USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 45
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of duty. From the waters of Cuba, where the squadron was in service his body was conveyed to Erie and given a soldier's burial by the side of his father.
The Navy Department at Washington honored the memory of Capt. Gridley by ordering a number of trophies taken at the capture of Manila to mark the last resting place of the commander of the American flagship. There are four antique Spanish cannon made of silver bronze, supported by gun carriages of wrought iron of design quite as antique. These were taken from the Spanish navy yard at Cavité. Each gun weighs 6,800 pounds, is twelve feet long with eight-inch bore. They are handsomely engraved, each with its name and the date and place of its manufacture. The Yerraska was made at Barcelona in 1188 ; the Trajano at Barcelona in 1212 ; the Manahem at Seville in 1192: the Hypocrates at Seville in 1998. A movement for the erection of a monument to Capt. Gridley was begun in 1900, but the effort has not yet been productive of the result it had in view.
Although it is a trifle apart from the subject of Erie's part in the Spanish war, perhaps this is as good a place as any other to introduce the story of the volunteer soldiers that flourished in the form of mili- tary companies during the period between the two wars. The earliest of Erie's military organizations are told of elsewhere, and the promi- nent share they bore in aiding in the organization of the Erie regi- ments that went into the Civil war. The later companies were directly the product of that war. The soldierly spirit was not dead when the tattered banners were furled and the worn veterans found their way home again. Many of the boys who had marched through Georgia and over the hills and through the valleys of Virginia were soldiers still, and to the boys growing up, the sight of the torn battle flags was an inspiration that prompted the military spirit in them to action. When therefore Capt. Clayton W. Lytle, late of the 145th Regiment proposed the organization of a military company the re- sponse was prompt and the Erie Guard came into existence in 1871 with full ranks and was immediately accepted as part of the Seven- teenth Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania. In those days each company uniformed itself to suit its own taste, and the Erie Guard adopted a dress of Continental cut, blue with white trim- mings and shakos with feathers. It was a very picturesque uniform and greatly admired by the ladies, who declared they all looked like brigadier generals. The Erie Guard was Co. B, of the Seventeenth Regiment.
In 1873 another company was organized through the efforts of Capt. Chas. D. Sweeney. It was called the Sheridan Guard, Co. G. Seventeenth Regiment and was recruited from the young men of the Irish-American element of Erie's citizens. The uniform adopted was of the Continental style, gray with black trimmings and shakos. The
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Sheridan Guard was more ambitious than their predecessors in the same regiment, bringing out a full military band of twenty members, gorgeously uniformed in red coats with yellow cord, smart in ap- pearance and excellent musicians.
The soldierly spirit grew. In 1875 there was organized the Mc- Lane Light Guard with Capt. John S. Riddle in command. It was composed of young men that the other soldier boys regarded as the patrician element of the town, but it was none the worse for that. It became Co. G, of the Seventeenth Regiment and was one of the best drilled in the regimental organization. Its uniform, of the pre- vailing Continental style, was of light gray with white trimmings, and its membership took a true soldierly pride in the company.
Before long all these gaily attired citizen soldiers were called into the field to perform actual duty. The labor troubles of 1877, that developed the great railroad strike and the riots at Pittsburg, rendered necessary the calling out of the soldiers of the National Guard. All the Erie companies responded, going to Pittsburg, and after the troubles there were at an end proceeded to the anthracite coal regions to attend to the case of the "Molly Maguires." Upon the expiration of its term of enlistment the McLane Light Guard was mustered out. The Sheridan Guard was disbanded when the Seventeenth Regiment was mustered out in 1880. The Erie Guard continued as an organization until about 1888, forming part of the Fifteenth Regiment in the reorganized National Guard. Of the officers of the Erie companies, Capt. Lytle was followed by Capt. Kurtis, he by Capt. Burns, then Capt. Baxter, and last Capt. Riblet. Capt. Sweeney of the Sheridan Guard was followed by Capt. Craine, and he by Capt. Wilson. Capt. Riddle of the McLane Light Guard was suc- ceeded by Capt. Dodge. Captains Lytle, Kurtis and Riddle were pro- moted to the office of Colonel of the regiment each in turn, and Captains Sweeney and Craine were advanced to the rank of Major. Lieut. John W. Leech of the McLane Guard was appointed adjutant of the regiment. The annual encampment of the regiment was held at Massassauga Point in 1875 and the grand review by Gov. Hart- ranft was one of the most spectacular military displays imaginable, the multiplicity of showy uniforms lending a kaleidoscopic effect that has never since been possible in a military demonstration.
