USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 11
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
80
GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCII OF INDIANA COUNTY.
.
.
the Artisan, of Pittsburgh; two companies of Allegheny city, and the Commercial, Union and Lancashire companies, of England. R. A. Panl & Son represent substantial and leading companies, and by extensive experience, fair dealing and promptness have won a permanent reputation as reliable business men.
The first paper of Indiana county was a federal sheet called the American, and issued by James McCahan in 1814. In 1821 the Indi- ana and Jefferson Whig was established in the interests of democracy. In 1828 the American was merged into the Whig, which in 1832 be- came Anti-Masonic, under the name of the Free Press. In 1834 the Free Press became the Indiana Register, which was purchased by Jonathan Row (sec his sketch), and after various changes passed in 1863 into the hands of George Row (see his sketch), who, in 1869, sold it to Major R. M. Birkman, who merged it into the Blairsville Press and issued it as the Indi- ana Progress, which he sold in 1880 to William Black, who afterwards disposed of it to A. T. Moorhead, its present editor and proprietor. In 1834 the Inquirer, a democratic journal, was issned by Fergus Cannon. In 1840 the Lib- erty or Abolition party had its rise, and the old Anti-Masonic warrior, James Moorhead, again entered the editorial ranks and established the Clarion of Freedom in the interests of the anti- slavery cause. This paper afterwards became the True American, which was issned as a know-nothing journal until 1852, when it be- came republican in politics and supported that party until its consolidation, in 1866, with the Register. In May, 1855, James Moorhead and
his son, James W. Moorhead, started the Inde- pendent, an educational, temperance, anti-slavery and anti-know-nothing journal. On Jannary 9,1857, its veteran editor, James Moorhead, died, and in 1860 his son sold the office. The Mes- senger was founded in 1856 by Judge Silas M. Clark, J. M. Thompson and Jolin Yonng as a democratic paper. It was independent in 1860 and in 1862 became republican. The initial number of the Indiana Times (see sketch of. Horace M. Lowry) was issued on September 4, 1878. The Indiana Democrat (see sketch of Franklin Sansom), the only democratie paper in the county, was established on May 4, 1862.
The initial number of the Indiana Connty Gazette was issued on Wednesday, August 13, 1890, by the Indiana Publishing Company, which is composed of thirty of the business men of the county. It aims to give late and accurate news, especially concerning the devel- opment of the county. Its editor is Warner H. Bell, who was formerly city editor of the Pittsburgh Post. After the late war George 'Row introduced many city methods into the printing business at Indiana, and advocated in his paper the establishment of the present State Normal school.
The Indiana post-office, under the manage- ment of Fannie W. Nixon, ranks high as one of the most systematically and best conducted offices in the State. Her predecessor was A. T. Moorhead, the conrteons and successful editor of the Progress, who, in 1876, invented the celebrated revolving book and goods rack of to-day, which he used as a revolving letter- rack.
BIOGRAPHIES OF INDIANA COUNTY.
INDIANA.
TTON. SILAS M. CLARK, LL.D., Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was born at Elderton, Armstrong county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1834. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish, a sturdy race, which probably as much as any other has contributed to the annals of the State and country. These ancestors went to western Pennsylvania from the Cumberland Valley, where in the early affairs of the Commonwealth they occupied an honorable position. Captain James Clark, from whom the Judge is directly descended, was an officer in the war of the Rev- olution, and after the close of that heroic con- test settled near Hannastown, Westmoreland county, the first place west of the Allegheny mountains where justice was administered ac- cording to the forms of law. When the Indians under the famous Seneca chief invaded the settlement, burned the town and massacred the large part of the population in 1782, Captain Clark was among those who sought refuge in the fort near by and prepared to defend it against au expected attack. But the attack was not made, for after plundering the town and reducing it to ashes, the Indians withdrew. Soon after this event, Captain Clark removed to South Bend, Armstrong county, where he resided many years, and died, leaving a numer- ous and respected progeny.
