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 56
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523
COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS
A petition dated June 1, 1824, to Gabriel Heister, Esq., Sur- veyor General of Pennsylvania, asked the appointment of George Mitchell, as deputy surveyor, in these glowing words: "We take it for granted that it will be a leading consideration with you in making your appointments to select the most confidential, capable and deserving men." The statement then follows "that he is well versed in geometry, trigonometry, an excellent and practical sur- veyor and an accurate and neat draughtman ; that he would cheer- fully submit his competency as a surveyor to a critical examination by those well versed in the business, and that as a politician he has ever been a firm, active and undeviating Democrat-Republican." Among the signatures are J. Miller, H. B. Mitchell, Alex. Magee, John Hipple, Frederick Rinehart, Jr., and Jacob Huggins, then member of assembly from Perry County. Another dated April 16, 1825, asks the appointment of Alexander Branyan to succeed John Ogle, deceased, as justice of the peace for a part of Rye Township, as "he is a fit person, who has always been a firm and undeviating Republican." It is signed by Thomas Barnett, Robert Branyan, William, David and Isaac Ogle, James and Cornelius Baskins, John McKenzie, Frederick Barnett, Jacob Keel, Jacob Weiser, and Richard Stewart.
In those early days with political issues ever to the fore, some strangely worded petitions appear. There is one on file in the Bureau of Records at Harrisburg, at the Capitol, asking an ap- pointment as justice of the peace of Dr. James R. Scott. It is addressed to Governor Shulze. It describes the candidate as a man "who is eminently qualified to discharge the duties of said office ; moreover, he is a member of that Great Democratic Family which constitutes the basis of our Republican Government." It is dated April 18, 1825. Another to Governor Shulze, asking the appoint- ment of Alexander Rogers, of Rye Township, "lately district No. 12 in the county of Cumberland," as justice of the peace to suc- ceed Joseph Ogle, who died. It says "he has ever been a firmn. undeviating Democrat and an active politician." Of the attain- ments necessary to conduct the office it is mute. Rogers was con- missioned August 1.I, 1824. A petition of the citizens of Liver- pool and Buffalo Township asks the appointment of George Mitchell as a justice of the peace, describing him as "well quali- fied," but omits reference to politics.
So frequent is the remark made that as a nation we are degen- erating, politically, that the following from McClure's Old-Time Notes of Pennsylvania, written by a Perry Countian who for vir- tually a half-century was in the very vortex of politics, is here reproduced as showing the opposite trend :
"It is a common and very erroneous belief that the political battles of the early days were much more dignified, and much more free from dis-
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
honest manipulation than the political contests of the present (1905). The student of our history who carefully studies the early political contests of Pennsylvania will find that a degree of political intolerance prevailed even among the more intelligent citizens that would not now be tolerated in any community. Party leadership, as a rule, was more blindly followed than it is to-day, as few even of the more enlightened people accepted any political literature but that which came from a county party organ, or from other partisan sources. Party revolts were as common then as now, and often precipitated the most desperate and defamatory contests, and the state political struggle of 1838 between Ritner and Porter has never been approached in any modern political struggle in reckless prostitution of the ballot or in malignant, wanton defamation. No political journal with any pretension to decency could print to-day against a candidate any of the many defamatory articles which swept over the state like a tempest in 1838. A larger measure of fraud has doubtless been perpetrated in mod- ern elections, but as far as the limited opportunities of that day offered, the game of fraud was played to the limit. One township in Huntingdon County returned 1,060 majority for Ritner in a district where there were not two hundred citizens. The excuse given for the vote was that there was a breach in the canal and that some 800 laborers had been employed, when it would not have been possible to give employment to half that number. The new railroad in Adams County for which Stevens had ob- tained state aid, and that was commonly known in political circles as "the tapeworm," swelled the majority in Adams up in the thousands, and dual returns for members of the legislature in the county of Philadelphia led to the creation of two houses at Harrisburg and wrote the history of the Buchshot War to shame the annals of the state."
