History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men, Part 53

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102

USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 53

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Since the organization of the company, forty-eight years ago, there have been thirty assessments, totaling fifty-four mills on the sum total of written risks, or an average of one and one-eighth mills, on the dollar at risk, per annum. On account of the dimin- ishing population of the country districts, during the last fifty years, many homes were abandoned and left uncared for, which naturally increased the fire hazard, yet this company has had very few losses, and a loss account considerably lower than the average of the companies insuring in Pennsylvania. This appears as evi- cence of the honesty of Perry County people.

David H. Sheibley served the company as their treasurer nine years, and John A. Bower served the company as one of the board of directors for nine years, and as their secretary for twenty-four years. In the year 1916 the charter was amended, permitting the company to carry insurance in the boroughs or towns of Perry County. The present officers are: President, Jos- eph C. Waggoner, elected in 1913; secretary, Milton R. Bower, elected in 1919; treasurer, A. B. Dum, elected in 1920; directors, James M. Stambaugh, Ezra D. Bupp, Amos L. Dum, Jacob Fleisher, William Turnbaugh.

TELEPHONE COMPANIES.

As near as the facts can be learned probably the first telephone line in Perry County was at Bailey's Station, in Miller Township, where it connected the old-time water station with the telegraph tower a quarter of a mile away. This was a private line used for railroad business only. The first line of a semi-public nature was the one built by the old Perry County Railroad Company, from · New Bloomfield, to connect with the offices of the Duncannon

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Iron Company, the Duncannon National Bank, and the mercantile · establishment of Samuel Sheller, at Duncannon.

In so far as the general public is concerned the real telephone construction only began in 1904, when the Perry County Tele- phone Company was organized to build a line from New Bloom- field to Loysville, Landisburg, and Bridgeport. The first officers were as follows: Dr. D. B. Milliken, president; J. C. Wagner, secretary; J. R. Wilson, treasurer; George B. Dum, manager The officers were also on the board of directors, with the follow- ing others: Dr. L. M. Shumaker, Wm. Dum, Thomas Martin, H. M. Keen, Charles Kennedy, John A. Bower, and B. H. Sheib- ley. This is less than two decades ago, yet a strange fatality seems to have pervaded the board, for only Charles Kennedy, J. C. Wagner and J. R. Wilson are living. This company was the pioneer one, and from it has come the splendid telephone network which covers the county.

In 1907 it was incorporated with the same officers, save that J. J. Wolfe, of Loysville, was made manager. The directors under the reorganization were Dr. D. B. Milliken, James Moose, Wilson Gray, D. H. Sheibley, and R. J. Makibben. The lines were ex- tended to Blain, New Germantown, Ickesburg, and Shermansdale in 1908, and a line running from Marysville to Duncannon and Newport was purchased in 1910. In 1914 a controlling interest was purchased in the lines through Pfoutz Valley and from Mil- lerstown to Ickesburg. The original line had eleven telephones, in 1904. When incorporated, in 1907, there were forty-seven, and early in 1920 there were almost thirteen hundred. On October I, 1918, the free service area was extended over the whole county. R. J. Makibben, the present manager, was also president of the company for a period of ten years and is a practical telephone man, having served in every capacity from a messenger boy in Harrisburg, in "the eighties," to the head of the company.

The first telephone line to operate between the two rivers was incorporated March 2, 1909, as the Pfoutz's Valley Telephone Company. The organizers and stockholders were A. T. Holman, A. L. Long, George Rebok, and H. E. Ritter, the latter two re- maining with the company a short time, when the business was conducted by Messrs. Holman and Long. At the death of A. T. Holman, his stock was purchased by the Perry County Telephone Company, who own one-half the stock. The Pfoutz's Valley Telephone Company has 220 stations, and conducts two exchanges one at Millerstown and one at Liverpool. The present officers are: J. R. Makibben, president ; A. L. Long, vice-president ; Geo. W. Fry, treasurer; J. C. Wagner, secretary.

There are also a number of smaller companies, two of which operate lines in Buck's Valley, Buffalo Township.

