Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 113

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 113

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Though General White has had a long life, with a long list of achievements, he is still occupied with various activities. He is en- gaged in banking, being president of the In- diana County Deposit Bank, and is the largest individual land owner in the county. Neither heat nor cold nor storm deters him in the pur- suit of his business or causes him to violate an engagement. Though advanced in years his unerring memory is as wonderful as ever, and he retains his physical and mental strength without a perceptible waning faculty. A fine horseman, he has a soldierly bearing in the saddle, and mounts and dismounts with the ease and dexterity of long practice, for he has always loved this recreation. He is working far into the evening of his days, pre- ferring this to rusting out. As he goes on his

JOHN McGEE, who during his life was a civil engineer and railroad builder, having for upward of twenty years been a resident of South America, where he did much in the way of railroad surveying and constructing, was a native of Indiana county, Pa., born in Blacklick township Dec. 20, 1839.

Patrick McGee, grandfather of John McGee, and founder of the family in the United States, was a native of Londonderry, Ireland, and came to America when the country was still a colony of Great Britain. Crossing the Atlantic in a sailing vessel, he located in Franklin county, Pa., in 1771, and there en- gaged in manufacturing wagons. During the great struggle for American independence he joined the Colonial army, and for three years served as a soldier, being at one time taken prisoner by the British, and confined ina prison in New York City. After his adopted country had earned its freedom he came to Westmoreland county, Pa., and there made his home until 1794, in which year he came to what is now Indiana county, locating in Black- lick township. He continued to make his home here during the remainder of his life, follow- ing the trade of wheelwright and wagon- maker and also engaging in farming on the property now owned by the Graff family. His death occurred there in 1818, when he had reached the age of sixty-eight years, and he was buried in Hopewell cemetery. He held to the faith of the Presbyterian Church. He was married April 17, 1796, to Esther Pilson, who was born in 1762 and died in 1830, and was also buried in the same cemetery. They had these children: James, born Feb. 14, 1797, who married Mary Loyns; Robert; and John, born May 19, 1801, who married Marga- ret Loyns.

Robert McGee, son of Patrick, and father of John McGee, was born on the farm in Blacklick township Oct. 25, 1798, and re- ceived his education in the subscription school which was opened on the homestead by his father. His boyhood was spent on the home farm, and he began studying surveying with Mr. Elliott, of Conemaugh township, a call- ing which he subsequently followed for over half a century. In 1835 Mr. McGee was ap- pointed county surveyor of Indiana county, acting in that capacity for several years. In

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

1852 he removed from Blacklick to what is now known as the McGee farm in Center town- ship, on the west side of Twolick creek, which was owned by his father-in-law, John Ross, who patented it in 1826. It had been origin- ally surveyed in 1770 for William Evans. The part upon which the residence is situ- ated was first settled by James Wilkins, who, it is said, planted an orchard of seven apple trees about 1768 or 1769, but who was later driven away by the Indians, who cut down four of the apple trees with their tomahawks. The stone house which is now occupied by Mrs. McGee was built in 1823, but the buildings on the place have been improved and added to. The property contained more than 300 acres of land, underlaid with coal, and here Mr. McGee spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring April 5, 1883. He was interred in the Homer City cemetery. In politics he was first a Whig and later a Republican, and his religious belief was that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a well-read man for his day, intellectual, and one of the best-known surveyors of that period.

