History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 72

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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LATROBE PAPERS.

The Latrobe Inquirer, W. R. Boyers and J. G. W. Yeater publishers, was first issued in March, 1861.

It was a six-column, four-page paper, and contained considerable local news. It was a bad time, however, to start a newspaper,-just at the beginning of the war. It did not long continue in existence.

The Latrobe Advance was established by C. B. Fink and F. A. Benford, and its first issue appeared Aug. 6, 1873. Mr. Benford retired from the copartnership September 30th same year, since when Mr. Fink has continued the publication alone. The Advance is in- dependent in all things and neutral in nothing. It is devoted largely to the interests of Latrobe and vi- cinity, and to general and local news. It is an eight- column sheet, makes a neat appearance, and is ably edited.

The Reveille .is the name of a paper established Feb. 1, 1882, by C. T. Athearn. It is published semi- monthly, and is a four-page sheet of three columns each. It is largely devoted to the interests of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is fast winning ita way into popular favor.

IRWIN PAPERS.

The Irwin Spray was the first journal ever started in Irwin, and was founded by B. M. McWilliams, who issued its first number Aug. 20, 1875. It was a four- page sheet of twenty-four columns, devoted to the interests of the borough. Its office was on Third, south of Main Street. Its publication was continued nearly three weeks, when the office was burned, and the paper was never revived. It was a neat paper in typographical appearance and well edited. It was published every Friday, and had attained a respect- able circulation and patronage.

The Irwin Chronicle is the second newspaper ever established in the town, and was founded by W. H. Johnston, who issued its first number April 15, 1881. Its motto is, " A chiel's amang ye takin' notes, an' faith he'll prent it." It is a four-page sheet of twenty- four columns, and is independent in sentiment and tone. It is largely devoted to local news, and espec- ially to home interests. It is well edited, and re- ceives a large advertising patronage from the business men of the place. It is printed every Saturday at one dollar per year. Mr. Johnston is sole editor, pub- lisher, and proprietor.

WEST NEWTON PAPERS.

The first newspaper published in West Newton Town was The Weekly Cycle, established by O. H. Har- rison, who issued its first number June 20, 1855. Its publication was continued about a year. It was a four-page sheet of twenty-eight columns, and was de- voted to agriculture, home interests, news of the day, and general miscellany, and was independent, but not neutral. It was published every Thursday morning, and had its printing-office on Main Street, opposite A. Lowry's hotel. Its terms were $1.50 per annum in advance, or $2 at the end of the year. It had a fair share of home advertising, with considerable from the

1 See history of Mount Pleasant borough in this work.

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Pittsburgh merchants, still its support was not ade- quate to the outlay of its publisher, who discontinued it.

The West Newton Press was established Nov. 28, 1878, by E. C. Hough and W. L. Rankin. At the end of three months Mr. Hough bought out his part- ner, and from that time to the present has been its sole proprietor, publisher, and editor. At first it was ten by fourteen inches in size, but six months after its establishment Mr. Hough enlarged it to its present dimensions, twenty-six by forty. It is a four-page sheet of thirty-two columns. Its motto is, "The .Press, the people's paper, independent in all things, neutral in nothing." It is published every Thurs- day morning at its well-equipped office on First Street, near the railroad station. It is an ably-edited journal, and especially devoted to home and local news and interests. It has a large circulation, and its columns are well patronized by the best business advertisers of the town and valley. Mr. Hough, its editor, was born and raised here, and is largely iden- tified with the best interests of the community, to the moral, social, intellectual, and business tone of which his journal has greatly contributed.

SCOTTDALE PAPERS.

The Scottdale Tribune is a neat four-page paper of twenty-four columns, established Dec. 22, 1880, by its present editors and publisbers, I. M. Newcomer & Co. It is published every Thursday, is devoted to local news and interests of the town, and has a circulation of some eight hundred. It is an independent sheet, and is edited with ability.

The Miner's Record is a twenty-four-column news- paper, published on Wednesdays, with A. O. Wel- shan and J. R. Byrne as editors. It is a consolida- tion of the Brownsville Labor Advocate and the Miner's Semi- Weekly Record. Its office is in Campbell Block. It is the official organ of the miners and coke-drawers of the "Connellsville coke region," and is published exclusively in their interests. It was established June 1, 1881, as a one-page sheet of eight columns, has been five times enlarged, and is now on the point of still greater enlargement. It has twelve hundred subscribers, and is devoted to the in- terests of the "Knights of Labor." One of its editors, J. R. Byrne, is secretary for this region, under D. R. Jones, head secretary, of Pittsburgh.

