Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1, Part 5

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Centre County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 5

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One by one they have gone. And now another is added to this list of the dead, and our memories are charged with sorrow at the departure of one more bright and shining light of this Bar. More than all that -- more than an admiration of the legal learning, or the strifes and antagonisins which follow the professional life, we hold in our memories their character as citizens of the community, and we measure to them our gratitude by the good they did during their lives.

I know full well that Mr. McAllister never had those attractive, magnetic qualities which make a man what is termed popular. He never did: it was not in his nature to condescend to the arts by which men too often attain to high official position, or who become popular in the political ac- ceptation of the term; and yet I doubt much whether we could have stood at the grave of one citizen of Centre county who would be so universally mourned and whose loss would be more severely felt. It is not the Bar alone that sustains this loss. The society in which the man moved; the people to whom he gave an example of integrity and virtue; the community which surrounded him, has received a wound that is bleeding to-day, and throughout all this region of Pennsylvania there will be sincere mourning, because a Ise- ful citizen and a good man has died .- EX-GOVERNOR AN- DREW G. CURTIN, Chairman of the Committee of the Cor .. stitutional Convention.

H ON. ANDREW GREGG, who in his life- time was a citizen of distinction of Belle- fonte, Centre county, having served in both Houses of the United States Congress, was born June 10, 1755, about two miles northwesterly of Carlisle, Penn., on a farm, adjoining the meeting house farm, in Middleton township.

Andrew Gregg, his father, came from Lon- donderry, Ireland, and his grandfather's name was John. The family had emigrated from Scot- land to Ireland, and an old-fashioned sword and espontoon, long in the garret of the old house on the Conodoguinet, were arms of the ancestor in the army of King William at the battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690. Of Mr. Gregg's grand- father's family, John remained in Ireland; David, Andrew, and their sister Rachel, who was mar- ried to Solomon Walker, came to America. David settled in New Hampshire, and raised a large family there. The Gregg families of Salem, Mass , Elmira, N. Y., and Indianapolis, Ind., are descendants of David. Andrew and Mrs. Wal- ker settled on Christiana creek, near Newark, Del., in 1732, where his first wife died, and An- drew married Jane Scott, daughter of Matthew Scott, who had emigrated from Armagh, Ireland, to Chestnut Level. Andrew Gregg, the elder, removed to the farm near Carlisle, in 1750, where he died November 18, 1789. Among his children were Matthew, who was a wagon master in the army from January 9, 1779. to August 14. 1790; James and John, who were also connected with the army. John Gregg was the father of Elizabeth (wife of George McKee), who died in Bellefonte, October 11, ISO1, and of the first Mrs. Roland Curtin, Sr.

Hon. Andrew Gregg received his early educa- tion at Rev. John Steel's Latin school, in Car- lisle, and was then sent to Newark, Del., to complete his education. While thus engaged he turned out upon several occasions in the militia. On the march of the British from Turkey Point to Philadelphia, the academy at Newark was broken up, and Mr. Gregg returned to Carlisle to assist his father on the farm, his other brothers being in the army. In 1779 he went to Phila- delphia, with the intention of going to France for his health, which had been in a declining state for some time: but changing his intention, he accepted the appointment of tutor in the col- lege (now university) there, and continued there under Dr. Smith's and Dr. Ewing's administra- tions tintil 1783, when he removed to Middleton, Penn., where he resided four years, engaged in the mercantile business. On January 29. 1787, Mr. Gregg was married to Martha, daughter of Maj .- Gen. James Potter, at the latter's old resi-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

