USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 9
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John Dick, besides having been General of Militia, Congressman and the occu- pant of various offices of honor and trust, was one of the first Associate Judges of Crawford county. Although he was a Whig through all his life, he carried a Democratic district whenever he chose to be a candidate for office. Like most other Whigs he drifted into the Republican party at the very beginning, and in 1856 was urged by Thurlow Weed to become the Vice-Presidential candidate on the ticket with John C. Fremont. He, was then a notable banker in Meadville, and the head of the house of J. & J. R. Dick, which subsequently became J. R. Dick & Co. It is still in existence, and has been for nearly forty years one of the leading financial institutions of that industrial region.
SAMUEL BERNARD DICK was the third son of the Hon. John Dick. He was
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born at Meadville, Pa., on the 26th of October, 1836. His early life was passed in a good atmosphere. His father was a prominent man in mercantile pursuits long before he was able to take much interest in material affairs. When he was quite young, he began laying the groundwork of a good English education. From the district school he graduated into the Allegheny College at Meadville- a rather ambitious institution of learning, even in those days. It still flourishes as one of the higher evidences of our educational advantages in the State. Young Dick left the college just before taking his final degree, and entered the flourish- ing banking house of his father. There he laid the foundation of his business career, upon which he has built to great purpose.
Samuel B. Dick was following the ordinary life of a successful banker in the city of Meadville when the sound of cannon at Charleston aroused the country to arms. He at once organized the Meadville Volunteers, the first company which marched from that town at President Lincoln's first call for three months' men. Pennsylvania's quota was filled so rapidly that this company, with many others, was left in camp at Pittsburgh, and did not participate in the first phases of the civil conflict. It was destined, however, for a higher purpose and a more ambitious place in the great army that was to spring up after the misfortunes of the first Bull Run. It became a part of the Ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves, an organization which has a place in history second to none that was ever formed for purposes of war, and which graduated more great soldiers than any other single organization of like strength in the army. Its first brigade commanders were George G. Meade, afterwards the head of the Army of the Potomac; John F. Reynolds, Commander of the First Corps, who fell at Get- tysburg ; and E. O. C. Ord, who afterwards became one of the most distinguished corps commanders of our armies.
The Ninth was one of the strongest regiments in the organization. It saw service early and late in the mighty conflict. When the Reserves left the State and reached contested soil they at once went into active service. The battle of Drainsville, Virginia, was a notable little clinch in our civil conflict, yet it was one of those accidents of war upon which often hinges great history. It took place on the 20th of December, 1861. That day the Ninth Pennsylvania Regi- ment was leading General Ord's advance. An encounter was the result; for it was Ord's reputation, even at that early date, that he was always hunting a fight. That tradition stuck to him as long as the war lasted. On that eventful day in the history of our national struggle Samuel B. Dick was wounded-so severely wounded that it was supposed he could not recover. When the record of the day was made up, among the casualties the words "mortally wounded" were written opposite his namc. After months of sickness, during which he hung between life and death, he finally recovered.
In April, 1862, he rejoined his regiment to again lead the brigade's advance in the seven days' fight before Richmond. From there his command took its way to the second battle of Bull Run. It reached there just in time for that engage-
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ment after a hazardous and severe march, while Fitz-John Porter's fresh troops lay within sound of the battle without reaching the scene of the conflict. In that fight the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves lost, in killed and wounded, one hundred and eight men and thirteen officers. South Mountain and Antictam came next on the record. Pope's disaster at Bull Run had cost him his place. McClellan was again summoned to the command of an army whose idol he was. The battle of South Mountain was a notable event in the history of Mr. Dick. He commanded the regiment in that fight, and in the desperate and bloody work of the day made a brilliant record for himself. His command swept over and planted the first Union flag on South Mountain which announced Mcclellan's victory. It was noted as a brilliant piece of work, and the young officer was immediately recommended for promotion to the grade of Brigadier-General by every one of his superior officers from the brigadier up to the commander of the corps. Gallant and meritorious services at the battle of South Mountain were the reasons assigned for this early recognition of gallant conduct.
