USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, in Pennsylvania : from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 17
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Wheatfield .. .....
Governor.
Jno. F. Hartranft# 83 Chas. R. Buckalew 55
89
158
132
176
103 38
95
72
75
IO2
28
106
25 153
76 235
70
9I
129
84
53 147
81 17 90| 2782 85 79 75 2514
Auditor General.
Harrison Allen *...
86 89
154
133 178
103 38
94
72 56
75
661 102:114 721
83 41
32
27 112
89
70 77|
91127
87 53 147
82!
17|90 2786 84:79 75 2514
William Hartley ... Supreme Judge.
53
63
100
1105, 5I
64 35 166 105 24 105 103
91
72 55
74
70 IO2
108 88
38 42 104 26 151 34 |27 115 59
93
70 77
90 52
129
86
52
143
82 17 90 84 79.75
2533
John A. Baker *..
92 87 145; 132 | 175 108135
81
68 55
78
70 95108
28
112 26 143 60
250
47
93 125
58 |145
82
18 84 83.78 811
2535
Joshua E. Singer ... Congress.
45 62 106 IOI
SI
59 38
181
107 20 101:100
72
89
47
26 27 117 7.I
79 100
49
911129
9I
61 1521
88 |17 93 78 781701
2470
88
190 156 I33
180 104 38
92
72 57
76
72
102 110 38 105 26 156 102 112 38:105 26 156
74 243
70 70
90 130
88|
54 54 146
82 17 891
2730
Richard Vaux.
53:63
98 105
49
65 35 170 104 20:105 100
72
87 41 34 27
III 58
88
70
52 183 213 124 140
84.79 76
2512
H B. Wright ...
52 63: 99 105 52 63' 99 105
491
65 35 170 104 20 104 100
72
34 27
III
SS
88
70
52 183
213 124 140
84.79 76
25II
Jos. Shuler *.
82 17 89
2766
And. K. Black* ..
83 901162 132 173 96,38| 84:90 155 133 178 103 38
98
88}
73 100 113 38 102 261152 72 102 112 38 | 105 26 153 75} 75 | 72 101 . 112 58 104 26 152
74|235
70
92 130
9º 130
70|
90 130
84 56 147 8I 83 54142 52 133
82 17189:
2746
I. S. Schminky *...
84 9011:6 133 176 103'38
72 242
Those marked with a star (*) are Republicans.
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
255
82 17 85 | 2729
163
96
105
52
65
35 166 |105 26:105|123
72
82 41
33
27 III
57
881
77
5I
182 214 125 139
Ulysses Mercur *... James Thompson .. Associate Judge.
83 87
I54
132 179 103 38
48! 63:35
17I
104|20 104 100
72
103 113 37 IIO 26 86139 7I
29 27 II3
58
7I
51 |183 207 114 134
G. W. Schofield *... Chas. Albright *.
88 90
156 133
180 104 38
92
72 57
771 72
77| 72 102
112 38 105 26
156} 74 243
90 130 90 130
88 88
54
146
82 17 89
2778 2781
87 90 156
I33
180 104 38
92
72 57
49; 65 35 170 104 20 105 100|
72
87 41 34 27 87 4I
III 58
88!
70
52 183 212 124 140
84 79
76
2512
Jas. H. Hopkins. Assembly.
82 92 57 62
160
128
174 107 39 55 62 33 168
93!
72 59 103 23 107 100
75
68
I55
74
74
244 87
74 |2431
70
146
82 17 89,
2807
Wm. A. Sponsler* John A. Magee ..... Congress at Large Lemuel Todd *.
95 109
55 (04 100 103
183 212 126 142
99 186 194 120|139
51 |184 212|125 139
2767
73 237
75 235 58|
38 |107 25:152
II5
65|
54
...
Total.
Watts
2699
72 54 92 72.5 92 72 49
73.239| 70
256
OFFICIAL VOTE, OCTOBER 8, 1872. CONTINUED.
Candidates.
Bloomfield
Buffalo twp ....
Carroll.
Center
Duncannon.
Greenwood.
Howe
Jackson
Juniata
Landisburg ..
Liverpool bor.
Liverpool twp
Madison.
Marysville.
Millerstown ..
New Buffalo.
Newport
Oliver
Penn.
Rye ...
Sandy Hill.
Saville
Spring.
