USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Lancaster's golden century, 1821-1921; a chronicle of men and women who planned and toiled to build a city strong and beautiful > Part 5
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accept the Democratic nomination for the presi- dency. Dr. Dubbs tells us in his history of Frank- lin and Marshall College that when Mr. Buchanan was nominated for the presidency by the Cincin- nati convention, the college boys became intensely excited. A number of them were among the first to hear the news, and they all immediately started on a run to inform Mr. Buchanan of his nomin- ation. In this race, William A. Duncan, after- wards a member of Congress, is said to have won the prize. Very soon, however, a large number of people gathered on the lawn at Wheatland, and Mr. Buchanan made an appropriate speech, a part of which was afterwards used against him in the campaign.
After his election, and before his inauguration for the presidency, Wheatland became a storm center or a shrine, if you wish to call it by that name, for the politicians and prominent men of the country. When the time came to leave Wheat- land for the Capitol, just before the inauguration, Mr. Buchanan and the members of his bachelor household drove into Lancaster in a carriage, on a bleak winter morning, escorted all the way to the railroad station by an enthusiastic crowd of citizens. At the station he was received, his bio- grapher tells us, " into a special car, built for the occasion, the windows of which were in colors that represented familiar scenes of and about Wheat- land."
His immediate escort to the Capitol consisted
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of the local military company, the Fencibles, com- mittees of councils, representatives of Franklin and Marshall College, and of the Board of Trus- tees of that institution, together with a number of personal friends and loyal citizens of Lancaster.
Upon his return from Washington in 1861, after living in the fierce light that beats upon the throne, during one of the most disheartening and tragic periods of our Nation's history, he turned once more to Wheatland in the good old town which was bound up with every fibre of his heart. For he loved Lancaster with that intensity of local affection and lofty pride which are peculiar to her citizens. A committee of citizens went to Washington to escort him back to the native soil. At the gates of his own county he was welcomed by one hundred and fifty citizens of Lancaster when his foot first fell upon the soil of the district which claimed him peculiarly as its own. The late Mr. Hensel has described the scene with these words, "As the train which carried Mr. Buchanan and his friends and the popular escort now swelled to many hundreds, neared the city there was firing of cannon, pealing of bells, and the formation of a procession to escort the party through the streets of the city. The cars were stopped at the city limits, and Mr. Buchanan was conducted into an open barouche drawn by four gray horses, and with a great civic and military display he entered the city." The band played " Home Again," the mayor welcomed Lancaster's
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most distinguished citizen in a fitting speech, to which Mr. Buchanan responded in words that ought to live in the heart and memory of gener- ations to come. This is what he said,
" Mr. Mayor, my old Neighbors, Friends and Fellow-Citizens :
I have not language to express the feelings which swell in my heart on this occasion; but I do most cordially thank you for this demonstra- tion of your personal kindness to an old man, who comes back to you ere long to go to his final rest. And here let me say that, having visited many foreign climes, my heart has ever turned to Lancaster as the spot where I would wish to live and die. When yet a young man, in far remote Russia, my heart was still with friends and neighbors in good old Lancaster. (Applause.)
"Although I have always been true to you, I have not been so true to you as you have been to me. Your fathers took me up when a young man, fostered and cherished me through many long years. All of them have passed away, and I stand before you to-day in the midst of a new generation. (A voice in the crowd-' I saw you mount your horse when you marched to Balti- more in the War of 1812.') The friendship of the fathers for myself has descended on their children. Generations of mortal men rise, and sink, and are forgotten, but the kindness of the past generation to me, now so conspicuous in the present, can never be forgotten.
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" I have come to lay my bones among you, and during the brief, intermediate period which Heaven may allot me, I shall endeavor to per- form the duties of a good citizen, and a kind friend and neighbor. My advice shall be cheer- fully extended to all who may seek it, and my sympathy and support shall never be withheld from the widow and the orphan. (Loud Ap- plause.) All political aspirations have departed. What I have done, during a somewhat protracted public life, has passed into history. If, at any time, I have done aught to offend a single citizen, I now sincerely ask his pardon, while from my heart I declare that I have no feeling but that of kindness to any individual in this county.