The adoption of the Constitution of 1838 made a marked change in Pennsylvania. Prior to that time the governor pos- sessed almost unlimited power. He appointed all the judges of the entire commonwealth and they were commissioned for life or dur- ing good behavior. He also held the appointive power for deputy attorneys general-those who executed the duties of district at- torneys before the creation of that office-the associate judges and the justices of the peace. At that time the term of office of the governor was not limited to a single term and this vast patronage was largely used to secure a reelection or build up a political dynasty.
Although the Republican party of a later day was to a great extent the successor of the Whig party of the time of Henry Clay, the Whig party of that time embraced many of the most decided pro-slavery men, and the Democratic party of the period contained many men who became active and persistent Republicans.
In 1838 the names of fourteen candidates were voted for for sheriff of Perry County, at the general election on October 9th. Joseph Shuler, a Whig, was the successful candidate, receiving 824 votes. Prior to this only Democrats were elected to the more im- portant offices.
Before the canals were purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the office of canal commissioner was filled at the general elections. It was an office of importance and eagerly sought.
525
COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS
Unfortunately, as the years passed, no historian recorded the ebb and flow of the county's political tides, and only occasionally do we find a slight record of them or their relation to the larger affairs of the state and nation. Of the Clay-Polk campaign for the Presidency, in which the latter won, it was different. While his- tory calls Polk the original "black horse," such is far from the truth. Virginia backed Polk and he was nominated as part of a new but unavowed policy pertaining to slavery. The motive lay in the fact that the South "saw the handwriting on the wall," and if slavery was to be continued as a permanent institution its terri- tory must be extended. Accordingly the plan was to annex Texas, a republic where slavery thrived, with the right of division into four additional states, as well as the acquisition of additional ter- ritory from Mexico. Up to that time the Democratic party had a majority rule in their nominations. Van Buren had a majority of delegates to the convention but not two-thirds. The convention adopted the two-thirds rule by a vote of 148 to 118. As no President was ever elected without the support of the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania until the Cleveland campaign of 1884, the contest of 1844 largely hinged upon the election for governor of Pennsylvania, which was held in October, prior to the general election, just as the Maine elections of the present period largely show the drift of political thought. Of that campaign in Perry County, MeClure's "Old-Time Notes of Pennsylvania" says :
"The leaders of both sides realized the vital importance of the contest in this state, and I well remember how earnestly and desperately it was contested. I was a boy not more than half-way through the teens but I was living in the political centre of the mountain forests of my native county, and cherished a devotion for Clay that has never been repeated in all the many political struggles I have seen. The supporters of Clay as a rule literally worshiped him. He was their idol, their political deity, and they believed him to be the noblest, the grandest, the ablest and the most chivalrous of men, while his opponents met him with a tempest of defamation, publicly charging him on the hustings and through every news- paper opposed to him as a gambler, a libertine, a horse racer, a Sabbath- breaker and a murderer. The Whigs responded by charging Polk with disgraceful littleness, studied hypocrisy and the offspring of a traitor."
The slow manner of communication, before the days of the tele- graph and telephone, is well illustrated in an instance taken from the writing of Colonel McClure. Governor Moorehead, who pre- sided at the convention which nominated Gen. Zachary Taylor for the Presidency, wrote to Mr. Taylor, advising him of the fact. We quote :
"At that time the prepayment of postage was not compulsory, and un- paid letters were charged from five to ten times the present rate of post- age. President Morehead promptly mailed a letter to General Taylor at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, notifying him of the nomination, but several weeks elapsed without any response. The telegraph was then in its in-
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
fancy and unthought of as an agent, except in the most urgent emergency. and Governor Morehead finally sent a trusted friend to visit General Taylor and inquire why his letter of acceptance had not been given. Every political crank, as well as many others in the country, had been writing letters to General Taylor on the subject of the Presidency, very few of whom prepaid their letter postage. Old Rough and Ready vexed beyond endurance, at the tax thus imposed upon him, gave peremptory orders to the postmaster to send to the dead letter office all unpaid letters addressed to him."
