Cambria County Pioneers, 1910, by James L. Swank, Cambria County, PA - Edwin Augustus Vickroy Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ ________________________________________________ CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS HON. CYRUS L. PERSHING A Collection of Brief Biographical and other Sketches Relating to the Early History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania. by JAMES M. SWANK PHILADELPHIA: No. 261 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 1910. 46 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. PIONEER FARMER, SURVEYOR, AND OLD-TIME MERCHANT OF JOHNSTOWN. WRITTEN IN 1896. REVISED IN 1910. EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY, son of Thomas Vickroy, was born at Alum Bank, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on March 8, 1801, and died at his home at Ferndale, a suburb of Johnstown, on May 1, 1885, aged over 84 years. Thomas Vickroy was born in Cecil county, Maryland, on October 18, 1756. His father was Hugh Vickroy, a native of England, who commanded a vessel plying between Baltimore and Glasgow. His mother was Margaret Phillips, a native of this country. Thomas was the oldest of eight children. When he was about 15 years old his father was lost at sea and very soon afterwards his mother died. In 1772 Thomas moved to Bedford county and soon settled at Alum Bank. He had learned surveying in Maryland, and in Bedford county, which then embraced a large part of Western Pennsylvania, he found abundant opportunities to practice his profession. He was a noted surveyor in the last decades of the eighteenth century and the first part of the nineteenth century. He was so prominent in his profession that he was selected, in conjunction with George Wood, deputy surveyor of Bedford county, to survey the town of Pittsburgh into streets, alleys, and lots in 1784. Vickroy street and Wood street were named in their honor. Thomas Vickroy was twice married. His first wife was Elizabeth Francis, who was a half sister of the "sainted and lovely" Mrs. Emily Ogle, of Somerset, and also a sister of Mrs. Nancy Williams, of Schellsburg. At her death she left five children. Mr. Vickroy's second wife was Sarah Ann Atlee, a daughter of Judge William Augustus Atlee, of Lancaster, who was a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1799 and was the founder of a distinguished family. Several of his descendants have been EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 47 prominent in the legal and medical professions. The second wife of Thomas Vickroy was a woman of great beauty, who frequently graced the society of Bedford Springs in the old times. Her granddaughter, Mrs. Boyd, of Dublin, Indiana, tells us that she had heard her grandmother say that she had danced in the same set with Theodosia Burr, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Aaron Burr, on the occasion of Theodosia's last visit to Bedford Springs. She was lost at sea in the winter of 1812-13. After coming to Pennsylvania Thomas Vickroy always lived at Alum Bank. At the time of his marriage to Miss Atlee he had already accumulated considerable wealth. He died on June 9, 1845, in his 89th year, and was buried in the cemetery attached to Dunning's Creek meeting house of the Friends, or Quakers, near Alum Bank. A few years ago a monument was erected over his grave, bearing a suitable inscription commemorating his services as a Revolutionary soldier. Thomas Vickroy's name is prominently associated with the military movements of George Rogers Clark against the Indians and British in the West during the Revolutionary war. In Albach's Annals of the West Thomas Vickroy has left an account of his connection with one of General Clark's expeditions. He says: "In April, 1780, I went to Kentucky, in company with eleven flatboats with movers. We landed on the 4th of May, at the mouth of Beargrass creek, above the Falls of the Ohio. I took my compass and chain along, to make a fortune by surveying, but when we got there the Indians would not let us survey." Mr. Vickroy then gives some details of General Clark's movements against the enemy and adds: "On the 1st day of August, 1780, we crossed the Ohio river and built the two block houses where Cincinnati now stands. I was at the building of the block houses. Then, as General Clark had appointed me commissary of the campaign, he gave the military stores into my hands and gave me orders to maintain that post for fourteen days. He left with me Captain Johnston and about twenty or thirty men who were sick and lame. On the fourteenth day the army returned with 16 scalps, having lost 15 men killed." Joseph, a brother of Thomas Vickroy, was killed in the battle of Germantown. 