Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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.


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SIDNEY B. LIGGETT is one of the prominent railroad men of Pittsburg connected with the traffic west of this city. Born in Pittsburg, May 10,1849, son of John and Catherine (Hutton) Liggett, he is of Scotch-Irish extraction, and connected with some of the oldest and best families of Pennsylvania. His great-grandfather, Robert Liggett, born in the County Antrim, Ireland, in 1743, came in 1771 to this country with his brothers, John and James. All three settled in Brandywine, West Nantmeal township, Chester County, Pa. When this part of the country was disturbed by the Revolutionary War, John and James took up arms and joined Washington's forces. James was subsequently captured by the British, and confined in one of the old hulks used for their prisoners of war. Robert Liggett moved from Chester to Washington County in 1781. He owned and managed a farm near the "Row-galley Tavern," so called colloquially from the sign — a galley manned by rowers. He died on his farm in 1806. His wife, whose maiden name was Isabella Darragh, was a sister of John Darragh, the second Mayor of Pittsburg. She was born in the County Antrim, Ireland, in 1759. The Darraghs were originally Scotch Covenanters. Some of them fought in the siege of Derry, and some were in Cromwell's army.

John Liggett, Sr., the grandfather of Sidney B., was born in Brandywine Manor, Chester County, in 1780. He was interested in a tannery at Pittsburg for a number of years, was burned out two or three times in business, and finally became connected with Leech & Co., in the Pennsylvania Canal at Sharpsburg. A well-to-do and prominent citizen, he was a Whig in politics and very active in local affairs. He married Rosanna Sharp, sister of James Sharp, one of the early and prominent settlers of the county, and after whom the town of Sharpsburg was named. John and Rosanna (Sharp) Liggett were members of the Presbyterian church. Their children were: Isabella, who married Robert Knox; Eliza, who married the latter's cousin and namesake; Jane, the wife of Merrick-Munson; John, the father of Sidney B.; Daniel; and James Sharp Liggett.

John Liggett was born in Pittsburg, and received a practical common-school education in this city. For a number of years he was in the chair-manufacturing business, under the name of Childs & Liggett, a prominent firm in the early days of this city. In politics he was a Whig. He died in October, 1854. His wife, who was a daughter of William Hutton, of Pittsburg, reared three children: Martha Fisk, the wife of Benjamin McLain, of Pittsburg; Sidney B., the subject of this sketch; arid Isabella Knox, unmarried, who died at the age of twenty-eight. Both parents were members of the. First Presbyterian Church of this city. Sidney B. Liggett acquired his education in the public schools of Pittsburg and at the Western University of Pennsylvania. His first position was a clerkship in the office of Hailman, Rahm & Co., iron manufacturers, with whom he remained until they dissolved partnership four years after. The youngest clerk on their pay-roll when he entered their employ, he was the shipping clerk before he left it. He then obtained a position as clerk in the auditor's office of the Fort Wayne Railroad, where he acquired valuable practical experience auditing railroad accounts. In 1879 he was made assistant secretary in the executive department, and in 1881 he was promoted to the office of secretary, his present position. He has a varied amount of business to attend to, and the efficiency with which he meets his responsibilities proves him a man of unusual ability.

Mr. Liggett was married November 15, 1870, to Emma Catherine Stevenson, daughter of John Stevenson, the senior member of the firm of John Stevenson & Co., one of the oldest jewelry firms of Pittsburg. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Liggett were: Dudley Stevenson, Sidney. Sharp, Laura Catherine, John Darragh, and Clara Louise. The last-named died in her fifth year. Mr. Liggett is independent in politics. He is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, and also of the Sons of the Revolution, through the Sharp family. He was a Vestryman, and for four years the treasurer, of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church at Sewickley. Mrs. Liggett is also a member of the church.