The severe work of the time told upon the health of the young man, who had thus early in war made a brilliant record for himself as a soldier. A wasting fever took possession of him, and he was sent home in December, 1862. In February, 1863, the physicians pronounced his health so shattered that there was no chance for his recovering away from the comforts of home. He resigned his commission, and reluctantly relinquishing his command returned to Meadville.
The early summer of 1863 was filled with important incidents to the country, and in them Mr. Dick took a lively interest. When Lee was throwing his battalions rapidly towards the soil of Pennsylvania, Governor Curtin telegraphed to Captain Dick to go to Pittsburgh and take charge of the minute-men then assembling to do duty in the grave emergency. He responded promptly, organized several battalions, and then, as Colonel of the Fifty-sixth Penn- sylvania, marched into Western Virginia. He was ordered to New Creek to relieve General Kelly in command at that place. For some time he com- manded along the border and then returned to Meadville. The close of the war found Colonel Dick grown to man's full estate and occupying a strong position in the community which his father had done so much to build up. Public spirit is a crowning characteristic of the Dick family. No enterprise tending to build up Meadville, or the region of which it is the capital, but that the elder as well as the younger Dick has taken a large hand.
War had hardly closed before the demands of peace called S. B. Dick to assume new responsibilities. Meadville felt the pulse of the oil fever, and, in the wonderful improvements which it brought to Western Pennsylvania, the Dicks were again leading factors. Business thrived. In those days money was rapidly made, and as rapidly lost ; but through all the fluctuations of wild speculation the banking house of J. R. Dick & Co. enjoyed the highest credit.
After independence had reached Mr. Dick, he had ambitions to follow his father's footsteps to Congress. In 1870, and again in 1876, he was the unani-
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mous choice of his own county, but was beaten by the combination of the other counties of the district against him. In 1878, however, he was nominated and elected, and would have been re-elected but for the absurd rule which pre- vails in that district of rotation among the different counties. His service in Congress was too brief to permit him to show much of his quality as a legislator, yet during his short term of service he was popular beyond almost any man in the delegation, and had a practical influence that was felt by his constituents for good every day. His retirement from Congress was regretted by his associates and constituents. Ill health for some time after his Congressional career kept him from mingling much with the outside world; but after a year of suffering he became vigorous again, and for the last seven or eight years his usefulness to his section and his State has been great. He was the head and front of Pennsylva- nia's share in the great Yorktown celebration, and to his hard work much of its success was due. In every enterprise which has succeeded in Meadville and vicinity, or is on its way to success, Samuel B. Dick has a large share. It would seem that he is either President or Treasurer of nearly every enterprise in that whole region.
One of the most notable events in the career of Mr. Dick was his connection with the Senatorial struggle of 1880. That was the year in which the Indepen- dent Republican movement made itself felt inside and outside the Republican party. In the long and bitter contest which occurred between Galusha A. Grow and Harry Oliver, Mr. Dick was more generally the choice of all parties as a compromise candidate than any other man in the State. At one time the arrangements were made for his election, but by one of those accidents which thwart the best efforts of men John I. Mitchell was chosen.
Mr. Dick's career as a citizen, soldier and politician has been a highly hon- orable one. He is a man of strong friendships, and naturally of strong enmities. He has a degree of tenacity, candor and courage about him that is worthy of emulation. He inherited these strong qualities from the faithful and prosperous people who have lived before him. He came of a long line of natural soldiers on both sides. George Dick, his father's brother, was killed in the Patriot war in Texas, and his own brother George died in the army just before the war. At the time of his death he was the Adjutant of Gen. Robert E. Lee's regiment. Major McGunnegle, of the regular army, was an uncle on his father's side. In fact, no war has been fought in this country, beginning with the Revolution, in which his ancestors have not taken an honorable part. They were also good citizens as well as good soldiers, and when each succceding conflict which had summoned them to arms was over, they returned to the walks of private life to aid in the building up of a new country. His uncle, David Dick, built the first steamboat that plicd the Allegheny river ; he also invented the first anti-friction power press, and in other ways was, with his brother John, a benefactor to the region in which he lived. The same may be said of the head of the Dick family of to-day.
