Cambria County Pioneers, 1910, by James L. Swank, Cambria County, PA - Judge Cyrus L. Pershing 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. JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 99 JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. WRITTEN IN 1904 AND PRINTED IN PAMPHLET FORM FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. AMONG the departed great men of Pennsylvania whose services to the Commonwealth deserve to be gratefully remembered the faithful historian will place Judge Cyrus L. Pershing, who died on June 29, 1903, at his home in Pottsville, Schuylkill county. Pennsylvanians should be proud of the fact that this modest but distinguished citizen lived all his days within the borders of the Keystone State. The Pershing family is one of the oldest in Western Pennsylvania. It is of Huguenot origin, Judge Pershing's great-grandfather, Frederick Pershing, having emigrated to this country from Alsace, then a part of France, landing at Baltimore on October 2, 1749. In 1773 the emigrant purchased a tract of 269 acres of land upon the headwaters of Nine Mile run in what is now Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and in 1774 he moved his family from Frederick county, Maryland, to the new home. With his sons he engaged in farming and he also built "Pershing's mill." One of his grandsons, Christopher, son of Christian, was the father of the future judge. Judge Pershing's mother, Elizabeth Long, was also descended from a pioneer family in Westmoreland county, her grandfather, Jacob Long, a Pennsylvania German, having moved from Lancaster county to Westmoreland county about the beginning of the nineteenth century. Jacob Long's grandfather, Oswald Long, and his father, Diebold Long, emigrated from Wurtemberg in 1730. Cyrus Long Pershing was born at Youngstown, Westmoreland county, on February 3, 1825. He was therefore in his 79th year at the time of his death. In 1830 his father moved his family to Johnstown, dying there in 1836. Cyrus was the oldest of three brothers. A good mother was 100 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. equal to her responsibilities. That her boys should receive the best education that was possible was her firm determination. They were early sent to "subscription schools." When thirteen years old Cyrus became a clerk in a store in Johnstown. Here he learned from the farmers to speak Pennsylvania Dutch fluently. In 1841, when sixteen years old, he was employed as a clerk at the weighlock of the Pennsylvania Canal at Johnstown. Subsequently he filled other clerical positions in connection with the canal. In all these positions as opportunity would permit he was an industrious student of the educational text books of the day. In 1839 he commenced the study of Latin with Rev. Shadrach Howell Terry, the first pastor of the Presbyterian church at Johnstown, and afterwards he began with Mr. Terry the study of Greek. Mr. Terry died in 1841 and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Swan. In 1842 Cyrus L. Pershing recited Greek to Mr. Swan that he might be prepared to enter the freshman class of Jefferson College, at Canonsburg, which he entered in November of that year. From this time until June 14, 1848, when he was graduated, he continued his college studies in the winter and his clerical duties in the summer, with the exception of a few months in 1846, when he taught one of the public schools in Johnstown. During the winter following his graduation Mr. Pershing taught a classical school at Johnstown, which was well attended and was very successful. In 1849, having resolved to study law, he accepted an invitation from Jeremiah S. Black, of Somerset, afterwards the distinguished jurist, to enter his office as a student. In November, 1850, he was admitted to the Somerset bar, and immediately afterwards, on November 26, 1850, he was admitted to the bar of Cambria county. He opened an office in Johnstown for the practice of his profession and at once entered upon a large and profitable practice in the courts of Cambria county. This practice he continued to enjoy as long as he remained a citizen of Johnstown. He also established outside of Cambria county an excellent reputation as a painstaking lawyer who knew the law, and this reputation paved the way for new clients and for honors which soon came JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 101 to him. Judge Black was so impressed by the natural ability of his student and the readiness with which he mastered legal principles and the details of legal practice that he offered him a partnership immediately after his admission to the bar, but this arrangement was not consummated because of Judge Black's elevation to the Supreme Bench of Pennsylvania in 1851. Soon after his admission to the bar Mr. Pershing was married to Miss Mary Letitia Royer, youngest daughter of Hon. John Royer, a pioneer iron manufacturer in the Juniata valley and a Whig member of the Legislature from Huntingdon county and afterwards from Cambria county. The marriage took place at Mill Creek Furnace on September 23, 1851. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Pershing, all of whom, with their mother, are still living. All lawyers in country towns in the old days were expected to be politicians, even if they did not have political ambition of their own. Most of them, however, were ambitious of political preferment. Cyrus L. Pershing was a politician from boyhood. He knew the history of his country and of political parties as few other boys knew it. He early developed literary talent as a writer for the local newspapers, and what he wrote for publication often related to the political issues of the day. He became a member of a local debating society and soon developed considerable ability as a public speaker. Even before he was admitted to the bar he was in demand as a speaker at neighborhood meetings of the Democratic party, to which party he faithfully adhered from the beginning to the end of his active career. When yet a boy he began to keep a diary of miscellaneous occurrences and also a scrapbook of election returns and political events. This habit of methodically preserving facts which he deemed worthy of preservation strengthened a naturally retentive memory and nourished his literary