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CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS 
 
 A COLLECTION 
 
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER SKETCHES 
 
 RELATING TO THE EARLY HISTORY OF 
 
 CAMBRIA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 JAMES M. SWANK, 
 
 SECEETARY AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION 
 
 FOR 38 YEARS, FROM 1872 TO 1910. AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE MANUFACTURE 
 
 OF IRON IN ALL AGES AND OF OTHER HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not.— Proverbs xxvii. 10. 
 Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths.— Jeremiah vi. 16. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 No. 261 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 
 1910. 
 

 Printed by 
 ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT, 
 
 Nos. 1211-1213 Clover Street, 
 Pbiladelpbia, 
 
 "7 
 
 /7 /^ 
 
 ^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 The Founding of The Johnstown Tribune 9 
 
 Peter Goughnour's Reminiscences-. 19 
 
 Revelations of an Old Ledger. ... .-t-.^.0. .^. . f. . >G. f. .■T'T/. .) 23 
 
 Rev. Shadrach Howell Terry 29 
 
 Recollections of Early Johnstown 40 
 
 Edwin Augustus Vickroy 46 
 
 John Rover, Huguenot 53 
 
 Major John Linton 57 
 
 The Building of the Cambria Iron Works 65 
 
 Hon. Daniel Johnson Morrell 71 
 
 Major George Nelson Smith 77 
 
 Dr. William Anthony Smith 85 
 
 Judge James Potts 90 
 
 Judge Cyrus L. Pershing 99 
 
 Colonel Jacob M. Campbell 108 
 
 Alexander Chesterfield Mullin 114 
 
 Samuel Bell McCormick 124 
 
 A Reminiscence of President Zachary Taylor 129 
 
 John Fritz, Ironmaster 131 
 
 A Lesson from the Johnstown Flood 135 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 At the outset I wish my friends who read this volume to under- 
 stand plainly that it is not the result of a deliberate purpose to write 
 a book of more or less historical value. It is a compilation entirely, 
 with two exceptions, of twenty biographical and other sketches relating 
 to Cambria county that were written years ago, some of them many 
 years ago. It has fallen to my lot to prepare from time to time and 
 publish biographical sketches of some of the prominent men of Cambria 
 county in the old days, a few of whom were then living but most of 
 whom had passed to the other side, and these sketches, now repro- 
 duced, occupy the larger part of the following pages ; the remainder of 
 the volume is devoted to subjects of historical interest relating to pio- 
 neer days in Cambria county which I have had occasion to consider in 
 years gone by. The names and the work of the pioneers of any com- 
 munity should never be forgotten. Of the biographical sketches three 
 relate to old and prominent citizens of Cambria county who have died 
 in Philadelphia and with whom my old acquaintance had been renewed. 
 
 I have compiled these sketches not only to preserve the memory of 
 prominent and worthy citizens of Cambria county who have had much 
 to do with its early history but also to preserve many historical facts 
 of local interest which otherwise might be wholly lost, some of which are 
 interwoven with those of a purely personal character. That Johnstown 
 was a shipping point of importance on the Conemaugh long before the 
 Pennsylvania Canal or the Pennsylvania Railroad was ever dreamed of; 
 that there were many iron enterprises at and near Johnstown before the 
 Cambria Iron Works were built ; that an Ebensburg man was the pri- 
 vate secretary of Governor Curtin during the civil war ; that the editor 
 of a Johnstown newspaper was in the battle of San Jacinto in 1836 ; that 
 more than sixty years ago there was a volunteer military company at 
 Summerhill called the Quitman Guards ; that a citizen of Johnstown 
 was the chairman of the executive committee of the Centennial Com- 
 mission, and that other citizens of Johnstown have occupied high offi- 
 cial positions ; that there was no post office at Johnstown until 1811 ; 
 that there were great floods in Johnstown in the early days — all these 
 and many more facts of strictly historical value relating to the early 
 days of Cambria county are certainly worthy of preservation. 
 
 The attention of the reader is called to the date of publication of 
 each sketch, which will be found immediately under its title. I could 
 not rewrite the sketches to adapt them to present conditions. They are 
 reprinted substantially as they were originally written. If any errors of 
 fact should be discovered I can only plead in explanation that all but one 
 of the sketches were written away from my old home in the mountains. 
 
 Philadelphia, December 26, 1910. J- M- S. 
 
CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE. 
 
 WRITTEN IN SEPTEMBER, 1882, AND PUBLISHED IN THE 
 JOHNSTOWN DAILY AND WEEKLY TRIBUNE. 
 
 The main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 
 Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, with its leased connections, was 
 completed to the latter city late in 1852. On the 10th of 
 December of that year cars were run through from Phila- 
 delphia to Pittsburgh for the first time. The construction 
 of this great thoroughfare led to the development of exten- 
 sive mining and manufacturing enterprises in many parts 
 of Pennsylvania, and particularly in the western part. In 
 the spring of 1853 the first spadeful of earth was removed 
 at Johnstown to prepare for the foundations of the Cam- 
 bria Iron Works, and on July 27, 1854, these works went 
 into operation. Before they had made their first rail, how- 
 ever, or had turned a single wheel, the writer of these lines, 
 inspired perhaps by the hope of better days for Johnstown, 
 but most likely ruled by a destiny which he did not un- 
 derstand, issued on the 7th day of December, 1853, the first 
 number of the Cambria Tribune, an enterprise worthy to be 
 referred to on the same page, we trust, with the two more 
 extensive enterprises already mentioned. We know, at least, 
 that it had just as worthy an origin. But it had a very 
 humble origin, and, unlike the man who gets up in the 
 world and unwisely forgets the days of his poverty and 
 dependence, we proj^ose to-day to take the old friends and 
 the new friends of the Tribune into our confidence and tell 
 them how the little newspaper got its start. 
 
 There had been published in Cambria county since about 
 1825, sometimes at Johnstown and sometimes at Ebensburg, 
 a Whig newspaper which had in turn many owners and 
 
10 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 many names. The first copy of this paper which we have 
 seen was styled the Cambria Gazette and was printed at Eb- 
 ensburg in 1827. Subsequently it was called The Sky and 
 afterwards again the Cambria Gazette. While bearing this 
 last name the press and fixtures of the office found their 
 final resting place in Johnstown. But while they became 
 stationary the name of the paper did not have the same 
 good fortune, nor did the paper's ill-luck of having fre- 
 quent changes of ownership come to an end. Finally, in 
 the summer of 1853, one of those episodes in its history 
 occurred wdiich had frequently occurred before — the paper 
 came to a dead stop. 
 
 It was under such circumstances as these that the press 
 and fixtures of the office — subscription list and good will 
 were of little value — came into my hands in November, 1853, 
 with an understanding wdtli a few prominent Whigs of the 
 town, in whose custody I found the press and fixtures, that 
 I was to publish a Whig newspaper if I could but that 
 they were not to be responsible for my debts if I failed. 
 With this encouragement, such as it was, I resolved to go 
 ahead. I had not one dollar of capital but I had that 
 which is better than capital, I had friends, and from them 
 I borrowed about $150. With this money a new dress of 
 long primer type was purchased and also a few bundles of 
 paper. I found the office in a large room on Main street, 
 on the first floor of a frame addition to the Mansion House. 
 The room was unsuitable for a printing office, being low in 
 height, poorly lighted with eight-by-ten glass, uneven upon 
 the floor, and hugging the ground so closely that it was 
 necessary to step down from the sidewalk to get into it. 
 In the rear was the fragrant stableyard of the Mansion 
 House. I recollect very well that the first thing I did on 
 assuming possession was to have that office scrubbed and 
 whitewashed. My landlord was John Dibert and the rent 
 was $30 a year. 
 
 I can not, with equal certainty, recall the names of the 
 printers who helped me to issue the first number of the new 
 paper. I set some of the type for the first number myself, 
 but I will say frankly that I did not set it very fast. My 
 impression is that a young man named Hill from Indiana 
 
THE FOUNDING OF THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE. 11 
 
 was the journeyman and that Joseph M. Horton and the 
 present proprietor of the Tribune were the office boys, Joe 
 also being the carrier. They all worked in the office dur- 
 ing the first winter of the new paper's existence and I think 
 that they worked on the first number. Andrew Jackson 
 Hite also worked on the Tribune in its early days. Hite 
 and Horton are dead and are buried among strangers. Joe 
 Horton " finished his trade " in the Tribune office and be- 
 came a rapid and correct compositor. Jack Hite was al- 
 ready an accomplished printer, familiar with all the details 
 of the typographic art. He had taken his first lessons in 
 the art in 1846 from Henry C. Devine, the foreman of the 
 Democratic Courier, a journalistic venture of our old friend 
 General James Potts, who was assisted in its editorial man- 
 agement by Major Thomas A. Maguire. Jack had for a 
 fellow-apprentice in the Courier office John P. Linton, but 
 John did not remain long at the case. Jack afterwards, 
 and prior to the starting of the Tribune, acted for a time 
 as the right-hand man of Captain George N. Smith in the 
 publication at Johnstown of The Allegheny Mountain Echo. 
 When I resolved to try my luck as the editor and pub- 
 lisher of a weekly newspaper in Johnstown I would have 
 been glad to continue the name by which the old paper 
 had longest been known, the Cambria Gazette. It was eupho- 
 nious and appropriate, and, although associated with fre- 
 quent failures, it had a certain hold upon the affections of 
 the old Whigs of the county, who remembered that it had 
 rejoiced with them when they were victorious and condoled 
 with them when they were defeated. But I was persuaded 
 that persistence in the use of the name would be ominous 
 of further disaster, and I reluctantly abandoned it and 
 substituted the Cambria Tribune. This name I afterwards 
 changed, for obvious reasons, to The Johnstoivn Tribune. I 
 was at the time the Tribune was started an admirer of Hor- 
 ace Greeley, whose paper, the Neio York Tribune, was then, 
 as it long had been, the leading Whig newspaper in the 
 country. After it the Cambria Tribune was called. I re- 
 member well that that ardent and brilliant young Whig, 
 Abram Kopelin, protested warmly against my choice of a 
 name. He said that Horace Greeley's paper was the organ 
 
12 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 of the Abolitionists, as well as of the Whigs, and that the 
 paper I proposed to start would also be identified in the 
 public mind with the same treasonable faction, which would 
 never, never do. But I had my way. At that time there 
 were few papers in the country whose publishers dared 
 to call them after the New York Tribune; now there are 
 hundreds of Tribunes. I have always been satisfied with 
 my choice. My venerable friend Abraham Morrison did 
 not strongly object to it, but hoped that I would call the 
 paper The Peoj^le's Advocate. 
 
 Well, we laid the new type for the new paper and I 
 gave the boys plenty of copy. Up went the long rows of 
 shining metal, brightening my eyes and gladdening my 
 heart. And where do you think those rows were ? On 
 brass galleys where type is now placed ? There was not one 
 in the office. Our sticks were emptied on a long wooden 
 galley nailed against the wall near the press. This galley 
 would hold three rows of type, each row containing enough 
 type to make about three columns of the paper. It re- 
 mained in use for several years. When enough type had 
 been set for one side of the paper it was carried directly 
 from this galley to the bed of the press, a handful at a 
 time. Imposing-stone there was none. When the pages 
 were locked up, and not until then, a proof was taken with 
 the press, slips wide enough to take an impression of two 
 columns being used. Corrections were made on the press, 
 and the printers who read this can imagine how disheart- 
 ening the work would often be, especially when there would 
 be " doublets " or " outs," and more especially when the 
 corrections would have to be made at night by an imper- 
 fect light. 
 
 Imperfect light ! What do you suppose that old Tribune 
 office was lighted with ? Tallow candles, two for five cents, 
 set in low and narrow candlesticks made of lead to prevent 
 them from tilting over. Many a page of the Tribune has 
 been corrected with the aid of candles set in these candle- 
 sticks. When an accident would happen, and the tallow 
 would make the acquaintance of the type in the form, the 
 poor printer became an object of real pity. His task in 
 making corrections was sufficiently hard before. When 
 
THE FOUNDING OF THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE. 13 
 
 •composition liad to be done at night, and it had to be 
 pretty often, no other candles or candlesticks than those de- 
 scribed were used. The candlestick was placed in the " e " 
 box. In those days Johnstown had not been blessed with 
 •either gaslight or coal-oil lamps. 
 
 When the form for one side of the paper had been made 
 ready, and the press had also been made ready, the hardest 
 work in the office commenced. An edition of about five 
 hundred copies was to be printed, and it invariably took 
 a pressman and a roller-boy the whole of a half day, or 
 from early in the evening until midnight, as the case might 
 be, to print one side of that edition. The same amount of 
 labor was of course required to print the other side. 
 
 What sort of a press did we have ? We had a press, 
 reader, which we would gladly put in a glass case if we had 
 it now. But the press is lost ; we really do not know what 
 became of it. It was a two-pull Ramage press — that is, the 
 platen was only large enough to cover one page of our lit- 
 tle paper. The bed of the press was run in until the platen 
 •covered one page, when the lever was pulled and that page 
 was printed ; then the bed was run in farther until the next 
 page was covered, when it was printed and the bed was run 
 out and the sheet taken off the tympan. It was a hand- 
 press, of course. The operation was like that of printing a 
 paper on a Washington press, except that two pulls were 
 required instead of one. The work of printing even our 
 small edition was exceedingly tedious and very laborious. 
 The press itself was liable, too, to get out of order, and this 
 was an additional drawback. The platen was a smooth- 
 faced wooden block which was attached to the frame by 
 four hooks and many strands of twine. Occasionally a hole 
 would be punched in the face of the platen, the printing 
 •of handbills being the most frequent cause of this misfor- 
 tune, and then the platen had to be untied from the hooks 
 and taken, like a babe in arras, to Thompson R. Kimmell 
 ■or Napoleon B. Haynes to be planed down until the hole 
 would disappear. We remember nervously standing in front 
 of these cabinet-makers — we generally called on them turn 
 about — and coaxing them to drop all other work until our 
 platen was attended to. When they had kindly given it a 
 
14 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 smooth face once more we carried it in our arms in triumph 
 back to the office. The exercise of tying it to the hooks 
 then followed. This was a work of no little delicacy, as 
 the tying to the four hooks had to be very evenly done or 
 else one corner of the platen would be sure to drag and the 
 impression of the paper be blurred. The springs which 
 returned the lever to its place, and which also helped to 
 equalize the impression, were made of small pieces of leather. 
 
 It will be seen that our press was a very primitive affair. 
 Benjamin Franklin might have worked with it, for it was 
 almost identical in construction, and entirely so in princi- 
 ple, with the one on which he printed The Pennsylvania 
 Gazette. We managed to do good work with it, except when 
 something would get wrong with the twine or the bits of 
 leather. Although not on our programme that we should 
 do the presswork for the paper we found that we usually 
 had it to do, editorial dignity counting for nothing when 
 the paper had to come out. 
 
 Joe Horton applied the ink with a glue-and-molasses 
 roller. I usually made the rollers myself. I was a fair 
 pressman and a slow but sure compositor but a poor roller- 
 maker. Theoretically I knew how to make a roller, and I 
 always gave the mixture due attention, but often my labor 
 came to naught. The composition would frequently refuse 
 to harden sufficiently and then the work had to be done 
 over again. Many an evening I have stood over the old 
 cannon stove and stirred the mixture until I thought it had 
 been sufficiently cooked, then poured it into the mould and 
 gone home to find in the morning that I had missed it 
 again ! I remember, and the present publisher of the Trib- 
 une doubtless remembers, a heartbreaking experience in en- 
 deavoring to make a roller in a glue-kettle which had little 
 pin-holes in it that let in the water from the other kettle. 
 After several failures, which Avere attributed first to the mo- 
 lasses and next to the glue, almost every grocery in town 
 being called upon for the former and every drug store for 
 the latter, we finally discovered the cause of the trouble in 
 the pin-holes and I bought a new glue-kettle. Then there 
 was sunshine again and there was a good roller in the 
 Tribune office. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE, 15 
 
 Did we ever pi a form in the old Tribune office ? We 
 certainly did. It was this way : We did not have twin 
 chases in those days, at least not in the Tribune office, and 
 both pages were locked up in one chase. The lifting of so 
 heavy a form to the press required the help, if not all the 
 strength, of two persons. Late one night the present pub- 
 lisher of the Tribune assisted me to place the form on its 
 edge on the press and then left it in my hands, trusting 
 me to lay it down properly. I was about to do this when 
 a slip of some kind took place, the form came down all too 
 suddenly, and there was a catastrophe. One page fell out 
 of the form and into a good-sized heap but the other page 
 was safe. We grieve to say that the present publisher of 
 the Tribune deserted us that night in our trouble. He left 
 by the front door, with the irreverent remark that we were 
 no printer. We stuck to the wreck alone for several hours ; 
 we were not sleepy enough to go home. In the morning 
 our bad fortune did not look so bad as it did when it hap- 
 pened ; time and patience will cure a printer's trouble as 
 well as nearly all other troubles. 
 
 The first number of the Tribune made its appearance, 
 as I have said, on the 7th day of December, 1853. Other 
 numbers followed in regular order. I sent the paper to 
 nearly all the householding Whigs in the town and to some 
 Democrats. I also sent it to a few prominent persons at 
 Ebensburg and at other points. But few farmers around 
 Johnstown called to make the acquaintance of the new 
 editor or his paper and I could not send it to their homes ; 
 many of them in those days did not read English. Such 
 farmers, however, as became subscribers for the paper were 
 among its most appreciative readers, and no subscribers were 
 more punctual in paying the printer. After marking off 
 my temporary list the names of those who returned the pa- 
 per, with the chilling word " refused " marked on its mar- 
 gin, I had about five hundred names left, and it is a sin- 
 gular fact that for several years afterwards the number of 
 subscribers did not materially increase. The Cambria Iron 
 Company failed twice soon after the paper was started and 
 many other adverse circumstances operated against its pros- 
 perity. The Whig party was dying, the Democrats were in 
 
16 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 power ill Cambria county, money was scarce, and the times 
 were hard. The same influences which operated against an 
 increase of my subscription list also operated against the 
 receipt of many cash-paying advertisements. Of job work 
 there was not much to do, but what was offered was most 
 thankfully received. Usually advertising is regarded as the 
 life-blood of a country newspaper, but I found in the early 
 days of the Tribune that without the job work of the office 
 the paper could not have lived. All jobs were printed on 
 the Ramage press. 
 
 The Tribune was a four-page paper, six columns to 
 the page. It was exactly one-half as large as the present 
 weekly edition of the Tribune. It was large enough, how- 
 ever, for its day. While not what it ought to have been, 
 and might have been under more favorable circumstances, 
 it possessed some characteristics of a meritorious nature that 
 I will be pardoned for referring to. I was my own editor ; 
 the young lawyers and the Whig politicians of the town 
 were not called upon, nor w^ould they have been permitted, 
 to help me with their superior editorial skill. The paper ap- 
 peared regularly on the day of publication, even if we had 
 to work half a night or all night to accomplish this object. 
 The carrier's visits could always be looked for at about 
 the same hour every week. I rarely if ever printed a half 
 sheet, and no matter how serious an accident might happen 
 in our office no edition of the Tribune was ever printed in 
 any other office. I made it a rule that advertisements should 
 never appear on the first page of the paper and they never 
 did. I had a department for the farmers on the fourth 
 page and it was rarely omitted. I had but little taste for 
 local news, caring more for general news and general poli- 
 tics ; consequently the early volumes of the Tribune con- 
 tain only a brief record of the local events of the day and 
 absolutely none of the gossip of the town. Country news- 
 papers have greatly changed since those days in this par- 
 ticular and I insist have changed for the worse. Better, far 
 better, a bit of poetry, or a scrap of history or biography, 
 or Congressional proceedings than many local items that are 
 now published. I think that if I erred seriously as an edi- 
 tor in those early days it was in devoting too much space 
 
THE FOUNDING OF THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE. 17 
 
 to long selections ; the paper was not sufficiently a reflex 
 of the opinions and temper of the times. 
 
 It was hard up-hill work to keep the Tribune alive in 
 its early days. As I have said money was scarce, and I 
 will add that there was not then one really liberal mer- 
 chant advertiser in the town. I had good friends among 
 the merchants, but they did not understand the art of ad- 
 vertising or have much faith in printer's ink. I had no offi- 
 cial patronage of any kind. Many of my farmer subscrib- 
 ers, although they paid me promptly, insisted that I must 
 take " country produce " in lieu of money, and I had to do 
 it. I have taken from them, on account of their subscrip- 
 tions, cord-wood, poultry, pumpkins, butter, apples, potatoes, 
 bacon, blackberries, and even chestnuts. Most of the mer- 
 chants who advertised with me also insisted that I should 
 trade out my advertising bills, and I had to do that. 
 
 I was often, as may easily be supposed, entirely out of 
 money, yet I never after the paper was started borrowed a 
 dollar to keep it going. I made it an inflexible rule that, 
 when I needed a certain amount of money, I would collect 
 it if possible from those who owed it to me. If I had not 
 adopted and adhered to this rule I must have broken down. 
 My debts, therefore, were always paid when due, and it was 
 of great service to me that I established the reputation of 
 being careful in my flnancial dealings. I was sometimes, 
 however, most sorely pressed. Upon several occasions when 
 I needed paper, and did not know where to look for even 
 $10 to buy it with, I have taken advantage of my posses- 
 sion of a free pass on the Pennsylvania Railroad and gone 
 to Pittsburgh to solicit advertisements. I never failed to se- 
 cure something for my advertising columns, and by making 
 the price low I could get the cash in advance. With this 
 I would go to a paper warehouse and buy a few bundles, 
 or maybe only one bundle. If in immediate need of paper 
 I have secured the services of a porter to take a bundle to 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad depot, where I would get the 
 baggage-master on my return train to carry it to Johns- 
 town. In the evening, or possibly late at night, I would 
 reach home all right. Better that day's work than to bor- 
 row money. Let me add that I have frequently, at the end 
 
18 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 of a visit to Pittsburgh, but of course after night, for my 
 pride was not proof against everything, carried a bundle 
 of paper on my shoulder from the railroad station to the 
 Tribune office and wet down a sufficient number of quires 
 for the next edition. 
 
 I need not add to these reminiscenses, which I wish the 
 reader to understand refer only to the first two years and a 
 half in the life of the Tribune— ivom 1853 to 1856. My 
 little enterprise has now grown to be twenty-nine years old, 
 and it has grown in magnitude and power with its years. 
 I look upon the fat advertising columns of the large daily 
 and weekly editions of the paper, and then at the splen- 
 did office in which it is printed, as if tbe transformation 
 were all a dream. I see advertisements rejected because 
 there is no room for them ; the old Tribune had plenty 
 of room in its advertising columns. I see paper hauled 
 to the office by the wagon-load and I think of my poor 
 little bundle. There is a big steam press and there are 
 other presses in the place of the old Ramage and its 
 wooden platen. There are tons of type. The proprietor is 
 not asked to take blackberries and chestnuts in payment 
 of subscriptions, for the farmers, thanks to the Cambria 
 Iron Works, are now prosperous and have money in their 
 pockets. It is all like a dream. But the early days of 
 the Tribune, the hard struggle to give it a start, the dis- 
 appointments, the heartaches and heartbreaks, the endless 
 pinching to make both ends meet, the bitter first lessons in 
 human selfishness — all this is a stern reality which I could 
 not forget if I would. 
 
 My connection with the Tribune terminated finally on the last day 
 of December, 1869. Beginning with the summer of 1856 the paper ex- 
 perienced several changes in management, but in 1864 its sole ownership 
 and control reverted to my hands, in which they continued until the 
 December day above mentioned. My entire connection with the Tribune 
 covered a period of about eleven years. 
 
PETER GOUGHXOUR's REMINISCENCES. 19 
 
 PETER GOUGHNOUR'S REMINISCENCES. 
 
 EDITOKIAL IN THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE OF SATURDAY, 
 FEBRUARY 9, 1856. 
 
 Peter Goughnour, who was born in Maryland in 1773 
 and died in Conemaugh township, Cambria county, during 
 the past year, 1855, left a statement of his early recollec- 
 tions of what was in old times called " the Conemaugh 
 country," which statement is now before us. It is much 
 to be regretted that there is not in existence an authentic 
 history of the early settlers and settlements of the Cone- 
 maugh country, and with a view to filling a portion of this 
 blank in our annals we will compile from Mr. Goughnour's 
 statement such facts as we think worthy of preservation. 
 
 Mr. Goughnour says that the first white settlers in the 
 Conemaugh country were two brothers, Samuel and Solo- 
 mon Adams. At the time of their settlement, about 1785, 
 the Indians who hunted and fished on the banks and in 
 the waters of the Conemaugh and Stony creek were quite 
 numerous. Samuel Adams lived on Sam's run, about two 
 miles south of the confluence of these two streams, and 
 from him it derived its name. Solomon's cabin was located 
 about midway between the junction of the Conemaugh and 
 Stony creek and his brother's cabin. Solomon's run took 
 its name from him. Samuel Adams and an Indian warrior 
 killed each other with their knives while fighting around a 
 white-oak tree on Sandy run, about five miles east of the 
 junction of the Conemaugh and Stony creek. Their bodies 
 were buried in one grave under the tree. 
 
 Mr. Goughnour settled in what is now Conemaugh town- 
 ship in 1798. Cambria county was then a wilderness and 
 not known to geographers. At the date of Mr. Goughnour's 
 settlement the Indians had departed from their Conemaugh 
 hunting grounds, but he says that he had found heaps of 
 stones erected over Indian graves, flint arrows, elk horns. 
 
^0 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 and other relics of their presence. A few of these stone 
 heaps are still standing on the banks of the Stony creek 
 above Johnstown. 
 
 Jacob Stiitzman, who died in 1816, occupied in 1794 
 the Conemaugh bottom, now the site of Johnstown, and to 
 which had been given the name of Oldtown. Mr. Stutz- 
 man was the first white man who ever occupied the bottom. 
 A son of his was killed by an ox-team which had been 
 scared by a rattlesnake. The body of the boy was buried 
 on the left bank of the Stony creek, where Water street in 
 Kernville is now located. 
 
 Joseph Johns, or Schantz, a member of the Amish com- 
 munion and an industrious and honest man, laid out Cone- 
 maugh bottom into town lots in 1800. Those who assisted 
 him to lay out the town, and who became its first citizens, 
 were Peter Goughnour, Joseph Francis, Ludwig Wissinger, 
 and a few others. They named it Conemaugh-town, but it 
 was generally called Johnstown. Mr. Johns died at an ad- 
 vanced age in Conemaugh township, Somerset county. 
 
 Dr. Anderson and William Hartley opened the first store 
 in the new town and Isaac Proctor opened the second. The 
 necessaries of life at that time rated very high. Coffee was 
 50 cents per pound ; pepper, allspice, and ginger, 50 cents 
 per pound ; shad, 50 cents each ; salt, $5 per bushel ; wheat, 
 $2 per bushel. All other articles rated accordingly. Wages 
 were from 40 to 50 cents per day. 
 
 There were at that time no roads through the wilderness 
 to older settlements and nothing but canoes for navigating 
 the streams. Domestic animals were rare but wild beasts 
 of the forest were quite numerous. Panthers, wolves, bears, 
 €tc., prowled at night around the cabins of the pioneers. 
 Nevertheless the first settlers, in Mr. Goughnour's language, 
 had fine times hunting and fishing, as the forest was alive 
 with game and the clear streams were filled with fish. 
 Deer were numerous. 
 
 The bottoms in the vicinity of Conemaugh-town were 
 •covered with luxuriant verdure and presented a wild and 
 picturesque appearance. The hills also were grand beyond 
 description, with their glorious old forests in which the 
 woodman's axe had never rung. Pea vines, wild sunflowers, 
 
PETER GOUGHNOUR's REMINISCENCES. 21 
 
 grapevines, and other native representatives of the vegeta- 
 ble world twined around and waved between the giant oaks^ 
 and spruce, and hickories. What a paradise was that Cone- 
 maugh country to its first settlers some fifty years ago ! 
 
 Still those pioneers had their troubles and those forests 
 and bottoms had their drawbacks. Growing among the tall 
 grass was a noxious weed, resembling garlic in taste and 
 appearance, and called ramps by the settlers, which, when 
 eaten by the cows, was sure to sicken them and put a stop 
 to the supply of milk and butter. The grass, from some 
 cause not stated, did not make good hay, and as the culti- 
 vation of corn, oats, rye, etc., was exceedingly limited the 
 result was that in the winter the cattle often fared badly.. 
 The settlers, in order to prevent their cattle from starving, 
 were forced to cut down trees so that they could browse 
 on the buds and young branches. The women were re- 
 quired to clear land and do rough farmwork, such as har- 
 rowing, harvesting, hoeing corn, etc. They were also ac- 
 customed to other phases of hard pioneer life. 
 
 Large quantities of maple sugar and molasses were in a 
 few years manufactured by the settlers of the Conemaugh 
 country and packed to neighboring settlements. Venison 
 also became an article of traffic. In exchange for these 
 commodities the Conemaugh settlers received the necessaries 
 which they could not produce themselves. Bedford was 
 their principal market. 
 
 In the course of time the population of Conemaugh-town 
 increased as well as the number of farms in its vicinity. 
 A log inn for the entertainment of travelers was built. A 
 road was opened through the wilderness to Frank stown,, 
 below Hollidaysburg, upon which bar iron was hauled to 
 Conemaugh-town and shipped in the spring of the year in 
 flat-bottomed boats to Pittsburgh. Conemaugh-town now 
 became a place of some business, and it was found neces- 
 sary to build another inn. 
 
 In 1808 the town was overflowed by a sudden rise in 
 the Conemaugh and Stony creek and the inhabitants were 
 compelled to fly to the hills for safety. The town was- 
 again submerged in 1816. This event was termed " the 
 punkin flood," owing to the fact that it swept away the- 
 
22 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS, 
 
 whole pumpkin crop of that year. Much damage was done 
 by this flood. Fences were swept away, saw-logs and lum- 
 ber disappeared, and many horses and cattle were drowned. 
 The settlers suffered severely by this flood. 
 
 About 1812 the town boasted a grist mill and also a 
 small iron forge on Stony creek. In 1816 the first keel 
 boat was built by Isaac Proctor on the right bank of the 
 Stony creek, near where the Union graveyard is located. 
 Flatboats were also constructed at the same place. While 
 laborers were digging the race for another forge on the 
 Conemaugh old fire-brands, pieces of blankets, an earthen 
 smoke-pipe, and other Indian relics were discovered at a 
 depth of twelve feet below the surface of the earth. 
 
 Notwithstanding the improvements mentioned the town 
 was still small when, about 1829, the Commonwealth com- 
 menced the construction of the Canal and Portage Railroad. 
 Since that time it has steadily prospered and gradually be- 
 come a place of some note and business importance. 
 
REVELATIONS OF AN OLD LEDGER. 23 
 
 REVELATIONS OF AN OLD LEDGER. 
 
 FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL 
 ASSOCIATION FOR JUNE 1, 1896. 
 
 Johnstown has had three periods of transportation de- 
 velopment — the first embracing the flatboat era from about 
 1800 to 1830 ; the second beginning with the completion of 
 the Pennsylvania Canal to Johnstown in 1830 and extend- 
 ing to the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pitts- 
 burgh in 1852 ; and the third beginning with the comple- 
 tion of the Pennsylvania Railroad and extending to the 
 present time. The iron industry of Johnstown has also 
 had three periods of development — the first embracing Cam- 
 bria forge at Johnstown and Shade furnace, Shade forge, 
 and Mary Ann forge in Somerset county near Johnstown, 
 all of which were built between 1808 and 1820 ; the sec- 
 ond, a ten-year period, embracing Cambria, Ben's Creek, 
 Mill Creek, Mount Vernon, and Somerset furnaces, built 
 from 1842 to 1846 — Mount Vernon in Johnstown and the 
 other furnaces only a few miles away ; and the third be- 
 ginning with the organization of the Cambria Iron Com- 
 pany in 1852 and coming down to the present time. 
 
 Johnstown owes its start as an industrial and commer- 
 cial centre to the fact that its location at the head of flat- 
 boat navigation on the Conemaugh furnished an outlet for 
 the iron of the Juniata valley at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century. There was more water in the Cone- 
 maugh and its tributaries in those years than there is now, 
 Johnstown was an iron town before Pittsburgh had made 
 a pound of iron. The following details deal exclusively 
 with the period of flatboat transportation and with the first 
 period of the iron industry of Johnstown. 
 
 For the facts that we shall present we are in part in- 
 debted to an old ledger which has recently come into our 
 possession and which escaped the destruction of the Johns- 
 
24 CAMBKIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 town flood ill 1889. The ledger contains accounts of sales 
 made and of credits entered by Isaac Proctor, a merchant 
 of Johnstown in the early years of the nineteenth century, 
 and a record of other business transactions by Mr. Proctor. 
 His store was located on Main street, immediately opposite 
 the site of the First Presbyterian church. 
 
