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 69
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123
"William Bigler was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1851, and on the same ticket with him was John Bannister Gibson, then Chief Justice of the state, who was continued on the elective supreme court, and just one month before the election of Bigler and Gibson in Pennsylvania, John Bigler was elected Governor of California. John Bigler became foreign minister after serving two terms as governor, and William Bigler became United States Senator. It was certainly a remarkable development of the greatness achieved by these barefooted boys of Sherman's Valley.
"Pennsylvania has had governors of stronger intellectual force than Bigler, but I never knew a public man who had better command of all his faculties or could apply them to more profitable uses. He was a man of very clear conception and unusually sound judgment, with a severe con- scientiousness that made him heroic in defense of the right. He was a man of unusually fine presence, of a most amiable and genial disposition, and delightful in companionship, but no influence or interest could swerve him from his convictions of duty in official trust.
41
642
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
"He was a careful student, an intelligent observer of men and events, and thoroughly mastered every question that confronted him in the dis- charge of his political duties. He was not an aggressive man in the gen- eral acceptation of the term, but his conservatism never restrained him in aiding legitimate progress, and no cleaner man ever filled the executive chair of Pennsylvania.
"He was a thorough forester, loved the woods, and soon learned to put something approaching a fair value upon the vast amount of fine lumber in that region. In a few years he became one of the largest lumber mer- chants of the West Branch, and I well remember the admiration he aroused among his political friends, when he was a member of the senate and a prospective candidate for governor, by making the entire journey from Clearfield to Harrisburg on one of his own rafts. He was well equipped for the practical duties of the gubernatorial chair. He was a thoroughly good judge of men and as thoroughly familiar with every public question relating to the interests of the state.
"Governor Bigler did more than any other one man in his day to save Pennsylvania from the scourge of an inflated wildcat currency. Pennsyl- vania had entirely recovered from the terrible financial depression of 1841 when repudiation was narrowly escaped. Commerce, industry and trade were generally quickened, and the discovery of gold in California, al- though then in its infancy, seemed to be furnishing an amount of the precious metal that must diffuse wealth into every channel of business enterprise. The few millions of gold that California produced in 1851 were regarded as tenfold more important than all the twentyfold of gold and silver now produced in the West. The feeling was very general that a tide of prosperity was approaching, and a deluge of applications for bank charters came upon the legislature during Bigler's first year.
"The legislators were fully in sympathy with the prospective tide of wealth that was dazzling the people, and they passed bank charters by the score, and all without any individual liability or security for depositors beyond the capital stock. In a single message Governor Bigler vetoed eleven bank charters, and during the session he sent to the senate or house thirty messages vetoing bank bills. He was thoroughly familiar with the industrial interests of the state and knew how easily the people would be tempted from the ordinary channels of industry by hope of suddenly acquired wealth, without pausing to consider that the floodtide of irresponsible banks, practically without limit as to the issue of cur- rency, would produce a most unhealthy inflation that could end only in terrible disaster.
"He was the first governor who made an appeal to the legislature to halt what was known as log-rolling or omnibus legislation, by which a bank charter could be made an amendment to the bill for the removal of a local schoolhouse, and insisted that he should have the right to consider every different feature of legislation upon its own merits. He proposed also in the same message two amendments, which have since been adopted in our Constitution, relating to legislation, requiring each bill to contain but a single subject, and to be passed by a majority vote of each house on a call of ayes and nays.
"Bigler had served three terms in the senate, elected each time practi- cally without a contest, and although he peremptorily declined at the end of his second term, and sent delegates from his county in favor of an- other candidate, the delegates from the other counties of the district gave a unanimous vote for him and he was compelled to continue legislative service. The prominent position he occupied in the senate had thoroughly familiarized him with all matters relating to state government, and, next
643
PERRY COUNTY'S NOTED MEN
to Governor Johnston, I doubt whether any man ever filled the position who was more thoroughly equipped for shaping legislation and adminis- tering the state government. His administration commanded not only the respect, but the hearty approval of his party, and even his political oppo- nents, however earnestly they may have differed with him, held in high esteem his ability and integrity, and when he was nominated for reelection in 1854 by the unanimous vote of the convention, given with the heartiest enthusiasm, there did not seem to be a cloud on the Democratic horizon even as large as a man's hand to threaten him with the tempest that swept him out of office by nearly 40,000 majority.
