USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the Juniata Valley and its people, Volume III > Part 38
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Mr. Elder was a lieutenant in the Colorado militia during the strikes of 1880 at Leadville, and was appointed colonel upon the staff of Governor Davis H. Waite, the reform governor of Colorado in 1893.
The holding of public office has never appealed to him, and his chief regret has been that the engrossing environment of active and profes-
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sional life has robbed him of the more lasting and constant pleasure of the scholar and student.
Mr. Elder has visited, in his several trips to Europe with his family, most of the great capitals of the world and the great art centers, with their wealth of art, science, architecture and learning, and their great stores of historical and governmental progress ; he has always believed in the wonderful advantage to be derived from intelligent foreign travel.
Mr. Elder has been a liberal Presbyterian all his life long in his church alliances, although this has a dash of hesitancy, presumably an outgrowth of the mingling of a long line of Quaker ancestry with his pronounced Scotch antecedents of birth and training.
Mr. Elder is a thoroughly western man; has been a lifelong resident of Colorado, his adopted state, and few of its citizens are more familiar with the growth of the state of Colorado and its imperial resources ; he is now a large owner of gold, silver, lead and zinc mining interests, ranch land and city property; and, though loyal to Colorado, he still has large property interests in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a man of most temperate habits, of a robust and active figure, is essentially a man of affairs, and enjoys the conduct of business. In his family and home he has been most fortunate; he has shown a great sagacity and foresight in the business of mining, and his own and his wife's property interests require constant attention and make his life a very busy and active one.
(VI) Robert Dull Elder, only son of George Robert Elder and Ida Dull Elder, was born June 25, 1889. in the city of Leadville, county of Lake, state of Colorado. His birthplace is one of the greatest centers of silver, gold, lead and zinc mining in the world. Its elevation of 10,225 feet above sea level makes it one of the highest cities in altitude in the world. It is surrounded by some of the most sublime and won- derful mountain scenery on the Western continent. The house in which he was born lies fairly in the shadow of that monarch of the Rocky Mountains-Mt. Massive. 14.434 feet high, the loftiest mountain peak of all the main range of the Rocky Mountains.
His childhood was passed in the cities of Leadville, Denver and Washington, D. C., and in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He was sent early to kindergarten schools, and under the careful teaching of his father and mother he was able to read at the early age of four and one-
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half years. He became an omnivorous reader of juvenile tales of voy- ages, travel and adventure, such as Mayne Reid, Defoe, Oliver Optic, Abbott, Alcott, Henty and Alger, and the long list of ancient voyages, like Drake, etc., long before his age permitted him to enter the public schools; to this early extravagance in reading is doubtless due his ex- traordinary and fertile imagination. Portions of his childhood days were spent at the home of his grandparents in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the romantic and beautiful scenery of the famous moun- tains of the Juniata Valley and river of the same name. In the heat of the summers he would accompany some of the family to Atlantic City or some other point on the Jersey coast.
He entered the public schools at Leadville at six years of age, and passed with rapidity through all of the minor grades; his naturally quick and retentive mind enabling him to surpass in rank most of the children of his own age. With a decided talent for music he early be- came a skilled mandolin player, and was a member of a juvenile man- dolin club of note in Leadville, whose performances excited much favor- able comment. Upon entering the high school at Leadville, he easily took a high position in all of his classes, being accounted by all his in- structors a bright, studious and obedient scholar.
In the winter of 1904 he was taken upon a long trip to Europe with his parents, leaving Boston by the White Star Line for Naples, in the Mediterranean, by the Azores, Gibraltar, Marseilles and Genoa. Upon this trip he visited all the wonderful galleries of painting and sculpture of Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Paris and London, with their great public buildings, the cathedrals, churches, palaces, castles, St. Peter's, the Vatican, the Pantheon, Coliseum, the Louvre, museums, theaters, opera houses, towers, catacombs, parks, gardens, cemeteries, etc., and with his receptive mind carrying away comprehensive memor- ies of all these grand productions of ancient and modern art, science and architecture. He developed upon this trip his striking powers of observation, which were rapid, accurate and acute to a wonderful de- gree. An instance in point, which would seldom have occurred to a grown person, was his remark to his mother while looking at the body of the dog in the museum of Pompeian relics: "That dog must have been tied up, because there is the crease of the chain on his neck." The all-absorbing and changing colors of the ocean waves, the sky upon the
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lakes, bays and rivers, the forests and the mountains, and the diverse shades of the old houses and fortresses and buildings were the constant subject of his observation and remark, and liis diligent notation in his voluminous notebooks.
