Class F"i54 
 
 Book • (0 5* 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
^^■ r ^L^7ZZ^ 
 
ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED ' 
 
 SON OF A PENNSYLVANIA PIONEER; BOY ORATOR OP 
 
 ULYSSES; FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE SLAVE; 
 
 DEFENSE OF THE UNION; DEVELOPMENT 
 
 OF THE NORTHERN TIER; CITIZEN, 
 
 JURIST, STATESMAN. 
 
 By 
 RUFUS BARRETT STONE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 
 
 1919 
 
Copyright, 1919, by 
 Rufus Bakrett Stone. 
 
 ©CI.A515938 
 

 "He lives twice who lives well.'* 
 
 — Olmsted Ancestral Motto. 
 
M 20 1919 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE generation in which a man of dis- 
 tinction has lived becomes familiar 
 with the significant incidents of his 
 career. But if he has survived to a great age 
 and gradually retired from public view, while 
 the visible results of his genius, his public 
 spirit, his philanthropy, remain as the me- 
 mentos of his mature years, the story of his 
 earlier life becomes dim, and the perfect 
 whole can only be restored by retracing the 
 steps of his upward pathway. It is due to the 
 community in which he lived, to the people 
 and the state which he served, that some 
 account of the notable incidents of his ancestry 
 and the circumstances of his youth should be 
 preserved, and some connected record made 
 of the leading events which marked the 
 contemporary history of the community of 
 which he was a part, and which gave impres- 
 sion to his character in its formative period 
 and to the development of his ripening 
 faculties. The history, itself, is incomplete 
 without the relation which he bore to it, the 
 
 (7) 
 
8 PREFACE 
 
 part taken by him, which, perchance, gave to 
 occurrences then transpiring some distinctive 
 form and significant direction towards results 
 of historical consequence. In the span of 
 life of one who, from youth to old age, lived 
 in a pioneer county of northern Pennsylvania, 
 and became influential in its settlement and 
 progress, it is to be presumed that incidents in 
 its growth were comprehended. So the stories 
 of the community and the individual run 
 parallel, and here and there are interwoven. 
 Official distinctions, however high or numer- 
 ous, though denoting public confidence, are 
 not the truest measure of success in life. 
 Neither Franklin, nor Edison, nor Longfellow, 
 were elevated to the highest posts of official 
 honor. Indeed, public service sometimes 
 interrupts careers which, if left to normal 
 courses, might evolve into far more important 
 spheres of usefulness. Moreover, the call to 
 office is not alone dependent upon qualities 
 for service, but is more or less incidental, 
 contingent upon environment, events, his- 
 toric periods. So influential are these factors 
 that, given the period and place, the parentage 
 and ancestry, an attentive student of biog- 
 raphy, with a sufficient knowledge of history, 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 local and general, could almost project and 
 weave into a narrative, the prefigured inci- 
 dents of a boy's life; or, if the course of life 
 were run, looking backward over the actual 
 events, could see where its natural develop- 
 ment had been deflected or accelerated. It 
 must, therefore, be considered that as youth 
 develops to manhood and manhood to middle 
 age, and so on, the influences exerted by the 
 individual and his environment upon one 
 another are doubly interesting. His con- 
 tribution in its relation to locality and events 
 is the true criterion of his success. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume the 
 writer has consulted both personal corre- 
 spondence and published family histories, 
 including the Genealogy of the Olmsted 
 Family, by Rev. George K. Ward; An 
 Abridged Genealogy of the Olmsted Family, 
 by Elijah L. Thomas; Savage's Genealogi- 
 cal Dictionary; American Ancestry; Genea- 
 logical and Personal History of Northern 
 Pennsylvania; also town and county his- 
 tories, inclusive of histories of the counties 
 of Potter, Cameron and McKean in Pennsyl- 
 vania; of the counties of Delaware, Saratoga, 
 Fulton and Ulster in New York; of the towns 
 
10 PREFACE 
 
 of Norwalk, Ridgefield and Hartford, in 
 Connecticut; Gazetteer of the State of New 
 York, Twentieth Century of Bench and Bar, 
 McClure's Recollections of Half a Century, 
 Report of the Geological Survey of Potter 
 County, Journals of the House and Senate of 
 Pennsylvania; also files of the Potter County 
 Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Press, Evening 
 Telegraph, North American and United States 
 Gazette. 
 
 Acknowledgment for courtesies is also ex- 
 tended to Mr. F. S. Hammond, of Syracuse, 
 N. Y.; Mr. C. S. Heverly, Towanda, Pa.; Mr. 
 Oscar J. Harvey, AYilkesbarre, Pa.; to the 
 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Widener 
 Public Library of Philadelphia, State Library 
 of Pennsvlvania, Grosvenor Librarv and Pub- 
 lie Librarv of Buffalo, Connecticut State 
 Library, and to the respective offices of the 
 Adjutants General of the Ignited States and 
 of the States of New York, Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 I Following the Mayflower 15 
 
 II The Cradle of the Republic . . 24 
 
 III In the Revolution 33 
 
 IV On Two Frontiers 39 
 
 V Boyhood and Schooldays 53 
 
 VI Lyceum, Library, Law-Office . . 64 
 
 VII For Abolition and the Union. . 88 
 
 VIII From Home Life to Harrisburg 108 
 
 IX The Speakership in 1865 124 
 
 X Service in the Senate 140 
 
 XI State Leader and Candidate . . 170 
 
 XII As Lawyer and Judge 208 
 
 XIII Rounding the Years 234 
 
 XIV Four-Score and Seven 248 
 
 Index 261 
 
 (ii) 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Poetrait of Arthur G. Olmsted Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His Manuscript 14 
 
 Draft from Shaefer's Map 44 
 
 connecticut-susquehanna townships 47 
 
 East and West Highway 48 
 
 Fountain-head of Rivers 49 
 
 Prehistoric Battle-ground 51 
 
 Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buf- 
 falo R. R 150 
 
 Manuscript of Gov. Geary 163 
 
 Manuscript of Gen. Kane 174 
 
 Statesmen of the Northern Tier 
 
 Facing page 238 
 
 Sources of Population 244 
 
 Manuscript of Gov. Hartranft 249 
 
 Signature of Thomas H. Murray 254 
 
 (13) 
 
Ir^/- i^^/Cr /^z£^&. 
 
 — From the manuscript of Arthur G. Olmsted. 
 
 #y /ZCZ. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Following the Mayflower 
 
 No home for these ! — too well they knew 
 The mitred king behind the throne; — 
 
 The sails were set, the pennons flew, 
 And westward ho I for worlds unknown. 
 
 And these were they who gave us birth, 
 
 The Pilgrims of the sunset wave, 
 Who won for us this virgin earth, 
 
 And freedom with the soil they gave. 
 
 — Holmes. 
 
 THE English birthplace of the Olmsted 
 family was in old Essex 1 (East Saxon) , 
 between Cambridge and Braintree. 2 
 These rolling uplands constituted the heart of 
 the agricultural district tributary to London. 
 Land titles, not held by socage, free or villein, 
 were becoming settled into tenures of frankal- 
 moign, grand serjeanty or copyhold, and the 
 
 1 "Bounded on the east and south by the German Ocean and the River Thames; 
 by Suffolk and Cambridgeshire on the north, and by Hertfordshire and Middlesex 
 on the west." — Wright's Encyclopedic Repository (London). 
 
 2 The ancient English seat of the Olmsted family has been long identified. Allu- 
 sion is made to the parish of "Elmsted" in "Doomsday Book" for the County of 
 Essex in the reported survey made under William the Conqueror in 1086. The 
 name is Saxon, ' Elm " and ' sted, " meaning the place of elms. It was also written 
 Almesteda, Enmested. In this parish, later known as Bumsted-Helion in Cam- 
 
 (15) 
 
16 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 inhabitants, whose prayers were answered 
 in great annual harvests of coriander, canary 
 and caraway, were already searching and 
 fertile for the seed of new thought — if only 
 freedom of thought had been vouchsafed. 
 There were days when the odors of the sea 
 wafted inward over the fens their suggestions 
 of other shores; and on the Blackwater ocean 
 ships were setting their sails. 
 
 When James Olmsted, the first of the 
 colonists, set out for America, he left the 
 eastern counties of England in a state of 
 intense religious commotion. Luther had 
 nailed his ninety -five theses to the door of the 
 Wittenberg church, and the blows of his 
 hammer had been heard across the English 
 Channel. Calvin, too, had spread dissent. 
 The government was alarmed, and sought to 
 suppress the uprising with an iron hand. 
 A statute was enacted "for abolishing diver- 
 sity of opinions. " The people of England, 
 according to the historian Green, had become 
 
 bridgeshire, near the present town of Braintree, the ancestral home was situated. 
 As early as 1244, it was occupied by Maurice de Olmstede, and earlier by Martin 
 de Olmsted, who was the donor of lands to the fraternity of the Knights Templar. 
 The modification of the name is perhaps due to the fact that the manor was sur- 
 rounded by a moat, since the Saxon word "holm" signified an island. The house, 
 still well preserved, and now included in the property of the University of Cam- 
 bridge, is a long low structure of stone and plaster, with thatched roof. Since the 
 fifteenth century it has been known as Olmsted Hall. It is thought that this designa- 
 tion is due to the fact that within its walls at. one time courts were held. — Wright's 
 Index, Vol. II, pp. 759-60; American Ancestry, IV, p. 29. 
 
FOLLOWING THE MAYFLOWER 17 
 
 "the people of a book, and that book was the 
 Bible." The Puritans pleaded in vain for the 
 liberty of interpretation. They were pursued 
 to their hiding places. 1 Nevertheless, they 
 multiplied. "A great number of the Fathers 
 of the American States," says Guizot, "had 
 frequented their assemblages." A law was 
 enacted forbidding persons over five in num- 
 ber, and over sixteen years of age, unless of 
 one family, to meet for domestic or social 
 worship. Thus persecuted, the people in 1592 
 petitioned the privy council for permission to 
 come to unexplored America, for freedom to 
 worship God "As in conscience persuaded 
 by His Word." Although the petition was 
 ignored, the dissenters increased. Perpetual 
 discussion prevailed. Surely it was "no mean 
 school for intellectual training." Raleigh, a 
 year later, speaking in parliament, said that 
 there were twenty thousand who attended 
 conventicles. They were mainly residents of 
 the counties along and near the eastern coast, 
 Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex and Cam- 
 
 1 "They were imprisoned and scourged; their noses were slit; their ears were 
 cut off; their cheeks were marked with a red hot brand. But the lash and the 
 shears and the glowing iron could not destroy principles which were rooted in the 
 soul, and which danger made it glorious to profess. . . . The dungeon, the pillory 
 and the scaffold were stages in the progress of civil liberty towards its triumph." — 
 Bancroft's Hist, of U. S., Vol. 2, page 320. 
 
 2 
 
18 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 bridge, including the notable seats of learning 1 
 and centers of wealth. How completely the 
 growing purpose of the liberty-loving people 
 of these counties to transplant their ideal 
 England to the shores of America was ulti- 
 mately realized is denoted by the fact that the 
 counties bordering on Massachusetts Bay were 
 given the identical names of the English 
 counties, and ere long became a veritable New 
 England to the eager immigrants, who carried 
 with them the love of their native land. 
 
 The decade to come was one of repressed 
 religious yearning, of persecution and ferment. 
 At length the little church of the Pilgrims 
 escaped to Holland. The Mayflower sailed 
 and returned. Meantime Cambridge had 
 become the center of revolt. It was here 
 and in the neighboring communities of Essex 
 that Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone, both 
 of Emmanuel College, dared to preach the 
 doctrine of the freedom of the conscience. 
 King James declared: "I will make them 
 conform, or I will harry them out of the 
 land, or else worse — only hang them; that's 
 all." The beckoning of freedom toward 
 
 1 Fiske, however, comparing the two great universities, notes the "greater 
 conservatism" of Oxford, and the "greater hospitality of Cambridge towards new 
 ideas." 
 
FOLLOWING THE MAYFLOWER 19 
 
 America became irresistible. Cromwell sym- 
 pathized with the Puritans, and would have 
 sailed with them, but was taken from the 
 departing vessel by order of the King, a 
 circumstance by which a new direction was 
 given to the history of England. 1 Hampden, 
 too, was eager to throw in his lot with the 
 colonists, and though he remained in Eng- 
 land, he ultimately aided them to procure a 
 royal charter. 
 
 Within the Cambridge sphere of influence 
 were the Essex homes of James Olmsted and 
 his brother Richard. They had thrived under 
 the wise economic maxim of Elizabeth: "The 
 money which is in the pockets of my subjects is 
 as useful to me as that in my treasury." 
 They were the owners of large estates, and 
 while it is not recorded that they left all to 
 follow in the wake of the Mayflower, the 
 purpose to emigrate could not have been 
 contemplated without anticipating material 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The decision involved more to them than 
 can now be easily reckoned. It implied the 
 
 1 Four years later (1641) when Parliament had by a majority of eleven votes 
 passed the remonstrance, Oliver Cromwell said: "If the remonstrance had been 
 rejected, I would have sold all I have in the morning and never would have seen 
 England more, and I know there are many honest men of the same resolution,"— 
 Ouizol'i History of England, Vol. II, p. 444. 
 
20 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 utmost individual risk for the cause of religious 
 liberty. Their leadership and influence at 
 this juncture could hardly have been over- 
 rated by their exiled compatriots. 1 
 
 These brothers. James and Richard, were 
 children of James, Jr. (and Jane Bristow), of 
 Great Leighs, County of Essex, born about 
 1550, who was one of three sons of James. 
 whose wife was Alice, and who was a descend- 
 ant of Richard, born about 1430, these facts 
 being verified by the church records of 
 Fairsted and Great Leighs.' 2 
 
 When the time for departure came, it 
 seemed best that Richard should remain in 
 England, presumably to better dispose of 
 his own and his brother's affairs, for of his 
 intention to go there can be little doubt, since 
 his three children, Richard, John and Rebecca, 
 accompanied their uncle James. Their father, 
 however, did not survive to join them in their 
 New England home. Besides these children 
 of his brother. James was accompanied by his 
 
 1 'It was not a mete party of adrcatnras gone forth to seek their fortune 
 beyond seas, bet the germ of a great nation wafted bv Providence to a predestined 
 shore. . . . These men p o ss e ss ed, in proportion to their number, a greater mass 
 of intelligence than is to be food in any European nation of oar on time. . . . 
 
 X.-r - .-- '-- :; . v- :~; A.'iz:-. :. :-■.;;-■-.■; :';; - - - - : ; .;.-;-.-; :i-.: ~rz'..'i: 
 
 i: was a purely intellectual craving which called them from the comforts of their 
 ::-- " ': -r : ; zzz .z ::..--;::= .z: ■ ..-;-_"-- 7r : ---::-::::: - = ■ :_e 
 tnansph of an idea."— De Toe^atnOtt Duamimi n Awurit*. Vol. I. pp. 38-40. 
 
 Address of Prof. Everett W. Olmsted. (touted Ciwfcfn. by Olmsted and 
 Ward, p. xv. 
 
FOLLOWING THE MAYFLOWER 21 
 
 own sons, Nicholas and Nehemiah, and by a 
 goodly number of his Essex neighbors. There 
 were one hundred and twenty-three pas- 
 sengers, including fifty children. They sailed 
 from Braintree, a river port in their own 
 county, in the ship Lyon under Captain 
 Pierce, and after a voyage of twelve weeks 
 arrived in Boston harbor, on Sunday, the 
 sixteenth day of September, 1632. They 
 settled first at Mount Wollaston, now Quincy, 
 near Boston, but in the course of the year 
 "by order of the Court," they removed to 
 Newtown, soon to be known as Cambridge, a 
 name dear to these heroic exiles. Hooker 
 and Stone, when they landed a little later, 
 found the larger part of their Cambridge 
 congregation awaiting them at the wharf. 
 
 The entire Massachusetts colony then num- 
 bered but little more than a thousand souls. 
 John Winthrop, of Groton, in English Suffolk, 
 had been chosen governor. Among those who 
 had come over on the previous voyage of the 
 Lyon was Roger Williams, the founder in 
 New England of the Baptist faith. The year 
 had been notable, too, for the visit of the 
 Sagamore of the Mohegans from the banks of 
 the Connecticut. He came to extol the 
 
22 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 fertility of the lands of the river valley, and to 
 solicit an English plantation as a reinforce- 
 ment against the Pequods. 
 
 Richard Olmsted, the elder of the young 
 immigrants of the Olmsted name, was nearly 
 twenty-one years of age when he stepped 
 ashore, having been baptized at Fairsted in 
 Essex, February 20, 1612. The invitation of 
 the Mohegans appealed to his spirit of 
 adventure, and to the vigor of his young man- 
 hood. Besides, he and his companions were 
 in revolt against the theocratic government 
 of the Bay Colony. He enlisted with a 
 number of his Cambridge comrades for the 
 proposed expedition. Westward to the Con- 
 necticut was an unexplored region. 1 Under 
 the inspiration of Hooker and Stone, who 
 already had a vision of a true government 
 conceived by them on shipboard, they struck 
 out into the wilderness, and after many days 
 of hardship and danger, reached the river 
 bank, and founded a settlement to which they 
 afterwards gave the name of Hartford, after 
 
 'Extract from Wintkrop's Journal: "June SO, 1636. Mr. Hooker, pastor of 
 the church at New Town, and the most of his congregation, went to Connecticut. 
 His wife was carried in a horse-litter; and they drove one hundred and sixty cattle 
 and fed of their milk by the way." Trumbull says: "This adventure was the more 
 remarkable as many of this company were persons of figure, who had lived in Eng- 
 land in honor, affluence and delicacy, and were entire stratfgers to fatigue and danger." 
 
FOLLOWING THE MAYFLOWER 23 
 
 the county seat of old Hartford, 1 the birth- 
 place of Samuel Stone. There could not 
 have been more than fifty persons in the 
 settlement, for as late as 1637 there were, 
 according to Bancroft, but one hundred and 
 eighty in the three towns of the colony, 
 Hartford, Windsor and Weathersfield, noting 
 that he says the force organized in that year 
 to prosecute the Pequod war numbered about 
 sixty men, "one-third of the whole colony." 
 Richard Olmsted was one of the original pro- 
 prietors in this colony. He was a soldier in 
 the colonial army. His native qualities of 
 leadership were soon recognized. He was 
 elected a sergeant, and quickly promoted to a 
 lieutenancy. The enemy was defeated. 
 
 'Pronounced " Harford." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 At the Cradle of the Republic 
 
 THE colony effected an organization 
 under a constitution adopted Janu- 
 ary 14, 1639. It was an epochal 
 organic document, being the first in the 
 series of American consitutions, and it has 
 never since been materially altered. 1 Hooker 
 had been restive and rebellious under the 
 theocratic commonwealth projected for the 
 Bay Colony. "The foundation of author- 
 ity," said he in an election sermon preached 
 before the general court in May, 1638, "is laid 
 in the free consent of the people, to whom the 
 choice of public magistrates belongs by God's 
 own allowance." In further exposition to 
 Winthrop, Hooker wrote: 
 
 "In matters of greater consequence, which 
 concern the common good, a general council, 
 chosen by all, to transact businesses which 
 concern all, I conceive, under favor, most 
 suitable to rule, and most safe for relief of 
 
 1 Says John Fiske: "It was the first written constitution known to history 
 that created a government, end it marked the beginnings of American democracy. '. 
 
 (24) 
 
CRADLE OF THE REPUBLIC 25 
 
 the whole. This was the practice of the 
 Jewish church, and the approved experience 
 of the best ordered states." 
 
 Thus, from the beginning, Connecticut was 
 constituted an independent republic. The 
 prescribed oath of office recognized no higher 
 authority. It bound the magistrates "to 
 administer justice" according to the laws 
 here established, and for want thereof accord- 
 ing to the word of God." It was a brave 
 renunciation of the doctrine of the "Divine 
 right of Kings." 
 
 Richard Olmsted, scarce twenty-eight years 
 of age, took part in this organization of the 
 colony he had fought to save from the 
 destruction for which it had been marked by 
 the savage Pequods. He was elected a 
 delegate to the first legislature, called the 
 "General Court," and thereafter for many 
 years was repeatedly chosen to take part in 
 its deliberations. He held other less impor- 
 tant offices. His dwelling-house in Hartford 
 was on the west side of Main Street, at No. 49. 
 The site in later years has been occupied by 
 the Central Church and the old burying- 
 ground. 
 
 Two years after the adoption of the Con- 
 
26 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 necticut constitution all the colonies of New 
 England united in a formal confederation, and 
 John Winthrop was elected president. Then 
 followed a decade of peaceful colonial growth. 
 By the middle of the seventeenth century the 
 population of New England had increased to 
 twenty-one thousand. Two hundred ninety- 
 eight ships had borne them across the ocean. 
 In ten years fifty towns and villages had been 
 planted. Still religion, as in the land they 
 had left, was the uppermost theme. While 
 Roger Williams, brave pioneer of intellectual 
 freedom, was a welcome visitor at Hartford, 
 the Baptist doctrine which he taught was a 
 new source of agitation. From the Rhode 
 Island colony, also, came Samuel Gorton, 
 proclaiming that heaven was not a place, that 
 there was no heaven but in the hearts of good 
 men, no hell but in the mind; and later came 
 the exiled Quakers. Nevertheless, to the 
 inhabitants whose lives had hitherto been 
 harassed by the oppressions of the crown, 
 these were the "halcyon days of peace.'* 
 "These days," says the historian, "never 
 will return. Time, as it advances, unfolds 
 new scenes in the grand drama of human exis- 
 tence, scenes of more glory, of more wealth, of 
 
CRADLE OF THE REPUBLIC 27 
 
 more action, but not of more tranquillity and 
 purity." 
 
 Richard Olmsted, in 1651, had arrived at 
 the age of thirty -nine. Hooker, the beloved 
 pastor and incomparable colonial leader, had 
 died, and theological controversies were again 
 arising. A treaty with the Dutch governor 
 had been signed at Hartford, defining terri- 
 torial claims, and relieving from controversy 
 the royal charter which had been procured for 
 the English colonists, by Hampden, the great 
 Commoner, and his associates, extending from 
 Point Judith westward to the Pacific Ocean. 
 Wide opportunities seemed to be opening. 
 The settlements of New England were expand- 
 ing toward the West. It was sufficient to stir 
 the imagination and stimulate the ambition 
 of one in the vigor of life, as was Richard 
 Olmsted. He had in some humble degree 
 helped to fashion at Hartford a new form of 
 government among men, based upon the will 
 of the people, the freedom of the conscience, 
 the separation of church and state, a civil code 
 which was to become the framework of the 
 future republic. Now, he aspired to found a 
 town, and mold and develop it after his own 
 plan. About ten years before he had acquired 
 
28 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 grants of considerable land 1 about sixty-eight 
 miles southwest of Hartford, near the mouth 
 of a little stream emptying into Long Island 
 Sound, and to it, "defying the dangers of 
 wild beast and Indians," he removed with his 
 own and nineteen other families. He had 
 two sons, James and John, and a daughter, 
 who died in infancy, all children of his first 
 wife. Although twice married, as disclosed 
 by his will, 2 no particulars of either marriage 
 are recorded. The settlement at length 
 became centered in a place called Norwalk, 
 now a flourishing city of twenty thousand 
 people. Here he spent his mature life. The 
 town grew as he designed. He was its 
 representative in General Court, from year 
 to year. He was sergeant of its military com- 
 pany. 3 At the outbreak of King Philip's 
 War (1675), he was sixty-three years of age. 
 The growth of the colonies had encroached 
 upon the Indian hunting grounds. The reli- 
 gion of the white man was a source of irrita- 
 tion. Massasoit had tried in vain to preclude 
 
 i "He had large grants of land in Fairfield, which then embraced a consider- 
 able territory, portions of which were narrow strips running back from the coast 
 about six miles, to the present town of Redding, and including lands since known a9 
 Chestnut Hill and Buckingham Ridge; also grants on the site of Norwalk, the same 
 being recorded on page 1 of Vol. I of Norwalk Land Records." 
 
 2 Will dated Sept. 5, 1684, recorded in Book III, p. 217, Fairfield Prolate Records. 
 
 8 Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New England, Vol. Ill, p. 312. 
 
CRADLE OF THE REPUBLIC 29 
 
 by treaty any attempt to convert his warriors 
 from the religion of their race. War was to 
 the Indians an unwelcome alternative. " They 
 rose without hope, and they fought without 
 mercy. For them as a nation there was no 
 tomorrow." The white settlers, too, were 
 appalled at the prospect of war. Superstition 
 ran wild. At the eclipse of the moon an 
 Indian scalp was seen imprinted on its disk. 
 A perfect Indian bow appeared in the sky. 
 The sighing of the wind became the whistling 
 of bullets. Invisible troops of horses were 
 heard galloping through the air. In such a 
 terror-stricken community Richard Olmsted 
 was the leader to whom the settlers turned for 
 heroic guidance. He was chosen captain of a 
 company of militia, and led it through that 
 bloody year of ambuscade and surprise, of fire 
 and pillage, to the end of the most destructive 
 war ever visited upon New England. 
 
 At the close of the war Captain Olmsted 
 was again returned to a seat in the legis- 
 lature, and for several successive terms was 
 re-elected. He died in 1686, seventy-four 
 years of age. His will was signed two years 
 before his death. It is on file at Fairfield, 
 the county seat. 
 
30 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 His son, John Olmsted, who, with James, 
 his brother, shared the property of their uncle, 
 John Olmsted, at his decease, was baptized at 
 Hartford, December 30, 1649. By his fathers 
 will he acquired the parental homestead and 
 other valuable real estate. He married 
 (July 1, 1673) Mary Benedict, daughter of 
 Thomas and Mary (Bridgeman) Benedict, of 
 Southfield, Long Island, and upon her demise 
 he married Elizabeth (Pardie), widow of 
 Thomas Gregory. He left the parental 
 homestead at Norwalk, and took up his 
 residence at Hartford. In 1699 and again in 
 1703 he was chosen selectman, and in the 
 military company he was a lieutenant. He 
 died in 1704. His will is not recorded, but in 
 the inventory of his estate the names and 
 approximate ages of his children appear. 1 
 Among his children were two sons, of whom 
 Richard, the younger, was born in 1692, and 
 Daniel ten years earlier. Richard married 
 (April 22, 1714) Mary Betts (who was born 
 September 10, 1693, and died January 31, 
 1786), daughter of Samuel and Judith (Rey- 
 nolds) Betts. 
 
 These two young men seem to have in- 
 
 * Detcendantt of Captain Richard Olmsted, by Hammond. 
 
CRADLE OF THE REPUBLIC 31 
 
 herited the enterprise and pioneer spirit of 
 their grandfather, for, as early as 1708, before 
 either was married, they had negotiated the 
 purchase of twenty thousand acres from the 
 Indian sachem Catoonah, and his associates 
 of the Ramapoo tribe. This tract was a part 
 of the unsettled wilderness, about thirteen 
 miles north of Norwalk, lying along the 
 eastern boundary of New York. The con- 
 sideration was one hundred English pounds. 
 The purchase was sanctioned by the general 
 assembly sitting at Hartford. The two 
 brothers and twenty-two others, of Norwalk 
 and Milford, formed a colony and settled on 
 this tract. When the settlement became a 
 town, it was called Ridgefield, the name which 
 it still bears. 
 
 Richard Olmsted served as town clerk in 
 1712, when barely twenty-one years of age. 1 
 What other offices he may have subsequently 
 held is not now known, but he was called 
 Captain Olmsted. Hence it is to be inferred 
 that he was a captain of the Ridgefield com- 
 pany in the state militia. He died October 
 16, 1776, eighty -four years of age. 
 
 1 The elder brother, Daniel, represented the town in the state legislature in the 
 years 1742 and 1743. 
 
32 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 His son, Daniel Olmsted, one of ten children, 
 was born in Ridgefield September 22, 1731. 
 In 1753 he married Elizabeth Northrop, who 
 was born in Milford, Connecticut, about 1735, 
 and died April 30, 1822. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 In the Revolution 
 
 N r O battles of consequence after Con- 
 cord, Lexington and Bunker Hill, 
 were fought on New England soil, 
 excepting the battles of Ridgefield and Ben- 
 nington. In both of the latter instances, as 
 in the march of the British to Concord, their 
 aim was to secure or destroy a store of mili- 
 tary supplies, and in each battle the Americans 
 were victorious. 
 
 On the 26th day of April, 1777, a British 
 force under Tryon, the Royalist Governor of 
 New York, marched inland as far as Danbury, 
 Connecticut, where they destroyed not only 
 a considerable quantity of supplies but also 
 the principal part of the town. The his- 
 torian Johnston thus describes 1 what fol- 
 lowed : 
 
 "There were some Continental soldiers in 
 the neighborhood, and two officers of rank, 
 Wooster and Arnold. The latter rallied all 
 
 1 Johnston's Connecticut, p. 304. 
 « (33) 
 
34 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the men available, regulars and militia, and 
 headed Tryon on his retreat, at Ridgefield 
 (a few miles south of Danbury). In the 
 battle Wooster was mortally wounded, and 
 Tryon broke through and resumed his way 
 to the Sound. Arnold kept up the pursuit 
 until the British took refuge on the shipping 
 and sailed away." 
 
 Daniel Olmsted, then about forty-six years 
 of age, was one of the six hundred Continental 
 soldiers who rallied under Arnold that April 
 day to throw up a barricade at the cross- 
 roads in Ridgefield, and give battle to the 
 British. The representation that they were 
 rallied by Arnold is not historically accurate. 
 In fact, the reverse is true. Arnold was a 
 native of Norwalk, and happened to be a 
 visitor in a neighboring town. Captain 
 Isaac Hines, of Colonel Nehemiah Bardsley's 
 regiment, commanded the militia company at 
 Ridgefield, and as soon as he learned of the 
 British raid upon Danbury, nothing is more 
 probable than that he sent for both Arnold 
 and Wooster. But how were the soldiers 
 rallied? Who played the part of Paul Revere 
 and carried the alarm to Fairfield, Bedford 
 and Norwalk? It was Daniel Olmsted who 
 
IN THE REVOLUTION S5 
 
 mounted his horse and rode. 1 He was a 
 private in Captain Hines' Company, and had 
 already been put to test as a guard over a 
 group of his Tory neighbors arrested as 
 "persons inimical to the United States of 
 America." 2 
 
 Accelerated, doubtless, by this British raid 
 upon Danbury, the destruction of property 
 along its course, and continued danger of like 
 hostile invasion from the ports of the Sound, 3 
 a considerable number of the inhabitants of 
 Ridgefield and its vicinity decided upon a 
 removal of their families westward to some 
 settlement beyond the Hudson, and Stillwater, 
 in the neighborhood of Ballston, in the county 
 of Albany (now Saratoga), New York, was 
 chosen as the destination. The historian of 
 Saratoga County refers to the settlement of 
 Ballston as "just about coeval with the 
 removal of the Connecticut colony to Still- 
 water." 4 Among these colonists was the 
 family of Daniel Olmsted, and there is good 
 ground for presumption that he was a leader 
 in the movement. The death of his father had 
 
 1 Daniel Olmsted may not have been the only messenger, but his own service ii 
 attested in the pay abstract of the company for horse travel. — Connecticut Historical 
 Society Collections, Vol. VIII :200. 
 
 ' Connecticut Archives, Rev. 1st Ser. VIII:216. 
 
 » An apprehension verified by Tryon's destruction of Norwalk, July 11, 1770. 
 
 ' History of Saratoga County by Sylvester (1878), p. 246 
 
36 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 broken the last parental tie, and two of his 
 children were in their infancy. Moreover, 
 for many years the Connecticut Colony had 
 become aware of the wealth of material 
 resources lying along the headwaters of the 
 Susquehanna and Delaware, within its royal 
 grant. It was twenty-three years (in 1753) 
 before his father's death (though Daniel had 
 then but just passed his twenty-second birth- 
 day) when the Connecticut- Susquehanna 
 Company was formed to purchase the Indian 
 title to lands on the waters of the Susque- 
 hanna, within the limits of the Colony of 
 Connecticut. The company was composed 
 of eight hundred and forty persons (afterwards 
 increased to twelve hundred), and included a 
 large proportion of the leading men of the 
 colony. The purchase was consummated, 
 and deed procured, dated July 11, 1754. 
 A similar association, called The Delaware 
 Company, bought the Indian title to all land 
 bounded east by the Delaware River, within 
 the forty-second degree of latitude, west to 
 the line of the Susquehanna purchase (which 
 extended ten miles east of that river). It is 
 not improbable, and subsequent events afford 
 support to the view, that the removal to 
 
IN THE REVOLUTION 37 
 
 Ballston was but a step towards the promised 
 land. Beyond was the region of the Iroquois, 
 then in league with the British. The Seneca 
 and other hostile tribes were on the war path, 
 and a reign of terror among the white settlers 
 presently culminated in the Wyoming mas- 
 sacre on the 30th day of June, 1778. 
 
 With the record cited relating to the battle 
 of Ridgefield, Daniel Olmsted passed out of 
 service in Connecticut as a soldier of the War 
 of the Revolution, but he soon afterwards 
 reappeared as a private in Captain Thomas 
 Hick's Company of Colonel Jacobus Van 
 Schoonhaven's regiment (Half Moon and 
 Ballston districts), 1 and subsequently himself 
 rose to a captaincy. No account remains of 
 the meritorious action by reason of which he 
 gained promotion. 
 
 Daniel Olmsted was a taxpayer in the 
 Ballston district in 1779, and in the list of the 
 31st of December of that year he was assessed 
 a tax of five pounds twelve shillings and six- 
 pence upon a valuation of one hundred and 
 fifty pounds. 2 It was in the summer of that 
 
 1 The company and regiment are recited in Certificate No. 19928 for 15*. 5ji., 
 dated 7 November, 1779. — Certificates of Treasurer (Manuscript record), Vol. 4, 
 Mas. section, University of the State of New York. Like mention on list in office 
 of Adjutant General, United States War Department (2253205). 
 
 ! History of Saratoga County, by Sylvester, p. 250. 
 
38 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 year that the expedition of General Brodhead 
 from Fort Pitt to destroy the Indian villages 
 on the upper waters of the Allegheny, and 
 the expedition of General Sullivan northward 
 through the Indian country of central New 
 York, came almost to a point of junction near 
 Olean. The Iroquois fled before them, but a 
 harassing warfare continued year after year, 
 receiving encouragement from the garrisons of 
 the British border forts, until, on the 20th day 
 of August, 1794, the Northwestern Indians 
 were routed by Mad Anthony Wayne at the 
 battle of Fallen Timbers. This was almost 
 immediately followed by a general treaty of 
 peace with the Indians, and emigration from 
 the East began to be resumed. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 On Two Frontiers 
 
 WITHOUT delay upon the close of his 
 military service, Daniel Olmsted set 
 out, probably alone, for the country 
 of the upper Delaware. Jay Gould, noted as 
 a financier, himself a native of Delaware 
 County, while a youthful surveyor, and then 
 a resident of the county, wrote its history, 
 though he afterwards tried to suppress the 
 work by buying up the printed copies. It 
 was published in 1856. It contains this 
 passage relating to the pioneers: 
 
 "The following information in relation to 
 the early settlements was derived principally 
 from Cyrus Burr, a highly respectable citizen 
 of Andes, and formerly and for a number of 
 years, supervisor of that town. The family of 
 Mr. Burr moved into the county in 1794, and 
 settled in what was then called Middletown, 
 Ulster County, but now Andes, Delaware 
 County, at which time the entire town, 
 except a few farms along the river, was one 
 unbroken wilderness. The first farm border- 
 (39) 
 
40 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 ing on the river below the Middletown line 
 was owned by James Phenix, who was among 
 the first that emigrated after the Revolution. 
 He had occupied the place before the war, 
 but had retired for safety during that period. 
 A man by the name of Olmsted, who came in 
 about the same time, possessed the second 
 farm." 
 
 Presuming the latter to have been none 
 other than Daniel Olmsted, he must have soon 
 relinquished his clearing on the river, for he 
 is recorded about the same time as a settler a 
 few miles farther west at or about the settle- 
 ment afterwards known as Masonville. The 
 Gazetteer of the State of New York, 1 published 
 in 1859, mentions Daniel Farnsworth and one 
 Pross as the first settlers on the present site 
 of Davenport Center, and continues as follows: 
 "Among the other first settlers were Hum- 
 phrey Denio, George Webster, Daniel Olm- 
 sted, Van Valkenburg, Harmon Moore 
 
 and Elisha Orr." Walter Scott, a contributor 
 to the county history, 2 referring to the accred- 
 ited priority of Farnsworth and Pross, adds: 
 
 "But they could not have much preceded 
 Daniel Olmsted, who settled on the farm now 
 
 1 Page 260, note 12. 
 
 1 Centennial History of Delaware County, p. 326 
 
ON TWO FRONTIERS 41 
 
 occupied by the widow of Chauncey Olmsted, 
 for Mr. Alexander Shellman informs me that 
 his grandfather settled near the old Emmons 
 hotel east of Oneonta about 1790, and that 
 in making the journey to Schoharie the Olm- 
 sted settlement was the first one passed. 
 The orchard on that farm is said to be the old- 
 est one in town." 
 
 Masonville, which so became the family 
 settlement, was not formally set apart from 
 Sidney until April 4, 1811. The town took 
 its name from Rev. John M. Mason, the 
 principal owner of the Evans patent of lands 
 in this town. The surface of the region may 
 be described as hilly upland, divided into two 
 ridges by the valley of Bennett's Creek, which 
 extends east and west through the north 
 part of the town. These ridges are subdivided 
 by numerous lateral ravines, through which 
 flow small brooks. The highest summits are 
 from six hundred to one thousand feet above 
 the valleys and eighteen hundred to two thou- 
 sand feet above tide. The soil is of shaly 
 loam, stony and difficult of cultivation except 
 in the valleys. It is probable that the com- 
 munity itself did not gain a population exceed- 
 ing one hundred during the lifetime of 
 
42 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Daniel Olmsted. His wife having joined 
 him early in his pioneer pilgrimage, the 
 parental home was maintained at Masonville 
 during the remainder of their respective lives. 
 They had nine children, all of whom appear to 
 have been born in their Connecticut home, 
 Molly, the youngest, December 26, 1776, and 
 Seneca about a year earlier. 1 Molly married 
 Lee, a Revolutionary soldier, and removed to 
 Roxbury in Delaware County, three years 
 before her father's death. Seneca grew to 
 manhood at the parental home near Ballston, 
 and not far from Broadalbin (organized in 
 1793, now in Fulton County), gaining such 
 education (mainly that of experience in earn- 
 ing a livelihood) as a pioneer settlement then 
 afforded. At the age of twenty -three (about 
 1798) he married Elizabeth Hicks, presumed 
 to be a relative, perhaps a daughter, of his 
 father's Revolutionary captain (Thomas 
 Hicks), and they almost immediately joined 
 the little colony at Masonville, and established 
 their home there. 
 Daniel Olmsted died February 7, 1806, 
 
 1 F. S. Hammond, author of "Descendants of Captain Richard 01msted,"_and 
 an accredited contributor to the "Genealogy of the Olmsted Family in America," 
 in which valuable work a line of descent through Daniel's brother, Ezekiel, has 
 been accepted, writes, January 21, 1918: "Now I am fully convinced that there is 
 just one error in this, and that the name of Daniel Olmsted, Jr., should be substi- 
 tuted for Ezekiel " This conclusion is abundantly confirmed. 
 
ON TWO FRONTIERS 43 
 
 leaving to survive him his widow and several 
 children, including Seneca, who had succeeded 
 his father as a leader in the community. 
 Seneca's wife did not long survive. She died 
 in the year following, and thereupon it is 
 probable that his widowed mother came to 
 live with him and care for his three little 
 children, of whom the eldest was but eight 
 years of age. His name was Daniel (namesake 
 of his grandfather), and he was born August 2, 
 1799. 1 He had a sister Lucy 2 and a brother, 
 Gardner Hicks. 3 Seneca Olmsted is said to 
 have been of robust frame, and possessed of 
 great strength of mind and body. He and 
 his mother exerted a very positive personal 
 influence in Masonville and its vicinity. The 
 first church in the town was formed December 
 7, 1811, and it is easily to be believed that 
 they were influential in its organization. It 
 was of the denomination founded in New 
 England by Roger Williams, the Baptist, to 
 which the Olmsted family has most generally 
 and continuously adhered. The widow of 
 
 1 It is not unlikely that Daniel was born at Providence, Saratoga County, N. Y., 
 while his mother was on a visit to relatives there, since the Olmsted Family Genealogy 
 (Ward) mentions Providence as his birthplace. 
 
