Otf TW - ii f K. ii V. & R If. HE AUTOBIOGRAPHY o A PENNSYlM K Samuel W. Pennypackcr Pennsylvania 'Most Zealous and Bne rge tic Governor iri INTRODUCTION ' THE autobiography of Governor Pennypackcr was written in tho last years of his Ufa, during what that incessant worker called his summer vacations. In 1912 he became a member of tho Penn sylvania Railroad Commission by appointment of Governor Tener gad in 1915 chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Scrvico Commission. He requested Governor Brumbaugh in 1915 not to reappoint him to the chairmanship of that body, but remained a member of it until his death on September 2, 191G. Public duties nnd other activities nnd responsibilities necessarily confined the writing of the autobiography to brief periods in tho summers of some four or five years. Later in tho summer of 1915 his right nrm was broken, nnd, while still carried in a sling, wa3 again injured in a railroad train. He was never able to uso tho arm during the year of life that remained, but immediately after the injury, at the age of seventy-two years, with tho courage and resolution which always characterized him, he set out to write with his left hand. Tho concluding sentence of his account in Chapter 13 of .his visit to the battlefields of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsvillo was the last portion of the nutobiography written with tho right hand. The remainder of Chapter 13, tho page3 of comment nnd review in Chapter 14, tho sketches of Wn.lt Whitman and Elihu Root in Chapter 15 and tho introductory paragraph of Chnptcr 16 were written with tho left hand. Governor Pennypacker never had opportunity to reviso the manuscript. He had intended to add two chapters of a philosophical nature giving the outcome of his study, experience and reflection, one chapter about the law, tho other on statecraft. His reading, as shown by the series of notebooks which he kept from 1863 to 1916, wide in variety and scope, embracing science, theology, poetry nnd American and European history, in sources often not accessible to historians, in tho French, German, Dutch, Latin, Spanish, English and other languages; his familiarity with the origin and develop ment, laws nnd customs of many peoples, combined with a raro power of analysis, mental integrity nnd directness of method, no doubt would have made tho chapters contemplated rich in funda mental criticism and constructive suggestion. Bishop Darlington has portrayed him as an idealist and a radical. If in part and at times he was both, as the following pages show, ho had also a firm faith in the wisdom of holding fast to that which is good. Increas ing physical weakness and suffering prevented the writing of the two additional chapters which he had in contemplation. When it became known to the public that Governor Pennypacker had left an autobiography a number of officials and prominent citizens of Pennsylvania, moved no doubt by their knowledge of tho untoward fate that has overtaken so many similar life records in the hands of unhappy editors, united in signing the following letter: To the family of the lion. Samuel IV. Vcnnvpackcr : It Is now a matter of public knowledge that tho lato Governor Pennypacker wrote, for publication, an Autobiog raphy. Of tho cxistenco of this worlc ho had often spoken to his friends. A fear exists, on the part of the latter, that a desire to avoid controversy, or tho possible injury to eomo one's feelings may tempt his family to consider having tho manuscript edited. Ills friends and associates whoso signatures are appended feel that they owe It to Is family, to the .Institutions with which he was connected and to his memory to urge that this be not done. Unaltered, unexpurgated and unedited. Governor Penny packer's Autoblograph constitutes an invaluable historical doc ument, of Increasing public Interest, perhaps his greatest con tribution to .tho history of the State. And It Is in tho name of tho citizens of Pennsylvania, living and to. come,. that wo'urgo his family to rrlnt his Autobiography exactly as it was written. JIAKTIN G. BRUMBAUGH, Governor. THOMAS I MONTGOMERY, State Librarian. ..AMUEL, G. DIXON, Commissioner of Health. HAMPTON L,. CARSON, Formerly Attorney Ocneral of Pennsylvania. s JOHN W. JORDAN, Librarian Historical Society of Penn sylvania. GREGORY B. KEEN, Curator Hlsto.lcal Society of Penn sylvania. HENRY R. EDMUNDS, President of Board of Education. 