USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 39
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tlemen entered upon their mission. The purpose of the creation of the Board was very clear, and in order to arrive at a just conclusion it was necessary to investigate the complaints of the Indians against the white men charged with duties towards them; and also to examine the supplies furnished to the red men, which it was alleged were grossly inferior and insufficient. The result bore out President Grant's views on the subject. Great good resulted from the investigation, and for a few years at least there was no record of flagrant outrages. In the prose- cution of this eminently philanthropic work Mr. Brunot took the most intense interest. "He spent five summers in travelling among the various tribes and from post to post, going into Wyoming, Colo- rado, California, Washington, Oregon and Mon- tana. He visited the various tribes, told them of his mission and asked them to freely and fully state their complaints. His reports, as sent to the Presi- dent, of their various interviews, with reproductions of the speeches of the chiefs and head men, are full of an absorbing interest." Mr. Brunot met many distinguished Indian chiefs, and in common with his fellow Commissioners, was deeply impressed with the justice of their claims. Unfortunately other interests at Washington conflicted with any serious attempt to remedy these grievances sub- stantially and permanently; and because it saw that it would never receive the support which should have been extended to it, the Commission resigned. But all the members of it retained their interest in the Indians and did good work in their behalf. Mr. Brunot in particular was active "in season and out of season," in advocating their cause and appealing for justice to them. A glance at his official reports will show the basis of his reasoning as well as explain the methods by which he thinks justice could be done them, safely and with advantage. Among these latter are granting lands to the Indians in severalty, encouraging them to work and instructing them how to farm. He disbelieves in placing them in charge of the War Department, but advocates dealing with thein on truly Christian principles and in a common sense manner. Two of his sentences advocating justice to the Indian deserve to be written in letters of gold in the Hills of Congress. "If National honor," says he, "requires the observance of National obli- gations entered into with the strong, how much more with the weak. To repudiate, either directly or by indirection, our solemn treaty obligations with this feeble people would be dishonor, meriting the scorn of the civilized world." It is safe to say that no man has ever more honestly performed a labor
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delegated to him by the National Government than has Mr. Brunot this labor in connection with the Indian grievances. Although working in such broad fields of philanthrophy as those mentioned, Mr. Brunot is not insensible to his obligations as a citizen of Pittsburgh. On the contrary, he takes a hearty interest in its affairs at all times and in many ways has rendered valuable services to the people and to the municipality. In business walks he is as active as he was twenty years ago and holds directorships and trusteeships in a number of lead- ing corporations, including the Bank of Pittsburgh, the Safe Deposit Company, the Monongahela Navi- gation Company and the Allegheny Cemetery Asso- ciation. He is also a prominent director of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital and of the General Hospital of Allegheny ; one of the managers of the Western University, and for many years has been an active member of St. Andrews Protestant Epis- copal Church of Pittsburgh, of which he is Senior Warden. His life has been full of good works-in which he has been ably counselled and assisted by his devoted wife, an educated Christian woman, whose own deeds of kindness and charity would require a volume to record-and there is no disput- ing the fact that the high honor in which his name is held in all parts of the Nation has been won by a series of self-sacrificing and noble labors which have had few parallels in our time.
THOMAS M. MARSHALL.
