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 9
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men who have ever lived in Pennsylvania have known the history of the State, and especially its political history, as Cyrus L. Pershing knew it. He was familiar with the careers of its notable men-politicians, lawyers, clergymen, college professors, and others, and he had a personal ac- quaintance with many of them.
After his admission to the bar Mr. Pershing's advance- ment in the councils and leadership of his party was so rapid that in 1856 and again in 1858 he was the Demo- cratic candidate for Congress in the district of which Cambria county formed a part. He was defeated in both years, as the district was largely Republican in sentiment, but in each year he greatly reduced the normal anti- Democratic majority. In the autumn of 1861 he was elect- ed a member of the Legislature from Cambria county, and he was re-elected in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, serving in this office for an unusually long and continuous period. His service in the Legislature ended with the session of 1866. The author of a published sketch of Mr. Pershing in 1869 says : "During the whole of Mr. Pershing's service at Harrisburg he was a member of the committee of ways and means, the judiciary, and other important general and special committees. At the session of 1863, the only one in which the Democrats had a majority, Mr. Pershing was chairman of the committee on federal relations and at the succeeding session he was the Democratic nominee for Speaker of the House. He was an acknowledged leader and enjoyed to a rare degree the confidence and personal esteem of his fellow members without distinction of party."
It will be observed that Mr. Pershing's services in the Pennsylvania Legislature covered almost the entire period of the civil war. He was himself a War Democrat and believed in the vigorous prosecution of the war. In addi- tion to what is said of Mr. Pershing's legislative career in the extract above quoted it can be stated as a part of the history of that great struggle that Governor Curtin was in the habit of privately consulting with Mr. Pershing as the Democratic leader in emergencies which were constantly arising. The Governor could rely on his loyalty, his wis- dom, and his influence over his fellow members.
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Honors now came to Cyrus L. Pershing in rapid succes- sion. In 1866 he was a delegate from his Congressional district to the National Union Convention which met at Philadelphia in August of that year. In 1868 he was a Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. In 1869 he was the Democratic candidate for judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, but was defeated by a small ma- jority. In 1872, owing to divisions in the Democratic party of Schuylkill county, he was asked to become a compromise candidate for president judge of the courts of that county. Mr. Pershing accepted the nomination with some hesitation, remarking to the writer of this sketch that it was always a risk to transplant an old tree. He was then in his 48th year. He had never been in Schuylkill county, and was, of course, a stranger to most of its people, even to many mem- bers of the bar who had urged him to accept the nomina- tion. However, he consented to become a candidate and was elected by a large majority for the constitutional term of ten years. In December, 1872, he held his first court at Pottsville and in the spring of 1873 he moved his family to Pottsville. In 1882 he was elected for another term of ten years, and in 1892 for still another term. But failing health prevented him from serving the whole of the third term. He resigned in August, 1899, having presided with great acceptance over the courts of Schuylkill county for twenty-seven consecutive years. From 1899 until his death in 1903 he rested from his labors, but his interest in pub- lic affairs and in the welfare of his immediate neighbor- hood never ceased, and his wonderful memory never failed until he was stricken with his last illness.
In 1875, while presiding over the courts of Schuylkill county, Judge Pershing was nominated for Governor of Pennsylvania by the Democratic State Convention of that year, his opponent being General John F. Hartranft, who had been elected to the Governorship in 1872 and was now a candidate for a second term. Owing to his position on the bench Judge Pershing could not " take the stump." So great, however, was his personal popularity that he was defeated by General Hartranft by a majority of less than 12,000 votes. Outside of Philadelphia he carried the State.
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From 1876 to 1878, inclusive, during Judge Pershing's first term as president judge of Schuylkill county, the infa- mous criminal organization known as the Molly Maguires was completely broken up and many of its members were hung as the result of a series of trials over many of which Judge Pershing presided. This organization had terrorized the anthracite region for several years, and its agents had committed many murders to establish its lawless authority over the mining of anthracite coal. At the risk of his life Judge Pershing did not hesitate to sentence to death the convicted participants in these crimes who were tried before him. From the beginning to the end of these trials he dis- played a degree of both physical and moral courage that has never been excelled on the bench. The trials attracted national attention. The law-abiding citizens of Schuylkill county, without respect to party, have never ceased to ex- press their great obligations to Judge Pershing for the cour- ageous part he took in ridding the county of the Mollie Maguire terror. He had been thoroughly tested and found to be pure gold.
Judge Pershing became a member of the First Presby- terian church of Johnstown when still a young man. He became a teacher in its Sunday-school and was afterwards its superintendent for many years. He was a ruling elder in the church when scarcely thirty years old and he con- tinued in the eldership during his residence in Johnstown. After his removal to Pottsville he was chosen to the same office in the Second Presbyterian church of that place, and for many years he taught the Bible class in its Sunday- school. He was a member of the Union Presbyterian Con- vention which met in Philadelphia in November, 1867, and a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which met at Chicago in 1877, at Saratoga in 1884, at Philadelphia in 1888, and at Washington City in 1893. Judge Pershing was always a loyal friend of his alma. mater, Jefferson College, and of the united colleges, Wash- ington and Jefferson. From March, 1865, until June, 1877, when he resigned, he was a trustee of Washington and Jefferson College. At the laying of the corner-stone of the front part of the main college building, on October 21,
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1873, Judge Pershing delivered an address. In 1900 the trustees of the college conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of laws, an honor that he richly deserved.
Judge Pershing died at his home in Pottsville on June 29, 1903, as has already been stated. Never a strong man physically, frail of body but big in intellect, the last few years of his life were a continual struggle against uncon- querable disease. The several courts of Schuylkill county at once adjourned when his death became known. On the same day a largely attended meeting of the bench and bar of the county was held at the court-house in Pottsville, at which addresses were delivered and resolutions were adopted which recognized the great services of the deceas- ed jurist and expressed profound appreciation of his lofty private character. It was resolved to attend the funeral in a body. On July 2 the body of Judge Pershing was laid to rest in Mount Laurel cemetery, in Pottsville, in sight of the beautiful home on the hillside in which he had lived with his wife and children for thirty years.
The services at the house and at the grave were ren- dered particularly impressive by the presence of Rev. Dr. Benjamin L. Agnew, the secretary of the board of minis- terial relief of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Agnew was for ten years the pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Johnstown, and during the whole of this period Judge Pershing was one of his elders and one of his most inti- mate friends. Dr. Agnew and Judge Pershing were born in adjoining counties-Dr. Agnew in Armstrong county and Judge Pershing in Westmoreland county.
At the meeting of the bench and bar of Schuylkill county on the day of Judge Pershing's death President Judge Bechtel, the chairman, said : "No one ever faced his duty more conscientiously than Judge Pershing. He came here to preside over a court which had the distinction of having a bar membership second to none in the great State of Pennsylvania. He was called upon at that time to dis- pose of most intricate civil, equitable, and other legal ques- tions. He lived through it all and performed his duties faithfully, sincerely, and earnestly. His action in his offi- cial capacity brought honor and greatness to him. His
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decisions were quoted as authority throughout the State by such eminent jurists as Judge Elwell and others, and were considered akin to decisions of the Supreme Court."
On the day of his death the newspapers of Pottsville referred to the character and services of Judge Pershing in most kindly terms. The Chronicle said: "In the death of Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing Schuylkill county loses one of its most eminent and honored citizens and the State a ju- rist whose record was second to none. Judge Pershing came to Schuylkill county untried upon the bench. He soon, however, demonstrated the wisdom of his selection, for no man ever did more to raise the standard of the bench of Schuylkill county than he. His private life was spotless, his career upon the bench above criticism, and when he voluntarily retired from public life he carried with him the highest esteem and sincere love of the entire county which he had so zealously and ably served." The Republican said : " Pottsville and Schuylkill county have lost a distin- guished citizen by the death of Judge Cyrus L. Pershing. Judge Pershing was a man of large mental capacity, power- ful will, sterling character, and the strictest integrity. His private life, in the church and in the precincts of the home circle, was a model one. Judge Pershing was one of the representative men of Pottsville, one whose memory is a precious heritage."
Cyrus L. Pershing was a thoroughly equipped lawyer, a wise and just judge, a politician who sought the public welfare and a man of wide influence in the promotion of many good works. But the world can not know, as his in- timate friends knew, and especially as his old friends knew, how hard, how very hard, was the struggle that he was compelled to make to fit himself for the duties that fell to his lot. From a child he was handicapped by weak eye- sight, and in his ambition to obtain a liberal education he had no assistance, but he never faltered in that ambition from the time he recited his first Latin lesson, and he lit- erally paid his own way through a college course. All his subsequent success was due to the same courageous spirit and to his remarkable industry. He was no idler, no trifler with precious time. The work that was given him to do
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he did with all his might. All his life he was a student, not only of books but also of men and events. Withal he was sociable, genial, and kind-hearted. His wonderful memory of historical events and his recollections of public men, joined to a vein of the keenest humor and to a ready wit that no bodily affliction ever suppressed, made him a delightful companion for old and young. And yet, looking back upon his long and useful and honorable life, no trait in his character appeals to us with so much force as the brave fight he made against mighty odds to secure a lib- eral education and a mastery of his profession. He was pre-eminently a man of courage. He conquered difficulties that would have appalled most men and he feared no man.
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COLONEL JACOB M. CAMPBELL.
AN EDITORIAL IN THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE OF FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1865, WITH ADDENDA.
THE importance of the pending political campaign in this State, and the enthusiasm everywhere created among loyal men by the nomination of two distinguished soldiers for the only offices to be filled this year on the State ticket, naturally call for more than a brief reference to the antece- dents and characteristics of our Republican standard-bearers. In another place we give such information as we possess concerning the civic and military record of Major General Hartranft, the candidate for auditor general, and in this article we propose to tell what we know about our friend and fellow-citizen, Colonel Campbell, the nominee for sur- veyor general.
Jacob Miller Campbell is a native of that old Whig stronghold, Somerset county, where he was born forty-four years ago in Allegheny township on November 20, 1821. He was the son of John and Mary (Weyand) Campbell. When a mere youth his parents removed to Allegheny City, where he went to school until 1835. In that year, being fourteen years old, he became an apprentice in the office of the Somerset Whig, a Democratic newspaper, in which he remained until he had mastered as much of the printing business as could be learned in a country office of that day. In 1840 he left Somerset and worked for some time " at case" in the office of the Literary Examiner, a monthly magazine of considerable merit, published in Pittsburgh. From here our "jour printer " found his way to New Or- leans and to another printing office. But his active nature was not satisfied. The steamboat trade on the lower Missis- sippi presented in 1840, as does the oil business in 1865, tempting inducements to enterprising spirits who care less for hard knocks than for the substantial benefits which they
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sometimes produce. Laying down his composing stick the boy of nineteen became a steamboatman, and for several subsequent years he filled successively the positions of clerk, mate, and part owner of a steamboat, always, however, mak- ing Pennsylvania his home, which he frequently visited. In 1847 the iron business of our State attracted his atten- tion and he embarked in it at Brady's Bend, working as a roller in a rolling mill. In the same year he married. In 1851 he followed the course of empire to California but did not long remain there, and in 1853 we find him in Johns- town assisting in the construction of our mammoth rolling mill. With this splendid enterprise he remained connected up to the breaking out of the war, holding all the time an important and responsible position.
In April, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon and the call appeared for volunteers to "rally round the flag." At that time Mr. Campbell was first lieutenant of a volunteer company in Johnstown, and his company at once tendered its services to the Governor, who promptly accepted them. It was the first company to enter Camp Curtin. Upon the organization of the Third Regiment of Pennsylvania Volun- teers for three months' service this company became known as Company G. Lieutenant Campbell was appointed quar- termaster of the regiment, a position which he filled with great acceptance until the regiment was discharged. On the 28th of July he was mustered out of service, and on the 30th he was authorized to recruit a regiment for three years' service. In due time the regiment was completed and he was commissioned its colonel, the companies composing it having been largely recruited through his individual efforts. Eight of the ten companies were recruited in Cambria and Somerset counties and two in Lehigh and Northampton counties. The regiment when mustered into service was designated the Fifty-fourth.
For two years this regiment performed the arduous duty of guarding sixty miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and while thus engaged it protected the Maryland and Pennsylvania border from Rebel invasion and from guer- rilla outrages. It is a fact that may not be generally known to Pennsylvanians that to the Fifty-fourth Regiment they
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owe much of the security they enjoyed in their persons and property during 1862 and 1863, the two most critical years of the war. The position of the Fifty-fourth was at all times an exceedingly dangerous one, requiring the exercise of the utmost vigilance and the soundest discretion. Dur- ing its guardianship of the railroad it was frequently en- gaged in skirmishes with the enemy, and upon more than one occasion it gave timely and valuable information of his movements and designs. In addition to his ordinary duties as commander of the regiment Colonel Campbell was almost daily called upon to decide disputes between the Rebels and Unionists residing along the line of the rail- road, and it is no exaggeration to say that in no instance was justice cheated or rascality rewarded. It is not an as- sertion merely, but the testimony of all who are cognizant of the facts, that the commander of the Fifty-fourth mani- fested on all occasions the possession of judicial qualities of a high order. Of his purely executive ability the suc- cessful and always satisfactory manner in which the regi- ment guarded those sixty miles of railroad in hostile terri- tory is the only proof that we need to cite. We had almost. omitted to mention that from March, 1863, until March, 1864, Colonel Campbell was in command of the Fourth Brigade, First Division, Eighth Army Corps, in which was included his own regiment.
Early in 1864 General Sigel took command of the De- partment of West Virginia and moved with all his availa- ble troops to Martinsburg, preparatory to a movement up the Shenandoah valley. In a reorganization of the troops which then took place Colonel Campbell, at his own request, returned to the command of his regiment. At the battle of New Market, on May 15, 1864, the regiment suffered se- verely. It occupied the extreme left of the line and was the last to leave the field.
Under General Hunter the Fifty-fourth Regiment took a prominent part in the battle of Piedmont, on June 5, 1864, again occupying the left of the line, and this time flanking the enemy's right and attacking him in the rear. After the battle Colonel Campbell was assigned to the command of a brigade and as a special favor his own regiment was trans-
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ferred to it, that it might remain under its old commander. The brigade suffered heavily in an attack on the Rebel entrenchments at Lynchburg and covered the retreat of the army when the attack failed. On July 24 the brigade participated in the battle of Winchester and upon the fall of Colonel Mulligan Colonel Campbell took command of his division. He continued in command until its consolida- tion into a brigade, consequent upon its many losses in killed - and wounded, and he afterwards commanded the brigade. After General Sheridan came to the head of the department the brigade participated in the engagements in the Shen- andoah valley under that renowned commander. Colonel Campbell was mustered out of service nearly two months after the expiration of his three years' term of enlistment. His total period of service, including the three months' campaign, covered nearly three and a half years.
Colonel Campbell's early record as a politician will bear examination. Reared in the school of Jacksonian Democracy he voted in 1844 for Polk and Dallas. In 1848, however, he abandoned the party which he had become convinced was the champion of slavery extension, and the foe to Penn- sylvania's best interests, and voted for the Free Soil candi- dates, Van Buren and Adams. His residence in the South had shown him the evils of slavery and he therefore gave his vote against the party which sought its extension. In 1852 he voted again for the Free Soil nominees, Hale and Julian. In 1856 he was the delegate from Cambria county to the Fremont Convention, which met at Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia. During that year he took an active part in advocating Republican principles in his own county, and at once took rank with the people of the county as a politician of fairness, ability, and zeal. His influence in county politics continued to be felt during the succeeding years. In 1859 he was the choice of the Republicans of Cambria county for the Senatorial nomination in the dis- trict composed of Cambria, Blair, and Clearfield counties, and a little more than a month ago he was again unanimously selected as the choice of the Union party of his county for Senator from the district composed of Cambria, Indi- ana, and Jefferson counties. That he was not nominated on
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either occasion by the district conference was not owing to a want of appreciation of his worth and services, but was due to the supposed superior claims of the county which was honored with the nominee. Such is the private and public record of our candidate for surveyor general.
