ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 275 ored children. As their number is daily increasing, he is contemplating the erection of a larger building exclusively for school purposes. But the path of the kind Abbot Boniface Wimmer was not always strewed with roses. Thorns and thistles often sprouted up to wound his tender heart and disturb the tranquillity of his mind. His term of office, prolonged by Rome, having in the mean time expired, and being accused in Rome, on account of a certain individual of his flock, by name Paul Keck, a religious fraud, of favoring and promoting Spiritualism, he was compelled to take a second journey to Rome in 1865 to free himself of the charge. Having proved to the satisfaction of all the falsity of the accusation, he established in the Eternal City the College of St. Elizabeth, to afford the most talented of his young ecclesiastical students an opportunity for acquiring greater perfection in the sciences, and for attaining honorable academic degrees. About this time, in accordance with a previous election by his subjects, he was confirmed in Rome, Jnly 27, 1866, Abbot of St. Vincent and Praeses of the Benedictines under his charge, forming the Americo-Casinensian Congregation, for life. On his arrival home he received an invitation to the second Plenary Council in Baltimore, which was to begin on the first Sunday in October, 1866; but as the Vatican Council in Rome was announced soon after, he, as Praeses, having an assessment-right and suffrage-vote, was invited to attend, and accordingly set out for Rome a third time, arriving there Oct. 20, 1869. But as the council could not be continued on account of the war between Germany and France, and as the political atmosphere of Rome itself was rather gloomy, he dissolved his College of St. Elizabeth, sending two young priests to the University of Innsbruck, in the Tyrol,to finish their course, and returned with the three others, who had received the diplomas of Doctors, to St. Vincent. Previous toils and the effects of old age now began to tell upon his constitution, though he was still unceasingly active in the interests of his order, of his Monasteries and Abbeys, and for the welfare of the Catholic Church in America. To him is due the first impulse of the now past-celebration of the fourteenth centenary of the Benedictine Order. The principal celebration of the feast-giving epoch in the history of the Benedictines was announced to take place on Pentecost, in 1880, at Monte Casino, in Italy, the shrine of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine Order. On that occasion the Rt. Rev. Prelate went to Rome for the fourth time, and reopened the College of St. Elizabeth in the Eternal City. Shortly after his return to St. Vincent, he sent to Rome, on Sept. 30, 1880, four young men, two priests and two clerics, who were joined by two more in the fall of 1881, and Placed them all under the directorship of Rev. D. Adalbert Mueller, Phil., Dr. L., who was provided with an introductory letter to His Eminence Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Propaganda. His Eminence replied in the following terms : "RT. REV. SIR: " Your letter of September 19th has been received, and permed with exceeding joy upon the intelligence of your having sent to Roam two priests and two clerics to study philosophy sad theology. It affords me great pleasure to offer you my congratulations and to confer upon you the well-merited praise, for I think that you have done a very good work for the Church in America by opening for your monks a home where they are enabled to attain a greater perfection in their mend stadia. Rightly and meritoriously you acted, for from hers are draws purer Apostolic traditions of the amuck mid as Rome is the Lead of Catholicity and the See of the Roman Pontiff, doctors of the highest note from every quarter of the globe tasks it their abode. I hope, therefore, you will reap richer fruit, sad, if possible, that more young clerics from the United States shall come to Rome to tube their philo sophical coarse., and become more proficient in sacred The Catholic Church would then surely shine with greater lustre to America. But se far as you are concerned, you have dosse a flood work, and I will pray to God that he may preserve you long. ROME, AT THE PROPAGANDA, Jan. 2, 1881. "Your devoted brother, "JOHN CARR SIMMONI Prefect. "J. MASOTTI, Secretory." "Rt. Rev. BONIFACE WIMMER, Abbot, O.S.B., " Westmoreland. Having viewed the venerable prelate's tireless life in many States and climes, let us now turn our attention to the home of his labors, St. Vincent. If the progress of the order was rapid and material above, it was no less so at home. The old frame barn has been replaced by a new one built of brick, two hundred and twenty-two by sixty-seven feet, and the arrangement of this huge structure, under the immediate supervision of Ven. Brother Andrew Binder, is complete in every detail. The brewery and a flour-mill, with three stones, are well known. The cad parochial residence, forty by forty feet, has given place to an Abbey of four hundred by two hundred and ten feet, which, though not in the latest or best style, is withal commodious and well adapted to its purpose. The Seminary, small and deficient in many respects when founded in 1848, was advancing slowly but surely under Rev. D. Alphonse Heimler, until it attained perfection under the directorship of the Rev. Dr. Hilary Pfraengle, which the qualifications of the board of professors and great crowd of students, to the number of three hundred and fifty, yearly testify. On the 24th of August, 1855, Pope Pius IX., by Apostolic Brief; erected the religious community at St. Vincent into an Abbey, the effect of which action was to give to the community a well-defined status in the ecclesiastical organization of the Catholic religion, and to raise its Superior to the dignity of a Prelate, which is a dignity somewhat akin to that of a Bishop. By an act of the Assembly of Pennsylvania of April 28, 1870, the institution was incorporated with the power of conferring academical degrees. The course of studies is the theological, classical, and commercial. The college possesses a large library of sixteen thousand volumes, a chemical and philosophical cabinet, a herbarium of fourteen thousand species, a collection of shells, fossils, and a coin collection of five thousand rare specimens. Art, too, has found a fostering influence in the 276 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. young Abbey, and has been cultivated by prominent professors, as the many paintings in the art gallery and at the different Priories attest. A photographic atelier is numbered among the latest additions to St. Vincent. Art-joinery there in the different styles of altars, by Ven. Brother Cosmas Wolf, has attained a high state of perfection, as those in St. Vincent, in the convent of the Franciscan Sisters in Covington, Ky., and in St. Francis' Church in Cincinnati, and in many other cities and towns plainly certify. The musical acquirements of many of the professors are known far and wide, and some have even received the flattering appellation of virtuosos. Ranking next to art and science, and closely connected with the latter, is the printing department. This was from its very beginning the favorite idea of the Venerable Prelate, though not realized till the year 1865, when a printing-machine was procured, which has ever since been of the greatest service. For some years back it has kept three type-setters continually busy, and is presided over by the Very Reverend D. Sebastian Arnold. With this is connected a book-binding establishment, in which two men are constantly engaged. Tradesmen of all kinds are found among the Benedictines. The tailoring department is run by four very diligent men, under the direction of a worthy Brother. In the shoe-shop three brothers ply the awl and last from morn till night, and are sometimes, as is often the case with the tailors, unable to satisfy the demands of the inmates of the Abbey and College. A harness-maker is kept busy doing justice to himself and trade. Carpenters and masons, black-, tin-, and locksmiths always have their hands full of work. Bakery and butchery are carried on by the Abbey's own inmates, and cannot be less active, considering the great number of students, its own members, and the never-diminishing number of wayfarers. All these achievements owe their origin to the Venerable Prelate, and their culmination and mystical sanctification to the open and disinterested religious tendency which he has sown in the hearts of his subjects from the day he invested the first nineteen in the habit of the order. This tendency, or, more strictly, spirit, based upon the evangelical counsels, is identical with that of their founder, the great St. Benedict. In virtue of these connsels the Venerable Prelate, Boniface Wimmer, is by ecclesiastical authority the spiritual father and physician, the teacher and high priest of his flock with plenary jurisdiction. This be kindly exercises over those subjects under his immediate care, resident in thirteen States of the Union, numbering 106 priests, 1 deacon, 35 clerics in minor orders, 11 novices, 116 lay-brothers, and 85 scholastics, together with 8 Priories, 17 parishes, and 14 missions. Adding to these the Abbey of St. Louis (having lately changed its name to St. John B.), in Minnesota, St. Benedict, in Atchison, Kan., and St. Malachy, in Iowa, with their Priories and parishes, whose founder and Praeses is the Venerable Prelate, we have his whole work spread over sixteen States, counting 3 abbeys, 1 independent Priory, 11 depending Priories, 45 parishes, and 43 missions, all of which contain 151 active priests, 60 clerics, 19 novices, 177 lay-brothers, and 150 scholastics. The number of the parishioners under the care of the Benedictines in the United States is about 42,000. Their colleges, in which are taught the different arts and sciences, are 6, and the number of pupils frequenting them every year average 500.. The number of priests having completed their studies at St. Vincent alone, comprising regulars and seculars, is about 400. The catalogues of the different years contain many names of students who are now prominent lawyers and physicians, esteemed clerks and respectable citizens. They all proudly acknowledge St. Vincent as their " alma mater," and profoundly reverence, duly respect, and sincerely love her founder and their benefactor, the Rt. Rev. and Most Illustrious Prelate, Lord Boniface Wimmer, 0.S.B. 1 ST. XAVIER'S CONVENT AND SIMINARY. The Convent and Young Ladies' Academy of St, Francis Xavier, being the religious house and seminary of the Sisters of Mercy, is situate about three miles from Latrobe, in Unity township, Beatty being its post-office and railroad station, and St. Vincent its telegraph-office. The Order of Mercy was founded by Catherine McAuley, in the city of Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1831. This generous and philanthropic lady was endowed by nature with qualities of rare value of both mind and heart, which fitted her for the important mission she was called upon to fill. As soon as she came into the possession of her ample fortune she hastened to relieve the suffering and distress of her own neighborhood. A few years' experience showed her how much she might be able to do in preserving the innocent, reclaiming the erring, and instructing the ignorant by assembling around her a few pions and educated ladies who could aid her in the good work, her own means being sufficient for the building of a school, an orphan asylum, and a home for destitute servant-girls when out of situations. These buildings were erected in Baggot Street, Dublin. Soon Miss McAuley was joined by several young ladies, who were attracted by the good works they saw carried on in their midst. These pious ladies now began to visit the sick in their houses as well as in the hospitals. The Archbishop of Dublin being greatly pleased with the good accomplished by the little congregation, and wishing to make it permanent, advised Miss McAuley and two of her companions to retire to a convent and make a novitiate, after which they made the three vows of poverty, charity, and obedience, assumed a 1 We are under obligation for courtesies and favors to See. rather Panlinua, O.S.B., and Rev. Father Aug. Schneider, O.S.B., of St. Vince, for much assistance herein. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 277 religious dress, and returned to their duties in Bag-got Street. Miss McAuley, now Sister Mary Catherine, drew up rules and constitutions for their government, which were confirmed by the Holy See in July, 1841. This last act placed the Order of Mercy among the religious orders of the Catholic Church. In a few years so rapid was the spread of the order that it had houses in almost every part of the world. In June, 1841, Rev. M. O'Connor, D.D., was appointed pastor of St. Paul's Church, on Grant Street, Pittsburgh. He labored zealously for two years in his new mission, when he obtained permission to visit Rome, where he hoped to enter the Society of Jesus, and thus realize the desire of his earlier years. In this he was disappointed, as Pennsylvania had in the mean time been divided into two dioceses, and Pittsburgh named as the new See, for which Dr. O'Connor was appointed first Bishop. Disappointed in his hopes, and grieved at his elevation, he humbly submitted to the appointment of the Holy See, and was consecrated Bishop on the 15th of August, 1843. The new diocese was well known to its Bishop ; he had seen during his pastorate at St. Paul's the great need of instruction and education for the growing population ; therefore he resolved to bring with him on his return a foundation of a religious order devoted to the training of youth. For this purpose he visited Ireland, and seeing the new Order of Mercy suited to the wants of his people, he obtained a foundation of seven Sisters. These generous ladies bade farewell to the land of their birth, and immediately set sail for the New World, encouraged by the hope of leading to God or aiding in their journey heavenward the children of the far West. On the morning of December the 21st, 1843, the sun arose for the first time on the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsbnrgh. They received a cordial welcome from the leading members of St. Paul's congregation, and a snitable house was arranged for their temporary use. In the course of a few months the daughters of some of the first families in the twin cities became acquainted with the Sisters, and, being pleased with their mode of life, sought permission to join them in their good works. The first candidate that entered the Order of Mercy in the United States was Miss Eliza J. Tiernan, of Allegheny City. This young lady brought to the little community rare virtue, bright accomplishments, and a liberal fortune, all of which were most acceptable, and enabled the Sisters to extend their usefulness. Several other young ladies following the example of Miss Tiernan, a school was opened on Penn Street, and later on the Sisters rented the then well-known " Concert Hall," which they fitted up for an hospital. The next year they took charge of an orphan asylum. Although all these benevolent works had been undertaken within the short space of eighteen months, yet there were some Sisters waiting an opportunity to establish another school. In the spring of 1845, Henry Kuhn, an old gentleman from the central part of Westmoreland County, Pa., called on the Sisters and offered them a farm on very liberal terms for the purpose of establishing an academy for young ladies. Encouraged and directed by the bishop, their true friend, the Sisters accepted the conditions, as the academy would supply a want which was much felt in Western Pennsylvania. The farm lay forty miles east of Pittsburgh, on the line of the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia turnpike, a favorable circumstance before the construction of railroads. A more beautiful location could not be desired, as the surface was unbroken, and sloping gradually towards the morning sun. There were, however, no buildings on the farm, so the pastor of St. Vincent's Church, which was about a mile distant, generously offered his residence for the temporary accommodation of the Sisters and tHeir first pupils, whilst he located himself in the sacristy of the church. Thus was formed the nucleus of the academy since known as St: Xavier's. The first pupils were Misses N. Shoemaker, of Ebensburg ; S. Myers, A. and A. McCaffrey, of Pittsburgh ; A. and P. Ihmsen, M. and E. Mulvaney, of Birmingham. The infant academy began to attract attention, and several new pupils applied for admission, which made it necessary to procure more ample accommodations. In the autumn of 1845 preparations were commenced for building on the farm. As their means were limited the Sisters could not attempt to build on a grand scale. They therefore contracted for a plain three-story building, which in after-years would stand as the right wing of a more imposing edifice. The site of the new building was most favorably chosen, as it commanded an extensive view of the Chestnut Ridge, with its irregular outlines, causing an enchanting variety of light and shade to cling around its forest-clad summit, with the fertile valley of the Loyalhanna a foreground. All things being prepared, the building was commenced early in 1846, and to the great joy of both Sisters and pupils its progress was so rapid that the closing year found it near completion. When the bright spring days of 1847 brought forth the buds and blossoms, the Sisters, took their youthful charge out for a ramble in the fields and a visit to the new building. What was their delight to find that in a few days it would be ready for their accommodation. The transfer was now the all-absorbing topic at recreation. May the 14th, the anxiously looked for day, dawned bright and beautiful, and after an early breakfast the work of transportation began. Some of the kind neighbors lent their wagons to aid in the moving ; towards noon a procession might have been seen wending its way towards the new academy, and before the sun went down the Sisters and the pupils were settled in their new home, which, in honor of the apostle of the Indies, received the name of " St. Francis Xavier." The increased accommodation was appreciated by the patrons of the institution, and the opening of the 278 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. next session found many new pupils added to the little band of the previous year. About this time a permanent standing was given to the new institution by the incorporation of the Sisters under the title of "The' Sisters of Mercy" by the Legislature of the State. More care had been taken to procure a good