USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > Cambria County pioneers; a collection of brief biographical and other sketches relating to the early history of Cambria County, Pennsylvania > Part 11
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of five years when he served as superintendent of common schools for Cambria county. Mr. McCormick lives at Oak- dale, Stanislaus county, California, where for many years he was a local magistrate, with the honorary title of judge. He taught school for two years at Oakdale. His son, Win- field Scott McCormick, had preceded him to Oakdale.
Mr. McCormick's long career as a teacher in Johnstown was a most honorable one. Thoroughly understanding all the branches of study that were embraced in the sensible common-school course of those days he was very successful in leading his classes up the hill of science and in develop- ing in hundreds of boys and girls who are now getting to be old men and women the ambition to do their best in the school-room and in the wider spheres which they were soon to enter. For several years he was superintendent of the Johnstown schools. He was also principal of the Mill- ville schools for three or four years. He had a special liking for astronomy and often lectured upon this subject.
In November, 1852, soon after his removal from Ligo- nier to Johnstown, and while teaching at the head of Main street, Mr. McCormick undertook the publication of a weekly Whig newspaper, The Cambrian, which he continued until about the close of the political campaign in the fall of 1853, when its publication was discontinued. The print- ing materials were owned by some of the leading Whigs of the town. The Cambria Tribune was established in Decem- ber, 1853, immediately after Mr. McCormick's retirement. With a decided literary bent and possessed of considerable skill as a newspaper controversialist Mr. McCormick could not successfully teach school and edit a newspaper, either at Ligonier or Johnstown, nor could anybody.
The common school system of Pennsylvania was not, fully developed until 1854, on May 8 of which year an act of the General Assembly was approved by Governor William Bigler which established the office of county super- intendent. The act took effect the same year. Robert L. Johnston was the first superintendent for Cambria county and Mr. McCormick was the second. I copy below from the official record a list of the persons who have held this office in Cambria county from 1854 to the present time.
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SAMUEL BELL MCCORMICK.
Robert L. Johnston, elected ; commissioned July 5, 1854 ; resigned in 1855; salary per annum, $400. S. B. McCor- mick, appointed; commissioned October 6, 1855; salary, $400. S. B. McCormick, elected for three years; commis- sioned June 3, 1857; salary, $800. Thomas A. Maguire, elected ; commissioned July 17, 1860 ; salary, $800. James M. Swank, appointed ; commissioned February 7, 1861; re- signed in November, 1861; salary, $800. Wm. A. Scott, ap- pointed ; commissioned January 4, 1862; salary, $800; re -- signed to enter the Union army ; killed at Fredericksburg. Henry Ely, appointed ; commissioned August 13, 1862; sal- ary, $800. J. Frank Condon, elected; commissioned June 1, 1863 ; salary, $800; J. Frank Condon, re-elected ; commis- sioned June 4, 1866; salary, $1,000; resigned in 1867. T. J. Chapman, appointed ; commissioned October 1, 1867. T. J. Chapman, elected ; commissioned June 4, 1869; salary, $1,000. T. J. Chapman, re-elected ; commissioned June 6, 1872 ; salary, $1,000. Hartman Berg, elected ; commissioned June 7, 1875; salary, $1,000 ; re-elected ; commissioned June, 1878. L. Strayer, elected ; commissioned June, 1881; salary fixed by the number of schools, which varied the amount of salary each year, averaging about $1,100; re-elected June, 1884. W. J. Cramer, elected June, 1887; salary, $1,500. Su- perintendent Cramer died on January 23, 1888, and J. W. Leech was appointed and commissioned to fill the unexpired term. J. W. Leech was elected and commissioned June, 1890 ; salary, $1,500; re-elected June, 1893; salary, $1,700. T. L. Gibson, elected and commissioned June, 1896; salary, $1,- 700; re-elected June, 1899; salary, $1,700.
