USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 82
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He was a member of the committee of thirteen to which was referred the famous compromise propositions of Mr. Crittenden, and throughout sustained their adoption. He also presented and advocated a bill providing for submitting the Crittenden resolu- tions to a vote of the people of the several States, which was rejected, but which has
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
since been regarded by sagacious men as a remedy which would have utterly crushed secession. He was also a member of the committee of five to whom was referred the proceedings of the Peace Conference, the last of all the attempts made in Congress to settle the strife between the North and South.
Mr. Crittenden, in a speech delivered on the 2d of March, 1861, within two days of the expiration of his term in the Senate, alluded to the efforts of Mr. Bigler in the follow- ing complimentary language : "I shall never forget the zeal and industry which my honorable and honored friend from Pennsylvania has displayed in this great matter. With a zeal untiring and a hope inextinguishable, he has toiled on from day to day with a labor few others could have borne."
A writer in Harper's Weekly, of June, 1858, thus speaks of Mr. Bigler in the earlier part of his services as senator : " Entering the Senate with the last Congress, he has had little opportunity to distinguish himself in debate. His contest with Senator Douglas at the commencement of the present session has brought him most prominently before the country ; but it is in the committee-room, and in the vitally important work of judicious counsel in those unreported conferences which mould the destinies of nations, that he most distinguishes himself. He is less seen and more felt than any man on the admin- istration side of the chamber. He is continually beset by persons who wish to avail themselves of his known intimate relations with the president ; and yet in this most try- ing position of personal friend, adviser, and confidant of the chief executive, he is a model of urbanity and extreme courtesy of demeanor towards those who approach him even for favors. He is one of the rare men whom dignity and fortune do not spoil. His fine appearance and genial countenance are fair indices of his character. We do not think he has an enemy, even among his political opponents."
He was a member of the Democratic convention which assembled at Charleston, 1860, where he took ground against the nomination of Judge Douglas, and he was temporary chairman of the convention at Chicago in 1864 which nominated General George B. McClellan. In the same year, against his wish, he was presented for Con- gress in a district that had given Mr. Lincoln six thousand majority, and was defeated by only a few hundred votes.
In 1865 and 1866, in company with his wife, he made a visit, by way of the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific States, where two of his sons were then residing. During the years r867 and 1868 he devoted almost his entire time and energies, and gave much of his means to the extension of a railroad to the town of Clearfield, and to the erection of a beautiful stone church for the Presbyterian congregation of that place, of which body he became a member some years before.
He was again a delegate to the National Democratic convention of 1868, which met in New York and nominated Horatio Seymour.
In 1872 he was nominated a delegate at large to the convention for the revision of the constitution, and as the convention was to be constituted by a limited vote, his elec- tion was certain ; but some weeks after the nomination he withdrew from the ticket to give place to Ex-Governor Andrew G. Curtin, as representative of the Liberal Republi- cans. He afterwards became a member of the convention, being selected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of S. H. Reynolds, and took a leading part in the deliberations of that body. In November, 1873, at the request of Hon. John W. For- ney, he gave to the public, through the colums of The Press, his views and explana- tions at length of the new fundamental law of the State, recently formulated by the convention, and asked its adoption by the people.
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WILLIAM BIGLER.
He was prominently connected with the Centennial Exposition from its inception to its close, and to him, as much as to any one man, is due the success of that great enter- prise. He was selected by the Legislature of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1873, as State centennial supervisor, and in March, 1874, he was elected a member of the centen- nial board of finance. As fiscal agent he established a branch office of that board in New York City, and in the same capacity he visited many of the States of the Union, soliciting contributions and awakening public interest in an exposition that was to show to the world the wonderful growth of our country in its first hundred years. He was mainly instrumental in procuring the passage of the act of Congress which secured the recognition and aid of the government to the enterprise.
