USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 41
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
He was a Jacksonian Democrat even as far back as 1828. He was three times elected to congress and twice defeated, being elected in 1842 and 1844 and for the last time in 1870. He was defeated in 1866 and again in 1868, when the returns showed a majority in his favor, but the seat was contested by Covode, his opponent, which contest was decided against Mr. Foster. In 1860, when he was paying no attention whatever to politics, the Democratic state convention met in Lancaster. After balloting several times without nominating any one, the name of Foster was sprung on the convention and he was nominated for governor. It was during this contest that he had his cele- brated controversy with Stephen A. Douglas, who pressed Foster, against his own views, to take sides against Breckinridge, which Foster refused to do. He was defeated for the governorship, for Pennsylvania went Republican in that year and later cast her vote for Abraham Lincoln. Andrew Curtin was elected governor.
Concerning Foster's unlooked-for nomination for governor in 1860, Mr. Bales McColley, of Ligonier, relates a remarkable incident ; all the more re- markable it is when it is remembered that our politicians were very careful in those days of small majorities to select strong candidates for governor, and that the Democratic party had been in the ascendancy for many years in Penn- sylvania. Mr. McColley, who was then prothonotary of the county, was closeted with General Foster in the back room of the prothonotary's office in the old court house, engaged in a private conversation, neither of them thinking about the governorship. Some boys passed down Main street yelling "Hurrah for Foster." Little attention was paid to this until again and again the cry "Foster for Governor" was repeated. By this time Mr. McColley's suspicions were aroused, and he asked the General what it meant. Foster replied uncon- cernedly that it was merely the foolishness of some thoughtless boys. But the cry became general, and when, much against Foster's desire, an investigation was made, they found hundreds of citizens in the street hunting for Foster, to congratulate him, for the news of his nomination for the governorship had just reached Greensburg. Everyone in his home town was delighted with the nomination, save Foster himself ; he had no ambition to be governor.
While in congress he made some very remarkable speeches. In 1846 lie was warmly congratulated by a no less distinguished man than John Quincy Adams, "The Old Man Eloquent," who made the remark that Foster was the coming man. In the tariff debates of the day, if one will search the Con- gressional Globe, he will find that Mr. Foster left a very enviable record. In one bold and convincing argument made against Holmes, of South Carolina, where the duty on railroad iron was at stake, he has left us a masterpiece both of close reasoning and logical deduction ; and he demonstrated that he himself
353
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
was thoroughly alive to the great importance of the iron industries of Penn- sylvania. The tariff of 1842, which was a very highly protective one, it will be remembered, was then under discussion.
Mr. Foster was frequently offered positions on the supreme bench of Pennsylvania, but always declined them. His only ambition, if indeed he had an ambition outside of professional life, was to become United States senator. He was supported for this office by his wing of the Democracy, but was de- feated in the end by Simon Cameron, who was, however, always one of his greatest admirers.
Mr. Foster was a man universally loved and respected. His manners were gentle and attractive and this made him a host of friends wherever he went. In personal appearance he was of medium height. In his youth he had dark hair, but this turned gray and white in his declining years. His nose was aquiline, his eyes were a light blue, his forehead high and commanding, and though comparatively a small man, he had a "high and lofty mien."
If any one at the Westmoreland bar now competent to give an opinion on the question, were asked who was the greatest lawyer in the second half of the century just passed, he would doubtless hesitate whether he should name Henry D. Foster or Edgar Cowan. Both of them for many years stood not only at the head of the Westmoreland bar, but were ranked throughout the commonwealth as the very leading lawyers in the state. As may be supposed, they were nearly always pitted against each other in the important trials of their day. Foster was undoubtedly more resourceful than Cowan in the trial of a weak case; but, on the other hand, the latter possessed some elements of strength which the former lacked. Take them all in all they were marvelously equally matched, and since their death there have been no rivals to their fame in the Westmoreland bar. Foster cross-examined very little, paying apparently no attention to the testimony unless he thought the witness mistaken or wil- fully perverting or concealing the truth. Usually he sat with his head down during a trial, until the vital point, or mayhap, a weak place of his case, which he saw with unerring certainty from the beginning, was touched by his oppo- nent. Then it was that his fiery nature was aroused, and the spectator saw him come like a warring eagle to the rescue of his endangered position.