" I came to this city in 1809, more than half a century ago, and am, therefore, I may say, among your oldest citizens. When I parted from Presi- dent Lincoln, on introducing him to the Execu- tive Mansion, according to custom, I said to him : ' If you are as happy, my dear sir, on enter- ing this house as I am in leaving it and return- ing home, you are the happiest man in this country ! ' "
At the conclusion of the speech, the procession moved toward Wheatland under an arch span- ning the street. He ascended the portico to the music of " Home, Sweet Home," and reentered upon the scenes of that tranquility in which it was his desire to spend the rest of his days. He always regarded that day as one of the proudest of his life.
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To the end of his days he remained the vener- able sage of Wheatland. To his home hundreds made pilgrimage. For all he had words of wel- come and counsel. Those who knew him still speak of the affluence of his kindly humor, of his grace and urbanity, of his personal integrity, of the purity of his mind, the honor of his spirit, the beauty of his character, the loveliness of his charity. A friend says, " On one occasion when I was on a visit to Wheatland, I saw Mr. Buchanan go anxiously to the window and look upon the night which was cold and stormy with sleet and snow, and I heard him say, 'God help the poor to-night.' The very next day he sent quite a large sum of money to the mayor of Lancaster to buy fuel for the poor." He carried out the same idea, when in his Will he made provision for a coal fund which has proved to be a blessing to many needy families in this community for well- nigh fifty years. His deeds of charity were thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallambrosa.
Those who knew him best speak constantly of his delightful social qualities. He was always the life and soul of every dinner party to which he was invited. Says one, " When he was in a vein of conversation and felt in the humor a whole room of people would sit all evening listen- ing with delight, no one daring to interrupt ex- cept in order by some leading question or remark to draw him out to talk more freely."
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No one can study the life of James Buchanan, especially in his later years, without having a high regard for his religious sincerity. When he was a mere boy studying Coke and Blackstone here in Lancaster, his father wrote to him these words, "Endeavor, my boy, to merit the esteem of Heaven." He never forgot that sentence. Later in life he wrote to his niece, Harriet Lane, in a very interesting letter penned at Wheat- land, " If I believed it necessary, I would advise you to be constant in your devotion to your God. He is a friend who will never desert you." He was a regular attendant upon church services both at Washington and in Lancaster, connecting him- self in this city with the Presbyterian church.
John Motley says of William of Orange, that he went through life bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders with a smiling face. That not all the clouds which calumny could col- lect ever dimmed to the eyes of a grateful and affectionate people the radiance of that lofty mind to which they were accustomed in their darkest calamities to look for light. "As long as he lived," says Motley, "he was the guiding star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little children cried in the streets." So we may say that as far as this community is con- cerned James Buchanan was its guiding star and most illustrious citizen for half a century. If good citizenship consists, as a great living states- man recently said in an impressive tribute to
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Richard Watson Gilder, by no means in the hold- ing of public office, but in the wholesomeness and purity of one's life and in the quiet influence which radiates from one's life upon his neighbors and the community, in culture and acquaintance with the best, then we may well say that James Buchanan was a citizen of whom any commun- ity may be proud, a highly gifted, large-hearted, devoted citizen, a man plain and simple, yet crowned with the knightly virtues of truth, honor, purity and high-minded integrity.
The fine old colonial mansion known as " Wheatland," built on a knoll within the grounds of a small landed estate and surrounded by trees several centuries old, is still standing. Few per- sons visit Lancaster for the first time without making a pilgrimage to this historic spot, which in the hands of its present owner has lost none of its generous hospitality. In Woodward Hill on the slopes that reach down to the Conestoga, at a point from which may be seen some of the loveliest views of that lovely stream as it meanders among the flower-decked hills of Lancaster county, rest the remains of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States.
ARCHED SPRING AT GEO. ROSS' HOUSE
CHAPTER V
LANCASTER AND THE CIVIL WAR
HE Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an Act in 1780 declaring that all servitude for life or slavery of children in con- sequence of the slavery of their mothers should be abolished forever. There was considerable evasion of the law. The Quakers were active in their opposition to slavery, but some of the Scotch-Irish settlers in the Lancaster Townships continued to hold slaves. A number of fugitive slaves fled from the South into Pennsylvania. They were followed by their masters. There were many hairbreadth escapes and captures at Colum- bia where runaway slaves crossed the river.