CHAPTER XXX. COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS-A COMPARISON. (1820-1860.)

P ERRY COUNTY'S organization was almost coincident with the organization of the Union and of Pennsylvania. When it became a county in 1820 the fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, was only serving the third year of his eight- year term. At the first fall election in the new county President Monroe was on the ticket and was reelected. It was the noted "era of good feeling" and it would seem that if ever a President had an easy chance for a third term that man was Monroe, al- though Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson could have had a third.

Alexander K. McClure, the prominent editor and historian, who was born in Perry County, says :

"Monroe's reelection in 1820 presents the singular political spectacle of his success without having been formally nominated by any party, and without a single electoral vote being cast against him. That had occurred in Washington's two elections, but it was not believed possible that, with the bitter partisan disputes which immediately followed Washington's re- tirement, any man could ever be chosen for the Presidency without more or less of a contest. Monroe's administration had no serious political or diplomatic problem to confront, and the country was rapidly recovering from the war and was proud of the achievement of the American Army and Navy in the second contest with the English."

In fact, one electoral vote was cast by a New Hampshire elector against Monroe, but he had been elected as a Monroe elector and gave as his excuse "that he was unwilling that any other President than Washington should receive a unanimous electoral vote.

Colonel McClure also tells us :

"Monroe had the most unruffled period of rule ever known in the his- tory of the republic. Washington, with all his omnipotence, was fearfully beset by factional strife and the wrangles of ambition on every side, and there was no period of his two administrations in which he was not greatly fretted by the persistent and often desperate disputes among those who should have been his friends; but Monroe had an entirely peaceful reign, with the single exception of the slavery dispute over the Missouri ques- tion. At the close of his term Monroe retired to his home in Virginia en- tirely exhausted in fortune. For several years he acted in the capacity of justice of the peace, but his severely straightened circumstances finally compelled him to make his home with his son-in-law, in New York, where he died in 1831, and like Jefferson and Adams, on the Fourth of July."

These facts are introduced here principally to show what man- ner of man was President and what the conditions were nationally at the time of Perry County's beginning. President Monroe, like

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

three of his predecessors, was a Virginian, but less aristocratic and far from being in such affluent circumstances. There were but five cabinet positions in those days, and during the Monroe reign the occupants of these offices were: State Department, John Graham, Richard Rush, and John Quincy Adams; War Depart- ment. Isaac Shelby and John C. Calhoun ; Treasury Department, W. II. Crawford; Navy Department, B. Crowninshield and S. Thompson ; Post Office Department, R. J. Meigs; Attorney Gen- eral, William Wirt.

Just a year previous to the new county's organization Alabama had been admitted into the Union, and in the same year ( 1820) Maine was admitted, with Missouri following the succeeding year. In fact, 1820, was the date of the Missouri Compromise, that piece of national legislation which lulled to sleep the slavery agitation for about twenty-five years before it broke out afresh and eventu- ally almost disrent the Union. During the previous year the first steamboat had crossed the Atlantic.

Perry County had existed as a new county less than three years when President Monroe enunciated the famous "Monroe Doc- trine," sending it to the United States Congress on December 2. 1823. It follows:

"We owe it, therefor, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." In the Perry Forester those words show no undue prominence over the rest of the lengthy message. Probably 110 State paper ever issued was more potent for good than that one. More than seventy years later President Grover Cleveland, in deal- ing with England on the Venezuela dispute, reiterated the doctrine in these words: "Europe ought not to intervene in American af- fairs, and any European power doing so will be regarded as an- tagonizing the interests and inviting the opposition of the United States.'

It was during James Monroe's administration, also, that the first White House wedding occurred, the bride being a niece of the President. Later, March 9, 1820, the President's second daughter was married. It was an exclusive home wedding, the public men and their families being uninvited. Of it the Washington Intel- ligencer said :

"On Thursday evening last ( March 9), in this city, by the Reverend Mr. Hawley, Samuel Lawrence Governeur, Esq., of New York, to Miss Maria Hester Monroe, daughter of James Monroe, President of the United States."