It will be seen from the above record that Mr. McCor- mick served as county superintendent for five years. The services rendered by him in this office were important and valuable. Other superintendents have done good work, but he was virtually the pioneer in a position of great oppor- tunities and of great responsibility. He was industrious, en- thusiastic, tactful, and capable. It was his lot not only to popularize his own office and its authority but the common school system itself. To accomplish these results he visited every school district in the county and became personally acquainted with directors and taxpayers as well as teachers ;
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he visited the schools and made interesting speeches to the children ; his oral examinations of applicants for teachers' certificates were always fair and were held in nearly every town and township in the county and in the presence of citizens and taxpayers. He thus demonstrated the useful- ness of his office. He inspired others with his own enthu- siasm. He encouraged the holding of school exhibitions in every school district and he personally attended most of them. These exhibitions, which usually took place in the spring of the year, joined to his personal participation in them, had a marvelous effect in creating and sustaining an interest in common schools in Cambria county. Taxes for their support were more freely paid, better methods of in- struction were introduced, better teachers were employed, better school-houses were built, and a healthier tone per- vaded all educational conditions. Mr. McCormick's term of office expired just as the mutterings of civil strife came up from the South, and there was subsequently much demor- alization in the administration of the schools of Cambria county, as elsewhere, but this demoralization did not long continue. Mr. McCormick's good work was not lost.
In a letter which I have recently received from Mr. Mc- Cormick he writes that he still does some literary work and that not long ago he contributed to a local newspaper a series of twelve articles on his favorite science of astronomy. Two children and several grandchildren are either with him or are not far away. A married daughter, Lenore, now lives in Germantown, Pennsylvania.
Mr. McCormick died on May 1, 1903, at Oakdale, Stanislaus county, California, and was buried in the Union cemetery at that place. He was 85 years, 10 months, and 13 days old-a good old age.
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A REMINISCENCE OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR.
A REMINISCENCE OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR.
FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION, JUNE 15, 1909.
ZACHARY TAYLOR, the twelfth President of the United States, occupied this position from the day of his inaugu- ration on March 5, 1849, until his death on July 9, 1850. In August, 1849, just sixty years ago, accompanied by a small party of prominent gentlemen, he journeyed in a carriage over the turnpikes of that day from Washington to Pitts- burgh, thence visiting a few other interior cities before re- turning to Washington. His carriage route through Penn- sylvania embraced Bedford, Somerset, Westmoreland, and Al- legheny counties and the towns of Bedford, Somerset, Ligo- nier, and Greensburg. The President's itinerary was duly announced several days in advance, and of course excited much interest. The countryside was on tiptoe to see the hero of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista.
The editor of the Bulletin was at that time one of the enthusiastic young Whigs of Johnstown. Learning that the President and his party would be at Ligonier on a certain day and would stop there for dinner we induced two of our friends, boys of about our own age, to go with us to Ligonier and see the President. Now Ligonier was twenty miles away, and the only way to get there was on horse- back over a mountain road, and if we were to see the Presi- dent before dinner it was necessary that we should make an early start. So we started before daylight, three enthusias- tic boys, and about 10 o'clock we were in Ligonier, to which historic town many neighboring farmers had preceded us on the same mission. Introducing ourselves to Mr. Mendell, the landlord of the leading public house in the place, we were most hospitably received. He was surprised to learn that we had ridden so far. In less than an hour the car-
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riages of the Presidential party were seen approaching in a cloud of dust and in a few minutes we boys first saw a President of the United States and one of our country's greatest soldiers.
Preparations for dinner were soon made for the distin- guished guests, who were informally welcomed by Mr. Men- dell, John Bell, a local ironmaster, and others. When dinner was about to be served we boys obtained a view of the din- ing room, which would seat about thirty and certainly not more than forty guests at one long table, but we did not think that we could sit at that table until the Presidential party and the local dignitaries had first been served. We were greatly surprised, therefore, when Mr. Mendell came to us and said that boys who had risen so early and ridden so far to see General Taylor should sit at the same table with him. And we did. Mr. Bell sat at the head of the table, the President on his right, and we boys not quite half way down the table on Mr. Bell's left.
After dinner General Taylor was induced to mount a chair in a corner of the parlor of the Mendell House and make an address to all who could crowd inside or hear him through the open windows. Soon afterwards the Presi- dential party took its departure from Ligonier and we boys started homeward. That incident in our lives when we dined with President Taylor occurred just sixty years ago. There can not be many persons now living who can say that they dined with General Taylor that long ago.
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JOHN FRITZ, IRONMASTER.
JOHN FRITZ, IRONMASTER.
READ AT THE DINNER TO MR. FRITZ, ON NOVEMBER 17, 1910, BY THE MANUFACTURERS OF PHILADELPHIA.
