Husband David Fleming, Esq. 1 2
Born: 17 Jul 1812 - Washington Co, PA 1
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Father: Samuel Fleming (1761-1851) 1 3
Mother: Sarah Beckett ( - ) 1 3
Marriage: 1852 4
• Additional Image: David Fleming.
• Biographical Sketch: from Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 (New York: Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Co., 1889), Pg 219.
To read this brief biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
Wife Susan Mowry 4
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Father: Charles Mowry (1777-1838) 5
Mother: Mary Richmond (Abt 1786-1862) 4
Children
1 M Charles M. Fleming 4
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2 F Sara Fleming 2
AKA: Sarah Fleming 4
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Spouse: Joshua Wilson Sharpe (1851- ) 6
Marr: 5 Jun 1889 2
3 M David Fleming 4
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4 M George R. Fleming 4
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General Notes: Husband - David Fleming, Esq.
He spent his boyhood on the farm, obtained his early education at the common school and "Harrisburg Academy," and for several years, alternating with attending school, he was a successful teacher there and in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the latter place teaching classics and the higher mathematics. On account of ill health he turned his attention to business pursuits, and became a clerk for Dr. D. N. L. Reutter, a contractor on the Baltimore and Port Deposit Railroad, and after a time took charge for him of the shipment of pine timber for the navy-yard at Washington, D. C., from North Carolina, making several trips by sea and greatly improving his health. In 1838 he returned to Harrisburg, and for several years edited a local paper and reported the proceedings of the Legislature for four Philadelphia journals, including the United States Gazette. In 1839 he entered the law-office of William McClure as a student, was admitted to the bar at Harrisburg in November, 1841. Mr. Fleming regularly practiced in the Supreme Court of the commonwealth beginning in 1843, and the reported decisions of that tribunal show that he was concerned in a large proportion of the cases removed from Dauphin and other counties, many of them involving principles of great importance. In later years he attended to bankruptcy practice in the two Federal courts.
He closed his labors as newspaper correspondent in 1847, and was elected chief clerk of the House of Representatives, and served during that session. He was renominated by the Whigs in 1848, but a tie in that body and the absence of one of his friends gave the place to the Democratic candidate by one vote. In 1854 he was elected district attorney, served three years, and declined a re-election. In 1863 he was elected to the State Senate, and served for three years in that body, being chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary during his second year, and Speaker in the closing session of his term. Outside his profession, Mr. Fleming was identified in various ways with most of the leading interests in Harrisburg. He was one of the founders of the Harrisburg Car-Works in 1853, subsequently obtained its charter, and succeeded William Calder upon his death in 1880 as president, and also a member of the board and stock-holder of the Foundry and Machine Company, which originated from the same enterprise, member of the board and counsel for the Lochiel Iron Company, and assisted in the organization of its successor, the Lochiel Rolling-Mill Company. He was counsel and one of the directors of the Harrisburg National Bank for many years, and was one of the incorporators in organizing the First National Bank of Harrisburg, for which he was then counsel. He was a director of the Inland Telegraph Company, and afterwards of the United States Telegraph Company until its consolidation with the Western Union lines, and was counsel for the latter, as well as for the Atlantic and Ohio and the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Companies, the Columbia Oil Company, and many other large corporations in several important suits, involving the taxation of these corporations by the State. He was one of the originators of the first Harrisburg Gas Company, and was president of the People's Gas and Gaseous Fuel Company of Harrisburg. Mr. Fleming was one of the founders and secretary and treasurer of the Harrisburg City Railroad (now railway), and was a director after its reorganization. He was a trustee for the Home of the Friendless of Harrisburg, and a member of the board of trustees of the Market Square Presbyterian Church, of which he was president for many years. He was one of the oldest Sunday-school teachers in the city, and always aided in every enterprise tending to better educate the rising generation, and he was patriotic and rendered support to the Union cause by his influence and means during the Civil War. Mr. Fleming's law partner, with whom he was associated beginning in 1870, was Mr. S. J. McCarrell, later district attorney for Dauphin County, who read law with him and was admitted to practice in 1867.