Noted Women Directed Williamsport Society
By Col. Thomas W. Lloyd
From the earliest days when Williamsport was only a small village with less than a thousand inhabitants, it has been noted for the delightful social atmosphere that has pervaded it, and the hospitality of its people has always been unbounded.
There have been many women during the city’s long existence who have been leaders in the social world and many of them contracted marriages with men who reached prominent positions in state and nation.
Among a long list of these women three of them stand out notably. These were Mrs. Peter Herdic, afterwards Mrs. Henry Rawle, Mrs. R. J. C. Walker, afterwards Mrs. Frederick Courtland Penfield, and Mrs. David Jayne Hill.
Mrs. Peter Herdic was before her marriage Miss Encie E. Maynard, daughter of Hon. John W. Maynard, one of the most prominent members of the Lycoming county bar. As a young girl she was one of the leading lights in the social set that graced the village and was a woman of high intellectual attainments and an accomplished musician.
She was a universal favorite and the number of her friends was only limited by the number of people which the village contained. After her marriage to Mr. Herdic in 1860 she was enabled, by reason of her husband’s large wealth, to dispense a most charming and lavish hospitality and the entertainments given at the Herdic home were among the most delightful to be found anywhere.
Sometime after her husband’s death, Mrs. Herdic was again married to Henry Rawle, a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in the state of Pennsylvania and who was at one time its state treasurer.
Another most attractive and delightful woman was Mrs. R. J. C. Walker who came here with her husband from Philadelphia when the former decided to make Williamsport his home. Mrs. Walker was the daughter of William Weightman, the multi-millionaire manufacturing chemist of Philadelphia and was possessed of unlimited wealth.
The Walkers took up their residence in the house now occupied by Mrs. Avis Cochran at the southwest corner of West Fourth and Park streets, and this for many years was the scene of a lavish hospitality, the fame of which spread far and wide. When her husband was elected to congress from this congressional district, Mrs. Walker accompanied him to the national capital where she soon became a leader in the official set.
After Mr. Walker’s death, Mrs. Walker married for a second time, Frederick Courtland Penfield, who in 1913, was appointed by President Wilson United States ambassador to the court of Austria-Hungary, where during the early years of the World war Mrs. Penfield gave freely of her large means in aid of the Austrian wounded. Her husband naturally was recalled when the United States entered the war against Austria.
Mrs. David Jayne Hill was before her marriage, Miss Juliet L. Packer, a niece of Governor William F. Packer and in her girlhood lived with her mother in the house still standing at the northeast corner of Market and East Fourth streets. She was one of the most beautiful and popular young girls of her period and was the center around which much of the social activities of the time revolved.
In 1886, she married Dr. David Jayne Hill, then president of Bucknell university and afterward of the University of Rochester. Dr. Hill was subsequently made assistant secretary of state under John Hay and was then sent abroad as United States minister to the Netherlands and was subsequently appointed United States ambassador to the court of Emperor William at Berlin. Mrs. Hill died a few years ago as the result of an automobile accident when she was run down in the streets of Washington.
