Cambria County Pioneers, 1910, by James L. Swank, Cambria County, PA - Alexander Chesterfield Mullin 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. 114 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1878, AND PRINTED IN PAMPHLET FORM FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. DIED, at his residence, No. 1735 Oxford street, Philadelphia, on Friday, November 22, 1878, Alexander Chesterfield Mullin, aged 48 years, 2 months, and 3 days. Mr. Mullin was born on the 19th day of September, 1830, in the town of Bedford, Pennsylvania, in the historic structure known then and now as the Old Fort. His parents were George and Catharine Mullin, the father a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and the mother, whose maiden name was Hammer, a native of Frederick county, Maryland. George Mullin was for many years a prominent citizen of Bedford county. In the fall of 1836, at the close of his second term as sheriff, he removed his family to the Mansion Farm, on the Wheeling turnpike, six miles west of Bedford, which he had purchased in 1818. Here his son Alexander lived, a farmer's boy, until he went from the parental roof, when little more than seventeen years old. He was the youngest of seven brothers. Three of the brothers were in the Union army. Both the grandfathers of this family served in the Revolutionary war. While living in Bedford Alexander attended the Bedford Academy. After the family removed to the farm, in 1836, it was the good fortune of Alexander to be sent to several excellent subscription schools in the neighborhood. Alexander's mathematical studies extended to trigonometry and other branches connected with surveying. Attending school in both summer and winter, and being favored with good teachers, he made rapid progress. He also wrote verses, learned to sketch, and joined a country debating society. When a little more than seventeen years old he taught school for two months in Londonderry valley. In May, 1848, Alexander left home to become a clerk in ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 115 the store of his bachelor uncle, David Hammer, at Hollidaysburg, Blair county. It may be incidentally mentioned here that Joseph Hammer, another uncle, was for several years, from about 1849 to 1852, the landlord of Bennett's Hotel, at Johnstown, for whom and for his excellent family the old citizens of the town cherish most pleasant recollections. Alexander's engagement with his uncle did not, however, long continue, for, after four months' experience in his store, and when just eighteen years old, we find him, in September, taking charge of the lumber interests of Robert Lytle at Wilmore, in Cambria county, who also kept a store at the same place, in which William C. Barbour was a clerk. Robert Lytle was a resident of Hollidaysburg. In April, 1849, Alexander was offered by George Murray a clerkship in his store at Summerhill, in Cambria county, which offer was accepted, and in the latter part of the month he entered upon his new duties. The situation proved to be a pleasant one, and for three years it was filled by Alexander with great satisfaction to his employer. At Summerhill Alexander continued in his leisure hours the study of mathematics and Latin, being greatly aided by an educated Irish shoemaker named George G. Higgins, who had spent many years of his life on the ocean. Having thus obtained a part of that additional education he had longed for when he left home, and having acquired considerable business experience, he resolved to study law, and accordingly, in November, 1851, he entered his name as a student with Edward Hutchinson, Jr., a prominent member of the Ebensburg bar. He began immediately the usual course of legal studies, and from this time on until May, 1852, while still remaining at Summerhill, his time was about equally divided between these studies and the settlement of Mr. Murray's business, which had for a number of years been very extensive. At the time last named above Alexander, then familiarly known as "Aleck," but whom I shall hereafter call Mr. Mullin, went to Ebensburg, with the double purpose of prosecuting his legal studies under the direction of Mr. Hutchinson and acting as clerk to the prothonotary of the county, Robert L. Johnston, who had solicited his assistance in rearranging all the records of 116 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. the office since the organization of the county in 1807. Mr. Mullin's skill as an accountant and bookkeeper and the elegance and neatness of his penmanship had by this time become generally known throughout Cambria county, and Mr. Johnston's choice of him as an assistant was therefore wisely made and proved to be very popular. At that day the duties of the prothonotary's office embraced the recording of deeds and also the registering of wills. Mr. Mullin remained with Mr. Johnston until the close of the latter's term of office in the fall of 1854, when they entered into partnership, the style of the firm being Johnston & Mullin. This partnership continued for five years. On the 27th day of October, 1852, Mr. Mullin was married at Williamsburg by Rev. John Thrush to Miss Emma Matilda Kennedy, a native of Perry county, Pennsylvania, but at the time a resident of Rockdale, Blair county. In August, 1853, the want of a Whig newspaper at Ebensburg having long been felt, Mr. Mullin and a friend of about his own age, named Charles Albright, since well known to fame as a lawyer, soldier, and politician, but then a student in the law office of Mr. Johnston, were induced, under the firm name of Mullin & Albright, to establish The Alleghanian. The paper was a weekly, of