In the newspapers of Lancaster of a hundred years ago one finds the following notices : "Thirty Dollars reward for negro man, John
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Turner, ran away." "Twelve and a half cents reward. Ran away on April 20, 1822, a servant boy named James Crawford." "Six and a fourth cents reward. Ran away from Peter Esbenshade a servant girl. Had on and took with her one new calico and one good linsey frock." "For sale, the unexpired term of six years of a young healthy black girl." While these may not all have been slaves, yet it is evident that there was a strong underground railroad system in Lancas- ter county, helping negroes to escape from slavery in the South to freedom in the North. There were a number of stations along the route where the friends of the escaped slaves passed the fugi- tives on from one point to another.
The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made this whole system not only hazardous but illegal. The first bloodshed in the United States caused by the Fugitive Slave Law occurred in Christiana, Lancaster county. Three runaway slaves came to the house of William Parker, near Christiana. They were claimed by Edward Gorsuch, a Maryland slave holder who obtained a warrant from the United States commissioners in Philadelphia for their arrest. When the marshal, Gorsuch, his son and several others came to Parker's house before daylight on Sep- tember II, 1851 and tried to take away the runaway slaves by force, they met with opposi- tion. Gorsuch approaching the house cried : " Į will have my property dead or alive," He
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was fired upon and mortally wounded. The son was likewise seriously wounded. The affair created great excitement. The state was in the midst of a political campaign, and it is thought that the incident caused the defeat of Wm. F. Johnston for governor. The negro who shot his master was smuggled through to Canada; the others were indicted and tried for treason in the United States Court at Philadelphia. Han- way was first tried and acquitted. The others were never brought to trial. It is thought now that under the excitement of the times it would not have been possible to get a jury in the State of Pennsylvania to convict the men for asserting their freedom. The " Christiana Riot " is scarcely less known or less significant than John Brown's raid and the Harper's Ferry riot. It was the oc- casion of one of the opening battles in the cease- less conflict between Law and Liberty which reached a climax in the stirring days of the Civil War.
The heaviest vote ever given for any candidate in Lancaster county up to 1860 was cast for Abra- ham Lincoln in November of that year. Out of nineteen thousand votes cast by Lancaster county for the presidency in 1860, Abraham Lincoln received over thirteen thousand. It was there- fore of more than usual interest when the citizens of Lancaster were informed on February 20, 1861, " It is now certain that Mr. Lincoln will be in Lancaster on Friday next. He will arrive about
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noon and remain but a short time, but probably long enough to make a speech to the citizens of the Old Guard."
On his way from the White House from Springfield the President-elect passed through New York, Trenton, Philadelphia, Lancaster and Harrisburg. From the Examiner and Herald of Wednesday, February 27, 1861, we take the fol- lowing account of Mr. Lincoln's stay in Lancaster. " Previous to leaving Philadelphia the com- mittee appointed on behalf of the citizens of Lancaster had an interview with Mr. Lincoln and were supplied with tickets which enabled them to travel on the special train. The committee con- sisted of Messrs. O. J. Dickey, Bartram A. Shaeffer, C. M. Howell, Robert H. Long, John F. Huber, H. W. Hager, Dr. T. Ellmaker, A. H. Hood, J. M. W. Geist, D. Fellenbaum, and E. J. Zahm. At all the stations large crowds had as- sembled to look at the President-elect. As the train neared Lancaster a national salute was fired from cannon stationed near the locomotive works. The train arrived at about noon. The crowd in attendance was immense and had it not been for the arrangements made by Captain Hambright it would have been impossible for Mr. Lincoln to have made his way to the Caldwell House (The Brunswick) ." Mr. Lincoln passed from the cars to the balcony of the Caldwell House where he was introduced to the crowd by Mr. Dickey and made the following brief and characteristic speech.
