USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Centennial biography : Men of mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1776-1876 > Part 31
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N. B. LANE, M. D.
ICHOLAS BITTINGER LANE was a native of Franklin county. He was born near Mont Alto Furnace, at the base of the South Mountain, in Quincy township, on the 15th day of August, 1802. His ancestors were emigrants from Holland, who came to this country at a very early period, and settled in Lancaster county, near Litiz. Samuel Lane, the father of the subject of this sketch, a wheelwright by trade, worked his way into Franklin county, and married the daughter of Nicholas Bittinger, a large land owner, who had signalized himself in the days of the Revolution as an ardent Whig, and who was captured by the British at Fort Washington. Inheriting a respectable property in Quincy township, from his father- in-law, he settled himself permanently near Funkstown. Daniel and Samuel Hughes, of Hagerstown, the latter a very distinguished lawyer, determining to erect a furnace on their mountain lands near that village, selected Mr. Lane as their superintendent, and under his directions were erected, and for a number of years operated, the " Mont Alto Iron Works," now so successfully conducted by Col. George B. Wiestling. Nicholas, the only son of Samuel Lane, was educated with as much care and instruction as could be provided him at home. and in the village of Waynesboro', where he was taught the mysteries of Surveying by John Flanegan, Esq., one of the most marked men of the county. In the spring of 1818, young Lane, then in his sixteenth year, commenced the study of medicine with Dr. S. D. Culbertson. of Chambersburg, an eminent practitioner of that day, with whom he remained until his medical course was completed in the spring of 1822. when he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, not being twenty- one years of age, from the celebrated University of Pennsylvania, and winning the distinction of having his thesis published in a leading medical journal of that day, by request of the Faculty.
In 1824, Dr. Lane formed a partnership in the practice of medicine with Dr. Alexander T. Dean, then located in Chambersburg, who was one of the most accomplished physicians in the State, which association continued until Dr. Dean formed the design of removing to Harris- burg. The firm of Lane, Bain & Culbertson was then formed, but was of short duration; Dr. Culbertson relinquishing practice altogether, and Dr. Bain returning to Baltimore from whence he had moved to
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Chambersburg. Dr. Lane, after the dissolution of the partnership, continued the practice of medicine for about twenty years, acquiring a large amount of business and gaining a reputation as a skilful physician excelled by none in the State, until he was disabled by the disease which closed his life on the 15th of April, 1853.
The life of a country physician is meagre of incidents of public interest, although so fraught with beneficence to individuals ; his toils and anxieties, his days and nights of watching and care, his studies and habits of thought being devoted to the sole object of relieving sickness, healing wounds and averting the shafts of the last enemy. Great public affairs go on around him unparticipated and almost unobserved by him ; other professions win applause and honours for their followers, large fortunes are made and high renown won by his fellows in other pursuits, but the worn and wearied country physician is almost submerged from public observation while he seeks to rescue the precious freight that this wrecked body yet bears. How many a splendid intellect, how much culture and sagacity in this grand class of workers have passed unnoticed, unsuspected ! Among this class, Dr. Lane enjoyed an honourable position. He was a quiet, modest and courteous gentleman, fond of study, well posted in all the branches of his profession, wonderfully successful in the treatment of diseases, and as an operative surgeon cautious and skilful ; besides, he had fine literary tastes, was a keen, forcible and ready writer, contributing fre- quently to the medical journals of his day, and in every scheme of reform and progress his pen could be relied upon as a powerful ally and advocate in his own community.
Dr. Lane took a deep interest in church affairs, although not a bigot in religion. While maintaining his own views firmly, he at all times yielded a respectful deference to the opinions of others; thus securing the good will and esteem of all denominations of Christians. He died in the faith of his fathers, a full believer in the doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Dr. Lane left a family of several sons and daughters. Two of his sons are engaged extensively in mercantile pursuits in the city of Pittsburgh. Two others have adopted the profession of their father and are pursuing the practice of medicine in their native county. Dr. William C. Lane, his eldest son, graduated in the University of Penn- sylvania. As a physician he has received a thorough course of training-is devotedly attached to his profession and highly esteemed as an efficient practitioner in the community in which he is located. As a local historian he deserves more than a passing notice. No
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man in the State is better informed, or has written more, on the early settlement of this part of the Cumberland valley than Dr. Lane. Its first settlers, its Indian wars and depredations, its noted men and events, its early churches and forts, interesting facts and incidents, adventures, traditions, &c., &c .; in all this, he is a perfect storehouse of knowledge. He writes with great ease and elegance, and will dash off page upon page of local history, detailing events, giving dates, &c., with a rapidity and accuracy truly wonderful. His writings have appeared from time to time, for years past, in our local news- papers, and are of great value as contributions to our early history, and if compiled would fill volumes. During the war of the Rebellion he served as surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Penn- sylvania Volunteers, and afterwards as surgeon of the Board of Enrolment of the Sixteenth District of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Samuel G. Lane, second son of Dr. N. B. Lane, received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with the highest honours, and at once entered upon the practice of medicine. Young, talented and zealous, of undoubted integrity, fine social qualities, and a mind generously stored with varied learning, he soon took position in the very front rank of his profession, acquiring a respectable practice and the confidence and esteem of the entire community. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he received the appointment of Surgeon to the Fifth Pennsylvania Reserves, sharing in the full the active service and dangers of the campaign with that noted regiment. His energy and ability as a surgeon attracted the attention of Gov. Curtin, who called him from active service in the field and commissioned him Assistant Surgeon General of the State. In this responsible position, by his strict attenton to business, generous and impartial conduct, he was looked upon then, as now, with affection and gratitude by the entire medical corps of the state. As a writer Dr. Lane possesses remarkable ability, contributing much as corres- pondent and editor to the newspapers of his native town.
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REV. JAMES BUCHANAN.
HE REV. JAMES BUCHANAN was a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania. He received his collegiate education in Dickinson College, Carlisle, where he was graduated Septem- ber 28th, 1803. He studied theology with the Rev. Nathan Grier, D). D., of Brandywine, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Newcastle, when he was about twenty-three years of age.
Mr. Buchanan's first settlement was in the Presbyterian Church of Harrisburg, Pa., where he laboured some years with faithfulness and success. His health having become impaired, he resigned his pastoral charge, and spent several years in traveling, with a view to its restora- tion. At length, finding his health in some degree restored. and having received a call from the congregation of Greencastle, he accepted it, and became their pastor in the year 1816. In this pastoral charge he laboured with great fidelity and acceptance for about twenty years, when, on account of declining health, and his inability to dis- charge his pastoral duties to his own satisfaction, he resigned his charge, to the very great regret of his congregation, who were devotedly attached to him. In hope of retaining him with them, they generously offered to accept a diminished amount of labour, such as his weak health would allow, without any diminution of salary. But a sense of duty and a regard to their highest interests, induced him to withdraw, and open the way for the settlement of another pastor. who would be able to give them the full amount of labour. By changing his location, also, he hoped that something might be gained in point of health, and that his life might be rendered more useful in the service of his Divine Master. He accordingly removed with his family to Logansport, Indiana, where, in charge of the Presbyterian Church in that place, he laboured with encouraging success, until the Head of the church dismissed him to the possession of his reward. As pleasing evidence that he did not labour in vain, we have been informed that during the short period of his ministry there, the church increased from about twenty to an hundred members. His death took place at Logansport, on the 16th of September, 1843, at the age of sixty years. His disease, which was congestion of the brain, and which, at its first appearance on the Sabbath, obliged him to close abruptly the public services of the sanctuary in which he was engaged,
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terminated in death on the Saturday morning following, at five o'clock. The nature and violence of his disease incapacitated him for much satisfactory conversation. He gave ample evidence, however, of his resignation to the will of God, and that his hope of salvation was firmly fixed upon the atoning blood of Christ.
To strangers who did not know Mr. Buchanan, his appearance was rather harsh and repulsive. His delicate health and shattered nerves, often greatly affected his spirits, and gave to his countenance the appearance of severity and moroseness. But he was a man of a warm heart, and of a kind and generous disposition. In his friendship he was steadfast. Although he was generally grave, yet in the midst of his intimate friends he often relaxed, and was highly cheerful and sociable. His piety was of a retiring and unostentatious character. It was, however, eminently practical, prompting him to the diligent discharge of all incumbent duties. He placed a very low estimate on his own piety, and although no one else doubted its reality, he himself often did. His bodily complaints gave a melancholy complexion to his religious experience, and interfered largely with his Christian comfort; occasionally, however, he was favoured with seasons of comfort during · which he greatly enjoyed the consolations of religion.
As a preacher he held a very respectable rank. His sermons, in their structure, were neat, systematic and short; in their matter, solid, evangelical and practical; and in their manner, grave, solemn and earnest. Although he could not be considered eloquent, he scarcely ever failed to interest and please those who were capable of judging correctly, and had a taste for good preaching. Indeed, very few men preached so uniformly well.
In the Judicatories of the church, Mr. Buchanan rarely spoke. This was not owing to any want of interest in the affairs of the church, or any want of readiness in communicating his thoughts, but to his nervous debility, which induced embarrassment, and rendered it ex- cecdingly painful for him to make the effort. He was, however, a judicious counsellor, and did his part in this way, in the disposal of the business of the church.
In his doctrinal views, he adhered strictly to the standards of the church to which he belonged, which he believed to be in conformity with the Word of God. He eschewed all novelties in doctrines and forms of worship, being content to walk in " the old paths," and the "good way" in which his fathers had trod. He was a good man, and did a noble work for God.
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HON. THADDEUS STEVENS .*
HADDEUS STEVENS was born at Danville, Caledonia county, Vermont, on the 4th day of April, 1792. His parents were poor, in a community where poverty was the rule and wealth the exception. Of his father, I know but little, save that he enlisted in the war of 1812, and died in the service. Upon his mother chiefly fell the burden of rearing their four sons. She was a woman of great energy, strong will, and deep piety. Early seeing the ambition and fully sympathizing with the aspiration of her crippled boy, she devotedly seconded his efforts for the acquisition of knowledge, and by her industry, energy and frugality largely aided him in procuring a collegiate education. He returned her affection with the full strength of his strong nature, and for many years after he had acquired fame and fortune in his adopted State, had the pleasure of · making an annual pilgrimage to the home which he had provided ' for her comfort, and where she dispensed, with means he furnished, a liberal charity.
In the last year of his life, in writing his will with his own hand, while making no provision for the care of his own grave, he did not forget that of his mother, but set apart an ample sum for that purpose directing yearly payments upon the condition, "that the sexton keep the grave in good order, and plant roses and other cheerful flowers at each of the four corners of said grave each spring." In the same instrument, devising one thousand dollars in aid of the establishment at his home of a Baptist church, of which society his mother was an earnest member, he said. "I do this out of respect to the memory of my mother, to whom I owe whatever little of prosperity I have had fon earth, which, small as it is, I desire emphatically to acknowledge."
After attending the common schools of the neighbourhood, he fitted for college at the Peacham Academy in his native county, entered the University of Vermont, and remained there about two years. The college suspending on account of the war, he proceeded to Dartmouth, and graduated at that institution in 1814. After reading law at Peacham, in the office of Judge Mattocks, for some months, he left his native State and settled in Pennsylvania, in 1815, first in the town
* From the Eulogy of Hon. O. J. Dickey, pronounced in the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C .. December 17th, 18os.
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of York, where he taught an academy and pursued his legal studies. The rules of court in that district having required students to read one year in the office of an attorney, he went to Bel Air, Harford county, Maryland, and was there examined and admitted to practice in August, 1816. He at once returned to Pennsylvania and opened a law office at Gettysburg, in the county of Adams, and entered upon the practice of his profession in that and adjoining counties. He was soon in the possession of an extensive and lucrative business, to which he gave his entire attention for some sixteen years.
Mr. Stevens first engaged actively in politics with the Anti-Masonic party of 1828-29, which he joined in their opposition to secret societies. lle was elected to the popular branch of the Legislature of his State, in 1833, as a representative from the county of Adams, and continued to serve in that body almost without interruption until 1840, during which entire period he was the leader of the party in the Legislature, if not the State. During this service he championed many measures of improvement ; among others the common school system of Pennsylvania, which, at a critical moment, he saved from overthrow by a speech which he always asserted to have been, in his opinion, the most effective he ever made.
By that single effort he established the principle, never since seriously questioned in Pennsylvania, that it is the duty of the State to provide the facilities of education to all the children of the Com- monwealth. In behalf of this measure he joined hands with his bitterest personal enemies. He highly culogized for his course upon this question, the chief of the opposing political party. Governor George Wolf, and denounced with all his power of invective the time- servers of his own party. Himself the child of poverty, he plead the cause of the poor, and by the force of his will, intellect, and eloquence. broke down the barriers erected by wealth, caste and ignorance, and earned a name that will endure as long as a child of Pennsylvania gratefully remembers the blessings conferred by light and knowledge.
In 1837-38, Mr. Stevens was a member of the Convention called to revise the Constitution of Pennsylvania, an assemblage which num- bered as members many of the strongest men of the State, among whom Mr. Stevens stood in the front rank. This Convention, notwith- standing the able and strenuous opposition of a strong minority, led by Mr. Stevens, inserted the word "white" as a qualification of suffrage, thus disfranchising a race. On this account he refused to append his name to the completed instrument, and stood alone in such
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refusal. For the same cause he opposed, but unsuccessfully, the rati- fication by the people.
In 1842, Mr. Stevens, finding himself deeply in debt by reason of losses in the iron business, and liabilities incurred in numerous indorse- ments made for friends, removed to Lancaster county, one of the largest, richest and most populous counties in the State, and resumed the practice of his profession. His reputation as a lawyer had pre- ceded him, and his income almost at once became the largest at the bar. In a few years he paid his debts and saved the bulk of his estate. In 1848 and 1850, he was elected to Congress from Lancaster county. when, declining to be a candidate, he returned to his profession until 1858, when he was again elected and continued to hold the seat without interruption until his death. His course upon this floor has passed into and forms no unimportant part in the history of a mighty people in a great crisis of their existence. But I have promised to leave to others to say what may be proper in illustration of his great achieve- ments in his latter days.
To those here who judged of the personal appearance of the de- ceased only as they looked on him bearing the burden of years, and stricken with disease, though he still stood with eye undimmed and will undaunted, I may say that in his prime he was a man physically well proportioned, muscular and strong, of clear and ruddy complexion, with face and feature of great nobility and under perfect command and control. In his youth and early manhood, notwithstanding his lame- ness, he entered with zest into almost all of the athletic games and sports of the times. He was an expert swimmer and an excellent horseman.
When residing at Gettysburg, he followed the chase, and kept his hunters and hounds. On a recent visit to his iron works, I found the old mountain men garrulous with stories of the risks and dangers of the bold rider, as with horse and hound he followed the deer along the slopes and through the gaps of the South Mountain.
In private life among his friends, Mr. Stevens was ever genial, kind and considerate. To them he was linked with hooks of steel. For them he would labour and sacrifice without stint, complaint or regret. In his hours of relaxation there could be no more genial companion. Ilis rare conversational powers, fund of anecdote, brilliant sallies of wit and wise sayings upon the topics of the hour, made his company much sought, and many of these are the current coin of the circles in which he moved.