Toboyne
Tyrone.
Tuscarora
Watts
Wheatfield ..
Total.
. ...
Assembly (Con ) David H. Sheibley
55 63 59 62 53|63
96.104 95:106
57
99 105
52
65|35 170
IO4
25 IOI
72!
4I
106 47
98 26 150
72 591
239 91
5I 96
891132 53 180
83
54 140
218 124 1451
75 17 83 91 79 79
2607
Joseph Smith *.
79|89 160 65 63
129
182
96 38
884
71 55 106 26|
96
IQ0
44
56
74 254 78
69 78
87 55
128 185
7I 52 142 126 143
82 17 84 84 79 80
2559
George W. Bretz *..
86 98:156 54 52
130 178 118
57
87
73:59
84 97
76 95
95 112 39 108 27 173 79 30 26 91 87 40 - 112 38 105 26 155 87,4 98 75
34 27 I12]
74 57
242 89
70 77
91 51
125 156 188
54 150 130 122 130
82 82
17 88
2859 2432
G. W. Eppley *..... George D. Arnold Auditor.
89 50
91 156| 138|179
63
99: 105
50}
65 35 169
26 104 100
34 27;112|
88
74 243 58 88
70| 77]
90 1301
87 54 146
87 17 89 70 79 75
2499
U. S. Grant. Horace Greeley ...
83 89 49 511
142 118 57 79
168 33
106:32
85
64'59
66 83
69 671
92 103 23 100 24'144 49' 67 28 20 14 88
68 232 44. 63
66 63
84 112 77.
54 140
77
72174
2563
44 44 51
1744
50
66 35 164.
4I
III 102
41
73| 72
87 86 86
35 27 119 35 27 33127
III II3
57| 58
92 9[ 88
77| 17 77
183 52 183 207 183 52
126 122
230 I59 I35 207:123 138
79 79 84.79
76 76 76
2587 2518 2508
District Attorney.
Jacob Bailey*
74.89 63:62
157
117 172
56
74 37 174
98 27 107 100
90 30
40 27 114
III 95 26 156 43 27
83 243 49!
70 77|
90
91 541137
81 17
90 85 79 75
2475
Director of Poor. S. \Dunklebger *.... Henry Cooper .... Coroner.
89 91 155 63
133 179 104:38
91
72.52 80
72
58
79
72 102 115 38 105 26 155 72 83:41
74 |243 58
70/ 90 133 77
IIO! 54 145 52 180 186 124 141
79 77 82 17 89 84 79 76
2817 2485
W. A. Meminger *. 88 J P. Latchford ..... 50 President.t
91 6I
156
133 179 50 105
103 37
93! 69 57 65 35 169 |102,25 104|100 79
72 102
112 38 ;105]26 156 87,4I
72
35|27 III
-
Those marked with a star (*) are Republicans. +November, 1872.
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
1 95.33
88
70 55!
77| 7I
98 76
86
72 102 113 35 72 86
Thos. J. Sheibley .. Commissioner.
94 |109
47
73 35 173
99 | 107 50
51 16 174 103 24
1
61 100 104 50
65 35 170 105 29 104 100
104 381
93
72
98
99 99
4I
58
50
J. C Bomberger .... E. B. Cobaugh ....
Wm. A. Seibert ..... Register.
2732
2805
G. B. Sheaffer. ....
88
-
2743
99
52 182 210 124 140
24|114 117/ 86 IIO
230
93 52 217 208 124 146
84 84
2656
98 |119
73 35 | 169 104
41 18 139 85 161
Miller
257
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
CENSUS.
Districts.
Fourth. | 1820.
Fifth. 1830.
Sixth. I840.
Seventh. Eighth. 1850 I860.
Ninth. 1870.
Bloomfield.
224
412
581
661
655
Buffalo
874
1269
952
618
1002
770
Carroll
1098
1169
I294
1425
Center
983
944
1070
II21
Duncannon
1203
T680
T831
960
Greenwood
1637
TII2 967
725
996
957
1080
Howe ...
410
Jackson
1733
2200
1450
1435
1017
983
Landisburg
228
339
*360
416
363
369
Liverpool bor.
421
454
606
+750
823
- Liverpool twp.
1104
764
960
1072
859
Madison
1298
1292
.1534
1577
Marysville
863
Miller,
438
Millerstown
323
519
390
1500
533
New Buffalo.
