Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 110

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930

USA > Pennsylvania > Indiana County > Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I > Part 110

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West Lebanon is located four miles north . of Eldersridge on one of the most beautiful hills in Indiana county. Ten years prior to 1910 the schools of West Lebanon were among the most successful in the county.

Eldersridge was named for Robert Elder, who came to that section at a very early day. The town is located on a high ridge and although it is small, yet from what has been accomplished there along the line of education the reader would think it a city. The Elders- ridge Academy, which was established and so successfully carried on for many years by Dr. Donaldson, was the means of raising the standard of intelligence in that community.

There is but one store in this place. It is conducted by the coal company that pur- chased it from J. T. MeLaughlin, who kept it for many years. He was preceded by R. Y. Elder, James Miller, and J. J. Bell, each of whom kept store at the same location. The hotel is kept by Mrs. Remaley. The Presby- terian is the only church in the town.

Eldersridge Creamery .- The creamery at Eldersridge was established in 1895. The first officers were: W. T. Caruthers, president, J. T. Hood, secretary, J. H. Henderson, treas- urer. Mr. Hood was secretary and manager from 1895 until September, 1911, when the creamery closed. H. S. Snyder was the but- termaker during the entire time. This cream- ery was the only one in the county that was successful, having but few losses during its existence. It had no trouble in securing milk until the coal town of Iselin was founded. Then the farmers began retailing their milk in the town.

Iselin is located one mile northeast of Eldersridge, at the terminus of the Iselin branch of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg railroad. There are five mines at this place, which give employment to 1,600 men. The seam worked is the Pittsburg vein, which is the best vein of coal in the county. Only in this vicinity is that vein found in Indiana county. The daily output is 6,000 tons. These mines have always run regularly. A company store is conducted in connection with the mines.

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

McIntyre, the new coal town in Young of whom had slept in a wagon on the site of township, is located on a branch of the Iselin Jacksonville when it was a wilderness. It branch of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg was named "Jacksonville" for President An- railroad, in the Neal settlement two miles northwest of Jacksonville. At this place four mines have been opened in which 700 men are employed. The Freeport seam of coal is worked here and the daily capacity is 2,200 tons. The Jefferson Supply Company con- ducts a general store here and at Altman, as well as at Ernest.

Scotland .- That part of Young township known as Scotland received its name from the native country of Andrew Cunningham, who was the first to found the settlement bearing this name. His settlement is said to have been made a few years after the close of the Revolutionary war. Later came Hugh Cunningham and Alexander Gilmore. John Gilmore and Robert Park came about 1808. Thomas Burns, Alexander Graham and Wil- liam Gemmell followed.

The first election in Young township was held at the house of Thomas M. Andrews on Friday, March 14, 1834, when the following officers were elected: Constable, Horace Fer- guson ; supervisors, William McFarland and David Elder; overseers, Nathaniel Lewis and Thomas Brown; township clerk, Thomas M. Anderson ; judges of election, Hugh Blakely and Nathaniel Lewis.

The assessor's book for 1913 shows the fol- lowing in Young township: Number and value of horses assessed, 332-$14,430; num- ber and value of cows assessed, 292-$5,740; taxables, 712; taxable real estate, $775,977; acres of cleared land. 20,183 ; acres of timber- land, 1,481 ; money at interest, $120,767; cost of assessment, $90.78.

JACKSONVILLE BOROUGH, KENT P. O.

This village is situated in Young and Blacklick townships. It was laid out in 1830, by William and Joseph MeFarland, the former

drew Jackson. The first house was erected by James Alcorn, who was a carpenter and cabinetmaker; he also kept the first tavern. The first located minister was Rev. Jonathan Fulton, United Presbyterian. The first church was the United Presbyterian, the second was the Presbyterian and the third the Methodist Episcopal. The first merchant was John Laf- ferty. The first mills in the vicinity were the William McFarland sawmill and gristmill. The first physician was William Jack.

