History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 82

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 82

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Capt. Nutt holds a high place among his neighbors as a man of integrity ; but, above all, he is esteemed as a gentleman of large information and accurate

scholarship. He has contributed considerably to the best literature of the day, and while enjoying enviable repute as an incisive and effective off-hand and po- litical stump-speaker, has occasionally delivered upon history, education, and kindred subjects, public lec- tures of a character, both as to their embodied thoughts and rhetorical methods, which places him in the front rank of thinkers and writers.

P.S .- Since the above went to press Capt. Nutt has resigned his post as cashier of the Fayette County Bank, and has been appointed cashier of the State treasury under Gen. Baily, the State treasurer. Har- risburg will open to him a wider and more important field than Uniontown, a field which he cannot but ahly fill.

JUDGE JOIIN HIUSTON.

John Huston was the son of John Huston, Sr., for- merly of Fayette County, but who removed in the latter part of the eighteenth century to Kentucky, where the younger John was born, Jan. 2, 1793. At the age of nineteen he came from his native State to Fayette County on a visit to his uncle, Joseph Hn- ston, residing in the neighborhood of Uniontown, and concluded to settle down there, his uncle taking him into business with himself as manager of a forge and furnace, the uncle conducting at that time a compar- atively large business. Mr. Huston remained with his uncle a few years, until the death of the latter, when he established himself in the like (iron) busi- ness, which he carried on till the year 1840, when he turned his attention principally to farming, then own- ing several traets of land. His farming was conducted with a careful eye to all the essential requirements, he being an excellent manager, yet so leisurely that he was wont to call himself joenlarly " a lazy farmer." He continued this style of farming with profitable re- sults, however, until his death on May 19, 1872.

He was a Democrat in politics, and was elected by his party as representative to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania for the large district, as then consti- tuted, in which he resided in 1835, and about 1844 was appointed by Governor Shunk an associate judge of Fayette County for a term of five years, the duties of which office he fulfilled. He took great interest in the public schools and all general matters of public improvement, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Uniontown, which he joined about 1831. He was director in a bank at Connellsville for a great number of years, and in the National Bank of Fay- ette County from its organization to the day of his death. He was a large-hearted, generous man, and liberally aided all who sought him and whom he regarded worthy of assistance to the extent of his ability, particularly energetic and honorable young men starting out in life. Judge Huston died pos- sessed of a large estate, which might have been much larger bnt for his generous disposition of his money from time to time in aid of others.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

He married in 1826 Miss Susan Millhouse, who died leaving one child, Mary Ann, who became, in June, 1849, the wife of Rev. Dr. Elliot Swift, of Allegheny, Pa., and died on the 25th of July, 1850. As his sec- ond wife, who survives him, he married Mrs. Anna M. McCall, whose maiden name was King, a daughter of Samuel King, a merchant of Uniontown, by whom he had three daughters, all of whom died before him.

GREENBURY CROSSLAND.

Greenbury Crossland, of Uniontown, must be ranked markedly among those worthy men generally known as "self-made," strong and individuate in their characteristics, and who build their own monu- ments of fortune and reputation. Mr. Crossland, the son of Elijah and Catharine Smith Crossland, was born at Connellsville, June 16, 1813, and moved with his parents to Uniontown in 1822, where he has ever since resided, having occupied his present domicile thirty-four years. At twelve years of age he went to work at twelve and a half cents per day with George W. Miller on a farm, where he remained a while. His literary education was obtained from three or four short terms of schooling under the tuition of William Thompson and others long before the com- mon schools of Pennsylvania were instituted; but his father being a butcher and horse-dealer, young Crossland got his principal training in the meat-shop and by driving horses to the Eastern cities.

Ou the Ist day of January, 1833, he married Sarah Stearns, with whom he has lived happily for near half a century. In April, 1833, he commenced busi- ness as a butcher on a capital of twenty-three dollars, ten of which were. furnished by his wife, and has never received a dollar by bequest, or in any way save through his labor or business transactions. At the time of his early operations as a butcher it was his custom to take a wheelbarrow at one o'clock in the morning, and wheel-his wife helping him by pulling with a rope tied to the barrow-a side of beef from the slaughter-house to the market-house, where all meat was sold in those days. The first year he made three hundred dollars, and bought a log house and the lot on which it stood, the latter being the one on which now stands the house occupied by T. J. King.