There is a great contrast between this inconspicuous description of a society event of national importance, then, and the flaming

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COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS

"scare heads" running entirely across a page that characterized reports by some dailies in connection with White House weddings of the last decade or two.

The early period of the county's history, a matter of two-score years, was, in fact, coincident with that of the nation's history in which the ever-growing sectional question of slavery was the vital issue of the day. Missouri having been admitted as a state, at the celebration in Perry County on Independence Day, 1821, the fol- lowing toast was drunk-toasts at that time being a popular form of entertainment : "The admission of Missouri territory into the Union-We greet her as a sister, but heartily despise slavery." Among the volunteer toasts was this by Thomas Craighead : "Long corns and short shoes to the enemies of the republic."

The Florida War, a rather insignificant war, occurring about the time when Perry County became a county, was waged with few soldiers, yet a Perry Countian, William D. Boyer, of New Bloom- field, who died on March 14, 1854, served through it. There may have been others, but no records could be found.

The year 1820 is memorable for another event of importance. In that year George 111, held in contempt in America, died, and the next year Napoleon's career was ended by death. In the year 1824 the first protective tariff measure was introduced in the American Congress, being opposed by the South and strangely by New England. Political leadership, which up to this time was pre- eminent in the South, began passing to the North. In the fall elec- tions there were four candidates all of one party, the Democratic- Republican, for the Presidency, and the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which chose John Quincy Adams. From this time the demarkation along political lines became more acute, the question being whether Adams' successor should be from the South or the North. His opponents were slaveholders and their Northern friends. His supporters were National Republi- cans, Whigs, and Republicans. Clay and Webster were the bright lights of the United States Senate.

In 1826 a man named Morgan, of New York State, threatened to publish the secrets of Free Masonry. His presses were de- stroyed and he was never heard of again, according to records of the period. This aroused considerable agitation and, in 1826. there sprang up in many states a party known as the Anti-Masonic party. The end of 1838 saw the ending of that party's existence. but during its life there was an Anti-Masonic ticket nominated and voted for in Perry County. During this period the Masons was not the only organization aimed at, but was designated be- cause it was the most prominent. There was a general antipathy to secret societies, but especially towards the Masons. The politi- cal party in Pennsylvania erected upon that protest supported Jos-

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

eph Ritner for governor in 1829, but he was defeated. He was again defeated three years later, but in 1835 was elected.

On the Fourth of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of Ameri- can National Independence, two noted men, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died, both having been Presidents of the United States and signers of the Declaration of Independence. This fiftieth anniversary, or semi-centennial, was celebrated throughout the United States. Two Perry County towns, Landisburg and New Bloomfield, celebrated it. During this year Noah Webster revised the proofs of his famous dictionary. In 1829 Andrew Jackson became President and instituted the policy of "to the vic- tors belong the spoils." During this year South Carolina and Georgia affirmed the doctrine of nullification, which was the fore- runner of secession in 1860. During Jackson's term New Eng- land organized its first Anti-Slavery Society.

The county was in its eleventh year (1833) before Chicago was laid out and the first lot sold. During this year James Monroe, who was President of the United States when the county was or- ganized, passed away on July 4. As early as 1833 throughout the new nation newspaper plants were destroyed, public halls burned, homes dismantled and citizens of other sections imprisoned and even flogged in the agitation on the slavery question. In 1834 Great Britain liberated the slaves in its colonies and Abraham Lincoln entered politics and was elected to the Illinois Legislature. McCormick patented the reaper during this year.