Judge Clark's maternal ancestor was Fergus
Moorhead, who, like Captain Clark, went to Westmoreland county from the Cumberland Valley. As early as 1772, Mr. Moorhead with his family settled near the present town of Indiana. He was more than usually well pro- vided with the goods of this world, and brought to the new home, where land was abundant, a liberal supply of cattle, sheep and other domes- tic animals and fowls to stock his farm, and implements to cultivate it. Like Captain Clark he had dangers to encounter. The forests were overrun with savage beasts and peopled with still more savage men. For four years, low- ever, the family was unmolested, but in July, 1776, while returning from the fort at Kittan- ning, then under command of his brother Sam- uel, his horse was shot under him, and he was taken prisoner by a band of Indians, who car- ried him to Quebec, and sold him to the British. His wife and children, thinking him dead, left Indiana and returned to the Cumberland Val- ley. After a year of imprisonment, the hus- band and father was exchanged and rejoined his family, having traveled on foot from New York to the Cumberland Valley. An account of his capture appeared in the Gazette, Ben- jamin Franklin's paper, the files of which are still preserved by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At the close of the Revolution, Mr. Moorhead and his family returned to the
6
81
82
BIOGRAPHIES OF
border home from which they had been so summarily driven five years before, and there, at the advanced age of seventy-nine, he died. Among his descendants are the prosperous and wealthy iron masters of Pittsburgh, of that name, and others who have distinguished them- selves in business and professional life.
In 1835 James Clark, Esq., the father of Judge Clark, removed from Elderton and set- tled in Indiana, the county-seat of Indiana county, where he has since resided in the enjoy- ment of the respect of his fellow-citizens, by whom he has been honored with every evidence of confidence and esteem, and has had conferred upon him many offices and positions of trust.
With such an ancestor, it is not surprising that Judge Clark exhibits the characteristics that distinctly mark him, namely, warmness- of heart, courage, tenacity of purpose and public spirit. He is essentially a man of the people, and through all his busy life has found pleasure in serving his neighbors. His own success has only multiplied the opportunities to help those less fortunate, and he is as free with his means in the dispensing of charity as he is generous in giving aid and assistance to deserving young men who are entering the struggle of life.
Judge Clark obtained his rudimentary educa- tion in the public schools of Indiana, in which he continued as a pupil until he was sufficiently equipped with learning to enter the academy of that town. There he pursued the course of study that prepared him to enter the Junior class of the Jefferson college at Cannonsburg, Pa., from which he was graduated in 1852, standing fifth in a class of about sixty members. He was an adept in mathematics, a fluent and forceful speaker, and in literary experiences ex- celled. In recognition of this, the Philo Liter- ary Society invited him to deliver the valedic- tory address on the occasion of the semi-cen- tennial anniversary of the college.
After his graduation Judge Clark became an instructor in the academy in which he had been
prepared for college and continued in this position for two years. He entered into the work with much spirit and earnestness, and aroused among the pupils the greatest enthu- siasm. The sympathy with school work which was implanted during that period, has never abated. Soon after he was admitted to the bar, and while a young and struggling lawyer, he was elected director of the public schools of the town, and for twelve consecutive years served the people faithfully and efficiently, in that important capacity. Later on he became one of the projectors and founders of the Normal school of Indiana, of which he has from the first been a member of the trustees and most of the time president of the board. The great success of the institution is attributed largely to his intelligent efforts in its behalf. In recognition of his long and faithful service in the interests of educational progress Lafayette College in 1886 conferred upon him the hon- orary degree of Doctor of Laws, and the com- pliment was never bestowed upon a more deserving recipient, or the judicial ermine more appropriate for the person of any one.
After two years of service as an educator, Judge Clark abandoned the profession and en- tered the office of a prominent lawyer, then of Indiana, but now of Philadelphia, and in 1857, at the age of twenty-three years, was admitted to practice at the bar of Indiana county. Then, as now, the bar of that county embraced some of the strongest lawyers in the State, but the young. aspirant for legal honors was not long in mak- ing a place for himself among the most success- ful, and it is a matter of record that during the ten years preceding his elevation to the Supreme Bench, not a single case of importance was tried in the county in which he did not appear as council. His fame was not limited to his own county, either, and during the period of his suc- cessful practice he received many tempting offers to conduct important cases tried elsewhere. But, as a rule, all such offers were declined, for un-
Atlantic Publishing & Engraving On N.Y.
