USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 31
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 31
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In public life, he had, what Lord Claren- don says of Hampden, a head to contrive, a heart to persuade, and a hand to execute.
H ON. THADDEUS STEVENS. There are a few citizens who will remember the career of this distinguished "American Commoner" while he was a teacher in the York County Academy and a student at law in York. He was born in Danville, Vermont, April 4, 1792. His father was a shoemaker, of dissipated hab- its, who died of a bayonet wound in the at- tack on Oswego, while bravely defending his country during the war of 1812. His mother, whom he never wearied praising, was a woman of strong natural sense and
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unconquerable resolution. In his youth, Thaddeus was one of the most diligent read- ers ever known in America, and at the age of fifteen he began to found a library in his native town. He entered Burlington Col- lege first, graduated at Dartmouth in 1815, and a few months afterward was engaged by Rev. Dr. Perkins, then principal of the York County Academy, as an assistant. Amos Gilbert, the famous teacher of the Lancastrian School, who resided for a short time at York, during the period that young Stevens was here, says: "he was a modest, retiring young man, of remarkably studious habits." Feeling somewhat displeased with the actions of some of the members of the York bar, he made application for admis- sion at Gettysburg, which at that time con- tained but few lawyers, as the county was only fifteen years old. Not having read law, according to requirements, under the instructions of a person learned in the law, he was rejected. The laws of Maryland were not so rigid; he then went to Bel Air, where he was admitted under Judge Chase. The committee on examination he said asked him only three questions, whereupon the judge promised if he would buy the champagne for the party, a certificate would be forthwith granted. He agreed to this; the certificate was signed, but before being handed over, two more bottles were de- manded of the young lawyer. To use his own words, "when I paid my bill the next morning, I had only $3.50 of the $45 that swelled my pocket-book the evening be- fore." From there he went to Lancaster, crossing the Susquehanna at McCall's ferry, York county. Here his horse took fright at some of the timbers of the new bridge, which was then being built across the river a that point, and horse and rider would have fallen into the stream, had it not been for the bravery and presence of mind of one of the men working on the
bridge. He arrived at Lancaster, and the next day came to York, and in a few days located as a lawyer in Gettysburg. He did not succeed at first, and while attending a public meeting at Littlestown, Adams county, he told a number of persons that he was going to leave the county as he could not make a living in it at the prac- tice of law. A terrible murder was com- mitted a few days later and he was em- ployed as counsel for the defendant. From this case he drew a fee of $1,500, which was the beginning of his career of fortune and fame. For a number of years, his familiar form was seen in the court houses of York, Adams and Franklin counties, always being employed in the most intri- cate cases. Subsequently as a lawyer, member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, a distinguished member of the Lancaster bar, and the great American congressman and debater, his name and fame are familiar to every intelligent American citizen.
H ON ELLIS LEWIS was born in Lewisberry, this county, May 16, 1798, and was a son of Eli Lewis, the founder of the village. He attended the schools of his native town, and as re- membered by some of the oldest citizens now living, was an unusually bright pupil. He learned the printing trade, then studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Wil- liamsport, in 1822, and two years later was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature from Lycoming county. In this sphere he soon showed his ability as a lawyer and legislator. Gov. Wolf, in 1833, appointed him attorney-general of Pennsylvania; soon after he was appointed president judge of the Eighth Judicial District, and in 1843 was made judge of the Second District, which embraced the courts of Lancaster county. In the year 1851 he was elected judge of the supreme court of the State of
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Pennsylvania, and succeeded to the posi- tion of chief justice. In 1857 he declined the unanimous nomination for re-election to the supreme court, and retired to private life. In 1858 he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the criminal code of Pennsylvania. On account of his ex- tensive knowledge of medical jurisprudence the medical college of Philadelphia con- ferred upon him the honorary degree of M. D. He received the title of LL. D. from Transylvania University and from Jefferson College. Judge Lewis' legal opinions on important and difficult cases are frequently cited with approval. He published a work, of which he was the au- thor, entitled "An Abridgement of the Criminal Law of the United States." He was a profound jurist, and a man of great versatility of talents. Some fine specimens of literature from his pen found their way into the periodical journals. In early life, during the year 1828, he became an honor- ary member of the York bar, but never practiced here regularly. His death occur- red in Philadelphia on March 9, 1871.