During 1837 the youthful Queen Victoria became the ruler of England, and many of us in middle life well remember her notable reign, a veritable lifetime. This was the year of an inflated money panic, when even Perry County issued "scrip." Martin Van Buren was chosen to succeed Andrew Jackson as President. During 1839 the Whig party was organized, principally from the National Re- publicans. Although the election was fifteen months away the new party soon thereafter held a convention in Zion Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, then building, and nominated William Henry Harri- son, who was elected in 1840. This building still stands and is in regular use as a place of worship. It is the red brick church in the foreground seen when leaving the Pennsylvania Railroad Sta- tion. This campaign was the first one in which the people took a real interest and in which torch-light processions, etc., were intro- duced, with the slogan, "Tippecanoe, and Tyler, too." It was broadly heralded that Harrison "lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider." The new party's majority was almost a million and a half of votes, and took from the Democratic party the executive power, which it had held for forty years. Van Buren was the first man to occupy the Presidential chair who was born on Ameri- can soil and the only one who served as Vice-President during the

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hundred years between 1800 and 1900 to be elected to the Presi- dency. Tyler was the first Vice-President to inherit the Presi- dency.

In 1840 the electric telegraph was first patented by Morse. President Harrison, who had been active in politics since 1797 when he was secretary of the Northwest Territory, died a month after inauguration, having contracted pneumonia through expo- sure on inauguration day to a chilly rain. As stated, Maine be- came a state in the same year as Perry became a county. It was followed by Missouri in 1821, Arkansas in 1836, Michigan in 1837, Florida and Texas in 1845, Iowa in 1846, Wisconsin in 1848, etc. In the year that gave Perry birth there were only twenty-three states in the Union, as against forty-eight at this time. There were none west of the Mississippi River at that time.

In his "Recollections of Half a Century," Col. A. K. McClure tells of a personal experience in Perry County during the Harri- son-Van Buren campaign of 1840. From it we quote :

"In those days the rural community was fortunate that had a weekly mail. Daily newspapers were unknown in the country, and the people had to depend solely upon their local newspapers for their news. * * * On Friday, two weeks and three days after the Presidential election of 1840 in Pennsylvania, a number of neighbors were gathered at my father's, at what was then known as a 'raising.' The custom of those days was for the neighbors to be summoned when any one of them was ready to erect the frame or log work of a building, and spend the day or afternoon in fulfilling the kind neighborly offices which have almost been entirely ef- faced by the progress of civilization. What a builder would now do in an hour with machinery the neighborly gathering would give a day to the same task, and make it, besides, one of generous hospitality and enjoyment. Friday was the day on which the weekly mail arrived, and the Whigs and Democrats who enjoyed their political spats, as both claimed the state for their respective parties, were anxious to have the weekly paper to decide the attitude of the Keystone State. I was dispatched to the post office, a mile or more distant, in time to be there when the postboy arrived, with instructions to make special haste in returning. My father was one of the few liberal men of that day who received both the Democratic and Whig local newspapers, so that the anxious company was insured of infor- mation from the organs of both parties. When the mail arrived at the post office I seized the Whig paper, and was delighted to find a huge coon over the Pennsylvania returns, and the announcement that the state had gone for Harrison by 1,000 majority. In generous pity I opened the Democratic paper to see how it would accept the sweeping disaster, and to my utter consternation, it had a huge rooster over the Pennsylvania returns, and declared that the state had voted for Van Buren by 1,000 majority. I took the shortest cut across the fields to bring the confusing news to the anxious crowd that was awaiting it, and both papers were spread open and both sides went home rejoicing in the victory. Of course, they all felt that there was a strong clement of doubt in the conflicting returns, but the matter was quietly dismissed without complaint for another week, and it was fully two weeks later when the official vote was finally received that gave the state to Harrison by 305 majority. * * The dif- ference between the relations of the people and the public men they wor-

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

shiped in the present and half a century ago can hardly fully be appre- ciated in this wonderfully progressive age. Then travel was a luxury that few could enjoy and was almost wholly confined to those who found it a necessity. It was not only tedious and tiresome, but expensive far beyond the means of the great mass of the people. The great men of that day were idolized by their partisans as we now pay homage to the statue of some great leader as it poses on the pinnacle of the temple with its imperfections obliterated by distance."

These were the principal political and national events in the na- tion during the first two decades of the county's history, 1820- 1840, and are here printed by way of comparison.