and historical tastes. Running through his public speeches and addresses while he lived in Johnstown there was always a historical vein. In 1848, before his admission to the bar, he was the orator of the day at a banquet given at Johnstown to the Cambria county volunteers who had returned from the Mexican war. Few 102 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. men who have ever lived in Pennsylvania have known the history of the State, and especially its political history, as Cyrus L. Pershing knew it. He was familiar with the careers of its notable men-politicians, lawyers, clergymen, college professors, and others, and he had a personal acquaintance with many of them. After his admission to the bar Mr. Pershing's advancement in the councils and leadership of his party was so rapid that in 1856 and again in 1858 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the district of which Cambria county formed a part. He was defeated in both years, as the district was largely Republican in sentiment, but in each year he greatly reduced the normal anti-Democratic majority. In the autumn of 1861 he was elected a member of the Legislature from Cambria county, and he was re-elected in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, serving in this office for an unusually long and continuous period. His service in the Legislature ended with the session of 1866. The author of a published sketch of Mr. Pershing in 1869 says: "During the whole of Mr. Pershing's service at Harrisburg he was a member of the committee of ways and means, the judiciary, and other important general and special committees. At the session of 1863, the only one in which the Democrats had a majority, Mr. Pershing was chairman of the committee on federal relations and at the succeeding session he was the Democratic nominee for Speaker of the House. He was an acknowledged leader and enjoyed to a rare degree the confidence and personal esteem of his fellow members without distinction of party." It will be observed that Mr. Pershing's services in the Pennsylvania Legislature covered almost the entire period of the civil war. He was himself a War Democrat and believed in the vigorous prosecution of the war. In addition to what is said of Mr. Pershing's legislative career in the extract above quoted it can be stated as a part of the history of that great struggle that Governor Curtin was in the habit of privately consulting with Mr. Pershing as the Democratic leader in emergencies which were constantly arising. The Governor could rely on his loyalty, his wisdom, and his influence over his fellow members. JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 103 Honors now came to Cyrus L. Pershing in rapid succession. In 1866 he was a delegate from his Congressional district to the National Union Convention which met at Philadelphia in August of that year. In 1868 he was a Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. In 1869 he was the Democratic candidate for judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, but was defeated by a small majority. In 1872, owing to divisions in the Democratic party of Schuylkill county, he was asked to become a compromise candidate for president judge of the courts of that county. Mr. Pershing accepted the nomination with some hesitation, remarking to the writer of this sketch that it was always a risk to transplant an old tree. He was then in his 48th year. He had never been in Schuylkill county, and was, of course, a stranger to most of its people, even to many members of the bar who had urged him to accept the nomination. However, he consented to become a candidate and was elected by a large majority for the constitutional term of ten years. In December, 1872, he held his first court at Pottsville and in the spring of 1873 he moved his family to Pottsville. In 1882 he was elected for another term of ten years, and in 1892 for still another term. But failing health prevented him from serving the whole of the third term. He resigned in August, 1899, having presided with great acceptance over the courts of Schuylkill county for twenty-seven consecutive years. From 1899 until his death in 1903 he rested from his labors, but his interest in public affairs and in the welfare of his immediate neighborhood never ceased, and his wonderful memory never failed until he was stricken with his last illness. In 1875, while presiding over the courts of Schuylkill county, Judge Pershing was nominated for Governor of Pennsylvania by the Democratic State Convention of that year, his opponent being General John F. Hartranft, who had been elected to the Governorship in 1872 and was now a candidate for a second term. Owing to his position on the bench Judge Pershing could not "take the stump." So great, however, was his personal popularity that he was defeated by General Hartranft by a majority of less than 12,000 votes. Outside of Philadelphia he carried the State. 104 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. From 1876 to 1878, inclusive, during Judge Pershing's first term as president judge of Schuylkill county, the infamous criminal organization known as the Molly Maguires was completely broken up and many of its members were hung as the result of a series of trials over many of which Judge Pershing presided. This organization had terrorized the anthracite region for several years, and its agents had committed many murders to establish its lawless authority over the mining of anthracite coal. At the risk of his life Judge Pershing did not hesitate to sentence to death the convicted participants in these crimes who were tried before him. From the beginning to the end of these trials he displayed a degree of both physical and moral courage that has never been excelled on the bench. The trials attracted national attention. The law-abiding citizens of Schuylkill county, without respect to party, have never ceased to express their great obligations to Judge Pershing for the courageous part he took in ridding the county of the Mollie Maguire terror. He had been thoroughly tested and found to be pure gold. Judge Pershing became a member of the First Presbyterian church of Johnstown when still a young man. He became a teacher in its Sunday-school and was afterwards its superintendent for many years. He was a ruling elder in the church when scarcely thirty years old and he continued in the eldership during his residence in Johnstown. After his removal to Pottsville he was chosen to the same office in the Second Presbyterian church of that place, and for many years he taught the Bible class in its Sunday-school. He was a member of the Union Presbyterian Convention which met in Philadelphia in November, 1867, and a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which met at Chicago in 1877, at Saratoga in 1884, at Philadelphia in 1888, and at Washington City in 1893. Judge Pershing was always a loyal friend of his alma mater, Jefferson College, and of the united colleges, Washington and Jefferson. From March, 1865, until June, 1877, when he resigned, he was a trustee of Washington and Jefferson College. At the laying of the cornerstone of the front part of the main college building, on October 21, JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 105 1873, Judge Pershing delivered an address. In 1900 the trustees of the college conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of laws, an honor that he richly deserved. Judge Pershing died at his home in Pottsville on June 29, 1903, as has already been stated. Never a strong man physically, frail of body but big in intellect, the last few years of his life were a continual struggle against unconquerable disease. The several courts of Schuylkill county at once adjourned when his death became known. On the same day a largely attended meeting of the bench and bar of the county was held at the court-house in Pottsville, at which addresses were delivered and resolutions were adopted which recognized the great services of the deceased jurist and expressed profound appreciation of his lofty private character. It was resolved to attend the funeral in a body. On July 2 the body of Judge Pershing was laid to rest in Mount Laurel cemetery, in Pottsville, in sight of the beautiful home on the hillside in which he had lived with his wife and children for thirty years. The services at the house and at the grave were rendered particularly impressive by the presence of Rev. Dr. Benjamin L. Agnew, the secretary of the board of ministerial relief of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Agnew was for ten years the pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Johnstown, and during the whole of this period Judge Pershing was one of his elders and one of his most intimate friends. Dr. Agnew and Judge Pershing were born in adjoining counties - Dr. Agnew in Armstrong county and Judge Pershing in Westmoreland county. At the meeting of the bench and bar of Schuylkill county on the day of Judge Pershing's death President Judge Bechtel, the chairman, said: "No one ever faced his duty more conscientiously than Judge Pershing. He came here to preside over a court which had the distinction of having a bar membership second to none in the great State of Pennsylvania. He was called upon at that time to dispose of most intricate civil, equitable, and other legal questions. He lived through it all and performed his duties faithfully, sincerely, and earnestly. His action in his official capacity brought honor and greatness to him. His 106 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. decisions were quoted as authority throughout the State by such eminent jurists as Judge Elwell and others, and were considered akin to decisions of the Supreme Court." On the day of his death the newspapers of Pottsville referred to the character and services of Judge Pershing in most kindly terms. The Chronicle said: "In the death of Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing Schuylkill county loses one of its most eminent and honored citizens and the State a jurist whose record was second to none. Judge Pershing came to Schuylkill county untried upon the bench. He soon, however, demonstrated the wisdom of his selection, for no man ever did more to raise the standard of the bench of Schuylkill county than he. His private life was spotless, his career upon the bench above criticism, and when he voluntarily retired from public life he carried with him the highest esteem and sincere love of the entire county which he had so zealously and ably served." The Republican said: "Pottsville and Schuylkill county have lost a distinguished citizen by the death of Judge Cyrus L. Pershing. Judge Pershing was a man of large mental capacity, powerful will, sterling character, and the strictest integrity. His private life, in the church and in the precincts of the home circle, was a model one. Judge Pershing was one of the representative men of Pottsville, one whose memory is a precious heritage." Cyrus L. Pershing was a thoroughly equipped lawyer, a wise and just judge, a politician who sought the public welfare and a man of wide influence in the promotion of many good works. But the world can not know, as his intimate friends knew, and especially as his old friends knew, how hard, how very hard, was the struggle that he was compelled to make to fit himself for the duties that fell to his lot. From a child he was handicapped by weak eyesight, and in his ambition to obtain a liberal education he had no assistance, but he never faltered in that ambition from the time he recited his first Latin lesson, and he literally paid his own way through a college course. All his subsequent success was due to the same courageous spirit and to his remarkable industry. He was no idler, no trifler with precious time. The work that was given him to do JUDGE CYRUS L. PERSHING. 107 he did with all his might. All his life he was a student, not only of books but also of men and events. Withal he was sociable, genial, and kind-hearted. His wonderful memory of historical events and his recollections of public men, joined to a vein of the keenest humor and to a ready wit that no bodily affliction ever suppressed, made him a delightful companion for old and young. And yet, looking back upon his long and useful and honorable life, no trait in his character appeals to us with so much force as the brave fight he made against mighty odds to secure a liberal education and a mastery of his profession. He was preeminently a man of courage. He conquered difficulties that would have appalled most men and he feared no man.