"The repeal of the Missouri Compromise by a Democratic Congress aroused the anti-slavery sentiment that largely pervaded the Democratic ranks in every section of the state and brought out the first distinct mur- murs of revolt, and the sudden organization of the American or 'Know Nothing' party, with the Whig party practically on the verge of its death throes, found a wide field with loose aggregations of both Whigs and Democrats, and these elements were adroitly combined against Bigler in favors of James Pollock, who succeeded him.
"It was a most humiliating defeat, and at the time seemed to bring hope- less destruction to his political career, but his defeat for governor made him United States Senator and one of the great national leaders of his party during the Buchanan administration. Bigler's career in the senate showed that he was equal to the mastery of the gravest national problems, and his sound judgment and conservative aims gave him great power to aid in the election of James Buchanan, his favorite candidate for the Presidency. His personal devotion to Buchanan made him resolve all doubts in favor of supporting the President in his battle with Douglas, and that led to his support of the sadly mistaken policy of the adminis- tration in the Kansas-Nebraska disputes, although Senator Bigler always sought to temper the desperate policy of his associate leaders. He visited Kansas personally, and in perfect good faith appealed to the Free State men to come to the front, as they seemed to have the majority, but they had been overwhelmed by the hordes from Missouri, and they refused to accept his advice.
"Taking his career as a whole in the senate, it was eminently creditable, and after his retirement he continued to exhibit the liveliest interest in all public affairs. He was one of the leading men in the direction of the Centennial Exposition, and labored most earnestly and unselfishly to pro- mote its success. Although he never made public utterance on the sub- ject, nothing would have gratified him so much as to have been recalled to the gubernatorial chair of the state. In 1875, when the Democratic convention was in session in Erie, and had what seemed to be an almost hopeless wrestle with a number of candidates, he was hopeful and anxious that he might be accepted as a compromise between disputing factions. He was in my editorial office waiting for dispatches from the Erie con- vention, and when I handed him the dispatch announcing the nomination of Judge Pershing, he accepted it gracefully, and I doubt whether any other saw the expression of disappointment that he did not conceal from me when he felt that his last opportunity had failed."
The Senate of Pennsylvania, on April 27, 1881, held a memorial session, at which a number of eulogies were delivered in honor of Governor Bigler, long a member of that body, and whose death had but recently occurred. Lieutenant Governor Stone presided, and among those who spoke was Senator Charles H. Smiley, then
644
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
representing the district which included Perry, the native home of the deceased governor, and whose birthplace was within a very few miles of his.
GOVERNOR JOHN BIGLER, OF CALIFORNIA.
In no other instance in the annals of American history have brothers served as governors of different states at the same time, vet the talented Bigler family of Perry County was not content with furnishing its own state with one of its very best governors. but gave to that empire of the Pacific slope, California, its third governor, and the very first one to be elected by the people-John Bigler. When California became a state on September 9, 1850. Peter H. Burnett was governor, and thus became the first governor of the new state. Later he resigned and his unexpired term was filled by the lieutenant governor, John MeDougal, who was the second governor. Thus John Bigler, the lad born on Perry County soil, became, as stated, the first governor to be elected by fran- chise in the new state.
John Bigler was born at Landisburg, where his father then milled, January 8, 1805, and when still in his boyhood his parents moved to Mercer County, Pennsylvania, hoping to better their financial condition, purchasing a large tract of timber lands. Through a defective title they shortly found themselves bereft of all save a small farm, and it required the entire time and much hard labor by the elder Bigler to make ends meet. This constant toil was more than he could stand at that period of his life, and his death followed. He left a widow and children to battle with the pioneer conditions of a newly settled country. Jacob Bigler, the father of John, had later been a miller at Gibson's mill, in Perry County, and his mother was Susan Dock, a sister of Judge Dock, of Harrisburg. Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The death of the father curtailed the education which the par- ents had planned for the children, so John Bigler learned the print- ing trade and became the editor of the Centre Democrat, published at Bellefonte, before 1830, and when less than twenty-five years old. He continued its publication for some years and in the mean- time studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840. It was dur- ing this period, from 1830 to 1833, that his brother William, who was to become governor of his native state, learned the printing trade with him.