In Pennsylvania, at the time of the formation of Perry County, William Findlay, of Franklin County, was governor, being the fourth to fill the office, having been inaugurated on December 16, 1817, and serving until December 19, 1820, when Joseph Heister, of Berks County, became his successor. At that time slavery was still lawful in Pennsylvania, and Governor Findlay was the owner of a slave whom he freed in 1817, with the declaration, "The prin- ciples of slavery are repugnant to those of justice, and are totally irreconcilable with that rule which requires us to do unto others as we would wish to be done by." It was usual in those days to chain slaves together and thus they passed across Pennsylvania, especially the southwestern part. Under the Constitution of 1790, then in effect, the patronage of the governor was immense. With few exceptions he had the power to appoint all state and county officers. The erection of the state capitol was begun about this time. Up until then the state legislature had met in the old court- house of Dauphin County at Harrisburg. There was no executive mansion-not even an executive chamber-for the transaction of the business pertaining to the governorship. The population of Harrisburg in 1820 was only 2,990.

According to Dr. Lyman Abbott, in The Outlook, during the first fourth of the last century drunkenness was common and there were no temperance societies. Slavery existed in half the United States and there were no anti-slavery societies; there were no labor laws and from ten to sixteen hours of work were required, and there were public schools in only half of the United States. While things had improved over the pioneer period, yet the heating of homes was by open fires and air-tight stoves, with no warm rooms save the kitchen. Candles and whale-oil lamps furnished light. Goodyear had not yet discovered the uses of India rubber and the heavy boots of the period were well greased to turn water. Medi- cine was hardly a science and surgery practically in its infancy, as anesthetics were unknown ; amputations were made in a rude way. Tuberculosis ran rampant and people were of the opinion that night air was unhealthy and slept in closed rooms. Cholera visited our shores every summer and yellow fever was epidemic

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COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS

in our Southern cities. both of which have been abolished by science. Even long years afterwards when passenger trains ran fifteen to twenty-five miles an hour it was considered a wonderful feat.

Of life in those early days of the new county let us again recall the words of one born and reared in Perry County. Col. Alexander K. McClure, in his "Old-Time Notes of Pennsylvania," says :

"The memory of the people of those days that comes to me with the sweetest incense is that of the serene content that prevailed among all classes and conditions. No one possessed great wealth, but none were so poor that they could not have food and raiment unless hindered by serious illness. In such cases there were always prompt and generous ministra- tions. The sick and the sorrowing of every community were known in almost every household, and where there was want there was always a most willing supply. No matter how people differed in politics or in reli- gion, or on any of the other questions which at times divided rural com- munities, the duty of caring for the children of sorrow was accepted by all. Religion was the common law, and Sunday was made a day of most tedious and laborious worship. The neighborly feeling that was cherished by aff was one of the most beautiful attributes of human nature, and it is a misfortune that it has almost wholly perished as the railroad, the telegraph, the newspaper and all the other many agencies of progress have transformed our rural communities of long ago into the unrest of modern and better civilization. There can be no great transformation of the tastes and habits of a people without some loss of that which should have been preserved ; but, discounted by all the unrest that modern civilization has brought, it has made men and women stronger and nobler, and has vastly greater sources of restraint than were thought of in the quiet days of the contented rural life. The house in which I was born and reared, although a brick building and comfortably furnished, never had a lock on door or window, and the burglar, or even the petty sneak thief, was entirely un- thought of."

FIRST JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

From documents in the Bureau of Records in the State Capitol at Harrisburg it has been found possible to give the original list of the first justices of the peace for the new county of Perry. Evidently power to appoint them was delegated to the court, as the following would imply :

To Andrew Gregg:

LANDISBURG, Sept. 6, 1821.

Enclosed I hand you a list of all the justices of the peace who have been appointed in Perry County, agreeable to your direction, in your cir- cular of the 17th of July last, but which I did not receive until the 30th of the same month. 1 could not get all the information on the subject, before our court, which commenced on the 3d instant.

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History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men, Part 53

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company Number of Pages: 1102

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102