REV. ALBERT D. LIGHT, the pastor of Millvale Borough Presbyterian Church, was born at Lebanon, this State, November 1, 1856, his parents being Asa and Catherine (Snyder) Light, both natives of Lebanon. On both sides of the family Mr. Light is descended from early settlers of German origin, who came to Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolution. His paternal grandfather, David Light, born in Lebanon County, after following the occupation of farmer for some time, lived in retirement. David had a family of six sons. The maternal grandfather was Jonas Snyder, also born in Lebanon County. Both grandfathers died at about the age of seventy-two, and both their wives are still living. Asa Light, who was a coach-maker of Lebanon, served in the Union artillery during the late war, and died in 1864 in the hospital at Baltimore from an injury caused by a kick by a horse. He was a member of the Evangelical Association, as is also his wife, who is still living. She married for her second husband John Gilbert, and bore him two sons — Harry and Grant Gilbert. The children of her first marriage were: the Rev. Albert D., Aaron, and Amelia Light.

The Rev. Mr. Light spent his boyhood in Lebanon, and there prepared for college in the high school. He then attended Lafayette College at Easton, Pa,, graduating in 1880. Later he took a course of study in Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, N.J., from which he graduated in 1882. He then taught school for three years, being principal of the Betts Military Academy at Stamford, Conn,, for a year, and of Sewickley Academy for two years. On June 10, 1885, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Millvale Presbyterian Church, which had at that time a membership of only one hundred and eighty-four persons. Since Mr. Light has been pastor the membership has increased to three hundred and ninety, the last two years being years of especial progress. In the last year more members were added to the church than to any other society in the district. Mr. Light belongs to the Presbytery of Allegheny, of which he was the moderator from 1894 to 1895. He is unmarried. A natural talent for music possessed by him has been developed by a fine musical training. His voice teacher was Mr. Clement Tetedoux, who is well known in Pittsburg as having trained many of the finest vocalists of the city. The Rev. Mr. Light's voice is a tenor. He has taught vocal music since he was seventeen years of age, a period of twenty-three years, thereby supporting himself at college during his literary and theological. His home is at 47 Lincoln Avenue, Millvale.

CHARLES LOCKHART, who has been for a number of years president of the Standard Oil Company and of the Pittsburg Bank of Commerce, is one of the oil kings of Pennsylvania. Among the first to buy the crude product of petroleum, he was the first to introduce the oil into England, carrying it himself in cans. He was born at Cairn Heads, Wigtonshire, Scotland, August 2, 1818. His parents, John and Sarah (Walker) Lockhart, were natives of the same shire, the home of both families for many generations. John Lockhart, son of Charles Lockhart, a farmer living near Cairn Heads, was the eldest of his father's family. When he grew up, a farm was taken for him. He married a daughter of James Walker, who was a damask manufacturer of Wigton. In 1836, with his wife and six children, he emigrated to America, was in the grocery business in Allegheny for a number of years, and died in that city in 1861. His wife survived him about ten years. They were members of the Second United Presbyterian Church of Allegheny.