E DWARD CHAPIN, ESQ .* Edward Chapin, Esq., was for fifty-five years practicing attorney in the courts of York county, and for the larger portion of that period an acknowledged leader of the bar.
He was born in Rocky Hill, Conn., on the 19th day of February, A. D. 1799. On both sides he was descended from a long line of distinguished ancestry. His mater- nal great grandfather was the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, for many years presi- dent of the College of New Jersey, and the ablest of American theologians. His theo- logical works have given him a world-wide reputation. His maternal grandfather was Jonathan Edwards, familiarly known as
"the second President Edwards," who was president of Union College. Both were like Mr. Chapin, graduates of Yale College. His father, the Rev. Calvin Chapin, D. D., was a recognized leader in the Congrega- tional Church of Connecticut. He was president of Union College, and was the originator of and pioneer in the movement for the prohibition by law of all traffic in intoxicating liquor. Of this cause he was the earnest advocate during his whole life. He did not live to see it successful, but his work has, since his death, produced and is now producing good fruit. The 'Chapin family descended from Deacon Samuel Chapin, the first of the name to emigrate from England to America. He came at a very early period, and settled in New Eng- land. His descendants, numbering over 4,000, assembled in Springfield, Mass., a few years since. Among them were repre- sentatives from all parts of the United States many of them distinguished in the professional, political and literary walks of life. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Rev. E. H. Chapin, D. D., of New York, Presi- dent Lucius Chapin, of Beloit College, Wisconsin, Hon. Solomon Foote, United States Senator from Vermont, and Dr. J. G. Holland were present. Among the lineal descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin is the Adams family of Massachu- setts, which has furnished two presidents of the United States.
Edward Chapin, Esq., graduated at Yale College in the class of 1819. He read law in Connecticut, and after his admission to the bar there he resided for a time in Bing- hamton, N. Y., where his father had large landed interests. He removed to York in 1823, and was admitted to the York bar on motion of Walter S. Franklin, Esq., on April 10 of that year. He soon acquired a reputation as an able lawyer and profound thinker, and during his professional career
* By Hon. James W. Latimer.
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was engaged in many of the most import- ant causes tried in York and Adams coun- ties, especially those involving intricate and difficult legal questions. In the construc- tion of obscure wills and deeds Mr. Chapin was especially skillful, and he pressed upon the courts his views on such questions with such force of logic and profundity of legal learning, that even when unsuccessful, it was usually easier to reject his conclusions than to demonstrate their incorrectness. Judge Fisher, who presided in the courts of York county during eighteen years of Mr. Chapin's practice here, has said that his legal arguments were the ablest and most thorough and exhaustive he ever lis- tened to.
Mr. Chapin was an intimate personal friend of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, who practiced law in the adjoining county of Adams during part of Mr. Chapin's pro- fessional life. They were each in the habit of obtaining the assistance of the other in causes of unusual magnitude or difficulty. One of the latest and most important cases in which they both appeared, was the Ebert will case, an issue framed to deter- mine the validity of the will of Martin Ebert. Messrs. Evans & Mayer, of York, and Hon. Samuel Hepburn, of Carlisle, ap- peared for the propounders of the will; and Messrs. Chapin and Stevens for the con- testants. It was a contest of intellectual and professional giants, to which the mag- nitude of the interests involved, as well as the reputation of counsel concerned, at- tracted great public interest. Though un- successful in winning his cause, Mr. Chap- in's address to the jury has been pro- nounced, by competent judges who listened to it with delight, the most eloquent ora- torical appeal ever made to a jury within their recollection.
Mr. Chapin was not what is called "a case lawyer." A close reasoner, a pro-
found thinker, deeply versed in the princi- ples underlying the science of law, his ar- guments contained few citations of author- ity and few references to text books. He was always listened to, both in the county court and in the supreme court, with the respectful attention his great professional learning and ability deserved.