On September 28, 1852, the court granted the prayers of the petitioners of the village of Jacksonville making it a borough and de- creed that the first election for borough offi- cers should be held at the schoolhouse of said borough on the second Tuesday of October, 1852. The court appointed William Hunter to give notice of said election and Robert Hunter was appointed judge and William Bence and William Lafferty inspectors. The election resulted as follows: Justices of the peace, John P. Lafferty and Isaac Rankin ; burgess, Samuel McCartney ; assessor, William P. Bence; town council, Anthony Atkins, Matthew H. Wilson, John Stony, Elliott Fer- guson, William Peas; constable, David M. Henderson ; school directors, Matthew H. Wilson, Thomas Mabon, John McComb ; street commissioner, James McIntire; overseers of the poor, John Altman and Colin Mc- Curdy; assistant assessors, William Lafferty and William R. Hunter ; high constable, David B. Gibson ; anditors, Samuel McCartney and Isaac Rankin.

The assessor's book for 1913 shows the fol- lowing in the borough of Jacksonville: Num- ber and value of horses assessed, 17-$1.215; number and value of cows assessed, 7-$170; taxables, 60; taxable real estate, $24,150; money at interest, $40,805.31; cost of assess- ment, $8.64.

ADDITION, PAGE 179 :

Licut. Frank M. Brown Post, No. 266, G. A. R., Rochester Mills .- This post was first organized September 24, 1891, with fourteen charter members. Conrad Piper, D. G. Piper, J. M. Gamble and William H. Stanley were leading members in getting up the post. Stanley and Gamble are yet living. The post was disbanded September 30, 1903.

On June 30, 1908, the post was reorgan- ized with the same name and number. The 176.]

surviving members are: John Doty, com- mander; William H. Stanley, adjutant; James T. Work, Samuel Lewis, D. J. Braugh- ler, J. O. Richardson, James A. MeQnown, William Bowers, D. B. Work, John W. Leas- ure, John S. Colgan, Robert McAdoo, Joseph Taylor, Joseph Baun, Charles A. Palmer.

There have been about forty members be- longing to the post during all its existence.

[For other Grand Army posts see page

. Thomas What's

BIOGRAPHICAL

HON. THOMAS WHITE. Some one writ- students with Thomas White were three other ing of this great lawyer and jurist who young men who later became famous, Da- brought fame of such splendid character to vid Paul Brown, afterward a leader of the Indiana county, his home, says: "No one Philadelphia Bar, Persifer F. Smith, a dis- tinguished officer of the United States army, and William Penn Smith, lawyer and poet. has ever been more deservedly honored for intellectual power and a pure record of pub- lic and private life than Thomas White, who was an eminent lawyer, an upright judge and a just man." With this preface we come to the facts of Thomas White's life.

He was of Irish ancestry, belonging to the Whites, Butlers and Burkes of Counties An- trim and Cork, on his father's side. The Whites of County Cork were persons all of culture, wealth and power, the grandfather of Thomas White, John White, being chief justice of the highest tribunal of Ireland. Richard White, Thomas White's father, was an officer in the service of King George III., stationed at Hastings, in the south of Eng- land.

Here, at Battle Abbey, the old Senlac of Saxon history, in the garrison which Maj. Richard White commanded, Thomas White was born on Dec. 14, 1799. In 1809 Major White, having resigned from His Majesty's service, sailed with his family for the United States. The voyage then lasted three months, after which time they arrived safely in New York. After traveling about somewhat in this new country, Major White because of some friends, the Perry-Vaughns, settled in Philadelphia. Here he established a classical school for boys which became very popular.

He also read Justinian and the Civil Law which is practiced in the Louisiana Courts. After perfecting himself for practice in this system of law, he started for New Orleans in 1821. The method of travel then being slow and generally by stage coach, he stopped, en route, at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, to visit some family friends there, by the name of Smith. Mrs. Smith having died, while he was awaiting her funeral, by a coincidence, he met a young girl, by name Catharine Brooks McConnell. She is said to have been a beau- tiful and attractive girl, and was the daugh- ter of Alexander McConnell. Esq., a then prominent owner of farms and mills in Hunt- ingdon county. The heart of the young Phil- adelphia lawyer, en route to the Crescent City, away at the mouth of the Mississippi, was stricken by the attractions of this young Jun- iata. Valley girl.

Interest, if nothing more, in the society of this girl delayed the hitherto haste of this young man's travel. Being of a social dis- position with attractive manners himself, he met warm welcome in Huntingdon society, and young friends, who had interests and ac- quaintances ont in the town of Indiana, sug- gested to the intended New Orleans lawyer that an opening out in the county of Indiana, by the death of James M. Kelly, who had been the leading lawyer there, was presented and that Mr. White, with his Philadelphia educa- tion, might find it profitable to visit there.