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One of the most notable features of Samuel B. Dick's life has been his strong position in the Masonic fraternity. He began as a Mason as far back as 1857, before he was of age. He has filled every grade of official position in that high order up to Grand Master of the State. Nearly every place in the Grand Com- mandery, as well as the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, has felt the touch of a new impulse during his occupancy of the office. His service as Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania, which began in 1883, was notable for a spirit and energy such as had never before characterized the administration of that office. The position is second in influence only to that of Governor of the State; yet its exacting duties were so conscientiously and ably performed that it is a tradition to-day among the Masons of Pennsylvania that during Samuel B. Dick's occu- pancy of the highest honors within the gift of the order there was more cordiality of effort, more interest of action, and more general enthusiasm in the order than at any time within the history of the Grand Lodge.
Mr. Dick is now fifty years of age, but is still full of the energy of a strong lineage. He has kept his distinguished father's name green in the memory of the people among whom his ancestors made their names honorable for so many years. He is just in the prime of life, with a long line of good deeds behind him. The future would seem to have in store more valuable fruits both for himself and his people than have yet been gathered by energy, courage and an upright life.
F. A. BURR.
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HON. A. HERR SMITH.
ABRAHAM HERR SMITH.
H ON. A. HERR SMITH, for twelve years a representative in Congress from the Ninth Congressional District, and now a prominent lawyer of Lancaster city, was born in Manor township, Lancaster county, near Millersville, Pa., March 7, 1815.
He was the only son of Jacob and Elizabeth Smith, nee Herr, and had the misfortune very early in life to lose both his parents, his father when he was under three and his mother when he was twelve years of age. His father died February 23, 1818, and his mother, June 28, 1827.
His preparatory education was obtained at Prof. John Beck's Academy at Lititz, and at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. He studied engineering and surveying with Joshua Scott, Esq., civil engineer, in Lancaster, and assisted to survey the Pennsylvania Railroad through Lancaster, from the Big to the Little Conestoga. He spent two years in Henry P. Carson's store in Lancaster, and then went to Haddington College, near Philadelphia, and afterwards to Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he graduated in 1840. Among his classmates were D. G. Eshleman, a prominent member of the Lancaster Bar, Congressman Charles O'Neill, of Philadelphia, Spencer Baird, now deceased, of the Smithsonian Insti- tute, and George R. Crooks, D. D., LL. D., of the Drew Theological Seminary. His vacations, when not travelling, were spent with his uncle, Abraham Smith, of Strasburg, whose kindly interest in his welfare he has never forgotten.
Immediately after his graduation, he commenced the study of law in the office of Jolin R. Montgomery, a distinguished member of the Lancaster Bar. On the 20th of October, 1842, he was admitted to practice in the various courts of Lan- caster county. He brought to the practice of his profession a mind well stored with general knowledge, as well as legal lore, strong common sense, a well- balanced judgment, a ready pen and a rhetoric precise, clean and forcible. With these accomplishments, added to attractive manners and address, he soon rose to the highest rank in his profession.
From early life he gave much attention to politics. The Whig party was organized while he was a boy, and its principles and men had for him a magnetic attraction, and he espoused its cause in his youth with his pen, and in his riper years both as a writer and an orator. While he was yet too young even to be a member of his party, he was far in advance of it; for he was an Abolitionist before the abolition of slavery became a political tenet. During his collegiate course at Haddington he wrote an address for an exhibition exercise, so strongly anti-slavery in its views that the faculty refused to permit its delivery. On the breaking up of the Whig party in 1856, he therefore very naturally became an ardent supporter of the Republican party.