six columns, well printed, and from the first was well edited. Coming into existence during a heated canvass for a seat in the State Senate from the district composed of Cambria, Blair, and Huntingdon counties The Alleghanian took decided ground against the candidacy of Alexander M. White, of Cambria county, who had secured the nomination by the Whig senatorial conference. So vigorous was its opposition that Mr. White was defeated by the Democratic nominee, John Creswell, Jr., of Hollidaysburg, although the district, by conviction, belonged to the Whigs. The bitterness of the contest was carried into the courts, where legal proceedings were inaugurated, but nothing of moment came of them. The course of The Alleghanian in this matter was generally justified by the leading Whigs of the district. The connection of Mullin & Albright with the paper was continued until 1854, when they were succeeded in its publication by J. R. Durburrow and he soon afterwards by John M. Bowman. ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 117 At December term, 1853, of the Cambria county courts Mr. Mullin was admitted to the bar, on motion of Michael Dan Magehan, with whom had been associated Henry D. Foster and James Potts on the committee of examination. Hon. George Taylor, president judge, and Hon. Evan Roberts and Hon. Harrison Kinkead, associates, were on the bench. The bar of Cambria county in 1853 was one of great native and reflected ability. Of the resident members I can remember Edward Hutchinson, Jr., Robert L. Johnston, Charles H. Heyer, John S. Rhey, Michael Dan Magehan, Joseph McDonald, Michael Hasson, John Fenlon, Cyrus. L. Pershing, James Potts, Abram Kopelin, Theophilus L. Heyer, Moses Canan, William Kittell, Samuel C. Wingard, Charles W. Wingard, George M. Reade, John F. Barnes, and Charles D. Murray - not all good lawyers, it is true, but as a body they formed the best bar the county could ever boast. Of visiting lawyers from neighboring counties there were John G. Miles and John Scott, of Huntingdon; S. S. Blair and David H. Hofius, of Blair; Thomas White, of Indiana; and Henry D. Foster, Edgar Cowan, and Wm. A. Stokes, of Westmoreland. These men were all able lawyers. The bench was more than respectable. Judge Taylor was one of the ablest judges in the State and the associates were men of high social standing and good judgment. Mr. Mullin came to the bar under most favorable circumstances. Mr. Mullin had a strong inclination to engage in the excitements and to enjoy some of the rewards of political life. Thus we find him in 1855 the candidate of the new American party for treasurer of Cambria county, but he was beaten, in a contest hopeless from the beginning, by Charles D. Murray, Democrat. In 1856 he was the Union Republican candidate for the State Senate in the Cambria, Blair, and Huntingdon district, but was defeated by John Creswell, Jr., of Blair, although running ahead of his ticket in his own county. In 1857 he was selected by the unanimous vote of the judges of the Cambria, Blair, and Huntingdon judicial district as a member of the State board of revenue revision. In this position he so skillfully protected the interests of his constituents that a proposition to increase their taxes, made by Hendrick B. Wright, a member of the 118 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. board, and supported by others, was so amended as to effect an actual lowering of them. In 1859 he re-established The Alleghanian, the publication of which had been discontinued some time previously, and at once made it a vigorous exponent of Republican principles. He owned the paper and was its editor, but its publication was intrusted to two young men whose firm name was Bolsinger & Hutchinson. In a brief time this firm was dissolved, and J. Todd Hutchinson continued the publication of the paper, with Mr. Mullin as owner and editor. Mr. Mullin's connection with The Alleghanian continued until 1861, when he sold it to A. A. Barker, who retained Mr. Hutchinson as publisher. In the fall of 1860 Mr. Mullin was chosen a Representative from Cambria county to the Pennsylvania Legislature. The contest in which he was the successful candidate was a quadrangular one - George Nelson Smith representing the Douglas Democrats, Michael Dan Magehan the Breckinridge Democrats, James Potts the advocates of a new county, and Mr. Mullin the Union Republicans. The plurality of Mr. Mullin over his highest opponent, Major Smith, was a little less than 300. The Legislature met on the 1st of January, 1861, and Mr. Mullin was present. Upon the organization of the House he was assigned to the committee on ways and means and to the committee on new counties and county seats. The assignment to the first of these committees would have conveyed a very high compliment under ordinary legislative circumstances, but a contingency soon to happen, and dreaded when the session opened, made the position one of great responsibility and importance. We were drifting into a war with the Southern States, and the attitude which Pennsylvania should take in the struggle, and the strength and resolution with which she should maintain that attitude, largely depended upon the ways and means committee of the House of Representatives. During the regular session, and the special session which soon followed it, Mr. Mullin supported every measure of legislation that was designed to sustain the power of the Federal Government, including the bill to borrow money and the bill to organize and equip the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. He ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 119 had no patience with the Peace Conference