History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 69

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 69

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In 1875 the borough authorities ordered the pur- chase of a steam fire-engine. It was purchased at $4400 from C. Ahrens & Co., and is the " Keystone" steamer which is still in use. The company to work and have charge of this steamer was organized in 1877, with the following-named charter members : C. H. Rush, S. M. Bailey, Joseph M. Hadden, W. H. Wilhelm, Samuel Cooper, Jr., George B. Rutter, C. H. Seaton, J. W. Jones, J. M. Messmore, Joseph Keffer, J. K. Beeson, W. M. Brownfield, A. G. Beeson, John G. Stevens, W. M. Hunt, Ed. Cronin, John H. Delaney, John Batton, K. B. Moore. The present S. M. Bailey, captain.

Alpheus Beall, president.

302

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

A. G. Beeson, chief engineer.

I. J. Manning, assistant engineer.

POST-OFFICE.

The exact date of the first establishment of a post- office at Uniontown is not known. Tradition places it at 1795,1 with Benjamin Campbell as the first post- master. Gen. Ephraim Douglass, in a letter written from Uniontown in February, 1784, said, "I have been here seven or eight weeks without one opportu- nity of writing to the land of the living."

Judge Veech, in his "Monongahela of Old," says there was no post-office in Fayette County till after the close of the Whiskey Insurrection (1794). In 1805 there were but four offices in the county, viz. : at Uniontown, Brownsville, Connellsville, and New Geneva. This is learned from Postmaster-Gen- eral Granger's instructions to postmasters in that year. At that time Thomas Collins was postmaster in Union- town, having the office at his hotel, corner of Main and Morgantown Streets, where it was kept till 1807. Whether he remained postmaster after the removal of the office from that place is not known. He was succeeded by John Campbell,2 who held the office till about 1836. Of his successors the following names have been obtained from newspapers of different dates, viz. : Matthew Irwin (1836-40), William Mc- Donald (1841-45), Daniel Smith (1845-46), Armstrong Hadden (1846-49), J. W. Beazel, H. L. Rankin, J. H. Springer, P. Heck, Peter A. Johns (1870-76). Marietta Johns, 1876 to the present time.

THE MAIL ROBBERY BY DR. BRADDEE.

One of the most remarkable mail robberies-or rather series of mail robberies-ever committed in

1 It is made certain that there was a post-office at Uniontown in that year by the following notice, found in the Western Telegraphe, of Waah- iogtoo, Pa., of date Nov. 3, 1795, viz. :

" LIST OF LETTERS

"Remaining in the Post-Office, Union Town :

"Hugh Brown, Silaa Bingam, Jacob Bennet, Alexander Colwell, Richard Carroll, Dennia Carrol, Alexander Duncan, Jacob Eckman, Mra. Fontaine, Heury Goebrianet, James Gibaon, Hugh Hamilton, Thomas Hooks, John Hyde, James Lang, Philip Maguire, John Mc- Mullen, Richard Mccown, William Morrow, William McFarland, Francis Mossman, Joho Maloani, Richard Melvill, Pott McKee, Alex- ander McWilliam, James Nicholl, James Nicholson, Jun., James Patter- son, Jacob Razor, Nathaniel Ross, Adam Sholly, Charles Scott, William Ross, Rev. Robert Warwick." No postmaster's name is attached to the list.

2 A letter fouod in the letter-book of the old Union Bank of Pennsyl- vania is copied and given below as showing the iofrequency of the mail service in this section of country even as late as the date indicated :

" UNION BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA, Dec. 17, 1818.

" DEAR SIR,-Your letter is dated and bears the postmark of the 7th inst. As the post arrives in this place but once a week, it was not rec'd until the evening of Monday, the 14th inst ; it returna but once a week, viz., on Friday morning; therefore, it was impossible you could get an answer to your letter by the 20th inst., or earlier than this. I now in- close you a ten-dollar note of the Farmers' Bank of Reading, No. 2392, (late 1 March, 1815.

" I am, etc., "J SIMIs, Cushier.

the United States was perpetrated in the year 1840 in the borough of Uniontown by a notorious quack physician of the place, Dr. John F. Braddee.

