History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 85

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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" Is it necessary to remind our people of this? Need they be told that to revenge itself upon him for his manlinces in rebuking them for their wrongdoing, even the Senate of the United States, with a petty malig- nity never before exhibited towards a senator, refused him a confirmation when his name was laid before it by President Johnson as minister to Austria ? Happily in their madness they stopped not with a refusal to confirm him alone, but almost every decent name presented for every high office, unless stamped with the senl of Radical subordination, met with the same fate, and that which was intended as a sting and a re- proach became, among good men, an honor and a boest. Shall we not now, when in power, repay those who, in the dark hours of our country and our party, tofled for it and us when the toilers were not many, who through good report and evil report held the even tenor of their way, with no thought for the morrow save in so far as the morrow might per- chance lift from our heads the load of incompetency and corruption which was daily plunging us downward into the very depths of destruc- tion.

"It bas been said, and said truly, that Mr. Cowan is no politician. While this may be weakness, or rather a want of strength among politicians, it is a point that should most strongly commend him to the people. They have wearied of politicians as statesmen. The country has been too long in their bands for its good, and it is time that a little wholesome statesmanship should be infused into our system. With the machinery of political organizations, and the manner and method of organizing and controlling political movements, Mr. Cowan is not famil- far, and certainly cannot be called a time-server, else he had not been numbered with the Democracy to-day. Had policy controlled him, he has shown himself a very inapt student, and has read the bistory of parties with but little profit when he learned only to abandon even a corrupt but still the strong and powerful organisation in the very full- nees of party strength, and cast his fortunes with an organisation then few in numbers, without consolidation or leaders, and loaded down with impracticables who never learned while they never forgot anything.

" What more fitting rebuke to the insolence of fanaticism than to send back to the Senate one who, like Mr. Cowan, has been the subject of their most intense dislike and most rampant hatred? And when our rep- recentatives meet together to select one to represent our Commonwealth in the Senate, it does seem to us that personal preferences should be lost right of, and that freely and with universal accord he should be chosen.

"Moob more could be written on this subject, but we have said enough to indicate our views fully and unreservedly, and we trust that our words may bear good fruits."

The following is from the National Intelligencer :

"On the outside of to-day's paper will be found a brief but most im- portant speech made in the Senate by Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Cowan is one of that large class of Republicans who honestly be- lieved that Republicanium meant reform, and that the war was simply for the restoration of the Constitution and the Union. The change which has taken place in the course of policy adopted must necessarily separate such men from their former political associations, and induce them to act with those who still seek the great and honorable objects which the administration has abandoned. The National Intelligencer's description of the speaker will invite attention to what he says: " Entering the Senate at the opening of the Thirty-seventh Congress he early won for himself the admiration and respect of his associates, without distinction of party, by the learning and dignity with which he explained and defended his views of public policy, while the independence and eloquence for which he was conspicuous in debate early drew to hit the attention of all who mark with interest the progress of our parliamentary dis- cussions.

" Mr. Cowan, we need not may, is a distinguished member of the Re-

publican party, but in his whole career as a legislator he has made it apparent that he considers his first and highest allegiance due to the country, and therefore never narrows his mind so as to give to the former the homage that should be paid only to the latter."

"' WORDS OF TRUTH AND SOBERNESS.'-Under this head the National Intelligencer republishes some excellent remarks of Senator Cowan's during the late session of Congress, which we in turn ropublish in our columns this morning. The words of the senator are indeed ' words of truth and soberness;' those of Paul before Agrippa were not more so, though doubtless many an abolition Festus will way with a loud voice that the senator is beside himself. But the senator is not med. What he says is surpassingly just. These things are known to every enlight- ened patriot; nay. they are known to the President himself, whom we fain would hope that the senator almost persuades to be a conservative.

"" Among all the members of the National Legislature who have been called to give counsel for the safety and welfare of the republic. in this day of severe trial,' says the Intelligencer in introducing Senator Cowan's remarks, 'we know of none who has brought to the discharge of bis duties a higher intelligence, a clearer mgacity, or a more patriotic fidel- ity than the Hon. Edgar Cowan, the learned senator from the State of Pennsylvania.'