 Isaac Proctor was a native of Bedford county, Pennsyl- 
 vania. He settled at Johnstown, " at the forks of the Cone- 
 maugh," when it was a mere hamlet of log houses, soon 
 after 1800, in which year the town was " laid out " by 
 Joseph Johns, a Swiss Mennonite, into streets and alleys, 
 building lots, public squares, and other reservations. But 
 the name that was then officially given to the new town 
 was Conemaugh and not Johnstown, the latter name being 
 substituted for the former in 1834. We have before us a 
 letter dated at Conemaugh on April 27, 1832. Settlements 
 had been made at Johnstown before 1800 by German and 
 Swiss farmers. For a number of years after 1800 the town 
 was almost entirely inhabited by people of German and 
 Swiss origin. 
 
 Isaac Proctor was not only a country merchant but he 
 was also the owner of a warehouse on the north bank of 
 Stony creek, below Franklin street, in Johnstown, which 
 was maintained for the express purpose of receiving and 
 storing bar iron from the forges of the Juniata valley, 
 which bar iron was hauled to Johnstown over the Franks- 
 town Road and thence shipped in flatboats to Pittsburgh by 
 way of the Conemaugh, Kiskiminitas, and Allegheny rivers. 
 There were other warehouses near that of Isaac Proctor 
 which were maintained for precisely the same purpose. 
 The flatboats were built at Johnstown or at points farther 
 up the Stony creek and as far south as the mouth of Ben's 
 creek, three miles away. A large business was done far 
 into the nineteenth century in the shipment of Juniata iron 
 by flatboats from Johnstown. At first and for many years 
 these shipments embraced only bar iron, but subsequently 
 and down to the opening of the Pennsylvania Canal to 
 Johnstown late in 1830 they embraced also blooms and pig 
 iron, all made with charcoal. As the navigation of the 
 streams mentioned was as yet wholly unimproved ship- 
 
REVELATIONS OF AN OLD LEDGER. 25 
 
 ments could only be made during high water, and even 
 then experienced i)ilots were needed to prevent the boats 
 from going to pieces on the rocks and riffles in which the 
 Conemaugh river particularly abounded. Occasionally a 
 boat was wrecked. In one disaster at Richards' Falls two 
 lives were lost. Much of the hauling over the Frankstown 
 Road was done on sleds in the winter, and February and 
 March, when the spring break-up took place, were favor- 
 ite months for sending the flatboats to Pittsburgh, one 
 hundred miles away. The boats were sold at Pittsburgh 
 and the crews walked home. 
 
 Keel boats were also used on the Conemaugh and Kiski- 
 minitas rivers, but they were used chiefly in the salt trade, 
 the Conemaugh salt works beginning about forty miles west 
 of Johnstown. The first salt works on the Conemaugh date 
 from about 1814. In A. J. Hite's Hand Book of Johnstown, 
 printed in 1856, it is stated that the first keel boat built at 
 Johnstown was built by Isaac Proctor in 1816. Keel boats, 
 which passed from the Conemaugh and Iviskiminitas into 
 the Allegheny, brought return cargoes from Pittsburgh. 
 
 The merchandise accounts in Mr. Proctor's ledger are 
 chiefly for the years 1808 and 1809, occasional entries com- 
 ing down as late as 1810, 1811, and 1812. The warehouse 
 accounts are for the years 1816, 1817, and 1818. As is usual 
 in ledger accounts the prices of merchandise are not often 
 given. It is, however, very remarkable that all the mer- 
 chandise accounts are kept in pounds, shillings, and pence. 
 The pound character {£) is used. Dollars and cents are no- 
 where mentioned, although our Federal coiiiage was author- 
 ized in 1792 and silver dollars were coined as early as 1794. 
 The dollar mark ($) does not appear in any of the mer- 
 chandise accounts. That business should have been trans- 
 acted in British or colonial currency in an interior town in 
 Pennsylvania as late as 1812 is a discovery for which we 
 were not prepared. We can not understand why the Brit- 
 ish system of computing values was continued in that inte- 
 rior town so long, nor is any light thrown upon the value 
 of a pound in dollars and cents at Johnstown in 1812, or 
 upon the forms of currency that were used when payments 
 were made in " cash." John Holliday closed his account 
 
26 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 with Mr. Proctor in June, 1811, when he is credited with 
 a payment of £32 16s. 4d. in " cash ; " in January, 1811, 
 Patrick Dempsey closed his account by giving his note for 
 X6 10s. 3d. ; in 1812 William Fulford closed his account 
 by giving his note for X2 6s. Id. ; and in the same year 
 John Grosenickle closed his account by giving his note for 
 XI Is. 2d. In 1808 John Grosenickle is credited with XI 
 lis. 9d. for hauling a load of maple sugar to Bedford. 
 There are other entries in the same denominations. 
 
 Another revelation of this old ledger is just as remark- 
 able as the use of pounds, shillings, and pence until 1812. 
 The warehouse accounts of bar iron received and shipped 
 in 1816, 1817, and 1818 are kept in tons, hundredweights, 
 quarters, and pounds, the ton representing 2,240 pounds, 
 the hundredweight 112 pounds, and the quarter 28 pounds. 
 The teamsters who hauled bar iron over the Frankstown 
 Road are credited in tons, hundredweights, quarters, and 
 pounds, and shipments to Pittsburgh are entered in the 
 same terms. In ordinary commercial transactions neither 
 iron nor any other commodity has been weighed by hun- 
 dredweights and quarters forming fractions of a gross ton 
 at any time within our recollection, the usage being to 
 weigh only by tons and pounds, and it is really very sur- 
 prising that the English custom should have prevailed at 
 Johnstown at so late a day as we have mentioned. Char- 
 ges for storage in 1816, 1817, and 1818 appear, however, to 
 have been paid in dollars and cents, as we find several 
 charges in 1818 in these denominations. We have also 
 found within the leaves of the ledger a bill against Isaac 
 Proctor which reads as follows : " Juniata Forge, 16th De- 
 cember, 1818. Mr. Isaac Proctor Bot of Peter Shoenberger 
 2 qrs. 1 lb. Bar Iron, @ $0.08c— $4.56." Juniata forge was 
 located at Petersburg, in Huntingdon county, and it was 
 built about 1804. In 1814 or 1815 it passed into the hands 
 of Dr. Peter Shoenberger. 
 
 The numerous entries in Mr. Proctor's ledger make clear 
 the fact that large quantities of bar iron were shipped at 
 Johnstown by flatboats in 1816, 1817, and 1818. He did a 
 large warehousing business and other owners of warehouses 
 were probably active competitors. The aggregate tonnage 
 
EEVELATIONS OF AN OLD LEDGER. 27 
 
 shipped by Mr. Proctor, whicli was chiefly on account of 
 Dr. Shoenberger, amounted to several hundred tons annu- 
 ally. Sorne of Mr. Proctor's shipments amounted to 16 and 
 19 tons. Some of tliese shipments were made " in my own 
 boat," which was doubtless a keel boat. Pittsburgh anti- 
 quarians may be interested in learning that the consignees 
 of bar iron at Pittsburgh in those days were Richard Bowen 
 & Co., Robert Alexander, Allen & Grant, Charles McGee, 
 J. Whiting, Robinson, McNickel & Wilds, Irwin & George, 
 and Thomas Jackson. 
 
 The chief interest of this old ledger consists in its reve- 
 lation of the fact that large quantities of Juniata bar iron 
 were shipped to Pittsburgh from Johnstown as early as 
 1816. Earlier shipments were made by water from Johns- 
 town to the same destination, probably as early as 1800, but 
 the ledger of Isaac Proctor shows conclusively that these 
 shipments had attained large proportions in 1816, 1817, and 
 1818, in which years bar iron had not yet been made at 
 Pittsburgh. Next in importance among the facts disclosed 
 by Mr. Proctor's ledger is the survival at Johnstown down 
 to 1812 of the British system of computing values, and the 
 survival down to 1818 of the now long disused hundred- 
 weights and quarters. 
 
 From other sources than the old ledger we add some 
 other facts which show the prominence of Johnstown as 
 an iron centre early in the nineteenth century. 
 
 John Holliday built a forge at Johnstown, on the right 
 bank of the Stony creek, about 1809, for the manufacture of 
 bar iron from Juniata blooms and pig iron, but we find no 
 mention in Mr. Proctor's ledger of any shipments from this 
 forge. The dam of this forge was washed away about 1811, 
 and subsequently the forge was removed to the north bank 
 of the Conemaugh, in the Millville addition to Johnstown, 
 where it was operated down to about 1822, Rahm & Bean, 
 of Pittsburgh, being the lessees at this time. In 1817 
 Thomas Burrell, the proprietor at that time, offered wood- 
 cutters " fifty cents per cord for chopping two thousand 
 cords of wood at Cambria forge, Johnstown." The forge 
 would appear to have been in operation from 1809 to 1822. 
 
 In 1807 or 1808 Shade furnace was built on Shade 
 
28 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS, 
 
 creek, in Somerset county, about fifteen miles southeast of 
 Johnstown, and in 1820 Shade forge was built near the 
 furnace. As early as 1820 bar iron was shipped to Pitts- 
 burgh from Shade forge. Much of the iron from this forge 
 was hauled to Johnstown and thence shipped to Pittsburgh, 
 but some of it was shipped in flatboats directly from the 
 forge. Pig iron was also hauled to Johnstown from Shade 
 furnace for shipment to Pittsburgh. But there was another 
 early forge, which was still nearer to Johnstown, on the 
 Stony creek, about half a mile below the mouth of Shade 
 creek, known as Mary Ann forge, which shipped bar iron 
 to Pittsburgh at a still earlier day, and perhaps as early 
 as 1811. Richard Geary, the father of Governor John W. 
 Geary, was the manager of the forge for about one year, 
 and was supercargo of a load of bar iron which was ship- 
 ped from the forge down the Stony creek, the Conemaugh, 
 and other streams to Pittsburgh. Garret Ream lived at the 
 mouth of Ben's creek and built boats which were loaded at 
 Johnstown, but he also shipped iron direct from Ben's 
 creek, and it is probable that some of this iron came from 
 Mary Ann forge, Shade furnace, and Shade forge. 
 
 About 200 pounds of nails, valued at $30, were made at 
 Johnstown by one establishment in the census year 1810, 
 About this time an enterprise was established at Johnstown 
 by Robert Pierson, by whom nails were cut from strips of 
 so-called " nail iron " with a machine worked by a treadle, 
 but without heads, which were added by hand in a vise. 
 The " nail iron " was obtained at the small rolling mills 
 in Huntingdon county and hauled in w^agons or sleds to 
 Johnstown over the Frankstown Road, 
 
REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 29 
 
 REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 
 
 FIRST PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF 
 JOHNSTOWN. WRITTEN IN 1898.* 
 
 I HAVE been requested to prepare a sketch of the hfe 
 of Rev. S. H. Terry, the first pastor of the First Presby- 
 terian church of Johnstown. Unaided I could not comply 
 with this request, but with the assistance of Hon. Cyrus 
 L. Pershing, Rev. Dr. B. L. Agnew, and others I present the 
 following summary of all the facts that are accessible con- 
 cerning the life of this early Johnstown preacher of the 
 Gospel, whose remains now rest in Grand View cemetery, 
 which overlooks the scene of his last and most successful 
 labors. It is a beautiful spot for a city of the dead. 
 
 " Around this lovely valley rise 
 The purple hills of Paradise." 
 
 The full name of Mr. Terry was Shadrach Howell 
 Terry. He always wrote it S. H. Terry in a cramped, nerv- 
 ous hand. Mr. Terry was born on Long Island in 1795. He 
 graduated at Yale College in 1819, under that prince of edu- 
 cators in his time, Jeremiah Day. His theological training 
 was received at Princeton. This information I have received 
 from Judge Pershing, who also advises me that Mr. Terry's 
 father was for a time a member of the New York Legis- 
 lature. Judge Pershing also says that Mr. Terry showed 
 to him more than once a volume which had been pre- 
 sented to him by Dr. Day, the president of Yale College, 
 for excelling in oratory. It will be seen that Mr. Terry's 
 educational advantages were excellent and fully in keeping 
 with the traditions of the Presbyterian Church. He proba- 
 bly entered the Presbyterian ministry soon after 1820, and 
 
 * This sketch, which I prepared by request, was read by the pastor, 
 Rev. C. C. Hays, D.D., to a large congregation gathered in the First Pres- 
 byterian church of Johnstown on Sunday evening, March 6, 1898. I 
 have added some information about other early Johnstown churches. 
 
30 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 as his wife was a native of Delaware he probably preached 
 for a time in that State before coming to Pennsylvania. 
 It is not known at what time he came to Pennsylvania, 
 but it is certain that he was in 1830 the pastor of the 
 Presbyterian congregations of Somerset and Jenner, in 
 Somerset county, within the bounds of the Presl^ytery of 
 Redstone. Mrs. Mary A. Parks, of the fifth ward of Johns- 
 town, remembers very well when Mr. Terry resided and 
 preached in Somerset. He did not reside at Somerset lon- 
 ger than a year or two, removing from there to Jenner, 
 now Jennerstown, which was then a place of more promise 
 than it is now, and at which place he continued to reside 
 until his removal to Johnstown, in the meantime serving 
 the congregations of both Jenner and Somerset. 
 
 We must now go back a few years. About 1820 the 
 Protestant citizens of Johnstown, which then embraced a 
 population of only a few hundred persons, united in build- 
 ing a one-story frame house on a lot of ground near the 
 foot of Market street, which was donated for school pur- 
 poses by Joseph Johns in 1800, and which lot has come to 
 be known as the Union school lot and the building and 
 its successors as the Union school-house. In this building 
 the children of the first settlers of Johnstown were taught 
 in subscription schools the rudiments of an English educa- 
 tion, the common-school system not then having been es- 
 tablished in Pennsylvania, and in this building were also 
 held religious services, the few Protestants of the town using 
 it alternately or together. This arrangement did not always 
 give satisfaction, and as early as 1829, as I learn from Mr. 
 Wesley J, Rose, the Methodists fitted up a warehouse that 
 had been used for the storage of iron, and which stood 
 where the United. Brethren church now stands on Vine 
 street, and worshiped in it until 1838, when they occupied 
 their new church on the site of the present Methodist 
 church at the corner of Franklin and Locust streets. The 
 warehouse and the lot of ground on which it stood were 
 donated by Peter Levergood, himself a Lutheran. 
 
 In his " History of the Churches in Blairsville Presby- 
 tery " Rev. Dr. Alexander Donaldson says that *' Johnstown, 
 where an independent church had a brief previous existence. 
 
REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 31 
 
 was first supplied with Presbyterian preacliing on October 
 31, 1830, by Rev. Shadrach Howell Terry, of Redstone Pres- 
 bytery." This sermon was preached in the Union school- 
 house.* The Presbytery of Blairsville was formed in 1830 
 from the Presbytery of Redstone and held its first meeting 
 ■on November 16 of that year. It will be remembered that 
 it was in this year that Mr. Terry was engaged as pastor 
 At Somerset. When Dr. Donaldson referred to " an inde- 
 pendent church " at Johnstown he had in mind, as I learn 
 from Dr. Agnew, the Congregational, or Independent, church 
 which had been organized by Rev, George Roberts, of 
 Ebensburg, with five members, all women. This was the 
 first organized church in .Johnstown, It existed until 1825, 
 when the pastor, Mr. Timothy C. Davies, was dismissed and 
 soon afterwards the organization disbanded. Mrs. .Jane Mc- 
 Kee was a member of this church and was also one of 
 the fifteen original members of the Presbyterian church of 
 Johnstown which was subsequently organized. 
 
 Until 1836 Mr. Davies was a clerk in the office of John 
 Matthews, the first collector of tolls on the Pennsylvania 
 Canal at Johnstown, He subsequently taught school at 
 Johnstown and established a brewery on Main street, below 
 Market street. About 1840 he moved away from Johnstown. 
 
 Dr. Donaldson says that, by consent of the Presbyteries 
 ■of Redstone and Blairsville, Mr. Terry began on August 1, 
 1832, to supply the church at Johnstown one-fourth of his 
 time, and that, "on December 14, 1832, Rev. Samuel Swan 
 ■organized a Presbyterian church at Johnstown, consisting of 
 fifteen members, with Shepley Priestley, James Brown, and 
 AVilliam Graham as elders." Judge Pershing says that Mr. 
 Terry preached in the Union school-house, and that his 
 father, who was a great admirer of Mr. Terry, often took 
 him when a small boy to the school-house to hear Mr. Terry 
 preach. Dr. Agnew says that Mr, Terry's compensation for 
 
 * In Joseph Johns' charter of the town of Conemaugh, now Johns- 
 town, dated at Somerset, November 3, 1800, he made the following pro- 
 ■sasion : "The said Joseph Johns hereby gives and grants to the said 
 future inhabitants two certain lots of ground situate on Market street 
 and Chestnut street, in the said town, marked in the general plan 
 thereof No. 133 and No. 134, for the purpose of erecting school-houses and 
 liouses of public worship, free and clear of all incumbrances whatsoever." 
 
32 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 one-fourth of his time at Johnstown was $100 a year. He 
 was at this time a resident of Jenner, twenty miles away, 
 and served the congregation at Somerset as well as the con- 
 gregations at Jenner and Johnstown. Irrespective of the 
 small salary paid that was a hard life to lead, especially 
 when the roads and the weather were bad. Dr. Donaldson's 
 account of Mr. Terry's further connection with the church 
 at Johnstown is substantially as follows : 
 
 " In 1835 Mr. Terry became a member of Blairsville Pres- 
 bytery, and having accepted a call for half time as pastor 
 of the Johnstown church he was installed on November 13^ 
 1835. Rev. D. Lewis preached. Rev. T. Davis charged the 
 pastor, and Rev. Samuel Swan the people. The other half 
 of his time was given to Armagh. During the summer of 
 1835 a commodious brick house of worship was erected at 
 Johnstown and was dedicated on Christmas day, the begin- 
 ning of a communion season. Mr. Terry's health failing 
 he gradually diminished his labors at Armagh until Octo- 
 ber 6, 1840, when Johnstown secured all his time. This- 
 church being noticed to be in the territory of Hunting- 
 don Presbytery and Synod of Philadelphia the Presbytery 
 of Blairsville requested the General Assembly of 1839 to 
 change the line of synods so as to place Cambria county 
 in the Synod of Pittsburgh and the Presbytery of Blairs- 
 ville, which was done. 
 
 " On the night of Wednesday, May 26, 1841, Mr. Terry 
 was attacked with bilious pleurisy, which terminated his life 
 and labors on June 3d, in the 46th year of his age. Rev. 
 Samuel Swan, being there to assist at a communion, preached 
 a funeral sermon from Rev. 14 : 13. The salary was con- 
 tinued for six months and a sandstone monument erected 
 over his remains by the congregation. It is now much de- 
 faced by time. The communion on that occasion was ad- 
 ministered by Mr. Swan, and for him a call was moderated 
 by Rev. David Kirkpatrick on August 16th, accepted on 
 October 5th, and his installation as pastor occurred on No- 
 vember 9th of the same year." 
 
 In what I have quoted from Dr. Donaldson I have made 
 some corrections upon the superior authority of Dr. Agnew. 
 Mr. Terry was buried in the Union graveyard, adjoining, 
 
REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 33 
 
 the ground donated by Mr. Johns on whicli the Union 
 school-house was built. The ground for the graveyard had 
 also been donated by Mr. Johns. 
 
 After coming to Johnstown Mr. Swan also served the 
 congregation at Armagh, beginning in 1845, as Mr. Terry 
 had previously done. The trips to Armagh were usually 
 made on horseback by both pastors on the towpath of 
 the Pennsylvania Canal. Like Jcnner the present hamlet of 
 Armagh was at one time a place of some promise. Mr. 
 Swan had previously, beginning in 1824, been the pastor 
 of several congregations in Ligonier valley. From 1841 to 
 1845 Mr. Swan's salary at Johnstown was $500 a year. 
 
 In December, 1869, Rev. William A, Fleming, then the 
 pastor of the Presbyterian church of Johnstown, wrote to 
 Rev. Dr. B. L. Agnew, at Philadelphia, for such informa- 
 tion as he possessed concerning Mr. Terry and received a 
 letter from the doctor, under date of December 20, 1869, 
 which now lies before me and from which I glean the 
 following additional facts. The congregational meeting at 
 which Mr. Terry was called to give half his time to the 
 church at Johnstown was held in the warehouse of Dr. Ag- 
 new's father, Mr. Smith Agnew, on May 4, 1835, and about 
 the same time Mr. Terry received a call from the Armagh 
 congregation for the other half. The Johnstown call was 
 moderated by the Rev. Samuel McFarren and the Armagh 
 call was moderated by the Rev. Samuel Swan. The Johns- 
 town congregation agreed to pay Mr. Terry a salary of $250 
 a year and the Armagh congregation agreed to pay $150, 
 making $400 in all. Dr. Agnew says that the Presbytery of 
 Redstone promptly dissolved the pastoral relation existing 
 between Mr. Terry and the congregations of Somerset and 
 Jenner and dismissed him to the Presbytery of Blairsville. 
 When Mr. Terry in 1840 gave his whole time to the Johns- 
 town congregation his salary was fixed at $400 a year. Dr. 
 Agnew also says that Mr. Terry's ministry at Johnstown 
 from the time of his first call in 1832 to his death in 1841 
 was remarkably successful, 131 additions to the communion 
 of the church having been added in that period. From 1830, 
 when Mr. Terry preached his first sermon in Johnstown, 
 until his death in 1841 was almost eleven years. 
 
■34 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 From 1835 to 1898 the First Presbyterian churcli of 
 Johnstown has had eight regular pastors, whose names I 
 mention in the order of their service : Rev. S. II. Terry, 
 Rev. Samuel Swan, Rev. Ross Stevenson, Rev. Dr. Benjamin 
 L. Agnew, Rev. WilHam A. Fleming, Rev. D. M. Miller, Rev. 
 D. J. Beale, and Rev. C. C. Hays. 
 
 It has already been stated that, in the summer of 1835, 
 in which year Mr. Terry agreed to give half his time to 
 the Johnstown church and the other half to the church at 
 Armagh, " a commodious brick house of worship " was 
 erected at Johnstown. This church building stood exactly 
 on the site of the present First Presbyterian church of 
 Johnstown. That the Johnstown congregation was at this 
 time sufficiently strong in numbers to erect a substantial 
 house of worship was due largely to the successful minis- 
 trations of Mr. Terry during the period from 1832 to 1835, 
 in which he preached one-fourth of his time at Johns- 
 town. Dr. Agnew says that the lot of ground on which 
 the church edifice was built was sold to the congregation 
 by John Barnes, who was a wagon-maker, a native of Eng- 
 land, for $200. One-half of this sum was paid on August 
 14, 1834, and the other half was paid in September, 1842, 
 when the deed was executed. This lot is now one of the 
 most valuable lots in Johnstown. Mr. Rose says that the 
 Fuller brothers were the stone masons of the new church, 
 that Joseph Haynes was the brickmaker and bricklayer, 
 and that Emanuel Shaffer was the carpenter. 
 
 During the pastorate of Dr. Agnew the church edifice of 
 1835 was torn down and the present edifice was erected. 
 The last sermon in the old church was preached by Dr. 
 Agnew on Sunday, August 23, 1863. During the erection 
 of the present building the congregation worshiped in the 
 town hall for a time and then in the Methodist Protestant 
 church on Franklin street. The basement of the new 
 •church was opened for service on Sunday, September 3, 
 1865, and the whole building was dedicated in April, 1866. 
 Quoting from Dr. Donaldson I have already mentioned 
 that the first ruling elders of the Presbyterian church of 
 Johnstown, elected in 1832, were Shepley Priestley, James 
 Brown, and William Graham, Dr. Donaldson adds that on 
 
REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 35 
 
 July 26, 1835, Smith Agnew, Samuel Douglass, (tamier,) 
 and Samuel Kennedy were ordained as elders, probably to 
 succeed INIessrs. Priestley, Brown, and Graham, and that on 
 April 26, 1S39, Henry Kratzer and Moses Canan were also 
 ordained as elders, probably to succeed Messrs. Agnew and 
 Douglass, who had left Johnstown. 
 
 Dr. Agnew furnishes me with the following list of the 
 original members of the Presbyterian church of Johnstown 
 in 1832, when the church was organized, Mr. Terry giving 
 to it one-fourth of his time, as has already been stated : 
 Mr. and Mrs. Shepley Priestley, William Graham and his 
 Avife, Mrs. Esther Graham, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Douglass, 
 Mrs. Jane McKee, Mrs. Ann Linton, Mrs. Caroline White, 
 Mr. John McClane and his wife, Mrs. Julia McClanc, Mrs. 
 Nancy Hayes, Mrs. Elizabeth Eckels, Mrs. Jane Kooken, 
 and Mr. James Brown. Many persons then attended the 
 services of the church and contributed to its support 
 who were not members of its communion. As late as 1869 
 three of the original members of 1832 were still living. 
 All are now dead. Our honored fellow-citizen, John White, 
 now in his 91st year, was one of Mr. Terry's earliest com- 
 municants. Mr. White has seen General Arthur St. Clair, 
 a soldier of the Revolution. This was in 1818. 
 
 In the spring of 1834 Smith Agnew came to Johnstown 
 with his family from Warren, Armstrong county, now 
 Apollo, where Dr. Agnew was born in 1833, and built a 
 warehouse on the south side of the canal basin in the same 
 year. In 1837 Mr. Agnew removed from Johnstown to New 
 Alexandria, Westmoreland county, and a few years after- 
 wards he again changed his residence to Greensburg. It 
 has already been stated that the congregational meeting at 
 which a call was extended to Mr. Terry for one-half his 
 time was held in Mr. Agnew's warehouse in 1835. 
 
 Dr. Agnew says that a Union Sunday-school had been 
 organized at an early day in the Union school-house, under 
 the auspices of the Congregationalists, or Independents, al- 
 ready mentioned, but in 1834 the Lutherans and Methodists 
 withdrew from this school. On January 18, 1835, while 
 still worsliiping in the Union school-house, a Presbyterian 
 Sunday-school was organized in the same building and 
 
36 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 Smith Agnew was elected its first superintendent. He con- 
 tinued to act as its superintendent until his removal from 
 Johnstown two years later. 
 
 Dr. Agnew furnishes me with the following list of the 
 teachers in the Presbyterian Sunday-school at its organiza- 
 tion in January, 1835 : Samuel Kennedy, Henry Kratzer, 
 Evan Roberts, Charles B. Ellis, Emanuel Shaffer, John 
 Barnes, David R. Lamb, Sarah Priestley, Margaret McKee, 
 Elizabeth McKee, Elizabeth Priestley, Elizabeth Graham, 
 Elizabeth McCreary, Elizabeth Barnes, Pamilla Livermore, 
 and Martha Moore. 
 
 Mr. Terry removed his family from Jenner to Johnstown 
 late in 1835. It consisted of himself, his wife, and two 
 children — a son, John Henry, and a daughter, Mary Eliza- 
 beth. Mrs. Terry's maiden name was Elizabeth Ponder 
 and her home was at Milton, Delaware. She was of Quaker 
 birth and education and she appears to have never entirely 
 surrendered her Quaker convictions. Her family was once 
 prominent in Delaware. Judge Pershing, from whom I 
 obtain these facts, says that one of her relatives named 
 James Ponder was once Governor of Delaware. 
 
 Judge Pershing's recollection is that Mr. Terry lived in 
 1836 in a little house on the east side of Jackson street, 
 just north of Main street. In 1837 or 1838 he moved to 
 the McClure house, on Canal street, now Washington street, 
 above the McConaughy tanyard and on the south side of 
 the street. In 1839 he occupied the Lutheran parsonage, 
 on the right bank of the Stony creek. In 1840 he lived 
 in Thomas Quinn's brick house, on the east side of Frank- 
 lin street, on the corner of the alley nearest to Canal street. 
 In 1841 he moved to the brick house on the south side of 
 Main street, on the corner of the alley above Dibert's store. 
 Here he died. This house was the first brick house built 
 in Johnstown, if we except a small brick house built by 
 Joseph Haynes at his brickyard on the south side of the 
 Stony creek. The house on Main street, which is still 
 standing, was built in 1828 by Adam Bausman with brick 
 made and laid by Joseph Haynes. 
 
 While living in the McClure house in the winter of 
 1838 Mr. Terry taught a subscription school for one term 
 
REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 37 
 
 of probably three months in a small building which stood 
 on the bank of the canal almost opposite his residence. 
 This building was afterwards purchased by James Purse, 
 who built an addition to it and lived in it until he died. 
 Among Mr. Terry's pupils Judge Pershing remembers the 
 following : Catherine Swegler, Elizabeth Purse, Catherine 
 Jane Roberts, Sarah J. Royer, Mary L. Rover, Matilda Sheri- 
 dan, Charlotte L. Canan, S. Dean Canan, A. Frank Royer, 
 R. H. Patterson, Charles Davis, Ann Davis, Cyrus L. Per- 
 shing, and John Henry Terry. By permission of Collector 
 Potts Mr. Terry occupied the office of the collector one win- 
 ter, probably the winter of 1839, as a recitation room for a 
 small class of boys who studied Latin and mathematics, 
 perhaps also a little Greek, under his direction. This class 
 was composed of R. H. Patterson, afterwards Dr. Patterson, 
 of Stoyestown, Somerset county, who boarded with Mr. 
 Terry ; Richard Peters, of Blairsville ; and Cyrus L. Per- 
 shing, Israel C. Pershing, Campbell Sheridan, Charles M. 
 Priestley, and John Henry Terry, of Johnstown. Cyrus L. 
 Pershing, and possibly others, recited Latin to Mr. Terry 
 privately to the day of his last illness. It may be men- 
 tioned also that Cyrus L. Pershing and Campbell Sheridan 
 recited Greek to Rev. Mr. Swan in 1842 to prepare them- 
 selves to enter the freshman class of Jeiferson College. 
 
 Judge Pershing tells me that he and Campbell Sheridan, 
 now Dr. Sheridan, sat up with Mr. Terry the last night he 
 lived.* They left him about daylight, Sheridan to go to 
 the office of James Potts, the collector of tolls on the 
 Pennsylvania Canal, where he was a clerk, and Pershing to 
 go to the office of Thomas Lever, at the canal weighlock, 
 where he also was a clerk. About 9 o'clock both of these 
 
 * Judge Pershing kept a diary in 1841, and from this diary the Judge 
 sends me the following extracts: "May 26, 1841 — Wednesday. — I recited 
 my last lesson to Mr. Terry in the weighlock office, from Virgil. . . . 
 Mr. Terry spent the day at Mr. Coshun's, and after his return home in 
 the evening was attacked suddenly with bilious pleurisy. . . . Jmie 2. 
 — Campbell Sheridan and I remained all night with Mr. Terry. He was 
 ' flighty ' the greater part of the night, and evidently sinking very fast. 
 . . . June 3 — Thursday. — Mr. Terry died this morning a little after 9 
 o'clock. He was buried June 4. His funeral sermon was preached by 
 Rev. Samuel Swan." 
 
38 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 young men, who afterwards became ruling elders in the 
 church founded by Mr. Terry and successively superintend- 
 ents of its Sunday-school, were shocked to hear of his death. 
 I can myself remember very well how greatly the whole 
 town was shocked and grieved to learn that Mr. Terry had 
 passed away, I was a pupil at Robert H. Canan's sub- 
 scription school at the time, and when Mr. Canan heard 
 the sad news he promptly dismissed his school out of re- 
 spect to Mr. Terry's memory. Mr. Terry died on Thursday 
 morning, June 3. His last words were these: "I have 
 preached Christ to this people." These dying words would 
 form an appropriate inscription on the new monument 
 which it is proposed to erect over Mr. Terry's grave in 
 Grand View cemetery. (This has been done.) 
 
 An obituary notice of Mr. Terry was prepared soon after 
 his death by Moses Canan, one of Mr. Terry's elders, and 
 published in The Presbyterian, of Philadelphia. I have seen 
 this notice in the files of The Presbyterian. It is very brief 
 but is valuable as an estimate of Mr, Terry's character as 
 a man and a minister. 
 
 Mr. Terry died intestate, as the lawyers say, that is he 
 did not leave a will, and it became necessary that the court 
 should appoint an administrator of his estate, which, it may 
 be easily surmised, was very small. Samuel Kennedy wa& 
 appointed administrator. Robert L. Johnston was the auditor 
 appointed by the court to adjust the account of Mr. Ken- 
 nedy. Judge Pershing tells me that Mr. Terry was often in 
 straitened circumstances while he lived in Johnstown. He 
 was always paid a meagre salary. 
 
 Mr. Terry was a small man, about five feet seven inches 
 high, and weighed about 135 pounds. He was neat in his 
 dress and reserved and dignified in his general intercourse 
 with men. A small dining table, which was owned by Mr. 
 Terry at his death, is now a precious possession of the 
 Johnstown congregation. 
 