As a boy he was very fond of the active sports-football, baseball, tennis, skating, riding and swimming. He spent most of his hours out of school and in vacations riding horseback. He became an accom- plished and daring horeback rider; he was so fond of his ponies, "Mid- get" and "Daisy," that he would let no one care for them but himself, and their attention became of superior moment in his thoughts to his own meals and sleeping hours, and it is still his greatest pleasure to ride in the open air all day long upon a fine horse.
In the fall of 1904 he entered the third grade of Lawrenceville School, New Jersey, rooming in the Dickinson House in the Circle. His course was a great success at this excellent school; in his first year he took first testimonials, and made excellent progress in the classics and English literature. In the second year, an illness in the fall lessened his standing somewhat, but he won through abreast of his class. During his last year of 1907, at Lawrenceville, he distinguished himself by taking the first English prize essay in his class. His attainments this year were particularly flattering in English literature. During his stay at Lawrenceville he was for a time editor of The Lawrenceville Liter- ary Magasine, his principal personal contributions being serial stories of western adventure and stirring life in the Rocky Mountains, which gave him quite a school reputation as an author and writer.
He graduated in June with his class of 1907 at Lawrenceville, and passed his entrance examinations for the freshman class of 1911 at Princeton University. During the summer of 1907 he made another trip to Europe with his parents, this time going from New York to London, rambling among the great commercial and manufacturing cities of England, the English university towns, the cathedral cities, the dukeries, etc., to the city of Newcastle-on-Tyne; from this point a North Sea yachting steamer was taken for Bergen, Norway, and a long coasting trip among and through the fiords and mountains of Western Norway followed, terminating at Trondhjem. The wild grandeur and diversified scenery of the Hardanger, Sogne, Nord, Ster and Ramsdal fiords, with their magnificent mountains, so like in mag-
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nitude and color to his lovely Colorado mountains, rising vertically thousands of feet in the air from the verge of these inland arms of the sea; the glaciers, especially the Jostedalsbrae, the tumbling cascades with their veils of mist, and the immense rushing waterfalls, falling down from the gigantic dizzy rocks, and the masses of unseen icefields and virgin snow; these features, with all the old Norse legends of myth- ology, the habits, manners and customs of these honest, stolid, fair- haired people, were a source of endless wonder and education to him, particularly appealing to his vivid and plastic imagination. Later his trip took him by rail to Christiania, with its great harbor and shipping; thence by the cataracts and falls of Trollhatten and the wonderful Gota canal through the Lakes Venern, Vettern and Mälaren to Stockholm- the Venice of the north-with its picturesque islands and nearby lakes and arms of the Baltic; so like in environment to the "Queen of the Adriatic," and yet so unlike its dark memories of the Doges Palace, the Bocca Di Leone, the Bridge of Sighs, and the time-washed piles of its cathedrals and palaces; indeed, Stockholm forms a striking picture to the traveler of a city in all the freshness and glory of youthful beauty. Among the wonders of Sweden it was impossible for this seventeen- year-old student to choose the greatest-the Tumuli, at Upsala-the mounds of Odin, Thor and Frey ; the tombs of the great hero Gustavus . Adolphus and of the famous warrior-lion Charles XII., in Riddar- holm Church; the old age-worn sea vessels of the Vikings at Chris- tiania ; the blood-stained shirt worn at Lutzen by Gustavus Adolphus, and the hat with its fatal bullet-hole worn by Charles XII. at Fredriks- hald, shown in the royal palace of the Swedish kings in Stockholm. And then journeying southward by Malo to Copenhagen, with its fine museums and art galleries, the home of Thorwaldsen-with the won- derful Twelve Apostles and the Kneeling Angel in the Fruekirke, bringing back to this youth memories of the Lion of Lucerne by the same hand, chiseled out of the native lime of Switzerland, the Grypo- theks, Rosenborg Castle, the Marble Church and the great Museum of Northern Antiquities, with its endless treasures of Scandinavian history. Across the arms of the sea to Berlin, with its imperial gal- leries, crowded with the most extensive and valuable collections of modern and ancient art, the Brandenburg Gate; the magnificent Col- umn of Victory; the Thiergarten, with its wonderful ancestral tribute
