss Cochrane "girdled the globe," others have repeated the feat in less time. Her newspaper work resulted in many reforms. Her expose of asylum abuses procured an appropriation of $3,000,000 for the benefit of the poor insane, in addition to beneficial changes in care and management. Her expose of the "King of the Lobby" rid Albany of its greatest disgrace; her stationhouse expose procured matrons for New York police-stations; her expose of a noted "electric" doctor's secret rid Brooklyn of a notorious swindler. Miss Cochrane left journalism to do literary work for a weekly publication. She is now a resident of New York.
Source: American Women Fifteen Hundred Biographies Vol. 1, by
Frances Elizabeth Willard & Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Publ. 1897.
Submitted by Marla Snow
Samuel F. Cole was educated
in the public schools of Allegheny. In 1869 he went into the employ of the
On
September 11, 1889, Mr. Cole married Miss Amelia Ihmsen, daughter of C. Ihmsen,
of the Ihmsen Glass Factory, S. S., John M.
Cooper received his early education in a private academy of his native town.
Afterward he attended the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery at After obtaining his elementary education in the
graded schools of his native city, William Cowley attended the high school for
three years. During the season of 1883 and 1884 he was a student at the
Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, Ill.; and two years later he graduated
from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. He then began the practice
of his profession with his father. Since the death of the latter he has followed
his profession independently. Dr. Cowley has met with good success in his chosen
work, and has become popular, both as a physician and as a citizen. In politics
the Doctor votes for the best men and measures, regardless of party. He is a
member of the International Hahnemann Association, of the Homoeopathic Medical
Society of Pennsylvania, and of the Iron City Microscopical Society. In religion
he is a New Churchman, or Swedenborgian. He is highly esteemed by the medical
fraternity.
Source: Who's who in Pennsylvania: A
biographical dictionary of contemporaries edited by John W. Leonard, 1908,
Submitted by Nancy Piper
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SAMUEL F. COLE,the efficient
station
master of the Chicago & Fort Wayne Railroad at Allegheny, was born in
EUGENE LE MOYNE CONNELLY, of Pittsburg, who was born
here, August 18,1870, is the sixth and youngest son of William Cavin Connelly,
Sr., and Elizabeth Sterrett (Brown) Connelly. His mother is a daughter of
Allen Brown, one of Pittsburg's pioneer hotel-keepers. The father, who was
a West Virginian by birth, after his marriage located in Pittsburg, and became a
partner in the ownership of the old St. Clair Hotel, which stood on the site of
the present Hotel Anderson. Later he had control of the United States,
Central, St. Charles, and Exchange Hotels. Also, he conducted a hostelry
at Turtle Creek, which was at that early day a sort of summer resort for the
wealth and fashion of the city. He is a member of the Writers' Club and of
the Junior O. U. A. M., and he is a communicant of Oakland Methodist Episcopal
Church.
Eugene Le Moyne Connelly was educated in the public schools and
under the tutelage of his mother, a woman of scholarly attainments. At an
early age, with a natural tendency to literary pursuits, he obtained a minor
position on the staff of the Pittsburg Chronicle, and thereafter for several
years he spent the afternoon of each school day at a desk in the newspaper
office. After leaving school he obtained a permanent position in the
service of the Western Union Telegraph Company. He was first assigned to
work at the old Oil Exchange, situated where the market-house now stands.
Later he was transferred to the Pittsburg Petroleum, Stock, and Metal Exchange,
where he kept the books and handled the accounts of several large brokerage
firms, in addition to his work as book-keeper for the telegraph company.
Although he mastered the business of a telegraph operator in this employment, he
has not at any time followed it as a vocation. During the few years that
he was employed in the oil and stock mart, he continued to scribble a little,
doing special assignments for the Sportsman and Dramatic Critic; also
for the Sportsman and Referee, in which two of his brothers were
interested.
