The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. III, Part 41

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 440

USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. III > Part 41

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Vermont.

178

ANDREW JACKSON,

THE

DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE.

EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD.

VOL. III .- NO. 10. PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 7, 1829. NO. 62

PORTRAITURE OF BEDFORD COUNTY.

Having lately observed from the public papers that a brief statement of the situation, soil, manufactories, schools, &c. of the different counties of this state, would most likely prove acceptable to many of its citizens, and believing that no such statement has yet been made of Bedford county, I beg leave, after having been polite- ly furnished with the principal facts from a very respect- able source, to submit the following sketch for publi- cation in your paper; at the same time sincerely regret- ting that some person more competent to the undertak- ing, and with better opportunities of information, had not engaged in the task before me.

Bedford county was erected in the year 1771, but its boundaries have been altered and circumscribed by sub- sequent acts of the legislature. It is about 48 miles long, and its mean breadth about 34 miles, and contains up- wards of twenty five thousand inhabitants. It is now bounded on the east by Franklin county, on the west by Somerset and Cambria counties, on the south by the state of Maryland, and on the north by Huntingdon county. It contains nine or ten towns or villages, be- sides the town of Bedford, which is the seat of justice.

Bedford is pleasantly situated on the great road that leads from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, on the Raystown branch of the Juniata river, two hundred miles west of Philadelphia, and one hundred miles east of Pittsburg. It was formerly called Raystown from which the stream that passes it took its name. This town contains about eleven hundred inhabitants. The buildings are mostly either stone or brick, the streets are spacious and airy, and generally present the appearance of activity and business. Its liberal minded citizens have done much to beautify the town by erecting several public struc- tures, which do credit to themselves and to the County. The Catholic Church, and the German Lutheran and Reformed Church, are buildings which for neatness, convenience and comfort, would be well calculated to accommodate the polite congregations of our largest cities. A new Presbyterian Church likewise is about being built, which when finished it is supposed will be even a superior building to either of the others.

The new Court House which it is expected will be completed in a few weeks, will surpass in style and workmanship, almost any other similar buildings in the state. It is planned after the Tuscan order, and with the strictest regard to the rules and principles which govern the art of building. It shows to great advantage on the turnpike road as you approach Bedford from the east, and its beautiful symmetry and proportion, its lofty col- umns in front, and its commanding cupola, must rivet the attention of every traveller who has the least taste for the arts and refinements of civilized life. What ren- ders this building still more interesting is, that it is en- tirely the workmanship of men bred among our own mountains, whose arrival at their present skill and ca- pacity has been altogether owing to that zeal and de- votedness to their profession which every man must feel before he can expect to excel in any thing.

About a mile and a half from the town of Bedford, in a small romantic valley, are situated the Bedford Springs. Had we nothing else to boast of than these Springs, we might rely with confidence on the superior interest which VOL. III.

they must afford to visiters and travellers who are in pur- suit of health and recreation over every other spot in the United States, and on the increasing prosperity and riches which, as society progresses they must necessa- rily add to our county. It is not the mere placid en- joyment of a refreshing shade, a cooling fountain, or an artificial promenade, that I now have reference to .- These are to be found every where in the world. The Bedford waters are active, healing and efficient. As a prompt but gentle aperient, a diuretic and a tonic, their medicinal qualities are perhaps not inferior to any other waters in the world. They have been strictly analysed, and tested by men of judgment and reflec- tion, and they have been pronounced by many even su- perior to the celebrated springs of Saratoga and Balls- town.

Nature seems to have resolved, in one of her happiest moods, on an assemblage of circumstances which might render these springs a delightful and cheering retreat to the sick and affiicted. The lofty mountain, the fall- ing cascade, and the transparent stream, all of which- are happily combined into one entire group of rich ro- mantic scenery, fill the mind with a satisfaction and con- tent which can never be so well described as felt .- Every thing around you seems joyous, and gay and hap- py, yet tempered with that calm tranquility and engag- ing silence which add such refined interest to rural scenery. The fanning zephyr seems officiously busy to render you cool and comfortable, and as if fearful that he had not done enough for you during the day, he is sure to watch round your couch at the silent hours of night. In short, so many are the attractions of this enchanting spot, that were I a poet or in love, I should be almost as constant in my attendance at the springs, as the springs themselves are constant and perennial in the flow of their salubrious and sparkling waters.

It is needless for me to say that the accommodation for visiters are such as not to discredit the reputation and virtues of our waters. Three entire ranges of build- ings, adapted in every respect to the purposes for which they were erected, and furnished in a manner corres- ponding with the company which is received and enter- tained at the springs, can and do accommodate every summer from five to six hundred visiters. There can be no doubt but that in a short time, as the population of our state increases, and people come to find out that crossing our mountains is a much less formidable task than they imagine, it will be necessary to erect other buildings, and to extend and enlarge the accommoda- tions at the springs generally.

The county of Bedford is mountainous and hilly, much of the land stony and broken, and in some places the soil yields but a niggardly return for the labour be- stowed on it. Yet the rich burgher from the city who lounges in his carriage along the turnpike, or is trans- ported with rapidity in one of our public stages, makes a thousand mistakes in his calculations about the sterility of our soil, and the shortness of our crops. While he is dreaming in his carriage of famine and cold water, could he be translated in a moment to some of our de- lightful vallies, he would there find large and exten- sive farms, abundant crops, comfortable houses, polific and healthy families, and a greater abundance of every thing than perhaps he himself is in the habit of enjoying at

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home. In many of our vallies there is fine limestone land, which is well cultivated, which affords our farmers an op- portunity every year of taking a great quantity of sur- plus produce to market. The valley near McConnells- town, Friend's Cove, and Morrison's Cove, are partic- ularly rich and fertile. The latter place more especial- Jy in the immediate vicinity of Martinsburg, I hesitate not to say, is one of the richest districts of country in the state of Pennsylvania. I have visited it a hundred times, and every time have a greater reason to be pleas- ed with the skill, industry and economy of the farmers, with the beauty of their farms, and the great abundance and plenty which were visible all around me. The timber on our mountains and in other places is principal- ly white oak, chesnut, hickory and pine.

One of the greatest sources of wealth to the people of this county is the iron ore, which is found of the best quality in many places, and particularly in Morrison's Cove and its vicinity. There are now erected and in complete operation two furnaces, viz: Elizabeth, and Hanover. At each of these furnaces there are from twenty-five to thirty tons of pig metal cast every week. Each of them gives employment on an average to about seventy-five hands, many of whom support large families, and some of them are even laying up money against a needy day. There are likewise 6 forges in the county, namely, Bedford, Hopewell, Lemnos, Hanover and the two Maria Forges These forges likewise make, sepa- rately on an everage two hundred and fifty tons weigbt of bar iron per year, and give employment each to about forty hands. Dr. Shoenberger, whose industry and en- terprise are well known in the western part of Pensyl- vania, is about to erect other iron works on the Roaring Spring, and no doubt can be entertained but that in process of time Bedford county will reap a certain and rich harvest from numerous other works of a similar na- ture, which her streams and minerals are well adapted to bring into operation.

So far as I have been able to ascertain from a hasty enquiry I find that there are in the different townships in this county about seventy Grist and merchant mills, about eighty Saw-mills, twenty-five Fulling mills, some of which manufacture cloth, about one hundred and fifty Distilleries, two Nail factories, one or two Oil mills, and about twenty Carding machines. All these works give employment to a variety of hands, and are here enume- rated to show the population, strengthi and resousces of our county.

The moral condition of a people will always be con- sidered by every man who has the welfare of society at heart, and who has either humanity or philosophy e- nough to step as it were out of himself, and beyond the immediate range of his own private circle, and look abroad into the world by which he is surrounded. If "knowledge be power," and if power is equivalent to wealth, then has Pennsylvania much yet to do before she can expect to be blessed with that full tide of pros- perity which is certainly within her reach. The system of common school education in Pennsylvania is a bad one, and Bedford county has experienced her full share of the evil. The cold, reluctant, chilling appropriation which has been extorted from our Legislature from time to time in favor of common schools,have kept the fever- ish and trembling pulse of this system alive down to the present moment, when it would have been better per- haps that it should have perished at once, so as to afford the people an opportunity of vindicating their own dig- nity, and providing for their own moral aliment. There is not a state in the Union where the necessity of pub- licly providing for the education of our common people is more seriously felt than in Pennsylvania, and yet I know of no other state in which this matter has been so lamely attended to. Were the rising generation a- mong the Germans taught to read and speak English, what an immense change would it create in the wealth and resources of the state-what an amount of solid happiness to thousands of individuals who are now per-

ishing for lack of knowledge! All those remarks will apply with proper force to Bedford county. The mo- ment we lose sight of Bedford, with but very few excep- tions, we find hovels for schools, and men who would be retained in no other employment, engaged in form- ing the plastic minds of children. And yet even these miserable receptacles and nurseries of knowledge are so sparingly scattered around us, that perhaps there are not two for every five hundred children in the coun- ty. Other counties I know are suffering in the same way; and I trust that our Legislature may be made so sensible of this state of things, that they will act defini- tively on a bill which I observe from the papers has been reported on this all-important subject by a mem- ber from Philadelphia.

As a general remark the bar of Bedford is at present young, raw and inexperienced, and as a natural conse- quence, brisk, fluent and dogmatical. The . time may come hereafter when the materials found here will be moulded into something which will do honor to the high profession of a lawyer, unless in the meanwhile they should be so warped and blunted by politics, or so ne- glected in the pursuits of foreign objects, as to prove of little importance either to the possessors or to the pub- lic.

Our physicians are respectable, one of whom, from his long and extensive practice, and his attention to the spring visiters, has acquired a celebrity for skill and at- tention which extends far beyond the county of Bed- ford. We have four clergymen in the town of Bedford, all of whom are highly honoured for their piety and usefulness .- Democratic (Pa.) Enquirer.

FRANKLIN.

LAW CASE.

Brosman vs.

The Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania.

In the Mayor's Court for the City of Phila- delphia, December Sessions, 1828.

Stout and others vs.

The same.

Present- George M. Dallas, Esq. Mayor; Joseph Reed, Esq. Recorder; and Aldermen Watson and Mil- пог.

By the 13th section of the act of assembly, entitled "An act to incorporate the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania, passed 2d of April 1811, the company are authorized to enter upon all lands intended or sup- posed to be the proper route for the canal and lock na- vigation, to purchase the same, &c. and then this pro- vision follows: "And in default of purchasing it shall be lawful for the Courts of Quarter Sessions or the Mayor's Court in the city of Philadelphia, on the application of the owner of the said ground, or of the said president and managers, to appoint three suitable and judicious persons of any neighbouring county at their discretion, or at the request of either party, to award a venire di- rected to the Sheriff of any adjoining county, to sum- mon a jury of disinterested men in order to ascertain and report to the said court what damages, if any, have been sustained by the owner.of the said grounds, by reason of the said canal or other works; which report, being confirmed by the court, judgment shall be enter- ed thereon, and execution on motion may be issued in case of non-payment of the money awarded, with rea- sonable costs to be assessed by the Court, &c.

The company, in pursuance of the powers vested in them by this section, entered upon the lands of the plaintiff's in the above causes, and a jury of inquisition having been held on the same days, upon a venire di- rected to the sheriff of Lancaster county, damages were assessed in the first of the above cases at $325, and the latter $50. These damages were paid by the company, but on a bill of costs of $365 50 ($182 75 in each case).

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LAW CASE.

1829.]

being presented, they objected to the amount. The court, at the suggestion of the company's counsel, or- dered the Sheriff to prepare a second bill, the first being deemed too general in its terms. This order was complied with by the Sheriff, and another bill was pre- sented, reducing the total of costs to $239 20-119 60 being charged in Brosman's, and the same in Stout's case.

The matter came before the court on a motion by the plaintiff's attorney to issue execution for the whole amount charged by the Sheriff of Lancaster county.

J. C. Biddle and Binney, for the company, after stat- ing the peculiar hardship of the case, inasmuch as their clients had in the first instance offered to pay a greater sum in damages than had been finally awarded by the jury, continued in the first place .- That all compensa- tory fees or compensations for services not specified in the fee-bill had been expressly abolished by the 26th Section of the act of 28th March 1814, and that conse- quently the court could allow none other than those con- tained therein.

That in the next place; admitting that the act did not preclude the court from the exercise of their discretion in these cases, the fee bill furnished the best standard by which to regulate that discretion.

The analogy to services mentioned in that bill was very striking. That as to the charge of $119 60, in each case, it was altogether objectionable, because the same jury performed both views and made but one jour- ney from their homes. It having been repeatedly decided in the instance of juries and arbitrators, that they were to be paid only a certain sum per diem, no regard being had to the number of cases to this point, and further ob- jected that many of the items claimed were excessive and unreasonable, to show which they entered into a minute examination of the bill. In conclusion, they stated, that as the decision of the court would form a precedent for future cases, it was important to the community, as well as the Union Canal Company, that the rule should be settled.

Hall, for plaintiffs, considered the charge of the She- riff reasonable; he referred to the sentence, "specified in this or some other act of assembly," contained in the above section, as including all acts in which a particular compensation was provided. That the act of incorpora- tion having been passed in 1811, was one comprised in that exception.

That the Court were to assess reasonable costs. The fee bill was to be entirely disregarded; for, if followed, it would not afford a "reasonable compensation."

Mr. Recorder REED delivered the opinion of the Court. After stating the case, he proceeded-

The only question for decision is, whether the Legis- lature intended, by the use of the terms "reasonable costs," to vest in the court a discretionary power to al- low what they thought a just compensation for the ser- vices rendered, a quantum meruit, which may vary ac- cording to the circumstances as they respect the sheriff- the jurors, or the parties. The exercise of this uncon- trollable authority is urged by the plaintiffs' counsel, representing on this occasion the sheriff and jurors.

On the part of the defendant it is contended that by the act of Assembly of 1814, and the decision of the Supreme Court, (1 Sergeant and Rawle, 505; 5th do. 198,) all compensatory fees are prohibited; this court must of necessity be governed by the fee bill, which provides for services of the same nature on process is- sued from other courts, and which, even if a discretion be exercised, affords a safe standard by which such al- lowances may be regulated.

Although there is no doubt the Legislature intended by the act of 1814 to abolish all fees usually denomi- nated compensatory fres, declaring that, if any officer shall charge fecs, except those provided by law, or if the Judges shall allow fees for services not specified in some act of Assembly, it shall be a misdemeanour in office, It may however be reasonably doubted, whe-

ther the prohibition did not merely extend to fees for services which had been before wholly unprovided for by law. The fees now in question are, in our opinion, not of the same description with those on which the le- gislative prohibition was meant to operate. They are for services, which may, by a natural analogy, be said to be expressly provided for in the fee bill, and for which a specific compensation is directed. Had the Legislature intended to deprive the Court of its discre- tionary power, it is natural to suppose that a term liable to misconception would not have been retained, but a simple unequivocal reference would in all similar cases have been made to analogous items in the bill.

In subsequent acts there is great diversity of expres- sion. This irregularity, or the preservation of the phrase "reasonable costs," in some cases, and its occa- sional omission in others, convinces us, that compen- satory fees for such services, are not in all cases abolish- ed. In the acts incorporating the Oxford Rail Road Company, and the Lackawaxen and Susquehanna Rail Road, the one passed in 1826, the other in 1828; both subsequent to the fee bill, to which others may be added, the viewers are allowed the same compensation as special Jurors; while in the acts incorporating the Schuylkill Valley Navigation Company, and in the acts of March and April 1827, incorporating the Allegheny and Conewago Canal Company, and in the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company, and in other acts for similar purposes, the very same phrase is used as in the act under which the present question has arisen. It is not to be supposed that with a rule to which so easy reference could be made, the Legislature, without an object in view, would use, in the last mentioned cases, a form of expression, which by the construction con- tended for, is rendered manifestly inappropriate and uncertain. We are of opinion, therefore, that a discre- tionary power is vested in the Court.

The question then arises, is there any rule, and if any, what is the rule by which the discretion is to be exer- cised? Is it to to be understood, that by the delegation of a discretionary power, an implied rejection of all rules and guides in analogous cases was meant; or is it not more natural to presume that it was intended, that in ordinary cases reference to a fixed standard would be proper, and that in extraordinary cases of services ren- dered under peculiar circumstances, and at peculiar sacrifice, discretion might be exercised. If analogy were rejected as a legitimate mode of reasoning in cases of ordinary occurrence, not only would the court be obliged to go into the most detailed examination of the bill of costs, and hear evidence in explanation and sup- port of the several items, but the compensation awarded would be constantly fluctuating, and all certainty and uniformity would be lost; especially when this discre- tionary power is to be exercised, as it necessarily must be, by different tribunals.

Reserving therefore the power to meet extraordinary instances, we think it perfectly consistent with that reservation, and better calculated to promote the ends of justice, to adopt, on this occasion, the fee bill as our guide, and as the truest expression of legislative inten- tion on the subject, in a case as to which we have no information, either judicially or otherwise, to give it a peculiar character. I have not referred to any distinc- tion between the sheriff and jurors in this case, though it is manifest that generally, if not universally, the pro- priety of the reference to the fee bill as a guide, is stronger in the case of the sheriff than in that of a juror. The former voluntarily accepts and anxiously solicits the office to which this special duty is incident. He often derives great profit from it, and is presumed to take it with a full knowledge of its duties, responsibilities, and emoluments-he accepts it cum onere, and may re- sign it at pleasure. Not so the juror. The process under which he acts is strictly compulsory, and his com- pensation is rarely in proportion to the services he per- forms. While therefore we re-assert our discretionary

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AVERAGE PRICE OF FLOUR-ANNALS OF PAUPERISM.

{MARCH

power to be exercised when the occasion may require it, in the case before us we take the fee bill as our guide, and direct the clerk to tax the costs in conformity with its provisions. We also direct that single costs only be allowed, agreeably to the principle established by the Supreme Court, [4 Serg. and Rawle, 81, and 15 do. 397] where the Court in the one case decided, that when the same parties referred two suits to the same arbitra- tors, who transacted business in each of the suits on the same day, they could be allowed but one day's pay .- And in the other, applied the same principle to a wit- ness. The Chief Justice observing, "that it would be extraordinary indeed if he could demand for several days attendance when he attended but one. The law admits of no such extravagancies." The witnesses (and by analogy the sheriff and viewers) are to be paid a certain per diem allowance; and having received that, they are entitled to no more. So in the case of a jus- tice of the peace (6 Bin. 397) the same principle which governs all the cases is recognised-it having been there decided, that he is not entitled to his fees as a witness on the first day of the court, because it is his duty to attend to make a return of his recognizances.

The bill was taxed $108 99 in both cases.

[Nat. Gaz.

AVERAGE PRICE OF FLOUR.

In vol. II, page 221, will be found a table of the price of Flour in Philadelphia, for each month in the year, from 1784 to 1828, which originally appeared in the Phi. ladelphia Price Current. The following table, exhibit- ing the average price of each year, is taken from the New York Journal of Commerce, and was probably pre- pared from the table first mentioned.

"FLOUR .- The Editors of the New York Journal of Commerce have been favoured by a commercial friend, with a table of the prices of Flour in the Philadelphia market for a period of forty-four years, which, says the Journal, will be a curiosity, as well as a useful document to every dealer in the article. We subjoin the average for eachı year.

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The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. III, Part 41

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870 Publication date: 1828 Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ; Number of Pages: 440

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 440