86
147
165
+200
259
Newport ..
425
507
649
945
Oliver.
834
870
787
1529
Rye ..
1695
838
465
696
702
703
Sandy Hill,
Saville.
1153
1360
1290
150t
I644
1693
Spring.
1955
2391
1440
707
940
914
Tuscarora
767
899
Tyrone,
#2227
2868
2296
1069
II80
1287
Watts,
460
413
725
Wheatfield
1486
617
678
749
780
Total.
II284
1426₸
17096
20088
24243
25447
In 1820 there were in Perry county engaged in agriculture 1,489, in manufacturing 546. There were of foreign birth, not naturalized, thirty-four, free colored sixty-seven, and one slave.
In 1821 the number of taxable inhabitants of the county were, viz .: Toboyne 398, Tyrone, 421, Saville 238, Juniata 358, Rye 399, Greenwood 385, Buffalo 221 ; total 2421.
TPetersburg. * Not included in the total.
#Not included in the total of census report.
#Includes the sixty-eight colored persons in the county.
I281
1442
1492
{ Toboyne
New Germantown ...
133
Penn.
836
1109
1238
1103
Juniata.
885
1058
761
258
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
In 1830 there were 109 free colored persons, and four slaves in Perry county. In 1840 the free col- ored people numbered 154, and there were no slaves. In 1850-'60-'70 there were respectively 135, 119 and 140 of the colored race.
In 1840 there were eight furnaces and two forges which produced 2,957 tons of cast and 1,300 tons of bar iron; they consumed 16,152 tons of fuel, and employed in all their operations 339 men. The following number of bushels of the several kinds, of grain were raised: wheat, 200,638; barley, 411 ; oats, 192,258; rye, 143,519; buckwheat, 37,052, and 150,095 bushels of Indian corn. There were twenty-three tanneries, thirty-one leather manufac- tories ; thirteen distilleries, four potteries ; fifty-seven stores with an average capital invested of $3,000 ; five lumber yards ; twenty-two barrels of tar manu- factured ; seven fulling mills ; five woolen manufac- tories ; two printing offices, which issued each a weekly paper ; twenty-six grist mills, and 120 saw- mills.
In 1850 there were 1,470 farms.
The census of 1870 shows 20,153 of the popu- lation to have been born in the State, 467 in Geor- gia, 688 in S. Carolina, 1,202 in N. Carolina, 1,866 in Virginia and W. Virginia, 179 in Tennessee, one in British America, one in England, thirty-two in Ireland, two in Scotland, thirty-one in Germany, six in France, eight in Sweden and Norway, and four in Africa. In 1870' there were 140 colored persons in the county.
APPENDIX.
Apple-trees in bloom, December, 1822.
Advocate and Press, the name of an eight-col- umn, 19x25, single sheet, weekly Republican news- paper, started in Bloomfield in June, 1853, by a joint stock association, with John H. Sheibley, Esq., .as editor. It is devoted to literature, politics, local news, argriculture and advertising. Mr. Sheibley has become proprietor and greatly increased his facilities for job printing, The subscription price of the Advocate is $2 per annum in advance.
Advertisement .- " For sale a healthy stout mu- latto man, aged about 22 years. To be sold as the property of Rev. John Linn, deceased."-Perry Forester, 1826.
A Remarkable Room .- There is a room in the house now occupied by Francis Gibson, Esq., Spring township, Perry county, Penna., in which occurred the births of John Banister Gibson, Chief Justice Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, George Gibson, Commissary of the United States, John Bernheisel, the Mormon, Hon. John Bigler, Gover- nor of California from 1852 to 1855, who died at Sacramento, California, on the 27th of August, 1872, and Hon. William Bigler, Governor of Penn- sylvania from 1852 to 1855, still living in Clearfield, Clearfield county, Penna.
(259)
260
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
Banks of Deposit .- "Perry County, Sponsler, Junkin & Co.," was organized on the 19th of Sep- tember, 1866, by electing William A. Sponsler, President, and William Willis, Cashier. " New- port" was organized on the 12th of December, 1866, with Perry Kremer, President, Isaac Wright, Cashier, and Charles A. Wright, Teller, and re-or- ganized, March 23, 1867, with John Wright as President, and Isaac Wright, Cashier. A new article of confederation caused a re-organization, Jan. 2, 1872, when Thomas H. Milligan was elected President, Isaac Wright, Cashier, and Joseph M. Wright, Teller. "Liverpool Bank" was organized in July, 1871, with M. B. Holman, President, and J. C. Weirick, Cashier.
Burkholder, Hon. A. K., was born in Juniata town- ship, Perry county, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Markelville Academy. He read law in the office of B. M'Intire, Esq., Bloomfield. £ After being ad- mitted to the Bar he removed to Ohio, from which place he went into the army as a captain of volun- teers. After his term of enlistment expired he re- turned home, and soon afterward removed to Mis- souri, where he is now (Aug. 1, 1872) serving as a president judge.
Buckwheat in 1826 .- Solomon Bower, of To- boyne township, raised a stalk which had 3,012 sound grains on it.
Brady, Rev. Joseph, for many years a zealous minister of the gospel for several Presbyterian churches in the eastern part of the county, died on Tuesday evening, April 24th, 1821.
261
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
Bloomsfield Times, published every Tuesday morning by Frank Mortimer & Co., is a five-col- umn, 12x19, eight-paged weekly. It was first is- sued in January, 1868. Subscription price is $1.25 per year in advance. The Times is the only paper in the county published on a steam-power press.
Berkstresser, Henry, member of the House from Lawrence Co., O., was born at Liverpool, Perry Co., Pennsylvania, January 19, 1831, and grew to man- hood near New Bloomfield. He removed to Ohio in the spring of 1853, settling in Richland county, but at the expiration of two years he removed to Newark, Licking county. He subsequently joined the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was appointed to Patriot circuit, Octo- ber 1, 1860.
On the breaking out of the rebellion he entered the Union army, and was commissioned a Ist lieu- tenant in the 18th Ohio volunteers, October, 1861. He returned to the work of the ministry in the fall of 1862.
He was elected to the General Assembly of Ohio in the fall of 1871, and served as chairman of the Committee on Temperance.
Beaver, Gen. James A., at present a practitioner at the Center county bar, Bellefonte, Pa., was born in Millerstown, Perry county. He served his country as colonel of 148th regiment, infantry, from September 8th, 1862, till December 22, 1864, when he was honorably discharged on account of a wound which resulted in the loss of a leg. He was appointed brevet brigadier general.
262
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
Clark's Ferry was called by the Indians Queen- askawakee. This ferry was once a great fording place. A little above it, at the White Rock, on the river side, John Harris had, in 1733, a house which was complained of by the Indians .- Watson's An- nals.
Cochran, Rev. Wm. P., D. D., was born in Green- wood township, Perry county, in 1803. He graduated at Princeton College in his twenty- second year. In 1825 he went to Missouri as a Home Missionary. He finally became settled as the owner of a plantation and pastor of a Presbyte- rian church in Marion county, Missouri, where he remained until the breaking out of the rebellion, when he received a call from the Presbyterian churches of Millerstown, Newport and Ickesburg (Buffalo church), which he accepted, and removed his family to Millerstown. He continued to dis- charge the duties of pastor over these congrega- tions until the spring of 1868, when he resigned and returned to his old home in Missouri.
Duncan's Island-The Swedish family of Huling came originally from Marcus Hook, and settled the fine island now called Duncan's. In the year 1755, Mrs. Huling, with her two children, all on one horse, forded the river when it was unusually high, and made their escape from the Indians to Fort Hunter, afterward known as McAllister's Place. A Mrs. Berryhill got safe to the same place, but her husband was killed and scalped. At the angle of the canal, near the large bridge, says James F. Watson, I saw the mound covered with trees from
263 .
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
which hundreds of cart-loads of Indian bones were taken and used, with the intermixed earth, as filling material for one of the bastions of the dam. There were also among them many beads and trinkets, which were piled up as so much clay or stones to form an embankment.
Duncannon Iron Works, now one of the most extensive iron manufactories in central Pennsylva- nia, were started at Petersburg, Perry county, about 1830.
The first of these works was a small charcoal forge, erected by Duncan and Morgan, who failed after a few years, when the property was bought by Wm. L. Wister and C. W. Morgan, who built and put in operation the rolling mills, and soon after the nail factory-all of which were run by water- power until 1853, when steam-power was added to the finishing mills and continued to be used in them alone until 1860, when a flood washed out the dam. At this time steam-power was added to the other mills, and since then has been used throughout the works.
In 1853, the anthracite furnace was erected, with an average capacity of 7,000 tons of pig-iron per annum.
The old Montibello charcoal furnace was ope- rated by the same firm until 1848, when it was blown out because it would no longer pay.
Fisher, Morgan & Co. sold their interest to the . Duncannon Iron Company in 1859.
This company has been the successful operators of these works since that time. These works have
264
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
grown by improvement and addition until there are 16 puddling and 6 heating furnaces and 54 nail machines ; they use eight engines with a total power of 700 horses, employ 350 hands, and have upward of 80 tenant houses, besides a large store, offices and warerooms.
Flickinger, H. C., a graduate of Eastman College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and a very justly celebrated penman, is a native of Saville township, Perry county.
First Locomotive .- The first locomotive that ever crossed the Upper Mississippi is in this city, in the possession of Mr. D. X. Junkin. It was built in the year 1844, by the Hon. B. F. Junkin, of Perry county, Pennsylvania, while attending Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa., after seeing the first loco- motive that ever run on the middle division of the Pennsylvania Central railroad. It was brought by his father, Judge Junkin, to this county, in the year 1854, and has all the requisites for drawing cars. It can be seen at the residence of Mr. D. X. Junkin in this city .- Muscatine (Iowa) Courier.
Gantt, Hon. Daniel, a native of Perry county was for many years a citizen of Bloomfield and a practitioner at that bar. While in Perry county, Mr. Gantt was identified with the most advanced educational movements of the times, ever ready to put his shoulder to the wheel and give his push.
Mr. Gantt left Perry county previous to the year 1860, and has been a resident of several States since, and finally, we learn from an Omaha paper
265
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
of Nov. 22, 1872, has been elected to the bench of the Supreme Court of the State of Nebraska.
Greek Cross .- When the canal was making near Newport the laborers dug up a stone shaped like a Greek cross, which, when thoroughly cleansed, the transverse was seen to contain hieroglyphics plainly marked with a sharp-pointed instrument. This cross was sent to Philadelphia for the opinion of the members of the Historical Society, but never reaching its destination, is supposed to have been lost on the way.
Gibson's Rock .- About twenty rods from the old mansion house of the Gibsons was the precipitous wall of stratified conglomerate sandstone, known as Gibson's Rock. Its abrupt termination looked north toward a ravine. It towered about one hun- dred and ten feet above the waters of Sherman's creek, and seems to have once been a part of Pisgah Hills on the opposite side of the creek, but whether the spur from Dick's Hills which joined these parallel chains we could hardly safely determine. If it joined in this manner, then there were two coves of peculiar formations, such the echoes of which no human ear ever heard.
Gibson, Hon. Fohn Banister, Chief Justice Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was appointed to the Su- preme Court, May 9th, 1853, thirty-five years ago. On the death of Chief Justice Tilghman, he became his successor, and presided over its deliberations more than twenty years, with honor to himself and to the country. So distinguished were his ability, 12
266
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
learning and impartiality, that, after the adoption of the amended Constitution, in 1838, in times of the highest and bitterest party excitement, Gover- nor Ritner, forgetting his personal and party feel- ings, and looking only to the qualifications neces- sary for that high office, reappointed him Chief Justice of this Commonwealth; an act honorable to both.
Judge Gibson lived to an advanced age; his knowledge increasing with increasing years, while his great intellect remained unimpaired. (An ex- tract from the remarks of Thaddeus Stevens.)
We cannot forbear giving in full the eulogium of Chief Justice Black upon the occasion that called forth the foregoing from Hon. Thaddeus Stevens. We commend it as a gem worthy to be read and re-read by every student and admirer of literature :
" It is unnecessary to say that every surviving member of the Court is deeply grieved by the death of Chief Justice Gibson. In the course of nature it was not to be expected that he could live much longer, for he had attained the ripe age of seventy- six. But the blow, though not a sudden, was, nevertheless, a severe one.
"The intimate relations, personal and official, which we all bore to him, would have been suffici- ent to account for some emotion, even if he had been an ordinary man. But he was the Nestor of the bench, whose wisdom inspired the public mind with confidence in our decisions. By this bereave-
267
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
ment the Court has lost what no time can repair; for we shall never look upon his like again.