He continued butchering, gradually increasing in prosperity, until about 1841, when he commenced buying cattle to sell in the Eastern market, a business he has followed mainly ever since. For about four- teen years he was a partner in business with Charles MeLaughlin, late of Dunbar, but did not make the business remunerative until he engaged in it alone, about 1856, since which time his march has been steadily onward in the line of fortune.

In 1847 he bought of Charles Brown a farm of one hundred and four acres, whereon he has since lived, the first purchase of the real estate which now con-

stitutes him an extensive land proprietor, his do- mains covering over seven hundred acres in the vicin- ity of Uniontown, all valuable alike for agriculture and containing vast stores of mineral wealth.

Mr. Crossland's excellent judgment of weights and measures is a matter of popular notoriety, and it is said that he can guess at any time within five pounds of the weight of a fat steer, which probably accounts for much of his success in the cattle business. His strength of purpose and moral firmness are remark- able, and he has never been led into the visionary and impracticable. His knowledge of human nature is good, he seldom erring in his judgments of men, and, it is said, never making mistakes in his invest- ments in property.

Mr. Crossland is in religion an ardent Methodist, and it is due to him to add that his neighbors accord to him the virtue of believing the faith he professes. He and his wife joined the Methodist Church in Uniontown Jan. 1, 1845, and have both continued to this time active members thereof. He has been for twenty-five years past a liberal contributor to the support of the ministry and the benevolent enter- prises of the church. Not only by his great liberality, but through his high character as a man of probity, is he a very pillar in the church. Desiring reliable information in regard to the chief characteristics of Mr. Crossland, the writer, a stranger to Mr. Cross- ; land, sought one of Mr. Crossland's long-time ac- quaintances, a man of high repute, and asked him for an analysis of Mr. Crossland's character, as un- derstood by him and the public, and received, after some delay, indicative of deliberation, the following written analysis : " Moral characteristics,-faithful- ness, houor, honesty, benevolence, and regard for the rights of others. Business characteristics, - good judgment, caution, energy, perseverance, watchful- ness, combined with great shrewdness and knowledge | of market values. Religious characteristics,-enthu- siasm, sincerity, simplicity in manners and dress, charity, and single-mindedness." This being ac- cepted, particularly since it is the statement of a gen- tleman above suspicion on account of religious preju- dice for, or fraternity with, Mr. Crossland, it is here recorded as an evidence of the high honor which simple straightforwardness, good sense, and energy may win for a man, even though not a "prophet" among bis neighbors, in these days of irreverence and carping criticism.

WILLIAM HUNT.

William Hunt is the son of Isaac Lansing Hunt and Hannah Lincoln, both of a direct English line of ancestry, and both natives of Fayette County. Isaac L. was the son of Jacob Hunt, who came from Eliza- bethtown, N. J., and settled in East Liberty, Dunbar township, where the former was born, June 25, 1791, and died in October, 1836. Isaac is represented to

Greenberg Grafo land

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1. Robinson.

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UNIONTOWN BOROUGH.

have been a man of marked characteristics, strong common sense, and, though not tall or large in stature, a man of great physical strength and courage, and, though of quiet temperament, admiringly known among his compeers as " plucky Ike Hunt." How he was esteemed by his contemporaries may be under- stood by the fact that he was twice selected by large majorities, county commissioner at the time when the caucus system was not so much in vogue and so dom- inant as now and every one stood upon his merits.

William was born in Dunbar township, White School District, Feb. 2, 1836, some eight months before his father's death, and is the youngest of eight chil- dren. His mother, with the children, moved to Uniontown, April, 1845, where she still (1882) resides at the age of eighty-seven. William attended the common school, and for a while Madison College, leaving which he entered upon learning the jewelers' and watch-repairer's trade in 1850 as an apprentice of Henry W.S. Rigden, of Uniontown, noted for his great mechanical abilities, and under whom he continued for four and a half years. From 1854 to 1858 he sought and procured engagement in one of the best jewelry establishments in the country, severally dis- tinguished for excellence in the specialties of his trade, completing a course of experimental education, which has served, together with his fine natural ability, to give him a more extensive and profitable repute as a skilled mechanie in his art, and, in fact, in general, than usually enjoyed by his fellow-trades- men. Mr. Hunt has an inventive cast of mind, and readily masters whatever mechanical subtleties are presented him for solution or difficulties to over- come.