This Braddee was said to have been a native of the central part of Kentucky, and to have been in his youth employed as a stable-boy in Paris, in that State. Later (about 1830) he accompanied this employer, or some other horse-dealer as assistant in a trip from Kentucky with a large number of horses for sale in an Eastern market. The horses were driven along what was known as the Northwestern turnpike in Virginia, and at some point on this road between the Ohio River and Morgantown, Braddee being suddenly taken sick was necessarily left behind. Upon his re- covery, finding himself nearly or quite penniless, he continued his journey on foot to Morgantown, whence after a short stay he proceeded to Uniontown, Pa., where he made a permanent location, and where not long afterwards, through the operation of circum- stances which are now unknown, he announced him- self a physician and commenced a practice in which, though uneducated and wholly without training or knowledge in the line of his pretended profession, he achieved very remarkable success pecuniarily, if not otherwise.

He was a man of commanding personal appearance and fine address ; and these qualities, joined with al- most unparalleled effrontery and consummate tact, enabled him in a very short time to establish himself in the confidence of the people, and to gain a wider popularity as a physician than has ever been enjoyed by any medical practitioner in the county of Fayette. Patients flocked to him in great numbers; the fees which he received amounted in the aggregate to a large revenue, and placed him apparently on a short and easy road to wealth.

Atter a few years of his exceedingly profitable practice he purchased from the Hon. Thomas Irwin the valuable "National Hotel" property, on the cor- ner of Fayette and Morgantown Streets. Upon the property at the time of the purchase, stood a good- sized brick building, on the southern side. To this he added a wing extending northwardly, and in this wing established his professional headquarters. Here his success continued unabated. It is related that patients came to him from a distance of nearly one hundred miles, and that their horses to the number of more than fifty were seen hitched at one time in the vicinity of his office. He was himself the owner of several blooded race-horses, which he kept in con- stant training for the course, and on which he won and lost large sums of money, after the manner of many Kentuckians as well as Pennsylvaniaus at the present day. Whether in the purchase of the Na- tional Hotel property and the erection of the north wing to the building he had in view from the first the project of mail robbery or not is not known, but it is certain that the place was admirably adapted to the purpose which he soon set about systematically

"W. W. SPANGLER."

303

UNIONTOWN BOROUGH.

to accomplish. The old National road was then in full tide of business, as many as thirty stage-coaches passing over it each way through Uniontown daily, and some of them carrying the United States .mail. Lucius W. Stockton was the mail contractor, and he had a stage-yard and coach-factory in the rear of and adjoining Dr. Braddee's rooms in the north wing of the National Hotel. Into this yard, stages carrying the mails were driven every day.

One of the drivers of the mail-coaches was William Corman, and this man was selected by Braddee as the principal tool to be used in the nefarious business he had in view. He first cultivated Corman's ac- quaintance and secured his confidence, then finally boldly announced his object. He told his dupe that the robbery of the mails could be easily and safely accomplished, and that it would yield very large profits, which they would divide between them, with- out the least fear of detection. Corman, allured by Braddee's wily representations and the prospect of rich plunder, finally assented to the proposition. The plan of robbery which they adopted and afterwards carried into effect was for Corman to pass one of the most promising-looking mail-pouches from the yard into Braddee's rooms, or when changing the pouches from one coach to another in Stockton's yard to leave one pouch behind in the coach, to be taken ont and rifled by Braddee, then to be buried or destroyed. The way in which they carried out the plan is more fully shown in Corman's affidavit, taken after his arrest, as given below. Braddee had, besides Cor- man, two other accomplices, though whether he took them into his confidence from the first or not till some time afterwards, does not appear. They were Peter M. Strayer, a saddler of Uniontown, and "Dr." William Purnell, a native of Culpeper, Va., and a sort of body-servant to Braddee.

The depredations on the mail commenced about Jan. 25, 1840, and continued at intervals through the year. The losses of the mails were soon discovered, and George Plitt and Dr. Howard Kennedy, special agents of the Post-Office Department, were detailed to detect the robbers and bring them tojustice. Finally the robberies from the 14th of November to the 19th of December, 1840, were traced to Corman, who was then arrested on Plitt's information, as follows :

" PENNSYLVANIA, FAYETTE COUNTY. K8 :

" George Plitt, ageot of the P. O. Department, being duly sworn, says that the United States mail from Wheeling, Va., to New York, traveling on the National Road, bas been stolen, to wit : The mails made up at Wheeling on the 13th, 19th, 23d and 29th of November, 1840, and on the 5th, 12th, and 18tb of December, 1840, and that he has reason to suspect, and does sus- pect and helieve, that William Cormao, who on those days drove the Mail stage containing said Mail from Washington to Union- town, Pa., is guilty with others of stealing said mails.

"GEO. PLITT, Agt. P. O. Dept.

"Sworn and subscribed this 6th day of Jannary, A.D. 184], before me. N. EWING,

" Prest. Judge 14th Judicial Dist., Pa."