Sincerely Yours Sila Malack
6
85
INDIANA COUNTY.
less the persons interested were personal friends or home clients he preferred to attend to his ex- tensive and lucrative practice in his own dis- trict rather than go to other fields.
In his law practice Judge Clark was always a clear and profound thinker, a strong and log- ical reasoner and an eloquent advocate of sur- passing power. It was a hopeless case, indeed, where he failed to secure a favorable judgment or verdict. Whether arguing questions of law before a court, or questions of fact before a jury, the strong points of his cases were so strongly and forcibly presented that the weak ones were likely to be lost sight of altogether. Nor was it in the trial of causes alone that he excelled. Contracts, wills and other legal papers prepared by him were so skillfully executed, contingencies so carefully provided for and guarded against, and their terms so clearly expressed that they never gave rise to litigation by reason of their ambiguity.
Judge Clark inherited his political convic- tions, as his other characteristics, from his an- cestry, and from boyhood has been a Democrat. While he holds it to be both the right and duty of every citizen to maintain his political con- victions fearlessly, and share the labors and re- sponsibilities of citizenship, he has never been an office-seeker, and, with the exception of membership in the Constitutional Convention of 1873, he never held any office except that one which he now holds. As a member of the Con- stitutional Convention, he served on the follow- ing committees : Declaration of Rights, Private Corporations and Revision and Adjustment. Of that body of Pennsylvania's representative men he ranked as one of the ablest, and Mr. Buckalew, himself a member, in his very able work, " The Constitution of Pennsylvania," re- ferring to the discussion of the judiciary article, makes special mention of some of Mr. Clark's speeches, remarking that they were among the ablest upon the subjects discussed. During his long career at the bar he was frequently invited
to accept nominations for office, but invariably declined, with the exception named and one other. He was nominated for president judge of the judicial district composed of Indiana, West- moreland and Armstrong counties, and was de- feated by the Hon. James A. Logan, the ad- verse majority in the district being too great for one of even his popularity to overcome. His election to the Supreme Bench occurred in No- vember, 1882, and he entered upon the duties of his office in January following.
Judge Clark meets and discharges the duties of advanced citizenship in such a manner as to win the respect, esteem and confidence of all classes of his fellow-men. Every enterprise, having for its object the advancement of their interests or the improvement of his town, finds in him an energetic and active supporter. We have spoken of his interest in education. His interest in agriculture is not less; he took time in the midst of his large practice, not only to cultivate a fine farın that he then owned, but to serve for several years as president of the Ag- ricultural Society of his county, then one of the most flourishing in the State. Perhaps the very best evidence of the esteem in which Judge Clark is held by his fellow-citizens of the coun- ty is the fact that in the election to his present position they gave him a majority of one hun- dred and fifty-one votes over his Republican competitor, whilst the Republican candidate for governor at the same time had a majority of two thousand. In his judicial capacity he stands very high, and is regarded universally by the profession as one of the ablest members of the court. His opinions, singularly brief, are couched in the clearest and choicest lan- guage, and as readily understood by the layman as the lawyer. Many of them have received favorable comment from the law critics in the leading periodicals in the country, and all of them are models of forceful and graceful rhet- oric.
Upon the death of the late Hon. Morriosn R.
86
BIOGRAPHIES OF
Waite, chief justice of the United States Su- preme Court, the leading newspapers of the State, irrespective of party, pointed to Judge Clark as a man eminently qualified to fill the exalted position thus made vacant. In the sup- port of their petition it was argued that he was in full vigor of intellect and physical strength, young enough to promise a protracted period of useful work, and old enough to bring to the posi- tion ripe experience, and an able and honorable record, both at the bar and on the bench.
