USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 42
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 42
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Robert L. Jones was educated in the public schools of Wales where he also learned the slate business when he became old enough to work in the quarries where his father was employed as a quarrymen. Like his elder brother he at first located in West Bangor where he worked at his trade as a laborer in the slate works until 1862, when our country was threatened with dis- memberment and plunged into the horrors of war. True to the impulses of the land of liberty which had become his adopted coun- try, he enlisted in August 1862 in Company A, 3d Pennsylvania heavy artillery, at Phil- adelphia, determined to lay down his life if
necessary to defend the sacred rights of man. He was soon promoted from the rank of private to that of sergeant and was detached to gun boat Schrapnell artillery duty, doing picket and scouting service in Virginia, and North Carolina during the years 1864 and 1865. In June of the lat- ter year he was honorably discharged at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, having done his duty bravely in the time of danger.
When he returned from the war he again resumed his work in the slate quarries at West Bangor and continued in the capacity of employee until 1867,when he in company with four others began to operate a quarry on their own account. At first their works were not extensive but from small begin- nings the interests of the business have grown little by little until now Mr. Jones is the largest quarry operator in the whole district. After working this first quarry for seven years Mr. Jones sold his interest to the other four and leased the old big quarry at Peach Bottom and has since controlled its output. It now employs thirty men and has been drained by a tunnel extending 850 feet through a surrounding chain of hills which was constructed in 1895 at a cost ot $5,000, and has greatly facilitated the work.
In company with F. R. Williams in 1891, Mr. Jones purchased the lease of the Eu- reka and Susquehanna Slate companies and formed a joint stock association, the Ex- celsior Slate Company, of which Mr. Jones was elected President and general manager, which trust he still holds. This company employs at present forty hands. Besides his interest in the two large slate quarries he is the senior member of the firm of Jones and McConkey, large dealers in general mer- chandise, and is also a director of the First National Bank since 1890, when, with his assistance, it was successfully organized. In local politics, though never having accepted a public office other than township auditor,
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he exercises a wide influence; he is a Re- publican.
In religious and fraternal circles he is an active member and has been choir leader for twenty-five years in the Welsh Calvi- nistic church, and, is also a member of the Esdraclon Lodge, No. 176, Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons.
August 15, 1870, he was united in mar- riage with Isabella Roberts, daughter of John and Isabella Roberts, of Wales. His family consists of five children, whose names given in order of birth are, Emma, John, Hayden, Arthur, Isabella and Idris, who are at present all residing with their parents, where they easily and gracefully sustain the high position in local society which their father's successful and honorable career in business and other circles has won for him- self and his family.
J OHNSTON MOORE, one of the larg- est landed proprietors of Cumberland county, is a worthy descendant of the old and honored families of colonial days and Revolutionary service. The Moores are of Scotch-Irish descent. James Moore, the original settler, born March 17, 1695, died June 18th, 1767, came from County Tyrone, Ireland, to Maryland with Lord Baltimore. Soon after landing he came to Pennsylvania and purchased several thou- sand acres of land on the Yellow Breeches creek from John Penn and others. He was a man of wealth and education, and a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church. The chil- drenof James and Agnes Moore were Judge William, James, J., John Robert, Jean, Ag- nes and Mary. John Moore, the grand- father of Johnston Moore, was born 1740 and died 1822. He was a gentleman and farmer and served as an officer under Wayne at Paoli and Washington at Valley Forge.
He married Eleanor Thompson, who was
also of Scotch-Irish descent, born 1746, died 1817; their sons were James John, an able lawyer, who practiced in Lancaster, Robert, William and Thompson.