In 1849, having in the meantime married, and became the father of a daughter, he took his family overland to California, and set- tled at Sacramento. At first he turned his attention to anything to gain a livelihood, doing odd jobs, unloading steamships, cutting wood and even as an auctioneer. . He was quick-witted, good- natured, fond of company, fluent of speech, but rough and ready
645
PERRY COUNTY'S NOTED MEN
in attire-just the type of man to dovetail with the then pioneer life there. He was energetic and it was but natural thai politics appealed to him.
At the first election, under the Constitution of 1849, he became
JOHN BIGLER,
Third governor of California. Born at Landisburg. John Bigler never had a photo- graph taken, and his cut has never before appeared in any book. This cut was made from an oil painting from life which hangs in the Governor's Room, in the California State Capitol, photographed especially for this book.
the Democratic candidate for the state assembly from the Sacra- mento district. The returns showed him to have been beaten, but he contested the election and a special committee on contested elec- tions seated him. On January 10, 1850, he was elected speaker .
646
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
protempore of the house by a vote of seventeen to two, and on February 17, but a short while thereafter, when the speaker re- signed, he was elected to the position. At the autumn election of 1850 he was returned to the legislature, and at the succeeding ses- sion was almost unanimously elected as speaker, which shows that he was not only an excellent presiding officer, well versed in par- liamentary rules, but also a popular man. It was in the course of his service as speaker that he joined forces with David C. Brode- rick, then a political power in California, each being of great value to the other. It was largely owing to this combination that he was nominated for governor of California, shortly after the ses- sions of the legislature closed.
At the fall election he was elected to the highest office in the state, and on January 8, 1852, in the presence of the two houses of the legislature, he was sworn into office as governor of the "Golden State," the thirty-first one to attain statehood and a veri- table empire whose shores are washed by the Pacific Ocean for a distance as great as the states on the Atlantic slope from Massa- chusetts to Georgia.
In his inaugural address, among many other things, he said that no state could prosper so long as its counsellors were governed by schemes of speculation and private aggrandizement, and no com- munity could flourish under the influence of a wild, vacillating and unsettled policy. California had been, perhaps, more unfortunate in this respect than any of the other states of the Union. It should be his purpose, so far as the executive arm could reach the evil. to apply the remedy. It was better, he continued, to adhere to the principles and systems exemplified in the practice of the other states, which had been sustained by time and were tested by ex- perience, than to follow after ideal and imaginary good. In these modern days of idealism and various other isms that homely state- ment shines forth like prophecy. It might well be adopted by many of our modern statesmen. He said the highways which had been successfully trodden in other states might be safely and pru- dently pursued by California. So long as American precedents were adopted and adhered to there would be no need to blush on account of the adoption of laws elsewhere successful. He was a believer in the wisdom of the aphorism "that the fewer and plainer the laws by which a people are governed, the better." There was much truth in the remark "that danger to popular government is to be apprehended from being governed too much." Few laws, well directed, would effect more good than numberless statutes, restraining, fettering and interfering with private enterprise. The greatest liberty consistent with good government was the true prin- cipal of republicanism and would contribute most to the develop- ment of the resources and energies of a people, he said.
647
PERRY COUNTY'S NOTED MEN
The capitol had been located at Vallejo, but that community had failed to fulfill its part of the conditions, and as John Bigler was a resident of Sacramento, it was largely through his influence that the capitol was permanently located there, as he represented that distriet in the assembly from the first, and while governor had a powerful influence.
Shortly prior to his term as governor-in 1848-the first China- men came to California, welcomed at first, but soon found to be a menace as the ever increasing number of them was becoming a problem to the state, as it later became to the nation, resulting in the eventual passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. As early as 1849 they were already barred from some mining camps. After much attention given to legislation by the two houses Governor Bigler gave impetus to the anti-Chinese movement by transmitting a special message to the legislature calling attention to the imme- ciate necessity of exclusive legislation to check immigration. The message contained much sound logic and, while legislation failed to pass then, it has long since shown its practicability.