 As has already been mentioned, Mr. Terry's remains 
 were laid to rest in the Union graveyard and a plain sand- 
 stone monument was erected by the congregation. The 
 monument, including the base, was scarcely five feet high. 
 Dr. Donaldson says that the monument was much defaced 
 
REV. SHADRACH HOWELL TERRY. 3^ 
 
 by time in 1874, when his history of the Blairsville Pres- 
 bytery was pubhshed. The monument, if it ever deserved 
 the name, had, however, been defaced for many years before 
 1874, and it continued to be defaced and tlie grave marked 
 by it to be neglected for many years after that year. In 
 1888, the year before the Johnstown flood, three pubhc- 
 spirited citizens of Johnstown, not all of them members of 
 the church founded by Mr. Terry or of any church commu- 
 nion, purchased a lot in Grand View cemetery and removed 
 to it the remains of Mr. Terry and also the long defaced 
 monument. The removal took place in the fall of 1888. 
 If the intention of these citizens to remove the remains 
 of Mr. Terry had not been carried into effect in 1888 the 
 removal could never have been made, as the flood of the 
 following May would have dashed to pieces the monument 
 and forever have obliterated all vestige of the grave itself. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Terry's death his wife and children re- 
 moved to Philadelphia, where a brother of Mrs. Terry Avas- 
 then living. It was a most unfortunate change. Mrs. Terry 
 was poor and probably often in want the remainder of her 
 days. Mr. Terry had built up the Presbyterian congrega- 
 tion at Johnstown through many years of self-denying ser- 
 vice and the congregation should have cared for his widow 
 and fatherless children better than it did. 
 
 Judge Pershing says that, of the two children left by Mr. 
 Terr}^ the son, John Henry, became a sailor. On a voyage- 
 between Philadelphia and Charleston he fell from the rig- 
 ging of the vessel and was injured so badly that he died 
 shortly afterwards in a hospital at Charleston, The other 
 child, Mary Elizabeth, was married in Philadelphia to an 
 oysterman named Glazer. Dr. Agnew says that Mrs. Terry 
 died in Philadelphia on November 30, 1867, at the home of 
 her daughter, and that her son, John Henry, died on August 
 8, 1868, as the result of the fall mentioned by Judge Per- 
 shing, which Dr. Agnew says occurred during a storm off 
 Cape Hatteras. Mrs. Glazer, who is described by Judge 
 Pershing as "a pretty, bright little girl" when she lived in 
 Johnstown, was living in extremely humble circumstances- 
 in Philadelphia when Dr. Agnew called upon her in 1868- 
 or 1869, Since then all traces of her have been lost. 
 
40 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY JOHNSTOWN. 
 
 WEITTEN IN 1909 TO REV. C. C. HAYS, D. D., PASTOR OF THE 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF JOHNSTOWN. 
 
 Dear Doctor : In compliance with your request I write 
 you briefly concerning the Presbyterian Sunday-school of 
 seventy years ago in Johnstown as I remember it. Rev. 
 Shadrach Howell Terry was then the pastor of the congre- 
 gation, but he died in 1841, when he was succeeded by 
 Rev. Samuel Swan. It was in 1839 that my father and 
 mother first sent me to the Sunday-school (we did not call 
 it Sabbath-school) which met then and for many years 
 afterwards in the Presbyterian church of that day, occupy- 
 ing the site of the present structure. The building, which 
 was of brick, contained only one large room, with no other 
 furniture whatever than a pulpit, pews, four cannon stoves 
 with their long pipes, and strips of carpet in the aisles. I 
 do not think that there was a cushioned pew in the whole 
 church. There was no musical instrument except Judge 
 Roberts's tuning fork, which he used as the leader of the 
 unpaid choir, the congregation always joining in the sing- 
 ing. The church was entered by two front doors, which 
 communicated with two main aisles, and the choir occupied 
 pews just inside tlie doors and facing the pulpit. The 
 church was first lighted at night with tallow candles, held 
 in position by tin sconces hung on nails between the win- 
 dows, but lard-oil and sperm-oil lamps were used in the 
 pulpit. Subsequently lamps of the same character were 
 used throughout the building, and these in time were dis- 
 placed by camphene lamps, after which came petroleum 
 lamps. The church was not hemmed in by other buildings 
 in too close proximity but " stood four-square to all the 
 winds that blew." It was therefore in daytime well lighted. 
 
 It was in the room, or auditorium, which I have briefly 
 described that the Presbyterian Sunday-school assembled 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY JOHNSTOWN. 41 
 
 every Sunday at 9 o'clock in summer and at 2 o'clock in 
 winter. Boys and girls of all ages attended and were classi- 
 fied chiefly according to their common school attainments, 
 with some regard also, of course, to their ages. There was 
 no high-sounding " Bible class," but several classes studied 
 the Bible regularly with the help of a series of Union 
 Question Books, which were well printed and bound in 
 blue covers. I remember particularly that one volume was 
 devoted to Exodus and another to the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles. Our teachers led us from point to point and from 
 place to place, with comments that were interesting and 
 instructive. No question was ever raised in these classes 
 about the inspiration of every word of the Bible ; that 
 was taken for granted. We all grew up in those days with 
 reverence for the Holy Book and with considerable knowl- 
 edge of its contents. Other classes recited the Shorter 
 Catechism and read biblical selections. The classes com- 
 posed of little boys and little girls were taught very much 
 as they are now. Each class occupied a pew and each 
 teacher occupied a pew in front of his or her class. We 
 had a superintendent and a librarian. 
 
 Now about our teachers. I am writing of a period which 
 extended from 1839 to 1850. Moses Canan, a lawyer of 
 Scotch-Irish origin, a ruling elder in the church and often 
 superintendent of the school, was the oldest of the teachers 
 in years. He was one of the most impressive readers I 
 have ever heard. George W. Munson and S. H. Smith, 
 prominent business men of New England extraction, were 
 good teachers. So also were James Potts and Henry Krat- 
 zer, the former born of Scotch-Irish parents and the latter 
 a Pennsylvania German. So also were Campbell Sheridan 
 and Cyrus L. Pershing, young men of liberal education, who 
 afterwards became superintendents of the Sunday-school, 
 ruling elders in the church, and prominent in the profes- 
 sions of their choice. Both were natives of Western Penn- 
 sylvania. There were other teachers, including many ladies, 
 whom I need not mention, if indeed I could remember the 
 names of all of them. There Avas always a full attendance 
 of " scholars," and I think that there was never a scarcity 
 of teachers. All the teachers I have mentioned by name 
 
42 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 were at one time or another in charge of classes which 
 used the Union Question Books above referred to. 
 
 Connected with the school was a carefully selected li- 
 brary of well-printed books, from which every " scholar "■ 
 could select one volume every Sunday, returning it the 
 next Sunday. There was also a monthly missionary paper, 
 well printed and freely illustrated, a copy of which was 
 given to each of us as often as it appeared. How proud 
 we were of these literary treasures — ^the handsomely-bound 
 books especially ! The books, of which there was a goodly 
 number, covered almost every subject that would interest a 
 healthy boy or girl ; not one of them was of a sectarian 
 character. We had books that inspired and ministered to 
 a love of the history of our own and of other countries ; 
 books devoted to natural history ; books about the North 
 American Indians, the natives of Iceland, the Sandwich 
 Islands, and the " heathen " everywhere ; books that de- 
 scribed the manners, customs, and habits of the civilized 
 or half-civilized peoj^le of other countries than our own. 
 We had Peter Parley's books, the Rollo books, and a series 
 entitled " Travels About Home." I think that there was 
 not a work of fiction in the whole library, although there 
 could not have been any possible objection to such story 
 books as " Robinson Crusoe " and the " Swiss Family Rob- 
 inson." Perhaps we did have them ; I hope so. Any way 
 the boys of our school all read these stories and talked 
 about them, and, of course, the girls did too. We had 
 Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," " Sanford and Merton," and 
 " The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain." The tendency of all 
 the books in the library was to stimulate a love of good 
 books, and without a love of such books no boy or girl 
 will ever amount to very much. That we could get a new 
 book every Sunday was one of the strongest reasons why 
 we were glad to attend the Sunday-school at all. 
 
 Now I am told that the library of sixty and seventy 
 years ago no longer exists — that the boys and girls who 
 attend the Presbyterian Sunday-school no longer carry 
 home with them books of the character of those I have 
 described. Instead I am informed that these boys and girls 
 are compelled to rely mainly on the Cambria Library for 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY JOHNSTOWN. 43 
 
 reading matter, and that the books they obtain at the h- 
 brary are largely modern works of fiction. What books, 
 if any, little children can get at the Cambria Library that 
 will take the place of the books that are printed especially 
 for Sunday-school children I am not informed. Is the 
 substitution of modern works of fiction for the well-select- 
 ed books of the Presbyterian Sunday-school of long ago 
 a change for the better or the worse ? Undoubtedly it is 
 for the worse. No thoughtful person will say otherwise. 
 
 William F. Prosser, the son of David Prosser and about 
 one year my junior, was one of the Presbyterian Sunday- 
 school "scholars" in 1840, 1841, and 1842, and the only one 
 except myself that I feel sure is now living. Growing 
 to manhood elsewhere he made an honorable record in the 
 civil war, at its close being colonel of a Tennessee regiment. 
 He was subsequently a member of Congress from Tennes- 
 see, a member of the Centennial Commission from that 
 State, and postmaster of Nashville. He has long been a 
 citizen of the new State of Washington and is at present 
 city treasurer of Seattle. 
 
 As a general proposition I think that the old times in 
 Johnstown were better than the new. If seventy years ago 
 we did not have a homogeneous population we had a pop- 
 ulation that was perfectly assimilated. Everybody spoke 
 the English language. We had no class distinctions. There 
 were no rich men. There were no long rows of drinking 
 saloons. The Washingtonian temperance movement, which 
 originated in Baltimore in 1840, gave a great blow to intem- 
 perance in Johnstown in the early 40s, and it was followed 
 in the same decade by the Sons of Temperance and the 
 Cadets of Temperance. AVe had two literary societies, each 
 with a large membership of adults, which discussed regu- 
 larly the leading questions of the day and of other days. 
 There was marked literary taste and much literar}'- culture 
 in Johnstown from 1840 to 1850 and for a few years after 
 1850. There were no "Sunday morning papers" in those 
 days. If we had no public library there were a few books 
 in almost every home, and it was a common practice for 
 the bo3^s and girls to borrow books from one another. We 
 had in those days two volunteer military companies, com- 
 
44 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 posed of our leading citizens. Military encampments, in 
 which these companies participated, took place every year 
 in Johnstown and neighboring towns, and they were great 
 occasions for the boys and for others, as were also the pa- 
 rades which occurred more frequently at home. 
 
 The decade from 1840 to 1850 embraced three very ex- 
 citing Presidential campaigns, which greatly interested the 
 men and women and also the boys and girls of Johns- 
 town — the election of General Harrison and John Tyler 
 over Van Buren and Johnson in 1840, the defeat of Hen- 
 ry Clay in 1844 by James K. Polk, and the election of 
 General Zachary Taylor over Lewis Cass in 1848. It wit- 
 nessed the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the war with 
 Mexico in 1846, the settlement in 1846 of the controversy 
 with Great Britain over our northwestern boundary, the 
 acquisition of California and other Rocky Mountain and 
 Pacific Coast territory in 1848, the discovery of gold in 
 California in 1848, the Irish famine which so stirred the 
 sympathies of the people of our country in 1846, 1847, and 
 1848, the passage of the tariff of 1842 and its repeal in 
 1846, and the great Pittsburgh fire in 1845. 
 
 I well remember the passage through Johnstown in 1846 
 of Philadelphia volunteer soldiers on their way to Mexico 
 and the return of the Cambria county volunteers in 1848. 
 The latter were welcomed and praised at a large meeting 
 in their honor in Levergood's orchard, on which occasion 
 Cyrus L. Pershing delivered an address which I heard. 
 When the Philadelphia volunteers reached Johnstown over 
 the Portage Railroad on their way to Mexico they were 
 distributed in squads among the leading families and given 
 a good supper. I remember standing in awe of these sol- 
 diers with their new uniforms and bright muskets. 
 
 We had good public schools from 1839 to 1850, which 
 were taught by Samuel Douglass, Orson H. Smith, David 
 F. Gordon, Cyrus L. Pershing, Robert H. Canan, and oth- 
 ers, all of whom were well qualified for their work. The 
 schools were ungraded, which was a great advantage over 
 the present system — the younger pupils learning from the 
 recitations of their elders. The classes of boys and girls 
 were required to toe the mark once or twice a day in 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY JOHNSTOWN. 45 
 
 spelling and reading, and they learned to spell and read 
 correctly because they were taught correctly. Words were 
 divided into syllables and so pronounced, and sentences 
 received proper emphasis. The multiplication table was 
 taught by a whole class reciting it in concert. Instruction 
 in the schoolroom in those days was largely oral ; now it is 
 largely lacking in this most desirable feature. That I may 
 not lose the thread and purpose of this letter reading aloud 
 formed a part of the exercises of the Sunday-schools of 
 that time in Johnstown, all of which were conducted in the 
 same spirit and substantially upon the same lines as the 
 one I have briefly described. 
 
 Johnstown itself was a beautiful town in my boyhood 
 days. Its surrounding hills were covered with dense for- 
 ests down to the very margins of the streams which then 
 bounded it on nearly all sides. These streams were not 
 polluted in any way. The water in their channels was as 
 clear as crystal and there was a larger volume of water 
 than now. Fish abounded in them ; now there are none. 
 Every spring boys and men organized a fishing party and 
 swept the Stony creek with a brush net, securing hundreds 
 of fish, which were fairly divided and carried home in tri- 
 umph. In the town, here and there, were many apple or- 
 chards which had been planted by Joseph Johns and the 
 other native Pennsylvanians who were its first settlers, and 
 many sycamores, black and white walnuts, and other native 
 trees were still standing. There were many log houses, 
 reminders of the pioneers, and a few brick houses. Every 
 house had a garden attached to it, and there were lilacs, 
 poppies, hollyhocks, sunflowers, and other old-fashioned 
 flowers everywhere. There were but two houses in all 
 "Kernville" in 1840. There was no smoke of mill or fac- 
 tory, but there was little want in any home. Nearly all 
 the business of the town was dependent upon the Pennsyl- 
 vania Canal and the Portage Railroad, which had given the 
 town its business start only a few years before. As we all 
 know, every town, like every country, has its golden age, 
 and I candidly believe that the golden age of Johnsto^m 
 was in the ten or fifteen years before 1850. I feel sure 
 that my early friend, W. C. Lewis, will confirm my opinion. 
 
46 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 
 
 PIONEER FARMER, SURVEYOR, AND OLD-TIME MERCHANT 
 OF JOHNSTOWN. WRITTEN IN 1896. REVISED IN 1910. 
 
 Edwin Augustus Vickroy, son of Thomas Vickroy, 
 was born at Alum Bank, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on 
 March 8, 1801, and died at his home at Ferndale, a suburb 
 of Johnstown, on May 1, 1885, aged over 84 years. 
 
 Thomas Vickroy was born in Cecil county, Maryland, on 
 October 18, 1756. His father was Hugh Vickroy, a native 
 of England, who commanded a vessel plying between Balti- 
 more and Glasgow. His mother was Margaret Phillips, a 
 native of this country. Thomas was the oldest of eight 
 children. When he was about 15 years old his father was 
 lost at sea and very soon afterwards his mother died. In 
 1772 Thomas moved to Bedford county and soon settled at 
 Alum Bank. He had learned surveying in Maryland, and 
 in Bedford county, which then embraced a large part of 
 Western Pennsylvania, he found abundant opportunities to 
 practice his profession. He was a noted surveyor in the 
 last decades of the eighteenth century and the first part of 
 the nineteenth century. He was so prominent in his pro- 
 fession that he was selected, in conjunction with George 
 Wood, deputy surveyor of Bedford county, to survey the 
 town of Pittsburgh into streets, alleys, and lots in 1784. 
 Vickroy street and Wood street were named in their honor. 
 
 Thomas Vickroy was twice married. His first wife was 
 Elizabeth Francis, who was a half sister of the "sainted 
 and lovely " Mrs. Emily Ogle, of Somerset, and also a sister 
 of Mrs. Nancy Williams, of Schellsburg. At her death she 
 left five children. Mr. Vickroy's second wife was Sarah 
 Ann Atlee, a daughter of Judge William Augustus Atlee, 
 of Lancaster, who was a member of the Supreme Court of 
 Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1799 and was the founder of a 
 distinguished family. Several of his descendants have been 
 
EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 47 
 
 prominent in the legal and medical professions. The second 
 wife of Thomas Vickroy was a woman of great beauty, 
 who frequently graced the society of Bedford Springs in the 
 old times. Her granddaughter, Mrs. Boyd, of Dublin, In- 
 diana, tells us that she had heard her grandmother say that 
 she had danced in the same set with Theodosia Burr, the 
 beautiful and accomplished daughter of Aaron Burr, on the 
 occasion of Theodosia's last visit to Bedford Springs. She 
 was lost at sea in the winter of 1812-13. After coming to 
 Pennsylvania Thomas Vickroy always lived at Alum Bank. 
 At the time of his marriage to Miss Atlee he had already 
 accumulated considerable wealth. He died on June 9, 1845, 
 in his 89th year, and was buried in the cemetery attached 
 to Dunning's Creek meeting house of the Friends, or Qua- 
 kers, near Alum Bank. A few years ago a monument was 
 erected over his grave, bearing a suitable inscription com- 
 memorating his services as a Revolutionary soldier. 
 
 Thomas Vickroy's name is prominently associated with 
 the military movements of George Rogers Clark against 
 the Indians and British in the West during tlie Revolution- 
 ary war. In Albach's Annals of the West Thomas A^ickroy 
 has left an account of his connection with one of General 
 Clark's expeditions. He says: "In April, 1780, I went to 
 Kentucky, in company with eleven flatboats with movers. 
 We landed on the 4th of May, at the mouth of Beargrass 
 •creek, above the Falls of the Ohio. I took my compass and 
 ■chain along, to make a fortune by surveying, but when we 
 got there the Indians would not let us survey." Mr. Vick- 
 roy then gives some details of General Clark's movements 
 against the enemy and adds : " On the 1st day of August, 
 1780, we crossed the Ohio river and built the two block 
 houses where Cincinnati now stands. I was at the building 
 of the block houses. Then, as General Clark had appointed 
 me commissary of the campaign, he gave the military stores 
 into my hands and gave me orders to maintain that post 
 for fourteen days. He left with me Captain Johnston and 
 about twenty or thirty men who were sick and lame. On 
 the fourteenth day the army returned with 16 scalps, 
 having lost 15 men killed." Joseph, a brother of Thomas 
 Vickroy, was killed in the battle of Germantown. 
 
48 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 In 189G Mrs. Boyd, who was one of the daughters of 
 Edwin A, Vickroy, wrote us as follows : " When I was a 
 little girl one of my aunts gave me a strand of beautiful 
 dark brown hair out .of the queue my grandfather sported 
 in this expedition. Along with the hair of my other grand- 
 parents I have worn it as a breastpin for 40 years. It was 
 my first breastpin. I write with it on." 
 
 As already stated, Edwin A. Vickroy, in whose memory 
 this sketch is written, was born at Alum Bank in 1801, 
 He was the third child of Thomas Vickroy by his second 
 marriage. Edwin was reared to manhood at Alum Bank. 
 Here he went to subscription schools, one of which was 
 taught by Robert Way. Under his father's instructions he- 
 became a skillful surveyor. When about 19 years old he 
 went to Ohio with Robert Way, the latter remaining there. 
 Ohio was then "the West," and like "the West" of later 
 years it presented attractions to young men which were 
 hard to resist. Edwin clerked in a store in Cincinnati for 
 two years. While on a visit to Warren county, adjoining 
 Hamilton county, in which latter county Cincinnati is lo- 
 cated, he was fortunate in making the acquaintance of 
 Judge George Harlan and his family, including his daugh- 
 ter Cornelia, whom he subsequently married. She was born 
 at the Harlan homestead, near Ridgeville, Warren county, 
 on August 13, 1806. Her mother's maiden name was Esther 
 Eulas. The Harlan family has been distinguished in the 
 history of our country for many generations, contributing 
 many prominent men to the bench and bar and to the po- 
 litical arena. Judge Harlan came from North Carolina. He 
 married Miss Eulas while .living in Kentucky. 
 
 Edwin A. Vickroy and Cornelia Harlan were married at 
 the Harlan homestead on May 15, 1823, and immediately 
 afterwards went to Schellsburg, Bedford county, not far from 
 Alum Bank, where Mr. Vickroy became a country store- 
 keeper and also postmaster. Schellsburg was then a place 
 of some importance, as it was located on the leading turn- 
 pike which connected the eastern and western parts of 
 Pennsylvania. But in a short time Mr. Vickroy and his 
 wife returned to Ohio, near Mrs. Vickroy's old home, where 
 he again engaged in merchandising, for which occupation 
 
EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 49 
 
 he seems to have always had a strong liking. In this busi- 
 ness Mr. Vickroy continued for several years, but, owing to 
 a great fall in the price of pork, in which product he dealt 
 as a merchant, he concluded to return again to Pennsyl- 
 vania. Those were the days when Ohio had few manufac- 
 tures to create a home market for farm products. Mr. Vick- 
 roy's father transferred to him a beautifully located tract 
 of land on the left bank of Stony creek, near Johnstown, 
 as a home, on which he soon built a two-story log house, 
 weather-boarded, to which he subsequently added a substan- 
 tial frame addition, with wide porches. This tract had not 
 been improved as a farm. It embraced 160 acres of rich 
 and level meadow and hilly woodland. It was then known 
 as Horseshoe Valley, but Mr. Vickroy soon changed the 
 name to Ferndale. A more charming rural home could not 
 then have been found anywhere. On one side Horseshoe 
 Valley was hedged in by the everlasting hills and on tlie 
 other side it was bounded by the beautiful Stony creek. 
 The primeval forest which formed a part of the 160 acres 
 was alive with song birds and other birds. Pheasants and 
 partridges, squirrels and rabbits, wild fowl on the bosom of 
 the Stony creek, and an abundance of fish in its waters 
 furnished food for the table. To this home Mr. and Mrs. 
 Vickroy and their three children, Angeline, Louise, and 
 Helen, came in 1831 and there Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy lived 
 the remainder of their days, except about two years spent 
 in Johnstown from 1848 to 1850. Mr. Vickroy at once 
 engaged in farming and at the same time returned to his 
 profession as a surveyor. He also built a saw-mill on the 
 Stony creek and for many years the mill sawed large quan- 
 tities of lumber from the timber on the farm and from the 
 neighborhood. John Barnes, wagon-maker, of Johnstown^ 
 obtained supplies of lumber from this mill for many years. 
 In a short time Mr. Vickroy could boast a large ac- 
 quaintance among the people of Cambria and Somerset 
 counties, and because of his general intelligence, his dig- 
 nified and courtly bearing, and his interest in the public 
 welfare he was popular and greatly respected. He was an 
 ardent friend of common schools and was often chosen a 
 school director. Fruit growing became a special feature of 
 
50 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 Mr. Vickroy's farm work, and he soon had an orchard of 
 choice varieties of apples and other fruits, of which he was 
 very proud. Mrs. Vickroy added to the charm of the Fern- 
 dale home by her enthusiasm in the cultivation of flowers. 
 
 It was not many years after Mr. Vickroy and his family 
 took possession of the Horseshoe farm until he was elected 
 ■a justice of the peace for Conemaugh township, Cambria 
 county, a position that well fitted in with his profession as 
 a surveyor, because both justices of the peace and surveyors 
 in those days were accustomed to prepare articles of agree- 
 ment and other documents relating to transfers of real 
 ■estate. Mr, Vickroy possessed a judicial temperament, and 
 being a remarkably neat and accurate penman he found 
 much to occupy his time for many years both as surveyor 
 and justice of the peace. He was now known as Squire 
 Vickroy. He was at one time elected county surveyor. 
 At first he was a Whig and afterwards a Republican. 
 
 But in a wider sense than as a farmer, surveyor, and 
 justice of the peace Mr. Vickroy became known to the peo- 
 ple of Cambria and Somerset counties. He was the head of 
 one of the most intellectual families that have ever lived in 
 either of these counties. Mrs. Vickroy was a woman of ex- 
 ceptional intelligence. The Harlan blood ran in her veins. 
 She had read much and thought much upon most of the 
 subjects which then received the attention of thinking 
 men and women, as did also Mr. Vickroy. They were 
 both familiar with the best literature of the day. As their 
 children grew up they shared the literary tastes and ac- 
 quired many of the intellectual accomplishments of their 
 parents. Books and newspapers were everywhere in the 
 Vickroy home. The slavery question, the Mexican war, the 
 merits and demerits of all the political policies and political 
 leaders of the eventful period from 1840 to 1860 and after- 
 wards, were topics of daily discussion on the Ferndale farm. 
 Visitors to the Vickroy home, which was always one of 
 old-time hospitality, at once found themselves in an atmos- 
 phere which aroused and stimulated their own interest in 
 public questions and in literary subjects. In their religious 
 belief Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy were Swedenborgians, to which 
 denomination Thomas Vickroy and his wife also belonged. 
 
EDWIX AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 51 
 
 And so the years rolled on. The Vickroy home became 
 known throughout Cambria and Somerset counties as a 
 centre of vigorous and independent thought and advanced 
 views upon all subjects which were then attracting public 
 attention. In the meantime the farm was not neglected and 
 the Vickroy apples and other fruits took premiums at the 
 county fairs and at the meetings of the American Pomo- 
 logical Society at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Although a 
 man of fine and commanding presence, straight as an In- 
 dian, and with the address of a born leader of men Mr. 
 Vickroy never sought political honors. He was, however, 
 always ready to give a reason for the faith that was in him. 
 
 About 1848 the longing for an active mercantile life 
 returned to Mr. Vickroy and he opened on Clinton street 
 in Johnstown a general store in a building which he had 
 built on a lot of ground he owned a few feet south of the 
 corner of Washington and Clinton streets. Here he carried 
 on for several years, and with varying fortune, a general 
 store which w^as well patronized. But the times were hard, 
 very little money was in circulation, the Cambria Iron 
 Works had not been built, and again Mr. Vickroy was con- 
 strained to quit storekeeping. Thenceforward to the end 
 of his days he devoted his time to the work of the farm 
 and to his books and the society of his friends, mingling 
 but little with "the madding crowd" and its "ignoble strife." 
 
 Mrs. Vickroy died at the Vickroy homestead on August 
 30, 1880, and Mr. Vickroy died at the old home on May 1, 
 1885. Each lived to a good old age. Their remains now 
 rest in Grand View cemetery. They were the parents of 
 many children, both boys and girls. 
 
 We have mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy's three old- 
 est daughters, Angeline, Louise, and Helen. Angeline and 
 Louise became teachers, as did also Cornelia, another daugh- 
 ter. All the children, with scarcely an exception, inherited 
 the literary tastes of their parents. Louise established a 
 wide reputation as a writer of graceful poetry and prose. 
 She was a contributor to Grace Greenwood's Little Pilgrim 
 and to Graliams Magazine in the old days and in later years 
 to The Century and other periodicals. In 1860 she delivered 
 a lecture on " The Poets and Poetry of America" before a 
 
52 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 large audience in the First Presbyterian church of Johns- 
 town. Her poems were published in book form about the 
 same time. Mr. Vickroy himself occasionally manifested 
 a decided talent for poetic expression. Of the daughters 
 referred to Helen (Mrs. Austin) is the only one now living. 
 Her home is at Richmond, Indiana. To her and her sister 
 Louise (Mrs. Boyd) and to another daughter, Laura, now 
 living at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, we are indebted for 
 many of the facts contained in this sketch. 
 
 As far back as 1850 we remember a bright new school- 
 house which had been built on the edge of a wooded reser- 
 vation at the top of Ben's Creek Hill. From this school- 
 house a winding path led to the Vickroy home through a 
 dense growth of oaks, maples, hickories, and other forest 
 trees. There were no intervening houses or cultivated fields 
 or gardens. Most if not all of the path was on the hillside 
 of the Vickroy farm itself. The quietness, the restfulness, 
 the peacefulness, and the sylvan beauty of the whole scene 
 can never be effaced from the memories of those now liv- 
 ing who often wended their way w^ith trooping children 
 from the attractive school-house down the winding path 
 to the hospitable home that was built eighty years ago. 
 
 "The old road, the hill road, the road that used to go 
 Through brier and bloom and gleam and gloom among 
 
 the wooded waj'S. 
 Oh, now that we might follow it as once we did, you know ! 
 The old road, the home road, the road of happy days." 
 
JOHN KOYER, HUGUENOT. 53 
 
 JOHN ROYER, HUGUENOT. 
 
 FROM THE JOHNSTOWN DAILY TRIBUNE OF SATURDAY, 
 MARCH 11, 1899. REVISED IN 1910. 
 
 As ALL readers of Pennsylvania history know, the early 
 settlers of William Penn's province were drawn from many 
 European countries. Before the granting of his famous 
 charter in 1681 emigrants from Sweden and Holland and a 
 few Finns and some English had made settlements on the 
 Delaware. After the charter had been granted England 
 and Wales sent large numbers of Quakers and a few Episco- 
 palians ; the Continent sent still larger numbers of Luther- 
 ans and other Protestants and a few Roman Catholics ; Ire- 
 land and France also sent a few Roman Catholics, chiefly to 
 Philadelphia, and the North of Ireland sent many Scotch- 
 Irish Presbyterians. Many Protestants came from Germany, 
 France, Switzerland, and Holland. The French, Swiss, and 
 Dutch immigrants have been confounded with the German 
 immigrants because they usually spoke their South German 
 dialect and were of similar religious convictions, and also 
 because they sailed from the same ports and settled in the 
 same localities as the more numerous Germans. They were 
 thus very naturally regarded as forming a part of the 
 great German wave of immigration to Pennsylvania in the 
 eighteenth century. Thousands of these French, Swiss, and 
 Dutch immigrants have left descendants who are known as 
 Pennsylvania Germans but who are not Germans at all. 
 
 Most of the French Protestants who emigrated to Penn- 
 sylvania came originally from the provinces of Alsace, Lor- 
 raine, and Champagne, in Eastern France, although these 
 emigrants had for some time previously, owing to religious 
 persecution at home, lived in more friendly German, Dutch, 
 and Swiss districts. These French Protestants were known 
 as Huguenots. Other Huguenots came from other provin- 
 ces in France, and these emigrated in large numbers to 
 
54 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 New York, South Carolina, and other colonies and provinces 
 of the New World, including Pennsylvania. Some Hugue- 
 nots had found an asylum in England and Ireland after 
 the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 before emi- 
 grating to this country. 
 
 Among the Huguenot emigrants from Central France to 
 Pennsylvania in the early days were three brothers named 
 Royer. From one of these brothers came John Royer and 
 his descendants. The brothers settled in Lancaster county. 
 The Rev. Mr. Stapleton, of Lewisburg, Union county, an 
 authority upon Huguenot emigration to Pennsylvania, says 
 that Sebastian Royer came to Lancaster county in 1721. 
 We next hear of the family name during the Revolution, 
 when Samuel Royer, the father of John Royer, above men- 
 tioned, was a commissary in the Revolutionary army. This 
 Samuel Royer had a brother named Sebastian. In Baird's 
 Hugiienot Emigration to America I find mention made of Noe 
 Royer, who emigrated to South Carolina between 1681 and 
 1686. He was the grandson of Sebastian Royer, a native of 
 Tours, the principal town in the province of Tourraine, 
 in Central France. Noe Royer himself was born in Tours. 
 His father's name was also Noe Royer. I mention his an- 
 cestry because of the coincidence in the name of his ances- 
 tor, Sebastian Royer, and that of the Lancaster immigrant 
 mentioned by Mr. Stapleton, and also of Sebastian, the 
 brother of Samuel Royer. Samuel Royer's wife was Cathe- 
 rine Laubshaw, a native of Switzerland. There are Royers 
 still living in Lancaster county. 
 
 John Royer, the subject of this sketch, was born in 
 Franklin county, Pennsylvania, on November 22, 1778. We 
 first hear of him as a clerk at Chambers' Iron Works, 
 about four miles from Loudon, in Path valley, Franklin 
 county. These works embraced Mt. Pleasant furnace and 
 forge, which were built about 1783 by three brothers, Wil- 
 liam, Benjamin, and George Chambers. The works were 
 burned in 1843. In 1800 John Dunlap built Logan fur- 
 nace, near Bellefonte, in Centre county, and about 1805-6-7 
 John Royer and his brother-in-law, Andrew Boggs, operated 
 this furnace under lease from Mr. Dunlap, the firm name 
 being Boggs & Royer. 
 