"This is deserved praise. If not . born for the universe,' like Burke, the Pennsylvania senator has not, as Goldsmith said much too strongly of the glorious orator and philosopher of Beaconsfield,-

'narrowed his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.'

"Meanwhile, we commend the remarks of Senator Cowan to the at- tention of our readers. His main views on the fundamental question of the hour are thoroughly sound."

In 1842, Senator Cowan married Lucy, daughter of Col. James B. Oliver, of West Newton, Westmoreland Co. Col. Oliver died in 1878, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.

Senator and Mrs. Cowan are the parents of three children,-Elizabeth, intermarried with J. J. Hazlett, Esq., a member of the Westmoreland County bar ; Frank Cowan, a member of the same bar, and a physician, a gentleman of extensive scientific and literary attainments, a world's traveler, who has re- cently made the circuit of the globe, after thorough visitation of all the most important countries of Europe; and James, who resides with his father.

HON. HARRISON PERRY LAIRD, of Greensburg, present State senator, representing the Thirty-ninth . District, is on the remote paternal side of Scotch- Irish and English extraction. His great-grandfather, John Laird, was the son of a gentleman of County Donegal, Ireland, who owned in perpetuity a farm of ninety acres, lying within a mile of Raphoe, in that county, and which is still held in the Laird name. The mother of John Laird was an English lady. The last-mentioned gentleman, who married in Ireland a lady named Martha Russell, migrated with her to America about 1760, and settled in Adams County, Pa., in the manor of Mask, on Lower Marsh Creek, in the township of Strabane, and there reared a family, one of which was William Laird, his youngest son, and the grandfather of H. P. Laird, and who in- herited his father's farm in Adams County. William married a Miss Jane McClue, and became the father of several children, the youngest of whom was Fran- cis, who was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., and thereafter studied for the ministry, and being licensed to preach as a Presbyterian minister, re-

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moved when a young man into Westmoreland County about 1797, when he entered upon his clerical career. He was subsequently installed over the churches of Poke Run, in Westmoreland County, and Plumb Creek, in Allegheny County, and continued to preach till 1854. He was a man of marked ability, skilled in classic lore, and in the mathematics, and although a man of no ambition for public distinction or honors, he received from Washington College, Pennsylvania, the Doctorate of Divinity, its voluntary tribute to his learning and ability. He married Mary, the dangh- ter of the Hon. John Moore, the first president judge of Westmoreland County,' who was also a member of the first Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, held in 1776, and was a State senator shortly subse- quent to 1790, representing the district of which West- moreland County was a part.

Rev. and Mrs. Laird were the parents of several children, Harrison P. being their youngest son. He received his first discipline in books under a noted teacher, Jeremiah O'Donovan, a gentleman who bad been educated for the Catholic priesthood, but who never took orders. Mr. O'Donovan was a man of varied and extended learning, a versatile genius, and withal somewhat of a poet, and the author of a his- tory of Ireland. Mr. Laird remained under his tute- lage for two years, and became deeply attached to his teacher, still preserving the fondest remembrances of him. His next preceptor was the Rev. David Kirk- patrick, D.D., who kept a classical school at Loyal- hanna Mills, in Westmoreland County, which Mr. Laird attended for two years. He then entered Jeffer- son College, Washington County, Pa., from which in- stitution he graduated. After graduation from college he took charge of Madison Academy, in Clark County, Ky., for a year, and leaving it entered 'as a student Transylvania University, Ky., where he took courses of lectures for a year, after which he returned to Pennsylvania, and took a seat in the law-office of Hon. Charles Shaler, of Pittsburgh, and under his direc- tion read law for two years, and was admitted to the bar of Allegheny County, and immediately after ad- mission to practice located in Greensburg, where he still follows his profession.

Shortly after his advent to Greensburg he was elected to the State Legislature, in the year 1848, and was re-elected in 1849, and again in 1850,-three terms in succession. At that period of his legislative experience he was a member of the Judiciary Com- mittee and chairman of the Bank Committee, and drew up the banking law of 1850, some parts of which were copied or incorporated in the present National Banking Act of the United States.

In the fall of 1880 he was elected to the State Senate from the Thirty-ninth Senatorial District, consisting of Westmoreland County, for the term of four years.