dence in Buffalo Valley, now Union county. He then removed to Lewistown, then being laid out by Gen. Potter and Maj. Montgomery, where his daughter Mary, afterward Mrs. McLanahan, of Greencastle, Penn., was born, November 2, 1788. In 1789 he removed to Penn's Valley, two miles east of the Old Fort. His public services com- menced November 8, 1791, as member of the House of Representatives of the United States. He was continued in the House by successive elections for a period of sixteen years, and in 1807 he was chosen United States senator, which position he occupied until March 3. IS13. He was twice elected president of the Senate, the highest distinction in the councils of the nation any Pennsylvanian had then attained. In 1814 he removed from Penn's Valley to Bellefonte for the purpose of better educating his family. He was the first president of the Centre Bank, which was organized under articles of association or partnership in 1813, and was re-elected in 1814. On the 19th of December, 1820, he was ap- pointed secretary of the Commonwealth by Gov. Hiester, which office he held when nominated by a convention that met at Lewistown May 15, 1823, for governor in opposition to Mr. Shultz, who had been nominated by what was called a Legislative Convention at Harrisburg on the 5th of March. After Mr. Gregg retired from the of- fice of Secretary of the Commonwealth, he resided in Bellefonte until his death, which occurred May 20, 1835. He had strong party predilections, but was remarkable for his independence of char- acter, always acting according to the con- victions of his own mind, though they sometimes differed from those of political friends. He was while in office, in fact what he was elected to be, the representative of the interests of his constituents. He was always scrupulously ten- acious of his oath to subserve the public good according to the best of his judgment and abil- ity, never yielding his duty to the prejudices of party spirit or the views of interested politicians. Mr. Gregg's children, ten in number, were: (1) Mrs. Mary McLanahan, of Greencastle, mother of Andrew, James, Isabella and Mary. (2) Jane, mother of Roland Curtin, Sr., father of ex-Gov. A. G. Curtin. (3) Martha, who married Dr. Constans Curtin, and died December 11, 1829. (4) Julia Ann, who married Gen. James Irvin, and died July 4, 1856. (5) Eliza Mitchell, widow of David Mitchell, of Bellefonte, now de- ceased. (6) Hon. Andrew Gregg, who died May 13, 1869, father of Gen. John I. Gregg, late of the United States army, of Andrew Gregg, county commissioner in 1895. (7) James P. Gregg. married Eliza Wilson, and died in Virginia, Sep-

tember 8, 1845. (8) Matthew D., married Ellen McMurtrie, who also died in Virginia, July 26, 1845, the father of Gen. David McMurtrie Gregg, now (1895) of Reading, Penn., a distinguished cavalry officer of the United States army during the war of the Rebellion. (9) Sarah, who married Henry Kinney, and died March 28, 1836. (10) Mrs. Margery Tucker, of Lewisburg, Penn., widow of Rev. Charles Tucker, of the Baptist Church.

H ON. WILLIAM F. PACKER, another son of Centre county who became Governor of the Commonwealth, and a distinguished states- man, was born near Howard, April 2, 1807. When he was but seven years of age his father died, leaving a widow and five small children- the eldest under ten years of age. Bereft of parental care, the sons, Hezekiah B., afterward Judge Packer, of Williamsport, William F., and John P., afterward a merchant at Flemington, Clinton Co., Penn., as they arrived at a sufficient age, applied themselves to the task of assisting their mother in maintaining the family, and cheerfully sustained whatever hardships their situation im- posed, receiving at the same time such education as the limited facilities of the country schools of that time afforded. Directed by their mother, and relying upon their own resources for their success, it is no marvel that these young men be- came distinguished, each in his proper sphere in after life.

In 1820, William F. Packer, then in his thir- teenth year, obtained a place in the office of the Public Inquirer, published in Sunbury, with Samuel F. Packer, a kinsman, afterward a State senator from the Northumberland District, who was publishing this paper at that time. When young William became assured of his po- sition he trudged off on foot a distance of eighty miles, and engaged himself as an apprentice. After about one year had elapsed the paper was discontinued and he returned to Centre county. where he completed hisapprenticeship in the office of the Bellefonte Patriot, then under the control of Henry Petrikin, who subsequently became a dis- tinguished member of the State Legislature, and was deputy secretary of the Commonwealth under Governor Shunk. After the expiration of his apprenticeship in 1825, he obtained a clerk- ship in the office of the register and recorder in Lycoming county, but at the commencement of the Legislature, in December of the same year, he went to Harrisburg and engaged as a journey- man printer in the office of the l'onnsylvania Intelligencer, published by Simon Cameron,