In the gubernatorial fight of 1848 between Johnston and Long- street, the latter was reported elected. The Democrats at New Bloomfield immediately held a public celebration, only to learn a few days later that their candidate was defeated. The Whigs then held a celebration in honor of Governor Johnston's election. When Johnston was a candidate the second time, in 1852, he vis- ited New Bloomfield during the campaign. Among those taking part in that meeting was Mr. Ickes, a Revolutionary hero who was ninety years of age.
The gubernatorial campaign of 1851 was conducted along very strenuous lines, and Governor Johnston spoke at Liverpool, Peters- burg (Duncannon) and Bloomfield, during September.
The Whig element almost all became Republicans when, in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill made slavery extension the Democratic program. The North was stirred as never before, and Horace Greely declared that Douglas and Pierce had made more abolition- ists in three months than Garrison and Phillips could have made in half a century. In earlier days the West had clung to the South politically, but the development of the railroads to the Atlantic seaboard in the preceding dozen years created a stronger physical bond between the West and the East than the Mississippi had done between the West and the South. This, and the fact that the East furnished the principal home market for Western products. and provided most of the supplies for which these were exchanged. was the economic reason for the agricultural West breaking away from the agricultural South and joining the manufacturing East. Pennsylvania, however, still gave its electoral vote to the Demo- crats in 1856. The vote in Perry County was Millard Fillmore, Whig, 1.407 : James Buchanan, Democrat, 2,135; John C. Fre- mont, Republican, 521. When the campaign was on the county was wild with excitement. A monster Democratic meeting was staged at New Bloomfield, the county seat town then being but thirty-two years in existence. Thomas Adams, of Toboyne Town- ship, a radical Democrat, who was engaged in wagon transporta- tion from western Perry to Newport, turned out with a sixteen- horse team, decorated with bunting, bells and flags. Wilson Mor- rison, yet living at New Germantown, attended, he being then a young man. According to his statement when "the lower county
527
COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS
delegation" arrived, it passed up Main Street, New Bloomfield, to the mill, turned north to High Street, east to Carlisle Street, and as the head of the parade came down Carlisle Street to the court- house, the rear of the parade was just passing. In the parade, among other features, was a team of six oxen, with an attendant opposite each ox bearing a pail. In the Polk-Dallas and Shunk- Henry Clay campaign one of the features of the Democratic parade was a hickory tree which had been dug from the woods and mounted on a wagon, according to a reliable tradition. David Gutshall, of Blain, distinctly remembers this campaign.
With the defeat of General Winfield Scott for the Presidency of the United States in 1852, the great Whig party virtually went to pieces. Shortly thereafter a mysterious political organization, based upon opposition to foreign immigration and known as the "Know Nothing" party, began to be heard of and spread with remarkable rapidity over the entire United States. It seemed especially hos- tile to Catholics and foreigners. It was, in point of fact, a secret organization and got its name through the fact that its adherents when questioned invariably said that they knew nothing. The local organizations began forming about 1854 and absorbed most of the old Whigs as well as many of the Democrats, especially those who were dissatisfied with the faction then in power. In 1855 this party had a ticket in the field and carried Perry County, the entire ticket being elected by a majority of about two hundred votes. The motto of the Know Nothings, "Put only Americans on guard," was a mighty good one, even though the party passed away, and might well be used by the present-day political parties. And by "Americans," the writer does not mean simply those born on American soil, but good, honorable men, without the taint of any hyphen, or any other ism save Americanisin, in their systemis.