 1 Lucy grew to womanhood, and married William Euf us Sanford, of Marion, 
 N. Y. 
 
 > Gardner Hicks Olmsted accompanied his elder brother Daniel to Ulyssei, 
 Pennsylvania, and later became a resident of Bennettsville, New York. 
 
44 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 From Sheafer's Historical Map of Pennsylvania (by permission of 
 the Historical Society of Penna.) designed to show Indian names of 
 streams and villages and paths of travel. No Indian village or path 
 appears to have existed in Tioga, and none in McKean excepting 
 the one here shown and "Burnt Houses" on the western border; 
 though in the latter county there are streams named Conondaw, 
 Kinzua and Dunungwa. 
 
 Said Hon. Charles Tubbs, in his historical address at the Lycoming 
 Centennial: "Northern Pennsylvania and the region of the Alle- 
 gheny was a hunting ground into which the Senecas descended from 
 the seat of their power on the Genessee, There were their castles 
 and there they kindled their council fires." 
 
ON TWO FRONTIERS 45 
 
 Daniel Olmsted died April 30, 1822. His 
 grandson, Daniel, who was then twenty -three 
 years of age, became the head of the family. 
 On the first day of the following May (1823), 
 he married Lucy Ann Schofield, of Masonville, 
 born August 18, 1807, and therefore less than 
 seventeen years of age, daughter of Lewis and 
 Clarinda (Young) Schofield. They had six 
 children, of whom the two eldest were born 
 at Masonville. The other four were born at 
 the later home of the family in Ulysses town- 
 ship, in the county of Potter and State of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Potter County is one of the Northern Tier 
 counties of Pennsylvania, and the New York 
 state line serves, therefore, as its northern 
 boundary. It is within the strip claimed by 
 the Connecticut-Susquehanna Company, along 
 which its block-houses, once garrisoned, were 
 established twenty miles apart. 1 From the 
 day that Daniel Olmsted, with the infant 
 Seneca, took his departure from his Connecti- 
 cut home, there is little doubt that these 
 lands were contemplated as the ultimate 
 destination of the family. Seneca Olmsted 
 
 1 The block-house in Deerfield Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, wa§ 
 the birth-place of F. W. Knox, Esq., a contemporary and business associate of the 
 subject of this biography. 
 
46 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 and his son Daniel were true to the tradition. 
 The Olmsted settlement, which became 
 Masonville, was in a sense en route. During 
 the period of their residence there, the long 
 controversy over the title between Connec- 
 ticut and Pennsylvania continued. The Con- 
 necticut claimants under the Susquehanna 
 Company repudiated the decision of the 
 congressional tribunal at Trenton, and con- 
 tinued their surveys. They prepared for 
 resistance, and induced General Ethan Allen, 
 the hero of Ticonderoga, to join them. But 
 Pennsylvania, by successive acts of assembly, 
 and the exertion of the power of the state in 
 various ways, finally triumphed, and in the 
 second decade of the nineteenth century, the 
 legislative compromise offered by Pennsyl- 
 vania had been generally accepted, and titles 
 had become settled. 1 So the father and son 
 
 'While no comprehensive outline of this controversy can be here given, some 
 aspects of it, not hitherto noted, are worthy of attention. By the Decree of the 
 Council of Trenton, created by Congress, the claim of Connecticut to the land in 
 Pennsylvania north of the 41st degree of latitude was rejected. But the Connecti- 
 cut settlers contended that the decree affected only the controversy between the 
 states, and was in no sense an adjudication of the claims of the Susquehanna Com- 
 pany. Hence they ignored the decree, and the company proceeded to advance its 
 settlements. A state of civil war ensued. The state administration of Pennsyl- 
 vania sought to quell the trouble, not only by force of arms, but by diplomacy and 
 palliating legislation. An Act of Assembly was passed March 28, 1787, known ai 
 the Confirming Law, designed to confirm certain titles in actual settlers. Never- 
 theless, as late as February 18, 1795, the proprietors under the Susquehanna Com- 
 pany, to the number of twelve hundred, assembled at Athens, and took further 
 aggressive action. On the 4th day of April, 1799, the Pennsylvania Legislature 
 enacted a law known as the Compensation Law, fixing a schedule of prices per 
 acre, at which, upon payment to the state, the controverted titles might be con- 
 firmed, supplemental legislation following during several successive sessions. But 
 
ON TWO FRONTIERS 
 
 47 
 
 .*.•**■** 
 
 M e K E A N 
 
 } "POTT&& 
 
 Townships created by the Connecticut-Susquehanna Company in 
 1796. Grant of Lorana to Joshua Downer, Ezekiel Hyde and 
 Samuel Ensign (they having exhibited sufficient vouchers of pro- 
 prietorship) signed by John Franklin, Simon Spalding and Samuel 
 Ensign, Commissioners, recorded (survey having been approved) in 
 Liber F, page 112, of the Records of the Susquehanna Company. 
 
 This map also shows the Allegheny Reservation of the Seneca 
 Indian nation, lying across the river one-half mile in width on each 
 side. It shows, too, the Cornplanter grant of 1,000 acres. 
 
 these laws, in the excited state of the public mind, did not meet with general 
 acceptance. 
 
 The state administration, however, under the leadership of William Bingham, 
 had already entered upon a parallel auxiliary course. Mr. Bingham was, at the 
 time, not only rated as the wealthiest citizen of Pennsylvania, but also as its most 
 influential political figure, having been a delegate in the Congress of 1787, and a 
 representative of the government abroad. As Speaker of the Pennsylvania House 
 in 1791 and President of the Senate in 1795, he was in a position of advantage to 
 procure desired legislation. The plan in view was to throw Pennsylvania settlers 
 in large numbers into the vacant lands in advance of the Susquehanna Company, 
 and organize local governments therein under the laws of Pennsylvania. Doubtless 
 this plan was conceived conjointly with the other master spirits of the common- 
 wealth's cause, Timothy Pickering, Chief Justice McKean and Attorney General 
 Bradford, but Mr. Bingham entered zealously into it. By Act of 1792, the price 
 of these lands was reduced, and upon the same being offered for sale, he became the 
 chief purchaser, particularly in Potter and adjoining counties, and many of the 
 warrants so purchased by him in 1793 be proceeded to sell to John Keating and others 
 who actively undertook to forward settlements. Thereupon Mr. Bingham was pro- 
 moted immediately from the speakership of the State Senate to a seat in the United 
 States Senate, in which body he served from 1795 to 1801, during which period he 
 was for a time its presiding officer. Meanwhile, in 1799, Thomas McKean became 
 Governor, and proceeded to carry out the pre-arrangement for the establishment 
 of local civil administration. But actual settlements had proceeded so slowly that 
 when the Act of 1804 was passed, creating Potter and its companion counties, it 
 was absolutely uninhabited. A further important step was to be taken. Just at 
 
48 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 "East and West Road," the great state highway designed to 
 bind settlers in allegiance to Pennsylvania who claimed homesteads 
 under Connecticut title. (See note.) 
 
 who at Masonville had watched the steps of 
 the controversy, again turned toward the 
 chosen land. The Cushing family with which 
 they were closely allied preceded thern, Samuel 
 Cushing becoming one of the first county 
 commissioners of Potter County. The loca- 
 
 fifty years later the Union Pacific Railroad was constructed to bind California to 
 the Union, so in 1807 the East and West Road was projected by Act of Assembly to 
 be built from a point "where the Coshecton and Great Bend Turnpike passes through 
 the Moosic Mountains thence in a westerly direction to the western boundary of the 
 state." It was such an assertion of the immediate and beneficent presence of the 
 state in this region that there can be little doubt but that, as the construction of the 
 road progressed through the counties of Bradford, Tioga, Potter and McKean, it 
 served as a bond to hold to the commonwealth the allegiance of the settlers. Thus, 
 in the course of time, the sagacious policy of Senator Bingham prevailed, and the 
 title contest was abandoned. This was not accomplished, however, without some 
 reaction. As late as 1835 indignation meetings in Bradford County held up the 
 proprietors as "Our lordly European and American landholders" who have "monop- 
 olized for very small consideration a great portion of the land in Northern Penn- 
 sylvania, contrary to the spirit of our free institutions," etc., and it was resolved 
 that "until the trustees of the Bingham estate establish a title by a solemn decision 
 of a court of competent jurisdiction," etc., "we will not pay another dollar to them 
 or their agents." There was no difficulty nor delay in procuring judicial recognition 
 of the challenged title. 
 
 An interesting episode in this controversy was afforded by the entrance of Gen- 
 eral Ethan Allen. After the Trenton Decree which struck down the claim of Con- 
 necticut to the disputed territory it was the plan of Colonel John Franklin, the able 
 leader of the Connecticut claimants, to organize the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania 
 into a new state. To this end he summoned to his aid General Allen, who had just 
 secured statehood for Vermont. He came, says Heverly, in "Bradford Pioneer and 
 Patriot Families" (Vol. I, p. 178), in cocked hat and feathers, declaring that he had 
 made one state and "By the Eternal God and the Continental Congress" he would 
 make another. But he had been checkmated by Pickering, at whose instance the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature had created the disturbed district into a new county, 
 named Luzerne, a measure which divided the followers of Franklin and frustrated 
 his plan. 
 
ON TWO FRONTIERS 
 
 49 
 
 tion selected was about one hundred ten 
 miles southwest of Masonville, an open " Cat- 
 skill Region," according to the geologist, of 
 which the present borough of Lewisville is 
 near the center, and watered by Cushing Creek 
 
 Potter County, the fountain-head of far-flowing rivers. 
 
 and its tributary brooks. It is, however, not 
 far from the famous crest, for along the 
 borders of the township streams flow diversely 
 southward to Chesapeake Bay, northward to 
 Lake Ontario and southwest to the Gulf of 
 Mexico. The historian writing in 1880 said: 
 
 "The greater part of the township is still 
 as wild as it was when the pioneers of Pike 
 
50 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Township looked in upon the wilderness, and 
 nothing less than the necessities of the future 
 will ever lead to its improvement." 1 
 
 Forty years earlier, and therefore near to the 
 date of the Olmsted settlement, the report of 
 the State Geological Survey, referring to 
 Potter County generally, said: 
 
 "It remains almost what it was a century 
 ago, an unbroken forest tenanted by the 
 panther, bear, deer, wolf and fox." 2 
 
 The region was covered with pine and 
 hemlock timber, afterwards to become of 
 great value. The soil of Ulysses Township is 
 termed Volusia, and is especially adapted to 
 dairy farming, and to the cultivation of buck- 
 wheat and potatoes. 3 When an unbroken 
 sheet of ice, say two thousand feet in thick- 
 ness, came gliding down the Canadian slopes, 
 it found a barrier in the mountainous range 
 which had been lifted into the air along the 
 state boundary between Olean and Salamanca. 
 The ice thrown off on either hand, as by a 
 plowshare, as it passed away from the eastern 
 end of the mountain wall, moved southeast 
 
 1 History of McKean. Elk, Cameron and Potter (Beers & Co.). 
 ' Report of Oeological Survey of Potter County, p. 65. 
 « State College Bulletin No. S. 
 
ON TWO FRONTIERS 
 
 51 
 
 A prehistoric battle-ground, where the giant glacier met the 
 unconquerable highlands and turned aside. The line of crosses 
 shows the path of the terminal moraine. The map is adapted 
 from the Warren Folio, U. S. Geol. Survey, after Leverett, who 
 designed to show the probable preglacial drainage of Western Pa. — 
 (1) Coudersport, (2) Smethport, (3) Warren, (4) Meadville, (5) 
 Franklin, (6) Pittsburgh, (7) Erie, (8) Dunkirk. 
 
52 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 across the county of Potter, leaving the traces 
 of terminal moraine in its pathway. 1 The 
 mean elevation of Ulysses Township above sea 
 level is about 1,700 feet. Against deadly 
 drainage of fertility in all directions the forest 
 through countless years had stood sentinel 
 over the soil. 2 
 
 At any rate, it was a virgin soil, and bore its 
 crown of pine. To the family at Masonville, 
 shut in by its hard limitations, Ulysses seemed 
 the Eldorado of their dreams. 
 
 1 Geology of Oil Region, III, p. 872. 
 
 3 In a poem by James Harcourt West entitled "Detritus," there are some fitting 
 lines: 
 
 "Could they who till the Mississippi vales — 
 Through thousand thousand leagues far-stretched and fair — 
 Know well what wealth of distant mountain stair 
 Has crumbled to endow their verdant dales; 
 Could they but hear the pounding of old gales 
 In lands of Seneca and Crow and Bear, 
 Or count the centuries the sun and air 
 Have filched from forest-lands with silent flails: 
 Did they thus ken how came their rich black earth, — 
 By grain and grain from Gardens of the Gods, 
 From skyey lines far yonder out of reach 
 Where Allegheny, Yellowstone, have birth, — 
 What new luxuriance would star their sods, 
 How costlier far would gleam each vine and peach 1" 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Boyhood and Schooldays 
 
 IN 1836 Arthur George Olmsted, the youth 
 to whose life-work this volume is devoted, 
 was nine years of age. He and his elder 
 brother accompanied his father, mother and 
 grandfather in their final pilgrimage. There 
 had been five previous stages in the family 
 migration on this continent — from Cambridge 
 to Hartford, thence to Norwalk, to Ridge- 
 field, to Ballston, and to the upper waters of 
 the Delaware. All had been accomplished 
 on foot and by ox teams, through wild or 
 sparsely settled forest region. As again the 
 little caravan moved away from the village 
 which had grown up around their own home- 
 stead, doubtless they looked back now and 
 then as long as the spire of their beloved 
 meeting-house could be seen shining white 
 above the trees. It was a tedious expedition, 
 and not without the perils incident to the life 
 of the pioneer, but in due time the destination 
 was reached, and there the home was estab- 
 
 (53) 
 
54 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 lished which was to be known once more as 
 Olmsted's Corners. 
 
 Four years later the township was created. 
 It had twenty -nine residents, although in 
 1831 there were but five families within its 
 borders. During the first year (1837) follow- 
 ing the arrival of the Olmsted family, the 
 first school-house was built and the first 
 (Baptist) church organized. When the church 
 was incorporated (January 6, 1849), Daniel 
 Olmsted was one of the trustees, and his 
 brother, Gardner Hicks Olmsted, was clerk 
 and also a trustee. Here Seneca Olmsted 
 spent the remainder of his days, and lived 
 to the advanced age of eighty-six years, itself 
 a testimonial to the simplicity of his habits 
 and the rectitude of his life. He died January 
 23, 1860, just as the country began to be 
 stirred with the mutterings of Southern seces- 
 sion. He had lived to see his son Daniel, with 
 whom he lived, become a representative 
 citizen of the county, honored and respected 
 in the community, a leader in the church and 
 in public affairs, and his grandchildren grown 
 to manhood and womanhood, excepting 
 Seneca Lewis, his namesake, who died in his 
 minority, and Herbert Cushing, then a boy of 
 
BOYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS 55 
 
 fifteen. Their success in life must have 
 cheered his declining years. 1 
 
 His son, Daniel, their father, was from the 
 beginning the active leader of the Olmsted 
 settlement. The village of Lewisville, since 
 incorporated as a borough, grew up near the 
 center of the township, and in 1841 he was 
 appointed postmaster, the office retaining the 
 township name, Ulysses. He was fortunate 
 in the selection of a homestead. It adjoined 
 on the west the lands of Lucas Cushing (with 
 whose family, also, his own was to be joined 
 in romance and wedlock), and embraced one 
 hundred nineteen acres. It was a part of the 
 great area of lands of William Bingham of 
 Philadelphia, and is described as Lot No. 74, 
 being a part of warrants 1261 and 1265. He 
 went into possession under contract of pur- 
 
 1 Henry Jason Olmsted, born at Masonville, Nov. 22, 1825, married May 14, 
 1846, Evalina Theresa Cushing (born Aug. 81, 1826), daughter of Lucas Cushing of 
 Ulysses. They removed to Coudersport in March, 1848. He served as prothonotary 
 of Potter County for twenty-one years. 
 
 Arthur George Olmsted, born at Masonville September 30, 1827, herein further 
 mentioned. 
 
 Sarah Elizabeth, born June 15, 1880, married March 10, 1850, Chauncey G. 
 Cushing of Lewisville (Potter Co.), born August 22, 1828, died Sept. 12, 1877, son 
 of Lucas Cushing — a successful merchant, member of the Baptist society and super- 
 intendent of the Sunday School. 
 
 Daniel Edward Olmsted, born May 30, 1832, died Dec. 29, 1900, married Aug. 
 29, 1854, Lydia Laura Cushing (born Sept. 30, 1835), daughter of Lucas and Chloe 
 (Wood) Cushing. A prosperous merchant at Coudersport for fifteen years, after- 
 wards a resident of Williamsport. 
 
 Seneca Lewis Olmsted, born May 11, 1838, died Oct, 2, 1856. 
 
 Herbert Cushing Olmsted, of Emporium, Pa., born Oct. 21, 1845, married Sept. 
 10, 1865, Martha M. Cushing (born Sept. 28, 1843, died May 28, 1905), daughter of 
 Leavitt and Jane (Goodrich) Cushing. 
 
56 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 chase, and in 1849 took title by deed. In 1854 
 and 1857 he purchased from H. H. Dent allot- 
 ments of forty-one acres and fifty-two acres, 
 respectively, both in the township of Ulysses. 
 Here at Ulysses he continued to reside 
 until the death of his wife, which occurred in 
 1865. His living children had then set up 
 their own households, and he was left alone. 
 The home which had for many years echoed 
 to children's voices now seemed desolate, 
 and he did not linger in it. It soon passed 
 into other hands. In the following year he 
 was again joined in marriage. His second 
 wife was Jane (Robertson) Bennett, daughter 
 of Jabez Robertson and widow of Ira Bennett. 
 Thereupon he took up his residence with 
 her at Bennettsville, in the county of Che- 
 nango, in the State of New York, scarce 
 three miles from Masonville, and there was 
 his last home. He at once allied himself 
 with the Baptist church of that place. The 
 minutes of August 5, 1875, cover a resolution 
 to unite with the Baptist church of Bain- 
 bridge (three miles distant). The resolution 
 was signed by Jane Olmsted, Daniel Olmsted, 
 G. H. Olmsted, S. G. Scofield and others. 1 
 
 1 History of the Counties of Chenango and Madison, p. 179. 
 
BOYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS 57 
 
 He lived to the age of eighty -three years and 
 two months. His death occurred at his home 
 in Bennettsville, October 2, 1882. For fifty- 
 five years he had been a steadfast and exem- 
 plary member of the Baptist church, in which 
 he held the office of deacon. In an obituary 
 notice it was said of him that "he possessed a 
 wonderfully calm and well-poised spirit. 
 Hasty, loud, impatient and angry utterances 
 were strangers to his lips. Those who knew 
 him best observed his entire freedom from the 
 vice of evil speaking. Neither was it pleasant 
 for you to pour complaints against neighbors 
 and acquaintances into his ears. The grave 
 silence with which they were received 
 amounted to a severe rebuke to him who 
 spoke the evil." And again it was said that 
 he was "noted for his frugal and industrious 
 habits, and his kindly, considerate regard for 
 his friends and neighbors." The oppor- 
 tunity for distinguished service had not come 
 to him. It was something to have led an 
 upright life, endured many hardships, and 
 to have lived to witness the success and 
 happiness of his surviving children. His 
 second son, Arthur, had already risen to 
 distinction. 
 
58 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Arthur's boyhood days had been spent with 
 his brothers and sisters at the parental fire- 
 side. Alike with them he received from his 
 father and mother the impress of their strong, 
 reverent natures, and was guided by the 
 example of their daily lives. He and his 
 elder brother had received their primary edu- 
 cation at Masonville, but mainly from their 
 parents and the pastor of the church, the era 
 of free schools in New York not having 
 arrived. 1 The paramount political issue in 
 Pennsylvania for two years before the removal 
 of Daniel Olmsted and his family to Ulysses 
 had been the free school system. The inhabi- 
 tants of a border county of New York could 
 hardly have been ignorant of the heroic legis- 
 lative battles in its behalf led by Governor 
 Wolf and Governor Ritner, and of the con- 
 trolling speech of Thaddeus Stevens at the 
 crisis of the debate. The successful enact- 
 ment of the measure may have been a deciding 
 circumstance, and one which served to hasten 
 the removal to Ulysses. In any event, within 
 the year following the first school under this 
 system was opened in Ulysses. It was con- 
 
 •The free school system of New York was established in 1867. 
 
BOYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS 59 
 
 ducted in the new building known as "Daniel's 
 schoolhouse." 1 
 
 Arthur's boyhood can easily be imagined, 
 its Christmas eves, its spelling bees, the games 
 of winter evenings, the summer tramps. It 
 would not be difficult to locate the swimming 
 hole and the stretch of still water which 
 became ice in the skating season. He was 
 never fond of hunting, but he loved to troll the 
 brooks for trout. Here and there in the 
 neighborhood was a young bear, a tethered 
 wolf, a pretty deer, getting their education at 
 the hands of the boys. And then there were 
 the athletic games, but none of the "national " 
 brand, and no moving pictures, excepting such 
 as were occasionally afforded by a runaway 
 colt, or the crashing to the earth of some 
 forest monarch. As he grew older, he was 
 called to assist in the varied work of the farm, 
 or at the mills. It is not to be doubted that 
 he made the most of the opportunity which the 
 district school afforded, and that in the course 
 of ten years he had exhausted its resources of 
 learning, and was supplementing it as best he 
 could by wide reading. His taste of knowl- 
 
 1 "It is to be noted that when, in 18S5, a state-wide vote was taken, everyrepre- 
 sented district in Potter County voted in favor of accepting the system." — Wicluir- 
 sham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, 322. 
 
ARTHUR GEORGE 0LM5TZP 
 
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BOYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS 61 
 
 twenty-five. The multiplication of these 
 
 institutions resulted in the substitu: :he 
 
 high school as an adjunct of the common 
 
 school system. As late as l^oQ an acad- 
 emy building was erected at L 
 J. A. Cooper, afterwards for many years 
 at the head of the State Xormal School 
 at Edinboro, was the first principal. He 
 conducted it successfully until 1S73, when 
 it also was converted into a graded public 
 school. 
 
 In 1847 the Coudersport Academy was 
 regarded as an excellent institution. It was 
 then conducted by Mr. A. "VY. Smith, as 
 superintendent, "late of Union Colle. 
 The Potter Pioneer, in its issue of the 
 30th of October of that year, announces 
 that the institution has received the fol- 
 lowing new apparatus: a celestial and ter- 
 restrial globe, an air pump, an electrical 
 machine and galvanic batten*, a microscope 
 and lenses, together with chemical appa- 
 ratus. "''"With these advantages, which 
 are superior to any in Northern Penn- 
 sylvania, the trustees confidently hope that 
 the 'Halls of the Institution' will be 
 filled with vouth who mav seek and 
 
62 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 acquire the lasting benefits of education and 
 knowledge." 1 
 
 Arthur was ambitious to be enrolled as a 
 pupil at the academy. But were not the 
 obstacles insurmountable? It was sixteen 
 miles through the forest from Ulysses to 
 Coudersport, and the road was little more than 
 a trail. A daily trip was clearly impracticable. 
 But a plan was finally arranged to which his 
 father consented. He was to make the 
 journey weekly, walking in on Monday, and 
 home again on Saturday, and earn his board 
 during the week by doing chores in town. 
 His parents knew the warp and woof of the 
 boy's character. They had no fear of temp- 
 tations in the town, only of the wild beasts 
 on the way. But he was fearless and strong, 
 and eager to begin. So this new door of 
 learning was unlocked to him, and he made 
 the weekly jaunt without untoward incident. 
 
 1 Included in the notice were the Terms of Tuition: 
 
 Reading, Writing, Orthography and Arithmetic. $1 .50 
 
 English Grammar, Bookkeeping, Rhetoric and Philosophy 2 00 
 
 Chemistry, Botany, Astronomy, Geometry, Algebra and Surveying 3 00 
 
 Greek, Latin, French and Drawing 4 . 00 
 
 L. P. Maynard, Secretary. L. D. Spafford, President. 
 Boabd op Trustees 
 William T. Jones Lemuel F. Maynard 
 
 Wm. Crosby Timothy Ives 
 
 Wm. W. McDougall Lorenzo D. Spafford. 
 
 In the standing advertisement the following year the pupil's expenses are stated 
 as follows: 
 
 Tuition per term, from $1 . 50 to $4 . 00 
 
 Incidental expenses . 25 
 
 Rate for board per week in private families : 1 .00 to $1 .50 
 
BOYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS 63 
 
 His advancement was rapid. 1 Principal Smith 
 was succeeded by F. W. Knox, of Wellsboro, 
 who afterwards became a prominent member 
 of the Potter County bar. 
 
 !"Even as a young man," says the Potter Journal (Sept. 23, 1914), "be was con- 
 ceded to be one of the best informed men in the county." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Lyceum, Libkary, Law-Office 
 
 STUDENT OLMSTED had early chosen 
 his profession. Perhaps his teacher 
 had guided him to a choice. Influential 
 friends of his father were already at the 
 bar in Coudersport. Hon. John S. Mann 
 was its most distinguished member. More- 
 over, he was a champion of the prohibition 
 of the sale of intoxicating liquor, and an 
 advocate of the abolition of chattel slavery. 
 It was arranged that Arthur should be 
 admitted as a student in Mr. Mann's office. 
 So, at the conclusion of his academic course, 
 in 1848, he began the study of law, and 
 necessarily became a resident of Coudersport. 
 In the same year his elder brother, Henry, 
 removed to the county seat, and three years 
 later was elected prothonotary, register and 
 recorder. Thus to Arthur, more than ever, 
 Coudersport became his home town. He 
 availed himself of the advantages of the 
 public library, which came into existence 
 
 (64) 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 65 
 
 about that time, and, although then far from 
 adequate, became the nucleus for the sub- 
 stantial public library for which, in later 
 years, he made liberal provision. In these 
 earlier days the library sought to make itself 
 felt, not only through the circulation of books, 
 but also by occasional literary entertainments. 
 Mr. Mann's law student, during his academic 
 course, gained a circle of friends in Couders- 
 port, and soon became more generally known 
 for the breadth of his knowledge and for his 
 intellectual acumen. He was not reluctant to 
 take part in the Library Course, and chose for 
 the subject of his lecture "Science, its Origin 
 and Progress," a subject which betokened his 
 interest in the academy's advertised equip- 
 ment of globes, batteries and microscopes. 
 It was in the winter of 1849. Coudersport 
 then contained less than one nundred tax- 
 payers. But there was a goodly attendance 
 at the meeting. It was held in the old court- 
 house, built in 1834, and replaced in 1853. 
 The personality of the young lecturer drew 
 the audience more certainly than the charm 
 of the subject. He was twenty-two years of 
 age, and of exemplary habits. He had 
 inherited the superior stature of his lineage. 
 
66 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 His features were of classic mold, his dark 
 eyes flashed, his voice rang out clear, his 
 enunciation was distinct. Doubtless his 
 brother Henry was in the audience, and per- 
 chance his father had been invited to town for 
 the night. The lecture was carefully pre- 
 pared. Extracts from it are here quoted, not 
 because of its immediate interest, nor of its 
 treatment of the subject, but rather as a 
 measure of the young orator's intellectual 
 quality, his power of expression, and the 
 gravity of his thought: 
 
 "Created by a Being whose very essence is 
 knowledge itself, and whose works are order, 
 perfection and science combined, man, the 
 most wonderful and noble of them all, with 
 mental and moral endowments only second to 
 the great author of them — what more enno- 
 bling to his character and more in accordance 
 with the manifest original design of his 
 Creator than a thorough knowledge of those 
 great and fundamental principles which by 
 ordination of the Supreme Ruler govern and 
 control all the great moral, social and philo- 
 sophical movements that are constantly tak- 
 ing place in that part of the universe with 
 which he is or may be familiar ... I have 
 no doubt the Almighty, in his wisdom, con- 
 fers the privileges of liberty upon any people, 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 67 
 
 and has from the commencement of earth, 
 in just as liberal a measure as they have been 
 able to receive and enjoy . . . Man walks 
 on the surface of a sphere whose very existence 
 leads him to study and meditation. Plants 
 are springing up under his feet, showers 
 descend to water them, rivers, supplied by 
 springs that never dry, carry their waters 
 along to the ocean which never fills, — day- 
 light and darkness succeed each other in 
 measured portions, and orb after orb in silent 
 grandeur move their ceaseless rounds in the 
 great conclave above. Unnumbered beauties 
 are on either hand, ever varying and ever new, 
 and constantly exciting his innate desire to 
 know, and inviting him to thread the pleasant, 
 though laborious, paths of Science . . . And 
 what is mind even when uncultivated? A 
 blank upon which may be written the wisdom 
 of earth and heaven in fair and legible lines, 
 or upon which may be made a disgraceful blot 
 and stain never to be eradicated, — a soil 
 capable of producing the richest and most 
 abundant fruits or the vilest and rankest 
 weeds. Science is the cultivator which 
 enriches that soil, sows thereon the seeds of 
 virtue and truth, and causes it to bring forth 
 abundantly fruits suitable for the enjoyment 
 of beings destined to a glorious immortality; 
 but without that cultivator the rank weeds of 
 ignorance flourish upon that soil, and the 
 
68 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 mind of man, that noble principle, becomes 
 choked with error and crippled with imbecil- 
 ity. ... It is well established that 1,856 
 years B. C, or more than 3,700 years ago, a 
 colony of Phoenicians, who were at that time 
 noted navigators, settled on the shores of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, under Grachus, their leader, 
 and built a city which they called Argos. 
 About three hundred years afterwards, 
 Cecrops founded Athens, and gave laws to the 
 then barbarous native Grecians. Soon after 
 Cadmus, another Egyptian, founded the city 
 of Thebes, which, according to Homer, had 
 one hundred gates, and introduced the Phoe- 
 nician alphabet. From this time learning and 
 literature began to be cultivated, and at 
 length the Grecians became the most learned 
 and enlightened nation the world had ever 
 witnessed." 
 
 It may be assumed that an address so 
 scholarly and thoughtful gave to the speaker 
 an immediate and most enviable standing in 
 the community. 
 
 Meanwhile great moral issues were pressing 
 for solution, particularly the abolition of 
 slavery and resistance to the liquor evil. The 
 weekly issue of the New York Tribune was 
 finding its way among the settlements of the 
 Northern Tier, and the great personality of 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 69 
 
 Horace Greeley was forming on the political 
 horizon as the figure of Liberty. The flaming 
 utterances of William Lloyd Garrison and 
 Gerrit Smith became the topics of the fireside. 
 Now, too, the weekly newspaper brought 
 occasional report of the lyceum lectures of 
 John B. Gough, and, perchance, the text of his 
 famous apostrophe to a glass of water was 
 heard anew in the declamations of the school- 
 room. This very year the temperance move- 
 ment was inaugurated, culminating in Good 
 Templars organizations, to be succeeded by 
 the Sons of Temperance. Olmsted's opinions 
 on these questions were already formed, and 
 he was outspoken in their expression. 
 
 Having studied law assiduously, he was, in 
 1850, admitted to the bar, Hon. Horace 
 Williston, of Wellsboro, being the presiding 
 judge. The bar of Coudersport then included 
 Hon. John S. Mann, L. F. Maynard, Wales C. 
 Butterworth, Charles B. Cotter, Isaac Benson 
 and Edward O. Austin. The number of non- 
 resident members was larger. In this list 
 were Hon. Orlo J. Hamlin, John E. Niles, 
 Hiram Payne, L. B. Cole, Horace Bliss, James 
 Gamble, F. B. Hamlin, A. V. Parsons, S. P. 
 Johnson, Benjamin Bartholomew and Joseph 
 
70 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Wilson. Indeed, it was not unusual for mem- 
 bers of the local bar to establish some pro- 
 fessional relation with prominent attorneys 
 in older counties. Thus Mr. Benson's card 
 in the People's Journal, dated March 3, 1848, 
 advertises that through him the services of 
 S. P. Johnson, Esq., of Warren, may be 
 engaged. Later F. W. Knox, Esq., advertises 
 that "a lawyer of experience and ability will 
 be associated" with him in prosecuting all 
 cases committed to his care. 
 
 During his student days, in the conduct of 
 civil and criminal cases, before a justice of the 
 peace, in the preparation of contracts, deeds 
 and wills, as well as in matters of counsel, 
 Arthur Olmsted had gained a reputation for 
 his legal knowledge and ability, and it rapidly 
 spread among the settlements, for the inhabi- 
 tants needing legal services all came in to the 
 county seat, there being no lawyer then 
 practicing elsewhere in the county. Besides, 
 his preceptor, Mr. Mann, in addition to his 
 law practice, was, as he then advertised, 
 engaged in the sale of land as the representa- 
 tive of the owners of several large tracts, and 
 this brought to his office many settlers 
 desiring to purchase homesteads. Hitherto, 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 71 
 
 criminal offenses had been prosecuted by a 
 deputy attorney general who resided at 
 Williamsport and rode a circuit of coun- 
 ties. Now, in 1850, in the fall of the 
 year of Arthur Olmsted's admission to 
 the bar, and when he had but just passed 
 his twenty-third birthday, he was to be 
 elected the first district attorney of Potter 
 County. It was not a lucrative office. In 
 fact, the compensation for the term did not 
 exceed fifty dollars, but it gave the officer 
 not only some professional prestige, but also 
 desirable experience in the trial of cases. 
 At this stage in the development of the 
 county, the homesteads purchased by settlers 
 from the Bingham and Keating agents were 
 generally still held by the purchasers, and 
 consequently few questions of title had arisen. 
 Sources of litigation were not numerous. In 
 after life Arthur Olmsted was heard to say that 
 his professional income for the first three years 
 of his practice amounted to ninety dollars. 
 
 But the county was just entering upon an 
 era of material development. A turnpike 
 had been completed between Jersey Shore and 
 Coudersport, and previously a post route from 
 Jersey Shore to Olean. Hon. Orlo J. Hamlin, 
 
72 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 then representing Potter and McKean in the 
 House, had secured a large appropriation 
 ($200,000) for construction work on the East 
 and West Road through McKean County, and 
 at the same session had procured the enact- 
 ment of a law organizing the eighteenth 
 judicial district, composed of the counties of 
 Potter, McKean, Warren and Jefferson. 
 Within the next decade other events of 
 importance were to occur. A stage route was 
 to be established between Bellefonte and 
 Smethport, and the Philadelphia and Erie, as 
 well as the Sunbury and Erie railroads, were 
 to be surveyed. About this time Ole Bull 
 purchased from John F. Cowan eleven thou- 
 sand acres near the southern border of the 
 county now included in Abbott and Steward- 
 son townships. His purpose was to establish 
 a colony for his countrymen, a number of 
 whom arrived and organized a settlement, in 
 the midst of which he built a castle. There, 
 as if directed by some rare instinct to the con- 
 genial intonation of the primeval forest, again 
 his far-famed fiddle 
 
 "Sang all the songs it knew 
 
 And learned long years ago within 
 The wood in which it grew." 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 73 
 
 But it was a pathetic dream, for the title failed, 
 and ultimately the community was deserted. 
 The People's Journal, published at Couders- 
 port, September 24, 1852, has this paragraph: 
 
 "Ole Bull 1 passed through our village on 
 Saturday, on his way to Oleona, the new- 
 town just commenced through the energy and 
 public spirit of this child of genius." 
 
 Coudersport was truly a village then. 
 Although its location was doubtless fixed on a 
 map in Philadelphia so as to be as near the 
 center of the county as topographical condi- 
 tions would permit, a more picturesque site 
 could hardly have been chosen. Ten miles 
 from its source, and 1,664 feet above tide, the 
 Allegheny rapidly crosses its streets and 
 winds through its borders, rippling and flash- 
 ing in the sunlight, on its way. The village 
 was as a jewel set in the comely crown of the 
 surrounding hills. Among its inhabitants the 
 varied walks were represented. The cards in 
 the weekly newspaper, the People's Journal, 
 included that of H. S. Heath, physician; 
 William McDougall, surveyor ; Lucas Cushing, 
 
 1 Pond, the lyceum bureau manager, says: " I paid Ole Bull $25,000 for fifty 
 concerts, and made a handsome profit." At the Boston concert the poet Long- 
 fellow was present, and the sales ran up to $1,100, in addition to course tickets. 
 
74 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 temperance hotel ; Joseph Mann, agent of the 
 Oswayo Lumber Association, and Jones and 
 Storrs, general merchandise, "opposite north- 
 east corner of Public Square," and in the 
 square the new court-house was being erected. 
 The names of the editors, William W. 
 McDougall and John S. Mann, are set above 
 the motto: "Fidelity to the People,'* and 
 among the editorials was a stirring exhortation 
 for subscriptions to the stock of the Couders- 
 port and Wellsville Plank Road Company: 
 
 "Shall the road be built? Or shall we 
 permit the great advantages which the New 
 York and Erie Railroad offer to us to escape 
 us for want of energy enough to build a plank 
 road from this village to the state line, a dis- 
 tance of nineteen miles?" 
 
 The same paper contained an appeal that 
 the county should be represented at the 
 National Anti-Slavery Convention to meet at 
 Cleveland in September: "In 1848 there were 
 twelve thousand men in Pennsylvania who 
 refused to wear the collar and who cast their 
 votes for Liberty. Organization is the only 
 thing that will cure our leading politicians of 
 their contemptible and cringing subserviency 
 to the Slave Power." 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 75 
 
 Into the various movements of the people 
 looking to the development of the material 
 resources of the county, and to the growth and 
 prosperity of Coudersport, it is safe to say 
 that Arthur Olmsted entered with efficient 
 helpfulness. It is gratifying to note that 
 however ardently he may have mingled in the 
 social life of the community, he soon became 
 a guiding star in the turbulent storms of 
 reform which were beginning to sweep across 
 the country. In respect to measures designed 
 to curb intemperance and to restrict slavery, 
 his attitude seemed to be instinctively right. 
 It could have been guessed before it was 
 declared. It seemed to proceed from a strong, 
 native religious sense, which might have been 
 traced through his parentage backward 
 through a long, progressive, freedom-loving 
 ancestral line; back to Hartford, the "Birth- 
 place of Democracy," in the days of Roger 
 Williams; back to the landing of Hooker and 
 Stone, and their declaration of independence; 
 back to the secret conventicles of Old Essex 
 and the mental enslavement from which the 
 forefathers fled. 
 
 During the September term of court in 
 1853, the district Baptist Conference was held 
 
76 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 in Coudersport, and Arthur Olmsted, then 
 twenty-six years of age, was invited to deliver 
 the principal address. He chose for his 
 subject: "The Christianity Demanded by 
 the Times," and discussed it under three 
 heads: 1st, an intelligent Christianity; 2d, a 
 practical Christianity ; 3d, an earnest, energetic 
 Christianity. Fortunately the text of this 
 remarkable address has been well preserved. 
 Speaking under the second head he said: 
 
 "There was a time in the history of the 
 Church when piety sought retirement, when 
 the Christian thought it his duty to retreat 
 from the busy scenes of active life and seek in 
 solitary vigils and fastings and prayer that 
 preparation of heart which would especially 
 recommend him to the favor of God. Religion 
 in those days assumed the meditative, the con- 
 templative form, and it was thought that the 
 quietness and seclusion of the cloister and the 
 cell are especially favorable to the growth 
 and development of the Christian graces. Nor 
 would I take it upon myself to pass censure 
 upon the peculiar belief of the religion of those 
 times. It was allowed, and we may suppose 
 it was brought about by the Providence of 
 Heaven, and can be both explained and 
 justified by considering the spiritual necessi- 
 ties of that age. 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 77 
 
 "But the demand now is for a Christianity 
 of a different mold. Quietism will not meet 
 the requirements of present exigencies. Re- 
 ligion is called on to lay aside the loose gown 
 and slippers of contemplative retirement 
 and put on the working-day dress. She must 
 go out into the crowded streets and thronging 
 thoroughfares, enter the workshop and the 
 counting house, walk forth 'on change,' and 
 visit those places of resort 'where people 
 most do congregate.' She must mingle in 
 the scenes of the outward world, and con- 
 descend to converse familiarly with the liv- 
 ing men of the present, as they pursue the 
 business and occupations of everyday life. 
 We have a deal of that religion that goes to 
 meeting on Sundays, but not enough of that 
 which lives and acts during the week, and be 
 assured the men of this day will estimate the 
 value of our religion by its practical results. 
 .... They would acknowledge that the 
 Gospel system was a most sublime and beau- 
 tiful body of divine truth, perhaps, if you 
 could persuade them to study and examine it; 
 but a beautiful action, a noble deed of 
 charity, an instance of generous forgiveness, 
 at once challenges their attention and com- 
 mands their respect. This is something they 
 can appreciate, and when the Christianity of 
 today shall put on more decisively this aspect, 
 it will more nearly meet the demands of the 
 
78 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 times, as well as more signally indicate its 
 vital reality. 
 
