USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume II > Part 6
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I refer you to the Commissioners for Intelligence Relating to our apprehensions from Indian war. The whole country is in a dreadful panie on that account at this time.
I am, Dear Colonel, Your Most Obli'd & Hum'e Ser't, ANEAS MACKAY.
[George Stevenson to James Wilson, Philadelphia.] CARLISLE, 23d Nov., 1776.
SIR: On the 19th inst., in the Evening, by the Express who brought the Orders of the Council of Safety of this State to our Committee to prohibit the March of the Militia of this County to Philada., We also rec'd another Letter and a resolve from the Council and a Letter from the Secretary of the War office. On the 21st Our Committee met and took the following Extracts from the said Letters, viz :
" In Council of Safety, Philada., Nov. 2, 1776.
"Resolved, That the Committees of the several Counties of this State, where Prisoners of War are Stationed, do not on any act. whatever permit any Prisoner to leave his place of abode, without Permission first obtained from this Council or the Board of War.
JACOB S. HOWELL, Secretary. " To the Committee of Inspection for Cumberland County." "WAR OFFICE, Nov. 15, 1776.
"GENTLEMEN : The Board of War have directed me to let you know that they have rec'd Information that many of the Prisoners of War residing in the Different parts of the United States are not satisfied with procuring and conveying Intelli-
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gence secretly. but are Constantly spreading false Rumors -- con- trary to their Parole : you will therefore please strictly to en- quire into the matter, and confine any British Prisoner who is found speaking on any political subject relative to the dispute between Great Britain and the United States,-spreading False news, speaking in derogation, or otherwise injuring the credit of the Continental Currency, or Conveying any Intelligence what- soever. I am your very obe'd serv't,
RICHARD PETERS, Sect. " To the Committee of Carlisle."
A copy of the above Extracts were Certified by the Chair- man and sent to Capt. Kinneer Early Yesterday morning, that the Officers might govern themselves accordingly. In the af- ternoon he sent me the following Letter, viz :
" Nov. 22nd.
"SIR : I have rec'd your note with the resolution of the Committee of Inspection, &c., on my Request that Capt. Baillee might be permitted to visit the Prisoners of his Majesty's Regt. of Royal Fussilliers now confined in the Barracks of Lancas- ter, in Order to their being supplied with those necessaries and Comforts -- which I know they Stand in much need of. The illiberal suspicions of the Com. of Safety respecting the Breach of Parole -- which they assert some of the British Officers have been guilty of, I shall treat with the Contempt it deserves, by not giving myself any uneasiness about it, perfectly convinced that you Sir and the Gentlemen who form the Committees of this Town, are well acquainted with the delicacy with which we have adhered to the Parole we gave you on our arrival.
I am sir, Your most Obed. & most hum. serv't,
F. W. KINNEER. " To Geo. Stevenson, Esq., Carlisle."
I have transcribed the foregoing Transactions to inform you what we are doing here in Committee.
I also enclose you a Draught of a Protest our Committee had concluded to have got signed by a Number of the People at large-and to send to the Assembly, which on second thought we have suppressed for the Present, at least till we hear what
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they are doing, and indeed from some doubt it might do more hurt than good.
This is all that has happened since the last County Commit- tee of which I gave von an acet. as also of the Election by Jo. Scull. Mr. Montgomery will give you a particular act. of the Indian Treaty.
I am, sir, your most obd't Hbl'e serv't,
GEO. STEVENSON.
[ Col. Eneas Mackay to Col. James Wilson, Phila.]
KITTANING, 28th Nov., 1776.
MY DEAR SIR; Inclosed with this you will find a long let- ter addressed to the President of the Honorable Congress- which is left open for v'r perusal-And which I Request of you to Deliver or Suppress just as you may judge proper.
It contains matter no doubt that you little suspected, but there was no Gaurding against it by any means in my Power. I trust the part I have acted in the Whole of my Conduct will in a great Measure Correspond with the Excellent advice I have been favored with from yourself, at my first Appoint- ment.
Major Butler & Mr. Boyd, whom you Know to be Gentle- men of Veracity, will inform you of affairs at large at this place, More fully than I am at leisure to do at this time, but this far, I consider it as my Duty to tell you -- that the Artful In- sinuations & Invious turn of some-and the Factious Disposi- tion of the Rest of the officers-has been Equally Perplexing to me and predudicial to the publick service.
