McGHEE, JAMES. The father of the subject of this sketch, John McGhee, was born in New York, and his father dying when he was quite young, his mother removed, to Trenton, New Jersey. At the age of sixteen he left home to learn the trade of a millwright, and after that lost all trace of his mother and her family, and never again met any of his kindred, so that Mr. James McGhee has no relatives by the name of McGhee, except two nephews residing in California, of whom he has any knowledge. After learning his trade he went to the Clarion River and built a number of mills on that stream. In 1822 he was married to Nancy Smith and in 1825 removed to the Beech Woods to build a mill for Alexander Osborn, the first mill erected in that neighborhood. He was the first settler to locate east of the "beaver dam," or what is now Fall’s Creek. His nearest neighbor was three miles distant, and a dense forest, infested with wild animals, surrounded his dwelling. Mr. McGhee was necessarily absent the greater part of the time, which left his wife alone with her little family. One morning she heard their only pig squealing lustily, and ran out of the house to see what was the matter, and found to her astonishment that a large bear was carrying the pig off. She picked up an axe that was lying on the wood-pile near by, and struck a blow at the bear, which sank deep into its head, killing it instantly, and releasing the pig.
Mrs. McGhee was obliged to work hard to help make the new home in the woods, and this added to the care of the family, was too much for her strength, and at last her health gave way, and, in 1835, she died. At that time her husband was too fond of the glass which intoxicates, and though a kind husband and father when sober, at times he became crazed by the demon that lurks in the wine cup and takes all manhood away. When his wife felt death approaching she called him to her bedside and asked him to give up strong drink. He promised, and from that day never tasted strong drink.
James McGhee was born in the Beech Woods, March 20, 1835, his mother dying when he was nine months old. Mrs. McIntosh, a neighbor, took charge of him for a short time, and then his aunt, Mrs. Osburn, took him to her home in Clarion county, and cared for him until he was four years old, when he was brought back to the Beech Woods to live with his father. Mr. McGhee says: "When my uncle brought me home he put a stone in one end of his saddle-bags and me in the other, and in this way carried me forty miles. I can remember, the night after I came home, that my father, who was lying on the floor alongside of my bed, would rise up quite often through the night and look at me. The ladies of the neighborhood were very kind to me, treating me as though I was one of their own children, calling me their ‘little Jimmie,’ and sending me cakes to school. In my childhood days I never went into one of their houses that I did not receive something to eat, and this practice has been kept up, for let me go where I will, I must eat with them before I leave. I shall always remember and respect these good people for the many kindnesses I have received at their hands." At the age of fourteen James McGhee began rafting and running lumber on the creek, being, as was said, "a good worker," and those who employed him were always careful to give him all he could do. In those days the raftmen were half the time on the raft and the balance in the water. They always walked home in the night or camped in the woods among the laurel. Mr. McGhee says of this first trip down the creek: "We had a gorge at Rocky Bend, and night coming on we started for the pike, but got lost on the way and had to stay in the woods all night. We had had no dinner or supper, and I thought if that was the way rafting went I would stay at home. The next morning we came to the pike where Levi Schuckers now lives, where a man by the name of Houpt kept a hotel, and where we got a good breakfast, which we all enjoyed."
Mr. McGhee remained in the Beech Woods, working on the farm, and running on the creek when there was rafting, until he was eighteen; but being of a roving disposition, in 1853, he started to the west with three other young men of the neighborhood - Welsh, Groves and Lewis. At that time Jefferson county had no railroads, and as the Allegheny River was too low for steamboats, the travelers had to walk to Pittsburgh, where they took the cars. At that time the farthest west that trains ran was to within sixteen miles east of Galena, Illinois, where our travelers took the stage, arriving in Galena October 24, 1853, and the next day started for the Wisconsin lumber camps. Janesville, through which they passed, had only one house, and a very poor one at that. On the 29th they reached the mouth of Yellowstone River, and at the hotel there were informed that they could get work at Williams’s mill, a distance of fourteen miles. They reached this place about dark, and were promised work by Mr. Williams, who directed them to a shanty, where there were about forty rough-looking men, with hair hanging over their shoulders, and having the appearance of not having been shaved for at least five years, and whose every word was an oath. When supper was ready each man took down from a wooden peg on the wall a wooden bowl and spoon, and the new-corners being furnished with the same articles, followed the others into the next room, where on tables made of rough boards were placed large wooden bowls, such as are used for mixing bread, filled with pork and beans. This was all the food the men got, but all seemed strong and in good health. Mr. McGhee stayed here three days, but as the weather was very cold, and he had no blankets or bedding of any kind, and none could be had, he determined to return home, and dividing his money with his companions, he turned his steps homeward. After this journey he worked on the farm at home until he was twenty years of age, when, having accumulated about four hundred dollars, he again started westward. This time he was able to buy a ticket from Pittsburgh to Galena, from where he struck out for St. Paul. Near Portage, Wisconsin, he found Mr. Lewis, his companion of two years before. After spending the night with him, he proceeded on his journey, and just after crossing the Wisconsin River, found himself surrounded by a tribe of Indians, who seemed to be quarreling. He was considerably alarmed, and was greatly relieved when one of them, in English, inquired what day of the week it was. On being told that it was Sunday, he seemed much pleased, and informed Mr. McGhee that that was what they were disputing about, some of the rest asserting that it was not. Finding they could talk Eng1ish, he inquired the way to Black River Falls. They told him there was an Indian trail through the woods, but that the white man went by Devil’s Lake, which was nearer, but Indians dare not go that way. Not being afraid of the evil spirits of the Indians, Mr. McGhee chose this route, and that night encamped on the banks of the lake, whose beauty and grandeur repaid him for the trip. There is a railroad built to the place and a summer resort upon the spot where, on the eve of July 4, 1855, Mr. McGhee spent a lonely night.
At Black River he fell in with a young man who was going to Chippewa Falls to work at the millwright trade. Having worked at this with his father, Mr. McGhee concluded to join him. On reaching the Eau Claire River the settler with whom they spent the night advised them to go no further, as the Indians were on the war-path. But, after exchanging some of their coffee and hard bread with him for dried venison and fish, they decided to push on. After going some distance they met a party of whites, who informed them that the Winnebago and Chippewa Indians were fighting at the falls. They turned back with them, and that night, for the first time, he saw a picket guard thrown out. The next day the party, forty in number, went down the river to Eau Claire, where Mr. McGhee remained until the 16th of July, when he again set out for St. Paul, a distance of two hundred miles. There was no road save an Indian trail, and the traveler did not see a human face for three days, except a party of Indians, whom he was terribly frightened to meet, in war paint; but the leader assured him that he need not be afraid, as they were on their way to "fight bad injun at Chippewa Falls," and with a war-whoop they left him. He reached St. Pau1 without further adventure, and found but a small village, containing a few dwellings, a small frame hotel, the dock, warehouse, and three stores. While there a German wanted to sell him forty acres of land for forty dollars, which covered the ground now occupied by the union depot, and taking in a large portion of the city; but after looking about for a week he concluded that the place would not amount to much, as there would never be a market for the grain raised in Minnesota. From there he went to Minneapolis, St. Anthony’s, and visited the beautiful falls of Minnehaha. He then retraced his steps to Iowa, through which State he made a very pleasant pedestrian tour. Though there were roads to guide the traveler, there were no bridges, and he frequently had to wade streams where the water was waist-deep. The country was beginning to be settled, and Mr. McGhee could generally find shelter for the night. One night he stopped for the night at a sod house, and soon after two men rode up who he thought acted rather suspiciously. Mr. McGhee at once decided they were robbers, who had obtained knowledge of several hundred dollars he carried on his person, and had followed him to rob him; but his fears were all allayed when one of them asked a blessing at the supper-table.
After looking over Iowa, Mr. McGhee again turned his face homeward, thinking, as he says, "that there was too much good land in the west, and it would produce so much grain that there would be no market for it."
He reached home August 26, and had not been there very long until there was a "flood in the creek," and in company with David McGeary and Samual Sloan started a raft from Brookville. The water was low when they started, but the rain soon fell in torrents, and when they reached Troy the water was rising rapidly. When they came in sight of Hess’s dam they could see the breakers rising up some ten feet. Mr. McGhee says: "It made my hair stand up on my head at sight of the peril that was before us. I secured a good hold on one of the grubs and concluded I would go to the bottom with the raft. It was soon over, as the raft was in the current of the dam, and as soon as the front end had struck the breaker it went down. We were afraid we would strike the pier below the dam, but McGeary being a good pilot, we escaped. We soon found ourselves out of danger, but without coats or hats. Our oar was on the back of the raft; we soon secured it, and after some hard work succeeded in landing at New Bethlehem. I give this as one of the many adventures of a lumberman." In 1858 Mr. McGhee formed a co-partnership in the lumber business with David McGeary, to whom he sold his interest in 1860 and purchased some timber land, in which he invested all the money he had, thinking to sell his timber in Pittsburgh in the spring. But when on his way "down the river" with his first rafts in the spring of 1861 he was met with the news that the rebels had fired upon Fort Sumter. On reaching Pittsburgh all was found to be excitement, and no sale could be made. Leaving his timber in charge of James Cathers, he returned home. He was out of money and discouraged, but he soon imbibed the war fever that was rousing up the North, and as the ranks of the first three months’ companies were full, he enlisted under the next call in Captain Evans R. Brady’s company, and accompanied it to Pittsburgh, but having some business to attend to, he returned borne, where he fell sick, and before he was able to rejoin his company Captain Brady wrote to him that his place was filled. He then enlisted in Captain A.H. Tracy’s company, which became Company H of the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment. He served almost three years in this brave old regiment, and participated in forty-two battles and skirmishes, until he was wounded at the battle of the Wilderness. Mr. McGhee says of his army experience: "After I was wounded I never saw the good old flag again until I saw it at the reunion of Jefferson county soldiers at Brookville, September 22, thought of what Colonel Craig said at the battle of Gettysburg, when the rebels were among us as thick as bees, and the color bearers were being shot down: ‘Boys, stand by the flag until the last man is killed, and then I will take it out.’ When the Sixty-third was driven back to Randolph’s battery, and we had rescued them, I heard one of the regiment say: ‘God bless the old One Hundred and Fifth, she is always on hand.’ At the battle of the Wilderness we were marching along a road, when the rebels poured into our ranks a deadly fire. The men fell in great numbers, and as soon as we could load we returned the fire. We could not hear the report of their guns for the noise of our own firing. The only way we knew they were firing at us was seeing our men fall. The enemy occupied higher ground than we did, and suffered more. Each man fired one hundred and twenty rounds before we were relieved. We then retired a short distance and lay down to rest. I was lying behind a small tree, upon which the rebels opened fire and shot away at it until it fell."
In the fight of the next day Mr. McGhee was wounded severely in the arm. The rebel who shot him was not fifty rods distant. After receiving the wound Mr. McGhee was sent to Belle Plain, and it was four days before he reached there, and during that time his wound did not receive proper attention. At Belle Plain he was put on a boat, where his wound received proper care. He was taken to the hospital at Washington, and a few days after he arrived there an order was received to furlough the soldiers and send them home. The surgeon thought he was not able to go, but he had received intelligence of his father’s serious illness, and his nurse interceded for him, and he was allowed to go home, reaching there the day before his father’s death, which occurred May 23, 1864. He remained at home until July 1, when he returned to the hospital and was transferred to Satterly hospital, where he remained until his term of service expired.
When he came out of the army Mr. McGhee had about three hundred dollars. With this he bought five hundred acres of timber land in Forest county, at Orphan’s court sale, at fifty cents per acre, and in a few days sold it for five dollars per acre. This gave him money enough to carry on business, and he took out timber that winters and in the spring had fifteen rafts which he run to Pittsburgh and sold for twenty-five cents per foot.
Having money enough to go into some business, he concluded to go to California, and was ready to start, when R.S. Cathers persuaded him to purchase a mill property. During the winter of 1865 he took out timber on Little Toby, which he run to Pittsburgh in the spring and sold for twenty-three cents per foot. In the spring of 1866 he sold, at a good profit, his interest in the lands on Little Toby, and purchased four thousand acres of timber land in Michigan, from Ira C. Fiiller. After visiting and locating this land he returned home, and in the summer of 1866 bought one-fourth interest in the mill at Sandy Valley, in Winslow township. While taking out timber after the mill froze up, about March 1, 1867, one of the scorers’ axes came off the handle and struck Mr. McGhee on the wrist, severing an artery. He took cold in the sore after it was partially healed, and says: "Had it not been for Dr. Heichhold’s watchful care, I would have lost my arm."
Since then he has made several trips to Michigan, where he has extensive lumber interests. He owns an interest in the large steam mill at McGhee Station (Sandy Valley), which was built in 1869 and saws four million feet of boards per annum. Mr. McGhee resides in his large and commodious residence at this place.
On the 8th of August, 1865, Mr. McGhee was married to Elizabeth S. Boner, daughter of Charles Boner, of Rose township. Six children have blessed this union, four of whom, Anna M., Mattie, Charles P., and James W. - survive, and are all at home with their parents; Carrie S. died November 25, 1875, and John W., December 13, 1875.
Very few of Jefferson county’s citizens have lived a more eventful or busier life than Mr. McGhee, and his adventures in the far west and in the army would fill a volume.
BRADY, ANDREW JACKSON, was born in Mahoning township, Indiana county February 3, 1815. Hts father, James Y. Brady, was a prominent citizen of Indiana county, and held the office of justice of the peace for forty years. His mother was Sarah Ricketts, of Virginia, and a very estimable woman. They had quite a large family, two of whom, the subject of our sketch and his brother, Oliver, became citizens of Jefferson county. His father was a cousin of Captain Sam Brady, of Indian fame.
In 1840 A.J. Brady, who was a carpenter and cabinet maker, came to Pine Creek township to build a house for Mr. John Long. He remained for a year or two and worked at his trade in the summer, and taught school during the winter. One of the schools taught by him was the Moore school, near Emerickville. On the 3d of March, 1842, he was married to Miss Susannah Catherine Long, daughter of Mr. John Long, and returned to Indiana county and went to farming.
In those days money was very scarce, and books of all kinds were luxuries often unobtainable, and Mrs. Brady found herself in her new home without a Bible. Having been brought up to read and abide by the Word of God, she felt this deprivation very much, and as soon as an opportunity presented, she purchased the volume from which the records for this sketch have been taken, and for which she paid the last money in her possession, the only time when, as she says, she was ever obliged to part with her last cent; but she felt that she must possess a Bible of her own at any sacrifice.
The young couple worked hard, and being young, healthy, and energetic, they succeeded. When the first little one came, the mother took it with her to the field, and placing its cradle in the shade of a tree, she followed after her husband’s plow, setting up the corn or helping put up the hay. After the first two years they were able to hire a hand, and from that time Mrs. Brady was relieved from out-door work; but she looks back to those early days as among the happiest of her life.
About 1848 A.J. Brady sold his farm in Indiana county and returned to Jefferson county, and in 1850 with Irvin Long, his brother-in-law, bought the Port Barnett property, and in addition to the mills he also kept the old Barnett Hotel. In 1849 Mr. Brady and Samuel Findley bought a fleet of boards and ran them to Cincinnati, where they sold them. In 1852 he sold the Port Barnett property to Jacob Kroh, Sr., and moved to Brookville and purchased the house on the corner of Mill and Main streets, in which he resided until 1857, when he purchased the property on Mill street where his family still resides.
In 1867 Mr. Brady made a trip to England ,in the interest of the heirs of William Robinson. He left New York September 23, and landed in Liverpool October 7. Although not successful in his search, Mr. Brady enjoyed his trip to the old country very much. He visited all places of interest in Liverpool, London, and Nottingham, among others the Crystal Palace. He returned home in the latter part of November. A.J. Brady was one of the most prominent and successful business men in the county. He was the senior partner of the firm of Brady & Long in the lumbering business, and the Blame mill and the lumber business connected with it is yet conducted under the same firm name. He was well identified with the lumber interests on Redbank Creek, and for many years he owned considerable valuable real estate, and was possessed of considerable of this world’s goods.
He was always prominently identified with the Republican party, and for years held the office of justice of the peace in Brookville, and was elected and re-elected assessor again and again. He was always honest and straightforward in all his dealings with his fellows, and so strong was the faith of his neighbors and those who knew him in his integrity that he was guardian for scores of orphan children.
On the 16th of November, 1865, after an illness of some duration, he calmly passed from earth. Mr. Brady was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but made no loud professions of religion. He was as unassuming in his church relations as in his daily life, but his faith in his heavenly Father was steadfast and sure. When about to embark on his trip to England, he wrote to his wife: "I put my trust in God, and I believe that he will permit me to come back again. I have a good deal of faith in your religion, and I want you to pray for me when I am at sea, and I will pray for myself and all the rest at home."
He was a true and steadfast friend, and the troubles of his friends affected him almost as much as if they had been his own.
Mr. and Mrs. Brady had eleven children. Of these Hezekiah E., Sarah Elisabeth, Margaret Alvira, Mary Alzaide, Nora Adelphia, Harry Grant, and Walter Zeigler died in infancy, except Maggie, who was taken from earth when a lovely girl of some twelve summers.
Four children yet survive - Lewis Armstrong, now residing in Du Bois, Minerva J., married to John Matson, jr., and a resident of Brookville, and Milton Seymour, also married and residing in Brookville, and Gertrude, who, with her mother, resides in the homestead.
