USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 82
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In the years of 1862 and 1863 a course of medical lectures were taken at Ann Arbor, which famous institution was his professional alma mater ; but the most profound, pen- etrating, and practical information was gleaned from Dr. James Stewart, at Greenville, Clarion county, whose mind was both analytical and synthetical, and whose erudition encompassed about all the learning and experience of medicine in his day.
Dr. Gibson first became a practitioner in Troy, Jefferson county, where he was asso- ciated with Dr. R. B. Brown; but in 1864 he entered upon the duties of his profession in an independent career by locating at Reynoldsville, a villlage at that time of the most unpretentious character. His impressive personality challenged the attention of the community, and his successes as a healer were the confirming truths of the book of which his physiognomy and conversation were the title page. And not only as a doctor did he achieve popularity in these initial years of a long, permanent residence, but his social qualities gained for him a status that was liken unto a star around which the
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satellites of society revolved ; and this position gave him a force in directing and shap- ing the minds of his associates, and of the youths whose ambition was yet in an em- bryonic state, that redounded to the greatest good. This is a fact which the writer appreciates, inasmuch as he, himself, was one of those youths.
On Independence Day, 1867, Dr. Gibson enacted that beautiful drama of the heart, Love and Marriage, the woman of his choice-the object of his perpetual friendship- the faithful helpmate and companion of twenty years, having been Miss Anna, daughter of Joseph McCreight.
In his professional career he acted as one of the surgeons of the Low Grade Rail- road, a position given him when the surgeons were first appointed, and in which his thorough competency gained for him the utmost confidence of the management. In the years of 1875 and 1876 Dr. M. A. Masson was associated with him in the practice of medicine. Masson was a man of brilliant ideas, and a thorough and bold practi- tioner. He was a brother-in-law of the famous Dr. R. O. Cowling, late of Louisville, Ketucky. Both of these talented men have been called hence.
Dr. Gibson belonged to the allopathic school of medicine, and he kept abreast of progress in medicinal discovery. With a keen perception of causes as he saw effects, and with his great knowledge of curatives, backed by the best of reasoning faculties, he rarely erred in prognosis, although his diagnosis was always encouraging to the patient and friends, even if, in his latent breast, he knew there was no hope. For this pecu- liarity he has often been censured, but, believing in the potency of will power-of the superiority and influence of mind over matter-he held on by even this frail thread until the last breath of the patient was gone, and this tenacity was a part of the char- acter of the man. Wherever he took a hold, he maintained until One greater than he wrested the object from his grasp.
Dr. Gibson's distinguished mental superiority did not qualify him for any one special pursuit, but rather for many. His power of invention, as shown in his literary work- the formation of nice and new combinations of ideas, and imagery-stamped him as a genius of a very high order. This is particularly true of his poetic efforts, many of which are lofty in thought, and beautiful and strange, and always unique, in phraseology. In romance his invention was marvelous, and one of his novels, published under a nom de plume, attained a world-wide popularity, and in true worth almost approached the classic, for although the work appeared almost a quarter of a century ago, it is yet read on both sides of the Atlantic. Had he devoted his time to literature, there can be no doubt but that his name would to-day be emblazoned in ardentia verba wherever the shrine of letters stands ; but with his death ended all the grand possibilities his mind was capable of.
His physiological make-up was a most happy one, nicely balancing the various func- tions and sensibilities. His Teutonic blood gave him solidity and logic; "his Scotch and Welsh, sternness and tenacity ; the Irish, affability and loquacity ; and these were well blended and tempered, the effect of which was an almost perfect man. If there was a preponderance of any one part. it was a tender sensibility for all who suffered; and this was of a degree that often impoverished his own worldly welfare. Yet, laboring be- tween the fires of ambition on one side, and mendicancy on the other, he yet accumu- lated a comfortable living, and his conscience was not goaded by the remembrance of dishonest acts.