Mr. Foster died on October 16, 1880, in the seventy-second year of his age. No man's death for many years in this part of the state called forth such unstinted expressions of sorrow. He was not only a great lawyer, but was singularly fortunate in the possession of the esteem and love of the entire community.
Senator Edgar Cowan was the most distinguished lawyer Westmoreland county ever produced. He was the only member of the bar who ever suc- ceeded in being elected to the United States senate. It is peculiar, too, that he filled during his long and eventful life, but two offices ; one was that of school director in Greensburg and the other was that of United States senator.
23
354
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
He was descended from a Scotch-Irish stock of intellectually and physically strong men. Hugh Cowan settled in Chester county in 1720. His son, Wil- liam Cowan, grandfather of Edgar Cowan, was born in 1749, and was a cap- tain in the Revolutionary war. He was a very large man in stature, vigorous in intellectual power and an acknowledged leader in his community. Both Edgar Cowan's paternal and maternal ancestors were prominent in their day and both his grandfathers were in the Revolutionary war.
Mr. Cowan was born in Sewickley township, September 19, 1815. He was brought up by his grandfather. At an early age he taught school, worked on the Youghiogheny river as a keel boatman and for a time worked at the car- penter trade. In 1838 he entered Franklin College at New Athens, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1839, being the valedictorian of his class. He returned to Westmoreland county and read law with Henry D. Foster. Shortly after his admission in February, 1842, he became associated with John F. Beaver, whose office fixtures and practice were purchased by Mr. Cowan when the former moved to Ohio.
Nature had indeed been kind to him. She gave him a magnificent form, he being six feet four inches high, with most classically chiseled features, an intellect perhaps more acute than that of any other man who ever belonged to the Westmoreland bar, and a voice that could roll and thunder like the peal of a great organ ; and in addition to this she endowed him with a ready wit which alone was sufficient to render him noted among his fellows. With all these marvelous powers one need not be surprised that he very rapidly attained a foremost rank at the bar. His practice for years was the largest in Greensburg. If one will take the pains to examine the continuance dockets between 1850 and 1860, he will see that Mr. Cowan either tried or was con- nected with two-thirds of the cases, both great and small, in all these years. During this period he did not purchase property, but books, and read them.
It may be well to state here that he was scarcely more scholarly in the law than in science, history, philosophy, poetry and the classics. He was a great reader all his life; he had a most retentive memory and could at any moment recall and give utterance to any thought which he had mastered in former years. In 1861 he was elected to the United States Senate by the legislature of Pennsylvania. It will hardly be understood at this day how a man without the influences which wealth can bring, without the power of political leadership and coming from a backwoods county, could be elected to this high position over the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia candidates. Before this he had been little known in politics except as a stump speaker. He was originally a Jackso- nian Democrat, in 1840 became a Whig, and in 1856 was strong in his advocacy of the election of John C. Fremont. He had also been a presidential elector in 1860 on the Republican ticket.
When he entered the United States senate, secession, the great question which had been bubbling and bursting forth in congress for thirty years, had
355
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
now fully exploded and was before the American people for settlement. It could not be otherwise than that a man of Mr. Cowan's attainments, strength of character and native ability would take a high rank even in so learned a body as the United States senate. Very early after his entry upon the duties of his office he laid down certain rules which were to govern him in all his actions in the senate. One of the rules was as follows :
That the war being made to suppress the rebellion and not to make a con- quest of the Confederate states, therefore as soon as the southern states sub- mitted they should resume their former functions in the Union.
With this principle in view he voted aganst the confiscation bill and opposed the policy of the Republican party as to reconstruction. And there is little doubt now that his policy of reconstruction much more nearly resembled the ideas of President Lincoln than the one adopted by the ruling party. Lincoln's talk with Stephens and Toombs at the Hampton Roads conference and his letter to Governor Vance, both prove this. Both Lincoln and Cowan undoubtedly wanted to "bury the hatchet" at once when the war was closed.
