USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 62
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APPENDIX
SOME LOCAL HISTORY-A LINCOLN STORY-THE MEMORABLE CAMPAIGN OF 1864
IN the spring of 1864 we had thirty thousand human, living skeletons in rebel prisons. The war had been carried on for three years. The follow- ing great and sanguinary battles had been fought,-viz .: Bull Run, Seven Pines, Fort Donelson, Fort Pillow, Shiloh, Seven Days' battle in Virginia. second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Stone River, Chan- cellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania, and the Wilderness. These battles, or most of them, had been the bloodiest that mod- ern history had recorded. In our sorrow and despair. the most bitter antago- nisms existed at home between the war and anti-war people. A new President was to be elected that year, and in order to save the country and to punish rebellion, nearly all patriots-this included war Democrats-believed that the re-election of Lincoln was absolutely necessary. Actuated by these impulses, Judge Joseph Henderson, of Brookville, was chosen our Congres- sional delegate to the national convention, which was to meet on the 7th of June, 1864, in Baltimore, Maryland. Judge Henderson, Major Andrews, and myself were warm friends. The judge was a great friend of Lincoln and Johnson. On the 5th of June I accompanied the judge to Baltimore. Our State delegation consisted of fifty-two men,-forty-eight district delegates and four at large,-viz., Simon Cameron, W. W. Ketcham, Morrow B. Lowry, and A. K. McClure. Simon Cameron was made chairman of the delegation. The following States were represented in that body: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. New York, New Jer- sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, California. Oregon, West Virginia, Kansas, Nebraska. Colorado, Nevada, and Mis souri. There was a dispute as to the right of Tennessee to representation. but the convention voted them in. In this the judge voted aye, and on the first ballot Lincoln received every vote except Missouri, which cast a solid vote for General Grant. For Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee. was nominated on first ballot over Hamlin, of Maine, Dickinson, of New York, and Rosseau, of Kentucky. It was thought by the convention expe dient to strengthen the ticket by nominating a man for this office who was
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known to be a war Democrat and from the South, and as this was a conven- tion of freemen, wise leaders, and not of bosses, the people and wisdom ruled.
From Baltimore I went to Washington on business to see Stanton. I found him haughty and austere. I therefore sought and received an audience at the White House. I had heard Lincoln denounced verbally and in the newspapers as "Lincoln, the gorilla," "Lincoln, the ape," "Lincoln, the baboon," etc., and, true enough, I found him to be a very homely man, tall, gaunt, and long-limbed, but courteous, sympathetic, and easily approached. My business with him was this: In 1863 a boy fourteen years two months and fifteen days old, from Jefferson County, whose father had been killed in battle, was recruited and sold for bounty into the Fourteenth United States Regulars at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. After a few months' service, this boy, tired of military life, was told by his soldier companions that he could not be held in the service, and, instead of demanding his discharge in a proper way, unceremoniously left and deserted, for which he was afterwards arrested, court-martialled, and sentenced to be shot. As early as April 28, and after that, legal efforts were put forth, and military influence used by myself and others to save this boy, but without avail.
" ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, " WASHINGTON, D. C., April 28, 1864.
" SIR,-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communi- cation of the 9th ultimo, requesting the discharge of from the military service of the United States, of the Fourteenth United States In- fantry, on the ground of minority, and to inform you in reply that he is now under arrest for trial by court-martial for desertion, and no action can be taken for his discharge, or that will prevent his punishment if found guilty.
" I am, sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " THOMAS M. VINCENT, " Assistant Adjutant-General.
"W. J. MCKNIGHT, Brookville, Pa."
My business was to save the boy's life, and while everything else had been done by legal talent and military influence, I went to Lincoln with a sad heart. He was at that time perhaps the busiest man in the world. He listened patiently to my story, and then said, "Is all this true, Dr. McKnight, that you have told me? Will no one here listen to you?" I replied, "Yes, Mr. President, it is all true." He arose, reached for his hat, and remarked to me, " I'll be a friend to that fatherless boy." He put his arm in mine and took me to Stanton's office, and, after a few minutes' talk with the Secretary, he turned to me and said, " You can go home, doctor, and if that boy has not
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been shot, you can rest assured he will be discharged." In due time, after my return home, I received by mail the following :
" ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
" WASHINGTON, D. C., July 13, 1864.