His tenacity of purpose was of a degree that would seem to make the stronger term
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stubbornness a more fitting definition of that trait of his character-especially when his convictions were fixed upon the solid foundation of truth, as understood by a mind whose logic was clear and far-reaching. This peculiarity was manifested early in life, at the age of seventeen, when principal of the academy before spoken of. Young Gibson was sojourning in the town, and his social disposition soon found him many friends, and his educational bent, intellectual ones. The school was without a head, and its direct- ors discovered in our hero both the mental and physical qualifications requisite to the man who could successfully preside over an institution whose patrons were as refractory in manners as they were advanced in learning. If they carried a cyclopedia in their heads they also carried a dagger in their belts, and former principals had invariably proven inadequate to the maintenance of such discipline as a respectable educational establishment should possess. Young Gibson had not known of the contumacious char- acter of the school until after his acceptance of the position ; but, nothing daunted, he immediately purchased a stiletto of much longer blade than those he had seen in the community, and, retiring to the academy, made himself as proficient as a boomerang thrower in hurling the knife at a pillar. When the students assembled on the opening day, the spirit of anarchy was rampant, and as an initial intimation of the iron rule with which this new absolute monarch was going to control his subjects, he took a position from which he was accustomed to throw the stiletto, and, with a herculean effort, plunged the glistening blade deep into the the pillar, where it momentarily whizzed and quiv- ered. The effect was magical, and each perverse being saw in his tutor a " foeman worthy of his steel," and the steel was ever after kept within its scabbard. Not alone, however, by this acrobatic feat did the new principal subdue the unruly element of his school, for by a little oratorical diplomacy, in which he showed the pleasure and advan- tage of a cognate feeling in teacher and pupil for the genius and welfare of the institu- tion. he won to him the hearts of every fiery breast. This adventure reads more like the product of a romancer's brain than that of an honest biographer's, and for boldness and impudence is only equaled by Cæsar's experience with the pirates near the island of Pharmacusa.
As to the religious convictions of Dr. Gibson, we may quote what he, himself, said of his life-long friend, Thomas Reynolds, sr. The sentiment seems as much a confession of his own, as an observation on another. Here it is :
" But the most conspicuous traits of his nature were a sense of honor, incapable of a stain-a probity which was stubborn in its inflexibility -and an abiding, deeply rooted, uncompromising detestation, even horror, of all shams and hypocrisy, whether religious, political, or of any other kind. It is easily seen how such a man, in this day and gen- eration, however deep a reverence he might have for the Author of his being as the great and good God -the Father, Preserver. and Protector of all the common brother- hood of man-would rather retire those sentiments and feelings, and keep them sacred within the innermost recesses of his soul, than to make a parade of them before the world."
Friendship with Dr. Gibson was not a plant of hasty growth, but, set in the soil of his esteem, and nourished by kind and intellectual intercourse, it attained a perfection not often seen in social life. He had resources within himself so that he could have lived alone, but those very resources made him eminently companionable and apprecia- tive. Out of such material, the most pleasing and lasting friendships are wrought. In
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conversation he spoke well, easily, justly and seasonably ; humor was more than wit. and easiness than knowledge.
On the 20th day of August. 1887, this great soul took its flight-the familiar form of Dr. Gibson, the magnanimous, was wrapped in the vestments of eternity.
ONDON, TRUMAN BEAMAN. The progenitors of T. B. London were English, L and his grandparents on both the paternal and maternal side lived and died in Lu- zerne county, Pa. These were Edward London, a native of New Jersey, and Samuel Callender, born in Virginia. They won an honorable right to the soil of the Republic, for themselves and their posterity, by patriotic devotion to the spirit of 1776, during the long and trying carnage of the Revolution.
His father, whose name was Isaac, was born in New Jersey, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Callender, was a native of Connecticut. The former died in Luzerne county in 1843. and the latter in Jefferson county in 1846.
Truman Beaman London was born in Luzerne county (now Lackawanna) on the IIth day of October, 1808, and was the second child of a family of nine. By self-en - deavors and in the public schools he received a very thorough education in the place of his nativity, where he grew up to manhood, and where he was engaged in the lumber trade until 1837. He manufactured lumber and marketed it at Harrisburg, Columbia, Marietta, Port Deposit, and other points on the Susquehanna River.