Judge Clark, on the 26th day of April, 1859, was married to Clara Elizabeth Moorhead, daughter of William Moorhead, late of Pitts- burgh, Pa. Her death occurred on the 17th day of January, 1887. This has been the one great sorrow in Judge Clark's otherwise happy and successful life. To speak publicly of a nature so modest and simple, and a life so private as Mrs. Clark's seems almost a wrong, but a sketch of her husband, however slight, would be incomplete without reference to the woman whose gentleness and courage and wis- dom were the good angels that, since his earliest manhood, breathed their benediction upon him. Mrs. Clark was of the women whose lives are noiseless, who live at home-she was a wife, a mother, yet her character was so firm, tranquil and self-possessed, that it would have met with- out doubt or hesitation any form of suffering for conscience or duty. Her absolute truthful- ness was a standing rebuke to falseness and pre- tence, and the memory of lier loyalty and un- selfishness is a perpetual blessing. In the re- fined and beautiful home, attuned now to a deeper and sadder note by the loss of the woman who filled it with her rich life, Judge Clark's warm, domestic and social nature finds its truest expression. There he meets his friends and neighbors in genial intercourse and hospi- tality, and there, amid the highest charms of life, his children are growing into a gracious man and womanhood.
NOAH ADLER, clothier and dealer in gents'
furnishing goods at Indiana, served as a soldier in the late war and is one of the ener- getic and successful business men of the bor- ough. He was born in the kingdom of Prus- sia, August 14, 1834, and is a son of Solomon and Pauline (Isaacs) Adler. His parents were both natives and life-long residents of Prussia. They were old enough to recollect. the invasion of Prussia by the French army and the closing years of the stormy career of Napoleon Bona- parte, who shook the world in his passage from from his island home in the Mediterranean to his prison-grave on the ocean-rock of St. He- lena. Solomon Adler was a prosperous grocer and died in 1871, when seventy-five years of age. His wife, Pauline (Isaacs) Adler, was born in the opening year of the nineteenth cen- tury, but died at the early age of thirty-six years.
Noah Adler was reared in the land of his nativity, where he received his education in the excellent public schools of Prussia, which, with some changes and alterations, produced results a few years later that challenged the admiration of the world. Leaving school, he became a clerk in a grain house near his home. In 1854 lie gave up that position in order to come to the United States. He landed at New York city on the first day of May, went to Harrisburg, Pa., where he was a clerk in a clothing house until 1861. He then enlisted in Co. B, 27th regiment, Pa. Vols., and served for three years and one month. He partici- pated in all the battles of his regiment, was taken prisoner at Gettysburg and was held for three months before he was exchanged at City Point. He was honorably discharged on June 5, 1864, and returned to Harrisburg, where he re- mained for three years. On March 16, 1867, he came to Indiana and engaged in the clothing business for himself, which he has continued in successfully ever since.
In 1867 he married Jenet Vogel, of Phila-
RESIDENCE OF JUDGE S. M. CLARK,
89
INDIANA COUNTY.
delphia, who died in 1885 and left no children. On August 23, 1886, Mr. Adler married for his second wife Odelia Washer, of the same city.
Noah Adler is a republican, but is liberal in his political views. He is a member and as- sistant quartermaster of Indiana Post, No. 28, Grand Army of the Republic, and Encamp- ment No. 11, Union Veteran Legion. He is a member of Palladium Lodge, No. 346, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and Salem Lodge, No. 28, I. O. B. B., at Harrisburg. He is also treasurer of the Odd Fellows' Hall association of Indiana. He is a member of the Hebrew church of Rodef Shalom, Broad street, Philadelphia. His business establishment is opposite the court-house, and he carries a full stock of stylish and substantial ready-made clothing suited to all tastes and purposes, and a complete line of gents' furnishing goods of every description. Mr. Adler is a public-spir- ited citizen and a courteous gentleman, and has built up a business which is steadily on the increase.
MAJOR JOHN B. ALEXANDER. Among the first lawyers to practice at the Indi- ana bar was John B. Alexander. "He was born in Carlisle, Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, and emigrated to Greensburg, Pa., early in the present century. He was admitted to the Westmoreland bar on motion of William Wilkins, Esq., at the December term of court, 1804. He opened his first office there, engaged in the practice of the law, and resided there until the war of 1812 commenced. Mr. Alex- ander had been liberally educated, having been graduated at Dickinson college, Carlisle.
" He was a good Latin scholar, readily read- ing and explaining old law writers to the court. In his old age he was heard to quote Horace in the original in ordinary conversation with gen- tlemen of culture.