 "It must be confessed, I think, by those 
 who contemplate the present condition of 
 the Church, that there is in it a disposition to 
 lay too much stress upon the belief of abstract 
 dogmas and the observance of heartless and 
 hollow forms. These have in them no saving 
 efficiency or living power. Nor is anything to 
 be gained to the cause of true religion in this 
 day by setting them up as the test and stand- 
 ard of orthodox piety. Doctrinal tests and 
 theological disputes have had their time, and 
 have accomplished what good they may. It 
 is time now for the Christian churches to 
 cease their intestinal strife and war of words, 
 and that she turn her undivided energies to 
 the accomplishment of practical good. Let 
 there be a cessation of hostilities upon the 
 Five Points of Calvinism and a hastening 
 from all sides to cleanse the world from the 
 Five Points of Iniquity in which the world 
 abounds. When the Church can point more 
 confidently to instances of public vices cured 
 and social evils removed, and to benevolent 
 and meliorating reforms carried directly by 
 its agency, — then will Religion, of which it is 
 the representative, be more powerfully recom- 
 mended to the practical mind of this practical 
 life." 1 
 
 1 It is not recorded that these frnnk utterances- produced commotion in the 
 confereuce, and yet they abound with the same views which expressed today (sixty- 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 79 
 
 That was the clear, commanding voice of a 
 leader of men, one who had a vision of con- 
 tests to come, and who foresaw the oppor- 
 tunity and mission of the Church; one who 
 had spoken of the Bible as "The Heaven- 
 descended charter of Human Rights." He 
 was thinking not alone of the impending 
 struggle against slavery in the South, but also 
 of that slavery in the North which the rum 
 power was fastening upon the body politic, as 
 well as upon its individual victims. It was a 
 day when rum ruled along the frontiers, in 
 forest and in camp. 1 Where did Arthur 
 Olmsted stand, with his future before him, his 
 talents and his popularity in the scales? 
 He was asked to speak under the auspices of 
 the Sons of Temperance, and this is what he 
 said : 
 
 "If the day ever comes when men are 
 brought to judgment for their action here, 
 and it surely will come if God is true to 
 
 five years later) by another noted layman of the Baptist faith, John D. Rockefeller, 
 Jr., have startled the church and aroused much controversy. Mr. Rockefeller, por- 
 traying the "reborn church," said: "Its test would be a life, not a creed — what a 
 man does, not what he professes, — what be is, not what he has; its object to promote 
 applied religion, not theoretical religion. Thus would develop its interest in all the 
 great problems of human life — industrial, social and moral problems. ... If the 
 Baptists of today have the breadth, the tolerance, and the courage to lay aside all 
 non-essentials and will stand upon the platform of the founders of the church, the 
 Baptist church can be the foundation upon which the Church of the Living God 
 should be built." (New York Herald.) 
 
 1 About that time there were in Coudersport three licensed hotels, also a recti- 
 fying establishment, and all the stores but one sold intoxicating liquor. 
 
80 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Justice, let me stand in the place of him who 
 has defamed his neighbor without a cause, — 
 yes, in the place of him who in the dead mid- 
 night hour has made the heavens lurid with 
 the flame of burning mansions of men, but 
 deliver me from the doom of him whose 
 business it was to put that to his neighbor's 
 lips that stole away his brain. ... I have 
 often thought that it needed no argument 
 whatever to make the law's inconsistencies 
 more glaring. It simply amounts to this: 
 that the State of Pennsylvania, in considera- 
 tion of a certain amount in dollars and cents 
 paid into its treasury, grants to certain indi- 
 viduals, under the seal of its respective 
 courts, the right to follow an occupation which 
 increases its taxes, beggars its citizens, fills 
 its jails, and operates as a wasting pestilence 
 throughout all its boundaries; twelve good 
 citizens of the town or borough being required 
 to certify that the individual applicant is a fit 
 person to exercise this distinguished privilege. 
 It would seem that any respectable man 
 could ask for no greater libel upon his char- 
 acter than the certificate of twelve men, law- 
 ful and true, of his own vicinage, that he is the 
 proper character to do such deeds of infamy." 1 
 
 1 It was in tbe course of this address that Mr. Olmsted, in terms of the keenest 
 ■arcasm, advised a revision of the current form of petition for license so that it should 
 read as follows: 
 "To the Honorable the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Potter County: 
 
 "The petition of A.B., of Township, county aforesaid, respectfully show- 
 
 eth, that he occupies a commodious house in the county and township above men. 
 tioned, and is desirous of keeping a public house of entertainment therein. He 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 81 
 
 While an address of such powerful eloquence 
 would have been a potent factor for the cause 
 of temperance if it had been delivered at 
 some populous center of the commonwealth, it 
 was not wholly lost among the pines. It was 
 well calculated to stir the community, and 
 when passed by word of mouth from settle- 
 ment to settlement, to stir that uprising 
 against the license law which, under the cham- 
 pionship of Hon. John S. Mann, culminated, 
 
 therefore prays your honors to grant him a license to kill. Your petitioner considers 
 the sword as an antiquated way of extinguishing life. There is a savageness about 
 it and a useless effusion of blood. Wounds are inconvenient and not always attended 
 with death. I wish to do my work with less trouble and more effectually. 
 
 "Death by the sword is an unjust and partial system; it affects only those who 
 are drawn up in battle array. It falls entirely upon one sex. According to the 
 theory of Malthus, there are more human beings created than the world is able to 
 maintain. Therefore it is necessary that a part be cut off for the safety and sub- 
 sistence of the whole. Now as there are full as many women in the world as men, 
 some process of diminution ought to be devised, in which they shall bear due pro- 
 portion. I petition, therefore, for leave to kill women and children as well as men. 
 I pray, also, that power may be given me to enter the domestic sanctuary, and to 
 slay by the fireside as well as on the battlefield. 
 
 "And may it please your honors, none reverence more than ourselves the inven- 
 tion of gunpowder as an expeditious and commodious way of freeing earth of her 
 supernumeraries. It is truly admirable. Nevertheless, I am not quite satisfied to 
 adopt it. When the field is once covered with the dead, the thunder of the cannon 
 ceases. Battles are not of frequent occurrence. I prefer to use an agent that need* 
 no test, and that night and day may follow the work of destruction. Do your 
 honors suggest, then, that pestilence and famine must be summoned as executors 
 to my commission? 
 
 "I suppose that the plague may be imported, and we know that it has produced 
 great effects. The cities of the East have been humbled in sackcloth before it, and 
 desolated London anciently inscribed with the red cross and 'Lord, have mercy 
 upon us' the doors of her smitten and almost tenantless dwellings. The past year, 
 too, the opening graves of our own land told how fearful was even the lightest foot- 
 step of the destroyer 'walking in darkness.' Famine also has withered whole 
 nations. They have blighted and faded away, stricken through for want of the fruits 
 of the field, but earth soon renovated herself and was again clothed with plenty. 
 The harvest whitened and the grape filled its clusters. The flocks that had vanished 
 from the fold returned, and the herds lowed in their stalls. Health and fulness of 
 bread banished away every trace of weeping and of woe. Not only is the dominion 
 of pestilence and famine transient, but their sway is also restricted. In the height 
 of their power they kill only the body. They have no authority over the soul. I 
 desire a broader commission. I request liberty to kill the soul as well as the body. 
 What tremendous agent do you then seek, before which the ravages of war and pesti- 
 lence and famine are forgotten.? May it please your honor, I wish for a license to 
 sell intoxicating drinks." 
 
 6 
 
82 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 eight years later, in the passage of the special 
 prohibition law of 1860 for the county of 
 Potter. 
 
 A community so alert as Coudersport was in 
 matters of moral consequence was equally 
 alive to intellectual cultivation. This was 
 betokened by the existence of the public 
 library, the academy, a superior weekly news- 
 paper, and a county bar, small in numbers, 
 but of more than ordinary rank. The 
 enthusiasm of professional spirit and fellow- 
 ship which it manifested is hardly equaled at 
 the present day, even in larger places. The 
 court-house was the forum, not only for the 
 vindication of the law, but it served also as 
 the town hall, the center of community activi- 
 ties. Here lectures were not infrequently 
 delivered. It was the era of the lyceum. 
 In the first half dozen years of the latter half 
 of the nineteenth century, Arthur Olmsted 
 developed apace. In the careful preparation 
 of numerous addresses, his views on matters 
 of public interest became fixed and definite. 
 At the instance of the bar association he was 
 invited to speak on "Law Reform." Ex- 
 tracts from his address are here reproduced, 
 not merely because of the intellectual enter- 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 83 
 
 tainment which they afford, but also for the 
 reason that they disclose better than any 
 words of description his mental traits and 
 quality, that degree of scholarship, acquired 
 chiefly by private study, which enabled him to 
 command historic incident in appropriate 
 setting, and because it shows again how he 
 made every subject that he touched alive and 
 burning with the great oncoming struggle 
 between freedom and slavery: 
 
 "We propose this evening to take a sum- 
 mary view of the most important general 
 reforms which have been effected or attempted 
 in England from the period of the French 
 Revolution down to the present time. If 
 any ask why cross the Atlantic for a theme, 
 we can only answer that the people of the 
 United States must ever be interested in the 
 political history of Great Britain. We have a 
 common origin and an identity of language. 
 We hold similar religious opinions, and draw 
 the leading principles of our civil institutions 
 from the same sources: reading the same 
 historic pages; and while recounting the 
 words and deeds of orators and statesmen, 
 who have dignified human nature, or the 
 achievements of warriors who have filled the 
 world with their fame we say: 'These were 
 our forefathers.' The sages and scholars of 
 
84 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 both nations teach the youth to cherish the 
 wisdom of Alfred, the deductions of Bacon, 
 the discoveries of Newton, the philosophy of 
 Locke, the drama of Shakespeare, and the 
 song of Milton and Byron and Wordsworth, 
 as the heirlooms of the whole Anglo-Saxon 
 family. The ties of blood and lineage are 
 strengthened by those of monetary interest 
 and reciprocal trade, and such are the 
 resources of each in arts, in arms, in literature, 
 in commerce, in manufactures, and such the 
 ability and genius of their great men, that they 
 must, for an indefinite period of time, exert a 
 controlling influence on the destinies of the 
 world. Now, when viewed in a less attractive 
 aspect, can America be indifferent to the 
 condition and policy of her transatlantic 
 rival? Enterprising, ambitious and intrigu- 
 ing, she whitens the ocean with the sails of 
 her commerce; she sends her tradesmen wher- 
 ever the marts of men teem with traffic; belt- 
 ing the earth with her colonies, clothing its 
 surface with her forts, and anchoring her 
 navies in all its harbors, she rules 160,000,000 
 of men; giving law not only to cultivated 
 and refined states, but to dwarfed and hardy 
 clans that shrivel and freeze among the ices 
 of the polar regions, and to swarthy and 
 languid fighters that repose in the orange 
 groves, or pant on the shrubless sands of the 
 desert tropics. With retained spies in half 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 85 
 
 the courts and cabinets in Christendom, she 
 has, for a century and a half, caused or par- 
 ticipated in all the wars of Europe, Asia and 
 Africa, while by her arrogance, diplomacy or 
 gold, she has shaped the policies of the com- 
 batants to the promotion of her own ends. 
 Ancient Rome, whose name was the synonym 
 of remorseless power and boundless conquest, 
 could not, in the palmy days of her Csesars, 
 vie with Great Britain in the extent of her 
 possessions and the strength of her resources. 
 An American orator once spoke of her as 
 'That power whose morning drumbeat follow- 
 ing the sun and keeping company with the 
 hours, daily encircles the earth with one con- 
 tinuous and unbroken strain of the martial 
 airs of England.' . . . 
 
 "But when the earthquake shock of. the 
 French Revolution overthrew a throne 
 rooted to the soil by the growth of a thousand 
 years, all Britain felt the shock, scales fell from 
 all eyes, and the people of the realm discov- 
 ered that subjects were clothed with divine 
 rights as well as kings, and that the divine 
 rights of kings and the divine rights of hod- 
 carriers were not essentially dissimilar, and 
 that old adage of Lord Castleraugh, which 
 had been stereotyped for one hundred years: 
 'That the people had nothing to do with 
 the laws except to obey them' began to be 
 doubted." 
 
66 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Coaling finally to the circumstances of the 
 abolition of slavery by act of Parliament, 
 allusion was made to Thomas Clarkson as the 
 father of the movement for the abolition of the 
 slave trade, and to the supporters of the move- 
 ment in Parliament, including "NYilberforce, 
 Pitt, Fox, Rurke, O'Connell and Rrown: but 
 upon broaching the topic, Mr. Olmsted said: 
 
 "Perhaps some may consider an apology 
 due this audience for the introduction of a 
 subject here which may be considered as hav- 
 ing a bearing upon American politics; but to 
 me it appears a reform of too much magni- 
 tude to be passed over in a sketch of this kind 
 without at least a passing notice." 
 
 He quoted the following passage from 
 O'ConnelTs eloquent advocacy of the act of 
 abolition: 
 
 I un far ?;;eedy and immediate abolition. 
 I cure not what c.-.>:e. creed or color slavery 
 may assume. I am for its total, its instant 
 abolition, whether it be personal or political, 
 mental or corporeal, intellectual or spiritual. 
 I am its earnest enemy. I enter into no com- 
 promise with slavery. I am for justice in 
 the name of humanity and according to the 
 law of the living God." 
 
LYCEUM, LIBRARY, LAW-OFFICE 87 
 
 Referring to the statutory abolition of the 
 slave trade in this country, Mr. Olmsted said 
 it was true that it had been abolished, so far 
 as the forms of law are concerned, "although," 
 he added, "there is much reason to suppose 
 that it is yet carried on to some extent, and 
 undoubtedly will be, for so long as the exis- 
 tence of slavery makes a demand for fresh 
 cargos of human agony, so long will incarnate 
 fiends be found who will brave heaven, earth 
 and hell to furnish the supply." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 For Abolition and the Union 
 
 MR. OLMSTED had already actively 
 engaged in the anti-slavery cause. 
 Pursuant to the Journal editorial 
 hereinbefore quoted, a Free Soil Conven- 
 tion met at the court-house on the 17th of 
 September, 1851. On motion of O. A. 
 Lewis, Dr. H. S. Heath was elected presi- 
 dent and Burrell Lyman and Nelson Clark, 
 vice-presidents, and Arthur G. Olmsted and 
 Nelson Jinks, secretaries. The object of 
 the convention was stated by John S. Mann to 
 be the election of delegates to the National 
 Free Soil convention to be held at Cleveland 
 on the 24th day of the coming September. 
 The following persons were thereupon elected : 
 Joseph C. Allen, Joseph W. Stevens, S. A. 
 Slade, Arthur G. Olmsted, N. B. Beebe, D. N. 
 Jinks, W. B. Graves, W. C. Butterworth, W. 
 M. McDougal, Thomas Lewis, Oliver C. 
 Warner, T. B. McNamara, A. H. Butterworth* 
 Sala Stevens and D. C. Chase. 
 
 (88) 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 89 
 
 On motion of Arthur G. Olmsted, a com- 
 mittee of five on resolutions was appointed by 
 the chair. The committee presently reported 
 the following draft, which was adopted. It 
 is evident that these resolutions were from 
 the hand of Mr. Olmsted: 
 
 "Resolved, That our Fathers ordained the 
 Constitution of the United States in order, 
 among other great national objects, to estab- 
 lish justice, promote the general welfare and 
 secure the blessings of liberty, but expressly 
 denied to the Federal Government which 
 they have created all constitutional power to 
 deprive any person of life, liberty or property 
 without due process of law; 
 
 "Resolved, That 'due process of law' 
 includes the right of being tried in open 
 court by an impartial jury; and that inas- 
 much as the Act of Congress commonly called 
 the 'Fugitive Slave Bill' deprives a large 
 class of American citizens of their liberty 
 without due process of law, therefore, it is 
 unconstitutional ; 
 
 "Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal 
 Government to relieve itself from all responsi- 
 bility for the extension or continuance of slav- 
 ery, wherever that government possesses con- 
 stitutional authority to legislate on that sub- 
 ject; and it is thus far responsible for its 
 existence; . . . 
 
90 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 "Resolved, That we are in favor of land 
 reform in its broadest sense : that every family 
 may have a home, exempt from levy and sale 
 by execution; . . . 
 
 "Resolved, That we are in favor of a thor- 
 ough and efficient organization of all the 
 friends of freedom in Pennsylvania, and we 
 suggest to the delegates from this state to the 
 Cleveland convention the propriety of mak- 
 ing arrangements for a state convention to 
 meet at such time and place as may be most 
 conducive to our cause; . . . 
 
 "Resolved, That we will oppose the propa- 
 gandism of slavery at all times, in all places, 
 by all honorable means, against all odds, and 
 without compromise." 1 
 
 These resolutions are here transcribed be- 
 cause they are both typical and historic. The 
 list of officers and delegates chosen by this con- 
 vention may well constitute a county roll of 
 honor. The anti-slavery men of Potter were 
 laying as best they knew the foundations of a 
 political organization which should some day 
 abolish slavery. The Cleveland convention, 
 to which they sent delegates, called another 
 national convention, to be held some months 
 later, and the latter convention demanded the 
 
 1 People's Journal, September 19, 1851. 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 91 
 
 repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and free 
 homes for the people. It inscribed on its 
 banner "Free soil, free speech, free labor and 
 free men." This was the last national con- 
 vention of the Free Soil party. As it was held 
 in Pennsylvania, so also was the first conven- 
 tion of the Republican party into which, in 
 1856, the Free Soil movement was absorbed. 
 In Seilhamer's History of the Republican 
 party it is said: 
 
 "The first foundation stone of the Republi- 
 can party was a hurried amendment offered 
 in the 29th Congress, that became famous as 
 the Wilmot proviso." 1 
 
 The bill then pending was to appropriate 
 two million dollars for the use of the President 
 in an adjustment of the boundary line with 
 Mexico. The amendment overshadowed the 
 bill. It was the outcome of a hurried con- 
 
 1 Stanwood in his History of Pretidential Election) (p. 163) says the Wilmot 
 proviso so divided the Democratic party that it lost the election of 1848. 
 
 "Wilmot was in his first session of his term in Congress, and as yet entirely 
 unknown outside of the district that had chosen him as its representative. He was a 
 young man of powerful frame, with a mind that partook of the rugged strength of hit 
 body. His most noteworthy qualities were his strong common sense and his tena- 
 cious courage. He was able, without any claims to brilliancy, either as an orator 
 or statesman. As a speaker he was clear, incisive and sensible, and convinced rather 
 by his sincerity than his eloquence." — Seilhamer's History Republican Party, Vol. 1, 
 P- 2. 
 
 "In the beautiful suburbs of the town may be seen the little City of the Silent, 
 and near the public road stands the simple marble headstone of the grave of David 
 Wilmot, with nis name and date of birth and death on the inner surface and on the 
 outer surface, where it can be seen by every passerby is inscribed the text of the 
 Wilmot proviso." — McClure's Recollections of Half a Century, p. 240. 
 
92 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 ference between Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine; 
 George Rathbun, Martin Grover and Preston 
 King, of New York; David Wilinot, of Penn- 
 sylvania; Jacob Brinckerhoff and James J. 
 Faran, of Ohio, and Robert McClelland, of 
 Michigan. Of these men, Hamlin became 
 Vice-President ; Grover, representing a South- 
 ern Tier district, including the counties of 
 Allegany and Steuben, was elevated to the 
 bench, and YYilmot, representing the Northern 
 Tier district, adjoining that of Grover, and 
 including Potter, Tioga, Bradford and Sus- 
 quehanna, then but thirty-three years of age, 
 was, along with Lincoln, Sumner, Banks, 
 Wilson, Clay and Giddings, in the list of 
 unsuccessful candidates for the Vice-Presi- 
 dential nomination. He was temporary chair- 
 man of the Republican convention which 
 nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. 
 He was subsequently elected president judge 
 of the thirteenth judicial district of Penn- 
 sylvania, and later a Senator of the L'nited 
 States from the same state. The Northern 
 Tier was for freedom and Wilmot was its 
 chosen leader. As the proviso, though des- 
 tined to defeat, was the anti-slavery slogan 
 which ultimately divided the Whig and Demo- 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 93 
 
 cratic parties, so Wilmot was himself its 
 personification. When he came to Couders- 
 port, he was the lion of the day. His name 
 was given to one of its municipal allotments. 
 Arthur Olmsted had then become a titled 
 citizen of the borough. Indeed, sooner or 
 later, he was chosen to all the offices of honor 
 in the gift of the people: school director in 
 1854, councilman in 1855, burgess in 1860. 
 On the 10th day of July, 1854, Judge Wilmot 
 spoke at the court-house in Coudersport. 
 It was about the middle of that decade, 
 which was to become in American history its 
 great period of debate and legislation. Clay's 
 Compromise had been enacted, California 
 admitted, and the territories of Utah and 
 New Mexico organized. Webster's conten- 
 tion that nature unfitted the territories for 
 slavery, and that it was useless to "re-enact 
 the will of God" had triumphed. Now the 
 Kansas-Nebraska bill was pending. In Penn- 
 sylvania the issue was complicated by the 
 rapid growth of the American or Know- 
 Nothing party. James Pollock was its stand- 
 ard-bearer for Governor. The anti-slavery 
 sentiment inclined toward him. Arthur Olm- 
 sted was not deterred from his support by 
 
94 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the adherence of the Know-Nothing party. 
 He was not a member of its order. He, how- 
 ever, expressed sympathy with its essential 
 purpose, so far as it aimed to avoid the danger 
 arising from the influx of an element incapable 
 of perfect assimilation with native citizen- 
 ship. He reviewed the development of the 
 naturalization laws, discussed the several 
 stages of their enactment, and advocated 
 further restriction upon immigration. 
 
 "This order," said he, "although it may be 
 injurious and pestilential in its effect, yet it 
 differs from the pestilence in this, that 
 although it wasteth at midnight, it walketh not 
 at noon-day." 1 
 
 Whatever Judge Wilmot may have said to 
 the eager listeners in the crowded court-room 
 on that July day, it could not have found 
 
 1 Regarded as a political organization, Mr. Olmsted was evidently in agreement 
 with Horace Greeley, who said of it: "It may last through the next presidential 
 canvass, but hardly longer than that. It would seem as devoid of the elements of 
 persistence as an anti-cholera or an antiseptic potato rot party would be." — Stan- 
 wood's History Presidential Elections, p. 193. And in fact before the next presi- 
 dential election it did lose its momentum. The Republican platform of 1860 upon 
 which Lincoln was elected, supported by Olmsted and Greeley alike, contained this 
 
 filank: "That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization 
 aws, or any state legislation by which the rights of citizenship hitherto accorded 
 to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired; and in favor of 
 giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether 
 native or naturalized, both at home and abroad." 
 
 Nevertheless, Curtin, who was then a candidate for Governor, so recognized 
 the strength of the movement in Pennsylvania that he feared the nomination of 
 Seward (who had advocated a division of school revenue), and with Lane of Indiana 
 turned the nomination to Lincoln. — McCIure's Recollections, p. 218. 
 
 In later years Mr. Olmsted expressed satisfaction with the act of 1906, excluding 
 anarchists and polygamists. 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 95 
 
 quicker response than these thrilling sentences 
 of the favorite son of Potter, the boy orator of 
 Coudersport: 
 
 "We had a mission to accomplish once, 
 and every American was inspired by its 
 grandeur, and every free heart throbbed quick 
 and strong with emotion at the name of the 
 young nation in the west, upon whose broad 
 banner was inscribed in letters of living light, 
 'The rights of the people, ' and eternal opposi- 
 tion to the blood-red wrongs of aristocrats 
 and kings. But the virtue of the maiden 
 nation has become debauched, her morals 
 corrupted, her sensibilities deadened, and 
 freedom is no longer her watchword; upon her 
 soil today are the two antagonistic ideas of 
 freedom and oppression, contending with 
 each other and the whole power of the admin- 
 istration aiding the latter. ... It seems to 
 me, sir, that the present is a dangerous crisis 
 in our national affairs. That power which has 
 been constantly encroaching and increasing in 
 strength since 1820 must now be checked, or 
 the consequences may be fearful. If Kansas 
 is admitted into the Union as a free state, it 
 will be the death blow of chattel slavery; if 
 the reverse should be the result, no human 
 foresight can discern what the effect may be. 
 We are just entering on a campaign in which 
 there is to be but one issue. Pennsylvania 
 
96 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 will be the battle-ground of 1856. 1 . . . Let 
 every man swear that the mountain gorges 
 and vast plains of Kansas shall be free — free 
 not by the force of compact broken and 
 trampled in the dust, but free by the force of 
 strong arms and brave hearts. . . . While 
 I speak, telegraphic dispatches are flying to 
 the people of the civilized world heralding 
 new tidings of still greater outrages. 2 Each 
 dispatch adds some new feature to this tale 
 of awful horrors. The city of Lawrence has 
 been burned to the ground. Her inhabitants 
 have been driven to the open fields, to the 
 forests, to the mountains like the martyrs of 
 the fifteenth century, or have fallen by the 
 hands of the mob, headed by United States 
 officers, the craven emissaries of the adminis- 
 tration, 3 and the faithful instruments of the 
 party it represents and leads. . . . Now 
 let the dumb speak, let the indignant North 
 proclaim that slavery propagandise is for- 
 ever at an end. Aye, let slavery herself be 
 dethroned. I speak ex cathedra for no man. 
 I speak but for myself. If slavery has any 
 rights under the constitution, let them from 
 from this dav be ignored." 
 
 1 The contest did center in Pennsylvania. Republicans asserted that upward 
 of $150,000.00 were collected in the slave states and sent into Pennsylvania. — 
 McMasUr, Yin, p. 174. 
 
 • This was the struggle between the "Free Soil Men" who had emigrated to 
 Kansas from New England, aided by Abolition Societies, and the "Border Ruffians," 
 who moved in from the South to make Kansas a slave state. 
 
 ' Administration of President Franklin Pierce. 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 97 
 
 Pollock was elected, and Arthur Olmsted, 
 on the 11th of March, 1857, received courteous 
 parchment recognition of his services by 
 appointment as one of the Governor's military 
 aids-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant- 
 colonel. 
 
 More than a million and a quarter votes 
 were cast for Fremont in 1856, and the South 
 began to take alarm. The conviction gained 
 ground that slavery could only be saved in one 
 way, and that was by secession. The South 
 began to dream of a great empire around that 
 American Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, 
 holding possession of the mouth of the 
 Mississippi. 1 She counted upon the friendli- 
 ness of Europe. England, France and Spain 
 were not averse to a diminution of the com- 
 mercial power of the republic, and looked 
 with favor on the prospect of a division. Their 
 alliance to seat Maximilian on the Mexican 
 throne was, however, to be thwarted by the 
 diplomacy of Seward, the successive steps of 
 which, advancing to its inevitable conclusion, 
 furnished to the century its most distinguished 
 example of a bloodless national triumph. 
 
 This decade stands out in American history 
 
 1 Draper's Hietory of the Civil War in America, Vol. 1, p. 421. 
 7 
 
98 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 distinct from all others for further significant 
 events of national consequence. It witnessed 
 the construction of the transcontinental rail- 
 road binding the Union from shore to shore — 
 the construction of railroad lines, east of the 
 Rocky Mountains, at the annual average rate 
 of two thousand miles — Perry's visit to Japan, 
 and the resulting treaty; the rise of the 
 French republic; the tide of emigration to 
 the California gold fields; the Homestead 
 legislation; the Dred Scott decision, and the 
 publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was the 
 great constructive era, exciting the imagina- 
 tion and stimulating the patriotism of young 
 America, who in its marvelous enterprises 
 saw the unfolding of a mighty republic. 
 
 In 1852 the first train ran through from 
 Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and thereafter 
 little was heard of the scheme to add to the 
 Union a new state — the State of Allegheny. 
 Plans were on foot for a road from Sunbury to 
 Erie, and public meetings were held to arouse 
 the interest of the people in the region 
 affected, and to obtain subscriptions to the 
 stock. Some years earlier, a railroad up the 
 Allegheny across the Divide, otherwise known 
 as the Allegheny Plateau, and on the earliest 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 99 
 
 maps called the Endless Mountains, down 
 Pine Creek, was projected, but, owing to the 
 wild character of the region and scarcity of 
 men, was abandoned. The enterprise was, 
 however, revived in 1856, and a company was 
 chartered under the name, Jersey Shore, Pine 
 Creek and State Line Railroad Company. 
 The route ran diagonally across the county of 
 Potter. But construction was delayed. How 
 could the representative citizens of that 
 county, whose support was indispensable, 
 Mann, Olmsted, Ross and Knox, give to the 
 enterprise requisite attention when the nation 
 was distracted with the danger of disunion? 
 The serious depression in the Republican 
 ranks which attended the defeat of Fremont 
 in the Presidential election of 1856, and the 
 state of the Union, as it then appeared to Mr. 
 Olmsted, are best described in his own words. 
 The following passages are extracts from a 
 letter written by him to his brother Henry, 
 then at Harrisburg, under date of the 24th of 
 October, 1856: 
 
 "The result in the state was most aston- 
 ishing and disheartening. It seemed to cast 
 a general gloom over the Fremont men of 
 this vicinity. ... I have no doubt but the 
 
100 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Northern Tier of counties will raise Fremont 
 above the state ticket three thousand, but, 
 considering the despondency in other sections 
 of the state and the Fillmore disaffection, it 
 can have but little avail towards altering the 
 result. ... I had hoped from what I had 
 gathered from the newspapers that we had a 
 majority in the legislature on joint ballot, but 
 even that poor consolation was swept away 
 last evening. The next Congress is to be pro- 
 slavery, and, with a pro-slavery President, the 
 good Lord only knows what grave fillibuster- 
 ing schemes may be accomplished during the 
 next four years. . . . Wise issues a procla- 
 mation calling on the militia of Virginia to be 
 in readiness to march down to Old Point 
 Comfort and take possession of the United 
 States in case Fremont is elected. The 
 Southern governors meet in convention and 
 discuss dissolution. Almost every Southern 
 newspaper avows treason. Brooks, Keith 
 and (illegible) threaten to seize the treasury 
 and the archives. . . . The most humiliating 
 part of the whole thing is that it is to be 
 successful." 
 
 The raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, 
 his capture, trial and execution, deepened 
 public excitement, and sectional feeling ap- 
 proached the sundering point. 
 
 Hoping against the inevitable, the loyal 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 101 
 
 sons of Potter County went about their 
 accustomed tasks. The great forests had 
 already begun to move seaward, — more truly 
 than "Birnam wood to Dunsinane" — from 
 many a pine-clad slope of the Northern Tier, 
 and for years to come, the branches and 
 tributaries of the Susquehanna were to be 
 clogged by logs running wild and by rafts and 
 booms. 1 But the day was at hand when the 
 raft was to become historic for the human 
 
 >The following is from a contemporary description of a "log Jam" in the flood 
 season: "A log catches upon a rock or bar in such a manner as to obstruct the chan- 
 nel, other logs rapidly collecting about it until the entire stream, perhaps, is choked 
 with a seemingly inextricable tangle of logs. They are fixed in this jam in every 
 conceivable position, from horizontal and criss-cross to perpendicular. To the 
 uninitiated it would seem impossible to extricate the logs from their tangle with the 
 fierce current of the raging stream locking them together as in a vise; but now comes 
 as cool a piece of pluck and skill as ever was seen in the life of the soldier upon the 
 battlefield — the professional 'jam-breaker,' there always being one or more of 
 these experts accompanying the drive (frequently those who nave learned their 
 trade upon the turbulent Aroostook and other logging streams of Maine). One of 
 these men, divested of all unnecessary clothing, but with his feet securely spiked, 
 jumps upon the jam. He carries his pike lever with him, and upon this instrument 
 alone he is to win the victory over the maddened stream. He holds his life in his 
 hand; a single false move often means his death, but he is cool and determined. 
 It is known to veteran jam-breakers that there is usually one log in the mass which, 
 if detached, will loosen the entire jam so that it will break with a rush; this is called 
 the 'key-log.' The first duty of the jam-breaker is to find the key-log; this found, 
 he goes straight to work to loosen it. Other men have to be called upon the jam to 
 assist him; but when the last hitch of the cant-hook is to be given which will free 
 the key-log (if the business is not precipitated by some unforeseen event), all of 
 the men, save the jam-breaker, run for the shore. With a final twist of his lever 
 the log springs from the mass of writhing logs and shoots out upon the current, but 
 not so quick but that it bears a living freight.^ The jam-breaker, with the agility 
 of a cat, strikes the spikes of his boots into its slippery side, and is leading a crashing, 
 tearing mass of logs and water which chase madly in his wake. By long practice 
 he easily balances upon the rolling, pitching log, which he gradually works to the 
 shallow water and springs ashore, after, perhaps, riding a mile or more upon his 
 unstable craft. This is the modus operandi of breaking a jam where everything 
 works to the wish; but often the jam breaks at an inopportune moment, and the 
 men are hurled here and there into the seething flood animate with rushing logs. 
 If all come out of the peril with their lives, they are indeedfortunate, even if they 
 have fractured limbs or contusions. Woe to the man who sinks beneath the logs — 
 they close above him and he is crushed or drowned. There is deadly danger lurking 
 at every step, from the felling of the tree in its native wilds until the logs are secured 
 in the boom, where the Potter county boy leaves them,"— History of Potter County, 
 p. 987. 
 
108 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 freight that it bore. On the loth of April, 
 1861, General Thomas L. Kane, having ob- 
 tained authority from Governor Curtin. organ- 
 ized a ritle regiment which assembled on the 
 banks of the Sinnemahoning, and took passage 
 for Harrisbnrg on three rafts, upon one of 
 which, the "flag ship." they set up a green 
 hickory pole, placed above it a bncktail. and 
 from this floated the rlag of the Union. It 
 soon became known as the Bncktail Regiment. 
 It included volunteers from Potter County. 
 General Kane was in communication with 
 Olmsted and Mann, pursuant to which he 
 came to Coudersport, accompanied by Dr. 
 S. D. Freeman of Smethport and F. B. 
 Hackett, Esq.. of Emporium (who had been 
 a student in Mr. Olmsted's office^ and at the 
 close of an enthusiastic meeting held at the 
 court-house, enlistments were received and a 
 captain elected. 
 
 This was doubtless the occasion referred to 
 by M. J. Colcord. editor of the Potter Journal, 
 writing in 1914 } 
 
 "The writer's first distinct recollection of 
 Arthur G. Olmsted was at a patriotic rally 
 near the beginning of the Civil War, when 
 
 * Pdttr Journal, Septem b er 25. 1914. 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 103 
 
 Mr. Olmsted made a speech on the court- 
 house square in support of enlistment to put 
 down the rebellion. His patriotic fervor, 
 flashing forth in the eloquent address, helped 
 to kindle the fires that lighted the hills and 
 valleys of Potter County with a patriotism and 
 devotion to the Union cause unequaled any- 
 where in the North." 
 
 While individual members of this famous 
 regiment were in many instances subsequently 
 assigned to other commands, it made an unsur- 
 passed record for Spartan bravery. It is 
 recorded that at the battle of Harrisonburg, 
 Colonel Kane, with 104 men, came suddenly 
 upon four Confederate regiments and a bat- 
 tery, attacked and broke their line. Upon 
 recovering from their surprise the Confederate 
 regiments prepared to advance under cover 
 of dense woods. It was then that Martin 
 Kelly, of Elk, like Arnold of Winkelried, 
 turning to Kane said: "Colonel I will draw 
 their fire," and stepping forward into view 
 received a shower of bullets from which he was 
 to die next day "in the glory of war." Not 
 until the Confederate General Ashby had 
 been killed, and his forces repulsed, did the 
 Confederates realize that they had been 
 
104 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 engaged in battle with no other than the 
 deadly Bucktail Rifles. This celebrated regi- 
 ment lost but fifty-two men in this action, 
 but the number of Confederates killed or 
 wounded was five hundred fifty -nine. Potter 
 County also contributed volunteers to the 
 46th, 53d, 58th, 149th and 210th regiments of 
 Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, also to the 
 37th and 85th regiments of New York. 
 
 The orator 1 of the day at the County 
 Centennial celebration held at Coudersport in 
 1904, truly said: 
 
 "In no part of the North was more patri- 
 otism displayed or greater sacrifice made. 
 According to its strength, no county con- 
 tributed more in men or in means. One in 
 seven of all her inhabitants went forth to 
 battle in that dread struggle in which, on 
 either side, were deeds of valor to be remem- 
 bered in song and story to earth's remotest 
 day." 
 
 It has been elsewhere 2 recorded that Potter 
 County furnished more soldiers in the Civil 
 War, in proportion to its population, than any 
 other county in the United States. The 
 
 1 Hon. Marlin E. Olmsted, then representing in Congress the 18th Congressional 
 District of Pennsylvania, re-elected for seven successive terms, a leading member 
 on the Republican side, son of Henry J. Olmsted. 
 
 J Potter Journal. 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 105 
 
 soldiers' monument, erected on the court- 
 house square, bears the names of 318 soldiers 
 who died in battle or from wounds received. 
 
 Arthur G. Olmsted, although a man of 
 splendid stature, suffered at times through- 
 out his mature years from maladies incident to 
 an intense nervous temperament, which dis- 
 qualified him from military service. Never- 
 theless, he had much to give. His rare gifts 
 of oratory, the persuasive power of his elo- 
 quence over bodies of men, his knowledge of 
 the great issues at stake, his native zeal in 
 his country's cause, were all put at the service 
 of the Union. 
 
 Hon. J. C. Johnson, 1 of Emporium, Penn- 
 sylvania, writing of a later stage of the civil 
 conflict, says: 
 
 "I distinctly recall that dark period of the 
 Civil War: after McClellan's Army was 
 driven into the defenses of Washington, and 
 Lee was marching his victorious legions 
 towards the borders of our own state, and 
 under such pressure Lincoln had called for 
 300,000 more volunteers. It was under those 
 
 1 Captain J. C. Johnson, the writer of this letter, enlisted in Company K, 149th 
 regiment, called the "New Bucktails," commanded by Colonel Roy Stone, only 
 one-third of which survived the battle of Gettysburg, two-thirds, dead and wounded, 
 having been left on the field. Walton Dwight, the captain of the company, became 
 lieutenant-colonel August 29, 1862, and Captain Johnson was then promoted from 
 the position of first lieutenant to the captaincy. 
 