JENKS, HON. GEORGE A., is the youngest of ten children, and was born in Punxsutawney, Jefferson county, Pa., March 26, 1836. His father, a physician, was descended from a Welsh Quaker family, who were among the early settlers of Philadelphia. His mother was a daughter of the Rev. D. Barclay, a Scotch Presbyterian minister. When Mr. Jenks was a child his eldest brother, D.B. Jenks, who was a lawyer, was teaching him to count a hundred, and casually asked him what business he would follow when he became a man. The reply was, "Wait till tomorrow morning and I will tell you." During the night the determination was formed, and the next morning communicated by the subject of this sketch that he would be a lawyer. This purpose, so early formed, was unalterably fixed. Thenceforward his every labor and study was directed to the purpose of his life. To these early studies is largely to be attributed his capability to deal with original legal questions, such as he manifested on the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, the discussion of the Louisiana and Oregon cases before the Electoral Commission, and the debate on the distribution of the Geneva award.
When attending the common school, one of the readers then in use was the Introduction to the English Reader. In this, one of the lessons was the story of the " Noble Basket Maker." From this story the moral was derived: That every man, no difference what his circumstances or purposes in life might be, should learn a trade. This moral he determined to act upon. When fourteen years old his father died. At sixteen he entered upon an apprenticeship of two years to the carpenter and joiner trade. When his term expired he worked at his trade, taught school, and occasionally was employed at civil engineering, till he entered college, engaged in the latter vocation, in the spring of 1855 he assisted to lay out Omaha, in Nebraska. In the fall of that year he entered the junior class at Jefferson College, having, in the mornings and evenings, while teaching and working, steadily pursued his literary studies. He had been entered as a student of law before he entered college, and the Hon. W.P. Jenks, who was his guardian, had from early boyhood directed him in his legal and literary reading. He graduated at Jefferson College in the class of 1858, and in February, 1859, was admitted to the bar in Jefferson county, having finished his legal studies under his elder brother, P.W. Jenks.
At the September term, 1859, he led in conducting his first case in court, which was an all important one to his clients, a widow and her minor children, whose all was their home, and that home was dependent upon the result of the case. He was opposed by the leading legal talent at the bar, including Hon. I.G. Gordon, Hon. W.P. Jenks, and Hon. G.W. Zeigler. He won the case, and thenceforward was employed in most of the important causes in his own bounty, and his name soon became familiar in many of the courts of Western and Central Pennsylvania, to which he was called for the trial of important cases.
When not engaged in the courts, his life has been one of constant study and preparation. He never sought public position, but was known as a Democrat. In the fall of 1874 he was tendered the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Twenty-fifth District of Pennsylvania, against General Harry White. The district was heavily Republican, but his personal popularity and the tidal wave elected him to the Forty-fourth Congress. Speaker Kerr appointed him chairman of the Committee on Invalid Pensions. A masterly report on the condition and working of the Pension Bureau, derived from an investigation by order of the House, he soon made, and followed this by a bill which was calculated to prevent future abuses. Bounty land warrants, which, before this, had been personal property, had become the plunder of a dishonest ring, which, at one single time, had seized upon over one hundred thousand acres of land, were changed to realty through his efforts, and so guarded that only the rightful owners, their legal heirs or assigns, could obtain them.
His forensic ability first became known to the House in a discussion concerning the character of an invalid pension. He had asserted that an invalid pension, for death, or disability of a soldier in the service in the line of his duty, was a contract right. This was denied by some of the leading Republicans of the House, who alleged it was mere gift or gratuity, and a warm debate ensued, at the conclusion of which Mr. Jenks made a legal argument, tracing the legislation on the subject from and since the Revolutionary War, and establishing so conclusively the position he assumed that it has not since been denied. This was soon succeeded by a legal discussion concerning the refusal of Hallett Kilbourne to testify before a committee of the House.
The legal prominence he had already attained led the House to elect him as one of seven managers on the part of the House to conduct the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, the others being Messrs. Lord, Knott, Lynde, McMahon, Hoar and Lapham. On that trial, before the Senate, the defendant was represented by three leading lawyers of the nation - Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, Hon. Matt. H. Carpenter and Hon. Montgomery Blair. Mr. Jenks was selected by the managers as one of the committee to draw the pleadings. He was afterwards appointed to make one of the arguments on the question of the jurisdiction of the Senate to impeach after the officer had resigned, and subsequently, in consequence of the illness of Mr. Lapham, he was selected to discuss the facts. His legal attainments were, on this trial, made conspicuous to the Senate and the nation, and conceded to be unsurpassed by any in the cause.
The subject of the distribution of the Geneva award came before the House on majority and minority reports from the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Jenks offered an amendment to the majority report; in support of the amendment and report as amended, made an argument involving some of the most difficult questions of international law. The report, as amended by him, was passed by the House.
Soon after the meeting of the second session, he was appointed by Speaker Randall one of the committee of fifteen to investigate the conduct of the elections in Louisiana, and on his return was appointed, by the chairman of the Democratic caucus, with Mr. Field, of New York, and Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, to represent the Democracy of the House in preparing, presenting and discussing the facts and the law before the Electoral Commission. It fell to Mr. Jenks to make opening arguments in the cases of Louisiana and Oregon. While he was engaged in the discussion of the first of these cases before the commission, Senators Thurman and Bayard sat side by side. Senator Bayard passed a note of admiration of the argument to Senator Thurman, and in response received the following reply: "The more I hear this man the more I admire him. He reasons like a Newton or La Place. He has spoken half an hour, and has not uttered a superfluous word." This complimentary opinion was generally concurred in by those who heard or read the proceedings before the Electoral Commission.
In most of the legal discussions that arose in the House, Mr. Jenks participated, in addition to the full performance of his duties on the very laborious committee of which he was chairman. At the expiration of his congressional term he immediately resumed his professional pursuits, in which he has ever since been engaged. His extensive practice has included almost every branch that arises in the State, and covers a very broad range of its area.
Mr. Jenks was appointed assistant secretary of the interior July 1, 1885, which office he resigned May 15, 1886, to accept the position of attorney for John E. Du Bois, the wealthy Clearfield county lumberman. He accepted this appointment, giving up his official position at Washington, in compliance with a promise made by him to John Du Bois, the uncle of his client, prior to his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Interior, that he would take charge of all legal business for his nephew.
On the 28th of July, 1886, he was nominated as solicitor-general of the United States, and on the next day was confirmed by the Senate without the nomination being referred to a committee - a rare compliment seldom paid to any one who had not been a member of that body. When this appointment was offered to Mr. Jenks he would not accept until he had sent for Mr. Du Bois and obtained his consent, as he had promised the elder Du Bois, before his death, that he would serve his nephew and heir for a period of years, and felt that promise must take precedence over any other consideration. Mr. Du Bois cordially consented to the acceptance of the appointment, and Mr. Jenks employed Hon. W.P. Jenks to assist in discharging the duties under his contract with Mr. Du Bois. But this appointment and that of assistant secretary of the interior came to him entirely unsolicited. He was appointed to the latter by Secretary Lamar, who had served with him in the Forty-fourth Congress, and who remembered his unusual legal ability, although he had not seen him since March, 1877, and did not even know his address, getting it from Hon. W.H. Snowdon, or ex-Governor Curtin. The first intimation he had of his appointment as solicitor genera1 was when the place was offered him by the president after he had summoned him to Washington by a telegram. This appointment was made by Mr. Cleveland, entirely on his own responsibility, basing his judgment largely on what he had seen of Mr. Jenks, while the latter was acting as assistant secretary of the interior, during which time he had come in contact with him frequently in the transaction of important business connected with the public lands, under the direction of the interior department.
Mr. Jenks has always been an unswerving Democrat, and has been frequently honored by his party with the most important offices in their gift. His legal attainments are admitted on all sides, and that he is one of the ablest and most prominent men connected with this administration is conceded by both Republicans and Democrats.
Mr. Jenks was married, January 3, 1860, to Miss Mary Agnes, daughter of the late Thomas Mabon, one of the oldest and best-known citizens of Brookville. Of their two children only Emma survives to gladden their home. Thomas Mabon, a promising, bright boy of thirteen years, around whom clustered many fond hopes, died March 2, 1874.
WHITE, ALEXANDER COLWELL, was born near Kittanning, Armstrong county, Pa., on the 12th day of December, 1833; was raised on a farm, attending the public schools in winter until the age of twenty years, when he commenced his first term as teacher in a public school. The following summer he attended the Jacksonville Institute, and from that time attended school in summer and teaching during the winter, putting in the vacations harvesting, or as a hand rafting and running lumber, graduating at Dayton University in the fall of 1859.
In the summer of 1860 he came to Jefferson county to take charge of the public schools at Punxsutawney, and the same fall commenced studying law under the Hon. Phineas W. Jenks. In the spring 1861 he enlisted with the first three months men, and served in Company I Eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. A.A. Mc Knight’s company. He was admitted to practice at the December term, 1862, and in the spring of 1863 commenced the practice of law with Captain John Hastings, of Punxsutawney, Pa., under the firm name of Hastings & White. On the 25th of May, 1864, he married Ellen M. Murray, to whom two children have been born - John Murray White (the heir apparent), August 18, 1871, and Nelhe March White, March 26, 1876, and who died July 26, 1879. In 1867 he was elected district attorney of Jefferson county, and in the spring of 1868 removed to Brookville, and in 1870 was re-elected to the same office. From 1860 he has taken an active part in politics, at all times a staunch Republican, having no sympathy with third parties, or half way measure, respecting an opponent, but having little consideration for men without politics, religion or principle, commonly known as Mugwumps, or Half-Breeds.
The Twenty-fifth Congressional District, composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Jefferson, Clarion and Forest, was formed in 1874. The district was carried by the Democrats in 1880 and 1882, and was considered hopeless for a Republican. In 1884 Alexander C. White received the nomination, and after a hotly contested campaign he was elected by over eighteen hundred majority. He has been actively engaged in the practice of law since his admission to the bar. Whatever of wealth, reputation, etc., he has he has secured through his own exertions under the most adverse circumstances.
REYNOLDS, THOMAS, SR. Family nomenclature has lost its significance in cosmopolitan and democratic America, and whether the descendants of patricial houses on the other side of the sea have degenerated in the unrolling of genealogical lines by intermarriage, is a question that does not much concern a person of worth. Only the weak and indolent rest upon the ostentatious support of ancestral prestige. Yet there is a conventional usage among the people, of retrospectively glancing toward Plymouth Rock, though here and there a plebeian acre depreciates the view. Then, in the year 1676, after a voyage of twenty-two weeks, one Henry Reynolds, a member of an old Chichester (England) family, landed on the shores of the New World. This was forty-seven years prior to the birth of Joshua Reynolds, the most noted painter of his day, and the "bright particular star" of the family connection. Henry located at Burlington, New Jersey, and finally in Chester, Pennsylvania, and he and his immediate descendants were extensive freeholders in and about Philadelphia, many acres of the present city then having rested in their title. To him and his wife Prudence, ten children were born. Henry Reynolds died in 1724, and Prudence in 1728.
Francis Reynolds, the third in order of birth of the ten children above mentioned, was born August 15, 1684. Of him it is only recorded that his wife’s name was Elizabeth, and that he was the father of Samuel Reynolds.
This link of the lineal chain was forged January 31, 1755, and perished February 26, 1786. The spouse’s name was Jane Jones, and the nuptials were solemnized at Salem, Delaware. Seven children were the issue of this union. The said Jane Jones, whose years extended from 1734 to 1779, was the daughter of John and Mary (Goodwin) Jones, but there is no further trace of the ancestral line on the maternal side. Then, as now, women did not seem to enjoy the equality and respect to which they were entitled, and this prejudice was carried to a ridiculous excess in family records that appeared to show that women had very little, if any, part in the propagation of the race!
Thomas Reynolds, the eldest, son of Samuel and Mary Reynolds, was born January 2, 1759, and died July 7, 1837. He consorted Nancy Reynolds, of an independent Reynolds family, among whose immediate ancestors the name Bird occurs. This probably points to a mesozoic origin. Her death occurred January 5, 1845. Seven seems to have been a lucky (or, according to the pessimist, an unlucky) number with the house of Reynolds in regard to its offspring. Each abstract family, it is a remarked coincidence, aggregates seven members. Seven were born to Thomas and Nancy Reynolds, and these were named, consecutively, Mary, Jane, Abraham, Samuel, Tilton William and Thomas of whom the last is the subject of this biography. Mary (Parke) lived till 1868, and was the only consanguineous tie of the youngest brother at the time of her death. There remains of this generation only two beings within the knowledge of the writer. These are Margaret Jane (Reynolds) Myers and Ruth Reynolds, sisters, who reside in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and who were the daughters of Abram, a brother of Thomas, whose common father was Samuel.
Thomas Reynolds, sr., was born on the 19th day of September, 1807, on the parental homestead, near Parkesburg, Chester county. In his youth only such educational advantages were enjoyed as were to be had outside of a university; but these, although not comparable to the excellent facilities of today, were not to be despised, as the lack of variation in studies was, in a great degree, compensated by the thorough manner in which the few were taught. Then, too, his call for solid learning found a responsive voice in his father, who was not only a competent teacher and profound philosopher, but a companion and friend as well. The education thus acquired by Thomas Reynolds qualified him as an instructor to others, and in this section of Pennsylvania he was one of the pioneer teachers under the present school system. His language in conversation and in his limited literary products gave evidence of pure philological training, consisting, as they did, in well-chosen words, pregnant of meaning and elegant in phraseology.
Early in life he became apprenticed to the currying and shoemaking trades, in both of which he made himself master, as was his want in whatever was undertaken. Franklin and Washington counties, in New York, were the scenes of his primitive operations, and his topography of those communities was very graphic, associated, as it was, with rich reminiscences of hunting life, colored by racy and startling anecdotes. In 1876 he revisited the hallowed grounds made sacred by youthful adventure, but civilization had crept in and obliterated nearly all the familiar landmarks, except the outline of mountain and vale, and the metamorphosis illy gratified the heart of one who once chased the deer through the far reaching fastnesses.
He visited New York city with the purpose of making it a place of permanent residence, encouraged in the project by a millionaire uncle and other resident relatives of Manhattan Island. But "man made the town," and the roving spirit of Thomas Reynolds was antagonistic to a" pent up Utica." "The streets were too narrow," he explained to the writer; and so, in 1835, he came to Western Pennsylvania, when the country was rich in primeval forests and undisturbed minerals.
Tilton and William Reynolds, his brothers, had preceded him hither, and were comfortably domiciled on the lands now occupied by the mining village of Rathmel. Tilton was married, his wife having been Sarah Sprague, of a Vermont family. The first fall of their hermitage life they captured fourteen swarms of bees, and these, together with an extensive sugar industry, were exchanged for other necessary products, such as grain and salt, and with bear meat and venison, supplied by the brothers, the pioneer community flourished.
Tilton, in 1839, located on the summit of the mountain above Rathmel, and associated with William, inaugurated a mercantile enterprise and established a post-office. The name of the village was suitably called Prospect, for from its lofty altitude the view was picturesque and widely extended. The title was in poetic contrast to the postal name given the place at a later period - that of Dolingville! Tilton Reynolds was the Columbus of the great coal vein of this region, which has since gained a world-wide ce1ebrity, and has become one of the most extensive bituminous industries of the continent. The fuel of the widely separated inhabitants of the country was wood, but a little coal was added to increase the heat and longevity of the fire. For blacksmithing purposes John Fuller, who was here when the Reynoldses came, used coal procured out of the bottom of Sandy Creek.
William Reynolds in 1839 married Elizabeth Kyle, and in their offspring the magic number seven again turned up. He was a man of polished erudition and affable address, and his death in 1854 was mourned by a host of genuine admirers and friends.
Samuel Reynolds, another brother, sojourned awhile in this community, and Abram, the eldest, made a pilgrimage to the remote settlement. The latter was seven feet in stature, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds.
Thomas, while not engaged in other communities at school teaching, shoemaking, or hunting, lived with his brother William, for whom he had the warmest fraternal feeling. At this period of his life he was yet under thirty years of age, over six feet in height, and as straight as an arrow. He was of gentlemanly and attractive manners, and of a superb and seemingly tireless physique.
His first commercial adventure was the building of a tannery on the site now occupied by James A. Cathers, but this was soon abandoned for more pretentious enterprises.
In 1842 he wedded Juliana Smith, and, by some conjugal conjuration, lo! up bobs-the importunate number seven again - five boys and two girls. These were: Tilton, born October 26, 1843; Arthur Parke, December 5, 1845; Clarinda Emeline, April 11, 1848; Margaret Jane, June 19, 1850; William S., April 7, 1853; Thomas, September 25, 1856; John Daugherty, September 1, 1858. Of these, two are dead - the second, whose dissolution occurred on December 12, 1874, and the youngest, a man of fine mind and great promise, on March 19, 1886.
Thomas Reynolds located permanently on the present site of a portion of Reynoldsville, and built a tannery and saw-mill near where the Reynolds residence now stands, which were the only manufacturing industries of the immediate community in the years between 1840 and 1860. And, indeed, not until 1870 were there any other industries save the great sustaining one of shipping timber. The log house, recently demolished, was erected in 1843, and was a very Brogdingnag in its day. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have changed hands within its walls in lumber transactions, mercantile trade, and postal service. The post-office at Prospect was carried down to the old house one day in 1850, and the following is the authoritative document in the premises:
"POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, APPOINTMENT OFFICE,
"February 23, 1850.
"SIR: - I have the honor to inform you that the postmaster-general has this day changed the name of the post-office at Prospect Hill to Reynoldsville, in the county of Jefferson, and State of Pennsylvania, and continued Thomas Reynolds postmaster thereof.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"PETER HENRY WARNER,
"Second Assistant Postmaster-General.