On April 18, 1839, Robert McGee was mar- ried to Isabella Ross, who was born Feb. 12, 1809, daughter of John Ross, and she died in 1857, and was buried beside her husband. They had the following children: John, born Dec. 20, 1839, is mentioned below ; Martha, boru Feb. 18, 1841, married David Mullen, who for a number of years was a conductor on the Indiana branch of the Pennsylvania railroad; Robert Polk, born Aug. 19, 1842, was a railroad engineer for a long period ; Sarah Ross was born May 23, 1845: James Mr. McGee was a Republican in his polit- ical belief, a member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and a Mason in good standing. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company C, 42d Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia, In- fantry, but this company was disbanded after two months at Chancellorsville. He was a man of keen intellect, great breadth of mind and wide general information, and his reputa- tion as a civil and constructing engineer ex- tended over two continents. MeKnight, born April 3, 1847, resides at Two- lick, in Center township ; a son, born Oct. 19, 1848, died the same day; Esther Ellen, born Feb. 2, 1850, married James McGee, of McGees Mills, Clearfield Co., Pa .; Porter, born March 2. 1852, was a civil engineer and resided in Oakland, Cal., where he was killed by a rail- road train in 1906. After the death of his first wife Robert McGee was married, Dec. 1, 1859, to Mrs. Sarah (Humphrey) Ellis, who was born Aug. 12, 1829, and was the widow of Griffith Ellis. One child came to this union, at Marietta, Ohio, to Sarah C. Hodkinson, who Charles, born Jan. 23, 1861, and now living at Mckeesport, Pennsylvania.

John McGee's early boyhood days were spent in Blacklick township, where he at- tended the local schools. In 1852 he accompa- nied his parents to the Ross homestead, in the vicinity of which he attended the district schools, and supplemented this by attendance at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. There he studied civil engineering, and from his cultural pursuits, and where his death oc-

father learned the profession of surveying, in which vocation he continued all of his life. In February, 1872, he went to South America for Henry and John Meggs, to survey for a rail- road in the Andes mountains, and on complet- ing his work returned home. From Peru he went to Valparaiso, Chile, South America, where he was engaged in civil engineering for the same railroad builders. Later he became a representative of several Pittsburg manu- facturers of agricultural implements at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but one year later returned to the United States and located at Steuben- ville, Ohio, with his family. He subsequently became constructing engineer for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Pueblo, Colo., and served in a like capacity for the West Shore Railroad Company, between Utica and Al- bany, N. Y., in addition to surveying and building the little branch road ten miles from Saratoga to Mount McGregor, N. Y. Going thence to the Argentine Republic, he was en- gaged in constructing for an English syndi- cate a railroad in the province of Entre Rios, covering a distance of two hundred miles, the Hume Brothers being the contractors. Subse- quently he enlisted his services in behalf of another English syndicate, in gold and copper mining in Patagonia, and continued to be so engaged at Capillitas, in the Andes, until 1904, when the failure of his health caused him to abandon these enterprises, in which he had large interests, and to return to his home in Center township. He had waited too long, however, and died Dec. 12, 1904. He is buried in Greenwood cemetery.

On Nov. 26, 1866, Mr. McGee was married, was born at Bedford Springs, Bedford Co., Pa., daughter of Matthew and Eleanor (Dug- dale) Hodkinson. Mr. Hodkinson was a na- tive of Buxton, England, and for years was engaged in business at Pittsburg, Pa., later becoming one of the best known oil operators of Marietta, Ohio. His last years were spent on the McGee homestead in Center township, where he became engaged in agri-

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

curred. Mrs. McGee's mother was a native of fashioned schoolmaster taught reading, writ- Ireland, and died at Marietta, Ohio.

Mrs. McGee still owns and occupies the homestead in Center township, where she passes the summer seasons, spending the win- ter months largely in travel in the large cities. A lady of culture, refinement, and artistic taste and temperament, she has traveled widely throughout this country, as well as in England and South America. She has decided ideas on the subject of woman suffrage, being a firm believer in the principle that those who pay taxes should have a voice in the govern- ment. Her children have been carefully reared and educated, being fitted to take any position in life to which they may be called. They are: (1) Sarah Hodkinson was edu- cated in the public schools and high school at Saratoga, N. Y., and the Conservatory of Music at Boston, became musical instructor in the School for the Blind at Boston, and for the last three years has been instructor of music in the Cathedral School at Havana, Cuba. (2) Eleanor, also a graduate of the schools of Sara- toga, N. Y., the high school, and the Conserva- tory of Music, Boston, like her sister traveled throughout this and other countries, taught for some time at the Boston School for the Blind, and is married to William Lawrence Murphy, a well-known educator of Boston; they have three children, Eleanor, William and Francis. In addition to being a skilled vocal and instrumental musician, Mrs. Mur- phy has decided talent for painting. (3) Mat- thew Hodkinson, born at Marietta, Ohio, in 1872, received a public and high school edu- cation, and then attended the military acad- emy at Chester, Pa. He then became a stu- dent in Princeton College, and is now civil en- gineer for the Ulster & Delaware Railroad Company. He is unmarried.