1*> ARVUVR GFOKGK OLMSTED 
 
 that l bst reaily T rami 
 acquainted with Jud^e Olmsted. I ana 
 rearffe* law m 'he 
 
 summer, and occasionally Judge Qmvitod 
 look mm milk Un to the trout streams, where 
 he loved to while »H V *a idle hour exercising 
 us expert stall in ty fcshku I rooai my 
 jouthfaj, mthu~m~tic aijmiietion of han; his 
 L". ; v..-'.— : .v::—: .-.-. •- •.-■> o* . •-• >•.,,;- 
 fcstmas about the conduct of the w*i\ and h» 
 .-.a-x a. a ^'.v'.-.o >•. ■/..>: .-•-■> .-.' •:: .- ,v.\i : .vs 
 m the North at that time. It una thou 
 August. 19H, that he. with Hon. John S 
 V.v.-.v. :• .-.- U ... :Va>.a ava V V, Kao*. 
 rat via Walton Dwigfct ami myself oat to 
 ;>.- :••;> .-: ::■:■ -.v. - -.v. :V:-: C. .a:n to 
 
 - 
 churches, and in a short 
 «^ oao hundred twenty-six of Oft staunch 
 .*i-o. -;...' ;■ ■""-■ r. ':. •::;- .v :v:v :-v;-- 'o 
 LT- .-.;". ;...\- ^..- .->'.v. a a v.-:- .•: .■ *;•:•• -.oe 
 in niag that company of vomnteers, ami 
 :>".-.- -" :. a a ■.-.• >:■■:..- ^ '.rr.v .s 
 of $1*0 each, ami ho followed them 
 v. :':. •■-. . :;.".■. ..". .. -v -v. :.-->: a::;-: '.: a.: 
 aVjiaitaiij for the field, ami ever after until 
 4m chase of the war. Jud$e Gfansted to then 
 <,.-.-. ;:?,--; ■ : / . . ■ . .-. « . .--. - 
 ' - . : ; .> v -v a > r.- : • oo. :v .-■ > '. ; -" a s -; > .. : 
 of rabmg sami^aeAm|Na^msoshart a tmm 
 
 '. . ;" > -' A .-"/- .1 A > . .A. 7 ! ;' V. *.' £ - - - .1 ' - - > . • 
 
ABOLITION AND THE UNION 107 
 
 that flay abundantly testifies. General Kane 
 was then in the field. 'I be r -. J J> . 
 then serving mdef him. 
 of men had L Pottei County and 
 
 were in die service. The port Judge Olm- 
 sted had in their going out is unknown to me, 
 M J was myself new to Potter Cour/.y, having 
 been there only s.V.ce Tone of IMS. Of 
 course, from the time we we: service 
 
 until I was discharged in l%o".5, my I m oir l e J 
 of Judge Olmsted's career Ls only <ruch as I 
 have derived from the public prints and 
 records. Ota rn he was in the legis- 
 
 lature. ... It was certain - 
 
 tunate that physical disability prevented I 
 going inf e in the field. He was the 
 
 material to make a general of then/' 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 From Home Life to Harrisburg 
 
 MR. OLMSTED'S own home life began 
 in 1860. On the eighth of May of 
 that year he married Ellen Ross, 1 
 daughter of David and M. A. Ross, and 
 sister of Hon. Sobieski Ross, subsequently 
 representing the Coudersport district in Con- 
 gress. Her father was of Scotch and her 
 mother of Puritan ancestry. They removed 
 from Grafton, New Hampshire, to Penn- 
 
 1 The grandfather of Ellen (Ross) 01m9ted was Thomas Ross, of Billerica, Mass. 
 (son of Joseph Ross, of Mason, N. H.). He was baptized Aug. SI, 1760, according 
 to the church records of the First Cong. Unitarian Church (Vital Records of 
 Billerica, p. 166; Beer's Hist. Potter Co., p. 1173), and joined the American Army 
 in the War of the Revolution, from Ashburnham, Mass., at the age of fifteen years 
 (Mass. Military Archives, vol. 24, p. 83; vol. 23, p. 200), serving from May 17 to 
 Dec. 1, 1776; and again from May 26, 1777, to May 26, 1780, the latter service 
 being in Col. Rufus Putnam's regt. (Mass. Military Archives, vol. 5, part 1, p. 102; 
 also U. S. Pension Bureau Rev. Record). Three years later he married Deborah 
 Bond, of Ashburnham (Vital Records of Ashburnham) and removed to Hanover, 
 N. H. There he reared three daughters and six sons, one of whom (Isaac) became 
 a member of the Governor's Council, and held many other offices. "David went 
 to Pennsylvania" (Gazetteer of Grafton Co., N. H., p. 320). In 1827 he married 
 Mary Ann Knight (daughter of John and Seclendia (House) Knight), then a teacher 
 at Lymansville, a Potter County settlement. Her mother, Seclendia House, was 
 the daughter of Jonathan House, of Hanover, N. H., a member of the famous 
 independent military organization, recognized by Congress, and known in Ameri- 
 can history as the " Green Mountain Boys," which Invaded Canada to Montreal in 
 1776 (Vermont Revolutionary Rolls, p. 635), captured Fort Ticonderoga under 
 Ethan Allen, Crown Point under Seth Warner, and fought at Bennington under 
 Stark (Vt. Rev. Rolls, pp. 831, 832; see also New York in the Revolution, pp. 61, 
 62). Colonel E. M. House, known as the personal representative of President 
 Wilson, although born in Texas, is of the same New England ancestry. 
 ^ In 1819, four years after the death of John Knight, Seclendia, his widow, 
 married John L. Cartee (Cartier), a pioneer, whose early settlement, known as 
 Cartee Camp, is the only one in Potter County noted on Sheafer's Historical Map. 
 He become a resident of Coudersport. 
 
 (108) 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 109 
 
 sylvania in 1820. He was a surveyor, 
 but for several years was engaged in the 
 lumber business at Ceres, removing to 
 Coudersport in 1827, where he represented the 
 Bingham estate. Mr. Olmsted had purchased 
 the residence of Dr. Heath, which the latter 
 had built and occupied as a homestead, and it 
 became at once the Olmsted mansion. It is 
 situated on the principal residence street near 
 the public square, and through all the vicissi- 
 tudes of the years is still regarded as the most 
 desirable residence in the community. One 
 child, Nellie, was born July 19, 1861, who grew 
 to womanhood and on the 26th day of Decem- 
 ber, 1893, became the wife of William F. 
 DuBois, then principal of the Coudersport 
 High School, since a leading lawyer of the 
 Potter bar. They reside at the county seat, 
 and have one child, Arthur William, born 
 January 14, 1897, now a student at the 
 University of Pennsylvania. But two chil- 
 dren were born to the Olmsted wedlock. 
 The birthday of the son, Robert Arch Olm- 
 sted, was June 21, 1877. He succeeded to 
 his father's business affairs, and since the 
 latter's death has entered into a professional 
 partnership with Mr. DuBois. He married 
 
110 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Kathryn Fizzell. daughter of William and Jane 
 Fizzell, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, January 8, 
 1907. They reside in the parental home- 
 stead at Coudersport, though latterly their 
 winter residence has been at Southern Pines, 
 North Carolina. They have three children: 
 Arthur George, born May 9, 1908; Warren 
 William, born May 19, 1910, and Margaret 
 Ellen McCloud, born August 23, 1912. 
 
 During the period of political reconstruction 
 between 1856 and 1861, Arthur G. Olmsted, 
 though yielding often to the demands of 
 public occasions, was yet able to devote him- 
 self to his profession. Various matters inci- 
 dental to the growth of the county, not strictly 
 professional, but requiring legal supervision, 
 engaged his attention. For instance, it was 
 in 1S60 that the County Agricultural and 
 Horticultural Society was organized. The 
 dismemberment of the county by cutting off 
 for the formation of Cameron a large portion 
 of Portage Township, was also a matter of 
 grave concern. His law office at this period 
 was over the store of W. T. Jones Bros, on 
 Main Street. His practice increased. He 
 rose rapidly to the front rank in his profession. 
 The election of Lincoln having been followed 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 111 
 
 by secession, and the three months' anticipated 
 duration of the war having been spent over and 
 over, it was seen that the war was not only to 
 be indefinitely prolonged, but that it had 
 become formidable. Upon the recurring calls 
 for troops it was recognized that the success 
 of the Union cause in the Northern Tier 
 depended in great measure upon the eloquent 
 appeals which Mr. Olmsted was putting forth 
 in the counties of Tioga, Potter and McKean. 
 He had become to the loyal people of these 
 counties the man of the hour. It was pre- 
 sently perceived that he was needed at 
 Harrisburg, not only by the interests of the 
 county, but also by the Washington adminis- 
 tration. He was accordingly elected to the 
 General Assembly in the fall of 1862. 
 
 Anxiety then prevailed throughout the 
 North. McClellan had been forced to retreat, 
 and was simply encamped, apparently inac- 
 tive, over-estimating the forces against him, 
 and calling for excessive reinforcements and 
 equipment. Between him and Halleck there 
 was evident estrangement. The garrison at 
 Washington had become an army of 73,000 
 men under Banks, marking time and doing 
 guard duty. McClellan's prolonged inaction 
 
112 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 wrought upon Lincoln's patience until finally, 
 on the 6th of October, he gave McClellan a 
 peremptory order to move. Meantime, the 
 enemy's foraging incursions into Pennsyl- 
 vania as far as Chambersburg and into Mary- 
 land past the Army of the Potomac, had put 
 the Union commander at such disadvantage 
 that he was unable to set his army in motion 
 until the 25th, and by that time he had so 
 lost the confidence of the administration and 
 the country, that before encountering the 
 enemy he was relieved of command and 
 succeeded by Burnside. Mr. Olmsted had 
 other means of information than the public 
 journals. He had occasional letters from the 
 front, from the boys who had gone, as it 
 were, upon his call. The subjoined extracts 
 are from an exceedingly graphic and penetrat- 
 ing letter written to him by Captain J. C. 
 Johnson. It is dated at Camp McNeal, 
 Washington, D. C, Headquarters 149th Regi- 
 ment P. V., October 13, 1862; 
 
 "Undoubtedly you want to know the state 
 of affairs with the 'Potter Bucktails.' Well, 
 as was anticipated, Capt. D wight is captain 
 no more. That extra bar fell upon my shoul- 
 der straps as the crumbs fell into the hands 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 113 
 
 of a certain hungry man of olden time when 
 Walt was elected to Lt. Colonelcy at Harris- 
 burg. The Colonel is popular, and the 
 Potter boys are good soldiers. . . . Regi- 
 mentally we've been floundering in red tape 
 snarls, and have got so that we can put in all 
 the dots in the right places in muster and 
 pay rolls, and can find all the offices in the 
 city, and wait all day for an audience with- 
 out swearing. We've done nothing at drill 
 for ten days — given up camp guard — and 
 are set at hospital gates or over government 
 board piles, to keep legless soldiers from 
 running away and old women from stealing 
 splinters. I suppose we are to be kept in this 
 way until the mud is so thick we can't move. 
 We may be doing government great service, 
 but I don't see it. 
 
 "All the country within this great chain of 
 forts about Washington is literally covered 
 with soldiers, and brigades of officers block 
 up the streets of Washington. Yet they stay 
 here, and nobody seems concerned, while 
 Jeff Davis is having a gay old time sweeping 
 the crops of Pennsylvania, Maryland and 
 the valley down into Richmond, and stealing 
 homespun broadcloth and horses. It may be 
 all right, but I can't see it. Nothing is 
 looked for more anxiously than the order 
 'Forward,' and we all feel ashamed to sit here 
 in inglorious idleness. It may seem bad 
 
114 ARTHUR GEORGE OUfSTED 
 
 m ah s^em out, it does seem so, but there is 
 no use Mo one but ol . ; .ah 
 
 ever made anyt". of lamentations, I 
 
 he wouldn't if the Lord hadn't ben 
 side. It is no business, of Company officers to 
 think. — GoMials for strategy-. " 
 
 Arriving at Harrisburg, Mr. Olmsted found 
 a degree of confusion there, a need of con- 
 centration for effective support of the admin- 
 istration at "Washington. More than onee 
 he accompanied members of the House and 
 Senate in visits to the Governor to urge 
 measures ol co-operation with the President. 
 In sub sequ e nt conversation with Captain 
 E. K. Mayo, of the Smethport bar. himself a 
 veteran Union soldier. Mr. Olmsted is re- 
 ported to have said that while Governor 
 Cartm has been called "The Great War 
 Governor." his course in these critical days, 
 taken as a whole, was not such as to justify the 
 title. 1 He was. however, sufficiently demon- 
 
 "-: . ; ■ - :-:■■>• > .;? i -;>. _ .:-•.'-: :':"-.>< ------ 
 
 -.--:.- .v . -sc .:.:?*-::•. :• :::■;_■ ... .. .- ■■• . .-_-;; .-. .. — - i. .: 
 
 i. ..- * r ■.-.■-: ■ » .<_. .-;:.- - .;• :vs y\. : ;•.- 
 
 V -• " ■ .- ." . . .' - t' . : .• : ;• .- • • » : ■ z . ; -' >- " -"''-- •-' * -' - "* -"- ' : :'■"• ■ 
 
 v>:_ i r. 1 1 .-.-•? i | .-o^~rj : ::; r"-~>. - ' «;-.•: . . : : .• : : .- : ^ :■. ■ :c - ? < • .•:..-- 
 
 »". . .•'..■'.-- - ■ .-» V. ■ . : .- . .-.-.-> ?-.\. ■ ■.■-■!. .-.•■■ re. :-'.'■ ' ■■ . -. -< 
 
 ■^\::x :.: ro: • >tf ::;/ .-. ; :.: :::.; .-:.-:.• '. - -. - :.■ ;- - . -. . . .-.— 
 
 . - *: i-r:.- :. >.• .' ■ - ->. I : • .• -.- mi '.■ - - • ■ .:.'--■ •:•_ mi *> . .v. i r ; --• ■! 
 
 ;■ .■: : r«i • 1 1 1 8 tm \ mk u .- N ; • J<rs<% :.\vf*WKHa ri ■ 1 1 1 ■ (MM — 
 
 ; . ■•'.:: r -..-;./ . .'.. ~ ':'-:- - ' ■ • _ . --*.-■. .■>....'.."::- >.'-.\ : : 
 
 .-i : : ; m: ; . : . : : • .-; »: :«: ; :.;- F; •- • . . .- - .- • . • .": _ 
 
 r -.•«<.■:.;.-«; : . . - . - . . • , r • • . -. : :" . .- r '. ^ . . .• : 
 
 -. ■ - -- »-.-.- ..; .":; i. ..;-. . .-._._--.■- - . ■ f< il 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 115 
 
 strative and spectacular, as attested by this 
 clause from his first inaugural address : " When 
 the present infamous and God-condemned 
 rebellion broke out." Strong Pennsylvania 
 statesmen then stood around the administra- 
 tion of Lincoln. In its congressional delega- 
 tion were included Stevens, Grow, Kelley, 
 McPherson. Morrell, Randall, Schofield and 
 Williams. Wilmot was in the Senate, Stanton 
 was Secretary of War, and Meredith was 
 Attorney-General of Pennsylvania. The dan- 
 ger to the Union had brought to the legislature 
 men of unusual ability. Mr. Olmsted's dis- 
 trict was composed of Tioga and Potter. His 
 colleague was Hon. C. O. Bowman of Tioga. 
 The adjoining district comprised the counties 
 of Clearfield, Jefferson, McKean and Elk, and 
 was represented by C. R. Earley, of Elk, and 
 T. J. Boyer, of Clearfield. Mr. Olmsted was 
 not unknown at Harrisburg. Upon the organ- 
 ization of the House he was placed on the 
 committees of chief importance: Ways and 
 Means, Corporations and Federal Relations. 
 His ability, his aptitude for legislation, and 
 
 unjust reflection upon the patriotism of the people of Pennsylvania; and thii alter 
 native appears to be accepted by Greeley and other historians. It has gained cre- 
 dence because it fits into the recognized theory tiiat the Confederate raids into 
 Pennsylvania were merely campaigns of "f rightfulness," designed to deaden the 
 spirit of loyalty in the North and create a demand for peace. 
 
116 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 his effectiveness in debate were early rec- 
 ognized. The rank attained by him in his 
 first session was such as to render his retention 
 in the legislature a matter of imperative con- 
 cern at this critical period in the history of 
 the commonwealth, and he was accordingly 
 successively re-elected without opposition till 
 the end of the war, so that his continuous 
 service in the House included the sessions of 
 1863, 1864 and 1865. It was in the nature of a 
 patriotic service, and so recognized by his 
 constituents, for such a prolonged absence 
 from his home necessarily interrupted the 
 practice of his profession, and resulted in 
 much personal inconvenience and sacrifice. 
 
 If more men of marked ability were then 
 sent to the legislature than in recent years, it 
 would not be difficult to account for the fact. 
 First, the number of members was not quite 
 half so large as the present membership (207) , 
 and the districts were correspondingly larger 
 in era. The range of legislation was much 
 wider before the adoption of the present con- 
 stitution. Nearly all of the local, special, 
 municipal and individual business now trans- 
 acted in the courts was then accomplished by 
 legislative enactment. Thus laws were passed 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 117 
 
 to annul marriages, creating corporations, 
 such as lumber companies, oil companies, rail- 
 road companies and banks, authorizing Phila- 
 delphia to construct certain sewers and drains, 
 empowering borough councils and school 
 boards to borrow money, county commis- 
 sioners to build a bridge, executors and 
 guardians to sell real estate. At Mr. Olmsted's 
 first session, a law was enacted changing the 
 place of holding elections in Stewardson 
 Township, Potter County; another enabling 
 the town council of Coudersport to repair 
 sidewalks; an act authorizing commissioners 
 to open the state road in Potter and McKean ; 
 an act to release Potter County from a judg- 
 ment in favor of the commonwealth; an act 
 confirming loans made by commissioners of 
 Potter to pay bounties; a supplement to 
 an act incorporating the McKean County 
 Railroad Company; a supplement to an act 
 incorporating the Potter County Railroad 
 Company. To ensure such a body of legisla- 
 tion important to the convenience, as well as 
 to the prosperity and growth of a particular 
 district of the commonwealth, as also effective 
 participation in general legislation relating to 
 the affairs of the state and nation in a great 
 
118 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 historical crisis, called for a high order of 
 ability and for superior qualities of states- 
 manship. Arthur G. Olmsted stood the test. 
 In his second session he attained the Republi- 
 can leadership in the House. His district 
 still comprised the counties of Tioga and 
 Potter. His colleague was Hon. John W. 
 Guernsey, of Wellsboro. The adjoining dis- 
 trict composed of Clearfield, Jefferson, 
 McKean and Elk, was represented by T. J. 
 Boyer, of Clearfield, and A. M. Benton of 
 McKean. It was a Democratic district. 
 Dr. Boyer became conspicuous as the author 
 of charges of bribery in the contest resulting 
 in the election of Simon Cameron to the United 
 States Senate, testifying according to the 
 majority report of an investigating committee 
 that on one occasion he was offered $15,000, 
 and later $20,000, and being corroborated in 
 essential particulars by Dr. Earley. 
 
 Mr. Olmsted was appointed chairman of 
 the Committee on Legislative Apportionment, 
 second on Judiciary General (of which W. D. 
 Brown of Warren was chairman), and a mem- 
 ber of Federal Relations and Judiciary Local. 
 By his request he was excused from the chair- 
 manship of the Committee on Banks. It 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 119 
 
 was on his motion that a resolution was 
 adopted directing the publication of a daily 
 Legislative Record, and he was made chair- 
 man of the committee on the part of the 
 House. 
 
 The completion of the Sunbury and Erie 
 Road was announced. Legislation was con- 
 summated changing the boundary line be- 
 tween the counties of Warren and McKean, 
 also legislation affecting the Potter County 
 Coal and Lumber Company and the McKean 
 Railroad and Navigation Company. The 
 speaker, Hon. H. C. Johnson, of Crawford, 
 announced that during his absence Mr. Olm- 
 sted would act as speaker pro tern. 1 
 
 The responsibility of leadership in the 
 legislature of the Keystone commonwealth 
 was at this juncture a grave undertaking. 
 Pennsylvania was not only in many respects 
 the most important of the loyal states. It 
 was the nearest to Washington, and its 
 statesmen could most readily be called into 
 council. The Civil War had its dark periods. 
 
 "In the spring of 1863," says McClure, 
 "Hooker suffered a most humiliating defeat 
 at Chancellorsville, and the Army of the 
 
 > House Journal, 1864, p. 9. 
 
120 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Potomac had little to inspire it with hope of 
 victory. It had been defeated on the Penin- 
 sula; it had been defeated at the Second Bull 
 Run; it had a drawn battle at Antietam; 
 it had been defeated at Fredericksburg and 
 defeated at Chancellorsville. It had not a 
 single decisive victory to its credit. 
 
 Moreover, Pennsylvania was on the border, 
 its boundary confronted the Confederate Army 
 of Northern Virginia; its soil was constantly 
 exposed to hostile incursion. Thrice, year 
 after year, it had been invaded. Chambers- 
 burg had been burned, and the counties of 
 Bedford, Fulton, Franklin, York and Adams, 
 as well as Cumberland, had been raided. Is it 
 any wonder if the pulse-beats at the national 
 capital were anxiously noted at Harrisburg? 
 Pennsylvania had already organized its 
 Reserve Corps. The War Department of the 
 United States had created in Pennsylvania 
 two new military departments: the Depart- 
 
 1 McClure's Recollections, page 318. The following quotation is from John 
 Sherman's Autobiography (Vol. 1, p. 329): "The utter failure of McClellan's Cam- 
 paign in Virginia, the defeat of Pope at the second battle of Bull Run; the jealousies 
 then developed among the chief officers of the Union army, the restoration of 
 McClellan to his command; the golden opportunity lost by him at Antietam, the 
 second removal of McClellan from command, the slow movement of Halleck on 
 Corinth, the escape of Beauregard, the scattering of Halleck's magnificent army, the 
 practical exclusion of Grant and his command, and the chasing of Bragg and Buell 
 through Kentucky — these, and other discouraging events, created_ a doubt in the 
 public mind whether the Union could be restored.' The Democratic National Con- 
 vention, meeting at Chicago on the 29th of August^ 1864, by resolution declared the 
 War for the Union a failure, and demanded that "immediate efforts be made for a 
 cessation of hostilities." 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 121 
 
 ment of the Monongahela, "including that 
 part of the state west of the mountains," 
 under command of Major General Brooks, and 
 the Department of the Susquehanna, com- 
 prising the remainder of the state, under 
 command of Major General Couch. In June, 
 1863, General Couch arrived at Harrisburg, 
 and assumed command. Troops to the num- 
 ber of 31,422 were assembled in the Depart- 
 ment of the Susquehanna, and 5,166 in the 
 Department of the Monongahela. These 
 troops were finally merged in the Army of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 A special session of the General Assembly 
 of Pennsylvania became necessary in 1864, 
 and met pursuant to call in August of that 
 year. 1 The administration of the War Depart- 
 ment was not without the most grievous 
 scandals, which were made the subject of 
 investigation and report on the part of the 
 House. 2 
 
 1 Governor's Message, session of 1864. 
 
 s The following scathing passage is extracted from the report of the House 
 Special Committee: "The criminal collusion of army officers with the most reckless 
 and unmitigated scoundrels as herein exhibited, clearly proves a state of co-operation 
 among the said officers, and systematic villainies perpetrated upon the credulous 
 soldier, the unsuspecting people and the general government, which is of the most 
 heinous character. Disqualified persons have repeatedly passed the surgeon's 
 examination, with his full knowledge of their infirmities. Men have been mustered 
 into the United States service who were utterly disqualified for military duty, and in 
 many cases are yet in the service of the government. Recruits, after they were 
 mustered, were not only permitted to desert, but were even induced to do so by those 
 in authority, in order that they might be taken to other recruiting stations, with 
 
122 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 It was a turbulent year — the year in which 
 the peace sentiment in the North rose to a cli- 
 max and receded. One of the chief causes con- 
 tributing to this revolution was a decision of 
 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania holding 
 the Draft Act of Congress unconstitutional. 
 Against this decision the loyal spirit of the 
 North rallied in a resentment not unlike that 
 which followed the Dred Scott decision. The 
 Chief Justice (Lowrie) who was a candidate 
 for re-election and his associate (Justice 
 Woodward), who was the Democratic candi- 
 date for Governor, were both smartly defeated. 
 A motion to dissolve the preliminary injunc- 
 tion was promptly made to the reinforced 
 court and the order vacated. The report of 
 the case (45 Pa. 238) embraces ten written 
 opinions covering one hundred pages. Justice 
 Strong, who delivered the principal opinion 
 sustaining the act, was subsequently called 
 to the bench of the Supreme Court of the 
 
 an apparent understanding that those persons, although physically disabled and 
 notorious deserters, might again be enlisted, either as volunteers or substitutes. 
 Army officers have leagued with bounty swindlers, for the accomplishment of these 
 vile purposes. The streets and alleys of our villages, towns and cities, have, at their 
 command, given up the deformed and the aged to be accepted as soldiers for our 
 armies. Infirmaries have been robbed of their diseased and maimed, and even 
 prisons have disgorged their convicts at the bidding of judicial officers and traffickers 
 in human flesh. In fine, human depravity of every grade has feasted upon the needs 
 of the government, and while military authority has received from the hands of 
 the civil powers these culprits whom they sought to bring to conviction, justice has 
 been paralyzed and the commun ity left the easy prey of the most accomplished 
 scoundrels." — House Journal, 1864 March 23d. 
 
HOME LIFE TO HARRISBURG 123 
 
 United States. It was the year, too, in which 
 McClellan accepted the Democratic Presi- 
 dential nomination, but, with unflinching 
 patriotism, won the applause of the North 
 by smashing the plank of the party platform 
 which declared the war a failure, saying: 
 "I could not look in the face of my gallant 
 comrades of the army and navy and tell them 
 we had abandoned that Union for which we 
 have so often imperiled our lives." Lincoln 
 finally wrested the victory only by the weight 
 of the homely argument that it was not good 
 policy "to swap horses while crossing a 
 stream." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Speakership in 1865 
 
 WHEN the legislative session of 1865 
 opened, Mr. Olmsted was named 
 for speaker by the Republicans 
 with one accord. George A. Quigley of 
 Philadelphia was the Democratic candidate. 
 The latter received thirty-six votes, includ- 
 ing that of his opponent. Olmsted received 
 sixty votes and was elected. Among the 
 members who supported him were several 
 of subsequent note, including Matthew S. 
 Quay, representing Washington and Beaver; 
 A. K. McClure, of Perry and Franklin, and 
 W. D. Brown, of Venango and Warren. At 
 this session the Thirteenth Amendment to the 
 Constitution of the United States, prohibit- 
 ing slavery and involuntary servitude, was 
 ratified. A pension law was enacted pro- 
 viding a maximum monthly pension of 
 eight dollars for honorably discharged offi- 
 cers, non-commissioned officers, musicians 
 and privates of the army, including volun- 
 
 (124) 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 125 
 
 teers, militia and drafted men, disabled by 
 injury or disease. 
 
 A joint resolution was adopted requesting 
 the Governor to call upon the general govern- 
 ment for the return of sick and wounded 
 soldiers, to be treated and cared for in hospi- 
 tals within the State of Pennsylvania. 
 
 An act was passed providing for an addi- 
 tional law judge in the fourth judicial district, 
 then comprising the counties of Tioga, Potter 
 and McKean. Petitions were presented from 
 the counties of Crawford and Potter praying 
 for the passage of an act to secure the rights 
 of married women. Acts were passed incor- 
 porating or supplementing incorporation of 
 Bennett's Branch Improvement Company, 
 Clarion Land and Improvement Company, 
 Elk County Manufacturing and Improvement 
 Company, Laurel Run Improvement Com- 
 pany, McKean and Elk Land and Improve- 
 ment Company, Midas Petroleum and Im- 
 provement Company, Potter County Forest 
 Improvement Company, North Western Coal 
 and Iron Company. 
 
 The prosperity of great centers of material 
 importance, the development of natural re- 
 sources in large sections of the commonwealth, 
 
126 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 were thus measurably dependent upon legis- 
 lative skill, tact and ability. While the con- 
 stitution of 1873 aimed to overcome existing 
 evils, it left disadvantages in their wake. 
 Local affairs being transferred from the legis- 
 lative forum to the courts, local interest in the 
 choice of representatives to General Assembly 
 was diminished, and their selection gravitated 
 logically to the headquarters of the larger cor- 
 porations or their political agency, the party 
 machine. Its power became abnormal, and 
 willing, rather than strong, men were gen- 
 erally preferred as representatives. 
 
 As speaker of the Pennsylvania House of 
 Representatives, Arthur G. Olmsted was asso- 
 ciated in a galaxy of distinguished statesmen, 
 who brought to the commonwealth high 
 honor during the Civil War; foremost among 
 whom was David Wilmot, who succeeded 
 Simon Cameron when the latter was called 
 by Lincoln from the United States Senate to 
 the portfolio of the War Department; Galusha 
 A. Grow, "Father of the Homestead Law," 
 Speaker of the National House from 1861 to 
 1863; Edwin M. Stanton, also a member of the 
 Lincoln cabinet, and Thaddeus Stevens, the 
 "Great Commoner of the Republic." 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 127 
 
 A journalistic townsman of Mr. Olmsted, 
 writing of him at a later period, has said : 
 
 "While not physically fit for service in the 
 field, Arthur Olmsted gave to the Union 
 cause the benefit of his talent, his courage and 
 his sympathy, with clear discernment antici- 
 pating the dangers that impended when the 
 South rebelled, with optimism predicting the 
 ultimate triumph of the right, and with 
 encouraging words and generous deeds help- 
 ing the soldiers at the front and the struggling 
 populace at home. And when the war was 
 over, it was his initiative that erected a mon- 
 ument to the brave sons of Potter who had 
 'given the last full measure of devotion' to 
 their country." 1 
 
 While there were statesmen of note, includ- 
 ing distinguished "War Governors," who 
 exhibited practical and patriotic concern for 
 the Union soldier in the field and for his 
 dependents at home, it is safe to say that there 
 was no public man of that period who was in 
 more intimate touch with the men at the front, 
 none who knew better their needs and their 
 views, or who was more vigilantly solicitous 
 for those whom they had left behind. His 
 hand is plainly seen in the pension law of 1865. 
 
 1 Potter County Journal, December 16, 1914. 
 
128 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 He corresponded with soldiers who had en- 
 listed under his persuasive eloquence. He 
 felt keenly his physical disqualification and 
 coveted their comradeship. They wrote him 
 not formal acknowledgments merely, but let- 
 ters containing reports of battles, observations 
 and personal opinions — intimate opinions, at 
 first hand, of much value to a public man in a 
 position of leadership. The following extracts 
 are from a letter written by Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Walton D wight, dated "Headquarters 
 149th regiment, near Pollock's Mill, Va., 
 May 13th, 1863." It was written at the close 
 of the Seven Days' Battles, culminating at 
 Chancellors ville. It is of no little historical 
 value, as an immediate, intimate, astute 
 study of a much-mooted battle, notwithstand- 
 ing the writer had evidently not yet learned 
 how completely Howard's Eleventh Corps had 
 been surprised in the forest by the brilliant 
 flanking movement of Stonewall Jackson, nor 
 that Jackson had died of his wound, nor that 
 the Union commander, Hooker, near to a 
 masterly victory, had been disabled by a 
 shattered pillar, but for which retreat might 
 not have been ordered. How solicitous the 
 writer is of the effect of the reverse upon the 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 129 
 
 people at home! How conscious that the 
 army was fighting under the eyes of the loyal 
 North! And yet how undismayed and con- 
 fident! Nor did he dream that he was soon 
 to lead his regiment (149th Pennsylvania) in 
 the famous battle of Gettysburg, and that 
 when General Roy Stone and Colonel Wistar 
 were wounded, he was to rank second in 
 command in the "Bucktail Brigade.'* 
 
 "I would like much to step in unobserved 
 and listen to the numerous conclusions arrived 
 at in the quiet little town of Coudersport rela- 
 tive to the late movements of this army. We 
 would much like to know how the people feel. 
 We can judge by the papers, but they lie so 
 infernally we can put no confidence in them. 
 Their accounts of the late seven days' cam- 
 paign are very incorrect. They give to some 
 corps and generals the credit of doing what 
 they could not, as they with their commands 
 were from two and a half to five miles dis- 
 tant from where great and severe conflicts were 
 said to have taken place. We want to know 
 whether our reverse — for it is nothing else — 
 has dampened the patriotism of the people in 
 our rear. Will you send us on the new quota 
 to be obtained by draft? Is public sentiment 
 of that character that it will fully sustain 
 the administration in any and all measures 
 
 9 
 
130 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 necessary to crush out the rebellion? You 
 can see that we are much weaker than before 
 the late engagement. Our loss is from 
 15,000 to 18,000, although the prints put it 
 at 9,000. We here know it to be over 15,000 
 — although it is not necessary to advertise 
 that fact. We now have 23,000 two-years' 
 and nine-months' men, making altogether our 
 army some 40,000 less than when we made 
 the crossing some twelve days ago. We 
 then numbered 110,000 men for duty, now 
 less than 70,000. True the enemy are 
 greater losers than we in killed and wounded, 
 but their men do not go out of service until 
 kind Providence discharges them. They are 
 relatively stronger than when we made our 
 advance. You need not expect success from 
 this quarter unless the enemy is compelled to 
 withdraw a portion of his force to some other 
 part of the Confederacy. Should he do so we 
 could, perhaps, successfully advance with our 
 present force; otherwise I fear the result of 
 another forward movement. This is one of 
 the worst countries to fight a large army ever 
 seen; the enemy being perfectly acquainted 
 with the same makes it all count advantage- 
 ously to them. Their force was, to the best 
 of my judgment, 100,000 men in the late 
 engagement. They are, if anything, better 
 armed than our own men, and are full as well 
 clothed, notwithstanding the prints to the 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 131 
 
 contrary. My regiment took ninety prison- 
 ers one day while we were on the right, May 
 3d. I know we turned in our own arms and 
 retained theirs in preference. They fight full 
 as well as our men and are fully impressed with 
 the idea that they are fighting for their inde- 
 pendence, and consequently must in the end 
 be successful. The more intelligent, how- 
 ever, acknowledge that we can overpower them 
 if we bring the full power of our government 
 to bear against them. 
 
 "There can be no doubt of the final ending 
 of this affair if we are true to our principles. 
 If the people will do as well in the rear as our 
 army will in the field, it is only a question of 
 time. You must not blame us for not win- 
 ning. We have done all that could be 
 expected of any army. Our loss alone 
 speaks for us. You must remember we are 
 fighting our own kind, officered by the best 
 men in the land. We need not expect great 
 routs and great victories. We have never 
 had them in this war. From what I have seen 
 I do not expect them. I think I am per- 
 fectly cool, and my experience of the past 
 fifteen days has given me an insight into this 
 thing never before possessed. Patience and 
 long endurance, with a disposition to throw 
 all into the balance for our cause, is the only 
 thing that will win. There were mistakes 
 made on our side that cost us dear, that 
 
132 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 perhaps lost us the victory, but General 
 Hooker is but a man. Had he been some- 
 thing more, all might have been well. To 
 err is human. None of us could see the end 
 in the beginning, consequently none could 
 foresee exactly what was wanted. Had we 
 sent a small force to Port Royal — some 
 fifteen miles below us — to have made a 
 demonstration at crossing at that point, we 
 could have held Stonewall Jackson there with 
 his 20,000 men until Hooker could have 
 whipped Lee on the right. Or had the 
 Eleventh Army Corps fought like men 
 instead of running like cowards, as they did, 
 our corps, 15,000 strong, might have been 
 left with Sedge wick, and saved Fredericks- 
 burg to us, without a doubt. Or had the 
 cowardly powers in Washington sent down 
 General Heintzelman with his 40,000 use- 
 less men at that point, but all needful here, 
 the result of the late fight would have been 
 the most glorious of anything since the 
 rebellion broke out. With that force we could 
 have completely gobbled them up, and 
 changed the whole aspect of the rebellion. 
 As it was, with the cowardice of the Eleventh 
 Corps, and the doubtful prospect of holding 
 the position we occupied on the 6th (owing to 
 the constant reinforcement of the enemy), the 
 loss of Fredericksburg, and the fear of being 
 outflanked, in connection with the rapid rise 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 133 
 
 of the Rappahannock, which seriously threat- 
 ened the carrying off of our pontoon bridges — 
 thereby entirely cutting off our supplies — 
 common sense dictated that we should 
 recross the river, after one of the hardest 
 fought battles of the war without any decisive 
 results on either side — although I always con- 
 sider it a reverse to be compelled to fall back. 
 The loss of the enemy is certainly much heav- 
 ier than ours, as they in almost every instance 
 charged upon our works and were mowed down 
 like grass. Lee acknowledges a loss of 
 18,000. I think it must be greater [even 
 than that. 
 
 "The generalship displayed by Hooker in 
 successfully crossing the river in the face of 
 an enemy nearly our equal in numbers, and our 
 superior in position, with comparatively no 
 loss, must win the admiration of all. Our 
 brigade and the cavalry aided by a series of 
 feints which completely bewildered the enemy. 
 
 "The cavalry went up the river, we down. 
 Our demonstration was made at Port Royal. 
 We made Quaker guns, put them in position, 
 built huge fires in and about the woods in 
 front of that point, and exposed our empty 
 wagon train to view — and this was about ten 
 days previous to the general movement. The 
 effect produced was more than expected, the 
 enemy immediately began entrenching, and 
 sent a strong force to that point. Hooker 
 
134 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 made one mistake in not keeping a small 
 force there at the time he made his actual 
 crossing. As I have previously remarked, 
 had he done so Jackson would not have been 
 in our way until after he was whipped. This 
 point is seemingly the place to cross in advanc- 
 ing on Richmond. Therefore a feint neces- 
 sarily would have been something more to 
 the enemy, and they would have held there a 
 large force to meet us. The next feint was 
 made by the First and Sixth Corps on the 
 28th of last month, the beginning of the late 
 movement at Pollock's Mills (four miles 
 below Fredericksburg). I see by the prints 
 Sedgewick gets all the credit for crossing at 
 this point, whereas our corps (the First) laid 
 the first two pontoon bridges, and crossed 
 the first man. We lost, killed and wounded 
 there, about one hundred men, were under 
 fire of the four batteries of the enemy at 
 that point during the whole time Hooker was 
 crossing with his main force at Kelly's Ford, 
 all of which we got no credit for in the papers. 
 Verily, in these times the loudest trumpet is 
 considered the finest instrument. We should 
 have been all right had we a newspaper cor- 
 respondent along. The loss of our corps here 
 was very light, owing altogether to the very 
 bad range of the enemy's guns. We remained 
 here, keeping up the demonstration, as long 
 as the bait took, which was sufficiently long 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 135 
 
 to allow our main force under Hooker to get 
 into position on the right. We were then, 
 on the morning of the 2d, ordered to the 
 right. We made twenty-two and a half miles 
 that day under the most scorching sun, with 
 eight days 'rations and sixty rounds of ammuni- 
 tion per man. As we moved up to our posi- 
 tion on the extreme right and front, on the 
 night of the 2d, near the confluence of the 
 Rapidan and Rappahannock, about one and 
 one-half miles from the former, we passed 
 through the broken and panic-stricken ranks 
 of the Eleventh Corps. Some of them were 
 on mules, some on artillery horses that had 
 been hastily cut loose from their batteries, 
 others in ambulances, all intent only on per- 
 sonal safety, and making rapidly for the 
 rear, and all giving but one account of the 
 front. All there was ruin and annihilation. 
 Notwithstanding all this, our boys moved 
 through them with cheer upon cheer, which 
 was heard by Sickles' men who were at that 
 time desperately pushed by A. P. Hill, about 
 one-half mile to our front and left. It had a 
 good effect as it rested our tired boys and 
 instilled new hopes into them, and had a cor- 
 respondingly depressing effect on the enemy. 
 They immediately retired. There is no 
 doubt but what our timely arrival saved our 
 army that night at that point. We at once 
 proceeded to fortify after we got in position. 
 
136 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 At nine a. m. next day (3d inst.), we had a 
 perfect rifle pit and were ordered to make 
 reconnoisances in front. We did so and 
 before two p. m. of the 3d our regiment had 
 captured eighty-six prisoners, and felt the 
 position of the enemy for three-quarters of a 
 mile. The enemy in the meantime shifted 
 his position to the left of us, only leaving a 
 skirmishing force to hold us while he could 
 attack our forces to our left. He did so, but 
 without success, and with great loss, as our 
 lines were too strong for him. The day was a 
 series of skirmish fights, resulting in very 
 slight losses. Monday, the 4th, all was 
 quiet until one p. m., when we were informed 
 that the enemy were making to our right. 
 Our brigade was immediately ordered out to 
 meet his advance guard. We moved to our 
 front and right, and then to our left, hoping 
 to find it (this whole region is a dense wood 
 excepting only the center where the princi- 
 pal fight occurred). His move against us, 
 however, was only a feint, as he immediately 
 whipped about and attacked the center of our 
 line on the right, about a quarter of a mile 
 to the left of our position. This attack was 
 one of the most daring and desperate of the 
 whole war. Jackson and Hill had both 
 been wounded. We, at that time, had not 
 heard of anything going wrong at Fredericks- 
 burg. The enemy was desperate. He must 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 137 
 
 cut through. We were in high hopes. Lee, 
 in this charge, moved at one time six bri- 
 gades against our works. They came up 
 with yell after yell to within forty yards of our 
 line of defense, then, for a moment, all was 
 quiet as the grave; then the continuous roar 
 of 30,000 to 40,000 muskets for five minutes; 
 then the heavy boom, boom, boom of sixty 
 pieces of artillery; and then the three cheers 
 of our own men; and then the charge, and 
 then the * three times three' which told us we 
 were victorious, — is something that could be 
 felt but not described. There was something 
 terribly grand in it all. The 5th was for us a 
 heavy day. It told of disaster and defeat at 
 Fredericksburg. The enemy, too, was receiv- 
 ing heavy reinforcements, becoming more 
 numerous on our right than our forces. A 
 terrible rain also set in which would swell 
 the river to that extent that it would carry 
 our bridges off, and leave us without sup- 
 plies. We could hear nothing of Stone- 
 man. We then did not know whether the 
 enemy's connections were cut, so but what 
 he could constantly pour in reinforcements. 
 Prudence demanded the re-crossing of the 
 Rappahannock. But I assure you we did so 
 with heavy hearts. I think we should have 
 remained. I believe in either winning all 
 or losing all. This thing has run about 
 long enough. The commanding general did 
 
138 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 not take the above view. We are safe this 
 side the river. 
 