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to the Hohenzollern princes, the Sieges-Allee, the statue of Queen Luise, the Royal Palace of Charlottenburg, with the impressive mauso- leum, Potsdam and its military memories of Frederick; the Palace and Park of San Souci, the New Palace, the Town Palace and the Garrison Church where the great Frederick lies, with the Château of Babelsberg, and its beautiful park. Then to the luxurious capital of Saxony, Dres- den, and its picture gallery, containing the masterpiece of the world's greatest painter, the Sistine Madonna of Raphael; journeying up the Elbe river and over the mountains to Vienna, with its rich Imperial Gallery of Art, with every school of art in the world represented; the Schönborn Gallery, the Imperial Library; the immense Hofburg Pal- ace-in its treasury, among its countless treasures are the crown and swords of Charlemagne; the gigantic Rathaus, with its lavish ornamen- tation and stately architecture of the modern school; the old Capuchin Church, with the melancholy sarcophagi of the dead Hapsburgs; the Prater Park along the Danube and the beautiful Schönbrunn Château and Palace with its exquisite gardens and parks, Roman ruins, obelisks and fountains. Returning westward along the Danube to Munich on the Isar, with its irregular streets in the old city, and the new city with its grand boulevards, fine public buildings, well-kept parks and monu- ments ; and in its collections of art ranking among the richest cities of the world. Nuremburg, the old mediaeval city, with its hoary castle and old world history; its instruments of torture for the exaltation of jus- tice and the promotion of religion-The Holy Virgin (Iron Maiden) and Cradle of Justice; Heidelberg, with its impregnable fortress and castle-the most magnificent ruin in all Europe: by the street of the mountains-the rich grape country, to Mainz on the Rhine, and thence down that beautiful river with its developed inland navigation; by Bingen, Coblentz, Bonn, to Coln, with its immense cathedral; Holland, with its dikes and ditches ; Amsterdam, and its opulent commerce : The Hague, Antwerp, the second commercial city of the world, and Brus- sels, with galleries and museums crowded with the golden treasures of all the arts; notably in architecture the Hotel de Ville, in Brussels- one of the finest structures in Europe; the massive Gothic Cathedral at Antwerp and its unrivaled quays along the Scheldt. Then to Paris, where all wise travelers from the United States make their adieux to the glories of Europe. Here his last month was all too short to properly
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appreciate the wonders of Paris, the Louvre, Luxembourg Gallery, Jardin des Plantes, École des Beaux Arts, Notre Dame, Versailles, Fontainebleau, St. Denis, Chantilly, Madeleine, Etienne du Mont, the Bois du Boulogne, Napoleon's Tomb, and its endless boulevards, thea- ters, opera houses and museums of history and science. There was great need of the long rest on the Oceanic, White Star Line-Cher- bourg to New York. This trip to Europe, at his impressionable age, exerted the most powerful and lasting influence in his education.
In September, 1907, he matriculated in the freshman class, 1911, at Princeton University, in the full classical course. His four years at Princeton were crowded, industrious, studious years, with special atten- tion to English literature, ancient and modern languages. In addition to the regular course he planned out and rigidly persevered in a wide course of literary, scientific and philosophical reading. At college and in his vacations he continued to write and compose other literary pro- ductions than the essays, critiques, etc., required in the regular course. In the gymnasium and on the athletic field he became an expert wres- tler, swimmer and hammer thrower, taking some wrestling prizes. In 1910, as a Democrat, he worked actively and effectively for the elec- tion of his Professor of Political Science at Princeton, Woodrow Wil- son, for Governor of New Jersey. In June, 1911, he received the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts at the graduation of his class, and he cherishes with great pride his diploma signed by Woodrow Wilson as president of the University of Princeton, the class of 1911 being the last graduat- ing class of Princeton to receive diplomas signed by Woodrow Wilson as president of Princeton College. He entered the Law Department of Columbia University, New York City, in the fall of 1911. During the years 1912 and 1913 he applied for and won a Master of Arts de- gree from Columbia University, conferred upon him at the June Com- mencement, 1913, his thesis in course being considered an admirable production, with a profound analysis of the modern constitutional limi- tations upon the creation of trusts and monopolies and their congres- sional control.