"JAMES THOMPSON, House, of Representatives."
Previous to this Thomas Reynolds had surveyed and named Winslow township, the name having been given in honor of Judge Winslow, of whom he was a friend and admirer. The project of a town, however, was long contemplated before 1850, the dominant reasons being first to induce a physician to locate in the community - for the inhabitants were frequently compelled to call medical advice from Indiana, a distance of forty miles - and, secondly, to secure postal facilities; and Maida, the tutelary genius of Alba Longa, was not more zealous or tireless, touching the welfare of the antique city than was our modern tutelar of Reynoldsville. He acted as postmaster almost unremittingly, and at a pecuniary disadvantage, from the establishment of the office till his death. Although ever greatly interested in public affairs, he was yet unwilling to act as the agent of the people. Possessed of an influence that could at any time have made itself felt, and which even appeared during the early days of the county as almost irresistible, personal aggrandizement never occurred to him; or, if it did, he put it under his feet as a noisome thing.
In its entirety the character of Thomas Reynolds was essentially a strong one, and in his lineal race he stands out as a type of what a Reynolds should be. He was not a "chip of the old block," but the very block itself. His strong personality and lively sense of independence isolated him from the estimate put upon every consanguineous person, whether of anterior or subsequent birth. To strangers, and sometimes even to those who were intimately acquainted with him, he appeared eccentric in his habits and modes of thought; but these were owing to the mingled threads of sentiment and independence that ran through all the warp and woof alike of his character. Beneath these exterior qualities, there was a deep and strong vein of wit and humor, that brightened each thought, which passed through his mind, making him a rarely pleasant companion.
But the most conspicuous traits of his nature were a sense of honor incapable of a stain - a probity which was stubborn in its inflexibility - and an abiding, deeply rooted, uncompromising detestation, even horror, of all shams and hypocrisy, whether religious, political, or of any other kind. It is easily seen that such a man, in this day and generation, however deep a reverence he might have for the Author of his being as the great and good God - the Father, Preserver and Protector of all the common brotherhood of man - would rather retire those sentiments and feelings, and keep them sacred within the innermost recesses of his own soul, than to make a parade of them before the world. As firm and unyielding as the eternal hills when his decision was once framed, his was the material of which martyrs were made; as gentle and tender as a woman, every helpless creature found in him a friend and protector when in distress.
Death occurred to Thomas Reynolds, Sr., on the 16th of May, 1881.
This biography would by no means be complete should it not embrace a sketch of the wise and faithful wife who was so intimately identified with the life of him whose history is just recorded. "Praise no man while he lives" is an ancient and judicious saying, to which Heloise added, in a letter to Abelard: "Give not commendation at a time when the very act of doing it may make him undeserving of it." But the good common sense of Juliana Reyno1ds is too lively and practicable to be very susceptible to the suavity of words.
Of her ancestry we have it in genealogical record that one William Smith came to America from Gloucester, England, in 1635. Boston was settled by John Winthrop and others five years earlier, and Smith became a citizen of the embryo New England metropolis. The town records begin about the time of his advent. He was there persecuted for his religious principles. What those principles were the account says not, but this was the period in which the church of Boston was much troubled about Roger Williams and his heresy, and the Anti-nomian controversy, and it is probable that the judicial ban that obtained over Williams also effected Smith, for ostracism drove him to Hempstead, Long Island, in 1639, where he joined forty sympathetic Boston families who had colonized under the flag of Holland. He met his fate at the hands of Indians. Of his offspring, there was one Abraham, who, in turn, had a son Isaac, whose days were between the years of 1657 and 1746. He died at Hempstead Plains. His son, Jacob, 1690 - 1757, had a son Isaac born, in 1722, who emigrated from Queens county to Dutchess county in 1769. Jacob, son of Isaac, 1746 - 1810, who married a Peters, was the father of Uriah, born in 1771, and died in 1817. He married a woman named Lester, and his conjugal flock numbered nine, of whom was Valentine Hulet Peters Smith, born 1796, and died on the Smith homestead, near Reynoldsville (now T.B. London’s farm), in 1860. He was the father of Juliana (Smith) Reynolds.
On the maternal side we have no access to any record save the tradition that Juliana’s great-grandmother was an intemperate tea drinker, and gathered the leaves of the shrub in her apron from the waters of Boston harbor where the irascible subjects of the third George had their famous tea party in 1773. Granville, Bradford and Sprague are the ancestral names, all of English origin and of New England stock. The Spragues lived in Vermont, then emigrated to Chateaugay, New York, where Tilton Reynolds married the daughter of John Sprague, whose name was Sarah, and Valentine H.P. Smith wedded Rebecca, her sister, who became the mother of five children, of whom our present subject is the third.
Valentine H.P Smith, emigrated to this section of Pennsylvania in the same year with Thomas Reynolds, when Juliana was seven years of age. During the ensuing decade, the girl endured the hardships and meagre advantages of a severe pioneer life, and in early maidenhood took upon herself conjugal responsibilities, and the arduous duties of presiding over a large establishment. Through all the years up to his death, she was the faithful helpmeet of Thomas Reynolds, and a kind and wise maternal guardian. During the civil conflict of 1861 - 65 no one did better loyal service, not actually engaged at the theatre of war: a patriotic head and heart, to encourage in action, sympathize in distress, and laud in victory. The eldest son, Tilton, a mere boy when he enlisted, was cheerfully, though tearfully given to his country, and the mother enjoyed with pride and delight, his brave and unblemished military career, and his elevation in rank to a captaincy.
After the demise of her husband the affairs of the estate were vested in Juliana Reynolds, and her management of the diversified business has been markedly economical and sagacious. Her life has been as useful as busy, and full of charity and humanity.
Apropos of the historical allusions in this sketch, this fragment of family facts is appended: The old manse of the Smith’s, built long before the Revolution, is yet standing, a few miles east of Poughkeepsie, New York, and was, down to 1872, occupied by the successive generations of the family. In provincial days it was regarded as an architectural achievement of considerable merit. It is a two-story structure, with a roof of steep incline, under whose eaves small slide windows afforded loop-holes through which the aggressive Indians were kept at bay. Wooden hooks for gun-rests depended from the rafters, and the house was at once a residence and fortress. The kitchen is the one grand room. The windows are small with massive frames, and the doors are of hard wood and very thick, opening in horizontal sections, and locked with great iron bars. Every feature is impressive of strength and defense, and suggestive of the perils that environed the colonial inhabitants. The broad, deep fire-place is formed of huge boulders, and is of itself a primeval poem.
The family burying-ground is adjacent, and the numerous gray-stone slabs tell their sepulchral story. Here, with the generations of the Smiths, mingle the bones of those whose loves and lives were mingled in the flesh. There are Elys, Lesters, Peters, Blooms and a relic of early slavery, one old negro named " Deb;" for Jacob Smith, the grandfather of Valentine H.P. Smith, was an extensive slave-owner, and when their freedom was obtained, they were granted a living on the homestead as long as they desired to remain. Everything here shows decadence, save, perhaps, the prestige of honor marked upon the tombstones. Even the very wall, built high and strong as the everlasting adamant, totters and disintegrates, and when the stony epitaphs, telling of one being "a power in the land;" another "Judge of the King’s Bench," etc., crumble into dust, tradition itself will fade and pass away, and time will bury beneath her rubbish the very memory of things that were once majestic and mighty.
The Smith Bible, "imprinted at London by Robert Barker, printer to the King’s most excellent majestie, 1607," is in the possession of Juliana Smith Reynolds. The version of which it is a copy was prepared in Geneva, and first appeared in 1560. The translators of the version were exiled English Protestants, who had fled, from "Bloody" Mary’s cruelty, and had made Geneva their rendezvous. Of this party, William Whittingham, a brother-in-law of John Calvin, was chief. This version was the first in which the text was broken up into verses, and was, from the rendering of Genesis iii, 7, sometimes known as the "Breeches" Bible, that term being used instead of aprons." Upon a fly leaf; a crude picture and a description of the Smith coat-of-arms are traced.
WINSLOW, HON. REUBEN C. The history of the Winslow family dates back to the pilgrim settlers of Plymouth, Mass. The founder of the family, Kenelm Winslow, son of Edward Winslow, of Droitwich, England, was born at that place on the 29th of April, 1599. He was the younger brother of Governor Winslow, and arrived at Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1629 - this was the Mayflower’s second voyage. He settled at Marshfield, Mass., but subsequently removed to Salem, where he died on the 13th of September, 1672, aged seventy-three years. Some of his descendants still reside upon the property which he purchased from the Indians April 2, 1659.
Carpenter Winslow was his great-great-grandson, and was born at Pittston, Mass., March 20, 1766. His father, James Winslow, was a millwright, and he very early became familiar with the use of mechanical implements, and was afterwards engaged in ship building - having a ship yard at Wiscasset, Me., for several years. He married Elizabeth Coulburn in 1787, and was the father of nine sons, four of whom became noted seamen.
In the year of 1818 this branch of the Winslow family came to Jefferson county, and Carpenter Winslow settled on what is now the old homestead, in Gaskill township. The county was then a dense wilderness, and like all new settlers they had to undergo untold privations; but they found themselves in a healthy climate, and where the soil, though hard to "clear," was productive, so that they were soon able to raise grain and feed in abundance, while the surrounding forests and streams afforded them game and fish. One of their difficulties was having to carry their grain twenty or more miles along bridle-paths through the forest to mill.
In a few months the family of Dr. John W. Jenks came into the neighborhood, and with some others settled in what is now Punxsutawney, and the Bowers family located near the Winslows. These were followed by other settlers, and they soon found themselves in the midst of a good neighborhood, which is today one of the best farming sections of the county.
Carpenter Winslow died in November, 1827, his wife surviving him about eighteen years. Both are buried in the cemetery near Punxsutawney. Only two of his sons, James and Joseph W., father of R.C. Winslow, still survive. The rest have all passed away, leaving however, a large posterity, who are among the most prominent and best citizens of Jefferson and Elk counties. Joseph W. Winslow the youngest son of Carpenter Winslow, was born at Wiscasset, Me., December 10, 1804, and in 1832 married Christena Long, youngest daughter of Joseph Long, of Punxsutawney. Their family consisted of eleven children, four sons and seven daughters, who were all born at the old homestead, and who all survive, except a son and daughter who died in infancy. Mr. Winslow has resided on his farm for almost seventy years, and is now one of the patriarchs of the county. Two of his sons, Augustus G. and Joseph Clark Winslow, reside with their venerable parent at the homestead.
Reuben C. Winslow, the eldest son, was born November 9, 1833, and worked on the farm at home, getting his schooling in the winter until he was in his twenty-second year. He read law with Phineas W. Jenks, esq., of Punxsutawney, and was admitted to practice at the February term, 1858, and entered into partnership with his preceptor, the firm of Jenks & Winslow continuing until May, 1880, when it was dissolved, and the same month Mr. Winslow entered into partnership with John E. Calderwood, the firm of Winslow & Calderwood still continuing.
Mr. Winslow was married to Miss Martha Drum, youngest daughter of the late John Drum, esq., of Punxsutawney, June 24, 1858. The result of this union was two sons, John Carlton, born June 13, 1859, and Wille W., born May 7, 1862. The eldest son, Carlton, died November 11, 1881.
Mr. Winslow is a Republican in politics, and was elected to the State Senate in 1874. He still resides in Punxsutawney, where his home is one of the most beautiful in that thriving town.
FERMAN ALONZO, was born November 27, 1818 in Franklin county, N.Y.; he came here and settled where he now lives in Snyder township, Jefferson county, Pa., in 1839, and engaged in the lumber business, which business he still follows. He was married August 9, 1848, to Miss Susannah Bundy. They have had eight children: James Albert, Eliza M., Samuel B., Clara S., M. Josephine, Nellie, Allie (who died August 6, 1880, in her sixteenth year), and Zadie V., of whom five are married.
HUNTER, SAMUEL ANDERSON, was born in Westmoreland county in 1826. Mr. Hunter came to Jefferson county in 1846. His father, Andrew Hunter, had removed to the county and purchased a farm in Knox township a year or two before Samuel came. He worked on this farm for a year or two and then bought it from his father, and has continued to reside upon it ever since.
In 1853 Mr. Hunter was married to Miss Sarah H. Foster. This union has been blessed with seven children - Amanda Jane, Emma, Elmer, E. Perry, Mary Alice, Samuel A. and Everett. Of these Amanda died in 1859, and Mary Alice and Everett in 1871, both dying in one day of that scourge of childhood, diphtheria. Emma and Elmer are married, and Perry and Samuel A., jr., are still at home with their parents. Mr. Hunter has filled almost all the offices of trust in Knox township, and was elected county commissioner in 1873, and re-elected in 1875. He made a careful and judicious official. He has devoted himself since he came to Jefferson county to farming and lumbering, being a member of the firm of Orr, McKinley & Co. for several years. He is one of the most prominent and useful citizen’s of Knox township.
Mr. Hunter has found in his wife a veritable helpmeet. She is one of the most earnest and effective workers in the temperance cause, being one of the superintendents of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the county union, and president of Pleasant Hill Union. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hunter are consistent and earnest members of the Methodist Church.
THOMPSON, JOHN JAMISON Y. Of the early history of the Thompson family we have nothing very authentic. They came from Ireland at an early day and settled in Cumberland or Franklin county, and were among the first emigrants to cross the Allegheny Mountains into Western Pennsylvania, as early as 1790, settling near Blairsville, in Indiana county. The family consisted of the father Robert Thompson, his wife, and their four sons, Alexander, Moses, Adam and William, with the father of Mrs. Thompson, Robert Gordon. About, the year 1816, Alexander removed to the State of Indiana, where he died; the rest of the family all lived and died in Indiana county. William, the father of the subject of this sketch, married Nancy Jamison, a daughter of Rev. John Jamison. He was born at Ellershie, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and was a student of John Brown, of Haddington. Mr. Jamison was a lineal descendant of the Wallace family that gave to Scotland its great patriot, Sir William Wallace. He emigrated to this country at the close of the Revolutionary War, landing in Philadelphia in 1783, when his daughter, afterwards the wife of William Thompson, was only six years old. He purchased a grist-mill and six hundred acres of land, in Cumberland county, including what is known as Big Springs. Mr. Jamison was for some years pastor of the Associate Reformed or Seceder Church at Shippensburg, one of the first churches established in Cumberland county.
About the year 1794, he crossed the Allegheny Mountains, and located near Blairsville. Here he preached the gospel as a missionary and pioneer minister of the Seceder Church, in all the territory west of the Alleghenies. He was a Scotch divine of more than ordinary ability, of large build, being six feet, two inches in height, and possessing powerful physical energy and endurance, traveling as far south as Georgia, preaching and organizing churches. He was somewhat hyper-Calvinistic in his theological views, and disposed to defend them with true Cameronian zeal.
John J.Y. Thompson, was born near Blairsville, in 1805; his father, William Thompson, died of small-pox, in 1817, and his mother lived and died on the farm near Blairsville.
Of his early boyhood days we have but little knowledge, except that he was unusually apt at school, where he was beloved by his schoolmates, and esteemed by his teachers. He excelled in civil engineering and surveying, and was invariably selected as an assistant, when there were lands to be laid out and surveyed, and in after years he did much of the surveying in Jefferson county. At an early age he left home and became a clerk in the store of Nathaniel Nesbitt, of Blairsville. He soon left this position and engaged in business for himself, but this venture not proving successful, he abandoned it, and in 1831 removed to Brookville, and with Thomas Reed, published and edited the first newspaper in Jefferson county, the Brookville Democrat. Their office was located in the hotel of William Clark on Jefferson street, and William Kennedy, now of Union township, a brother of Mrs. Thompson, was an apprentice in this office. On the 25th day of July, 1833, John J.Y. Thompson was married to Agnes S. Kennedy, and commenced housekeeping in Brookville, but in the fall of 1834, he removed to Dowlingville, where they remained until 1837, when they returned to Brookville again, and in 1838 Mr. Thompson built the saw-mill on Sandy Lick at what is now known as Belle’s Mills. About 1840 he sold the property to Alpheus Shaw, and returned to Brookville, where he remained three months, and then removed to Heathville, returning again November, 1841, to Brookville. He then removed to the farm, now owned by William L. Morrison, in Union township, where he resided one year. In 1843 Mr. Thompson purchased a tract of land from Daniel Stanard, of Indiana, at the crossing of the Waterford and Susquehanna, and Olean turnpike, where he erected a hotel, and engaged in the hotel business, and in merchandising, and secured a post-office at the place which he called Corsica, and to which he was appointed postmaster, November 29, 1843. In 1847 Mr. Thompson and Daniel Stanard laid out and surveyed the town of Corsica, calling it after the post-office already established. In 1852 Mr. Thompson again returned to Brookville, and purchased from Judge Heath, the American Hotel and Arcade building, then the finest building in the town. He engaged in the hotel business, until May, 1856, when in the disastrous fire, which then visited the town, the hotel was destroyed with nearly all its contents. This fire left Mr. Thompson almost penniless: but nothing daunted, he commenced the morning after the fire to clear away the debris from the ruins, and began preparations for rebuilding. Owing to his well known business integrity, and his indomitable energy, he surmounted every obstacle, and in the winter of 1857, he had the American Hotel again ready for the reception of guests. He continued the owner and proprietor of this popular and well known hotel, until the spring of 1865, when he sold the property to Captain R.R. Means, and removes to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he engaged extensively in the lumbering business, until he was suddenly removed by death, caused by apoplexy, on the 19th of August, 1865, in the sixty-first year of his age.