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He said: " Ladies and Gentlemen of Old Lan- caster: I appear not to make a speech. I have not time to make a speech at length, and not strength to make them on every occasion, and worse than all, I have none to make. I come be- fore you to see and be seen, and as regards the ladies I have the best of the bargain, but as to the gentlemen, I cannot say as much. There is plenty of matter to speak about in these times, but it is well known that the more a man speaks the less he is understood,-the more he says one thing his adversaries contend he meant something else. I shall soon have occasion to speak officially, and then I will endeavor to put my thoughts just as plain as I can express myself,-true to the constitution and union of all the states, and to the perpetual liberty of all the people. Until I so speak there is no need to enter upon details. In conclusion, I greet you most heartily, and bid you an affectionate farewell."
It was indeed Lincoln's farewell to Lancaster, for when he passed through here again on April 21, 1865, his body rested in a heavily draped funeral car, and the sorrowing crowds stood with uncovered heads while the train passed. But between these two events Lancaster showed its loyalty to Lincoln and his cause by a remarkable response to the call of the Union for troops in the war of the rebellion. When Sumter was fired on, and Lincoln called for 75,000 volun- teers, the enrollment in Lancaster commenced at
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once. Within less than a week the Lancaster Fencibles and the Jackson Rifles went to Harris- burg and were made a part of the First Regiment. Within a month thirty-two companies were formed in the city and county. All through the war at every call there was a ready response. The well known 79th Regiment commanded by Col. Hambright was composed wholly of volun- teers and took part in the battle of Chickamauga, and in Sherman's march. Soldiers from Lancas- ter county were found in sixty other regiments from Pennsylvania. They were found also in the militia regiments called during the Confeder- ate invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The greatest excitement prevailed in 1863 just before the battle of Gettysburg. On the 27th of June, General Early reached York with a force of Confederate soldiers and the next day a brigade was sent to hold the bridge at Columbia. Several companies from Columbia crossed to Wrights- ville, but having no artillery they were compelled to come back. Col. Frick set the bridge on fire in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the southern army. Great alarm was felt. Detachments of the southern army had reached the Susquehanna and no one could tell how soon they might enter Lancaster. Long lines of refugees passed through the city, leading horses which they sought to save from the invaders.
Then came Gettysburg and men breathed easier. But alas the news came that at Gettysburg, Lan-
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caster's great war hero Major General John Fulton Reynolds was killed. This worthy son of Lancaster was educated in the schools of his native city, graduated with honors from West Point, was breveted captain for bravery at Monterey, and advanced to the position of major for gallantry at Buena Vista in the Mexican War. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was ap- pointed Brigadier-General of volunteers and was given the command of the First Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves. General Pope said of him in his report: "Brigadier General John F. Reynolds commanding the Pennsylvania Reserves, merits the highest commendation at my hands. Prompt, active, and energetic, he commanded his division with distinguished ability and performed his duties in all situations with zeal and fidelity." He was called to Harrisburg to organize the 75,000 men called out by Governor Curtin in 1862. After joining the Army of Virginia, he fought at the battle of Fredericksburg. On the opening day of the battle of Gettysburg he was in command of the left wing of the army. He knew that General Meade wanted to fight a de- cisive battle, so he pushed forward to secure an advantageous position. This brought on pre- maturely perhaps the great battle of Gettysburg. General Reynolds' riding at the head of Wads- worth's division, at the head of the column to direct and encourage the troops proved to be a conspicuous mark for the bullets of skirmishers.
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He was shot through the neck, fell mortally wounded and died before he could be removed from the field. His biographer says, " General Reynolds was one of America's greatest soldiers ; the men he commanded loved him dearly; he shared with them the hardships, toil and danger of the camp, the march and the field. He nobly laid down his life a sacrifice on his country's altar, at the head of his brave troops that victory might crown the efforts of those who followed him to fight the great battle of the Nation." His body was carried to Lancaster and buried in the family enclosure in the Lancaster Cemetery on the 4th of July, 1863, where a handsome monu- ment was later erected to commemorate his patriotic services. Every visitor to Gettysburg knows of the handsome statue erected to the memory of General Reynolds on that immortal battle field.