Since Mr. Laird came to the bar he has devoted himself with singular assiduity to his profession and to general literature, to which, being unincumbered by a family, as he is and ever has been, he has been able to give more time than could most other members of the bar. Aside from the classical languages usually studied in our colleges, Mr. Laird is conversant with the French and German languages and with the He- brew, and following a proclivity of research into ancient tongues has of late taken up the study of Syriac.

HON. JACOB TURNEY, of Greensburg, is on his pa- ternal side of Hollandish stock ; on his maternal, of the same and of English extraction. His great grand- father, whose surname was Dorney, since changed to Turney, migrated from Holland, and settled in an early day in Eastern Pennsylvania, where Daniel Tur- ney (or Dorney), the grandfather of the Hon. Jacob, was born, and who was one of a large family of chil- dren, three or four brothers of which left their home in Eastern Pennsylvania at about the same time for Western and Southern countries. One of them set- tled in Ohio, where his descendants are now numer- ous; another in Tennessee, where he raised a large family, one of his descendants being the present Chief Justice Turney of that State. Another of the brothers went to North Carolina, and permanently located there, where the Turney name designated quite extensive families. Daniel Turney made his way to Westmoreland County, and settled near what is now Hannastown, in what was then the capital town of an extensive territory which was comprised under the name Westmoreland. He was a farmer. There were born to him six sons and two daughters, and of whom Jacob Turney, Sr., was in number the third child, born 1788. In youth he located in Greensburg, where he spent the rest of his life. He held several public offices,-those of county commis- sioner, county treasurer, etc. He was an active poli- tician, and contracted a cold (from the effects of which he ultimately died, Jan. 4, 1827) on the Allegheny Mountains, where he, with others, was storm-stayed on his return from a political State Convention at Harrisburg to which he was a delegate, in or about the year 1820. Jan. 23, 1810, he married Margaret Singer, a daughter of Simon Singer and Mary Clouser Singer, natives of Carlisle, Pa. Mrs. Singer died in Greensburg about 1819. Mrs. Margaret Singer Tur- ney was born May 11, 1792, and is still living, in the clear possession of unimpaired mental faculties, an intelligent, sprightly, and witty lady, a woman of re- markable accuracy of memory, which seems to be as unclouded now as ever.

Jacob and Margaret Turney became the parents of five sons and two daughters,-Daniel; Nancy Wil- liams, who married Robert Story, of Hempfield, West -. moreland Co., and died Feb. 5, 1881, in the sixty- seventh year of her age; Samuel Singer Turney, & printer by trade, formerly editor of the Pennsylvania

1 For the distinction of president judges see chapter in which the sub- ject of the carly judiciary is treated.

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THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

Argus, and from about 1870 to 1882, postmaster of Greensburg; Lucien B .; Lucinda, intermarried with Richard B. Kenley, of Ludwick; Robert Williams, now, and for over twenty-five years past, connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad; and Jacob, Jr.

Jacob Turney was born in Greensburg, Feb. 18, 1825, and received his literary education in the com- mon schools, and in Greensburg Academy, and re- verts with special affection to Peter R. Pearsol, a famous instructor in the common schools. During the years of his minority, Mr. Turney, while attend- ing school a portion of the year, devoted other por- tions to some business occupation, and among other · things learned the printer's trade. After learning that trade he was appointed and served as deputy sheriff, and thereafter attended the academy, leaving which be engaged as clerk in the register's and re- corder's office of the county, and while so engaged commenced reading law under the direction of Hon. A. G. Marchand, at that time a man of great emi- nence in his profession. Mr. Marchand dying before Mr. Turney had completed his studies, he continued reading under Henry C. Marchand, and was admitted to the bar at May term, 1849, and entered upon the practice of his profession, at once securing to himself, through a large acquaintanceship made while in the recorder's office, and by his personal manners, which were popular, and in no measure calculated to antag- onize others, a lucrative practice. In 1850 he was elected district attorney of Westmoreland County by a large majority over his competitor, being the first district attorney elected under the then new law. He was re-elected in 1853, and served till 1856. During his term of office the Pennsylvania Railroad was in process of construction, giving rise to an unusual amount of criminal business. Trials for murder were frequent, and Mr. Turney obtained prominence as a practitioner, especially by the long-contested trial of George Ward and Malcom Gibson, charged with the murder of Luncinda Sechrist, a case enumerated among the remarkable criminal trials of the land, and which resulted in their conviction of murder in the first degree. But on a new trial granted, the pris- oners, after a protracted trial, were, to the astonish- ment of the community, who generally condemned the jury for their verdict, acquitted, when they imme- diately left the region. The noted case of Hugh Cor- rigan, indicted for the murder of his wife, known as "Big Mary," convicted of murder in the first degree, and condemned to be hung, but who cheated justice by taking a dose of poison a few days before the ap- pointed time of execution, will be long remembered as one of the remarkable trials conducted by Mr. Turney.