ODDITIES.

In the number of the Gazette for March 25, 1825, there was a wood-cut representing a locomotive and three truck-cars laden with coal. There is a lengthy article taken from the Baltimore American, which filled three columns of the papers, which was a de- scription of the new motive-power, then but recently utilized in this method in England. But, oh! such a locomotive, and such cars! Above the wood-cut was the following: "A Section of a Rail Road, with a

view of a LOCOMOTIVE STEAM ENGINE, having in tow three transportation wagons. Upon the railroad, fifty tons may be conveyed by a ten-horse power at the rate of 12 or 14 miles per hour."

The following appeared in the editorial column, referring to the subject :

" We have prepared and placed on the first page of our paper an engraving representing a loco-motive steam engine, having in tow three transportation wagons, accompanied by an explanation from another paper. We are indebted to the United States Gasette for a copy of the plate. It would be impossible, we think, considering the kind of country through which our road passes, to bring the steam wagon into successful operation between the east and west. It requires too many stationary engines to propel the wagons over our numerous hills. It would be necessary to have half a dozen in sight of this town, for we are situated on a hill, and surrounded by them on all sides."

In the latter part of 1861 and 1862 the county papers generally issued a half-sheet. They were led to this from the scarcity of printers and of printing paper of the proper size. For the time it was also noticeable that the advertising patronage fell off. In instances where these half-sheets were issued the type was generally reduced in size, so that very neariy as much news was furnished then as before. Then it became common for the paper to be issued in half- sheets and sent twice a week. The demand for news was at the highest possible point, and as the county newspapers then printed letters from the volunteers in camp, and were particular in giving the casualties of the Westmoreland soldiers, all the papers, when the flurry of the first excitement was over, saw them- selves with larger lists of paying subscribers, and a growing trade in advertising which far exceeded anything in the past experience of newspaper men here.

OBSERVATIONS.

Near every change in the management of these papers was, in regard to the mechanical or composi- tion part, to the advantage of the public. The papers grew in size as they grew older. With such editors as Wise and Cope, Burrell and Fleeson, Stokes and. Armstrong, men of known ability and ardent poli- ticians, and with such contributors as Judges Coulter and Young, Drs. Posthlethwaite and King, Revs. James I. Brownson and J. A. Stillinger, lawyers as A. G. Marchand and A. W. Foster, littérateurs as James Johnston and William A. Stokes, the old files of these papers cannot but be interesting and instruc- tive. As a class, the professional men of the old school cultivated the art of expression beyond those of a later day. The reason is obvious : their profes -. sional duties were not so laborious, there was a method of reaching the ears and attracting the notice of the people not practiced now, and, lastly, journal-

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ism has since their day become a profession of itself. Within the time we have marked, several noted dis- cussions on political, on religious, and on scientific subjects were carried on in elegant and forcible lan- guage, in which the knowledge of the moderns was embellished and adorned by quotations and illustra- tions from the poetry and philosophy of the ancients. Besides those articles, which were valuable contribu- tions to the current literature, and which, to an ex- tent, invited scientific research, the papers of that date contained the effusion of those sentimental crea- tures, who, "sighing o'er Delphi's long-deserted shrine," prowl and howl around the outskirts of Hel- " icon and Parnassus. These enriched the lyrical de- partment of belles-lettres with acrostics spelt out on their fingers, with political songs set to the air of the "Camptown Races," with monodies after the style of Macpherson's "Ossian," and with odes on the Huckle- berry Hills after the favorite metres in Tom Moore's melodies.

A close reader who compares the original produc- tions, particularly the essays on scientific and politi- cal subjects, and the finer productions in biography, history, and poetry, will conclude that in relative merit the common newspapers of to-day will suffer by the comparison. The present generation has read nothing like the political controversy between Coul- ter and Postlethwaite, in which the measures of Quincy Adams' administration were discussed; the sci- entific and historical debates between Dr. King and Rev. Stillinger ; or the various brochures of Coulter, or the poetry of Edward Johnston.

Some of the poems which appeared in the olden papers, whose authors are unknown, are indeed gems, and deserve a better fate than they met. Violets they were that wasted their sweetness on the desert air. One poem which we recall, but cannot give, in which the verses ran as freely as in any of Shelley's, was headed, "Lines written on the presentation of Wash- ington's sword and Franklin's staff." Another one, called "My Father's House," had an ease and grace of diction not unworthy of Addison. The following little waif appeared in the Pennsylvania Argus of Feb. 26, 1846 :

" For the Pennsylvania Argus. "FRIENDSHIP. "BY B. B. M.

