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 79
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
From an editorial in the Harrisburg Telegraph the following tribute is taken :
"The public schools of Pennsylvania lose a great champion in the death of Prof. L. E. McGinnes. While his success in conducting the schools of Steelton marked him as a superintendent of more than ordinary ability, his reputation as an educator was not confined to his home town. As member of the State Board of Education he was a great factor in the development of the educational system of the state along modern and efficient lines, and as president of the Pennsylvania State Educational Association he became known the country over as a deep thinker and tireless worker in the great work of lifting the public schools of the nation to new and higher planes of usefulness. A lover of children, an executive of high type, an able teacher, and a staunch believer in the principles of Americanism and the future of the country, he was a mighty force for good not only in his home community but wherever his powerful personality made itself felt. His place will not be easily filled."
The Harrisburg Patriot's editorial columns contained this tribute among other things :
"Prof. L. E. McGinnes' death is one of those which shock and sadden a community. Though a resident of Steelton for many years, he was ac- cepted by Harrisburgers as one of their own upstanding men, worthy of the honors and esteem that his fellow citizens gave him.
"For many years the excellence of the Steelton public school system has long been acknowledged. It was much ahead of districts of like size. Its graduates disclosed an educational finish that did not rub off readily. In colleges, where so many of them were inspired to go, these high school alumni were ever creditable to the teaching force and the system which produced them. For much of this Superintendent McGinnes was respon- sible. As educator, churchman, public-spirited citizen, he contributed much to his community, a rare product of the life of this part of Pennsylvania of which this city is the hub. Perry Countians can be proud of his nativity as Harrisburg and Steelton are proud of his residence. His going away seemed much too soon."
The Harrisburg Evening News said editorially :
"Only a man who deserved it could have had funeral honors as were paid Prof. L. E. McGinnes yesterday at his home in Steelton. Prof. Mc- Ginnes' personality and achievement had become such a part of Steelton that his death seemed to affect the life of the borough and the entire community,-a community, too, that extended in this case to Harrisburg and beyond.
"Upon the countenance of those who mourned at the bier yesterday or followed the cortege to the cemetery there was written the lines of deep- seated grief, personal and communal. It was a real honor paid to a man who richly deserved it, who gave so much of his life to community better- ment and whose departure will long be regretted."
Early in his life Mr. McGinnes united with the Presbyterian Church at Duncannon and served as the superintendent of the Sunday school for several years. In the Steelton Presbyterian Church he was a ruling elder from the time of its organization, and was the first and only superintendent of the Sunday school in the thirty-seven years of its existence prior to his death. He was selected as commissioner from the Presbytery of Carlisle to the
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Synod of Pennsylvania and West Virginia at a meeting held in Erie, in October, 1899, and to the Synod of Pennsylvania at the meeting at Beaver, in October, 1918. He served as commissioner from the Carlisle Presbytery to the meeting of the General As- sembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Atlantic City, in 1916. He once served as moderator of Carlisle Presbytery.
Mr. McGinnes was married to Miss Ida Wilson, of Perry County, in 1879, and to them one child, Miss Sarah Ellen Mc- Ginnes, was born. His wife and Miss McGinnes, who is a mem- ber of the faculty of the Steelton High School, survive.
WILLIAM NELSON EHRIIART, EDUCATOR AND SUPT. OF SCHOOLS.
William Nelson Ehrhart, A.M., Ph.D., was born near Newport, Perry County, February 15, 1848, his parents being John and Eleonora (Super) Ehrhart, of whose family a son and four daugh- ters are living. He secured his elementary education in the neigh- boring public school and completed the course of study at the Juniata Valley Academy. He was a member of the first graduat- ing class of the Bloomsburg State Normal School, later taking the Scientific course and graduating from the Millersville State Nor- mal School. Upon completing the prescribed four years' course of study, Taylor University, at Indianapolis, conferred upon him the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees.