A prominent gentleman still in public life, in a public address, thus alluded to Mr. Bigler's efforts : " In his last official position it was my good fortune to be called by him to his assistance in the work he had so generously undertaken as a member of the board of finance of the centennial enterprise. His services, though appreciated at the time, were never properly recognized or remembered. In the passage of the bill by Congress he did more service and evinced more skill, and infused more earnestness into the friends of the measure than any man living or dead, and I have no hesitation in saying from my knowledge of all that occurred, that to him more than any of the earnest men who bore an active part in that wonderful exhibition of the power and progress of this coun- try, we are indebted for the success at Washington, without which the exposition might have been a failure."
In September, 1875, he was presented in the Democratic State Convention at Erie for the gubernatorial nomination, and from the third to the tenth ballot led all the other candidates. His name was withdrawn after the tenth ballot, and Cyrus L. Pershing, of Schuylkill, was nominated.
In 1871 he manifested a warm interest in the Democratic canvass for the presidency, and when the election was seen to turn upon the disputed votes of certain Southern States, he was requested by Mr. Tilden to go to Louisiana with other prominent and sagacious Democrats to see that the votes cast in that State were fairly canvassed, and that the result was legally declared. His associates from Pennsylvania in this duty were Mr. Randall and Ex-Governor Curtin. Mr. Bigler went to New Orleans, at a great sacrifice of personal comfort and business interests, but in obedience to a profound sense of the gravity of the crisis. In his own words, he felt that he was " a peace commis- sioner," and being such, could not be influenced by mere partisan considerations. He soon became satisfied that Louisana had declared for Tilden by a very large majority, and could not for a moment believe that the desperate schemes imputed to them would be carried out by the returning board.
When he saw that he was mistaken in this charitable judgment he was astounded, and fell back upon the hope that there would be such a manifestation of popular indig- nation against the returning board as would compel it to retrace its steps and prevent the consummation of what he believed to be a great outrage. There could be no better illustration of his strict sense of justice, and his sublime confidence in the policy of law and the integrity of the American people.
In all the proceedings at New Orleans he was a prominent figure, commanding the respect of both parties and consulted as an oracle by those of his own political faith. This was Governor Bigler's last public service, and the last few years of his life was spent at his home in Clearfield, in attendance upon his own private interests, and assist-
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
ing in the development of the resources of his county. For a number of years prior to his death he had been afflicted with valvular disease of the heart, and the last twelve months of his life was greatly enfeebled. Although every effort was made by the best medical skill, he continued to grow worse, and it became evident to himself and his friends that recovery was impossible. He bore his sufferings with great resignation, and fully conscious of his condition awaited death with the calmness of a true Christian be- liever. Surrounded by his family and friends he died at his home on Monday, the 9th day of August, A. D. 1880.
Few men who were so closely engaged in party affairs as he was for so many years, have been so thoroughly respected and honored by men of all parties. One of the earliest manifestations of this was when he was taken at the age of twenty-eight from his little country printing-office to be made State Senator, and received every vote but one cast in the county of Clearfield. He always had the confidence and esteem of his im- mediate neighbors, for he always deserved it, and they were as proud of him as printer, editor, and lumberman, as when he was governor and in the Senate of the United States. It was always a pleasure to him to be doing good turns for the people of his vicinity. Forty odd years ago, when Clearfield had no bank, and when the chief re- source for a circulating medium for business transactions was in the payment of lumber sent from the county down the Susquehanna River, he frequently played the part of volunteer and unpaid banker. It was his custom to take all the dirty, ragged, and un- current notes received for his own rafts, and considerable sums from his fellow-lumber- men and carry them to Philadelphia and get fresh issues of the city banks, together with coin, to be put in circulation at his home.