" SIR,-I have the honor to inform you that, by direction of the Presi- dent, -- , alias John Scott, Fourteenth United States Infantry, was discharged the military service of the United States, by special orders No. 204, Par. 25, current series, from this office.
"I am, sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " SAMUEL BRECK, " Assistant Adjutant-General.
" MR. W. J. McKNIGHT, Brookville, Pa."
Washington at this time was the greatest panorama of war in modern times. It took me days to secure an audience with Mr. Lincoln. I was then, and am yet, perhaps too ultra and bitter a Republican, but after this humane act of President Lincoln I was as bitter a partisan as ever, and, in addition to that, a personal admirer of Lincoln from the crown of my head to the end of my toes.
The call for our county convention that year was issued July 13. 1864. as follows,-viz. :
" DELEGATE ELECTION
" The Republicans of Jefferson County will meet in their respective townships and boroughs on Tuesday, the 2d of August, between the hours of two and six o'clock P.M., to elect two delegates of each township and borough, to meet at the court-house in the borough of Brookville, on Friday, the 5th day of August, at one o'clock, to nominate candidates to be supported for the different county offices.
" M. M. MEREDITH, " Chairman County Committee."
The county then had twenty-three townships and four boroughs, giving us fifty-four delegates. The date fixed for the primaries was on the day set by the law of the State, passed in the spring of that year, for the special election for three amendments to our Constitution, one of which was to permit the soldiers in the field to vote. The date fixed for this call was a shrewd policy, as it materially assisted in bringing out a full Republican primary, and was a great aid in carrying that "soldier vote" issue in the county, which we did, as the full return gave fourteen hundred and ninety-seven for this amendment and twelve hundred and twenty against it, a majority of two hundred and seventy-seven. This issue was bitterly fought. After the national convention I had been appointed a member of the Union State Central
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Committee by Simon Cameron, who was then chairman of that committee, and this soldier campaign in the county was conducted by Captain Meredith. The county convention was held on August 5, as called, and the following ticket selected: For District Attorney, A. C. White; County Commissioners, I. C. Jordan, Eli B. Irvin ; Auditor, Joseph P. North; Trustees of Academy, P. H. Shannon, M. M. Meredith, Calvin Rodgers.
G. W. Andrews was made county chairman. Our Representative dis- trict was Clarion and Jefferson, and on September 9, at Corsica, Hunter Orr, of Clarion County, was declared the nominee for the Legislature. On Sep- tember 15 G. W. Schofield was declared in Ridgway our nominee for Con- gress. Dr. A. M. Clarke and S. W. Temple were our conferees there. This completed our ticket. There were no State officers to be elected. Nothing but district and county tickets in that October election. I do not recollect who was the Democratic chairman, but it is immaterial, for ex-Senator K. L. Blood dominated and controlled the Democratic party in this county then, and a bold, wiry, vigorous antagonist he was. Our Democratic Dutch friends used to make this reply: " I do not know how I votes. I votes for der Ken- nedy Blute anyhows." School-house meetings were held in all the townships. Local speakers were scarce. Most of them were in the army, and this labor then principally devolved upon Andrews and myself. Dr. Heichhold was fur- loughed about October 20 to help us. In our meetings we all abused Blood, and he in return abused us. Major Andrews was a great worker, and usually took a number of papers and documents to read from. What little I said was off-hand. The major would always say in his speeches that " the common people of the Democrats were honest, but the leaders of that party were rascals, traitors, and rebels." He was a Maine Yankee. We elected him to the State Constitutional Convention in 1872, and after his service there he removed to Denver, where he lived and died.