At that time there was much overland traffic to the mining lands of California, and a commission had been appointed and had opened relief posts which the legislature had provided for by the appropriation of a sum not to exceed $25,000. The sum was ex- ceeded by the commission and became a matter of scandal, there being, as usual, two sides to the story. The one side claimed three thousand persons had been relieved, and the other contended it smacked more of political jobbery than of benevolence. The mat- ter finally resulted in a duel. There was considerable fault found with Bigler's stand on this matter. Edward Gilbert, one of Cali- fornia's first congressmen and editor of an Alta newspaper, made some caustic comment which aroused the ire of James W. Denver, a state senator whom Bigler had appointed at the head of the commission, and his personal friend and business associate. Den- ver replied in a bitter communication which reflected on Gilbert's character. Gilbert immediately challenged Denver to a duel. Den- ver accepted and named the rifle as the weapon, as he was an ex- pert rifleman. The duel, which was the first one between men of prominence in the state, took place in Oak Grove, near Sacra- mento, on August 2, 1852. Placed forty paces apart both missed at the first shot, whether intentionally or not will never be known. At the second shot the congressman (Gilbert) fell, being shot through the body. While Gilbert was a popular man no prosecu- tion was made against his slayer, but on the other hand Governor Bigler appointed him as secretary of state six months later when a vacancy occurred by resignation. This act seems not to have been unpopular, either.
618
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
At the Democratic State Convention of 1853 his political partner, David C. Broderick, was in complete control, and Governor Bigler was renominated and, at the fall election, was reelected. Until the present century he was the only governor to be reelected, which shows that his administration of the affairs of the state must have been very satisfactory to the electorate.
In another respect than that of both becoming governors did the actions of these two brothers parallel. When William Bigler was a state senator of Pennsylvania it was he that stood for put- ting through the legislation for the building of the Pennsylvania Central railway over the Allegheny Mountains, which many claimed to be impractical, but over which line the Pennsylvania Railroad with four tracks of steel now connect New York City and Pittsburgh. When he was a member of the General Assembly of California in 1850, which was its initial session, on March 11. John Bigler introduced a joint resolution instructing the United States senators and requesting the representatives in Congress to urge the importance of authorizing as soon as practicable, the con- struction of a national railroad from the Pacific Ocean to the Mis- sissippi River. Later, when he was governor, in a message to the legislature he proposed the establishment of military and post roads across the plains, to connect California with the Atlantic states. It was brought up, but as California had no jurisdiction without its own bounds, the national government was appealed to by reso- lution to build three military and post roads across the continent. The result was that the national government took up the matter and in a short time the Atlantic and the Pacific were connected by military and post roads, which eventually grew to the great transcontinental railway lines of our time.
It was during his administration that the great and famous San Quenten prison was established in California, which to this day is a noted place of confinement for evildoers in state' as well as ordi- nary civil affairs and transactions. While a member of the assem- bly he was one of the men who helped establish a free school sys- tem, primarily patterned after the one from his native state.
In 1855 Governor Bigler was again renominated, but was de- feated by John Neely Johnson, the nominee of the ascendant "Know Nothing" party. This was a party formed to combat for- eign immigration and was a secret alliance. It got its name through that secret method, as any one who belonged to it, when pressed for information invariably said that he knew nothing. With the ascendancy of the "Know Nothings" Governor Bigler's political partner, David C. Broderick, lost his prestige for a time.
Through the efforts of his brother, United States Senator Wil- liam Bigler, the former Pennsylvania governor, he was appointed United States Minister to Chili by President James Buchanan, in
649
PERRY COUNTY'S NOTED MEN
1857, and served until the advent of Abraham Lincoln, in 1861. He returned to California and was nominated for Congress, but was defeated. In 1867 President Johnson appointed him a com- missioner on the board to pass upon the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. In 1868 he established the State Capital Re- porter at Sacramento, where he died in November 29, 1871, leaving a wife and daughter. He and his wife and daughter are buried at Sacramento, where the State of California has erected a monument to his memory.
