History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, 1887



Foresman Family - SETH THOMAS FORESMAN.





Robert Foresman, with whom this narrative properly begins, was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, about 1760. He was an extensive farmer for his time, and a man of influence in the locality in which he lived. In 1790 he disposed of his property in the eastern part of the state, left Northampton county, and took up his abode in the White Deer Valley, in Lycoming county, on the Pennsylvania frontier, in the region where the "Fair Play" men had established a peaceful order of things. In the new region this Robert Foresman was a farmer and also kept a tavern for the entertainment of travelers who were constantly visiting the locality, some of them in search of farm and home sites, and others on their way into more distant parts of the state.

In Robert Foresman's family were ten children, all of whom grew to maturity, married, and raised families. They were: Henry, Robert, George, John, David Watson, Jane, Susan, Margaret, Polly and Mary. David Watson Foresman was educated in the common schools and was given such advantages in that respect as the school system of the state afforded, but he was a farmer's son and much of his time was given to the care of the paternal acres. Starting out in life for himself he first rented a farm in the White Deer Valley, and afterward followed the general occupation of farming until 1854, when he removed to Williamsport and rented the judge Grier farm of three hundred acres and operated it successfully until much of its area was absorbed by the extended growth of the city.

David Watson Foresman married Margaret Simmons McCormick, daughter of Seth McCormick and his wife Hannah Hammond. She was a granddaughter of Seth McCormick, great-granddaughter of Hugh McCormick, and great-great-granddaughter of Hugh McCormick. Children of David Watson Foresman and Mary Simmons McCormick David H., married Rebecca Reighard, and had four children : Robert H., Anna E., Chester and Grier Foresman. Robert M., married Anna Nichols, and had five children : Henry, Flora, Frank, Stanton W. and Stanley N. Foresman. Seth Thomas married Sally Updegraff,* and had the following children :. Laura B., married Frank Robb, and had one child, Sarah A. Robb; John H., married Julia Emery; George P., married Hattie Bricker, and had four children, Sarah Eliza, Seth Thomas, Jr., Jane Lucille, and Richard Pendleton Foresman. Ruth, married Samuel McMullen. Mary Alice, married S. N. Williams. James Simington, married Catherine Giltner, and had nine children D. Hammond, Alice Marion, Clarence, Fred, Nancy Alice, Seth, Julia, Helen and Catherine Foresman. Eliza Hammond, married Jeremiah E. Baker. Hannah McCormick, married A. J. Updegraff, and had five children : Watson, Alice Williams, Sarah Eliza, Margaret, and Elizabeth Updegraff. Alvina, died, aged about twenty-four. Henry Melick, married Margaret Smith, and had three children: Martha H., Rebecca and James W. Foresman.

In the development of the great lumber industry of Pennsylvania many notable men rose to prominence and left an indelible impress on a very interesting page of the commonwealth's history. Sturdy characters of clear brain and strong muscle have been coming and going for more than a century of active operations in the valley of the West Branch, and even to this day the clear metallic ring of the woodman's axe is far from being stilled in the forests that border that historic stream. Long before the bosom of the placid Susquehanna ceased to ripple in the wake of the red man's canoe advancing civilization began to make inroads into the dense growth of primitive giants, and through the intervening years to the present there has been no cessation of the work, and according to conservative estimates the year 1903 is to be a busy and prosperous one in the line of manufacture, about 100,000,000 feet of the product of the hemlock regions being destined for the mills at Williamsport, the lumber manufacturing center of the state.

Among the positive and distinctive figures of those who have attained renown and won fame and fortune as a reward for their indomit able pluck and energy in this prolific field, none have had a more distinguished or varied career than the Hon. Seth Thomas Foresman of Williamsport, whose aggressive and vigorous life presents a bright example of what can be accomplished by one endowed with the right principles and impulsive qualities that insure success. He is a native product of Lycoming county and a splendid attestation of the self-made man.

Mr. Foresman first saw the light of day on his father's farm in Washington township on February 26, 1838. His parents, D. Watson and Margaret (McCormick) Foresman, located in what is known as the White Deer Valley not many years after the rugged pioneer who cleared away the forests and helped transform that lovely vale into one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the state. D. Watson Foresman was of moderate means, but he was industrious and frugal and struggled hard and patiently to make a living for his increasing family, which ultimately numbered five boys and five girls. The energy and thrift of the father had a permanent influence on the children, all of whom have been successful. D. Ham Foresman, the eldest of the boys, became a scientific farmer and successful financier; James S. Foresman was a successful merchant and mayor of Williamsport; Robert M. Foresman was a prominent lumberman. These three are now deceased, while Seth T. Foresman, the subject of this sketch, and his younger brother, H. Melick Foresman, are still prominently identified with business.

The example of the father, with his hard-working qualities, was readily absorbed by Seth, whose whole life had been imbued with a constantly increasing activity. He did not take his departure from under the parental roof until twenty-five years of age, thus showing a filial devotion not often displayed. When his duties on the farm would permit he attended the township school and then took a course at Dickinson Seminary, the highest institution of learning in Williamsport. In the interval he taught the country school to earn the funds for the acquirement of his own education.