 "The men are in good spirits and willing to 
 again cross arms with the enemy whenever 
 our best interests demand it. As regards the 
 part my own command took in the late cam- 
 paign, I can safely assure you it stands second 
 to none in our corps. The number of prison- 
 ers taken by us was greater than by any 
 other regiment; and the amount of informa- 
 tion obtained by our scouts was large and of 
 the most valuable character. I cannot say 
 enough in praise of the many excellent 
 qualities displayed by our men under the 
 most trying circumstances. Their cheerful- 
 ness, perseverance and stern will at all times 
 prominent during our arduous campaign of the 
 past few days, must win the admiration of all. 
 I have discipline in my regiment, and every 
 man now can appreciate the value of it, 
 although I have been considered very severe, 
 heretofore. In all of our various moves not 
 one of my men ever gave a false alarm. I can 
 safely say, were all the men in our army under 
 as good discipline as our little brigade, the 
 70,000 men now left would be more efficient 
 than the 110,000 we took into the late 
 fight. I do not intend that the good people 
 in Potter shall ever hear of any disgrace to 
 our soldiers, however much they may learn of 
 my severity. 
 
THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 1865 139 
 
 "My kindest regards to your most estima- 
 ble lady, and believe me 
 
 "Very truly yours, 
 
 "W. D. D WIGHT, 
 
 "Comdg. 149th P. V. 
 "Please write me if convenient. I have run 
 over this in great haste, but it is reliable. 
 The whole summing up of the matter is not 
 very much in our favor. 
 
 "W. D." 
 
 Twenty days after the second inauguration 
 of Lincoln, the Pennsylvania Legislature ad- 
 journed. On the 24th of March, 1865, Mr. 
 Quigley of Philadelphia offered the following 
 resolution in the House, which, upon call of 
 + he roll, was unanimously adopted: 1 
 
 "Resolved, That the thanks of this House 
 are due and hereby tendered to the Honorable 
 Speaker, A. G. Olmsted, for the prompt, 
 able, dignified and impartial manner in which 
 he has presided over our deliberations." 
 
 In token of the esteem of the officers of the 
 House, an elegant gold-headed cane was then 
 presented to the speaker by Mr. W. H. 
 Ruddiman. 
 
 1 Roust Journal, 886 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Service in the Senate 
 
 LEE'S surrender, the assassination of 
 Lincoln, induction of Vice-President 
 Johnson into the Presidency, the func- 
 tion attending it, the processes of recon- 
 struction, the election of Geary in succes- 
 sion to Curtin as Governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania, these and many other stirring events 
 speedily followed the close of Mr. Olmsted's 
 period of service in the lower house of 
 the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was suc- 
 ceeded in that body by his preceptor, Hon. 
 John S. Mann, who was successively elected 
 for the sessions of 1867, 18G8, 1869 and 
 1871, and later chosen a delegate to the 
 Constitutional Convention of 1873. It was 
 the intention that Mr. Olmsted should go to 
 the Senate, Succeeding the incumbent from 
 Tioga County. The senatorial district was 
 then comprised of the counties of Potter, 
 Tioga, McKean and Clinton, in area (4,078 
 square miles) nearly four times as large as 
 
 (140) 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 141 
 
 the State of Rhode Island. Mr. Olmsted was 
 elected to the Senate in the fall of 1868, 
 carrying McKean County by a majority of one 
 hundred seventy votes over A. M. Benton, of 
 Port Allegany, the Democratic candidate, 
 leading the ticket, with scarce exception, 
 throughout the district. Meanwhile he gave 
 more consecutive attention to the practice of 
 his profession than for some years had been 
 possible. Seth Lewis and Don Carlos Larra- 
 bee, students in his office, were admitted to 
 practice. The latter received the appointment 
 of postmaster at Coudersport, but after a few 
 months relinquished the office and became the 
 law partner of Mr. Olmsted under the firm 
 name of Olmsted and Larrabee, a partnership 
 which continued unbroken until 1883. Hon. 
 Robert G. White, of Wellsboro, was still the 
 president judge of the district composed of the 
 counties of Potter, Tioga, Cameron, Elk and 
 McKean, but was to be succeeded in 1871 by 
 Hon. H. W. Williams, of Wellsboro. Potter 
 County was still without rail communication 
 with the outer world, and, therefore, but 
 slowly increased in population. Lumbering 
 was still the chief industry. Few saw-mills, 
 however, had yet been established, and trans- 
 
akvuvk GEORGE COMSTED 
 
 porta t. ion of h \ :s - > nature's highway — 
 too several tributaries of the Sinnemahoning, 
 the Allegheny onel t id for the 
 
 iwse these smaller streams were made 
 "r.. ssemhl\ 
 
 : .er of le 
 oil in «k) of pioneer development: first, 
 tion by stream, then by h. 
 
 OOid, sei foments (ton Bfl 
 . villager g these O 
 
 V: - - . v.ms of the 
 
 s e,et> 
 stance* 
 
 the ^ est bra v. [ l the thin! 
 
 - 
 
 Moms 
 
 . . - \ii-a' "v 
 
 * tor y -. :e 
 
 others v : .e> - * ""- 
 
 ether obstrr.etiens in the same." I ikt i« 
 
 1817, *':■'." tha t part et 0*1 B Crook 
 
 K . 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 143 
 
 which lies between the north line of this state 
 and the forks of said creek about twenty 
 miles from its mouth, and "all that part of 
 Six's or Conondau Creek, which lies between 
 the town of Smith's Port, in the county of 
 McKean, and the mouth of said creek, and so 
 much of the Allegheny River, in the counties 
 of Potter and McKean, as lies southwardly 
 of the north line of the state," were declared 
 "public streams or highways." 
 
 There was contemporaneous legislation reg- 
 ulating the use of said streams by mill- 
 owners, and the construction of slopes and 
 locks in such manner as should not prevent 
 fish from passing up stream, or boats and rafts 
 passing downward. Then followed a half 
 century of successive acts, in such detail, 
 intricacy and volume as to constitute an inde- 
 pendent branch of the law, governing the use 
 of these streams in the business of lumbering 
 and transportation of logs and rafts along the 
 same, including the marking of logs and 
 lumber, taking up and reclaiming the same, 
 construction of booms by driving piles to 
 gather and hold floating logs, and finally, 
 for the incorporation of associations for such 
 purpose, known as boom companies. With 
 
144 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the exhaustion of the forests, this period passed 
 into history. 
 
 The number of senators, since increased 
 to fifty, was then but thirty-three, and a seat 
 in the Senate was consequently regarded as a 
 position of high dignity and importance. 
 Mr. Olmsted entered the Senate with the 
 prestige of his distinguished service in the 
 House, from which he had gained an enviable 
 state reputation. His associates, many of 
 them, were to be men of marked ability. 
 Wallace, afterwards a Democratic leader in the 
 United States Senate, came from Clearfield; 
 Buckalew, noted as a constitutional lawyer 
 and author, who had just finished a term in that 
 body as the successor of Wilmot, came from 
 Columbia; General Harry White, soon to 
 become a conspicuous member of the 45th and 
 46th Congresses, from Indiana; and Charles H. 
 Stinson, speaker of the Senate, from Norris- 
 town. Into the office of Attorney General, with 
 the incumbency of Governor Geary, had come 
 Benjamin H. Brewster, of Philadelphia, sub- 
 sequently called to the cabinet of President 
 Arthur. General Hartranft had become Audi- 
 tor General, and Robert W, Mackey, political 
 preceptor of Quay, was State Treasurer. 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 145 
 
 Senator Olmsted was assigned to the follow- 
 ing important committees : Federal Relations, 
 Judiciary General, Education, and he was 
 made chairman of the Committee on Library. 
 Early in the session he introduced and 
 secured the passage and approval of an act 
 supplemental to the act of 1853, incorporating 
 the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and State Line 
 Railroad Company. The promotion of this 
 road was regarded as essential to the public 
 interests of Potter County, and Olmsted and 
 Mann had it at heart and kept it in view 
 throughout their respective terms. But there 
 were still obstacles in its way which it would 
 require legislation to remove, and this was 
 to be sought by an act subsequently to be 
 introduced. 
 
 It was in the session of 1869 that an act was 
 passed appointing commissioners to lay out a 
 road from Kane to Campbell's Mill. By far 
 the most important action of this session was 
 the adoption of a joint resolution ratifying the 
 Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 
 the United States declaring that the right of 
 citizens of the United States to vote shall not 
 be denied or abridged by the United States 
 or by any state on account of race, color or 
 
146 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 previous condition of servitude. Party repre- 
 sentation was evenly divided in the Senate, 
 and it was by no means certain that the 
 resolution would pass. 1 In fact, a serious 
 contest was anticipated. The resolution came 
 from the Committee on Federal Relations with 
 a strong minority report by Wallace and 
 McCandless. The majority report was signed 
 by M. B. Lowry, James L. Graham and A. G. 
 Olmsted. Its language is easily identified 
 as that of Olmsted, and the fact that his 
 name was the last to be affixed is a circum- 
 stance not needed to confirm the conclusion. 
 The following passages are worthy of a place 
 in history: 
 
 "That in free America, the home of 
 Washington — the refuge of the oppressed of 
 all climes — the land of a free church and a 
 free Bible, where education is opened to all, 
 and where alone in all the earth was each 
 white man the political equal of every other 
 white man, there should remain upon the 
 statute books of states which had long de- 
 clared all their inhabitants free, a law for- 
 bidding the exercise of suffrage because of 
 color, could be as little explained to our 
 
 « In 1861 (January 24th), the legislature had passed a joint resolution which, 
 inter alia, conceded the maintenance of slavery as a constitutional right. 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 147 
 
 friends abroad as it could be excused by our- 
 selves. The principle of justice which had 
 struck the manacles from the limbs of the 
 black man would have seemed equal, at the 
 same time, to the duty of placing the ballot 
 in his hands. That it would have been so suf- 
 ficient is now evident to all but for one rea- 
 son, namely, the baneful and blighting influ- 
 ence of slavery in the Southern states. . . . 
 The negro race in Pennsylvania may be 
 estimated at 75,000. Many can trace their 
 state lineage through generations; must have 
 been born on her soil. . . . The negro in 
 Pennsylvania voted until 1838. Did his exer- 
 cise of suffrage injure the state? Can any 
 one — did even the convention, which, in 
 obedience to the behest of slavery, deprived 
 him of that right — say that it did? . . . Tax- 
 ation without representation is as repugnant 
 to the moral sense today as it was in the 
 Revolution. Let Pennsylvania no longer 
 tolerate it within her borders, but now, hand 
 in hand with her sister states, let her help to 
 engraft into the constitution of the nation 
 this last lesson of the Rebellion, this crown- 
 ing act of justice, and proclaim that under 
 the flag of our country all men shall be equal 
 in the eye of the law." 
 
 The resolution was adopted by a vote of 
 eighteen in the affirmative to fifteen in the 
 
US ARTHUR GEORGE OOfSTED 
 
 negative. 1 In the session of 1870 Senator 
 Olmsted was given an additional chairman- 
 ship, that of the Committee on Estates and 
 Escheats, and subsequently was also assigned 
 to the Committee on Elector*] Reform. Gen- 
 eral Thomas L. Kane, a member of the 
 first State Board of Public Charities, was 
 elected president of the board. General 
 Kane afterwards tendered his resignation, and 
 in a rather scathing report, reeommended the 
 abolition of the board as an inefficient means 
 for the purpose in view, saying that members 
 generally were inattentive and neglectful in 
 respect to attendance at stated meetings, and 
 little interested in regard to the respective 
 charities over whieh they were presumed to 
 have supervision. 
 
 General White succeeded to the speakership 
 and Lucius Rogers of Smethport was con- 
 tinued in office as assistant clerk of the Senate. 
 The time had come for the introduction of 
 the railroad measure which was to set the 
 people free enchained in the wilderness, and 
 liberate the resources of the county of 
 Potter. The record shows 2 that "Mr. Olm- 
 
 
SERVICE IX THE SENATE 149 
 
 steel read in Lis place and presented to the 
 chair a bill entitled 'An Act to facilitate and 
 secure the construction of an additional rail- 
 way connection between the waters of the 
 Susquehanna and the great lakes, Canada 
 and the northwestern states, by extending 
 the aid of certain corporations to the Jersey 
 Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway Com- 
 pany. " The preamble of the bill affords such 
 concise explanation of the measure that it is 
 here quoted: 
 
 "Whereas, It is a matter of much 
 public importance to the state at large 
 that a railway should be completed at an 
 early date to form an additional connection 
 between the anthracite and bituminous coal 
 fields of Pennsylvania and the great chain of 
 lakes and states west: also to aid the construc- 
 tion of the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charles- 
 ton Railway, the Clearfield and Buffalo 
 Railway and the Erie and Allegheny Railway, 
 and thereby provide outlets for important 
 portions of this commonwealth that are 
 filled with valuable coal, mineral and other 
 products, now without such highways, and 
 when those lines are constructed adding 
 greatly to the taxable values for state, county 
 
150 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 and municipal purposes, as well as to greatly 
 increase the value of productions from those 
 sections oi the commonwealth for manufactur- 
 ing, agricultural and all other purposes; and 
 "Whereas, It is believed that those desira- 
 
 Approxiuiate route of the Jersey Shore, Fine Creek and Buffalo 
 Road [extended bo Buffalo). 
 
 ble objects may be accomplished by the provi- 
 sions of the annexed bill, and in order to grant 
 sufficient authority for effective aid as afore- 
 said to secure the same; therefore," etc. 
 
 The route of the road was to be from Jersey 
 Shore by way of Pine Creek and the Allegheny 
 River to the New York state line. March 16, 
 
SERVICE IX THE SENATE 151 
 
 1870, was agreed to for the consideration of 
 the bill, and to enable members of the House 
 and other persons interested to attend, con- 
 sideration was postponed to the morning 
 session of the 17th and again to the evening 
 session of that day. Debate on this bill 
 had been long anticipated. It was understood 
 that it was to be opposed on the part of cer- 
 tain railroad interests. Constitutional ob- 
 stacles were to be the ostensible ground of 
 opposition. Buckalew, one of the most 
 distinguished lawyers in the commonwealth, 
 was to lead the attack. It was to be a forensic 
 battle of giants. The Senate chamber was 
 crowded. If the bill should pass, it would 
 go to the House. Hence many members of the 
 lower branch were in attendance, and the 
 argument was in effect to both branches. 
 Representatives of affected interests were 
 present. Here and there friends of the bill 
 could be counted in the audience, among 
 them, doubtless, F. W. Knox and Sobieski 
 Ross, also Backus, of Smethport, Byron 
 Hamlin, a senatorial predecessor of Olmsted, 
 also Strang, speaker of the House, who was to 
 succeed him, and perhaps Arnold, moved by 
 the argument that the Buffalo and Washing- 
 
151 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 ton Railway via Port Allegany was dependent 
 upon the success of the pending project. 
 These gentlemen, or some of them, with 
 
 certain of their friends, had subscribed liberal 
 contributions in land, required to secure 
 requisite capital for the proposed railroad con- 
 struction. Senator Olmsted had made careful 
 preparation- He was to meet adversaries 
 mti : a supreme intellectual effort. The 
 audience was intent. He began by clearing 
 the ground of the constitutional question 
 which had been raised, and then entered upon 
 a description of the advantages which would 
 result from the construction road, well 
 
 calculated to propitiate his hearers. He then 
 proceeded in the delivery of a powerful argu- 
 ment, which lacked nothing of vision, nor of 
 eloquence, nor of legal acumen and cogency, 
 nor of a masterly array of facts, legal principles 
 and precedents. He anticipated and over- 
 whelmed objections, met interrogation with 
 ready and cjuuvistting; retort, and when he 
 took his seat, it was realized that he had made 
 an argument which no senator could cope 
 with, * e had won the day, and that 
 
 . - ; as a forensic triumph of a high 
 order. There are passages in this address 
 
SERVICE IX THE SENATE 153 
 
 which will be of permanent interest, particu- 
 larly in the region which then embraced his 
 constituency. 
 
 Omitting the discussion of the constitutional 
 question as one of no present interest, and in 
 any event, substantially disposed of by the 
 Supreme Court in the case 1 cited by Senator 
 Olmsted, the argument proceeded as follows: 
 
 "I believe, sir, that this road when con- 
 structed will immediately became one ol the 
 most important fines ol travel in the United 
 States. It will reach by its connectioii with 
 the Buffalo and Washington Railway, 2 now 
 in course of construction, the great entrepot 
 of the western lakes by a route fifty miles 
 shorter than any now in existence. It gnu 
 a Pennsylvania corporation control of a 
 short, direct line from Philadelphia to Buffalo. 
 It should be remembered that while New 
 York has already four lines of communica- 
 tion between Buffalo and New York City, 
 we have not one between that important 
 point and our great seaboard city, thoqgk 
 trains are now run from Philadelphia to 
 Buffalo, under a lease held by the Northern 
 Central of the Elmira and Canandaigua road, 
 but this lease soon expires, and then that 
 
 R. B. Co, 5 Wrigkt, **' 
 
154 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 road falls into the control of the New York 
 and Erie. The harbor at Buffalo is now and 
 
 always will be the great point from which the 
 enormous productions of the West are dis- 
 tributed. It is safe to say that nine-tenths 
 of the grain and cattle production of the 
 entire West is deposited M rout? to the 
 Atlantic sea-board in that harbor, and, as 
 facilities now exist, it is carried eastward 
 almost exclusively by New York corporations." 
 
 Here the speaker exhibited by a comparative 
 
 statement of facts and figures the magnitude of 
 the developing eoal trade of Buffalo, from 
 which shipments were being made to Chicago, 
 Milwaukee, Detroit and the great West, 
 ignored by Pennsylvania capital, absorbed in 
 over-supplying the market toward the sea- 
 board. 
 
 "That line of transportation will be most 
 important which puts this article of con- 
 stantly increasing and unlimited demand, 
 at the great entrepot of the lakes by the short- 
 est and cheapest route. . . . Now, Mr. 
 Speaker, this line, when completed, will put 
 both the anthracite and bituminous coals of 
 Pennsylvania from forty to one hundred and 
 fifty miles nearer to Buffalo than they can now 
 be put there by any existing line." 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 155 
 
 Taking the distances from the anthracite 
 coal fields of Scran ton and Shamokin via 
 Williamsport, Elmira and Canandaigua as 
 approximately two hundred ninety -four miles, 
 Senator Olmsted showed that the projected 
 route via Sunbury would be forty-five miles 
 shorter. In the following language he por- 
 trayed the development of bituminous coal 
 mining in the counties of McKean and 
 Potter: 
 
 "The nearest bituminous coal to Buffalo by 
 present line is that in Mercer County, which 
 reaches that point by way of Erie and the 
 Lakes, or by rail at a distance of one hundred 
 sixty-seven miles. The next nearest is that 
 at Blossburg, Tioga County, which by rail 
 and the Seneca Lake, reaches Buffalo at a dis- 
 tance of two hundred eighty-nine miles, or 
 by rail exclusively at a distance of one hun- 
 dred seventy miles. Now, sir, pass this bill 
 and build this road, and the bituminous coals 
 of McKean and Potter counties can be placed 
 on the docks at Buffalo at a distance of from 
 eighty-five to one hundred twenty-five miles. 
 It necessarily follows inevitably from these 
 facts that the seven hundred thousand tons 
 now distributed from Buffalo can be trans- 
 ported thither from seventy-five cents to 
 one dollar and twenty-five cents cheaper 
 
156 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 than by existing lines, and as a necessary con- 
 sequence a large portion of the coal carrying 
 trade must be done over it." 
 
 He next demonstrated the importance to 
 Philadelphia of a share of the eastern traffic 
 from Buffalo then going to New York. He 
 gave the figures of 1870 for grain, live stock 
 and lumber, and showed that only a small 
 fraction passed over roads in which Pennsyl- 
 vania capital was invested. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Speaker, when the facts show 
 that by construction of the Pine Creek, State 
 Line and Buffalo Railroad, we place Phila- 
 delphia fifty-five miles nearer to Buffalo and 
 to this immense trade than she now is, and 
 over seventy miles nearer to that point than 
 New York City by present lines, the impor- 
 tance and value of the undertaking becomes 
 apparent, and our plain duty as senators 
 comes home to us. Shall we be deterred by 
 imaginary evils or objections, narrow and 
 technical, or shall we arise to a just apprecia- 
 tion of the great argument, and by an act of 
 liberal justice to ourselves, grasp now what 
 the law of development and of trade declares 
 is our inheritance." 
 
 From this discussion of the importance of 
 the through traffic the speaker passed to the 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 157 
 
 subject of local development and its economic 
 results. Taking the instance of the branch 
 only twenty-five miles long, up the Tioga 
 River to the Blossburg coal region, he showed 
 that the state had in the single year 1870 
 received from it in taxes $11,978.89. 
 
 "And yet," continued the speaker, "the 
 idea has become almost chronic in the earlier 
 settled and better developed portions of the 
 state, that all that section of our common- 
 wealth is comparatively valueless, and its 
 people and its interests have hitherto been 
 regarded as unworthy of consideration as 
 those of a delegate from a distant territory in 
 the National Congress, or a Catholic bishop 
 from Egypt or Syria in the Ecumenical Coun- 
 cil at Rome." 
 
 Showing that for more than seventy miles 
 the projected road would pass through this 
 undeveloped region "containing coal enough 
 to occupy the entire transporting power of all 
 the corporations in Pennsylvania for fifty 
 years," he went on: 
 
 "Build this road through that region now 
 totally undeveloped and you bring forth this 
 hidden treasure and haste it onward to the 
 markets of the West, add untold millions to 
 
158 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 local values, create new objects of state reve- 
 nues, and furnish employment for thousands 
 of the hardy sons of toil." 
 
 Deposits of iron ore had been discovered at 
 various points, and the speaker predicted its 
 development as a matter of importance be- 
 cause of its proximity to coal and timber 
 requisite for its manufacture. Then he 
 turned to agriculture. 
 
 "A careful examination of the census returns 
 for 1870 shows that the aggregate value of 
 agricultural products in the three counties 
 through which this road mainly passes is 
 equal to that of any counties in this state or 
 elsewhere of equal population. For dairying 
 purposes they are not equaled by any counties 
 in this commonwealth, resembling in their 
 climate, soil and general surface the counties 
 of Cortland, Allegany, Steuben and others 
 in the State of New York that produce now the 
 bulk of the butter and cheese sold in the 
 markets of the City of New York." 
 
 Having thus demonstrated that the earnings 
 of the proposed road would surely pay the 
 interest and principal of the proposed lien upon 
 it, the senator proceeded: 
 
 " It would be well for us all to remember that 
 this road will pass through a region that has 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 159 
 
 hitherto received no aid from the fostering 
 care of the commonwealth. As I remarked 
 last winter, it is a neglected and unappre- 
 ciated portion of the state. Its citizens have 
 hitherto been treated as aliens and strangers 
 from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 They have borne the burthens without the 
 benefits of citizenship, and they ask that from 
 henceforth they shall stand as equals upon a 
 common platform. They pay for what they 
 demand. These bonds are but the repre- 
 sentatives of money actually expended by 
 the state in sections that are now rich and 
 populous, and great common gratitude requires 
 that the representatives from those counties 
 should go to the verge of constitutional limit 
 in their efforts to be just to others." 
 
 Appealing for a more liberal public policy, 
 the speaker, though not foreseeing the adapta- 
 tion of electricity to interurban transporta- 
 tion, nor the motive power of gasoline and the 
 invention of the modern motor-truck, clearly 
 foresaw the expanding need of increased 
 facilties for transportation at low cost, and 
 thus predicted municipal construction and 
 maintenance of lines of railway over short 
 routes : 
 
 "The time will come in this country when 
 railroads of cheap construction and narrow 
 
160 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 gauge will be as common as highways, and 
 then they will be built and maintained at 
 the expense of the municipal corporations 
 through which they pass." 
 
 Recurring to the pending bill, he related a 
 striking instance of the success attending 
 legislation of similar import in aid of a 
 Southern road, and closed with this eloquent 
 peroration : 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, I need hardly say that I 
 am anxious for the passage of this bill. I 
 represent upon this floor an important por- 
 tion of this commonwealth when brought by 
 railway lines into connection with the outer 
 world. Now it is as nothing. The whole 
 future of that region is hanging upon the 
 proposition contained in this bill. It is for 
 the legislature to say whether it shall become 
 rich and populous and great, or whether it shall 
 remain as it now is, cast off from communica- 
 tion with the human race. Pass this bill, and 
 it will bring our people into connection and 
 sympathy with the balance of this great 
 commonwealth. It will remove the dread 
 shadow under which they live and expose 
 their great natural wealth to view and apply 
 it to the uses of mankind." 
 
 The Senate chamber may well have re- 
 sounded with prolonged applause. Those 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 161 
 
 who had listened had heard the utterances of a 
 statesman. When Senator Olmsted resumed 
 his seat, he had added new lustre to his 
 reputation. Speeches in opposition to the 
 bill were made by Buckalew, White, Brooke 
 and Billingfelt, and in its favor by Wallace, 
 Randall, Purman and Lowry. WTien put to 
 vote on the following day it passed, twenty 
 senators voting in the affirmative and twelve 
 in the negative, and next day, under the 
 leadership of Speaker Strang, it passed finally 
 in the House. Would it receive the Governor's 
 approval? That was by no means assured. 
 On the contrary, it was deemed certain that 
 sinister influences would, if possible, be 
 brought to bear to secure a veto. The com- 
 monwealth had, however, been well aroused 
 in behalf of the bill. The Philadelphia Press, 
 on the morning after the hearing in the Senate, 
 had a column and a half editorial in its sup- 
 port, recapitulating the arguments and sta- 
 tistical facts in Senator Olmsted's speech, and 
 on the following day the Inquirer had a half- 
 column editorial concluding as follows: 
 
 "The bill to facilitate the consummation of 
 this important enterprise is now in the hands 
 of the Governor awaiting his signature, and we 
 
VRTHlK ci-ORGE OLMSTED 
 
 :uv HVMKd that in expressing the hope that 
 ho will at Um earliest moment |i> I it his 
 othrial sanetion. wo b\ii express the senti- 
 ments of e\ rrv riti?en interested in the pros- 
 perity of the oonnnonwoalth " 
 
 \\u\ Governor Geary bad the power to put 
 to death this groat constructive measure, and 
 he exercised that power, K he bad honestly 
 doubted the constitutionality of the bill, he 
 might have left the question to be judicially 
 determined, Rut he did not risk it >\ith the 
 courts He declared it unconstitutional, 
 himself, ami returned it without his approvals 
 That he was aware such course would not 
 commend itself is evident from the following 
 apologetic paragraph In his ton 
 
 U> .v. ii as among the most impor- 
 tant ever snhmitted for eonsidoration. hoth m 
 
 the principle it involves mm) the consequences 
 of my fcction thereon. 1 have examined it with 
 
 as nnnli oare as »as possible in the short 
 time allowed ami the pressure of other 
 dtttiet at this late stage of the session For 
 these reasons it would ha\o horn desirable 
 that the \ ton v ftbout to bf announood should 
 have heen the snhjeet of more mature 
 refleetion " 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 163 
 
 So the legislative triumph which Senator 
 Olmsted had won through a year and more of 
 patience and tact and parliamentary skill, was 
 thus frustrated, and the measure which he 
 had at heart and to which his constituency 
 had long looked for relief, was finally set at 
 naught by a few deft strokes of the guberna- 
 torial pen. But Senator Olmsted was not 
 
 CtZfe^. 
 
 ^£a* at . ■ .' . 
 
 aft£<^*^-*f^^L*^\ 
 
 ^ci^tUtC** CZ^r^ a^^^^y^O^t-^^^e^ Q/i 
 
 V 
 
 
 altogether disheartened. Subsequently he 
 sought with success other means of relief from 
 their isolation for the inhabitants of Potter. 
 Nevertheless, reviewing the events which 
 followed the defeat of the measure, it is prob- 
 able that the Governor, in the passage quoted, 
 did not overrate either its importance or the 
 consequence of his action; and that the veto 
 played no little part in the political disruption 
 which followed, in which his own career was 
 terminated and his party overthrown. 
 
 The session of 1871 was crowded with 
 
164 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 important legislation. The membership of 
 the Senate had received strong reinforcement: 
 James S. Rutan, a notable Republican leader; 
 Harrison Allen, soon to be Auditor General; 
 Delamater and Dill, both to become guberna- 
 torial candidates. By the close vote of 
 seventeen to sixteen, Wallace was elected 
 speaker over White. The necessity for a 
 constitutional convention had become appar- 
 ent. Senator Olmsted presented the petition 
 of the city of Philadelphia praying for the 
 calling of such convention. He was assigned 
 to the Committee on Constitutional Reform, 
 in addition to his previous assignments. The 
 necessary legislation preliminary to the Con- 
 stitutional Convention of 1873 was thereupon 
 matured. Senator Olmsted reported from 
 the Judiciary General a joint resolution, 
 regarding a Centennial Celebration. The 
 speaker appointed Messrs. Olmsted, Purman 
 and Nagle the committee on the part of the 
 Senate relative to a Centennial Celebration in 
 Philadelphia in 1876. The committee con- 
 ducted the preparations. 
 
 Upon receipt of the Governor's message 
 announcing, inter alia, the appointment of 
 Thomas L. Kane as major-general of the 12th 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 165 
 
 division, composed of the counties of Clarion, 
 Elk, McKean and Forest, the appointment 
 was unanimously confirmed, and on the same 
 day, upon motion of Olmsted, General Hart- 
 ranft and General Beaver were also unan- 
 imously confirmed. 
 
 On motion of Senator Olmsted the Game 
 Law was amended; also, upon his motion, the 
 rules were suspended and a bill passed relative 
 to actions of replevin. 
 
 Some idea of the extent of the local legisla- 
 tion procured by Senator Olmsted at this 
 session will be gained by mention of the fol- 
 lowing bills, most of which were designed to 
 promote the industrial and material develop- 
 ment of the region embraced in his senatorial 
 district : 
 
 A supplement to an act appointing com- 
 missioners to lay out and open a state road 
 from the mouth of Kettle Creek down said 
 creek to the south line of Potter; a bill 
 vacating part of state road from the mouth 
 of Paddy's Run to Hopper House in Potter 
 County; a bill to lay out a state road from 
 house of Florian Rausch, in Abbott Township, 
 down Kettle Creek to the south line of Potter; 
 a bill to lay out a road from Babbs' Creek to 
 
166 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 coal mines at Antrim; a bill to lay out a 
 state road from Johnsonburg to Backus' 
 steam mill in McKean County; a supplement 
 to act to lay out state road from Ridgway via 
 Johnsonburg and Wilcox to Kane; a bill con- 
 struing act to lay out a state road from 
 Wellsboro to Bodines; a bill amending road 
 laws of Potter County; a bill repealing road 
 and bridge act for McKean, Bradford and 
 Venango; a supplement to an act extending 
 time for completing Buffalo, Bradford and 
 Pittsburgh Railroad; a supplement to an act 
 incorporating Wellsboro and Lawrenceville 
 Railroad Company; a supplement to an act to 
 incorporate the Bald Eagle Broom Company; 
 a supplement to an act incorporating the 
 Bald Eagle, Nittany and Brush Valley Turn- 
 pike Company; a bill changing the name of 
 the Buffalo and Washington Railway Com- 
 pany; a bill to confirm and establish certain 
 monuments in the borough of Smethport. 
 At this later day it seems incredible that 
 these numerous acts are but instances of 
 a considerably larger volume of enact- 
 ments procured at a single session for the 
 several counties of this district. It was 
 the simplest kind of constructive legislation, 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 167 
 
 but it resulted in the rapid upbuilding of the 
 region. 
 
 At the same session a bill was introduced 
 to create a new county out of Warren, Venango 
 and Crawford. It was resisted by the repre- 
 sentatives of these counties. The opposition 
 leader was Charles W. Stone, of Warren, 
 afterwards Secretary of the Commonwealth, 
 Lieutenant Governor, and an influential mem- 
 ber of the Pennsylvania delegation in the 51st 
 to 55th Congresses. The measure was strongly 
 supported, and excitment ran high, but with 
 the co-operation of Senator Olmsted it was 
 defeated. 
 
 Corporate employment had at this juncture 
 risen to great magnitude throughout the East. 
 Factories multiplied, and increasing demands 
 were made upon coal mines and means of 
 transportation. Controversies arose over 
 rates and scales of wages; corporate manage- 
 ment appeared to be inconsiderate, if not 
 arbitrary, and labor organizations began to be 
 formed. The situation was becoming acute, 
 and found expression in the legislature. In 
 the Senate of Pennsylvania, it became a 
 matter for consideration in connection with 
 coal freights, and was the subject of a report 
 
168 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 from the Committee on Judiciary General, to 
 which it had been referred. The report was 
 unanimous, and was signed by J. D. Davis, 
 chairman, Robert P. Dechert, R. Bruce 
 Petrikin, Harry White, A. G. Olmsted. It 
 presented a careful study of the problems 
 involved, and contained, among others, such 
 striking sentences as the following: 
 
 "If labor be the parent of capital, capital 
 in turn becomes the foster mother of labor." 
 
 "The right of labor to combine is no 
 longer an open question." 
 
 "The first great strike on record occurred 
 among the men employed in building Wind- 
 sor Castle." 
 
 The contention on the part of labor had 
 not been ignored by the committee, and the 
 report concluded with a recommendation for 
 the establishment of a commission board of 
 arbitration. The report does not appear to 
 have been immediately fruitful of legislation. 
 But when it is remembered that forty-seven 
 years have since elapsed, and that capital had 
 then met no reverse in its controversy, that 
 it had grown self-confident, if not arrogant, 
 it will be seen that the committee had taken 
 a long, bold, forward step in summoning it to 
 
SERVICE IN THE SENATE 169 
 
 trial, to lay its cases fairly before an impartial 
 tribunal. The antecedents of Senator Olm- 
 sted had been such, the experience of his 
 early life, his constant touch with the hand 
 of toil, his instinctive antagonism to slavery, 
 his unfailing championship of the weak against 
 the strong, that his determination to secure, 
 if he could, the rights of labor without prej- 
 udice to capital might well have been antici- 
 pated. Though no act of assembly was 
 founded upon the report, it appears to have 
 been instrumental in solving the existing 
 deadlock between miners, operators and rail- 
 road men, for Senator Olmsted's letter files 
 contain information from the chairman of the 
 committee to the effect that an arbitration 
 plan had been accepted. It is believed that 
 this is the first instance of an extension of 
 legislative aid for the solution of a controversy 
 between labor and capital through a legally 
 constituted commission, the Maryland act 
 for such purpose not having been passed until 
 1878, nor that of New Jersey until 1880, nor 
 the Federal law until 1888. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 State Leader and Candidate 
 
 THE close of the session of 1871 left 
 Senator Olmsted in the leadership on 
 the Republican side, and with the 
 respect and personal esteem of the Demo- 
 cratic senators to whom he had been politically 
 opposed. 
 
 Soon after adjournment he was besought by 
 influential friends at Williamsport, who desired 
 to urge his appointment as president judge of 
 the Lycoming district, but to this he did not 
 accede. Almost immediately upon his return 
 home he was called into consultation in an 
 important contested election case arising in 
 McKean, known as "Melvin's Case" (reported 
 in 68 Pa. p. 333), wherein it was alleged that 
 whereas the act of 1841 fixed the place for 
 holding elections in Bradford Township at 
 Littleville, the election in question was held 
 half a mile distant, and the Supreme Court 
 held the election invalid. Senator Olmsted 
 did not appear in the case. It was argued in 
 
 (170) 
 
STATE LEADER 171 
 
 the Supreme Court by Junius Clark of Warren 
 and Rasselas Brown, of the same place (of 
 whom Senator Olmsted, in casual conversa- 
 tion, was once heard to speak as "the ablest 
 lawyer between Chesapeake Bay and Lake 
 Erie"). Other important litigation awaited 
 his return. 
 
 But, notwithstanding his state of health was 
 such that he would have welcomed a period of 
 rest at his own home, this was not to be 
 vouchsafed him. A vacancy was occurring 
 in the office of additional law judge in the 
 seventh judicial district, composed of the 
 counties of Bucks and Montgomery, and it was 
 a pleasing incident that he should receive a 
 letter from his senatorial associate, Hon. 
 Charles H. Stinson, who had just retired from 
 the speaker's chair, urging him to allow the 
 presentation of his name for appointment. 
 "Please consider the matter for one hour," 
 wrote Senator Stinson, "and write to me at 
 once;" and a little later a letter was addressed 
 to Governor Geary, signed by every member 
 of the bar in each of the counties of the dis- 
 trict. On the eleventh day of November, a 
 commission was accordingly issued to him for 
 the unexpired term, ending the first day of 
 
172 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 December, 1872. He was urged to consider 
 an election for the succeeding term, but since 
 the constitution required a residence in the 
 district, he could not accede at such a sacrifice. 
 Moreover, his political friends were not 
 content with his withdrawal from political 
 activity. That he retired from the bench 
 with the highest esteem of the bar of the 
 district, is well evidenced by the following 
 tribute uttered by Hon. George Lear at a 
 Republican ratification meeting held in Hor- 
 ticultural Hall, Philadelphia, in October, 1874, 
 when Judge Olmsted was before the people 
 as a state candidate. 1 
 
 "Judge Olmsted, the candidate for Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor, comes from the north tier 
 of counties of the state, not exactly beyond 
 the borders of civilization, but in a region 
 with which the people of Philadelphia and 
 vicinity have but little intercourse. He 
 comes from the country of Wilmot, where the 
 Democracy in this state first repudiated the 
 control of the slaveholding oligarchy, and it 
 is my good fortune to have been permitted to 
 make his personal acquaintance. Three years 
 ago we required a law judge in our judicial 
 district. His name was suggested as a 
 
 « The All-Day City Item, Philadelphia, October 11, 1874. 
 
STATE LEADER 173 
 
 gentleman fitted for the place. Before apply- 
 ing to the Governor for his appointment, I 
 took it upon myself to institute proper inqui- 
 ries as to his qualifications for a judicial posi- 
 tion, and from the present Judge Mercur, and 
 from Charles R. Buckalew, W. W. Ketcham, 
 William Wallace, and other representative 
 men of the state, of both parties, I received 
 the most unequivocal endorsement of his 
 honorable deportment as a gentleman, his 
 unflinching integrity, sound legal learning, 
 varied acquirements and general intelligence. 
 We recommended his appointment, and it 
 was made; and during the year of his judicial 
 career, I had opportunity to ascertain, and 
 have now the pleasure to verify and confirm 
 the high and unqualified recommendations 
 given to him by the leading men of the state 
 of both political parties. He is a man of that 
 character, ability and qualifications whose 
 election will redound to the honor of the 
 party and the state." 
 
 In the month of November, 1871, Hon. 
 John L. Doty wrote from the office of Second 
 Auditor of the United States Treasury Depart- 
 ment, assuring him that the delegates from 
 Clinton County in the next congressional 
 nominating convention would be favorable 
 to his nomination as representative from 
 
174 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the eighteenth district (composed of Center, 
 Clinton, Lycoming, Tioga and Potter). A 
 letter from General Kane in the following 
 month indicates that Senator Olmsted's avail- 
 ability for the gubernatorial nomination was 
 being considered in high quarters. He, how- 
 ever, did not enter the field, and General 
 Hartranft was nominated and elected. Soon 
 
 (2yiAt 
 
 '0iu& 
 
 
 afterwards the Constitutional Convention of 
 1873 went into session. It framed a revision 
 designed to incorporate into the fundamental 
 law numerous radical changes, and among 
 them extreme restrictions upon local and 
 special legislation, the consideration of which, 
 at the ensuing election, served in great measure 
 to distract public attention from political 
 issues. It created the office of Lieutenant- 
 Governor. The nominee for this office, the 
 new constitution having been ratified and 
 
STATE LEADER 175 
 
 gone into effect January 1, 1874, was therefore 
 to head the state ticket in the fall of that 
 year. Among Republicans the foremost name 
 for this nomination was that of Arthur G. 
 Olmsted. The large number of candidates, 
 however, indicated "a fair field and no favor/' 
 The list included Olmsted of Potter, Stanton 
 of Philadelphia, Graham of Allegheny, Pursu- 
 ance of Butler, Knorr of Columbia, Campbell 
 of Cambria, Flemiken of Greene, Sill of Erie. 
 In more recent times the candidate of one or 
 the other of the great cities would have felt 
 assured of success unless, indeed, the party 
 organization had indicated its own preference. 
 But in this convention Olmsted led Stanton 
 on the first ballot by twenty votes, on the 
 second by sixty-one, on the third by one 
 hundred thirty-four, whereupon Olmsted's 
 nomination was made unanimous. Edward 
 M. Paxson was nominated for Justice of the 
 Supreme Court, Harrison Allen for Auditor 
 General and Robert B. Beath for Secretary of 
 Internal Affairs. "The ticket," as regarded 
 by Alexander K. McClure, "was a very 
 creditable one, as Olmsted was one of the 
 ablest and most respected of the prominent 
 legislators of the state, while Allen had 
 
176 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 served creditably in both branches, and Beath 
 was one of the most gallant soldiers." The 
 North American and United States Gazette, the 
 morning following the convention, said editori- 
 ally : " Mr. Olmsted is favorably known through- 
 out the state, and is everywhere spoken of 
 with respect and admiration," and again in the 
 next issue after the Democratic convention: 
 
 "Judge Olmsted has always been a leading 
 man in public affairs, and his record is clear 
 of all possible objection, while at the same 
 time he has never shrank from any responsi- 
 bility, and faithfully has adhered to his party 
 principles without being afraid to exercise his 
 right of judgment and to criticise freely." 
 