JOHN KOYER, HUGUENOT. 55 
 
 We next hear of Mr. Royer as the builder, between 
 1808 and 1810, of Cove forge, in Blair county, then Hunt- 
 ingdon county, Penns3dvania, on the Frankstown branch 
 of the Juniata river, about seventeen miles east of Holli- 
 daysburg. Mr. Royer carried on Cove forge for ten or 
 twelve years. In the spring of 1821 he moved from Cove 
 forge to Williamsburg, in Huntingdon county, and in the 
 same year he was the successful Whig candidate for the 
 lower branch of the Pennsylvania Legislature, defeating Da- 
 vid R. Porter, the Democratic candidate, also an ironmaster, 
 who was at the time one of the owners of Sligo forge, on 
 Spruce creek, Huntingdon county, and who was elected Gov- 
 ernor of Pennsylvania in 1838 and again in 1841, serving 
 six years. In 1823 Mr. Royer moved from Williamsburg to 
 a point on the Kiskiminitas river below Saltsburg, but on 
 the Westmoreland side of the river, to engage in the 
 manufacture of salt in company with his brother-in-law, 
 Andrew Boggs, who had laid out the town of Saltsburg in 
 the winter of 1816-17 and had given it its name. 
 
 From the Kiskiminitas river Mr. Royer moved to Pitts- 
 burgh in the spring of 1826, where he opened an iron 
 warehouse. At the end of three years, in the fall of 1829, 
 the Pennsylvania Canal having been completed to Blairs- 
 ville, Mr. Royer changed his residence to that place, where 
 he acted as the agent for the Pennsylvania and Ohio 
 Transportation Company, goods then being trans-shipped 
 at Blairsville and hauled over the Northern Turnpike to 
 Huntingdon, where they met the eastern division of the 
 canal. Some time in 1832 Mr. Royer moved to Saltsburg, 
 again engaging in the business of making salt, this time at 
 " Boggs's Works," about two miles east of Saltsburg, on the 
 Westmoreland side of the Conemaugh river. In the spring 
 of 1834 Mr. Royer transferred his lease of the above named 
 salt works to George AV. Swank and moved to Johnstown, 
 becoming the agent of the Pennsylvania and Ohio line of 
 boats and cars for the transportation of freight and pas- 
 sengers between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The Portage 
 Railroad was opened for business in the spring of tliat 
 year. In this occupation, for which he was admirably 
 fitted, Mr. Royer spent the next eight or ten years, when ill- 
 
56 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 health compelled him to retire. He was succeeded by Wil- 
 liam I. Maclay. In the fall of 1838 Mr. Swank also moved 
 his family to Johnstown, where he died on May 29, 1856, 
 at the age of 46 years and a few weeks. He was born in 
 Westmoreland county in 1810 and was my father. 
 
 Mr. Royer died at his residence on Washington street, 
 then called Canal street, east of Franklin street, on March 
 5, 1850, aged 71 years, three months, and thirteen days. His 
 popularity at Johnstown is attested by his election in 1841 
 as the Whig candidate for the lower house of the Legis- 
 lature from the district composed of Somerset and Cam- 
 bria counties. Ill-health prevented him from being a can- 
 didate for re-election in 1842 and Major John Linton be- 
 came the Whig candidate and was elected. 
 
 Mr. Royer was a man of more than ordinary ability. 
 His disposition was genial and his manners were courtly. 
 He was a gentleman of the old school. Mrs. Royer, whose 
 maiden name was Jane Boggs, also a native of Franklin 
 county, but of Scotch-Irish ancestry, survived her husband 
 many years, dying at Johnstown, at the home of her son- 
 in-law, Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing, on October 28, 1869, aged 85 
 years and seven months. She was born on March 13, 1784. 
 The remains of both Mr. and Mrs. Royer now rest in Grand 
 View cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Royer were born eleven 
 children, only two of whom are now living, Sarah Jane, who 
 became the wife of Robert Bingham, and Mary Letitia, who 
 married Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing. We give their names as 
 follows : Catherine, wife of Gen. Edward Hamilton, John 
 Boggs, Samuel J., Theodore, Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Charles 
 D. Pearson, Alfred, Nancy, wife of William L. Shryock, 
 Alexander, Sarah Jane, wife of Robert Bingham, Andrew 
 Francis, and Mary L., wife of Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing. On 
 Sunday, January 22, 1899, Alfred Royer, the last survivor 
 of John Royer's sons, died at the residence of his brother- 
 in-law, William L. Shryock, in Johnstown. Alfred Royer 
 told us that he was the captain of the first train of freight 
 cars that passed over the Portage Railroad from Johnstown 
 to Hollidaysburg. This was in the spring of 1834. For 
 more than fifty years the name of Royer has been prom- 
 inent in the business and social life of Johnstown. 
 
MAJOR JOHN LINTON. 57 
 
 MAJOR JOHN LINTON. 
 
 PREPARED AND PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION IN 
 SEPTEMBER, 1881, AND SINCE REVISED. 
 
 In the latter part of the eighteenth century there Hved 
 in County Derry, Ireland, a Scotch-Irish farmer named 
 William Linton, who had three children, William, Mary, and 
 John. John, the youngest, was born in 1773. He was well 
 educated, his studies embracing the higher mathematics, 
 surveying being a branch which he had completely master- 
 ed. While still pursuing his studies he became involved 
 in the political troubles which culminated in the Rebel- 
 lion of 1798 and was forced to fly to America. Landing at 
 Baltimore he obtained employment as a clerk. In a short 
 time he removed to Greencastle, Franklin county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, where he was first employed as a clerk and after- 
 wards opened a general store, which he kept for several 
 years. Here he met and about 1801 married Ann Park. 
 
 The father of Ann Park was Robert Park. In 1794 the 
 Park family emigrated from Ireland to Philadelphia, where 
 the father, who was a teacher of mathematics, soon after- 
 wards died. His widow subsequently married Colonel James 
 Johnston, a surveyor, who had served in the Pennsylvania 
 Line during the Revolution. His home was near Green- 
 castle, to which place the children of Robert Park removed 
 with their mother, and where Ann Park, as we have stated, 
 married John Linton. The remaining children of Robert 
 Park were all married at Greencastle. Elizabeth married 
 John Agnew ; John married Mary Lang, the daughter of 
 Rev. James Lang, a Presbyterian minister ; and Mary mar- 
 ried Ninian Cochran, a surveyor of Cumberland, Maryland. 
 
 About 1806 John Linton removed with his family to 
 Frankstown, Huntingdon county, now Blair county, where 
 he and his brother-in-law, John Agnew, opened a general 
 store. Soon afterwards the firm was dissolved and John 
 
58 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 Agnew removed to Ebensburg, Cambria county, where he 
 resided for several years. One of his daughters, Maria, 
 married Dr. David T. Storm, a pliysician of Johnstown. 
 
 John Linton removed from Frankstown to Johnstown in 
 1810, where his early education as a surveyor was brought 
 into requisition for the support of his family, conveyanc- 
 ing being in those days part of a surveyor's profession. He 
 surveyed many tracts of land in Cambria county and wrote 
 the articles of agreement and the deeds for their convey- 
 ance. In 1811 he was elected one of the commissioners 
 of Cambria county, taking his seat with the board on 
 the 26th of October of that year. The board consisted 
 of James Magellan, Andrew Anderson, and John Linton. 
 In October, 1814, his term of office expired, and in October, 
 1815, he was re-elected for another term of three years and 
 was qualified on November G, his associates being John 
 Rhey and James Magehan. John Agnew was elected clerk 
 of the board. The minutes of the board show that John 
 Linton acted with the commissioners for the last time on 
 the 9th of April, 1818. In the minutes of the board, dated 
 August 6, 1818, in the handwriting of Moses Canan, clerk, 
 we read that " David Price and Joseph Burgoon, the com- 
 missioners, in conjunction wdth the court of common pleas, 
 appointed Richard Lewis as commissioner until the next 
 general election, in the place of John Linton, deceased." 
 He died on July 25, 1818, aged 45 years. His remains now 
 rest in Grand View cemetery. Soon after his removal to 
 Johnstown John Linton was appointed postmaster of that 
 place, an appointment which he held until his death. He 
 was succeeded in this office by Shepley Priestley. The first 
 postmaster at Johnstown was John Beaty, who made his 
 first quarterly return on July 1, 1811, but the date of his 
 appointment can not be given, as the records of appoint- 
 ments made during that period have been destroyed by fire. 
 His successor, John Linton, was appointed on July 17, 1811, 
 being the second incumbent of the office. 
 
 At the time of his death John Linton resided in the 
 building on the corner of Main and Franklin streets, the 
 site of which was afterwards occupied by the drug store 
 of C. T, Frazer. A few years after the death of her hus- 
 
MAJOR JOHN LINTON. 59 
 
 band Mrs. Linton purchased the upper half of the square 
 of ground lying between Market and Walnut and Main and 
 Locust streets, upon which had been erected a large build- 
 ing that had been used as a public house. This building 
 stood on the site of the residence afterwards occupied by 
 John Dibert. Mrs. Linton died on April 2, 1835, at the age 
 of 54 years. Her remains rest beside those of her husband 
 in Grand View cemetery. Her house was the social centre 
 of Johnstown for many years. She and her husband were 
 Presbyterians in their religious belief. Mrs. Linton was the 
 first person in Johnstown to use bituminous coal as a do- 
 mestic fuel. She used it in a grate about 1822. 
 
 John Linton was the father of six children, all of whom 
 survived him and their mother. Their names were Mary, 
 Robert Park, Jane, John, Eliza, and Louisa. Mary married 
 John Matthews of Johnstown and died in 1855 at Fairfield, 
 Iowa. Her husband, who did not long survive her, had 
 but recently removed to Fairfield. When comparatively a 
 young man Mr. Matthews was elected a member of the 
 State Legislature from the district composed of Somerset 
 and Cambria counties, and upon the opening of the western 
 division of the Pennsylvania Canal in 1830 he was appoint- 
 ed the first collector of tolls in Johnstown. Robert married 
 Phoebe Levergood, daughter of Peter Levergood, the leading 
 citizen of Johnstown. She died in 1842. Robert P. Linton 
 died in March, 1879, after having filled the office of sheriff 
 of Cambria county for three terms, being elected in 1831, 
 1837, and 1858. His oldest son. Colonel John Park Linton, 
 who died in 1892, was well known as a prominent citizen 
 of the State as well as a lawyer and soldier. Jane mar- 
 ried Joseph Chamberlain, a native of Vermont, who had 
 been a resident of Johnstown for several years. He was 
 a civil engineer by profession. He removed to Cleveland 
 about 1846 and died in 1860 at his home in that city. 
 While residing at Johnstown he served one term as one of 
 two representatives of Somerset and Cambria counties in 
 the Legislature. Eliza married Dr. Charles G. Phythian, a 
 native of England but practicing his profession at Johns- 
 town. He removed to Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1844, where 
 his wife died in 1855. One of her children, Robert Lees, 
 
60 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 has distinguished himself as an officer in the United States 
 Navy, attaining the high rank of commodore. Louisa mar- 
 ried S. Moylan Fox, a native of Philadelphia and a gradu- 
 ate of West Point. At the time of his marriage he was 
 engaged as a civil engineer on the Portage Railroad. John, 
 the last to be noticed of the children of John Linton and 
 Ann Park, married Adelaide Henrietta Lacock, the young- 
 est daughter of General Abner Lacock, of Beaver county, on 
 September 1, 1831. 
 
 John Linton, the second, after receiving a fair common- 
 school education at Johnstown and Pittsburgh, entered the 
 store of Silas Moore at Ebensburg as a clerk when he w^as 
 about 16 years old, where he remained about two years, at 
 the end of which time he engaged in business for himself 
 at Johnstown, buying a stock of goods from Shepley and 
 Thomas Priestley and opening a store on Main street. In 
 a few years his old employer, Silas Moore, became a part- 
 ner with him in his store, when the business was consider- 
 ably enlarged and the store was removed to the southwest 
 corner of Main and Franklin streets, now " the bank cor- 
 ner." Mr. Moore's interest was soon afterwards purchased 
 by Mr. Linton, who continued the business without a part- 
 ner for several years, when a partnership w^as formed with 
 his brother-in-law, Joseph Chamberlain, and the store was 
 removed to the northeast corner of Main and Clinton 
 streets, where a brick store-room was built by the firm. 
 This building was destroyed by the Johnstown flood, at 
 which time it was owned by Jacob Wild. This partnership 
 was continued for many years. During its continuance the 
 firm engaged in various contracts upon the public improve- 
 ments then in progress in the western part of the State. 
 We remember the sign of this firm, Linton & Chamberlain. 
 
 About 184(3 John Linton was elected captain of the 
 Conemaugh Guards, a volunteer military company, which 
 he commanded until about the time of his removal from 
 JohnstoW'U to Rochester, Beaver county, in 1853. This com- 
 pany was organized as early as 1835, in W'hich year Gov- 
 ernor Ritner, in accordance with the action of the company, 
 commissioned Joseph Chamberlain as its captain. In 1849 
 Captain Linton w'as elected inspector of the brigade to 
 
MAJOR JOHN LINTON. 61 
 
 which his company was attached, which position conferred 
 upon him the title of major, by which he was ever after- 
 wards known. He served as brigade inspector for several 
 years, and whether as Captain Linton or as Major Linton 
 lie was always popular with officers and men. 
 
 Political as well as military honors were early conferred 
 upon John Linton. His first vote was cast against Andrew 
 Jackson and he became one of the most active members 
 of the Whig party of Cambria county. In October, 1842, 
 he was chosen a Whig member of the lower branch of the 
 Legislature from the district composed of Somerset and 
 Cambria counties, wliich was entitled to two members. In 
 tlie session of 1843, following his election, he secured the 
 partition of the district and the erection of Cambria county 
 into an independent district, entitled to one member. Al- 
 though the county was Democratic so great was the popu- 
 larity of John Linton that he was nevertheless re-elected 
 to the Legislature in October, 1843, defeating David Somer- 
 ville, the Democratic nominee. He was not again a candi- 
 date for the Legislature for several years afterwards, but in 
 1845 he was the Whig candidate for prothonotary, but was 
 beaten by 31 votes, through the defection of a rival aspirant 
 for the nomination. His successful competitor before the 
 people was Joseph McDonald, the regular Democratic nomi- 
 nee. In 1850 Dr. William A. Smith, of Ebensburg, repre- 
 sented Cambria county in the lower branch of the Legisla- 
 ture, and during the session of that year Cambria and Bed- 
 ford counties were united in one legislative district, entitled 
 to two members. At the election in the fall of that year 
 Dr. Smith of Cambria and John Cessna of Bedford were 
 the Democratic nominees and John Linton of Cambria and 
 Samuel J. Castner of Bedford were the Whig nominees. 
 Cessna and Linton were elected. In 1852 John Linton was 
 ix Presidential elector oh the Whig State ticket, Winfield 
 Scott and William A. Graham being the Whig candidates 
 for President and Vice President. This was John Linton's 
 last appearance as a candidate for any public office. 
 
 In 1845 John Linton, having retired from the mercantile 
 business, formed a partnership with William Huber and 
 Jacob Myers for the manufacture of pig iron, and in that 
 
62 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 year the firm commenced the erection of Somerset furnace 
 at Forwardstown, in Somerset county, a few miles from 
 Johnstown. The furnace was put in blast in 1846 and in 
 1847 Mr. Linton disposed of his interest in the enterprise 
 and bought the interest of Peter Levergood in Mount Ver- 
 non furnace at Johnstown, which had been built in 1845 
 and 1846 and was the first furnace at Johnstown. John 
 and Robert P. Linton and John Galbreath became the sole 
 owners of the furnace, under the name of Lintons & Gal- 
 breath. This firm was succeeded by Rhey, Matthews & Co. 
 
 In 1849 John Linton formed a partnership with George 
 Merriman, of Crawford county, and Colonel Thomas J. 
 Power, of Beaver county, for the construction of one mile 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Johnstown. The work 
 extended from a point just west of the dam in the Cone- 
 maugh, near the eastern end of Conemaugh borough, to 
 Cambria City, and was completed in 1850. It embraced 
 the masonry for an iron bridge over the Conemaugh just 
 west of Johnstown. In this year the firm agreed to build 
 about three miles of the Pennsylvania Railroad immedi- 
 ately east of the viaduct over the Conemaugh river east of 
 Johnstown, and extending almost to the village of Summer- 
 hill. On the completion of this work in 1853 the firm se- 
 cured a contract for the construction of a bridge over the 
 Beaver river and about two miles of roadbed below Roches- 
 ter for the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Wheeling Railroad, 
 and Major Linton's presence being required to superintend 
 the work he removed his family to Rochester. The contract 
 was completed in 1855. In this year George Merriman, 
 John Linton, and others took a contract for the construction 
 of eight miles of the Pittsburgh and Erie Railroad. Work 
 on this contract was suspended in 1857, owing to the finan- 
 cial difficulties of the railroad company. 
 
 From 1857 until the beginning of the civil war in 1861 
 Major Linton was not actively engaged in any business. 
 In May, 1861, his old business associate, Colonel Power, who 
 had been placed in charge of the Virginia railroads leading 
 to Washington, sent for him to assist in rebuilding some of 
 the lines which had been destroyed. He was commissioned 
 major by the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. In this 
 
MAJOR JOHN LINTON. 63 
 
 service and in the construction for the Government of 
 steamboat wharves on the Potomac at and opposite to 
 Georgetown Major Linton was engaged until late in the 
 year 1862, when he returned to Rochester. From this time 
 until 1872 he was engaged in various enterprises, after 
 which year he remained in retirement at Rochester. 
 
 Major John Linton was born at Frankstown, Blair 
 county, on May 12, 1809, and died at Rochester on Decem- 
 ber 5, 1894, aged 85 years, six months, and a few days. 
 His wife Adelaide was born at Beaver on June 12, 1808, 
 and died at Rochester on November 1, 1895, aged 87 years, 
 four months, and a few days. They rest in Beaver cemetery. 
 
 Ann Park's brother, John Park, came to the wilds of 
 Indiana county in 1795 with Colonel Johnston, who had 
 become his stepfather. In 1798 John Park bought a tract 
 of land on which the town of Marion now stands, and in 
 1799 he erected a log cabin on the southwest corner of the 
 town, the first house within its limits. Here he died in 
 1844, at the age of 68 years. Mary Park, who married Nin- 
 ian Cochran, removed to Johnstown about 1827, after the 
 death of her husband. A daughter, Arabella, came to Johns- 
 town with her mother and a few years afterwards married 
 Selah* Chamberlain, a brother of Joseph Chamberlain, and 
 she and her husband were for many years residents of 
 Cleveland. When a young man Selah Chamberlain was a 
 clerk in the store of Linton & Chamberlain. Mrs. Cochran 
 died at Johnstown in 1834. A few years after the death of 
 her husband. Colonel Johnston, the mother of the Park 
 children went to Johnstown to live with her daughter, 
 Mrs. Linton. Here she died on May 31, 1831, aged 82 years. 
 
 In No. 2 of Vol. IV of The Pennsylvania Magazine of 
 History and Biography (1880) appeared a sketch of General 
 Lacock, prepared by the writer of this sketch. General 
 Lacock, who was a native of Virginia, was frequently a 
 member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, a Representative 
 in Congress from Pennsylvania from 1811 to 1813, and a 
 United States Senator from the same State from 1813 to 
 1819, and held many other positions of honor and useful- 
 ness, dying at his home near Freedom, Beaver county, on 
 the 12th of April, 1837, in his 66th year. 
 
64 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 General Lacock is entitled to honorable mention in any 
 detailed reference to the early history of Johnstown. After 
 his term in the Senate had expired he took an active part 
 in advocating the policy of uniting the Delaware and the 
 Ohio by a State line of canals and railroads. From the 
 sketch of his life above referred to we copy the following 
 details : " On the 11th of April, 1825, five commissioners 
 were appointed to make a complete survey of a route for 
 the contemplated improvements, and General Lacock was 
 one of these five, the others being John Sergeant, William 
 Darlington, David Scott, and Robert M. Patterson. General 
 Lacock's commission, signed by Governor J. Andrew Shulze, 
 was dated May 16, 1825. On the 25th of February, 1826, 
 the Legislature authorized the commencement of work on 
 the canal and appropriated $300,000 for its prosecution. 
 General Lacock, who was a member of the board of Canal 
 Commissioners, was appointed by the board the acting 
 commissioner to supervise the construction of the western 
 division of the canal from Pittsburgh to Johnstown. Mainly 
 under his direction this portion of the canal was subse- 
 quently built. The first canal boat built or run west of 
 the Allegheny mountains was named the General Ahner La- 
 cock. It was a freight and passenger packet and was 'built 
 at Apollo, then Warren, in Armstrong county, about 1827, 
 by Philip Dally, under the auspices of Patrick Leonard, of 
 Pittsburgh." 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS. 65 
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS. 
 
 FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL 
 ASSOCIATION, AUGUST 1, 1888. 
 
 In 1833 George S. King, a merchant of Mercersburg, 
 Franklin count}'-, then 24 years old, came to Johnstown, 
 having heard that it presented opportunities for business 
 that were worthy of his attention. When he saw the town 
 and listened to the sound of the saw and the hammer on 
 every hand he at once concluded that he had been wisely 
 advised and promptly opened a store on Main street. In 
 this and other mercantile enterprises at Johnstown he was 
 very successful during the next few years. 
 
 In 1839 and 1840, impressed with the necessity of de- 
 veloping the manufacture of pig iron at or near Johns- 
 town, Mr. King diligently searched for iron ore in its neigh- 
 boring hills and found it in such quantities and of such 
 satisfactory quality as to encourage him to embark in the 
 business of making pig iron. In 1840 or 1841, at Ross fur- 
 nace, in Westmoreland county, he tested the ore that he 
 had found in the hills near Laurel run, a few miles below 
 Johnstown. In 1841 Cambria furnace was built on Laurel 
 run by George S. King, David Stewart, John K. Shryock, 
 and William L. Shryock. It was successful from the start. 
 It was soon followed by five other furnaces in Cambria 
 county, as follows : Mill Creek, built by John Bell & Co. in 
 1845 ; Ben's Creek, built by George S. King & Co. in 1846 ; 
 Eliza, five miles west of Ebensburg, on Blacklick creek, 
 commenced by Ritter & Rodgers in 1846 and completed by 
 Ritter & Irvin in 1847 ; Mount Vernon, at Johnstown, built 
 by Peter Levergood & Co. in 1846 and subsequently owned 
 by Lintons & Galbreath and Rhey, Matthews & Co. ; and 
 Ashland, six miles north of Gallitzin, built by Joseph A. 
 Conrad and Hugh McNeal in 1847. All these furnaces 
 have long been abandoned. All used charcoal. The divid- 
 
66 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 ing line between Cambria and Indiana counties passed 
 through the stack of Eliza furnace. 
 
 Having established the pig iron industry in Cambria 
 county Mr. King turned his attention to the conversion into 
 iron rails of the pig iron that was made at the furnaces 
 near Johnstown or that might be made at new furnaces. 
 The building of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was com- 
 pleted to Pittsburgh in 1852, convinced Mr. King that the 
 road itself would furnish a market for a large part of the 
 product of a rail mill if one were built at Johnstown. 
 The rail mill that was then nearest to Johnstown was at 
 Brady's Bend, in Armstrong county. Rails were not then 
 made at Pittsburgh. In 1852, therefore, Mr. King visited 
 New York and Boston to explain to capitalists in those 
 cities his scheme for building a rail rolling mill at Johns- 
 town. In the following letter, written at our request, Mr. 
 King gives the details of his eventually successful but al- 
 ways laborious and often disappointing efforts to establish 
 the Cambria Iron Works. Mr. King writes us as follows : 
 
 Your letter of May 26tli and accompanying copy of your 
 work, Iron in All Ages, are at hand, all of which are of 
 much interest and value to me and for which I thank you. 
 
 In respect to your request that I give you a history 
 of the origin of the Cambria Iron Works, at Johnstown, 
 I will state that in my effort to do so, for the reason that 
 I am without access to books and memoranda, I can not 
 give dates or enter into the matter as specifically as I would 
 like to do. To properly get at the facts I will go back to 
 my first identification with the iron business, my interest 
 in which finally led to the location and first erection of 
 the Cambria Iron Works, for many years the largest and 
 still one of the most extensive works of their kind in 
 the United States. 
 
 Owing to the depressed condition of all business, in con- 
 sequence of the adoption of the compromise tariff of 1833, 
 a great many of the people being out of employment, as 
 well as myself, I concluded that a means might be found 
 to somewhat change this condition through the iron ore 
 deposits in the hills around Johnstown. After a search of 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS. 67 
 
 several months I found, in 1839 or 1840, a dei)Osit of ore, 
 and thought it sufficient to justify the erection of a furnace 
 to work it. For the reason that there was but little or no 
 money in circulation my idea was to take the iron out of 
 the ore and trade it for merchandise with which to pay 
 the workingmen and enable them to live. 
 
 In the first undertaking I associated with me David 
 Stewart and John K. and Wm. L. Shryock, and I gave the 
 name " Cambria " to our furnace, which we built on Laurel 
 run, about three miles from Johnstown. This being before 
 the day of stone coal for furnace use we used charcoal for 
 fuel. Our first iron was made in 1841. About the latter 
 part of 1843 Dr. Peter Shoenberger, of Pittsburgh, purchas- 
 ed the interest of David Stewart, and in 1844 Dr. Shoen- 
 berger and myself purchased the interest of John K. and 
 Wm. L. Shryock, thereby becoming equal owners of Cam- 
 bria furnace. We sold our pig iron at Pittsburgh. 
 
 The tariff of 1842 now being in force and effective, as 
 it better protected the industries of the United States, better 
 times resulted and they justified operators in going into 
 new enterprises and increasing their business. Dr. Shoen- 
 berger and I concluded to take advantage of the change, 
 and we built two more new furnaces, Mill Creek and Ben's 
 Creek furnaces, situated about four miles from Johnstown 
 in an opposite direction from Cambria furnace. In these 
 enterprises John Bell was associated with us, remaining so 
 for one or two years, when Dr. Shoenberger and I purchased 
 his interest. 
 
 By this time the tariif of 1846 went into operation and 
 it greatly depressed all business, checking enterprise and 
 breaking up much of the iron manufacturing then done in 
 this country. David Stewart, who was formerly associated 
 with me, taking advantage of the recent good times, had 
 built Blacklick furnace, situated about eight miles northwest 
 of Johnstown, in Indiana county. Because of the reduc- 
 tions in duties in the tariff of 1846 Mr. Stewart, like many 
 others, became dissatisfied with the result of his enter- 
 prise, and came to us, offering to dispose of it to us, and 
 we purchased it. 
 
 We then had four furnaces which we kept alive and in 
 
68 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 operation during depressed times for some years, and that, 
 too, with little or no profit to us. In this situation it be- 
 came a question as to wliat move we could make in order 
 to perpetuate the business we had engaged in. Dr. Shoen- 
 berger advocated the erection of a large foundry, to put 
 our iron into the shape of castings, such as large sugar 
 kettles for the New Orleans market, these and other cast- 
 ings then seeming most in demand. 
 
 I advocated the erection of a rolling mill to manufacture 
 railroad iron. Our iron was not adapted for bar iron pur- 
 poses, and in my opinion was not good for castings, as it 
 was too hard, though in a wrought form I was satisfied that 
 it was good for railroad iron if properly worked, and the 
 result of a trial demonstrated that I was right in this opin- 
 ion. Finally we agreed upon an effort being made in the 
 direction of organizing a company to erect a rolling mill for 
 the manufacture of railroad iron. 
 
 I think that it was in February, 1852, when I left Johns- 
 town to go East to get parties to become interested in the 
 new enterprise. I went first to New York City, and being 
 unacquainted with any one there I was placed at a disad- 
 vantage. Among those I could hear of as being most likely 
 to invest in the enterprise was Simeon Draper, a broker, 
 and whom I had heard of quite often. When I called at 
 his office I found him absent, but I presented the matter to 
 his chief business man, George W. Hodges. 
 
 Finding but little encouragement in New York I con- 
 cluded to go to Boston. My first efforts in Boston were not 
 flattering and resulted in my discovering the fountain-head 
 of a concern that I knew something about before. I was 
 taken by a party to the office of an alleged large and 
 wealthy " iron company," and found the office grandly fitted 
 up and well equipped with advertising material, consisting 
 of pamphlets, circulars, etc., one of which was handed to 
 me. It set forth that this " iron company " represented a 
 capital of $500,000 and their works were said to be located 
 near Hollidaysburg, Blair county, where they owned two 
 hundred acres of land and a furnace under construction. I 
 was aware before this that an attempt had been made to 
 build a furnace as mentioned in the pamphlet, and knew 
 
THE BUILDING OF THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS. 69 
 
 all about the matter so well that I got out of that office as 
 soon as possible. I said nothing to them about my matter, 
 nor did I tell them what I knew about theirs. 
 
 I next met a party, Mr. Daniel AVilde, to whom I talked 
 about the object I had in view. He called on me at the- 
 hotel and we had our second talk, and he proposed that we 
 go and see Mr. John Hartshorn, a broker. We went to his 
 office, I taking with me a schedule of the property Dr. Sho- 
 enberger and I intended to put into the business. We saw 
 Mr. Hartshorn and acquainted him with the matter, I lay- 
 ing before him our proposition, which was that Dr. Shoen- 
 berger and I should put in our four furnaces, with tools,, 
 teams, all the firm's property, except goods in stores and 
 metal on hand, and twenty- five thousand acres of land, all 
 valued at $300,000, of which we would retain shares in stock 
 to the amount of $100,000 and the rest to be paid to us by 
 the company. Mr. Hartshorn and Mr. Wilde agreed to get 
 up the company within six months' time from date. I 
 then wrote to Dr. Shoenberger to come on to Boston, and 
 on his reaching there he and I signed the articles of agree- 
 ment as above stated. 
 
 Upon me was placed the duty of procuring the charter,, 
 and to effect this as soon as possible I went to Harrisburg. 
 In our conversations no mention was made of the name of 
 the company to be organized and the works to be built. 
 Of my own choice and without consulting with Dr. Shoen- 
 berger or others I gave the names "Cambria Iron Company"" 
 and " Cambria Iron Works." Our capital was placed at 
 $1,000,000 and the works were to be located at Johnstown. 
 
 When procuring the charter I found a general law exist- 
 ing that limited the quantity of land to be held by such 
 an organization in one county, and our land not lying in 
 accordance with this provision I went to the Legislature, 
 then in session, and procured the enactment of an additional 
 section to the original law, permitting the holding of lands 
 in more than one county without limit as to quantity. 
 This accomplished and the charter secured I next went to 
 Philadelphia and succeeded in procuring subscriptions of 
 about $30,000 in stock on the part of some merchants 
 with whom I had business relations. 
 
70 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 At the expiration of six months our Boston parties had 
 not succeeded as expected and were granted a limit of six 
 months longer to effect their purposes. They transferred 
 their efforts to New York and called on Simeon Draper, 
 whom I had tried to enlist in the matter before I went to 
 Boston. Mr. Draper became a subscriber to the stock and 
 vouched for other subscribers to the amount of $300,000. 
 We then held a meeting to organize the company, resulting 
 as follows : Dr. Peter Shoenberger, president ; Simeon Draper, 
 treasurer ; George W. Hodges, secretary ; and myself, general 
 manager. About this time a change was made in the 
 amount of stock shares to be retained by Dr. Shoenberger 
 and myself, we taking $200,000, instead of $100,000, as first 
 agreed upon, leaving $100,000 to be paid to us in money 
 by the company. 
 
 I had before this time conditionally contracted with 
 parties in Johnstown for land which I thought most con- 
 venient and best adapted for locating the works, and the 
 company now being organized I immediately secured it and 
 began to erect the rolling mill, four hot-blast coke furna- 
 ces, and other buildings, also grading for a coke yard, etc. 
 This was in February, 1853, just one year after I went to 
 New York and Boston to get up the company. 
 
 I have herein given you a brief history of the Cambria 
 Iron Company from its origin up to the first work done in 
 the erection of the works, which I think will cover your re- 
 quest as contained in your letter. Very respectfully yours, 
 
 George S. King. 
 
 Lewistown, Fulton County, Illinois, June 14, 1888. 
 
 George Shryock King was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, on October 
 28, 1809, and died at Johnstown on December 8, 1903, aged over 94 years. 
 
HON. DANIEL JOHNSON MORRELL. 71 
 
 HON. DANIEL JOHNSON MORRELL. 
 
 FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL 
 ASSOCIATION, AUGUST 26, 1885. 
 
 Hon. Daniel J. Morrell died at his home in Johns- 
 town on Thursday morning, August 20, 1885, at the age of 
 64 years and twelve days. Daniel Johnson Morrell was 
 a descendant of one of three brothers who in early colo- 
 nial days emigrated from Old England to New England. 
 From these three brothers there probably descended all the 
 Morrells and Morrills in the United States to-day. David 
 Morrell, grandfather of Daniel J. Morrell, made his home in 
 Maine considerably over a century ago, and here, in a set- 
 tlement of Friends, or Quakers, in the town, or township, of 
 Berwick and county of York, was born, one hundred and 
 two years ago, on the farm on which he died eleven years 
 ago, Thaddeus Morrell, When about twenty-three years old 
 he married a neighbor's daughter, Susannah Ayres. They 
 were married on February 17, 1806, and were buried on 
 the same day, June 10, 1874. Ten children were given to 
 this Quaker couple, of whom eight grew to manhood and 
 womanhood. Daniel was the seventh child. He was born 
 on the farm on August 8, 1821. 
 