or with any other temporizing expedient. As a legislator Mr. Mullin paid strict attention to the interests of his constituents. Of the bills which were considered during the session eighteen were passed through his instrumentality. Some of the bills that were introduced and passed by Mr. Mullin were of considerable local importance. One of these gave greatly needed relief to the Cambria Iron Company and enabled the lessees, Messrs. Wood, Morrell & Co., to continue the works in operation during many months which would otherwise have been lost to them and their workmen. After the adjournment of the Legislature in the spring of 1861 Mr. Mullin continued the practice of his profession until September, 1862, when he was appointed private secretary to Governor Curtin. He never again regularly practiced his profession. Retaining his home at Ebensburg he immediately assumed at Harrisburg the most arduous and responsible duties of his life. A great war was in progress and the State of Pennsylvania took no insignificant part in the contest. The duties of the Governor were increased many fold, and to aid him in the performance of his difficult task the service of the best executive and administrative talent of the State was called into requisition. The choice of a private secretary could not have been more happily made than in the selection of Mr. Mullin. He remained with the Governor until after the close of the war, during part of the time assisting to discharge the duties of master of transportation in addition to those of private secretary. It is a pleasure to me to record here an incident which illustrates the friendly personal relations which have always in a large degree existed between leading members of opposing political parties in Cambria county. Cyrus L. Pershing represented Cambria county in the lower branch of the Legislature in 1862 and was consulted by Governor Curtin concerning the appointment of Mr. Mullin as private secretary. Mr. Pershing assured the Governor that he could find no person better adapted to the duties of the position than Mr. Mullin and that he could implicitly rely upon his fidelity. 120 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. Soon after peace had come Mr. Mullin decided to relinquish the onerous duties at Harrisburg which had gradually affected his health and accordingly resigned the office of private secretary to the Governor on the 1st of May, 1865, to embark in business in Philadelphia. He afterwards looked upon the decision to go to Philadelphia as a mistake and regretted bitterly that he did not return to the practice of law among his old friends at Ebensburg. But the times were abnormal and the wild wave of speculation swept the best and coolest men before it. Mr. Mullin had, while at Harrisburg, made some small investments in the stocks of the day which proved to be profitable, and this experience, joined to the unsatisfactory condition of his health, was the impelling motive which led him to yield to the liberal offers of some of his friends that he should go to Philadelphia to exercise a general supervision over several speculative enterprises in which they were interested. He went, but the enterprises of his friends, as well as some investments of his own, met with disaster. In May, 1866, the position of chief clerk of the State Department at Harrisburg became vacant and Mr. Mullin was appointed to the vacancy. His predecessor, William W. Hays, had been promoted to be Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, but the health of this gentleman was so seriously impaired that many of the duties of his new office fell to the lot of Mr. Mullin, in addition to the laborious exactions of the chief clerkship. The preparation of pardons was included in Mr. Mullin's extraordinary duties. All the correspondence of the State Department he either directed or performed. The pamphlet laws of 1866, the most voluminous ever published, he edited. In the latter part of September, 1866, Mr. Mullin was appointed by President Johnson collector of internal revenue for the seventeenth district of Pennsylvania, with his office at Ebensburg, relieving Samuel J. Royer, of Johnstown, and at once entered upon his duties. Political feeling had been deeply stirred by the antagonism existing between the President and the party which had elected him, and to the impatience of the Republicans with the President's alleged arbitrary exercise of power in removing faithful Republican ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 121 officials may mainly be attributed the failure of the Senate in March following to confirm Mr. Mullin's appointment. This rejection of Mr. Mullin's appointment was an unfortunate event in his life. Soon after his rejection he closed his accounts as collector and paid over to the deputy collector of the district the money remaining in his hands. After the termination of the episode which has just been described Mr. Mullin was about to resume the practice of law when he was offered and accepted the position of cashier of the Dime Savings Institution of Ashland, Schuylkill county, which had just been chartered. Of this bank Peter F. Collins, of Ebensburg, was president. The name of the bank was changed a year or two later to the Ashland Savings Bank. Mr. Mullin sold his house in Ebensburg and removed his family to Ashland in the fall of 1867. In 1870 he became president of the bank, Mr. Collins retiring, and he remained in this position until the spring of 1875, when the bank failed through the pressure of many adverse circumstances, most of which had their origin in the Jay Cooke panic of 1873. The severity of the crisis which caused