In the mean time. I will say no more than my Duty calls upon me to Declare-but intend to be more Explicit when I will hear of the measures that will be taken below in regard to Affairs in this Quarter.
Seditious as this Battallion is, the Men in general are as likely as I have seen any where; At the same time they make but mean appearance for want of Clothing; I therefore humbly hope the Honorable the Congress will be pleased to Consider that Circumstance, and order them One Suit of Regimentals, as
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was done to their Brethern in the service -- & also four hundred Stand of Arms. I niveau Maskots. Bavonets & suitable accoutre- ments: for my part I am far from approving of having a whole Battalion armed with Rifles -- if such were to be had-nor would I ever desire to have more than two Companies armed that way in a Regiment.
Please to offer my Compliments to Mrs. Wilson, Son and Daughter.
And I am with unfeigned esteem, Dear Sir, Yours Most Affectionately,
ANEAS MACKAY.
P. S .- I expect that no orders or settlements from this Post will be accepted of without my name appearing at the Bottom of such, till such time as I may be superseded by a superior officer. I Don't mean this as a compliment paid to myself, but justice to the Service.
I will be obliged soon to draw on the President of the Con- gress, in favor of Barnard Gratz. for the amount of some goods purchased from him for the use of the Battalion, which Draft I trust will be accepted at the ordinary Sight. I have wrote to Mr. Millegan at this time Requesting of him to accept of the office of Agent for this Battalion and would be glad you would speak to him on the Same Subject. I don't know whether or not Congress makes any allowance for officers of that kind.
A. M.
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PENNSYLVANIA NECROLOGY.
JEREMIAH COOK.
On the 13th day of January, 1884, at his home, Chambersburg, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in the forty-sixth year of his age, died Jeremiah Cook. journalist and lawyer. He was born in Guil- ford township, in the county of his late residence; educated at the College of New Jersey, Princeton ; subsequently read law at Cham- bersburg ; was admitted to the bar of Franklin county, in company with Hon. William S. Stenger, on the 18th of August, 1800, and im- mediately commenced the practice of his profession at Chambers- burg. But, Jere. Cook being a man of ardent nature and strong political convictions, naturally heeded every sign of the great polit- ical storm at that time impending. and when it broke, abandoned the practice of a peaceful profession, which promised much, to enter the military service of the Government. Ill health came to him early in his military career, and during a subsequent civil mission to the wilds of Montana Territory, with several years spent there in almost con- stant exposure of life and health, (although he returned apparently benefited,) were doubtless engendered the germs of the insidious dis- ease to which he at last fell victim.
Upon the termination of his business in the western country, Mr. Cook returned to Chambersburg, Pa., where he assumed the editorial management of the Franklin Repository, to which Colonel A. K. McClure had already given a State-wide reputation as a political news- paper, advocating Republican principles. For a number of years Mr. Cook edited the Repository, and, as the present editor of that journal says of him, " wielded a wide influence throughout the county, and was everywhere known as a man of decided convictions, with the courage to enforce them." Says Public Opinion, a contemporary newspaper, "he was by no means a politic journalist, and oftimes, as was thought. unnecessarily excited antagonisths, not only against himself, but in the camp of his party; yet withal the, feeling was general that the course of his paper was influenced by convictions of duty, and not to serve his personal interests."
Resigning, a few years ago, the editorship of the Repository, and with it the position of Assessor of Internal Revenue for Chambers- burg, which he had acceptably filled for some time, Mr. Cook resumed the practice of law, in which business he continued to be actively en- gaged until ill health compelled him to abandon it.
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To Mr. Cook, in his domestic life, sorrow came early. He married, shortly after his return from the West, Miss Jennie McKeeban, of Chambersburg, who lived only long enough to leave three little daughters to mourn with him her early death; and these remain. Mr. Cook was buried with Masonic honors, and his mortal remains rest in Cedar Grove Cemetery, near the town where he lived and died.
BENJAMIN M. NEAD.
GEORGE W. DURELL.