His early life of hardship and toil had hardened his muscles and given him a fine physique, and before he had wholly given himself to public life, he could endure as much fatigue as any of the stalwart backwoodsmen, of which class of people his constituency was mainly composed. He was exceedingly fond of hunting, and when he first came to Clearfield its forests were full of deer, bear, and all other sorts of wild game. This gave him frequent opportunity to indulge in this favorite pastime, and as he was known as one of the best shots in the county with a rifle, he seldom returned home without he had with him some evidence of his skill as a successful hunter, and his dexterity as a marks- man also generally made him a successful competitor at the shooting-matches, gather- ings, and contests which in that early day were as regular and certain as the seed-time and harvest.
In one of his numerous hunting adventures in the mountain wilds of his county, he captured a young bear and brought it home alive. He kept him for some time, an object of admiration as well as a victim to the taunts and tortures of the boys of the town. Bruin never became fully reconciled to his new home, and at times manifested a disposition not in keeping with a civilized life; this disposition brought upon him an early death.
In political life, though Governor Bigler was a decided Democrat of the old school, he was never a bitter partisan. He discussed party topics and public affairs on broad grounds of principle and with the courtesy of a gentleman. No man was better versed in the political history of the United States, and when he was among the active leaders of the party none could forecast the result of a pending election in Pennsylvania with as much certainty[as he. This came from his habit of mind, which, while slow in its oper- ation, was calm, clear, comprehensive, and judicial. He was both a good writer and
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WILLIAM BIGLER. - JOHN DU BOIS.
forcible speaker-forcible not because of rhetoric or showy oratory, but by cogent and persuasive reasoning.
He was a man of kindly social feelings, and irreproachable private character. There was no stain upon his official record. Varying as were the demands made upon his character and ability by many different public trusts, he proved equal to them all, and amply justified the wide confidence the people had so repeatedly reposed in him.
He obeyed the command to love God and his fellow-men, and his life of civic use- fulness was fittingly closed by a death of Christian peace.
D U BOIS, JOHN, was born near Owego, Tioga county, N. Y., March 3, 1809, the second of a family of thirteen children, two brothers and one sister only surviving him. John Du Bois, the father, a man of energy and decision, claiming descent from the Huguenots of France-a man of strong and robust physical frame and of a tall and commanding presence-reared and trained his sons in habits of early rising, industry and persevering enterprise, and though their early years were not free from hardship, and severe and constant toil, the subject of this sketch often referred in after years to the severe labor and discipline of his boyhood and youth, as the foundation of his grand success in after life. Lucy, the mother, was a daughter of Ezekiel Crocker, one of the noted and conspicuous early settlers of the Susquehanna Valley. She was a woman of decided character, of untiring energy and indomitable will, ruling her numerous family with a firm hand, and training them in habits of order, diligence, perseverance, fore- thought and economy ; encouraging and developing by her own example and guiding hand in her children, the good natural gifts and powers they inherited and derived from her by nature. She lived to a good old age, her husband surviving her but a few years, and dying at the age of eighty-four years.
John Du Bois, jr., with one or more of his brothers, early embarked in the lumber business near his home, and very soon, by means of his ingenuity, made important im- provements upon the crude methods of lumbering known to the early pioneers. He claimed to have built, when but a youth, the first log-slide that was ever built in that region ; and its perfect success was a matter of astonishment to the neighbors who wit- nessed its operation. Ere long the diminishing supply of pine timber caused the young lumberman to look about for a new field of operations, and a favorable purchase of lands and mill-site was effected on Lycoming Creek, in Pennsylvania, where John, asso- ciated with his brothers, David and Matthias, carried on the lumber business, with yearly increasing volume, and with encouraging success for several years. As fast as their capi- tal increased judicious investments were made in pine lands and other real estate. Two farms, lying within the present limits of the city of Williamsport, were purchased, laid out in lots, streets and alleys; and