His summers in Colorado have been active ones, riding horseback, fishing and hunting-being much in the open air-all the time writing and composing in different literary lines. He is of a strong, active figure, and believes firmly in the doctrine of mens sana in sano cor- pore. For several years he has won the first prizes for throwing the
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sixteen and twelve pound hammers, at the Caledonian games at Lead- ville, his brawny competitors far surpassing him in weight and years. He is a splendid horseback rider, and loves a blooded horse of life and action.
During the Presidential campaign of 1912 he worked enthusias- tically in New York City as a street campaigner and as a member of an uptown district Democratic club, for the election of Woodrow Wilson, his old preceptor at Princeton, as President of the United States, and it was a source of endless gratification to him that the nation elected Woodrow Wilson as Princeton's second gift to the Presidency-James Madison, the author and defender of the Constitution, being the first.
In the fall of 1912 he finished his first literary work, a novel called The Sojourner. This he offered to the firm of Harper & Brothers, pub- lishers, of New York City, who upon examination concluded it was a production of sterling merit, justifying its publication by them. It was published April 3, 1913, and placed upon the market in the spring of that year. It has received most favorable commendation from critics, as a vivid, vital and buoyant story of American life-a western tale, full of strong passions, tender sympathies, of weakness and strength, with its pages crowded with the spirit and poetry of the West-and descriptive passages of the great mountains of the West, whose beauty and charm could only be caught by an author who was born among them. His novel has been termed by competent critics as one of the best American novels of recent issue from the press. The success of this, his first novel, may encourage him to further adventures in the same fascinating field. It is his ambition to join his father in the prac- tice of the law and observe the legal traditions of the family.
Andrew Boelus 5 Brumbaugh, M.D., (Jacob,4
BRUMBAUGH George,3 Jacob,2 Johannes Henrich 1 Brumbach) * was born August 9, 1836, upon the homestead farm in Penn township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. His edu- cation was begun in a subscription school prior to the establishment of an organized system of public education in Pennsylvania, and continued in the public schools, after which he taught nine years. He attended a
* Extracted from Genealogy of the Brumbach Families; Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, 1913; pp. 521-529.
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select school (Academia) near Newport, Perry county, Pennsylvania, and Millersville State Normal School. "His early training was aca- demic, not collegiate, but by private study and earnest application he became a thorough master of the classics and sciences, thus fitting him- self for that large sphere in life to which ambition and destiny led him."
October II, 1859, he married Maria Baer Frank, born February 10, 1840, on the Frank farm ; in Penn township, Huntingdon county, Penn- sylvania, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Brubaker (Baer) Frank. Her parents came from Lancaster county. Pennsylvania, where the Bru- bakers, Baers and Franks have a long and interesting Mennonite ancestry.
Andrew decided to make the practice of medicine his life work. While earning a living for his small family by working at the carpenter trade, with anatomy and other medical books open before him upon the work bench, he laid deeply the foundation for his later medical and surgical success. He also trained both hands, and became ambidextrous for his later surgical and other professional work. He matriculated at the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, October, 1863, and graduated (M.D.) in the class of 1866. Prior to graduation he had acquired a considerable medical practice in Penn township and at Marklesburg, as shown by his diaries for '62 and '63.
October 12, 1864, the family moved from the homestead farm to Marklesburg (James Creek P. O.). April, 1866, he located in the office of the late Dr. Luden, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and continued in active practice in this town until his death. Intense concentration and keen observation were the keynotes of his life. Much of his recreation and happiness throughout life was drawn from the gratification of his intense love of nature and for nature study.