Mr. Mullin to close his bank is seen in the fact that most of the neighboring banks afterwards passed out of existence. Toward the latter part of 1875 Mr. Mullin, having no promising future before him in Ashland, began to think of removing to Philadelphia. In March, 1876, after residing eight years and a half in Ashland, he was appointed secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Centennial Managers, of which Morton McMichael was chairman and Andrew G. Curtin, Asa Packer, Daniel J. Morrell, John H. Shoenberger, George Scott, and Foster W. Mitchell were associates. Mr. Mullin at once removed his family to Philadelphia. He was laboriously engaged in the performance of his new duties until the spring of 1878, when the functions of the board virtually terminated with the presentation to the Pennsylvania Legislature by the Governor of Mr. Mullin's admirable report, printed in two handsome octavo volumes, detailing the work of the board and the part taken by Pennsylvania in connection with the Centennial Exhibition. I now take up some incidents in the life of Mr. Mullin of a more private character than those already mentioned. 122 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. He had a fondness for military life. At Summerhill, about September, 1849, when only nineteen years old, he assisted in forming the Quitman Guards, a volunteer company, of which William M. Ott, who had been in the Mexican war, was elected captain. The company was organized by Major John Linton, of Johnstown, brigade inspector. Mr. Mullin was at first a private in the company but soon rose to be second lieutenant and then first lieutenant. He was offered the captaincy in 1852, which he was obliged to decline, as he was about to leave Summerhill for Ebensburg. William C. Barbour became captain of the company until it was disbanded a few years afterwards. The Quitman Guards always celebrated the national anniversaries with great spirit. I am reminded by Judge Pershing that Lieutenant Mullin delivered an oration on a 4th of July which the Guards assisted to celebrate and that it was published in one or more of the county newspapers. Many members of the Guards entered the Union army and rendered their country good service. Mr. Mullin possessed decided literary tastes and literary talent of a high order. When fourteen years old he wrote Whig campaign songs and negro melodies which are yet remembered in Bedford county. Throughout his whole life he wrote verses - humorous, satirical, lyrical, and elegiac. While at Ebensburg Mr. Mullin not only assisted in establishing The Alleghanian, which he edited with true journalistic insight for several years, but he also attached himself to a good literary society of which he long continued an active member and was frequently its presiding officer. The society maintained a literary paper, and of this Mr. Mullin was at various times the editor. In the pamphlet laws of 1866 and in his masterly Centennial report the tact and judgment of the born editor are plainly seen. He always wrote gracefully and rapidly, knew a good word from a bad one, and could quit when he was done. Mr. Mullin was an ardent lover of the English classics. Shakespeare and Dickens were his favorite authors, and he knew them well. He was well versed in the history of his country and was familiar with the careers of its leading men. When a boy Mr. Mullin evinced a strong passion for ALEXANDER CHESTERFIELD MULLIN. 123 sketching and painting, but this taste was but slightly gratified until years afterwards, when he painted in oil several pictures of much merit. I can not praise too highly his artistic achievements in ornamental penmanship. He was one of the best penmen who ever resided in Cambria county, and in purely ornamental work with the pen he had few, if any, superiors in the State. Mr. Mullin was a public-spirited citizen of Ebensburg while he lived there. At various times he served as a member of its school board and town council. In 1857 he was largely instrumental in creating the Cambria County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he was secretary and treasurer. He also rendered valuable assistance in securing in July, 1862, the completion of the Ebensburg Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the construction of which was commenced about 1858. This assistance he was enabled to give while a member of the Legislature in 1861. Of Mr. Mullin's legal abilities and legal attainments it is enough to say that he won deserved praise from the bench and the bar for the accuracy and neatness of all legal instruments which emanated from his hand. So well established was his reputation as a well-read lawyer, and as an accomplished expert in the preparation of legal documents, that in 1866 all the members of the bar of the twenty-fourth judicial district, embracing Cambria, Blair, and Huntingdon counties, signed a recommendation that he be appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The appointment, however, went to another. The social qualities of Mr. Mullin were of a very high order and he was greatly favored with rare opportunities for their development. When he went to Ebensburg, in addition to making acquaintance with the wit and learning of the bar, the medical fraternity was composed of Dr. William A. Smith, Dr. David W. Lewis, and Dr. William Lemon. Ezekiel Hughes, Edward Shoemaker, and Johnston Moore were leading business men. Major John Thompson kept the leading hotel of the place and his estimable family was then intact. Then there were the Noons, the Rheys, the Collinses, the McDonalds, and many other excellent families, embracing talented men and accomplished women.