"Friendship, thou dost not seek splendor, Princely domes allure not thee ; Mitred heads would oft surrender Every gem to purchase thee. Kindly thou dost seek the lowly, And around the cottage fire, Zest all pure and love all holy In each beart thou dost inspiro. Lest thy presence ever cheer me, Even now I woo thy form, Surely thou wilt deign to hear me, Surely thou wilt ever charm. Insolence must bow before thee, Mighty in thy magic spell ; 01 be mine, I now implore thee, Till I bid the world farewell."

LITERATURE.

Closely affined to the newspaper history is the liter- ature which in a strict sense belongs to the county.

In 1878 there was published at Greensburg a book from the pen of Dr. Frank Cowan, in which an at- tempt was made to embody in verse the salient fea- tures and prominent characters of the history of Southwestern Pennsylvania, in a setting of similes, figures, and formulas in keeping with the mountains and rivers, the plants and animals, and the climatic peculiarities of the country. Its title, "Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story," inadequately gives an idea of its scope. Suffice it here that it involves in an ideal form a great part of the history of West- moreland County, and as such has entered into the general history of the county in a way that, in part at least, it must be incorporated in this book, and as a whole commended to the reader who has an appre- ciation for the poetic and romantic of history.

The contents of the volume are arranged under six heads,-" Prehistoric," "Under the Crown of France, 1679-1758," "Under the Crown of Great Britain, 1758-1776," " Under the Flag of the United States, 1776-1878," "Miscellaneous," and "Evolution."

In the first group is found one of the most graphic of the narrative ballads of Mr. Cowan's, a philosophic poem, entitled "The Last of the Mammoths," in which the victory of man over the greatest of his four-footed rivals, and of mind over matter, is de- picted in a very ingenious and artistic manner. The scene is laid along the route followed by Gen. Forbes and Col. Bouquet from Hannastown westward, and the termination of the conflict occurs on the ice at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, where, in 1875, two teeth and several large bones of the skeleton of a mammoth were discovered by a dredger. In the concluding stanzas the former river is made to typify man, and the latter woman, and the Ohio (which according to Mr. Cowan signi- fies the bloody, or the river of blood) the stream of life, while the mammoth is metamorphosed into the aggregate of the organic life of the past ages of the world, as follows :

" A Mammoth's tooth, off the Pittsburgh Point, In the eddying, swirling flood, Where the two waters meet and embracing greet, As one in the River of Blood-

" Like Man, the river that rolls from the North, From a head with an icy mouth;

Like Woman, the flood with the warmth of her blood That comes from a heart in the South-

" Where the two rivers meet, and like man and wife greet, In the flood from the East to the West, That flows on forever to the Gulf of the Giver, And the Sea of Eternal Rest.

" While in their bed are laid the dead, Of the first and of the last, Who have swelled the flood of the River of Blood, In the Mammoth of the Past !"

In the second group we have "The Myth of Brad- dock's Gold," a ballad in which a ghastly scene is

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presented to the imagination, impressing on the reader an idea of the retribution for greed and crime with a shudder. The foundation for the story is the fact that Braddock on the day of his disastrous defeat had twenty-five thousand pounds in specie in his military chest, and from that day to this nothing authentic has come to light with respect to the large sum of money, although there is scarcely a mile of Brad- dock's road that has not been broken with the mat- tock at midnight to discover it. In the ballad, how- ever, the possible but most improbable treasure is supposed to have been found by two brothers, the only survivors of a family, who for three generations had been engaged in the impoverishing and debasing search.

The second needs no introduction, being entitled "St. Clair," but it is worthy of note that, in admira- tion of the character of the brave old soldier, and in commemoration of his deeds, Mr. Cowan dedicated his book in the following striking summary, "To the memory of Arthur St. Clair, by whose life South- western Pennsylvania has been associated with Scot- land, England, and France, the savages of America, the filibusters of Virginia, the formation of local, State, and national governments, and the great men of America for half a century, and by whose death Southwestern Pennsylvania will be associated with the ingratitude of republics forever."

From the fifth group, or "Miscellaneous," we select the stirring song which has become a part of the popular literature of the county, and given a familiar epithet to the river far and wide.