On September 13, 1831, he was united in wedlock to Sally Mariah Slawson, which union was blessed with offspring, numbering six. divided equally as to sex. Their names, in consecutive order of birth, are Martha Jane, born July 28, 1832; Eliza Ma- riah, March 9, 1834; Truman Beaman, March 10. 1836; Isaac, September 3, 1838 : Moses Slawson, January 31, 1841 : Mary Ann, May 29. 1842. The first and the last two are deceased. Their mother died June 23, 1842. Of those living, Isaac is a wide- awake and successful merchant of Reynoldsville, and a man greatly esteemed by all who know him ; Truman B. is a successful farmer of Winslow township; and Eliza M., who married Andrew Johnston, is a resident of Du Bois, Clearfield county, and the wise mother of an interesting family.
The subject of this biography emigrated from Luzerne county to Jefferson, locating in Brookville in 1837. Upon his advent there he found such representative citizens as Judge Heath, John Heath, the Dunhams, Dr. Jenks, Barclay Jenks, Drs. Bishop and Darling, who were the physicians of the town, Samuel Truby, Jared Evans, Levi G. Clover, Thomas Hastings, John Dougherty, etc. Barclay Jenks was the most brilliant member of the bar, and Mr. London, in his enthusiastic reminiscences of him, says : "It took somebody better than a Philadelphia lawyer to equal our backwoods Blackstone." Dr. Jenks, his father, and also father of the present Solicitor-General of the United States, George A., was then one of the associate judges. Judge Evans was in the bank- ing business, known at that time as a " shin-plaster office." He issued notes in various denominations up to a dollar, which were made current in the community, and when any one had accumulated these to the amount of five dollars or over, they were redeen - able at the counter of the Judge, who gave large bills in exchange. Mr. London, who was in the mercantile business in a limited way, enjoyed the benefits of Evans's banking system.
In 1840 Mr. London removed from Brookville, where he had been engaged in lum- bering, to Perry township, and there cleared a farm purchased of C. C. Gaskill; and in
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1843 he settled in Bell township in the midst of his lumber operations. Six years later he located permanently in Winslow township, near the site of his present residence, on the farm now occupied by Fulton Henry. He contracted matrimony again in 1846, by leading to the altar of Hymen Mrs. Sarah (Wilkins) Rea, who succumbed to the inevitable in 1878.
The record of T. B. London's life is that of an active and useful man-useful to him- self, his family, his community, and his county. Aside from clearing and working many farms, his lumber operations, in which he was a pioneer on Sandy Lick Creek, gave employment to hundreds of men at a time when the less venturesome and poorer classes needed just such an enterprising spirit to lead them. He opened up roads, often at his own expense, leading into remote districts, thus creating settlements and adding to the population and welfare of the county. In his later years his capital has erected a score of houses in Reynoldsville and Winslow township, and was invested in a mercantile en- terprise in the town mentioned for about eight years. His life has ever been identified with the best interests of the local public, vigilant at all times, and always ready to do good. He served one term as auditor of the county. To the church, too, he has been kind, giving generously to every creed that knocked on his heart, asking for help. His character and career may be summed up in this sentence: Honest, liberal, true, enter- prising, companionable, intelligent, sagacious-and what more can be expected of a noble man !
M cKNIGHT, HON. W. J., M. D. Alexander and Isabella McKnight née McBride were natives of County Down, Ireland. They emigrated in 1790 to Franklin County, Pa. About 1795 they moved to and settled on a farm on Crooked Creek, In- diana county, Pa. They had five daughters and two sons. James, grandfather of W. J. McKnight, settled in Indiana town; held several offices and was married twice, first to Jane McNutt, by whom he had two sons -Alexander, the father of Dr. Mc- Knight, and William, who died A. D. 1830, aged twenty-three years - and second to Jane McComb, by whom he had one son and one daughter, both of whom removed to Texas, where James attained distinction, and Jane is now living as Mrs. Jane Walbridge. Alexander, jr., brother of the grandfather of this sketch, married Susannah Cummins, and had two sons, viz., Hon. William C., who resides in Chambersburgh, Pa., and James A., who resides on the old Crooked Creek homestead in Indiana county, Pa.