 The childhood and youth of Mr. Morrell were attended 
 by such vicissitudes as are experienced by most boys whose 
 lot has been cast in pioneer homes. His immediate ances- 
 tors were true pioneers, whose scanty fortunes had been 
 carved from primeval forests and gleaned from the virgin 
 soil amid many hardships and at the risk of life itself. 
 His father's family wore homespun, woven from threads of 
 flax and wool which had made acquaintance with the fam- 
 ily spinning-wheel. When old enough Daniel was taught to 
 assist in the labors of the farm, and when the winter school 
 was in session he was a regular attendant. But the entire 
 time spent by him in the school-room did not exceed two 
 
72 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 years. The education thus acquired was, of course, limit- 
 ed to the most elementary studies. The only additional 
 schooling he ever received was obtained in a course of 
 study at a commercial college after his entrance upon a 
 business life. His religious training was such as prevails 
 among the Friends. 
 
 Those citizens of York county who were not engaged 
 in farming sixty-odd years ago found profitable and needed 
 employment in some form of manufacturing industry. If 
 they did not make iron the first settlers of York county 
 did make it. During the Revolution the colonists had great 
 difficulty in procuring iron, and extraordinary efforts were 
 made to supply the want. Many Catalan forges were erect- 
 ed, by means of which malleable iron was obtained directly 
 from the ore by a single fusion. One of these forges stood 
 two miles from the farm of David Morrell, and from the 
 farm itself was taken the ore from which the iron was 
 made. The grandmother of the boy Daniel used to delight 
 to tell him how the iron was made by the Catalan process 
 in the forge that had long been abandoned. Years after- 
 wards, in a distant State, he successfully embarked in the 
 manufacture of iron and steel on the largest scale and by 
 the most improved modern processes. 
 
 In 1837, when in his sixteenth year, Mr. Morrell left 
 home and went to Philadelphia, to which city his older 
 brother David had preceded him. David was engaged in 
 the wholesale dry-goods trade as a member of the firm of 
 Trotter, Morrell & Co., which occupied the building now 
 designated as No. 32 North Fourth street. With this firm 
 Mr. Morrell was employed as a clerk for five years, until 
 1842, when the firm was dissolved and he embarked in the 
 same business for himself, in the same building, his brother 
 David being associated with him. The business of this firm 
 was conducted with energy, but with some eccentricity on 
 the part of David, the older brother, which finally led to 
 its dissolution. In 1845 Mr. Morrell joined Oliver Martin, a 
 dealer in fancy dry goods, at No. 28 North Fourth street^ 
 first as a clerk and afterwards as a partner, the firm name 
 being Martin, Morrell & Co. In 1854 Mr. Martin died and 
 Mr. Morrell became executor of his estate. Notwithstanding 
 
HON. DANIEL JOHNSON MORRELL. 73 
 
 the death of Mr. Martin the business of the firm continued, 
 and Mr. Morrell's duties kept him constantly engaged until 
 1855, when his mercantile career ended. He retired with a 
 small capital to assume the management of the Cambria 
 Iron Works, at Johnstown, which had been established in 
 1853 for the manufacture of iron rails, and which in 1855 
 passed into the hands of Wood, Morrell & Co. as lessees. 
 This position he retained for nearly twenty-nine years, until 
 January, 1884, when failing health obliged him to retire 
 from all active business. 
 
 Down to 1871 the product of the Cambria Iron Works 
 was iron rails solely, in the manufacture of which they 
 had acquired an excellent reputation, but long prior to this 
 year the time had arrived when it became apparent that 
 rails rolled from steel made by the Bessemer process must 
 ultimately displace those made of iron, on account of their 
 greater durability. Mr. Morrell early perceived the coming 
 revolution, and it was largely through his efforts and per- 
 sistence that the directors of his company were among the 
 first in this country to enter upon the business of manu- 
 facturing Bessemer rails. The company commenced their 
 manufacture on July 12, 1871. 
 
 During the early part of his mercantile career Mr. Mor- 
 rell frequently visited the Western and Southern States as 
 a collector, and in this way he obtained a knowledge of 
 the extent and resources of the country which he could not 
 otherwise have acquired. He was a regular attendant for 
 several years upon the lectures of the Franklin Institute, 
 and the time thus spent in a scientific atmosphere was most 
 profitably employed. Attaching himself to the Whig party 
 he became an ardent admirer of its great leader, Henry 
 Clay, and from his speeches he obtained a knowledge of 
 the policy of governmental protection to American indus- 
 tries, of which policy he subsequently became one of the 
 most prominent exponents in tlie country. 
 
 Since 1855 Mr. Morrell had resided continuously in 
 Johnstown and taken an active interest in its growth and 
 prosperity. He might have kept himself aloof from its 
 people and manifested no interest in their welfare, but he 
 chose to regard himself as one of their number and to throw 
 
74 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 his influence in the scale in behalf of local improvements- 
 and an enlarged public spirit. During the Rebellion he 
 greatly aided the cause of the country by encouraging 
 the enlistment of volunteers. Almost every able-bodied em- 
 ploye at the Cambria Iron Works was at some period of 
 the war an enlisted Union soldier. When the war closed 
 his great ability, his patriotism, his intelligent and influ- 
 ential advocacy of the protective policy, and his many 
 sterling qualities of head and heart were recognized by 
 the people of the Congressional district in which he resid- 
 ed, who twice elected him their Representative in Congress 
 — first in 1866 by a majority of 1,219 and again in 1868 
 by a majority of 1,094. In 1870 he was a candidate for 
 re-election, but was beaten by 11 votes through the defec- 
 tion of a faction of the Republican party in Huntingdon 
 county. 
 
 In his first speech in Congress Mr. Morrell uttered the 
 following plea for labor : " The American workingman 
 must live in a house, not a hut; he must wear decent 
 clothes and eat wholesome and nourishing food. He is an 
 integral part of the municipality, the State, and the Nation; 
 subject to no fetters of class or caste ; neither pauper, nor 
 peasant, nor serf, but a free American citizen. He has the 
 ballot, and if it were possible it would be dangerous to 
 degrade him. The country stands pledged to give him 
 education, political power, and a higher form of life than 
 foreign nations accord their laborers, and he must be sus- 
 tained by higher rates of wages than those of Europe. 
 Our industries operated by American citizens must be freed 
 from foreign interference and organized into a distinct 
 American system, which will exact some temporary sacri- 
 fices but result in general prosperity and true national in- 
 dependence. In maintaining diversified industries we util- 
 ize every talent, provide a field for every capacity, and 
 bind together the whole people in mutual dependence and 
 support, assuring the strength and security of our Repub- 
 lic." No better definition of the protective policy of this 
 country was ever written. 
 
 Upon the organization of the first . Congress to which 
 Mr. Morrell was elected, the Fortieth, he was made chair- 
 
HON. DANIEL JOHNSON MORRELL, 75 
 
 man of the standing committee on manufactures and a 
 member of the standing committee on freedmen's affairs. 
 He retained his chairmanship of the committee on manu- 
 factures during the Forty-first Congress, and was also a 
 member of the standing committee on the Pacific Railroad 
 and of the select committee on the decline of American 
 commerce. The feature, however, of his Congressional career 
 with which his name will longest be associated is his intro- 
 duction on the 9th of March, 1870, of a bill to provide for 
 the celebration at Philadelphia of the hundredth anniver- 
 sary of American Independence. This bill became a law 
 largely through his persistent advocacy of its propriety and 
 justice, and through the happy effect produced on Congress 
 and the country by his admirably conceived speech of the 
 14th of December, 1870, in favor of its passage. Upon the 
 organization of the Centennial Commission provided for 
 in the act of Congress the services of Mr. Morrell in se- 
 curing its creation, and his superior business and executive 
 qualifications, were recognized by his selection as chair- 
 man of the executive committee of the commission. 
 
 In January, 1878, Mr. Morrell was appointed by President 
 Hayes a commissioner to the Paris Exposition. On Tuesday 
 evening. May 7, 1878, he was tendered a farewell dinner 
 at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia by leading citizens 
 of the State, including Governor John F. Hartranft, Mayor 
 William S. Stokley, Hon. Morton McMichael, General Robert 
 Patterson, Thomas A. Scott, Henry C. Carey, A. J. Drexel, 
 A. E. Borie, and many others almost equally distinguished. 
 Over one hundred gentlemen sat down to the dinner, which 
 was tendered him " as a complimentary testimonial on the 
 eve of his departure to Europe as a Commissioner from the 
 United States to the International Industrial Exposition at 
 Paris, and in recognition of the services rendered by him to 
 the Centennial Exhibition while he was a member of Con- 
 gress, and afterwards while filling the arduous and responsi- 
 ble position of chairman of the executive committee of the 
 Centennial Commission during the whole period of its ex- 
 istence." Governor Hartranft presided at the dinner. On 
 May 9, 1878, Mr. Morrell sailed for Europe, returning on the 
 14th of October, 1878. 
 
76 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 On the 6th of March, 1879, Mr. Morrell was elected pres- 
 ident of the American Iron and Steel Association. He re- 
 signed this office on December 15, 1884, his resignation being 
 accepted and his successor chosen on January 6, 1885. His 
 official retirement from the management of the Cambria 
 Iron Works took place on January 15, 1884, owing to ill- 
 health, as we have already stated. 
 
 In 1845 Mr. Morrell married Susan Lower, daughter 
 of Powell Stackhouse, a member of the Society of Friends. 
 His wife and a daughter survive him.* The latter is the 
 wife of Captain Philip E. Chapin, the general manager of 
 the Cambria Iron Works. Mr. Morrell was never blessed 
 with any other children. 
 
 The funeral of Mr. Morrell took place on Monday, Au- 
 gust 24, and was attended by an immense concourse of his 
 old neighbors and employes. Many friends from a distance 
 were also present. He was buried at Johnstown, amid the 
 scenes of his industrial triumphs and among a people who 
 loved him and will miss him. 
 
 *Mrs. Morrell died at her home in Johnstown on June 7, 1887. 
 Her daughter, Mrs. Chapin, died in Paris, France, on March 2, 1909. 
 
MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 77 
 
 MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 
 
 FROM THE JOHNSTOWN DAILY TRIBUNE OF SATURDAY, 
 JANUARY 3, 1891. 
 
 Died, at his residence, No. 2231 Madison Square, Phila- 
 delphia, on Monday, December 29, 1890, Major George Nel- 
 son Smith, aged 82 years, 6 months, and 10 days. 
 
 George Nelson Smith was born at Youngstown, West- 
 moreland county, on June 19, 1808. His father's name was 
 William Smith and his mother's maiden name was Agnes 
 Nelson. They were natives respectively of the State of 
 Delaware and of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and resid- 
 ed, about the beginning of the century, at Elizabethtown, 
 Lancaster county, whence they emigrated to Bedford coun- 
 ty and thence to Westmoreland county. Both came of good 
 fighting stock, William Smith's father being at the battles 
 of Brandywine and Germantown and Agnes Nelson's father 
 losing his life from exposure while at Valley Forge. 
 
 The father of Major Smith was by trade a cooper, and 
 some years after George was born he went to work mak- 
 ing barrels for the salt-makers on the Conemaugh and Kis- 
 kiminitas rivers, continuing that occupation for many years. 
 By a sort of evolution George became a keel-boatman on the 
 rivers mentioned and on the Allegheny river, the keel boats 
 taking salt to Pittsburgh. He was a natural waterman, a 
 good swimmer, and fond of the excitement and the dangers 
 of a keel-boatman's life. When the western division of the 
 Pennsylvania Canal was but partly built he left the keel 
 boat for the canal boat, and he enjoyed the honor of having 
 steered the first boat that ran on that division, the General 
 Ahner Lcwock. This was between Warren, now Apollo, and 
 Leechburg in 1829. Entering the service of D. Leech & Co. 
 he became the captain of one of their first packet-boats, the 
 Pioneer. Subsequently he had some experience in organiz- 
 ing the company's line on the eastern division of the canal. 
 
ib CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 When in command of the Pioneer an incident occurred 
 whicli marked a heroic trait of his character. While his 
 boat was spinning along in one of the pools, or dams, of 
 the Kiskiminitas, in 1834, one of the passengers, Mrs. Lovell, 
 the wife of a New Orleans merchant, who also was a pas- 
 senger, fell overboard. Captain Smith was sitting at an 
 open window at the time. As quick as thought he jump- 
 ed through the window into the water, and before the boat 
 could be stopped he had safely landed Mrs. Lovell on the 
 bank. This incident has a sequel, as we shall presently see. 
 
 Ill the following year, 1835, Captain Smith and some 
 friends concluded to go West. Taking passage on an Ohio 
 river steamboat they reached Louisville in due time, where 
 the}^ were detained. Here another incident occurred which 
 illustrates again the nobility of Captain Smith's character. 
 Walking along the levee he noticed a woman who was sur- 
 rounded by two or three little children and a few house- 
 hold goods and was in great distress. Inquiry revealed the 
 fact that her husband had been killed in a Louisville fac- 
 tory and that she was anxious to return to her home at 
 Pittsburgh, but her funds were wholly inadequate to meet 
 the necessary steamboat charges. Captain Smith at once 
 paid her steamboat fare and that of her children to Pitts- 
 burgh, and also paid the steward of the boat for their 
 entertainment until their destination should be reached. 
 
 But this act of generosity emptied Captain Smith's al- 
 ways lean purse. Abandoning his companions he shipped 
 as a deck hand on a steamboat that was going to New Or- 
 leans, at which place he safely arrived. Here he renewed 
 his acquaintance with Mr. Lovell, who gave him a letter of 
 introduction to David G. Burnet, one of the leaders of the 
 struggling Texan Republic, Captain Smith's adventurous 
 spirit and his manly sympathies combining to direct his 
 steps toward the Lone Star State. Arriving in Texas he 
 enlisted as a soldier in the Texan army, and at the battle 
 of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, he had the pleasure of 
 contributing to the defeat of the Mexican army and of par- 
 ticipating in the capture of Santa Anna himself. For his 
 services in the Texan Revolution he was afterwards granted 
 a large tract of land in Texas, but he did not derive any 
 
MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 79 
 
 benefit from this donation, owing to the undeveloped con- 
 dition of the country. 
 
 Leaving Texas in 1836 or 1837 Captain Smith was in- 
 duced by friends to locate in Kentucky and he became a 
 •contractor in the building of the Louisville and Nashville 
 Turnpike. While thus engaged he married Miss Rebecca 
 G. Mudd, of Green county, Kentucky. This was in 1839. 
 Soon afterwards he concluded to return to Pennsylvania, 
 and in 1840, through the kind offices of one of his early 
 friends, Captain Samuel D. Karns, he was appointed to a 
 clerkship in the office of the collector of tolls on the Penn- 
 sylvania Canal at Johnstown, the collector. Major James 
 Potts, being a brother-in-law of Captain Karns. Captain 
 Smith was at this time a good penman and a good ac- 
 ■countant, although he had received a very imperfect edu- 
 cation when a boy. Thenceforward until 1861 he was an 
 active and influential citizen of Johnstown. It was not 
 born in him to be quiet anywhere, or to be a laggard in 
 matters of public interest. He was a born leader of men 
 and not a follower. 
 
 After Major Potts retired from the position of collector 
 of tolls in 1842, if not, indeed, before this event, Captain 
 Smith's old love of the water returned, and he successively 
 became the owner and captain of two portable boats on the 
 main line of the Pennsylvania Canal and its railroad con- 
 nections, named the Excelsior and the San Jacinto. Dr. 
 Campbell Sheridan can tell some interesting stories about 
 the Excelsim-. But, like all of Captain Smith's business en- 
 terprises, he made but little money out of his boating ven- 
 tures, and in 1846, when the Mexican war broke out, we 
 find him attached as a sutler's clerk to the First Regiment 
 of Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Samuel 
 W. Black, Captain Samuel D. Karns being the sutler. We 
 may be sure that it was through no fear of personal harm 
 that Captain Smith did not occupy a different position in 
 the regiment. He remained in Mexico with General Scott's 
 army until the war closed, often exposed to danger and 
 often participating in movements against the enemy. In a 
 skirmishing expedition he was wounded in the left leg, 
 and thereafter he walked with a sliglit limp. 
 
80 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEEES. 
 
 After returning to Johnstown late in 1847 or early in 
 1848 Captain Smith was for a time the manager of Ben's 
 Creek furnace, near Johnstown, immediately preceding, we 
 think, that accomplished gentleman, William C. McCormick. 
 This position he held for only a short time. Our recollection 
 is that he next embarked on an active political career by 
 assuming the editorship and the publication of the Demo- 
 cratic paper at Johnstown which had previously been pub- 
 lished by Henry C. Devine and was called The Cambria 
 Transcript. It was late in 1849 when Captain Smith took 
 charge of this paper, the name of which he changed to The 
 Mountain Echo. In the spring of 1853, after encountering 
 some vicissitudes, a "new series" of the Echo appeared, the 
 number of columns being enlarged and the name being also 
 enlarged to The Allegheny 3Iountain Echo and Johnstown Com- 
 mercial Advertiser and Intelligencer. In the meantime Cap- 
 tain Smith had been appointed cargo inspector at Johns- 
 town and had become a Democratic leader and a man of 
 mark among Democrats throughout the State. He could 
 write a good editorial article on almost any subject ; he 
 could make a very fair speech on almost any question ; he 
 was a good vocalist and delighted to sing political and pa- 
 triotic songs ; he was the author of at least one notable 
 patriotic song ; he was a good fiddler ; he could tell a 
 story ; he w^as good company anywhere ; and he was a man 
 of fine appearance. His physical and moral courage were 
 well known, and his generous and chivalrous nature was 
 just as well known. 
 
 After awhile, in October, 1856, while still editing the 
 Echo, Captain Smith was elected by the Democrats to the 
 lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature and was con- 
 secutively elected a second and third time to the same 
 body. In the winter of 1856 and 1857 he joined with other 
 Democrats in refusing to vote for John W. Forney, the 
 Democratic caucus nominee for United States Senator, and 
 this action defeated that gentleman and resulted eventually 
 in the election of Simon Cameron. Captain Smith and his 
 associates, seven in all, voted for Henry D. Foster. They 
 refused to go into the caucus because President-elect Bu- 
 chanan had written a letter virtually dictating Colonel For- 
 
MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 81 
 
 ney's nomination. During his last term in the Legislature 
 Captain Smith's popularity with his fellow-Democrats was 
 shown in his election as Speaker pro tern., to fill a vacancy 
 caused by the ill-health of the regular Speaker. At the 
 close of the session he was presented with a silver tea-set. 
 Engraved upon the pitcher there was the following inscrip- 
 tion : " George N. Smith, of Cambria County, elected unani- 
 mously Speaker pro tern., House of Representatives of Penn- 
 sylvania, Session of 1858." 
 
 In 1860 Captain Smith, who was still editing the Echo, 
 was selected as a delegate to the Charleston Convention of 
 that year. He went to Charleston as a friend of John C. 
 Breckinridge and supported his nomination for the Presi- 
 dency until he became satisfied that the friends of Breckin- 
 ridge were bent upon disunion, when he joined the forces 
 of Stephen A. Douglas. It will be remembered that the 
 convention broke in two at Charleston and that the two 
 wdngs afterwards met separately at Baltimore, each wing 
 nominating its favorite. Captain Smith attended the Doug- 
 las Convention as a delegate and voted for him. The an- 
 nexed correspondence will be read with interest. 
 
 Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, June 26, 1860. 
 Hon. John C. Breckinridge. My Dear Friend : I trust in God you 
 will not suffer the evil ad\dce of designing men to cause you to pursue 
 a course that will destroy the party and ruin yourself. Should you ac- 
 cept the nomination of the Seceders' Convention it will be fatal to the 
 party and ruinous to you. I beseech you to consider well the step you 
 are about to take. Evil must assuredly follow acceptance. Your Sincere 
 Friend, G. Nelson Smith. 
 
 Washington City, June 28, 1860. 
 G. Nelson Smith, Esq., Johnstown, Pa. My Dear Sir: I have your 
 letter and appreciate the motives that dictated it. My course has been 
 surrounded by difficulties for which I was wholly blameless. We must 
 each pursue what seems to be the path of duty. Let it not disturb the 
 personal friendship I am happy to cherish for you. AVith good wishes, 
 I remain Your Friend, John C. Breckinridge. 
 
 The break-up at Charleston extended to the Democratic 
 party of the whole country, and the Cambria county Demo- 
 crats at once took sides with either Breckinridge or Doug- 
 las. In the fall of 1860 there were four candidates for the 
 General Assembly, the Republicans nominating Alexander 
 C. Mullin, the Breckinridge Democrats Michael Dan Mage- 
 
82 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 han, the Douglas Democrats Captain Smith, and the New 
 County party Major James Potts. MuUiri was elected. 
 
 The split in the Democratic party did not extend to 
 the State politics of Pennsylvania. Henry D. Foster was 
 the Democratic nominee for Governor but was defeated by 
 Andrew G. Curtin. Captain Smith presided over the conven- 
 tion which nominated his old friend, General Foster. This 
 was his last appearance in the Democratic politics of Penn- 
 sylvania. The war came soon afterwards, justifying his 
 judgment of the purposes of the Southern Democrats at 
 Charleston. It brought changes in the political as well as 
 personal relations of Captain Smith and other Democrats. 
 
 Soon after the close of the political campaign of 1860 
 Oaptain Smith's old friend, Samuel D. Karns, invited him 
 to engage with him in an oil speculation in West Virginia. 
 In April, 1861, after the firing on Fort Sumter, the West 
 Virginia Confederates drove them out of the State. 
 
 Returning to Johnstown Captain Smith closed the Echo 
 office and sought a position with the Union army. He was 
 an intense lover of his country and its flag and his patri- 
 otic ardor would not permit him to remain in quiet Johns- 
 town when that flag was insulted. His lameness prevented 
 him from enlisting as a soldier in its defense, but he was 
 appointed quartermaster of the second brigade of Fitz John 
 Porter's division, serving in this capacity, with the rank of 
 captain, until 1862, when he was appointed an assistant pay- 
 master in the army with the rank of major, in which posi- 
 tion he served until the close of the war in 1865, being all 
 the time attached to the Army of the Potomac. His two 
 oldest sons, Robert Emmet and Montgomery Pike, were pri- 
 vate soldiers in the same army. Montgomery was wounded 
 in the last day's fighting in front of Petersburg, dying in 
 1870, his wound contributing to his death. 
 
 If Major Smith had now gone back to Johnstown among 
 his old friends he would have done wisely, but he had part- 
 ed with the Echo at the breaking out of the Rebellion and 
 moved his family to Baltimore in 1864 while still in the 
 Government service, and when the war closed he felt that 
 there was nothing to take him to Johnstown. This mistake 
 he often regretted afterwards. In the spring of 1866 he 
 
MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH, 83 
 
 tried farming in Virginia, in the neighborhood of Wash- 
 ington, but tliis experiment failing he sought and secured 
 a clerkship in the custom house at Philadelphia, where he 
 remained until 1869, removing his family to that city soon 
 after his appointment, where he ever afterwards resided until 
 his death. From 1869 forward Major Smith experienced 
 nothing but bad luck. He tried many honorable ways of 
 making a living, including several visits to Texas in the 
 interest of various mining enterprises. For a number of 
 years before his death he lived a life of retirement and al- 
 most of seclusion, but still using his pen in many ways 
 and never for one moment losing his interest in public 
 affairs. In 1878 his wife died. 
 
 Major Smith's mother was a devout Methodist and his 
 father was a non-professor of religion. The major himself 
 never, until about the time of his wife's death, appeared to 
 take any interest in religious matters. Mrs. Smith was all 
 her life a Roman Catholic and she reared her children in 
 that faith. A short time before her death the major united 
 with the same church, and ever afterwards he was one of 
 its most faithful adherents and a regular attendant upon 
 its services. Major Smith and his wife were the parents 
 of eight children, all born at Johnstown, two of whom we 
 have mentioned. 
 
 The remains of our old friend were taken on Friday 
 morning from his residence to the church of St. Charles 
 Borromeo, at Twentieth and Christian streets, and thence to 
 Georgetown, D. C, where they will find a last resting-place 
 in Holy Rood cemetery. The remains of his wife will be 
 taken to Georgetown and laid beside those of her husband. 
 
 We have in the foregoing lines traced the career of a 
 really remarkable man. Courage and generosity were the 
 traits by which he was best known to the generation to 
 which he belonged, but he had many other noble qualities. 
 No truer friend ever lived and no more manly opponent. 
 He was kind to those who most needed kindness, the poor 
 and the lowly, and he spurned and contemned alike the 
 insolence of power and the arrogance of wealth. He was 
 an intense lover of his country. He was public spirited. 
 He was a good friend to Johnstown in the days when his 
 
84 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 voice and vote could influence its destiny. He passed 
 through the Legislature the bill incorporating the Johns- 
 town Water and Gas Company and the bill dividing Johns- 
 town into four wards. He was a charter member of the 
 Johnstown Division of Sons of Temperance. 
 
 Of liis generous and chivalrous nature we could give 
 many illustrations in addition to those already mentioned. 
 While president of the select council of Johnstown in 1858 
 he was called upon one day to act as burgess and to im- 
 pose fines upon two men for fighting. One man promptly 
 paid his fine but the other man being impecunious Captain 
 Smith paid his fine for him rather than send him to the 
 lock-up. We personally know of two cases in Johnstown 
 in which he saved the lives of drowning men by plung- 
 ing into the water and risking his own life, once into the 
 canal upon a night of pitchy darkness. One day, when 
 the Pennsylvania Canal was in all its glory, some heart- 
 less boatmen took from a boat which had just arrived at 
 Johnstown a sick w^oman and her helpless children and 
 placed the mother on a bench at one of the wharves. 
 This poor woman was sick with Asiatic cholera. Captain 
 Smith heard of what had been done, and after vainly en- 
 deavoring to secure a lodging place for the sick woman 
 he took her and her children to his own house, where she 
 soon afterwards died. That other noble-hearted gentleman, 
 William Orr, the undertaker, and two good women properly 
 cared for her remains and she was decently buried. The 
 children were restored to their father. 
 
DR. WILLIAM ANTHONY SMITH. 85 
 
 DR. WILLIAM ANTHONY SMITH. 
 
 FROM THE JOHNSTOWN DAILY TRIBUNE OF TUESDAY, 
 NOVEMBER 1, 1887. 
 
 Dr. William A. Smith died at his residence in Phila- 
 delphia on Sunday morning, October 30, 1887. 
 
 Dr. Smith came of honored and even distinguished line- 
 age. His great-grandfather, William Smith, D.D., a native 
 of Aberdeen, in Scotland, was a clergyman of the Episcopal 
 Church in Philadelphia before the Revolution and for many 
 years afterwards. His prominence in the church and among 
 the learned men of Philadelphia was such that he was ap- 
 pointed the first provost of the University of Pennsylvania, 
 a position which he filled most acceptably for many years. 
 He married a Miss Moore, of the vicinity of Philadelphia, 
 whose family was one of the most aristocratic and worthy 
 in the Province of Pennsylvania. Their oldest son was 
 William Moore Smith, who became distinguished as a 
 Philadelphia lawyer and diplomat, having been sent by 
 Washington on a protracted mission to England, the duties 
 of which he discharged with tact and good judgment. His 
 wife was a Miss Rudolph, a descendant of one of the 
 early Swedish settlers on the Delaware. Their oldest son 
 was General William Rudolph Smith, who married a Miss 
 Anthony, of Philadelphia. These were the parents of Dr. 
 AVilliam Anthony Smith. 
 
 Provost William Smith was not only an eminent divine 
 and a successful instructor of young men but he was also 
 a shrewd man of affairs. He early foresaw the possibilities 
 of Central and Western Pennsylvania, and patented many 
 tracts of land in the Juniata valley and as far west as the 
 territory now embraced in Cambria county. Among his 
 acquisitions was the site of the town of Huntingdon, in 
 Huntingdon county, which he surveyed into town lots in 
 1767, naming the town after Lady Huntingdon, of Eng- 
 
86 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 land, who had been a Hberal patron of the University of 
 Pennsylvania. To the town of Huntingdon General Wil- 
 liam R. Smith came from Philadelphia early in the nine- 
 teenth century to practice his profession as a lawyer, and 
 here, on the 13th of November, 1809, was born his oldest 
 child, William A. Smith. If William A. Smith had lived 
 just two weeks longer he would have been 78 years old. 
 
 When still a boy William A. Smith lost his mother by 
 death and the Huntingdon home was temporarily broken 
 up. He was sent to live with his grandmother in the vi- 
 cinity of Philadelphia, and in the schools of that city and 
 its neighborhood he received a good elementary education, 
 which was subsequently completed at Huntingdon, after his- 
 father's second marriage and the re-establishment of his 
 home at that place. About the time William's literary and 
 classical studies were completed his father removed to a 
 farm in the vicinity of Bedford but continued to practice 
 his profession in the courts of Huntingdon, Bedford, and 
 Cambria counties until his removal to Wisconsin in 1838. 
 William went with his father to the farm and for a short 
 time helped to manage it. Before he was twenty years old, 
 however, we find his love of books asserting itself and he 
 became a medical student at the office of Dr. Watson, of 
 Bedford. His medical studies were subsequently completed 
 at the University of Pennsylvania, which conferred upon 
 him the degree of doctor of medicine in 1832. 
 
 Dr. Smith commenced the practice of his profession at 
 Bedford, where he remained only a short time, thence going 
 to Somerset, where he opened an office and remained until 
 after the town was devastated by a great fire in the fall of 
 1833, his own office being burned. From Somerset he re- 
 moved to Ebensburg, Cambria county, where he at once en- 
 tered upon an extensive practice, which he retained until 
 his removal to Philadelj^hia in 1858, subject to occasional 
 * interruptions, which will presently be explained. At Somerset 
 Dr. Smith formed the acquaintance of Jeremiah S. Black, 
 and a strong intimacy existed between the two men until 
 the death of Judge Black a few years ago. The two young 
 men roomed together at Somerset. 
 
 In 1841 Dr. Smith was married to Miss Rebecca C. Bel- 
 
DR. WILLIAM ANTHONY SMITH. 8^ 
 
 las, of Milton, Pa., a cousin of Mrs. Dr. Rodrigue, of Ebens- 
 burg. Four sons were born to this union. In 1858 Dr. 
 Smith removed with his family to Philadelphia, the home 
 of his immediate ancestors, that he might give his children 
 the advantages of a liberal education. To do this he tem- 
 porarily abandoned the practice of his profession and be- 
 came an inspector in the Philadelphia custom house. In 
 1861 his wife died, and in 1862 he entered the Government 
 service as an army surgeon, continuing in this position un- 
 til 1866, when he was mustered out. Soon after entering 
 the army he was captured at Savage Station, while serving 
 under McClellan, but was soon afterwards released. His 
 oldest son, William Bellas Smith, born in 1842, was emploj^- 
 ed in the medical service during the war. He died and 
 was buried at sea in 1866 while returning home from the 
 Southwest, where he had for some time been stationed. He 
 was a young man of particularly winning ways and of very 
 bright promise. His father never recovered from this blow. 
 
 Soon after retiring from the army Dr. Smith was ap- 
 pointed to a responsible position in the office of the pro- 
 thonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for the 
 eastern district, which position he filled most creditably 
 for about twenty years until attacked by his last illness. 
 
 General William R. Smith was very prominent in the 
 military affairs of the Juniata valley, and- his son, the doctor, 
 inherited his military tastes. Soon after he settled in Ebens- 
 burg he was chosen captain of the Cambria Guards. This 
 office he held for ten years. Many old residents of Ebens- 
 burg still refer to him as Captain Smith. He took great 
 interest in the welfare of his company, and it was largely 
 owing to his zeal and popularity as its commanding officer 
 that it was ready with full ranks to go to Mexico in the 
 spring of 1847. The doctor was himself, however, prevented 
 from going with his men, but his interest in military mat- 
 ters never suffered any abatement to the last year of his 
 life. When his company returned to Ebensburg in 1848 
 wdtli broken ranks he delivered an address of welcome. He 
 was a sincere and ardent lover of his country, and her his- 
 tory and achievements were to him a constant delight. 
 
 If Dr. Smith w^as a born soldier he was also a born pol- 
 
88 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 itician of the better class. He was an ardent Democrat 
 when he cast his first Presidential vote for Andrew Jackson 
 in 1832, and he remained a Democrat all his days. He and 
 his father were warm friends of Governor David R. Porter, 
 who was their fellow citizen at Huntingdon, and soon after 
 the Governor's first election in 1838 he appointed Dr. Smith 
 to be prothonotary of Cambria county, succeeding Dr. David 
 -T. Storm. Dr. Smith held this office for several years. He 
 was an elegant penman, and he made a capable and oblig- 
 ing court officer. 
 
 In 1848 John Fenlon, a Whig, was elected to the lower 
 branch of the State Legislature, defeating Colonel John 
 Kane, a Democrat. In 1849 the Whigs again ran Mr. Fen- 
 lon for the same office, but he was defeated by Dr. Smith, 
 who accordingly served in the Legislature of 1850. In the 
 fall of that year Dr. Smith was again the nominee of his 
 party for the same office, but this time he was himself de- 
 feated by John Linton, Whig. In 1854 the doctor was the 
 Democratic candidate for the lower house of the Legislature, 
 but was defeated by George S. King, the Whig candidate. 
 