Soon after Seth had attained his majority, his father disposed of his farm and moved to Williamsport, where, in 1863, Seth took the initial step in his business career. His first venture was in the line of contracting. Although his resources were limited he was not dismayed by the prospect confronting him, but went to work with that characteristic energy that has marked his subsequent years. He assisted in the construction of five of the largest saw mills in Williamsport, and built what is known as the Lumber Branch railroad, a spur from the Pennsylvania line, which affords shipping facilities for all of the mills in the city. He also superintended the construction of a number of the log basins, as well as various other improvements for the benefit of the lumber operators.

In 1869 Seth T. Foresman erected a large planing mill at the foot of Grier street, Williamsport, and forming a partnership with Thomas J. Frow, entered into business under the firm name of Frow, Foresman & Co. This was his first lumber venture, but it did not prove successful, the duration of the firm being decidedly brief. In the face of this reverse, however, Mr. Foresman was not discouraged. On the contrary, his strong will power began to manifest itself and his determination became all the more marked. The first opportunity that presented he grasped with eagerness to be doing.

At this time Fletcher Coleman was one of the most prosperous of the manufacturers, and when he tendered young Foresman a position on a salary, he lost no time in accepting. This was in 1872, and it opened the way to other and more profitable opportunities. A year later, in 1873, Mr. Foresman entered into partnership with Samuel N. Williams in the manufacture of lumber. This affiliation, while not destined to be uninterruptedly lasting, proved to be the foundation for the future great and prosperous firm. Their first season proved to be exceedingly profitable, but in 1874 the firm's entire possessions were wiped out by fire. Most men would have been discouraged by this experience, but Seth T. Foresman was not of that class. With scarcely a backward glance at the smoking ruins of his fortune, he, figuratively speaking, took off his coat and again went to work on salary, this time with A. C. Finney & Co., with whom he remained for one year. Then he sought his former partner, S. N. Williams, and in 1876 bought an interest in the firm, which was reorganized as Finney, Williams. & Co., and began operations at the Star Mill, which to this day is one of the greatest lumber-cutting plants in Pennsylvania.

In 1877 A. C. Finney disposed of his interest to his partners, and they organized the firm of Williams & Foresman, which continued an uninterrupted and prosperous business until 1898, when the firm was incorporated, forming what is known as the Bowman-Foresman Company, with Mr. Foresman as president, J. W. Bowman, vice-president, and J. Roman Way, treasurer. The association of capital, energy and pluck in 1877 has thus endured for a quarter of a century as one of Williamsport's greatest and most successful lumber concerns. During the intervening years the mill sawed on an average 20,000,000 feet of lumber annually, the logs being brought from the concern's own extensive timber lands in Clearfield and Indiana counties, acquired and added to from time to time as the business prospered and extended. Mr. Foresman is also largely interested in West Virginia with the Bowman Lumber Company, of which he is vice-president. It has extensive operations on the Coal river in Kanawha and Raleigh counties. This company has been very successful and owns in that region over 200,000,000 feet of standing timber, and sixty thousand acres underlaid with valuable coal deposits. This will be developed by future operations which are now under consideration.

Although successful as a lumberman, Mr. Foresman's talents have not been confined to that branch of industry. As a broad-gauged business man, he has been expansive and, naturally shrewd and keen-sighted, has entered into other channels that opened opportunities for safe investment. He was one of the originators of the Lycoming Rubber Company, at present one of the most important of the industries of Williamsport, an establishment that employs over five hundred hands in the production of boots and shoes. Nearly all of the immense output goes to Chicago. This great and valuable plant has been merged with the United States Rubber Company, and is operated at its full capacity. S. N. Williams, former partner of Mr. Foresman, is at its head and is a director in the United States Company Mr Foresman is a stockholder in the West Branch National Bank, and a director and stockholder in the Lycoming National Bank, two of the leading financial institutions of Williamsport. In addition, he is interested in numerous minor manufacturing establishments in Williamsport and the county; " so many of them," he said, " that I would have to look into the books to get a list of them." He is one of the foremost figures in the Williamsport Board of Trade. In his connection with the Board of Trade he has been a power in the upbuilding and industrial development of the city, to which he is loyally devoted and ever ready to contribute of his energy or means to accomplish something for the good of all.

As a lumberman and business man, Mr. Foresman has always been noted for his untiring energy and activity. The years of his life have been full to overflowing with work. He is a practical man in the strongest sense of the word, and in the conduct of his extensive business interests he has always been like a general in the field; he never has attempted to direct his business while seated in an easy chair in his office. To this active and personal contact with every detail of the work may largely be attributed his marked success.