are now the location of some of the finest residences in the city. A large tract of some five hundred acres on the south side of the river, oppo- site the upper end of Williamsport, was also purchased, and became the location in a few years of his large steam gang mills, and of his extensive lumber yards. Large tracts of the finest pine timber in Pennsylvania were secured by John Du Bois and his brother in Clearfield county, affording for many years an ample supply of logs to the Williams- port mills, and embracing also the large tract contiguous to the present borough of Du Bois, on the western slope of the Alleghenies. Although these lands were then, and for many years afterward, inaccessible for successful lumbering operations, the low price of the land, and the magnificent growth of white pine timber with which they were cov-
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
ered, were inducements which led to the investment of every dollar the brothers could raise for the purchase ; notwithstanding they were well aware of the tremendous burden they were assuming, in the shape of many years of heavy taxes on property assessed at a high value, but affording no income, and incurring many and great risks from fires, wind- storms, and depredations of thieves, before any returns could be realized. The decease of David, a younger brother and partner, had occurred while they were living on Lyco- ming Creek. About this time they moved to Williamsport, and built a large steam gang saw-mill, on the south side of the river, in and about which hundreds of men were em- ployed, and millions of feet of lumber were annually sawed. The death of his brother, Matthias, and the purchase of his interest in the business, lands, and other property, left John the sole owner and manager of what had now grown to be a very extensive busi- ness. A movement, contemplating the making of Williamsport the great lumber centre of Pennsylvania, was soon organized by John Du Bois and a few others, by securing a charter for a boom in the Susquehanna River to catch and hold logs, to be floated from the headwaters of the stream. Mr. Du Bois was one of the original charter members of the Susquehanna Boom Company, for many years its president, and owner of most of its stock, and under his vigorous administration the boom was built, and made a decided success. Very great opposition to the driving of saw-logs was manifested by the com- munities living on the headwaters of the stream, they alleging that the floating of loose saw-logs seriously interfered with the running of rafts; and when no effective remedy could be found in the courts of law to prohibit the driving of logs, some of them clan- destinely resorted to what was. then called spiking logs. Spikes, old files, and iron of almost every shape that could be found, were driven into the ends and sides of the best logs at night, and so effectually concealed that it required careful search by experts to. find the iron. Tons of iron were extracted at the mills, and with the greatest care it was impossible to get the spikes and old iron all out ; and the stoppage of the mills for broken saws was of almost daily occurrence. With all this opposition and loss, John Du Bois never faltered, but went on putting in and driving his logs every year, meeting those in the courts who disputed his rights to drive logs on legal grounds, and by fair and honorable treatment of those he had reason to believe were privately injuring him, the opposition gradually died out and entirely so, after it was noised around that Mr. Du Bois was taking measures for the discovery of the perpetrators of the injury, with a view of bringing them to justice. Had he been governed by a spirit of revenge, or retalia- tion for the very serious injuries and losses inflicted upon his business, no doubt many would have soon found themselves behind prison bars; but when the injury ceased, he was content to let the matter drop. In the mean time, though the boom had become a perfect success, and many mills had been built at Williamsport, a strong and unreason- able opposition through envy, jealousy or misunderstanding, had arisen against the man- agement of the boom, on the part of many of his brother lumbermen. Though reaping the benefits of the boom-by having their logs caught, cared for, rafted out and deliv- ered to them-without any of the burdens, annoyances, risks or responsibilities, further than the payment of a very moderate charge for booming and rafting, it was considered sufficient cause for hostility, that Du Bois owned and managed the boom. Becoming weary of the captious opposition of his neglibors, and continual irritation and annoyance. from those who should have been his friends, and the grand scheme for which he had labored so many years being now fully assured of success, he proposed to several of the principal lumbermen to take a portion of his boom stock at par. This proposal was.