MY acquaintance with Mr. Fritz began in 1855, fifty- five years ago, when he came to Johnstown as the general superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works, which had been leased on May 15 of that year for a term of five years by the firm of Wood, Morrell & Co. These works had been built in 1853 and 1854 by the Cambria Iron Company as an iron rail mill, with several blast furnaces. They made their first rail on July 27, 1854. Only iron rails were made in this country for several years afterwards. The lease was extended in 1860 for one year and terminated in 1861.
A great problem confronted Mr. Fritz. He had to so manage the works as to make them a financial as well as a mechanical success. He succeeded in both undertakings. In 1856, the year following his assumption of this difficult task, the Cambria Iron Works rolled 13,206 tons of rails, and their annual production was thereafter increased under Mr. Fritz's management. The production in 1856 was only 5,386 tons less than the largest production of any rail mill in the country in that year-the mill of the Phoenix Iron Company rolling 18,592 tons. Those were the days of com- paratively small outputs at iron and steel works.
When Mr. Fritz took charge of the Cambria Iron Works he soon discovered that good rails could not be made from pig iron that had been made entirely from Cambria ores ; so, after much tribulation, he introduced a mixture of Cam- bria and other pig iron which worked well and produced good results.
But Mr. Fritz was not satisfied with the results he was accomplishing. The Cambria rail mill was equipped with two-high rolls, and as these could not be operated as sat- isfactorily as was desirable, and besides often invited acci-
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dents, Mr. Fritz conceived the idea of introducing three-high rolls, which had never before been used in any country in the manufacture of rails. This was done, and on July 3, 1857, the innovation proved to be a great success. Mr. Fritz had conspicuously shown his skill as an engineer. Soon there were three-high trains of rolls in all the rail mills of the country.
But a great trial came to Mr. Fritz the day after his successful use of three-high rolls. On July 4 the Cambria Iron Works burned down. We well remember that catas- trophe. All but the stoutest hearts were appalled. But Mr. Fritz was equal to the emergency. He infused courage into the breasts of all his men, and at once began the work of clearing away the débris and rebuilding the works. In pre- cisely four weeks the new works were running, and they made 30,000 tons of rails before any interruption occurred from any cause whatever.
Mr. Fritz was surrounded at Johnstown by a remarkably bright collection of engineers and mechanics, all young men, who gave him loyal support but who also learned much from him. They were long known as John Fritz's "boys." We can mention only a few of them: Jacob M. Campbell, Alexander Hamilton, George Fritz, William R. Jones, Daniel N. Jones, William Canam, James Bell, and Thomas H. Laps- ley. They are all gone. Robert W. Hunt, the first chemist of the Cambria Iron Works, who is with us to-night, came to Johnstown just as Mr. Fritz left for Bethlehem.
Mr. Fritz's connection with the Cambria Iron Works continued until July, 1860, when he resigned to superintend the erection and operation of the Bethlehem Iron Works, to embrace a number of blast furnaces and a rolling mill to roll iron rails. The rolling mill was successfully started in 1863. In 1873 Mr. Fritz introduced at these works the manufacture of Bessemer steel and Bessemer steel rails, and in 1890 he made for the Navy Department at the works of the Bethlehem Steel Company the first heavy armor plate that had ever been made in this country. The ar- mor plate plant of this company had been built under Mr. Fritz's direction.
A few years ago Mr. Fritz retired from all active par-
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JOHN FRITZ, IRONMASTER.
ticipation in the management of iron and steel works, after more than fifty years of unbroken success, which success has brought him many honors. Included in these honors we may mention honorary membership in the British Iron and Steel Institute, which has conferred upon Mr. Fritz the Bessemer gold medal. We may also mention a magnificent banquet which was tendered to Mr. Fritz by a large num- ber of prominent engineers and iron and steel manufac- turers at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in October, 1902, in celebration of his 80th birthday anniversary.
But we feel sure that no honor that has ever come to Mr. Fritz has given him more heartfelt pleasure than the testimonial which he received at Johnstown on July 4, 1860, immediately prior to his departure for his new field of labor at Bethlehem. On that day a superb set of silverware was presented to Mr. Fritz at the rolling mill of the Cambria Iron Works by the employés of Wood, Morrell & Co. Be- tween 1,500 and 2,000 persons were present at the presenta- tion, including many ladies. The presence of this army of workmen and citizens testified to the esteem in which Mr. Fritz was held by the whole community. The set of silver- ware included a remarkably handsome water pitcher. On it were inscribed these words : "To John Fritz, Esq., Gen- eral Superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works, as a Testi- monial, by the Employees. July 4, 1860." This pitcher was exhibited at the New York crystal palace during the World's Fair in 1853, and it took the first premium as the finest piece of silverware among many specimens that had been collected from all parts of the world. Several addresses were delivered, Mr. Fritz thanking the donors, as the Cambria Tribune said, "in a very feeling, frank, and earnest speech."