"Mr. Alexander had little regard for any literary pursuit outside of his profession. He was no politician, and read no newspapers, novels, magazines or histories. His sole liter- ary recreation was the reading of Shakspeare. This he knew so well that he quoted it regu- larly in court, and could repeat whole scenes without any mistake, and with proper manner and pronunciation. And to him, in [his pro- fession, the great dramatist was undoubtedly of great use, and particularly in this, that it sup- plemented him with a fund of quotations with which, in addressing juries, he could relieve the dryness and dullness of professional language.
" His father having a large family to sup- port, he, after having received his collegiate education, was thrown upon his own resources. He studied much, worked hard and carefully, and as a return rose to the front rank at the bar, and gained a practice in the counties of Westmoreland and Indiana. Only on two oc- casions did he allow his mind to be drawn away or diverted from the practice of his profession. The first of these occasions was the war of 1812. When that war with Great Britain commenced he collected a company of volunteers, and served with great credit under Gen. Harrison in several engagements with the British and Indians. The name of his company was ' The Greensburg Rifles.' After his return he re- sumed the practice of the law, rose to the head of the Greensburg bar, and obtained a lucrative practice in that and the adjoining counties.
"He raised a company of artillery, which was the model company of the military division in which the militia of the State was divided, and was truly a fine one in appearance. The men were handsomely uniformed, were all over six feet in height, and their two handsome brass cannons were drawn by large gray horses. The rank and file consisted of substantial farmers and stout mechanics and laborers. In rich and gaudy uniform, Alexander always commanded in person, and he expended a large sum of
90
BIOGRAPHIES OF
money in equipments, horses and donations. He, with his company, turned out in honor of Lafayette when he passed through the southwest- ern part of Westmoreland county. Alexander not only encouraged the profession of arms by his example, but he went so far as to acknowl- edge the code of honor in theory and practice. He fought a duel with a Mr. Mason, of Union- town, Fayette Co. They exchanged shots, but neither was wounded. Both desired a second fire, but the seconds refused on the ground that the point of honor for which they fought did not require another interchange of deadly mis- sives.
" The second and less fortunate occasion which drew off his attention from the agreeable toil of the office and the bar was his election to the State Assembly. It was admitted by all that his representative career was a failure. He was like a fish out of water. He there came in contact with men who, although they could scarcely have spelled their way through the horn-book, could have bought and sold him in legislative trickery every hour in the day. For those he had the utmost contempt, and he appeared to regard the whole legislative body somewhat as Gulliver regarded a similar assem- blage in Lilliput. Before the session closed he left them in disgust, mounted his horse and rode home. Thenceforth he took no part in politics whatever until 1840, when his old com- mander was nominated for the presidency. During that campaign he consented to preside at a Harrison meeting at Greensburg. He was then on the verge of eternity, and died shortly after, in the same year.
" As a sound and well-read lawyer he had as we said, no equal at the Westmoreland bar. and in the special branch of the law relating to land title he had no superior in western Penn- sylvania. He was retained as counsel in many cases of disputed title in the court of last resort in the State, and even in some cases of a like character which were adjudicated in the highest
court of the United States. He was the coun- sel in one particularly heavy land-title case on an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, wherein his adversary was the celebrated William Wirt. Alexander gained his cause, and the argument displayed such legal acumen that he astonished the bench as well as the bar. At its conclusion he was complimented by Mr. Wirt and by Daniel Webster, who was present, and who expressed in his warm hearted way lis approbation of the manner in which he had han- dled his case, of his exposition of the law, and the profundity of his legal reasoning and learning. In the intricate and abstruse practice of the land law of Pennsylvania Alexander was, without doubt, the superior of Wirt. Wirt was a poli- tician, an orator and a literary man, but to the law alone had Alexander devoted an almost entire attention. If Wirt were the Bacon, Alexander was the Coke. He brought to his cases his stored-up learning of the common law, he could recall old judicial decisions, quote black-letter authority from the law-Latin and Norman-French text-books of the Middle Ages, marshal together all the maxims of the common law bearing on the capacity and the incapacity of witnesses to testify, bring the court from the fountain sources of legal wisdom down through a long series of English decisions to a moderate date, and examine into the law of evidence as it was recognized in Pennsylvania, and apply it to his arguments in his cases.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.