8IMON GRATZ, Vice President Board of Education. JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS, President Pennsylvania Academy of the Flno Arts. GEORGE WHARTON PI PPER, Former Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania: Lyman Beecher Lecturor, Yalo Unlverhlty: Trustee, Univernlty of Pennsylvania. HENRY SIUPPEN HUIDEKOPER, Lieutenant Colonel United States Volunteers, Major General National Guard of Pennsylvania, Former Overseer of Harvard Uni versity. C. STUART PATTERSON, President Western Savings Fund Society, Director Pennsylvania Railroad Company. CHA8. C. HARRISON, Former Provost of University of Pennsylvania. FRANK P. PRICHARD, Chancellor of the Law Association. EDGAR F. SMITH, Provost of University of Pennsylvania. MORRIS JASTROW, JR., Llbrarin of tho University of Pennsylvania. . EDV'ARD J. NOLAN, Recording Secretary and Librarian of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. MAYER SULZBERGER, Formerly a Justuo of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2 during the presidency of Gov error Pennypacker ii that tribunal and later President Judge of said Court. J. G. ROSENGARTEN, Vice President Phlloblblon Club. JOHN"ASHURST, Secretary the Phlloblblon Club. December 4, 1916. Beyond the verification of certain dates, titles, names and occa lionally a minor incident and the elimination of a few repetitions caused by the long interruptions to the writing, all of which would have been done by the author him self had not Illness and death pre vented, there has been no such edit ing of the autobiography as the signers of the letter perhaps feared might occur. No such editing was ever contemplated. Whatever or whoever nyy be maimed,, the book goes forth "scot free." It will be seen that the criticism is essentially of policies and of principles and of conduct growing out of erroneous conceptions, that where it seems to be most personal the criticism is based upon something'broader than personality and that the abundant praise has also an underlying foundation. At the close of his gubernatorial term, and not before, as an expression of his personal good will, Governor Pennypacker gave a dinner at the executive mansion to the newspaper correspondents at Harrisburg. The timing of - tho courtesy was a characteristic ex pression of his sense of propriety and of the absence of personal feel ing in his previous conspicuous effort to bring the publication of news Papers into line under the law with H other commercial activities. In his notable biography of Gov ernor Pennypacker, printed In 1917, Hampton L. Carson, Esq., the his torian of the United States Supreme ourt, says of him that he was "a fi j ,W lit - !$' VM vsy7 . sK j1 jj!2?sJbBEKp Jsi vbbLbbLKP v& y sw W RL 1!iliP m - "t aSMMBa&vWBK&aV M aalaaaHaaaaaaaaaaMaflaaBliaaBBBBSav' llV lS8am: " IjfeilJtLMaEymL HflHH lalaaaalaHaa9a2HaHalaaa3KitokIa& " " fi WP 'IA ? "afc XBKlaBS BOI LBBBaBBHaBBaVlBHKPaVlBBBBBBBBBLB IHPHlV'''lHsli!al'Mf ML WtP lBB KkK JLbH ttib. A WLVPr BBaBBaBBBBBBHaHBBiBfi9BlBBBBiaBBflilBBHBB9 ''k V is BlBHd nPBHKVV SAMUEL WHITAKBR PENNYPACKER, GOVERNOR, JUDGE, CITIZEN ereat and a good man." Mr. Carson's high standing at the bar and as a "citizen, his lofty conception of public duty, his long acquaintance with the subject of his memoir, his intimate knowli edge, acquired as Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1907. of Governor Pennvnacker's motives, nlans and acts give to jM words quoted a weight which they could derive fromi no, other ''KvtotTWurot, isAAO R. PENNYPACKER. Iv Tho Evening Ledger is indebted to the family of Governor I'ennypiiokci1 tor ai' n Uie col i.n i-f phut graphs and oilier illustrations. The Evening Ledger nlbo acknowledges courtesies in this connection extended by Newman V. JIcGirr, of the State House Book Shop, the North American, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Free Library of Philadelphia. CHAPTER I Ancestry rpiIE life of every man has a value as well as an interest for his fellows. No matter how humble may have been the career, if tho events are truly told they are