In his seventeenth year Mr. Connelly became a reporter on the
staff of the Pittsburgh Leader. With this paper he has since been
connected, serving it in the capacities of religious reporter, police court
reporter, sporting editor, special writer, editorial paragrapher, and city
editor. He is now editor of the Sunday Leader. Perhaps his
best work was performed at Johnstown, immediately after the great flood of May
31, 1889. Mr. Connelly was one of the first newspaper men to enter the
Conemaugh valley after the warring waters had wrought desolation and death
throughout the whoe stretch of territory lying between South Fork and Latrobe on
the Pennsylvania Railroad. Besides sending reports of the great
catastrophe to the Leader, he despatched a graphic description of the
course of the flood to the New York Journal, on the staff of which he
was then serving. He collaborated with Frank Connelly and George C. Jenks
in the compilation of the "Official History of the Johnstown Flood." He
was also one of the first men on the field in the summer of 1892, when Oil City
and Titusville were swept by flood and fire; and in the same year he helped to
report the Homestead riots for the New York World
and his own
paper. He has also done special work for the New York Tribune,
Boston Herald, Boston Globe, Cincinnati Enquirer, and
Chicago Times, and has written short stories for some of the
periodicals. At one period a predilection for theatrical work led him to
accept positions as press representative from Jefferson, Klaw & Erlanger,
Rich & Harris, and the late Colonel Joel, the impresario; but he soon tired
of this sort of employment, and got back to active newspaper work.
On
February 28, 1893, Mr. Connelly married Minnie Allyn Leonard, youngest daughter
of George W. and Sarah Elizabeth (Moreland) Leonard. Their only
child, Elizabeth Leonard, was born March 4, 1894. The family residence is
332 Ward Street, Oakland.
JOHN M. COOPER, D.D.S.,a prominent, popular,
and progressive dentist of
EDWARD
P. COWAN, D.D.,the corresponding secretary of the Board of Missions for
the Freed-men of the United States of America, was born at Potosi, Mo., March
31, 1840, son of the Rev. John F. and Mary (English) Cowan. Dr. Cowan's family
is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and all its members have been Presbyterians. The
great-grandfather was Hugh Cowan, of Chester County, Pennsylvania, who lived to
be eighty years of age. His son, Adam Cowan, who died at the age of forty years,
was a soldier in the Revolution.
The Rev. John F. Cowan, who was
born in Chester County in 1801, graduated from Jefferson College Washington
County, and subsequently, in 1828, from Princeton (N.J.) Theological Seminary.
In 1829 he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, and went as home
missionary to Missouri, where he spent the rest of his life engaged in his
sacred calling, a period of thirty-three years. In connection with his last
pastorate, which was at Carondelet, St. Louis, he was commissioned by President
Lincoln as Post Chaplain to the House of Refuge Hospital; and he was Army
Chaplain at the time of his death in 1862. He was own cousin of Senator Edgar
Cowan. His wife, Mary, was a daughter of James R. and Alice (Conover) English,
and a descendant of the family that settled in Englishtown, N.J. Mr. English was
a stanch Presbyterian and an Elder in the old Tenant Church. When a boy he was
captured by the British, and was threatened with hanging if he would not tell
where the Americans were keeping their powder. Though but sixteen years old at
the time, he allowed his captors to string him up without flinching. He was
afterward set free, and the British were no wiser for having met him. Of his
family of nine children Mary was next to the youngest. Having survived her
husband twenty-five years, she died in 1887 at Pittsburg, being then eighty-one
years old. She had five children, namely: James, who is in business in St.
Louis; John F. Cowan, D.D., who is the Professor of Modern Languages in
Westminster College, Missouri; Alice, the eldest, who died in St. Louis in 1849;
William, who died at the age of fourteen; and Edward P., the subject of this
sketch.