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JOHN DU BOIS.
accepted ; a controlling interest in the stock was sold to them, when Mr. Du Bois retired permanently from the management of its affairs, though still retaining nearly one-half of the original stock. Very soon, however, the opposition came to a realizing sense that, though rid of Du Bois, they had fallen into the hands of a corporation without a soul, and whose prime object was to make the utmost possible out of the boom and its fran- chises. An advance, nearly or quite doubling the boomage tolls, was secured from the Legislature on one and another pretext, and the real grievances the lumbermen were now compelled to endure at the hands of the monopoly, caused many of them to regret their former opposition to Du Bois, and to remember him as a public benefactor, instead of an extortionist. Meanwhile Du Bois still held his stock, but was totally excluded by the new management from all voice in the control, as well as from any participation in the earnings and profits of the boom. No dividends were ever declared in which he was allowed to share. He finally disposed of his boom stock with his large gang-mill to Ten Eyck, Emery & Co., and immediately set about building another large stone mill, which he operated for several years until his removal to Du Bois.
During all these years of absorbing business his active brain found time to consider and perfect many inventions ; for some of which he secured letters patent, and many more were used by him about his mills and in his business, as labor and expense saving devices, and were left free to be adopted or imitated by any that desired their benefits. In a single instance, however, was he led or forced into a long and severe litigation with a powerful railroad corporation, in defense of his right to a patent he had obtained for sinking piers in deep water, as well as in vindication of his integrity, which he considered had been wantonly attacked, and would stand or fall in the estimation of the public, with his success or defeat in the contest. After repeated partial defeats in the lower courts, and all the delays and obstructions that the best legal talent and ingenuity could devise, prolonging the battle for nearly or quite ten years, when almost every friend had de- spaired of his success, his claims to the ownership of the patent, and his integrity, were fully and finally established and vindicated, by the decision of the United States Su- preme Court, and a verdict for over thirty thousand dollars was awarded him for the infringement of his patent. His success in this suit was mainly due to his personal con- duct and direction of all the various steps in the case; and on the witness stand he showed himself fully a match for the renowned lawyers who were engaged in the case against him, knowing as he did the justice of his cause, and fully conscious of the recti- tude of his purpose.
Having nearly exhausted the supply of pine timber that could be floated to Williams- port, he began in 1872 to make preparations for lumbering on his lands on Sandy Creek, on the western slope of the Alleghenies-erecting first a small mill with one circular saw, building dams, clearing land, making roads, building houses and other improve- ments, and very soon afterwards contracting for the machinery and outfit, and laying the foundations of his immense mills and lumber establishments at Du Bois. His enterprise in developing this new region and the opening of the Low Grade Division of the Alle- gheny Valley Railroad, soon attracted a numerous colony of hardy and industrious work- men with their families, as also many merchants, mechanics and professional men, whose homes and places of business now constitute the borough of Du Bois, having increased from three houses in 1872, to a population of about seven thousand in 1886. The build- ing of his three steam mills, box factory, machine shop, store and hotel, tannery (in which latter enterprise Messrs. Van Tassel Brothers were associated as partners), the clearing
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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY.
and improvement of a twelve hundred acre farm, and the erection of more than one hun- dred good comfortable dwelling houses for his employees, occupied the last years of his life, and all these improvements proceeded under his personal supervision.
Through all his busy and useful career several peculiar traits and characteristics were especially prominent. As a business man, those who knew him best have remarked his strict sense of justice in all his dealings, and his utter detestation of all trickery and knavish practices. Prompt to defend his own rights when invaded, he never exacted from others more than he was morally as well as legally entitled to, and notwithstanding in the course of such a protracted career of business, involving many millions of dollars, he was frequently compelled either to defend or prosecute a suit at law, he dreaded and avoided such contests, so far as he considered the safety of his business would permit, and particularly in his later years, effected many settlements by a compromise, conceding often his just rights rather than resort to litigation.
His great mechanical ingenuity, in constructing devices and appliances for the saving of expense and labor, was continually displayed in all departments of his business, and scarcely a year passed by without an addition to his list of patents, many of which are still in use. Up to the latest months of his life, his mental power was seldom too much exhausted for active exercise in the direction of mechanical devices. His aim seemed always to contemplate increased production at diminished cost, and to discover the best and cheapest mode of accomplishing every part of the work he laid out, and in this mechanical ability, aided and directed by his strong native good sense, lay a very im- portant element of his great success.
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