view than pleasant recreation-grounds, for the academy was located in a field without a tree to shelter it from the summer sun, while on the adjoining farm only a few rods distant stood a charming grove of original forest-trees. This luxury, so near at hand and yet impossible of attainment, caused the young ladies to feel their own privation all the more keenly. Shade-trees had, it is true, been planted, but what were these diminutive saplings compared with the lordly oaks and giant maples of the grove, many of which had seen two hundred summers, and no doubt had formed a shelter for the red man ages before? This trial was not of long duration ; the farm with the tempting grove was offered for sale in the year 1852, and although the funds of the corporation at the time were inadequate to the undertaking, yet as the advantage was so important and the time of payment extended, the farm was purchased. Soon the boundary fence was removed, and the grove with all its attractions added to the recreation-grounds. Where nature had been so lavish, it was an easy matter to render the surroundings of the academy what they have often been termed by visitors, " a little Paradise." About this time the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed, uniting the eastern with the western part of the State, and passing within two, miles of St. Xavier's, rendering it easy of access from the principal cities of the State. Two or three additions were made to the buildings, which were needed for the increasing number of pupils. In 1861 a chapel was contracted for at a cost of about $40,000, the basement of which was to serve as a hall for the academic commencements. Owing to the scarcity of laborers during the Rebellion the chapel was not completed until 1866. In the mean time a neat two-story building, known as the Guest House, was erected, about three hundred yards distant from the academy, for the accommodation of the pupils' friends when visiting them during the year. The academy grounds were artistically laid out, and many improvements made in the appearance of the institution, when, in the space of one short afternoon, there was nothing left of the vast pile of buildings, including the beautiful chapel, but smouldering ruins. At 2 P.M., Feb. 1, 1868, the terror-stricken cry of fire rang through the academy, and large volumes of flame were already rolling out from the roof of the middle building. The directress immediately collected the pupils and left the building in safety. Every effort was made to save a part of the building, but in vain, no water but that furnished by ordinary pumps being on the premises. The neighbors, on seeing the fire, ran to the rescue, and through their kindness a great amount of bedding and household furniture was saved, as well as sixteen pianos. The young ladies' trunks and wardrobes were all preserved through the untiring exertions of the Sister under whose charge they had been placed. Nothing was saved in the Sisters' part of the house, as every effort was directed to the well-being of the pupils and the preservation of their effects. The weather being intensely cold, and the snow unusually deep, the scene of desolation was most distressing. Night was corning on, so nothing remained to be done but to procure as many sleds as possible and take the Pittsburgh children to the station to meet the night train. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company kindly gave free transportation to Sisters and pupils, and placed their carriages at the disposal of the frightened wayfarers to convey them to the convent in Webster Street, where they remained until the following morning. As many as the Guest House could accommodate remained there and had a miniature academy on a very homelike plan. The Sisters saw the labor and gathering of years swept away in a few hours, and, what was more to be regretted, their insurance was very light, only $20,000, while the chapel alone cost $36,000. Great sympathy was manifested by all classes for the Sisters' loss, and substantial encouragement given to rebuild the academy, as liberal donations were made to a building fund by the friends of the ill-fated institution. The Sisters sold some property, which brought a good price, and also made arrangements for a loan of money when needed, so that no delay might arise in the progress of the building. By the 1st of March all things were in readiness for the commencement of a new building, to take the place of the one just swept away. The plans were drawn by J. W. Kerr, the architect of Pittsburgh City Hall. The new structure was to be erected on the site of its predecessor, to ne semi-Gothic and of irregular outline, with a front to the east of seventy-four feet by forty feet deep. Left wing, running northwest, one hundred and seventy feet by forty-four ;light wing, running south, one hundred feet by fifty. The chapel to connect with the front building and run parallel with the left wing. This portion of the building was to be Gothic, seventy-four feet by thirty-four, the foundation to be prepared with those of the other building, and the edifice erected in the future. The estimate for its completion was $20,000, and that of the academy $100,000. Work commenced early in April, and was vigorously carried on during the following summer, when from sixty to eighty workmen were engaged in its erection. September, 1869, saw the new academy ready to accommodate the pupils at the usual time for resuming studies. Each pert of the institution having been arranged to suit its intended purpose, and the whole building erected at once, gave it a perfection of which the old one could not boast, and added much THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 279 to the convenience and oomfort of the pupils. The chapel was erected in 1870, which completed the replacement of the buildings swept away by the fire of Feb. 1, 1868. The new academy received the same liberal patronage that favored its predecessor. Although the number of boarding-schools had been increased in Western Pennsylvania, yet the spacious study hall and am. le class-rooms of the academy are graced by a goodly number of the daughters of influential families, not only of this State but of various other States. The academy continues to impart a solid English education, together with a knowledge of the languages and fine arts, and to prepare its pupils to go forth accomplished members of society. Many of the pupils of St. Xavier's may be found in different parts of the country filling with credit the various positions which only an educated Christian lady can advantageously fill, A few return to their alma mater and join their teachers in the various works of mercy peculiar to their mode of life. Of their efficient services to suffering humanity the sick and wounded soldiers of the civil war have had sufficient proof, as many of the Sisters who ministered to their wants in the Stanton and Douglas Hospitals of Washington and the West Penn Hospital of Pittsburgh were graduates of St. Xavier's. The museum of the academy contains a well-arranged collection of minerals, embracing different ores and rock-forms, some handsome cameos and mosaics, a fine selection of quartz crystals, Amazon stones, spars, etc., besides fossils of different ages, and a valuable set of coins and medallions. For these the institution is indebted to its friends. It also possesses a fine library, comprising many of the standard works of English literature, besides several bookcases filled with encyclopaedias, books of reference, etc., so placed as to be accessible to the various classes at suitable hours. The most of these works have been the gifts of the reverend clergy of this and other dioceses. The course of studies, according to the last prospectus of the academy, embraces the various branches of elementary training, together with those which constitute the higher departments of a finished education. Reading, writing, astronomy, algebra, chemistry, history, geology, geometry, belles-lettres, bookkeeping, practical and rational arithmetic, geography, grammar, rhetoric, botany, natural and moral philosophy, vocal and instrumental music, logic, French, Getman, Italian, Latin, drawing, painting, plain sewing, etc. Music, singing, drawing, French, German, Italian, Latin, wax-work, and ornamental needle-work are extra branches, and will be taught at the option of the parents. Letters written or received by the young ladies are examined by the directress previous to their delivery. The scholastic year commences September 1st, and terminates on the 1st of July. It is divided into two sessions. If a pupil be removed before the close of the session for which she has entered full payment will be required for the whole, except in case of sickness. CHAPTER XLII. THE PRESS AND LITERATURE. The " Pittsburgh Gazette"—"Farmer's Register," the First Paper printed in Greensburg—" The Greensburg and Indiana Register" -The "Westmoreland and Indiana Register"—" The Westmoreland Republican and Farmer's Chronicle"—" Greensburg Democrat" "Westmoreland Democrat"—" The Greensburg Gazette" - Greensburg Gazette and Farmer's and Meckankik's Register-(And again) "The Greensburgh Gazette"- "The Westmoreland Intelligencer"—" The Sentinel"—The "American Herald"- The Tribune"—"Tribune and Herald" — "The Pennsylvania Argus' -"Frank Cowan's Paper"—" The Democratic Times"- "The ____ Issue"—" The News"—" The Greensburg Press- The Evening Press"— German Newspapers: "The Star of the West" " The Westmoreland News"---" The Ligonier Free Press alias " The Valley Democrat"—Mount Pleasant "Literary Gazette"—" Latrobe Inquirer,"- "Latrobe Advance"—" The Reveille"—The "Irwin Spray" - "The Irwin Chronicle"—The West Newton " Weekly Cycle" "The "West Newton Press"—" The Scottdale Tribune"— The "Miner's Record"- Oddities--Observations- -Extracts—Literature— Dr. Frank Cowan's Publications. ABOUT the time the old court-house was completed and before the town of Greensburg was made a borough by incorporation, the printing-press---the light and the life of modern civilization—made its appearance. The occasion was favorable, for up to that time the only printing-offiee in Western Pennsylvania was the office of Scull & Hall, the proprietors of the Gazette, at Pittsburgh. John Scull and Joseph Hall established the Pittsburgh Gazette and issued their first number on the 26th of July, 1786. At their office all the printing which was done in the West was executed. The writs used in court, the summons and executions used by the justices, sale bills were printed at their office until one was established at Greensburg. The Farmer's Register was the first venture in newspaper literature west of the mountains after the establishment of the Pittsburgh Gazette. The first number made its appearance about the beginning of the year 1798, and it was published and edited by John M. Snowden. A man by the name of McCorkle was said to have had some connection with the paper, and to have been associated with Snowden, but most probably be was the printer only, and had nothing to do with the paper either as proprietor or manager. Mr. Snowden was a native of Philadelphia, and his venture here was not unprofitable. He disposed of the paper to William S. Graham about 1808. He remained in the county till some time after that, and was elected to serve several offices of trust. He removed hence to Pittsburgh, where in 1812 he succeeded J. C. Gilleland in the management of the Sunday Mercury, the ancestor, as one. might say, of the Pittsburgh Post. He was a professional printer. He was uncle of John M. Laird, Esq., the Nestor of 280 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. the Westmoreland press of our day, and under him Mr. Laird served his apprenticeship in the printing business. The paper continued to be called the Farmer's Register till 1808, when the name was changed to The Greensburg and, Indiana Register, and again later to The Westmoreland and Indiana Register. The occasion of this was the increasing circulation of the paper in Indiana County, and the fact that it was the medium for the public advertisements of that county. As the headings were of movable types, and as these types were sometimes used in job-work, the arbitrary title of the paper was not infrequently so of necessity, which occasion was usually explained by an apology. In the issue of July the 9th, 1812, it was explained that from having been disappointed in receiving the proper kind of type, they had to change the name to Greensburg instead of Westmoreland. For extra jobs they had to use the head-line of the paper. The mechanical part of the paper was good ; the type was large and distinct, and the earlier volumes had the old-fashioned ff. The paper material was heavy and durable, and the few old copies extant, notwithstanding the sear and yellow withered leaves of age turning, as they are, into irrecoverable dust, are well preserved. In 1811 the paper was printed on paper manufactured at the paper-mill of Markle & Doum, on the Sewickley, twelve miles west of Greensburg, which had then but recently been built. The paper in size was nine and one-half inches by thirteen inches. There were four pages of four columns each in clear type and closely set. The price of subscription was two dollars and a quarter per year. The news was mostly made up of foreign intelligence, or of reports of Congress, and of new treaties with the Indians. Each number contained about five columns of advertisements, and, on an average, one column of short extracts from exchanges. Under the head of news were given Jefferson's addresses, report of the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, sickness of Bernadotte, and a new battle gained by Bonaparte- There were no professional cards among the advertisements, but there was a standing notice that rags would be taken at the highest market price in payment for the subscription to the paper. What might be called editorials were scarce. The political and social course of the paper was shaped by articles in the form of correspondence, so that an editor might make an attack on a. political opponent or cry down an evil under some nom de plume. But besides these collections there were papers and contributions on political subjects of from five to seven columns. Findley wrote incessantly for the paper from the time of its establishment, and it was suspected that he helped to Carry it on, not only with his influence but with his money. The paper politically was Jeffersonian-Republican, and the articles which Findley furnished for electioneering purposes were in vindication of his political career. These were sometimes addressed to his constituents, explanatory of his course in Congress in reference to the embargo and on the prospect of war with Great Britain. William S. Graham, purchasing the establishment from Snowden in the beginning of 1808, continued its publication after changing its name to the Westmoreland and Indiana Register. Graham was something of an enterprising man, and besides publishing from time to time cheap works, as " The Constitution of the United States" and " Watts' Hymns" in sheep. he kept a collection of books, pamphlets, and stationery on sale. Here could be purchased " Valentine and Orson," and " The Englishman's Right, or a Dialogue between a Barrister-at-Law and a Juryman."' But the young student who wanted " Robertson's History," and the young miss who wanted the poems of Ossian, had to send with Randall McLaughlin or some of the e tore-keepers when they went East. From 1812 a change may be noticed in the style of the paper. Interspersed with editorial notes of from twelve to twenty lines are seen an account of the red-haired fat boy, of the hog that told fortunes and cast accounts, the latest antidote for the bite of a mad dog, and a description of the execution of eight negroes at one time somewhere in the South. About this time appeared the first advertisements of patent medicines : The Elixir of Perpetual Adolescence, and Doctor Blank's Anti-Bilious Compound. Invalids were cured by the big words. By such slow degrees have we arrived at our present civilization. The style of such articles as were original was usually more dignified and conventional than one would look for in a newspaper now. But there are many defects in them compared with our papers, and more than one hiatus. We look in vain for mention of matters of interest to us ; such, for instance, as a biographical notice on the death of Truby or Hanna, a description of the early town, who were building the latest houses, and when the old court-house was completed ; such notices, in short, as make the very being of a country paper. The expenditures of the county were, it is true, published in the current numbers, whence we get the information that the expenses for the year 1808 were $7165.12, and that John B. Alexander received one hundred dollars for his year's salary as clerk to the commissioners. As there were no regular mails, for many years after the paper began to be published, and then at first only along the old State road and turnpike, the subscribers had to make such arrangements as they could agree upon to have their papers forwarded to them. The bundle for a, community was usually left at some store, where the subscribers called for them. In 1812, on the establishment of a post-route from Bedford to Greensburg, it was stated that the subscribers on that route could now be served by mail. The Westmoreland and Indiana Register continued 1 This valuable and instructive little work may be found as an appendix to Binn's "Justice" THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 281 to be published by Graham till his death in 1815, when it was carried on by his widow, Mrs. James Graham,1 with the assistance of Mr. Peterson and Mr. Underwood respectively as foremen, till September, 1818, when it was transferred to other owners and the name changed. The identity of the Register ended at that time, but as it was the paper upon which the subsequent series of Democratic papers was founded, its existence was perpetuated in them. The Register did not purport to be a political paper, although it is apparent now that its leaning was in one direction. In 1811 the first political paper ostensibly such was established by the Federalists, and called the Greensburg Gazette. In 1818 the Democrats resolved on having a paper for party purposes, and some of the leaders forming a company, with Frederick A. Wise as manager, purchased the Register, which, in a new dress, made its appearance in the first week of April, 1819, as The Westmoreland Republican and Farmer's Chronicle. Frederick A. Wise had been born and brought up in Greensburg, but at that time was working in Baltimore at the printing trade, which he had learned. He took charge of the paper with the understanding that he was to be the sole manager, and also the owner and manager, on the repayment of the purchase money to the joint-stock company which had bought the Register. Of the paper Mr. Wise continued editor till 1830, when it was sold to Joseph Russell, Esq. In 1841, Mr. Russell took in partnership David K. Marchand, Esq., a practical printer ; in April, 1844, Mr. Marchand became sole editor and proprietor, and continued as such until July, 1856, when he sold an interest to Andrew Graham, a farmer of Ligonier Valley, and something of a local politician and office-holder. In 1861, Mr. Graham became, sole editor and proprietor. Mr. Graham continued in the management only till Jan. 1, 1862, when James F. Campbell & Co. succeeded Mr. Graham as proprietors of the Republican. Under this management it remained but a short time. In January, 1863, James F. Campbell retiring, it became the property of William A. Stokes, Esq., a prominent member of the bar, and an officer for a time in the regular army, but whose tastes followed the profession of the pen rather than that of the sword. Mr. Stokes had contributed very extensively to the paper previously to the time when it passed to Campbell & Co., and had been responsibly connected with it during the time it was carried on under that management, he being the "company." He then published the Republican until August, 1864, when he sold it to Mr. W. W. Keenan, then proprietor of the Greensburg Democrat, who combined the two establishments into one. As the Republican exists in the Westmoreland Democrat of to-day, we shall here give the history of the 1 Mrs. Graham was sister of the late Dr. John Morrison, of Greensburg. Democrat prior to the consolidation of those two papers, and then from that time the history of that one which was formed out of both. The first number of THE GREENSBURG DEMOCRAT made its appearance November the 18th, 1853. 