"THE DARE-DEVIL YOUGH.

" Where the bluff Alleghenies rise rugged and rough, And fetters and bars for a continent forge, , There dashes defiant the dare-devil Yough, Through rocky ravine, deep dell, and grim gorgo. To this river I drink ; for akin to my blood Is its torrent so bold, and so buoyant and free ; Braving bowider and crag with impetuous flood, As onward resistlees it rolls to the sea !

" And here's to the man with a will like the Yough,- A will that would wield as a weapon the world, Daring all, and defying even Death with a scoff, When over the brink of decision he's hurled ! 'Tis the man that I love, the bold and the brave, Converging his might to the channel of alm ; From the mountain of life to the gulf of the grave, Rolling on like the Yough to the ocean of Fame !

" And here's to the woman aflood with the tide That bursts from the mountain-height's fountain of love, On whose billow the barks of futurity glide Until anchored in blies in Eternity's cove ! 'Tis the woman I love; and the free bounding wave That breaks in the course of my hot, throbbing blood Is the might of the love in return that she gare,- A might that's akin to the Yough's rushing flood !"

Supplemental to this book, entitled "Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story," Mr. Cowan, in 1881, published another work called " An American Story-Book," short stories from studies of life in Southwestern Pennsylvania, pathetic, tragic, humor-

ous, and grotesque. As stated in the preface, how- ever, the book was written before the publication of the volume of poems. It contains twenty-four stories, the scenes of most of which are laid in Westmore- land. In "The Old Man of Beulah" the phenomena of mid-winter on the summit of the Allegheny Moun- tains are personified, the moaning of the wind becom- ing his voice, the drifting snow his long white beard, and the shadows of the hemlocks his great gray cloak ; the widow of Llewellyn Lloyd standing in the same relation to the sights and sounds around her as Peggy in the " Tale of Tom the Tinker's Time" to the dis- treesing incidents of the Whiskey Insurrection. In "The Coal King" the mining of coal on the Monon- gahela River is wrought into a romance of the mock- eries of life. In "The Railroad" a feud of Ireland is laid in the grave of America as the result of the battle between the Fardownians and Corkonians at Hillside during the construction of the road-bed of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In "The Grist-Mill" the old mill at the falls of Jacobs Creek is recon- structed and peopled anew with the bashful, burly miller, Ebenezer Mix, and the rosy, rollicking, royal Widow Garvey, in a most provoking plight to them- selves, but quite the reverse to all others. In "The Pack-saddle Gap" the profile of the human face that appears in the outlines of the rocks on the mountain- side is invested with the stern significance of the features of Fate cut in the living rock. In "The Fiddle-faced Hog" the humors of the early settlers are depicted in a facetious trial about a monstrous hog before a trio of arbitrators of the most extraordinary proportions. In "The White Deer" the effect of su- perstition is illustrated in the fate of twin brothers, one of whom by chance kills an albino fawn while hunt- ing on the mountain. In "The Steamboat" a pecu- liarity of the river service is personified in Capt. Godfrey Gildenfenny, who gets his just deserts in falling into the clutches of a fully-developed and ac- complished old maid, Miss Arabella Guilk. In "The Devil in a Coal-Bank" a number of curious incidents and episodes are dove-tailed into a story, the moral of which is that there is a just punishment for every crime committed against the laws of man and God. In "The Oil Derrick" the ups and downs of the operator in oil are described in two laconic worthies who are alternately princes and paupers. In "The Ridger" the peculiarities of the inhabitants of the several ridges of Westmoreland and adjacent counties are set forth in a humorous manner in the dialect pe- culiar to the region of rocks and rattlesnakes in which the people referred to live, and among whom the au- thor declares himself to be the chief, by birth and habitation at least, in addition to his being their ex- pression in the art of the story-teller. In "The Erd- spiegel" the story of two lost children on one of the ridges of the Laurel Hill is graphically and very pa- thetically told. In "The Towscape" the old super- stition of the caul is made the foundation of a curious