Few men were more closely identified with the early history of Jefferson county than was Judge Thompson. He held many offices of public trust, being elected county surveyor, prothonotary, clerk of courts, etc., in 1845, and associate judge in 1861. For many years his services as surveyor were in requisition in all this region of country, and his name and face were well known in every cabin in the then backwoods. He was foremost in aiding and advancing every public enterprise of his day. He was of a genial, social disposition, inspiring all with the spirit of sociability, with whom he came in contact. Kind and sympathetic by nature, he was ever ready to aid the poor and distressed, who were never turned away from his door. A strong Republican, he was an uncompromising Union man during the war, and took the deepest interest in all that pertained to those times that tried men’s souls. Outspoken and bold in his utterances, he was nearly always found engaged in defending the principles for which his own boys were fighting. He was, during the war, the devoted friend of the soldier, and the families of those who were absent fighting the battles for freedom. He kept "open house" for the "boys," on their way to and from the front; and one of Jefferson county’s veterans said of him not long since: " One of the most vivid recollections of my departure for the army, is the close hand-shake, and the fervent ‘God bless you,’ of Judge Thompson, as bare-headed, and with tears running down his cheeks, he bade us good bye." Judge Thompson ever adhered to the faith of his fathers, and lived and died a member of the United Presbyterian Church.
Mrs. Agnes S. Thompson was the daughter of Rev. William and Mary Kennedy, and was born near Lewistown, Mifflin county, in the year 1813; her father being the first Presbyterian minister to locate in Jefferson county. Her mother was Mary, daughter of Benjamin and Agnes, née Wallace, McClure, of Uwchlan, Chester county, so that Mrs. Thompson was descended from one of the oldest and most noted families in eastern Pennsylvania. The family still holds lands in Uwchlan township, that were granted to their ancestor, John McClure, by William Penn, in 1748. This John McClure, who was Mrs. Thompson’s great-grandfather, emigrated to the United States in 1730 from the north of Ireland, where he had gone from Scotland, and settled in North Carolina, afterwards removing to Chester county, where he died. The McClure family were staunch Presbyterians, and they left Ireland in order that they might worship God according to their own forms of worship. From conviction they were "Federalists," Mrs. Thompson’s grandfather, Benjamin McClure, serving in the Revolutionary Wars and with one or two exceptions they have held to the political faith of their fathers, and are today staunch Republicans.
Mr. Thompson was worthy of the good old Scotch-Irish ancestry from which she sprang, being a woman of sterling worth, possessing all those qualities of mind that caused her to be beloved and respected by all who knew her. She spent the greater part of her life in Jefferson county, with the exception of five years residence in Portsmouth, Ohio, from whence she returned to Brookville in 1870, and where she resided until June 27, 1877, when she exchanged her home here for that "better one" to which her husband and some of her children had preceded her.
The children of John J.Y. and Agnes Thompson numbered ten, of whom two died in infancy, James, aged about one year, and Blanche, aged about three years. Laura Edith Thompson married George T. Rodgers, and died at the age of twenty-three years. Clarence Russell Thompson was but a boy in his teens when the war cloud burst upon the land, but he promptly enlisted "for the war" as a private in Company I Sixty-second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was soon promoted to sergeant. He was in all engagements in which his gallant command took part, up to the battle of Gaines’s Mills, Virginia, where he was last seen in a hand to hand encounter with the rebel foe. His superior officers being all hors de combat, Sergeant Thompson was in command of his company at the time. Clarence was an intelligent, brave and noble youth, and his uncertain fate was a great grief to his family and friends.
Those of the family now living are William Kennedy, who resides in Portsmouth, Ohio; John Jamison, of Brookville; Annie M., wife of John N. Garrison, also residing in Brookville; Albert Clifton, of Portsmouth, Ohio; Robert Means, of New York city, and Ella Agnes, wife of John L. McNeil, of Denver, Colorado.
CARRIER, ALBERT ACKLEY, son of Euphrastus and Harriet R. Carrier, née Buell, was born in Colchester, New London county, Conn., April 23, 1829, and the same fall came with his parents to Jefferson county. His father had resided in Pennsylvania some years prior to his marriage.
Mr. Carrier’s early life was spent in Clover township, and September 12, 1850, he was married to Miss Almira McCann, who died October 9, 1879. The result of this marriage was twelve children: Almy F. married to G.A. McAninch; Harriet I. married to N.J. Hall; Susan M.; Malinda J. married to U.H. Eshelman; Noah L. died May 18, 1861; Lucinda H. died in 1861; Antinett died in 1864; Pett R. married to C.M. Miller; Agnes ,A.; Alice A. married to G.M. Burns; Mary B.; Albert A. died November 2, 1874. March 11, 1880, Mr. Carrier was united in marriage to Miss Sydney Tong, of Cecil county, Maryland. The fruit of this second marriage is three children: An infant, who died November 8, 1880; George C., and Kate L. Mr. Carrier has devoted himself closely to farming and lumbering, taking but little interest in politics. He still continues to reside in Clover township, where his first home in Jefferson county was made. He has grown up with the county, and having shared all its early privations and toils, is now reaping the reward of his labor’s, and sharing the prosperity of the county. Mr. Carrier has resided on his present farm for about thirty years, and has in that time made it one of the model farms in the county. He has introduced the very best labor saving farm machinery, and among other enterprises has engaged in the creamery business, having a creamery with Cooley creamers, for twenty cows, the churning being done by steam power. He has the reputation of furnishing some of the best butter in the county, which always commands the highest market prices.
Mr. Carrier is one of those public spirited men who aid in every good work in their neighborhoods, and it is greatly owing to his generous assistance that the Webster Literary Society was able to erect their pleasant and commodious lyceum building in 1881. He also done much towards the organization of the "Twin Sister" brass band, called for his twin daughters, Agnes and Alice, girls of fifteen, who for some time were the leaders of this, one of the best bands in the county, they both being accomplished cornet players. The pleasant home of Mr. Carrier at Mount Pleasant is noted for its hospitality, and the jovial host is always ready to entertain his friends there.
LONG, JAMES ELLIOTT. The name of Long is one that is conspicuous in the early days of our county’s history. Louis Long, the grandfather of the subject of this biography, settled in Pine Creek township in 1803. But little is known of his early history except that his father was an officer in one of the companies of Hessian troops who came over to the Americans from the British, and fought for them during the Revolution. He was a noted hunter, and this love for the chase descended to his children. Mr. Long, after residing in Jefferson county for several years, removed to Ohio, after which all trace of him is lost. His son, John, the father of James E. Long, was born near Reading, in Berks county, in, 1797, and was only six years of age when his parents removed to this county. His brothers, Michael and William, were two of the most noted hunters that Pennsylvania ever produced. Their hunting exploits and deeds of prowess would fill a volume. John Long, though not so devoted to the chase as his brothers, yet had some thrilling adventures with the wild animals that infested all this county, some of which have already been given in the sketch of Pine Creek township.
Mr. John Long was married in 1821 to Miss Jane Robinson, a daughter of Irwin Robinson, who resided in Indiana county, just opposite Bolivar, in Westmoreland county. Mrs. Long’s father had served seven years in the War of the Revolution, and the family yet have a Bible that has a bullet hole through it which it received while Mr. Robinson carried it when he was in the service. Mrs. Long’s mother was an Elliott, and her uncle, Jesse D. Elliott, was commander of the "Niagara," and second to Perry in command at the battle of Lake Erie, where he rendered efficient service. The government granted gold medals to both Perry and Elliott for this glorious naval victory. Commander Elliott succeeded Commander Perry as commandant of the naval station at Erie.
Mrs. Long was a very estimable lady, and well educated for those days, having in her youth attended the old academy at Indiana. Her brother, Hance Robinson, had settled on the old Long farm now owned by Mr. David McConnell, and started a store in Pine Creek township, and brought his sister from her home in Indiana county to keep house for him, the journey being made on horseback through the unbroken forest. Soon after her arrival they made the acquaintance of the young pioneer, John Long, and their marriage followed the following spring. Eight children, six of whom are now living, were the result of this marriage.
Mr. James E. Long, the youngest of these children, was born on the 13th day of February, 1837, in an old log house that stood on the farm in Pine Creek township. Mr. Long says of his birth-place: "The house had a kitchen, dining-room and bedrooms, but with no partition between them. It was all in one, and had a big chimney of stone and mud, with a large fireplace, opening at one side, into which could be put huge logs that made a roaring fire which kept the whole house warm. Though only three years old, I remember this house well. We then moved up on to the hill into a larger house, with a brick chimney and fireplace that I always enjoyed. Many a night when a boy I lay on the hearth listening to the hum of my mother’s old spinning-wheel, for in those days she spun the wool and wove the cloth that clothed the whole family. I recollect how proud I was when I got my first blouse tied at the corners in front."
Mr. John Long followed farming and lumbering, and trapped and hunted in the winter as long as his age would permit him to engage in such avocations. His family were noted for their great strength and powers of endurance. His mother, though a small woman, could stand in a half bushel and shoulder three bushels of wheat. Game was so plenty that in the first years of their married life Mr. Long would frequently go out and shoot a deer while his wife got breakfast. The Indians were frequent visitors but were always peaceable. James E. Long never had but two years schooling, for his services on the farm were too valuable in clearing off the timber, burning brush, etc., to be wasted on books; but he read persistently all the books that came in his way, and thus laid the foundation of a practical education. At the age of twelve years he had almost the entire charge of the farm, and at that age made his first trip "down the creek," and from that time until he left the farm, had the general charge of his father’s business. In the summer he worked on the farm and lumbered in the winter. When only fourteen he broke a yoke of oxen that he had raised himself, and that winter put in the first two rafts he ever owned, doing all the work himself, and hauling the timber to the creek with his own ox’ team. He ran these rafts to Pittsburgh and sold them for three cents per cubic foot, and if his father had not given him "expense money," would have "come out behind" in this operation. But the young lumberman persevered, and at the age of fifteen was able to pilot a raft from above Brookville to Pittsburgh. The next year his father sent him with a fleet of boards to Wheeling, Va., where he had to stay six weeks before he made a sale. The importance of this transaction made him think he was a man indeed. From that time he lumbered on his own account until 1861, when he enlisted in defence of his country, and was elected second lieutenant of company K, Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves. He remained with his regiment until February 21, 1862, when his brother, Irvin R. Long, a member of Company H, One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, died at his home in Pine Creek township of camp fever contracted at Camp Jamieson, Va., he yielded to the wishes of his aged parents and resigned from the army and came home. He subsequently, however, enlisted during the emergency campaign of 1863, when he served as first lieutenant of Company H, Fifty-seventh regiment. On his return from the army his first work was to raft in the timber he had left lying on the banks of the stream when he enlisted the year previous. The next year he cleared about ten thousand dollars on the lumber he put in and purchased. In 1863 Mr. Long removed to Brookville, and from that time has resided there. His father and mother came with him, and made his home theirs until they were gathered into the home above. His father died May 2, 1876, and his mother September 15, 1879. They had led busy lives, and had seen the wilderness give way to the brisk, thriving town. They were strictly honest, hospitable and worthy people, and were prominent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having been identified with that church from its first organization in Brookville. They had, during a long life-time, accumulated considerable of this world’s wealth, and so straightforward had been Mr. John Long’s dealings with his fellows, that his son says of him: "In settling up his estate I was never called upon to pay a single debt, and I do not think that he owed a single cent in the world."
In the spring of 1863 J.E. Long engaged in the mercantile business in Brookville, in which he continued for three years, when he sold out to David A. Paine, and in company with G. A. Pearsall, went into the general hardware business. This firm was a prosperous and lucrative one. In the fire of 1873 they were burned out, and the following year built the large brick building in which Pearsall & Son now conduct the same business. In 1875 Mr. Long sold his interest in the store to Mr. Pearsall, and in 1879 sold his half of the building to him. While they were partners, Mr. Long and Mr. Pearsall both built handsome residences on Western avenue, South Side. After selling out to Mr. Pearsall, Mr. Long went into the same business in Du Bois, in company with his nephew, Lewis A. Brady. In 1863 he became a stockholder in the First National Bank of Brookville, and was a director and subsequently president of that bank. In 1877 he again engaged in the lumbering business in Brookville, in company with the late A.J. Brady, under the firm name of Brady & Long, and leased the old Philip Taylor mill, and ran it for about four years. They then bought the R.D. Taylor mill, on Five Mile Run, and in 1883 put up a new mill at the mouth of the run. This, the celebrated "Elaine Mill," has a capacity of. 6,000,000 feet, and 500,000 lath per annum. It cost $15,000, and they are still operating it, with stock to run it for ten years. In the spring of 1885 Mr. Long bought half of the Philip Taylor homestead and farm, laid it out in lots, and quite a flourishing town has already sprung up. He also built an addition to the Taylor mansion, and made it into one of the finest hotel buildings in the State.
Mr. Long has taken an active part in the politics of the county, and has always been an unswerving Republican. In 1880 he was a delegate to the National Convention at Chicago, to which he went instructed for James G. Blaine. He was on the ground two days before the convention assembled, and in company with four other delegates got up papers to oppose General Grant in the convention. He was the first to sign this papery and with one other delegate worked two days and nights to accomplish the measure, securing twenty-three names to the paper, which, with another signed by nineteen delegates from New York, setting forth the fact that Grant could not carry that State, is supposed to have been the cause of Grant’s defeat in the convention. The convention lasted seven days, and was one of the most important ever held in this country. Mr. Long voted thirty-five times for James G. Blaine, and once for James A. Garfield, the nominee of the convention. In 1880 Mr. Long was nominated for the Legislature in Jefferson county, and at the election defeated the late R.J. Nicholson, one of the most popular democrats of the county. While a member of the Legislature, he was one of those who were instrumental in passing the "store order bill," voted for the pipe bill, for the measure requiring railroad companies to erect fences along their tracks, and for all temperance measures that came before that body. Mr. Long has represented Jefferson county three times in State convention, and has the credit of making some of the State nominations. In 1884 he ran for the nomination in Jefferson county for State Senator in the district that was composed of the counties of Jefferson and Indiana, but was defeated by Senator W.J. McKnight. He had, however, the satisfaction of carrying his own town, where he always received a majority when a candidate for any office. Mr. Long was the first lumberman to adopt the monthly pay system in the county. In addition to his business interests in Jefferson county, he is largely interested in Du Bois. In the year 1875 he purchased the large farm of Henry Shaffer, laid it out in town lots which he sold at liberal rates and on exceptionally good terms to purchasers, often extending the time of payment over a period of five years, thus giving rare opportunities to laboring men and others of limited means to secure homes of their own on the most easy terms. This liberality showed that Mr. Long possessed business talent of the first order, as in the end it redounded to his own advantage, and to the town itself, as the rapid increase of population created a still greater demand for real estate, at advancing figures. The farm, when first laid out, was known as "Long’s addition to Du Bois," and is now covered by what is known as Central Du Bois, the heart of the business part of the town, and is, in fact, the Second Ward of the place. In the spring of 1876 Mr. Long opened a large hardware store, in which he subsequently associated with himself his nephew, L.A. Brady, constituting the firm of Long & Brady, which has built up an immense trade. This venture, like all the enterprises in which he has been engaged, proving a success from the first, and continues in the lead today. His last but crowning effort in Du Bois was his untiring efforts, which resulted in the establishment of the First National Bank of Du Bois city. Early in the spring of 1883, in company with Mr. F.K. Arnold, of Reynoldsville, aided by other citizens of Du Bois and Reynoldsville, the plan was matured, and sufficient stock, amounting to $50,000 secured, to warrant the purchase of a lot, and the erection of a brick bank building, commodious and modern in all its appointments. This building is located on Long street, the identical street which his own name suggested in 1875. On the 1st of August, 1883, the new bank opened its doors for business, with F.K. Arnold, president, and James E. Long, cashier. The venture proved successful beyond expectation, and stands today an honor to its projectors. Since January 1, 1887, Mr. Long has been president of the bank, and M.W. Wise, cashier. Thus we see in this brief biography how pluck, push, and energy, combined with honor and integrity, have made James E. Long successful in all his business enterprises.
In his domestic relations he has been equally favored. On the 28th of May, 1861, he was married to Miss Carrie A. Brown, daughter of the late Orlando Brown, of Brookville. Three children have blessed this union. Little Maggie was early transplanted into the heavenly home, leaving one daughter and one son. Meribah (or, as she was familiarly called, Maimie), was married December 18, 1884, to Malcolm W. Wise, cashier of the First National Bank of Du Bois, while Lewis Benton still remains with his parents. Mr. Long still resides in his beautiful home on Western avenue, where he has gathered about him many valuable works of art and literature, and where the utmost hospitality is dispensed.
GILLESPIE, UPTHEGRAPH JAMES. Mr. Gillespie is of Irish parentage, and was born in Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland county, June 26, 1820. In 1826 his father removed to Washington township, Indiana county, where Mr. Gillespie was raised and educated. In 1842 he came to Punxsutawney, where he read medicine for two years, and in 1845 went west, and practiced for one year in the State of Michigan. In 1846 he returned to Punxsutawney and became engaged, in lumbering, in which business he was actively engaged until 1874. In 1858 he removed to Clayville, where he has since permanently resided. Mr. Gillespie is now engaged in farming, milling and merchandising. March 25, 1848, he was married to Miss Lydia Smith Winslow, third daughter of Honorable James Winslow. They have five children - Amanda J., married William B. Sutter; William M., Kate L., wife of John W. Parsons; James L. and Anna. Mr. Gillespie has always been prominently identified with the political affairs of the county, being one of its leading Democrats. He represented Jefferson county in the State Legislature during the sessions of 1877 and 1878. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention held at Cincinnati in 1880, and at different times he has been honored, with all the official positions in the gift of the citizens of the borough in which he resides.