THOMAS M. MARSHALL, of Pittsburgh, one of the most distinguished lawyers of Western Pennsylvania, was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, Nov. 20, 1819. His parents, James Mar- shall and Jean Peebles, emigrated to the United States in the summer of 1822, bringing with them a family of eleven children-eight sons and three daughters-the subject of this sketch being the youngest. After spending a little more than a year in Pittsburgh, Mr. Marshall removed with his wife and family to Butler County, Pennsylvania. In 1827 Thomas returned to Pittsburgh to enjoy the educational advantages which that place possessed over the country. His abode was with his elder brother James, under whom he was brought up for a mercantile life, and with whom he remained in commercial pursuits until 1843, when he relinquished his business prospects to engage in the study of law in the office of the Hon. Charles Shaler, who was then the President-Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of the County of Allegheny. His legal
studies were pursued irregularly, but he success- fully passed the required examinations, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. Early in life he took a warm interest in public affairs. His parents were Covenanters-the extremest and most strict of the Protestant sects. The teachings of his infancy and youth were all scriptural, and his early training evinced itself in his uncompromising hostility to human slavery. Actuated solely by principle, he became a warm, daring and constant advocate of the abolition of slavery, and in common with the members of his family, he gave time, money and earnest effort to the work of aiding fugitive slaves through the North to Canada. His labors in this field ceased only with the emancipation. In other directions he has been no less ardent and enthusias- tic for the cause of right and justice. Even from boyhood he has been distinguished by his open, bold and frank advocacy of whatever he believes to be right, never counting the cost or inquiring as to consequences to himself. When engaging in the practice of his profession, he at once took position as a fiery, eloquent and impassioned advocate of the rights of his clients. Imbued with the thoughit and inspiration that the lawyer, in taking the name " ad- vocate " assumed, in some degree, the grave respon- sibility of the Great Advocate of law breakers, he has been distinguished, especially in criminal practice, as the lawyer for the defence, and as such is perhaps without a peer before a jury. The power, the eloquence and the masterful will with which he controls jurymen and influences verdicts are truly remarkable. He has been in full practice for over fifty years, and in all that time has never ac- cepted a retainer against human life. From boy- hood he has resolutely opposed capital punishment as inhuman, unwise, and without the sanction of right. Hence, in the trial of hundreds of homicide cases in Western Pennsylvania and the adjoining States he has always appeared for the defence. Although often solicited and tempted by offers of large retainers to conduct the prosecution, his in- variable reply has been, " No, when I rest from my work, my children shall not live upon the wages earned in the sacrifice of the Divine gift-life." Mr. Marshall lias tried inore cases termed "murder trials " than any other lawyer in Pennsylvania. He early in practice established certain rules to which he has scrupulously adhered. First : That an advo- cate had no right to decline serving a defendant who made him his first choice, fee or no fee. Sec- ond : That the poor and helpless had higher and stronger claims upon the advocate than the rich and powerful. Upon these rules he has practiced, with what success the records of the courts will bear emi-
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nent evidence. Many of his most famous cases have been fought without fee or hope of reward. Of the large number of capital cases, approaching two hundred, in which he has defended the lives of his clients, he has lost but five. No detailed account of this extraordinary practice can be given here; it must suffice to state that he has had the control of nearly every case of great public interest tried in Western Pennsylvania for the last thirty years. Notwithstanding his desire to retire from active practice, he is still retained in nearly every case where his services can be obtained; for although his enthusiasm has been modified by years, his old time earnestness and vigor are unimpaired. That his skill has not been confined to criminal cases the book of reports of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania bear abundant witness ; it being shown there- in that his practice has extended to all branches of the law. It would be impossible to enumerate the qualities and canses which have rendered Mr. Mar- shall eminent and successful as a lawyer. As a jnry lawyer for many years hc has been distinguished among his brethren. His success with juries may be rightly described as phenomenal, and is the won- der and admiration of his younger brethren, and frequently the disgust of the Court. The secret of his power with a jury is still a secret. Possibly the most potent element is in his modes of address and argument. He never flatters a jury. He never