a source of helpfulness to the race. The book of the old gossip, Pepys, has outlasted and been oftener reprinted than many another of more apparent importance. Scientists search with the utmost care for the chips of stone which men long forgotten threw away as refuse, in ordor that their lost lives may be jeconstructed. My own life has been somewhat eventful, and, in a certain senso, representative. It presents many antitheses. It covers the period of tho War of the Rebellion (I decline to use the euphuism of the Civil War, no such thing having been ever), the destruction of slavery, the centennial anniversaries, the publication of the Origin of Species, the introduction of electricity into tho industries and the discovery of the North Pole., I have been brought into relations with tho Presidents, from Lincoln to Roosevelt; with the Generals Grant, Sherman, Hancock, Sickles, Howard and Sheridan, and have corresponded with Darwin, I.e Compte de Paris, Delloop ScheiTer, Bayard Taylor and Lloyd Mifflin. I have made addresses at Stony Point and at Gettysburg. I have presided over the Law Academy, the His torical Society of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, a court, and the Commonwealth. I have walked one hundred and seventy-five miles on a stretch and have ridden down Pennsylvania avenue from the Capitol to tho White House at the head of ten thousand men. I have carried on my back at one time twenty pounds of putty and at an other a musket. I have made pills in Kensington, thrown a load of wood into a Chestnut street cellar, kept the books of an oil company, mowed weeds in a meadow, gathered a great library, written eighty books and pamphlets, tried men for murder and sent sixty-six criminals to be hanged. Therefore is this story begun. THE PENNVHACKEH COAT OF ARMS It piease3 the vnnIty of men who have won some of the success of life to believe that they have been the architects of their own fortunes and that tho results are due to their individualities. The thought is pure error. Countless ages and almost Infinite effort of unrecognized forces are required to make a man. His character and his physique he inherits; what he accomplishes depends upon the conditions that surround him more ,thB upon the weight of his hand or the logic of his brain. I aLvBBBBBBLV sVaV-24BBBKt.'SiH&K!BBBn rkip ml '"! became Governor of Pennsylvania because one grnndfathct earned nrd gave to mo the money with which to read law, and the other grandfather, in obedience to family traditions, took into his home and provided for a helpless child. The deeds of virtue, as well as tho sins of tho fathers, are visited upon the children even unto tho third and fourth generations. Consequently, if we wish to under stand a man and his work, it is necessary to know how he came about and what there is back of him. The people of Pennsylvania are more blended in race than thoso of any of tho other American colonies. Biologists nnd breeders alike have learned the law of nature that the crossing of allied stocks leads to tho increase of vital activities. To interbreed, or, as it is called, to keep a strain pure, is to prevent further development. Substantially all of my American ancestors were residents of Penn sylvania, save a few from New Jersey, and in almost all of my lines they came to the country among the earliest settlers. But among them were Dutch, English, Germnns, Welsh, Swedes, Scotch Irish and French Huguenot!', though in the main my blood is English. The pateinal line is Dutch, and the name, which orig inated somewheie in the ncighboihood of Gorcum, in Holland, is Pannebakkcr. It means a maker of tiles. The earliest trace of tho family that I, have found tells the talc of a man who was burned to death and a wife who was drowned for heresy at Utrecht in 1GG8. In those days they were more gentle with the women. The founder of the family in Pennsylvania, Hendrick Panncbcckcr, was born March 21, 107-1. He was in Germantown in 1G9!, and from thcie moved out to Skippack in 1J02, as the attorney for Matthias Van Bobber for the sale of the lan'ls of tho latter in Bobber's town ship. He later bought the township and became, as well as Van Bebber and Lodowick Christian Sprogell, one of the three Dutch I'atroons of