Colonel Campbell is a shrewd business man, a public spirited citizen, a good worker, and an honest man. With- out having enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education he is, nevertheless, one of the best read men in the State. He is a clear thinker and remarkably cool and cautious in judgment. In a long acquaintance we have rarely known him to err in his estimate of public men or in the wisdom of public measures. He is a man of marked sagacity. His social characteristics are of that class which never fails to create the warmest friendships and to command the respect of all. That he is worthy of the office for which he has been nominated is conceded by those who know the man. That he and his gallant colleague, General Hartranft, will be elected by overwhelming majorities is a foregone conclusion.
The foregoing sketch of Colonel Campbell was written when he was the Republican candidate for surveyor gen- eral in 1865. He was elected to that office for the term of three years on the ticket with General Hartranft for audi- tor general. In 1868 both gentlemen were re-elected to the same offices, each serving another term of three years. In 1876 Colonel Campbell was elected a Republican Represent- ative to the 45th Congress from the 17th district of Penn- sylvania, composed of the counties of Bedford, Blair, Cam- bria, and Somerset, receiving a majority of 520 votes over John Reilly, his Democratic opponent. In 1878 he was a candidate for re-election but was defeated by A. H. Coffroth by a majority of 305. In 1880 he was elected to the 47th Congress by a majority of 1,436 over A. H. Coffroth, and in 1882 he was elected to the 48th Congress by a majority of 551 over the same opponent. He was elected to the 49th Congress by a majority of 3,564 over Americus Enfield. It will be seen that Colonel Campbell represented his district in Congress for the exceptionally long period of eight years, a fact which forcibly testifies to his popularity and ability.
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An incident in the life of Colonel Campbell, illustrating his patriotism, should not go unrecorded. When in the service of Wood, Morrell & Co. he worked under a ton- nage contract for several years, employing his own helpers. This contract was profitable. When the civil war came and it was necessary for Pennsylvania to borrow a large sum of money to make preparation to assist the Govern- ment at Washington in resisting rebellion Colonel Campbell promptly subscribed $30,000 to the State loan, which repre- sented virtually all his savings. At the time this subscrip- tion was made the risk of payment of both interest and principal was very great, as all who passed through those trying times will well remember. More than one friend of Colonel Campbell said that he would never see his money again.
On April 28, 1847, Colonel Campbell was married to Mary Rankin Campbell (no relative) at Brady's Bend. He died at Johnstown on September 27, 1888, aged nearly 67 years. His wife and several children survived him.
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ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN.
WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1878, AND PRINTED IN PAMPHLET FORM FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.
DIED, at his residence, No. 1735 Oxford street, Philadel- phia, on Friday, November 22, 1878, Alexander Chesterfield Mullin, aged 48 years, 2 months, and 3 days.
Mr. Mullin was born on the 19th day of September, 1830, in the town of Bedford, Pennsylvania, in the historic structure known then and now as the Old Fort. His pa- rents were George and Catharine Mullin, the father a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and the mother, whose maiden name was Hammer, a native of Frederick county, Maryland. George Mullin was for many years a promi- nent citizen of Bedford county. In the fall of 1836, at the close of his second term as sheriff, he removed his family to the Mansion Farm,'on the Wheeling turnpike, six miles west of Bedford, which he had purchased in 1818. Here his son Alexander lived, a farmer's boy, until he went from the parental roof, when little more than seventeen years old. He was the youngest of seven brothers. Three of the brothers were in the Union army. Both the grandfathers of this family served in the Revolutionary war.
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