Edward P. Cowan, the
youngest of his parents' children, attended Westminster College in Missouri, and
graduated there with honors in 1860, taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
After teaching school for a year he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, from
which he graduated in 1864. He was shortly afterward ordained by the Presbytery
of St. Louis, and began his first pastorate at Washington, Pa. in one of the
churches which his father had formerly served. He remained at Washington for
three years, and subsequently preached for a year at St. Joseph, Mo., and for a
year and a half in St. Louis. He was then called to the pastorate of Market
Square Presbyterian Church at Germantown, Pa. and remained there for more than
twelve years. In 1882 he was invited to preach in the Third Church in Pittsburg,
with the prospect of a call to a probable vacancy in its pulpit; and on
September 13, 1882, the night on which the previous pastoral relations were
dissolved, he was unanimously called to that church. He remained pastor of the
Third Church for ten years. He is a trustee of the Western University of
Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania College for Women, a trustee and the secretary of
the directors of the Western Theological Seminary, and a trustee of the
Pittsburg Presbytery, an incorporated body. He is also a member of the Board of
Colportage and of the Executive Committee. While Dr. Cowan was pastor of the
Third Church, an average of ten members were added to the church at each
communion, giving a total of over four hundred, and the annual amount of
contributions increased from twenty-three thousand, six hundred and twenty-five
dollars in 1882-83 to fifty-four thousand, three hundred and eighty-three
dollars in 1891-92. During this time Dr. Cowan had become a member of the
Freed-men's Board, and had been for four years its president.
On the death of Dr. Allen, the
former corresponding secretary, Dr. Cowan was elected to that position.
Thereupon he resigned his pastorate, in order to devote himself to his new
duties. At the next annual meeting of the Third Church congregation the
following resolutions were adopted: "Whereas the Rev. E. P. Cowan, D.D., our
beloved pastor, has tendered his resignation, and has asked the congregation to
join with him in consenting that the Presbytery shall dissolve the pastoral
relations now existing, and, having heard and considered his reasons for this
request, and believing that our Lord is leading the way, therefore resolved,
That, expressing our affection for and confidence in our pastor, and in
gratitude for his faithful labors in the congregation and his tender pastoral
care for us individually, we consent to his request that the pastoral relations
may be dissolved by the Presbytery, to take effect January 1, 1893."
Commendatory resolutions were also passed by the Presbytery. Since ceasing his
official relations with the Third Church, Dr. Cowan has given his whole time to
his work for the Freedmen. He has the oversight of three hundred churches, one
hundred and eighty ministers, and from fifty to sixty schools, twenty of which
are boarding-schools, including Biddle University at Charlotte, N.C.
On August 7, 1872, Dr. Cowan was
united in marriage with Miss Anna M., daughter of George D. and Emmeline
(Fisher) Baldwin, of New York City. Mrs. Cowan's family settled originally in
Milford, Conn. in 1639, and all its descendants have been stanch Presbyterians.
Her great-grandfather was a prominent member of the church at Connecticut Farms,
N.J. Her grandfather was a member of the First Church at Newark, and her father,
George D., was a Presbyterian Elder for forty years in New York City. George D.
Baldwin had one other child, Joseph T., who is now cashier of Manhattan Bank in
Wall Street, New York. Mrs. Cowan's maternal great-grandfather was Colonel David
Chambers, who served throughout I the whole of the Revolutionary War, and who
fought with Washington at Trenton and Monmouth. Mrs. Cowan was educated by the
best instructors and in the best schools that New York afforded. She was a lady
of unusual refinement and of noble character. She died July 24, 1896. Her three
children were: Emelie, Elaine, and Irene, the last two being twins.
WILLIAM COWLEY,
M.D., who has succeeded to
the practice established by his father, the late Dr. David Cowley, in
JAMES STONER CRAWFORD: Lawyer; born in Blair
County, Pa., May 24, 1872; son of J. A. and Elizabeth (Stoner) Crawford. He was
graduated from the Blair Presbyterial Academy. Blairstown, N. J. in 1891, and
from Princeton in the class of 1895; also from the Pittsburgh Law School in
1897. He was admitted to the Allegheny County bar, December, 1897, and has since
then been engaged in general practice. Address: Frick Building Annex,
Pittsburgh, Pa.
C. Anthony