Upon his arrest, Corman at once divulged the names of his confederates, and Braddee, Strayer, and Purnell were immediately arrested. Corman's affi- davit in the matter was as follows :

" The United States of America rs. John F. Braddee, William Puroell.

" William Corman, being duly sworn, says that more than one year ago John F. Braddee repeatedly urged him to let him, the said Braddee, have some of the mail bags from the mail coach, and that he would divide the money taken from them with said Corman. Said Braddee said he had frequently known such things done, and that lots of money had thus been made, and it had never been detected. While said Corman was driving the mail coach between Smithfield and Uniontown last winter the said Braddee sent Peter Mills Strayer frequently in a sleigh after him to get a mail-hag containing a mail ; that at length he said Strayer took one from the coach, which was then on runners, while be the said Corman was watering at Snyder's, east of the Laurel Hill. That Braddee afterwards told him that there was nothing in it. That he knows of no other mail being taken until within about two months past, when he the said Corman was driving between Uniontown and Washington, and when, at the instance and after repeated and urgent requests of said Braddee, be commenced leaving a mail pouch or bag in the stage coach when the coaches were changed at Uniontown, and continued to do so at intervals of (say) a week, ten days, or two weeks until within a week or ten days before Christmas. That the said mail bags were taken from the coach by said Brad- dee or by some one under his direction. That Braddee after the taking of said mails would sometimes say there was nothing in them, and again that others bad but little money in them ; one he said had but fifteen dollars. The last but one gotten, as be- fore stated, he said had a large amount of money in it, but be was going to keep it secretly, bury it until the fuss was over. That said Braddee said he had a secret place out of doors where he could hide the mail bags so that they could not be found. That said Braddee from time to time gave him three dollars or five dollars as he asked for it, and once ten dollars, and loaned him forty dollars when his (Corman's) wife was going away. That William Purnell several times after a mail bag had been taken would take him said Corman aside and whisper to him that the bag had nothing in it. That on the day before yester- day he was several times at said Braddee's house, and Braddee wished him to leave a mail bag in the coach for him when he said Corman should return from Washington last night. That said Braddee very often wished him to leave a mail bag when he did not. That he, Braddee, requested him to leave the large mail bag in the coach for him, but be never did do it.

"WILLIAM CORMAN. "Sworn and subscribed this 8th day of January, A.D. 1841, before me,

"N. EWING, " Prest. Judge of the 14th Jud. Dixt., Pa."

Braddee, Strayer, and Purnell were immediately arrested by George Meason, sheriff of Fayette County, and their examination was had before Judge Na- thaniel Ewing on the 8th day of January, 1841. The following extract from the record appears to show that Braddee, notwithstanding his high pre- tensions and remarkable professional success, was so completely deficient in education as to be unable to write his own name, viz. :

304

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

" PENNSYLVANIA, FAYETTE COUNTY, AR ;

"The examination of Dr. John F. Braddee, of the borough of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pa., taken before me, N. Ewing, President Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District of Penn- sylvania, the 8th day of January, A.D. 1841.

"The said John F. Braddee being brought before me by virtue of a warrant issued by me, on suspicion of stealing the United States Mails from Wheeling, Va., to New York, made up at Wheeling on the 13th, 19th, 23d, and 29th days of November, 1840, and on the 5th, 12th, and 18th days of December, 1840, says, -- } know nothing about the alleged stealing of the mails. his " JOHN F. X BRADDEE.

mark.

"Taken and subseribed hefore me,

"N. EWING, " Pres. Judge 14th Judicial District of Penna. " JANUARY 8, 1×41."

The disposition made of the prisoners on their pre- liminary examination by Judge Ewing is shown by the extracts given below from the minutes of the court, viz. :

"THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, FAYETTE COUNTY, PENN- SYLVANIA, x8 :

" The United States of America es. John F. Braddee, January 8, 1841. Ordered that John F. Braddee enter into security him- self in fifty thousand dollars, and two sufficient surcties iv $25,000 each.I Prisoner remanded uotil Monday, the 11th instant, at 10 o'eloek A.M., to afford time to procure hail.

" The same vs. Peter Mills Strayer, January 8th, 1841. Ordered that Peter Mills Strayer enter into seenrity himself in $15,000, and two sufficient sureties in $7500 each. Prisoner remanded uotil Monday, the 11th instant, at 10 o'clock, to afford time to proenre bail.

" The same rx. William Purnell, January 8, 1841. Ordered that William Purnell enter into security himself in $10,000, and two sufficient sureties in 85000 each. Prisoner remanded as above, etc.