Almost his whole professional life was spent in Schuylkill County, where he had endeared himself to the people and was so successful that his reputation stands second to none among educa- tors in that populous county. His first position there was as prin- cipal of the Llewellyn schools for two years, followed by nine years as principal of the High School at Tamaqua. His work there attracted attention by reason of its marked efficiency, and he was elected principal of the High School at Shenandoah in 1884, where he raised the school's standard to first-class. Nine years later, in 1893, he resigned and removed to Pottsville to enter business, but his mind was ever turned toward the schoolroom, and in 1895 he accepted the principalship of the Mahanoy City High School, and a year later was made superintendent of schools of Mahanoy City, a position which he filled with credit for eighteen years, or until within a year of his death, when illness required that he relinquish the position. So highly was he esteemed that to-day there hangs in the High School at Mahanoy City a painting of him by a cele- brated artist-bearing the inscription, "From the City Teachers. Prof. W. N. Ehrhart, 1895-1914."
Prof. Ehrhart was one of the best mathematicians of eastern Pennsylvania. Much of the success of the libraries at both Shen- andoah and Mahanoy City is due to his labor. He was a leader of the Schuylkill County Educational Association from its incep-
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tion, belonged to the State and National Educational Associations, and to the National Geographical Society. During his superin- tendency, he was each year a member of the State Board of Ex- aminers at one of the State Normal Schools.
During the latter part of the War between the States, in March, 1865, although but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company
WILLIAM NELSON EHRHART, Born in Juniata Township.
G. 149th Penna. Volunteer Infantry, being discharged in June, after the ending of the war. He died March 31, 1915, at his home in Mahanoy City, in his sixty-eighth year, being survived by his widow and a son, Raymond Nelson, a Cornell University graduate.
E. A. K. HACKETT, NOTED EDITOR AND COLLEGE FOUNDER.
Edward Alexander Kelly Hackett was born at New Bloomfield, June 29, 1851. He attended the public schools and supplemented them with a higher course of study at the New Bloomfield Acad-
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emy. It has been said that the training of a newspaper office is tantamount to a liberal education, and this was a further supple- ment, for Edward Hackett learned the printing trade in the office of the Perry County Democrat. Upon finishing his trade he was employed in the newspaper offices of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other eastern cities. At the age of twenty-three he located at Bluff- ton, Indiana, where he purchased a half interest in the Bluffton Banner, becoming sole owner in a short time. In 1880, seeking a larger field, Mr. Hackett purchased the plant and business of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, moving to that place. Here he found adequate scope for his genius, and the Fort Wayne Sentinel, under his edi- torship, became one of the most prosperous and influential dailies in the State of Indiana. Here he also started the American Farmer, which for several years was printed in the Sentinel office, and later sold to a big publishing company. For a number of years he was also the owner of the Indianapolis Sentinel, which reached its greatest success under his control. During his life he was one of the most prominent and influential figures in Indiana journalism. He was dominated with an exalted integrity of purpose and high ideals which make for enlightened and useful citizenship.
As a young man Mr. Hackett was wed to Miss Mary A. Mel- sheimer, of Bluffton, Indiana, who died in 1898. Of their children the first born died in infancy; the second, Martha, is a talented physician and surgeon, and has charge of the hospital founded by her father at Canton, China; and Helen, the youngest, is the wife of John C. Johnson, of Los Angeles, California. Mr. Hackett was married a second time, on October 16, 1900, to Miss Susie Emma Reed. To this union were born three children, Catherine Reed, Edward A. K., Jr., and Wayne. Mr. Hackett died August 28, 1916.
Some years prior to his death Mr. Hackett established the Hackett Medical College at Canton, China, placing his eldest daughter, Dr. Martha Hackett, in charge. Mr. Hackett was earnest in the sup- port of all moral agencies, including the cause of temperance, and was actively identified with the Winona Assembly and Summer Schools Association, at Winona Lake, Indiana. He was an earnest member of the First Presbyterian Church at Fort Wayne, and su- perintendent of the Sunday school for years. He also was one of the founders of the Fort Wayne Mission, the Y. M. C. A., and the Y. W. C. A., to all of which he gave liberally. Sincere, honest, enthusiastic, with strong moral views, Edward A. K. Hackett's name will long leave its impress in his adopted state.
THEODORE K. LONG, FOUNDER OF CARSON LONG INSTITUTE.
That a Perry Countian should come back after having made a success elsewhere and assume the task of rebuilding an academy which he had attended in boyhood, but which seemed to be drifting.