There was a reorganization of the National Guard in 1880, and a complete change in the Erie representation in that military estab- lishment. The Seventeenth Regiment went out of existence and the Fifteenth came in. Of the old companies only the Erie Guard was enrolled with the new regiment. But new companies were formed. The Noble Light Guard, organized in 1880, with Capt. Elzie in com- mand, served several years but finally disbanded. The same year the Governor's Guard was recruited by Capt. C. C. Hearn. Capt. Hearn had been a lieutenant in the McLane Guard, and brought into
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the service considerable experience, for he had been with his earlier company in the campaign against the Pittsburg railroad rioters and the Molly Maguires. The company was organized to take the place of the McLane Guard in the Seventeenth Regiment and was for a time Co. E, of that body. When the reorganization came it entered the Fifteenth Regiment and, in blue and khaki continued its identifi- cation with the Pennsylvania soldiery till the close of the Spanish War. Captain Hearn was succeeded by Capt. F. M. Lamb, who, be- ing promoted to Major of the regiment was followed by Capt. D. S. Crawford, who continued in command for nine years. Being chosen Major of the regiment, the command of Company C fell to Capt. C. R. Dinkey, under whom the Governor's Guard went with the regiment to Homestead during the strike of July, 1892, remaining there four months. For business reasons Capt. Dinkey resigned and was suc- ceeded by Capt. H. C. Mabie, who remained in command until 1896 when he resigned and Capt. Wallace R. Hunter was elected to the command of the company. The service of this company in the Span- ish war has already been narrated in the beginning of this chapter.
During the political campaign of 1888 a marching club known as the Culbertson Zouaves was organized. It was composed of young men who took so much interest in the maneuvering and evolutions of the march that when the campaign was at an end they decided to continue the organization, and, learning that there was a vacancy in the Fifteenth Regiment, offered to fill it. The offer was promptly accepted and the Culbertson Zouaves became Co. A of the regiment and part of the National Guard, being mustered in May 10, 1889. John B. Boyd was elected captain and W. W. Reed and Frank W. Bailey lieutenants. Although it had been mustered into the service of the State, it was very poorly equipped. Being without uniforms the members at their personal expense supplied the want, and but thirteen guns having been provided for the entire company the boys had to drill in the manual by turns or relays. Nevertheless their zeal as soldiers was so great that when they reported at camp in the summer of 1889, although the full equipment of guns had been in their possession for but three days they won liberal praise for their excellence in marching and the manual. The company was regular in its attendance with full ranks and well drilled, at all the encamp- ments, nor wa's it less punctilious when summoned to perform real ser- vice in connection with the troubles at Homestead in July, 1892. The response with full ranks was prompt, and the service faithful until the company was ordered home in September.
On the return home Capt. Boyd and Lieut. Reed resigned and James H. Hoskinson was elected Captain. In 1897 Capt. Hoskinson being promoted to the field Ralph B. Sterrett was promoted to the command of the company and was at its head when it entered the service of the United States government in the Spanish-American War. The
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story of the part played in that war by this company has been told. In 1900 there was another reorganization of the Pennsylvania Na- tional Guard which resulted in this company, on May 8, being trans- ferred to the Sixteenth Regiment as Company G. On February 6, 1901, Capt. Sterrett having resigned, Charles E. Spencer was elected Captain.
In October, 1892, the company was again called into active ser- vice with the regiment, to quell the industrial disturbance that existed in the anthracite coal region, arriving at Mt. Carmel on the 7th, where the Fourth Regiment was relieved. On the 26th Company G, as part of the First Battalion of the Sixteenth, Major T. E. Windsor in command, was ordered to Shenandoah to relieve the Eighteenth Regiment, ordered home. Company G was ordered home November 3, after having served twenty-eight days during those disturbances. On June 2, 1907, First Lieutenant Henry N. Pudenz was elected Captain to fill the vacancy resulting from the resignation of Capt. Spencer. On June 22 Second Lieutenant Faber having resigned, two vacancies for the lieutenancies were left. These were filled at the annual encampment July 19, by the election of Sergeant Lucius M. Phelps as First Lieutenant and Quartermaster Sergeant James A. Saunders as Second Lieutenant.