Thomas White'received most of his educa- tion in his father's school and from his mother, a remarkable, brilliant and beautiful woman. His father's death occurred in 1814, two years after which Thomas entered the law office of William Rawle, to prepare himself Interest in this Huntingdon maiden made the young Philadelphia lawyer entertain sug- for the practice of law. At this time William Rawle was one of the great lawyers of the gestions about profitable delay in Pennsylva- United States. Associated in his office as nia. Before this young Philadelphian had

575

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

started on his tour to Indiana, he was in- western counties were held in alternate weeks formed that some eastern capitalists had con- so as not to conflict, and, thus, the business of siderable land interests in the then new coun- ties of Cambria, Indiana and Jefferson, which were in charge of James M. Kelly, as their representative. Huntingdon friends again suggested that after the death of their repre- sentative, this young Philadelphia lawyer might take Mr. Kelly's place. This and kin -. dred suggestions caused Mr. White to visit the town of Indiana.

Indiana was then only a sparsely populated village with few lawyers since the death of Mr. Kelly. Indiana being by road but sixty- six miles west from Huntingdon, it appeared to be a short ride on horseback to where this young accomplished lawyer left that, to him, charming girl. The result was that Thomas White, instead of becoming a lawyer in the Crescent City, settled down in western Penn- sylvania, and became one of the leading law- yers there at that time.

Success attended his professional and busi- ness efforts. This young girl, whom he had so accidentally met in Huntingdon, became his wife in 1825. This marriage was the origin of the White family in western Pennsylva- nia. This family never had extended connec- tions, as none of that name in this region outside of the family were related.

In person, Thomas White was attractive and with manners more elegant than were common at that time in western Pennsylva- nia. Hence he was often, by his colleagues at the bar and others, called "Gentleman Tom."

In his profession he was a close student, and never went into the courts or tried a case without a careful brief and thorough prepa- ration. One of his old students, in speaking of the course of instruction Judge White thought was necessary for admission to the bar, said he had read the Term and all other law reports before being admitted to the Bar. It may be said, however, that with the great increase in law books of reports, such educa- tion would be impossible for admission to the Bar to-day.

the courts in the different counties of the district was generally tried by the lawyers who rode the circuit. Many varied and amus- ing incidents could be narrated among the lawyers while they rode the circuits. Thomas White was employed in most of the important civil cases that were tried in these different counties. The more important cases were ac- tions of ejectment on original titles to real estate. Actions of ejectment was a specialty with Mr. White, and it is said that Chief Jus- tice Gibson once remarked, "I consider Thomas White one of the best ejectment law- yers in Pennsylvania."

The courts were then composed, in the different counties of the State, of a President Judge and two Associates. The President Judge was required to be learned in the law or a lawyer; and the two Associates laymen, not lawyers.

When Mr. White came to the Bar in this district, John Young of Westmoreland county was President Judge. He retired in 1836. Joseph Ritner, a Whig in politics, was then the Governor of Pennsylvania. When Judge Young retired, Governor Ritner appointed Thomas White as President Judge of the Tenth Judicial District.

Appointments to the bench then were made under the Constitution of 1790 and were, in the case of President Judge, for life. Judge White's commission as President Judge, which is on record in Indiana county, was for life, "Dum Bene Sese Gesserit" ( While he should behave himself well).

The Constitutional Convention of 1838 changed the tenure of judges from a life to a ten year term.

Judge White, after he went upon the bench, soon became recognized as an able and just judge, and very popular with all the people of his district. There were but fifteen Presi- dent Judges then in the State, and none, con- fessedly, abler than he. In the course of the discussion of the judiciary article of the pres- ent constitution in the convention of 1873, His contemporaries said of him that while most considerate and agreeable to young and inexperienced lawyers, by a tactful and pru- dent suggestive way assisting them; this al-

The custom was, when young Mr. White lo- cated in Indiana to practice law, for the law- Judge Jeremiah S. Black said that Thomas White was the ablest Common Pleas Judge

yers to ride the circuit. The Judicial Dis- trict, in which Indiana county was at that before whom he had ever tried a case. time, was called the "Old Tenth." It was composed of the counties of Armstrong, Cam- on the bench, in the trial of cases, he was bria, Indiana, Somerset and Westmoreland. Somerset, however, was soon stricken off to an- other district. The courts in these different

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ways, if they had the just side of the case and lature the Governor appointed, until the next against them some experienced leader of the bar.