48 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. In 1896 Mrs. Boyd, who was one of the daughters of Edwin A. Vickroy, wrote us as follows: "When I was a little girl one of my aunts gave me a strand of beautiful dark brown hair out of the queue my grandfather sported in this expedition. Along with the hair of my other grandparents I have worn it as a breastpin for 40 years. It was my first breastpin. I write with it on." As already stated, Edwin A. Vickroy, in whose memory this sketch is written, was born at Alum Bank in 1801. He was the third child of Thomas Vickroy by his second marriage. Edwin was reared to manhood at Alum Bank. Here he went to subscription schools, one of which was taught by Robert Way. Under his father's instructions he became a skillful surveyor. When about 19 years old he went to Ohio with Robert Way, the latter remaining there. Ohio was then "the West," and like "the West" of later years it presented attractions to young men which were hard to resist. Edwin clerked in a store in Cincinnati for two years. While on a visit to Warren county, adjoining Hamilton county, in which latter county Cincinnati is located, he was fortunate in making the acquaintance of Judge George Harlan and his family, including his daughter Cornelia, whom he subsequently married. She was born at the Harlan homestead, near Ridgeville, Warren county, on August 13, 1806. Her mother's maiden name was Esther Eulas. The Harlan family has been distinguished in the history of our country for many generations, contributing many prominent men to the bench and bar and to the political arena. Judge Harlan came from North Carolina. He married Miss Eulas while living in Kentucky. Edwin A. Vickroy and Cornelia Harlan were married at the Harlan homestead on May 15, 1823, and immediately afterwards went to Schellsburg, Bedford county, not far from. Alum Bank, where Mr. Vickroy became a country storekeeper and also postmaster. Schellsburg was then a place of some importance, as it was located on the leading turnpike which connected the eastern and western parts of Pennsylvania. But in a short time Mr. Vickroy and his wife returned to Ohio, near Mrs. Vickroy's old home, where he again engaged in merchandising, for which occupation EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 49 he seems to have always had a strong liking. In this business Mr. Vickroy continued for several years, but, owing to a great fall in the price of pork, in which product he dealt as a merchant, he concluded to return again to Pennsylvania. Those were the days when Ohio had few manufactures to create a home market for farm products. Mr. Vickroy's father transferred to him a beautifully located tract of land on the left bank of Stony creek, near Johnstown, as a home, on which he soon built a two-story log house, weather- boarded, to which he subsequently added a substantial frame addition, with wide porches. This tract had not been improved as a farm. It embraced 160 acres of rich and level meadow and hilly woodland. It was then known as Horseshoe Valley, but Mr. Vickroy soon changed the name to Ferndale. A more charming rural home could not then have been found anywhere. On one side Horseshoe Valley was hedged in by the everlasting hills and on the other side it was bounded by the beautiful Stony creek. The primeval forest which formed a part of the 160 acres was alive with song birds and other birds. Pheasants and partridges, squirrels and rabbits, wild fowl on the bosom of the Stony creek, and an abundance of fish in its waters furnished food for the table. To this home Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy and their three children, Angeline, Louise, and Helen, came in 1831 and there Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy lived the remainder of their days, except about two years spent in Johnstown from 1848 to 1850. Mr. Vickroy at once engaged in farming and at the same time returned to his profession as a surveyor. He also built a saw- mill on the Stony creek and for many years the mill sawed large quantities of lumber from the timber on the farm and from the neighborhood. John Barnes, wagon-maker, of Johnstown, obtained supplies of lumber from this mill for many years. In a short time Mr. Vickroy could boast a large acquaintance among the people of Cambria and Somerset counties, and because of his general intelligence, his dignified and courtly bearing, and his interest in the public welfare he was popular and greatly respected. He was an ardent friend of common schools and was often chosen a school director. Fruit growing became a special feature of 50 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. Mr. Vickroy's farm work, and he soon had an orchard of choice varieties of apples and other fruits, of which he was very proud. Mrs. Vickroy added to the charm of the Ferndale home by her enthusiasm in the cultivation of flowers. It was not many years after Mr. Vickroy and his family took possession of the Horseshoe farm until he was elected a justice of the peace for Conemaugh township, Cambria county, a position that well fitted in with his profession as a surveyor, because both justices of the peace and surveyors in those days were accustomed to prepare articles of agreement and other documents relating to transfers of real estate. Mr. Vickroy possessed a judicial temperament, and being a remarkably neat and accurate penman he found much to occupy his time for many years both as surveyor and justice of the peace. He was now known as Squire Vickroy. He was at one time elected county surveyor. At first he was a Whig and afterwards a Republican. But