On August 2, 1856, a public meeting was held at the county seat as a protest against "the wrongs perpetrated in Kansas." It was attended by three notables who delivered addresses. They were Governor Ford, of Ohio; Andrew G. Curtin, then Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Hannibal Hamlin, governor-elect of Maine-one a governor, one a governor-elect. and the third soon to be the great war governor of Pennsylvania. The parade features are designated as the Liverpool Sax Horn Band, the Patterson (now Mifflin) Band, a fourteen-horse team, and the Millerstown delegation carrying the flag of the 113th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, which was at the battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and other battles along the lakes in the Second War with Great Britain. It was carried by Dr. Mealy. a Millerstown physician, at the battle of Chippewa. The flag was perforated by a cannon ball and by other shots.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Three days later, Agust 5, 1856, a public meeting was held in the courthouse, the call being signed by 340 citizens of the county. It declared for "Free Kansas and no Popery." Jesse Beaver pre- sided. The speakers were Joseph Casey, General Samnel C. Pomeroy, and a Mr. MeAfee, of Kansas, and B. F. Junkin. The parade contained 700 determined men, many of them affiliated with the camps of the Junior Sons of America, then flourishing at Duncannon, Newport, and Bloomfield.
In connection with the birth of the Republican party an occur- rence which happened at New Bloomfield is worthy of note. Samuel Wiggins, one of the first members of the new party and the first man in the county to declare himself unconditionally an abolitionist, determined to celebrate the birth of the new party on election night. Benjamin F. Junkin, late president judge, was at that time holding the onerous office of burgess of the borough, and appealed to him not to build a bonfire within the borough limits. Mr. Wiggins then placed barrels of shavings, boards, boxes and other inflammable material on his wagon and drove to the eastern boronghi line, on the Newport road, where he started the fire. The matter cansed an excitement and drew a crowd. He kept marching around his bonfire and cheered for the new party, declaring that it was "a small fire, but one that would burn all over the Union." The Wiggins home, on the square at the county seat, was painted a dark steel gray, and was to some "the black Republican head- quarters." There every evening during the War between the States the populace would gather to hear Mrs. Wiggins read the war news from the daily papers brought to town over the noted Rice Stage Lines. There they discussed the outcome of each cam- paign and the qualifications of the changing commanders, always umiting in the belief that the North would win.
The Democratic National Convention first met at Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860, and after wrangling for ten days adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the 18th of June. The bolters from the Charleston convention adjourned to meet in Richmond on the 11th of June, but on meeting they adjourned until the 21st, being three days after the meeting of the regular convention in Baltimore, with the view of harmonizing on a ticket, if possible. The Bal- timore convention declared Douglas the Democratic nominee, and the Richmond convention then rejected both Douglas and the plat- form, and nominated Breckenridge and Lane. John Reifsnyder, of Liverpool, was a delegate to the Charleston and Baltimore con- ventions. While at Charleston he attended a sale of slaves, and a small negro boy, seeing his kindly face and evidently comparing it with the average customer's, begged that he buy him. Mr. Reif- snyder came home very much dejected and realized that it probably meant distinion and war. When informed that Fort Sumter had
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COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS
been fired upon his only comment was, "So soon?" On August 6, 1860, Andrew G. Curtin was again at New Bloomfield, then the nominee of the new Republican party for the governorship of Pennsylvania, to which he was triumphantly elected. During the Curtin campaign for the gubernatorial chair all seemed serene until the Philadelphia Evening Journal, an organ of the American party. withdrew its support from Curtin, stating that he was a Catholic, which, if true, meant a sweeping defeat. Rev. James Linn, a native of Perry County, then living at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, where he was pastor emeritus of the Presbyterian Church, imme- diately gave to the press a public notice stating that he had bap- tized Curtin in his own church, and that Curtin had always been a member of his congregation, thus reaction saved his election.
In the elections of 1862 the Democrats carried the Pennsylvania Legislature on joint ballot, having a majority of one vote. John A. Magee represented Perry Conty, and was renominated in 1863, the elections then being annual. His opponent on the Republican ticket was Charles A. Barnett, and the election was the closest con- test of any importance since the formation of the county. Mr. Magee had 2,310 votes, and Mr. Barnett 2.311, a majority of one. Later Mr. Magee became a member of the United States Congress and Mr. Barnett became president judge of the Forty-first Ju- dicial District, being elected, however, by the Democratic party this time. In the election of 1864 Abraham Lincoln lost the county, the vote being 2,018 for Lincoln, and 2, 148 for George B. McClellan. Four years later General Grant carried it over Sey- mour, the Democratic nominee, for the Presidency, by over two hundred votes. In the nation the Republicans came into power with Lincoln's inauguration in 1861, and remained in power until the inauguration of Grover Cleveland in 1885-practically a quar- ter of a century.