as- sumes superior knowledge. He never speaks for himself-always for his cause. He enters the jury box without warning to the jnrors. His manner of opening is so quiet, simple and unobtrusive, that the "twelve" are frequently thrown off their gnard, and then the opportunity of the lawyer is improved. Another superior advan- tage Mr. Marshall possesses is his great knowledge of human nature, his acquaintance with the secret springs of human action. In the choice of jurors his wisc caution has long been known to the pro- fession. Above all things he possesses the power of making a jnry believe in the advocate's earnest, honest conviction of the truth of his utterances. The career of Mr. Marshall as a lawyer is almost without parallel, for he entered upon it without special advantages of educational culture, being in no sense " college bred." At the outset he plunged into an extensive and absorbing practice that pre- vented the quiet stndy and digest of student read- ing which is generally so essential to the make-np of a successful lawyer. From the day of his ad- mission to the bar he has been in constant contact with the oldest and ablest members of the legal pro- fession, and he has won his proud position in the strife of intellectual battle. Many of the younger
members of the bar imagine from the readiness with which he takes hold of a case that he tries without preparation. This is a great mistake on their part. No man works hardcr. Even now, when nearly " three score and ten," lic does not hes- itate to give all the night to the consideration and preparation of a case, that he may be effectively prepared for the next day's conflict. Gifted with a wonderful memory, he makes no notes of testimony, yct he has every fact of the case on trial nnder in- stant and ready command. The official reporter of the court hesitates before hc differs with Mr. Mar- shall's memory of the testimony of a witness ; and in many instances the verity of memory has been more than equal to the reporter's notcs. This facil- ity of memory in connection with other character- istics of Mr. Marshall has occasionally led to nn- pleasant feelings. Mr. Marshall is no respecter of persons. The judge upon the bench is as likely to be eriticised as any other person. The most self-im- portant citizen, clothed with wealth and social im- portance, when he lends the presence of his great- ness in conrt as a witness or party, is most likely to leave with a fracture in his self-estimation, if he is adverse to the interests of Mr. Marshall's client. Mr. Marshall early engaged in political life. From 1838 to 1880 no political contest has been waged in which he has not borne a full and earnest part. An anti-slavery advocate from instinct and education, a Republican from the birth of the organization, his political services have been in constant demand by his party. All throngh Pennsylvania and also in the neighboring States his voicc has been heard in the impassioned advocacy of his political convic- tions. No man has a larger or more intense com- mand of an audience. Full of ready wit and a master of repartee, he makes short work of any adversary whose misfortune it is to interrupt him. His power as a platform orator lies, doubtless, in the intense conviction of the speaker, the daring of his character, and the wonderful passion of his oratory. Probably no man in Pennsylvania has so often been before the people as a political and pop- ular orator. His fame as a speaker is such that waiting crowds attend his appearance on any ros- trum. For many years he was the political idol of his party. In 1872 he espoused the candidacy of Horace Greeley for the Presidency. That was the last campaign into which he threw heart and soul. Mr. Marshall has never sought office. In fact he has persistently declined it, for his nomination would have been equivelant to an election, so great is the esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens, irrespective of party. The people of Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania would have read-
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ily bestowed upon him almost any office in their gift, but he has steadily and resolutely refused po- litical preferment. He was urged to accept Con- ·gressional honors, and in 1868 he was presented as a candidate for United States Senator, but in neither instance would he permit the use of his name. In 1882 he was a delegate to the Republican State Con- vention of Pennsylvania, in the interest of his nephew, Major A. M. Brown, of Pittsburgh, who was then a candidate for the office of Judge of the Supreme Court. Mr. Brown failed to receive the nomination, but the convention, in an outburst of passionate enthusiasm, nominated Mr. Marshall as a candidate for Congressman-at-large. The repre- sentation of the Keystone State without the irksome obligations of a local constituency, was probably as severe a test as Mr. Marshall's principles could be put to, but they stood the ordeal easily. Rising in his place in the convention Mr. Marshall, repeating what he had so frequently before declared, that under no circumstances would he accept public office, declined the nomination. But the conven- tion was determined that he should run, and after nominating him it adjourned in the excitement of the moment, without