" January 11, 1841, Monday, 10 o'clock A.M. Prisoner or- dered before the Judge. Prisoners say they are not provided with bail, and ask further time, until say three o'clock P.M. Three o'clock p.v., no bail being offered, the defendants are committed to the eustody of the Marshal of the Western Dis- triet of Pennsylvania.

" N. EWING, " Pres. Judge, 14th J. D. Pa."

1 The following depositions of Special Agent Howard Kennedy were taken for the purpose of determining the proper amount of bail to be re- quired, and showing also the approximate amount of Braddee's last series of robberies (in November and December, 1810) :

" PENNSYLVANIA, FAYETTE COUNTY, 88 :

" The testimony of Dr. Howard Kennedy, taken before N. Ewing, President Judge of the 14th Juuchcial District of J'ensylvania, the eighth day of January, 1841, in reference to the amount of bail to be required of John F. Braddee, Peter Mills Strayer, and Wm. Purnell. The said Dr. Howard Kennedy being first by me duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith: There will be difficulty in ascertaining the amount of money stolen from the omils. There have been six mail-pouches or bags stolen, which would average twenty to thirty thimsand dollars each. The whole would, I am satisfied, amount to one hundred thousand dol- Inrs. I saw the money alleged to have been found in the stable of John F. Braddre. The amount thus found was ten thousand three hundred and ninety-eight dollars and sixty cents. The amount of cash stolen is probably about fifty thousand dollars. HOWARD KENNEDY.

" Taken and subscribed before me,

" N. EWING,

'Prest. Judge 14th Judicial Dist.

Whereupon the Hon. Thomas Irwin, United States District Judge of the Western District of Pennsylva- nia, ordered the prisoners into custody of the jailer of Allegheny County as follows :

" UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYL- VANIA, 88 :

" The United States of America to the Marshal of the West- ern District of Pennsylvania and his Deputies, to any constable of the County of Allegheny, and to the Jailer of said County of Allegheny, Greeting.

" WHEREAS, John F. Braddee, William Purnell, and Peter Mills Strayer are now brought before me, the Hon. Thomas Ir- win, Esquire, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Western Distriet of Pennsylvania, charged, on the oath of George Plitt, William Corman, and others, with stealing the United States mail made up at Wheeling on the 13th, 19th, 23d, and 29th days of November, A.n. 1840, and on the 5th, 12th, and 18th days of December, 1840. These are therefore to eom- mand you the said Marshal, Constable, or Jailer, or either of you, to convey the said John F. Braddee, William Purnell, and Peter Mills Strayer to the said jailer of Allegheny county, and yon the said jailer are hereby commanded to receive and keep safely the said John F. Braddee, William Purnell, and Peter Mills Strayer in your jail until they theoce be discharged by due course of law ; for so doing this shall be your warrant.

"In testimony whereof the said Hon. Thomas Irwin, Esq., has hercunto set bis hand and seal this 13th day of January, A.D. 1841.

(Signed)

"TH. IRWIN, [SEAL.] " District Judge, U. S."

Braddee was indicted by " the Grand Inquest of the United States of America, inquiring for the Western District of Pennsylvania," and his trial proceeded at the May sessions (1841) of the United States Circuit Conrt at Pittsburgh, Corman and Strayer becoming witnesses for the government ; and on the 4th day of June following the jury rendered a verdict of guilty on the first, second, and fourth counts of the indict- ment, and not guilty on the third count. Exceptions were taken and a motion made for a new trial by the prisoner's counsel, John M. Austin, Esq., but these, as also a motion for postponement of sentence, were overruled, and on the 7th of June the court pro- nounced on Braddee the sentence

" PITTSBURG, PENNA., 25th of Jany., 1841.

" Howard Kennedy, special agent of the Post-Office Department, in addition to the testimony given by him before His Ilonor Judge Ewing in the case of the Umted States against Braddee, Purnell, Strayer, and Corman, relative to the probable loss of money, drafts, &c., in the stolen mails, further deposes that since that time he has received reports from various persoas and places in the West of letters mailed at dates which would have, by due course of mail, been in the bags stulen, containing bank-notes, scrip, certificates, drafts, and checks, amounting to one hundred and two thousand dollars and upwards; that every mail brings him additional reports of losses, and that he believes the amounts re- ported will not constitute more than one-half of what has been lost in the mails between the lfith of Nov. and the 18th of Dec., 1840, on the route from Wheeling to New York.

" HOWARD KENNEDY,

" Special Agent P. O. Dept.

"Sworn and subscribed before me the 25th January, 1841.