2 E. J. Keenan and John Klingensmith, Jr., were editors and proprietors. The paper had been established to represent and give expression to that wing of the Democracy which advocated the renomination of William Bigler to the governorship, and which indorsed his administration. This was the second time in the political history of the county that a newspaper had in heated occasions been established as a party organ. As the other two papers which were devoted to the cause of that party—the Argus and the Republican—were at that time opposed to the re-election of Mr. Bigler and were committed to his defeat, and as the Paper was established with the object stated, its advent was heralded with many marks of displeasure by the press whose policy it opposed, by great gratification by its friends in the faction whose interests it represented, and by the approbation and encouragement of the opposition, whose best policy was to give it notoriety. Besides this the gentlemen at the head and back of the paper were well known throughout the county, and had become personally identified with the Democratic party in all local issues and interests. The salutatory was novel in its way. Under the caption " Liberty of the Press" the editors in this leader struck out in an entirely new vein. The writer, after proclaiming their devotion to the principles of the Democratic party, declared that their course should be independent of all cliques and factions. The editorial and business management of the paper wag conducted by E. J. Keenan, Esq. The paper from the first evidenced labor and talent. Mr. Klingensmith died in 1854, and the paper then passed into the hands, as it had really till that time been under the control, of Mr. Keenan. By him it was published and edited till the commencement of 1857, when William W. Keenan, Esq., brother of E. J. Keenan, became the local editor and manager. In 1857 the style of the management was E. J. Keenan & Bro. In June, 1858, it was purchased by James Keenan & Co., James Keenan then being the ostensible head of the paper, and his brother representing the company. James Keenan, Esq., was at that time United States consul at the port of Hong Kong, China ; and the paper, so far as its practical management was concerned, was still conducted by his brothers here, and was the same as it had been before that. James Keenan died in 1862; his brother, E. J. Keenan, had entered into the active service of the United 2 In the prospectus for this paper it was originally celled the Westmoreland Democrat, but on account of the smaller size and neater appearance of the words, and to give more room for the vignette, It wss changed to the Greensburg Democrat 282 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. States in the army ; and William W. Keenan became entire and sole manager and editor of the paper. Probably no local paper in this section of the State rose with the same rapidity or attracted so much attention, both from friends and from opponents, as did the Democrat under the practical management of E. J. Keenan. It had many characteristics which are incident to a successful newspaper. It was zealous in its friendship and bitter in its enmity. The editor was assailed in every place of attack by his political opponents,—in the courts, in the press, even in the church. But opposition is one of the very essentials of a successful party newspaper.. The reputation of a political organ is established, and the paper is fixed on a permanent basis only when it is denounced by the opposition and attacked from all sides. Some of the articles which appeared in the Democrat at that time have in the virulence of their attack perhaps been never paralleled in the history of our 'provincial press. The article denouncing William A. Cook for his alleged renegading from the Democratic to the opposition party (at that time the Know-Nothing organization), and for his acceptance of the candidacy of an office on the ticket, was one of the most caustic and bitter personal and political attacks probably ever printed on the page of any newspaper in the whole State. It, however, resulted in a libel suit, which of course gave the more prominence to the paper. The editor was mulcted in six and a fourth cents damages and the costs of the suit. But the most unique issue was that of July 13, 1859. The second page of this number was almost entirely filled with wood-cuts and double-leaded matter, resembling very much the "broadsides" of an earlier day. This matter was arranged in the ordinary columns, and was headed " Cameron & Co.'s Combined Circus, Menagerie, and Diorama." It was a political utterance, and in it all the prominent politicians of the party in opposition, either national, State, or county, were caricatured, travestied, or burlesqued. It was a highly sensational article, but there were many who questioned the opportuneness of the brochure, and it is more than probable that the editor, both in person and in estate, suffered from the bitterness engendered by this effusion, and which ceased not to be effectively felt until long after. Edward J. Keenan had barely reached his majority when he assumed the entire control of the Democrat. He had a peculiarity of expression on paper, so that his articles were, to one conversant with his style, readily distinguishable. He used good English, went right to the point, and although he sometimes professed the pathetic, yet a vein of humor is readily discerned running through all his productions. He was a master of the art of ridicule. In his manner he was companionable, and spared no effort to be agreeable. He therefore had many friends. He was open-hearted, forgiving, and generous beyond all belief, pitied all phases of suffering and misery, and no one ever appealed to him for charity in vain. Within certain limits it may be truly said that he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and ministered tc those who were sick and in prison. Physically he was weakly, and he bore in his body the seeds of disease. After his return from the army he devoted himself to the practice of the law- For a short period it is true he gave some of his attention to a new paper called the Democratic Times, but this attention was only supervisory. Under an accumulation of diseases he died, Friday, June 1, 1877. 1 It was announced in the Democrat of July the 12th, 1862, that the interest of James Keenan in the establishment had been purchased by Alexander Allison, a practical printer, who had been connected with the office, and that the publication of the Democrat would thenceforward be conducted under the style of William W. Keenan & Alexander Allison. It was also announced that the editorial department would remain as before. So that the publishers or editors of the paper were of those who had been connected in one capacity or another with it from shortly after its establishment. Alexander Allison retired March 6, 1863, having disposed of his interest to William W. Keenan. THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT. In August, 1864, W. W. Keenan, the proprietor of the Democrat, purchased the Republican from W. H. Stokes, and the two papers were consolidated under the name of the Republican and Democrat, in which E. J. Keenan became again interested. The first number of this consolidation was issued on the 31st of August in that year. The paper continued under the proprietorship of the Messrs. Keenan and under the management of W. W- Keenan, with a 1 Edward J. Keenan died Friday June 1, 1877. When about sixteen years of age he accompanied his brother, Thomas J. Keenan, then European law agent, on a trip to Europe, and spent some eight months in the British Isles. Of his experience and observetions there he furnishsd eome very interesting sketches. At about eighteen he established the Democrat. He servsd a, term as register and recordsr, having prsviously conducted the affairs of the office as dsputy under his brother, Gen. James Keenan. In ths civil war be served as first lieutenant of infantry, in the Eleventh Psnnsylvania Reserve Vsteran Corps, from which he was transferred to the Signal Corps, and advanced to higher position bscause of his superior ability. During his services in that department he made some suggestions of important improvements which were afterwards adopted. After the war he resumed ths practice of the law in Greensburg, and had a large business. He stood among the foremost in his profession, and was remarkable for his acumen, culture, and humor. He also sngaged in oil operations in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and amused considerable wealth. But his generous nature and careless forethought involved him in, so that when the panic came, his relentless creditors having no mercy, he was compelled to sacrifics his real estate to their mercy. On several occasion, before his death he acted as chairman of the Democratic County Committee, and for a time was editor of the Times. When Hon. William Wallace was chairman of the Democratic State Committee, he, with the advice and consent of the committee, made Mr. Keenan deputy chairman for the western portion of the State, embracing some twenty or more counties, and gave to him complete control of the campaign therein. Some of his fiercest political contests were with the Hon. John Covode, and while politically at dagger's points, they were, it seems, personal friends. He wae married to a daughter of Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns, and at his death left a widow and three children. THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 283 short exception, when he associated with himself James H. Clarke, who had been the local editor of the Republican in 1863. Near the close of 1871, Kline & Co. purchased the Republican and Democrat, and assumed the proprietorship and editorial control of the same on the first day of January, 1872. The firm consisted of Dr. W. J. K. Kline and S. A. Kline, Esq., who at once enlarged the paper from a twenty-eight to a thirty-two-column sheet, and issued the first number on the tenth day of January in a new dress. S. A. Kline disposed of his interest to A. B. Kline, who succeeded him on the 1st of October, 1873, when the style of the firm was changed to Kline & Bro., who are still at this time the editors and proprietors of the establishment. On the 1st of January, 1876, they dropped the word " Republican" as a part of the name, and adopted the title Westmoreland Democrat, which is identical with one of the original names when the word Republican was synonymous with Democrat. Under its present management it has kept pace in general and local news with the improvements in journalism, enlarged its circulation, and has taken a leading part in the political controversies of the day, with such a distinctive apprehension of the varied issues that it has preserved and increased the respect and good will of the Democracy of the county, as well as that of many who are not in sympathy with its political creed. In Collins & McLeester's Proof-Sheet for 1873, a publication for practical printers, in an account of the various newspapers of the State, Greensburg was remarked for the journalistic distinction of having odd or contradictory titles for at least three of its then existing newspapers, as witness the Tribune and Herald, the Republican and Democrat, and Prank Cowan'a Paper. THE GREENSBURG GAZETTE. The Tribune and Herald of to-day traces the history of its press to the Gazette. The Greensburg Gazette, which was established by David McLean as the organ of the Federal party, was the first political paper in the county ostensibly and professionally so. It began its existence in 1811. Mr. McLean was succeeded by Frederick J. Cope, Esq., in 1822. The first number of the Gazette edited by Mr. Cope was dated Friday, October the 11th, 1822. In closing his editorial duties with that number of the paper, Mr. McLean stated that " notwithstanding he had commenced business under very unfavorable circumstances, the generosity of his friends had given .him all the prosperity he could wish." He had when made arrangements to continue in business at Pittsburgh, and had already moved his family there. The Gazette of the early day was a four-column sheet, and as such continued till 1823. April 25th of that year (at No. 29, Vol. I., New Series, and Vol. XII., Whole Number 612, regularly) another column was added to the page, making it a five-column paper. The advertising matter was slowly but certainly increasing in extent and in proportion to the contents of the paper. In size the page, as it was set up in type, was eighteen by eleven and a half inches, with a very small margin, not half an inch, around. The contents and make-up of the Gazette differed not much (mutatia mutandis) from the Register, or from other papers of the day. In the Gaulle some story partaking largely of the romantic style of literature then in vogue, under such a heading an "The Pirate's Treasure," "The Count's Secret," "The Mystery of Norwood Castle," was usually printed an the last page to the exclnsion of other matter. Under the heading " Domestick" was given the local and provincial news. The politics of the paper was, as we said, opposite to that of the Republican. The Gazette first the election of Jackson to the Presidency must be also remembered that Jackson for a time time was claimed by the Federalists. When Jackson was taken up and supported by the Democratic Republicans it then opposed him. After the fashion and the usage of the newspaper and other publishing concerns a fashion tresnable to England—the country editors sold books and sta. tionery of ordinary kind at their total esblishments, and even printed books and pamphlets, and rams"' on the bookbinding business in connection therewith. At the office of the country paper, indeed, was the only place to get the current literature of the day. Among the publications which the Gazette in 1824 proposed to put in press was " Divine Breathings; or a Firm. Soul Thirsting after Christ, in one hundred Pathetick Meditations, &c., to contain 128 pages of 16's. Price 37½ cents, full bound and gilded." On February the let, 1828, the Gazette establishment passed out of the hands of Mr. Cope 1 into those of John Black & Son (Mr. Morrow not being known to the public as connected with the paper), with the 1 Fredsrick J. Cope, who is still living, was born in Greensburg, Oct 14, 1801, and is ths oldest person living hsre born in this place. Hs was the son of William and Elizabeth (Rohrer) Cops, who c me from Hagerstown, Md. His grandfathsr was Calsb Cope, who early settlsd is Westsrn Maryland, and his great-grandfather was Oliver Cope, wbo came over with William Penn in 1881, in which year he erected in Chester County his log house, still standing in 1863. The subject of this sketch was born in a house that stood whsre Banghman's Block now is on Main Street. He learned the printer's trade with David McLean, then proprietor of the Greensburg Gazette. The latter went to Pittsburgh and purchased the Pittsburgh Gazetle (now Commercial Gazete.) of John Scull, its founder. Mr. Cope then purchssed the Greensburg Gazette, Aug. 23, 1822, and published it until Sept. 29, 1826. It was small sheet (demi-paper) of four pages, each of four columns. He enlarged it one column before he sold it to Paul Morrow, then cashier of the bank here. His paper wss distributed by the mails and often by carriers. The cost of the raw paper was then much higher than now, and in those times the printers employed were such as could be picked up, and oftentimes of but little sxperience. He traded his printing-office to Paul Morrow for the farm he has since owned, which was patented and owned by John Brownlee before the burning of Hannastown in 1782. Mr. Cope is one of the oldest printers in the State, but has not worked at the trade for fifty-six years. For the last quarter of a century he has contributed largely to the agricultnral and educational press, and the articles thus contributed have given him great celebrity. 284 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. number which commenced the second half of the seventeenth volume. The junior member of this firm was then engaged in learning the printing business in the office, and the management of the office was left to him. The latter end of the name of the paper was dropped, and it was called again merely The Greensburg Gazette. In 1829, there being then no longer any use for the Federal party, it lost its identity in the anti-Masonic which sprang up like a mushroom. The Gazette then became anti-Masonic. Mr. Black, Sr., conducted the editorial management, and directed the course of the Gazette in politics until 1832, when he retiring on account of ill health the editorial management was transferred to his son, William F. Black. The name of the paper was then changed to The Westmoreland Intelligencer. After the death of Mr. Black, Jr., the control of the paper passed into the hands of Reece C. Fleeson, subsequently and for many years one of the proprietors of the Pittsburgh Dispatch.1 From Fleeson it passed to John Ramsey, upon whose death in 1839 the paper was purchased by John Armstrong, Esq., the father of John Armstrong, Esq., of the Westmoreland bar, and of Col. James Armstrong, both present citizens of Greensburg. For more than ten years Mr. Armstrong, with the more active and personal superintendence of his son, a practical printer, edited and controlled the paper. 1 The Intelligencer was yet owned by the widow of William F. Black, but under the management of Mr. Fleeson. It professed to be" Democratic anti-Masonic," and in 1834-35 supported, or rather advocated, William H. Harrison for President, and Francis Granger for Vice-President. It was printed every Friday on Market Street. The Intelligencer was in size larger than the Gazetle, and the types were bigger. From the Gazette, Friday, April 23,1824: "The GAZETTE OFFICE and BOOK-BINDERY have been removed to the house lately occupied by Mr. Gallagher as a hatter's shop, between Mr. Brown's and Mr. blow ry's stores, and opposite the Post-Office, where subscribers and others are respectfully requested to call." From the Gazette, July 16, 1824: " PRINTING. THE EDITOR Having Procured From NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA, An addition to his former assortment, A Variety of Elegant PLAIN AND ORNAMENTED TYPES, He is enabled to execute HAND-BILLS, PAMPHLETS, CARDS, BLANKS, etc., In a superior style al a short notice. "Book-Binding is neatly and expeditiously executed at the Bindery attached to the Printing-Office. "Old Books will be substantially rebound at moderate charges. "A number of Books, long since bound, remain on hand. The Owners are requested to call for them, or they will be sold to pay for the binding" THE SENTINEL It is here necessary to make a digression from the regular line of succession and take up one of the collateral branches, so to speak. In 1840 a new political paper was started in Greensburg called The Sentinel. John F. Beaver, Esq., a lawyer in practice, was at the head and back of this concern, while Jonathan Row, a practical printer, a man of ability, and a native of Indiana County, was the editor and manager. It was partly a matter of private enterprise, and partly a political speculation. It was not till the campaign of that year that all the discordant elements in opposition to what was called the Democratic-Republican party effectually coalesced and united. Hence there was a struggle for all in opposition to become " organs." In either aspect the Sentinel was not a success, and after a short but vigorous existence the concern was purchased by Mr. Armstrong, the proprietor of the Westmoreland Intelligencer, and being merged into that paper lost all identity. In November, 1850, Mr. Armstrong sold the Intelligencer to D. W. Shryock, Esq. who had been brought up to the printing business. When the next phase of opposition in politics took shape, and one of the parties was known as the Democratic, the other as the Know-Nothing or True American party, the name of the Intelligencer was changed to the American Herald. After the dissolution of the Know-Nothing organization the name of the paper was changed to The Greensburg Herald, and thenceforth became the organ of the Republican party. As such it continued for some years. Its editor and proprietor, Mr. Shryock, in the ascendency of his party was remembered by the administration in power. He was appointed revenue collector for the Twenty-first District at a time when the office was very profitable. THE TRIBUNE. The political course of the Herald had, however, in time raised opposition within the party in the county on local questions. The leader in this opposition was James R. McAfee, Esq., at the present time deputy secretary of the Commonwealth. Mr. McAfee was a lawyer at the bar, was a well-known Republican politician, had been superintendent of the common schools, and a member of the Assembly. In 1870 he established The Tribune in opposition to the Herald, and as the organ and the political exponent of the party in the county. The first number made its appearance on the 23d of July of that year. These two papers were published in opposition to each other for about eighteen months. The prosperity of the Herald was visibly affected by The Tribune, and the editor, in all probability wearied with the cares and activity of a lengthy and laborious professional service, sold his establishment to Messrs. Atkinson and Weddell. These gentlemen were the law partners of Mr. McAfee, and in reality they repre- THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 285 sented that gentleman as well as themselves. A month after the sale and purchase, or in February, 1872, the two papers were consolidated, and under the style of the TRIBUNE AND HERALD were published by McAfee, Atkinson, & Weddell. Upon the retiring of Mr. Weddell, the paper, then the undisputed organ of the Republican party in Westmoreland, was, and has been till this time, conducted by Messrs. McAfee & Atkinson. Mr. Shryock, the gentleman who established the business prosperity of the Herald, was, as we said, a professional printer, a native of Greensburg, and resided in the town continuously until he accepted the position of cashier of the National Bank at Mount Pleasant, Pa., when he moved to the business-place of the bank. There he resided until the beginning of the current year (1881), when, upon the establishing of the Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank of Greensburg, Pa., he was elected cashier of that bank, which position he at present occupies. All the papers represented in the Tribune and Herald were founded and have been in opposition to the Democratic party. They have been successively Federal, anti-Masonic, Whig, Know-Nothing, American, and Republican. THE PENNSYLVANIA ARGUS. The Pennsylvania Argus, although in a certain aspect more modern than the other papers just mentioned (which are in a certain sense the representatives of the first two newspapers of Westmoreland), yet in another aspect it is the oldest paper in the county. It still retains the name it was first called, and it has now been edited and managed by the same proprietor (with the co-operation latterly of his sons) from a period dating farther back than the actual existence of any other of the papers named. The Pennsylvania Argus was established in 1831 by Jacob S. Steck and George Rippy. It was Democratic in politics, and represented as the disaffected of their day " the outs." These had thought that the Westmoreland Republican exhibited a disposition to domineer over the opinions, and to monopolize the patronage of the Democratic party, and thus the establishment of the Argus was regarded as a necessity. The Democratic party at that conjuncture was divided on the question of State politics. George Wolf, Democrat, had been elected Governor in 1829 by a very large majority over Joseph Ritner, the Whig and anti-Masonic candidate. In 1832, on an increased vote, the same candidates running, Wolf was elected it is true, but by a very small majority. The friends of Wolf determined to prove that he was still popular as ever, and that, he could be, as Simon Snyder had been, elected a third time. But the friends of other candidates protesting they were afraid to take so many chances against Wolf as the nominee of their party, - 19 - and being in reality opposed to his candidacy, when the nominating convention was held the friends of one of them, Henry A. Muhlenberg, appeared in such numbers and took such a determined stand that a bitter quarrel ensued, the Democracy divided, and both Muhlenberg and Wolf were nominated, one by each wing of the party. The Whigs and anti-Masons again nominated Joseph Ritner, whom Wolf had twice defeated. The divided Democracy carried on the campaign as if there were no other candidates to elect or defeat but those of the two factions. They denounced the candidates of the opposing faction without stint or mercy, and the opposition they waged against Ritner was mild compared with the opposition they waged against each other. The result was as expected. Ritner was elected, not by a majority but by a plurality vote. One of the most memorable incidents of Ritner's administration was the Buckshot war. In this division of the Democratic party in 1835 the Argus became the friend, advocate, and supporter of Henry A. Muhlenberg. For this reason, long after that campaign, and when its asperities were somewhat forgotten, the Argus was considered by a majority of the party in the county rather heterodox. After the death of Mr. Rippy, the Argus was cont tinned by Mr. Steck. The establishment becoming involved in pecuniary matters owing to a want of active support, it was sold at sheriff's sale about 1839, and J. M. Burrell, Esq., afterwards president judge of this district, became the purchaser. About the middle of the year 1841 the Argus came into the hands of Messrs. Joseph Cort and James Johnston as editors and proprietors, and :Samuel S. Torney as printer and publisher. With the number for May 26, 1843, Mr. Johnston retired from the editorial management of the Argus, and the editorial duties thenceforth devolved on Mr. Cort until July, 1844. Mr. Cort then sold his interest to Messrs. S. S. Torney (or Turney) and William H. Hacke. The former of these gentlemen was lately the postmaster at Greensburg, and the latter is foreman of the Tribune and Herald office. The paper was carried on by these gentlemen as editors and proprietors. The old files of the Argus previously to and up to this time evidence that the paper was heartily committed to the cause of the Democratic party. Some of the political articles of the paper which came from the pen of Mr. Burrell while he was in control were widely circulated, and were met in reply by Horace Greeley in the Log Cabin, one of his first newspaper ventures in New York. Under the control of Messrs. Cort and Johnston the Argus strenuously advocated the nomination to the Presidency of Col. Richard M. Johnston,—he of Kentucky who had killed Tecumseh. The selections for the paper were made with taste and singular discretion, and were not restricted to matter of an exclusive partisan character, for the oration of Daniel Webster at the unveiling of 286 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. the Bunker Hill monument, and the remarks of Mr. Clay at the close of his career in the Senate, were given a place as conspicuous as was any other subject matter of general information or instruction. In 1849, John M. Laird, Esq., purchased the Argus, and since that time it has been under his management. Regarding the ancestry or descent, etc., prior to his parentage of the venerable John Moore Laird, of Greensburg, the oldest printer, publisher, and editor (in consecutive years in the craft), reference may be had to the biographical sketch elsewhere in this work of his brother, the Hon, Harrison Perry Laird.1 John M. Laird found in his father a private tutor of rare qualifications, and under him and in the common schools when open he passed the early years of his youth, acquiring a knowledge of geometry and surveying, etc., and finally spent some time in a classical school at Pittsburgh, and in his seventeenth year was taken into the printing-office of his uncle by marriage, John M. Snowden, of that place, and who established the first paper in Westmoreland County, the Register, toward the close of the last century. There he learned the printer's trade, and after journey-Working a while was called to Somerset, Perry Co., Ohio, where he conducted a newspaper for three years. He then removed to Steubenville, Jefferson Co., Ohio, and became part owner of a paper which he soon bought out, and conducted it alone till his own sickness under fever and ague and the death of his wife induced him to return to Pennsylvania in 1831. While at Steubenville, Edwin M. Stanton, a " bright, active boy, a profitable adjunct of the office," and who became the most famous of War Ministers as secretary under Lincoln. and Johnson; entered Mr. Laird's office and learned the printer's trade. Mr. Laird preserves memories of Edwin, which ought to be put in permanent form. Soon after returning to Pennsylvania, Mr. Laird took part in the re-establishment of the Pennsylvania Argus, with which he has since continued, and of which he has long been the sole owner ; a paper from the beginning Democratic in politics, ever maintaining loyalty to the Constitution, so markedly, indeed, in the times of the late war as to provoke the bitter anathemas of its foes, who in their hot zeal at times threatened to demolish 1 John M. Laird is the latter's oldest brother. Their father and mother, Rev. Francis Laird, D.D., and Mary Moore, were married in April, 1800, and became the parents of eight children, who were born in the order of their names following: John Moore Laird (editor of the Pennsylvania Argus, and connected with that paper for fifty-one years), born Sept. 8, 1802; William, born in December, 1803, died in the fall of 1881 from an injury received from a vicious horse ; Jane, born in 1805, and who intermarried with Zachariah Gammell Stewart. M.D., and died in 1879; Eliza Moore, born 1807, became the wife of James R. Johnson, both dying some years age, leaving two sons, both of whom have since died ; Francis, born 1809, and now residing at Saltsburg, Indiana County ; Harrison Perry Laird, born 1811, a leading lawyer of the Greensburg bar, and present State senator ; Robert, born 1813, died in Tennessee in 1845; Mary Moore, born in 1815, intermarried with the Rev. Thomas S. Leasson, of Brookville, Jefferson Co., Pa. the office in which it was published and kill the editor himself. But while papers or presses less pronounced in their devotion to the Constitution were suppressed, Mr. Laird's paper remained active, fulminating when and what it would ; and here the chronicler discovers an instance of that peculiar concatenation of things which are not always visible to first sight. The printer's apprentice at Steubenville was then but the " makings of the man," who in the times of which we were just speaking wielded the military forces of the land, and stretched out the arms of the government's protection over whom he would, and he had not forgotten his dear old printer-master, the man who did much to encourage Edwin into a practical. career in his young days, and who was his and his father's warm friend. A peculiar characteristic of Mr. Laird's business sense of propriety, his love of independence in political action, as well as moral discrimination between his duties to creditors and the public, demands notice here, and is evinced in the fact that whenever, especially in early days, he needed to borrow money to carry on his paper, he always sought persons of the opposing political party as leaders, in order that he might the better preserve the independence of the leaders of the party which he favored, and which might come to think, if its members supplied the " munitions" of his arsenal, that it owned its ordnance, his press, and so had a right to dictate the character of his paper. For, forty years of his life Mr. Laird held the office of justice of the peace, and in the exercise of his magisterial functions was noted for his good offices towards the peaceful adjustment of the contentions which he was called upon to consider. He has also held the offices of coroner and of register and recorder. Jan. 12, 1830, Mr. Laird married Ellen Marton, of Cadiz, Ohio, who died Aug. 19, 1831, leaving a daughter, Ellen M. Laird, still living, and the wife of G. W. Hanney, of Franklin township, Westmoreland Co. Sept. 8, 1835, he married Rebecca Moore. She died July 5, 1874, leaving three sons and one daughter. His son William died Nov. 29, 1876, aged thirty-one years. His surviving sons, James Moore Laird and Francis Van Buren Laird, have the chief management of the Argus newspaper and job-office, the political character of the Argus being under the exclusive control of the proprietor. FRANK COWAN'S PAPER. This journal was founded by Dr. Frank Cowan, who issued his first number May 22, 1872, in folio form, size of sheet being twenty-eight by forty-two inches. It was devoted to the material interests of Southwestern Pennsylvania,—coal, coke, iron, oil, railroads, manufactories, etc. With the completion of the first year of the paper's existence the form was changed from a four-page to an eight-page paper, the size of sheet remaining the THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 287 same. In October, 1873, during the Westmoreland County Fair, Frank Cowan's Daily was published for four days in connection with the weekly. The daily was the same size as the weekly, and netted the publisher, in the brief .period of its being, four hundred dollars. In the spring of 1874 the publication of the paper was transferred to Pittsburgh, the printing-office remaining in Greensburg. At the same time an agency was opened in London, England, at the office of The Monetary and Mining Gazette. The scope of the paper was further increased by the publication by the editor and proprietor of a Christmas story called " Zomara, a Romance of 'Spain," and a " Map of Southwestern Pennsylvania," size twenty-eight by thirty-three inches, printed in three colors, illustrating the coal, iron, coke, railroads, rivers, and towns of an arc about one hundred and twenty miles in diameter, with Greensburg in the centre. In the spring of 1875 the form of the paper was changed from an eight to a sixteen-page, the size of sheet remaining the same, and in August of the same year its publication was concluded on account of the broken health of Mr. Cowan. The paper was a marvel for the time for neatness of appearance, typographical distinction, and fine selections. Much more original matter appeared in its columns than was customary to be seen in county papers, and the selections were all made with great care, judgments and labor. Even the advertisements gave evidence of scrutiny and a regard for harmony. The first number opened with an original article, contributed by the Hon. Edgar Cowan, on "Woman : her rights, her wrongs, and her remedies." It was a learned and an exhaustive exposition of the legal status of married women under the laws,of Pennsylvania, as well as a treatise on the social and domestic relations of women in general in the economy of the day. In size Frank Cowan's Paper was as large as any of the other papers of Greensburg. There was no end to the devices and the ingenuity of the editor. The second form of this paper, which was an eight-page, was so arranged that each of the sides of the presswork showed for an outside page and opened on editorial matter. The title-head of his daily was noted for its singularity, being an enlarged fac-simile of his own handwriting, having the appearance " as if it had been put on with a split brush and tar." The motto of his paper was " To come home to men's business and bosoms," a quotation from Bacon. In the fall of 1875 the printing-office was sold by Mr. Cowan to a company styled " The Democratic Times Company," composed of Edward J. Keenan, Frank Vogel, William P. Fisher, and Ulam Rohrer, for three thousand dollars, who began the publication in the office of the Paper of The Democratic Times. This paper was continued for a little more than a year, when, the company failing to make their second and third payments, the office passed back into the hands of Mr. Cowan, and the Times was discontinued. In the winter of 1878, the Argus office being destroyed by fire, the Argus was printed for several weeks in the office of the Paper, with the material of the same. In the summer of 1878, Dr. Cowan opened a job-office and published a duodecimo volume of four hundred and twenty-four pages entitled " Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story." In September, 1878; Mr. Cowan sold the office to Messrs. John T. Fulton, John Rugh, George W. Rumbaugh, William Armbrust, and F. L. Armbrust for two thousand dollars, who soon after established The National Issue as the organ of the Greenback party, under the management of F. L. Armbrust, Esq. Under that arrangement Mr. Armbrust continued the publication of The National Issue under its various sizes until July 1, 1880, when C. A. Light, Esq., and Mr. L. F. Armbrust published it during the Presidential campaign. On the 17th of November it was sold to a co-operative company, and the Rev. Uriel Graves was appointed editor, and C. A. Light, Esq., local editor. By these gentlemen the Issue was conducted until April 1, 1881. It then fell into the hands of John T. Fulton and Rev. Graves, who continued the same employes, and who commenced the publication of The Daily Evening News in connection with The Weekly National Issue. The News was an independent paper, while the National Issue was the organ of the Greenback party. The Issue was an eight-page paper, and the News a four-page five-column paper. In May, 1881, the owners of the National Issue sold it with all rights and privileges and a subscription-list of about eight hundred to Messrs. J. 11.. Ryckman and J. B. Laux, who at once changed its name and political character. It is now known as The Greensburg Press, a weekly Republican paper, and The Evening Press, a daily independent journal. The first number of The Evening Press was issued May 18th, and the first number of the weekly June 6, 1881. Under the able editorship of James B. Laux, Esq., the Press soon became known as a brilliant exponent of Republican doctrines as well as a journal of a high standard of excellence in its literary and scientific departments. It took high rank at once, and has grown in favor and influence ever since. The partnership existing between the publishers, covering a period of a little more than three months, was ended September 1st, when Hilary J. Brunot, Esq., purchased the interest of Mr. Ryckman. Since that time he has become sole owner, and under the management of Mr. Laux, as editor and manager, the circulation of the paper has wonderfully increased. The Evening Press he has also made a success, demonstrating to those who prophesied its failure that his faith was well founded. It is the only daily pub- 288 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. lished in the county, and the only one published in the congressional district composed of Greene, Fayette, and Westmoreland Counties. On Sunday, July 3, 1881, the day following the tragic shooting of President Garfield, a Sunday edition was issued, the first Snnday paper ever issued in Westmoreland County. By this enterprise the people of surrounding towns received full particulars of that sad event without being compelled to wait .for the Monday papers. The papers sold readily at twenty-five cents apiece in some places, in one instance a dollar being offered for a copy. Both the daily and weekly have had surprising success, enjoying the confidence of a large and influential class of citizens by reason of their judicious treatment of public questions. Mr. Laux is a staunch disciple of Alexander Hamilton, believing with his whole soul in the principle of nationality as opposed to State sovereignty. The motto he has given the Press shows the tenor of his political belief, "The Nation:: first, foremost, and always." The following extract from his "greeting" in the first number of the Press will show more strongly his political ideas: " It will do its utmost to develop the growth of a strong feeling for nationality among the people, believing it to be the only true way of finally uniting all sections of the country as one people. It will advocate uniform laws for the whole nation, making crime as disreputable and punishable in one State as it is in another. It will advocate a code of laws whereby the ends of justice cannot be evaded or delayed by the technicalities of different State laws." GERMAN NEWSPAPERS. At one time there were two newspapers published in the German language in Greensburg. One was published by Frederick A. Cope, along about 1828, in connection with the Gazette. This was subsequently published by John Armbrust. It was called in German The Star of the West. It was subsequently removed to Adamsburg, whereat its publication was continued for some time. The other one was published by Jacob S. Steck, in connection with the Argus, but it existed but for a short time, and during that time its circulation was limited. In 1862 a paper called the Westmoreland News was started in Greensburg by John B. Crooks. In politics it was Republican, and although it was edited with considerable ability, was handsomely printed, and bore a neat typographical appearance, yet the next year, 1863, its publication was discontinued for want of support. The subscription-list was sold to the Herald, and the materials to James F. Campbell, who removed them to Johnstown, and with them there established the Johnstown Democrat. So much of the papers of the county town, and now let us go into the provinces." THE LIGONIER FREE PRESS, edited and published by Mr. S. A. Armour, was established about the 1st of June, 1845, at Ligonier. It was neutral in politics, and " devoted to literature, morality, agriculture, news, finances, miscellany," and several other things. The Press, however, had not been long diffusing light and knowledge until it began to show a preference for the Democratic party. In the beginning of the year 1854 it openly forsook its so-called independent course, and henceforward sailed under Democratic colors. The editor in announcing to the public the fnture course of the paper on political subjects says that the increased number of his subscribers and their political preferences had mostly urged him to this course. But he gave additional reasons why he should make his paper a party paper. It then supported William Bigler for the governorship. This was the beginning of the ninth year of the Press. With the number for the 10th of January, 1854, the Free Press on that day took the name of The Valley Democrat, and was issued every two weeks. The paper varied in size, capability, and evidences of judicious supervision with the varying career and fanciful tastes of its eccentric editor. Complete files of the paper must be rare. We do not know if any exists. At one time the project promised much, but time at last told upon it ; and owing to the irregularity of its appearance, and the lack of sufficient support at the hands of a generation whose attention was diverted by the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of the world, the Valley Democrat for a long time languished, and languishing did die. Mr. Armour was compelled more than once, that the paper of his choice—the child of his invention—should live, to walk to Pittsburgh and carry his paper on his back to Ligonier. He was a great walker, and could walk with ease the distance, which was fifty miles, in one day, and return the next. Of those numbers of the Press and Valley Democrat which we have seen, the first number of the Democrat will serve as a sample of the rest. This is Vol. IX., No. 1, dated Ligonier, Penna., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 1854, S. A. Armour, editor and proprietor. Terms, one dollar per year. The paper has six columns to a page, and each page is about eighteen by fourteen inches. The matter throughout is widely spaced, but the letter-press is legible and the paper not bad. The caption of the first column is " Fearful End of a Rum Drinker." The next column has at its head the woodcut of a sailing steamship, as formerly the other papers had one of a newsboy riding at a gallop, and underneath the ship, in heavy broad letters, " Highly Important from Russia & Turkey," which two nations were at that time at war. In this column the glad news was brought to the housed-up inhabitants of the Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill that " an insurrection had broken out in Nickchivan ; that Prince Woronzoff, the Russian commander, had been surrounded at Tiflis ; that Schanyl, the Circassian leader, and THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 289 Selim Pasha were gradually approaching each other ; and that Admiral Machinoff had (literally) ' got the bulge' on Vice-Admiral Osman Bey." A great deal of such stuff was, scattered throughout the whole paper. Probably one-third was taken up with advertisements; of local items there were few, of editorial comments scarcely any. Under the column for " Poetry" was that fine ballad, so illustrative of the Western border annals, called " The Arkansas Gentleman, Close to the Choctaw Line," which filled a column and a quarter ; while in another number appeared that other equally fine and pathetic ballad of "Joe Bowers." From these selections you may get an appropriate idea of the facetiousness and of the humorous characteristics of the editor. But the papers were no doubt at one time treasured among the penates of many a household. For if the paper had, as all such papers have, an interest, this interest was for the locality in which it circulated. Although its local news was meagre, it was always of a " startling" character, and worthy to be remembered. It contained the records of the births and deaths as they occurred in the Valley, touching observations on deceased friends, and much other local information, which if collected and arranged might at this day be of a very satisfactory kind. The most valuable of the contributions to Mr. Armour's publications which we can recall are some relating to the early times about Fort Ligonier, and personal recollections and narrations of some of the old inhabitants bearing upon the Indian wars, which in early times reached the Valley. So too might items relative to the industrial and productive interests be gathered which might possibly be useful. In a number printed during the winter of 1854 it is said that the furnaces of the Valley were doing an "immense business that season." MOUNT PLEASANT PAPERS. There has always been an interest manifested in Mount Pleasant in newspaper literature. Some of the ventures, it is true, have not been successful. In the early part of 1843, Norval Wilson Truxal was editor and proprietor of the Literary Gezette. He had been a former publisher of the Freeport Columbian. In April, 1843, The Democratic Courier began its existence, with Mr. Truxal as editor, awl D. H. H. Wakefield as assistant editor. The paper advocated Democratic principles, and had for its motto, "Measures, not men." Mr. Truxal got knocked off his feet somehow, but afterwards got up again, and in 1846— 47 established The Ranchero, at Third and Market Streets, Pittsburgh; but the Courier had ceased to gladden the hearts of its former patrons.1 LATROBE PAPERS. The Latrobe Inquirer, W. R. Boyers and J. G. W. Yeater publishers, was first issued in March, 1861.1 1 See history of Mount Pleasant borough in this work. It was a six-column, four-page paper, and contained considerable local news. It was a bad time, however, to start a newspaper, just at the beginning of the war. It did not long continue in existence. The Latrobe Advance was established by C. B. Fink and F. A. Benford, and its first issue appeared Aug. 6, 1873. Mr. Benford retired from the copartnership September 30th same year, since when Mr. Fink has continued the publication alone. The Advance is independent in all things and neutral in nothing. It is devoted largely to the interests of Latrobe and vicinity, and to general and local news. It is an eight-column sheet, makes a neat appearance, and is ably edited. The Reveille is the name of a paper established Feb. 1, 1882, by C. T. Athearn. It is published semimonthly, and is a four-page sheet of three columns each. It is largely devoted to the interests of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is fast winning its way into popular favor. IRWIN PAPERS. The Irwin Spray was the first journal ever started in Irwin, and was founded by B. M. McWilliams, who issued its first number Aug. 20, 1875. It was a four-page sheet of twenty-four columns, devoted to the interests of the borough. Its office was on Third, south of Main Street. Its publication was continued nearly three weeks, when the office was burned, and the paper was never revived. It was a neat paper in typographical appearance and well edited. It was pnblished every Friday, and had attained a respectable circulation and patronage. The Irwin Chronicle is the second newspaper ever established in the town, and was founded by W. H. Johnston, who issued its first number April 15, 1881. Its motto is, " A chiel's amang ye takin' notes, an' faith he'll prent it." It is a four-page sheet of twenty-four columns, and is independent in sentiment and tone. It is largely devoted to local news, and especially to home interests. It is well edited, and receives a large advertising patronage from the business men of the place. It is printed every Saturday at one dollar per year. Mr. Johnston is sole editor, publisher, and proprietor. WEST NEWTON PAPERS. The first newspaper published in West Newton Town was The Weekly Cycle, established by O. H. Harrison, who issued its first number June 20, 1855. Its publication was continued about a year. It was a four-page sheet of twenty-eight columns, and was devoted to agriculture, home interests, news of the day, and general miscellany, and was independent, but not neutral. It was published every Thursday morning, and had its printing-office on Main Street, opposite A. Lowry's hotel. Its terms were $1.50 per annum in advance, or $2 at the end of the year. It had a fair share of home advertising, with considerable from the 290 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Pittsburgh merchants, still its support was not adequate to the outlay of its publisher, who discontinued it. The West Newton Press was established Nov. 28, 1878, by E. C. Hough and W. L. Rankin. At the end of three months Mr. Hough bought out his partner, and from that time to the present has been its sole proprietor, publisher, and editor. At first it was ten by fourteen inches in size, but six months after its establishment Mr. Hough enlarged it to its present dimensions, twenty-six by forty. It is a four-page sheet of thirty-two columns. Its motto is, "The .Press, the people's paper, independent in all things, neutral in nothing." It is published every Thursday morning at its well-equipped 'office on First Street, near the railroad station. It is an ably-edited journal, and especially devoted to home and local news and interests. It has a large circulation, and its columns are well patronized by the best business advertisers of the town and valley. Mr. Hough, its editor, was born and raised here, and is largely identified with the best interests of the community, to the moral, social, intellectual, and business tone of which his journal has greatly contributed. SCOTTDALE PAPERS. The Scottdale Tribune is a neat four-page paper of twenty-four columns, established Dec. 22, 1880, by its present editors and publishers, I. M. Newcomer & Co. It is published every Thursday, is devoted to locah news and interests of the town, and .has a circulation of some eight hundred. It is an independent sheet, and is edited with ability. The Miner's Record is a twenty-four-column newspaper, published on Wednesdays, with A. O. Welshan and J. R. Byrne as editors. It is a consolidation of the Brownsville Labor Advocate and the Miner's Semi- Weekly Record. Its office is in Campbell Block. It is the official organ of the miners and coke-drawers of the " Connellsville coke region," and is published exclusively in their interests. It was established June 1, 1881, as a one-page sheet of eight columns, has been five times enlarged, and is now on the point of still greater enlargement. It has twelve hundred subscribers, and is devoted to the interests of the " Knights of Labor." One of its editors, J. R.. Byrne, is secretary for this region, under D. R. Jones, head secretary, of Pittsburgh. ODDITIES. In the number of the Gazette for March 25, 1825, there was a wood-cut representing a locomotive and three truck-cars laden with coal. There is a lengthy article taken from the Baltimore American, which filled three' columns of the papers, which was a description of the new motive-power, then but recently utilized in this method in England. But, oh ! such a locomotive, and such cars ! Above the wood-cut was the following: " A Section of a Rail Road, with a view of a LOCOMOTIVE STEAM ENGINE, having in tow three transportation wagons. Upon the railroad, fifty tons may be conveyed by a ten-horse power at the rate of 12 or 14 miles per hour." The following appeared in the editorial column, referring to the subject : " We have prepared and placed on the first page of our paper an engraving representing a locomotive steam engine, having in tow three transportation wagons, accompanied by an explanation from another paper. We are indebted to the United States Gazette for a copy of the plate. It would be impossible, we think, considering the kind of country through which our road passes, to bring the steam wagon into successful operation between the east and west. It requires too many stationary engines to propel the wagons over our numerous hills. It would be necessary to have half a dozen in sight of this town, for we are situated on a bill, and surrounded by them on all sides." In the latter part of 1861 and 1862 the county papers generally issued a half-sheet. They were led to this from the scarcity of printers and of printing paper of the proper size. For the time it wasp also noticeable that the advertising patronage fell off. In instances where these half-sheets were issued the type was generally reduced in size, so that very neariy as much news was furnished then as befere. Then it became common for the paper to be issued in half-sheets and sent twice a week. The demand for news was at the highest possible point, and as the county newspapers then printed letters from the volunteers in camp, and were particular in giving the casualties of the Westmoreland soldiers, all the papers, when the flurry of the first excitement was over, saw themselves with larger lists of paying subscribers, and a growing trade in advertising which far exceeded anything in the past experience of newspaper men here. OBSERVATIONS. Near every change in the management of these papers was, in regard to the mechanical or composition part, to the advantage of the public. The papers grew in size as they grew older. With such editors as Wise and Cope, Burrell and Fleeson, Stokes and. Armstrong, men of known ability and ardent politicians, and with such contributors as Judges Coulter and Young, Drs. Posthlethwaite and King, Revs. James I. Brownson and J. A. Stillinger, lawyers as A. G. Marchand and A. W. Foster, litterateurs as James Johnston and William A. Stokes, the old files of these papers cannot but be interesting and instructive. As a class, the professional men of the old school cultivated the art of expression beyond those of a later day. The reason is obvious : their professional duties were not so laborious, there was a method of reaching the ears and attracting the notice of the people not practiced now, and, lastly, journal- THE PRESS AND LITERATURE - 291 ism has since their day become a profession of itself. Within the time we have marked, several noted discussions on political, on religious, and on scientific subjects were carried on in elegant and forcible language, in which the knowledge of the moderns was embellished and adorned by quotations and illustrations from the poetry and philosophy of the ancients. Besides those articles, which were valuable contributions to the current literature, and which, to an extent, invited scientific research, the papers of that date contained the effusion of those sentimental creatures, who, " sighing o'er Delphi's long-deserted shrine," prowl and howl around the outskirts of Helioon and Parnassns. These enriched the lyrical department of belles-lettres with acrostics spelt out on their fingers, with political songs set to the air of the "Camptown Races," with monodies after the style of Macpherson's " Ossian," and with odes on the Huckleberry Hills after the favorite metres in Tom Moore's melodies. A close reader who compares the original productions, particularly the essays on scientific and political subjects, and the finer productions in biography, history, and poetry, will conclude that in relative merit the common newspapers of to-day will suffer by the comparison. The present generation has read nothing like the political controversy between Coulter and Postlethwaite, in which the measures of Quincy Adams' administration were discussed ; the scientific and historical debates between Dr. King and Rev. Stillinger ; or the various brochures of Coulter, or the poetry of Edward Johnston. Some of the poems which appeared in the olden papers, whose authors are unknown, are indeed gems, and deserve a better fate than they met. Violets they were that wasted their sweetness on the desert air. One poem which we recall, but cannot give, in which the verses ran as freely as in any of Shelley's, was headed, " Lines written on the presentation of Washington's sword and Franklin's staff." Another one, called "My Father's House," had an ease and grace of diction not unworthy of Addison. The following little waif appeared in the Pennsylvania Argus of Feb. 26,1846 : "For the Pennsylvania Argus. "FRIENDSHIP. "Br S. B. M. "Friendship, thou dust not seek splendor, Princely domes allure not thee ; Mitred heads would oft surrender Every gem to purchase thee. Kindly thou dust seek the lowly, And around the cottage fire, Zest all pure and love all holy In each heart thou dost inspire. Lest thy presence ever cheer me, Even now I woo thy form, Surely thou wilt deign to hear me, Surely thou wilt ever charm. Insolence must bow before thee, Mighty in thy magic spell ; O! be mine, I now implore thee, Till I hid the world farewell." LITERATURE. Closely affined to the newspaper history is the literature which in a strict sense belongs to the county. In 1878 there was published at Greensburg a book from the pen of Dr. Frank Cowan, in which an attempt was made to embody in verse the salient features and prominent characters of the history of Southwestern Pennsylvania, in a setting of similes, figures, and formulas in keeping with the mountains and rivers, the plants and animals, and the climatic peculiarities of the country. Its title, "Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story," inadequately gives an idea of its scope. Suffice it here that it involves in an ideal form a great part of the history of Westmoreland County, and as such has entered into the general history of the county in a way that, in part at least, it must be incorporated in this book, and as a whole commended to the reader who has an appreciation for the poetic and romantic of history. The contents of the volume are arranged under six heads,—" Prehistoric," " Under the Crown of France, 1679-1758," " Under the Crown of Great Britain, 1758-1776," " Under the Flag of the United States, 1776-1878," " Miscellaneous," and " Evolution." In the first group is found one of the most graphic of the narrative ballads of Mr. Cowan's, a philosophic poem, entitled "The Last of the Mammoths," in which the victory of man over the greatest of his four-footed rivals, and of mind over matter, is depicted in a very ingenious and artistic manner. The scene Is laid along the route followed by Gen. Forbes and Col. Bouquet from Hannastown westward, and the termination of the conflict occurs on the ice at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, where, in 1875, two teeth and several large bones of the skeleton of a mammoth were discovered by a dredger. In the concluding stanzas the former river is made to typify man, and the latter woman, and the Ohio (which according to Mr. Cowan signifies the bloody, or the river of blood) the stream of life, while the mammoth is metamorphosed into the aggregate of the organic life of the past ages of the world, as follows : "A Mammoth's tooth, off the Pittsburgh Point, In the eddying, swirling flood, Where the two waters meet and embracing greet, As one in the River of Blood- "Like Man, the river that rolls from ths North, From a head with an icy mouth; Like Woman, the flood with the warmth of her blood That comes from a heart in the South- " Where the two rivers meet, and like man and wife greet, In the flood from the East to the West, That flows on forever to the Gulf of the Giver, And the Sett of Eternal Rest. " While in their bed are laid the dead, Of the first and of the last, Who have swelled the flood of the River of Blood, In the Mammoth of the Past!" In the second group we have " The Myth of Braddock's Gold," a ballad in which a ghastly scene is 292 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. presented to the imagination, impressing on the leader an idea of the retribution for greed and crime with a shudder. The foundation for the story is the fact that Braddock on the day of his disastrous defeat had twenty five thousand pounds in specie in his military chest, and from that day to this nothing authentic has come to light with respect to the large sum of money, although there is scarcely a mile of Braddock's road that has not been broken with the mattock at midnight to discover it. In the ballad, however, the possible but most improbable treasure is supposed to have been found by two brothers, the only survivors of a family, who for three generations had been engaged in the impoverishing and debasing search. The second needs no introduction, being entitled "St. Clair," but it is worthy of note that, in admiration of the character of the brave old soldier, and in commemoration of his deeds, Mr. Cowan dedicated his book in the following striking summary, "To the memory of Arthur St. Clair, by whose life Southwestern Pennsylvania has been associated with Scotland, England, and France, the savages of America, the filibusters of Virginia, the formation of local, State, and national governments, and the great men of America for half a century, and by whose death Southwestern Pennsylvania will be associated with the ingratitude of republics forever." From the fifth group, or "Miscellaneous," we select the stirring song which has become a part of the popular literature of the county, and given a familiar epithet to the river far and wide- "THE DARE-DEVIL TOUGH. "Where the bluff Alleghenies rise rugged and rough, And fetters and bars for a continent forge, There dashes defiant the dare-devil Yough, Through rocky ravine, deep dell, and grim gorge. To this river I drink ; for akin to my blood Is its torrent so bold, and so buoyant and free; Braving bowlder and crag with impetuous flood, As onward resistless it rolls to the sea! "And here's to the man with a will like the Yough,— A will that would wield as a weapon the world, Daring all, and defying even Death with a scoff, When over the brink of decision he's hurled ! 'Tis the man that I love, the bold and the brave, Converging his might to the channel of aim; From the mountain of life to the gulf of the gravs, Rolling on like the Tough to the ocean of Fame! "And here's to the woman aflood with the tide That bursts from the mountain-height's fountain of love, On whose billow the barks of futurity glide Until anchored in bliss in Eternity's cove! 'Tis the woman I love; and the free bounding wave That breaks in the course of my hot, throbbing blood Is the might of the love in return that she gave,— A might that's akin to the Tough's rushing flood!" Supplemental to this book, entitled "Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story," Mr. Cowan, in 1881, published another work called " An American Story-Book," short stories from studies of life in Southwestern Pennsylvania, pathetic, tragic, humor ous, and grotesque. As stated in the preface, however, the book was written before the publication of the volume of poems. It contains twenty-four stories, the scenes of most of which are laid in Westmoreland. In " The Old Man of Beulah" the phenomena of mid-winter on the summit of the Allegheny Mountains are personified, the moaning of the wind becoming his voice, the drifting snow his long white beard, and the shadows of the hemlocks his great gray cloak; the widow of Llewellyn Lloyd standing in the same relation to the sights and sounds around her as Peggy in the " Tale of Tom the Tinker's Time" to the distressing incidents of the Whiskey Insurrection- In " The Coal King" the mining of coal. on the Monongahela River is wrought into a romance of the mockeries of life. In " The Railroad" a feud of Ireland is laid in the grave of America as the result of the battle between the Fardownians and Corkonians at Hillside during the construction of the road-bed of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In " The Grist-Mill" the old mill at the falls of Jacobs Creek is reconstructed and peopled anew with the bashful, burly miller, Ebenezer Mix, and the rosy, rollicking, royal Widow Garvey, in a most provoking plight to themselves, but quite the reverse to all others. In " The Pack-saddle Gap" the profile of the human face that appears in the outlines of the rocks on the mountainside is invested with the stern significance of the features of Fate cut in the living rock. In "The Fiddle-faced Hog" the humors of the early settlers are depicted in a facetious trial about a monstrous hog before a trio of arbitrators of the most extraordinary proportions. In " The White Deer" the effect of superstition is illustrated in the fate of twin brothers, one of whom by chance kills an albino fawn while hunting on the mountain. In " The Steamboat" a peculiarity of the river service is personified in Capt. Godfrey Gildenfenny, who gets his just deserts in falling into the clutches of a fully-developed and accomplished old maid, Miss Arabella Guilk. In "The Devil in a Coal-Bank" a number of curious incidents and episodes are dove-tailed into a story, the moral of which is that there is a just punishment for every crime committed against the laws of man and God. In " The Oil Derrick" the ups and downs of the operator in oil are described in two laconic worthies who are alternately princes and paupers. In "The Ridger" the peculiarities of the inhabitants of the several ridges of Westmoreland and adjacent counties are set forth in a humorous manner in the dialect peculiar to the region of rocks and rattlesnakes in which the people referred to live, and among whom the author declares himself to be the chief, by birth and habitation at least, in addition to his being their expression in the art of the story-teller. In "The Erdspiegel" the story of two lost children on one of the ridges of the Laurel Hill is graphically and very pathetically told. In " The Towscape" the old superstition of the caul is made the foundation of a curious THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 293 tale, in which the credulity and timidity of the Ridger is made the background to reveal the mysterious terrors of the life and death of the unknown murderer. In "The Log Cabin" the innocence and purity, the health and happiness of the humble cabin on the Ridge are put in contrast with the vice and crime, disease and death of the gilded saloons of sin in the towns and cities. In " Yony Waffie" a humorous personification is made of the idea of art evolving from accident, our hero becoming in his adventures and achievements the embodiment and expression of a thousand oddities. In "The Road Wagon" the trials of the German immigrants in the olden time are related, the sad fate of Gretchen and the sympathetic Hans being touching in the extreme. In " The Printer Tramp" a worthy with whom the author in his capacity as an editor doubtless became personally acquainted is introduced in a dual stacquaintedreader, at the same time on earth and in heaven. In " The Coke-Oven" the dark side of the negro's character in superstition and crime is revealed to the reader in a very curious story. In " The Red Squirrels" a parable is told in illustration of the effect of greed and selfishness when time at last sets all things even. In "The Cow Doctor" the relationships between man and the ox in Southwestern Pennsylvania are summarized in a humorous account of tsummarizedes of Jackson Rummell. In "The Blaze and the Block" a vertcurious story is told, involving tvery curious the old-time surveyor in the backwoOds and the use made of it in a backwoodsjustice. In "The Bully Boy with the Glass Eye" the mother-in-law of popular facetiousness deservedly comes to a tfacetiousnessn " Old Helgimite," one of the most highly wrought and artistic of the characteristic creatiartisticr author, the writer is revealed in a measure himself in the imaginative and voluble Dr. Ott, who,imaginativescribed to be, "if he was exceptional in one thing and extraordinary in another, it was in hextraordinaryidealize luxuriantly and express his thoughts exuberantly," while in "The Proof-Reader," the last of the series, the shortcomings cf him who should be infallible in the eyes of an author are recounted in a humorously malignant manner, the deschumorouslythe "Proof-Reader," " in feature, form, and function," being remarkable as a specimen of the grotesque in the literature of American humorists. Dr. Cowan has published also a collectioh of ballads, poems, and songcollectionng to the " Little World," which he has made in a measure his own in literature as an appendix to his " Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song and Story," entitled "The Battle Ballads and Other Poems of Southwestern Pennsylvania." This collection includes the curious " Description of Pennsylvania" isi 1692, by Richard FrPennsylvania"bald of Crawfotd's defeat, several poems on thCrawford's.wmaArs David Bruce, H. H. CHAPTER XLIII. THE LEGAL PROFESSION. Provincial Courts—The County Justices—Distinction of President Judge —William Crawford, First Prssidine Judge—Judge John Moore—Increase in Legal Business--Differenes in Practice - First Regual Attorneys -Characteristics of the Early Practice - Judge H. H. Brackenridge— James Ross—John Woods—Steel Semple—Henry Baldwin and William Wilkins -Legal Ability of the Early Bar—The Bench—Judge Addison—Old Judicial Forms, etc.—Judge John Young—Judge Thomas White-Judge J. M. Burrell-Judge J. C. Knox—Judge Joseph Buffington-Judge James A. Logan—Judge James A. Hunter—John Byers Alexander— Alexander William Foster—The Hanging of Evans —James Findlay—Richard Coulter—John F. Beaver—Albert G. Marchand—Henry D. Foster-A. A. Stewart—H. C. Marchand—Joseph H. Kuhns—James C. Clarke-John Latta-Roll of Attorneys PROVINCIAL COURTS. THE judicial system of Pennsylvania, to quote the language of a forcible and accurate writer, Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, 1 was above the colonial standard, both as regards bench and bar. The early Quaker scheme of peace-makers to act as arbitrators and prevent lawsuits seems to have met with little success, and at the time of the Revolution there was an adequate and efficient organization for the administration of the, common law, which prevailed in Pennsylvania as elsewhere, except when modified by statutes, imperial or provincial. All judges were appointed by the Governor. The lowest court was that oGovernor.l magistrate or justice of the peace, cmagistrate try cases involving less than forty shillings. The next was the county court, or Court of Quarter Sessions, composed of three justices, who sat by special commission as a Court of Common Pleas, while the highest tribunal was the Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges, with general appellate jurisdiction, and combining the functions of the E'nglish Courts of Common Pleas, King'English and Exchequer. They held two terms, and were also empowered to sit as a Court of Oyer and Terininer and hold a general jail delivery, a power rarely exercised. Causes involving more than fifty pounds could be carried up from the Supreme Court to the king in council. There was no Court of Chancery. Keith had succeeded in establishing one, with himself as chancellor, under the charter, but after his rule it was suppressed, and such equity jurisdiction as was required was exercised by the common law courts. There was a register-general of probate and administration at Philadelphia, and radministrationds appointed at an early period in each county. 2 The bar in Pennsylvania was econnty.'ally good, and had always received full recognition. Practice was simple, and attorneys were admitted by the jus- 1 History of the English Colnies in merica, p. 2322 2 There was an old English Court of Vice-Admiralty, from which there will an appeal to England, but tills court was so unpopular that the Judge at one time complained that he could not perform the duties of his office. The judiciary of Delaware was similar in arrangement, but formed an independent organziation. - Ibid. 294 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. tices after slight examination ; but the law, as a profession, had many excellent representatives in the colony, and drew to its ranks many men of learning and ability. Andrew Hamilton, who defended Zenger, was the first' American lawyer who gained more than a local reputution, whose ability was recognized in England, and the only one whose reputation and ability in colonial times was so recognized. Touching the subject of crimes and offenses in the colony in the eighteenth century, Lodge, in the " History of the English Colonies in America," writes: " At last the new theory of criminal legislation was abandoned in the year 1718. Work-houses and jails were established, the number of capital offenses was increased from One to fourteen; every felony, except larceny, was made capital on a second offense, and matters went on in Pennsylvania in the ordinary fashion of the time. At the time of the Revolution, while, as compared with England, ths amount of crime was trifling, it was, as compared with the other colonies, vsry considerable, and although infrequent, there was much variety. About the middle of the century there was a great deal of hanging for house-breaking, horse-stealing, and counterfeiting. High way robbery was not onknown, and informers were tarred and feathered in the back counties by a population loyal to the cause of untaxed liquors. . . . The habit of rioting sprsad to the other towns [i.e., from Philadelphia], and the brutal massacre by the Scotch-Irish "Paxton Boys" of the Indians at Conestoga was the most notorious result of this turbulent disposition. The rioters and the criminals were almost wholly Irish. Not one native. or Englishman was found in any ten of the inmates of jails, and the unfortunate prominence of Pennsylvania in this respect was attributable to the character of a large portion of her immigrants." THE COUNTY JUSTICES. The act under which the judiciary was regulated was of old date (May 22, 1722): Under it a Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery was to be holden in every county of the Province four times in a year. The Governor or his lieutenant commissioned the justices who held the courts. Any three of the justices could hold private or special courts, and in or out of session they were empowered to take recognizances. The authority of these county justices was modeled after the authority of the justices of the sessions in England, as the justices of the Supreme Court, tinder this law, had full authority to exercise the judicial powers of the justices of the courts at Westminster. The jurisdiction of the judges of these county courts was extensive. Thus they were empowered to lay out cartways to the public roads, to appoint viewers of partition fences, to 'superintend the erection of bridges and the laying out of highways. No member of a court of justice was allowed to sit while his own cause was on trial. They were empowered to appoint persons to receive the claims for the reward offered for the killing of such birds and animals as upon which a bounty was laid by law. They could also grant writs of replevin, could issue writs of attachment, and award process for taking lands in execution, and to recover on mortgage. They had authority to recommend for tavern licenses. They had the acknowledging of deeds, the probating of wills, and jurisdiction to recover small debts. In their magisterial capacity they were hedged in by laws protect ing them, as well as the constables, if they exceeded their commission. In such cases as fall within the penal code they had likewise an extensive judicial power. Although they could not take cognizance of such offenses as were capital, yet they could sentence a felon to imprisonment, to the pillory and stocks, and amerce him in correspondingly large pecuniary fines and forfeitures. Besides the county justices there were other legally appointed justices of the peace with powers not so extensive. They had, and exercised ordinarily, such powers as are exercised by our justices of the peace. These were sometimes armed with a special commission, called a dedimus potestatem. With all these privileges, therefore, these justices were an influential class, a class, in fact, in many respects apart from the rest. We cannot, indeed, appreciate or rightly comprehend their position in the social scale by comparing them with our present justices of the peace. The standard was relatively much higher. From the judicial system of the colonies, they stood for lawyer and for judge. The county justice was not only the highest judicial officer in the county, and as such sat at the sessions to decide causes, but to him was referred all such controversies as arose among his neighbors. This in his civil capacity . while in the military arrangement he was usually an officer. His education, such as it was, his tastes, his distinction, and the custom of the early colonists all forced him to be a military man. The magistrates were looked upon as of a separate class, although not distinguished from the others by landed wealth or by any superiority in dress or equipage. They lived among the people and as the people. Their houses were ordinarily log houses, with perhaps few supplementary articles of furniture. But there was among these undoubtedly a higher standard of sociability and a finer polish than among the common classes ; and this standard is either traceable to usage and contact with the society of the older settlements of the East, or it was a vestige of old-world manners. As a class they were high-toned, punctilious in honor, of integrity ; and in such a sense they held their heads high over those who wire beneath them. The magistrates of the early colony were to the common people what the justices of the peace in England were to the common people two hundred years ago. Those penal laws, of which we first spoke, modeled after those of England, were, beyond our imagining, severe. The most trifling offense was punished by imprisonment under wretched diet and in unhealthful pens. Many of the crimes or misdemeanors for which a convict would, now be sent to the penitentiary, the county jail, or the work-house were then capital. Under this head were arson (that is, the burning of dwellings or public buildings), robbery, manslaughter by stabbing, counterfeiting, witchcraft. Although this is a true statement, we perceive, as Judge William Bradford says, that the severity of our criminal THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 295 laws is a foreign plant, and not the native growth of Pennsylvania.1 It was endured, but was never a favorite. Under them the county justice, could, if he chose to, punish a person found judicially Guilty as severely as our military laws now punish unruly soldiers when in actual service, and in such a manner as is now utterly un to our civil laws. Such a recital may give us an idea of the plenary power vested in these magistrates. But although their proceedings may, when we read the reports preserved to us, excite in us astonishment, yet we may observe that they seldom exercised their full authority. We may likewise reasonably conclude that they were, as Compared with the same class vested with the same power in other parts of the colonies, humane men. Touching the manner of conducting suits at law and the results of the system under the county justices, we have the observation of a distinguished person, and this in a place where one would scarcely go to hunt it if he were on that errand. St. Clair, when Governor of the Northwestern Territory, made some lengthy observations on extending the jurisdiction of a single magistrate in the trial of small causes in the Legislature of the Territory on the motion of Judge Symmes. The Governor was opposed to the motion, and probably had his preconceived notions of opposition from his notice of the practical workings of the county courante-revolutionaryal and ante-revolutionary period. That he was describing the system as he had seen it in vogue at Hannastown there can be no reasonable doubt.3 He says, " A worse mischief is still behind,—this kind of jurisdiction fosters a contentious, revengeful spirit among the people. I have seen some of the meetings before Magistrates in the United States on their law days, as they call them, when the business was transacted with little or no solemnity, and where a looseness was allowed for abuse and recrimination that had a bad effect, not only on the manners of the parties litigating, but on those of all the auditors, and the very considerable numbers attending them, especially on the afternoons of Saturdays, the time generally chosen by those who had no manner of business, and they seldom failed of returning worse citizens, worse neighbors, and worse men, and in settling one dispute the seed of a great many were sown, besides much extortion is practiced, to be convinced of which it is only necessary to look into the statute-book ofnumeroushe States, where numerous laws are to be found for preventing and correcting it." In the array of the names of those nominated as conservators of the peace we have a list of men who, as a general thing, were upright in character, of the strictest integrity, fearopposingatyrannynger and opposing tyrahny, of simple but dignified manner, of good general information, and of special knowledge 1 See Smith's or Bioren's " Laws." title Criminal Procedure. 2 See St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 361. in the cardinal principles of English liberty. There were of course among them some who did not relatively stand so high as others. These were, however, kept in a secondary position, and of them we have no knowledge for either good or evil. DISTINCTION OF PRESIDENT JUDGE. By the records of the Quarter Sessions and theon Pleas Courts, from the correspondence in the Colonial Records, and from the Minutes of the Council, it would appear that it was the custom to distinguish one of the justices on the bench as the president or presiding justice, and the others as his associates. This nominal distinction appears to have misled many. The status of the president judge was not indeed clearly presented till the lapse of a hundred yearswhend was first discussed when Westmoreland celebrated her centenary, in 1773. It is thence concluded that when any particular one is mentioned as president judge it was as a matter of mere formality, that it was following the organization of the Supreme Court, thatdistinguishedho sat thus distinguished had no actual precedence over the others, and that the nomiconferredence was mostly conferred upon William Crawford when he was present, although in some instances Lochry, Foreman, Gist, Hanna, and Moore are named as presiding justices. 3 WILLIAM CRAWFORD, FIRST PRESIDING JUDGE. William Crawford appears to have been a man who, even in his younger years and at that day, stood high among the people of the frontier and with those in authority, both in our own Province and in Virginia. He was one of the early settlers on the old Braddock road, having taken up lands in 1767. He chose the spot where Braddock had crossed the Youghiogheny in 1755. The place of his residence was called Stewart's Crossing. His house stood nearly opposite Connellsville.4 He was identified with the 3 It would appear that the justices elected or selected one of their number from time to time to preside. It is generally conceded that the presiding officer did not thus sit by virtue of any legislative provisionJannary,o the act of 28th January, 1777. The only instance I have met with evidencing by record their official compliance with this act of 1777, which enacted that "The President and Council shall appoint one of the Justices in each County to preside in the respective courtjusticssn his absenattsnd justthemselvesall attend the themselves choose one of themselves Presilsnt for the time being," le an order of record at the October sessions, 1781, Quarter Sessions docket, to whatsver "Rule that no Cause whatever be Removed from thConrturt into the Supreme Court Rsspective Term until Use Respective writs necessary for the Removal thereof be produced at Bar. "By the Court" "CHARLES FOREMAN, Preet Elect." That court, however, was held " before Edward Cook, Esquire, and his associates, Justices owonld same Court," and it would seem that in the absence of any appointment made by the president or Council the judges " elected" one of themselves to preside. At the January Sessions, 1776, Edward Cook was, for the first time, style " Precedent Judge..... " The Court of January, Sessions held 6th January, 1778, was held "before Edward Cook, Esqr., Precedent, and his Associates, justices of the same court.” 4 This was in Augusta County. Va., as claimed by that Commonwealth ; afterwards in the district of West Augusta, and finally in Yohogania County until 1779, when Virginia relinquished her claim to what is now 296 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. government of Virginia, both before this time and till his death. He was recognized as the chief county justice until the beginning of 1775, when, preferring to side with Virginia in the civil troubles, he was displaced by order of the Governor,, which order recognizes him as the presiding justice. It is therefore presumable that the appointment of him at first was from the consideration of these facts, for he was only about forty-two years old at the time. But it is certain that he was a natural-born gentleman of the old school, and a patriot without dissimulation. He was personally acquainted with Washington, and on intimate terms with him from long before Washington was a public personage until they were separated by death. Washington mentions him in several places in his journals and correspondence. He served under Braddock with-Washington, who procured him an ensigncy. He was remarkable for his hospitality, none passing his door without a hearty welcome in. He was said to be of a singular good nature and great humanity, tender-hearted and charitable, was possessed. of sound judgment, and was a brave and tried soldier. He was among those inhabitants of Western Pennsylvania calling themselves citizens of West Augusta County, who in 1775 met at Pittsburgh to give expression to their views on the troubles then appearing. Crawford, as a prominent citizen, was placed upon the committee to which was intrusted the defense and protection of the people there. When actual hostilities began he raised a regiment of Western Virginians and Westmorelanders, and received a colonel's commission in the Continental army. In the course of the war, such men as he being more needed where better known, he returned to his home. During the latter end of the Revolution his energies were interested in protecting the western border, in devising methods for its protection, and in watching against the British and Indians in the West. Under his instruction the fort called Crawford's Fort was built on the Allegheny, at the mouth of Puckety Creek. So high did he stand that in 1782 he was chosen to command the expedition against the Indian towns on the Sandusky, for after much suffering the inhabitants jointly volunteered to carry the war into the hive itself. This expedition, called Crawford's expedition, stands out prominently on the page of border history, and the success of the Indians, the capture of Crawford, his terrible death at the stake witnessed by Dr. Knight, the fiendish joy of the savages avenging the death of their former comrades by the most horrid torture ever depicted or related, the cool, calculating, unrelenting picture of that man Girty (who escaped immortality from being unknown to Dante), these Southwestern Pennsylvania. As claimed by Pennsylvania it was, in 1767, in Cumberland County, subsequently in Bedford, afterwards in Westmoreland, and finally in Fayette County, when, on the 26th of September, 1783, the latter was formed. Much information about Crawford will be found in "Crawford's Expedition against Sandusky," by Butterfield. help to form the last scene in the life of Crawford, the first of the colonial judges, above the rest honored by his fellow-citizens as the first presiding judge of Westmoreland County. In regard to the distinction of president judge,—"Precedent Judge," as it was written,—it is to be observed that at the change of the government into other hands at the time of the Revolution a law was enacted Which regulated anew the judicial system. This law 1 authorized the president and Council to appoint one of the justices in each county to preside in the respective courts, in whose absence the justices present could choose one of themselves for the time being. But it would seem that no appointment was made for Westmoreland till October, 1785, when, as appears by a minute of the Council of that day, John Moore was appointed president of the Courts of Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Court for the county of Westmoreland. 2 Moore, at the time he received the appointment, was on the bench as one of the justices, under a previous commission, embracing Christopher Truby, John Moore, and William Jack. Moore first sat as president judge at Greensburg. Five years later, by the constitution of 1790 as the organic law of the State, these president judges were to be professional lawyers, or learned in the law. Judge Addison, who has left a number of reports, frequently referred to as good authority, was the first legal-learned judge, being the first under the Constitution. He sat on the bench of this judicial district from 1791 to 1803,. when he was succeeded by Judge Roberts. JUDGE JOHN MOORE. John Moore, of Westmoreland County, the son of William Moore and Jennett Wilson, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1738. His father died when John was a small boy, and his mother, in company with her brothers, Charles and John Wilson, removed to the district of Westmoreland County as early as 1757. At the commencement of the Revolution John Moore was engaged in cleaning out and cultivating a large farm of four hundred acres on Crabtree Run, a branch of the Loyalhanna, two miles south of New Alexandria. A comfortable stone dwelling, still in pretty good condition, marks the place of his residence, and indicates a man in advance of the rude civilization of that day. He was a member of the Convention of July 15, 1776, and appointed by that body on the Committee of Safety. In 1777 he was appointed a justice of the peace, and subsequently surveyor of the public lands in Westmore- 1 Act 28 January, 1777. 2 George Baird, Esq., was at the time also on the bench under a corn. mission dated 20th November, 1784. Moore's commission is recorded in book " A," p. 644, recorder's office. Moore presided the last time at the July term, 1791. At the October term, 1791, Alexander Addison opened his commission. He sat as president judge, with William Todd and William Jack as second and third judges. While Addison was president judge, the courts were sometimes carried on in his absence by the other judges, his associates on the bench. THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 297 and County. In 1779 he was commissioned one of the justices of the several courts of Westmoreland, and in 1785 was presiding judge. Under the coconstitutionf 1790, Judge Moore was retired from the bench, being susucceededy the celebrated Judge Addison. 1792 he was chosen to the State Senate from the district of Allegheny and Westmoreland. He died in 1812, aged seventy-three years, and is buried at Congruity Church. Judge Moore married a daughter of Isaac Parr, of New Jersey, a woman of intelligence, vivacity, and fine personal appearance. She survived her husband many years. In personal appearance Judge Moore was .a man full six feet in height, straight and erect, had large brown eyes, brown hair, and nose rather aquiline. He had two sons and four daughters. One of his sons was county surveyor of Westmoreland, the other, a civil engineer, died in Kentucky. His daughters were respectively married to Maj. John Kirkpatrick, a merchant of Greensburg ; John M. Snowden, of Allegheny County, mayor of Pittsburgh, and associate judge of the county ; Rev. Francis Laird, D.D., father of Hon. Harrison P. Laird and John M. Laird, Esq., of Greensburg; and the fourth, James McJunkin, a farmer of Westmoreland County. 1 INCREASE IN LEGAL BUSINESS. But the change in the system of litigation has been as marked as any change within the county in the hundred years of its existence. Perhaps the difference between the early practice and the practice at this day is as great—to make use of a strained metaphor—as the difference between the log house of Robert Hanna and the court-house at Greensburg. It has been observed that in petty States and narrow territories fewer laws suffice than in larger and more populous districts, because there are fewer objects on which the law can operate. It is also noticeable that the amount of litigation is increased, not so much by the difficulty of deciding questions of law as by dedeterminingatters of fact. These changes have been imperceptibly brought about and in a way unununconsciously,she change from boyhood to manhood is unconscious. The amount of legal business of the county of Westmoreland as it is now, since almost a score of other counties have been taken from its original limits, has increased, within the hundred years, probably tenfold. The number of cases enenenterednhe Common Pleas docket in the first three years after the organization of the county in 1773 aggregated 1330. One-half of this number.was embraced in the first four terms, and which made up the first year's business. It must be remembered that there was an accumulation of business awaiting to be disposed of. The number of cases on the continuance docket in the same court, beginning with February term, 1873, and including the first twelve terms, aggre- 1 From sketch by William H. Egle, M.D., in Penn. Hist. Magazine. gate 7851. The average number for each term of the first twelve terms, beginning in 1773, is 111. But probably the most correct average for possibly the first twenty years would be the average per term from July term, 1774, to April term, 1776, which was about 65. The average per term for the first twelve terms after 1873—that is to say, from the February term, 1873, to February term, 1876, inclusive—is 650, while the average number per term of the eight terms which correspond with the eight just mentioned is about 790, or above twelve times as many. DIFFERENCE IN PRACTICE. And great as the difference seems merely in the number of cases, the difference in the practice is equally as great. The forms of the early practice and pleadings, as has been observed by Chief Justice Agnew, were simple. The body of the civil law was not laden with technicalities. Trespass on land or cattle, on the person or on the effects of the settler, violations of petty contract, contests for land in the, most common way and in the simplest form were usually the subject of forensic dispute, and the actions themselves were in trespass, trover, and asassumpeitcovenant, replevin, and in ejectment. Now that the land is filled with business of new kinds, new agents for its execution, and new forms of contract, new laws have been passed and novel forms of procedure introduced, new wrongs have been occasioned and new remedies have come with them, so that now we have feigned issues, bills of discovery, bills for injunction, writs of mandamus and quo warranto, of error coram nobis et vobis. We have what you call the corporation lawyer, the divorce lawyer, the Quartet Sessions lawyer, the proctor, the counselor, the solicitor, the master in chancery. This is all changed since Michael Huffnagle pleaded at the bar before the Hon. Charles Foreman, " Precedent of our CoCourt ofommon Pleas." By the rules regulating the admission of attorneys, adopted at the January sessions of 1783, the applicant was required, if above twenty-one years of age, to have read for three years ; was to have been a reresidentf some one of the United States at least one year previous, and was to take the oath of allegiance imposed by act of Assembly before he could practice. By this time the bar of Western Pennsylvania had some very good local practitioners, and the requisites for admission were somewhat more imperative. Under the old colonial arrangement the qualifications nenecessaryor a practicing attorney at the county courts were not extensive, neither was there much reresponsibilityttached to him in a professional capacity outside the practice in the higher courts. As there is no list of the early practitioners at the Westmoreland bar extant, we have gathered, together all that we could find, some appearing and coconductinguits the evidence of whose admission is not accessible. We have taken the names from the old apappearanceockets in the office of the prothonotary and 298 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. out of the minutes of the Quarter Sessions Court. We give the dates of admission when so stated, and otherwise the terms at which we find their first appearance respectively, although these dates do not invariably correspond with the dates of admission. Sometimes, indeed, attorneys from neighboring counties were admitted, on motion, at several successive terms. FIRST REGULAR ATTORNEYS. The first regular attorney whose admission at this bar is noticed is Francis Dade, who was admitted on Aug. 3, 1773. In the April term of 1774 we find the names of Espy, Irwin (written, properly, Erwin), Smiley, Galbraith, and Wilson; in October term, 1774, Megraw, and sometimes St. Clair, conducts cases. Mr. Wilson makes the motions of record in the Quarter Sessions during 1773. At the January sessions of 1779, on motion of David Sample, himself of course a practitioner, Samuel Erwin was admitted to practice. Sample was State's attorney in 1779. Michael Huffnagle was admitted in 1779, on motion of David Semple. The only observation touching the professional career of this very prominent citizen which we have yet come across is contained in a letter from St. Clair to President Reed, dated March 26, 1781. On the consideration of the bill to erect Washington County, Gen. St. Clair recommended Huffnagle to the office of prothonotary, as " a young gentleman now in the practice of the law in Westmoreland," and who, he said, was a man of probity, and capable of filling the office with propriety. He had served a regular apprenticeship (the old word used around the temple) to Mr. Shippen, of Lancaster, and had come to St. Clair strongly recommended. He had worked in the office with Brison and as private clerk to St. Clair for a number of years, and during the time he served him (so the general continues) he gave satisfaction not only to him, but very generally to everybody who had business at the office. In the April sessions of 1780, Robert Galbraith and Thomas Smith were admitted. At January term, 1785, Ross and Young appear ; at April term, Scott ; and at October term, Thompson. Ross and Woods ,mostly appear together, they being located at Pittsburgh at that time. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, afterwards a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was admitted at a court held before Edward Cook on the second Tuesday of April, 1781, on motion of Mr. Smith. On the same day James Berwick was also admitted and sworn. In the January sessions of 1782, James Hamilton was admitted ; in the January sessions of 1783, Thomas Duncan and George Thompson ; in 1784, John Woods. On the second Tuesday of April, 1782, on motion of Brackenridge, Mr. David Bradford was admitted an attorney at this court, he having read under Mr. Chaw, of Maryland. This man was afterwards the head and front of the Whiskey Insurrection, and died, self-expatriated, a wealthy planter on the lower Mississippi, after having made his name both famous and infamous. 1 These attorneys were among the first, and they practiced while yet the courts were held at Hannastown, and before the removal of the county-seat, about 1785. Of these, Andrew Ross, Magraw, Galbraith, David Sample, James Wilson, and Epsy were lawyers belonging to the Bedford County bar. James Ross and Bradford were first of the Washington County bar, although Ross afterwards removed to Pittsburgh. Brackenridge had located at Pittsburgh in 1781. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLY PRACTICE. There were, therefore, in the early days no regular resident lawyers while yet Hannastown was the county-seat, and the bar was made up when the court came together. The practice which a regular professional lawyer might have acquired would not have been a profitable one. His pay for the most part would have been in truck (quid pro quo), such as turkey, venison, cordwood, and pelts. The eminent jurist, Hugh H. Brackenridge, when a young attorney, received for his retainer in defending the Indian Mamachtaga, hung at Hannastown for murder, a quantity of beaver-skins. From the fact of there having been so few resident attorneys at Hannastown has, in all probability, arisen the delusion, still cherished by the oldest settlers, that the " Hannastown Age" was the golden age, vainly, vainly hoped for by mortals to come again. The lawyers then followed in the train of the itinerant justices of the State (and afterwards with the president judges of the Common Pleas) when they came out on their circuits. It is said that when court was opened many of these awaited at the steps of the court-house for clients, and their appearance was frequently entered on the day of the trial. The bench and the bar—judges, clerks, and lawyers—traveled together on horseback. Some of these early practitioners who thus came out at first as the country progressed settled at different county-seats in Western Pennsylvania. Westmoreland embraced Pittsburgh till 1788, and there were resident lawyers there as early as 1781, and in 1786 there were three,—Brackenridge, Ross, and Woods. These had to come to Hannastown and Greensburg before Allegheny County was erected, and when that event occurred there was already the nucleus of a bar gathered around Robert Hanna's house, which ever since its organization has held a distinguished place among the bars of the Commonwealth. The appearance of the court, such as it was, at Hannastown, when the justices opened their commis- 1 Bradford was a Marylander, having come into Washington County while it was under the Virginia regime, and represented one of its counties in the Legislature of that Commonwealth. He was a brother-in-law of Judge James Allison (grandfather of Hon. John Allison, late register of United States Treasury), and of Judge Charles Porter, of Fayette. A granddaughter became the wife of Richard Brodhead, United States senator from Pennsylvania, 1851-57, and a son is said to have married a sister of Jefferson Davis.--Veech in Centenary Memorial. THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 299 sions, was not such, we may imagine, as would conduce to the dignity of county trials. The judges sat on common hickory chairs, raised by way of eminence on a clapboard bench. As the room was small there was no separate place either for the bar or the people, but all sat promiscuously together. So, from the same inconvenience, they sometimes filled the jail building so full with prisoners that they had either to let some go without serving an imprisonment, or else make them pay up in the pillory or at the post.1 As all the officers of the court were ordinarily well known to most of the citizens, part of that dignity which a separate profession brings was necessarily lost. But, on the other hand, when the chief justice came round and took his seat in the Criminal Court, his dignified demeanor and his scarlet robe commanded a reverence which, was wanting in the county sessions. In many instances those rough parties, with bullying propensities, resisted the hand of the constables under the eyes of the county judges. " Give him a fair chance and clear him of the law, and he would lick any of. them." To such it was necessary, as in the instance mentioned by Brackenridge, 2 to call in the posse comitatus, the power of the county, to carry him to the nearest stable or pig-pen, so that he was kept in custody till the dignity of the law was fully recognized. The principal part of the early law business was of a civil nature, or of such ordinary transactions as arise between man and man, and which, by far, are the most numerous of causes arising among citizens. Our ancestors were not, in the sense we form the idea, a litigious people. If one had committed an offense against the peace he was apprehended on the warrant of a justice and taken to the county jail, If he could get bail he was, of course, bailed out. When the sessions met and he had been convicted of a larceny or house-breaking, the punishment was summary. He was taken out of the court-house, so called, and flogged, or compelled to stand in the pillory. As the fines belonged, in part, to the revenue, these pecuniary fines laid upon offenders amounted, in the relative value of money, to a considerable sum, and they were exacted in nearly every instance. But if he had no money and no means of getting any, he had to make up for his fine by so many stripes, the precise value of which severally, without inquiring minutely, we are unable to state. As the jail or prison-house was often insufficient for all offenders, it became absolutely necessary, when it was full, for a general delivery. Nor would it have been in Christian keeping to have let them loose without some special mark put upon them to remind them, and all, of the power of the justices and of the inflexibility of justice. It was not always that the jail held those that were taken, 1 A common saying, "from poet to pillar," is a corruption traceable to ihis original. 2 Recollections," by H. M. Brackenridge. and it was not always that an offender could be taken. It was no difficult matter for one of the mountaineers to evade, nay, to resist, the officers. In some districts process of law could not be served. Thus, even after law was established, from the necessity of the thing there had arisen a kind of unwritten law, which obtained with all the force of written law, and of which one may find, if he is curious to discover, traces at this day. The status of a people who commence colonies in a civilized State and age is different from the status of those who, by slow and almost imperceptible advances, have arisen out of original barbarism by their own developments. This is logically and elegantly put by Adam Smith in his " Wealth of Nations," and we advert to it here as fitting. And, indeed, had there been no law commanding this and forbidding that, yet would these Very colonists have been guided by certain and invariable customs as easily determinable as any written obligation. Our early court-rolls are not encumbered-with long criminal calenders. In proportion to the ordinary civil cases, affrays, riots, sureties of the peace, assaults and batteries, and such like misdemeanors are, in comparison, few. Even in such a state we have no evidences of the compounding of felonies; nay, literally there was more " pounding" than compounding. H. H. BRACKENRIDGE. Hugh Henry Brackenridge fills such a large space in our history that we shall meet with his name and have occasion to make observations upon some of his actions in various as well as numerous instances- We shall advert to him in his character of lawyer and individual. 3 Judge Brackenridge was indeed an extraordinary man, and differed much in many things from other men. Nature had done everything for him, and yet he labored as if she had done nothing. His person, voice, and manner would have rendered him a star of the first order on the stage. His eye, his glance, the 3 - HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE.—Hugh H. Brackenridge was a native of Scotland, born in Campbelton in 1748. At the age of five he came with his father to Pennsylvania. He became a tutor at Princeton, having graduated at that college in 1771, and was master of an acadsmy in Maryland when the Revolution broke out. He removed to Philadslphia, and having studied divinity became a chaplain in the army. Relinquishing the pulpit for the bar, he edited for a time the United Stales Magazine. In 1781 he settled at Pittsburgh. In 1788 he was sent to the Legislature to attain the establishment of the county of Allegheny. Was made a judge in 1789, when he was appointed to the vacancy caused by the election of McKean Governor, and from 1799 until his death wss judge of the Supreme Court of the State. The part he took in the Whiskey Insurrection made him prominent. He vindicated his course in that affair in his " History of the Whiskey Insurrection," published the year after. Washington, Hamilton, and well understood his position. He published a poem on the "Rising Glory of America," I774; “Eulogium on the Brave who fell in the Contest with Great Britain,' delivered at Philadelphia, July 4, 1779; "Modern Chivalry, or ths Adventures of Capt. Farrago," 1796, an admirable satire; "Oration," July 4, 1793: "Gazette Publications Collected," 1806. He died at Carlisle on the 25th of June, 1816 (Archives, Second Series, vol. iv., et seq.). The eulogium may be found in Niles' " Register"