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

since then United States senator, and 'David Krause, afterward president judge of the Bucks County District. He worked in this office for two years, and then went to Williamsport and entered his name as a student at law in the office of Joseph B. Anthony, who afterward served as a. State senator, member of Congress and president judge of the Lycoming District. He never ap- plied for admission to the Bar, yet the knowledge thus acquired of the rudiments of the profession was of inestimable value to him in the public stations which he afterward filled. In the fall of 1827, he purchased the Lycoming Gasette, which, in connection with John Brandon, he published until the spring of 1836. On December 24, 1829, he was married to Mary W., daughter of Peter W. Vanderbelt, a most estimable lady, who still survives him. Mr. Packer took a lead- ing part in the agitation in constructing the West Branch canal in 1831. He was the author of the address to the people of Philadelphia, whose members in the Legislature opposed the appro- priations for the building of this canal, and to his efforts, as much as to those of any individual, are the people of that section of the State in- debted for preserving and completing this great improvement, whose influence was of incalcul- able benefit to the vicinity in which Mr. Packer was raised. Mr. Packer was appointed as superintendent of that division June, 1835. He took a leading and active part in favor of the re- nomination and re-election of Gov. George Wolf in 1835. In 1836, with O. Barrett and Benja- min Parke, he established The Keystone at Har- risburg, a paper which at once commanded the confidence and support of the Democratic party of the State. In February, 1839. he was ap- pointed a member of the board of Canal Com- missioners, in which position he achieved great success.

In 1842 he was appointed auditor-general of the Commonwealth, and he continued to dis- charge the duties of that office for a period of three years, with great distinction. Mr. Packer seryed two terms in the Legislature of the State, from the district composed of Lycoming, Clinton and Potter counties, and also served as speaker of the House for two successive terms. He was a lifelong adherent of the Democratic party. and was one of the most forcible advocates and leaders. He was elected State senator in 1849. over Andrew G. Curtin, who afterward succeeded him in the executive chair. On all questions relating to improvements in the Susquehanna Valley, he especially distinguished himself. In I85t he introduced a bill to incorporate the Sus- quehanna Railroad Co. This was the means of

the building eventually of a network of railroads through this Valley, and the development of one of the richest and most valuable sections of the State. In the organization of the Susquehanna Railroad Co., in June, 1852, Mr. Packer was made its first president. He was nominated for governor in 1857, and was triumphantly elected by a majority of fourteen thousand votes. His administration of this office was accomplished with great ability, and although many compli- cated questions involving great and important decisions, were required, yet he met and dis- posed of all these with great credit and wisdom. Gov. Packer relinquished the office of State ex- ecutive in 1860. to Hon. A. G. Curtin, another of Centre county's noble sons. Springing from the people, he was an active and creditable expon- ent of their rights, and opposed with unflinching firmness every form of intolerance, whether po- litical or religious. His name will ever be on record as one of Pennsylvania's most capable and illustrious statesmen.

ON. JOHN MITCHELL, who was for years a distinguished citizen of Bellefonte, Centre county, was a son of Gen. David Mitchell, of Cumberland county (now Perry), who was for some twenty-two years a member of the Legis- lature.

John Mitchell was born about two miles from Newport, Perry county, March 8, 1791. When quite a boy he went with his father on his jour- ney to the meetings of the Legislature to bring the horses home, and returned for him in the spring. He had little schooling, but a great ca- pacity for mathematics. One of the members gave him a book, and told him he must run lines all over the farm before his return in the spring, which he did, being only about fourteen years of age. He came to Centre county in ISoo, and engaged with John Dunlop as a clerk in the iron works. In May, 1814. he was married to the widow of Col. W. W. Miles (nec Annie Boggs), and then entered into the mercantile business with his brother David, in Bellefonte. In Octo- ber. 1818, he was elected sheriff of Centre coun- ty, and as such became the executioner of Munks. Mr. Mitchell's ability as a surveyor and engineer was so universally recognized that he became constantly employed in such services. In 1821 he laid out the Centre and Kishacoquillas turn- pike and superintended its construction, and sub- sequently as engineer located many of the turn- pikes, in the middle and northern portions of the State. In the fall of 1822 he was elected to the Assembly, and re-elected in 1823. When elected