James Moore was born 1765 and died 1813. He married Nancy Johnston of An- trim township, Franklin county, who died in 1823, aged 54 years. They had two chil- dren: Johnston, born September 5th, 1809, at Mooredale, Cumberland county, and John, who died in infancy. Mrs. Moore was of Scotch-Irish descent, and a member of the celebrated Johnston family Dumfree- shire, Scotland. Her grandfather, James Johnston came from County Antrim, Ire- land, to Pennsylvania, in 1735, and died in 1765, near Greencastle, Franklin county, where he owned a large tract of land. He left four sons, Colonel Thomas, Colonel James, Dr. Robert and John. Colonels James and Thomas served in the Revolu- tionary army, and the latter, who was at Paoli under Wayne, died in 1819 at Moore- dale, the home of his daughter, Mrs. Moore, in Cumberland county. Dr. Robert Johnston, grand uncle of Johnston Moore, was well acquainted with Washington and Lafay- ette; served from Boston to Yorktown as surgeon and afterward located in Franklin county, where he practiced and was ap- pointed excise collector by Washington. He was one of the founders of the Order of Cincinnati. He made a trip to India and Java and brought many handsome and cur- ious things home with him. John Johns- ton, the youngest son, at the early age of twenty raised a troop of horse in 1781 for the American army, but they were dis- charged at Lancaster as the war was prac- tically over. Some years later he went to Westmoreland county where he died about 1825. The services rendered by three of these brothers and the spirit displayed by the fourth, while under age, entitles this
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family to a prominence as a military family not only in their county but the State.
Johnston Moore was so unfortunate in childhood as to lose his father, and at the age of fourteen was deprived of all par- ental care by the death of his mother. He then went to live with his mother's sister, Mrs. McLanahan, at the old homestead of the Johnstons, Prospect Hill, near Green- castle, until he came to Carlisle, where he re- sided with his guardian, Andrew Carothers, while attending school at Dickinson Col- lege. At eighteen years of age he took pos- session and began the management of his estates, including the original lands which descended to him from his great-grand- father, James Moore. This estate consisted of a large tract of land, mainly woodland, which he cleared and converted into good farms.
On July 15, 1836, Johnston Moore mar- ried Mary Verzey Packer, a daughter of Isaac Brown Packer, resident lawyer of Carlisle, but a native of Newry, Ireland. To Mr. and Mrs Moore were born nine chil- dren: Packer Johnston, James, Maria, An- nie Johnston, Euphenia Packer, Emmolin Packer, Francis Packer, Ellen and Thomas. Euphenia, Emmolin and Maria being the only children living at the present time. Johnston Moore was originally a Whig, but since the formation of the Republican party has been a strong supporter of its principles, but he has never taken an ac- tive part in politics. He is Junior Warden of St. John's Episcopal church, and has re- sided since his marriage at his home "Mooreland" in Carlisle. He varies the la- bors of his farm management and business duties with the pleasures of the chase and the sports of the rod. He owns Bonny Brook, one of the finest trout fisheries in the State, and takes an interest in the pre- servation of game. Personally Johnston Moore is a pleasant gentleman, a good bus-
iness man and an invaluable citizen, enjoy- ing the love of his family and the esteem of an active and well spent life.
R EV. HARVEY W. McKNIGHT, D. D., LL. D., President of and Profes- sor of intellectual and moral science in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, is a na- tive of McKnightstown, Adams county, Pa., where he was born April 3, 1843, the son of Thomas and Margaret (Stewart) McKnight. He is of pioneer Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Thomas McKnight, the father of Dr. Mc- Knight, was a well-known citizen of Adams county during the earlier part of the pres- ent century. He was born in Crawford, county, Pa., in 1787, and died in 1850. In his time he was a farmer and a merchant and the town of McKnightstown was founded by him while he was engaged in the latter business. In politics Mr. Mc- Knight was a Democrat and in religion a devout and consistent member of the Luth- eran church. He was a man of irreproach- able character and in his business career, which afforded the most abundant oppor- tunities, he displayed a rare and strict in- tegrity. Mrs. McKnight was the daughter of David and Margaret Stewart, of Adams county, Pa. She was the mother of nine children, upon all of whom she impressed those many virtues which made her own character so pure, kindly and symmetrical. When, in 1850, her husband died, her youngest son, the subject of this sketch, was but seven years of age and he, more than any other of her children, shows the influence of her training and example. Shortly after their bereavement Mrs. Mc- Knight removed the family to Jackson Hall, in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where our subject devoted several years to his ed- ucation in the public schools of the village. He served three years as clerk in a general store and managed for a time to further his