In 1855-56, Mr. Turney, being an earnest Demo- crat, took a prominent part against the Know-Nothing or American party, and stumped the county in oppo- sition to that organization. In 1856 he was one of the Presidential electors who cast the vote of the State

for James Buchanan for President, and in 1857 was nominated, without solicitation on his part, for the State Senate, and was elected senator for the district composed of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties for the term of three years, served during the term, and at the close of the session of 1859 was elected president of the Senate.

During the late war Mr. Turney was known as a pronounced War-Democrat, and in 1871 he was pre- vailed upon to permit the use of his name in the hopelessly Republican district of Westmoreland and Indiana Counties as a candidate for the State Senate in opposition to Gen. Harry White, and was defeated by a reduced Republican majority.

In 1874 he became the Democratic candidate of the Twenty-first District, composed of the counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, and Greene, for Congress, and was elected representative to the Forty-fourth Congress, and in 1876 was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. During his congressional career he served upon the Committees on Elections and Privileges, Mines, Mining, and Territories, and other committees with great credit to his constituenta.

Leaving Congress, Mr. Turney returned to the practice of his profession, which he is now actively and profitably pursuing. Though eminently success- ful in his official career and gratified by the confidence reposed in him by his constituents, Mr. Turney re- gards it as a mistake in a professional man.to even temporarily abandon his practice for public life.

Feb. 2, 1854, Mr. Turney married Miss Mary Stew- art Richardson, daughter of William H. and Hen- rietta D. Richardson, of Indiana County, by whom he has had eight children, seven of whom are living,- Barton R., deceased; Catharine M., married to A. L. Kinkead, Esq., of Pittsburgh ; Mary Stewart, William R., Thomas C., Elizabeth F., Jacob M., and Hen- rietta M.

JAMES ROSS MCAFEE .- The grandparents of James R. McAfee on his paternal side migrated to America from the north of Ireland and settled in Franklin County, on the Conococheague. They were the par- ents of two children, a daughter and a son, May and John. May married Thomas McCurdy about 1800, and subsequently removed to Indiana County, Pa., there raising a family of ten children, only two of whom are now living. The son, John, the father of J. R. McAfee, removed from Franklin County to Westmoreland County about 1801, and in 1806 was married to Mary Thompson, a daughter of John Thompson, a native of County Derry, Ireland, who about 1775 settled on a farm on the Big Sewickley, in South Huntington township.

Mr. John McAfee and his wife immediately after marriage settled near Smithton, on the Youghio- gheny River, on a farm whereon they resided a few years, and thence removed to Indiana township, Alle- gheny Co., and there settled on a farm which Mr. McAfee bought from the late James Ross, Esq., of

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Pittsburgh, who was the Federal candidate for Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania in 1798, and after whom the subject of this sketch was named.

To these parents were born four sons and six dangh- ters, -Joseph, William, John, James Roms, Matilda, Catharine Eaton, Margaret, Mary, Nancy, and Jane. The last-named daughter died in infancy. The rest of the children lived to maturity.

John McAfee died on the 28th of March, 1884, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, Mrs. McAfee on the 24th of March, 1870, in the ninety-first year of her age.