ing and arithmetic with a rod in one hand and a New Testament in the other. The furnish- ings of the schoolroom were simple and some- what crude; the benches were hand made, not beautiful in appearance, nor comfortable to. sit upon; but they were substantial and an- swered the purpose. The teacher taught the beginner the A B C method and impressed the pupil with the disgrace of not being able to spell correctly. The methods of teaching were simple in the extreme, but as applied to the three branches taught were effective in producing satisfactory results. Pupils in the common schools in those days did learn to "spell and figure." This was the common school education of fifty or sixty years ago and it was the foundation upon which the subject of this sketch builded for the future. In his ninth year the family moved to the little village of Smicksburg, where the father engaged in the store and foundry business. Here the school was more accessible but the terins were short, not exceeding four months of the year at any time during this period. In 1872 Francis Elkin, the father of John P., associated with several friends, organized a company to manufacture tin plate in this country. This was the first enterprise of the kind launched on American soil. The manu- facturing plant was built at Wellsville, Ohio, to which place the Elkin family moved in 1873. Although a boy not yet fourteen years of age young Elkin sought and secured em- ployment in the mill, first as "hammer-boy," then as "heaver-up-at-the-muck-rolls," and finally as a finisher in the tin-house. He con- tinued in this employment until the end of the year 1874, at which time the mill shut down. At that time the secrets of manufac- turing tin plate were carefully guarded by the Welsh people and were unknown to Americans. The new industry was twenty- five years ahead of its time in this country, and it proved a failure resulting in total loss to those who had invested their money in the. enterprise, including the Elkin family. It became necessary to start life over again. Young Elkin then made up his mind to se- cure an education and lay the foundation for a professional career. He entered the high school at Wellsville and resumed his studies with renewed vigor. Necessity taught him how to study and to apply his mind. He made rapid progress, and practically finished the high school course at the end of the school year. In the fall of 1875 the family moved

HON. JOHN P. ELKIN, a justice of the Supreme court of Pennsylvania, was born and reared and developed in Indiana county, where he has spent most of his life. His suc- cessful career is fairly representative of the growth and development of the county and its people. Born in a log house on a farm in West Mahoning township in the early sixties, his elementary education was attended with many difficulties. The district school was lo- cated more than a mile from his home and was open for the instruction of pupils dur- ing only four months of the year, and this in the winter season. There was no public road connecting his home with the schoolhouse, and it was necessary to cross fields and travel un- back to Smicksburg, where there was a vacancy beaten paths to reach the place where the old- in the borough school. Young Elkin applied

JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

for the position and through the assistance have for their purpose the advancement of of some of the old citizens who believed in the cause of temperanee. He also served on him he was selected as teacher. He was then only fifteen and a half years old and he was required to teach the boys and girls who had heen his schoolmates and friends. It was a trying position, but he finished the term with the approval of the patrons. From 1876 until 1880 he attended school during the summer months and taught in the winter seasons. It was during this time that he attended the normal school at Indiana one term each year