Alexander, son of James and Jane Mcknight nee McNutt, married Miss Mary Thompson on the 10th of May, A. D. 1831. Miss Thompson was a daughter of Will- iam Thompson, of Indiana county, a sister of Hon. John J. Y. Thompson, and was a granddaughter of Rev. John Jameson, who was born at Ellerslie, Scotland, and whose mother was a Wallace, of Sir William's clan. Alexander and Mary McKnight, née Thompson, commenced married life in Blairsville, Indiana county, Pa., and on the 19th of May, A. D. 1832, Amor A. McKnight was born. In November of 1832 they moved to Brookville, Jefferson county, Pa., Mr. McKnight during this winter teaching the second term of school for the new town. In 1833 he was appointed justice of the peace. In 1834 he was appointed county treasurer. He was major of the milita, and fond of military drill. He was a man of fine presence and of much intellectual vigor. He died on the 15th of June, A. D., 1837 aged 27 years, leaving a widow and three children, viz : Amor A. (late Colonel McKnight), Nancy Jane, who died in child- hood, and W. J., the subject of this sketch. Mary McKnight, née Thompson, married
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John Templeton, esq., December 28, 1842, and had three sons - Thomas L., a citizen of Brookville, Jesse J., who died at Fortress Monroe in the service of his country, and Oscar J., who died in childhood. John Templeton died December S. 1850. Mary Templeton, née McKnight, died February 22, A. D. 1860, aged forty-eight years.
Senator McKnight was born in Brookville May 6. A. D., 1836; received a limited education in the common schools. At the age of eleven poverty threw him upon his own resources. He lived and worked on a farm for four years. When sixteen he was employed by Samuel McElhose. of the Jefferson Star. At seventeen he commenced the double task of type setting with Jerome Powell, esq .. of Ridgway. Pa., and of read- ing medicine under Dr. A. M. Clarke, of Brockwayville, Pa.
In this way, during a period of three years, by a species of economy known best to himself. he saved enough money to enable him during the winter of 1856-7 to attend a single course of medical lectures in Cincinnati, O. In March, 1857. he opened a med- ical office in Brookville, and for two years had considerable success. In 1859 he joined Dr. Niver. of Brockwayville. and as the junior member. had a large and active practice during the four years of partnership. In 1863 he returned to Brookville and started a drug store in connection with his practice. His brother, Thomas L. Templeton, joined him in this enterprise. The Dr. gave personal attention to the drug store for six years, after which time the large and extensive business of the firm has been, and is to-day, successfully superintended by Thomas L. Templeton, esq.
In 1864 Governor Curtin appointed Dr. McKnight examining surgeon for Jefferson county. He was also appointed and served as United States pension surgeon for seven years. To faithfully perform other duties he was compelled to resign this position. He served in the militia as private. and orderly sergeant in Company G Fifty-seventh Reg- iment ; was promoted to quartermaster-sergeant. and took part in the campaign against Morgan.
In 1869 he attended lectures in Philadelphia. and received the degree of M. D. He supplemented this course by attending two full courses in succession at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., and graduated there in March. A. D. ISS4. In the same year he received a degree from the school of anatomy and surgery. He took a postgraduate course at Jefferson in 1885. January 9, 1860, he married Miss Penel- ope G. Clarke, a most estimable young lady, and who has proved to be a model wife and mother. The result of this union has been seven children, four living and three dead.
In 1876 Jefferson county presented Dr. McKnight for senator, and Indiana county presented Dr. St. Clair. Conventions were held at Marion, Indiana and Brookville. Finally to secure harmony and to save the congressman-Indiana's nominee-Dr. Mc- Knight handed to the conference the following letter of declination, viz .:
GENTLEMEN .- When I received the nomination for senator by the convention of Jefferson county Republicans, by a large and flattering vote, I believed then as I still believe to-day, that I, as the choice of Jefferson county, was then and am to-day en- titled to the nomination by the Republican party for senator of this district. But I fully realize the fact that we are in an important political campaign, where the utmost har- mony and union are required in all our ranks, and that I, as a faithful Republican, should not ask personal preference antagonistic to the general welfare of the party, but should act honestly for the people, consistent with my Republican principles and just to myself. I have no personal contest. I am nothing, the success of the party is every-
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thing. I therefore withdraw from the contest, and hope my friends and the party may act wisely in the interest of the public good. Thanking my friends from the bottom of my heart for their warm support, and their assurance to continue it in the event of my remaining a candidate, I say here in all candor, that I hope I may never be so ungrate- ful as to forget their kind assurances. I am as ever, Yours truly,
W. J. McKNIGHT.
Brookville, Sept. 29. 1876.