Mr. Gillespie is a man of decided opinions; but the practical worth of his business skill and ability is well appreciated by the people of the county, and he has added largely by his example and liberality in advancing the interests of the town where he has so long resided. In religion, he is a Catholic, and as the representative man of that church in the south side has, contributed largely to the upbuilding of that denomination, and has now the satisfaction of seeing a beautiful and commodious house of worship erected in Clayville.
LITCH, THOMAS K. The Litches are of Scotch-Irish descent. Thomas, the father, died in 1818, at Fitchburg, Mass., at the age of fifty years. His wife was Hannah Kimball, of English parentage, who died at Fitchburg, Mass., in 1870, aged about eighty years. Thomas K. Litch was born at Fitchburg on the 22d of December, 1808. His tastes were for mechanics, and at the age of fourteen he commenced to learn a trade with Martin Newton, at Fitchburg. While learning the business he attended school part of the time, as well as some of his youth previous to his apprenticeship. He served six years and then worked for a Mr. Harvey, in Worcester, Mass. He moved to Pittsburgh in the month of February, 1829, and engaged with a Mr. Bemis, a founder and machinist, with whom he remained five years. He then became the senior member of the firm of T.K. Litch & Co., founders and machinists who were located on the "point," Water street, Pittsburgh. Their business was very extensive, and included the manufacture of steam engines (stationary and portable), sugar mills, etc. At that time there were only ten foundries and machine shops in the city. Some of the older citizens of Pittsburgh will remember the then celebrated "Clipper engines," invented by Mr. Litch, and used on steamboats of importance plying between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Engines of this pattern are being used on government vessels of today. It was Mr. Litch, who built the first steamboat launched on the waters of Lake Chautauqua, and then doing business between Mayville and Jamestown. He also built the first hand fire engine used in Allegheny city. In 1837 he was elected a member of the city council and served three terms, and was counted an able and invaluable guardian of the city’s interest. He was also a charter member of the old Reliable Western Insurance Company of Pittsburgh and was one of its board as long as he remained in the city. In 1850 he removed to Brookville, having, previous to his location, purchased the timber lands and the saw and flouring-mills of Robert P. Barr. A short time after his arrival he erected a new saw-mill, and made the necessary arrangements for managing the business on a more extensive scale.
In 1854 he organized the Redbank Navigation Company, obtaining through Judge Isaac G. Gordon (now of the Supreme Court), a charter from the Legislature, and became the president. This position he occupied until his death. The charter was a very liberal one on the part of the incorporators, as all they asked was to have their capital returned, and the tolls were so fixed that they barely kept the river in good rafting condition. This movement was of incalculable value to the lumbermen and was of more account to Jefferson county than the railroad or any previous or subsequent event. Before its inauguration the lumber business was on a very small scale, and the timber arrived in market, if it reached there at all, in a condition which prevented its sale as first or even second class lumber.
In 1856 the new and old saw-mills were burned, but were immediately replaced by another steam saw-mill with a capacity of three million feet of boards per annum. He rebuilt the grist-mill in 1869 - 70 and made it one of the largest in the county.
Mr. Litch knew just how work should be done, and when he secured a good workman he would keep him in his employ. He was kind and just to his employees, always paying them promptly good wages for their labor, which he expected done in the best possible manner, and his employees honored and respected him, and were never desirous of a change. Among those longest in his employ were Silas Miller, who came with him from Pittsburgh in 1850, and is still engineer in the mills of T.K. Litch & Sons; Charles Sitz, William Goss and John D. Smith also were in his employ from ten to twenty years.
Mr. Litch took an active interest in all matters relating to the good of the town, and his purse was ever open to aid any enterprise that promised to be of public benefit.
In 1878 he was one of those instrumental in organizing the Jefferson County National Bank of Brookville, of which institution he was made president, an office he held until his death. He was also one of those who were foremost in organizing the cemetery company, and purchasing and improving the same.
In 1876, owing to the declining health of the father, the whole lumbering and flouring interests were turned over to his two youngest sons, Harry and Edward, under the firm name of Litch Bros., and by them successfully, carried on until the death of their father, since which time the firm has been a family one, viz., Mrs. Thomas K., Thomas W., Harry C. and Edward A., under the firm name of Thomas K. Litch & Sons. The mills built in 1856 being about worn out by long and continued service, and the flood of June, 1884, doing it much damage, as well as tearing out and washing away bracket dam-cribs, booms and bridges, was replaced by the present owners in 1884, with a magnificent steam-feed mill at a cost of $25,000, with a daily capacity of fifty thousand feet of lumber.
Thomas K. Litch was married in 1834 to Margaret Black, of Pittsburgh, a daughter of Widow Martha Black. She died in 1842. He was again married on February 17, 1848, to Rebecca M. Eaton, a daughter of Joseph Eaton, of Massachusetts, to whom four children, three sons and one daughter, were born - Thomas W., Harry C., Edward A. and Annie, now married to S.S. Henderson, all of whom reside in Brookville.
Mr. Litch died Monday evening, August 14, 1882, after an illness of several month’s duration. The preceding evening he had taken a carriage drive with a portion of his family, which he enjoyed very much, but about 3 o’clock A. M. the next day, he fell from his chair with an attack of heart disease, from which he suffered for some time, and though conscious to the end was unable to speak again. He was a kind husband and father, an obliging neighbor, a man of candor, and whose honesty and liberality was unimpeachable.
KELSO, CAPTAIN JOSEPH C., was born on the 19th of July, 1835, on his father’s farm (then only a clearing of twenty-five acres), on one of the Redbank hills, three miles southwest of Brookville, Pa. Thus the first fifteen years of his life were spent in a small, rude log cabin, and by force of circumstances he was early made acquainted with the labor of clearing and fencing land, and erecting better buildings. He also worked at lumbering in the winter seasons in order to pay taxes, make improvements, and other necessary expenses. He worked on his father’s farm (with the exceptions of a few short terms at a common school) until there was about one hundred acres cleared, and he then moved to another farm which he partly cleared and fenced, replacing the little log cabins with good farm buildings.
By close application he had obtained a fair common school education, and taught school a few terms, but has always said that for the same wages he would prefer to cut saw-logs. At the breaking out of the war of 1861 - 5, he was a member of Captain R.R. Brady’s company of uniformed militia, the "Brookville Guards," but owing to party predjudice, he did not at first see the necessity of going to war, and therefore did not turn out with the first three months volunteers. But the development of events soon convinced him that duty called him to the line which separated the government and its destroyers. Accordingly, he was one of the first to enlist in Captain Dowling’s company, which afterwards became "B, One, Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers." The fact that he made his will before going to the front, is sufficient evidence that he fully realized the gravity of the situation. At the first organization of the company, Captain Dowling gave him the appointment of fifth sergeant. He afterwards was promoted through every rank to captain. He is one of those to whom were awarded the bronze medal known in the First Division, Third Corps, Army of the Potomac as the "Kearney cross."
Having no wealthy or influential friends to secure for him unmerited promotion, his advancement was slow but sure, and never envied by others. The "Captain," as he is called, is a man of strong convictions, and pure and honest motives, intentions, and desires. It is admitted on all hands that he "has done the State some service," and is not unworthy of the respect shown him by his fellow citizens. He was in the army four years, and carries four scars on his person which are the remains of wounds received in battle, yet he thinks that the glorious Union is worth all it has cost, and on this subject says: "I thank God that I am a sovereign citizen of the best government in the world, and that as a citizen soldier I have had the honor of helping to sustain it. It has done much for me and I would not hesitate a moment to defend it against foes without or within, if it were again in danger." He resides on his farm on Redbank Creek, six miles below Brookville, and although having some reputation as a warrior, he is now striving to be at peace with his Maker, and to be a promoter of peace and good will amongst men.
DARLING, PAUL, was born in Smethport, McKean county, Pa., November 5, 1823, and was the second son of Dr. George Darling and ______ Darling, née Canan. His mother died when he was quite young, leaving two other children, Dr. Jedediah Darling and Charlotta, married to Dr. J.Y. McCoy, of Smethport. His brother has been dead for a number of years, but Mrs. McCoy, now well advanced in years, yet resides at Smethport.
In 1834 Dr. Darling came to Brookville and engaged in the practice of medicine, where he soon afterwards married Miss Julia Clark, daughter of Elijah Clark, of Knox township, and about the year 1837 his son Paul joined him. Though but a boy in years when he came to Brookville, he was obliged to make his own living, and supported himself by teaching school. His first "teacher’s certificate," which he had preserved among his papers, read as follows:
"We, the undersigned School Directors of Pine Creek Township, do hereby certify that we have examined Paul Darling, and have found him qualified to teach Reading, Writing & Arithmetick and the principal rules of Grammar & Geography.
"Signed, ‘JAMES MOORE,
"ARCH MCMURRAY,
"JOHN LONG,
"GEORGE S. MATHEWS."He afterwards entered the store of the late Thomas. K. Litch as a clerk, and by his aptness at learning the business and careful attention to his duties, he soon won the commendation of his employer, and after a few years was made general manager of his extensive lumber business, and Mr. Litch was ever one of his warmest personal friends. He was extremely frugal and saving in his habits, and as soon as he had accumulated a little money he embarked it in the lumber trade and soon gained quite a competency, which, by judicious investments in western timber lands, he augmented to a large fortune being worth $500,000 at the time of his death. Mr. Darling was one of the founders of the Jefferson County National Bank, of which institution he was vice-president at the time of his death.
He took care of his father and step-mother in their later years, both of whom preceded him to the grave, and after the marriage of his half-sister, Mary, to W.H. Gray, of Brookville, he made her house his home, where he died, after a painful illness of several weeks duration, November 4, 1881, passing quietly from earth just one day before his fifty-eighth birthday dawned.
Paul Darling was a man whose word was as good as his bond, and his strict regard to truth in all matters, whether large or small, was one of his characteristics. He was a shrewd, careful business man, and a sociable, companionable friend. He was well read, and his well-balanced mind retained what he culled here and there from the best authors. While busy in accumulating his large fortune Paul Darling was not accounted among the benevolent ones of the earth, but when brought face to face with death he dwelt much upon that portion of the Lord’s Prayer which says, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," and in his will, one of the most remarkable on record, which is given below, he released his debtors from the payment of judgments and securities he held against them.
Paul Darling made the most of his fortune in Jefferson county, and to the people of the town and county that for so long was his home he left the bulk of it, and the monument he erected when he made these bequests will never be obliterated as long as one of those from whom he lifted the burden of debt survives, or, as long as the beautiful Methodist Church, or the elegant Presbyterian parsonage, both largely erected by his bounty, or the soldiers’ monument, remain. The children of the public schools of Brookville, too, as they are surrounded and refined by the beauties his thoughtfulness has lavished about them, will revere and bless his memory.
PAUL’ DARLING’S WILL.
The following bequests were made by Paul Darling, as found in his will, which was admitted to probate November 1, 1881: "To W.H. Gray and Mary Gray, his wife, my bank stock and interest in the Jefferson County National Bank, about $30,000; to Paul Darling Robinson, Paul Darling Wright, Paul Darling Hamlin, and Paul Darling Scofield, my namesakes, each $200 ; to Edward Scofield $3,000; to R.G. Wright, Henry Hamlim, Byron D. Hamlin, Thomas K. Litch, Dr. W.Y. McCoy, Mrs. Charlotta McCoy, Delano C. Hamlin and Geneva, wife of Delano C. Hamlin, Mollie Forrest, each $100; to Dr. Henry L. McCoy $200, and to his wife $100; to Ellen, daughter of Charlotta McCoy, Ed. McCoy and Frank, his wife, Mrs. Lotta Hamlin and to her children, Willie, Orlo, Aline and Mary, each $100; to Emma Hamlin and Mrs. Lena Rose, each $100; to Harry C. Litch $100; to Mrs. Blanch Litch $25; to E.A. Litch $100, and Allie, his wife, $25; to Mrs. Thomas K. Litch, Anna Henderson, daughter of Thomas K. Litch, C.B. Clark, Amelia Clark, Maggie Clark, Mattie Gephart, Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Darrah and Mary A. Corbett, each $100; to Dr. J.E. Hall and C.R. Hall, each $50; to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Henderson, each $25; to Joseph B. Henderson $100; to Mrs. Joseph B. Henderson $25; and to each of her children $5; to Charles Corbett $50; to Thomas E. Espy and Thomas M. Carroll, each $100; to W. D.J. Marlin $50; to Dr. Henry L. McCoy, in trust for Geneva Bard, $,500; to Mrs., John T. Reed $1,200; to Mrs. Emma Kimble $1,300; to Mrs. Skillen, sister of Mrs. Kimball, $1,300; to J.B. Henderson, in trust for Mrs. Martha Hall, judgment against Enoch Hall; to John Guyther and D.A. Henderson, two-thirds of about $2,000; to N.G. Edelblute $3,280; to H.F. Burris one-third of balance of article of agreement; to Robert and Mary H. Stewart, life interest in property in which they now live; to S.M;,Tinthoff, judgment against him; to Benewell Kroh, judgment against him; to I.J. Yaney, judgment against him; to Thomas Stewart, judgment against him; to George M. and Theodore Irvin, judgment against them; to S.H. Croyl and William Kennedy, judgment against them; to William Walters, what he owes me; to T.B. McLain and Coleman, judgment against them; to Con Fink, judgment against him; to A.J. Davis, judgment against him; to M.R. Reynolds and E. A. McClelland, judgment against them; to Joseph Darr, judgment against him; to Dennis, Silas and Alma Bevier, one-half of judgment against them; to Samuel Yount, judgment against him; to A.J. Brady, interest on judgment and note for $125; to Silas Miller, what he owes me; to Sheridan McCullough, what he owes me; to Mrs. Mary McLain, privilege to purchase lot for $700; to James Chambers and Martha Chambers, farm in Rose township, Jefferson county; to Samuel Chambers and sister, farm in, Redbank township, Clarion county;. to P.Ford and wife, $50 each; to Hon. G.A. Jenks, the sum of $25, because I am proud of him as a Jefferson county production, and like him as a man; to Hon. I.G. Gordon, $25 on account of long friendship; to Hon. W.P. Jenks, whom I have known so long - when we were not worth $200 - but we have both since dug along - $25; to George Zetler, senior and junior, judgment they owe me; for a soldiers’ monument in Brookville Cemetery $2,000; for a monument to myself $2000; to the school district of Smethport, McKean county, Pa., $15,000 to aid in the erection of a school building, if erected within two years; to help them in business, to J.N. Garrison, John J. Thompson and Joseph Darr, each $5000; to E.and B; Reitz $2,000; to lift him out, I give to James A. Cathers $5,000; to James M. Canning $2,000; to Carroll and Espy $2,000, in addition to amount mentioned above; to D.F. Hibbard $1000; to S.S Jackson $2,000, to David Eason $2,000, to H Brady Craig $1000, for beautifying and improving the grounds of the public schools of the borough of Brookville, $3,000 a year for twelve years; to the erection of a Methodist Church in the borough of Brookville, when erected $3000; for the benefit of the poor in the borough of Brookville and Rose township, $2,000 a year for nine years, to be divided each year in proportion of paupers in each district; to A.J. Brady, judgment against him; to E.H. and W.R. Darrah and the Moore boys, judgment against them; to W.J. McKnight and T.L. Templeton, judgment against them for $2,000 and note for $3,000; to T.P. McCrea, note for $325; to Brookville Cemetery Company, the interest on $1,000 annually and perpetually, to be expended in keeping my lot and tomb in order; to E. Clark Hall $50; to F.X. Kreitler $50; to A.L. Gordon $25; to William Dickey $25; to Uriah Matson, Robert Matson and Harry Matson, each $10; to John C. Hamlin;$5,000; to Willie Orlo Hamlin, in addition to foregoing, $5,000; to the Presbyterian Church of Brookville $2,000; to the U.P. Methodist, Baptist and Lutheran Churches, each $1,000. After the above bequests are provided for, if there should be anything remaining, I direct the following to be paid: To Edward Scofield, $3,000 a year for nine years; to H.C. Litch, Ed. A. Litch, J. B. Henderson and W.H. Gray, each $1,000 a year for ten years; and as residuary legatees, to the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches of Brookville, in the proportion of two-thirds to the Presbyterian and one-third to the Methodist Church." A.L. Gordon, esq., and J.B. Henderson are named as executors of the will.
McCLURE, ALEXANDER M., was born in Mifflin township, Allegheny county, near the present site of McKeesport, on the 10th day of October, 1824. He is the grandson of Andrew McClure, one of the first judges of Allegheny county, who came to America from Ireland, when he was about eighteen years old, and settled east of the Allegheny Mountains, but afterwards removed to Allegheny county, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1845, at the advanced age of one hundred and three years. His father’s name was also Andrew, and his mother, née Margaret Abraham, was born at Steubenville, Ohio, and resided there until her marriage with Andrew McClure, when they moved to Elizabeth township, Allegheny county, but only lived there a short time, when they moved to Mifflin township, where they both resided until their death. Mr. McClure died at the age of sixty-five years, and Mrs. Margaret McClure died March 29, 1875, at the age of eighty-four years. The old homestead is still held in possession by their son, Alexander M. McClure. They had six children, Francis, Sarah, Alexander M., Margaret, Andrew and Susan, and they are all yet living.