Charles Lockhart was educated in Scotland. There also he obtained his first ideas of business from an uncle with whom he lived for a while. For nineteen years after his arrival in Pittsburg he worked as clerk for James McCully, a wholesale grocer and a dealer in produce and flour on Wood Street. In 1855 he and William Frew, who also had been clerk in this establishment for a number of years, were taken into partnership by the proprietor, and the firm name was changed to James McCully & Co. This firm, which was in existence until 1865, had an extensive business, the trade in the war time being especially profitable. In December, 1852, Isaac Huff brought down the river in a skiff three barrels of oil that were taken out of a salt well. After several ineffectual attempts to sell the commodity he found Mr. Lockhart at the warehouse of the grocery company, and disposed of it to him for thirty-one and one-fourth cents per gallon, agreeing at the same time to let him have all the well produced for five years at the same price. It seemed a doubtful speculation, for the purchaser did not know how or where it would sell; but he eventually made a bargain with Samuel M. Kier, the partner of the Hon. B. F. Jones, who agreed to purchase all the oil he would bring him in five years at sixty-two and one-half cents per gallon. Mr. Lockhart was the first to buy and sell oil ahead of its production. The oil well which yielded him such profit.was one mile below Tarentum, on the south side. It was one of the first in the State. In 1853, with Mr. Kipp, who was his partner until September, 1896, he bought the well, Mr. Kipp paying for one quarter only; and until 1865 they continued to manufacture salt, selling the oil as fast as produced. In 1859, the year oil was discovered at Titusville, Messrs. Lockhart, Kipp, William Frew, John Vanausdall, and William Phillips joined interests under the firm name of Phillips, Frew & Co., and, leasing land on Oil Creek, set up machinery, and soon had a thriving plant in operation, their first well yielding forty-five barrels a day. The oil was distilled, not refined; and crude oil brought thirty-four cents a gallon. Samuel M. Kierwas the first to distil oil. Their product was the first Oil Creek oil to come down the Allegheny River. In May, 1860, Mr. Lockhart began to carry samples of crude and refined oil to Europe. He had a friend in Liverpool who introduced him to leading chemists, and by the following winter the oil was shipped in large quantities to coal oil distillers in Great Britain. In the fall of 1860 the company struck some very productive wells. In 1861 Messrs. Lockhart and Frew bought out their partners, and built the Brilliant Refinery, the first important refinery erected. It had a capacity of seventy-eight thousand barrels of oil per week, all produced from their own wells. The supply seems inexhaustible, for the land, which was first opened in 1853, is still yielding oil. During all this time it has belonged to Mr. Lockhart, who is the oldest oil producer living to-day. In 1865 Messrs. Lockhart and Frew and William G. Warden built the large Atlantic Refinery in Philadelphia, which now produces thirty-six thousand barrels per day. At first they did business under the firm name of Warden, Frew & Co. Afterward a stock company was formed. Mr. Lockhart added little by little to his holdings until he was the largest owner in this vicinity. One of his early purchases was a large share in Clark & Sumner's refinery, now known as Standard No. 1. In 1874 the supply exceeded the demand, and rival companies by competition lowered the price. A meeting of the Cleveland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania men, to adjust matters on a more satisfactory basis, was held at Saratoga, the delegates being John D. Rockefeller, William G. Warden, Henry M. Flagler, and Charles Lockhart. The four combined laid the foundation of the Standard Oil Company, which was eventually incorporated under the laws of Ohio. The Atlantic Refinery, of which Mr. Lockhart had been President, was merged in the Standard Oil Company, and he was one of the first directors of this now famous corporation. When the Ohio law compelled them to divide their business, the Pennsylvania section was merged in the Atlantic Refinery of Philadelphia, in which Mr. Lockhart is still the largest Pennsylvania shareholder.

Mr. Lockhart is interested in a number of other financial enterprises. About twenty years ago he became a member of the firm of Hubbard, Bakewell & Co., saw, axe, and shovel manufacturers. When he became connected with them, they had two factories. Later they erected a large plant on Railroad Street, Pittsburg, which was subsequently burned. Messrs. Hubbard and Lockhart, after this catastrophe, purchased a number of smaller plants of the same kind, and established an axe manufactory at Beaver Falls, moving the shovel department tp Sharpsburg Bridge. The axe department was finally merged in the American Axe and Tool Company, which had the largest factory in the county. The shovel factory, which was burned in January, 1896, is again in operation, under a stock company, Mr. Lockhart owning within one share of half the capital stock. He is a director of the Pittsburg Locomotive Works; a stockholder of the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company; of the Jackson Lumber Company, which owns one hundred and thirty thousand acres of land in Alabama; and of a number of smaller enterprises. He is president of the Lockhart Iron and Steel Company, which gives employment to four hundred men; was one of the original directors of the Pittsburg Bank of Commerce, of which he is now president; and he is a director in several large silver and gold mining companies of Colorado and Idaho, having bought his first mining stock in 1865 in Idaho. A guiding rule of his life, from the days of his clerkship in the grocery store, has been never to contract a debt; and though the accumulation of his millions is, of course, due in a large degree to natural sagacity and forethought, his unvarying success is without doubt attributable to this principle.

On June 24, 1862, Mr. Lockhart was married to Miss Jane Walker, also a native of Scotland. They have five children, namely: James Henry and John Marshall, who are in business with their father; Janet W., the wife of John R. McCune, of Pittsburg; Martha Frew, the wife of Lee Mason, of Pittsburg; and Sarah Eleanor, who is yet with her parents. Mr. Lockhart cast his first vote with the Whigs in 1840, and has been a Republican since 1856. He belongs to one social organization, the Duquesne Club. He is a church member, connected for a great many years with the United Presbyterian Church of this city. Mr. Lockhart's family home for the past twenty years has been a palatial residence at the East End.

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