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education by attending Chambersburg Academy at Chambersburg. In 1860 he entered Pennsylvania College at Gettys- burg, and pursued his studies there until 1862, when he enlisted in Company B, 138th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was made orderly sergeant and subsequently promoted to the position of second lieutenant, but on account of ill- health he was compelled to resign. After his return home he was made adjutant of the 26th Regiment, Pennsylvania militia and as such served during the invasion of Pennsylvania by the Rebel forces in 1863. After the burning of Chambersburg in 1864 he was commissioned captain of Company D, 210th Regiment of Pennsylvania Vol- unteer Infantry and served in that position until the close of the war. He then return- ed to Pennsylvania College from which he graduated in 1865 and then entered the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, where he graduated in 1867 and was licensed and ordained to preach. From 1867 to 1870 he served as pastor of Zion Lutheran church at Newville, Cumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, but owing to ill-health he was com- pelled to retire and remain inactive for the two succeeding years. From 1872 to 1880 he served as pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran church at Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1880 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and assumed the pastorate of the First English Lutheran church, which he retained four years. Prior to this, in 1878, Dr. McKnight had been elected a trustee of his alma mater and in the same year he was the Alumni orator at the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. In 1884 he severed his connection with the First church at Cincinnati and became pas- tor of Trinity Lutheran church, Hagers- town, Md., but remained only three and a half months, resigning in order to accept the Presidency of Pennsylvania College, which had been tendered him by a unani-
mous vote of the directorate. Several at- tempts have been made since that time to draw Dr. McKnight back to the ministerial ranks where he achieved his first successes and had displayed such conspicuous talents anci attainments; but he has, in deference to the wishes and requests of the friends and authorities of the institution always main- tained his connection with it since he first became president. Dr. McKnight stands pre-eminent among the educators of the State and has steadily, term by term, raised the standing of Pennsylvania College until outside of the two Pennsylvania Universi- ties, it is regarded as the strongest institu- tion in the State.
Dr. McKnight is a man of remarkably strong character. He is a tireless worker for the church and its educational interests. He has achieved unusual popularity among the Lutheran people and the graduates of Pennsylvania College.
November 12, 1867, Dr. McKnight was married to Mary K., a daughter of Solomon and Jane (Livingstone) Welty, whose par- ents were of Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania German descent. To this marriage have been born Jane M. and Mary L.
Dr. McKnight is a member of Phi Kappa Psi College Fraternity ; of Skelty Post, No. 9, Grand Army of the Republic, and of Pennsylvania Commandery of the Loyal Legion.
He received the degree of Doctor of Di- vinity from Monmouth College, Illinois, which conferred it upon him in 1883, and that of LL. D. from Lafayette College, Eas- ton, Pa., in 1889.
He was one of the founders of the Penn- sylvania Chautauqua at Mt. Gretna; was President of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States from 1889-91 and has been a delegate to its con- ventions almost continuously for many years; he served as a director of the Gettys-
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burg Battlefield Memorial Association from 1888 till the field passed into the control of the United States Govern- ment in 1896. He is a director of the Western Maryland Railroad (Western Ex- tension); a vice-president of the Evangeli- cal Alliance of the United States and a member of the Advisory Board of Elizabeth Female College, Charlotte, N. C.
H ON. MATTHEW S.QUAY .* There is no quieter or less pretentious man in the United States Senate than Matthew Stanley Quay, of Pennsylvania. He is short in stature and has a voice little stronger than that of a child, but that voice is clothed with power when it is used either in making a motion or offering a suggestion, or in debate. The whole Senate, without regard to party lines, heeds when the Pennsylvania Sena- tor speaks and the galleries are quiet with eager expectancy. Mr. Quay's political opponents have attributed. his power to bossism, but if it is, it is a bossism that breaks over party lines to influence Demo- crats and Populists as well as Republicans. It might be said of Quay, as it was of Na- poleon, that if his election as First Consul was a conspiracy, it included nine-tenths of the French as conspirators, for Mr. Quay has always gone direct to the people of the Keystone State for his credentials as leader. There are not many people outside of Pennsylvania who ever think of Mr. Quay as a soldier, but it was on the battle-field that he first showed his remarkable cour- age and capacity for leadership, and the same qualities have made him successful as a political leader. This great man in the Senate wears a medal of honor which few even of American soldiers have won, and which all who do possess it hold as dear as
the German soldiers hold their iron cross. It is a medal awarded by the American Congress for distinguished service on the battlefield, and it is made from the metal of captured cannon. In 1863 Congress made an appropriation of $20,000 for coining medals, to be distributed among officers and men who displayed marked gallantry on the field of battle. The distribution of these medals has been guarded with zealous care, and made only after the most careful examination. To gain one of these medals it was necessary to have won distinguished consideration for some act of heroism. No favoritism from superior officers could win s11ch a medal. The records of the war must show the bravery of the man before the award was made. And of the more than 2,000,000 soldiers of the war, only a few hundred ever secured one of these medals. In 1888, a quarter of a century after the act which gave Mr. Quay dis- tinction as a soldier, Adjutant General Dunn sent to him one of these medals of honor "as Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, for distinguished service at the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862."
Andrew G. Curtin, the great war gover- nor of Pennsylvania, made Matt Quay his private secretary in the early days of 1861. Later the young secretary was given a Lieutenancy in the Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves, and later, when brave men were needed at the front, he took the field as Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty- Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers. Just before the battle of Fredericksburg he was lying at the hospital stricken down with typhoid fever. Before he had recovered he joined his regiment, but on the advice of the surgeon he resigned to go home, that he might regain his health. He had in his possession much money intrusted to him by his comrades to carry home to their
* From Chicago Inter-Ocean, March, 16, 1896.
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friends. But when the coming battle be- came imminent he asked to be restored to his command. It was too late, and his re- quest, almost on the eve of battle, was de- nied. He then applied to General Tyler who commanded his brigade, for a place as volunteer on his staff. The surgeon ob- jected and declared, "If Colonel Quay goes into battle, he will die as a fool dies."
"I would rather die like a fool than live like a coward," replied Quay, and he took a place on General Tyler's staff. That battle was one of the bloodest of the war. The plain lying between the town of Fredericks- burg and Marye's Heights was bisected by a ditch. It was necessary for the Union troops to cross the bridge and form under fire. At the foot of the hill was a road and by the side of it a stone wall, which had been strengthened by the Confederates and was used by them as breastworks. Two hundred Confederate cannon on the heights above swept the plain. The charges of the Union troops were futile, although the dead were lying three deep in front of the wall.
Six thousand Union and 1,000 Confeder- ate dead-this was the record. Over half the losses of the Fifth Corps fell upon Humphrey's division, to which Tyler's small brigade was attached, and Tyler's loss alone was 454 me1.
So important were Colonel Quay's ser- vices upon that bloody field that General Tyler made the following report:
Camp in the Field, Dec. 16, 1862 .- Headquarters Tyler's Brigade:
Colonel M. S. Quay, late of the One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Pennsylvania Infantry, was upon my staff as a volunteer aid-de-camp, and and to him I am greatly indebted. Notwithstanding his enfeebled health, he was in the saddle early and late, ever prompt and efficient and especially so during the engagement on the field.
It was there Colonel Quay won his medal of honor, and twenty-five years afterward when he was a candidate for United States Senator, the survivors of his regiment is- sued an address to the people reciting his heroism on that bloody field and asking support for him as a veteran.
Colonel Quay's declaration at Freder- icksburg, "I would rather die like a fool than live like a coward,' is characteristic of the man. It expresses the determination of the man in every one of his great political battles since the war. The show of oppo- sition has been to him an invitation to go into the battle. After serving as military secretary to Governor Curtin and in the Legislature of his State, he started a news- paper called the Beaver Radical, issuing it without notice and without a single sub- scriber. He made it win. Then Governor Hartranft appointed him Secretary of the Commonwealth, and Governor Hoyt con- tinued him in that office. He was chair- man of the Republican State Committee in 1878-79, and delegate-at-large to the na- tional conventions in 1872, 1870, 1884, 1888 and 1892. It was in the heat of political contests that the Democrats tried to involve M1. Quay's name in the scandals touching the State treasury. His answer was the announcement of his candidacy for State Treasurer, the first elective office in the State he ever sought. He went to the peo- ple in the country, not to the manipulators in the cities of Pennsylvania, in his cam- paign, and he was elected by a majority of nearly 50,000, the largest majority ever given a candidate for that office up to that time. That was in 1885. While he was serving his term as State Treasurer in 1887 his political opponents revived their charges against him, and his answer was the an- nouncement of his candidacy for United States Senator. Again the people of Penn- sylvania rallied to him and the Legislature
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elected him to the Senate. In 1893 the war made on him was fiercer than ever by the Democrats, especially by the Democratic press of New York, which remembered bitterly the expos- ures of Tammany methods Chairman Quay made in the campaign of 1888, but their opposition only made him the stronger with the people of Pennsylvania, and he was easily re-elected. In 1895 there was the cry of machine raised against Mr. Quay by a factional opposition in his own party. His answer was the quiet and brief announcement that he would be a can- didate for chairman of the State Commit- tee. The old committee was organized against him, the State administration was with the opposition, and so were the politi- cal leaders in the two great cities of Phila- delphia and Pittsburg. His opposition had already gathered in the politicians from all parts of the State to help them maintain their hold on the State Committee, and they counted a majority of the delegates to the State Convention before they were elected. But Quay went to the people on a platform of municipal reform. It was the biggest fight ever put up against the man, but it had not the people behind it, as was shown when the primaries were held and the poli- ticians were overthrown. Quay had the majority in the convention with the State administration, the two great municipali- ties, and the greatest corporations in the State against him, and his victory came direct from the people, who had confidence in him.
As a political general Mr. Quay demon- strated his abilities to uncover fraud, and also his courage by attacking the very stronghold of Democratic corruption in the campaign of 1888. He was elected chair- man of the Republican National Commit- tee. Blaine's defeat in 1884 had been ac- complished in a small section of New York
City by Tammany's ability to count its own majorities. Chairman Quay went to New York and said: "The election will be won or lost right here." He studied the city carefully, had a new registration of the lower wards made by men supposed to be canvassing for a new city directory, and in that way secured lists of the legitimate vot- ers. He had maps made of these wards, showing every tenement house and the number of people in each. In this way he discovered the false registration made by Tammany to defeat Harrison as it had defeated Blaine. The secret was guarded until just before election and the facts were then allowed to leak out. The ballot thieves of Tam- many press ranted. Chairman Quay announced that he had the facts and offered rewards for the arrest and conviction of men who attempted to register falsely. Tammany stood aghast at the boldness of this man. Then the ballot thieves tried in- timidation and letters began to pour in upon the chairman threatening him with assassi- nation, but the man who had stood before the murderous fire of Marye's Heiglits was not to be frightened by Tammany thugs and heelers, and he paid no attention to all the bluster and threats. He held to his course. He watched the election as care- fully as he had watched the registration. He foiled the Tammany men in their own strongholds by preventing false registration and repeating; prevented the lower wards of New York City from overcoming the Republican majority of the State, and elected Benjamin Harrison President. In that work he demonstrated what had long been felt, that New York was a safe Re- publican State when the frauds of Tammany in the lower wards of New York City could be prevented. Mr. Blaine's comment was to Mr. Quay: "If you had been chairman in 1884, I would have been President of the
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United States." The National Committee passed resolutions of thanks to Mr. Quay when he resigned the chairmanship after the battle was fought and won.
In the Senate Mr. Quay has been the same quiet, determined force that he was in the army and in political campaigns. In 1890 he came to the front as the leader in the Senate. He had been a follower, but when the great tariff fight was on he show- ed his leadership. There were two great question before Congress at that time-the Mckinley Bill and the Force Bill. The Democrats were able to block all action on the Force Bill, by their abuse of the privileges of the Senate in debate, and they were determined to talk it to death, and in that way kill both the force bill and the Mc- Kinley bill. The tariff bill had been prom- ised. Protection had been the issue in the campaign of 1888, and a new tariff revision had been promised to the people. The de- bate on the force bill waslengthened out into weeks, and the Democrats were determined to talk on that measure until final adjourn- ment. There was another campaign on, and the more timid Republicans thought it a dangerous policy to enact a tariff bill just before election. They were satisfied to al- low the Democrats to block the way with their interminable debate on the force bill. But Mr. Quay had generaled the campaign of 1888 when the tariff pledges were made to the people, and he insisted that the Fifty- First Congress should redeem its pledges. He proposed to lay aside the force bill until the tariff bill could be settled definitely, and enacted into law. A Republican caucus was called to discipline the Pennsylvania Senator, but he had his way, and the Mc- Kinley bill became a law, while the force bill went over until the next session. The Republicans lost the election of 1890, and a Democratic Congress followed, but the McKinley bill was a law, and demonstrated
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