In 1880 Jefferson county again presented Dr. McKnight as her choice, and Indiana county presented George W. Hood, esq., and a conferee meeting was held at Trade City on the 10th, 11th and 12th of August without result; it was expected by the Re- publicans of Jefferson, that, inasmuch as Indiana county had the senator in 1865; in 1868; in 1871 ; and a candidate of their own, at the general election in 1874; and the senator in 1876-sixteen years out of twenty, and the nominee for Congress in 1872 ; in 1874; in 1876; in 1878, and the nominee again in 1880-that surely it would neither be just nor right for Indiana county again to claim the "turn" or right to the candidate.
But the conferees of Jefferson county were perfectly astounded now, to find at this conference, that Indiana as usual, laid claim to the senatorship; "it was their turn." And now, with a sense of deep injury, on the third day of this conference, Dr. Hunt, one of the conferees of Jefferson, offered the following resolution, viz:
Resolved. " That if a nomination for senator is not made by this conference at the time of 12 oclock M., this conference adjourn sine die."
This was agreed to, five of the six conferees voting aye.
The dispute was now taken notice of by the State Central Committee, and a request was expressed by this committee that another conference be called and held by Hood and McKnight, and in case of failure then to agree, General James S. Negley, of Pitts- burgh, be appointed by the chairman of the State Committee as umpire to meet with the conferees and adjust the difficulty.
Accordingly another conference was agreed upon by Hood and McKnight, and called to meet at Punxsutawney, September 29, 1880.
In this conference, as upon the occasion of all former ones, Indiana county again persisted that it was her " turn " for senator, whereupon Dr. Hunt, a Jefferson conferee. offered the following resolution :
Resolved, That we now ask General Negley to take his seat in this conference as umpire, in accordance with the recommendation of the State Central Committee, which was agreed to.
But before calling on General Negley the following paper was prepared and signed by McKnight and Hood, viz :
" We, the undersigned candidates for the nomination of State Senator in the 37th district, do pledge ourselves to abide by the decision of the Umpire, and that his de- cision shall be final and the nomination shall be made unanimous.
(S'd) GEORGE W. HOOD. W. J. MCKNIGHT."
This was the afternoon of the 29th, and the conference adjourned until the morning of the 30th, in the hope that Mr. Hood might withdraw, or Indiana county yield, but neither Mr. Hood or his conferees would entertain for a moment a suggestion to yield, or withdraw, whereupon the conference was forced to meet on the morning of the 30th with General Negley in his seat as umpire. A ballot was then taken, which resulted
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as follows : Henderson, Hunt, Thompson and Negley voted for Dr. McKnight, and Porter, Crawford and Gordon voted for George W. Hood.
Having secured the nomination through the State Central Committee Dr. Mc- Knight was elected to and served in the Senate from 1881 to 1885.
In writing up the Senate of 1883, an able writer said of Senator Mcknight : " He lucidly tells the story of his party's extravagance in printing in the past, and makes a needed reform in party lines without kicking in the traces. Sharp, incisive and intelli- gent, he watches the chances for reform in his own household, and is not afraid to call to account any agent of the State." The doctor took an active part in all debates, and he assisted in moulding and perfecting the general legislation. He originated and carried through several important measures, viz., his reform in printing of public docu- ments, saving the State forty thousand dollars per year ; his securing an additional ap- propriation to the common schools of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars per year ; his reform in the regulation of the commencement of borough and township offices ; his active and watchful interest in the wards of the State, and his hearty support to the soldier's orphan's schools, and agriculture, gave him a State celebrity, as well as reflected credit upon his industry, ability and statesmanship. In the regular and extra session of 1883 there was a determined and combined effort on the part of the Demo- crats and independent Republicans to sacrifice Jefferson county, by placing her in a Democratie district. The following clipping will but feebly explain the situation and struggle at that time, from the Philadelphia Press, May 26, 1883: "But probably the most perplexing element in the puzzle is how to accommodate Senator McKnight, of Jefferson. He wants his county put into a Republican Congressional district. Stew- art's bill doesn't do this and McCracken's does. But it makes trouble in the detailed arrangement of counties to make Jefferson part of a Republican district." This strug- gle on the apportionment continued for eleven months, and Senator MeKnight over- came the trouble.
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