A.M. McClure was married July 3, 1849, to Sarah H. Cox, eldest daughter of William and Hannah Cox. She was born in Leicestershire, England, about seventy-two miles from London, December 13, 1827, and came with her parents to America in 1830. They settled at Saltsburg, Indiana county, but removed to a farm near the present site of the homestead, in Allegheny county, where she resided until her marriage. Mrs. McClure died April 27, 1880. They had twelve children, nine daughters and three sons, of whom seven daughters and two sons are yet living. Two daughters died in infancy, but the eldest son, William Alexander McClure, who was born January 13, 1857, and. was engaged in the lumber business with his father, in McKeesport, died May 3, 1880. He was married January 1, 1880, to Carrie Rath, of Mifflin township, Allegheny county. Hannah Jane, the eldest daughter, married James E. Patterson, March 25, 1879, and resides at McKeesport; Josephine, married Edward Seifert, February 22, 1876, and lives in Big Run; Susan M., living in Mifflin township, Allegheny county; Catherine L., married James H. Barrelle, September 29th, living in Punxsutawney; Andrew Francis, married Susan Charles, December 19, 1882, and resides on the old homestead in Allegheny county, Emma L., married W.H. Tyson, August 25, 1885, and lives in Big Run; John McC., Nora D. and Sarah Belle, are unmarried, and reside with their father at Big Run.
Not being satisfied with his avocation of a farmer, Mr. McClure at an early age embarked in the lumber traffic, and for many years carried on an extensive trade along the Monongahela River. In 1861 he made his first business trip to the wilds of Jefferson county, and ever since has been carrying on a large business in this county, but has only made his home here since 1884, when he removed to his present residence in Big Run. Mr. McClure, besides his large lumber interests in Jefferson and Clearfield county, owns some of the best farms in Henderson township, and built the large hotel in Big Run, the Hotel McClure, besides being engaged in the mercantile business. He is one of the foremost citizens in furthering every enterprise that enhances the prosperity of the place.
DINSMORE, MARION J., son of Robert and Mary Dinsmore, was born in Petersburg, Huntingdon county, May 12, 1837. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Johnson, Centre county, to whom his father was married on the 22d day of January, 1835. Robert Dinsmore was born in Boallsburg, Centre county, March 22, 1805, his father having emigrated from Ireland about the close of the Revolution, and settled in Centre county. He afterwards served in the War of 1812, and was honorably discharged at its close. He died in Boallsburg.
Mr. Robert Dinsmore removed to Huntingdon county in 1833. Before he left Centre county he was engaged in cattle droving, and visited the western countries of the State, purchasing stock for the eastern markets. He engaged in farming in Huntingdon, for a few years, and removed to Armstrong county, where he purchased a farm about four miles from Kittanning, where he resided until his death, which occurred December 23, 1853. His wife survived him a number of years, residing during the later years of her life with her son, Marion, at Punxsutawney, where she died, aged about sixty-five years. The family consisted of nine children, seven sons and two daughters, of whom four sons and one daughter are living.
Marion was the eldest child, and at his father’s death the care of the family devolved upon him. The estate was found to be in a bad condition, encumbered with debts that threatened to involve the entire property; but though a boy in years, young Marion Dinsmore put his shoulders to the wheel, cleared off all the indebtedness, stocked the farm, put it in a good state of cultivation, making it one of the best in the neighborhood.
When the war-cloud burst upon the country, young Dinsmore promptly enlisted in Company K, Seventy-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. While on picket he was prostrated by typhoid pneumonia, which came near ending his life, and his recovery left him so debilitated, that his discharge from the service was necessary. In June, 1863, he returned home, and finally recovered.
He then determined to seek some other calling besides farming, and entered the Iron City College, at Pittsburgh, the winter of 1863 and 1864, and graduated therefrom May, 1864. This was the turning point in Mr. Dinsmore’s career, to which he attributes all his future business success. To Rev. Mr. Harvey, Professor Smith, of the Iron City college, and other kind friends, he will ever feel the warmest feelings of gratitude for the great interest they took in the broken down soldier boy.
After finishing his course at the college Mr. Dinsmore engaged in cattle droving, in order to build up his strength by out-door exercise, and afterwards was employed as a clerk in Ross & Nechling’s general store in Kittanning.
In April, 1865, he removed to Punxsutawny, where he became a salesman in Dr. Joseph Shields’ store, and afterwards a partner in this establishment. June 20, 1870, he was elected cashier of the Mahoning Bank of Punxsutawney, and became its principal manager and financier until October, 188 - , when he purchased all the stock of the concern, and became its sole owner, until December, 18, 1886, when he sold the bank to the present owners, since which time, he has not been engaged in any business.
Mr. Dinsmore was married November 15, 1865, to Miss Sarah E. Beney, daughter of James R. Beney, of Armstrong county, near Kittanning. They have had seven children of whom one boy and five girls are living; the youngest boy, Freddie Earl, the baby of the household, dying August, 1887.
CLARKE, A.M., M.D. Asaph Milton Clarke was born in the town of Granby, Hartford county, Connecticut, on the 22d day of March, 1808. His ancestors were among the early settlers of New England, having crossed the ocean from old England, in what year is not certainly known. Philetus Clarke, his father, was a son of Joel and Chloe Clark née Reed, and was born October 9, 1782. His mother was Penelope Godard, daughter of Tilley Godard and Adah Holcomb, his wife. She was born December 6, 1787. The progenitors of Dr. Clarke seem to have been remarkable for their longevity. John Godard, father of Tilley, died at the age of ninety-six years; his wife, Molly Hillyar, at ninety-seven; Ephraim Holcomb, father of Adah, died at the age of eighty-four years, and his wife, Dorcas Hays, at the age of sixty-five, while Adah, the grandmother of Dr. Clarke, lived to the great age of one hundred and two years. Philetus Clark married Penelope Godard on the 20th of February, 1806. He died January 12, A.D. 1852. When A.M. Clarke was about six months old his parents removed to Russell, St. Lawrence county, New York, where they remained until 1819, when they removed to Little Toby, now in Elk county.
He was born amid the scenes of frontier dangers, and his home was within hearing
distance of the roar of the cannon during the war of 1812. One incident of his infancy is given in his own words: "Perhaps it might have been a joke of the old Canadian Indian who came to our house when mother was alone. I was sleeping in the cradle. The savage, taking out his knife and moving towards the cradle, said: ‘Ugh! kill me dam Yankee!’ My mother cried’: ‘No, Socksusup, you will not!’ And, perhaps fortunately for my childish scalp, I was left unmolested. My mother, who related the story to me, said she was not afraid; but a quivering, ghost-like thrill of horror creeps over me yet to think of it."
His parents were among the first to penetrate into the Little Toby wilderness, and, with those who were associated with them in reclaiming those untrodden wilds, have been noticed in the earlier pages of this work, The educational advantages in those days were limited in the extreme, but young Clarke was possessed of an inquiring mind, and the older he grew the more insatiate became his thirst after knowledge. As he says, his first lessons were received at his mother’s knee; that mother whom he loved and revered so tenderly, and who made her home near him until called from earth, only a few short years before him.
He was quite quick at repartee, and while in Huntington county in 1828, he fell in with a burly wood-chopper who had conceived an antipathy for him just because he was a "Yankee." One day young Clarke happened to step into the bar-room of the Glenn Hotel, in Half Moon Valley, where he was boarding, and found himself among a crowd of wood-choppers. The burly fellow aforesaid, who had noticed him frequently with a book, suddenly confronting him, said: "Ha! have you got your dictionary?" "No, sir," said his victim, "but I will bring it if you wish." He replied, "All you are fit for is to dance at a dog’s funeral." "I am aware of it, and I expect a job when you die," was the unexpected rejoinder. And the giant said no more, while the landlord and bystanders enjoyed his discomfiture.
At an early age he evinced a love for the medical profession, and studied under Dr. Jonathan Nichols the pioneer physician of that part of the State, and to whom, he says: "I am more indebted than to any other person for my success in after years."
Dr. Clarke was married on the 6th of March 1831, to Rebecca Mason Nichols, the daughter of his friend and preceptor, Dr. Nichols, and on the fiftieth anniversary of this event they celebrated their golden wedding at their home in Brockwayville, in the presence of their children, grand-children and friends.
Of Mrs. Clarke’s ancestry, the record is not so complete. Her father, Dr. Jonathan Nichols, who has already been noticed in this work, was the first settled minister of the gospel in Jefferson county. He was born March 4, 1775, and was the son of Jonathan and Rhoba Nichols, née Martin. Dr. Nichols married Hannah, daughter of Hezekiah and Sarah Mason, née Wood, January 17, 1796, and died May 16, 1846. His wife died June 1859, aged eighty-two years.
The aged wife of Dr. Clarke, who was in very truth a helpmeet to him, still lives and resides at the old homestead in Brockwayville.
Dr. Clarke practiced his profession almost constantly to the day of his death, and was one of the best known physicians in the county. He was of the Eclectic school of medicine and was a graduate of the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Institute.
He was identified with the northern part of Jefferson county for over sixty years. In 1836 he removed to Brockwayville, where he laid out the town and done much to give it its, "first start in life," and where for almost fifty years he made his home, and whose every upward stride he watched with a zealous eye. Much of his history has been given in the history of the medical profession, of which he was an honored member, and his patient, faithful and gentle ministrations at the bedside of the sick and dying will not soon be forgotten. His studies were not confined to medicine, but he was well versed in general literature, and had a loving acquaintance with the poets. Books were his delight and the solace of many a weary hour.
On Thursday evening, May 22, 1884, Dr. Clarke died very suddenly, at his residence in Brockwayville, of neuralgia of the heart. On the Monday evening previous he attended a meeting of the Borough Council, of which he was a member, walking home afterwards. This effort proved too much for him, and he was ill all night and continued indisposed until Thursday, when he seemed better and moved about the house singing, as was his wont, and laying plans for the morrow. As evening drew near he complained of pains in his limbs, back, and loins, and his loving, faithful wife rubbed the affected parts with mustard water, which gave him almost instant relief. Shortly after, while lying on his bed talking to her, he suddenly put his hand over his heart, and said "Oh, this terrible pain, it will kill me!" closed his eyes and quietly expired.
His death brought sorrow not only to his own immediate household and friends, but to the community at large, for all felt that a "good man had fallen " - one whose place could not be filled. The funeral took place on Sunday, and was one of the largest ever held in Brockwayville, over one hundred carriages following the remains to the cemetery, where Rev. E.R. Knapp, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, conducted the burial services.
The family of Dr. Clarke consisted of ten children, six daughters and four sons: Hilpa A., married to William A. Schram, of Ridgway; Adaline, drowned October 9, 1843; Penelope, G., married to Dr. W.J. McKnight, of Brookville; Julia died January 23, 1839; Myrton died March 31, 1842; Sarah, married to Thomas M. Myers, of Brockwayville; Asaph M., residing in York county; an infant son died April 16, 1847; Frances Ada, married to John A. Green, of Brockwayville, and William D., residing in Brockwayville.
The following fitting tribute to Dr. Clarke was written at the time of his death by one who loved him for his many good qualities of head and heart:
"Deceased was intellectually a remarkable man. Denied the advantages of wealth and education, he became not only a learned and skillful physician, but a literary man of high order. Books were the mine in which he delved, and from their pages he brought forth jewels of information and thought most rare. He loved poetry with an ardor words cannot express, and was not only familiar with the leading poets of the past and present, but was himself the author of a number of fragments which show him to have been possessed of a poetic fire, that, in the hands of one less modest and unassuming than he ever proved himself to be, would have made him an enduring name. His qualities of heart were no less choice than were those of his head. He was generous to a fault, and as meek and gentle as a child. Nothing seemingly gave him more pleasure than to do good to his fellow-men, and many there are who have partaken bountifully of his store. In the sickroom his presence was always a sweet solace, and his delicate touch almost as soothing as a narcotic. In the social circle he was ever popular, the diversity of his knowledge and the easy flow of his language rendering him a delightful companion. As a man and citizen he was highly respected, as was proven by the spontaneity with which his neighbors’ gathered about his grave and dropped a tear to his precious memory. His death, like his life, was peaceful, and the name he leaves behind as pure as the lily and as fragrant as the rose."
HUMPHREY, JAMES, was born October 8, 1819, near Huntingdon, Pa. His father, Richard Humphrey, was born in Ireland in 1762, and came to America when a young man, during the French war. The vessel in which he made the voyage was chased by a French privateer. After living in different localities he located in Huntingdon county, where he married Margaret Wright, who was also a native of Ireland, having come to this country with her parents while but a child. She died near Huntingdon, in 1841. Mr. Humphrey removed to Jefferson county in 1840, and died at the residence of his son, William, near Richardsville, in 1846, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Richard and Margaret Humphrey were the parents of eight children: William, Thomas, Margaret, Richard, Jane, Mathew, James and John. Of these, the three eldest and the youngest born are dead. Margaret married William Darrah and died in Illinois; William died at his home near Richardsville; Thomas died at Strattonville, and John at Richardsville. Of those living Mathew resides near Richardsville, Richard near Curwensville, Clearfield county, Jane, who married Samuel C. Espy, removed to Yankton county, Dakota, where she still resides.
James, the remaining member of the family and the subject of this sketch, in his youthful days learned the milling trade, and later engaged in boating on the Pennsylvania Canal, being engaged at the business in 1838 between Hollidaysburg, Columbia and Philadelphia. In the winter of that year he came to Jefferson county and worked at his trade of miller, with his brother, Thomas, who had charge of the grist-mill of Robert P. Barr, in Brookville. The next spring he returned to his home in Huntingdon county, and resumed the life of a boatman until winter again set in, when he went to Greenville, Clarion county, where he worked for his brother, Thomas, and then came back to Brookville in 1840, and worked in the mill of R.P. Barr again until 1844 when he rented the grist mill at Port Barnett, where he remained one year, then in 1845 returned to the Barr Mill again, where he remained as miller until 1848. In 1842, he and his brother, Thomas, purchased the mill property back of Corsica, where they built the grist-mill now owned by J.B. Jones.
On the 26th day of February, 1849, Mr. Humphrey was married to Miss Mary J. Lamb, of the vicinity of Corsica. Five children have blessed this union - Wilbert Newton, Mary Araminta, Annetta, Eva Alma, and James Malcolm. Of these, Annetta, a babe of eight months, died at Brookville, March 1, 1856, and Mary Araminta, died at Port Barnett, March 1, 1859, aged six years; Wilbert is married to Miss Kate Bullers, and Eva to Frank A. Barber, while James Malcolm, the youngest of the family, remains with his parents.
In 1856 Mr. Humphrey purchased the Port Barnett property of A.P. Heichhold, assignee for Jones & Johnston. In 1876 he associated with him in his business his son, Wilbert N., and the firm is now James Humphrey & Sons. Since 1876 they have had a general store in connection with their other business.
In 1882 they built a new saw-mill with a capacity of from thirty to forty thousand feet per day. They have also a shingle, lath and planing-mill in connection with it. They have also greatly improved and remodeled their large grist-mill. Mr. Humphrey, a few years ago, purchased the property of Jacob Kroh, jr., just west of Port Barnett, on the Brookville road, where he has a beautiful home and can enjoy the fruits of his early toil. He is one of the solid business men of the county, and bids fair to be able to superintend his large business interests for many years to come.
GIBSON, W.M.B., M.D. The subject of this biographical sketch scarcely requires any mention of ancestral connections, for he stood out alone, an isolated being, from any other Gibson alive or dead - an unique and eccentric character. As far as consanguineous inheritance goes, his sum of qualities - which distinguish one person from another - might as well have been of spontaneous growth. Yet to follow the conventional paths of biographical writers, some trace of his ancestry should be given.
His great-grandfather, on the paternal side, was one Hugh Gibson, who lived in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, previous to the Revolutionary War, and whose two sons, John and Levi, pioneers of Indiana county, were captured by the Indians and delivered into the hands of the British. Their release came only with the termination of the struggle, and thereat John Gibson resumed his residence in the county last mentioned. William Gibson, the son of John, located in Clarion county (then Armstrong) in 1803, the year in which Louisiana was purchased of France. James, the son of William, was the father of the person of whom we write.
The great-grandfather on the maternal side was of Hibernian stock, who bore the characteristic appellation of McFadden, while his spouse was of German extraction, whose name was Jack. Owen Meredith, the grandfather, was a native of Chester county, from whence he emigrated to Centre, and thence to Clarion. The Merediths were of English and Welsh lineage.
William Meredith Bruce Gibson was born on the 10th day of January, 1843, five-miles from Clarion town, in Monroe township. The exact spot of his nativity was half way between two iron furnaces, three-fourths of a mile on either side; and in this fact there is an illustration of the "eternal fitness of things," inasmuch as our Gibson was "between two fires" all his days. And this fiery circumstance wielded another influence, and a more potent one, over the life which was then in the matrix that shaped the years of manhood. A continuous warfare was rife between the youths of the furnaces, in which the boys of the country adjacent took sides; and, too, the forces of the furnaces often coalesced and did battle against their heterogeneous enemy, the rural striplings. Many a trouncing, in these sanguinary affrays, did our hero both give and receive; and as his young ideas were here first taught to shoot at educational targets, so were the seeds of pugnacity sown, which grew into a bountiful crop, especially in hostilities of an intellectual character. When Right and Justice were on his side, he was as aggressive as the flux of the invincible ocean, and as immovable as the eternal hills.
At the age of fourteen the precocious lad entered upon the career of school teaching, alternating his time between that avocation and attending the Dayton Union Academy of Armstrong county. Between his fourteenth and nineteenth years he taught nine terms, and in his fifteenth the study of medicine was commenced. At the age of seventeen he was accorded, by an unanimous voice of the County Institute of Armstrong, over which Superintendent Calhoun presided, a professional certificate; and with this credential of educational efficiency, he went forth into other States to disseminate knowledge. In 1860 he was the principal of the academy of Bullitt county, Kentucky, a few miles south of Louisville; but in consequence of an attack of ague he returned to Pennsylvania, and taught a couple of terms of school at Goheenville, in Armstrong county, and in the winter succeeding presided over the graded school of East Brady.