Mr. Hunt returned to Uniontown in 1858, and opened a shop for general repair-work pertaining to his trade. His business has from the start "pushed" him. In 1860 he commenced putting in stock, and has gradually increase:l the amount of his purchases and sales, year after year, until he now does the chief work of the locality, and enjoys the largest trade in bis line in Fayette County.

Mr. Hunt early joined the order of Freemasons, and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd- Fellows, and has filled nearly all the honorary official positions in the lodges of both orders with which he has been connected. Mr. Hunt has always been identified with the Democratic party, but he exercises independence on occasion, voting for a good man of any party, as his judgment may dietate. He lias served several terms in the Town Council, and been efficient in carrying out policies at the time of their projection much objected to, but which after expe- rience the people approved. He is decidedly a man of progress.

As recorded above, the maiden name of Mr. Hunt's mother was Lincoln, and it should be noted here that it was a Lincoln of the same stock who received Lord Cornwallis' sword at Yorktown and delivered it to

Washington. Daniel Boone, the great Kentucky hunter, was also of the same stock.

Though he has led a busy life, Mr. Hunt has found time to secure, through the medium of books, a large amount of practical, general information, and is fre- quently consulted by his fellow-citizens upon impor- tant matters outside of his profession. His charac- ter for veracity and business integrity is probably not surpassed by that of any other citizen of his town.

ELEAZER ROBINSON.

Among the immigrants of Fayette County, bring- ing and infusing into its social and business life a then somewhat novel element, that of the " Yankee" or New England spirit, came about 1837 Eleazer Rob- inson, an iron-founder. Mr. Robinson was born March 4, 1804, in Bethel, Windsor Co., Vt. His parents, Eleazer Robinson and Experience Downer, were of the old New England Puritan stock. In 1810 they re- moved to Saratoga County, N. Y., where he enjoyed the advantages of the common schools of the times and made considerable progress in general studies. But in 1824, his parents then removing to Broome County, N. Y., young Robinson there availed himself of the opportunities offered by the academy in his neighbor- hood. There he devoted himself mainly to mathe- maties, in which he achieved marked success, leaving the academy well equipped as a civil engineer; and though he did not enter upon the profession of engi- neering, his studies there made have served him on many an important occasion in the avocations of life, especially in mechanical pursuits. On quitting the academy he took up the study of the law, under the direction of a leading lawyer of Binghamton, a Mr. Robinson,-not a relative, however,-and continued his legal studies until interrupted by the death of his father (who left seven children, of whom Mr. Robin- son was the eldest), which threw upon him the re- sponsible care of the family, obliging him to quit the law-office for the practical duties of the farmer, he varying these during a course of years by more or less school-teaching.

Eventually he became largely interested in the lumber business at Owego, N. Y. But there over- borne by disaster, caused by a great freshet in the Upper Branch of the Susquehanna, which in a few hours swept away a fortune in lumber, he with the buoyant energy which has distinguished his whole life moved at once to Erie, Pa., and there engaged in the drug business. At this business he continued three years, within which time he made an acquaint- anceship which gave direction to the course of his life since then with a Mr. Jonathan Hathaway, the pat- entee of a superior cooking-stove, well remembered by the older inhabitants of Fayette County, and se- cured control of the manufacture of the " Hathaway stoves," whereupon he moved to Pittsburgh and pro- cured their casting there. After a while, meeting with

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

much loss through the destruction by fire of the foun- dry wherein the stoves were cast, he went to Union- town in 1837, and there established a foundry, and eventually erected a branch foundry in Washington, Pa., and opened agencies at Carlisle and elsewhere, all of which were conducted very successfully for some years. Finally Mr. Robinson concentrated his business at Uniontown, there prosecuting it actively till 1867, when, having amassed a goodly fortune, he retired from business as a manufacturer, selling the foundry to one of his earliest apprentices and faithful co-workers, Mr. Thomas Jaquett.

Since then Mr. Robinson has been engaged in various business pursuits. In 1872 he came into pos- session as sole owner under a private charter of the gas-works by which Uniontown is lighted. He also controls as principal owner the gas-works of Middle- town, Dauphin County.