Mr. Chapin was a great reader. He pos- sessed a considerable knowledge of most branches of natural science. His learning and culture embraced a wide field.
As a legal practitioner his conduct was not only above reproach or suspicion of un- fairness or impropriety, but he rejected as beneath him many of the methods resorted to by practitioners who are regarded as reputable. He once told the writer of this sketch, and his life bore witness to the truth of the statement, that he never, dur- ing his whole professional life, solicited or sought directly or indirectly the business or employment of any individual. Content with the business that his talents and repu- tation brought, he used no artifice to ex -. tend his clientage.
He was the counsel of the York and Maryland Line Railroad Company from the inception of that enterprise, and of the Northern Central Railway Company, into which it afterward merged from the time of his death.
Mr. Chapin's delight and recreation was in the cultivation of fruits, flowers and veg- etables. He was extremely fond of gun- ning, and his portly form, armed with a gun which few men could hold to their shoulder, was a familiar figure about Peach Bottom in the ducking season.
Mr. Chapin died on the 17th day of March, 1869, leaving to survive him a widow, since deceased, a daughter, married to Edward Evans, Esq., and a son Edward, now a practicing attorney at the York bar.
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W TILLIAM LENHART .* The emi- nent scholarship and somewhat re- markable career of William Lenhart (al- ready referred to) claim special and ex- tended mention. The few octogenarians among us will remember an humble log- house that once stood at the northwest corner of North George street and Centre Square, where, nearly a century ago, lived Godfrey Lenhart, "der Silwerschmidt und Uhremacher"-the silversmith and clock-maker, and many a "grandfather's clock," after a long banishment, now re- called by the growing love for the antique, bears upon its broad open, smiling face, the inscription "Godfrey Lenhart, Yorktown, Penn." That humble log-house (so faith- fully sketched by Louis Miller in his "Chronics") no doubt was the birthplace, January 19, 1787, of a child, whose powers of intellect, but for his physical misfortunes and scanty pecuniary resources, would probably have enabled him to "illustrate the name of his country throughout the scientific world." His father, Godfrey Len hart, though a highly respectable citizen, and by the free suffrage of his fellow citi- zens, chosen to the (then) honorable and responsible office of high sheriff, which he held and faithfully filled from 1794 to 1797, was nevertheless a gentleman of limited means, and, therefore, really unable to give his children more than the ordinary and very meager common pay-school education of the day. About the year 1801, how- ever, when William was not above fourteen, Dr. - Adrian, then obscure, but after- wards famous as a mathematician, opened a school in York, and William Lenhart be- came one of his pupils. He at once began to develop that extraordianry talent, espe- cially for the science of mathematics, in which he made such rapid progress that,
before he quit Dr. Adrian's school, and be- fore he had attained his sixteenth year, he had become a contributor to the "Matlie- matical Correspondent," a scientific period- ical published in the city of New York, and when only seventeen, he was awarded a medal for the solution of a mathematical prize question.
About this time he quit Dr. Adrian's school, and being an accomplished penman and accountant, accepted the offer of a po- sition as clerk in a leading mercantile house in Baltimore. At this period of his life, it is said he was remarkable for his personal attractions, and, always, for excellence of manners and good conduct. As might be expected, however, he soon tired of such a business, and, though but little bettering his situation, accepted a position in some clerical employment in the sheriff's office. He remained in Baltimore about four years during all which time, however otherwisc employed, his leisure was devoted to read- ing, his favorite study, mathematics, and contributions to the Analyst, published by Dr. Adrian in Philadelphia. Afterward, he became bookkeeper in the commercial house of Hassinger & Reeser in the latter city. As clerk and bookkeeper his profici- ency was unrivaled, his salary was doubled at the end of the first year, and the accounts he made out for foreign merchants were long kept by his employers as models of perfection; and in view of his eminent per- sonal services, the firm, at the end of the third year, admitted him as a partner, with- out other capital. Before entering upon his duties, however, and while on a visit to his parents at York, an unfortunate ac- cident befell him which, doubtless, proved to be the turning point in a career which would, otherwise, have shed undying luster on his name and on his country. While enjoying a rural drive, his horse became un- manageable, ran away, breaking the car-
* By Henry L. Fisher, Esq.