the Judiciary General, Retrenchment and Re- form, and Library committees. He was ad- mitted as a member of the bar in 1885 and began the practice of law in his native county. IIe took an active interest in political affairs and frequently represented his county in State and national conventions, being a delegate to the convention of 1890 which nominated George W. Delamater for governor; and in 1891 he was permanent chairman of the con- until 1879, when he borrowed sufficient funds vention which nominated General Gregg for from a friend to enable him to remain in auditor general and Captain Morrison for school for the entire year. He was graduated in 1880, after which he again engaged in the profession of teaching. In the fall of 1881 he matriculated as a law student in the Uni- State treasurer. At all times he took an active interest in educational matters, and has been connected as pupil, student, teacher, director or trustee with the public and normal schools versity of Michigan, from which institution of the Commonwealth since the days of his he was graduated in 1884. He was honored boyhood. For several years he was president by being selected as the orator of his class, a of the school board of Indiana and for a quar- distinetion sought by many but enjoyed by ter of a century has been an active member of few. An unusual event occurred during the the board of trustees of the State normal last year of his university course. His father, who died in December, 1882, had been men- tioned as a possible candidate for the Legisla- ture, and some of his friends conceived the idea that the son might be selected to make the contest instead of the father. As a result of correspondence on this question young Elkin decided to enter the contest and make the race. He conducted his campaign by correspondence while a student at the Uni- versity at Ann Arbor, Mich. The primaries were held one week after his graduation and resulted favorably to him. The most impor- tant event in his life occurred a few weeks later. He was united in marriage, on June 17, 1884, with Adda P., daughter of John Prothero, late president of the First National Bank of Indiana, Pa. A good wife and a happy family are the richest blessings vouch- safed to man on earth. This union has been blessed with three children: Helen Prothero, born July 27, 1886; Laura Louise, born June 10, 1892; and Stanley, born July 15, 1898. The eldest daughter, Helen, is married to W. M. Armstrong, and to their union one child, Helen Elizabeth, was born Sept. 16, 1910.

school located there. He was elected presi- dent of the Farmers' Bank in 1893, which position he occupied until 1895, when he moved to Harrisburg in order to better per- form the duties of deputy attorney general, to which position he had been appointed under the Hastings administration. In 1896 he was elected by his Congressional district as dele- gate to the national convention which met at St. Louis and nominated William MeKinley of Ohio as its candidate for president. He actively participated in the memorable scenes of that convention. He was a sound money man and stood with nearly all of his delegation against the heresies of the free silver propa- ganda which then threatened the disruption of political parties. He witnessed the almost pathetic withdrawal of Senators Teller of Colorado, Du Bois of Idaho, Cannon of Utah, and other free silver advocates from the eon- vention and from the Republican party. Upon his return from the convention he was elected chairman of the Republican State committee of Pennsylvania and conducted an educational campaign for sound money throughout the State. This resulted in the largest plurality ever given presidential electors up to that time in our State. He served as chairman of the State committee for five years, during all of which time the political situation was very much disturbed. on account of the factional strife then existing. He resigned as deputy attorney general in 1897 because of political differences with the Hastings administration. In 1898 he conducted a successful campaign

Mr. Elkin served as the representative of Indiana county in the Legislature during the sessions of 1885 and 1887. In 1887, as chair- man of the committee on Constitutional Re- form, he had charge of the proposed constitu- tional amendment submitting to a vote of the people the question of prohibiting the sale of intoxieating liquors in the Commonwealth. He is temperate in his habits and believes in wholesome practical laws and policies that for William A. Stone, who was elected gover-

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

nor. In 1899 he was appointed attorney gen- county in which the question was submitted. eral, in which official position he served for a Blair, Chester, Dauphin, Lancaster, Northum- term of four years. The Legislature of 1899 berland and Tioga counties, the city of Wilkes- having failed to elect a senator to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, Governor Stone appointed Senator Quay. This raised a very interesting constitutional question as to appointment. The opponents of Senator Quay challenged the power of the governor to ap- point and denied the right of Senator Quay to take his seat in the Senate. The question was referred to the committee on Privileges and Elections, of which Senator Chandler of New Hampshire was chairman, and Senator Hoar of Massachusetts an active member. It became necessary to argue this question be- fore the committee, and Mr. Elkin was chosen to make the argument. He represented the Commonwealth and took the position that under our system of government each State was entitled to full representation in the Sen- ate, and if the Legislature failed to elect, it was the duty of the Governor to appoint. The opposition was represented by former Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, a recognized anthority on constitutional law, and Hon. Hampton L. Carson and George Wharton Pepper, leading members of the Philadelphia bar. It was a question of importance to the public, and at the time the arguments were the subject of wide comment throughout the country. The committee sustained the contentions of Mr. Elkin and reported in favor of seating Sena- tor Quay. The Senate after prolonged dis- cussion by a majority of one vote refused to accept the report of the committee, with the result that Senator Quay was not permitted to take his seat. The whole question was fin- ally settled by the Legislature in 1901, when Senator Quay was elected for the full term.