 During his residence in Ebensburg Dr. Smith was fre- 
 quently chosen a delegate to State conventions and was 
 otherwise honored by his party. He was, in fact, one of the 
 leaders of the party as long as he remained a citizen of 
 Cambria county. It was largely through his personal influ- 
 ence that the new-county scheme was defeated at Harris- 
 burg while Mr. King, its champion, was in the Legislature. 
 He was always ready with a forcible speech in defense of 
 the regular Democratic ticket. After his removal to Phila- 
 delphia he maintained to the last his intimate personal re- 
 lations with party leaders, who always respected his judg- 
 ment and were often warmed by his enthusiasm. 
 
 The foregoing are the leading facts in the long and 
 useful life of one of the worthiest citizens Cambria county 
 has ever had. They leave his character undescribed, and a 
 man's character is, after all, the principal part of the man. 
 He was always willing to extend any favor or courtesy that 
 was in his power to grant. As a physician he answered 
 many calls without hope of reward, and this often at much 
 personal sacrifice in the bitter winters of Northern Cambria. 
 
DR. WILLIAM ANTHONY SMITH. 89 
 
 His fidelity to his friends was a marked trait, and his at- 
 tachment to Huntingdon, the home of his childhood, and 
 to Ebensburg was pathetic in its tenderness. 
 
 Among Dr. Smith's varied attainments was a cultivat- 
 ed literary taste. He was a great reader and a vigorous 
 writer. The newspapers of Bedford and Cambria counties 
 contained many well-written contributions from his ready 
 pen in the days before the civil war. While residing in 
 Ebensburg he was universally accepted as an -authority in 
 all literary matters, and upon historical subjects particularly 
 he was a veritable cyclopsedia. His literary style was for- 
 cible, direct, and elegant. While residing in Philadelphia 
 he became an active member of St. Andrew's Society, and 
 after he was 65 years old he prepared and published elabo- 
 rate historical sketches of its first two presiding officers, Dr. 
 Thomas Graeme and Lieutenant Governor James Hamilton, 
 both ante-Revolutionary characters. These two literary pro- 
 ductions are so well written and so perfect in all literary 
 essentials that they alone entitle their author to an honor- 
 able place among Pennsylvania's historical writers. 
 
 The remains of our old friend were buried in St. Peter's 
 churchyard, at the corner of Third and Pine streets, Phila- 
 delphia, on Tuesday afternoon, the 1st of November, 1887. 
 
 Dr. Smith's father, William Rudolph Smith, was born 
 at La Trappe, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on August 
 31, 1787, and died at Quincy, Illinois, on August 22, 1808. 
 In 1803 he accompanied his father to England as his 
 private secretary, studied law in the Middle Temple, and 
 on his return home in 1808 was admitted to the bar of 
 Philadelphia. He removed to Huntingdon county in the 
 following year and in 1811 he became deputy attorney gen- 
 eral of Cambria county. He subsequently removed to Bed- 
 ford county. Removing to Wisconsin in 1838 he took an 
 active part in its aifairs until his death. 
 
90 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 JUDGE JAMES POTTS. 
 
 WRITTEN IN 1891 AND PRINTED IN PAMPHLET FORM FOR 
 PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 On August 8, 1891, the old citizens of Johnstown and 
 more than forty members of the bar of Cambria county 
 laid to rest in Grand View cemetery the remains of Hon. 
 James Potts, who died at Oil City, Venango county, on 
 Thursday, August 6, 1891. He was born at Butler, Penn- 
 sylvania, on August 31, 1809, and was consequently at the 
 time of his death almost 82 years old. 
 
 James Potts was the son of John Potts, a native of the 
 North of Ireland. His mother's maiden name was Jane 
 Karns, who was also of Scotch-Irish extraction. Both fami- 
 lies were not only among the first settlers of AVestern Penn- 
 sylvania but they were also long prominent in the social, 
 business, and political affairs of that part of our State. 
 John Potts, the father of James Potts, was one of the pio- 
 neer settlers of the town of Butler. He was a merchant. 
 He was also an active and influential politician. He rep- 
 resented Butler county in the Legislature at a very early 
 day and also held the offices of county treasurer and county 
 commissioner. Two of his sons, George and James, were 
 also politicians from their boyhood. The father was a dis- 
 ciple of Thomas Jefferson and his sons were Democrats all 
 their days. The Karns family was divided in its political 
 allegiance. Two members of this family, William and 
 Samuel D. Karns, brothers, were prominent in the councils 
 of the Democratic and Whig parties respectively. 
 
 The town of Butler was mainly settled by brainy, en- 
 terprising, and cultivated families, who w^ere nearly all of 
 Scotch-Irish origin and Presbyterian in their religious faith. 
 Among a people of such characteristics and antecedents 
 James Potts grew up. He lacked no advantages which 
 churches, schools, good health, a comfortable home, ambi- 
 
JUDGE JAMES POTTS. 91 
 
 tious parents, and superior social surroundings could give. 
 He lived in an intellectual and social atmosphere that was 
 wholesome and elevating. Intended for one of the liberal 
 professions he became a student of Jefferson College when 
 he was about 17 years old, and he almost completed the 
 regular four years' course. Owing to some accidental occur- 
 rence he did not graduate, but he obtained a good knowl- 
 edge of Latin and Greek and the higher mathematics and 
 some knowledge of Hebrew. He was a great reader of his- 
 tory while at college and ever afterwards. He was born 
 with decided literary tastes, and at college these tastes had 
 opportunity for healthy development. When yet a young 
 man he had read much good literature, was a writer of 
 good English, and was a ready and impressive public speaker. 
 
 Leaving college about 1829 or 1830 James Potts appears 
 to have not immediately entered upon the study of a pro- 
 fession, as we hear of him a few years later as a student 
 of law with his early friend and playmate, Samuel A. Pur- 
 viance, of Butler, who afterwards became noted for his legal 
 attainments and his political prominence. James Potts did, 
 however, push his way to the front of Butler county poli- 
 tics soon after leaving college, and with such success that 
 when he was 25 years old he was postmaster of Butler. 
 About the time when he was appointed to this political 
 office he was elected captain of an infantry company, the 
 Butler Blues, a volunteer military organization, and a little 
 while later he was elected major of the battalion to which 
 his company was attached. In 1837, after he had com- 
 menced the study of law, he was appointed one of the 
 clerks of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 
 that year, of which some of the most eminent men of the 
 State were members. Here his opportunities for increasing 
 his political acquaintance and forming political friendships 
 were most excellent, and he at once attained a high stand- 
 ing among the Democratic leaders of Pennsylvania. 
 
 On the 2d day of October, 1838, James Potts and his 
 cousin, Margaret Jane Karns, were married at Pittsburgh 
 by the Rev. James Prestly. Mrs. Potts's father's name was 
 James Elliott Karns. During the following winter the 
 canal commissioners, under the administration of Governor 
 
92 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 David R. Porter, appointed James Potts, who had first been 
 Captain Potts and was now Major Potts, collector of tolls at 
 Johnstown, on the main line of the public improvements 
 of the State, succeeding Frederick Sharretts, a Whig. Soon 
 after his ai:)pointment Major Potts visited Johnstown for 
 the first time, and in March, 1839, when less than 30 years 
 old, he entered upon his new duties and set up housekeep- 
 ing in the official residence of the collector, attached to the 
 collector's office on Canal street, now Washington street. 
 Major Potts continued as collector of tolls for five years, 
 or until 1844, when he was succeeded by A. W. Wasson, of 
 Erie, who was in turn succeeded a few years later by 
 Obed Edson, of Warren. During a large part of Major 
 Potts's term as collector he had as his clerks George Nel- 
 son Smith, Campbell Sheridan, and Cyrus L. Pershing, all 
 well known to the old citizens of Johnstown. 
 
 Upon coming to Johnstown in the spring of 1839 Major 
 Potts and his wife at once became a positive and beneficent 
 social force in their new home. They were a handsome 
 couple, tasteful in dress, courtly in manner, fond of social 
 gatherings where gentility counted for something, exceed- 
 ingly hospitable in their own elegantly furnished home, 
 regular attendants at church, and possessed of many polite 
 accomplishments as well as a generous income apart from 
 the emoluments of the collector's office. Mrs. Potts was a 
 woman of rare grace and of queenly presence, of most win- 
 ning ways, cheerful and hopeful under all circumstances, 
 devoted to her home, ever ready to make others happy, the 
 possessor of a mind cultivated by much reading and con- 
 tact with well-read and well-bred people — a lady, in brief, 
 of exalted character. She died on August 9, 1879, in Johns- 
 town, living there all her married life. She was the mother 
 of eight children. Her oldest daughter Jane lost her life 
 in the Johnstown flood of 1889. 
 
 When Major Potts surrendered the collector's office to 
 his successor he opened an office on Clinton street for the 
 practice of law so far as this could be done without his 
 having previously been admitted to the bar. He had not 
 completed his legal studies when he came to Johnstown, 
 but when the whirligig of politics threw him on his own 
 
JUDGE JAMES POTTS. 93 
 
 resources he resolved not only to make Johnstown his per- 
 manent home but to rely upon the practice of law for a 
 livelihood. To comply with the court regulations before 
 applying for admission to the bar he nominally became a 
 student with Hon. Moses Canan, then the only lawyer in 
 Johnstown, and on the 7th of October, 1846, he was form- 
 ally admitted as a member of the Cambria county bar. He 
 at once entered upon an active and lucrative practice, in 
 which he continued until advancing years and declining 
 health caused him to virtually retire from the further prac- 
 tice of his profession. On June 11, 1850, when on a visit 
 to his old home in Butler, he was admitted as a member 
 of the Butler county bar. For about three years, beginning 
 with 1850, he was the senior member of the law firm of 
 Potts & Kopelin. Abram Kopelin had studied law with 
 Major Potts and was a bright and promising student. He 
 afterwards became one of the most distinguished members 
 of the Cambria county bar. Major Potts never had any 
 other law partner. 
 
 At the time of his death Major Potts was the oldest in 
 years of all the members of the Cambria county bar, but 
 there survived him two members who were engaged in 
 practice before he had been admitted. Hon. John Fenlon 
 was admitted on July 3, 1837, and General Joseph McDon- 
 ald on April 3, 1844. For these dates I am indebted to 
 Hon. George M. Reade, of Ebeusburg, who completed his 
 legal studies with Potts & Kopelin. 
 
 As early as 1850 an active agitation had commenced in 
 the southern part of Cambria county in favor of the es- 
 tablishment of a new county, with Johnstown as the coun- 
 ty-seat, and in 1854, after the election of George S. King 
 to the Legislature, this movement, with which Mr. King 
 earnestly sympathized, took shape in the preparation of a 
 bill which provided for the organization of a new county. 
 The measure failed before the Legislature, but the agitation 
 was again fiercely renewed in 1860, when Major Potts, who 
 had from the first been one of its principal promoters, be- 
 came the candidate for the Legislature of what was known 
 as the New County party. He was defeated after a most 
 animated canvass, which has probably never been surpass- 
 
94 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 ed in intensity in Cambria county. Then the war came^ 
 but a few years after it closed the new-county movement 
 was again renewed with great energy, this time, however^ 
 taking the form of a proposition to remove the county- 
 seat from Ebensburg to Johnstown. In 1870 Captain H. D. 
 Woodruff, of Johnstown, ran as a candidate for the Legis- 
 lature on this issue, but was defeated by a small majorit3^ 
 It had previously been proposed to establish at Johnstown 
 a district court which should include within its jurisdiction 
 Johnstown and some neighboring towns and townships. 
 This scheme was so far successful that in 1869 it was ap- 
 proved in an act of the Legislature and the court was duly 
 established, the judges of the Cambria county courts offici- 
 ating as judges of the district court. Subsequent legisla- 
 tion provided for the election of all district court officers 
 by the citizens of the district, but before an election could 
 be held the offices were filled by appointment of the Gov- 
 ernor, Major Potts being appointed president judge by Gov- 
 ernor Geary in 1871. He was subsequently elected to this 
 position. Several sessions of the new court were held with 
 Judge Potts on the bench. But the court, which had at 
 first been eagerly desired, soon fell into disfavor because by 
 the terms creating it it partook too much of the character 
 of a police court. There was much legislation concerning 
 it and much litigation. In 1874 Judge Potts was defeated 
 as a candidate for re-election to the judgeship, and in 1875 
 the Supreme Court of the State decided that the act creat- 
 ing the district court was unconstitutional. This ended the 
 new-county and county-seat agitation which had existed for 
 a quarter of a century. 
 
 Soon after coming to Johnstown Major Potts took an in- 
 terest in its military affairs. There had existed for a number 
 of years a volunteer infantry company called the Conemaugh 
 Guards, of which Joseph Chamberlain, John K. Shryock, 
 and John Linton were successively captains. About 1841 a 
 rival comjDany was organized, called the Washington Artil- 
 lerists, of which Peter Levergood, Jr., was elected captain. 
 He was succeeded by George W. Easly, and about 1842 Col- 
 lector Potts was elected captain, a position which he held 
 for many years. The name of the company had in the 
 
JUDGE JAMES POTTS. 95 
 
 meantime been changed to Washington Grays. The Grays 
 were often on dress parade and with the Conemaugh Guards 
 they participated in many encampments. Those Avere stir- 
 ring times for a country town. Major Potts was a good 
 (h'ill officer. At the beginning of the Rebellion he took de- 
 light in drilling Johnstown volunteers for the Union army. 
 
 I may here recall the interesting fact that James Potts 
 played the drum on the 3d day of June, 1825, upon the oc- 
 casion of Lafayette's reception by the people of the town of 
 Butler, and that the fifer whom he accompanied with his 
 drum was a Revolutionary soldier named Peter McKiimey, 
 who had played the fife at Bunker Hill in 1775, just fifty 
 years before. In our old friend we have had a link to con- 
 nect the present generation with Revolutionary days. 
 
 In 1840, not long after Major Potts came to Johnstown, 
 the Washingtonian temperance movement was started, and 
 in this movement he took an active interest, attending and 
 addressing the meetings which w^ere held in 1840 and 1841, 
 and perhaps in 1842, in the various churches of Johnstown, 
 and aiding greatly by his earnestness and ability in obtain- 
 ing signers to the Washingtonian pledge. The Washingto- 
 nian movement in Johnstown was soon followed by the 
 organization of the Juvenile Temperance Society, and the 
 credit of originating and perfecting this organization be- 
 longs wholly to Major Potts. It lasted for two or three 
 years, and did great good in starting many Johnstown boys 
 in the right path. Subsequently Major Potts assisted in 
 organizing the Johnstown Division of Sons of Temperance 
 and its companion the Cadets of Temperance. All his days 
 he was a consistent and earnest temperance man. His in- 
 fluence in Johnstown in behalf of temperance was a marked 
 feature of his useful life. 
 
 But Major Potts was active in other good works in 
 Johnstown for many years after he became one of its citi- 
 zens and at a time when men of capacity and courage were 
 greatly needed. It will surprise many who read these lines 
 to learn that when he came to Johnstown the common- 
 school system as it has been known to this generation was 
 so unpopular in his new home that there was danger of its 
 complete rejection, wdiile in some of the country districts 
 
96 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 surrounding Johnstown it had actually been rejected. Of 
 all the defenders of the common-school system in Johnstown 
 at this period Major Potts was certainly the most active, and 
 the final establishment of the system on a firm foundation 
 in that town and in neighboring school districts was very 
 largely the result of his earnest efforts. When the system 
 was still in danger in Johnstown he was chosen a school 
 director, and for many years he faithfully and zealously 
 served his fellow citizens in that humble and thankless po- 
 sition. He was also one of the prime movers in the estab- 
 lishment about 1851 of a select school for girls, which 
 was held in the building especially erected for the purpose 
 in the rear of the Presbyterian church and was presided 
 over by Miss A. L. Elliott and Miss Hannah McCullough, 
 the latter being succeeded in a year or two by Miss Re- 
 becca Newell. This school was a signal success for many 
 years. The cause of popular education in Johnstown and 
 the cause of liberal education as well never had a better 
 or more efficient friend than Major Potts. 
 
 When our old friend came to Johnstown in 1839 his 
 official position and his natural tastes combined to make 
 him active in local politics, while his wide acquaintance 
 with the leading members of his party made him also 
 to some extent a factor in State politics. He had opin- 
 ions of his own about men and measures and expressed 
 them freely. He was long a regular attendant at the coun- 
 ty conventions of his party. He was a Tariff Democrat 
 and a friend of Simon Cameron. He was a ready po- 
 litical writer and liked to take part in newspaper contro- 
 versies. For a few months in 1846 he was one of the 
 editors of an independent Democratic paper published in 
 Johnstown in 1846 and in 1847, called The Democratic 
 Courier ; but a year or two before this, during the inter- 
 regnum between his retirement from the collector's office 
 and his entrance upon the active practice of law, he ed- 
 ited for one winter the Democratic organ at Harrisburg, 
 the Argus. In 1847 the Courier opposed Governor Shunk's 
 renomination. It was then edited by T. A. Maguire. The 
 paper died in that year. In both cases in which Major 
 Potts assumed editorial duties he was influenced by his 
 
JUDGE JAMES POTTS. 97 
 
 strong partisanship and his thoroughly unselfish devotion to 
 his political friends. With the exceptions which have been 
 noted he never, however, was the recipient of noteworthy- 
 political honors. While personally popular with men of all 
 parties his independent and often impulsive methods did 
 not commend him to wide recognition as a party leader. 
 
 For several years before the Johnstown flood of May 31, 
 1889, Judge Potts had lived a quiet and retired life in the 
 ■comfortable home on Walnut street he had built about 1853, 
 and which was always, especially during the lifetime of Mrs. 
 Potts, one of the most hospitable and inviting of all Johns- 
 town homes. A large garden and many fruit trees occupied 
 much of the judge's attention from spring to fall, and at all 
 seasons his well-stored library served to employ his active 
 brain and to afford subjects of conversation with friends 
 who called to see him. The last conversation I ever held 
 with the judge on the porch of the old-fashioned brick 
 house to which he was so much attached was suggested by 
 his reference to the important part which George Wash- 
 ington had personally taken in the development of Western 
 Pennsylvania. He was an ardent patriot, and the history 
 of his country was as familiar to him as household words, 
 while the achievements of its great men aroused his enthu- 
 siasm and excited his pride whenever they were recalled. 
 Western Pennsylvania had a warm place in his affections. 
 He was also a close Bible student and an intelligent ad- 
 herent of the faith of his fathers. Without pressing his re- 
 ligious views or his biblical knowledge upon others he was 
 always most entertaining when religious or scriptural ques- 
 tions were the subjects of conversation. His knowledge of 
 every subject in which he took an interest was thorough ; 
 he could be superficial in nothing which he set out to un- 
 derstand. The early history of Johnstown, its surveys, its 
 metes and bounds, all these were well known to him. 
 
 When the flood came on that last day of May, 1889, 
 Judge Potts and his family were overwhelmed by the 
 mighty rush of waters ; their home was destroyed in an 
 instant ; his oldest daughter, as has already been stated, 
 was lost, although her body was afterwards found ; and the 
 judge and his remaining children were swept down toward 
 
98 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 the now historic stone bridge, where they were rescued. In 
 a day or two the judge and his family found a refuge with 
 friends in Westmoreland county and afterwards with friends 
 in Blair county; thence going before the summer was over 
 to Oil City, where a new home was secured, and where, a 
 few weeks ago, away from the few old friends who had 
 survived the flood, he died. 
 
 As my memory carries me back over the fifty years 
 which Judge Potts spent in Johnstown I am impressed by 
 the thought that the town never had a more worthy citizen, 
 never a truer friend, never a more potent force in giving 
 rightful direction to its social and moral development. His 
 influence was always on the right side of every question 
 which affected its welfare, and in his younger days that in- 
 fluence was exerted to the utmost whenever the occasion 
 called for wise leadership. His very presence in the com- 
 munity was in those days an inspiration to the timid, the 
 irresolute, the unfortunate, and the friendless. He was espe- 
 cially the friend of ambitious young men. I can name 
 many successful men who have had Johnstown for their 
 home who owe a great deal of their success in life to the 
 encouragement they received from Judge Potts. His home 
 of refinement and grace was always open to them when 
 they were boys ; his books were freely loaned to them ; his 
 interest in them never ceased ; his praise was never with- 
 held. He was one of the first residents of Johnstown to 
 give to its social currents a literary direction and the desire 
 for the training of colleges and seminaries. But it was in 
 wider directions that his influence for the good of Johns- 
 town was most felt and has been most lasting. 
 
 Nearly all the men whose brains and courage and devo- 
 tion made Johnstown the prosperous and orderly town that 
 it was before the flood have gone to their reward. Now 
 there is a new town among the hills and there are new 
 people in its new homes. It is not surprising to be told that, 
 when Judge Potts visited Johnstown for the last time three 
 months ago, his heart was broken by a flood of memories 
 as crushing as the flood of waters. The old home and the 
 old town gone, old friends gone, himself an old man, what 
 could he do but die and be gathered to his fathers ? 
 
JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 99 
 
 JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 
 
 WRITTEN IN 1904 AND PRINTED IN PAMPHLET FORM FOR 
 PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 Among the departed great men of Pennsylvania whose 
 services to the Commonwealth deserve to be gratefully re- 
 membered the faithful historian will place Judge Cyrus L. 
 Pershing, who died on June 29, 1903, at his home in Potts- 
 ville, Schuylkill county. Pennsylvanians should be proud 
 of the fact that this modest but distinguished citizen lived 
 all his days within the borders of the Keystone State. 
 
 The Pershing family is one of the oldest in Western 
 Pennsylvania. It is of Huguenot origin, Judge Pershing's 
 great-grandfather, Frederick Pershing, having emigrated to 
 this country from Alsace, then a part of France, landing at 
 Baltimore on October 2, 1749. In 1773 the emigrant pur- 
 chased a tract of 269 acres of land upon the headwaters 
 of Nine Mile run in what is now^ Unity township, West- 
 moreland county, Pennsylvania, and in 1774 he moved his 
 family from Frederick county, Maryland, to the new home. 
 With his sons he engaged in farming and he also built 
 " Pershing's mill." One of his grandsons, Christopher, son 
 of Christian, was the father of the future judge. Judge 
 Pershing's mother, Elizabeth Long, was also descended from 
 a pioneer family in Westmoreland county, her grandfather,. 
 Jacob Long, a Pennsylvania German, having moved from 
 Lancaster county to Westmoreland county about the begin- 
 ning of the nineteenth century. Jacob Long's grandfather,^ 
 Oswald Long, and his father, Diebold Long, emigrated from 
 Wurtemberg in 1730. 
 
 Cyrus Long Pershing was born at Youngstown, West- 
 moreland county, on February 3, 1825. He was therefore in 
 his 79th year at the time of his death. In 1830 his father 
 moved his family to Johnstown, dying there in 1836. Cy- 
 rus was the oldest of three brothers. A good mother was 
 
100 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 equal to her responsibilities. That her boys should receive 
 the best education that was possible was her firm deter- 
 mination. They were early sent to " subscription schools." 
 When thirteen years old Cyrus became a clerk in a store 
 in Johnstown. Here he learned from the farmers to speak 
 Pennsylvania Dutch fluently. In 1841, when sixteen years 
 old, he was employed as a clerk at the weighlock of the 
 Pennsylvania Canal at Johnstown. Subsequently he filled 
 other clerical positions in connection with the canal. In all 
 these positions as opportunity would permit he was an in- 
 dustrious student of the educational text books of the day. 
 In 1839 he commenced the study of Latin with Rev. 
 Shadrach Howell Terry, the first pastor of the Presbyterian 
 church at Johnstown, and afterwards he began with Mr. 
 Terry the study of Greek. Mr. Terry died in 1841 and 
 was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Swan. In 1842 Cyrus L. 
 Pershing recited Greek to Mr. Swan that he might be pre- 
 pared to enter the freshman class of Jefferson College, at 
 'Canonsburg, which he entered in November of that year. 
 From this time until June 14, 1848, when he was graduat- 
 ed, he continued his college studies in the winter and his 
 ■clerical duties in the summer, with the exception of a few 
 months in 1846, when he taught one of the public schools 
 in Johnstown. 
 
 During the winter following his graduation Mr. Per- 
 shing taught a classical school at Johnstown, which was 
 well attended and was very successful. In 1849, having re- 
 solved to study law, he accepted an invitation from Jere- 
 miah S. Black, of Somerset, afterwards the distinguished 
 jurist, to enter his office as a student. In November, 1850, 
 he was admitted to the Somerset bar, and immediately 
 afterwards, on November 26, 1850, he was admitted to the 
 bar of Cambria county. He opened an office in Johnstown 
 for the practice of his profession and at once entered upon 
 a large and profitable practice in the courts of Cambria 
 €Ounty. This practice he continued to enjoy as long as he 
 remained a citizen of Johnstown. He also established out- 
 side of Cambria county an excellent reputation as a j^ains- 
 taking lawyer who knew the law, and this reputation paved 
 the way for new clients and for honors which soon came 
 
JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 101 
 
 to him. Judge Black was so impressed by the natural 
 ability of his student and the readiness with which he 
 mastered legal principles and the details of legal practice 
 that he offered him a partnership immediately after hi& 
 admission to the bar, but this arrangement was not con- 
 summated because of Judge Black's elevation to the Su- 
 preme Bench of Pennsylvania in 1851. 
 
 Soon after his admission to the bar Mr. Pershing was 
 married to Miss Mary Letitia Royer, youngest daughter of 
 Hon. John Royer, a pioneer iron manufacturer in the Ju- 
 niata valley and a Whig member of the Legislature from 
 Huntingdon county and afterwards from Cambria county. 
 The marriage took place at Mill Creek Furnace on Sep- 
 tember 23, 1851. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs, 
 Pershing, all of whom, with their mother, are still living. 
 
 All lawyers in country towns in the old days were 
 expected to be politicians, even if they did not have politi- 
 cal ambition of their own. Most of them, however, were 
 ambitious of political preferment. Cyrus L. Pershing was 
 a politician from boyhood. He knew the history of hi& 
 country and of political parties as few other boys knew it. 
 He early developed literary talent as a writer for the local 
 newspapers, and what he wrote for publication often relat- 
 ed to the political issues of the day. He became a member 
 of a local debating society and soon developed considera- 
 ble ability as a public speaker. Even before he was ad- 
 mitted to the bar he was in demand as a speaker at 
 neighborhood meetings of the Democratic party, to which 
 party he faithfully adhered from the beginning to the end 
 of his active career. When yet a boy he began to keep 
 a diary of miscellaneous occurrences and also a scrap- 
 book of election returns and political events. This habit 
 of methodically preserving facts which he deemed worthy 
 of preservation strengthened a naturally retentive memory 
 and nourished his literary and historical tastes. Running^ 
 through his public speeches and addresses while he lived 
 in Johnstown there was always a historical vein. In 1848, 
 before his admission to the bar, he was the orator of the 
 day at a banquet given at Johnstown to the Cambria county 
 volunteers who had returned from the Mexican war. Few 
 
102 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 men who have ever lived in Pennsylvania have known 
 the history of the State, and especially its political history, 
 as Cyrus L. Pershing knew it. He was familiar with the 
 careers of its notable men — politicians, lawyers, clergymen, 
 college professors, and others, and he had a personal ac- 
 quaintance with many of them. 
 
 After his admission to the bar Mr. Pershing's advance- 
 ment in the councils and leadership of his party was so 
 rapid that in 1856 and again in 1858 he was the Demo- 
 cratic candidate for Congress in the district of which 
 Cambria county formed a part. He was defeated in both 
 years, as the district was largely Republican in sentiment, 
 but in each year he greatly reduced the normal anti- 
 Democratic majority. In the autumn of 1861 he was elect- 
 ed a member of the Legislature from Cambria county, and 
 he was re-elected in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, serving in 
 this office for an unusually long and continuous period. 
 His service in the Legislature ended with the session of 
 1866. The author of a published sketch of Mr. Pershing 
 in 1869 says : " During the whole of Mr. Pershing's service 
 at Harrisburg he was a member of the committee of ways 
 and means, the judiciary, and other important general and 
 special committees. At the session of 1863, the only one 
 in which the Democrats had a majority, Mr. Pershing was 
 chairman of the committee on federal relations and at the 
 succeeding session he was the Democratic nominee for 
 Speaker of the House. He was an acknowledged leader 
 and enjoyed to a rare degree the confidence and personal 
 esteem of his fellow members without distinction of party." 
 
 It will be observed that Mr. Pershing's services in the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature covered almost the entire period 
 of the civil war. He was himself a War Democrat and 
 believed in the vigorous prosecution of the war. In addi- 
 tion to what is said of Mr. Pershing's legislative career in 
 the extract above quoted it can be stated as a part of the 
 history of that great struggle that Governor Curtin was in 
 the habit of privately consulting with Mr, Pershing as the 
 Democratic leader in emergencies which were constantly 
 arising. The Governor could rely on his loyalty, his wis- 
 dom, and his influence over his fellow members. 
 
JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 103 
 
 Honors now came to Cyrus L. Pershing in rapid succes- 
 sion. In 18()G he was a delegate from his Congressional 
 district to the National Union Convention which met at 
 Philadelphia in August of that year. In 1868 he was a 
 Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. In 1869 he 
 was the Democratic candidate for judge of the Supreme 
 Court of Pennsylvania, but was defeated by a small ma- 
 jority. In 1872, owing to divisions in the Democratic party 
 of Schuylkill county, he was asked to become a compromise 
 candidate for president judge of the courts of that county. 
 Mr. Pershing accepted the nomination with some hesitation, 
 remarking to the writer of this sketch that it was always 
 a risk to transplant an old tree. He was then in his 48th 
 year. He had never been in Schuylkill county, and was, of 
 course, a stranger to most of its people, even to many mem- 
 bers of the bar who had urged him to accept the nomina- 
 tion. However, he consented to become a candidate and 
 was elected by a large majority for the constitutional term 
 of ten years. In December, 1872, he held his first court at 
 Pottsville and in the spring of 1873 he moved his family 
 to Pottsville. In 1882 he was elected for another term of 
 ten years, and in 1892 for still another term. But failing 
 health prevented him from serving the whole of the third 
 term. He resigned in August, 1899, having presided with 
 great acceptance over the courts of Schuylkill county for 
 twenty-seven consecutive years. From 1899 until his death 
 in 1903 he rested from his labors, but his interest in pub- 
 lic affairs and in the welfare of his immediate neighbor- 
 hood never ceased, and his wonderful memory never failed 
 until he was stricken with his last illness. 
 
 In 1875, while presiding over the courts of Schuylkill 
 county. Judge Pershing was nominated for Governor of 
 Pennsylvania by the Democratic State Convention of that 
 year, his opponent being General John F. Hartranft, who 
 had been elected to the Governorship in 1872 and was now 
 a candidate for a second term. Owing to his position on 
 the bench Judge Pershing could not " take the stump." So 
 great, however, was his personal popularity that he was 
 defeated by General Hartranft by a majority of less than 
 12,000 votes. Outside of Philadelphia he carried the State. 
 
104 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 From 1876 to 1878, inclusive, during Judge Pershing's 
 first term as president judge of Schuylkill county, the infa- 
 mous criminal organization known as the Molly Maguires 
 was completely broken up and many of its members were 
 hung as the result of a series of trials over many of which 
 Judge Pershing presided. This organization had terrorized 
 the anthracite region for several years, and its agents had 
 committed many murders to establish its lawless authority 
 over the mining of anthracite coal. At the risk of his life 
 Judge Pershing did not hesitate to sentence to death the 
 convicted participants in these crimes who were tried before 
 him. From the beginning to the end of these trials he dis- 
 played a degree of both physical and moral courage that 
 has never been excelled on the bench. The trials attracted 
 national attention. The law-abiding citizens of Schuylkill 
 county, without respect to party, have never ceased to ex- 
 press their great obligations to Judge Pershing for the cour- 
 ageous part he took in ridding the county of the Mollie 
 Maguire terror. He had been thoroughly tested and found 
 to be pure gold. 
 
 Judge Pershing became a member of the First Presby- 
 terian church of Johnstown when still a young man. He 
 became a teacher in its Sunday-school and was afterwards 
 its superintendent for many years. He was a ruling elder 
 in the church when scarcely thirty years old and he con- 
 tinued in the eldership during his residence in Johnstown. 
 After his removal to Pottsville he was chosen to the same 
 office in the Second Presbyterian church of that place, and 
 for many years he taught the Bible class in its Sunday- 
 school. He was a member of the Union Presbyterian Con- 
 vention which met in Philadelphia in November, 1867, and 
 a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church which met at Chicago in 1877, at Saratoga in 1884, 
 at Philadelphia in 1888, and at Washington City in 1893. 
 