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tale, in which the credulity and timidity of the Ridger is made the background to reveal the mysterious ter- rors of the life and death of the unknown murderer. In "The Log Cabin" the innocence and purity, the health and happiness of the humble cabin on the Ridge are put in contrast with the vice and crime, disease and death of the gilded saloons of sin in the towns and cities. In "Yony Waffle" a humorous personification is made of the idea of art evolving from accident, our hero becoming in his adventures and achievements the embodiment and expression of a thousand oddities. In "The Road Wagon" the trials of the German immigrants in the olden time are re- lated, the sad fate of Gretchen and the sympathetic Hans being touching in the extreme. In " The Printer Tramp" a worthy with whom the author in his ca- pacity as an editor doubtless became personally ac- quainted is introduced in a dual state to the reader, at the same time on earth and in heaven. In "The Coke-Oven" the dark side of the negro's character in superstition and crime is revealed to the reader in a very curious story. In "The Red Squirrels" a parable is told in illustration of the effect of greed and selfishness when time at last sets all things even. In "The Cow Doctor" the relationships between man and the ox in Southwestern Pennsylvania are sum- marized in a humorous account of the adventures of Jackson Rummell. In "The Blaze and the Block" a very curious story is told, involving the craft of the old-time surveyor in the backwoods and the use made of it in a court of justice. In "The Bully Boy with the Glass Eye" the mother-in-law of popular face- tiousness deservedly comes to a tragical end. In " Old Helgimite," one of the most highly wrought and ar- tistic of the characteristic creations of our author, the writer is revealed in a measure himself in the im- aginative and voluble Dr. Ott, who, as he is described to be, "if he was exceptional in one thing and extra- ordinary in another, it was in his ability to idealize luxuriantly and express his thoughts exuberantly," while in "The Proof-Reader," the last of the series, the shortcomings of him who should be infallible in the eyes of an author are recounted in a humor- ously malignant manner, the description of the "Proof-Reader," "in feature, form, and function," being remarkable as a specimen of the grotesque in the literature of American humorists.

Dr. Cowan has published also a collection of ballads, poems, and songs pertaining to the "Little World," which he has made in a measure his own in literature as an appendix to his "Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story," entitled "The Battle Ballads and Other Poems of Southwestern Pennsylvania." This collection includes the curious " Description of Penn- sylvania" in 1692, by Richard Frame, the rare bal- lad of Crawford's defeat, several poems on the de- feat of St. Clair, and poems by David Bruce, H. H. Brackenridge, Sally Hastings, Samuel Little, A. F. Hill, John Greiner, and William O. Butler.

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

Provincial Courts-The County Justices-Distinction of President Judge -William Crawford, First Presiding Judge-Judge John Moore-In- crease in Legal Business-Difference in Practice-First Regular At- torneys-Characteristics of the Early Practice-Judge H. H. Brack- enridge-James Rows-John Woode-Steel Semple-Henry Baldwin and William Wilkins-Legal Ability of the Early Bar-The Bench- Judge Addison-Old Judicial Forma, etc .- Judge John Young-Judge Thomas White-Judge J. M. Burrell-Judge J. C. Knox-Judge Joseph Buffington-Judge James A. Logan-Judge James A. Hunter-John Byers Alexander-Alexander William Foster-The Hanging of Evans -James Findlay-Richard Coulter-John T. Beaver .- Albert G. Mar- chand-Henry D. Foster-A. A. Stewart-H. C. Marchand-Joseph H. Kubns-James C. Clarke-John Latta -- Boll of Attorneya.

PROVINCIAL COURTS.

THE judicial system of Pennsylvania, to quote the language of a forcible and accurate writer, Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge,1 was above the colonial standard, both as regards bench and bar. The early Quaker scheme of peace-makers to act as arbitrators and prevent law- suits seems to have met with little success, and at the time of the Revolution there was an adequate and efficient organization for the administration of the common law, which prevailed in Pennsylvania as elsewhere, except when modified by statutes, imperial or provincial. All judges were appointed by the Gov- ernor. The lowest court was that of the local magis- trate or justice of the peace, competent to try cases involving less than forty shillings. The next was the county court, or Court of Quarter Sessions, composed of three justices, who sat by special commission as a Court of Common Pleas, while the highest tribunal was the Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges, with general appellate juris- diction, and combining the functions of the English Courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Ex- chequer. They held two terms, and were also em- powered to sit as a Court of Oyer and Terminer and hold a general jail delivery, a power rarely exercised. Causes involving more than fifty pounds could be carried up from the Supreme Court to the king in council. There was no Court of Chancery. Keith had succeeded in establishing one, with himself as chancellor, under the charter, but after his rule it was suppressed, and such equity jurisdiction as was re- quired was exercised by the common law courts. There was a register-general of probate and adminis- tration at Philadelphia, and recorders of deeds appointed at an early period in each county.'

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 72

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: