Cambria County Pioneers, 1910, by James L. Swank, Cambria County, PA - Major George Nelson Smith 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. MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 77 MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. FROM THE JOHNSTOWN DAILY TRIBUNE OF SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1891. DIED, at his residence, No. 2231 Madison Square, Philadelphia, on Monday, December 29, 1890, Major George Nelson Smith, aged 82 years, 6 months, and 10 days. George Nelson Smith was born at Youngstown, Westmoreland county, on June 19, 1808. His father's name was William Smith and his mother's maiden name was Agnes Nelson. They were natives respectively of the State of Delaware and of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and resided, about the beginning of the century, at Elizabethtown, Lancaster county, whence they emigrated to Bedford county and thence to Westmoreland county. Both came of good fighting stock, William Smith's father being at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown and Agnes Nelson's father losing his life from exposure while at Valley Forge. The father of Major Smith was by trade a cooper, and some years after George was born he went to work making barrels for the salt-makers on the Conemaugh and Kiskiminitas rivers, continuing that occupation for many years. By a sort of evolution George became a keel-boatman on the rivers mentioned and on the Allegheny river, the keel boats taking salt to Pittsburgh. He was a natural waterman, a good swimmer, and fond of the excitement and the dangers of a keel- boatman's life. When the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal was but partly built he left the keel boat for the canal boat, and he enjoyed the honor of having steered the first boat that ran on that division, the General Abner Lacock. This was between Warren, now Apollo, and Leechburg in 1829. Entering the service of D. Leech & Co. he became the captain of one of their first packet- boats, the Pioneer. Subsequently he had some experience in organizing the company's line on the eastern division of the canal. 78 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. When in command of the Pioneer an incident occurred which marked a heroic trait of his character. While his boat was spinning along in one of the pools, or dams, of the Kiskiminitas, in 1834, one of the passengers, Mrs. Lovell, the wife of a New Orleans merchant, who also was a passenger, fell overboard. Captain Smith was sitting at an open window at the time. As quick as thought he jumped through the window into the water, and before the boat could be stopped he had safely landed Mrs. Lovell on the bank. This incident has a sequel, as we shall presently see. In the following year, 1835, Captain Smith and some friends concluded to go West. Taking passage on an Ohio river steamboat they reached Louisville in due time, where they were detained. Here another incident occurred which illustrates again the nobility of Captain Smith's character. Walking along the levee he noticed a woman who was surrounded by two or three little children and a few household goods and was in great distress. Inquiry revealed the fact that her husband had been killed in a Louisville factory and that she was anxious to return to her home at Pittsburgh, but her funds were wholly inadequate to meet the necessary steamboat charges. Captain Smith at once paid her steamboat fare and that of her children to Pittsburgh, and also paid the steward of the boat for their entertainment until their destination should be reached. But this act of generosity emptied Captain Smith's always lean purse. Abandoning his companions he shipped as a deck hand on a steamboat that was going to New Orleans, at which place he safely arrived. Here he renewed his acquaintance with Mr. Lovell, who gave him a letter of introduction to David G. Burnet, one of the leaders of the struggling Texan Republic, Captain Smith's adventurous spirit and his manly sympathies combining to direct his steps toward the Lone Star State. Arriving in Texas he enlisted as a soldier in the Texan army, and at the battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, he had the pleasure of contributing to the defeat of the Mexican army and of participating in the capture of Santa Anna himself. For his services in the Texan Revolution he was afterwards granted a large tract of land in Texas, but he did not derive any MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 79 benefit from this donation, owing to the undeveloped condition of the country. Leaving Texas in 1836 or 1837 Captain Smith was induced by friends to locate in Kentucky and he became a contractor in the building of the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike. While thus engaged he married Miss Rebecca G. Mudd, of Green county, Kentucky. This was in 1839. Soon afterwards he concluded to return to Pennsylvania, and in 1840, through the kind offices of one of his early friends, Captain Samuel D. Karns, he was appointed to a clerkship in the office of the collector of tolls on the Pennsylvania Canal at Johnstown, the collector, Major James Potts, being a brother-in-law of Captain Karns. Captain Smith was at this time a good penman and a good accountant, although he had received a very imperfect education when a boy. Thenceforward until 1861 he was an active and influential citizen of Johnstown. It was not born in him to be quiet anywhere, or to be a laggard in matters of public interest. He was a born leader of men and not a follower. After Major Potts retired from the position of collector of tolls in 1842, if not, indeed, before this event, Captain Smith's old love of the water returned, and he successively became the owner and captain of two portable boats on the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal and its railroad connections, named the Excelsior and the San Jacinto. Dr. Campbell Sheridan can tell some interesting stories about the Excelsior. But, like all of Captain Smith's business enterprises, he made but little money out of his boating ventures, and in 1846, when the Mexican war broke out, we find him attached as a sutler's clerk to the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Samuel W. Black, Captain Samuel D. Karns being the sutler. We may be sure that it was through no fear of personal harm that Captain Smith did not occupy a different position in the regiment. He remained in Mexico with General Scott's army until the war closed, often exposed to danger and often participating in movements against the enemy. In a skirmishing expedition he was wounded in the left leg, and thereafter he walked with a slight limp. 80 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. After returning to Johnstown late in 1847 or early in 1848 Captain Smith was for a time the manager of Ben's Creek furnace, near Johnstown, immediately preceding, we think, that accomplished gentleman, William C. McCormick. This position he held for only a short time. Our recollection is that he next embarked on an active political career by assuming the editorship and the publication of the Democratic paper at Johnstown which had previously been published by Henry C. Devine and was called The Cambria Transcript. It was late in 1849 when Captain Smith took charge of this paper, the name of which he changed to The Mountain Echo. In the spring of 1853, after encountering some vicissitudes, a "new series" of the Echo appeared, the number of columns being enlarged and the name being also enlarged to The Allegheny Mountain Echo and Johnstown Commercial Advertiser and Intelligencer. In the meantime Captain Smith had been appointed cargo inspector at Johnstown and had become a Democratic leader and a man of mark among Democrats throughout the State. He could write a good editorial article on almost any subject; he could make a very fair speech on almost any question; he was a good vocalist and delighted to sing political and patriotic songs; he was the author of at least one notable patriotic song; he was a good fiddler; he could tell a story; he was good company anywhere; and he was a man of fine appearance. His physical and moral courage were well known, and his generous and chivalrous nature was just as well known. After awhile, in October, 1856, while still editing the Echo, Captain Smith was elected by the Democrats to the lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature and was consecutively elected a second and third time to the same body. In the winter of 1856 and 1857 he joined with other Democrats in refusing to vote for John W. Forney, the Democratic caucus nominee for United States Senator, and this action defeated that gentleman and resulted eventually in the election of Simon Cameron. Captain Smith and his associates, seven in all, voted for Henry D. Foster. They refused to go into the caucus because President-elect Buchanan had written a letter virtually dictating Colonel For- MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 81 ney's nomination. During his last term in the Legislature Captain Smith's popularity with his fellow-Democrats was shown in his election as Speaker pro tem., to fill a vacancy caused by the ill-health of the regular Speaker. At the close of the session he was presented with a silver tea-set. Engraved upon the pitcher there was the following inscription: " George N. Smith, of Cambria County, elected unanimously Speaker pro tem., House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, Session of 1858." In 1860 Captain Smith, who was still editing the Echo, was selected as a delegate to the Charleston Convention of that year. He went to Charleston as a friend of John C. Breckinridge and supported his nomination for the Presidency until he became satisfied that the friends of Breckinridge were bent upon disunion, when he joined the forces of Stephen A. Douglas. It will be remembered that the convention broke in two at Charleston and that the two wings afterwards met separately at Baltimore, each wing nominating its favorite. Captain Smith attended the Douglas Convention as a delegate and voted for him. The annexed correspondence will be read with interest. BARNUM'S HOTEL, Baltimore, June 26, 1860. HON. JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. My Dear Friend: I trust in God you will not suffer the evil advice of designing men to cause you to pursue a course that will destroy the party and ruin yourself. Should you accept the nomination of the Seceders' Convention it will be fatal to the party and ruinous to you. I beseech you to consider well the step you are about to take. Evil must assuredly follow acceptance. Your Sincere Friend, G. NELSON SMITH. --- WASHINGTON CITY, June 28, 1860. G. NELSON SMITH, ESQ., Johnstown, Pa. My Dear Sir: I have your letter and appreciate the motives that dictated it. My course has been surrounded by difficulties for which I was wholly blameless. We must each pursue what seems to be the path of duty. Let it not disturb the personal friendship I am happy to cherish for you. With good wishes, I remain Your Friend, JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. The break-up at Charleston extended to the Democratic party of the whole country, and the Cambria county Democrats at once took sides with either Breckinridge or Douglas. In the fall of 1860 there were four candidates for the General Assembly, the Republicans nominating Alexander C. Mullin, the Breckinridge Democrats Michael Dan Mage- 82 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. han, the Douglas Democrats Captain Smith, and the New County party Major James Potts. Mullin was elected. The split in the Democratic party did not extend to the State politics of Pennsylvania. Henry D. Foster was the Democratic nominee for Governor but was defeated by Andrew G. Curtin. Captain Smith presided over the convention which nominated his old friend, General Foster. This was his last appearance in the Democratic politics of Pennsylvania. The war came soon afterwards, justifying his judgment of the purposes of the Southern Democrats at Charleston. It brought changes in the political as well as personal relations of Captain Smith and other Democrats. Soon after the close of the political campaign of 1860 Captain Smith's old friend, Samuel D. Karns, invited him to engage with him in an oil speculation in West Virginia. In April, 1861, after the firing on Fort Sumter, the West Virginia Confederates drove them out of the State. Returning to Johnstown Captain Smith closed the Echo office and sought a position with the Union army. He was an intense lover of his country and its flag and his patriotic ardor would not permit him to remain in quiet Johnstown when that flag was insulted. His lameness prevented him from enlisting as a soldier in its defense, but he was appointed quartermaster of the second brigade of Fitz John Porter's division, serving in this capacity, with the rank of captain, until 1862, when he was appointed an assistant paymaster in the army with the rank of major, in which position he served until the close of the war in 1865, being all the time attached to the Army of the Potomac. His two oldest sons, Robert Emmet and Montgomery Pike, were private soldiers in the same army. Montgomery was wounded in the last day's fighting in front of Petersburg, dying in 1870, his wound contributing to his death. If Major Smith had now gone back to Johnstown among his old friends he would have done wisely, but he had parted with the Echo at the breaking out of the Rebellion and moved his family to Baltimore in 1864 while still in the Government service, and when the war closed he felt that there was nothing to take him to Johnstown. This mistake he often regretted afterwards. In the spring of 1866 he MAJOR GEORGE NELSON SMITH. 83 tried farming in Virginia, in the neighborhood of Washington, but this experiment failing he sought and secured a clerkship in the custom house at Philadelphia, where he remained until 1869, removing his family to that city soon after his appointment, where he ever afterwards resided until his death. From 1869 forward Major Smith experienced nothing but bad luck. He tried many honorable ways of making a living, including several visits to Texas in the interest of various mining enterprises. For a number of years before his death he lived a life of retirement and almost of seclusion, but still using his pen in many ways and never for one moment losing his interest in public affairs. In 1878 his wife died. Major Smith's mother was a devout Methodist and his father was a non-professor of religion. The major himself never, until about the time of his wife's death, appeared to take any interest in religious matters. Mrs. Smith was all her life a Roman Catholic and she reared her children in that faith. A short time before her death the major united with the same church, and ever afterwards he was one of its most faithful adherents and a regular attendant upon its services. Major Smith and his wife were the parents of eight children, all born at Johnstown, two of whom we have mentioned. The remains of our old friend were taken on Friday morning from his residence to the church of St. Charles Borromeo, at Twentieth and Christian streets, and thence to Georgetown, D. C., where they will find a last resting-place in Holy Rood cemetery. The remains of his wife will be taken to Georgetown and laid beside those of her husband. We have in the foregoing lines traced the career of a really remarkable man. Courage and generosity were the traits by which he was best known to the generation to which he belonged, but he had many other noble qualities. No truer friend ever lived and no more manly opponent. He was kind to those who most needed kindness, the poor and the lowly, and he spurned and contemned alike the insolence of power and the arrogance of wealth. He was an intense lover of his country. He was public spirited. He was a good friend to Johnstown in the days when his 84 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. voice and vote could influence its destiny. He passed through the Legislature the bill incorporating the Johnstown Water and Gas Company and the bill dividing Johnstown into four wards. He was a charter member of the Johnstown Division of Sons of Temperance. Of his generous and chivalrous nature we could give many illustrations in addition to those already mentioned. While president of the select council of Johnstown in 1858 he was called upon one day to act as burgess and to impose fines upon two men for fighting. One man promptly paid his fine but the other man being impecunious Captain Smith paid his fine for him rather than send him to the lock-up. We personally know of two cases in Johnstown in which he saved the lives of drowning men by plunging into the water and risking his own life, once into the canal upon a night of pitchy darkness. One day, when the Pennsylvania Canal was in all its glory, some heartless boatmen took from a boat which had just arrived at Johnstown a sick woman and her helpless children and placed the mother on a bench at one of the wharves. This poor woman was sick with Asiatic cholera. Captain Smith heard of what had been done, and after vainly endeavoring to secure a lodging place for the sick woman he took her and her children to his own house, where she soon afterwards died. That other noble- hearted gentleman, William Orr, the undertaker, and two good women properly cared for her remains and she was decently buried. The children were restored to their father.