In the years of 1862 and 1863 a course of medical lectures were taken at Ann Arbor, which famous institution was his professional alma mater; but the most profound, penetrating, and practical information was gleaned from Dr. James Stewart, at Greenville, Clarion county, whose mind was both analytical and synthetical, and whose erudition encompassed about all the learning and experience of medicine in his day.
Dr. Gibson first became a practitioner in Troy, Jefferson county, where he was associated with Dr. R.B. Brown; but in 1864 he entered upon the duties of his profession in an independent career by locating at Reynoldsville, a village at that time of the most unpretentious character. His impressive personality challenged the attention of the community, and his successes as a healer were the confirming truths of the book of which his physiognomy and conversation were the title page. And not only as a doctor did he achieve popularity in these initial years of a long, permanent residence, but his social qualities gained for him a status that was liken unto a star around which the satellites of society revolved; and this position gave him a force in directing and shaping the minds of his associates, and of the youths whose ambition was yet in an embryonic state, that redounded to the greatest good. This is a fact which the writer appreciates, inasmuch as he, himself, was one of those youths.
On Independence Day, 1867, Dr. Gibson enacted that beautiful drama of the heart, Love and Marriage, the woman of his choice - the object of his perpetual friendship - the faithful helpmate and companion of twenty years, having been Miss Anna, daughter of Joseph McCreight.
In his professional career he acted as one of the surgeons of the Low Grade Railroad, a position given him when the surgeons were first appointed, and in which his thorough competency gained for him the utmost confidence of the management. In the years of 1875 and 1876 Dr. M.A. Masson was associated with him in the practice of medicine. Masson was a man of brilliant ideas, and a thorough and bold practitioner. He was a brother-in-law of the famous Dr. R.O. Cowling, late of Louisville, Kentucky. Both of these talented men have been called hence.
Dr. Gibson belonged to the allopathic school of medicine, and he kept abreast of progress in medicinal discovery. With a keen perception of causes as he saw effects, and with his great knowledge of curatives, backed by the best of reasoning faculties, he rarely erred in prognosis, although his diagnosis was always encouraging to the patient and friends, even if in his latent breast, he knew there was no hope. For this peculiarity he has often been censured, but, believing in the potency of will power - his superiority and influence of mind over matter - he held on by even this frail thread until the last breath of the patient was gone, and this tenacity was a part of the character of the man. "Wherever he took a hold, he maintained until one greater than he wrested the object from his grasp.
Dr. Gibson’s distinguished mental superiority did not qualify him for any one special pursuit, but rather for many. His power of invention, as shown in his literary work -
the formation of nice and new combinations of ideas, and imagery - stamped him as a genius of a very high order. This is particularly true, of his poetic efforts, many of which are lofty in thought, and beautiful and strange, and always unique, in phraseology. In romance his invention was marvelous, and one of his novels, published under a nom de plume, attained a world-wide popularity, and in true worth almost approached the classic, for although the work appeared almost a quarter of a century ago, it is yet read on both sides of the Atlantic. Had he devoted his time to literature, there can be no doubt but that his name would today be emblazoned in ardentia verba wherever the shrine of letters stands; but with his death ended all the grand possibilities his mind was capable of.
His physiological make-up was a most happy one, nicely balancing the various functions and sensibilities. His Teutonic blood gave him solidity and logic; his Scotch and Welsh, sternness and tenacity; the Irish, affability and loquacity; and these were well blended and tempered, the effect of which was an almost perfect man. If there was a preponderance of any one part, it was a tender sensibility for all who suffered; and this was of a degree that often impoverished his own worldly welfare. Yet, laboring between the fires of ambition on one side, and mendicancy on the other, he yet accumulated a comfortable living, and his conscience was not goaded by the remembrance of dishonest acts.
His tenacity of purpose was of a degree that would seem to make the stronger term stubbornness a more fitting definition of that trait of his character - especially when his convictions were fixed upon the solid foundation of truth, as understood by a mind whose logic was clear and far reaching. This peculiarity was manifested early in life, at the age of seventeen, when principal of the academy before spoken of. Young Gibson was sojourning in the town, and his social disposition soon found him many friends, and his educational bent, intellectual ones. The school was without a head, and its directors discovered in our hero both the mental and physical qualifications requisite to the man who could successfully preside over an institution whose patrons were as refractory in manners as they were advanced in learning. If they carried a cyclopedia in their heads they also carried a dagger in their belts, and former principals had invariably proven inadequate to the maintenance of such discipline as a respectable educational establishment should possess. Young Gibson had not known of the contumacious character of the school until after his acceptance of the position; but, nothing daunted, he immediately purchased a stiletto of much longer blade than those he had seen in the community, and, retiring to the academy, made himself as proficient as a boomerang thrower in hurling the knife at a pillar. When the students assembled on the opening day, the spirit of anarchy was rampant, and as an initial intimation of the iron rule with which this new absolute monarch was going to control his subjects, he took a position from which he was accustomed to throw the stiletto, and, with a herculean effort, plunged the glistening blade deep into the pillar, where it momentarily whizzed and quivered. The effect was magical, and each perverse being saw in his tutor a "foeman worthy of his steel," and the steel was ever after kept within its scabbard. Not alone, however, by this acrobatic feat did the new principal subdue the unruly element of his school, for by a little oratorical diplomacy, in which he showed the pleasure and advantage of a cognate feeling in teacher and pupil for the genius and welfare of the institution, he won to him the hearts of every fiery breast. This adventure reads more like the product of a romancer’s brain than that of an honest biographer’s, and for boldness and impudence is only equaled by Ceasar’s experience with the pirates near the island of Pharmacusa.
As to the religious convictions of Dr. Gibson, we may quote what he, himself, said of his life-long friend, Thomas Reynolds, Sr. The sentiment seems as much a confession of his own, as an observation on another. Here it is:
"But the most conspicuous traits of his nature were a sense of honor, incapable of a stain, a probity which was stubborn in its inflexibility - and an abiding, deeply rooted uncompromising detestation, even horror, of all shams and hypocrisy, whether religious, political, or of any other kind. It is easily seen how such a man, in this day and generation, however deep a reverence he might have for the Author of his being as the great and good God - the Father, Preserver, and Protector of all the common brotherhood of man - would rather retire those sentiments and feelings, and keep them sacred within the innermost recesses of his soul, than to make a parade of them before the world."
Friendship with Dr. Gibson was not a plant of hasty growth, but, set in the soil of his esteem, and nourished by kind and intellectual intercourse, it attained a perfection not often seen in social life. He had resources within himself so that he could have lived alone, but those very resources made him eminently companionable and appreciative. Out of such material, the most-pleasing and lasting friendships are wrought. In conversation he spoke well, easily, justly and seasonably; humor was more than wit, and easiness than knowledge.
On the 20th day of August, 1887, this great soul took its flight - the familiar form of Dr. Gibson, the magnanimous, was wrapped in the vestments of eternity.
LONDON, TRUMAN BEAMAN. The progenitors of T.B. London were English, and his grandparents on both the paternal and maternal side lived and died in Luzerne county, Pa. These were Edward London, a native of New Jersey, and Samuel Callender, born in Virginia. They won an honorable right to the soil of the Republic, for themselves and their posterity, by patriotic devotion to the spirit of 1776, during the long and trying carnage of the Revolution.
His father, whose name was Isaac, was born in New Jersey, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Callender, was a native of Connecticut. The former died in Luzerne county in 1843, and the latter in Jefferson county in 1846.
Truman Beaman London was born in Luzerne county (now Lackawanna) on the 11th day of October, 1808, and was the second child of a family of nine. By self-endeavors and in the public schools he received a very thorough education in the place of his nativity, where he grew up to manhood, and where he was engaged in the lumber trade until 1837. He manufactured lumber and marketed it at Harrisburg, Columbia, Marietta, Port Deposit, and other points on the Susquehanna River.
On September 13, 1831, he was united in wedlock to Sally Mariah Slawson, which union was blessed with offspring numbering six, divided equally as to sex. Their names, in consecutive order of birth, are Martha Jane, born July 28, 1832; Eliza Mariah, March 9, 1834.; Truman Beaman, March 10, 1836; Isaac, September 3, 1838; Moses Slawson, January 31,1841; Mary Ann, May 29, 1842. The first and the last two are deceased. Their mother died June 23, 1842. Of those living, Isaac is a wide-awake and successful merchant of Reynoldsville, and a man greatly esteemed by all who know him; Truman B. is a successful farmer of Winslow township; and Eliza M., who married Andrew Johnston, is a resident of Du Bois, Clearfield county, and the wise mother of an interesting family.
The subject of this biography emigrated from Luzerne county to Jefferson, locating in Brookville in 1837. Upon his advent there he found such representative citizens as Judge Heath, John Heath, the Dunhams, Dr. Jenks, Barclay Jenks, Drs. Bishop and Darling, who were the physicians of the town, Samuel Truby, Jared Evans, Levi G. Clover, Thomas Hastings, John Dougherty, etc. Barclay Jenks was the most brilliant member of the bar, and Mr. London, in his enthusiastic reminiscences of him, says: "It took somebody better than a Philadelphia lawyer to equal our backwoods Blackstone." Dr. Jenks, his father, and also father of the present Solicitor-General of the United States, George A., was then one of the associate judges. Judge Evans was in the banking business, known at that time as a "shin-plaster office." He issued notes in various denominations up to a do1lar, which were made current in the community, and when any one had accumulated these to the amount of five dollars or over, they were redeemable at the counter of the Judge, who gave large bills in exchange. Mr. London, who was in the mercantile business in a limited way, enjoyed the benefits of Evans’s banking system.
In 1840 Mr. London removed from Brookville, where he had been engaged in lumbering, to Perry township, and there cleared a farm purchased of C.C. Gaskill; and in 1843 he settled in Bell township in the midst of his lumber operations. Six years later he located permanently in Winslow township, near the site of his present residence, on the farm now occupied by Fulton Henry. He contracted matrimony again in 1846, by leading to the altar of Hymen Mrs. Sarah (Wilkins) Rea, who succumbed to the inevitable in 1878.
The record of T.B. London’s life is that of an active and useful man - useful to himself, his family, his community, and his county. Aside from clearing and working many farms, his lumber operations, in which he was a pioneer on Sandy Lick Creek, gave employment to hundreds of men at a time, when the less venturesome and poorer classes needed just such an enterprising spirit to lead them. He opened up roads, often at his own expense, leading into remote districts, thus creating settlements and adding to the population and welfare of the county. In his later years his capital has erected a score of houses in Reynoldsville and Winslow township, and was invested in a mercantile enterprise in the town mentioned for about eight years. His life has ever been identified with the best interests of the local public, vigilant at all times, and always ready to do good. He served one term as auditor of the county. To the church, too, he has been kind, giving generously to every creed that knocked on his heart, asking for help. His character and career may be summed up in this sentence: Honest, liberal, true, enterprising, companionable, intelligent, sagacious - and what more can be expected of a noble man!
McKNIGHT, HON. W.J, M.D. Alexander and Isabella McKnight née McBride were natives of County Down, Ireland. They emigrated in 1790 to Franklin County, Pa.; About 1795 they moved to and settled on a farm on Crooked Creek, Indiana county, Pa. They had five daughters and two sons. James, grandfather of W.J. McKnight, settled in Indiana town; held several offices and was married twice, first to Jane McNutt, by whom he had two sons Alexander, the father of Dr. McKnight, and William, who died A.D. 1830, aged twenty-three years - and second to Jane McComb, by whom he had one son and one daughter, both of whom removed to Texas, where James attained distinction, and Jane is now living as Mrs. Jane Walbridge. Alexander, jr., brother of the grandfather of this sketch, married Susannah Cummins, and had two sons, viz., Hon. William C., who resides in Chambersburgh, Pa., and James A., who resides on the old Crooked Creek homestead in Indiana county, Pa.
Alexander, son of James and Jane McKnight née McNutt, married Miss Mary Thompson on the 10th of May, A.D. 1831. Miss. Thompson was a daughter of William Thompson, of Indiana county, a sister of Hon. John J.Y. Thompson, and was a granddaughter of. Rev. John Jameson, who was born at Ellerslie, Scotland, and whose mother was a Wallace, of Sir William’s clan. Alexander and Mary McKnight, née Thompson, commenced married life in Blairsville, Indiana county, Pa., and on the 19th of May, A.D. 1832, Amor A. McKnight was born. In November of 1832 they moved to Brookville, Jefferson county, Pa., Mr. McKnight during this winter teaching the second term of school for the new town. In 1833 he was appointed justice of the peace. In 1834 he was appointed county treasurer. He was major of the militia, and fond of military drill. He was a man of fine, presence, and of much intellectual vigor. He died on the 15th of June, A.D., 1837 aged 27 years, leaving a widow and three children, viz:. Amor A. (late Colonel McKnight), Nancy Jane, who died in childhood, and W.J., the subject of this sketch. Mary McKnight, née Thompson, married John Templeton, esq., December 28, 1842, and had three sons - Thomas L., a citizen of Brookville, Jesse J., who died at Fortress Monroe in the service of his country, and Oscar J., who died in childhood. John Templeton died December 8, 1850. Mary Templeton, née McKnight, died February 22, A.D. 1860 aged forty-eight years.
Senator McKnight was born in Brookville May 6, A.D., 1836; received a limited education in the common schools. At the age of eleven poverty threw him upon his own resources. He lived and worked on a farm for four years. When sixteen he was employed by Samuel McElhose, of the Jefferson Star. At seventeen he commenced the double task of type setting with Jerome Powell, esq., of Ridgway, Pa., and of reading medicine under Dr. A. M. Clarke, of Brockwayville, Pa.
In this way, during a period of three years, by a species of economy known best to himself, he saved enough money to enable him during the winter of 1856 - 7 to attend a single course of medical lectures in Cincinnati, O. In March, 1857, he opened a medical office in Brookville, and for two years had considerable success. In 1859 he joined Dr. Niver, of Brockwayville, and as the junior member, had a large and active practice during the four years of partnership. In 1863 he returned to Brookville and started a drug store in connection with his practice. His brother, Thomas L. Templeton, joined him in this enterprise. The Dr. gave personal attention to the drug store for six years, after which time the large and extensive business of the firm has been, and is today, successfully superintended by Thomas L. Templeton, esq.
In 1864 Governor Curtin appointed Dr. McKnight examining surgeon for Jefferson county. He was also appointed and served as United States pension surgeon for seven years. To faithfully perform other duties he was compelled to resign this position. He served in the militia as private, and orderly sergeant in Company G Fifty-seventh Regiment; was promoted to quartermaster -sergeant, and took part in the campaign against Morgan.
In 1869 he attended lectures in Philadelphia, and received the degree of M.D. He supplemented this course by attending two full courses in succession at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., and graduated there in March, A.D. 1884. In the same year he received a degree from the school of anatomy and surgery. He took a postgraduate course at Jefferson in 1885. January 9, 1860, he married Miss Penelope G. Clarke, a most estimable young lady, and who has proved to be a model wife and mother. The result of this union has been seven children, four living and three dead.
In 1876 Jefferson county presented Dr. McKnight for senator, and Indiana county presented Dr. St. Clair. Conventions were held at Marion, Indiana and Brookville. Finally to secure harmony and to save the congressman - Indiana’s nominee - Dr. McKnight handed to the conference the following letter of declination, viz.:
GENTLEMEN. - When I received the nomination for senator by the convention of Jefferson county Republicans, by a large and flattering vote, I believed then as I still believe today, that I, as the choice of Jefferson county, was then and am today entitled to the nomination by the Republican party for senator of this district. But I fully realize the fact that we are in an important political campaign, where the utmost harmony and union are required in all our ranks, and that I, as a faithful Republican, should not ask personal preference antagonistic to the general welfare of the party, but should act honestly for the people, consistent with my Republican principles and just to myself. I have no personal contest. I am nothing, the success of the party is everything. I therefore withdraw from the contest, and hope my friends and the party may act wisely in the interest of the public good. Thanking my friends from the bottom of my heart for their warm support, and their assurance to continue it in the event of my remaining a candidate, I say here in all candor, that I hope I may never be so ungrateful as to forget their kind assurances. I am as ever, Yours truly,
W.J. MCKNIGHT.
Brookville, Sept. 29, 1876.In 1880 Jefferson county again presented Dr. McKnight as her choice, and Indiana county presented George W. Hood, esq., and a conferee meeting was held at Trade, City on the 10th, 11th and 12th of August without result; it was expected by the Republicans of Jefferson, that, inasmuch as Indiana county had the senator in 1865; in 1868; in 1871; and a candidate of their own, at the general election in 1874; and the senator in 1876 - sixteen years out of twenty, and the nominee for Congress in 1872; in 1874; in 1876; in 1878, and the nominee again in 1880 - that surely it would neither be just nor right for Indiana county again to claim the "turn" or right to the candidate.
But the conferees of Jefferson county were perfectly astounded now, to find at this conference, that Indiana as usual, laid claim to the senatorship; "it was their turn." And now, with a sense of deep injury, on the third day of this conference, Dr. Hunt, one of the conferees of Jefferson, offered the following resolution, viz:
Resolved "That if a nomination for senator is not made by this conference at the time of 12 o’clock M., this conference adjourn sine die."
This was agreed to, five of the six conferees voting aye.