Physically Governor Bigler was comparatively short and in- clined to be corpulent. He was good-natured, jolly, and what is known in modern parlance as "a good mixer," which no doubt accounts in a very large way for his political success for many years.
GOVERNOR STEPHEN MILLER, OF MINNESOTA.
Perry County also has the distinction of having furnished the third governor of Minnesota, the thirty-second state to be admitted into the Union, which attained statehood in 1858. The lands pat- ented by George West, in Carroll Township, Perry County, on March 12, 1793, passed to Melchoir Miller, grandfather of Gox- ernor Miller, who emigrated from Germany in 1785. * His son David, who became Governor Miller's father, inherited his share of the estate, two other heirs being his sister, Mrs. Henry Lackey, and his brother, Daniel, who had a son, John T. Miller, who was elected sheriff of Perry County in 1865. Accordingly many per- sons who were born in Perry County, or who can trace their lineage there, are kin to Governor Miller.
Stephen Miller was born on his father's farm, now the G. W. Keller farm, in Carroll Township, Perry County, January 7, 1816, where he grew to young manhood. His mother was #Rosanna ( Darkess) Miller (sometimes called Rosa). Some histories name his mother as Barbara Miller, designated "a widow," teaching school at Daniel Cowen's, fourteen miles west of Marysville, in Rye Township, which is not correct. He attended the local schools and was an expert penman.
Hle early devoted his attention to the milling business, and in 1837-the year he became of age-he engaged in the shipping and
*The will of Melchoir Miller, dated January 5, 1824, was probated at Landisburg, then the county seat, March 31, 1824. It names his children as Elizabeth,. Rosanna, David, Anne, Susanna, and Daniel. It also desig- nates Rosanna Miller as his wife. Rosanna was also the name of David's wife, who became the governor's mother.
+Mrs. Elizabeth Miller, residing with her daughter, Mrs. Chas. Etter, 208 Pine Street, Harrisburg, and who is in her ninety-third year, spent much time with the governor's mother, whom she knew as "Aunt Rosa," being a niece by marriage, which substantiates the fact that that was her given name.
650
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
commission business at Harrisburg. Here he was successful and became a man of considerable importance and political standing. In 1849 he was elected prothonotary of Dauphin County, and in 1852 he was reelected. An ardent Whig, from 1853 to 1855 he was the editor of the Pennsylvania Telegram, a journal published
GEN. STEPHEN MILLER, Third Governor of Minnesota, Born in Carroll Township, Perry County.
at Harrisburg devoted to the principles of that party, and not to be confused with a later paper known as the Harrisburg Telegram, whose standard of morality is not to be mentioned in the same breath.
Governor Polleck appointed him flour inspector at Philadel- phia, in 1855. Prior to this time he had become greatly interested
651
PERRY COUNTY'S NOTED MEN
in the temperance cause, and procuring a large canvas tent, he vis- ited many parts of Pennsylvania as a lecturer, meeting with great success. His health becoming impaired, he thought a change of climate would be beneficial, and moved to Minnesota, settling at St. Could, where he entered business. It was soon perceived that the town had gained more than a merchant; that it had a man of alert mind, positive convictions and wisdom, and whose aid in the directing of public affairs would be invaluable. His evidencing an interest in politics had an almost immediate effect, and in 1860 he was sent as a delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated Lincoln for the Presidency. He was also placed at the head of the Republican electoral ticket of the state that year. He was prominently brought before the people of his chosen state by holding joint discussions or debates with General Christopher C. Andrews, a Douglas elector, in the principal towns and cities. Then the pent-up slavery agitation of almost a century came to a crisis and Governor Ramsey, with whom he had early formed a friendship while yet in Pennsylvania, was instrumental in having him made Lieutenant Colonel of the First Minnesota Infantry, his commission being dated April 29, 1861. This friendship was not alone responsible for this assignment, for Stephen Miller had shown more activity in raising recruits than any man in Minne- sota, and undoubtedly had great personal merits.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.