in a wider sense than as a farmer, surveyor, and justice of the peace Mr. Vickroy became known to the people of Cambria and Somerset counties. He was the head of one of the most intellectual families that have ever lived in either of these counties. Mrs. Vickroy was a woman of exceptional intelligence. The Harlan blood ran in her veins. She had read much and thought much upon most of the subjects which then received the attention of thinking men and women, as did also Mr. Vickroy. They were both familiar with the best literature of the day. As their children grew up they shared the literary tastes and acquired many of the intellectual accomplishments of their parents. Books and newspapers were everywhere in the Vickroy home. The slavery question, the Mexican war, the merits and demerits of all the political policies and political leaders of the eventful period from 1840 to 1860 and afterwards, were topics of daily discussion on the Ferndale farm. Visitors to the Vickroy home, which was always one of old-time hospitality, at once found themselves in an atmosphere which aroused and stimulated their own interest in public questions and in literary subjects. In their religious belief Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy were Swedenborgians, to which denomination Thomas Vickroy and his wife also belonged. EDWIN AUGUSTUS VICKROY. 51 And so the years rolled on. The Vickroy home became known throughout Cambria and Somerset counties as a centre of vigorous and independent thought and advanced views upon all subjects which were then attracting public attention. In the meantime the farm was not neglected and the Vickroy apples and other fruits took premiums at the county fairs and at the meetings of the American Pomological Society at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Although a man of fine and commanding presence, straight as an Indian, and with the address of a born leader of men Mr. Vickroy never sought political honors. He was, however, always ready to give a reason for the faith that was in him. About 1848 the longing for an active mercantile life returned to Mr. Vickroy and he opened on Clinton street in Johnstown a general store in a building which he had built on a lot of ground he owned a few feet south of the corner of Washington and Clinton streets. Here he carried on for several years, and with varying fortune, a general store which was well patronized. But the times were hard, very little money was in circulation, the Cambria Iron Works had not been built, and again Mr. Vickroy was constrained to quit storekeeping. Thenceforward to the end of his days he devoted his time to the work of the farm and to his books and the society of his friends, mingling but little with "the madding crowd" and its "ignoble strife." Mrs. Vickroy died at the Vickroy homestead on August 30, 1880, and Mr. Vickroy died at the old home on May 1, 1885. Each lived to a good old age. Their remains now rest in Grand View cemetery. They were the parents of many children, both boys and girls. We have mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Vickroy's three oldest daughters, Angeline, Louise, and Helen. Angeline and Louise became teachers, as did also Cornelia, another daughter. All the children, with scarcely an exception, inherited the literary tastes of their parents. Louise established a wide reputation as a writer of graceful poetry and prose. She was a contributor to Grace Greenwood's Little Pilgrim and to Graham's Magazine in the old days and in later years to The Century and other periodicals. In 1860 she delivered a lecture on "The Poets and Poetry of America" before a 52 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. large audience in the First Presbyterian church of Johnstown. Her poems were published in book form about the same time. Mr. Vickroy himself occasionally manifested a decided talent for poetic expression. Of the daughters referred to Helen (Mrs. Austin) is the only one now living. Her home is at Richmond, Indiana. To her and her sister Louise (Mrs. Boyd) and to another daughter, Laura, now living at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, we are indebted for many of the facts contained in this sketch. As far back as 1850 we remember a bright new school-house which had been built on the edge of a wooded reservation at the top of Ben's Creek Hill. From this school-house a winding path led to the Vickroy home through a dense growth of oaks, maples, hickories, and other forest trees. There were no intervening houses or cultivated fields or gardens. Most if not all of the path was on the hillside of the Vickroy farm itself. The quietness, the restfulness, the peacefulness, and the sylvan beauty of the whole scene can never be effaced from the memories of those now living who often wended their way with trooping children from the attractive school-house down the winding path to the hospitable home that was built eighty years ago. "The old road, the hill road, the road that used to go Through brier and bloom and gleam and gloom among the wooded ways. Oh, now that we might follow it as once we did, you know! The old road, the home road, the road of happy days."