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

to Congress the first time, in 1824, he was in the mountains surveying, and returned the second day after the election. He had been gone three weeks, and James M. Petrikin was about start- ing out to hunt him up and inform him of it. In October, 1826, when he ran the second time, there was but one vote against him in the Belle- fonte box. This was attributed to Mr. Norris, brother-in-law of John Brown, one of the op- posing candidates. He, however, denied the im- peachment. In the summer of 1827, under the directions of the canal commissioners, he made a survey and examination of the proposed canal routes between the Susquehanna and Potomac, commencing at the mouth of the Conedocwinet, above Harrisburg, and running west as far as Green village, in Franklin county; thence con- tinued to Gettysburg, etc. In 1857 he was ap- pointed engineer on the Erie extension; connect- ing with the Beaver division above New Castle. and running to Erie, superintending the con- struction of the French Creek feeder, which was the first part of the work. In 1829 he was ap- pointed by the Legislature one of the canal com- missioners, reappointed by Gov. Wolf in 1830, and continued in office until the advent of Gov. Ritner's administration. It was in this office that the peculiar talents of Mr. Mitchell shone most conspicuously. Possessing strong common sense, an intuitive sagacity, and a complete knowledge of mankind, he united with these qualities great coolness and discretion, an indefatigable perse- verance, supported by an iron constitution. Ac- customed from early life to endure privations, often voluntarily undergone, neither the storms of winter nor the heat of summer interfered with the steady performance of his duty. His habit was to get up before 5 o'clock in the morning, and do a large amount of brain-work before breakfast. He was Presidential elector on the Van Buren and Johnston ticket in 1835, and after his removal by Gov. Ritner in 1837 he went into the iron business, the firm of John Mitchell & Co. owning and managing Hecla and Mill Hall Furnaces. He failed in that business in 1838, and in 1839 was appointed superintendent of the Beaver division of the Pennsylvania canal. and in 1842 removed from Centre county to Bridgewater, Beaver county.

In 1844, when Francis R. Shunk, who had been clerk of the canal board under Mr. Mitchell, was elected governor, he promised Mr. Mitchell the office of surveyor-general; but there being factions in the Democratic party, and Mr. Mitch- ell standing with ex-Gov. Porter, Gov. Shunk regretted bitterly that he could not keep his word, saying he could not help it, and was forced

by circumstances. On January 1, 1845, the State transferred the Beaver division to the Erie Canal Co. This company reappointed Mr. Mitch- . ell, and in the performance of the duties of the office he passed the remainder of his days. The last days of his life were clouded by the death of his son David, who was wounded in battle in Mexico, and died at Perote. Mr. Mitchell died at Bridgewater, August 3, 1849, of cholera. His two children, Mrs. Martha Kephart, of Union- ville, Centre county, and Mrs. N. H. Dickson, wife of Dr. Joseph Dickson, at Pittsburg, are both dead.

H ON. WILLIAM W. POTTER, a distin- guished lawyer and statesman of Bellefonte, Centre county, and a grandson of Gen. James Potter, of the Revolutionary war, was born at Potters Mills, Centre county, December 18, 1792.

In August, 1809, young Potter commenced attending the Latin school of Rev. Thomas Hood, near Lewisburg, from which he was transferred to Dickinson College at. Carlisle. After he graduated, he read law with Hon. Charles Huston, of Bellefonte, and was admit- ted to the Bar in April, 1814, of which for twen- ty-five years he was an honored member. Af- fable, courteous and kind to the junior members of the Bar, he was looked up to by them as a father. He was an able and judicious counselor, and an industrious and successful practitioner of the law, and his profession was his pride. Left with an ample patrimony, no child of penury and want was more indefatigable and industrious in legal pursuits, and at his death he had no supe- rior in his district in legal standing and acquire- ments. In 1833 the grand jury of Union county petitioned the governor for the appointment as president judge of that district. In 18- he re- ceived the unanimous nomination in the district for a seat in Congress, and was elected by the largest majority ever given in the district, and in 1838, which was a fierce and bitter political con- test, was re-elected, and died in office. During the sessions he represented this district in Con- gress, by his talents, clear and discriminating mind, his eloquence, and with a mild and gentle- manly demeanor, he gained for himself a high reputation, and stood at the head of the Demo- cratic delegation from Pennsylvania. Congress was convened in extra session on the 4th of Sep- tember, in consequence of the financial condi- tion of the country, by President Van Buren, and on the 27th of September Mr. Potter made his maiden speech in Congress on the bill to postpone the fourth installment of deposit with

