USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 71
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When seventeen years of age our subject started out to make his own way in the world, and, having learned the carpenter's trade, he went to the west, at two different times, finally returning to Meadville in 1864, to make his per- manent home here. Since that time he has been occupied in building and con- tracting and architecture, and has acquired an excellent reputation for the fidel- ity and promptness with which he carries out his contracts. Among the many large and fine building's which he has erected in this city are the High School. the Academy of Music and several churches. When the Erie Railroad shops were being built here, he was appointed to superintend their construction, and successfully completed the work.
The marriage of Mr. Fox and Teresa M. Coulter, a daughter of Barnard Coulter, of Venango county, and of Irish descent, was solemnized January 24, 1865. Mrs. Fox died in September, 1875. and of their five children three are still living, namely: Robert F., Charles J. and Harriet B. The present wife of our subject was formerly Miss Ella Donnelly, a daughter of Professor John R. Donnelly of this county. She was a prominent teacher for years. Mr. Fox has taken an active part in general and local politics. In 1876 he joined the Greenback party and voted for Peter Cooper for president. In 1877 he, with others, established and published the People's Advocate, a weekly paper advocating the principles of the Greenback party. In 1878 he contrib- uted largely by speech and general effort in the work, in which year the Greenback party polled three thousand five hundred votes in Crawford county, and a's long ago as 1866 he served as a member of the city council. In 1892 he was honored by being elected to the select council, and served six years in that honorable body, and contributed largely in securing the municipal ownership of the water-works.
Arthur L. Bates, a prominent member of the Crawford county bar, re- sides at Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1859. He is a son of Samuel P. Bates, LL. D., who has been prominent for many years as an educator, and who also contributed much of value to the history of the civil war by his Pennsylvania Volunteers, History of the Battles of Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, etc.
The subject of this sketch was fitted for a collegiate course under tutors, and graduated at Allegheny College in 1880, and, although the youngest of a large class; was its valedictorian. The next two years were spent as a stu- dent-at-law in the office of Hon. Joshua Douglass, where by close application and study he was prepared for admission to the bar in September, 1882, when he took the oath as attorney and counselor-at-law, and at once opened an office in the Derickson building on Chestnut street, and lias ever since been in active practice in Crawford and adjoining counties. In 1884 Mr. Bates spent part of the year abroad, and was for a time at Oxford University.
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He has always taken an active interest in politics and in all questions touching good government. the elevation of citizenship and a high standard of political morals. Since the fall of 1880, his voice has been heard in every political campaign in Crawford county in behalf of the Republican party, of which he has always been a constant adherent and advocate. He was for some years president of the Young Men's Republican Club of Meadville, and afterward led in the organization, and was the first president, of the well known Columbia Club, having a membership of some three hundred promi- nent Republicans of the county, and for many years the only permanent polit- ical club in Crawford county. He is also a member of the Americus Club of Pittsburg, of the Meadville Literary Union, and of the Round Table, treas- urer of the Crawford County Bar Association and a director in the First Na- tional Bank. He has been for many years a member of Crawford Lodge, I. O. O. F., and is a Past Master by service of Crawford Lodge, F. & A. M. He is a member of the National Society of Sons of the American Revolution, being descended from patriotic colonial ancestry.
In 1888 he was elected by the votes of the twenty-sixth Pennsylvania dis- trict an alternate delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago. In 1889 he was elected vice-president for Pennsylvania of the National Re- publican League. Mr. Bates has served four terms as city solicitor of Mead- ville, having been first elected in 1889. and re-elected in 1890, 1892 and 1894. While serving in this capacity he was associated with some of the best lawyers in the state in the trial of the celebrated case between the City of Meadville and the Meadville Water Company, having hearings before the United States circuit court at different points, and finally before the Pennsylvania supreme court at Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
Mr. Bates was the choice of Crawford county by an overwhelming vote for the Republican nomination for congress in 1898, but did not receive the district nomination. He is at present a member of the Republican state com- mittee for Crawford county.
His legal and political duties have not deterred him from indulging a natural fondness for farm and agricultural pursuits, and he has for many years owned and operated a large farm in Randolph township, known as Hills- dale, where he raises abundant crops and also fine specimens of stock.
Dennis D. Hughes, a native of Kings county, Ireland, was born in 1838, and came to the United States in 1848-49. He learned his trade, that of tin- smith, in Brooklyn, New York, and four years later he was employed as a journeyman in Rochester, same state, and at the age of twenty-five years he was foreman of a shop. In 1864 he moved from Rochester to Meadville, this state, where he remained eight years. In 1872 he came to Titusville and
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took charge of the tin-shell department of the Roberts Torpedo Company, and continued to occupy this position until 1885.
In 1886 he went into the sheet-metal business, since which time he has done not only general tin work, tin roofing, etc., but he has also made a spe- cialty of constructing and placing ceilings of steel sheeting, and for the last few years he has done a large business in this special line not only in Titus- ville but also in Oil City and other towns in the vicinity. His oldest son, E. T. Hughes, has for several years been associated with him, under the firm name of D. D. Hughes & Son. He put up the first galvanized sheet-iron cornice in Crawford county, and he also brought into the county the first block of American tin.
Mr. Hughes is the father of seven children-five sons and two daughters.
John Mathews Waid was born in Steuben township, this county, August 22, 1859, the fifth child of John and Vesta A. Waid. His father is one of the prominent citizens of the county. Our subject was brought up on a farm, while enjoying good advantages at school during boyhood. In 1881 he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. A. Logan in Woodcock borough, and continued there five years, during which time he took two courses of lectures in the medical department of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, and a course at the Western University in this state, finally receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Since 1889 he has practiced his chosen profession at Titusville.
August 22, 1888, he was united in marriage with Miss Lulu E., daughter of Cyrus Root, of Riceville, Pennsylvania, and they have one child, a son.
Junius Harris, a native of Erie county, Pennsylvania, and now a resident of Crawford county, engaged in the building business in Mississippi and Ten- nessee until the breaking out of the civil war, when he came north, locating in Titusville. Here he at first was employed as a journeyman carpenter, from 1861 to 1863. when he began contracting, and continued in this line for sev- eral years ; afterward he built tenement houses for a while, and then erected a planing-mill, which he ran in connection with building and contracting. In 1875 he established a machine-shop, which he operated in the reconstruc- tion of second-hand engines and boilers; and he continued at this until about 1890, when he rented his works. Mr. Harris is probably the owner of more buildings in the city than any other man. He built and is still the owner of the Arcade block, which extends from Diamond street to East Central avenue. He is one of the citizens who subscribed $10,000 to the industrial fund.
In 1863 he was married to Miss Adelaide Brownell, of Kansas, and they have had seven children.
At different times Mr. Harris has served in the city council. It is not ex-
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travagant eulogy to say that Junius Harris has earned the substantial reputa- tion which he enjoys as one of Titusville's most worthy citizens.
Jesse Moore .- The debt of gratitude which our country owes to her brave sons who fought heroically on many a dreadful field of battle, who suffered the untold hardships and privations of a soldier's life, who bore sickness. wounds and neglect in camp and hospital, is one which cannot be repaid, and we turn with feelings of pride, sorrow and joy mingled, to the record of Jesse Moore, an honored veteran of the Civil war, and for years one of the repre- sentative citizens and business men of Cochranton, Crawford county.
In tracing the history of his ancestors we find that for four genera- tions his family controlled and managed the beautiful estate of Bartley's Green, in Ireland, the owners thereof being of the English nobility. In 1738 Samuel Moore, with his five children, came to America, and settling in the vicinity of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he dwelt there until his death. In 1763 three of his sons, John, Samuel and George, took up land in Bedford Springs, Bed- ford county, Pennsylvania. This was one of the English outposts at that time, and the following year George Moore was taken captive by Indians, and carried beyond the Mississippi river. It was not until nine years had elapsed that he managed to effect his escape, and shortly after his return home he died from the results of the ill treatment and privations he had endured. Samuel and John married and reared families, and Hugh, a son of the last mentioned, was the grandfather of our subject. He located on a farm near the present village of Carlton, Mercer county, four miles from Cochranton, in 1808, and there reared his eiglit children, of whom John, born in 1809, was the eldest, and the father of Jesse Moore. When John Moore had reached his majority he settled upon a farm of his own in French Creek township, three miles from the parental home. Unto himself and wife, who had formerly been Miss Elizabeth Mumford, of Crawford county, five sons and three daughters were born, who lived to mature years.
The birth of Jesse Moore, the eldest son, occurred September 28, 1838, and until the outbreak of the Civil war his life was that of the farmer. In September, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company E, One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was sent to camp at Erie, Pennsylvania, to drill and prepare for the coming campaign. He was made a sergeant and in February, 1862, he and his command were stationed on post duty in Baltimore, Maryland, under General Dix, serving there until the end of May, when they were sent to the front. It so happened that the first active engagement in which the young sergeant took part was fought at Charlestown, Virginia, on the very spot where John Brown had been hung. Their next important battle was that of Cedar Mountain, Virginia, where Mr. Moore was wounded in the head and was left on the field for dead. The bullet, how-
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ever, had not penetrated the skull, and after a period of unconsciousness he recovered sufficiently to join his comrades and bravely continued to fight with them while there was need. His company was next ordered back to Washing- ton, and on the 17th of September were participants in the battle of Antietam, Maryland. The following winter was passed in camp near Fairfax. Virginia. and the next important battle was the three days' fight at Chancellorsville, May, I, 2, and 3. 1863, in which Mr. Moore acted in the capacity of second lieuten- ant, he having been commissioned as such in March, 1863. Then he was actively engaged in the series of encounters with the enemy which terminated in the celebrated battle of Gettysburg. Pennsylvania, and on the 29th of July, 1863. he was commissioned first lieutenant. In September following his com- mand was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland. to succor General Rose- crans, who was besieged at Chattanooga, Tennessee; October 29, at the battle of Wouhatchie, the brother of the lieutenant was killed. In the noted battle of Lookout Mountain our subject and his comrades did distinguished service, under the leadership of the famous "Fighting Joe" Hooker. To-day the traveler may see a tablet which was erected near the entrance to the hotel on the point of Lookout Mountain, in memory of the heroism of the gallant One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania in this "battle above the clouds."
In December. 1863, Lieutenant Moore's term of service expired, but he promptly re-enlisted as a veteran and was under the command of General Slocum in the Atlanta campaign of 1864. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 20, a minie ball shattered his left arm at the elbow, and five times has am- putation been deemed necessary, the last operation being performed in 1875. After spending some time in the Chattanooga hospital he returned home for a brief period and in December, 1864. he reported for duty, and served in the military court at Nashville, Tennessee, until he was placed in charge of six companies of veteran reserve troops.
The war having been closed, Lieutenant Moore found himself face to face with another conflict. none the less serious- the battle of life, which he must fight literally single-handed. During the winter of 1865 he pursued a com- mercial course at the Edinboro State Normal, and on the Ist of April, 1866, he embarked in business in Cochranton, as a boot and shoe merchant. In May, 1868, he was appointed postmaster of this place and continued to act as such until October, 1878, when he resigned his office and also sold his store. In the meantime he had met with deserved success in his mercantile ventures, one of which was dealing in coal, which commodity he was the first to handle here to any extent. In June, 1877, the Cochranton Savings Bank was organized with a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, and Mr. Moore was made its cashier. Later, the capital stock of the bank was increased to fifty thousand dollars, and under the national banking laws the institution was reorganized, becoming the First National Bank of Cochranton, Mr. Moore retaining his
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position as cashier. In innumerable ways he has set an example as a man of public spirit, enterprise and progress ; was the first to have a stone sidewalk here, erected the first gothic slate-roofed dwelling, and was the first citizen here to put plate-glass windows in his storeroom front.
On the 14th of November, 1864, Mr. Moore married Martha J. Stevens, of Mercer county, Pennsylvania. She died March 26, 1883, and the only son, Frank, followed his mother to the silent land four years later. Edith, the only daughter, lives at home. In December, 1885, Mr. Moore married Miss Belle Powell.
For more than twenty years Mr. Moore served as one of the assessors of Cochranton and has acted in the office of burgess of the borough. For almost a quarter of a century he was a member of the school board, and for a score of years was a trustee of the United Presbyterian church. Had he chosen to seek political office, he might have had about any one which is within the gift of the people of this community. He is deservedly popular, his friends being legion throughout this section of the state. With undaunted spirit he has fought the battle of life as bravely as those which he fought for his country, and though severely handicapped he has won victory and the admira- tion and high esteem of all.
Augustus McGill .- The old records in the surveyor-general's office at Harrisburg show that February 25, 1793, Patrick McGill began an improve- ment on the east side of French creek, and June 28, 1794, a tract of land con- taining four hundred and thirty-nine acres, one hundred and fifty-seven perches, with six per cent. added, was resurveyed for him in pursuance of said improvements. Actual settlement proven from September 1, 1790. and re- survey made December 20. 1800; warrant granted June 6, 1801, and patent issued for said lands in pursuance of provisions of the "settlement act." July 22, 1802.
Patrick McGill was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and came to America before the Revolutionary war. After the war, he located in North- timberland county, Pennsylvania, and married Anna Maria Baird, and they reared three sons and two daughters. John McGill, the eldest son, was born in Northumberland county, October 19, 1795; William P., Nancy (McGill) Burchfield, Charles D. and Maria (McGill) McCloskey were born at the home on French creek, were married there, begat sons and daughters and have passed away. Patrick McGill died in 1832, a Presbyterian in faith and a Democrat in politics.
John McGill married Isabella Ryan June 12, 1822. She was a daughter of John and Catharine (Himrod) Ryan of Woodcock township. She was born October 28, 1800, and died March 25, 1876. They reared to maturity two sons and five daughters. Of these only three survive, to-wit : Augustus,
44
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born September 1, 1828; Eliza R. (McGill) Fleming, born September 26, 1830, now a resident of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, and William R. McGill, born February 1, 1833, a resident of Summerhill township. All other mem- bers of the family died without issue. John McGill died October 27, 1878, aged eighty-three years. He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episco- pal church and a Democrat in politics.
Augustus McGill, the subject of this sketch, is a resident of Saegers- town. He was educated at the district schools and at the Saegerstown Acad- emy. and for a time taught school. March 21, 1855, he married Sarah Peif- fer, of Venango, Pennsylvania. She was born August 13, 1828, and is still living. Her ancestry was of German origin and came to America before the Revolution, and also migrated here from Northumberland county about 1801.
Before the war of the Rebellion Mr. McGill was postmaster in his native town and also county auditor. August 19, 1861, he enlisted in Company F. Eighty-third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, was appointed a sergeant and subsequently promoted to first sergeant and second lieutenant, and on tender of his resignation February 1, 1863, was honorably discharged on sur- geon's certificate of disability. His experience this term of service consisted, in part, of active participation in the following battles, to-wit: Yorktown (siege), Hanover Court-House, Gaines' Mills, Savage Station, Whiteoak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, and Fredericksburg, where he was wounded. December 13, 1862.
After returning home he was appointed United States enrolling officer for his district. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in June, 1863, called for men to repel the enemy ; a company was recruited from Saegerstown and surrounding country and marched to Pittsburg with McGill for captain and E. S. Skeel, of Hayfield, first lieutenant. It became Company D, Fifty-sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia, Colonel Samuel B. Dick commanding; marched into West Virginia and rendered efficient service along the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road until recalled the following August.
December 26, 1863, Captain McGill re-enlisted and returned to the Army of the Potomac. He was detailed to duty at the A. G. O. headquarters, Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, where he served until honorably discharged, June 29, 1865.
During his last service he was present under fire, promptly discharging stich duties as were assigned him, in the following engagements, to-wit: Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania Court-House, North Anna, Hanover- town, Bethesda Church, Petersburg (siege), Weldon Railroad, Poplar Spring Church, Hatcher's Run, Gravelly Run. Boydton Road, White Oak Road, Five Forks and Appomattox Court-House.
All the above facts are matters of record in the War Department. Com- ment is not required and heroics are out of place.
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Inflammatory rheumatism and other thumps encountered in the service prostrated him at the close of the war and he has been a cripple since 1865. He has held positions under the state and national governments-is a vigorous writer-was editor of the Weekly Press, the first paper published in Saegers- town-has been justice of the peace, notary public and borough secretary, but all these becoming irksome, he has declined further public service and has practically retired.
He has one son ( William R., Jr.), one daughter and six grandchildren living, to become the victims of some future historian.
Captain McGill is a Republican; he believes in Mckinley and has faith in the unlimited expansion of the area of human liberty.
Homer James Humes, ex-state senator, was born in Woodcock township, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, September 29, 1844. His father was killed by lightning in his own house July 26, 1848, leaving to survive him a widow, Eliza, and four children,-Edwin, Homer, Ella and an infant daughter who died in 1851. Edwin and Ella died in 1865, and his mother is also deceased, thus leaving Homer the only surviving member of the family.
After his father's death, the mother took the family to the home of her father-in-law, James M. Humes, where they lived until the children were able to take care of themselves. At the age of nine Homer went to his uncle, George Doctor, in Cambridge township, and lived with him till the spring of 1861. He acquired what may be called a good common-school education, and attended school at the Waterford Academy in the spring term of 1862. He taught a country school during the winter of 1863-64, and in April, 1865, he entered the Edinboro State Normal School, and continued there for four full terms. In the fall of 1866 he entered Allegheny College, at Meadville, Penn- sylvania, at which he graduated in June, 1869. He taught school for three terms after his graduation, and entered the law office of W. R. Bole, the first of March, 1871, as a student of law, and was admitted to the bar November II, 1871. In February, 1872, he went south and west, but returned to the office of Mr. Bole, his preceptor, and continued his law study until October 14, when he opened an office for himself, and has since been an active and successful practitioner.
He began his political career by stumping Crawford county for Greeley in 1872, and since then has been among his party's leaders in the county and state. He was chairman of the Democratic county committee in 1873 and 1874. In 1873, by his energetic work, the Republican majority was greatly reduced, and in 1874 the Democratic candidates were elected, save one. He was a member of the state committee in 1876. Although actively engaged in every political campaign till 1882, he attended strictly to the practice of his profession, and has made his way to the front. In 1882 he was unani-
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mously nominated by his party for state senator, and although his district had given one thousand three hundred and forty-five plurality for Garfield in 1880, he was elected by four hundred and one over the Hon. A. B. Richmond.
During his service in the senate, Mr. Humes was a determined oppo- nent of bad legislation and jobs of every kind, and more frequently voted No than any other senator. At the opening of the session of 1883 his attention was attracted by the governor's message. which showed that there was more than five million dollars in idle cash in the state treasury, owing to the fact that there existed a set of favored banks that were making money out of state funds. After much careful study of the law, the senator prepared a bill to compel the commissioners of the sinking fund to invest all surplus funds in either state or United States bonds as required by the state constitution. After a hard and long contest, in which Senator Cooper, of Delaware, led the opposition forces, the bill became a law by receiving the signature of Governor Robert E. Pattison on the last night of the session. To enforce this law Governor Pattison was obliged to go into the courts to compel the commis- sioners to take the sinking-fund money from favored banks and invest it as required by the law. More than two million five hundred thousand dollars state and four million two hundred thousand dollars United States bonds have been purchased under the Humes bill, a saving to this time, for the state, of more than three million dollars in interest which would otherwise have gone to the state treasurer's favored banks. In talking of the passage of this bill the senator never tires of giving praise to Senators Wallace, Gordon. Wolver- ton, Hall, Hess, Lee. Emery and Stewart for their active co-operation.
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