Dr. Brumbaugh was truly a "pioneer educator" in his church and among his own people. He regarded the founding of The Pilgrim at Marklesburg, Pennsylvania, in 1870, as a logical step toward the fulfill- ment of his cherished dream-his oft-repeated words were, "Paper and advanced educational institution together at Huntingdon." "With single- ness of purpose and a deep insight as to the future educational and other
t This was the site of "Fort Hartsok" (or "Hartslog"), closely adjoining the Brumbaugh homestead, and this farm later passed into ownership of the late David Boyer® Brumbaugh.
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possibilities for the college and other associated church interests to be grouped together at Huntingdon, he steadily tried to influence the opin- ions of the church leaders and to lay deep the foundations for Juniata College," etc.
Dr. Brumbaugh was baptized by "S. Lehman of Va., Sept. 7. 1853. in Morrison's Cove, Blair Co., Pa., at the Clover Creek Ch.," having walked twelve miles across Tussey's mountain from his home to attend the then nearest church. He continued actively in the work of the Church of the Brethren (G. B. B. ) throughout his life. At the time of his death he had been the only secretary of "The Brethren ( German Baptist ) Church of Huntingdon, Pa." "which began its exist- ence in 1876 with a membership of eight persons," and was incorporated June 16, 1888 .*
Dr. Brumbaugh similarly held the position of secretary of trustees of Juniata College, and served, with singleness and steadfastness of pur- pose, the Normal Select School and each of its successors in title. See also mention of Juniata College in the historical pages of this work.
For a number of years Dr. Brumbaugh was literary editor of The Pilgrim and also of The Huntingdon Journal. He founded the Juniata Echo, in connection with the other trustees of Juniata College, and was its editor, representing it in membership upon the Pennsylvania State Editorial Association. His literary activity also showed itself in various papers and addresses before medical, literary and historical bodies. He loved books and literary work, seeking therein relaxation from the ex- acting duties of his extensive medical and surgical practice.
"No doctor in this section of the State was a closer student and investigator than Dr. Brumbaugh. Though advanced in years, he was modern and up-to-date in his work, the natural sequence of his close alliance with the medical societies of the state and nation, whose meet- ings he regularly attended. He was identified with the Huntingdon County Medical Society, which he helped to organize in 1872 [ president, secretary and treasurer at various times] ; member of the State Medical Society ; the American Medical Association ; the National Association of Railway Surgeons, and of the American Academy of Railway Surgeons. He was a member of the pension examining board in Huntingdon for
* The application for incorporation of the congregation is a beautiful piece of penmanship by Dr. Brumbaugh, evidencing intense interest and devotion in the work.
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nearly thirty years, and at the time of his death was the surgeon of the Pennsylvania and Broad Top railroads at this point. He was the county inspector of the State Board of Health and a member of the local board [as also a member of the National Board of Health during its exist- ence]. He was the physician at the Orphans' Home for 27 years, and the bigness of his heart is revealed from the fact that he served without any compensation whatever." * He also assisted the late David Em- mert,; the founder of the said Orphans' Home, and the originator of the "Huntingdon idea" in dealing with orphans, in every manner possible and served continuously as a trustee-all the Huntingdon Brumbaughs have been closely connected with this work.
"Dr. Brumbaugh is highly esteemed not only for his professional ability, but also for his public-spirited generosity and active interest in all movements relative to the general improvement of the community in whose behalf he has so industriously and effectively labored.
"Here for forty-two years he has been going in and out of the homes of our people, ministering alike to rich and poor, high and low, and win- ning fresh laurels year after year, both for his well-rounded ability and the persevering industry he displayed in his professional life. He was equally successful in the dual relation of physician and surgeon, which is uncommon.
Our remembrance of him will be of one who in all his relations in life, both public and private, was the embodiment of loyalty and devotion." ±
January 21, 1908, Dr. and Mrs. Brumbaugh attended the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania State Editorial Association at Harrisburg. They returned to Huntingdon next day, and the doctor at once started in his buggy to see patients. He became sick with intense symptoms of appendicitis ; went to bed; was taken to Philadelphia for operation, and died there January 27, 1908, "to the unfeigned sorrow and regret of thousands who had the pleasure of his acquaintance." Thus his oft expressed wish that he might "die in the professional harness" was actually fulfilled. His body was tenderly laid away in Riverview Ceme- tery, overlooking the center of much of his long years of faithful ser- vice. Such a life is a continued blessing, and an inspiration.
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