Captain George W. Durell. of Durell's Independent Battery, "D," died at Reading, Pa., at 11.25, November 9. 1883, aged sixty-two years. He was stricken with paralysis on the 26th of July, and hopes were entertained of his recovery until about the first of November, when it became evident that his days were numbered. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware: learned his trade-that of a painter-in Philadelphia. and went to Reading in 1848. He recruited his com- mand in Berks and Bucks counties, and was commissioned captain September 24, 1861, and on the 18th of December his battery was as- signed to McDowell's Division. In August, 1862, it was attached to the 2d Division of the 9th Army Corps, after which Captain Durell became as well known in the 51st Penn'a as its own officers. He was highly esteemed and respected, and the news of his death will fall sadly upon the survivors of the 51st Penna., Gov. Hartranft's regiment ; 51st New York, Col. Potter's; 21st Massachusetts and 11th New Hampshire, Ex-Gov. Harriman's regiment, with whose fortunes Capt. Durell's battery was so long and so closely associated. To sketch his services would only be to repeat what has been written of those regiments from the action at Kelly's Ford, August 21, 1562, to the arrival at Jackson, Miss., on the 10th of July, 1863. The Vicksburg campaign told heavily on Durell's men, but having re- cruited, the roar of his guns was next heard in the Wilderness battles and around Petersburg, Va. -
Capt. Durell was discharged September 23, 1864, upon the expira- tion of his term, and resumed his business, and for many years prior to his death held a responsible position in the paint shops of the Reading Railroad Company in Reading. He has been long a mem- ber of the First Baptist Church at Reading, and for some time was superintendent of its Sabbath-school. He was also a worthy member of the Order of Odd Fellows and of the Masonic fraternity. His wife and four children, Edward T., James M., Georgiana B., and Mary Ellen, survive him.
The first time I made Captain Durell's acquaintance was on Sat- urday, August 15, 1862, at White Sulphur Springs, Fauquier county, Va., when just after our brigade got under way and beyond the hill east of the Run the rebels commenced shelling our wagon train. In- stantly, almost, Capt. Durell's guns opened from the hill by the shoe- maker's house, and kept up a terrific roar for over an hour, silencing
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the enemy's battery. I was attracted by his cool bravery and in- quired who he was. I shall never forget bis sad face when he rode up to us shortly after and said his brave Lieutenant Howard Mell- vaine was mortally wounded. Farewell, kind-hearted Capt. Durell ; the sword has fallen from your failing hand and the angel of God has proclaimed an eternal peace. We will meet you at no more re- unions here, but if we follow the path you trod there will be an ever- lasting " reunion " in the Grand Army above.
" The troops march steadily on, my boys, To the army gone before ; You may hear the sound of their falling feet, Going down the river where two worlds meet ; They go to return no more. "
JOHN BLAIR LINN.
HENRY BALDWIN EARLE.
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Henry Baldwin Earle, so named for one of the brightest luminaries of the Allegheny county bar, who was a warm personal friend of the family, was born in the borough of Pittsburgh on the 16th of June, 1803. The family originally came from England and settled in New Jersey, and subsequently at Pittsburgh, being among its first settlers. His father, William Earle, during the Western Insurrection of 1794, was one of the committee of twenty-one, appointed by the loyal citi- zens to conduct and manage the part in which the citizens should take in the emergency. The subject of our sketch was educated at the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pa. He afterwards entered mer- cantile life, and was at one time extensively engaged as a dry goods merchant. In his early manhood Mr. Earle espoused the political doctrines of the old Whig party, and subsequently the doctrines of the Republicans; was elected a member of councils from his native ward, and was appointed treasurer of the fund raised for the relief of the sufferers at the great fire of April 10, 1845. IIe was also elected by the city councils to the position of wharf-master, which he held for a number of years. The duties of these several positions he discharged with the strictest honor and fidelity. As an evidence of the high estimation in which he was held, politically and socially, by his political friends, during the year (1844) of the great Presi- dential contest between Henry Clay and James K. Polk, he secured the unanimous Whig nomination for mayor of his native city ; the re- sult, however, of the election proved the success of Alexander Hay, the independent candidate. He was a prominent member of the "Old Residents' Association," now the " Historical Society of Pitts- burgh and Western Pennsylvania." He was an enthusiastic lover and patron of fine arts: in early youth he exhibited talent for draw- ing and painting of no ordinary character, which he studied under the teaching and with his friend, the late Bishop Hopkins. One of his sons inherited, in an eminent degree, the talent of the father, and
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is now a professional artist of considerable ability. Fond of pisca- torial pursuits, he was an active member of the old Isaac Walton Club of Pittsburgh. Mr. Earle died at his residence in Pittsburgh, March 28, 1853, aged nearly eighty years. He married, August 22, 1830, by the late Bishop John H. Hopkins, Miss Jane Douglas Kirk- patrick ; they had ten children, seven sons and three daughters. His widow, four sons and one daughter survive him.