Mr. Robinson was one of the original board of di- rectors of the First National Bank of Uniontown, and remained a director till within a few years past. He has ever generously contributed to the upbuilding or support of such institutions in the places of his residence as commanded his respect, taking no ex- treme partisan cause, however, either in politics or religion, enjoying the esteem of his neighbors and the business public as a man of sterling integrity as well as clear judgment, genial sociability, and humane sentiments.

July 12, 1837, Mr. Robinson united în marriage with Miss Cornelia Wells, of York, N. Y., who died in 1845, having borne him four children, one only of whom, Mrs. Emma R. King, now (1882) survives. On Nov. 6, 1846, Mr. Robinson married again, being then united to Miss Mary Ann McClelland, of Union- town, who died in September, 1850, leaving no chil- dren. Mr. Robinson married as his third wife, Nov. 24, 1852, Mrs. Elizabeth J. Porter, daughter of James Wilson, Esq., of German township, with whom he lived twenty-nine years, she dying in May, 1881, at the age of sixty-eight years, leaving two children,- Mr. W. L. Robinson, who has mainly suceceded to his father's business, managing the gas-works, etc., and Miss Mary E. Robinson.

COL. ALEXANDER McCLEAN.

Alexander McClean, the most famous land surveyor of Southwestern Pennsylvania, who passed more than fifty five years of his life as a resident of Uniontown, and who held the offices of register and recorder of Fayette County for more than half a century, was born in York County, Pa., Nov. 20, 1746, being the youngest of seven brothers, the six others of whom were Moses, Archibald, William, Samuel, John, and James. All of them became surveyors, and Archi- bald (the eldest), Moses, Samuel, and Alexander were employed with the celebrated " London artists," Ma- son and Dixon, in running the historic line between

Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, in 1766-67, Alexander being then less than twenty-one years of age, and acting as an assistant to his elder brothers, of whom Archibald was the chief in the business.

The opening of the Land Office, April 3, 1769, for the locating of lands in the then "New Purchase," gave employment to a great number of surveyors, and among them was Alexander McClean. It was for the prosecution of this business that he first moved across the mountains, making his location at the Stony Creek Glades, in the present county of Somer- set; but being then unmarried he changed his tem- porary residence from time to time as required by the location of the work on which he was engaged. At first he was but an assistant to his brothers, who were deputy surveyors, but after a time he was him- self appointed to that office, the first survey found recorded as executed by him in the capacity of deputy surveyor within the present boundaries of Fayette County being dated in the year 1772. In 1775 he was married at the Stony Creek Glades, near Stoystown, to Sarah Holmes, and in the following spring he moved with his wife to what was then West- moreland County (afterwards Fayette), and located at or near where his brothers James and Samuel had previously settled, in what is now North Union town- ship, some three miles from where Henry Beeson was then preparing to lay out the town which was the nucleus of the present borough of Uniontown. It was doubtless the knowledge which he obtained of this region while engaged in surveying that induced him to settle west of the Laurel Hill soon after his marriage. He remained at his first location in the present North Union township for about three years, and in 1779 removed to Uniontown, which from that time was his place of residence till his death.

In the first Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, in 1776, Alexander McClean was one of the members from Westmoreland County. In September of the same year he was one of the justices of the peace for Westmoreland, appointed by the Revolutionary State Convention. He was also a member of Assembly for 1782-83, being elected for the purpose of procuring the passage of the act erecting Fayette County. which was accomplished in the latter year. He had early foreseen the probability of the erection of a new county from this part of Westmoreland, and had (it is said) urged Henry Beeson to lay out his town (now Uniontown), in the belief that it would be made the seat of justice of the new county, the erection of which he predicted.

In 1782 he was appointed sub-lieutenant of West- moreland County, in place of Edward Cook, who had been promoted to lieutenant to succeed Col. Archi- bald Lochry, who was murdered by the Indians on the Ohio in the previous year. By his appointment as sub-lieutenant of the county Mr. McClean obtained the title of colonel, by which he was ever after- wards known.

A. Stewart -

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UNIONTOWN BOROUGH.