The dispute was now taken notice of by the State Central Committee, and a request was expressed by this committee that another conference be called and held by Hood and McKnight, and in case of failure then to agree, General James S. Negley, of Pittsburgh, be appointed by the chairman of the State Committee as umpire to meet with the conferees and adjust the difficulty.
Accordingly another conference was agreed upon by Hood and McKnight, and called to meet at Punxsutawney, September 29, 1880.
In this conference, as upon the occasion of all former ones, Indiana county again persisted that it was her "turn" for senator, whereupon Dr. Hunt, a Jefferson conferee, offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That we now ask General Negley to take his seat in this conference as umpire, in accordance with the recommendation of the State Central Committee, which was agreed to.
But before calling on General Negley the following paper was prepared and signed by McKnight and Hood, viz:
"We, the undersigned candidates for the nomination of State Senator in the 37th district, do pledge ourselves to abide by the decision of the Umpire, and that his decision shall be final and the nomination shall be made unanimous.
GEORGE W. HOOD,
W.J. MCKNIGHT."This was the afternoon of the 29th, and the conference adjourned until the morning of the 30th, in the hope that Mr. Hood might withdraw, or Indiana county yield, but neither Mr. Hood or his conferees would entertain for a moment a suggestion to yield, or withdraw, whereupon the conference was forced to meet on the morning of the 30th with General Negley in his seat as umpire. A ballot was then taken, which, resulted as follows: Henderson, Hunt, Thompson and Negley voted for Dr. McKnight, and Porter, Crawford and Gordon voted for George W. Hood.
Having secured the nomination through the State Central Committee Dr. McKnight was elected to and served in the Senate from 1881 to 1885.
In writing up the Senate of 1883, an able writer said of Senator McKnight: "He lucidly tells the story of his party’s extravagance in printing in the past, and makes a needed reform in party lines without kicking in the traces. Sharp, incisive and intelligent, he watches the chances for reform in his own household, and is not afraid to call to account any agent of the State." The doctor took an active part in all debates, and he assisted in moulding and perfecting the general legislation. He originated and carried through several important measures, viz., his reform in printing of public documents, saving the State forty thousand dollars per year; his securing an additional appropriation to the common schools of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars per year; his reform in the regulation of the commencement of borough and township offices; his active and watchful interest in the wards of the State, and his hearty support to the soldier’s orphan’s schools, and agriculture, gave him a State celebrity, as well as-reflected credit upon his industry, ability and statesmanship. In the regular and extra session of 1883 there was a determined and combined effort on the part of the Democrats and independent Republicans to sacrifice Jefferson county, by placing her in a Democratic district. The following clipping will but feebly explain the situation and struggle at that time, from the Philadelphia Press, May 26, 1883: "But probably the most perplexing element in the puzzle is how to accommodate Senator McKnight, of Jefferson. He wants his county put into a Republican Congressional district. Stewart’s bill doesn’t do this and McCracken’s does. But it makes trouble in the detailed arrangement of counties to make Jefferson part of a Republican district." This struggle on the apportionment continued for eleven months, and Senator McKnight overcame the trouble.
The doctor compelled the enforcement of the law auditing the accounts of prothonotaries, registers, etc., which brought in an increased revenue to the State of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He was the author of numerous measures that fell for want of time, notably one to classify the insane and insane criminals. The object of this bill was to separate the criminal from the ordinary insane. All insane managers throughout the State praised and endorsed this bill. He introduced several amendments to the Constitution, one of which was to extend the term, fix the salary, and lessen the number of legislators. He introduced and came within two votes of carrying through the Senate the resolution to prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquors as a beverage in this commonwealth. He had Jefferson county made into a separate judicial district, but the governor vetoed the general bill. One of his favorite measures which failed for want of time was to enlarge the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, which would have saved Jefferson county every year thousands of dollars. He assisted and hurried through the Senate the bill authorizing counties and municipalities to refund their bonds at a lower rate of interest, which has saved Brookville borough and Jefferson county many dollars.
In 1884 Dr. McKnight was presented by Jefferson county to the district for a second term. G.W. Hood, esq., carried Indiana county. It was hoped and expected by McKnight and his friends, that Mr. Hood would at this time cheerfully acknowledge to Dr. McKnight the established usage by the party of a second term. Mr. Hood had no elements in him to equal such an occasion. It was "Indiana’s turn." Conferences were held without results, and a final disagreement and adjournment was made in Indiana October 1. On October 3, a caucus of Hood’s friends was held in his law office, and a pledge written by them referring the dispute to the State Central Committee, and requesting speedy action of the committee. Dr. McKnight was sent for and asked to sign this pledge, which he did. After he signed Mr. Hood signed also, and this pledge Mr. Hood, or his friends, mailed to the State Central Committee. The pledge, as signed, will be found in Hon. Jno. E. Reyburn’s report as umpire. The umpire appointed by the committee and the umpire accepted by Mr. Hood and his friends, and who agreed to abide by any decision he would make. The following is his report:
PHILADELPHIA, PA., Oct. 10, 1884.
Hon. Thomas V. Cooper, Chairman State Committee:
DEAR SIR: - In accordance with your letter of appointment (bearing date, Oct. 4th, 1884), with full power to adjust or settle a controversy in the 37th Senatorial district, composed of the counties of Indiana and Jefferson, I proceeded to the borough of Indiana, arriving there on the 6th inst., and immediately entered upon the performance of the duty imposed.
Upon my arrival I was met by Mr. G.W. Hood, the contestant from the county of Indiana, who with great courtesy and entire absence of any bias in the matter, placed me in communication with large numbers of the Republican citizens of Indiana, with whom, during the afternoon and evening of the 6th, I had full opportunity to acquaint myself with not only the claims of the friends of Mr. Hood, but with the needs of the district generally. On the morning of the 7th, the Hon. W.J. McKnight, contestant from the county of Jefferson, arrived with the three conferees from that county and presented the claims of that gentleman and of their county with vigor and earnestness. The first question that arose was in what way the matter in dispute could be acted upon in a formal and satisfactory manner. The suggestion was made that a meeting of the conferees be held, and I as the presiding officer, and after a full and complete discussion, a ballot taken, whereupon if a tie should again appear, I should cast the deciding vote. I stated to both the contestants, that I held other views as to the manner of procedure, but if this was thought to be the better and more satisfactory, I would yield and take part in the conference. After consultation they agreed, and 1 P.M. of that day, Tuesday, 7th inst., was fixed, and promptly at that hour the conference convened, the proceedings of which are best told by the minutes which are hereby inserted:
INDIANA, PA., Oct. 7, 1884.
The Senatorial conferees in the 37th Senatorial district meet and there is present on behalf of Jefferson county Messrs. W.H. Gray, James A. Cathers and S.W. Temple, and on behalf of Indiana county, Hon. A.W. Kimmel, J.W. Books, esq., and E.H. Moorhead, esq., and upon the coming of the conference to order the Hon. John E. Reyburn, of Philadelphia- president pro tem. of the Senate of Pennsylvania, laid upon the table a letter submitting the controversy to the decision of the State Committee, and signed by W.J. McKnight and G.W. Hood, and in the words and figures following:
INDIANA, PA., Oct. 3, 1884.
To the Republican State Committee:
GENTLEMEN : - The undersigned candidates for State Senate in the 37th Senatorial district beg leave to inform you, that after repeated meetings our conferees have adjourned sine die, without a nomination. If we both continue to be candidates, the probabilities are that a Democrat will represent this district in the State Senate during the next four years. This we do not desire, and as our conferees failed to settle the matter between us, we hereby submit the whole case to the consideration of your body, and agree to abide by any decision of the matter the committee may make.
We ask for speedy consideration of the subject. W.J. MCKNIGHT.
GEO. W. HOOD.
The Hon. Mr. Reyburn also laid upon the table a letter from Hon. Thos. V. Cooper, the chairman of the State Committee, to him, empowering him to act as the representative of the State Committee which letter was in these words:
HEADQUARTERS STATE COM.,
PHILA., Oct. 4th, 1884.
Hon. John E. Reyburn, Member of the Republican State Committee, 5th Senatorial
District:
DEAR SIR : - The candidates of Indiana and Jefferson counties, for the Republican nomination for State Senator, whose respective conferees failed to agree and adjourned sine die, have in writing submitted the whole case to consideration of the State Committee, agreeing over their own signatures to abide by any decision of the matter which the committee may make. You are hereby appointed as the representative of the State Committee with full power to adjust or settle the controversy, and your decision in the matter shall be final. The Republicans of both counties ask for immediate action, and you are requested to enter at once upon this commission.
Very truly yours,
THOS. V. COOPER, Chairman.And thereupon, upon the reading of the said letter of submission, and letter of authorization, the said Hon. John E. Reyburn, of Philadelphia, took his seat as a member of the Senatorial Conference of the 37th Senatorial District. Upon motion of John W. Books, esq., the said Hon. J.E. Reyburn was unanimously chosen as chairman of the conference, and upon motion E.H. Moorhead, esq., of Indiana, was chosen secretary. Upon motion the conference proceeded to the nomination of a senator, and thereupon Indiana county presented the name of George W. Hood, esq., and Jefferson county presented the name of Hon. W.J. McKnight. Remarks were made on behalf of Mr. Hood by Hon. A.W. Kimmel, John W. Books, esq., and E.H. Moorhead, esq., and on behalf of Dr. McKnight by Messrs. Gathers, Gray and Temple. E.H. Moorhead moved that the conference adjourn to 7:30 P. M., but at the suggestion of Mr. Books the motion was withdrawn.
Mr. Moorehead suggested that the conference adjourn until 8 o’clock P.M., but the suggestion being opposed by the conferees from Jefferson county, no motion to that effect was made.
Upon motion, it was agreed to, that the conference proceed to a ballot for senator, and upon the roll being called, W.H. Gray voted Senator McKnight, J.A. Cathers voted Senator McKnight and Samuel W. Temple voted Senator McKnight. Hon. A.W. Kimmel voted George W. Hood, John W. Books voted George W. Hood, and E.H. Moorehead voted George W. Hood, and, Hon. J.E. Reyburn voted Senator McKnight, and upon the announcement of the vote by the secretary, the chairman announced that Senator McKnight was the nominee of the conference. E.H. Moorhead thereupon moved that the nomination be made unanimous, and after the motion was put, the chairman declared that the nomination was made unanimously.
The chairman then proceeded to state at length the reasons that impelled him to cast his vote in favor of Senator McKnight. On motion of E.H. Moorhead a vote of thanks was tendered to the Hon. J.E. Reyburn for his labor in settling and composing the conference in the 37th Senatorial District.
On motion, the conference adjourned sine die.
JOHN E. REYBURN, President.
E.H. MOORHEAD, Secretary.
It only remains for me to refer to a few of the reasons urged in behalf of the two counties comprising the district, and which influenced my conclusion. On behalf of Indiana it was urged
First, That when Mr. Hood yielded four years ago, she should have the next term without opposition on the part of Jefferson county;
Second, That she, by reason of her strong Republican majority, was entitled to it by right;
Third, That the nomination for Congress had been given to Jefferson, therefore Indiana should have the senator.
These reasons were given in many forms and in great variety, but there was a constant reiteration of the same. To this Jefferson denied that such a promise was made either by Hon. W.J. McKnight, or any one authorized to speak for her; to the second and third propositions, that the political history of the two counties showed that she had always given way to Indiana county, and that that county had been represented both in the councils of the Nation and State far more than was just or demanded by reason of her greater number of Republican votes.
Thus I found the obstacles to peace and harmony were those of locality, confined entirely within certain imaginary lines, and likely to occur every time there was a contest, leaving ill feeling and resentment to be carried into the most trivial affairs.
This has been the case for a number of years, and knowing the anxiety of the committee to arrive at some result which would look towards the prevention of these contentions, I therefore sought for a solution of this and at the same time an action which would give the district an assurance of a representation in some degree commensurate with the high character and intelligence of its people.
At one of the meetings of the conferees, Jefferson had offered a resolution to settle the controversy upon the basis of two terms for her and three for Indiana; or Jefferson eight years and then Indiana twelve in succession, thus acknowledging the claims of Indiana because of her superior numbers.
As to the fitness of the two contestants I found Mr. Hood a man of high character and attainments, fully qualified to do honor both to the district and to himself.
I also found the Hon. W.J. McKnight to be of like high character, and I listened attentively for any expression of dislike or objection to his past course in the Senate, and failed to hear even an intimation of that kind.
Finding the men in their personal characters so nearly equal, and the question one of locality, determined to set both the men and claims of locality to one side and endeavor to decide the question for what seemed to be the best interests of our party and the good of the district. The interests of the party were, to my mind, to be better served by deciding in favor of Jefferson, upon the basis proposed by her conferees, and I think all fair minded men will agree, that where a district is represented by a man of good character, whose course upon all the questions coming before the highest representative body of a great State like ours, and whose action upon these questions fails to bring forth a fault-finder, that district is best served by at least two terms, and I might be warranted in going beyond even the fixing of any limit, and so after weighing all the facts, considering all the interests with a deep sense of the grave responsibility of my position, I thought best for these reasons, to cast my vote in favor of the Hon. W.J. McKnight, the present senator, and the contestant from Jefferson.
Yours respectfully,
JOHN E. REYBURN.After the nomination was regularly and unanimously made on the 7th day of October, A.D. 1884, Dr. McKnight received the following communication:
"INDIANA, Pa., October 15, 1884.
DR. W.J. MCKNIGHT. DEAR SIR. - Inasmuch as the day of election is almost here, and in view of the action of the Republican county committee of this county today, and with an earnest desire for the success and harmony of the party in this Senatorial District, I desire to make you a proposition, which, I think, if adopted will solve the vexed problem. It is this: withdraw our letter to the State committee; let the Senatorial conference be reconvened, and permit that body to select a seventh man from an adjoining county, and to this tribunal we submit which of us shall be the candidate of the Republicans of the district. In this manner we will gain time, which is now a matter of grave necessity. If this proposition meets your approbation, I feel sure that it will be for the best interests of the party. As this letter will be handed you tomorrow, may I hope for an answer not later than Friday, October 17. Awaiting a reply, and expressing the wish for the success of our party in this district, I am
Very respectfully,
GEORGE W. HOOD.
Reply of Dr. McKnight:INDIANA, Pa., October 16, 1884.
G.W. Hood, Esq. My DEAR SIR. - Your letter of October 15 received, and contents noted. As I am now the regular nominee of the Republican party of this district, for State senator, I am not at liberty to participate in any future conferences on that subject. My duty is now to work for the success of the whole ticket. For your information as to the regularity of my nomination, I enclose you a paper marked "A," which fully explains your and my final action on that subject.
Very respectfully,
W.J. MCKNIGHT.Dr. McKnight, after the report of Senator Reyburn had been received, addressed himself to the work of the campaign. Mr. Hood, on the other hand, unwilling to have his senatorial aspirations checked in any way, determined to run as an independent candidate, relying on the large vote of Indiana to carry him through. In this he was successful. W.P. Hastings, the Democratic candidate, believing that his election was certain with two Republican candidates in the field, made but little effort, and Mr. Hood was elected by a plurality of twenty-three votes. The large Republican vote for Mr. Hood in Jefferson county was cast by the rank and file of the party to prevent the election of a Democratic senator - a result especially undesirable in view of the fact that two United States Senators would be voted for by a senator chosen at this election.
Time has thus far laid his hand lightly on Dr. McKnight. As, a physician he has been eminently successful, and as a business man energetic and useful.
BROWN, HENRY, was the sixth of a family of nine children born to James and Sarah Brown. His earliest recollections are of Westmoreland county, where he was born on the 21st of May, 1821. His father was born in Eastern Pennsylvania, and died in 1864, at the age of seventy-seven years. His mother died, aged fifty-five years, when Henry was a little child. As for schooling Henry had but little, as he only attended school when there was no work to be performed. The family removed to the present site of Apollo, Armstrong county, in 1831, and he remained with them until 1848, when he came to Bell township, Jefferson county, to haul timber, and since that time his connection with the lumber interest has never ceased.
He was married in 1852 to Miss Catharine Fisher, a daughter of Frederick Fisher, of Pittsburg.
In 1854 he purchased an old water mill on the Big Mahoning Creek in Bell township, and leveled it to the ground, and on the site erected a large gang mill, with a capacity for 60,000 feet per day This mill was too large for the transportation facilities offered, and he was obliged to abandon it, and near it he constructed a circular saw-mill whose products were much less, but more proportionate to the shipping facilities. Besides these mills he has a large square timber business on the Red Bank as well as on the Mahoning. In the latter he has often driven 200,000 feet, and in boards the amount has averaged from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 feet per annum. In his busiest times he has employed two hundred men and sixty teams. He has also been engaged in farming since he was able to wield a hoe, and now manages seven farms containing 1,500 acres, besides 2,500 acres of timber land. November 15, 1884, his saw-mill, machinery and a large amount of lumber was destroyed by fire, and he suffered a loss of about $11,000, having no insurance. In 1885 he built a large mill with a capacity for 40,000 feet per day, and at an expense of $10,500, and is one of the best in the county. He owns 2,300 acres of land which is underlaid with two or three veins of coal, and for which he has refused $90 per acre. He also owns 650 acres of timber and mineral land in Tennessee, which is underlaid with coal and iron ores and limestone as follows: one vein coal, twenty-two feet thick; one eight feet thick, and one vein of limestone fifty feet thick, and one vein iron ore about eight feet thick is covered over with valuable timber land.
Source: Page(s) 672-719, History of Jefferson County by Kate M. Scott. Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co., 1888.
Contributed by Nathan Zipfel for use by the Jefferson County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/jefferson/)
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