JOHN E. PARKE.
JACOB FATZINGER, JUNIOR.
Jacob Fatzinger. junior, son of Jacob and Drusilla Fatzinger, was born at Weaversville, Northampton county, Penn'a, on the 9th of August, 1841. His parents were among the older residents of what is known as the " Irish Settlement." He was brought up on his father's farm, and was educated at the Weaversville academy. Ata very early period of his life he evinced a strong liking for the early surveys and records relating to the first settlements in Northampton and Lehigh counties. He pursued his studies in this direction under considerable difficulty ; his parents and friends, failing to see the im- portance of the undertaking, gave him but little encouragement. He, nevertheless. persevered, and to facilitate his work adopted the calling of surveying. He became quite proficent in this profession, and his services were required constantly, but he permitted nothing to interfere with the object of his life-to obtain as full and complete a collection of the early records and papers bearing upon the original settlements in the counties referred to, as was possible. He spared neither time, money, or trouble to achieve success, and spent much labor in searching for, indexing, and filing away these documents, and by which he had really become authority upon disputed ques- tions of title in his neighborhood. Among his papers were many left by George Palmer, one of the Provincial surveyors under the Penns. He was the author of several chapters in the last history of Northamp- ton county, and wrote for the local press quite a number of historical articles. When it was proposed to establish the Historical Register, he manifested a very warm interest in the enterprise, and contributed to its pages several valuable papers on the " First Settlers in the Irish Settlement," but which he never completed. The workers are so few that his early loss in the historic field is to be regretted. Pos- sessed of a handsome estate, with him it was a labor of love, and he did it well. lle was a member of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania, a Past Master of Porter Lodge, 284, F. and A. M., and one of the directors of the Catasauqua National Bank. He died at his resi- dence in Weaversville, after a brief illness, of congestion of the brain, on the 27th of November, 1883, in the forty-third yearof his age. Mr. Fatzinger married, a few years ago, a daugher of Edward Eckert of Seigfried's Bridge, who, with an only child, survive.
WILLIAM H. EGLE.
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ROBERT G. McCREARY.
Robert G. MeCreary. Esq .. the oldest and ablest member of the bar of Adams county, died December 22, 1883. in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was born December 18, 1815. in Cumberland township, Adams county. Pa. He received his early education in the schools of the neighborhood in which his parents lived, and after- wards (1841-2) supplemented it by a partial course in Pennsylvania College. in connection with his study of the law. As a lad he helped in one of the stores in Gettysburg, and subsequently he became a merchant, which business he relinquished on account of impaired health. On the 25th of November. 1844. he was admitted to the bar on examination. In the spring of the following year he opened an office in York, where he remained until 1847, when, on the departure of IIon. James Cooper to Europe. he returned to Gettysburg. took charge of the business of the latter, and on Mr. Cooper's final re- moval from Gettysburg succeeded to it.
Mr. McCreary's progress in his profession was at first unusually slow, but he employed the leisure of his earlier life in close study of the principles on which the law is founded, and derived thence his rare facility, subsequently proved, in the elucidation and treatment of difficult cases. Without having unusual gifts of speech, he was, by reason of his lucidity of statement and simplicity and strength of language, a man of power before both court and jury. For twenty years he was employed in every important case in the county, and his reputation frequently called him elsewhere. In 1876 he received the vote of the Republicans of the Nineteenth Judicial district for president judge, and in 1878 he ran largely ahead of his ticket, but was defeated. for the General Assembly. He received, in 1854. the honorary degree of A. M. from Pennsylvania College. He was a public-spirited citizen. and at his death was identified actively with the Battlefield Memorial Association. the Adams County Fire In- surance Company. the Evergreen Cemetery, and other organizations, and was the burgess of the borough. For fifty years he was a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church of Gettysburg, and for thirty years a ruling elder.