During the Revolution, from 1776 to 1784, there were no entries of land made at the Land Office, and consequently there was no work for deputy surveyors. But in 1781 Col. McClean was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania chief surveyor for this State (to act in conjunction with a similar officer on behalf of Virginia) to run the temporary line between the two States, as agreed on in 1779. After many delays and vexatious dis- appointments in the execution of this work it was finally completed by Col. McClean and Joseph Nev- ille, of Virginia, in the winter of 1782-83. The pay established by the Council at the commencement of the work was twenty shillings ($2.66) per day and expenses, but afterwards that body resolved that, " taking into consideration the trouble Mr. McClean has had in running said line, and the accuracy with which the same hath been done, he be allowed thirty- five shillings (84.67) per day." This resolution of Council established the price which Col. McClean always afterwards charged for his services as sur- veyor.

Upon the erection of Fayette County in 1783, Col. McClean made application for the appointment of prothonotary and clerk of the courts of the county, but the office was secured by Ephraim Douglass. Col. McClean was, however, appointed (Oct. 31, 1783) by the Council to be presiding justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphans' Court. He filled that office until April, 1789, when he was succeeded by Col. Edward Cook. On the 6th of December, 1783, he was appointed to the offices of register and re- corder of Fayette County, and held those offices con- tinuously through all the political changes and vicis- situdes of a period of more than half a century until his death in 1834.

Col. McClean was a quiet, unobtrusive man, de- voted to the duties of his office, and caring for little else than to discharge them with diligence, accuracy, and fidelity. He held office longer-from 1772 to 1834-than any other man who has ever resided in Western Pennsylvania. He was an expert and cle- gant penman, as will readily be admitted by any per- son who examines the multitudinous pages of his work, which may be seen in the court-house at Uniontown, beautiful as copper-plate, and as clear and distinct as when they were written, ninety years ago. As register, recorder, and surveyor for more than half a century he had been conversant with all the estates, titles, and lands of the county, with all their vacancies, defects, and modes of settlement; yet with all these opportunities of acquiring wealth he died in comparative poverty, a sad monument to his integrity. He wrote more deeds and wills at seven and sixpence each (one dollar) and dispensed more gratuitous counsel in ordinary legal affairs than at reasonable fees would enrich a modern scrivener or counselor. He died in Uniontown, Jan. 7, 1834. The date has usually been given as December 7th of

that year, but that this is a mistake is shown by an entry on the court record as follows :

" Jan'y 8, 1834 .- At the meeting of the court this morning Mr. Austin rose and informed the court of the death of Col. Alexander McClean, which took place last night. After a few remarks, in which Mr. Austin alluded in terms of deserved eulogy to the high character which the deceased sustained as an officer and a man, and in general in all the social relations, he moved the following resolution, viz. : That when the court adjourns, it adjourns to meet at four o'clock P.M., in order to give the court and bar. grand and traverse jurors, and others attending on the court an opportunity of attending the funeral, which was adopted and ordered accordingly."

Col. McClean had ten children, viz .: Ann, born Sept. 7, 1776; Joseph, Nov. 17, 1777 ; Elizabeth, March 27, 1779; William, March 14, 1780; Alex- ander, Sept. 17, 1782; Ephraim, July 23, 1784; Ste- phen, Sept. 23, 1786 ; John, Feb. 23, 1788; Richard, May 17, 1790; Moses, July 25, 1793. All the sons settled on lands owned by their father. The eldest daughter, Ann, married John Ward, and settled in Steubenville, Ohio. Elizabeth married Thomas Had- den, a well-remembered lawyer of Uniontown.

IION. ANDREW STEWART.

Andrew Stewart, one of the most distinguished public men of Fayette County (which was always his home from birth to death), was the son of Abraham Stewart and Mary Oliphant, who were both natives of the eastern part of Pennsylvania (he of York, and she of Chester County), and who both emigrated while young to Fayette County, where they were married in 1789. They raised a family of children, of whom the eldest was Andrew, who was born June 11, 1791, in German township. At an early age he became self-dependent; till eighteen he worked on a farm and taught a country school, afterwards, to pay his way while going to school and reading law, he acted as a scrivener and as clerk at a furnace. In his twenty-fourth year he was admitted to the bar (January, 1815), and in the same year was elected to the Legislature; was re-elected for three years, and when a candidate for the Senate, without opposition, President Monroe tendered him the appointment of district attorney for the United States, which, pre- ferring to a seat in the Senate, he accepted, but re- signed it after his election to Congress in 1820, where he served eighteen years out of a period of thirty. He served in the 17th, 20th, 22d, 23d, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th Congresses, going in and going out with the Hon. Thomas H. Benton.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 82

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