Mr. Stevens was an honest and truthful man in public and private
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life. His word was sacred in letter and spirit, and was never paltered in a double sense. In money matters he was liberal to a fault, and out of his immense professional income he left but a meagre estate. In his private charity he was lavish. He was incapable of saying no in the presence of want and misery. His charity, like his political convictions, regarded neither creed nor colour. He was a good classical scholar, and was well read in ancient and modern literature, especially on subjects of philosophy and law. In his old age he read but few books. Shakspeare, Dante, Homer, Milton and the Bible, would, however, generally be found upon his table in his sleeping room, where he was accustomed to read in bed. He was simple and temperate in his . habits. He disliked the use of tobacco, and for forty years never used or admitted in his house intoxicating drinks, and only then by direction of his physician.
Mr. Stevens was deeply loved and fully trusted by his constituents. He was often in advance of their views ; sometimes he ran counter to their prejudices or passions, yet such was his popularity with them, so strong their faith in his wisdom, in the integrity of his actions and the purity of his purpose, that they never failed to support him.
Popular with men of all parties, with his own supporters his name was a household word. To them and among themselves, "Old Thad," was a name of endearment, while even his foes spoke of him with pride as the "Great Commoner." No man ever died more deeply mourned by a constituency than Thaddeus Stevens.
Having briefly selected some of the incidents that marked the history of my friend, I will, in conclusion, say a few words of him on the subject in connection with which he is probably more widely known than any other-slavery. Mr. Stevens was always an anti- slavery man. From the time he left his native mountains, to the moment of his death, he was always not only anti-slavery in the common acceptation of the term, but a bold, fearless, determined and uncompromising foe of oppression in any and every form. He was an abolitionist before there was such a party name. His opposition to American slavery never altered with his party connection, and was never based upon mere questions of expediency or political economy. He always viewed it as a great wrong, at war with the fundamental principles of this and all good governments, as a sin in the sight of God, and a crime against man. For many years, long before it became popular to do so, he denounced this institution as the great crime of the nation, on the stump. in the forum, in party conventions,
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in deliberative assemblies. On this question he was always in advance of his party, his State, and constituents.
Always resident in a border county, he defended the fugitive on all occasions, asserted the right of free speech, and stood between the abo- litionist and the mob, often with peril to himself. This was one great cause of his having been so long in a minority, and of his entrance late in life into the councils of the nation, but for this, he was fully com- pensated by living to see the destruction of an institution which he loathed, and by receiving for his reward, and as the crowning glory of his life, the blessings of millions he had so largely aided to make free.
Mr. Stevens dicd on the 11th day of August, 1868, and his remains lie in Lancaster, Pa., in a private cemetery established by an old friend. in a lot selected by himself, for reasons as stated in the touching and beautiful epitaph prepared by himself for inscription on his tomb, "I repose in this quiet, secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race, I have chosen it that I might be enabled to illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life -- equality of man before his Creator."
HON. FREDERICK WATTS.
N eminent minister of the Gospel once said, "the leading lawyer is always the most prominent member of the com- munity in which he lives."
Whether this is always the case in large cities and commercial centres, it is no doubt generally so in agricultural communities ; and it certainly is beyond dispute that Judge Watts was the most promi- nent member of the community in which he lived, for more than a quarter of a century. We find him in the Supreme Court of the State as early as October Term, 1827, arguing a case reported in 16 Sergeant and Rawle, page 416, and as late as May Term, 1869, as appears by the Cumberland Valley Railroad Company's appeal, reported in 12 Smith, 218, and all through that period of forty-two years (except the three he was on the bench) there is not a single volume of reports containing the cases from the Middle District, in which his name is not found, and few cases of importance from the counties in which he practised, in which he was not counsel for either plaintiff or defendant in error. Add to this the fact that, for fifteen years, he was reporter of the decisions of that court, and during that period, and before and after it. engaged in a large office business and in the trial of nearly all the important cases in the courts below, in his own county and Perry, and we have abundant evidence of a life of more than ordinary industry.
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