James Roce McAfee was born in Indiana township, Allegheny Co., Pa., March 10, 1822. He was raised upon the farm, and received his education in the com- mon and select schools and the Greensburg Academy, but when eighteen years of age engaged in teaching school, and occupied himself more or less with teach- ing for # period of ten years. In 1850 he entered upon merchandising, and continued at that business till 1857, when he was elected superintendent of com- mon schools of Westmoreland County (May, 1857), and served from the 1st of June of that year till June 1, 1860. In 1859, during his term as superintendent, he was entered as a law student in the office of Gen. Richard Coulter, and read law with him until the lat- ter went into the army in the war of the Rebellion, when Mr. McAfee entered the office of James A. Elun- ter, Esq., now Judge Hunter, and with him completed his studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1866.

From 1862 to 1864, Mr. McAfee served as assistant United States assessor for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania. In 1864 he resigned the position of assistant assessor, and was elected to the House of Rep- resentatives of Pennsylvania from the Westmoreland and Indiana District, and was re-elected in 1865. He served as assistant clerk of the State Senate for seven years, and one year as assistant clerk of the House. In 1879 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth under the administration of Governor Hoyt, in which he is now serving.

In 1868, Mr. McAfee was one of the Republican delegates of his district to the Chicago National Con- vention which nominated Gen. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax Vice-President. In the same year he was one of the two secretaries of the Re- publican State Central Committee of Pennsylvania, Galusha A. Grow being chairman. Mr. McAfee was originally a Whig, and cast his first vote for President for Henry Clay in 1844, and has been identified with the Republican party from its birth to the present.

In July, 1870, McAfee established The Greensburg Tribune, and in January, 1872, bought out and con- solidated with his paper the Greensburg Herald, and associated with himself as proprietors and editors D. S. Atkinson and T. J. Weddell, Esqs. In 1874, Mr. Weddell retired from the paper, selling his interest to his co-proprietors, and the business of the establish- ment has since been conducted under the firm-name of McAfee & Atkinson.

Jan. 28, 1844, Mr. McAfee was united in marriage to Mies Maria E. Reed, daughter of the late Joseph and Sarah Gilchrist Reed, of New Alexandria, West- moreland Co. Mr. and Mrs. Reed subsequently ro- moved to Ashland, Obie, in which place both of them died. Mrs. McAfee died March 18, 1852. She was the mother of four children,-two sons and two daughters. One of the sons died in infancy, the other in his twentieth year. The daughters are still living.

Feb. 15, 1858, Mr. McAfee married Miss Louisa A. Craig, eldest daughter of the late Samuel and Sally A. Hlogg Craig, of Saltaburg, Indiana Co.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

The Profession in the Early Days of the Province and State, and in Westmoreland-Queckery-Dr. James Postiethwaite-John Ormeky, M.D .- Dr. Alfred T. King-Dr. David Alter-The Westmoreland Med- ical Association and Society-List of Enrolled Practitioners-Dr. Henry G. Loison-Dr. David Alter-Dr. James A. Falten-Dr. J. Q. Robinson-Dr. W. J. Kline-Dr. J. T. Kropps-Dr. J. D. MiNigra.

THE position which the medical profession bas always occupied in the history of the Province and the State is a matter of just pride to all Pennsyl- vanians. In commenting upon this subject in the time of the colony, a knowing author has collected certain facts which we shall make use of substantially as he has.1

In the colonies of the South medical men, as a class, were in themselves of little merit, and socially and politically had no importance, whence in Pena- sylvania the case was exactly reversed. Although Gabriel Thomas asserts, in mentioning the attractions of the colony, that it had neither lawyers nor doctors, and was therefore both peaceable and healthy, yet there is no doubt that two physicians of good reputa- tion came out with Penn, and that from that time on the profession was respected, and was always extend- ing its influence and its services. The country phy- sicians, except in the back districts, where the prac- tice was of the rudest sort, were apparently men of good repute, eking out a slender professional income by farming or shop-keeping, but the most eminent of the profession were gathered, of course, in Philadel- phia. The best doctors were expected to be apotheca- ries as well, and dispense medicines to their patients. They almost invariably walked in making their round of visits in the towns, and in the country rode on horseback. Midwifery was given up exclusively to the women. The profession, as a whole, was of a re- markably good quality, and it is said that in all Phil- adelphia there were not more than two or three

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 85

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

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