It had been usual for new senators to remain quiet for a session or two and learn something of the methods of conducting business before taking part in debate. Not so with Mr. Cowan. He dashed into debate on legal ques- tions in the very first session. As a lawyer he took high rank at once with such men as Collamer, Browning, the elder Bayard, Trumbull and Fessenden. He measured swords with the ablest lawyers of the senate, and there is no reliance to be put in human opinion if he did not hold his own in every .contest.
Governor Hendricks said of him in his second year in the senate that "he was a dashing debater ; came into any controversy when it was at its highest, and was able to maintain himself against much odds." A very good descrip- tion of Mr. Cowan is given by the poet, Nathaniel P. Willis, in the Home Journal, from which we quote :
"The drive to Hall's Hill was exceedingly beautiful, like an excursion in early Oc- tober, but made mainly interesting to me, however, by the company of the elegant senator who shared our carriage, Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania. He is the finest specimen of humanity I have ever seen for brilliancy and learning. * *
* Of his powerfully pro- portioned frame and fine chiseled face, the senator seemed as naturally unconscious as of his singular readiness and universal erudition. He comes from the western part of Penn- sylvania and passed his early life as half huntsman, half schoolmaster-and later became a lawyer. His speech on this occasion for the flags, very flowing and fine, has been reported at length in the papers. It was most stirring to watch the faces of the men as they looked on and listened to him. I realized what eloquence might do in the inspiring of pluck for the battle."
From the "Dobbs Family in America," a novel published in 1864 by Max- well & Company in London, written by Albert Rhodes, page 197, is found this description :
3,56
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
"That tall, fine looking gentleman with keen gray eyes and acquiline nose is Edgar Cowan, of Pennsylvania. It is generally conceded, even among his enem- ies, that he is the most talented man who ever came to Congress from that state. He came up from the common people. At an early age he was thrown upon his own resources and by his indomitable will and talents mounted to his present position. He is the fullest man in this chamber. Although his specialty is the law, it would be difficult to name a science that he is not more or less acquainted with. Nothing delights him more than to tackle with men of science who are able to throw the ball with him; then the riches of his well-stored mind are dis- played in profusion. Let the subject be what it may, he always touches the bot- tom. In speaking, as soon as he is fully aroused, his words roll out in well rounded sentences. His voice is full and deep, and when he chooses to employ it, has more volume than that of any other senator here. His style in one point, that of classic illustrations, is not unlike Senator Sumner's of Boston. Cowan is prac- tical and argumentative in his speeches, a wrangler by profession, and is as brave as Julius Caesar. Both Cowan and Sumner are fond of tradition and classic lore and here they meet on common ground."
George Augusta Sala wrote of him in the London Times, as "the ablest Shakespearian scholar in the United States Congress." Daniel Daugherty spoke of him in 1880 as "the most scholarly and learned man among living Pennsylvanians." All this induced Senator Trumbull to say that Cowan knew more useless things than any man he ever met.
It may be supposed that the public utterances of a man of such varied intel- lectual accomplishments would be beyond the mind of the ordinary hearer. The fact was exactly the opposite. Mr. Cowan was, above all things, essentially a trained lawyer, and as such he surpassed himself in everything else in his ability to state the principles of his case and in doing so to adapt his language and reasoning to the mind of the hearer. This power of statement he had in such a marked degree that the hearer could not misunderstand if he tried, and therein lay his greatest strength as a lawyer. As an illustration of his Anglo- Saxon language the following incident is remembered :
In the early eighties he delivered one afternoon an address to a jury occupy- ing about an hour and a half. In the evening one of the jurors, a level-headed, hard working, rugged minded man, of but little education, came to the writer and said to him: "Who was that big man who addressed us this afternoon ?" When told that it was Senator Cowan he said: "I suppose he is a very igno- rant man." Not wishing to disabuse his mind too suddenly, he was told that Mr. Cowan was regarded as rather bright, and asked him why he doubted his education. "Because," said he, "he talked all afternoon to us and did not use any big words and I supposed that, being ignorant, he did not know any to use." Mr. Cowan regarded this as one of the highest compliments which could be paid to him.
Mr. Cowan's rural nativity colored his whole life. He loved nature, the
357
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
singing birds, the trees and the wild flowers. By nature he was a philosopher. His examination of law students generally developed into a delightful talk on the causes and effects of the natural phenomena surrounding them. He invested his money in lands rather than in stocks, bonds, etc.
In his law practice his natural predilection was to favor the weak rather than the strong, and he generally appeared for the individual as against the corporation. In the senate he raised his strong arm against syndicates, rings and combinations.
One morning when quite infirm with age he was pressing before Judge Hunter the case of a poor widow, convicted of selling a few glasses of beer without a license. She had a large family and he asked the court to suspend sentence, to send her home to her children with the admonition that she sell no more liquor. The judge, with a quizzical smile, said: "Have you any cases, anything to cite to sustain your position, Senator?" "Oh, yes, your honor, I have," said Mr. Cowan. "I refer you to a Judge whose opinions are clearer than Gibson's; whose law is more enduring than that of Lycur- gus, and from whose judgment no one to this day has successfully ap- pealed: a Judge who, when He had before Him a woman charged with a serious offense, and guilty, too, like this woman, had the courage and the kindness to send her forth with the injunction 'Go thy way and sin no more.'"
On one occasion a client was paying him a fee for services rendered and, by a good deal of haggling, beat him down from one hundred to fifty dollars. In writing the receipt he wrote it without capital letters, using small letters in beginning each part of the client's name. When remonstrated with by the client he said that a man who was small enough to beat a lawyer down to such a fee for such services should always have his name written in that way, and that this was the best he could write for so small a fee.
At another time a wealthy but very economical client called to have him draw his will, devising many thousands to different relatives, etc., and asked him what he would charge. Mr. Cowan told him he would charge one hundred dollars. The client thought this very excessive and said he could get a will written by a justice of the peace for one dollar. "Very well," said Mr. Cowan, "but remember if you get a will written by a justice of the peace, and I live longer than you do, I will make a good deal more than a hundred dollars out of your estate." The record shows that a cheap, defective will was written, that Mr. Cowan sustained it in a long contest and received a fee of nearly a thousand dollars.
Not being in accord with the predominant party in Pennsylvania, he was not returned to the senate. In 1867, therefore, he returned to Greensburg and for many years again divided with General Foster the honors of leadership of the bar, appearing in nearly all the important trials and seemingly as forceful as in his former years. Early in the eighties, his eyesight failing, he retired gradually from the duties of his profession. This he did willingly, too, for he
358
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
realized that his life as a lawyer had been a success, that he had grasped its. greatest honors, and that there might yet remain for him a few years of ease which a life of unusual industry had warranted and made possible. In 1883 and 1884 his days were spent mostly in hearing his son read to him, in looking. after his estate and in a quasi social life, well becoming an elderly gentleman of his disposition and attainments. His natural strength was such that his days should have been prolonged to four-score years and more. But late in 1884 a most malignant cancer developed in his mouth. It grew rapidly and was attended with excr: ciating pain. Gradually he wasted away and on August 31, 1885, his last battle was fought, his race was run, his eyes were closed and his eloquent tongue was stilled in death.
Edward Johnston Keenan was a son of James Keenan and a younger brother of General James Keenan. He was born in Youngstown, Pennsylva- nia, April 3, 1834, and was educated at Greensburg. He read law with H. C. Marchand, Esq., and was admitted to the Westmoreland bar in 1863. Prior to this, when about sixteen years of age, he accompanied his older brother, Thomas J. Keenan, late of Pittsburgh, to Europe and spent nearly a year in England. Of his foreign experiences and observations he furnished many in- teresting and amusing sketches, for his mind was peculiarly acute in noticing and depicting the incongruous and humorous side of life.
At the age of eighteen he was editor of the Greensburg Democrat and after- wards served a term as register and recorder of his county, having previously conducted the office while his brother James was the incumbent. When the Civil war came he entered as first lieutenant of infantry in the Eleventh Penn- sylvania Reserves, from which he was transferred to the Signal Corps and afterward promoted to higher positions.
When he returned from the war he began the practice of the law and very soon stood foremost among the younger members of the profession in Greens- burg. His strong points as a lawyer were his wide information and culture, his ingenuity in escaping impending disaster and his unrivaled humor. These qualities enabled him to build up a large practice. "Admit nothing and demand proof" was his oft quoted maxim in the trial of a case.
From the first he stood high in the councils of Democracy and was several times county chairman of his party. Later he was deputy state chairman of Western Pennsylvania, embracing some twenty counties. Mr. Keenan waged many fierce political battles with Hon. John Covode, then a member of con- gress, but aside from politics, they were on intimate terms. His political articles are even to-day fresh and pungent.
In the early seventies he was editing the Greensburg Democrat in addition to practicing law. Each week he was publishing a chapter of a serial story, the scene of which was laid in England. The story had a great inany charac- ters and as the fall campaign advanced he found that but half of it had been published, and that he very greatly needed the room in his paper for political
359
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
matter. So the ingenious lawyer wrote a chapter or two of his own and sub- stituted them as part of the real story. In these he implanted the colony idea among the characters, all of whom were easily induced by his magic mind to emigrate to America. They, strange to say, all sailed from Liverpool in a single vessel, and when in mid-ocean he made them encounter a severe storm which sunk the ship and all on board were lost. Thus the story ended and the resourceful editor had abundant space in his paper for political news. He died June 1, 1877, aged forty-three years.
Andrew M. Fulton, born September 9, 1828, was admitted to the bar in 1860. He was a descendant of an old and noted line of Seceders, or United Presbyterians, being a son of Andrew and a grandson of John Fulton. Though he did not live to become an eminent lawyer, he had a few qualities which a sketch of the Westmoreland bar would be incomplete without. Prob- ably his most remarkable quality was his ready wit. He had been an intimate friend and companion of Judge Logan before the judge was elected to the bench. On one occasion during local option times, when good liquor was ex- tremely rare and difficult to procure, Mr. Fulton was supplying his friends with a choice brand which he had in his office, and among his friends was Judge Logan. After sampling the liquor and all praising it, Judge Logan inadvertently asked : "Where did you get this, Mr. Fulton?" Fulton did not reply, but when questioned a second time as to where he had gotten it, he turned his grave face towards the judge and said: "Judge, if any one asks you where I got this just tell them that you don't know." At another time he was pressing a matter before Judge Logan on the bench, which had not been properly brought forth by the testimony and which the judge held was not therefore before him for consideration. Though he told the lawyer this, Mr. Fulton still persisted in arguing his favorite point, whereupon the judge said to him very emphatically :
"Mr. Fulton, the court knows nothing-" but before he could finish the sentence the ready wit replied: "I know, your honor, that the court knows nothing, but I am about to tell it something." This joke on the judge has been long remembered and was highly appreciated by all who heard it, and by none more than by Judge Logan himself.
Neither Mr. Fulton nor Judge Logan must, however, be considered as men who were intemperate, though both, we doubt not, like many other promi- nent members of the Westmoreland bar, appreciated a taste of fine liquor. Mr. Fulton was a member of the legislature in 1870-71, and was also the repre- sentative of Westn.oreland county in the constitutional convention which met in 1873 to formulate the constitution by which Pennsylvania has since been governed. He was, moreover, one of the ablest members of that convention. Unfortunately for him he was taken sick in the spring of 1878 and died after a brief illness, on April 3.
The Marchand f. mily was indeed a very noted family in the bar of West-
360
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
moreland county. They were of Huguenot descent and were sons, and the latter a grandson, of Dr. David Marchand, who represented this district in congress in 1816 and 1818.
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.