Company C of the Fifteenth went out at the time Company A was reorganized into the Sixteenth as Co. G, and this is how that came about. After the close of the Spanish war the volunteers in the United States army from Pennsylvania (in common with all the volunteers from the other states) were discharged. Before these were again mustered in as part of Pennsylvania's military establishment, it was decided by the Adjutant General's department to be an ap- propriate time to put into effect the new system under which the National Guard of Pennsylvania would be brought in accord, in its organization, with the regular army of the United States. Under this system each regiment consisted of twelve companies, instead of eight or ten (the Fifteenth had but eight), the purpose being that each regiment should be made up of three battalions. The legislative act provided for 144 companies of infantry in twelve regiments. Car- rying out the provisions of this act in accordance with the plan adopted, it was decided to disband the Fifteenth Regiment, and attach four of its companies to the Sixteenth. The other four companies, one of which was Capt. Hunter's command, was therefore disbanded. From that time forward (1900) the city of Erie has had but a single military company, and its military prestige, at one time high, has suffered materially. The present company is a soldierly organization, well officered, but there are not now, as was once the case, a long line of regimental and staff officers, ranking up to Colonel.
Vol. I-26
CHAPTER XXXV .- NOTABLE PEOPLE.
HORACE GREELEY, IDA M. TARBELL, SENATOR BURROWS AND OTHERS WHO WENT AWAY AND SOME WHO CAME.
There are people, not a few, who, born here, remained all their lives, going in and out among their fellow citizens, never became great- never had even the shadow of a hint of greatness fall across their way. On the other hand there were those born here, and who lived here, and remaining here became really great. And then again there are those who were of the people of Erie in their youth-the plain people and even the humble people,-who went away from Erie and achieved renown, and somehow there are people in Erie who are pleased to know that the Honorable So-and-so was born here; or the celebrated What-his-name once made his home in Erie county, and delight to talk about it. It is a species of local pride in which it is quite pardonable to indulge, and perhaps beyond being excusable, is worthy of commendation. It is a fact that more than one person has gone out from Erie almost directly into the path that leads to renown, and that of those who were humblest in life's beginnings, while dwelling within the boundaries of Erie county there have been instances where almost the highest summit of human attainment had been achieved.
One summer day in 1830 there strolled into the little village of Erie a young man-a mere boy-of more than usually singular appearance. He was a remarkably plain-looking unsophisticated lad, with a slouching, careless gait, leaning away forward as he walked as though his head and heels were too heavy for his body. He wore on the back of his head a wool hat of the old stamp with so small a brim that it looked more like a two-quart measure inverted than a hat. His trousers were ex- ceedingly short and voluminous ; his shoes were of the kind called high- lows and much worn down; he wore no stockings, his homespun clothes were cut with an utter disregard of elegance or fit, and he had a singular whining voice that provoked merriment among new acquaintances. It came that the other boys gave him the sobriquet of "The Ghost," on account of the singular fairness of his complexion and his long white hair. He naturally attracted attention in the village, but it became at once apparent that he had an errand, for he did not loiter about the street corners. As directly as he could proceed, aided by a few questions,
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he directed his steps toward the village printing office, and seeking out Mr. Sterrett, the editor of the Gasette, applied for a position as a printer. He was successful. Mr. Sterrett hired him, agreeing to board him and pay him fifteen dollars a month. In this way Horace Greeley became a citizen of Erie. He had that day walked in from Wayne township.