That old one time able leader of the Indiana county Bar, William Banks, Esq., a few days after Judge White's death meeting his son Harry said to him : "Your father's death gives me great sorrow. Starting about the same time at the bar, we were always friends. No professional conflicts ever disturbed our friendship, and Pennsylvania never had an abler or more just judge. While socially most agreeable, he had the highest ideas of preserving the public respect for and confi- dence in the dignity and justice of the judici- ary. My only criticism ever was, that every- body knowing our close intimate friendship, I sometimes thought he leaned a little against me in a trial, lest it would be thought that his friendship affected his fairness and imparti- ality on the bench."

It was rare education for a boy to sit and hear these learned lawyers and other friends of a winter evening at Judge White's home, before a big coal fire, on their social visits, talk and discuss the law, politics and the cur- rent events of the State and Nation. Then when Mrs. White would bring in the waiter of rambo and other choice apples, fruit grow-

While Judge White had always been a Whig ing, farming and kindred topics would be the in politics, yet while on the bench he did not theme. The leading members of a community nowadays are too much in a hurry for that agreeable and instructive social intercourse that so often occurred at Judge White's fire- side.

Under the provisions of the constitution of 1838 his term expired in 1847. Francis R. Shunk, a Democrat, was then Governor. The people of the district, irrespective of party, sent petitions with not less than 25,- 000 signers to the Governor for Judge White's reappointment. It so happened that while the Governor was a Democrat the Senate, which was required to confirm the appointments of the Governor, had a Whig majority of one. The Governor, because Judge White was a Whig, refused to reappoint him, but instead sent in the name of Jeremiah M. Burrell to the Senate. Mr. Burrell was a Democratic law- yer of Westmoreland county. The Senate slave on Dr. Mitchell's farm and brought him

rejected his appointment. The Governor then sent in the name of Wilson MeCandless of Al- legheny county. He was also rejected. The Governor then sent in the name of Benjamin Champney of Bucks county. He was also re- jected. The Legislature soon adjourning, the Tenth District was left without a President Judge. After the adjournment of the Legis- 37

meeting of the Legislature, Jeremiah M. Bur- rell. The Quo Warranto proceedings, re- ported in the Supreme Court Reports 7 Barr, Page 34, attest the right of Judge Burrell to preside in the courts under this appointment. Some confusion arising, the late John C. Knox of Tioga county was. in 1848, appointed as a compromise, and presided in the courts of the district until 1851.

The refusal of Governor Shunk to reap- point Judge Thomas White for political rea- sons, caused extended discussion on the man- ner of selecting the Judiciary. When, then, the Legislature of 1848 met, the proposition was introduced to amend the constitution so as to make judges elective. To amend the constitution requires the consent of two suc- cessive Legislatures, and then a submission to the people. This amendment, having passed the Legislatures of 1848 and 1849, was adopted by the people in 1850, and the first election of judges in Pennsylvania was in 1851. This change in the manner of electing our Pennsyl- vania Judiciary was, indeed, caused by the refusal of Governor Shunk to reappoint Judge Thomas White at the expiration of his term, for political reasons.

participate in political contests; but subse- quent occurrences in the political history of the country, ultimating in the great Civil war, make it pertinent to note a case in 1845 that occurred in the Indiana county courts.

Dr. Mitchell and other citizens of Indiana county were decided abolitionists. The Doctor on one of his farms had an under- ground railway station, as it was called; that is, a place for fugitive slaves. Among others, one negro, Anthony Hollingsworth, escaping from his masters, the Van Meters of Pendleton county. Virginia, was refuged on the farm of Dr. Mitchell, where the borough of Cly- mer now stands. One Van Meter, claiming to own this negro as a fugitive slave, followed him to Indiana county. As the Fugitive Slave law was then, David Ralston, then sheriff of the county, with Van Meter captured this to Indiana, en route to the return to slavery in Virginia.