The Tribune devoted much space to an account of the testimonial to Mr. Fritz, remarking at the close of the ac- count that "the gift is but properly in keeping with the measure of the man," and that " in Mr. Fritz the company and this community lose a man and citizen whose place is not easily filled." Mr. Fritz was then 38 years old. He had been general superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works for five years. He was succeeded by his brother, George Fritz.
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There is one trait in Mr. Fritz's character which does him especial honor-his readiness on all occasions to give credit to the thousands of men subject to his orders who have contributed by their skill and loyalty to his remark- able success. In an address by Mr. Fritz on the 75th an- niversary of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia on Oc- tober 4, 1899, he said : "Here I wish to say that I should commit an act of ingratitude should I fail to give credit to the brave and noble workmen who throughout my long connection with the business have ever stood ready to meet any emergency, no matter what the danger or difficulty might be. For the kind and generous manner in which I was always treated by them they ever have a green spot in my memory." This is a gracious compliment from Mr. Fritz to his old companions in many a bitter struggle with engineering and mechanical problems that tested the skill and manhood of all of them, and it is most gracefully ex- pressed.
In the same address, embodying a note of strenuous personal experience, Mr. Fritz also said: " How little do the younger men who have charge of the great iron and steel industries know or even think of the severe mental strain, the great amount of bodily labor, the vexation, the sur- prises, and the disappointments that the men in charge experienced during the perfecting and erection of these vast establishments that are now engaged in the manufac- ture of iron and steel."
We are all glad to see Mr. Fritz looking so well to- night. He has hosts of absent friends who would share this pleasure if they were here .* I know of no man in the iron trade who has been so universally respected and loved as John Fritz. His personal qualities have been as lovable as his engineering achievements have been notable.
* In a letter to the president of the Manufacturers' Club expressing his regret that he could not participate in the testimonial to his old friend Mr. Carnegie said : "Pray convey to dear Uncle John my warm- est regards and congratulations upon his honored old age. Many are the men who on this occasion would join in giving three cheers for Uncle John ! I am sure he has not an enemy in the world and he has given to all of us a noble example."
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A LESSON FROM THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.
A LESSON FROM THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.
WRITTEN IN JUNE, 1889, AFTER WITNESSING THE DESTRUC- TION CAUSED BY THE FLOOD OF MAY 31.
IN the world we live in and in the universe of which it forms a part there are many evidences of a stupendous plan, as was long ago demonstrated by philosophical writers. The sun is set in the heavens; the planets revolve in their orbits; the earth turns on its axis; the seasons come and go ; the sea ebbs and flows. The doctrine of evolution may to some minds account for physical growth and develop- ment, but it fails to account for the existence of a plan in the creation of the universe.
A plan logically implies a planner, as has also been pointed out by philosophical writers.
Not only are there evidences of a grand plan which must have had a planner, but there are evidences without number of the existence of immutable laws for the gov- ernment of the universe. The sun is not only set in the heavens but it gives forth heat and light with unfailing regularity ; the planets revolve in their orbits, through mill- ions and millions of miles of space, with such precision that their coming and going and their positions toward one another may be calculated with mathematical exactness ; the earth not only turns on its axis but it turns so exactly that from day to day and from year to year there is not the variation of a second of time in its revolutions ; the seasons come and go in regular order; the proud waves of the tempestuous seas are stayed by unchanging boundaries.
We can not conceive of the existence of immutable laws without conceding the existence of a law-maker.
We have, then, in one person or essence, a planner, or creator, and a law-maker. Is it reasonable to suppose that the creator of the universe and the maker of the laws which govern it should cease to control the work of his
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own hands ? Certainly not. Therefore he rules; he is the great ruler.
If the planner of the universe, the maker of its laws, and the administrator of these laws be one and the same person, or essence, it must necessarily follow that whatever he doeth he doeth well. He would not do ill with his own. handiwork. The planets do not crash into one another, nor does the sun fail to give heat and light, or the earth fail to produce food for man and beast. He would not do ill with his own creatures. Is it conceivable, therefore, that the creator and ruler of the universe and the author of our existence should punish us after death because we had been weak when we should have been strong, or because, like Bartimeus of old, we were blind and could not see the way ? Is not our punishment on earth enough ? We suffer in the flesh and with mental agony for violations of the great creator's laws by ourselves or by those who have gone before us, and death itself, the common lot, is a great. terror, from which we would all escape if we could.