"T. IRWIN, District Judge."

"JANUARY 8, 1841."

305

UNIONTOWN BOROUGH.

"That you be imprisoned in the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, at hard labor, for and during the term of ten years, and in all respects be subject to the same discipline and treatment as convicts sentenced by the Courts of the State, and that you pay the costs of this prosecution and stand committed until this sentence be complied with. And while so confined therein you shall be exclusively under the constraint of the offi- cers having charge of said Penitentiary."

In accordance with this sentence, Braddee was im- prisoned in the penitentiary, and died there after hav- ing served out nearly the full term for which he was incarcerated. Corman and Purnell were pardoned by the President. Purnell lived many years after- wards, and is still well remembered by citizens of Fayette and adjoining counties as a dilapidated trav- eling peddler of Dr. Braddee's medicines.

THE PRESS OF UNIONTOWN.

The Fayette Gazette and Union Advertiser, an ultra- Federalist journal, printed in Uniontown, was the first paper ever published in Fayette County. The editors and proprietors were Jacob Stewart and Mowry ; the office was in a building near where the court-house in Uniontown now stands, and the paper was a four-column folio, 10} by 16} in size. But a very few copies of this literary curiosity are now in existence. The earliest, No. 33, Vol. II. (whole number 85), is dated Friday, Ang. 23, 1799, which shows the first paper to have been issued Dec. 5, 1797. A copy of Sept. 4, 1799, contains an order granted by the commissioners of the county to Messrs. Stewart & Mowry, publishers, for one hundred and fifty dollars for publishing the list of unseated lands in Fayette County. Another copy of Sept. 14, 1803, contains a commissioners' order for one hundred and fonr dollars and twenty cents, issued to them for pub- lishing the unseated lands for the years 1800, 1801, and 1802. The Gazette and Advertiser of Jan. 22, 1804, contained an account of the receipts and expenses of the county for 1803. This account was published four times in the month of February following, and the bill, which was thirty-nine dollars, was paid March 8, 1804. Soon after this Stewart & Mowry sold the office and business to other parties, and the paper was merged with The Genius of Liberty.

1806, was only a three-column folio, eight by twelve inches, but the next year, 1807, it was again published in the original size. The office of the paper was in a building that stood upon the lot now occupied by the residence of John Harah. From the hands of Allen & Springer the paper passed to the proprietorship of Jesse Beeson, on May 5, 1812. It was issued by him every Tuesday, having as its motto,-

" Here shall the press the people's rights proclaim, With truth its guide, the public good its aim."

The paper continued under this management for some years, and the next record of a change was in 1818, when it was published by John Bonvier and John M. Austin, in an office next door above the court-house. At this time we find it issued under a partially new name, and in a new series. It was then called The Genius of Liberty and American Telegraph, and the earliest copy in preservation bears date Aug. 29, 1818, No. 21, Vol. I. This shows the first issue under the new departure to have been on April 13, 1818. The name American Telegraph was dropped the following year, and the paper was again known as The Genius of Liberty. The political opinions of the two publishers being at variance, Bouvier used one side of the paper to sustain his views as a Federalist, while Austin proclaimed his Democratic principles upon the other side. In this manner they continued the publication of the paper until July, 1821, when they sold the entire business to Thomas Patton, who pub- lished the paper in a five-column folio, twenty by forty-two inches in size, until 1824.

In the ensuing five or six years frequent changes occurred in the management of this journal. In the year 1825 the old files show Jackman & Brown to have been proprietors, and the American Observer was a part of the name. Again, Vol. I., No. 40, of a new series (Vol. IX., old series), bearing date Feb. 4, 1829, Whitton & Redick were editors and publishers. And on Feb. 10, 1830, the size of the paper was changed to that of a five-column folio, fifteen by twenty-one inches, and the name Fayette and Greene Advertiser was added to the previous one. In August, 1831, William H. Whitton was sole proprietor and publisher. In the fall of that same year Alonzo L. Littell became a half-owner of the paper, Thomas Patton purchasing the other half. This partnership lasted but a few months, however, Littell buying Patton's share, which he held until 1838, when Justin B. Morris, a brother- in-law, became his partner. In 1831, at the time of Littell's purchase, the material and conveniences for publishing a paper were of the most primitive and crude kind. The office was in the corner of a carpen- ter-shop on the back street up Bank Alley, the place affording only the most meagre accommodations. The type was worn out, and the printing was done on an old Ramage press. The ink was stamped upon the forms with two black balls, made of tanned sheep- skin, and with these appliances a good pressman

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 69

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314