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riage, throwing him out and fracturing one of his legs. On his supposed recovery he returned to Philadelphia, and, sometime after, while engaged in a game of quoits, was suddenly seized with excruciating pain in his back and partial paralysis of the lower extremities. After eighteen months of the most skillful medical and surgical treatment by Drs. Physick and Parish, his recovery was pronounced hopeless. What wonder that his cup of misery overflowed in view of the fact of his engagement at the time to a young lady of most estimable character, to whom he had been attached from early life. The injury, he had re- ceived from the fall from his carriage, most probably caused his spinal affection from which, and a subsequent injury, he was destined to sixteen years of suffering and torture, and eventually to pine away and die at an age when men, ordinarily, are in their prime. But incredible as it may seem we are assured on the highest authority that during all that long interval of constantly increasing pain and suffering he not only cultivated light literature and music, but, as before, devoted much time to mathematics. In music he made great proficiency and was considered the best parlor flute player in this country. In 1828 he sustained a second fracture of his leg, in consequence of which, and his already existing complication of disorders, his suf- ferings, at times, almost passed the bounds of endurance. He was now passing most of his time with his sister, in Frederick. But his very lips became at length par- alyzed from the progress of his disease, and even the pleasures of his flute were denied him. What must have been the talents, moral energy, and force of will, which, un- der bodily afflictions like these, made such advances in abtruse science as to confer immortality on the name of their possessor?
During the last year of his life he thus wrote to a friend:
"My afflictions appear to me to be not unlike an infinite series, composed of com- plicated terms, gradually and regularly in- creasing-in sadness and suffering-and becoming more and more involved; and hence the abstruseness of its summation; but when it shall be summed in the end, by the Great Arbiter and Master of all, it is to be hoped that the formula resulting will be found to be not only entirely free from surds, but perfectly pure and rational, even unto an integer."
During the sixteen years from 1812 to 1828 he did not, of course, nor could he, de- vote himself to mathematical science. But afterward he resumed these studies for the purpose of mental employment, and con- tinued his contributions to mathematical journals. In 1836 the publication of the Mathematical Miscellany was commenced in New York, and his fame became estab- lished by his contributions to that journal. "I do not design," says Prof. Samuel Tay- lor, "to enter into a detail of his profound researches. He attained an eminence in science of which the noblest intellects might well be proud and that, too, as an amusement, when suffering from afflictions which, we might suppose, would have dis - qualified him for intellectual labor. It will be sufficient for my purpose to remark that he left behind him a reputation as the most eminent Diophantine Algebraist that ever lived. The eminence of this reputation will be estimated when it is recollected that illustrious men, such as Euler, Lagrange and Gauss, are his competitors for fame in the cultivation of the Diophantine analysis. Well might he say that he felt as if he had been admitted into the sanctum sanctorum of the great temple of numbers, and per- mitted to revel among its curiosities."
Notwithstanding his great mathematical
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genius, Mr. Lenhart did not extend his in- vestigations into the modern analysis and the differential calculus as far as into the Diophantine analysis. He thus accounts for it: "My taste lies in the old fashioned pure geometry and the Diophantine analy- sis, in which every result is perfect; and be- yond the exercise of these two beautiful branches of the mathematics, at my time of life, and under present circumstances, I feel no inclination to go." The character of his mind did not consist entirely in the mathe- matical tendency, which was developed by the early tuition of Dr. Adrian. Possessed, as he was, of a lively imagination, a keen susceptibility to all that is beautiful in the natural and intellectual world, wit and acuteness, it is manifest that he wanted nothing but early education and leisure to have made a most accomplished scholar. He was also a poet. One who knew him well says: "He has left some effusions which were written to friends as letters, that for wit, humor, sprightliness of fancy, pungent satire, and flexibility of versifica- tion, will not lose in comparison with any of Burns' best pieces of a similar kind." Mr. Lenhart was of a very cheerful and sanguineous temperament full of tender sympathies with all the joys and sorrows of his race, from communion with whom he was almost entirely excluded. Like all truly great and noble men, he was remark- able for the simplicity of his manners. Thai word, in its broad sense, contains a history of character. He knew he was achieving conquests in abstruse science, which had not been made by the greatest mathemati- cians, yet he was far from assuming any- thing in his intercourse with others.