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more or less as an educational derelict, is one of those strange facts that reads like fiction. Theodore Kepner Long, the son of Abra- ham Long, Jr., and Catherine ( Kepner) Long, was born in Pfoutz Valley, on August 26, 1856. His grandfather was Abraham Long, Sr., the eldest son of David Long. David Long came from Lancaster County and settled in Pfoutz Valley, in 1814. The an- cestors of David Long came from near Manheim, Germany, and
THEODORE K. LONG, Founder of Carson Long Institute. Born in Greenwood Township.
settled in Lancaster County before the Revolution. There is some uncertainty concerning the nationality of David Long's ancestors. Theodore K. Long's immediate ancestors maintained that they were of French and English extraction-their forebears, owing to religious persecution, having at an early date crossed the English Channel and settled on the French side of the Rhine, near Cologne, where they remained for generations, and later crossed the Rhine to the vicinity of Manheim, whence they came to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In an early published biography of Abraham Long,
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Jr., the author states that the Longs are of French origin, while in several later publications the authors invariably give the ancestry as German. It is altogether probable that all these accounts are recon- cilable and correct. During the early religious wars in Europe it was not uncommon for families to migrate from one country to another. The Longs were devout Protestants and they doubtless felt it greatly to their advantage to move from time to time as governmental conditions changed from Protestant to Roman Cath- olic, or vice versa. When the Longs came to America they were Lutherans, and when the United Brethren Church was organized later in Lancaster County, they were among its most enthusiastic supporters. David Long was educated for the U. B. ministry, and though he devoted most of his time to farming, he frequently offi- ciated in the pulpit of the United Brethren Church. When he came to Pfoutz Valley (then in Cumberland County ) he moved his fam- ily, his household goods, farming implements and money chests containing the purchase money for his new home in silver dollars, all in three Conestoga wagons, each wagon drawn by four horses. The caravan moved up along the west bank of the Juniata River to a point about two miles above Newport, immediately opposite what is known as the Patterson farm, where the river was forded and the wagons then followed up along the east bank of the river until they came to the Cocolamus Creek. Here they bore off to the right and crossed Wildcat Ridge into Pfoutz Valley. At that time there were no bridges across the Juniata or the Cocolamus and there was no road leading from Millerstown to Pfoutz Valley.
Theodore Kepner Long was born on the old farm acquired in 1814 by David Long, and his early life was much like that of the average farm boy. He attended the local schools, the Millerstown High School, and the Juniata Valley Normal School (Prof. Wright's) at Millerstown. He also attended the New Bloomfield Academy and the State Normal School at Millersville, after which he specialized at Yale and was graduated from the Law Depart- ment in 1878. He was admitted to the bars of Dauphin and Perry Counties in 1878, but located in Mandan, North Dakota, where he edited the Mandan Daily Pioncer in 1882. In. 1883 he compiled Long's Legislative Handbook of Dakota. In 1884 he began the practice of law, and in 1885 was made territorial district attorney for the district west of the Missouri River, in North Dakota. In 1849 he settled in Chicago. He was the attorney for the Illinois Life Insurance Company at its formation in 1899, and continued to act as its general counsel until 1908. He assisted at the organi- zation of the Western Trust and Savings Bank in 1903, and was the bank's attorney until 1908. He retired from active law practice in 1908 and later was elected alderman of the Sixth Ward of Chi- cago, serving from 1909 to 1915.
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As alderman Mr. Long originated measures in the city council for the reclamation of the shores of Lake Michigan for a city park and bathing beach and general playground purposes, which remain a benefaction to the public forever. He was the originator of Chi- cago's lighting system which utilizes the electric energy of the Sanitary District and Drainage Canal to supply light for the city. He also planned the general scheme for the location and develop- ment of Chicago's bathing beaches along the lake shore.
Mr. Long was united in marriage to Miss Kate Carson, at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, November 25, 1885.
During a vacation in 1914 Mr. Long came East, with a view of gratifying a lifetime desire of giving some benefaction to his na- tive county, and while summering at Millerstown he drove to New Bloomfield to look over old-time scenes. His attention was drawn to what he terms the "shabby" appearance of the old academy and surroundings, and there, in his mind was born the Carson Long In- stitute, a change of name which he made in memory of a beloved son, drowned in the prime of his young manhood. He bought the academy grounds, and what he has since done is best told in the chapter in this book entitled "Carson Long Institute, Formerly New Bloomfield Academy."
The reader is referred to the sketch relating to Chester I. Long, former United States Senator from Kansas, as David Long was their common ancestor. .
JUDGE HUGH HART CUMMINS.
Hugh Hart Cummins was born at Liverpool, May 25, 1841, the son of Dr. William and Mary ( Hart) Cummins. Dr. Cummins, the father, a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, had located at Liverpool about 1830 for the practice of his profession, remain- ing there until his death in 1846. Hugh Hart, after attending the public schools, taught before his arrival at voting age. He attended York Commercial College, and in 1862 located at Williamsport. and entered the law offices of George White, an able attorney, as a student. While studying, he supported himself by clerical work in the county offices. He was admitted to the bar in 1864. From the very beginning he was noted for his high moral courage. Politi- cally he was a Democrat, yet he received the nomination for Judge of the Courts of Lycoming County by a coalition of the Republi- cans and the independent Democrats in 1878, who believed that the judicial election should be non-partisan. He was elected, and began his term January 6, 1879, serving the entire term of ten years. On leaving the bench, he resumed the practice of law. When the great flood of 1889 swept Williamsport, the receding of the waters marked Judge Cummins' entry in the work of relief for the sufferers. This attracted the attention of Governor Beaver,
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and he was named one of a commission of nine prominent busi- ness and professional men to superintend the distribution of relief funds to the suffering Johnstown flood victims. The commission chose him chairman, and he at once located at Johnstown to carry out the relief work, but fell ill with diabetes and died August II, 1889, at the Cresson Springs Hotel, where he had been removed during his illness. He is said to have been one of the most able judges of the Lycoming County courts.
According to the best records obtainable Judge Cummins was the first Perry Countian to take a business college course.
SHERIDAN E. FRY, JUDGE OF THE MUNICIPAL COURT, CHICAGO.
In that great metropolis of the West, enterprising and ever growing Chicago, another Perry Countian is to be found, a judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago. That man is Sheridan E. Fry, born at Donnally's Mills, February 25, 1867, his birthplace being near the place known as "Peace Union." His father was John M. Fry, born June 3, 1840, near New Bloomfield, the son of Abraham and Statira (Marshall) Fry, and his mother was Eliza Agnes Bucher, who was born in Adams County, but moved with her family during her early girlhood to Donnally's Mills, where her father followed his trade as a miller. His parents, John M. Fry and Eliza Agnes Bucher were married at New Bloomfield, May 16, 1866, and lived together to celebrate their golden wedding. Mrs. Fry died November 20, 1917, at Seward, Winnebago County, Illinois, where Mr. Fry still resides, though påst eighty. He en- listed in the U. S. Army at Newport, September 16, 1862, and was mustered out June 16, 1865, having been engaged in thirty-four actions, among them Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. After the war he taught school in Perry County. In 1881, with his family he moved to Winnebago County, Illinois, and it was thus that the future Judge Fry became a citizen of Illinois. Their six children are Sheridan E., Chicago; Emory C., Sioux City, Iowa; George H., Mrs. Samuel Cuthbertson, and John A., of Seward, Illinois.
During his residence in Perry County Judge Fry was an attend- ant of the schools of Tuscarora Township, and in Illinois he worked upon the farm during the summer and attended the schools during the winter. He later attended the Illinois Normal School at Dixon, Illinois, and Wheaton College, at Wheaton, Illinois. In 1895 he graduated from the Northwestern University Law School of Chicago, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was ad- mitted to practice in the courts of Illinois during the same month, and later in the United States courts.
He practiced law for ten years and was then appointed by Judge Carter, of Cook County, as his assistant. Judge Carter was later elected to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and Judge Fry continued
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
in the same position with his successors. He held that position almost four years, resigning in December, 1908, to go on the municipal bench, having been elected as a Republican to that posi- tion in November, 1908, for a six-year term. He was again elected in 1914, and in 1920.
Judge Fry is a member of many notable associations and clubs, among them the Pennsylvania Society of Chicago and the Perry
SIIERIDAN E. FRY, Municipal Judge. Born in Tuscarora Town- ship.