 The Philadelphia Press treated the nomina- 
 tion editorially in similar eulogistic terms, 
 and added: 
 
 "The fact that he comes from a compara- 
 tively obscure county, and that he has been 
 nominated by one of the most intelligent and 
 discriminating conventions that ever met in 
 the state, is proof that his capacity has 
 enforced itself upon the attention and grati- 
 tude of the commonwealth." 
 
 Another influential journal 1 said editorially : 
 
 1 Philadelphia Inquirer, August 20, 1874. 
 
STATE LEADER 177 
 
 "Judge Olmsted is well known throughout 
 the state, and wherever known is respected 
 and beloved. He was repeatedly chosen, 
 while still a young man, to represent his 
 district in the House of Representatives, and 
 subsequently in the Senate of the state, and 
 by the former body he was chosen speaker, 
 thus showing the esteem in which he was held 
 by those who knew him best, whether person- 
 ally or officially. As speaker of the House, 
 and in his service in the Senate, at the bar 
 and on the bench, he has earned a reputation 
 for firm character and impartial judgment that 
 make him eminently fitted to preside over the 
 deliberations of the State Senate, and, should 
 the emergency occur, to assume the chief 
 magistracy of the commonwealth. Judge 
 Olmsted well represents the devoted and 
 unwavering republicanism of the rural coun- 
 ties, as Judge Paxson that of the city, and with 
 two such names at the head of the ticket, there 
 can be no question of success." 
 
 A few days later the Philadelphia Press 
 refers to the nomination as having been 
 received with especial favor by the press of 
 of the state, and "given universal satisfac- 
 tion." But the Republican party throughout 
 the country was entering upon an unfortunate 
 campaign. The second election of Grant had 
 
178 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 left the party disrupted. Powerful leaders, 
 including Greeley and Sumner, had been 
 alienated. In a protesting convention of 
 Labor Reformers, Governor Geary had led 
 on the informal ballot for the presidential 
 nomination. The resumption of specie pay- 
 ments had been a source of division. The 
 country was slowly recovering from the 
 financial panic of 1873. An era of hard 
 times had set in, and agitation had begun for 
 an inflation of the currency. The Ku-Klux 
 Klan had generated the obnoxious Enforce- 
 ment Acts of Congress. Official complicity in 
 the frauds of the " Whisky Ring," exposed by 
 the Secretary of the Treasury Bristow, and 
 the impeachment of Secretary of War Belknap, 
 had not been without adverse effect upon 
 Republican prestige and prospects. Party 
 leaders in Pennsylvania were uniting upon the 
 presentation of Governor Hartranft for the 
 presidential nomination of 1876, and the 
 agitation of a third term for General Grant 
 was a disturbing cause. The Democrats with 
 great skill turned to their account every 
 point of vantage. The October elections in 
 Ohio and Indiana resulted in favor of the 
 Democratic party, and this had its disheart- 
 
STATE LEADER 179 
 
 ening effect in the Republican "rank and file." 
 It is hardly a matter of wonder that the 
 elections in November proved a Waterloo for 
 the Republican party. The Democrats swept 
 the country and won a majority in the lower 
 house of Congress for the first time in eighteen 
 years. But Pennsylvania was a Republican 
 state. Two years before the Republican 
 candidates had carried the state by a majority 
 of 140,000. It was, nevertheless, a ques- 
 tion whether the party could stem the 
 adverse currents sweeping across the country. 
 Besides, there were unfavorable conditions 
 in the state. Local option was a vexatious 
 issue. 
 
 The new constitution had not been put into 
 operation without some friction. Friends of 
 Governor Hartranft and former Governor 
 Geary were not in accord. But Republicans 
 in Pennsylvania, handicapped as they were, 
 entered upon the canvass bravely and with 
 enthusiasm. A stronger ticket could hardly 
 have been nominated. 
 
 After the campaign had been running 
 nearly two months, and the wisdom of the 
 convention had commended itself in the 
 public mind, a leading Republican journal of 
 
180 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Philadelphia alluded to the head of the 
 ticket as follows: 1 
 
 "Mr. Olmsted's record as a loyal man is as 
 sound as that of any man in the state, and 
 his character as a legislator is above reproach. 
 No man has ever dared to charge him with 
 corruption. His votes and his voice in the 
 hallfl of legislation were always on the side of 
 right, and his manly devotion to the National 
 Government in the hour of its peril, and to 
 his state, are part of the proud records of the 
 commonwealth . ' ' 
 
 It now seems incredible that at so late a 
 day there should have existed in Pennsyl- 
 vania, particularly in the counties of the 
 Southern Tier, a serious apprehension of 
 negro usurpation as a result of emancipation. 
 Nevertheless, Democratic distrust over against 
 Republican pride, in respect to the liberation 
 of the slave, constituted throughout the can- 
 vass a theme of animated discussion. Latta, 
 the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant- 
 Governor, speaking in the Senate on a bill to 
 give colored passengers equal rights on public 
 conveyances, was quoted as follows: 
 
 I Philadelphia Press editorial, October 8, 1874. 
 
STATE LEADER 181 
 
 "Any law which proposes to raise them to 
 an equality with the white men of America, 
 is a step towards the formation of a monarchi- 
 cal form of government." 
 
 Judge Olmsted, on the contrary, was re- 
 garded as the champion of the rights of the 
 freedmen. 
 
 It is needless to follow Judge Olmsted in 
 the course of his attendance at the great 
 gatherings which greeted him throughout the 
 state. It will suffice to mention the single 
 grand Philadelphia ratification meeting, which 
 had been called to be held in Horticultural 
 Hall on the tenth of October. A Pennsylvania 
 canvass, state or national, reaches its climax 
 in that metropolis. In no large city of the 
 Union does such a meeting become so dis- 
 tinctively a matter of the populace. It is an 
 assemblage of the people of Philadelphia. 
 To the candidate it is almost a crucial test. 
 If he should fail on the occasion, or if the 
 meeting should lack the aspect of an out- 
 pouring of the people, these circumstances 
 would forebode disaster. 
 
 On this October night the auguries were 
 favorable. No indication of success was 
 lacking. On the balcony in front of the hall 
 
182 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Beck's Philadelphia Band rendered patriotic 
 music. Sky-rockets were sent up on Broad 
 Street, and the splendid thoroughfare was 
 ablaze with red and blue lights. The spacious 
 hall was crowded to overflowing. Prominent 
 citizens occupied seats on the platform. 
 Among them were Hon. A. E. Borie, of the 
 Navy portfolio in the Grant cabinet; Hon. 
 William D. Kelley, protection leader in Con- 
 gress; General H. H. Bingham, afterwards 
 known from his long congressional service as 
 "Father of the House;" Hon. A. C. Harmer, 
 M. C; Seth Comly, a leader of the Pennsyl- 
 vania bar; Jeremiah Nicholson, and others. 
 Benjamin H. Brewster, then at the head of the 
 Philadelphia bar, and later Attorney General 
 of the United States, was chosen to preside. 
 At least two hundred and fifty vice-presidents 
 were named, including such widely known 
 Philadelphians as William E. Cramp, John 
 Stackhouse, Edwin H. Fitler, Samuel Bisp- 
 ham, Samuel J. Reeves, Anthony D. Lever- 
 ing, Thomas Dolan, Dr. F. H. Gross, and 
 General Robert Thompson. Among the secre- 
 taries were Robert Patterson, General Louis 
 Wagner, Hamilton Diss ton, George Graham 
 and Simon Gratz. Besides Judge Olmsted, 
 
STATE LEADER 183 
 
 General Charles Albright and Hon. George 
 Lear were to speak, but Judge Olmsted was 
 to precede them. He had not been previously 
 heard by a Philadelphia audience, nor had 
 it been his fortune to ever before address an 
 assemblage of such magnitude, nor one includ- 
 ing so many citizens of distinguished attain- 
 ments and superor intelligence. But he had 
 not been placed at the head of the Republican 
 state ticket merely because of his qualifica- 
 tions for the performance of the duties of 
 the office of Lieutenant-Governor. He was 
 chosen as the forensic champion of the party, 
 its ablest platform advocate, at a time when 
 it was beset with scandal and criticism and 
 danger, when it was charged with the prev- 
 alence of hard times, when its policies 
 respecting the freedman and the enforcement 
 of his civil rights were challenged, in short, 
 when the party needed in the field its ablest 
 exponent and defender. Judge Olmsted was 
 the very incarnation of the Republican faith. 
 Into it he had been born and bred. He 
 breathed its spirit and believed in its mission. 
 He knew its history by heart. Its achieve- 
 ments and purposes were at his tongue's end. 
 They fairly shone as he recounted them. 
 
184 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 His address was not only a closely knit 
 argument, meeting his adversaries at every 
 point of dispute, and advancing the standards 
 of his party, but it was illuminated with 
 historic incident, with imagination and vision, 
 rising often into periods of eloquence, which 
 won from the audience their frequent applause. 
 While it fitted the need and the hour, it 
 remains as a classic of masterly exposition and 
 defense. It will repay future study, not only 
 by students of our political history, but also 
 by American youth seeking models of forensic 
 speech. 
 
 When the applause following Judge Olm- 
 sted's introduction had subsided, he spoke 
 as follows: 
 
 "Almost unceasing attention to affairs of a 
 political character seems to be a duty under a 
 government framed like ours: 'A govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people and for the 
 people.' Not so under a government despotic 
 in its form, where all power springs from the 
 sovereign, and the people, in the language of 
 one of England's hereditary lords, have 
 nothing to do with the laws except to obey 
 them. 
 
 "The people of this country, under our 
 republican form of government, while looking 
 
STATE LEADER 185 
 
 after affairs of state are simply attending to 
 their own business and discharging a duty as 
 much incumbent upon the citizen as the 
 affairs of his own household. 
 
 "In a republic a bad administration of pub- 
 lic affairs for any length of time is an im- 
 possibility if the citizen attends to his duty. 
 
 "I speak of these things, fellow-citizens, 
 because I know from my own experience, as 
 well as from observation, how wearied the 
 citizen is apt to become of these constantly 
 recurring political excitements. Yet the 
 demagogue and the political aspirant is never 
 tired of his occupation, and the public inter- 
 ests are never in danger except in times of 
 calm indifference. 
 
 "Dangerous political heresies are short lived 
 where the people are all attention. Danger 
 lurks, and lurks only, on a smooth political sea. 
 
 "Many men are anxious about the future of 
 the country. Give yourselves no concern 
 about that. The future is boundless, and is 
 counted by eternities; it will take care of 
 itself. It is only the present, illuminated by 
 the past, with which we have to do. Dis- 
 charge your duty, whatever it may be, and 
 trust that he who comes after you will do his 
 also, enlightened by your example. We learn 
 the danger and the policy of the present 
 hour, from our knowledge of the past. It is 
 our teacher and in its light we go forward. 
 
186 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 The Choice of Administration: 
 
 "We come again to the question so often 
 presented to us, whether it is best for the 
 interests of the country, that the party that 
 defended its unity and integrity should still 
 exercise a controlling voice in its management, 
 or whether it shall be controlled by the party 
 in the South that sought its destruction by an 
 appeal to arms and the party in the North that 
 acts with it politically. It is a living vital 
 question today, as it was when the air was 
 black with the coming of the armed hosts of 
 treason, and the soil of Pennsylvania was 
 polluted by the tread of the invader. 
 
 "True it is, thank God, that the confused 
 noise and bloody garments of war have passed 
 away, and that peace and prosperity reign 
 in their stead. True that the government 
 is united, and not divided, and that, from the 
 pine forests of the northern lakes to the orange 
 groves of the Rio Grande the sun never rises 
 upon a master nor sets upon a slave. And 
 to whom do we owe all this? To the Republi- 
 can party. It, and it alone, sustained always, 
 without qualification and without hesitation, 
 whether upon the tented field, in the political 
 gathering, or the legislative council, the policy 
 that led to this grand fruition. While upon 
 the other hand, the great majority of those 
 who now say that they shall control the gov- 
 ernment were in arms against it, seeking its 
 
STATE LEADER 187 
 
 destruction, and the establishment of another 
 government, based upon the crimson suicide 
 and madness of American slavery, while the 
 lesser portion of that party, distributed 
 through another section, without actual trea- 
 son, gave but a hesitating, doubtful, fault- 
 finding and qualified adhesion to the govern- 
 ment. These things have happily passed 
 away, and I take no pleasure in referring to 
 them, but, as I have already said, the light 
 of the past shines upon the present, and by 
 it we go forward. (Applause.) 
 
 Probation for the South: 
 
 "Upon this subject I wish to be understood. 
 There should be no lines of distinction, so 
 far as political privileges and the rights of 
 citizenship are concerned. ^*hile the people 
 of the country yield assent to the grand idea 
 worked out by the war, that the govern- 
 ment must exist as a unity, and that it pos- 
 sesses the inherent and constitutional power 
 to maintain that unity against domestic as 
 well as foreign foes, it does not follow from 
 these premises that the man who so recently 
 sought to destroy the government is as safe 
 to intrust with the reins of control as he who 
 imperiled his life to maintain it. (Good !) 
 
 "The recollection of the past is yet too vivid 
 all over the land, and will remain so until 
 experience has abundantly demonstrated that 
 
188 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the fire has ceased to burn in the hot and 
 smouldering ashes of treason. 
 
 "We passed through a political campaign 
 recently in which we were constantly told that 
 it was the duty of the American people to for- 
 get the war, its blood, its trials and its conse- 
 quences. It was said to be the duty of the 
 people to think and to act as though it had 
 never been. We were asked to do an impos- 
 sibility. It can never be forgotten. The 
 Lethean river of the Greek mythology could 
 not produce such oblivion. The people of 
 this country never did forget a war. Did 
 they forget that there were Tories in the 
 Revolution? After many years they removed 
 the political disabilities from them, but was 
 one of them ever intrusted with political 
 power by the suffrage of the people? Not 
 one instance in all history. (Applause.) 
 
 "Did the people forget that portion of the 
 Federal party that arrayed itself in even a 
 qualified opposition to the War of 1812? They 
 placed no political disabilities upon them, yet 
 as a political party it was destroyed forever. 
 And how with the Mexican War? The Whig 
 party filled the army with its brave young 
 men, and furnished many of its best officers, 
 yet the party at home opposed it as a war 
 without sufficient cause, and for doubtful pur- 
 poses, and it died utterly from that opposition. 
 
 "No political party in this country, as a 
 
STATE LEADER 189 
 
 political party, has survived opposition to any 
 war in which the government engaged. Much 
 less can it be so of a war that involved the 
 life of the nation itself; and why should it not 
 be so? Pray tell me, where is the motive, the 
 incentive to patriotism, if, when the struggle 
 is over, he who sought to destroy the govern- 
 ment to which he owed allegiance, is to be 
 exalted over him who imperiled his life in its 
 defense? The young men of the country 
 should be taught no such lesson. No govern- 
 ment on earth could maintain itself under 
 such a policy. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, the hope and safety of the 
 country today, as in the past, exists in the 
 continued success of the Republican party. It 
 is not faultless, and bad men can be found in 
 its ranks, as everywhere else in human society; 
 but its face is set in the right direction, its 
 vision is forward, not backward; it reaches 
 upward and not downward, while all experi- 
 ence shows that the Democratic party cannot 
 safely be intrusted with power. Wherever it 
 has won but the slightest foothold it has 
 betrayed its old spirit with all of its reaction- 
 ary tendencies. It crops out today all over 
 the South in the form of White Men's Leagues 
 and other organizations formed for the pur- 
 pose of ostracising a race of 'black men and 
 all white men that dare differ from them. 
 These are but the inspiring effects of Demo- 
 
190 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 cratic victories in some of the Northern 
 states, which lead a bad element in the South 
 to hope for Democratic ascendancy, and show 
 clearly — far too clearly — what the condition 
 of every man in the South, white or black, 
 who sustained the government during the 
 war, would immediately become should that 
 event occur. 
 
 Pledge of Security to the Freedman: 
 
 "I would say nothing to exasperate the pub- 
 lic mind upon this or any other question; but 
 it is but just to say that a disposition now 
 seems too manifest to undo the work of 
 reconstruction, and to crush the black man 
 betwixt the upper and the nether millstone, 
 to make his condition worse than though he 
 were a slave, to make his liberty and his 
 right of suffrage but as ashes and apples of 
 Sodom in his possession. They mistake the 
 public sentiment. The negro stood faithful 
 to his country's blue and when he went down 
 into the thick of the battle with you and your 
 sons and brothers on behalf of a government 
 that had previously but done him wrong, the 
 people of the country swore, as by an inspira- 
 tion coming from the great source of all justice, 
 that though the tongue should cleave to the 
 roof of the mouth, and the right hand forget 
 its cunning, yet the negro should have his 
 right forever: and they will keep that oath. 
 
STATE LEADER 191 
 
 "By the memory of common cause and com- 
 mon suffering, by all the early political his- 
 tory of this nation, and by all the patriot 
 blood that has been shed, the people have 
 decreed that, while the escutcheons of social 
 equality are beyond and outside of the 
 province of government, yet civil equality shall 
 belong to all the inhabitants of this land 
 forever. 
 
 Tested by Deed, not by Profession: 
 
 "There are but two great political parties in 
 the country, and all political history has 
 demonstrated that there can be but two great 
 parties in the field for any length of time, 
 each contending against the other. The 
 country, therefore, must be governed either 
 by the party that fought for the Union, or by 
 the party the majority of whom fought 
 against the Union. Choose ye between the 
 two. Are you willing as Republicans, are 
 you willing as citizens, that this great and 
 mighty change should occur in the administra- 
 tion of either state or national affairs? What 
 has the Republican party, as a party, done 
 that it should forfeit the public confidence? 
 
 "Saying nothing of the past, what has the 
 Democratic party of the present hour to offer 
 to you as an inducement to make this change? 
 It passes volumes of resolutions, I admit, in 
 favor of economy and honesty, and, as the 
 
192 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 New York Tribune recently said of the 
 Democratic platform of a neighboring state, 
 'It is always refreshing to read resolutions 
 upon this subject, passed by a party out of 
 power, and seeking for power.' But what has 
 it done in the way of reform in any state in 
 which it has been intrusted with power, that 
 commends it to your confidence? Has its 
 legislation been superior to ours? Has its 
 management of state finances excited admira- 
 tion? There is scarcely a Northern, Eastern, 
 or Western state but what, under Republican 
 rule, has either diminished or entirely wiped 
 out its state indebtedness; while Tennessee, 
 under Democratic administration, has in- 
 creased her indebtedness thirteen millions, and 
 Virginia, a state claiming to be a model of 
 Democratic government, has increased hers 
 by twelve millions, the State of Mississippi, 
 controlled absolutely by Republicans, and, 
 for the most part, by very black Republicans 
 (cheers), has increased her indebtedness but 
 three millions, an indebtedness she will pay, 
 and not repudiate, as under a former admin- 
 istration (prolonged applause); and in Ken- 
 tucky, if we may believe the utterances of 
 the great Democratic organ of the South- 
 west, the Louisville Courier-Journal, el state 
 of lawless anarchy exists; and in Missouri, 
 under the Democratic administration, human 
 life has been rendered so unsafe, and her debt 
 
STATE LEADER 193 
 
 has increased so frightfully, that the people, 
 with Carl Schurz at their head, are aroused 
 as by a sense of impending ruin, and will hurl 
 the Democratic party to the earth at the 
 coming election, with all its false pretensions 
 of honesty upon its head. (Applause.) 
 
 "Yet, in the face of these facts, the Demo- 
 cratic party, strengthened by the financial 
 troubles of the country, are seeking to per- 
 suade the people to reinstate it in place and 
 power. They mistake both the intelligence 
 and patriotism of the people. They are not 
 ready yet to take so important and dangerous 
 a step, and they cannot be persuaded to do so 
 by the mere catchword of politicians, and by 
 vague and unmeaning charges against those 
 whom they have heretofore delighted to 
 honor. ('That's so!') If reform is neces- 
 sary, they will seek to accomplish it through 
 the party whose movements are forward and 
 not backward, and not through a party that 
 has been shown by an experience of years to 
 be incapable of reforming itself. 
 
 " 'The river Rhine, it hath been shown, 
 Doth wash the city of Cologne; 
 But, oh ye gods ! what power divine 
 Can ever cleanse the Rhine?' 
 
 Republican State Administration: 
 
 " I now turn abruptly for a few moments to a 
 discussion of the affairs of our state, for this 
 
194 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 is to be an election of state as well as of 
 national importance, and it is proper that they 
 should be discussed. For fourteen years the 
 Republicans have had the management and 
 responsibility incident thereto of the legisla- 
 tion and the financial affairs of Pennsylvania, 
 and, I say, now, in this great presence, and 
 with some knowledge of the truthfulness of 
 what I say, that the financial management of 
 the State of Pennsylvania for these fourteen 
 years challenges the admiration and approval 
 of the intelligent world. They came into 
 power at the commencement of the war, with 
 a debt upon the commonwealth, funded and 
 unfunded, of over forty millions of dollars, 
 with her credit in doubt and her securities 
 depreciated everywhere. In the foreign mar- 
 kets her bonds were but the subject of ridicule 
 and jest. And during these fourteen years 
 they have reduced the state debt by an 
 annual average of over one million dollars. 
 
 "In addition to this they paid a temporary 
 war loan of three millions of dollars. They 
 have appropriated from five hundred thou- 
 sand to one million dollars per annum to the 
 support of the common schools, and for the 
 last eight years have appropriated annually 
 from three to five hundred thousand dollars 
 to the maintenance of soldiers' orphan 
 schools — the noblest charity the sun ever 
 shone upon. They have appreciated the 
 
STATE LEADER 195 
 
 bonds of the state until they are sought for 
 in financial circles everywhere as permanent 
 investments, her six per cent currency bonds 
 being worth at last quotations eleven per cent 
 premium. 
 
 "To accomplish all this have they increased 
 taxation? Have they laid burdens upon the 
 shoulders of the masses grievous to be borne? 
 No. They have reduced taxation on personal 
 property from three mills to two and one- 
 half mills per cent, and in 1866 they swept 
 the state tax entirely off real estate, from 
 which the commonwealth derived an annual 
 income of one million four hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars. (Applause.) They 
 have reduced taxation for state purposes, and, 
 in every way possible, lightened the burden 
 of the state government. (Applause.) Could 
 our Democratic friends have done better than 
 this, had they been in power? Has any one a 
 complaint to make? Does any one believe it 
 to be the best policy for the state government 
 to turn out of power the party that has accom- 
 plished these reforms and made this reduction 
 in our state debt, for the purpose of reinstat- 
 ing the party that made the debt? (Cries of 
 'No?' 'No!') 
 
 "In the State of New York for 1872 the 
 state taxes were $18,550,000. In Massachu- 
 setts the same year, with the population more 
 than one-third less than ours, the state 
 
196 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 taxes were $11,874,000, while in Pennsylvania 
 they were but $7,076,000. 
 
 "And during all these years of Republican 
 control, notwithstanding the vague talks 
 about 'Rings,' and frauds and corruption, 
 in which our opponents have indulged them- 
 selves, no man can point to a dollar lost to 
 the treasury by the default or negligence of any 
 one of its treasurers. 
 
 "I say again, that our administration of 
 state finances commends itself to the admira- 
 tion of the world. The New York Evening 
 Post, in October last, although a paper of 
 such eminent conservatism that it finds but 
 little in the world to commend, published an 
 editorial upon the financial policy of Penn- 
 sylvania, and concluded by declaring that in 
 no state in the Union were the state taxes so 
 cheaply collected, and so directly and hon- 
 estly disbursed, as in this state. 
 
 "No state has excelled ours in its magnificent 
 appropriations to public charities, and when 
 it was determined to celebrate the Centennial 
 of our American Independence in this, the 
 city of its birth, she patriotically stepped to 
 the front with her contribution of one million 
 of dollars. 
 
 "Every citizen of Pennsylvania, whatever 
 his political proclivities, has just reason to be 
 proud of our present state administration, 
 particularly of its chief executive officer, Gov- 
 
STATE LEADER 197 
 
 ernor John F. Hartranft. He was a true and 
 brave officer during all the long years of the 
 war. He was an upright and just Auditor 
 General for more than six years. Yet the 
 Democratic efforts for his defeat when a 
 candidate for the position he now holds are 
 unparalleled in the history of political war- 
 fare. He was covered with shame and 
 reproach as with a garment. Yet he was tri- 
 umphantly elected, and from the hour of his 
 inauguration until the present moment, no 
 newspaper in the commonwealth or else- 
 where, no individual of any shade of political 
 belief, has been able to point to a single act 
 of his administration that will not bear the 
 light of the most intelligent and scrutinizing 
 criticism. 
 
 Personal Detraction as a Political Weapon: 
 
 "It seemed to me, during that contest, that 
 the time had come in American politics where 
 there was no longer any motive or incentive to 
 honesty among public men. The charge of 
 dishonesty and corruption is as easily made 
 against an individual of unflinching integrity 
 as against an abandoned thief. And, indeed, 
 this system of personal detraction has been 
 carried to such an alarming extent that the 
 public can no longer discern, from the surface 
 of a campaign, between an individual fit for 
 public station and one utterly unfit, and I 
 
198 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 know of really no policy for the political 
 aspirant to pursue except to stand to his integ- 
 rity, preserve his own self-respect and let the 
 storm of personal detraction pass over him as 
 it may. 
 
 The Democratic Record: 
 
 "What are the distinctive principles of the 
 Democratic party today, and what have they 
 been during the entire period of Republican 
 ascendency? What were they during the 
 war, except dissent from every position 
 assumed by the Republican party, step by 
 step, and year by year, as time rolled on and 
 taught its lessons of public emergency and 
 public necessities? 
 
 "First came the declaration of the utter 
 want of constitutional power in the General 
 Government to coerce a rebellious state, then 
 an utter dissent from all measures to which the 
 administration resorted to raise money neces- 
 sary for the maintenance of the army and 
 the public credit. 
 
 "You all remember with what utter con- 
 tempt they received the first issue of govern- 
 ment paper money. Not a Democratic print 
 in the whole land but pronounced the whole 
 issue as unconstitutional and valueless. In 
 that hour of extremity, when the issue of 
 paper money must be made or the government 
 utterly fail, but three Democratic members of 
 
STATE LEADER 199 
 
 Congress could be found to vote for the bill, 
 and yet at the last session, when the extreme ne- 
 cessity had passed away, the Democrats in the 
 House of Representatives voted thirty -six to 
 thirty -four in favor of issuing more of the same 
 currency. Then, in the order of events, came 
 the most violent and unrelenting opposition 
 to Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation; 
 then opposition to putting the negro into the 
 army that he might fight for his freedom and 
 his country; then came determined opposition 
 to the reconstruction amendments of 1866; 
 then opposition, long and prolonged, to the 
 amendment granting suffrage to the colored 
 man, and yet, in 1872, they adopted the Cin- 
 cinnati platform, which cordially approved of 
 all these measures, and took Horace Greeley, 
 who had but recently been the representative 
 man of the opposition, as their candidate for 
 President. (Loud cheers.) The Cincinnati 
 platform went even further than this, and 
 declared as resolution No. 1: 'We recognize 
 the equality of all men before the law, and 
 hold that it is the duty of the government in 
 its dealings with the people, to mete out 
 equal and exact justice to all, of whatever 
 nation, race, color or persuasion' (applause), 
 embodying in the strongest Anglo-Saxon 
 words to be found, the very essence of Sum- 
 ner's Civil Rights bill of the last session, 
 against which every Democratic Senator voted. 
 
200 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 I have said that the Democratic party was 
 reactionary in its tendencies. 
 
 "In its platform at Pittsburgh, it declared the 
 principles of the Civil Rights bill to be inju- 
 rious to the black man as well as to the white, 
 and that it was 'an unconstitutional invasion 
 of the rights of the states.' These words, 
 'an unconstitutional invasion of the rights 
 of the states' were thrown in because they 
 had them still on hand. They can be found 
 in every Democratic platform, state or na- 
 tional, from the inception of the war to 1872; 
 applied to every measure of the Republican 
 party for the suppression of the rebellion 
 and the government of the country, and 
 as they travel backwards they begin again 
 to use them, and now all over the South 
 they form White Men's Leagues and 
 prattle again about a white man's government. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Responsibility for Hard Times: 
 
 "What new principle in government, or 
 what earnest elaboration of old principles do 
 they now present to the popular consider- 
 ation? None whatever. Hanging upon 
 'craggy edges of remorse, anxiety and 
 despair,' the panic is the breast from which 
 they suckle the hope of success, and in their 
 platform at Pittsburgh they actually charge 
 responsibility for the panic upon the admin- 
 
STATE LEADER 201 
 
 istration. Just how the administration 
 could be charged with the financial disturb- 
 ances in the country, they, of course, fail 
 to state. 
 
 "They might as well have held the party in 
 power responsible for the visit of the grass- 
 hopper or the potato bug. Who ever heard the 
 administration of James Buchanan charged 
 with the far greater financial troubles of 1857, 
 or an earlier administration charged with the 
 disasters of 1842? Who ever heard the Brit- 
 ish Parliament or the British Queen held 
 responsible for the various financial diffi- 
 culties encountered in England during the 
 last fifty years? Nobody is responsible for a 
 panic. They come unannounced, unexpected 
 and unexplained. They puzzle the philosophy 
 of the wisest, and set at naught all business 
 rules; but if the billion and a half of gold and 
 silver that has been mined in this country 
 since 1850 had been kept in the country 
 instead of being sent abroad to purchase 
 articles that we might have manufactured 
 ourselves, no panic would have occurred. 
 (Tremendous applause.) 
 
 "When we are wise enough to adopt the 
 great principle of self-protection, which is as 
 applicable to nations as to individuals, our 
 era of panics will have passed away. 
 
 "But I am trespassing upon patience, and 
 must hurry these remarks to a close. 
 
202 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Republican Achievement: 
 
 "I have said that the Republican party was 
 not without its faults, but it differs from any 
 other party of which the world has knowledge. 
 It exposes its own corruptness to the public 
 gaze, treads it under foot and moves onward. 
 
 "The present Congress at its last session 
 paid its own postage — a thing no Democratic 
 Congress ever did It repealed the back sal- 
 ary law and annulled the Sanborn contracts. 
 It cut down the annual expenses of the govern- 
 ment by seventy-seven millions, and the 
 reduction of the public debt still goes on. 
 
 "The Republican party, during all its years 
 of supremacy, has accepted with sublime 
 courage the duties of the hour. It sup- 
 pressed a gigantic rebellion and emancipated 
 4,000,000 slaves, and decreed universal suf- 
 frage and equal citizenship; it established a 
 uniform national currency and sustained the 
 public debt under most extraordinary bur- 
 dens; reduced national taxation from the 
 fearful rate imposed at the close of the war 
 till its burden is unfelt and unappreciated by 
 the citizens, and at the same time reduced the 
 national debt at an annual average of one hun- 
 dred millions of dollars; it established a great 
 principle of national rights and national 
 responsibilities, and recovered thereby fifteen 
 millions of dollars from the British Govern- 
 ment for the Alabama claims, teaching all 
 
STATE LEADER 203 
 
 the world that 'peace hath her victories no 
 less renowned than war.' (Enthusiastic 
 applause.) Is any one weak enough to 
 believe that the people will now intrust the 
 government to the control of any party or 
 combination of men that opposed, for the most 
 part, every step of this great progress? No; 
 the Republican party has established its prin- 
 ciples in the laws and in the constitution of 
 the country, in the hearts of the people, in the 
 very soil of the American continent, and it will 
 govern the country it has saved." (Applause.) 
 
 The text of this address, or oration, as 
 termed in the newspaper head-lines, was 
 published at length in several of the Philadel- 
 phia journals on the day following its delivery. 
 The manner in which it was received by the 
 public is not only to be determined by the 
 applause with which it was greeted at the 
 time, but also by such editorial comment as 
 the following: 
 
 "There was great interest evinced to hear 
 Judge Olmsted speak, for the position of 
 Lieutenant-Governor is so distinguished a 
 one that it is felt only a man of signal ability 
 should be elevated to it. If there were any 
 doubts entertained by those who did not 
 know Judge Olmsted, of his peculiar fitness 
 for the office to which he was nominated, they 
 
204 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 were removed before he had spoken five 
 minutes. His strong, incisive language, cloth- 
 ing profound thoughts, immediately stamped 
 him as one of the most brilliant thinkers 
 and orators ever heard in public in this city, 
 and proved the wisdom of his selection by 
 the convention." 1 
 
 Up to the very eve of election a majority for 
 Judge Olmsted was counted upon with con- 
 fidence. As late as October 29th, the Phila- 
 delphia Press said editorially: 
 
 "Hon. Arthur G. Olmsted will carry the 
 West like a storm." 
 
 The election occurred on the 3d of Novem- 
 ber. On the 5th of that month the Daily 
 Evening Telegraph said: 
 
 "Judge Olmsted, Republican candidate for 
 Lieutenant-Governor, leads his ticket here 
 and elsewhere, and may possibly be elected 
 by a small majority, but the chances appear 
 to be against him." 
 
 For three days the result was in doubt. 
 On Wednesday the Philadelphia Press (Repub- 
 lican) claimed the election of the state ticket. 
 On Thursday it said: "We do not give up 
 
 1 Daily Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, October 12, 1874. 
 
STATE LEADER 205 
 
 the state." On Friday it printed a table 
 showing a plurality of 356 for Latta. His 
 plurality, as officially recorded, was 4,679. 
 The temperance candidate received 4,649 
 votes. Hence if Judge Olmsted had received 
 the temperance vote, to which his principles 
 and services in the cause of prohibition 
 entitled him, he would have lacked but 
 thirty-one votes of a majority. It is plain 
 that he, a most effective advocate of tem- 
 perance, having a prohibition county behind 
 him, was defeated by the prohibitionists and 
 liquor men together, a result that has doubtless 
 retarded the cause of prohibition in Penn- 
 sylvania. Although Judge Olmsted may 
 have regarded the result 
 
 "As the struck eagle stretched upon the plain 
 Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, " 
 
 nevertheless he was always unswerving in his 
 devotion to the cause. When the question 
 of repeal of prohibition in Potter County 
 subsequently arose, Judge Olmsted was quoted 
 as unalterably opposed to it. 
 
 The general reverse of the Republicans 
 throughout the country amounted, however, 
 to a landslide, and sufficiently accounted for 
 
206 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the result in Pennsylvania. It must have 
 been a matter of some personal gratification to 
 Judge Olmsted that his vote exceeded that of 
 General Beath, the exceedingly popular can- 
 didate for Secretary of Internal Affairs, and 
 that of the late Chief Justice Paxson for 
 Justice of the Supreme Court. 
 
 The high-water mark had been reached in 
 the history of the Republican party of Penn- 
 sylvania. It had come to the turning point. 
 Hitherto its policy had been guided by the 
 wisdom of such counselors as Stevens, Wilmot 
 Ulysses Mercur, Thomas Williams, Alexander 
 McClure, W. D. Kelley, Glenni W. Scofield, 
 Edward McPherson and Arthur G. Olmsted. 
 If Senator Olmsted had, by the turn of a vote 
 here and there in less than half the precincts, 
 or say, a single vote in two-thirds of the wards 
 and townships, been elected Lieutenant- 
 Governor, he, instead of Wallace, in the 
 natural course of events, would have passed 
 from the presidency of the Pennsylvania 
 Senate to the Senate of the United States; 
 the need would not have arisen to call the 
 younger Cameron from the presidency of the 
 Northern Central Railroad, nor to have 
 sought new leadership for the party, which, 
 
STATE LEADER 207 
 
 however sagacious and skilful, should be 
 destined to bring a degree of reproach rather 
 than of honor to the commonwealth, and to 
 inflict upon it the loss in good measure of the 
 prestige to which it had become entitled as 
 the birthplace of the party of Fremont and 
 Lincoln, in whose borders it had rung the 
 bell of liberty to the Southern slave, and 
 raised the standard of protection to American 
 labor. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 As Lawyer axd Judge 
 
 THE will of the people had been regis- 
 tered in the established way, the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature elected a 
 Democratic Senator, and both branches of 
 Congress passed into Democratic control. 
 Judge Olmsted returned to the long-deferred 
 demands of his profession. It can hardly 
 be said that his practice had suffered in 
 his absence, for in his several legislative 
 terms, as well as through his judicial experi- 
 ence, his reputation for learning and legal 
 ability had become enhanced, so that upon 
 return to his office abundant professional 
 business awaited him. 
 
 In his own and adjoining counties he 
 was retained in nearly all important litiga- 
 tion so long as he continued in practice. 
 Contemporary lawyers speak of him in 
 reminiscent letters. Hon. J. C. Johnson, 
 hereinbefore quoted, a former member of the 
 state legislature, and for many years at the 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 209 
 
 head of the bar in Cameron County, thus 
 writes: 
 
 "Upon my admission to the bar in 1866 
 he came under my observation as a lawyer. 
 When I began practice, - Cameron County 
 was in the old fourth judicial district with 
 Potter County. Hon. Robert G. White was 
 the president judge and Hon. Henry W. 
 Williams associate judge. The latter suc- 
 ceeded Judge White as president judge, and in 
 1871 Stephen F. Wilson became associate 
 judge. In 1882 Judge Olmsted succeeded Wil- 
 son as associate judge, and in 1883 he became 
 president judge of the 48th district, com- 
 posed of Potter and McKean counties, and 
 he retired at the end of his term, in 1902, as 
 president judge of the 55th district, the 
 county of Potter. His long career at the 
 bar was during a period of great advancement 
 and important development in the northern 
 counties of Elk, Cameron, McKean, Pot- 
 ter and Tioga, where he had an extensive 
 and lucrative practice. He was always a 
 leader at the bar. His learning was acknowl- 
 edged, his keen judgment of men and his 
 knowledge of affairs, and his remarkable 
 power of clear and logical statement won ver- 
 dicts from juries and decisions from judges, 
 and gave him acknowledged leadership. His 
 integrity was of such a well-known and high 
 character that his friends sometimes said he 
 
210 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 was so straight that he leaned backwards — 
 intending to express the opinion that in a con- 
 troversy where a friend of his was interested, 
 he was so careful not to be chargeable with 
 partiality that there was a probability that 
 his friend would suffer. 
 
 "The period covered by Judge Olmsted's 
 active life was for the old fourth district a 
 very important one. The counties of Tioga, 
 Potter, McKean, Elk and Cameron con- 
 tained great wealth that awaited develop- 
 ment: Lumber, coal, clay, oil and gas. 
 There was need of new and important legis- 
 lation and the interpretation of new laws. 
 Railroads were to be constructed. Booms 
 for lumber operations and highways were to 
 be opened. Schools were to be provided and 
 all the needs of a rapidly increasing popula- 
 tion were to be provided. Judge Olmsted 
 has left the impress of his ability upon this 
 work perhaps more than any other citizen of 
 Potter County. 
 
 "He was successful also in business, as the 
 magnitude of his estate attests. He never 
 attempted to reap where he had not sown, and 
 his success in business came through his fore- 
 sight and good judgment and his confident 
 reliance on action as they directed him. 
 