"During the autumn of 1839, intense suf- fering and great emaciation indicated that his days were almost numbered. His intel- lectual powers did not decay; but like the Altamont of Young, he was "still strong to
reason and mighty to suffer." He indulged in no murmurs on account of the severity of his fate. True nobility submits with * grace to that which is inevitable. * * Lenhart was conscious of the impulses of his high intellect, and his heart must have swelled within him when he contemplated the victories he might have achieved and the laurels he might have won. But he knew his lot forbade that he should leave other than "short and simple annals" for posterity. He died at Frederick, Md., July 10, 1840, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, with the calmness imparted by philosophy and Christianity. Religion conferred upon him her consolations in that hour when it is only through religion that consolation can be bestowed; and as he sank into the darkness and silence of the grave, he be- lieved there was another and a better world, in which the immortal mind will drink at the very fountain-head of knowledge, un- encumbered with the decaying tabernacle of clay by which its lofty aspirations are here confined as with chains.
H JON LEMUEL TODD was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, July 29, 1817; was graduated from Dickinson Col- lege 1839; read law under General Sam- tel Alexander at Carlisle, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1841. Was elected in 1854 in the strong Democratic district composed of York, Cumberland and Perry counties over Hon. J. Ellis Bonham, one of the Democratic leaders of the State. He was chairman of the Know- Nothing State committee in 1855-56. He was prominently named for Governor in 1857 and in 1860. He was elected Con- gressman-at-Large in 1875-79. He pre- sided over the State Convention at Har- risburg which nominated David Wil- mot for governor; and that at Pittsburg which nominated Andrew Curtin, and that
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at Philadelphia which advocated Grant for the presidency. He was temporary chair- man of the State Convention at Harris- burg in 1883. He was three times the can- didate of his party for president judge of the Ninth District.
In 1861 he was Major of the First Penn- sylvania Reserves and Inspector General of Pennsylvania on Governor Curtin's staff. He died May 11th, 1891.
His success as a lawyer and politician seemed to cost him little effort. It was due largely to his great natural eloquence and effectiveness as a public speaker.
Through the liberality of his widow a building in Carlisle has been put in pos- session of a corporation for the purpose of a public hospital, named in memory of him the Todd Hospital.
C OL. HENRY SLAGLE, soldier, judge and legislator, was born in Lancaster county, in 1735, and was a son of Christo- pher Slagle or Schlegel, a native of Saxony, who in 1713 erected an early mill on Cones- toga creek. Henry Slagle was a brave revolutionary officer, who served as a mem- ber of several provincial bodies, and the Constitutional Convention of 1789-90. A year later he was elected as an associate judge of Adams county, which he repre- sented in the Pennsylvania Legislature of 1801-02.
H ON. JACOB CASSAT, a recognized Whig leader of learning and ability, was a son of David Cassat, whose father, Francis Cassat, a French Huguenot, married in Holland and came to this country in 1764. Jacob Cassat was born February 7, 1778, in Straban township, Adams county, and being largely self-taught com- menced life for himself with no powerful friends or influence to aid him. He was an active church member, lived a useful
life and died in 1838, when ranking as one of the most prominent men of his county. He served as county commissioner, aided in the defense of Baltimore in 1814, was a member of the State Legislature from 1820 to 1824, and in 1837 was elected to the State Senate, from whose chamber he was driven by a mob on December 25, 1838, for making an impassioned speech on the cause of the "Buckshot War." He was found dead in his bed the next morning, and his county mourned the loss of one of her noblest sons.
PATRICK McSHERRY, the founder of McSherrystown, was an honored early settler of Adams county, and the founder of a long line of families which have been worthy of the honorable name which they bear. Mr. McSherry was the father of Hon. James McSherry, the popu- lar political leader, and the grandfather of James McSherry, Jr., the Maryland his- torian. He founded McSherrystown in 1765 and lived near it until his death.
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