"We regarded him more as a father than a brother. None of us ever saw a Supreme Court until he was in it; and to some of us his character as a great judge was familiar even in childhood. The earliest knowledge of the law we had was de- rived in part from his luminous expositions of it. He was a Judge of the Common Pleas before the youngest of us was born, and was a member of this Courtlong before the oldest was admitted to the bar. He sat here with twenty-six different associates, of whom eighteen preceded him to the grave. For nearly a quarter of a century he was Chief Justice, and when he was nominally superseded by another, as the head of the court, his great learning, venera- ble character, and overshadowing reputation, still made him the only Chief whom the hearts of the people would know. During the long period of his judicial labors he discussed and decided innu- merable questions. His opinions are found in no less than seventy volumes of the regular reports from 2 Sergeant and Rawle to 7 Harris.
" At the time of his death he had been longer in office than any contemporary judge in the world; and in some points of character he had not his equal on the earth. Such vigor, clearness and pre- cision of thought were never before united with the same felicity of diction. Brougham has sketched Lord Stowell justly enough as the great- est judicial writer that England could boast of, for force and beauty of style. He selects a sentence
268
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
and calls on the reader to admire the remarkable elegance of its structure. I believe that Judge Gib- son never wrote an opinion in his life from which a passage might not be taken, stronger, as well as more graceful in its turn of expression, than this which is selected with so much care, by a most zealous friend, from all of Lord Stowell's. His written language was a transcript of his mind. It gave the world the very form and pressure of his thoughts. It was accurate, because he knew the exact boundaries of the principles he discussed. His mental vision took in the whole outline and all the details of the case, and with a bold and steady hand he painted what he saw. He made others understand him, because he understood himself.
' Cui lecta potenter erit res, Nec fecundia deseret hunc, neclucidus ordo,'
" His style was rich, but he never turned out of his way for figures of speech. He never sacrificed sense to sound, or preferred ornament to substance. If he reasoned much by comparison, it was not to make his composition brilliant, but clear. He spoke in metaphors often; not because they were sought, but because they came to his mind unbid- den. The same vein of happy illustration ran through his conversation and his private letters. I was most of all struck with it in a careless memorandum intended, when it was written, for no eye but his own. He never thought of display, and seemed totally unconscious that he had the power to make any. His words were always
269
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
precisely adapted to the subject. He said neither more nor less than just the thing he ought. He had one thought of a great poet-that of ex- pressing a thought in language which could never afterward be paraphrased. When a legal principle passed through his hands he sent it forth clothed in a dress which fitted it so exactly that nobody ever presumed to give it any other. Almost uni- versally the syllabus of his opinion is a sentence from itself; and the most heedless student, in look- ing over Wharton's Digest, can select the cases in which Gibson delivered the judgment, as readily as he would pick out gold coins from among cop- pers. For this reason it is that he was the least voluminous writer of the court; the citations from him at the bar are more numerous than from all the rest put together. Yet the men who shared with him the labors and responsibilities of this tri- bunal (of course I am not referring to any who are now here) stood among the foremost in the country for learning and ability. To be their equal was an honor which few could attain; to excel them was a most pre-eminent distinction.
" The dignity, richness and purity of his written opinions was by no means his highest title to admi- ration. The movements of his mind were as strong as they were graceful. His periods not only pleased the ear, but sunk into the mind. He never wearied the reader, but he always exhausted the subject. An opinion of his was an unbroken chain of logic from beginning to end. His argumentation was always characterized by great power, and some-
-
270
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
times it rose into irresistible energy, dashing oppo- sition to pieces with force like that of a battering- ram.
"He never missed the point even of a cause which had been badly argued. He separated the chaff from the wheat almost as soon as he got posses- sion of it. The most complicated entanglement of fact and law would be reduced to harmony under his hands. His arrangement was so lucid, that the dullest mind could follow him with the intense pleas- ure which we all feel in being able to comprehend the workings of an intellect so manifestly superior. Yet he committed errors. It is wonderful in the course of his long service he did not commit more. A few were caused by inattention ; a few by want of time ; a few by preconceived notions which led him astray. When he did throw himself into the wrong side of a cause, he usually made an argu- ment which it was much easier to overrule than answer. With reference to his erroneous opinions, lie might have used the words of Virgil, which he quoted so happily in Eakin v. Raub (12 Ser. and R.) for another purpose:
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