 Judge Pershing was always a loyal friend of his alma 
 mater, Jefferson College, and of the united colleges, Wash- 
 ington and Jefferson. From March, 1865, until June, 1877, 
 when he resigned, he was a trustee of Washington and 
 Jefferson College. At the laying of the corner-stone of the 
 front part of the main college building, on October 21, 
 
JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 105 
 
 1873, Judge Pershing delivered an address. In 1900 the 
 trustees of tlie college conferred upon him the honorary- 
 degree of doctor of laws, an honor that he richly deserved. 
 
 Judge Pershing died at his home in Pottsville on June 
 29, 1903, as has already been stated. Never a strong man 
 physically, frail of body but big in intellect, the last few 
 years of his life were a continual struggle against uncon- 
 querable disease. The several courts of Schuylkill county 
 at once adjourned when his death became known. On the 
 same day a largely attended meeting of the bench and bar 
 of the county was held at the court-house in Pottsville, 
 at which addresses were delivered and resolutions were 
 adopted which recognized the great services of the deceas- 
 ed jurist and expressed profound appreciation of his lofty 
 private character. It was resolved to attend the funeral 
 in a body. On July 2 the body of Judge Pershing was 
 laid to rest in Mount Laurel cemetery, in Pottsville, in 
 sight of the beautiful home on the hillside in which he 
 had lived with his wife and children for thirty years. 
 
 The services at the house and at the grave were ren- 
 dered particularly impressive by the presence of Rev. Dr. 
 Benjamin L. Agnew, the secretary of the board of minis- 
 terial relief of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Agnew was 
 for ten years the pastor of the First Presbyterian church 
 of Johnstown, and during the whole of this period Judge 
 Pershing was one of his elders and one of his most inti- 
 mate friends. Dr. Agnew and Judge Pershing were born 
 in adjoining counties — Dr. Agnew in Armstrong county and 
 Judge Pershing in Westmoreland county. 
 
 At the meeting of the bench and bar of Schuylkill 
 county on the day of Judge Pershing's death President 
 Judge Bechtel, the chairman, said: "No one ever faced his 
 duty more conscientiously than Judge Pershing. He came 
 here to preside over a court w'hich had the distinction of 
 having a bar membership second to none in the great State 
 of Pennsylvania. He was called upon at that time to dis- 
 pose of most intricate civil, equitable, and other legal ques- 
 tions. He lived through it all and performed his duties 
 faithfully, sincerely, and earnestly. His action in his offi- 
 cial capacity brought honor and greatness to him. His 
 
106 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 decisions were quoted as authority throughout the State 
 by such eminent jurists as Judge Elvvell and others, and 
 were considered akin to decisions of the Supreme Court." 
 
 On the day of his death the newspapers of Pottsville 
 referred to the character and services of Judge Pershing 
 in most kindly terms. The Chronicle said : "In the death 
 of Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing Schuylkill county loses one of 
 its most eminent and honored citizens and the State a ju- 
 rist whose record was second to none. Judge Pershing came 
 to Schuylkill county untried upon the bench. He soon, 
 however, demonstrated the wisdom of his selection, for no 
 man ever did more to raise the standard of the bench of 
 Schuylkill county than he. His private life was spotless, 
 his career upon the bench above criticism, and when he 
 voluntarily retired from public life he carried with him the 
 highest esteem and sincere love of the entire county which 
 he had so zealously and ably served." The Republican 
 said : " Pottsville and Schuylkill county have lost a distin- 
 guished citizen by the death of Judge Cyrus L. Pershing. 
 Judge Pershing was a man of large mental capacity, power- 
 ful will, sterling character, and the strictest integrity. His 
 private life, in the church and in the precincts of the 
 home circle, was a model one. Judge Pershing was one of 
 the representative men of Pottsville, one whose memory is 
 a precious heritage." 
 
 Cyrus L. Pershing was a thoroughly equipped lawyer, 
 a wise and just judge, a politician who sought the public 
 welfare and a man of wide influence in the promotion of 
 many good works. But the world can not know, as his in- 
 timate friends knew, and especially as his old friends knew, 
 how hard, how very hard, was the struggle that he was 
 compelled to make to fit himself for the duties that fell to 
 his lot. From a child he was handicapped by weak eye- 
 sight, and in his ambition to obtain a liberal education he 
 had no assistance, but he never faltered in that ambition 
 from the time he recited his first Latin lesson, and he lit- 
 erally paid his own way through a college course. All his 
 subsequent success was due to the same courageous spirit 
 and to his remarkable industry. He was no idler, no trifler 
 with precious time. The work that was given him to do 
 
JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 107 
 
 he did with all his might. All his life he was a student, 
 not only of books but also of men and events. Withal 
 he was sociable, genial, and kind-hearted. His wonderful 
 memory of historical events and his recollections of public 
 men, joined to a vein of the keenest humor and to a ready 
 wit that no bodily affliction ever suppressed, made him a 
 delightful companion for old and young. And yet, looking 
 back upon his long and useful and honorable life, no trait 
 hi his character appeals to us with so much force as the 
 brave fight he made against mighty odds to secure a lib- 
 •eral education and a mastery of his profession. He was 
 pre-eminently a man of courage. He conquered difficulties 
 that would have appalled most men and he feared no man. 
 
108 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 COLONEL JACOB M. CAMPBELL. 
 
 AN EDITOEIAL IN THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBITNE OF FRIDAY, 
 AUGUST 25, 1865, WITH ADDENDA. 
 
 The importance of the pending political campaign in 
 this State, 4ind the enthusiasm everywhere created among 
 loyal men by the nomination of two distinguished soldiers 
 for the only offices to be filled this year on the State ticket,, 
 naturally call for more than a brief reference to the antece- 
 dents and characteristics of our Republican standard-bearers. 
 In another place we give such information as we possess 
 concerning the civic and military record of Major General 
 Hartranft, the candidate for auditor general, and in this 
 article we propose to tell what we know about our friend 
 and fellow-citizen. Colonel Campbell, the nominee for sur- 
 veyor general. 
 
 Jacob Miller Campbell is a native of that old Whig 
 stronghold, Somerset county, where he was born forty-four 
 years ago in Allegheny township on November 20, 1821. 
 He was the son of John and Mary (Weyand) Campbell. 
 When a mere youth his parents removed to Allegheny City, 
 where he went to school until 1835. In that year, being 
 fourteen years old, he became an apprentice in the office 
 of the Somerset Whig, a Democratic newspaper, in which he 
 remained until he had mastered as much of the printing 
 business as could be learned in a country office of that day. 
 In 1840 he left Somerset and worked for some time " at 
 case" in the office of the Literary Examiner, a monthly 
 magazine of considerable merit, published in Pittsburgh. 
 From here our " jour printer " found his way to New Or- 
 leans and to another printing office. But his active nature 
 was not satisfied. The steamboat trade on the lower Missis- 
 sippi presented in 1840, as does the oil business in 1865, 
 tempting inducements to enterprising spirits who care less 
 for hard knocks than for the substantial benefits which they 
 
COLONEL JACOB M. CAMPBELL. 109 
 
 sometimes produce. Laying down his composing stick the 
 boy of nineteen became a steamboatman, and for several 
 subsequent years he filled successively the positions of clerk, 
 mate, and part owner of a steamboat, always, however, mak- 
 ing Pennsylvania his home, which he frequently visited. 
 In 1847 the iron business of our State attracted his atten- 
 tion and he embarked in it at Brady's Bend, working as a 
 roller in a rolling mill. In the same year he married. In 
 1851 he followed the course of empire to California but did 
 not long remain there, and in 1853 we find him in Johns- 
 town assisting in the construction of our mammoth rolling 
 mill. With this splendid enterprise he remained connected 
 up to the breaking out of the war, holding all the time an 
 important and responsible position. 
 
 In April, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon and the 
 <5all appeared for volunteers to " rally round the flag." At 
 that time Mr. Campbell was first lieutenant of a volunteer 
 company in Johnstown, and his company at once tendered 
 its services to the Governor, who promptly accepted them. 
 It was the first company to enter Camp Curtin. Upon the 
 organization of the Third Regiment of Pennsylvania Volun- 
 teers for three months' service this company became known 
 as Company G. Lieutenant Campbell was appointed quar- 
 termaster of the regiment, a position which he filled with 
 great acceptance until the regiment was discharged. On the 
 28th of July he was mustered out of service, and on the 
 30th he was authorized to recruit a regiment for three years' 
 service. In due time the regiment was completed and he 
 was commissioned its colonel, the companies composing it 
 having been largely recruited through his individual efforts. 
 Eight of the ten companies were recruited in Cambria and 
 Somerset counties and two in Lehigh and Northampton 
 •counties. The regiment when mustered into service was 
 designated the Fifty-fourth, 
 
 For two years this regiment performed the arduous duty 
 oi guarding sixty miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
 and while thus engaged it protected the Maryland and 
 Pennsylvania border from Rebel invasion and from guer- 
 rilla outrages. It is a fact that may not be generally known 
 to Pennsylvanians that to the Fifty-fourth Regiment they 
 
110 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 owe much of the security they enjoyed in their persons and 
 property during 1862 and 1863, the two most critical years 
 of the war. The position of the Fifty-fourth was at all 
 times an exceedingly dangerous one, requiring the exercise 
 of the utmost vigilance and the soundest discretion. Dur- 
 ing its guardianship of the railroad it was frequently en- 
 gaged in skirmishes with the enemy, and upon more than 
 one occasion it gave timely and valuable information of 
 his movements and designs. In addition to his ordinary 
 duties as commander of the regiment Colonel Campbell was 
 almost daily called upon to decide disputes between the 
 Rebels and Unionists residing along the line of the rail- 
 road, and it is no exaggeration to say that in no instance 
 was justice cheated or rascality rewarded. It is not an as- 
 sertion merely, but the testimony of all who are cognizant 
 of the facts, that the commander of the Fifty-fourth mani- 
 fested on all occasions the possession of judicial qualities 
 of a high order. Of his purely executive ability the suc- 
 cessful and always satisfactory manner in which the regi- 
 ment guarded those sixty miles of railroad in hostile terri- 
 tory is the only proof that we need to cite. We had almost 
 omitted to mention that from March, 1863, until March, 
 1864, Colonel Campbell was in command of the Fourth 
 Brigade, First Division, Eighth Army Corps, in which was 
 included his own regiment. 
 
 Early in 1864 General Sigel took command of the De- 
 partment of West Virginia and moved with all his availa- 
 ble troops to Martinsburg, preparatory to a movement up 
 the Shenandoah valley. In a reorganization of the troops 
 which then took place Colonel Campbell, at his own request, 
 returned to the command of his regiment. At the battle 
 of New Market, on May 15, 1864, the regiment suffered se- 
 verely. It occupied the extreme left of the line and w^as 
 the last to leave the field. 
 
 Under General Hunter the Fifty-fourth Regiment took a 
 prominent part in the battle of Piedmont, on June 5, 1864,^ 
 again occupying the left of the line, and this time flanking 
 the enemy's right and attacking him in the rear. After the 
 battle Colonel Campbell was assigned to the command of a 
 brigade and as a special favor his own regiment was trans- 
 
COLONEL JACOB M. CAMPBELL. Ill 
 
 ferred to it, that it miglit remain under its old commander. 
 The brigade suffered heavily in an attack on the Rebel 
 entrenchments at Lynchburg and covered the retreat of the 
 army when the attack failed. On July 24 the brigade 
 participated in the battle of Winchester and upon the fall 
 of Colonel Mulligan Colonel Campbell took command of his 
 division. He continued in command until its consolida- 
 tion into a brigade, consequent upon its many losses in killed 
 and wounded, and he afterwards commanded the brigade. 
 After General Sheridan came to the head of the department 
 the brigade participated in the engagements in the Shen- 
 andoah valley under that renowned commander. Colonel 
 Campbell was mustered out of service nearly two months 
 after the expiration of his three years' term of enlistment. 
 His total period of service, including the three months' 
 campaign, covered nearly three and a half years. 
 
 Colonel Campbell's early record as a politician will bear 
 examination. Reared in the school of Jacksonian Democracy 
 he voted in 1844 for Polk and Dallas. In 1848, however, he 
 abandoned the party which he had become convinced was 
 the champion of slavery extension, and the foe to Penn- 
 sylvania's best interests, and voted for the Free Soil candi- 
 dates, Van Buren and Adams. His residence in the South 
 had shown him the evils of slavery and he therefore gave 
 his vote against the party which sought its extension. In 
 1852 he voted again for the Free Soil nominees. Hale and 
 Julian. In 1856 he was the delegate from Cambria county 
 to the Fremont Convention, which met at Musical Fund 
 Hall in Philadelphia. During that year he took an active 
 part in advocating Republican principles in his own county, 
 and at once took rank with the people of the county as a 
 politician of fairness, ability, and zeal. His influence in 
 county politics continued to be felt during the succeeding 
 years. In 1859 he was the choice of the Republicans of 
 Cambria county for the Senatorial nomination in the dis- 
 trict composed of Cambria, Blair, and Clearfield counties, and 
 a little more than a month ago he was again unanimously 
 selected as the choice of the Union party of his county 
 for Senator from the district composed of Cambria, Indi- 
 ana, and Jeiferson counties. That he was not nominated on 
 
112 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 either occasion by the district conference was not owing to 
 a want of appreciation of his worth and services, but was 
 due to the supposed superior claims of the county which 
 was honored with the nominee. Such is the private and 
 public record of our candidate for surveyor general. 
 
 Colonel Campbell is a shrewd business man, a public 
 spirited citizen, a good worker, and an honest man. With- 
 out having enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education 
 he is, nevertheless, one of the best read men in the State. 
 He is a clear thinker and remarkably cool and cautious in 
 judgment. In a long acquaintance we have rarely known 
 him to err in his estimate of public men or in the wisdom 
 of public measures. He is a man of marked sagacity. His 
 social characteristics are of that class which never fails to 
 create the warmest friendships and to command the respect 
 of all. That he is worthy of the office for which he has 
 been nominated is conceded by those who know the man. 
 That he and his gallant colleague. General Hartranft, will be 
 elected by overwhelming majorities is a foregone conclusion. 
 
 The foregoing sketch of Colonel Campbell was written 
 when he was the Republican candidate for surveyor gen- 
 eral in 1865. He was elected to that office for the term of 
 three years on the ticket with General Hartranft for audi- 
 tor general. In 1868 both gentlemen were re-elected to the 
 same offices, each serving another term of three years. In 
 1876 Colonel Camjibell was elected a Republican Represent- 
 ative to the 45th Congress from the 17th district of Penn- 
 sylvania, composed of the counties of Bedford, Blair, Cam- 
 bria, and Somerset, receiving a majority of 520 votes over 
 John Reilly, his Democratic opponent. In 1878 he was a 
 candidate for re-election but was defeated by A. H. Coffroth 
 by a majority of 305. In 1880 he was elected to the 47th 
 Congress by a majority of 1,436 over A. H. Coffroth, and 
 in 1882 he was elected to the 48tli Congress by a majority 
 of 551 over the same opponent. He was elected to the 49th 
 Congress by a majority of 3,564 over Americus Enfield. It 
 will be seen that Colonel Campbell represented his district 
 in Congress for the exceptionally long period of eight years, 
 a fact which forcibly testifies to his popularity and ability. 
 
COLONEL JACOB M. CAMPBELL. 113 
 
 An incident in the life of Colonel Campbell, illustrating 
 his patriotism, should not go unrecorded. When in the 
 service of AVood, Morrell & Co. he worked under a ton- 
 nage contract for several years, employing his own helpers. 
 This contract was profitable. When the civil war came 
 and it was necessary for Pennsylvania to borrow a large 
 sum of money to make preparation to assist the Govern- 
 ment at Washington in resisting rebellion Colonel Campbell 
 promptly subscribed $30,000 to the State loan, which repre- 
 sented virtually all his savings. At the time this subscrip- 
 tion was made the risk of payment of both interest and 
 principal was very great, as all who passed through those 
 trying times will well remember. More than one friend of 
 Colonel Campbell said that he would never see his money 
 again. 
 
 On April 28, 1847, Colonel Campbell was married to 
 Mary Rankin Campbell (no relative) at Brady's Bend. 
 He died at Johnstown on September 27, 1888, aged nearly 
 67 years. His wife and several children survived him. 
 
114 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 
 
 WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1878, AND PRINTED IN PAMPHLET 
 FORM FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 Died, at his residence, No. 1735 Oxford street, Philadel- 
 phia, on Friday, November 22, 1878, Alexander Chesterfield 
 Mullin, aged 48 years, 2 months, and 3 days. 
 
 Mr. Mullin was born on the 19th day of September, 
 1830, in the town of Bedford, Pennsylvania, in the historic 
 structure known then and now as the Old Fort. His pa- 
 rents were George and Catharine Mullin, the father a native 
 of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and the mother, whose 
 maiden name was Hammer, a native of Frederick county, 
 Maryland. George Mullin was for many years a promi- 
 nent citizen of Bedford county. In the fall of 1836, at the 
 close of his second term as sheriff, he removed his family 
 to the Mansion Farm, on the Wheeling turnpike, six miles 
 west of Bedford, which he had purchased in 1818. Here 
 his son Alexander lived, a farmer's boy, until he went from 
 the parental roof, when little more than seventeen years 
 old. He was the youngest of seven brothers. Three of the 
 brothers were in the Union army. Both the grandfathers 
 of this family served in the Revolutionary war. 
 
 While living in Bedford Alexander attended the Bed- 
 ford Academy. After the family removed to the farm, in 
 1836, it was the good fortune of Alexander to be sent to 
 several excellent subscription schools in the neighborhood. 
 Alexander's mathematical studies extended to trigonometry 
 and other branches connected with surveying. Attending 
 school in both summer and winter, and being favored with 
 good teachers, he made rapid progress. He also wrote ver- 
 ses, learned to sketch, and joined a country debating society. 
 When a little more than seventeen years old he taught 
 school for two months in Londonderry valley. 
 
 In May, 1848, Alexander left home to become a clerk in 
 
ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 115 
 
 the store of his baclielor uncle, David Hammer, at Holli- 
 daysburg, Blair county. It may be incidentally mentioned 
 here that Joseph Hammer, another uncle, was for several 
 years, from about 1849 to 1852, the landlord of Bennett's 
 Hotel, at Johnstown, for whom and for his excellent family 
 the old citizens of the town cherish most pleasant recollec- 
 tions. Alexander's engagement with his uncle did not, how- 
 ever, long continue, for, after four months' experience in 
 his store, and when just eighteen years old, we find him, in 
 September, taking charge of the lumber interests of Robert 
 Lytle at Wilmore, in Cambria county, who also kept a 
 store at the same place, in which William C. Barbour was 
 a clerk. Robert Lytle was a resident of Hollidaysburg. In 
 April, 1849, Alexander was offered by George Murray a 
 clerkship in his store at Summerhill, in Cambria county, 
 which offer was accepted, and in the latter part of the 
 month he entered upon his new duties. The situation 
 proved to be a pleasant one, and for three years it was 
 filled by Alexander with great satisfaction to his employer. 
 At Summerhill Alexander continued in his leisure hours 
 the study of mathematics and Latin, being greatly aided by 
 an educated Irish shoemaker named George G. Higgins, 
 who had spent many years of his life on the ocean. Hav- 
 ing thus obtained a part of that additional education he 
 had longed for when he left home, and having acquired 
 considerable business experience, he resolved to study law, 
 and accordingly, in November, 1851, he entered his name 
 as a student with Edward Hutchinson, Jr., a prominent 
 member of the Ebensburg bar. He began immediately the 
 usual course of legal studies, and from this time on until 
 May, 1852, while still remaining at Summerhill, his time 
 was about equally divided between these studies and the 
 settlement of Mr. Murray's business, which had for a num- 
 ber of years been very extensive. At the time last named 
 above Alexander, then familiarly known as " Aleck," but 
 whom I shall hereafter call Mr. Mullin, went to Ebensburg, 
 with the double purpose of prosecuting his legal studies 
 under the direction of Mr. Hutchinson and acting as clerk 
 to the prothonotary of the county, Robert L. Johnston, who 
 had solicited his assistance in rearranging all the records of 
 
116 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 the office since the organization of the county in 1807. Mr. 
 Mullin's skill as an accountant and bookkeeper and the 
 elegance and neatness of his penmanship had by this time 
 become generally known throughout Cambria county, and 
 Mr. Johnston's choice of him as an assistant was therefore 
 wisely made and proved to be very popular. At that day 
 the duties of the prothonotary's office embraced the record- 
 ing of deeds and also the registering of wills. Mr. Mullin 
 remained with Mr. Johnston until the close of the latter's 
 term of office in the fall of 1854, when they entered into 
 partnership, the style of the firm being Johnston & Mullin. 
 This partnership continued for five years. 
 
 On the 27th day of October, 1852, Mr. Mullin was mar- 
 ried at Williamsburg by Rev. John Thrush to Miss Emma 
 Matilda Kennedy, a native of Perry county, Pennsylvania, 
 but at the time a resident of Rockdale, Blair county. 
 
 In August, 1853, the want of a Whig newspaper at 
 Ebensburg having long been felt, Mr. Mullin and a friend 
 of about his own age, named Charles Albright, since well 
 known to fame as a lawyer, soldier, and politician, but then 
 a student in the law office of Mr. Johnston, were induced, 
 under the firm name of Mullin & Albright, to establish The 
 Alleghanian. The paper was a weekly, of six columns, well 
 printed, and from the first was well edited. Coming into 
 ■existence during a heated canvass for a seat in the State 
 Senate from the district composed of Cambria, Blair, and 
 Huntingdon counties The Alleghanian took decided ground 
 against the candidacy of Alexander M. White, of Cambria 
 county, who had secured the nomination by the Whig sena- 
 torial conference. So vigorous was its opposition that Mr. 
 White was defeated by the Democratic nominee, John Cres- 
 well, Jr., of Hollidaysburg, although the district, by convic- 
 tion, belonged to the Whigs. The bitterness of the contest 
 was carried into the courts, where legal ^proceedings were 
 inaugurated, but nothing of moment came of them. The 
 course of The Alleghanian in this matter was generally jus- 
 tified by the leading Whigs of the district. The connection 
 •of Mullin & Albright with the paper was continued until 
 1854, when they were succeeded in its publication by J. R. 
 Durburrow and he soon afterwards by John M. Bowman. 
 
ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 117 
 
 At December term, 1853, of the Cambria county courts 
 Mr. MuUin was admitted to the bar, on motion of Michael 
 Dan Magellan, with whom had been associated Henry D. 
 Foster and James Potts on the committee of examination. 
 Hon. George Taylor, president judge, and Hon. Evan Rob- 
 erts and Hon. Harrison Kinkead, associates, were on the 
 bench. The bar of Cambria county in 1853 was one of 
 great native and reflected ability. Of the resident members 
 I can remember Edward Hutchinson, Jr., Robert L. Johns- 
 ton, Charles H. Heyer, John S. Rhey, Michael Dan Mage- 
 han, Joseph McDonald, ]\Iichael Hasson, John Fenlon, Cyrus 
 L. Pershing, James Potts, Abram Kopelin, Theophilus L. 
 Heyer, Moses Canan, William Kittell, Samuel C. Wingard, 
 Charles W. AVingard, George M. Reade, John F. Barnes, and 
 Charles D. Murray — not all good lawyers, it is true, but as a 
 body they formed the best bar the county could ever boast. 
 Of visiting lawyers from neighboring counties there were 
 John G. Miles and John Scott, of Huntingdon ; S. S. Blair 
 and David H. Hofius, of Blair ; Thomas AVhite, of Indiana ; 
 and Henry D. Foster, Edgar Cowan, and Wm. A. Stokes, of 
 Westmoreland. These men were all able lawyers. The bench 
 was more than respectable. Judge Taylor was one of the 
 ablest judges in the State and the associates were men of 
 high social standing and good judgment. Mr. Mullin came 
 to the bar under most favorable circumstances. 
 
 Mr. Mullin had a strong inclination to engage in the 
 excitements and to enjo}^ some of the rewards of political 
 life. Thus we find him in 1855 the candidate of the new 
 American party for treasurer of Cambria county, but he 
 was beaten, in a contest hopeless from the beginning, by 
 Charles D. Murray, Democrat. In 1856 he was the Union 
 Republican candidate for the State Senate in the Cambria, 
 Blair, and Huntingdon district, but was defeated by John 
 Creswell, Jr., of Blair, although running ahead of his ticket 
 in his own county. In 1857 he was selected by the unani- 
 mous vote of the judges of the Cambria, Blair, and Hunting- 
 don judicial district as a member of the State board of rev- 
 enue revision. In this position he so skillfully protected the 
 interests of his constituents that a proposition to increase 
 their taxes, made by Hendrick B. Wright, a member of the 
 
118 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 board, and supported by others, was so amended as to 
 effect an actual lowering of them. In 1859 he re-estab- 
 lished The AUeghanian, the publication of which had been 
 discontinued some time previously, and at once made it a 
 vigorous exponent of Republican principles. He owned the 
 paper and was its editor, but its publication was intrusted 
 to two young men whose firm name was Bolsinger & Hutch- 
 inson. In a brief time this firm was dissolved, and J. Todd 
 Hutchinson continued the publication of the paper, with 
 Mr. Mullin as owner and editor. Mr. Mullin's connection 
 with The AUeghanian continued until 1861, when he sold it 
 to A. A. Barker, who retained Mr. Hutchinson as publisher. 
 
 In the fall of 1860 Mr. Mullin was chosen a Represent- 
 ative from Cambria county to the Pennsylvania Legisla- 
 ture. The contest in which he was the successful candidate 
 was a quadrangular one — George Nelson Smith representing 
 the Douglas Democrats, Michael Dan Magellan the Breckin- 
 ridge Democrats, James Potts the advocates of a new county, 
 and Mr. Mullin the Union Republicans. The plurality of 
 Mr. Mullin over his highest opponent, Major Smith, was a 
 little less than 300. 
 
 The Legislature met on the 1st of January, 1861, and 
 Mr. Mullin was present. Upon the organization of the 
 House he was assigned to the committee on ways and 
 means and to the committee on new counties and county 
 seats. The assignment to the first of these committees 
 would have conveyed a very high compliment under or- 
 dinary legislative circumstances, but a contingency soon to 
 happen, and dreaded when the session opened, made the po- 
 sition one of great responsibility and importance. We were 
 drifting into a war with the Southern States, and the atti- 
 tude which Pennsylvania should take in the struggle, and 
 the strength and resolution with which she should maintain 
 that attitude, largely depended upon the ways and means 
 committee of the House of Representatives. During the 
 regular session, and the special session which soon followed 
 it, Mr. Mullin supported every measure of legislation that 
 was designed to sustain the power of the Federal Govern- 
 ment, including the bill to borrow money and the bill to 
 organize and equip the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. He 
 
ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 119 
 
 had no patience with the Peace Conference or with any 
 other temporizing expedient. 
 
 As a legislator Mr. Miillin paid strict attention to the 
 interests of his constituents. Of the bills which were con- 
 sidered during the session eighteen were passed through his 
 instrumentality. Some of the bills that were introduced 
 and passed by Mr, Mullin were of considerable local im- 
 portance. One of these gave greatly needed relief to the 
 Cambria Iron Company and enabled the lessees, Messrs. 
 Wood, Morrell & Co., to continue the works in operation 
 during many months which would otherwise have been 
 lost to them and their workmen. 
 
 After the adjournment of the Legislature in the spring 
 of 1861 Mr. Mullin continued the practice of his profession 
 until September, 1862, when he was appointed private sec- 
 retary to Governor Curtin. He never again regularly prac- 
 ticed his profession. Retaining his home at Ebensburg he 
 immediately assumed at Harrisburg the most arduous and 
 responsible duties of his life. A great war was in progress 
 and the State of Pennsylvania took no insignificant part 
 in the contest. The duties of the Governor were increased 
 many fold, and to aid him in the performance of his diffi- 
 cult task the service of the best executive and administra- 
 tive talent of the State was called into requisition. The 
 choice of a private secretary could not have been more hap- 
 pily made than in the selection of Mr. Mullin. He remained 
 with the Governor until after the close of the war, during 
 part of the time assisting to discharge the duties of master 
 of transportation in addition to those of private secretary. 
 
 It is a pleasure to me to record here an incident which 
 illustrates the friendly personal relations which have always 
 in a large degree existed between leading members of op- 
 posing political parties in Cambria county. Cyrus L. Per- 
 shing represented Cambria county in the lower branch of 
 the Legislature in 1862 and was consulted l)y Governor 
 Curtin concerning the appointment of Mr. Mullin as private 
 secretary. Mr. Pershing assured the Governor that he could 
 find no person better adapted to the duties of the position 
 than Mr. Mullin and that he could implicitly rely upon 
 his fidelity. 
 
120 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS, 
 
 Soon after peace had come Mr, Mullin decided to re- 
 linquish the onerous duties at Harrisburg which had grad- 
 ually affected his health and accordingly resigned the office 
 of private secretary to the Governor on the 1st of May, 
 1865, to embark in business in Philadelphia, He after- 
 wards looked upon the decision to go to Philadelphia as a 
 mistake and regretted bitterly that he did not return to 
 the practice of law among his old friends at Ebensburg, 
 But the times were abnormal and the wild wave of specu- 
 lation swept the best and coolest men before it, Mr. Mullin 
 had, while at Harrisburg, made some small investments in 
 the stocks of the day which proved to be profitable, and 
 this experience, joined to the unsatisfactory condition of his 
 health, was the impelling motive which led him to yield 
 to the liberal offers of some of his friends that he should 
 go to Philadelphia to exercise a general supervision over 
 several speculative enterprises in which they were interest- 
 ed. He went, but the enterprises of his friends, as well as 
 some investments of his own, met with disaster. 
 
 In May, 1866, the position of chief clerk of the State 
 Department at Harrisburg became vacant and Mr. Mullin 
 was appointed to the vacancy. His predecessor, William W, 
 Hays, had been promoted to be Deputy Secretary of the 
 Commonwealth, but the health of this gentleman was so 
 seriously impaired that many of the duties of his new office 
 fell to the lot of Mr. Mullin, in addition to the laborious 
 exactions of the chief clerkship. The preparation of par- 
 dons was included in Mr, Mullin 's extraordinary duties. 
 All the correspondence of the State Department he either 
 directed or performed. The pamphlet laws of 1866, the 
 most voluminous ever published, he edited. 
 
 In the latter part of September, 1866, Mr, Mullin was 
 appointed by President Johnson collector of internal revenue 
 for the seventeenth district of Pennsylvania, with his office 
 at Ebensburg, relieving Samuel J. Royer, of Johnstown, and 
 at once entered upon his duties. Political feeling had been 
 deeply stirred by the antagonism existing between the Pres- 
 ident and the party which had elected him, and to the 
 impatience of the Republicans with the President's alleged 
 arbitrary exercise of power in removing faithful Republican 
 
ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 121 
 
 officials may mainly be attributed the failure of the Senate 
 in March following to confirm Mr. Mullin's appointment. 
 This rejection of Mr. Mullin's appointment was an unfor- 
 tunate event in his life. Soon after his rejection he closed 
 his accounts as collector and paid over to the deputy col- 
 lector of the district the money remaining in his hands. 
 
 After the termination of the episode which has just been 
 described Mr. Mullin was about to resume the practice of 
 law when he was offered and accepted the position of cash- 
 ier of the Dime Savings Institution of Ashland, Schuylkill 
 count}'', which had just been chartered. Of this bank Peter 
 F. Collins, of Ebensburg, was president. The name of the 
 bank was changed a year or two later to the Ashland Sav- 
 ings Bank. Mr. Mulhn sold his house in Ebensburg and 
 removed his family to Ashland in the fall of 1867. In 1870 
 he became president of the bank, Mr. Collins retiring, and he 
 remained in this position until the spring of 1875, when the 
 bank failed through the pressure of many adverse circum- 
 stances, most of which had their origin in the Jay Cooke 
 panic of 1873. The severity of the crisis which caused Mr. 
 Mullin to close his bank is seen in the fact that most of 
 the neighboring banks afterwards passed out of existence. 
 
 Toward the latter part of 1875 Mr. Mullin, having no 
 promising future before him in Ashland, began to think 
 of removing to Philadelphia. In March, 1876, after residing 
 eight years and a half in Ashland, he was appointed secre- 
 tary of the Pennsylvania Board of Centennial Managers, of 
 which Morton McMichael was chairman and Andrew G. 
 Curtin, Asa Packer, Daniel J. Morrell, John H. Shoenber- 
 ger, George Scott, and Foster W. Mitchell were associates. 
 Mr. Mullin at once removed his family to Philadelphia. 
 He was laboriously engaged in the performance of his 
 new duties until the spring of 1878, when the functions of 
 the board virtually terminated with the presentation to the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature by the Governor of Mr. Mullin's 
 admirable report, printed in two handsome octavo volumes, 
 detailing the work of the board and the part taken by 
 Pennsylvania in connection wuth the Centennial Exhibition. 
 
 I now take up some incidents in the life of Mr. Mullin 
 of a more private character than those already mentioned. 
 