Would that it were possible to pay just tribute to the many noble sons of Lancaster county who fought for the Union in the days of the Rebellion. The blood of the sons of Lancaster is found on every battlefield of the great war. The follow- ing are just a few of the regiments in which they served, the First Penna., 2nd, 5th, 10th, 15th, 23rd, 30th, 3Ist, 34th, 45th, 50th, 59th, 77th, 79th (called the Lancaster County Regiment), 92nd, 99th, 107th, 113th, 122nd, 135th, 162nd, 178th, 179th, 182nd, 195th, 197th, 203rd, 207th, 214th, 215th, Independent Battery I 3rd U. S.
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(colored), 2nd militia, 47th militia, 50th emer- gency, and a number of others.
And as to the citizens at home, they gave their moral support to the army in the field with won- derful enthusiasm. To the women of Lancaster belongs the honor of organizing the first society to help in the relief of the soldiers during the period of the Civil War. Similar societies later came into existence 'in all parts of the country, but so far as is known, none preceded the one formed here on the 22nd of April, 1861, only ten days after the attack on Fort Sumter. On this date a meeting of the women of Lancaster was held in the Court House, at which it was re- solved, " that an association of ladies be formed under the style and title of 'The Patriotic Daughters of Lancaster ' for the purpose of min- istering to the wants of our heroic volunteers from Lancaster City and County." The necessary com- mittees were appointed at once, all details ar- ranged for the successful carrying out of the plans of the association, and without delay the bene- volent work of the patriotic girls and women be- gan, which continued steadily throughout the war to provide the soldiers in the field and the sick in distant hospitals with those comforts which the government was unable to furnish.
For a time too the government used the build- ings of Franklin and Marshall College and the Halls of the Goethean and Diagnothian Literary Societies as hospitals for the wounded.
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The name and fame of Major-General S. P. Heintzelman and his services in the Union army during the Civil War also belong to the credit of Lancaster. Upon the recommendation of James Buchanan, this young Manheim boy was admitted to West Point and was graduated with honors in 1826. He served with distinction in the Mexican War. In the Civil War he took part in the Battle of Bull Run, and commanded the Third and Fourth Army corps in the Seven Days' Battle before Richmond. He held high and im- portant positions throughout the war, attaining the rank of Major-General of Volunteers and Brevet Major-General of the Regular Army.
The veterans of the Union army upon their re- turn from the Civil War, already found a project on foot among the citizens for the erection of a monument in honor of the soldiers and sailors of Lancaster county who fell in the service of their country. The Patriotic Daughters of Lancaster
took the lead in this project. It was not how- ever until 1874 that the Soldiers and Sailors Monument of Lancaster County now standing in Centre Square was dedicated. On the four pedestals of the monument are four statues repre- senting the several branches of the service-the infantry, artillery, cavalry and navy. The names of the following battle fields are carved in high relief : Gettysburg, Antietam, Malvern Hill, Vicksburg, Wilderness, Chaplin Hills, Chicka- mauga, Petersburg. The shaft is surmounted by
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a figure representing the genius of liberty, with a shield of victory, bearing the arms of the United States and grasping a drawn sword. The inscription reads : " Erected by the people of Lan- caster County to the memory of their fellow- citizens who fell in the defense of the Union in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865."
CHAPTER VI
NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN
EN and women who have risen to the rank of distinction have never been wanting in Lancaster. The Bench and Bar of Lancaster County have been conspicuous throughout the Commonwealth and the Nation for ability, eloquence and success. From here Buchanan went to the presidency and Thaddeus Stevens to the leadership in Congress. From Lancaster County, Jasper Yeates, William Augustus Atlee, Molton C. Rogers, Ellis Lewis and J. Hay Brown became Justices of the Supreme Court, the last named having just finished a long term as Chief Justice. Amos Ellmaker, Thomas E. Franklin, Benjamin Champneys and W. U. Hensel were Attorney-Generals of the Common- wealth. From here Captain Wm. Frazer was sent by President Jackson to be one of the Su- preme Court Judges for the new territory of Wis- consin, and Colonel Reah Frazer became a potent factor in the national conventions for a gener- ation. The Lancaster Bar has filled the position of Deputy Attorney-General of the State accept- ably at least thirteen times from the days of Wm. Jenkins in 1808 to the appointment of B. J. Myers, Esq., of our own time. At present Lancaster
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