completing all the details of its business. There was no doubt of Mr. Marshall's clection by a large majority. The leading men of the party all sought to induce him to accept, and had he permitted his name on the ticket the "inde- pendent " movement in the Republican party in that campaign would most likely have resulted in naught. But he was resolute. He declined to run. The Republican party was defeated, Mr. Pattison being elected Governor over General Beaver. Mr. Marshall's near friends-who alone knew the mo- tives which prompt him so persistently to decline all public office-declare that they are alike honorable to his head and heart, and characteristic of the man. Enjoying one of the largest and most lucrative practices ever granted to a lawyer, Mr. Marshall has not amassed a large fortune. He has been the recipient of many large fees, and with ordinary business care he would be rich, but his heart, hand and pocket-like those of his illustrious country- man, Oliver Goldsmith-have always been wide open to the suffering, the sorrowing and the scantily supplied. The social life of Mr. Marshall has been singularly happy. He has been twice marricd. His first wife, Miss Ellen Algeo, living but a few years, in 1858 he married Miss Mary M. Patterson, the daughter of Sheriff Patterson, of Pittsburgh. This marriage was a great social event, both in its manner and surroundings. The groom, a brilliant man of the world, was thirty-eight; the bride, just home from six years of seminary life, but seven-
tecn. The devotion of their lives to each other was known to all. Mrs. Marshall died in 1880, leaving five living children, upon whom the father has since lavished his affections. Mr. Marshall is to-day, not- withstanding his sixty odd years, a fine specimen of intellectual and physical vigor ; he is nearly six feet in height, and as erect in body as he is alert in mind. His wide fame as a lawyer secures him more than full professional employment. He may not have gathered up his earnings into great riches, but he holds a prouder and more satisfactory possession in the respect and love of his associates and juniors at the bar, and of hundreds of the poor and needy who think of him as a friend, a counsellor and a brother. The conscious possessor of wonderful physical power, he has never spared himself in action. It may be said that no occasion has oc- curred in his profession when he was not ready for battle. As was said of him by a learned judge- " It is impossible to measure that man. The unex- pected is always within his reach." No matter how plain and clear the law may appear against his cause, he has a way and an answer. A text from the Book of Books has, on occasion, been brought to the rescue ; and an answer is never wanting to the clearest proposition. Mr. Marshall has recently visited Europe as a needed relaxation from the pressure of business cares and responsibilities.
THOMAS MACKELLAR.
FEW men have exhibited greater versatility, or a more marked union of great business ability with high literary powers than Thomas MacKellar, head of the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Company, (other- wise known as the Johnson Type Foundry, one of the most important and celebrated in the world,) but more widely famed as printer, author, poet and especially hymn writer, than as the head of the great manufacturing house. He was born in New York city, August 12, 1812, of a mixed stock composed of Scotch, Dutch, Huguenot and English strains of blood, and among his ancestors were some of the earliest of the Holland pioneers to the island of Manhattan, one of them upon the maternal side being the second man whose mar- riage was recorded in the archives of the Re- formed Dutch Church of New York, the date being 1644. When fourteen years old he was employed in the office of The New York Spy, and learned there the art of setting type. On the demise of the journal he obtained employment in the great pub- lishing house of J. & J. Harper, where by the time
Ihr nadiellar
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he had reached his seventeenth year lic was ad- vanced to the position of a proof-reader. A year later he lost his father and mother, and the support of the remaining family principally devolved upon him. He was for a time engaged in an attempt to gain an inheritance rightly belonging to him, but unattainable save through loug, tedious and expen- sive litigation, and, finally becoming convinced that the task would be an unprofitable, if not an improb- able one, he decided to work for a fortune of his own, a course to which he was advised by his Quaker lawyer, one Clark, who undoubtedly rea- soned wisely. He came to Philadelphia on May 1st, as a thoroughly skilled printer, and assumed the position of proof-reader in the type and stereotype office of Messrs. Johnson & Smith. His valuable qualities were specially recognized by Lawrence Johnson, the head of the firm, who made him fore- man of the department in which were comprised the composing rooms and stereotype fonndry. Twelve years after his arrival he was taken into the honse as a partner, the style of the house then becoming L. Johnson & Co. In 1856 he started The Typographic Advertiser, which under his own editorial management became an authority on all matters pertaining to the trade, and an