One of the accomplishments of Mr. Foresman's career as a lumberman, of which he is justly proud, occurred in 1898.. During that season there were no floods in the Susquehanna or its tributaries to drive logs to their destination at Williamsport, and the lumbermen were nonplussed on account of the situation. It was then that the engineering ability of Mr. Foresman enabled him to solve a difficult problem. He conceived the idea of booming into the river the 25,000,000 feet of logs that were stranded. This was a feat that never before had been attempted, or even regarded as possible, and Mr. Foresman's declaration that he would accomplish it was against the judgment of all his contemporaries. They did not believe that it could be done, and expressed emphatic disapproval of the scheme, but Mr. Foresman was determined and set about his purpose at once. He knew that the logs could not be hauled out without great expense, and he began the building of a boom at Curwinsville. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of his foresight; the result was a pronounced triumph, the structure stopping and holding all of the 25,000,000 feet through a long and severe winter, and that without the loss of a single log.

Mr. Foresman has long been a member of the Lumberman's Exchange, of Williamsport, in which for years he has served as a member of Stray Log Committee, and has aided in the recovery of many million feet of logs carried away by floods. His own firm suffered heavily in the loss of logs and lumber in the great floods of 1889. and 1894.

As an evidence of the esteem in which he is held by the community of which he has been an honored member for nearly half a century, may be mentioned a banquet tendered to him by the business men of Williamsport of February 26, 1898, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday anniversary. This complimentary testimonial was originated and arranged by friends, business associates, fellow workers and citizens generally. It was a great success; covers were laid for over one hundred, and aside from those who participated in the enjoyable function came numerous letters and telegrams of congratulation from various parts of the country.

Personally Mr. Foresman is one of the most affable of gentlemen, a delightful companion, warm-hearted, and kind to all with whom he may come in contact. He is tall and erect, of handsome physique, and although sixty-six years old he possesses all the activity and vigor of many men who are several years younger than himself. Now he is at the summit of his prime, and gives every indication of many years more of usefulness. His domestic life could hardly be improved; he enjoys 14 LYCOMING COUNTY all the comforts of an ideal home; his family consists of his wife and four children, and they live in a beautiful mansion on West Fourth street in Williamsport. Mr. Foresman is a member of the Third Presbyterian church, and his interest in the support of the church and its dependencies is as wholesome as it is generous. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being the only,\ secret society in which he, holds a membership. Few men in Williamsport have been more deeply concerned than he in the maintenance of charitable organizations and work; he is president of the Boys' Training School, and a member of the advisory committee of the Home for the Friendless. He is commendably generous in his support of morality institutions, and to his kind heart the appeal of distress never was made in vain.

Mr. Foresman is president of the Williamsport Young Men's Christian Association. He always has taken a deep interest in politics, and, although a Democrat of firm convictions, he is not in any sense a partisan. In the presidential campaign of 1896 he favored the sound money policy, and his position then naturally put him outside the party lines, but he never changed his politics. Frequently he has been urged to stand as a candidate for public office, but he always has firmly declined such honors. In the congressional campaign in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania district in 1902, he was the unanimous choice of his party for the nomination, but as the conference was assembled he appeared before that body and withdrew his name from its consideration. This action was a disappointment to his friends in both parties, for, while the opposition party was in the majority in the district, there was little doubt that his personal popularity and individual strength would have turned the scale of doubtful contest. The only office he ever would accept was that of councilman of his own ward, and that he held many years, serving in the select branch of the municipal legislature. He was for several terms LYCOMING COUNTY 15 president of the council, and also was chairman of some of the more important committees. As an officer his position was always fearless, and once his position was taken on any public question, he would hold to his views against all opposition; and yet he always was open to honest conviction, but almost invariably subsequent events showed that his first impressions were correct, and that the public interests to him were as sacred as his own private concerns. He was elected mayor of Williamsport February 21, 19o5, by a very large majority. Williamsport is a Republican city.

Seth T. Foresman's course through life, marked by the wonderful and untiring energy which has characterized his every venture, is worthy the emulation of ambitious young men, and no man will ever assert that his success has not been fully deserved, for strict honesty has characterized every transaction in his business life in his dealings with fellowmen, and to-day he enjoys the consoling and gratifying reflection that he is esteemed and honored in the community in which he has lived so long; that he is looked up to and respected by his business associates and employes alike; and that he possesses the unlimited confidence of his fellowmen without distinction of party, creed or condition in life. * Sally Updegraff was the daughter and eldest of seven children of Samuel Updegraff and his wife Delila Fessler, who was a daughter of Frederick Fessler and his wife Elizabeth Strayer. Samuel Updegraff was a son of Samuel Updegraff and his wife Sarah Shaffer, and Samuel Updegraff was a son of Derrick Updegraff. The children of Samuel Updegraff and Delila Fessler were as follows : Sally, who married Seth Thomas Foresman. Albert J., who married Hannah McCormick Foresman, and had five children. Edith Matilda, who married Edward E. Toner, and had two children: William and Ella Toner. Oscar, who married Margaret Keifer, and had three children: Harry, Jennie and Sarah Updegraff. Silas, who died in childhood. Ella, who married George F. Smith, and had one child, Baldwin Smith. Arletta, who married William Brown, and had two children, Clarence and Edith Brown.


Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Lycoming County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1906.










Foresman Genealogy Resources



Foresman Ancestry Resources