County Society of Chicago. He and his family are Presbyterians. Judge Fry was united in marriage May 20, 1897, to Miss Carrie E. Schell, of Polo, Illinois, they having become acquainted at Wheaton College. They have two children, Florence, now ( 1920) a student at the University of Illinois, and Robert, in the high school. Judge Fry has never lost interest in his native county, and he and his family have made various trips back to the haunts of his childhood. He is noted for his thoroughness, and the fact that he has been elected for his third term of six years is proof that his official acts meet with the views of the electorate of his district.
DAVID WATTS, PROMINENT ATTORNEY.
David Watts was the only son of General Frederick and Jane (Murray) Watts, and was born October 29, 1764, on the farm warranted by his father, June 4, 1762, in what is now Wheatfield Township, Perry County. His parents had come to Chester
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County about 1760, and in warranting the farm which became the birthplace of David Watts, they built a cabin and moved there- to the very verge of civilization. Owing to the father's absence as an officer in the patriot army and later as a member of the Executive Council the training of the boy largely devolved upon the mother, a gifted and educated woman. He was the first person born within the limits of what is now Perry County to graduate from a college-Dickinson College, founded in 1783, where he was educated and gradnated with the first class.
Entering the law offices of William Lewis, of Philadelphia, he read law and was admitted to the bar, beginning practice at Car- lisle, where he soon had a large patronage. He joined the troops to suppress the "Whiskey Insurrection," four thousand of which were reviewed by General Washington at Carlisle (then the county seat of Perry County territory), in 1794. His courage and energy soon placed him at the head of the Cumberland County bar, the acknowledged equal of Thomas Duncan, for years the recognized leader of the profession. They were men of extensive and varied acquirements in professional and general literature, being distin- guished for learning, integrity and manners. He died September 25, 1819, in the midst of a mature life, his death being hastened by exposure while traveling over the legal circuit on horseback, the mode of travel of the period. A printed volume of his arguments is included in the State Reports of Pennsylvania.
In September, 1796, he was united in marriage to Julia Anna Miller, and was the father of twelve children. The family was reared in the faith of the parents, that of the Episcopal Church.
An anecdote connected with the early courts at Carlisle, in which figured Thomas Duncan, later a justice of the Supreme Court, and David Watts, the leaders of the bar, follows:
At court Mr. Duncan was distinguished by quickness, acute dis- cernment, accurate knowledge, and every-ready repartee. His rival was David Watts, bright, gifted and well read. Mr. Watts was a large man, of athletic proportions, while Mr. Duncan was of small stature and light weight. During a discussion of a legal question in court Mr. Watts, in the heat of the argument, made a personal allusion to Mr. Duncan's small stature, and said he "could put him in his pocket." "Very well," retorted Mr. Duncan, "then you will have more law in your pocket than you have in your head."
REV. AND MRS. JOHN ROGERS PEALE, MARTYRED MISSIONARIES.
Martyrs to the cause of Christianity, being slain in far-away China, the names of John Rogers Peale and Mrs. Peale are held in veneration not only by their own county and their own denomi- nation-the Presbyterian-but by a far wider zone. They were 48
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
killed, with five other Americans, by a Chinese mob bent on wreak- ing vengeance against foreigners to their country, on October 28, 1905. Nothing that any of the party had done was responsible, and the mere fact that they happened to be in that particular sec- tion of that time is alone responsible for their deaths. John Rogers Peale was the youngest son of the late Samuel Alexander and Eliza- beth (McIntire) Peale, and was born in New Bloomfield, Septem- ber 17, 1879. He did his college preparatory work at the New Bloomfield Academy, where he graduated in June. 1898. Entering
REV. JOHN R. PEALE MRS. JOHN R. PEALE Martyred Presbyterian Missionaries. Rev. Peale was born at New Bloomfield.
Lafayette College, he graduated therefrom with the class of 1902. He matriculated at the Princeton Theological Seminary, graduat- ing in May, 1905. Enthused along the line of mission work, he spent the summer of 1904 in North Dakota in that work. In May, 1905, following his graduation, Carlisle Presbytery ordained him as a missionary, and the Presbyterian Church at Moosic, Pennsyl- vania, assumed the task of sending him to China as their personal missionary. He was united in marirage on June 29th to Miss Re- becca Gillespie, of Colora, Maryland, and on August 7th they left New Bloomfield, sailing on the 16th from San Francisco, and land- ing in China on September 12th. They had just reached their field of labor a few days before the time when their lives were crushed out by the very people whom they had gone to help. The frenzied
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