Colonel McClure, in his "Old-Time Notes of Pennsylvania," has the following two paragraphs relating to political matters dur- ing the closing years of the sectional war which are of interest to Perry Countians :
"The burning of Chambersburg, on the 30th of July, by General Mc- Clausland's forces, precipitated new conditions in my section of the state. Most of the residents in the town were entirely homeless and business was suspended. An extra session of the legislature was promptly called by Governor Curtin and $100,000 appropriated that was apportioned among the most needy. While nearly all the property destroyed was insured, the insurance was lost, as the destruction was caused by a public enemy. The people of Chambersburg were, therefore, largely without capital or credit to resume their various occupations, and despair very generally pre- vailed in all business and industrial circles.
"J. McDowell Sharpe, the leading Democratic member of the Chambers- burg bar, was then a member of the house, and after various conferences on the subject, it was decided that I should accept the Republican nomi-
34
530
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
nation for the house, with the general expectation that both of us would be elected, to have an active Democrat and Republican in the next legisla- ture to secure a liberal appropriation from the state. The district was composed of Franklin and Perry Counties, and a Democrat and Repub- lican were nominated in each county. The district was naturally Demo- cratic and the people of the smaller county of Perry were not greatly en- thused by the undeclared but generally well understood purpose that Franklin would elect both members of the house. It was a demand that I could not hesitate to obey, and as the national battle could be well fought between the October and November elections I remained at home and devoted my entire time to the care of the suffering people of the town and to the contest in the district; but I was in constant communica- tion with the leading men of the state, and before the October election I was well convinced that there was danger of the state being close or lost in October. Three weeks before the election I was in Washington and gave the President a statement of the unfavorable condition, and urged him to have Cameron appreciate the peril and make an aggressive cam- paign. He conferred with Cameron on the subject and Cameron assured him that the state would be Republican by a large majority. The result was practically a Republican disaster. There were no state officers to lose, but a number of Republican congressmen fell in the race who should have been successful. Sharpe and I were elected by the common interest felt by both parties in Chambersburg and generally throughout the county in favor of state aid to those who suffered from the destruction of the town, and the Republican congressmen in several districts were saved only by the army vote."
THE COUNTY IN THE MEXICAN WAR.
When the Mexican War came on traffic in America was still principally overland and by canal and the larger waterways. Con- gress passed the act on May 13, 1846, declaring war upon Mexico by authorizing the President of the United States to employ the militia, naval and military forces of the United States, and to call for and accept the services of 50,000 volunteers. General Taylor had previously entered Mexican territory with his army of occu- pation, and the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma had already been fought. The President called upon the governor of Pennsylvania for six regiments of volunteers "to be held in readi- ness to serve for twelve months unless sooner discharged." Within thirty days enough men for nine regiments had volunteered. The order for mustering in the troops did not come from the War Department until November. The troops went by boat, via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The First Regiment was organized at Pittsburgh, but included none from this section. The Second Regiment was organized at Pittsburgh, January 5, 1847. Others followed later.
This war was so distant from Washington, in those days of dif- ficult travel, and was so easily accomplished and so devoid of dis- aster to the American cause that it was a mere ripple as compared to several of our later wars.
531
COUNTY'S EARLY YEARS
Perry County furnished a lieutenant, Michael Steever, and sixty-six privates, which were mainly recruited from the Landis- burg Guards and the Bloomfield Light Infantry, Perry County's two crack militia companies of that day. They participated in the Battles of Beuna Vista, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino Del Rey, and Chapultepec. Their districts are not given. The roster :
Lieutenant :
McGowan, James.
Michael Steever.
*O'Bryan, Thos. Peary, George.
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