122 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 He had a fondness for military life. At Summerhill, 
 about September, 1849, when only nineteen years old, he 
 assisted in forming the Quitman Guards, a volunteer compa- 
 ny, of which William M. Ott, who had been in the Mexican 
 war, was elected captain. The company was organized by 
 Major John Linton, of Johnstown, brigade inspector. Mr. 
 Mullin was at first a private in the company but soon rose 
 to be second lieutenant and then first lieutenant. He was 
 offered the captaincy in 1852, which he was obliged to de- 
 cline, as he was about to leave Summerhill for Ebensburg. 
 William C. Barbour became captain of the company until 
 it was disbanded a few years afterwards. The Quitman 
 Guards always celebrated the national anniversaries with 
 great spirit. I am reminded by Judge Pershing that Lieu- 
 tenant Mullin delivered an oration on a 4th of July which 
 the Guards assisted to celebrate and that it was published 
 in one or more of the county newspapers. Many members 
 of the Guards entered the Union army and rendered their 
 country good service. 
 
 Mr. Mullin possessed decided literary tastes and literary 
 talent of a high order. When fourteen years old he wrote 
 Whig campaign songs and negro melodies which are yet 
 remembered in Bedford county. Throughout his whole life 
 he wrote verses — humorous, satirical, lyrical, and elegiac. 
 
 While at Ebensburg Mr. Mullin not only assisted in es- 
 tablishing Tlie AUeghanian, which he edited with true jour- 
 nalistic insight for several years, but he also attached him- 
 self to a good literary society of which he long continued 
 an active member and was frequently its presiding officer. 
 The society maintained a literary paper, and of this Mr. 
 Mullin was at various times the editor. In the pamphlet 
 laws of 1866 and in his masterly Centennial report the tact 
 and judgment of the born editor are plainly seen. He al- 
 ways wrote gracefully and rapidly, knew a good word from 
 a bad one, and could quit when he was done. Mr. Mullin 
 was an ardent lover of the English classics. Shakespeare 
 and Dickens were his favorite authors, and he knew them 
 well. He was well versed in the history of his country and 
 was familiar with the careers of its leading men. 
 
 When a boy Mr. Mullin evinced a strong passion for 
 
ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 123 
 
 sketching and painting, but this taste was but slightly- 
 gratified until years afterwards, when he painted in oil sev- 
 eral pictures of much merit. I can not praise too highly 
 his artistic achievements in ornamental penmanship. He 
 was one of the best penmen who ever resided in Cambria 
 county, and in purely ornamental work with the pen he 
 had few, if any, superiors in the State. 
 
 Mr. Mullin was a public-spirited citizen of Ebensburg 
 while he lived there. At various times he served as a mem- 
 ber of its school board and town council. In 1857 he was 
 largely instrumental in creating the Cambria County Mutu- 
 al Fire Insurance Company, of which he was secretary and 
 treasurer. He also rendered valuable assistance in securing 
 in July, 1862, the completion of the Ebensburg Branch of 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad, the construction of which was 
 commenced about 1858. This assistance he was enabled to 
 give while a member of the Legislature in 1861. 
 
 Of Mr. Mullin's legal abilities and legal attainments it is 
 enough to say that he won deserved praise from the bench 
 and the bar for the accuracy and neatness of all legal in- 
 struments which emanated from his hand. So well estab- 
 lished was his reputation as a well-read lawyer, and as an 
 accomplished expert in the preparation of legal documents, 
 that in 1866 all the members of the bar of the twenty- 
 fourth judicial district, embracing Cambria, Blair, and Hunt- 
 ingdon counties, signed a recommendation that he be ap- 
 pointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of 
 Pennsylvania. The appointment, however, went to another. 
 
 The social qualities of Mr. Mullin were of a very high 
 order and he was greatly favored with rare opportunities 
 for their development. When he went to Ebensburg, in 
 addition to making acquaintance with the wit and learning 
 of the bar, the medical fraternity was composed of Dr. 
 AVilliam A. Smith, Dr. David W. Lewis, and Dr. William 
 Lemon. Ezekiel Hughes, Edward Shoemaker, and Johnston 
 Moore were leading business men. Major John Thompson 
 kept the leading hotel of the place and his estimable fam- 
 ily was then intact. Then there were the Noons, the Rheys, 
 the Collinses, the McDonalds, and many other excellent 
 families, embracing talented men and accomplished women. 
 
124 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 SAMUEL BELL McCORMICK. 
 
 COMMUNICATED TO THE JOHNSTOWN TEIBUNE IN APEIL, 
 1901, DURING ME. McCOEMICK'S LIFETIME. 
 
 Recent references in the columns of the Tribune to the 
 old-time schools and school teachers of Johnstown and its 
 vicinity prompt me to compile from data in my possession 
 the leading facts in the career of Samuel Bell McCormick^ 
 a noted teacher of fifty years ago in Johnstown. 
 
 S. B. McCormick, as he has always written his name,, 
 was born on a farm a short distance south of what is now 
 Larimer Station, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, in West- 
 moreland county, on June 18, 1817. His father, Andrew 
 McCormick, w^as a native of the north of Ireland and came 
 to this country with his father, John McCormick, and the 
 remainder of the family in 1790, when he was six years- 
 old. The McCormicks came directly from Ireland to Lari- 
 mer with a large colony of Scotch-Irish, the Griers, the Bax- 
 ters, the Boyds, the Irwins, and others. They built a church 
 on Matthew Osborn's land, and there are yet in the church- 
 yard forty tombstones of McCormicks, although the church 
 was torn down long ago, S. B. McCormick's mother, whose 
 maiden name was Ann Campbell, the daughter of James 
 Campbell, at one time a rich and prosperous Philadelphia 
 merchant, w^as born in Philadelphia in 1786. The Camp- 
 bells were also Scotch-Irish, James Campbell coming from 
 the north of Ireland to this country before the Revolution. 
 In course of time James Campbell, with his family, also^ 
 moved to Western Pennsylvania, the Campbells finally set- 
 tling in the Redstone settlement on the Monongahela river. 
 We give these details partly to illustrate the prominence of 
 the Scotch-Irish element in the early settlement of Western 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Andrew McCormick became the owner of a piece of land 
 near Larimer Station. From the Larimer farm Mr. Mc- 
 
SAMUEL BELL McCORMICK. 125 
 
 ■Cormick's father moved to Murrysville, where the family 
 resided for seven years. Thence Andrew McCormick moved 
 to Warsaw, in Jefferson county, in 1835, and died there. 
 
 S. B. McCormick was almost wholly self-educated. He 
 was never a student at either a college or an academy. 
 'Gifted with an acute intellect, ambitious, and studious, he 
 was not satisfied with the limited opportunities afforded by 
 the subscription schools of his day and aspired to better 
 things. He studied geometry with his oldest brother, Latin 
 w^ith a preacher named Marshall and with the Reverend W. 
 W. Woodend, Greek with Thomas B. Keenan, and astrono- 
 my without any assistance except that which he first ob- 
 tained from a "geography of the heavens." When Mr. 
 McCormick was a young man land surveying was one of 
 the learned professions ; a surveyor of farms and roads was 
 £i person of consequence ; so S. B. McCormick studied sur- 
 veying with an expert surveyor in Brook ville, Jefferson 
 •county, after the family had removed to that county. But 
 prior to going to Jefferson county Mr. McCormick began 
 in Westmoreland county his life work as a teacher. 
 
 S. B. McCormick's father was an Associate Reformed 
 Presbyterian, and having many religious books the son 
 was posted in Bible history and theological questions. For 
 ^ time, soon after he had commenced teaching, he was a 
 member of Dr. David Kirkpatrick's Bible class at Poke 
 Kun Presbyterian church. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. McCormick taught school near New Alex- 
 andria, Westmoreland county. One of his pupils was the 
 present Judge A. D. McConnell, of Greensburg, who learned 
 his A B C's at Mr. McCormick's knee. About 1844 Mr. 
 McCormick began the study of law with Hon. Joseph H, 
 Kuhns, of Greensburg, at one time a Whig member of 
 Congress, and was admitted to the Westmoreland bar on 
 September 3, 1846. On September 5, 1846, he was married 
 to Eliza Kemp and moved to Ligonier, where he taught 
 school, practiced law, and started a newspaper. In 1852, 
 with his wife and two children, he moved to Johnstown and 
 began his career as a Cambria county teacher. From that 
 time until his removal to California in 1874 he taught 
 school at Johnstown and Millville, except during a period 
 
126 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 of five years when he served as superintendent of common 
 schools for Cambria county. Mr. McCormick lives at Oak- 
 dale, Stanislaus county, California, where for many years 
 he was a local magistrate, with the honorary title of judge. 
 He taught school for two years at Oakdale. His son, Win- 
 field Scott McCormick, had preceded him to Oakdale. 
 
 Mr. McCormick 's long career as a teacher in Johnstown 
 was a most honorable one. Thoroughly understanding all 
 the branches of study that were embraced in the sensible- 
 common-school course of those days he was very successful 
 in leading his classes up the hill of science and in develop- 
 ing in hundreds of boys and girls who are now getting to 
 be old men and women the ambition to do their best in the 
 school-room and in the wider spheres which they were soon 
 to enter. For several years he was superintendent of the 
 Johnstown schools. He was also principal of the Mill- 
 ville schools for three or four years. He had a special 
 liking for astronomy and often lectured upon this subject. 
 
 In November, 1852, soon after his removal from Ligo- 
 nier to Johnstown, and while teaching at the head of Main 
 street, Mr. McCormick undertook the publication of a 
 weekly Whig newspaper, The Cambrian, which he continued 
 until about the close of the political campaign in the fall 
 of 1853, when its publication was discontinued. The print- 
 ing materials were owned by some of the leading Whigs of 
 the town. The Cambria Tribune was established in Decem- 
 ber, 1853, immediately after Mr. McCormick's retirement. 
 With a decided literary bent and possessed of considerable 
 skill as a newspaper controversialist Mr. McCormick could 
 not successfully teach school and edit a newspaper, either 
 at Ligonier or Johnstown, nor could anybody. 
 
 The common school system of Pennsylvania was not 
 fully developed until 1854, on May 8 of which year an 
 act of the General Assembly was approved by Governor 
 William Bigler which established the office of county super- 
 intendent. The act took effect the same year. Robert L. 
 Johnston was the first superintendent for Cambria county 
 and Mr. McCormick was the second. I copy below from 
 the oflBcial record a list of the persons who have held this 
 office in Cambria county from 1854 to the present time. 
 
SAMUEL BELL MCCORMICK. 127 
 
 Robert L. Johnston, elected ; commissioned July 5, 1 854 ; 
 resigned in 1855 ; salary per annum, $400. S. B. McCor- 
 mick, appointed ; commissioned October 6, 1855 ; salary, 
 $400. S. B. McCormick, elected for three years ; commis- 
 sioned June 3, 1857 ; salary, $800. Thomas A. Maguire, 
 elected ; commissioned July 17, 1860 ; salary, $800. James 
 M. Swank, appointed ; commissioned February 7, 1861 ; re- 
 signed in November, 1861 ; salary, $800. Wm. A. Scott, ap- 
 pointed ; commissioned January 4, 1862 ; salary, $800 ; re- 
 signed to enter the Union army ; killed at Fredericksburg. 
 Henry Ely, appointed ; commissioned August 13, 1862 ; sal- 
 ary, $800. J. Frank Condon, elected ; commissioned June 
 1, 1863 ; salary, $800 ; J. Frank Condon, re-elected ; commis- 
 sioned June 4, 1866 ; salary, $1,000 ; resigned in 1867. T. 
 J. Chapman, appointed ; commissioned October 1, 1867. T. 
 J. Chapman, elected ; commissioned June 4, 1869 ; salary, 
 $1,000. T. J. Chapman, re-elected ; commissioned June 6, 
 1872 ; salary, $1,000. Hartman Berg, elected ; commissioned 
 June 7, 1875 ; salary, $1,000 ; re-elected ; commissioned June, 
 1878. L. Strayer, elected ; commissioned June, 1881 ; salary 
 fixed by the number of schools, which varied the amount 
 of salary each year, averaging about $1,100 ; re-elected June, 
 1884. W. J. Cramer, elected June, 1887 ; salary, $1,500. Su- 
 perintendent Cramer died on January 23, 1888, and J. W. 
 Leech was appointed and commissioned to fill the unexpired 
 term. J. W. Leech was elected and commissioned June, 1890 ; 
 salary, $1,500 ; re-elected June, 1893 ; salary, $1,700. T. L. 
 Gibson, elected and commissioned June, 1896 ; salary, $1,- 
 700 ; re-elected June, 1899 ; salary, $1,700. 
 
 It will be seen from the above record that Mr. McCor- 
 mick served as county superintendent for five years. The 
 services rendered by him in this office were important and 
 valuable. Other superintendents have done good work, but 
 he was virtually the pioneer in a position of great oppor- 
 tunities and of great responsibility. He was industrious, en- 
 thusiastic, tactful, and capable. It was his lot not only to 
 popularize his own office and its authority but the common 
 school system itself. To accomplish these results he visited 
 every school district in the county and became personally 
 acquainted with directors and taxpayers as well as teachers ; 
 
128 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 he visited the schools and made interesting speeches to the 
 children ; his oral examinations of applicants for teachers' 
 certificates were always fair and were held in nearly every 
 town and township in the county and in the presence of 
 citizens and taxpayers. He thus demonstrated the useful- 
 ness of his office. He inspired others with his own enthu- 
 siasm. He encouraged the holding of school exhibitions 
 in every school district and he personally attended most of 
 them. These exhibitions, which usually took place in the 
 spring of the year, joined to his personal participation in 
 them, had a marvelous effect in creating and sustaining an 
 interest in common schools in Cambria county. Taxes for 
 their support were more freely paid, better methods of in- 
 struction were introduced, better teachers were employed, 
 better school-houses were built, and a healthier tone per- 
 vaded all educational conditions. Mr. McCormick's term of 
 office expired just as the niutterings of civil strife came up 
 from the South, and there was subsequently much demor- 
 alization in the administration of the schools of Cambria 
 county, as elsewhere, but this demoralization did not long 
 continue, Mr. McCormick's good work was not lost. 
 
 In a letter which I have recently received from Mr. Mc- 
 Cormick he writes that he still does some literary work and 
 that not long ago he contributed to a local newspaper a 
 series of twelve articles on his favorite science of astronomy. 
 Two children and several grandchildren are either with 
 him or are not far aw^ay. A married daughter, Lenore, now 
 lives in Germantown, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. McCormick died on May 1, 1903, at Oakdale, Stanislaus county, 
 California, and was buried in the Union cemetery at that place. He 
 was 85 years, 10 months, and 13 days old — a good old age. 
 
A REMINISCENCE OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 129 
 
 A REMINISCENCE OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 
 
 FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL 
 ASSOCIATION, JUNE 15, 1909. 
 
 Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of the United 
 States, occupied this position from the day of his inaugu- 
 ration on March 5, 1849, until his death on July 9, 1850. In 
 August, 1849, just sixty years ago, accompanied by a small 
 party of prominent gentlemen, he journeyed in a carriage 
 over the turnpikes of that day from Washington to Pitts- 
 burgh, thence visiting a few other interior cities before re- 
 turning to AVashington. His carriage route through Penn- 
 sylvania embraced Bedford, Somerset, Westmoreland, and Al- 
 legheny counties and the towns of Bedford, Somerset, Ligo- 
 nier, and Greensburg. The President's itinerary was duly 
 announced several days in advance, and of course excited 
 much interest. The countryside was on tiptoe to see the 
 hero of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and 
 Buena Vista. 
 
 The editor of the Bulletin was at that time one of the 
 enthusiastic young Whigs of Johnstown. • Learning that the 
 President and his party would be at Ligonier on a certain 
 day and would stop there for dinner we induced two of 
 our friends, boys of about our own age, to go with us to 
 Ligonier and see the President. Now Ligonier was twenty 
 miles away, and the only way to get there was on horse- 
 back over a mountain road, and if we were to see the Presi- 
 dent before dinner it was necessary that we should make an 
 early start. So we started before daylight, three enthusias- 
 tic boys, and about 10 o'clock we were in Ligonier, to which 
 historic town many neighboring farmers had preceded us 
 on the same mission. Introducing ourselves to Mr. Mendell, 
 the landlord of the leading public house in the place, we 
 were most hospitably received. He was surprised to learn 
 that we had ridden so far. In less than an hour the car- 
 
130 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 riages of the Presidential party were seen approaching in a 
 cloud of dust and in a few minutes we boys first saw a 
 President of the United States and one of our country's 
 greatest soldiers. 
 
 Preparations for dinner were soon made for the distin- 
 guished guests, who were informally welcomed by Mr. Men- 
 dell, John Bell, a local ironmaster, and others. When dinner 
 was about to be served we boys obtained a view of the din- 
 ing room, which would seat about thirty and certainly not 
 more than forty guests at one long table, but we did not 
 think that we could sit at that table until the Presidential 
 party and the local dignitaries had first been served. We 
 were greatly surprised, therefore, when Mr. Mendell came to 
 us and said that boys who had risen so early and ridden so 
 far to see General Taylor should sit at the same table with 
 him. And we did. Mr. Bell sat at the head of the table,, 
 the President on his right, and we boys not quite half way 
 down the table on Mr. Bell's left. 
 
 After dinner General Taylor was induced to mount a 
 chair in a corner of the parlor of the Mendell House and 
 make an address to all who could crowd inside or hear 
 him through the open windows. Soon afterwards the Presi- 
 dential party took its departure from Ligonier and we boys 
 started homeward. That incident in our lives when we 
 dined with President Taylor occurred just sixty years ago. 
 There can not be many persons now living who can say 
 that they dined with General Taylor that long ago. 
 
JOHN FRITZ, IRONMASTER. 131 
 
 JOHN FRITZ, IRONMASTER. 
 
 READ AT THE DINNER TO MR. FRITZ, ON NOVEMBER 17, 
 1910, BY THE MANUFACTURERS OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 My acquaintance with Mr. Fritz began in 1855, fifty- 
 five years ago, when he came to Johnstown as the general 
 superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works, which had been 
 leased on May 15 of that year for a term of five years by 
 the firm of Wood, Morrell & Co. These works had been 
 built in 1853 and 1854 by the Cambria Iron Company as 
 an iron rail mill, with several blast furnaces. They made 
 their first rail on July 27, 1854. Only iron rails were made 
 in this country for several years afterwards. The lease was 
 extended in 1860 for one year and terminated in 1861. 
 
 A great problem confronted Mr. Fritz. He had to so 
 manage the works as to make them a financial as well as 
 a mechanical success. He succeeded in both undertakings. 
 In 1856, the year following his assumption of this difficult 
 task, the Cambria Iron Works rolled 13,206 tons of rails, 
 and their annual production was thereafter increased under 
 Mr. Fritz's management. The production in 1856 was only 
 5,386 tons less than the largest production of any rail mill 
 in the country in that year — the mill of the Phoenix Iron 
 Company rolling 18,592 tons. Those were the days of com- 
 paratively small outputs at iron and steel works. 
 
 When Mr. Fritz took charge of the Cambria Iron Works 
 he soon discovered that good rails could not be made from 
 pig iron that had been made entirely from Cambria ores ; 
 so, after much tribulation, he introduced a mixture of Cam- 
 bria and other pig iron which worked well and produced 
 good results. 
 
 But Mr. Fritz was not satisfied with the results he was 
 accomplishing. The Cambria rail mill was equipped with 
 two-high rolls, and as these could not be operated as sat- 
 isfactorily as was desirable, and besides often invited acci- 
 
132 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 dents, Mr. Fritz conceived the idea of introducing three-high 
 rolls, which had never before been used in any country in 
 the manufacture of rails. This was done, and on July 3, 
 1857, the innovation proved to be a great success. "Mr. Fritz 
 had conspicuously shown his skill as an engineer. Soon 
 there were three-high trains of rolls in all the rail mills of 
 the country. 
 
 But a great trial came to Mr. Fritz the day after his 
 successful use of three-high rolls. On July 4 the Cambria 
 Iron Works burned down. We well remember that catas- 
 trophe. All but the stoutest hearts were appalled. But Mr. 
 Fritz was equal to the emergency. He infused courage into 
 the breasts of all his men, and at once began the work of 
 clearing away the debris and rebuilding the works. In pre- 
 cisely four weeks the new works were running, and they 
 made 30,000 tons of rails before any interruption occurred 
 from any cause whatever. 
 
 Mr. Fritz was surrounded at Johnstown by a remarkably 
 bright collection of engineers and mechanics, all young men, 
 who gave him loyal support but who also learned much 
 from him. They were long known as John Fritz's "boys." 
 We can mention only a few of them : Jacob M. Campbell, 
 Alexander Hamilton, George Fritz, William R. Jones, Daniel 
 N. Jones, William Canam, James Bell, and Thomas H. Laps- 
 ley. They are all gone. Robert W. Hunt, the first chemist 
 of the Cambria Iron Works, who is with us to-night, came 
 to Johnstown just as Mr. Fritz left for Bethlehem. 
 
 Mr. Fritz's connection with the Cambria Iron Works 
 continued until July, 1860, when he resigned to superintend 
 the erection and operation of the Bethlehem Iron Works, 
 to embrace a number of blast furnaces and a rolling mill 
 to roll iron rails. The rolling mill was successfully started 
 in 1863. In 1873 Mr. Fritz introduced at these works the 
 manufacture of Bessemer steel and Bessemer steel rails, and 
 in 1890 he made for the Navy Department at the works 
 of the Bethlehem Steel Company the first heavy armor 
 plate that had ever been made in this country. The ar- 
 mor plate plant of this company had been built under Mr. 
 Fritz's direction. 
 
 A few years ago Mr. Fritz retired from all active par- 
 
JOHN FRITZ, IRONMASTER. 133 
 
 ticipation in the management of iron and steel works, after 
 more than fifty years of unbroken success, which success 
 has brought him many honors. Included in these honors- 
 we may mention honorary membership in the British Iron 
 and Steel Institute, which has conferred upon Mr. Fritz the 
 Bessemer gold medal. We may also mention a magnificent 
 banquet which was tendered to Mr. Fritz by a large num- 
 ber of prominent engineers and iron and steel manufac- 
 turers at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in October^ 
 1902, in celebration of his 80th birthday anniversary. 
 
 But we feel sure that no honor that has ever come to 
 Mr. Fritz has given him more heartfelt pleasure than the 
 testimonial which he received at Johnstown on Jul}^ 4, 1860^ 
 immediately prior to his departure for his new field of labor 
 at Bethlehem. On that day a superb set of silverware was 
 presented to Mr. Fritz at the rolling mill of the Cambria 
 Iron Works by the employes of Wood, Morrell & Co. Be- 
 tween 1,500 and 2,000 persons were present at the presenta- 
 tion, including many ladies. The presence of this army of 
 workmen and citizens testified to the esteem in which Mr. 
 Fritz was held by the whole community. The set of silver- 
 ware included a remarkably handsome water pitcher. On 
 it were inscribed these words : "To John Fritz, Esq., Gen- 
 eral Superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works, as a Testi- 
 monial, by the Employees. July 4, 1860." This pitcher was 
 exhibited at the New York crystal palace during the World's 
 Fair in 1853, and it took the first premium as the finest 
 piece of silverware among many specimens that had been 
 collected from all parts of the world. Several addresses were 
 delivered, Mr. Fritz thanking the donors, as the Cambria 
 Tribune said, "in a very feeling, frank, and earnest speech. "^ 
 
 The Tribune devoted much space to an account of the 
 testimonial to Mr. Fritz, remarking at the close of the ac- 
 count that " the gift is but properly in keeping with the 
 measure of the man," and that " in ]\Ir. Fritz the company 
 and this community lose a man and citizen whose place is 
 not easily filled." Mr. Fritz was then 38 years old. He had 
 been general superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works 
 for five years. He was succeeded by his brother, George 
 Fritz. 
 
134 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS, 
 
 There is one trait in Mr. Fritz's character which does 
 him especial honor — his readiness on all occasions to give 
 credit to the thousands of men subject to his orders who 
 have contributed by their skill and loyalty to his remark- 
 able success. In an address by Mr. Fritz on the 75th an- 
 niversary of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia on Oc- 
 tober 4, 1899, he said : " Here I wish to say that I should 
 commit an act of ingratitude should I fail to give credit 
 to the brave and noble workmen who throughout my long 
 connection with the business have ever stood ready to meet 
 any emergency, no matter what the danger or difficulty 
 might be. For the kind and generous manner in which 
 I was always treated by them they ever have a green spot 
 in my memory." This is a gracious compliment from Mr. 
 Fritz to his old companions in many a bitter struggle with 
 engineering and mechanical problems that tested the skill 
 and manhood of all of them, and it is most gracefully ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 In the same address, embodying a note of strenuous 
 personal experience, Mr. Fritz also said : " How little do the 
 younger men who have charge of the great iron and steel 
 industries know or even think of the severe mental strain, 
 the great amount of bodily labor, the vexation, the sur- 
 prises, and the disappointments that the men in charge 
 experienced during the perfecting and erection of these 
 vast establishments that are now engaged in the manufac- 
 ture of iron and steel." 
 
 We are all glad to see Mr. Fritz looking so well to- 
 night. He has hosts of absent friends who would share 
 this pleasure if they were here.* I know of no man in 
 the iron trade who has been so universally respected and 
 loved as John Fritz. His personal qualities have been as 
 lovable as his engineering achievements have been notable. 
 
 * In a letter to the president of the Manufacturers' Chib expressing 
 his regret that he could not participate in the testimonial to his old 
 friend Mr. Carnegie said: "Pray convey to dear Uncle John my warm- 
 est regards and congratulations upon his honored old age. Many are 
 the men who on this occasion would join in giving three cheers for 
 Uncle John ! I am sure he has not an enemy in the world and he 
 has given to all of us a noble example." 
 
A LESSON FROM THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 135 
 
 . A LESSON FROM THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 
 
 WRITTEN IN JUNE, 1889, AFTER WITNESSING THE DESTRUC- 
 TION CAUSED BY THE FLOOD OF MAY 31. 
 
 In the world we live in and in the universe of which 
 it forms a part there are many evidences of a stupendous 
 plan, as was long ago demonstrated by philosophical writers. 
 The sun is set in the heavens ; the planets revolve in their 
 orbits ; the earth turns on its axis ; the seasons come and 
 go ; the sea ebbs and flows. The doctrine of evolution may 
 to some minds account for physical growth and develop- 
 ment, but it fails to account for the existence of a p?aw in 
 the creation of the universe. 
 
 A plan logically implies a planner, as has also been 
 pointed out by philosophical writers. 
 
 Not only are there evidences of a grand p?an which 
 must have had a planner, but there are evidences without 
 number of the existence of immutable laius for the gov- 
 ernment of the universe. The sun is not only set in the 
 heavens but it gives forth heat and light with unfailing 
 regularity ; the planets revolve in their orbits, through mill- 
 ions and millions of miles of space, with such precision 
 that their coming and going and their positions toward one 
 another may be calculated with mathematical exactness ; 
 the earth not only turns on its axis but it turns so exactly 
 that from day to day and from year to year there is 
 not the variation of a second of time in its revolutions ; the 
 seasons come and go in regular order ; the proud waves of 
 the tempestuous seas are stayed by unchanging boundaries. 
 
 We can not conceive of the existence of immutable 
 laws without conceding the existence of a law-maker. 
 
 We have, then, in one person or essence, a 2)lanner, or 
 creator, and a law-maker. Is it reasonable to suppose that 
 the creator of the universe and the maker of the laws 
 which govern it should cease to control the work of his 
 
136 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 own hands ? Certainly not. Therefore he rules ; he is the 
 great ruler. 
 
 If the planner of the universe, the maker of its laws, 
 and the administrator of these laws be one and the same 
 person, or essence, it must necessarily follow that whatever 
 he doeth he doeth well. He would not do ill with his own 
 handiwork. The planets do not crash into one another, nor 
 does the sun fail to give heat and light, or the earth fail 
 to produce food for man and beast. He would not do ill 
 with his own creatures. Is it conceivable, therefore, that the 
 creator and ruler of the universe and the author of our 
 existence should punish us after death because we had 
 been weak when we should have been strong, or because, 
 like Bartimeus of old, we were blind and could not see the- 
 way ? Is not our punishment on earth enough ? We suffer 
 in the flesh and with mental agony for violations of the 
 great creator's laws by ourselves or by those who have 
 gone before us, and death itself, the common lot, is a great 
 terror, from which we would all escape if we could. 
 
 The inborn hope of immortality, the promises of the 
 New Testament, and the precepts and example of the Found- 
 er of Christianity, whether he be accepted as the Son of 
 God or as the greatest of all the teachers and prophets, are 
 incentives to all men to lead upright and useful lives and 
 to prove themselves in all things worthy of the divinity 
 that is within them. No wise man will undervalue these 
 influences ; they have made the human race all that it is- 
 to-day. But that the poor creature who was born with 
 vicious and criminal instincts, or who became both vicious 
 and criminal through the influence of evil surroundings 
 which he had not chosen, is to be punished after death is 
 a doctrine which rests for acceptance solely upon the the- 
 ory that the creator and the ruler of the universe and the 
 author of our being is a vindictive God. But vindictive- 
 ness is not an attribute of the Almighty, while mercy is. 
 Surely infinite mercy can not be less merciful than the 
 evenhanded justice of this world, which imposes only penal- 
 ties that are commensurate with the offenses against which 
 they are directed. Punishment after death, added to the 
 punishment of death itself, would bear no just relation to 
 
A LESSON FROM THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 137 
 
 even the gravest of earthly offenses. Who can sound the 
 deepest depths of even a murderer's temptation, or accu- 
 rately measure the inherited defects of his physical and 
 mental and moral nature ? 
 
 The Ten Commandments contain no hint of either re- 
 wards or punishments after death. The punishments of 
 the Old Testament are distinctly of this world ; nor does 
 the Old Testament anywhere so far as we have observed 
 speak of rewards to the righteous after death. In the Fifth 
 Commandment we are told to " honor thy father and thy 
 mother " — for what reason ? — " that thy days may be long 
 upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
 
 The doctrine of a future state of rewards and pun- 
 ishments can not be inferred from the Old Testament ac- 
 counts of the death and burial of the patriarchs, kings, and 
 prophets. " Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good 
 old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered 
 to his people." " And Isaac gave up the ghost and died 
 and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days." 
 " And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his 
 sons he yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his 
 people." " Now the days of David drew nigh that he 
 should die, and he charged Solomon, his son, saying I go 
 the way of all the earth. So David slept with his fathers." 
 In these and other Old Testament accounts the dying ex- 
 press no hope of future reward or fear of future punish- 
 ment. Indeed they say nothing about a future state. 
 
 In the Lord's Prayer every Christian child is given 
 lasting impressions of a Heavenly Father which are loving, 
 soothing, and strengthening. " Deliver us from evil " does 
 not even hint of punishment after death as an evil from 
 which we ask to be delivered. Why should the spirit of 
 this prayer ever be departed from by those who teach us 
 more of this Heavenly Father than our Saviour himself 
 has taught us in its simple words and in many other ex- 
 amples and precepts which he has set before us and com- 
 mended to our hearts ? 
 
 If it shall be answered that there are passages in the 
 Old and the New Testaments, but particularly in the New 
 Testament, which are in conflict with the above views 
 
138 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. 
 
 of God's justice and mercy, and which appear to confirm 
 the doctrine of future punishment, we ask the reader to 
 consider that these passages have been variously interpreted 
 by conscientious and scholarly Bible students, and that they 
 should be read in connection with other passages which 
 clearly set forth God's love for his children and not apart 
 from them. Many statements in both the Old and the 
 New Testament are now generally discredited by reverent 
 Bible critics ; why not also those statements which are not 
 in harmony with our conception of the Great Creator as 
 our Heavenly Father ? Even the Sermon on the Mount is 
 not free from criticism by reverent Bible students. 
 
 We have been led into this train of thought by the 
 contemplation of the awful calamity which has just swept 
 nearly 2,500 persons from time into eternity, in the twink- 
 ling of an eye and without a moment's warning that they 
 had reached the end of all earthly things. Shall it be said 
 that these innocent victims of man's violation of nature's 
 laws must be punished hereafter ? The very thought is 
 abhorrent to our sense of infinite justice and mere}'. 
 
 We have also since the flood been impressed by the 
 reflection that among ail our acquaintances and in all our 
 reading and in all the sermons to which we have listened 
 we have never heard of a man or woman of evangelical 
 faith who was willing to admit that any of his or her de- 
 ceased relatives had been consigned to a state of future pun- 
 ishment, no matter how grave their offenses may have been. 
 Apparently all men and all women have faith in the ex- 
 emption from future punishment of their own friends. The 
 human heart will not condemn its own. Are the affectionate 
 impulses of the human heart to be ignored ? Is the logic of 
 its love for its own to count for nothing ? What else is the 
 inborn hope of immortality but a trusting faith in the ex- 
 istence of a state of future happiness, adapted, it may be, to 
 our individual capacity to enjoy it ? The hope of immor- 
 tality, if interpreted in a spirit of Christian charity, implies 
 freedom from future punishment for all men, and does not 
 embody the selfish belief that a privileged few, as a special 
 favor, may escape from its awful infliction upon their own 
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