The inborn hope of immortality, the promises of the New Testament, and the precepts and example of the Found- er of Christianity, whether he be accepted as the Son of God or as the greatest of all the teachers and prophets, are incentives to all men to lead upright and useful lives and to prove themselves in all things worthy of the divinity that is within them. No wise man will undervalue these. influences ; they have made the human race all that it is to-day. But that the poor creature who was born with vicious and criminal instincts, or who became both vicious. and criminal through the influence of evil surroundings. which he had not chosen, is to be punished after death is. a doctrine which rests for acceptance solely upon the the- ory that the creator and the ruler of the universe and the author of our being is a vindictive God. But vindictive- ness is not an attribute of the Almighty, while mercy is. Surely infinite mercy can not be less merciful than the evenhanded justice of this world, which imposes only penal- ties that are commensurate with the offenses against which they are directed. Punishment after death, added to the punishment of death itself, would bear no just relation to
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A LESSON FROM THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.
even the gravest of earthly offenses. Who can sound the deepest depths of even a murderer's temptation, or accu- rately measure the inherited defects of his physical and mental and moral nature ?
The Ten Commandments contain no hint of either re- wards or punishments after death. The punishments of the Old Testament are distinctly of this world; nor does the Old Testament anywhere so far as we have observed speak of rewards to the righteous after death. In the Fifth Commandment we are told to "honor thy father and thy mother "-for what reason ?- " that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
The doctrine of a future state of rewards and pun- ishments can not be inferred from the Old Testament ac- counts of the death and burial of the patriarchs, kings, and prophets. "Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people." " And Isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days." " And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons he yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people." "Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die, and he charged Solomon, his son, saying I go the way of all the earth. So David slept with his fathers." In these and other Old Testament accounts the dying ex- press no hope of future reward or fear of future punish- ment. Indeed they say nothing about a future state.
In the Lord's Prayer every Christian child is given lasting impressions of a Heavenly Father which are loving, soothing, and strengthening. "Deliver us from evil " does not even hint of punishment after death as an evil from which we ask to be delivered. Why should the spirit of this prayer ever be departed from by those who teach us more of this Heavenly Father than our Saviour himself has taught us in its simple words and in many other ex- amples and precepts which he has set before us and com- mended to our hearts ?
If it shall be answered that there are passages in the Old and the New Testaments, but particularly in the New Testament, which are in conflict with the above views
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of God's justice and mercy, and which appear to confirm the doctrine of future punishment, we ask the reader to consider that these passages have been variously interpreted by conscientious and scholarly Bible students, and that they should be read in connection with other passages which clearly set forth God's love for his children and not apart from them. Many statements in both the Old and the New Testament are now generally discredited by reverent Bible critics; why not also those statements which are not in harmony with our conception of the Great Creator as our Heavenly Father ? Even the Sermon on the Mount is not free from criticism by reverent Bible students.
We have been led into this train of thought by the contemplation of the awful calamity which has just swept nearly 2,500 persons from time into eternity, in the twink- ling of an eye and without a moment's warning that they had reached the end of all earthly things. Shall it be said that these innocent victims of man's violation of nature's laws must be punished hereafter ? The very thought is abhorrent to our sense of infinite justice and mercy.
We have also since the flood been impressed by the reflection that among all our acquaintances and in all our reading and in all the sermons to which we have listened we have never heard of a man or woman of evangelical faith who was willing to admit that any of his or her de- ceased relatives had been consigned to a state of future pun- ishment, no matter how grave their offenses may have been. Apparently all men and all women have faith in the ex- emption from future punishment of their own friends. The human heart will not condemn its own. Are the affectionate impulses of the human heart to be ignored ? Is the logic of its love for its own to count for nothing ? What else is the inborn hope of immortality but a trusting faith in the ex- istence of a state of future happiness, adapted, it may be, to our individual capacity to enjoy it ? The hope of immor- tality, if interpreted in a spirit of Christian charity, implies freedom from future punishment for all men, and does not embody the selfish belief that a privileged few, as a special favor, may escape from its awful infliction upon their own persons.
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