A word or two about his earlier life and what led up to his finding his way into Erie will be apropos. He was born at Amherst, N. H., February 3, 1811, "of poor but honest parents." There was a large family of them, the father was not a very pushing man, and the soil was lamentably stubborn. So the farm yielded a very indifferent support. In some sort of fashion they contrived to make ends meet though they were very poor ends at that, and if it had not been for the uncommon vigor of Horace Greeley's mother, who could easily do two men's work on the farm, hunger might have been more frequently the portion of the rising family. Mrs. Greeley was a notable woman in other ways than one. She was possessed of an uncommonly strong mind, and Horace was endowed through his mother with the peculiarity of an intellect active beyond the common. At the age of three he could read; at seven . he was a scholar and the greediest of readers. When ten years of age he had made up his mind to be a printer and at thirteen tried to find an opportunity to get into an office. He was, however, refused the priv- ilege until he was fifteen and then was apprenticed in the office of the Northern Spectator at Poultney. Vt., the conditions being that for the first six months he was to have only his board and afterwards in addition to his board $40 annually for his clothing.
Meanwhile the struggle in the New Hampshire hills became too grievous to be borne, and Zaccheus Greeley, anticipating by many years his son's famous advice, went west. He bought a farm and settled in Wayne township. Erie county. It was just as difficult a matter for news- paper publishers as for farmers to get along in that inhospitable New England country. Before the expiration of Horace Greeley's apprentice- ship, the Northern Spectator suspended. Thrown upon the world with nothing, for all he had earned had been sent to his parents to help them along in their strait. Horace turned his steps toward the west, and walked all the way to his father's home. Arrived in Wayne township he engaged in work upon his father's farm, toward winter seeking and obtaining transient employment now and then at Jamestown, Lodi, and in Cattaraugus county, determining at length to try his fortune in Erie. There was no way of reaching the village on the lake shore but by tramp- ing it. That he did, and indeed it was a trifling matter for one who had footed the journey all the way from Vermont ; and here he was successful.
Greeley remained in Erie for the better part of a year but there remain here few traditions of the man who was afterwards to fill so prominent a role in the events that made up one of the most important epochs in American history. He was known as an industrious man
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and as one who had opinions and could hold his own in case he should be led into debate. But it was rare that he was a participant in the curb- stone contentions then so popular. He was frequently present, however, an interested looker-on and student of men and events, taking his first lessons in political matters, and that he was impressed by what he ob- served while working here as a printer seems to have been proven by his remark long afterwards that there was more politics to the square foot in Erie than in any other place in the country.
Greeley left Erie in 1831. His going, as his coming, made no ripple of excitement, for he was but an obscure journeyman printer. He went away, as he came, a traveler afoot, plodding his weary way to the metropolis, perhaps as unpromising a subject for fame to those who may have noted his departure as any one could well be ; he went away, however, better circumstanced than ever he had been before. for when he reached New York he had ten dollars in his pocket. That was the total amount of his capital when he began his career in the great metropolis, and begin- ning at the lowest round of the ladder, his upward progress was neces- sarily slow. But in time it came about that he began to be remembered by acquaintances here who had for a time forgotten him. He became known as a New York editor. He rose at length swiftly; to the very highest point to which a printer's ambition might aim; he filled the loftiest niche in journalism; his paper wielded an influence that con- trolled the destinies of the nation-it even affected the action of foreign powers. It was said, believed, and no doubt was true that in its time the New York Tribune was the most influential journal in the world; that even the London Times was not its superior in the power it wielded. And the New York Tribune in the height of its power was Horace Greeley. The man whose year of work in Erie had made possible his journey to New York-whose residence in Erie may have given him the inspira- tion to enter upon his great career-was the man who in fact made Abraham Lincoln president; he was the man who held up the hands of the war president when the awful burden he was compelled to bear made them weary to the point of falling down; he was the man who wielded a pen that wrote words of fire and helped to carve out union victory as surely as the generals and admirals who directed the movements of armies and fleets. Then people of Erie had no difficulty whatever in remembering that Horace Greeley at one time lived in this city and was employed as a journeyman printer on the old Gazette.
Grand was Horace Greeley's career; pathetic was the end. His candidacy for president was really to seek vindication before the people of America. Their overwhelming adverse verdict crushed him. He died of a broken heart. And when he died, again it was remembered he had been "of Erie." When everyone was writing in praise of the mighty man laid low, the editor of the Dispatch felt called upon to cast his stone upon the cairn that was being raised to the memory of one of the
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greatest men the nation ever produced, and wrote from a heart and mind filled with admiration, sentiments proper to the occasion, and he sent his editorial to the printer.