 "Judge Olmsted was admirably equipped for 
 the practice of the law in the field where he 
 undertook it at the time he was admitted. 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 211 
 
 He both knew and understood the plain peo- 
 ple. He could talk with the countryman about 
 the things that he knew interested him in his 
 daily life. He knew as well courtly people 
 and readily carried on negotiations with 
 dignitaries who held the highest state interests 
 in their hands. He was possessed of a high 
 degree of intellectuality. His tastes led him 
 in legal battles into the center of the arena. 
 He enjoyed the legal conflict and he broke his 
 professional lance with the opponent, and 
 bore off on his shield the honors of the fray 
 with great dignity. 
 
 "He knew literature and history, and he 
 appropriated and enjoyed the wisest sayings 
 and brightest scintillations of master minds. 
 He was learned in the law, and was able to V 
 command his most effective weapons for 
 instant use in the heat of the conflict with 
 either court or jury. He came on when titles 
 were open to contest and land law became 
 important. In the courts common law forms 
 had given way to modern and practical direct- 
 ness and simplicity, and the mind of the 
 lawyer and the judge was free to grasp the 
 essentials in his case. Judge Olmsted entered 
 the lists under favorable conditions for the 
 practice of the law, and was called upon in 
 his early practice to work out first-time solu- 
 tions of difficult questions arising in and relat- 
 ing to land titles and the lumber industry. 
 
212 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 "He was a most companionable man, and 
 yet he lacked some of the elements of a popu- 
 lar and appealing character. I mean that he 
 was not a wit and raconteur as Wilson was, 
 and did not attract the following of the 'boys' 
 as Wilson did. 
 
 "I recall when he was candidating for his 
 first nomination as judge we had a protracted 
 contest. Wilson could corral the delegates 
 and entertain them so they would shout with 
 glee, while Olmsted could only retreat to some 
 place where unsavory fragments of the stories 
 could not offend his ears. When the vote 
 was counted, however, it was found that 
 Wilson had only the 'hurrahs;' Olmsted had 
 the votes. 
 
 "Judge Olmsted's career was successful and 
 honorable as a man, a citizen, a lawyer and a 
 judge, and affords an example for us all." 
 
 In the memorial resolutions adopted by the 
 Potter County bar, this passage occurs: 
 
 "In all the traditions of his successes, his 
 singular resourcefulness, shrewdness, and abil- 
 ity, and his instant grasp of every legitimate 
 advantage in the practice of law, there is no 
 hint or insinuation of any action on his part 
 not in strict accord with the highest ethics of 
 the profession. His former associates always 
 commented upon the wonderful accuracy with 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 213 
 
 which he forecast the procedure of his 
 adversary." 
 
 So also the bar of the City of Bradford, in 
 its resolutions, declares that 
 
 "In the culminating period of his practice 
 at the bar, no lawyer in Western Pennsylvania 
 was considered more effective before a jury 
 or in the argument of questions of law." 
 
 The following is the estimate of a cotem- 
 porary journalist: 1 
 
 "As a lawyer he was keen, analytical, tact- 
 ful and resourceful. In those early years 
 'decided cases' had not so thoroughly out- 
 lined the legal practice as at the present time, 
 and the legal practitioner was often compelled 
 to resort to reason and logic, to supply the 
 place of the judicially determined law, to win 
 his cases. His ready wit and keen insight into 
 human character made him a formidable 
 opponent and a successful trial lawyer. The 
 great number and variety of suits arising out 
 of early oil operations in McKean and War- 
 ren counties gave full opportunity for a dis- 
 play of his legal learning and ability, and he 
 was engaged in nearly every important suit 
 of that busy and litigious period. Often 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars hung in the 
 
 1 Potter Journal, September 23, 1914 
 
214 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 balance in suits where the skilful turning of a 
 legal hair decided the matter in controversy. 
 He was constantly in contact with many of 
 the highest legal minds of the state, but 
 never at a disadvantage or discredit to him- 
 self. He was strong, not only with the 
 court, but also before the jury. He was 
 recognized as one of the most capable advo- 
 cates in the state. The chief element of his 
 success before both judge and jury was his 
 conservatism. He never made a statement 
 to either judge or jury that he had not first 
 convinced himself was strictly true. His 
 appeals were to the reason rather than to 
 the passions. Apparently trivial incidents in 
 a case were so tactfully handled as to become 
 the turning point in many a legal battle. 
 His practice extended over Potter, McKean 
 and Cameron counties, often reaching into 
 other courts in occasional important cases." 
 
 Judge Olmsted enjoyed the relaxation from 
 the strain of political excitement and public 
 service. In the service of his country and 
 his commonwealth he had well-nigh given his 
 life. For the highest measure of success in 
 civil life the physical powers are requisite 
 which are demanded for military service. 
 The impairment of his health was a matter of 
 grave solicitude to his friends throughout the 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 215 
 
 state, often manifested in their correspon- 
 dence. He was glad to take up the responsi- 
 bilities and duties of common citizenship, and 
 to enjoy its varied compensations. It pleased 
 him to have thrust upon him, as it were, the 
 appointment of street commissioner, 1 and he 
 undertook the duties with much zeal and char- 
 acteristic efficiency. The soldiers' monument 
 subscription had flagged in his absence. He 
 resumed responsibility for it, and in due time 
 published, over his own signature, a carefully 
 itemized account of receipts and expenditures. 
 The subscription list included the names of 
 Peter Herdic, Judge Williams, Judge Wilson, 
 M. E. Olmsted, Captain J. C. Johnson, Col. 
 W. Dwight, Stebbins, Mann, Jones, Ross, 
 Knox, Ormerod, and many others. Up to 
 that time the work had cost $1,177.21. The 
 excess of payments over receipts was $248.95. 
 The contract was let to Joseph Schwartzen- 
 burg for $750.00, but the price was inadequate. 
 "It cost at least one hundred dollars," says 
 the report, "to move the three large stones 
 from the quarries to the place where they were 
 finally dressed. This work was generously 
 done by farmers in the vicinity, who had 
 
 i Potter Journal, March 11, 1875. 
 
216 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 suitable teams, without charge." The initial 
 meeting in this public enterprise was held 
 September 20, 1869, at which time the project 
 was put in the hands of a committee of four: 
 Captain Kinney, Captain Horton, Hon. 
 Arthur G. Olmsted and S. S. Greenman. The 
 memorial column was raised December 20, 
 1874, but it was. not until April, 1887, that 
 the statue of a soldier was placed on the 
 shaft. 
 
 During all these years there was no relin- 
 quishment of the railroad project which was 
 to connect Coudersport with the civilized 
 world, and bring to the inhabitants of the 
 county the blessings and advantages which 
 its means of development would afford. Judge 
 Olmsted was still the central figure at the 
 hearthstone within which the fire of this 
 purpose was kept burning. At a meeting of 
 the stockholders of the Jersey Shore, Pine 
 Creek and Buffalo Railway Company, held 
 January 14, 1878, John S. Ross was elected 
 president, and Arthur G. Olmsted, Arch F. 
 Jones, Charles H. Armstrong, Pierre A. Steb- 
 bins, Jr., William K. Jones and D. C. Larrabee 
 were elected directors. Between Jersey Shore 
 and Coudersport the project had become 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 217 
 
 stalled. The Reading Railroad Company, 
 which had assisted, withdrew its co-operation, 
 and in 1876 work had ceased. Attention was 
 finally directed to securing by an independent 
 movement the right of way between Couders- 
 port and Port Allegany. 
 
 About this time, in the winter of 1879, the 
 Tidewater Pipe Line Company established a 
 telegraph office at Coudersport. The Phila- 
 delphia Record, in its issue of the 20th of 
 February, said: 
 
 "We welcome the people of Coudersport 
 into the electric circle that holds the world 
 together in quick intelligence." 
 
 The Potter Journal, in a little later issue 
 (March 6), hailing this achievement, reviews 
 the steps of progress since its establishment in 
 1848, when there was neither railroad nor 
 telegraph nearer than Hornellsville, a distance 
 of fifty-four miles. On the 12th day of 
 February, 1851, the cars ran through to Cuba, 
 and soon after a daily stage was started, 
 and the mail was carried six times a week 
 thenceforward between Wellsville and 
 Coudersport. It mentions the completion of 
 the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad to Em- 
 
218 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 porium in October, 1863, soon after which a 
 daily mail was carried between Emporium and 
 Coudersport. The Buffalo, New York and 
 Philadelphia was completed January 1, 1873, 
 from Emporium to Buffalo. 
 
 "These progressive steps, " said the Journal, 
 "have all worked great improvements in this 
 county, and taken all together have reduced 
 the price of goods in Coudersport at least 
 fifty per cent, and have added that much to 
 the comfort of living here." 
 
 Noting the completion of the Tidewater 
 telegraph line through to Williamsport, it 
 proceeds to say: 
 
 "The pipe line which is being pushed with 
 great vigor is soon to follow, and then we hope 
 the crowning step — the railroad! Why not? 
 Is there not as much undeveloped wealth 
 waiting for the railroad to give it activity, as 
 for the pipe line?" 
 
 In 1881 George Magee and his associates 
 had come into control of the right of way 
 between Coudersport and Port Allegany, and 
 Judge Olmsted, together with F. W. Knox, 
 having organized sufficient capital among the 
 citizens of Coudersport, Olean and Smethport, 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 219 
 
 negotiated with Magee for the right of way, 
 and finally^ consummated the purchase. 
 Thereupon they procured incorporation first 
 as the Coudersport and Olean Railroad Com- 
 pany, but afterwards changed the name to 
 Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad 
 Company. Eight directors were chosen, 
 namely: F. W. Knox, president, Arthur G. 
 Olmsted, Isaac Benson, F. H. Root of 
 Buffalo, A. M. Benton of Port Allegany, B. D. 
 Hamlin of Smethport, C. S. Cary and C. V. B. 
 Barse of Olean, and F. H. Arnot of Elmira. 
 The road was constructed, and on the 26th day 
 of September, 1882, the first passenger train 
 ran over it from Port Allegany to Coudersport. 
 The great enterprise which had so long 
 engaged the hopes and fears of the people of 
 Potter County had at last been consummated. 
 Further development of railroad lines 
 through the county came in rapid sequence 
 by logical stages. The conversion of the 
 great forests into lumber and chemical wood 
 necessitated the establishment of mills and 
 factories of immense capacity, particularly at 
 Austin and Gale ton, and the extension to them 
 of railroad facilities. The discovery of natural 
 gas and petroleum along the western border 
 
220 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 of the county, where the timber had already 
 been depleted, afforded a considerable re- 
 inforcement of the material resources of the 
 county now being rapidly developed. The 
 prediction of Judge Olmsted, addressing the 
 Pennsylvania Senate, of the disclosure of 
 unbounded natural wealth, is being verified. 
 The population of Coudersport, which in 1880 
 was less than seven hundred, rapidly ran up 
 to more than three thousand. So throughout 
 the county new towns have been established, 
 and old towns have prospered. The enter- 
 prise of the citizens of the county seat under 
 the quickening hand of Judge Olmsted kept 
 pace with the public need. Thus, in 1882, 
 together with F. W. Knox and R. L. Nichols, 
 he organized the Citizens* Water Company for 
 the supply of water to the inhabitants. The 
 need of such a supply, not only for domestic 
 uses, but also for fire service, had been 
 keenly felt, for, in 1880, on the 25th of May, 
 the business center of the borough was fire- 
 swept, three whole squares having been de- 
 stroyed, including blocks of stores on Main 
 Street and on both sides of Second Street. 
 The office of Olmsted and Larrabee on Second 
 Street was burned. They found temporary 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 221 
 
 desk-room in the sheriff's office in the court- 
 house. 
 
 The time came when the inhabitants of 
 Coudersport were eager to enjoy the advan- 
 tages of natural gas for light and fuel. 
 Through the efforts of Judge Olmsted, W. I. 
 Lewis and others, a natural gas company was 
 organized and incorporated, of which Judge 
 Olmsted was chosen president, and by means 
 of which the inhabitants of the borough were 
 afterwards supplied with natural gas. 
 
 Throughout this period of his political 
 inactivity, Judge Olmsted's counsel was occa- 
 sionally sought respecting party policy. Once 
 when factional division became threatening 
 and the forthcoming state convention prom- 
 ised to be turbulent, an exigency requiring 
 the services of a veteran parliamentarian, 
 cool, impartial, experienced, skilful — he 
 yielded to the call, and presided over the 
 convention with distinction and success. The 
 interval of eight years succeeding the disas- 
 trous canvass of 1874 enabled Judge Olmsted 
 to carry through the railroad project upon 
 which he had set his heart, and bring to a 
 consummation other matters affecting public 
 interests, as well as his own. 
 
222 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 In 1882 he succeeded Hon. Stephen F. 
 Wilson as additional law judge of the fourth 
 judicial district, composed of Potter, Tioga, 
 McKean and Cameron, and the following 
 year, upon a reapportionment, he became pre- 
 sident judge of the forty-eighth district, com- 
 posed of the counties of McKean and Potter. 
 In 1892 he was re-elected and by subsequent 
 re-apportionment Potter was created an inde- 
 pendent district, of which he became president 
 judge. His second term expired in 1902. 
 Hence his services on the bench were con- 
 tinuous for a period of twenty years, during 
 which exactly one hundred volumes (102d 
 to 202d) of Supreme Court Reports were 
 issued. Comparatively few appeals were 
 taken from his decisions, and he was rarely 
 reversed. Among the appealed cases most 
 frequently cited were the following: 
 
 Jones vs. Backus, 114 Pa., 120; 
 Short vs. Miller, 120 Pa., 470; 
 Taylor vs. Wright, 126 Pa., 617; 
 Gates vs. Watt, 127 Pa., 20; 
 Pullman vs. Smith, 135 Pa., 188; 
 Titus vs. Railroad Co., 136 Pa., 618; 
 Edgett vs. Douglas, 144 Pa., 95; 
 Genesee-Fork Imp. Co. vs.. Ivers, 144 Pa., 
 114; 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 223 
 
 Wilmoth vs. Hensel, 151 Pa., 200; 
 
 Goodyear vs. Brown, 155 Pa., 514; 
 
 Warren Gas Light Co. vs. Penna. Gas Co., 
 161 Pa., 510; 
 
 Strong, Deemer & Co. vs. Dininney, 175 Pa., 
 586; 
 
 National Transit Co. vs. Pipe Line Co., 
 180 Pa., 224; 
 
 Miller vs. Bradford, 186 Pa., 164; 
 
 Western New York & Penna. R. R. Co. vs. 
 Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Ry. Co., 
 186 Pa., 212. 
 
 Other cases came to trial which at the 
 time were regarded as of transcendent impor- 
 tance. About the year 1890 a series of eject- 
 ments were instituted in McKean, Elk and 
 Cameron counties, wherein the McKean and 
 Elk Land and Improvement Company, of 
 which the venerable Hon. Henry M. Watts, 
 formerly Supreme Court reporter, and later 
 United States Minister to Russia, was then 
 president, was plaintiff, and William Hacker 
 and Harry G. Clay, prominent citizens of 
 Philadelphia, were defendants. These suits 
 were brought to recover large tracts of land 
 whose value, by reason of the discovery of 
 oil and gas in the vicinity, had risen to great 
 magnitude. The first of the series was tried 
 
224 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 at Smethport. Judge Olmsted presided. Dis- 
 tinguished non-resident lawyers were present 
 and took part in the trial, including Franklin 
 B. Go wen and William W. Wiltbank of 
 Philadelphia (and later George A. Jenks of 
 Brookville), for the plaintiff, and John G. 
 Johnson and E. Hunn Hanson of Philadel- 
 phia, M. F. Elliott of Wellsboro and C. H. 
 McCauley of Ridgway, for the defendants. 
 Verdict was entered for the defendants. The 
 second case was tried at Ridgway before Judge 
 Charles A. Mayer, with like result. Upon 
 appeal from the Elk County judgment the 
 decision was affirmed. Incidentally, this 
 determination was a judicial vindication of 
 the course of General Thomas L. Kane in the 
 transactions involved. 
 
 The divorce proceeding of Theodore N. 
 Barnsdall (reported in 171 Pa., 625), also tried 
 before Judge Olmsted, at Smethport, in which 
 numerous able lawyers were employed, at- 
 tracted wide attention, chiefly because of the 
 prominence of the plaintiff in business circles, 
 his reputation as a pioneer oil producer and 
 later as the most extensive individual operator 
 in the United States. The litigation resulted 
 in a verdict for the defendant, and the 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 225 
 
 decision rendered lost its value as a precedent 
 by reason of a supplemental enactment pend- 
 ing the appeal. 
 
 The late Hon. Thomas A. Morrison, a judge 
 of the Superior Court, and for several years 
 officially associated with Judge Olmsted as 
 additional law judge, in an admirable remi- 
 niscent address, spoke as follows: 
 
 "My first personal acquaintance began 
 with Judge Olmsted early in the year 1880, 
 although I knew him well by reputation as a 
 distinguished lawyer and legislator for many 
 years. During all my intimate relations 
 with Judge Olmsted as a lawyer and judge, 
 I never discovered any wavering on his part 
 from a desire to discharge his duty in a just 
 and equitable manner on all occasions. The 
 friendship that existed between him and me 
 extended over many years, and while occasion- 
 ally we differed upon legal questions, there 
 never was to my knowledge the slightest 
 interruption of the warm friendship that 
 existed between us. When we could not 
 agree as to the law governing a case, we were 
 always able to agree that the one who ought 
 to decide the case should proceed with it, and 
 if the counsel desired to except, we always 
 gave him that privilege so that he could carry 
 his case to the Supreme Court and have it 
 
226 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 determined by that body. I am confident 
 that nobody ever heard Judge Olmsted criti- 
 cise any judicial action on my part, and I 
 am sure that I never said anything reflecting 
 on Judge Olmsted's great ability and judicial 
 fairness. I have already indicated that I 
 regarded Judge Olmsted as a very remarkable 
 man; I consider that he had one of the finest 
 minds of any man whose personal acquaintance 
 I was privileged to form. He was a close 
 thinker, and one of the clearest reasoners on 
 the bench in Pennsylvania. His mind 
 always seemed to seek for the correct solu- 
 tion of every question that came before him 
 judicially." 
 
 Near the close of his judicial career, his 
 "home paper," the Journal, 1 said of Judge 
 Olmsted: 
 
 "The retirement at the end of his term was 
 with the approving plaudit of the people of his 
 district as having been an honest, fearless, 
 capable and upright judge. Soon after his 
 accession to the bench he came to be recog- 
 nized as one of the most capable judges in the 
 commonwealth. His legal opinions were 
 quoted with high respect throughout the 
 courts of the state, and in the Supreme Court 
 they were received with notable considera- 
 tion. He suffered as few reversals, in propor- 
 
 ! Potter Journal. 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 227 
 
 tion to the litigation, as any judge in the 
 state. His despatch of the business of the 
 courts became particularly marked. He 
 caught legal propositions quickly, and was 
 prompt and decisive in his rulings, and vigor- 
 ous in the disposition of business. He held 
 the respect of the entire bar, and his rulings 
 were gracefully received. In all his decisions 
 in which judicial discretion was exercised, his 
 rulings were invariably in the interest of 
 public morals and the uplifting of society." 
 
 The bar of the district during the respective 
 terms of Judge Olmsted's judicial service, as 
 well as in the preceding period of his practice, 
 was of superior rank. McKean County was 
 the first to be developed, and the richest in 
 resources of the counties of the Northern Oil 
 District of Pennsylvania. Titles began to be 
 contested, and transfers and contracts to 
 multiply until litigation of importance arose, 
 and the court-room at the stated terms was 
 fairly crowded. Lawyers of distinction from 
 other counties came not infrequently, particu- 
 larly on the opening days of the terms. C. B. 
 Curtis and Ross Thompson came from Erie, 
 Brawley and Douglas from Meadville, Roger 
 Sherman from Titusville, Mason from Mercer, 
 Hancock, Lee and Osmer from Franklin, 
 
228 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 Rasselas Brown, C. W. Stone and W. D. 
 Brown from Warren, George A. Jenks from 
 Brookville, John G. Hall from Ridgway, M. F. 
 Elliott from Wellsboro, and C. S. Cary from 
 Olean. The McKean bar was itself exception- 
 ally strong, including, among others, Byron 
 D. Hamlin, John C. Backus, David Sterrett, 
 Henry King, E. R. Mayo, Thomas A. Morri- 
 son, E. L. Keenan, J. W. Bouton, Sheridan 
 Gorton and John Apple, of Smethport; George 
 A. Berry, N. B. Smiley, A. Leo Weil, W. J. 
 Milliken, Eugene Mullin, W. B. Chapman 
 and J. M. McClure, of Bradford; John E. 
 Mullin, of Kane; S. W. Smith, of Port Alle- 
 gany; W. E. Burdick, of Duke Center, 
 and P. R. Cotter, of Eldred. It is probable 
 that there were notable days within Judge 
 Olmsted's recollection when there were more 
 lawyers of distinction in the court-room 
 at Smethport than were ever assembled 
 at one time in the court-room of any other 
 district court in the commonwealth. 
 
 The Potter bar during the same period 
 included, among others, D. C. Larrabee, 
 H. C. Dornan, W. I. Lewis, W. F. DuBois, 
 W. K. Swetland, John Ormerod, Fred C. 
 Leonard, A. S. Heck and Newton Peck. 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 229 
 
 To have so presided in the respective courts 
 of a district of such considerable importance, 
 during a period of its development of such 
 historical consequence, as to win at the end 
 the unqualified commendation of the members 
 of its bar, was the fittest crowning of Judge 
 Olmsted's judicial service. 
 
 When the opportunity came to the bar of 
 Potter County, it thus placed its estimate upon 
 his judicial career: 
 
 "His judicial experience was state-wide, 
 as was his reputation as an upright and able 
 jurist. During more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury of continuous judicial service, it became 
 his duty to pass upon many principles there- 
 tofore judicially undetermined, and the large 
 number of leading cases in which his judg- 
 ment was confirmed by the appellate courts 
 evinces the clarity of mind with which he 
 applied the fundamental principles of justice 
 to such questions. 
 
 "He was quick to appreciate the essen- 
 tials involved in any litigation, or to draft 
 the intent and weigh the merit of a legal 
 argument. The fact that during his entire 
 judicial career, no improper motive was 
 attributed to any judicial act of his even by 
 disappointed litigants, indicates the contem- 
 poraneous recognition given his strict integ- 
 
230 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 rity, not only in his judicial capacity, but also 
 in his private affairs." 
 
 The bar of McKean gave its concurrent 
 expression: 
 
 "His wide learning," said the resolutions, 
 "his clear mind, his unblemished integrity, 
 raised him to eminence among the judges of 
 the commonwealth, and among the ablest and 
 most honored of those judges he ranked as a 
 distinguished peer." 
 
 Not less affirmative was the testimonial of 
 the bar of the City of Bradford : 
 
 "He was invariably patient, conscientious, 
 able and learned. The trials which he con- 
 ducted were often illuminated by flashes of 
 humor of which he had a fine appreciation." 
 
 In a recent address W. J. Milliken, Esquire, 
 has spoken of Judge Olmsted's conservative 
 caution : 
 
 "This did not spring," said he, "from self- 
 distrust, nor from mere timidity, but from his 
 trained habit of careful investigation, which 
 sought to know whether propositions ad- 
 vanced, or conditions asserted to exist, had 
 any true foundation, either in fact or prin- 
 ciple. Though a thing seemed plausible, 
 whether in law or anything else, it did not 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 231 
 
 gain his acceptance without rigorous demon- 
 stration. In all things his sympathies and 
 feelings were made subordinate to his reason." 
 
 He presided over the court with true 
 dignity, without ostentation, oblivious to the 
 galleries. The prosaic procedure of the court- 
 room was often enlivened by his quaint humor. 
 Intense situations were relieved by it. To a 
 lawyer who urged that on a former hearing of 
 the case he had forcibly argued his present 
 contention, the Judge dryly interjected: 
 
 "I remember the argument, but I do not 
 remember the force." 
 
 To a grand juror begging to be excused from 
 attendance because of his deafness in one ear, 
 the Judge replied : 
 
 "You will do. You are only to hear one 
 side of the case." 
 
 The bar repeatedly sought to do him honor 
 at banquet or reception, but he always eluded 
 it. Whenever caught for an after-dinner 
 speech, he spoke with grace and fluency and 
 wit becoming the occasion, but he was known 
 to light his cigar and walk out before he could 
 be called upon. 
 
232 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 The duties of the bench were not distateful 
 to him, although their responsibility he keenly 
 felt. He appeared to have no ambition for a 
 seat in either of the appellate courts. It is 
 doubtful whether he would have enjoyed a 
 position where his strong individuality would 
 have been measurably tempered or in some 
 degree restrained. He seconded no move- 
 ment in that direction, although once or 
 twice it was put on foot without his instigation. 
 Particularly when a vacancy on the Supreme 
 bench was caused by the death of Justice 
 Williams, the Bradford Evening Star 1 men- 
 tioned Judge Olmsted as "eminently quali- 
 fied," and added that his appointment would 
 be "a strong acquisition to the bench of the 
 highest court. He has figured prominently in 
 state affairs, and his reputation as an able and 
 impartial jurist extends from one end of the 
 commonwealth to the other." The Port 
 Allegany Reporter and Austin Autograph 
 commended the suggestion. Other papers 
 in the same quarter of the state expressed 
 regret that his illness might preclude the 
 merited honor. 
 
 1 Bradford Evening Star, January 30, 1899. 
 
AS LAWYER AND JUDGE 233 
 
 In fact, his health was not equal to the 
 strain which the duties of such a position 
 would have exacted. As his judicial service 
 came to a close, he fairly coveted the relaxa- 
 tion of private life. He was then seventy -five 
 years of age. He might say, with Emerson: 
 
 " It is time to be old, 
 To take in sail : — 
 The god of bounds, 
 Who sets to seas a shore 
 Came to me in his fatal rounds, 
 And said: No more!" 
 
H 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Rounding the Years 
 
 E was entering upon the period of 
 retrospection. 
 
 "Coming into the county as a boy," 
 observes an editorial neighbor, 1 "when it was 
 new, his life has been a part of its history and 
 occupies a conspicuous place in it. He knew 
 the county when it was little more than a 
 wilderness, its citizens suffering all the incon- 
 veniences and trials of the backwood's settler 
 life. He knew their privations and sympa- 
 thized with their hardships. He has lived to 
 see all the early settlers pass into the Great 
 Beyond, and the rugged forests change into 
 beautiful fertile farms. He has witnessed the 
 passing of the log cabin and seen it replaced 
 with neat, comfortable homes. He is the 
 last remaining member of the old Potter bar 
 which was composed of as vigorous and active 
 class of men as were to be found in the pro- 
 fession anywhere." 
 
 In the language of another journalist writing 
 at the time: 
 
 1 Potter Journal 
 
 (234) 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 235 
 
 "He knows every hill and dale, and it is 
 given to him to know the people as few people 
 know them. He knew the rugged pioneers 
 who conquered the wilderness, and their joys 
 and sorrows were an open book." 1 
 
 His judicial duties had not taken him very 
 far, nor often, from his own fireside, and had 
 comported better with his physical condition 
 than would the duties of political leadership, 
 involving, perhaps, congressional service. 
 When the time was opportune for such 
 service, he had felt unequal to the test which 
 it would have put upon his impaired vitality. 
 In the national arena he would have added 
 new luster to the statesmanship of the 
 Northern Tier. It has already much to its 
 credit. It has been the nursery of great 
 cardinal governmental policies. 
 
 First, the Free School System. A third of a 
 century before the State of New York estab- 
 lished such system, the Connecticut settlers of 
 the Wyoming Valley 2 under the leadership of 
 Timothy Pickering, 3 a delegate in the Consti- 
 
 1 Bolivar Breeze. 
 
 * Three shares of land were set apart, one for the maintenance of public schools, 
 another for the erection of a meeting-house, and a third for the support of a minister . 
 — Matthews on Expansion of New England. 
 
 * Wickersham's History of Education in Pennsylvania, 259. Timothy Pickering, 
 Postmaster General, Secretary of War, Secretary of State, took a Connecticut title, 
 as Ethan Allen did, but he wisely foresaw the ultimate supremacy of Pennsylvania, 
 
236 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 tutional Convention of 1790, who had brought 
 from Massachusetts to Wyoming the germ of 
 its policy, successfully resisted Thomas 
 McKean, who, at a critical juncture, although 
 a powerful friend of the cause of education, 
 mistakenly sought to restrict the public schools 
 to the indigent; and thus the system in 
 Pennsylvania was early planted upon a broad 
 and enduring foundation. 
 
 Second, the Wilmot Proviso. This prop- 
 osition, of which David Wilmot 1 was the 
 recognized sponsor and able champion, if not 
 the author, became the rock upon which polit- 
 ical parties were wrecked and the country 
 divided — a division which resulted in civil 
 war and eventually in the abolition of 
 slavery. 
 
 and exerted his distinguished ability to procure effective compromise legislation. 
 He lived at Wilkes-Barre for several years prior to his summons to Washington's 
 cabinet. The dwelling house which he built and occupied on South Main Street 
 is still standing and little changed. On his return from Washington in 1800, he 
 retired to his farm in Susquehanna County, which he named Harmony (Lanesboro), 
 and while engaged in clearing it lived in a primitive log-house. When John Adams 
 came to the Presidency he preferred another for the office of Secretary of State. 
 Estrangement grew into dislike and the quarrel resulted in the retirement of Adams 
 from public life. On the contrary Pickering's friends urged his return to Massa- 
 chusetts from which state he was ultimately elected to the United States Senate. 
 Criticising the statement of Adams (in 1809) that "Great Britain is the natural 
 enemy of the United States," Pickering with great courage and almost prophetic 
 wisdom expressed himself as follows: 
 
 "A new reason now urges the United States to maintain a friendly connexion 
 with Great-Britain: Hers is the only free and independent country in Europe; and 
 Ours the only other country in the World in a condition to cooperate with Britain 
 in sustaining the cause of Liberty on the Earth." ... 
 
 » Son of Randall Wilmot, of Woodbridge, Connecticut, and hereinbefore men- 
 tioned. 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 237 
 
 Third, the Homestead Law. 1 Controversy 
 over the titles of the Connecticut claimants, 
 incidental adjudication, and ultimate recogni- 
 tion of their homestead rights, and the incor- 
 poration of the principle involved into the 
 law of the commonwealth, generated under 
 the championship of Galusha A. Grow 2 a like, 
 though broader, homestead policy for the 
 general government. 
 
 There are national exigencies, too, such as 
 the existence of war, when congressional 
 leaders are demanded, of rare wisdom, saga- 
 city, patriotism, and in such time of need the 
 Northern Tier has not failed to respond. 
 Glenni W. Scofield, 3 second only to Thaddeus 
 Stevens, led the Pennsylvania delegation dur- 
 ing the contest between the North and the 
 
 1 It is to be noted that eleven years before the Homestead Law was enacted by 
 Congress, the Potter County pioneers in their Free Soil Convention of 1851, herein- 
 before mentioned, declared in favor of "land reform" in its broadest sense, that 
 every family may have a home exempt from levy and sale by execution." 
 
 • Born in Ashford, Windham County, Connecticut. " A man who has con- 
 tributed, as Galusha Grow has, to the lasting welfare of millions, is entitled to the 
 gratitude, not only of his country, but of the world."— John Hay. 
 
 When the late Czar of Russia was asked by General Nelson A. Miles what he 
 intended to do with Siberia upon the completion of the East and West Railroad, 
 His Majesty replied: 
 
 " We intend to do with it what your great statesman, Mr. Grow, did 
 with the public domain of the United States. In due time we shall give it 
 to the people, because we are convinced that the Homestead Law is the 
 most valuable enactment ever placed on the statute books of nations." 
 
 * Son of Darius Schofield, of Stamford, Connecticut. Judge Scofield represented 
 In Congress the Warren- Venango district of Pennsylvania for twelve years, covering 
 the period of the CivilWar, during which he was chairman of the Committee on 
 Naval Affairs. _ Referring to instances of promotion from the House to the Senate 
 and to the Cabinet of members who had been prominent in the debate upon the 
 XIHth Constitutional Amendment, Seilhamer says: But Glenni W. Scofield and 
 M. Russell Thayer, being Pennsylvanians, went unrewarded of the higher prefer- 
 
238 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 South, and Charles W. Stone 1 held no lower 
 place of influence during the Spanish-American 
 War. But there was an era in the history of 
 these counties when they had a cause without 
 a leader, and their cause lingered and suffered 
 in consequence. In the category it may be 
 designated as follows: 
 
 Fourth, Corporation Restraint. It was in 
 the oil region of Pennsylvania, particularly 
 the northwestern counties of McKean, Craw- 
 ford and Venango, that a popular revolt first 
 occurred against corporate aggression. It 
 arose in the first instance by reason of freight 
 discrimination in favor of the Standard Oil 
 Company, and became more and more intense 
 as corporations multiplied, combined and 
 coalesced into obnoxious trusts. A delegation 
 was sent to Washington, and the attention 
 of Roscoe Conkling, the distinguished Senator 
 
 roent that Pennsylvania has always denied to her ablest men in the House." — 
 Hist. Rep. Party, 171. 
 
 1 A native of Groton, Massachusetts, first Republican Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Pennsylvania, Senator and Representative, Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
 He represented in Congress the district, including Warren, from 1890 to 1899. He 
 was chairman of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures during th« 
 free silver agitation. He was repeatedly mentioned for the office of Governor. 
 Senator Quay opposed his nomination, and in the Repubb'can convention of 1890 
 sacrificed the election to prevent it. The candidate whom he named suffered an 
 anticipated defeat at the polls. In the convention of 1894 Stone's nomination was 
 prevented by a change of seven votes after the arrival of Quay. Former Governor 
 Pennypacker, in his Autobiography (p. 323), relates that when the name of a dis- 
 tinguished jurist was suggested for promotion to the Supreme Bench Quay said, 
 "No, I will oppose him. He is one of those Yankees from around Wilkesbarre, and 
 you cannot trust one of them." It was not Senator Quay's habit to be looking for 
 leaders, but always for followers. He and they constituted The Organization. 
 
WlLMOT 
 
 scofield 
 
 Pickering 
 
 Stone 
 
 Grow 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 239 
 
 from New York, was engaged. Some forma- 
 tive progress was made. It was at this 
 juncture that the movement called for its 
 own representative in Congress, one having 
 the ability, the legal knowledge, the legisla- 
 tive experience and parliamentary skill of 
 Arthur G. Olmsted. He seemed born for the 
 mission, trained for the crisis, the man for 
 the hour. Under such leadership, springing 
 from the body of the people under oppression, 
 and yet possessing in large measure the con- 
 fidence of corporate interests, appropriate 
 constructive measures might have been de- 
 vised, which, while effective for the primary 
 purpose, would yet have been less destructive 
 and grinding in their operation. But the 
 leader which the times indicated, and whom 
 the course of events had thus selected, was 
 unable to respond. The cause of the people 
 was passed on to Senator John Sherman, of 
 Ohio, of like Hartford and Essex ancestry, 
 who, by a single act, laid the foundation for 
 a new governmental policy toward corpora- 
 tions. But it was like a seed that is planted 
 and left for years to germinate. 
 
 Judge Olmsted's private affairs now de- 
 manded undivided attention. His invest- 
 
240 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 ments had become large and varied. They 
 included material interests in the South, as 
 well as in corporate and kindred enterprises 
 in his own county. Besides, he had made 
 many loans to farmers and mechanics, in and 
 near Coudersport, to whom he gave at need 
 numerous renewals and extensions. 1 He had 
 meditated, too, upon certain projects of 
 advantage to the community at Coudersport. 
 In 1890 he had presented the Coudersport 
 fire department with a hose-cart. In 1895 
 two hose companies were organized and 
 chartered, one in the first ward to be known 
 as A. G. Olmsted Hose Company. In 1905 
 he began the erection of the present fire 
 station which, costing when completed $4,000, 
 together with the equipment costing $551.00, 
 he, on the 17th day of August, 1905, presented 
 to the fire department. Another institu- 
 tion, in the organization of which Judge 
 Olmsted was instrumental, is the Citizens' 
 Trust Company, a company which, from its 
 nature, its powers under the law, is calculated 
 to be of much service to the community, and 
 to be an important instrumentality in the 
 
 * Observing that his will directed that no inventory should be filed, Judge Ham- 
 lin said he doubted not that it was because Judge Olmsted did not wish it to be 
 known how many liens he had lost by indulgence. 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 241 
 
 material advancement of the county. A 
 condensed milk factory was organized in 
 1900, of which Judge Olmsted was chosen 
 president; J. Newton Peck, vice-president; 
 M. S. Thompson, treasurer, and A. B. Mann, 
 secretary. Judge Olmsted had builded for 
 the borough and the county better than he 
 knew. He never spoke of anything he had 
 done as in the nature of a benefaction to the 
 community, nor, in fact, looked back to see 
 what he had accomplished. He would not 
 willingly have listened to the enumeration: 
 the railroad that opened up the wilderness, 
 the telegraph, the library, the soldiers' monu- 
 ment, the water supply, the gas supply, the 
 fire protection, the trust company. Besides 
 his very life had been a public service, in the 
 cause of freedom, of temperance, for the 
 Union, in the House, in the Senate, on the 
 bench. The county had been his companion. 
 They were young together. He had kept step 
 with it. It had grown old along with him. 
 Its hundredth anniversary approached. He 
 may have urged its recognition, and willingly 
 taken some minor part in promoting its cele- 
 bration. But it was not for him to speak the 
 praises of the century. To the gathered 
 
242 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 multitude on the tenth day of August, 1904, 
 President Colcord fitly said: 
 
 "The voice of a hundred years has called 
 to the people of Potter County, bidding them 
 pause for a brief while and take note of the 
 flight of centuries;" 
 
 and then he introduced Hon. Marlin E. 
 Olmsted, LL.D., 1 of Harrisburg, as the anni- 
 versary orator, saying: 
 
 "I shall introduce him as a Potter County 
 boy, who from this humble village went out 
 into the world in early life to seek his fortune, 
 and as we listen to his voice this afternoon, we 
 will not forget that that voice in the halls of 
 Congress, and in the councils of the nation, 
 commands respectful attention from the fore- 
 most statesmen of America.'* 
 
 The oration which followed was replete 
 with historical incident. It narrated the 
 purchase of 1784 from the Six Nations of all 
 this region for $5,000 and the later purchase of 
 the same lands from the Wyandot and 
 
 1 A biographical sketch of the speaker in Genealogy of the Olmsted Family in 
 America says, inter alia: "In 1869 he was, through the influence of Senator Olm- 
 sted, tendered a position in the State Treasury, but the then State Treasurer, Robert 
 W. Mackey, learning of his youth and inexperience, traded him off, as it were, to 
 Auditor General Hartranft, in whose office he rose to the responsible position of 
 Corporation Clerk, re-drafted the general revenue laws, afterwards entered upon the 
 study of law; was admitted to practice, rapidly rose in his profession, was elected to 
 Congress and re-elected, attaining high distinction as a legislator and parliamen- 
 tarian. 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 243 
 
 Delaware tribes for $2,000, and how the deed 
 was signed by the sachems, Half King, Sweat 
 House, the Pipe, the Present, the Council 
 Door, the Big Cat, The Twisting Vine, The 
 Volunteer, The Desire of All, with their own 
 peculiar devices, such as a bow and arrow, a 
 spear, intertwining vines. He mentioned the 
 fact that when the act of January 13, 1804, 
 was passed creating the present counties of 
 Potter, McKean, Jefferson, Clearfield, Tioga 
 and Cambria, the legislature was in session 
 at Lancaster. As the act passed the House, 
 the county of Potter bore the beautiful Indian 
 name Sinnemahoning, and it was proposed to 
 substitute Potter for the name of McKean, but 
 in perfecting the measure Sinnemahoning was 
 sent back to its own wild waters, gathered 
 from its sources in both counties, singing its 
 way to the Susquehanna. 
 
