USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 37
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In the winter of 1857 the entire opposition members of the Legislature, consisting of Whigs, Native Americans, and Tariff-Men, selected General Cameron as their candidate to fill the place of Senator Brodhead, whose term of service expired on the 4th of March that year. The Democratic caucus nomi- nated Col. John W. Forney, then the inti- mate friend of President Buchanan, who had
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written a letter to the Legislature naming him as his choice for the senatorship, al- though a large portion of the party were in favor of Henry D. Foster, who was an out- spoken tariff man. The united votes of the opposition, with three Democratic votes. two from Schuylkill and one from York, in which counties General Cameron possessed great strength and popularity on account of his firm devotion to their industrial interests, were cast in his favor, and he was elected for the full term. He took his seat in the Senate on the 4th of March, notwithstanding the futile assault made by his colleague from Pennsylvania, Mr. Bigler, upon his title to the place, and which that body refused to consider. General Cameron's return to the United States Senate brought him again prominently before the public, and in the political movements which preceded the campaign of 1860 he was named as the choice of Pennsylvania for the Presidency; and his name early associated with that of Mr. Lin- coln in connection with the Republican na- tional ticket.
General Cameron's national career began at the Chicago convention in 1860, when the Republican party, crystallized into a national organization, made its open, clear, and stern antagonism to slavery. With intuitive sa- gacity the advocates of slavery recognized in the Republican party the force which would ultimately overthrow it, and men like General Cameron were recognized as the leaders of that force. There was no mistak- ing the measure on which it entered on the canvas in 1860. When Mr. Lincoln was nominated General Camerom made himself felt in such a manner as to win the confi- dence of that illustrious statesman. After the great political battle of that year, General Cameron was the first of those to whom Mr. Lincoln turned for counsel, and the offer of a cabinet office by the latter to the former was a voluntary act, and that appointment would have been made the first in the selec- tion of his cabinet had not intrigues inter- fered to defer it at the time. Mr. Lincoln looked on General Cameron from first to last not only as his political, but his warm personal friend, and there were no such rela- tions existing between the President and his other constitutional advisers. This fact was well known when the cabinet was organized. While he was in the War Department his counsel was not only potential in cabinet meetings, but was sought by the President
in private, and heeded in such a marked manner as to create a feeling of hostility, which caused the President much unpleas- antness. Then, too, believing that the Civil war would require all the available resources of the Nation to preserve the Union, doubt- ing the speedy settlement of the trouble, he began as Secretary of War a scale of prepa- rations to combat it which puzzled the oldest officers in the army and chagrined the leaders of the Rebellion, who had calculated much on the supineness and lethargy of the North- ern people. General Cameron frustrated this hope by his energy, but he had the cabi- net to a man against him. When he sought to furnish the necessary supplies for the army he was met by sickly sentimentality about settling the war in diplomacy. The Confederates resorted to the ruse of diplo- macy by means of commissioners for the purpose of retarding this activity, but at the same time General Cameron was filling up the arsenals which had been dispciled by the former Secretary of War, thus supplying the army with huge quantities of ordinance and commissary and quartermasters' stores, etc. Such work naturally attracted the at- iention of the sordid, excited the timid, aroused the jealous, and confounded the sus- picious. The minister who thus labored to equip his country for a struggle with trea- son, the proportions of which he alone seemed fully to appreciate, was assailed for each and all of these acts. Mr. Lincoln had the fullest confidence in his Secretary of War; he believed in his sagacity and relied on his courage, but he could not wholly withstand the clamor, the outgrowth of cowardice on the one side and the cunning greed of adventurers on the other, so that General Cameron, to relieve Mr. Lincoln from embarrassment, resolved to resign, and on January 11, 1862, returned the portfolio of the War Department to the President; but in that act he commanded the renewed confidence of Mr. Lincoln, who the day he accepted his resignation nominated the re- tiring minister for the most important diplo- matic mission in his gift. Nor was this all; Mr. Lincoln insisted that General Cameron should name his own successor, an act which no retiring cabinet officer ever did before or since. The mission to Russia involved the safe and sagacious handling of our relations with the Czar's government at a moment when it demanded the most prudent direc- tion. The kindly relations which existed
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between the colossal power of the North and the great republic of the West dated back in their amity when Catharine declined to take part with England in the suppression of American Colonial Revolution for inde- pendence. General Cameron restored this feel- ing, and thus frustrated English and French intrigue to organize an alliance with Na- poleon III. at its head in the interest of the Southern Confederacy. The country never fully appreciated this fact, because it was a part of its diplomacy which admitted of no correspondence. This object accomplished, concluded General Cameron's mission to Russia. There was in fact nothing more to do in St. Petersburg but to maintain what had been established, and he could with safety ask for his credentials and retire.
The relations between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Cameron were always most cordial, and immediately upon his reaching the United States the latter was the accepted citizen- counselor at the White House. At this time efforts were being made looking to defcating the renomination of Mr. Lincoln for a second term. It was a period of great solicitudc to the President, who with characteristic modesty declined to make any movement in his own behalf. In the winter of 1864 the intrigue referred to was talked of in political circles at Washington as a success. General Cameron visited the national capital re- peatedly at that time, and on reaching his farm after a return from one of these visits had a paper prepared, embodying the merits of Mr. Lincoln as President, acknowledging the fidelity and integrity of his first admin- istration, and declaring that his renomina- tion and re-election involved a necessity es- sential to the success of the war for the Union. That paper was submitted to the Republican members of both branches of the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania, every one of whom signed it, and in this shape was presented to Mr. Lincoln, and telegraphed to the country at large. Its publication accomplished all that the fore. thought of its originator anticipated. In three weeks after the issuing of this letter, it was a curious spectacle to watch the precipita- tion with which the Republicans in all the States hastened to declare in favor of Mr. Lincoln's renomination ; so that when the National Convention assembled to do that act there was no opposition to him.
From 1864 to 1866 General Cameron took
a very active part in the politics of Pennsyl- vania, giving to the organization of the Re- publican party a prestige which enabled jt to bear down all opposition. IIe was the one leader of that party who could rally it in despondency and hold it in fidelity to its pledges.
In 1866 he was re-elected to the United States Senate, a position be held a longer term of years than any man sent to the same body from the State of Pensylvania. His influence on national legislation was as great as that of any man that ever served in the Senate. The singularity of this influence is revealed in greater force when it is remem- bered that he seldom participated in debate:
He made no pretention to oratory, but his talk was sound, his argument lucid, and his statement of fact impregnablc. What he lacked in fervid, flashing speech he made up in terse, solid common sense. From the time he entered the Senate until he resigned his seat in 1877-a continuous service of cleven years-he was recognized as one of its most useful and reliable members, and at the date of his resignation was chairman of the committee on foreign relations, a posi- tion only accorded to a senator of admitted statesmanship. He was foremost always in practical legislation. His opinions on ques- tions of commerce, manufacturing, finance, internal improvements, fortifications, and the public domain were always accepted as guiding counsel. He encouraged the build- ing of the first Pacific railroad, was a warm supporter of opening the public lands to actual settlers, and no man in Congress be- fore or after he left it did more, and few as much as he, for the fostering, promotion and protection of American industry. He lost no opportunity to advocate and further the organization of new States, and regarded the expansion of the boundaries of the Union as the only true course to preserve the cqui- librium of power between the sections. He made history as few other statesmen in this country created it, by producing results in the practical walks of life, such as make men prosperous and happy, that stimulate the growth of communities, whereby the country has been constantly rendered power- ful abroad and a blessing to its people at home. History in its broadest scope will ever keep such individuals before the gen- erations of men which are to live in this country, for their models in public affairs.
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General Cameron died June, 1889, at the ripe old age of ninety years, his faculties per- fect until the last.
General Cameron married Margaret Brua, daughter of Peter Brua, of Harrisburg, and their children were Rachel, married Judge Burnside, of Bellefonte, Brua, Margaret, married Richard J. Haldeman, James Don- ald, and Virginia, married Wayne Mac Veagh.
-- SNYDER, CHARLES ALBRIGHT, son of Simon Snyder and Catharine Michael, was born May 29, 1799, at Selinsgrove, Pa. His grand- father, Simon Snyder, was an emigrant from Moravia, while his mother's father was Eber- hart Michael, a prominent personage in the early history of Lancaster county. Charles A. was educated by private tutors, and carly in life began contracting. In 1837 he was one of a partnership in the building of the West Feliciana railroad in Mississippi and Louisiana. For several years he was a clerk in the prothonotary's office at Sunbury and afterwards at Harrisburg. In the latter part of his life he was a justice of the peace, alder- man, United States commissioner, and a notary public. He died at Harrisburg on the Sth of November, 1868, aged sixty-nine years. Mr. Snyder was a good land lawyer and had a very extensive knowledge of land titles in Pennsylvania, and was often sought by prominent members of the bar in consul- tation on such subjects. He owned consid- erable bodies of coal land, which have now become valuable, but which he was com- pelled to part with because of the slowness of internal improvements ; was interested in the copper and nickel mines of Lancaster, Pa., and Connecticut; developed the first cannel coal mines in Missouri ; was pioneer in such early enterprises, which always turned out disastrous at the time, but as the country improved and modern appliances and new inventions came in vogue turned out well. In fact, he was too far in advance of the times. Mr. Snyder married, in 1828, Barbara Keller, daughter of John Keller, and their children were : Catharine, married B. F. Etter, Edward, Eugene, Mary, Emma, married Dr. George H. Markley, Charles, Simon, and John Keller, the two latter de- ceased.
-HAGE, HOTHER, son of Jens Fredrich and Gertrude (Heitmann) Hage, was born April 9, 1800, in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark. Hle was a graduate at the age of fourteen of
the Royal University of Copenhagen. In 1819 he came to the United States and set- tled upon a tract of land known as "Galla- gher's Improvement," on Clearfield creek, Clearfield county, Pa., presented him by his father. He built a log hut and remained there about nine years, passing that time in studying, clearing the land and hunting. In 1832 he found employment in the con- struction of the State canals in his chosen profession, that of civil engineer. In 1835 he was employed as chief engineer on the construction of the West Feliciana railroad, of Louisiana, a short line of road running from Bayou Sara to Woodville. During the years 1836-38 he was chief engineer of the Franklin railroad in Pennsylvania. May 30, 1838, he was appointed by the canal commissioners of the State principal engi- neer upon the survey of a route from the town of Chambersburg to Pittsburgh, also on the Raystown Branch of the Juniata, as con- templated in the act of the Pennsylvania State Legislature passed April 14, 183S. April 19, 1847, he was appointed principal assistant engineer of the eastern division of the Pennsylvania railroad, under William B. Forster, Jr. In 1852 he was employed in the construction of the Dauphin and Susque- hanna Coal Company railroad. From September 1, 1850, to July 19, 1859, he was principal engineer on the enlargement of the Union canal. July 10, 1859, he was ap- pointed by Gov. William F. Packer a com- missioner to examine that portion of the line of the Sunbury and Erie railroad lying between the harbor of Erie and the borough of Warren. On April 24, 1860, he was elected civil engineer to make survey and plan of the city of Harrisburg. In 1866 he was employed in the office of the assessor of the United States internal revenue, continu- ing in the employ of the Government until 1872, in which year, on the 27th day of June, he departed this life. Mr. Hage was married, December 18, 1849, by the Rev. J. Baker, of Lancaster, to Mary A., daughter of Henry and Salome Kendig, of Lancaster county.
- McCORMICK, JAMES, son of William Mc- Cormick, was born February 24, 1801, near Silvers Spring, Cumberland county, Pa .; died January 19, 1870, at Harrisburg, Pa. When less than five years of age he lost his father by a fatal accident. Paternal care thus devolved upon his mother, a bright, determined woman, and by her his prepara-
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tory studies were carefully made, fitting him at an early age for Princeton College, where he graduated with reputation, and began the study of law with Andrew Carothers, Esq., of Carlisle. He was admitted to the bar of Cumberland county in 1823, and to that of Dauphin county at the August term, 1825. His most successful career never faltered as long as he was able to give his professional duties any attention, and, indeed, followed him after his retirement from all active pur- suits. He served in the borough council a long time, and was president of that body, also of the Dauphin Deposit Bank, of the Harrisburg cemetery, of the Harrisburg Bridge Company, and one of the trustees of the Pinc Street Presbyterian church. In all these positions he was a cautious and able adviser. He nniformly declined candidature for office, as also offers of the highest honors of his profession. Upon the retirement he gave the powers of his active mind to the management of a large estate, consisting of furnaces, rolling mills, grist mills and farms. All these interests were successful, and not- withstanding his physical. disability, con- ducted in a masterly and systematic manner. Mr. McCormick married, in 1830, Eliza, Buehler, born November 11, 1806, at Erie, Pa .; died December 25, 1877, at Harrisburg, Pa .; only daughter of George Buehler and Maria Nagle. She was, indeed, a most esti- mable woman. To each noble charity, benevolent enterprise, philanthropic move- ment, Christian endeavor, hospital or home in the city of Harrisburg she was a friend, promoter and benefactor. From no good cause or charitable work or needy poor did she withhold her hand or deny her bounty.
-CAMERON, COL. JAMES, youngest son of Charles Cameron and Martha Pfoutz, was born at Maytown, Lancaster county, Pa., March 1, 1801. Hc received his early edu- cation at the village school, and at nineteen entered the printing office of his brother, General Cameron, at Harrisburg, where he served a faithful apprenticeship. In 1827 he went to Lancaster, where lie assumed the editorship of the Political Sentinel, studying law in the meantime in the office of James Buchanan, afterwards President of the United States. He was duly admitted to the Lan- caster bar, and in 1838 established himself at Harrisburg. During the Mexican war he served under General Scott, and npon its
close settled upon a farm near Milton, Pa., where he was living in retirement when the war for the Union was inaugurated. At the solicitation of the soldiers of the so-called Highlander regiment (the Seventy-ninth New York), he accepted the commission of colonel of that organization. At the battle of the first Bull Run, June 21, 1861, he was of Sherman's brigade, Tyler's division, and at the crisis of the struggle bore himself with the greatest gallantry. Again and again he led his men with the cry, "Scots, follow me!" in the face of a withering fire of mus- ketry and artillery, until stricken down mor- tally wounded, expiring on the field of his heroic exploits. " No mortal man," says an eye witness, " could stand the fearful storm that swept them." After repeated efforts the body of the gallant Cameron was recovered, brought to his home, and interred amid many demonstrations of respect and affec- tion.
-WEIR, JOHN ANDREW, son of Samuel Weir and his wife Mary Wallace, born January 19, 1802, at Harrisburg, Pa .; died October 10, 1881. He was educated in the private schools of the town and at the Harrisburg Academy. He learned coach-making, and, subsequently, went into the hardware business, which he continued a number of years, afterwards con- necting with it the drug trade, taking into partnership his nephew, D. W. Gross. Dur- ing the administration of Governor Ritner he served as a clerk in the office of the sec- retary of the Commonwealth. In 1840 he was elected prothonotary of Dauphin county, a position he filled two terms (six years). While serving in this office he was chosen a director of the Harrisburg Bank, and after- wards became teller in that institution, in which capacity be continued until 1880. While performing these duties he was treas- urer of the State Lunatic Hospital, at Harris- burg, from its first establishment in 1850 to 1880. For nearly fifty years he was an elder in the first Presbyterian church of Harrisburg. and took a warm interest in the promotion of the Sunday-school system. He was one of the first, firmest and influential friends of the anti-slavery cause in Dauphin county. Mr. Weir married twice; first, Catharine E. Wiest- ling, born February 21, 1810, died May 18, 1845, daughter of John S. Wiestling; and secondly, Maria Matilda Fahnestock, born December 15, 1808, died August 28, 1SS3, in Harrisburg, daughter of Abed Fahnestock.
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RUTHERFORD, JOHN PARKE, son of Will- iam Rutherford and his wife Sarah Swan, was born February 14, 1802, in Swatara township, Dauphin county, Pa .; died May 12, 1871. He was a farmer, and brought up in that pursuit. He held many places of public trust in his life ; was superintendent of the Wiconisco canal as early as 1837, an auditor of the county, a jury commissioner, and was vice-president and treasurer of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. He was a strong anti-slavery advocate, as all his family were, and many a weary pilgrim, in the days of the fugitive slave act, sore of foot and heart, found in Captain Rutherford hospitable assistance, material aid and manly encouragement. He hated slavery because he considered it a moral sin and a political blight upon the free institutions of America. During the late Rebellion he served as quar- termaster in the United States army, rank- ing fourth on the list. While stationed at Harper's Ferry he was captured in one of the raids on that stronghold, but released on parole. He was then ordered to Camp Doug- las, and subsequently to Charleston, S. C. In the latter city, about the close of the war, he contracted a disease from the effects of which he never fully recovered. Captain Rutherford married Eliza Rutherford, born October 30, 1801; died January 30, 1860; daughter of Samuel Rutherford.
SLOAN, ALEXANDER, son of Robert and Sarah (McCormick) Sloan, was born October 9, 1802, at Harrisburg, Dauphin county, Pa. He was educated in the private and select schools of Harrisburg, especially under that eminent mathematician, James Maginnes. He learned the trade of cabinet-maker with his father, and after the latter's death con- tinued the business alone up to 1864, after that period for several years in connection with Mr. Boyd. Mr. Sloan married, Septem- ber 19, 1833, Mary, daughter of James and Sarah Todd, of Hanover. She died at Har- risburg December 2, 1871, in her sixty-third year, and their children were: Robert, Saralı, who married H. Murray Graydon, Margaret A., who married Henry Shantz, and Isa- bella D.
- BOMBAUGHI, AARON, son of Abraham Bom- baugh and Catharine Rechm, was born Feb- ruary 12, 1803, at Harrisburg, Pa. He was educated at the private schools of the town, and at the old academy. He was placed
early in youth to the trade of a hatter with Jacob Shoemaker, of Harrisburg, and at his majority went to Philadelphia for instruc- tions as a finisher, and while there became a member of the "Association of Journeymen Hatters," being entered March 2, 1824. He returned to his native town and established himself in business, which he followed several years, until he was obliged to relinquish it, owing to impaired health, which had been affected by the dyes used in coloring the felt. He then assumed charge of his father's ex- tensive limestone quarry, conducting that business with marked success. Like his father and grandfather before him, Mr. Bom- baugh took a prominent part in municipal affairs, and frequently served in the borough council. From 1838 to 1844 he served as treasurer of the county of Dauphin, a posi- tion he filled efficiently and acceptably. He was one of the first advocates for the estab .. lishment of a lunatic hospital by the State for the insane poor of the Commonwealth, and greatly aided Miss Dix in her efforts to secure State assistance for the inauguration of those noble charities which have so dis- tinguished our Commonwealth. He was one of the first trustees of the institution located at Harrisburg. Having several farms near the city, the latter years of his life were passed in their management. He died at Harrisburg on the 13th of December, 1877, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was an early Abolitionist, as the anti-slavery men were denominated, a decided Anti-Mason in the days of that crusade, and with well-de- fined and positive convictions was ready to encounter any amount of obloquy in their defense. During the Rebellion he devoted his time and means to the care and comfort of the Pennsylvania soldiers in camp and hospital. He was the last survivor of the Unitarian Society established by the Rev. Mr. Kay, and which, from successive deaths and lack of fresh accessions, melted away many years since.
Mr. Bombaugh was twice married-first, on May 3, 1827, to Maria Lloyd, daughter of Joseph Lloyd, an attorney-at-law, of Phila- delphia, born there in 1809, and died Janu- ary 1, 1853, at Harrisburg, and their chil- dren were Dr. Charles Carroll, a noted phy- sician and author, now of Baltimore, Md .; Lavinia, married Gillard Dock, of Harris- burg; Alexander, d. s. p .; Catharine, married Junius B. Kaufman, a lawyer, of Lancaster, Pa .; and Julia, married Dr. Grafton, of Bal-
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timore. Of these only Dr. C. C. Bombaugh and Mrs. Kaufman are living. Mr. Bom- baugh married, secondly, Julia Duncan, of Duncan's Island, who survived him.
- JONES, ANDREW J., son of Robert Thomas Jones and Margaret Williamson, was born, 1803, in county Donegal, Ireland. He re- ceived a fine English education, and early in life came to Harrisburg, where he learned merchandizing with John Cameron. Sub- sequently, in partnership with his brother Samuel T., he entered into the mercantile business, which they successfully carried on for many years. Mr. Jones became quite prominent in political affairs, and in 1848, upon the election of Gen. Zachary Taylor to the Presidency, was appointed postmaster at Harrisburg, a position he acceptably filled four years. He died at Harrisburg, January 13, 1867, aged sixty-four years. Mr. Jones was thrice married ; first, to Mary Ann Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones and Margery Donnelly, of Perry county, Pa. She died in March, 1843, and there was issue: Robert Thomas, d. s. p., John Cameron (1833-56), and Samuel T. He married, secondly, Susan B. Ayres, daughter of William Ayres and his wife Mary Elizabeth Bucher, of Harris- burg; their children all died in infancy. Hc married, thirdly, Sarah A. Buckman, of Bur- lington, N. J., and there was issue : Virginia R. and Andrew J.
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