Mr. Smith from early life was a close student and a great reader, and even in
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his youth became distinguished both as an essayist and as a ready, fluent and forcible speaker. Many of his school essays found their way into the newspa- pers of that day, and attracted much attention on account of their originality of thought and strength and elegance of diction. Being regarded as a young man of probity and ability, he was induced to enter the political arena, and in 1843 he was elected a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and re-elected the following year. In 1845 he was elected to the State Senate for one term, three years, during the latter part of which he was the candidate of his party in caucus for Speaker of the Senate, and failed only because he refused to vote for himself.
His career in the Legislature was one of marked ability and usefulness, very gratifying to his constituents, and valuable to them and the State at large. He was the author of the law imposing a tax for the payment of the interest on the State debt, a measure by no means popular at the time and bitterly opposed, but necessary to save the State from repudiation. Prior to that time the interest on the State debt had been paid in scrip, and the State bonds were sold at about one-third of their par value. Immediately after the passage of the bill the interest was promptly paid in money, and the bonds rose to par.
He advocated the sale of the Public Works, which were a great expense to the State. He abolished the Mayor's Court of the City of Lancaster. This court had been a useless and expensive piece of judicial machinery, but having existed for many years had a fixed abode in the customs of the people. He also refused to sanction the renewal of the District Court of Lancaster County, when it expired by limitation. He was an earnest advocate of the Married Woman's Act which became a law in 1848. He also advocated and voted for the passage of the law which made the Common School System obligatory upon the districts of the State, thus doing away with the triennial election, which permitted the voters of every district to accept or reject the system. This necessary change perfected the school system in Pennsylvania. He was ever strongly devoted to rigid economy and governmental reforms, and watchful of the details of legisla- tion. Returning to the practice of his profession he uninterruptedly followcd it until the fall of 1872, when he was elected on the Republican ticket to the Forty- third Congress, and by re-election served in the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty- sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses ; a high compliment, and never before paid to a Congressional Representative from Lancaster county. In this district the unwritten rule has limited the period of the Representative in Con- gress to two terms. To this rule there have been the following exceptions : John W. Kittera, 1791 to 1801, five terms, ten years; James Buchanan, 1821 to 1831, five terms, ten years; Thaddeus Stevens, 1859 to 1868, four and a half terms, nine years ; and Mr. Smith from 1873 to 1885, six terms, twelve years.
Mr. Smith did efficient service on the Committee on War Claims for six years, and served on the Committee on Appropriations, Agriculture, Pensions and other important committees. As a member of the Committee on War Claims, a committee first raised in 1873 on the suggestion of President Grant, he rendered
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valuable services in the rejection of fraudulent elaims, running up to many mil- lions of dollars. The reports made by him are referred to constantly by the present committee, and greatly aid to settle definitely the law and the facts whenever the claims are renewed. Against the seductive free pass system, he, by word and example, entered his stern protest, promptly returning to the liberal donors their paste-board annuals. When asked the reason for his conduct by a director, he answered: "You do not give the pass to the mendicant; why give it to the salaried Judge and Legislator? They pay their toll on the turn- pike, their discount in bank, and ought also pay their fare on railroads." This colloquy occurred in 1873 at Mr. Smith's first Congressional session, and put a stop to free tickets on the street railroads in Washington. Mr. Smith took a bold stand against the constructive mileage allowed members of Congress, show- ing its abuses, and which, through his exposure, were to some extent corrected. He favored the payment of pensions directly by the Treasurer of the United States instead of Pension Agents, thereby saving money to the pensioner and protecting the Government against loss. He ably opposed, on legal grounds, the creation of the Electoral Commission, holding that the Vice-President, under the Constitution, was the custodian of the returns, who must present the same to the two Houses when they meet in convention, and have them opened in their presence and counted, neither House having any right to control the result, their presence only being necessary as witnesses of the result.