unrivalled example of the excellance of the " art preservative of all arts." About this time his health having be- come impaired throngh excessive application to business, and by reason also of the death of his old- est daughter, he removed his residence to German- town to secure the beneficial effects of fresh air and quiet. In 1860 Mr. Johnson died and the surviving partners formed a new firm, adding the name of Peter A. Jordan, under the style of MacKellar, Smith & Jor- dan, the establishment being named " The Johnson Type Foundry," in honor of the deceased partner. From the time that Mr. MacKellar was associated with this house it has constantly increased in the maguitude of its transactions until, at the present time, it is regarded the leading house in its line in the world. The specimen book, showing the numerous varieties of type made in the foundry, were arranged by Mr. MacKellar, and were published to the extent of three thousand copies at an expense of about forty thousand dollars. The book is a superb quarto, which years ago sold at fifty dollars per copy, and, which will doubtless in future years be largely songht for by the bibliographier, as well as the printer who has the love of the art at heart. Mr. MacKellar also wrote the treatise on practical print- ing, which has reached its sixteenth edition-a work which contains a great amonnt of historical and practical information, and is valuable to authors and publishers, as well as printers. Mr. Mac-
Kcllar celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his connection with the Johnsou Type Fouudry in 1883, and was upon that occasion presented with a massive silver vase, embellished with designs ap- propriate to the art which he had followed. Not long after this testimonial from the employees of the house of which he was the head, he secured an honor from an entirely different source and in rec- ognition of his general accomplishments and literary attainments. This was the conferring upon him of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the Uni- versity of Wooster, Ohio. Our subject had in early life strong literary tastes, and these being nourished by choice and by his constant con- nection with a business leading by natural channels to study and the excrcise of the faculty of com- position, gave him great facility in the expression of his thoughts, especially in material form. He became a graceful poet, and was particularly happy in songs of the heart and of home and heaven, as was natural perhaps for one of his happy domes- tic life and tender feeling, combined with reveren- tial love of the Christian religion. This ontcome of his intellect and aspirations seemed to be sponta- neous, and the result simply of long dwelling, hidden force in that direction. His poetry is all marked by easy flow of thought and word, and is of the order which to the reader appears nnlabored. Most of it breathes the atmosphere of home, of the happy do- mestic circle, tenderness and holiness, yet in some of his verse Mr. MacKellar exhibits a lively though delicate and peculiar fancy, which might, had he pursued it, made his name famous in other than the hymnal vein, in which he had his chief success. His first production, "The Sleeping Wife," was published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and his metrical compositions of a later date were printed broadcast in the papers of the United States, win- ning for him both the admiration and (by reason of their heart-tonching qualities) the love of millions of readers. He published several volumes of poems, "Dropping from the Heart," "Tani's Fortnight Ramble " and " Lines to the Gentle and the Loving," which in later years he revived and compiled with other writings under the title of "Rhymes Atween- times." He has since published a work containing his hymns and metrical psalms-all of which are marked by their deep religious feeling, and fine, flowing ex- pression. Mr. MacKellar was for many years an elder of the old Pine Street Presbyterian Church, and has latterly held the same position at the First Pres- byterian Church of Germantown. One of the earliest mission schools in one of the most degraded neigh- borhoods of Philadelphia was started under his supervisiou, and for a long period he was an active
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worker in the improvement of the lower-in fact the lowest-elements of the populace, and is believed to have accomplished great good in that field. For twenty-five years he was Corresponding Secretary of the Philadelphia Bible Society, and during that time wrote its annual reports. In the business world he ranks among the most prominent. He is President or member of various societies,-trade, historical, scientific, artistic, social and benevolent, as well as director in several financial institutions. In fact, Mr. MacKellar is fully abreast of the times, and identified with almost every institution having as its aim the advancement of the public in matters of words or material enrichment. Our subject was married in 1834 to Miss Eliza, daughter of Samuel Ross, an old Scotch-Irish Presbyterian of Philadel- phia. She died in 1871. Two sons and eight daugh- ters were the offspring of the union, and one son and four daughters are still living.
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