Pennsylvania. Ho was a surveyor and laid out most of the early roads in upper Philadelphia, now Montgomery County. I have his bill to the Penns for surveying a number of their manors in 1733, with the order of Thomas Penn for its payment. Ho under stood three languages Dutch, German and English. He Jiad a library of books. He owned seven thousand acres of land. He wrote a very pretty script, drew deeds nnd devised n seal much liko that of Van Rensselaer in New York. There is a biography of him in prif;, and when it turns up at a book sale it brings $25. His wife, Eva Umstat, came from the lower Rhine, and neither the murringe of his son, Jacob, who was a miller on the Skippack, nor that of his grandson, Matthias, who moved to the Pickering Creek, in Chester County, effected any race modifications. This Matthias, Ijorn in 1742, had rather a broad country life. He owned a mill, still standing, and four Or five farms. He was n commissioner appointed by Act of Assembly to provide for the navigation of the River Schuylkill. He was a Bishop of the Mennonites, using the three languages of his grandfather and preaching with eloquence nnd strength. He sent several contrbutions of flour and money to the Philadelphia people when the yellow fever devastated the city in 1703, as will be seen in the report of the committee. It is told 'of him that people came to his funeral from five counties and that ho had the largest funeral and tho longest will up to that time known in the county. No better evidence could have been given cf his, consequence. His son, Matthias, my grandfather, born in 1787, spent his days on tho Pickering, owning tho same mill. He was portly, and, it may be, a little pompous, but he had some reason for demanding in manner that thoso around him show respect. "Rich, respectablo and numerous" was written of the family in his time. In 1826 and 1827 he was a member of Assembly. The organization which was effected to bring about the incorporation of the Phila delphia and Reading Railroad Company made him its president, A and he was one of the incorporators of that road. He reprei Chester County in the Constitutional Convention of 1837, prepared a Constitution for the State. When the Whig party its county meetings at West Chester he presided. In his day 1 traces of the old Dutch life almost entirclv disanncared. EnrlUBV.7 alone was spoken in tho household and his children knew no otJiiKj' tongue. The German books, which had lost their utility, were givsairt to a servant. The old German family Bible was banished to A&mM spring'house, and thcrp one of his boys cut from it all Its picture. j l remember once in my childhood spending a' Christmas at ttt'i; house. Memories of the Peltz Nicol still lingered and I hung irt'. stocking beside the stone fireplace, at tho end of which stood fin long wood box, but what was put into it were ginger cakes and storavTa: candy. There was a large kitchen garden, in which were growiSi currants, gooseberries, black currants'nsparagus, beets, corn, tfnionsiVff:! lettuce nnd even strawberries in beds interspersed with bright- ?i ..1 I n ff I 1 t 1 ! .L r i. J T.?'''!' iuiuiuu uuurs. iwo iur(;u uux uu.Mit's grew in uie J run I. yuru. xn vj ine uncK yam was a uurning-ousn nnu a iringe tree, mere was '!;f, l . i. ... i a ti ttnl ma &4 ouiiook was to ine vnrjy mus. inerc was a panor, a spare roomsf ? with high-post bedstead, stately and chill. Water was brought in 'VT pipes to the house from a distant spring nnd ran'out of the nozzle $-' of a pump into a trough continuously, which was a great wonder -V to rae, who naci seen notning iiku it anywnere eise; uut tne water had to be carried up a long (light of stone steps into the kitchen. The only indication of nrt in Uie house were profiles cut at Peale's ,, , . . . ... .,.... . , a. ... , m. . - ,'3 museum, nnu, nr ihci, ine desire 10 nave tne ieaiures oi ine iac it. preserved was regarded as a vanity to be condemned. There was t$jf - ..:. ...!,. .... :-:..:.. i .1 . a 1 i' . 