For the August and October elections we had no funds except our own, and we were all poor alike. Our newspaper editor was John Scott, Esq. He was poor, too; paper was high and hard to get, and, as a consequence of this, our organ, the Republican, was only published occasionally, and often only half-sheets : hence our meetings had to be advertised verbally and by written and printed posters. I had one horse. I traded some books for a second- hand buggy, and bought another horse that I would now be ashamed to own, and in this buggy and behind this team the major and I drove the circuit in October and November, stopping for dinner and over night, Methodist preacher fashion, with the brethren. It was a rainy fall, and all through October and November there was mud,-mud rich and deep, mud here and there, mud on the hill and everywhere, mud on the ground and in the air, and to those who travelled politically it was a mud-splashing as well as a mud- slinging campaign. We had a mass-meeting on October 8 in Brookville, and on that day we had a strong address published, reviewing the issues to the
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people, signed by I. G. Gordon, Philip Taylor, T. K. Litch, A. S. Rhines, R. G. Wright, and J. P. Wann. The speakers for the mass-meeting were Chairman Andrews, Colonel Childs, of Philadelphia, Congressman Myers, and A. L. Gordon. J. W. Pope, the great campaign singer, from Philadelphia, by his patriotic songs, impelled us all to greater earnestness. In the October struggle we lost our county and Representative ticket, but Schofield was re-elected to Congress. A Congressman then never thought of having one or two bosses in a county to dispense post-offices. The Democrats carried the State on the home vote; but, with the aid of the soldiers, we carried the State by a small majority. The anti-war Democrats greatly rejoiced at their victory on the home vote, and they confidently expected, as McClellan was a Pennsylvanian. that State pride would carry him through in November. The two elections were about one month apart. The soldier vote was denounced as the " bayonet vote" and " bayonet rule." Simon Cameron, our State chairman, was greatly disappointed at the loss of our State on the "home vote." After the October election Cameron sent me a draft for two hundred dollars in " rag-money." which I expended as judiciously as I knew how. We gained in the county sixty votes for the November election. I am sorry that I cannot give the manner of expenditure of this money. My accounts were all audited and the settlement-paper left with G. W. Andrews. McClellan had been the idol of the army and the people, and although he and Pendleton were nominated at Chicago on August 31, 1864, on a peace platform that the war had been a failure and a call to suspend hostilities, there never was a day that Mcclellan would not have been overwhelmingly elected in 1864, until in September, when Sherman captured Atlanta and Sheridan went whirling through the valley of Virginia. Everybody, Lincoln and all, knew this. These two victories gave the Union people great heart for hard work. After these victories, Fremont and Cochrane, who had been nominated at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 31. 1864. for President and Vice-President by radicals of the Republican party, with- drew, and both supported Lincoln. Our army before Richmond was idle, and. to effectually stop the " bayonet rule" charge, Meade furloughed five thousand soldiers for two weeks. Sheridan did the same, making ten thousand in all. and they went home and voted. This gave us the State on the home vote by about five thousand, and with the "bayonet vote" by about twenty thousand. In this election our county went as follows :
Lincoln.
Home vote
1614
Mcclellan. 1756
Army vote
20"
111
Total vote
1821
186;
In the November election our county went Democratic: but we Repub- licans had a grand jubilee after the returns came in from the nation, as Mc- Clellan only carried three States,-viz., Kentucky, Delaware, and New Jersey.
673
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Brevity requires many things that I would delight to say about Lincoln and this campaign to be omitted. Republican success gave assurance to the world that "the war for the Union would still be prosecuted," and it was, and Pennsylvania performed her duty, both politically and on the battle-fields. Pennsylvania gave to the national government during the war three hundred and eighty-seven thousand two hundred and eighty-four soldiers, including emergency men. Three times during the war Pennsylvania was invaded, and it remained for the Rebellion to receive its Waterloo at Gettysburg and from a Pennsylvania commander.
In conclusion, it was the soldiers' bayonets and the " bayonet voters" of " Lincoln's hirelings" that crushed the rebellion and saved the Union.
THE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE
(Extract from the Proceedings held in Brookville, Pennsylvania, November 23, 1896. )
The Jefferson County Teachers' Institute met in the court-house, Brook- ville, on Monday, at two P.M. After the enrolment of teachers, and the selec- tion of T. T. Millen as secretary, the following address of welcome to the teachers was delivered by Dr. W. J. McKnight, of Brookville :
" MR. CHAIRMAN AND TEACHERS,-This is an assemblage of teachers, called an 'institute'-the institute of Jefferson County. What is its history ? Let us lift the veil from the past and ascertain. The Rev. John C. Wagaman, of Punxsutawney, was our first county superintendent, elected in 1854, and paid a salary of three hundred dollars a year. He resigned in 1856, and Samuel McElhose, of Brookville, succeeded him by appointment. Our first county institute was held by McElhose in the old Academy building, in Brook- ville, in October of 1856, continuing two weeks. The published call for it reads as follows :
''TO TEACHERS
"'Believing that much good can be done to the cause of common school education, by means of a county institute for the benefit of teachers, I hereby issue this call to teachers and those who wish to teach, requesting and urging each one of them to meet in Brookville, on Monday, the 20th day of October, at which time will commence, in the Academy, the first session of the Jeffer- son County Teachers' Institute. It will last two weeks.
"'Professor S. W. Smith will be present during the session. He is a graduate of the best of the New England schools, and has the advantage of several years practice as a teacher. The course of instruction will extend to a general review of the branches required to be taught in our common schools. It will be one leading object to treat at large on the subjects of school gov- ernment, classification of scholars, and the improved methods of teaching.
"' Persons who attend the institute will be at no expense except for their own boarding. Several gentlemen have tendered their services and will
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deliver lectures on topics connected with education at the proper times in the session. We again solicit the attendance of those who desire to teach in this county, and also extend a cordial invitation to the friends of education in this and other counties to be present.
S. MCELHOSE, "' County Superintendent. " ' BROOKVILLE, December 22, 1856.'
" This institute was opened with prayer by Professor Smith. The work consisted largely of daily class drills, conducted by Professor Smith and Superintendent McElhose. Professor Smith was an educated gentleman, and died in Brookville a few years ago, after serving two terms as county super- intendent most acceptably.
" The evening lectures before this first institute were free, delivered in the Presbyterian church, by local talent. They were by Rev. Thomas Graham on 'The Duties of Teacher,' A. L. Gordon, Esq., on ' Self-Knowledge.' and I. G. Gordon, Esq., on 'Discipline.' All these evening entertainments were announced to be held at ' candle lighting.' Day lectures were given before the institute by Superintendent McElhose, Professor Smith, on ' Astronomy.' and Dr. Cummins, on 'Physiology.' Numerous essays were read by the teachers present, on the beauties of nature, on education, on teaching. etc. Of the forty-two teachers who attended, I can recall but these: A. H. Brown, A. L. Gordon, J. C. Wilson, William Monks, T. Evans, John H. McKee, A. J. Monks, R. A. Travis, J. Kelso, Misses Maggie Polk, Jennie Craig. M. Kin- near, Abbie McCurdy, Martha Dennison, Emma Bishop, Mary McCormick, H. Thomas, Martha McCreight, and Messrs. C. M. Matson. David Dickey, and S. A. McAllister. The last three named are present with us to-day.
" Extended discussion was had, and resolutions were passed in regard to the construction of school-houses, and concerning school furniture and school- books. The county then had one hundred and five school-houses, and sixty- eight male and fifty female teachers.
" Samuel McElhose served as superintendent a part of a term by appoint- ment and two full terms by election, at a yearly salary of five hundred dollars. He was an educated and popular gentleman, a great worker, and the first in the county to agitate institutes. He held many of these, sometimes three or four in a year, some lasting three or four weeks. He was a good citizen. and a patriot, and died a private soldier in the army in 1863.
" Ninety-two years ago, in the winter of 1804. John Dixon, father of the venerable John Dixon of Polk Township, taught the first school in this county. It was a subscription school, and the term was three months. The ' school- house' was two miles east of Brookville, on what is now the MeConnell farm. It was twelve feet wide and sixteen feet long, was built of rough logs, and had no window-sash or glass. The light was admitted to the school-room
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
through chinks in the walls, over which greased paper was plastered. The floor was of . puncheons,' and the seats of broad pieces split from logs, with pins underneath for legs. The roof was covered with ' clapboards' held down by poles. Boards laid on pins driven into auger-holes in the walls furnished writing desks. A log fireplace, occupying an entire end of the room, supplied warmth when the weather was cold.
" The second school was taught by John Johnson, in 1806, on the old ' State Road,' near the present residence of William C. Evans, between Port Barnett and Brookville. The house was similar to the first one named, with the exception of a single window of six lights of 8 x 10 glass. This school cabin was heated by a ten-plate wood-stove, the invention of Franklin in 1800, and called by the people 'The Little Devil.' This was a subscription school also, and was known in those days as a ' neighborhood,' to distinguish it from the ' family' school. The building was erected by those interested. The tools used in constructing it were a pole-axe and an auger. The Master was hired by a committee of three, elected by the people at their own time and in their own way. This committee supervised the school. Children had to travel three or four miles in some cases, over trails and paths, where the Indian lurked and the wild beast prowled.
" Although Penn had declared, in founding his colony, that ' wisdom and virtue must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of the youth,' and although the constitution of 1790 declared in favor of the establishment of schools throughout the State that the poor might be taught gratis, yet it was not until 1809 that the Legislature attempted to obey this mandate. Col- leges and academies were, it is true, sparsely inaugurated, but they were not for the poor. Education was carried on by voluntary effort. The law of 1809 simply provided that it should be the duty of the county commissioners and assessors of the townships to ascertain from the parents the names of all the children between the ages of five and twelve years who reside in each township, and whose parents were unable to pay for their schooling. These children then had the privilege of attending the nearest subscription school, under the restrictions of the committee, and the county had to pay for each pauper scholar by the month the same as the subscribers paid. This law was in existence for twenty-five years. It was despised by the poor and hated by the rich. The poor would not accept it because it declared them paupers. Its existence, however, kept up an agitation for a better system, which culminated in 1834-36, in what is known as the common school law.
" In 1833 Governor Wolf ascertained, by careful inquiry, that under this law of 1809, out of four hundred thousand children in the State between the ages of five and twelve years, only twenty thousand attended any school whatever.
" The pioneer school-house in the southern part of the county was built of logs, in the fall of 1820, near John Bell's, a little more than a mile north-
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east of Perrysville. It was built after the fashion of the first school-house in the county, lighted, warmed, and furnished in the same manner. John B. Henderson taught the first school in this pioneer house in the winter of 1820. " Our oldest schoolmaster in the county is Joseph Magiffin-hale and hearty at the age of ninety. He taught near Dowlingville, in 1827. . The books used in the pioneer schools were generally the Bible, Columbian Reader, Murray's Grammar, Pike's Arithmetic, Catechism, United States Speller, and New England Primer. As a matter of care and economy, these books were covered by the mothers with paper or cloth, generally calico or bed ticking. The pioneer school-masters were nearly all Irishmen, and, as a rule, well edu- cated. In the winter they usually wore a red flannel warmus, and sometimes white flannel pants. They taught their scholars from the proverbs of the poets, from the maxims of the surrounding forests, and from the tenets of the blessed Bible, whose apocalypse is love. Is it any wonder then that the log cabin and log school-house proved to be the birthplace and nursery of mental giants, of men who have blessed our country as rulers, statesmen, soldiers. scholars, orators, and patriots? What nation, old or new, has produced the equal of our Washington? What nation has equalled our Jefferson, with his Declaration 'that all men are created free and equal'? What nation has equalled our Lincoln, born and reared in a cabin, one of the people and for the people? With a heart alive to pity like an angel of mercy, he was ever at home in his office of President to the most humble citizen. This I know by personal experience. What nation has produced the superior of Chief Justice Marshall? What orators have been more eloquent than Clay or Webster? What nation has produced a greater than our military chieftain, Grant? who commanded larger armies, fought more battles, and won more victories than any other general history records. Napoleon's career is pigmy-like when com- pared to Grant's successes. What nation has equalled our inventors? Fulton, born in Pennsylvania's woods, who harnessed steam to water craft : Whitney, who invented the cotton-gin; Morse, who sought out the telegraph : McCor- mick, who made the reaper; Howe, who made the sewing-machine, and Edison, the intellectual wonder and marvel of the world-born in Ohio and reared in the woods of Michigan? Such a mental genius as he is could only be the son of an American 'school-marm.'
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