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the States, which placed him in the front rank of sagacious counselors upon our financial policy. His next speech, January 4, 1838, in reply to Mr. Cushing upon the Hayes resolution in relation to the United States Bank, was a masterly consti- tutional argument. On the 12th of April he de- livered a remarkably eloquent speech, exhibiting extensive historical research, upon the resolution relative to the Wyoming flag. The people of Wyoming Valley had asked for the flag their fa- thers had fought under, believing the one cap- tured in Canada in the war of 1812, and in the State Department, was it; but it turned out to be the one the British had fought under during the battle of Wyoming. On June 13, 1838, he de- livered a very able and exhaustive speech on the independent treasury bill, which acquired for him great notoriety and popularity. We shall allude to one other speech of Mr. Potter, that which was delivered February 28, 1839, on issu- ing treasury notes to meet the expenses of the government, as a brief, unanswerable, logical argument. He died at a comparatively early age, in his forty-eighth year, in the midst of his professional usefulness, and when rising into na- tional fame. His remains were conveyed to the family burying-ground at Potters Mills on the morning of October I, attended by the judges of the court and the members of the Bar in a body. He left no children. His widow, Lucy (Winters) Potter, died May 30, 1875, in Bellefonte, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. They were married March 20, 1815. She was a sister of Mrs. Judge Huston and Mrs. Burnside.

H ON. CHARLES HUSTON (deceased), who was one among the honored and distin- guished citizens of Bellefonte, Centre county, was of Scotch-Irish origin, born in Plumstead town- ship, Bucks county, Penn., January 16, 1771. He was the eldest son of Thomas and Jane (Walker) Huston. His grandfather was one of the early immigrants to the State of Pennsyl- vania.

A mere lad during the Revolution, many of its incidents were indelibly impressed upon his memory. His education was received at Dick- inson College, Carlisle, Penn., from which he was graduated in 1789 with the honors of his class. During the year 1790-91 he taught a select school at Carlisle, meanwhile studying law with Thomas Duncan, with whom he was after- ward associated on the Bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In 1792-93 he was em - ployed by the trustees of the college as tutor of the languages. Among. his pupils was Chief

Justice R. B. Taney, of the Supreme Court of the United States. In his autobiography the Chief Justice says of him: " I need not speak of his character and capacity, for he afterward. be- came one of the first jurists of the country. He was an accomplished Latin and Greek scholar, and happy in his mode of instruction. And when he saw that a boy was disposed to study, his manner to him was that of a companion and friend, aiding him in his difficulties. The whole school under his care was much attached to him." In October, 1794, Gen. Washington went through Carlisle on his way to quell the Whiskey Insurrection. Mr. Huston joined the expedition, and his vivid· description of its vari- ous incidents will long be remembered by the many who had the good fortune to number him among their acquaintances.

In those days lawyers traveled the circuits on horseback, and there remains a description of Mr. Huston's costume: slouched hat, drab three- caped overcoat, green flannel leggings tied around the legs with black tape, homespun dress coat. Thus attired, with boots and leggings covered with mud, for want of time to change his dress, he was compelled to enter the Supreme Court sitting in Philadelphia, where to the astonish- ment of the Bar, he delivered one of the ablest arguments they had ever listened to. In the spring of 1807 he removed to Bellefonte, attend- ing faithfully to an enormous practice until his appointment by Gov. Findlay to the presidency of the courts of this district. He was a powerful advocate before a jury, and the memory of the remarkable speech he made in the Barber & Kel- ley case in court at Bellefonte still lingers. a traditionary witness of his forensic ability. He presided over the Fourth District for eight years with distinguished ability. Such was his influence with the jury, that in the course of these whole eight years he granted but two new trials. In 1826 he was appointed, by Gov. Shultz, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in the arduous and responsible duties of which he continued until the expiration of his commission in 1845. How ably he dis- charged these duties will be best learned from his numerous opinions in full thirty-five volumes of reports. The last four years of his life were spent in the compilation of his work entitled " An Essay on the History and Nature of Original Titles to Land in the Province and State of Pennsylvania."

Judge Huston's wife, his only son and two daughters he had followed to the grave, and these afflictions weaned his thoughts from this world, and he looked for a better. He was a commun-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

icant in the Presbyterian Church, and died as he had lived, a firm believer in the truths of Chris- tianity. His death took place November 10, 1849, he being in the eightieth year of his age. He left to survive him two daughters, the one the wife of the Hon. James T. Hale, of Bellefonte, and the other the wife of Gen. E. W. Sturdevant, of Wilkes Barre, both since deceased.

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Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1, Part 5

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1358

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1358