Now the printers knew Horace Greeley. Now and again there had drifted into Erie a tramp who in his time had "held cases" on the Tribune and who swore he could read Greeley's handwriting. ( Perhaps he is the fellow who could not read Mr. Willard's manuscript-but of that, more hereafter.) The printers knew Greeley. They knew that though he was a New York editor he affected agriculture, had an amateur farm establishment at Chappaqua, and printed all sorts of farm lore in the Tribune. The printers knew Horace Greeley.
Now Mr. Willard in his editorial upon Greeley had said, among other things : "His trenchant pen made princes and potentates writhe." Perhaps it was the tramp printer above alluded to who got that "take" of copy; it may not have been. But this is what came down from the composing room: "His truculent pen made quinces and potatoes wither."
One of the greatest living historians is a woman-Ida M. Tarbell, who evolved from a chaos of facts and figures a clear, orderly, concise and consecutive history of, perhaps, the greatest business organization in the world. With the sure instinct of the true historian, she gathered the vital facts in the rise of this great institution and presented them in their true relation with conscientious loyalty to truth, with courage in stating boldly her findings, and with an absence of prejudice that is rare, indeed, in writing on such a theme. The work is more than a mere history of an industry ; it is the biography of a genius in organization and the vivisection of a typical Trust combined in one masterly work-"The History of the Standard Oil Company." This is but one of the splendid pieces of literature to the credit of Miss Tarbell.
Miss Ida M. Tarbell was born in the vicinity of Wattsburg, in Amity township in this county, her father Frank Tarbell, and the family-or rather the families, for the Mcculloughs, related on her mother's side, also live in Amity-are well known throughout the eastern part of Erie county. She was reared in Amity and there obtained her primary school- ing. Later, however, her father removed to Titusville and there better advantages for learning offered. After graduating from the Titusville High School and later from Allegheny College, at Meadville, she had to face the problem of self-support. After a period of teaching in Ohio, she assumed the position of associate editor of "The Chautauquan," and later became its managing editor. She saw that editorial work and orig- inal creation cannot properly be driven abreast, so gently cutting the reins of editorial duties, went to Paris to study the French method of historical research. Here for three years, while studying she supported herself by her writings.
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An article on Alphand, who carried out the improvements in beauti- fying Paris. led to an interview with S. S. McClure, who was so charmed with her work that he rushed in for a five minutes' talk in her little den on the fifth floor of the house where she lived; he stayed two hours, and, as Miss Tarbell says, they both talked at once all the time. A cable invitation for her to write a history of Napoleon brought her back to America shortly after, and her literary success really began.
Her splendid life of Lincoln represented five solid years in the col- lection of material, and she went from Kentucky to Indiana, from there to Illinois, and then to Washington, interviewing men who had known him, digging into files of old newspapers, records, reports and documents, and visiting out-of-the-way places that might furnish a single grain of new illumination on his character or lifework. It was the same spirit of conscientious care in details that made her travel from New York to Cleveland merely to see for a few moments John D. Rockefeller as he appeared in a Sunday School environment. Miss Tarbell's latest work on the "Tariff in Our Times" is a line of effort that seems destined to wield a great influence on the future history of our nation.
A family that has become notable, some of them attaining to dis- tinction is that of William Burrows, who in 1832 moved into Erie county, settling upon a farm in the southern part of North East. William Bur- rows was married in 1818 at Busti, Chautauqua county, N. Y., and there six children, five sons and a daughter were born, and this large family came with them when Mr. and Mrs. Burrows moved into Erie county. Two more children came into the family while living in North East, Jerome Bonaparte, January 18, 1834, and Julius Caesar, January 9, 1837. Today of the three members of that family that remain one, Julius C., is a member of the United States Senate from Michigan, and another, Jerome B., (both born in Erie county), is a judge of the Seventh Circuit Court of Ohio. But while they lived in Erie county they were of God's poor, and they put up a brave struggle to get ahead. Recently a rep- resentative of the New York Tribune, interviewed Senator Burrows with reference to his early life, and in telling of the struggles of his youth the Senator said he thanks God that he did not have to start life "handicapped with a million dollars and an automobile." His first acquaintance with real work was made when he was but a lad with a neckyoke and two buckets over his shoulders gathering maple sap.
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