Mr. Smith favored the resumption of specie payments by the Government, and the coining of silver for fractional currency only, and opposed the coinage of the needless silver dollars. He advocated and voted for the bill to restrict Chinese emigration. He also supported and voted for the civil service bill; and in the distribution of Congressional patronage favored promotion, and, other things being equal, gave the soldier a preference.
He has always been an earnest advocate of a protective tariff, as best adapted to raise revenue, to protect labor and make the nation independent in peace and war. In a brief speech, in the House of Representatives, on February 20, 1875, he indicated the true theory of protection.
" In 1791," said Mr. Smith, " the encouragement of manufactures was found to be the true interest of all parts of the Union. In 1875 it is still the true American policy. Our fathers adhered to it and the country prospered. Let not their descendants in an evil hour be misled by free trade visionaries. Some of our Western friends, I fear, have been indoctrinated with this financial heresy. In a burst of wild indignation they denounce every manufacturer as a common robber. Incidental protection, in their judgment, is legalized swindling. In their blind zeal they wholly ignore what is painfully obvious to all others, that in breaking down the American manufacturer they play into the hands of English mo- nopolists. New England and Pennsylvania have fully realized that there is no conflict between the farming and manufacturing interest. Let the West profit by their example, and utilize the great advan- tages of soil, water, iron and coal found either separately or combined in almost every locality. What it needs most is a home market.
" Let a familiar illustration point the moral. Said a farmer recently to me, as he sat down in my office, ' I do not visit your city as often as formerly.' ' Why not?' I replied. 'I take,' said he, 'my products to the factory store in the village, and get in return for the same either cash or its equivalent.'
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I commend this homely practical argument to my free-trade theorist, who must needs travel to Canada or cross the ocean to buy his fabrics. In a word, the whole occult science is in a nutshell ; let the producer and consumer join hands. Such proximity must secure community of interest.
" Without protective duties the American cannot compete with the European manufacturer. Here the laborer is not a mere hewer of wood and drawer of water. Here he is pre-eminently a man with all that appertains to elevated manhood. His children must be clothed and fed and educated and duly prepared to discharge the full duties of intelligent citizens. Pauper wages have been justly again and again repu- diated by the American people. Tax the luxuries, not the necessaries of life."
His speeches made in Congress were able and exhaustive, indicating great research and thorough knowledge of the subject discussed. These, with his let- ters and articles on the political issues of the day, were highly commended by the press and reading public.
Mr. Smith, as a Legislator, either in State or National affairs, was conscien- tiously honest and never suffered a political caucus to dictate his legislative action. After full and careful investigation he followed his convictions, whether in harmony with his party or not. The Fitz-John Porter case is in point. It had, substantially, assumed a party aspect-the Democrats being for, the Repub- licans against the bill. Mr. Smith, having with great care read the evidence on both sides, reached the conclusion that the general had been wronged, and, therefore, with nineteen other Republicans voted for the bill, although assured in advance that the vote would be used against him in an approaching Congres- sional contest.
Mr. Smith, during his seventeen years of public service at Harrisburg and Washington, never dodged a vote; and the writer of this sketch has heard him say that upon a careful review of his votes, for and against legislative measures, he would not, if he could, in a single instance reverse his judgment.
On Mr. Smith's retirement from Congress, the editor of the Lancaster Inquirer, who had been his rival and political opponent, with commendable frankness, in his paper of March 14, 1885, said :
" In retiring from a long public career Mr. Smith is entitled to kindness and courtesy from all his fellow-citizens. He has made some mistakes, notably his vote in favor of the Fitz-John Porter and the anti-Chinese bills, but much of his public career is entitled to high praise. He leaves official life clean- handed and without a taint of corruption, and this is a good deal to be said of one who has been in official position so long. His faithfulness in this respect will be remembered long after the mistakes he has made are forgotten."
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