Mr. McCreary married, December 14, 184S, Miss Louisa A. E. Moore, of Georgetown, D. C .. who survives him, with three daugh- ters. A fourth child, a son, died in infancy.
EDWARD McPHERSON.
HARRY E. PACKER.
Harry E. Packer, son of Asa Packer, the founder of Lehigh Uni- versity, was born June 4. 1850, at Mauch Chunk, Pa. He spent his younger days at the home of his parents, and was prepared for col- lege at Danville, N. J., at a private academy. He entered the Le- high University on September 14, 1566, being a member of the first
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class of that institution. After pursuing his studies for four years, having taken a full scientific course, he was graduated in Jume. 1870, with the highest honors of his class, which numbered eleven, most of whom have since won fame in various parts of this and other countries in the practice of their professions. Immediately after finishing his college course. Mr. Packer joined the engineer corps of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and shortly afterwards was appointed to the position of superintendent of the Easton and Amboy Rail- road, which branch of the Lehigh Valley Road, from Easton to tide- water, had been built but a few years previously. He performed the duties of this responsible office with great credit, and for one so young developed wonderful executive ability. Shortly after attain- ing his majority he was made a member of the Board of Trustees of Lehigh University and St. Luke's hospital, and was added to the Board of Directors of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, holding the posi- tion of vice president of the latter corporation for a number of years. In January, 1883, Mr. Packer was elected to the presidency, which he held to the day of his death. He was also the president of the Schraeder Coal Company, and was interested generally and particu- larly in all the many corporations and enterprises controlled and owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. He was elected an associate judge of Carbon county in ISS1 and held the office up to the time of his death. His father had the same position for many years. He was frequently mentioned in connection with the nomination for Congress in the Eleventh district, but did not allow his name to go before the conventions. He died at Mauch Chunk on Friday, the 1st of February, 1SS4, in his thirty-fourth year. Judge Packer mar- ried, August 29, 1872, Miss Augusta Lockhart, daughter of the late Alexander Lockhart, of Mauch Chunk, who survives. They had no children. W. H. E.
JOHN WILLIAM WALLACE.
John William Wallace. president of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania, died at his residence in Philadelphia on the 12th of January, 1884. He was born in Philadelphia, February 17, 1815. His father was John Bradford Wallace, and his mother was a sister of the elder Horace Binney. His early training in literature, in religion, and the law was under the constant guidance and supervision of his father ; but he owed much to his mother, who, to intellectual culture, joined qualities of heart that endeared her to her son, and united them in the closest bonds of affection.
Mr. Wallace graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1833. Selecting the law as his future profession, he pursued his studies in the city of Philadelphia and in London. He was called to the bar October 27, 1836. His legal acquirements were extensive and varied. Few of his contemporaries at the Philadelphia bar have cultivated
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so assiduously what may be termed the literature of the law. His volume, called " The Reporters," the first edition of which was pub- lished in 1848, illustrates Mr. Wallace's learning and abilities as a legal writer.
Early in his professional career he was appointed a Master in Chan- cery by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and subsequently pub- lished three volumes of reports of " Cases in the U. S. Circuit Court," and edited six volumes of " British Crown Cases Reserved." In 1864 Mr. Wallace was appointed by the Supreme Court of the United States the reporter of its decisions, and twenty-two volumes of re- ports attest the ability and the fitness which he brought to the duties of this important position. The civil war had greatly enhanced the labors of the court, grave questions of prize law, of Constitu- tional law, and of inter-State law, occupied the time of the court and imposed on the reporters very onerous labors. Mr. Wallace care- fully studied each case as it arose and prefaced the opinion of the court with a most carefully prepared statement of the facts and the law. " Wallace's Reports" are a monument to his faithfulness and his learning. Mr. Wallace was not only a lawyer and a legal writer, but he was an accomplished belles-lettres scholar, and during his several visits abroad devoted himself to literature and art. He was greatly interested in historical and biographical studies, and while still the reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States was elected in 186S the President of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania. His last contribution to Pennsylvania history, privately printed a few months prior to his death, was the " Life of William Bradford," from whom he was descended. He was a member of old St. Peter's church, (Episcopal, ) Third and Pine streets, Philadelphia, in which graveyard he was interred. Mr. Wallace's family consisted of his wife, who survives him, and one daughter, the wife of John Thompson Spencer, of the Philadelphia bar. W. II. E.
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