The opponents of slavery employed Wm. Banks. Esq., to take out a Habeas Corpus to inquire by what right this negro was to be deprived of his liberty. This writ was made returnable before Judge White, his court then being in session. At the hearing the Judge

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

inquired by what right this man was arrested White was entitled to the credit of swing- and deprived of his freedom. It was replied ing the whole Pennsylvania delegation to the support of General Taylor, who was nomi- nated and afterwards elected. that he was owned by his masters, the Van Meters, as a slave in Virginia; whereupon, Judge White required legal evidence to be In 1860, after the election of Mr. Lincoln, the war of the Rebellion seemed to be inevit- able. With the hope of averting it, Virginia proposed to the border States the convening of a Peace Congress in Washington City. Most of the northern states accepted this proposition and selected, as their representa- tives to this congress, many of their wisest and most patriotic men. Governor Curtin appointed from Pennsylvania seven delegates, among whom was Judge Thomas White. De- liberations of this Congress are matters of history. Judge White made a remarkable speech before this Congress in the interest of peace and to avoid the calamity of civil war. produced of the existence, legally, of slavery in Virginia, and that this man was rightfully held as a slave under such laws. This was before the days of active telegraphing or tel- ephoning and legal evidence of the existence of slavery, under the constitution and laws of Virginia, could not be immediately pro- duced. Whereupon Judge White, following the ruling and language of Judge Mansfield of England in the famous Somerset case, de- cided that freedom, being the natural condi- tion of man, this man could only be deprived of it when charged with crime or by virtue of some positive municipal law, and no crime being charged, and no legal evidence of the existence of any municipal law that deprived this man of his liberty produced, discharged him.

While there was much comment at that time about this decision, yet it was in line with that famous utterance of Charles Sum- ner in the United States Senate in 1856 when he made that speech, "Freedom National, Slavery Sectional," for which he was clubbed by Mr. Brooks of South Carolina.

When Judge White left the bench he had no desire for political office but resumed the practice of law, and for that purpose formed a partnership with his nephew, Titian J. Cof- fey, who himself was a distinguished lawyer and afterwards became a member of Mr. Lin- coln's cabinet.

The old firm of White and Coffey was en- gaged in the trial of nearly every important case in the different counties of the District until its dissolution in 1860.

While Judge White, himself, did not seek public office, yet in 1848, after he had left the bench, took a great interest in public affairs and was elected from the then Congress- ional District, a delegate to the National Whig Convention, which met at Philadelphia that year, to nominate candidates for President and Vice President. He was anxious for the success of his party and realized that the vot- ers of Pennsylvania were generally support- ers of a military hero for President. Having familiarized himself with the political char- acter of General Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War and commonly called "Old Rough and Ready," actively advocated his nomination for President, even against Henry Clay and General Scott. It is said that Judge

When the war came, although advanced in years, Judge White was ceaseless in his efforts to save the union. Two of his sons became conspicuous in the war. His first born son, Richard White, raised and commanded the 55th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and Harry, his youngest son, was commissioned a Major in 1861 by Governor Curtin and raised the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteers. The story of Harry White's capture and detention for sixteen months in the different Rebel prisons. because of his prominence in Pennsylvania affairs, is a matter of history.

Judge White was greatly distressed at the long confinement of his son Harry in the Rebel prisons. He made every effort he could to have his son released. He traveled to Washington City and elsewhere, from time to time, where he could have any influence for the purpose. This distress and his continual efforts in behalf of his son, traveling often day and night, really hastened his death, for, when he died on the 22d of July, 1866, he was only sixty-six years of age and possessed of his old mental activities.

There were four children born in the White family: Richard, the eldest son, born in 1826, after an active career died, at the close of the Civil war in 1865, of rheuma- tism contracted while in service in the Virginia Swamps; Alexander, born in 1828, died in 1890; Juliet, born in 1831, an only daugh- ter, was of a rare and lovely character, whose death in 1853 in Philadelphia was a crush- ing sorrow from which her devoted father never recovered; Harry was the fourth and youngest, who followed, as a lawyer, the pro- fession of his father, and after a varied career

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

sat on the same bench his father had occupied officer's coat. One Saturday before a Decem- in the courts of Indiana county.

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Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 110

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930