 "When," said the orator, "The legislature 
 of 1804 promised the future settlers that a 
 part of the sovereign power of the state should 
 be theirs to exercise, it had faith that the 
 hardy pioneers who should first cultivate these 
 beautiful and fertile valleys, breathe this pure 
 air, imbibe these crystal waters and drink in 
 the spirit of freedom among these hills, would 
 
244 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 be men in whom that trust might be safely 
 reposed. Most gloriously has that confidence 
 been justified. No country was ever won from 
 the wilds by men more deserving or more 
 patriotic than those who, from that remarkable 
 
 Sources of Population 
 Potter and McKean were settled by three streams of immigra- 
 tion (a) from the old Wyoming district, (b) from New York and New 
 England, following Wayne's victory and Indian treaty of 1795, 
 (c) Scotch-Irish and Quakers from Philadelphia and the West Branch, 
 including Fair-Play Men.* The countries west of the Allegheny, 
 Warren, Crawford, Erie, Mercer and Venango received their early 
 settlers from the same sources in the same decade. 1 
 
 1 For many years some doubt existed whether the Indian name Tiadaghton wag 
 intended to identify Lycoming Creek or Pine Creek as a boundary under the purchase 
 of 1768, and white settlements were consequently made on the rich lands between. 
 These settlements were repudiated by the government at Philadelphia. There- 
 upon the settlers organized their own government under the name of Fair Play Men, 
 electing a committee of three to arbitrate all differences. They held their ground 
 until a decision was obtained in their favor. . It is an interesting historical incident 
 that, having learned from the East of a growing inclination towards a declaration of 
 independence, the Fair-Play Men determined upon the same course, and having 
 assembled on the plains above Pine Creek, on the 4th of July, 1776, without means 
 of knowledge of the actual events of the day in Philadelphia, adopted a resolution 
 renouncing allegiance to Great Britain and declaring themselves free and independent. 
 
 J The superior Nordic type, represented by these several strains, which thus 
 peopled the Northern Tier, although since somewhat depleted by war, has prob- 
 ably suffered less deterioration here than in other sections of the Commonwealth. 
 Moreover, in the last half pi the nineteenth century it was reinforced by a con- 
 siderable influx from Scandinavian countries, which- are now, says the ethnologist, 
 Madison Grant, " as they have been for thousands of years, the chief nursery and 
 broodland of the master race." 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 245 
 
 beginning, have made Potter County what it is 
 today. Though not blessed with an over- 
 abundance of this world's goods, they were, in 
 the main, educated, sturdy, intelligent, fear- 
 less, liberty-loving, law-abiding, God-fearing 
 men. They had religious services before they 
 had church edifices, and even before they had 
 preachers; and realizing the value of educa- 
 tion, they had classes and schools before they 
 could afford schoolhouses." 
 
 The speaker mentioned instances of legisla- 
 tion peculiar to the times. Upon the day that 
 the Governor approved the act locating 
 Coudersport, he also signed one making 
 squirrel and crow scalps receivable for taxes. 
 Later the commissioners of Potter County 
 were authorized to pay fifty cents for fox and 
 seventy-five cents for wolf scalps, and still 
 later twenty -five dollars for a full grown wolf 
 and half price for puppies; sixteen dollars for 
 a panther and nine dollars for puppies. 
 Touching salient points in the county's his- 
 tory, the orator finally reached the great 
 county railroad enterprise, the Coudersport 
 and Port Allegany, which he pronounced "a 
 monument to the wisdom and patriotism of 
 its promoters and of untold value and impor- 
 tance to the county." 
 
246 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 "Its first effect," said he, "was to encourage 
 the manufacture of lumber at home. This 
 was greatly increaseb when Frank H. Good- 
 year, having from 'The Lookout' conceived 
 the idea of hauling that great forest in manu- 
 factured form, up hill, to Keating Summit and 
 thence to Buffalo, built the Sinnemahoning 
 Valley Railroad from ' Squire Austin's house to 
 Keating Summit. It was six miles long, and, 
 as he delights to say, 'all under one manage- 
 ment.' It is related that a lady passenger 
 on one of the first trains said she could get off 
 and walk faster. Asked by the conductor why 
 she did not, she replied that she would, except 
 that her folks would not be expecting her so 
 soon. The business in connection with that 
 little railroad became so extensive that the 
 owner induced his brother, C. W. Goodyear, 
 then a prominent young Buffalo lawyer, to 
 join him in the enterprise. Together they 
 have extended it into a great system, with 
 eight or ten millions of stocks and bonds, and 
 nearly two hundred miles of railroad, which 
 will soon afford another outlet to Buffalo. 
 And they have caused great mills to be erected 
 along its line so that the logs which would 
 otherwise have been floated to the Williams- 
 port boom, have been manufactured at home. 
 The wealth and business interests of the county 
 have been thereby vastly increased, and 
 'Squire Austin's farm,' which, twenty years 
 
ROUNDING THE YEARS 247 
 
 ago, stood in the wilderness, is now covered with 
 dwellings, stores and churches. If the promo- 
 ters have made great fortunes for themselves, 
 they have also done much for the county." 
 
 The oration concluded as follows: 
 
 "As the headwaters of the Genesee, the Sus- 
 quehanna and the Allegheny, springing from 
 that wonderful watershed in Allegheny and 
 Ulysses townships, and flowing, respectively, 
 northward to the St. Lawrence, southward to 
 the Chesapeake, and yet further south to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, refresh many counties and 
 many states, and, uniting with other streams, 
 form mighty rivers bearing many burdens and 
 turning many wheels, until, at length, they 
 pour into the ocean and help to bear the 
 mightiest vessels, so the love of liberty and of 
 country and the unalterable sentiments of 
 loyalty and devotion ever present, and ever 
 forming, among the old green hills of Potter, 
 will continually flow forth and, joining with 
 and encouraging similar streams from every 
 part of this fair land, help to swell the great 
 and everlasting ocean of national patriotism 
 upon which our Ship of State may ever safely 
 ride, while 'Old Glory,' now proudly and 
 peacefully waving over forty -five states and a 
 myriad of islands on the sea, emblem of free- 
 dom and of protection to eighty millions of 
 people, shall grow even brighter in the 
 blessed radiance of its own increasing stars." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Four-Score and Seven 
 
 THIS celebration, at which were gath- 
 ered the sons and daughters of the 
 pioneers, the companions of Judge 
 Olmsted's youth, home-coming from far and 
 wide, his surviving comrades in the civic 
 battles he had won, his associates in the 
 enterprises he had founded, at which were 
 recounted the events of which he had been 
 a part, was a fitting culmination of his 
 public life. And yet there were years of 
 usefulness before him, restful years when he 
 brought minor purposes to fruition, years in 
 which he sat in the twilight as the sage of 
 Coudersport, the general counselor, helpful to 
 many, concerned for the future comfort of 
 his invalid wife and family, his children and 
 grandchildren. He was fond of his carriage 
 horses, and reluctantly yielded to the substi- 
 tution of the automobile. He drove daily in 
 good weather, and, as if by instinct, back to 
 Ulysses, not alone because it was still the 
 
 (248) 
 
FOUR-SCORE AND SEVEN 249 
 
 home of his kindred, but also for a sight of 
 the parental homestead of his boyhood, to 
 which he fondly directed the attention of his 
 fellow-passengers. For dull days he had the 
 excellent companionship of his private library 
 to which he had made important additions in 
 recent years. In his files he could turn to 
 interesting letters, especially letters written 
 during the period of his legislative service. 
 Among his correspondents were Governor 
 
 Geary, General Hartranft, Chief Justice 
 Woodward, General Kane, Treasurer Mackey, 
 the Republica leader in Pennsylvania during 
 the Civil War, and Senator Rutan, his first 
 lieutenant, Senators Strang and Stinson, Col. 
 Walton D wight, Captain J. C. Johnson, Peter 
 Her die, United States Senator J. Donald 
 Cameron, Dr. S. D. Freeman, Representatives 
 H. Jones Brooke and Lucius Rogers, Editor 
 Bowman, Thomas A. Scott, vice-president of 
 
250 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and 
 Assistant Secretary of War. Lon M. Konkle, 
 of Philadelphia, wrote, in 1871, offering eight 
 lots in Coudersport for one hundred dollars, 
 and Samuel Lewis, of Pottsville, wrote in the 
 same year offering seven hundred and fifty 
 acres of "valuable timber land" in Potter at 
 ten dollars an acre. 
 
 Recalling this quiet period of Judge Olm- 
 sted's life, the late Thomas H. Murray, of 
 Clearfield, a leader of the bar in Western 
 Pennsylvania, and prominently mentioned 
 both for judicial and gubernatorial honors, 
 about a year before his death wrote the 
 following appreciative letter: 
 
 Recollections of Arthur G. Olmsted. 
 
 Judge Olmsted was of a type of men who are 
 now fast disappearing. Other examples of 
 his class were William L. Corbet of Clarion, 
 John H. Orvis of Centre and Simon P. Wolver- 
 ton of Northumberland. They will not be 
 reproduced. The conditions which made 
 them, or rather which enabled them to make 
 themselves are here no longer. The older 
 lawyers of today who came to know them well 
 are better lawyers and better men because of 
 their life and example. Their distinction was 
 not merely their intellectual stature, but the 
 
FOUR-SCORE AND SEVEN 251 
 
 individuality that forged their way through 
 barren soil and unfriendly environment to 
 high rank in their great profession. 
 
 Theirs was the day and place of the weekly 
 mail — of the log school house with its slab 
 benches and tin plate stove. The preacher 
 came, if at all, once in three or four weeks. 
 Whatever church he came from he was a circuit 
 rider, — or walker; anyway he had a circuit. 
 This class of lawyers had a personality which 
 protected them from the dwarfing and enervat- 
 ing influences which ensnare so many weaker 
 men under modern conditions of life. Theirs 
 was not a race for the least work and the most 
 leisure, but for the highest achievement. 
 Therefore were they able to come up well 
 equipped from the time of the weekly mail, — 
 to a time when they could, at the breakfast 
 table, read a verbatim report of the speeches 
 made the night before, — at the banquet of 
 the Lord Mayor of London. 
 
 I first saw Judge Olmsted about thirty 
 years ago at Harrisburg. He was presiding at 
 a Republican State Convention. I observed 
 him closely, for I had heard much of him, and 
 was then impressed with his self-poise and 
 his entire freedom from mannerisms. He 
 next appeared in May, 1891, at this place to 
 try a land case, involving only title, but with 
 many complications. I tried the case for 
 the plaintiff and Judge Orvis appeared for 
 
252 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 the defendants. We were both pleased with 
 his spirit of fairness and his apparent familiar- 
 ity with the questions raised. 
 
 For about six years before retiring from 
 active practice I had a number of cases in 
 Potter County, and was at Coudersport 
 once or twice a year, either to court or to 
 prepare for these cases. Two cases were 
 for a local railroad in which Judge Olmsted 
 was a stockholder. During these times I 
 came closer to him and saw more of him. 
 In the summer of 1905 when I went to court 
 there Mrs. Murray accompanied me. One 
 evening we took supper with him and Mrs. 
 Olmsted. In a trip that included Smethport, 
 Buffalo, Detroit and Mt. Clemens, we met 
 nobody who left with us such pleasant and 
 lasting recollections as these substantial 
 people who had brought down into a life of 
 plenty that genuine hospitality which is 
 usually found at its best — and unmarred by 
 present-day conventionalities — in a sparsely- 
 settled and primitive community. After 
 supper the Judge talked of the books he was 
 then reading. He prefaced what he said of 
 them by the statement that he had not 
 opened a law book for some years. He was 
 reading a book on St. Paul I had never seen. 
 I was much interested in the book and as 
 much in what he said about its contents. 
 He had another book on the distribution of 
 
FOUR-SCORE AND SEVEN 253 
 
 the races of men over the earth, and spoke 
 particularly of the dominant power of the 
 Aryan people and their language, and of how 
 much of our present-day civilization related 
 back to them. Of the great judges of Penn- 
 sylvania, like most of the big lawyers of the 
 olden time, he put Tilghman, and not Gibson, 
 first. He said "his opinions were so exhaus- 
 tive that when you read one of them, there 
 seems to be nothing left to be said on the 
 subject." 
 
 The next day he drove us about the hills and 
 valleys where the years of his life had been 
 spent, and in which much of the thrift and 
 economy of those years had been invested. 
 Judge Olmsted's characteristics were: his 
 substantial and reliable character that ren- 
 dered him a man of force in the community 
 and part of the state of which he was such a 
 distinguished representative. There were 
 some things he stood for, and these were the 
 better things of life, and there was no diffi- 
 culty in finding what they were. His clear 
 vision enabled him to so master the mysteries 
 of the law as to reach a top place in his pro- 
 fession. This quality also enabled him, 
 when yet young, to so direct his thrift and 
 energies as to early acquire a competence that 
 protected his declining years from care and 
 anxiety. He lived to a ripe age, honored alike 
 by his people and by the profession which he 
 
254 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 adorned both by his learning and by the 
 integrity of his life purpose. 
 
 "J/.n**. //./fr«»*y 
 
 Clearfield, Penna., 
 November 18, 1914. 
 
 With increasing age Judge Olmsted and his 
 wife felt more keenly the severity of the 
 northern winter. They journeyed one or 
 two seasons to resorts in the South, and, 
 finally, he having acquired interests with 
 Hon. Henry Hamlin, of Smethport, in South- 
 ern timber lands, was able to content himself 
 repeatedly for a few weeks in Florida, upon 
 a satisfying theory of combined business and 
 recreation. Judge Hamlin was occasionally 
 his companion at the most famous of the 
 hotels of Palm Beach. Speaking reminis- 
 cently some time later, Judge Hamlin was 
 heard to say that he had sat beside Judge 
 Olmsted while he was in conversation with 
 men of culture and education from the East 
 and elsewhere, and that he never suffered in 
 comparison; that his fund of information on 
 all topics seemed inexhaustible. At length 
 Judge Olmsted gave up these winter trips, and 
 shortened his daily rounds. Long after he 
 
FOUR-SCORE AND SEVEN 255 
 
 was able to give consecutive attention to 
 matters of business, he yet went regularly to 
 his office, to the bank and to the nearest 
 store, where he learned all that for the day it 
 sufficed him to know. His son Robert was 
 his business confidant. 
 
 More and more the circle of his interest 
 narrowed to his own home and to the house- 
 holds of his son and daughter. The world 
 seemed to have fallen away from him in the 
 course of time, and left him solitary. His 
 professional associates of other years, Knox, 
 Mann, Benson, Ross, Larrabee, all had gone 
 before him. He had formed many new asso- 
 ciations, it is true, but such friends were far 
 and wide. Political issues and party adminis- 
 tration were no longer such as engaged the 
 statesmanship of the earlier days. With the 
 religious creed of his fathers he was perfectly 
 familiar, but he seemed to have quietly 
 recognized and accepted the modifications 
 which time and modern scholarship had 
 contributed. Reverent of spirit, he rarely 
 spoke of religion, never to disparage, nor even 
 to discuss it. He recognized it as a social 
 factor, but for himself, it had only negative 
 value. His mind seemed already filled with 
 
256 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 other sources of reflection. In his reading 
 he preferred history and biography. Perhaps 
 he regarded religion as only a means to an 
 end, and that the end was an upright life. 
 The sunset of his days had for him only clouds 
 of silver lining, and he enjoyed his comforts, 
 his little circle, his car, his books, his cigar. 
 He had rare, reminiscent moods. Unfortunate 
 it is that the incidents he recalled, his estimates 
 of the elder statesmen and of events once 
 crucial, were never recorded. By and by, 
 his former associates, his old companions, the 
 lawyers who had once been with him at the 
 bar, were again alive. He forgot the cir- 
 cumstance of death, and inquired of their 
 doings from his visitor. His memory lost its 
 tenacity of dates and then of names. His own 
 he would sometimes forget. Pathetic it was 
 beyond expression when one day, so at a loss, 
 he put on his hat and walked down to the 
 store that he might ask Mr. Thompson to be 
 good enough to tell him who he was. One of 
 Emerson's biographers, writing of him, says: 
 
 "The failure of his mental machinery to 
 respond to his will left his personal charm 
 singularly undimmed. An artist, who came 
 to his house to paint his portrait after his 
 
FOUR-SCORE AND SEVEN 257 
 
 memory was nearly gone, said of him: 'I see 
 Mr. Emerson every day, and every day he 
 asks me afresh my name — and I never saw 
 a greater man.' This dominating virtue of 
 personality was long held to account for his 
 pre-eminence among his contemporaries, but 
 time has proved it, so far as it existed apart 
 from his thought and vision, merely the lovely 
 light in which the enduring features of his 
 genius were at once made beautiful and to a 
 degree obscured." 
 
 Thus relinquishing his faculties by degrees 
 he became finally quite detached from the 
 community. Though slightly bowed, his 
 presence was still distinguished. As this 
 venerable man walked with measured step 
 along the street or passed by in his car, his 
 townsmen came to regard him very much as a 
 personage from abroad, an ambassador, as it 
 were, from an historic land, of which they had 
 dim knowledge, soon to depart for a country 
 unknown but not far distant. The announce- 
 ment of his departure came without surprise. 
 The contact between life and death had been 
 gentle. The physical infirmity which in 
 other days had held him back from the great 
 tasks his country would have put upon him, 
 held him no longer. His death occurred on the 
 
258 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 eighteenth day of September, 1914, twelve 
 days before his eighty-seventh birthday. As the 
 news spread abroad from farm to farm through 
 the countryside, and from county to county of 
 the Northern Tier, it awoke the memories of 
 other days. The great account of the life 
 that had lingered in the shadow so long was 
 retold at many a fireside — the story of the 
 boy orator of Ulysses, the student lecturer for 
 the library, his later scathing arraignment of 
 the liquor license, his denunciation of chattel 
 slavery, his leadership in the Free Soil move- 
 ment, his thrilling appeals to the people which 
 rallied the soldiers of Potter County for the 
 defense of the Union; the pride which the 
 people had in him as their representative, his 
 statesmanship in the House and in the Senate; 
 how his failing health had recalled him from 
 a distinguished career; and he had come 
 home, by his ability and genius to dispel the 
 darkness of the wilderness with the search- 
 light of the locomotive, and make his later 
 years an epitome of the industrial history and 
 material development of the county. Was 
 it any wonder that when, on the following 
 Monday, the funeral services were held, his 
 doorway should have been crowded within 
 
FOUR-SCORE AND SEVEN 259 
 
 and without, and that representative citizens 
 should have come from Williamsport, Buffalo, 
 Olean, Bradford, Wellsboro, Smethport, 
 Eldred, Austin, Emporium, as well as from 
 the smaller towns of the county to join in 
 tribute to his memory? The body, almost 
 matchless in its proportions, which through its 
 eighty-seven years had borne his undaunted 
 spirit in its high endeavor, found its last 
 resting place at the spot in the cemetery 
 which he had carefully indicated, almost 
 beside the glistening waters of the beloved 
 Allegheny whose banks he had in youth so 
 often trod. 
 
 County bar associations adopted memorials 
 and public journals extolled his services. 
 These are seemly, but passing tributes. If 
 in the years to come another generation shall 
 turn these pages and gather from their imper- 
 fect record some inspiration towards an 
 upright and effective life, a citizenship of a 
 high order, a superb patriotism, an undeviat- 
 ing devotion to human rights, a high concep- 
 tion and conscientious discharge of public duty, 
 then to the children of Arthur George Olmsted, 
 and his children's children, it will, as the 
 years go by, be the most gratifying memorial. 
 
260 ARTHUR GEORGE OLMSTED 
 
 It is, after all, as if he were in truth born 
 in old Essex, seeing the masts above the 
 Braintree docks, daring the sea for freedom 
 of the conscience, nurtured at Hartford in the 
 new school of liberty, the American university 
 of human rights; born again at Ridgefield, the 
 Connecticut Lexington, to stake his life against 
 the old world tyrant; reappearing at Ballston 
 in the uniform of the Revolution, and once 
 more, in the wilderness at Masonville, to 
 learn the added lessons of border life, finally 
 bringing to Ulysses the undiminished inheri- 
 tance of this rare lineage, here to respond again 
 to the call of human freedom, and to be highly 
 exemplified, not only in the story that has 
 been written, but in many unnoted deeds, and 
 to pass on into the lives and memories of the 
 generations to come. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Academy, Coudersport, its equipment and official list 60, 62 
 
 Addresses: Before the Baptist Conference 76 
 
 The Sons of Temperance 79 
 
 The County Bar Association 82 
 
 Allegheny Plateau, The Divide, or "Endless Mountains" 98 
 
 Allegheny Indian Reservation 47 
 
 Allegheny, State of, blocked by railroad extension 98 
 
 Allen, Gen. Ethan, participant with Connecticut Title Claim- 
 ants 46, 48 
 
 Allen, Harrison, Auditor General 164, 175 
 
 Allen Joseph C, a Potter delegate to National Free Soil Con- 
 vention 88 
 
 American Mediterranean, contemplated by Southern statesmen, 97 
 Armstrong, Charles H., corporator of Jersey Shore, Pine Creek 
 
 & Buffalo R. R. Co 216 
 
 Arnold, F. H., associate judge, business associate 151 
 
 Arnot, F. H., of Elmira, railroad corporator 219 
 
 Austin, Edwin O., lawyer, founder of Austin 69 
 
 Bar, admission to 69 
 
 Backus, Seth, of Smethport, business associate 151 
 
 Barse, C. V. B., of Olean, N. Y., corporator C. & P. A. R. R. Co., 219 
 Bartholomew, Benj ., non-resident member of Potter County Bar, 69 
 
 Battle of Ridgefield, in the American Revolution 34 
 
 Beath, Gen. Robert B., candidate for Secretary of Internal 
 
 Affairs 175, 206 
 
 Beebe, N. B., a Potter delegate to National Free Soil Convention, 88 
 
 Bennett, Jane (Robertson), wife (2d) of Daniel Olmsted 56 
 
 Benson, Isaac, lawyer, corporator, loyal to the Union ... 69, 106, 219 
 Benton, A. M., assemblyman, representing Clearfield, Jefferson 
 
 McKean and Elk 118, 141, 219 
 
 Bingham, William, U. S. Senator, land proprietor 47, 65 
 
 Bliss, Horace, non-resident member of Potter County Bar 69 
 
 Bowman, C. O., House colleague 116 
 
 Boyer, T. J., assemblyman representing Clearfield, Jefferson, 
 
 McKean and Elk 118 
 
 Boyhood days 69 
 
 Boundary between McKean and Warren 119 
 
 Bradford, William, Attorney General 47 
 
 Braintree, English port of embarkation, on the Blackwater 21 
 
 "Border Ruffians," their invasion of Kansas 96 
 
 Border raids during the Civil War 114, 115, 120 
 
 Brewster, Benj. H., Attorney General of United States 144, 183 
 
 (261) 
 
262 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Beaver, General James A., confirmed as Major-General .... 165 
 
 Brodhead and Sullivan, their expeditions against the Indians, 38 
 
 Brown, Rasselas, of Warren, distinguished lawyer 171 
 
 Brown, W. D., judge, legislator, representing Warren and 
 
 Venango 118, 124 
 
 Buckalew, Charles R., constitutional lawyer, U. S. Sen- 
 ator 144, 161, 173 
 
 Bucktail Rifle Regiment 102, 129 
 
 Butterworth, A. H., delegate from Potter to National Free Soil 
 
 Convention 88 
 
 Butterworth, W. C, editor and lawyer 69, 88 
 
 Candidature of Fremont for President 99 
 
 Cary, C. S., of Olean, N. Y., Solicitor-General, railroad corpo- 
 rator 219 
 
 Cases, important, tried during judicial presidency 222 
 
 Cartee (Cartier) settlement 44, 108 
 
 Catoonah, Indian Sachem, purchase of lands from him 31 
 
 Centennial Celebration, Senate Committee service 164 
 
 Chairmanship Republican State Convention _ 221, 251 
 
 Clark, Nelson, a vice-president, Free Soil Convention of Potter 
 
 County 88 
 
 Chase, D. C., a Potter delegate to National Free Soil Convention, 88 
 
 Clark, Junius, of Warren, a professional associate 171 
 
 Citizens' Trust Company, organization 241 
 
 Citizens' Water Company, organization 221 
 
 Civil War, its darkest days 119, 120 
 
 Connecticut Title Controversy 36, 46-48 
 
 Crest, The, fountain of far-flowing rivers 49 
 
 Chancellorsville, Battle of, description of 127 
 
 Colcord, M. J., editor, president Centennial Day 102, 242 
 
 Cole, L. B., non-resident member of Potter Bar 69 
 
 Committee assignments in House 115, 118 
 
 in Senate 145, 148, 164 
 
 Constitution of Pennsylvania, consequences of revision, 116, 117, 126 
 Constitution of United States, 15th Amendment in Pennsylvania 
 
 Senate 145 
 
 Constitutionality of Conscript Law denied by Supreme Court . . 122 
 
 Contemporaries in Congress and Cabinet 115 
 
 Cooper, J. A., principal Lewisville Academy 61 
 
 Correspondence with soldiers 128 
 
 with civilians 249 
 
 Cornplanter Indian grant 47 
 
 Cotter, Charles B., member of the Bar 69 
 
 Coudersport Fire Department 240 
 
 Coudersport fire of 1880 220 
 
 Coudersport Natural Gas Co., organization 221 
 
 Coudersport Milk Factory, organization 241 
 
 Coudersport & Port Allegany R. R. Co 219, 245 
 
 County Agricultural and Horticultural Society 110 
 
 Court-house built and rebuilt 65 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, his purpose to join the emigrants 19 
 
 Curtin, Andrew G., War Governor 94, 102, 114 
 
 Cushing, Lucas, pioneer and proprietor temperance hotel, 48, 55, 73 
 
INDEX 263 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Dent, H. H., land proprietor 66 
 
 District Attorney, first election 71 
 
 DuBois, William F., lawyer, married Nellie, only daughter of 
 
 Arthur G. Olmsted 109 
 
 DuBois, Arthur William, son of William F. and Nellie (Olmsted) 
 
 DuBois 109 
 
 Dwight, Walton, commanding 149th P. V 105, 128, 249 
 
 East and West Highway 48, 72 
 
 Election to the House, 111 ; re-election 118 
 
 Election to the Senate 140 
 
 Early, C. R., representative from Elk 115-118 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, her economic maxim 19 
 
 Fair Play Men, a source of population 244 
 
 Fizzell, Kathryn, married Robert Arch Olmsted 110 
 
 Freeman, S. D., of Smethport, Civil War Army Surgeon 102, 249 
 
 Free Soil Convention at Coudersport 88 
 
 Free School Law of Pennsylvania, in its inception 58, 235 
 
 Gamble, James, a non-resident member of Potter Bar 69 
 
 Geary, John W., Gen., Governor of Kansas and Pennsylvania, 
 
 162, 171, 179, 249 
 
 Glacial onset along the highlands of the Allegheny 61 
 
 Goodyear, Frank H. and C. W., lumber manufacturers 246 
 
 Gorton, Samuel, his new theology 26 
 
 Gould, Jay, historian of Delaware County, N. Y 39 
 
 Graham, James L., senatorial contemporary 146, 175 
 
 Graves, W. B., a Potter delegate to the National Free Soil Con- 
 vention 88 
 
 Greeley, Horace 69, 94, 178 
 
 Grow, Galusha A., father of Homestead Law 115, 126, 237 
 
 Grover, Martin, M. C, of Wilmot Proviso Committee, judge. . . 92 
 Guernsey, John W., of Wellsboro, House colleague 118 
 
 Hacket, F. B., of Emporium, who aided recruiting in 1861 102 
 
 Hamlin, Byron, lawyer and state senator 151 
 
 Hamlin, Hannibal, Vice-President and Senator United States . . 151 
 
 Hamlin, Henry, banker, associate judge 240, 254 
 
 Hamlin, Orlo J., legislator, member of Pennsylvania Constitu- 
 tional Convention 69, 71 
 
 Hampden, the great English Commoner 19, 27 
 
 Hartranft, General John F., Governor, confirmed Maj .-General, 
 
 144, 165, 174-178-79, 249 
 Heath, H. 8.," president Potter County Free Soil Convention, 
 
 79, 88, 109 
 HickB, Capt. Thomas, of New York Volunteers in the Revolution, 
 
 37-42 
 
 Hooker, Thomas, minister and Colonial leader 18, 21-24, 27, 75 
 
 House, Col. E. M. (see Jonathan, a Revolutionary soldier, and 
 
 Seclendia, ancestors of Ellen (Ross) wife of A. G. Olmsted), 108 
 
264 INDEX 
 
 Indian Wars; ending in treaty of peace 38 
 
 Issues, State and National, in 1874 184, 203 
 
 Ives, Timothy, academy director, state senator 62 
 
 Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo R. R. Co 99, 149, 216 
 
 Jinks, Nelson B., secretary Potter County Free Soil Convention, 88 
 Johnson, J. C, captain in Civil War, assemblyman from 
 
 Cameron 105, 112, 209, 249 
 
 Johnson, S. P., prominent lawyer and judge 69, 79 
 
 Jones, Arch F., a corporator of J. S., P. C. & Buffalo R. R. Co. 216 
 Jones, W. K., a corporator of J. S., P. C. & Buffalo R. R. Co.. . 216 
 
 Jones & Storrs, general merchandise, Coudersport 74 
 
 Judge, appointment and elections 171, 209 
 
 Kane, Thomas L., General, first president State Board of Public 
 
 Charities 102, 106, 148, 225, 249 
 
 Keating, John, land proprietor 60 
 
 Kelley, W. D., Protection Congressional leader 182, 206 
 
 Kelly, Martin, a Bucktail Arnold of Winkelried 103 
 
 King Phillip's War 29 
 
 Knox, F. W., lawyer and business associate, 45, 63, 70, 106, 151, 
 
 218, 220 
 Know Nothing Party 93, 94 
 
 Labor and capital, first arbitration commission reported .... 167, 169 
 
 Larrabee, Don Carlos, law partner 216 
 
 Lawyers, distinguished in attendance at Smethport 224, 227 
 
 of McKean Bar during judicial presidency 228 
 
 of Potter Bar during judicial presidency 228 
 
 Law of the lumber business 143 
 
 Lear, George, lawyer and Republican orator 172 
 
 Lewis, O. A., a Coudersport delegate to National Free Soil 
 
 Convention 88 
 
 Lewis, Seth, law student admitted to practice 141 
 
 Lewis, W. I., prominent lawyer and citizen 221 
 
 Lewis, Thomas, a Coudersport delegate to National Free Soil 
 
 Convention . 88 
 
 Library, Public 65 
 
 License petition revised 80 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor nomination in 1874 175 
 
 Lincoln, Wilmot, Sumner, Banks, Wilson, Clay and Giddings, 
 
 unsuccessful candidates for Vice-President in 1856 92 
 
 Log jam, description 101 
 
 Lowry, Morrow B., a senatorial contemporary 146, 161 
 
 Lyman, Burrel, a vice-president Coudersport Free Soil Con- 
 vention • 88 
 
 Mackey, Robert W., State Treasurer and political leader. . . . • . 144 
 
 Mann, A. B., secretary condensed milk factory 241 
 
 Mann, John S., lawyer, legislator, abolitionist 64, 69, 70, 81, 
 
 88, 106, 140, 145 
 
 Mann, Joseph, agent Oswayo Lumber Association 74 
 
 Mason ville, N. Y., description of the region 41 
 
INDEX 265 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mayo, E. R., of Smethport, lawyer, captain in Civil War 114 
 
 Maynard, L. F., lawyer, secretary of Coudersport Academy. . .62, 69 
 McClure, Alexander K., distinguished editor, assemblyman from 
 
 Perry 91, 124, 175, 206 
 
 McKean, Thomas, Governor, Chief Justice, President of Con- 
 gress 47 
 
 McDougall, William W., editor 73-74, 88 
 
 McNamara, T. B., a Coudersport delegate to National Free Soil 
 
 Convention 88 
 
 McPherson, Edward, Republican party leader 206 
 
 McKean and Elk Land and Improvement Co. vs. Wm Hacker 
 
 and Harry G. Clay 223 
 
 Melvin's Case 170 
 
 Memorial resolutions 212-14 
 
 Mercur, Ulysses, M. C, a Congressional leader, Chief Justice 
 
 of Pennsylvania 173, 206 
 
 Morrison, Thomas A., Superior Court judge, reminiscences 225 
 
 Murray, Thomas H., of Clearfield, an appreciation 250 
 
 Natural resources, development legislation 125, 165-66 
 
 Nature's highways, navigable by law 142 
 
 New county project defeated 167 
 
 Nichols, R. L., corporator of Citizens' Water Company 220 
 
 Nilea, John E., non-resident member of Potter Bar 69 
 
 Northern Tier, nursery of important governmental policies. . .235-38 
 Norwalk, Conn., its settlement, 28; destruction 35 
 
 Ole Bull, his settlement in Potter 72 
 
 Olmsted (1) Richard, earliest known anoestor, born in England 
 
 about 1430 20 
 
 (2) James, a descendant of Richard, born about 1524, 20 
 
 (3) James, Jr., of Great Leighs, Essex, born about 1550, 20 
 
 (4) James, son of James, Jr., emigrated to America. . . 21 
 
 (5) Richard, born in 1611 (son of Richard), nephew of 
 
 James, arrived with his uncle at twenty-one 
 years of age, founded Norwalk, legislator, 
 sergeant 22, 28 
 
 (6) John, lieutenant and selectman at Hartford, son of 
 
 Richard 30 
 
 (7) Richard, captain (son of John), who, with his 
 
 brother Daniel, purchased lands from 
 Catoonah, and founded Ridgefield 31 
 
 (8) Daniel (son of Richard), Revolutionary soldier, 
 
 pioneer on the headwaters of the Delaware, 
 
 32, 34-40 
 
 (9) Seneca (son of Daniel), settler at Masonville, N. Y., 
 
 migrating with hia brother and family to 
 
 Pennsylvania 43, 44, 54 
 
 Gardner Hicks, son of Seneca 43, 64, 56 
 
 (10) Daniel (son of Seneca), removed to Pennsylvania 
 
 frontier at Ulysses, Potter County. . .45, 46, 65-57 
 
 Henry Jason (eldest son of Daniel) 55, 64, 66 
 
 Marlin E., M. C, son of Henry Jason. . . . 104, 215, 242 
 
266 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (11) Arthur George Olmsted, subject of this biography, 
 
 second son of Daniel, events in his life, 65, 58, 59, 
 
 76, 79, 82, 88, 89, 94, 116, 118, 105, 124, 127, 
 
 139-40, 175, 184, 251 
 
 Sarah Elizabeth, his sister 65 
 
 Daniel Edward, his brother 65 
 
 Seneca Lewis, his brother 55 
 
 Herbert Cushing, his brother 65 
 
 (12) Nellie, only daughter of Arthur George Olmsted, 
 
 married William F. DuBois 109 
 
 DuBois, Arthur William, son of William F. and 
 
 Nellie (Olmsted) DuBois 110 
 
 (13) Robert Arch Olmsted, only son of Arthur George 
 
 Olmsted, married Kathryn Fizzell 109, 255 
 
 Arthur George, Warren William, Margaret Ellen 
 McLeod, children of Robert Arch and Kathryn 
 
 (Fizzell) Olmsted 110 
 
 Orator for the Union 95, 102, 105 
 
 Oswayo Lumber Association 74 
 
 Parsons, A. V., Deputy Attorney General 69 
 
 Payne, Hiram, editor and lawyer 69 
 
 Paul- Revere ride of Daniel Olmsted 34 
 
 Paxson, Edward M., Chief Justice of Pennsylvania 175, 206 
 
 Pennsylvania Legislature concedes slavery as a constitutional 
 
 right 146 
 
 Pennsylvania Reserve Corps 120 
 
 Pennsylvania statesmen of 1868 144 
 
 Peace faction in the North 122 
 
 Pension Law of 1865 127 
 
 People's Journal, herald of liberty to the pioneers 74 
 
 Period of retirement 248-54 
 
 Peck, J. Newton, lawyer, vice-president condensed milk factory, 
 
 228-241 
 
 Pequod War 23 
 
 Persecution of Puritans 17 
 
 Pioneers of the Upper Delaware 39-40 
 
 Pickering, Timothy, exponent of free school system, cabinet 
 
 officer and senator 235-36, 247 
 
 Philadelphia Republican mass meeting in 1874 181-82 
 
 Political upheaval of 1873-4 178-79 
 
 Pollock, James, Governor 93-97 
 
 Population, sources of 244 
 
 Portage township, detached to Cameron 110 
 
 Potter County Centennial 241 
 
 Potter County Prohibition Law 82 
 
 Potter County Volunteers in Civil War 104 
 
 Potter County, its natural characteristics 49 
 
 Prehistoric drainage of Western Pennsylvania 61 
 
 Quakers, exiled, took part in the Hartford settlement 26 
 
 Quay, Matthew S., representative from Washington and Beaver, 
 
 United States Senator 124, 144 
 
INDEX 267 
 
 Reminiscences and appreciation 209-14, 225, 229, 250 
 
 Republic, foundation of, at Hartford 24 
 
 Republican party prestige overwhelmed in 1874 by "Hard 
 Times," Enforcement Acts, Local Option, "Third Term," 
 
 "Whiskey Ring" and Belknap impeachment 178 
 
 Republican party turning point in Pennsylvania 206 
 
 Republican party defeat of 1874 discussed 204-206 
 
 Rockefeller, John D., Jr., his creed 79 
 
 Rogers, Lucius, of Smethport, Senate clerk 148, 249 
 
 Root, F. H., of Buffalo, railroad corporator 219 
 
 Ross, Sobieski, M. C, business associate 108, 151 
 
 Ross, Ellen, daughter of David Ross, wife of Arthur G. Olmsted, 108 
 Ross, David, a Revolutionary soldier at fifteen, father of Ellen 
 
 (Ross) Olmsted 108 
 
 Ross, John L., president J. S., P. C. & Buffalo R. R. Co 216 
 
 Rutan, James L., Republican leader and State Senator 164, 249 
 
 Scott, Thomas A., Assistant Secretary of War 249 
 
 Scofield, Glenni W., M. G, a Congressional leader in the Civil 
 
 War 206, 237 
 
 Scofield, Lucy Ann, wife of Daniel Olmsted, daughter of Lewis 
 
 Scofield 45 
 
 Seward's bloodless national triumph 97 
 
 Blade, S. A., a Coudersport delegate to the National Free Soil 
 
 Convention 88 
 
 Slavery, abolition of 74, 86, 88, 95, 146 
 
 Soldiers' monument at Coudersport, subscribers 215-16 
 
 Spafford, L. D., president Coudersport Academy 62 
 
 Special legislation, era of 117 
 
 Special session of General Assembly in 1864 117 
 
 Smith, A. W., principal of Coudersport Academy 61 
 
 Speeches: In the Senate on railroad bill 152, 161 
 
 At Philadelphia in campaign of 1874 184, 203 
 
 Stage route, Bellefonte to Smethport 72 
 
 Stebbins, Pierre, Jr., director in J. S., P. C. & Buffalo R. R., 215, 216 
 Stevens, Joseph W., a Coudersport delegate to the National 
 
 Free Soil Convention 88 
 
 Stevens, Thaddeus, "American Commoner" 58, 115, 126, 206 
 
 Stinson, Charles H., of Norristown, Speaker of Senate, 144, 171, 249 
 
 Stone, Samuel, teacher and religious leader 18, 21, 22, 23, 75 
 
 Stone, Charles W., M. C, Congressional leader in "Free Silver" 
 
 and Spanish War eras 167, 238 
 
 Stone, General Roy, commanding "Bucktail" Brigade 129 
 
 Strang, Butler B., Speaker of the House afterwards Senator, 
 
 151, 161, 249 
 Susquehanna Company, townships of, 1796 47 
 
 Temperance cause in its early organization 69, 79 
 
 Thirteenth U. S. Constitutional Amendment 124 
 
 Thompson, M. S., treasurer condensed milk factory 241, 256 
 
 Tubbs, Charles, historical address cited 44 
 
 Turnpike, Jersey Shore to Olean 71 
 
268 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ulysses Township, its soil and character 60 
 
 Veto of J. S., P. C. & Buffalo R. R. bill 162 
 
 Wallace, William A., distinguished U. S. Senator, Democratic 
 
 leader . 144, 146, 161, 164 
 
 Warner, Oliver C, a Coudersport delegate to National Free Soil 
 
 Convention 88 
 
 War scandals in Pennsylvania during Civil War 120 
 
 Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers 38 
 
 Wellsville Plank Road Company 75 
 
 White, Gen. Harry, M. C, State and Congressional leader, 
 
 144, 161, 164, 168 
 
 White, Robert G., of Wellsboro, judge 141, 209 
 
 Williams, H. W., Supreme Court Justice 141, 209, 215, 233 
 
 Williams, Roger, founder in New England of Baptist faith, 21, 26, 75 
 Williams, Thomas C, a Congressional leader in Civil War. .115, 206 
 
 Williston, Horace, of Wellsboro, judge 69 
 
 Wilson, Joseph, non-resident member of Potter Bar 69 
 
 Wilson, Stephen F., M. C, of Wellsboro, judge. . . .209, 212, 215, 222 
 Wilmot, David, M. C., of Towanda, a noted Congressional 
 
 leader 91, 93, 237-38 
 
 Wilmot Proviso 91 
 
 Winthrop, John C, Colonial Governor. . 21, 23, 26 
 

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