Barre, and several other large districts, in- structed their delegates for him. When the convention met at Harrisburg in June, it was found that many of the instructed delegates the power of a governor to fill vacancies by had been induced to violate their instructions and vote for the opposition. It was a memor- able convention, the scenes and incidents of which will not soon be forgotten by those who participated in it. Two thousand miners from the anthracite region with picks on their shoulders and lamps in their caps paraded the streets of the capital city carrying Elkin ban- ners and demanding his nomination. The sentiment of the people was strongly with Elkin, but a sufficient number of weak dele- gates, instructed for him, yielded to the sub- stantial and persuasive arguments of the op- position, with the result that he was defeated by a few votes. Hon. Samuel W. Penny- packer, a highly respected and able jurist of the courts of Common Pleas of Philadelphia county, who was unfamiliar with the methods employed by his friends at the convention, received the nomination and became the stand- ard-bearer of the party. Mr. Elkin accepted the situation with as much grace as possible under the circumstances, and upon the ex- piration of his term as attorney general resumed the active practice of his profession during the years 1903 and 1904. He was so engaged when in April, 1904, the convention met at Harrisburg for the purpose of nomi- nating a candidate to fill a vacancy in the Supreme court. He was not a candidate for this position, and it was generally thought that Governor Pennypacker would receive the nomination. The delegates met at Harrisburg with this understanding, but on Tuesday after- In 1902 Mr. Elkin concluded to announce his name as a candidate for governor. This led to one of the most spirited political con- tests in the history of the Republican party in Pennsylvania. Senator Quay, then leader of the dominant party, opposed his candidacy, and in the early part of that struggle asked for an interview. Mr. Elkin complied with the request and met the Senator at the "Strat- ford Hotel" in the city of Philadelphia. The Senator insisted that Mr. Elkin should retire from the contest, which he refused to do. The result was an open breach, followed by a strennous campaign in almost every county of the State. Elkin announced that he refused to be ordered out of the race and made his appeal direct to the people, who responded by in favor of a candidate for a State office in instructing delegates in his favor in every noon the Governor announced to a committee headed by the veteran David H. Lane, of Philadelphia, that he had decided to remain in the position to which the people had elected lıim and refused to allow his name to be sub- mitted to the convention. In this situation the delegates looked about for a new candidate and finally determined to tender the nomina- tion to Mr. Elkin. It was a novel situation and required quick decision. Mr. Elkin after consulting with his friends concluded to accept the nomination, which was unanimously ten- dered him on the following day by the con- vention. At the November election there were cast for him 737,978 votes in the Republican column, the largest Republican vote ever cast Pennsylvania. His Democratie opponent re-

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ceived 306,265 votes, making the plurality of Mr. Elkin 431,713, which was the largest plurality received by any candidate for State office up to that time. Mr. Elkin assumed his judicial duties the first of January, 1905, and at this writing has been on the bench for eight years, with thirteen years of his term yet to serve. He is in the enjoyment of his full physical and mental powers and is much at- tached to his judicial work. In the spring of 1912 he was favorably considered by the Presi- dent for appointment to a vacancy in the Supreme court of the United States. He has devoted all of his time and energy to the per- formance of his judicial duties and has made a useful and intelligent member of our court of last resort.

In matters of religious faith Mr. Elkin has followed in the footsteps of his fathers, who for centuries were devout members of the Church of England and in this country of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In England and Ireland many of his ancestors were clergy- men and loyal Protestants. In Indiana the parish is weak, but Mr. Elkin contributes freely of his means to support the little church whose services he attends.

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Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 113

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