1,1 iiu muaii, itiiua ttta; an itiauii.y, uiiu muru wuru no uuvices lor v,w otner cames. ine mental attitude was stitt and cheerless, but .,5. rugged nnd sincere. To be honest and to tell the truth were the i"; .... i. 1 m, ... ... ... ...... J-.it virtues incuicaiea. ine loiters written were in tne main didactic aim itHKiuua, uiiu nicy lull Mua.il uuuub K"l"l IU HlUUling Bnu -, J, ja hearing sermons. The welfare of the soul was a 'continual subject' ll of contemplation. There was no liquor of any kind used during the y'l the housewife would have a cut-glass bottle filled with lavender brandy put away on the upper shelf of the closet in the spare room, ( to be leady in cases of emergency. The Pennypacker Fighting Stock My grandfather, liko his father, was a member of the Mennonita Meeting at Phoenixville, and he paid the expense of having th Dordrecht Confession of Faith of 1C32, reprinted at West Chester. My grandmother was fond of reading Pollock's Course of Time. My grandfather in his marriage, doubtless without intending any such result, brought about a great change in the race. He courted Sarah Andejson, born February 10, 1784, whoso parents lived upon'tha opposite side of the Pickering Creek. He gave to her as "a token of my esteem" a little porcelain box with a mirror on the under aid of the lid, which box I still preserve. Her father, Isaac Anderson,., hunted with the Indians, was a justice of the peace, a member of Assembly, a Presidential Elector and a member of Congress from 1803 to 1807. His name heads the list of those in Congress wha voted for the Louisiana Purchase, He served three terms in tha . Revolutionary Army before he was eighteen ye'ars of , age, and , became an ensign and lieutenant of .militia, taking part in the fight at the Warren Tavern. His portrait is extant; I have it; and ha wrote a local history. He was six feet four inches in height, and his firmness of will was such as to give him the reputation of being arbitrary. .TI .-i '! I i $ I" ' ' , , . ii i , mji i h-3 jIBbW ?:-1 HiiMJal "V -I BIbbHbIbBSbI. - . ''V-T i SBBBBBBHBVBBk. y i-.Cl ijrk A .CjbHbbbbbbHbbHb. v I .bbWbby bbbbbBbW V M'fi, SlBBBBBBT aBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBhf --. KH sHIbHbbbH- RHDHf JMbbb9S9bbbbH' ft 1 But&KKSnKfKU iHBIlEUlH8iBBrBBBBBBBBBBBBBl W-l X hisIbh, '& anmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiH ' iH B 1B1b11111111111111H ISAAC ANDhKSON PENNYl'ACKhK Father of Goternor Pennypackcr. Her grandfather. Patrick Anderson, commanded a company M&P- the French nnd Indian War and for a time the Pennsylvania M5vi4v" ketry Battalion in the War of the Revolution, participating in th$"i battles of Long Island, Brandywme anil dermantown. He .wavsx major of Anthony Wayne's Regiment of Chester County MinuttVJ Men in 1775. He was also for four years a member of the Assemblj He has an importance in Masonic history, having been master1! Lodge No. 8 ni early as 1760, and is claimed by Mr. Sachwij have organized the first lodgs in the Continental Army, it is a that his teeth were double all around, something often said of,l aged, but rejected by dentists. Ho married three times, and, an Enisconallan. once in Christ Church in Philadelphia. His Grandfather, James Anderson, came from the Isle'of Skye, fn 1 1 T 1 .. . ... I.J!A..H tin M..l.) MM.- ..:. n 1. i rm .HnM.'.'fl lunu. x imvu rcusun iu uciivvu no iuuiu jiui. vviivv iiia-iiAinv. rerviccs were sold for a fixed term from the ship to, Thomas Jer . a noted Quaker preacher, in tho Chester Valley, to pay for his sage, nnd he showed a certain canniness by running away with marrying one of Jerman's daughters. Ho was the first settler, a the Pickerimr. where he built a log hut beside a spring. Whin Pafc was born, and the mother occasionally trudged across the.Val Hill, five miles; to visit her iclatives, an Indian (iquaw suckled took care of the baby. In this instance, as h' 'many' othirv r. ... tir- l I.. . a.. x. . ltl.. -j .ii''. l Itcvoiuiionary ivur uiajukiu iu iiio auia a iinujf-.ui iwuri ... . .1 . i rm.. liAj .i-t-l-.V J wmen naa oeeu ineretoxore uuscuru. , in uiuou ,wimh vmm the alliances of the Andersons was that of tfcc'amihW'af , (Welsh), Morris (Welsh) and Rartholeaaew' (BaftholtaU, Huguenot). . . . v.AJJPW ' !t& .(CONTINUES .Ur.MBMBATt I K J'-.l-tV", .v mt fd'. " .i'jjV-." . f.V'Miil t - t . 1 - r i T. -- ,.. fi T,KFfit.9 . l l'f v i . r t. hmm ijw. ' .. ,W! X-hW'fi Kl . i -.iXtft sftVS tmjL 'J . e tv.. T if r.i ?:&?.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers