Cambria County Pioneers, 1910, by James L. Swank, Cambria County, PA - Samuel Bell McCormick 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. 124 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. SAMUEL BELL McCORMICK. COMMUNICATED TO THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE IN APRIL, 1901, DURING MR. McCORMICK'S LIFETIME. RECENT references in the columns of the Tribune to the old-time schools and school teachers of Johnstown and its vicinity prompt me to compile from data in my possession the leading facts in the career of Samuel Bell McCormick, a noted teacher of fifty years ago in Johnstown. S. B. McCormick, as he has always written his name, was born on a farm a short distance south of what is now Larimer Station, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, in Westmoreland county, on June 18, 1817. His father, Andrew McCormick, was a native of the north of Ireland and came to this country with his father, John McCormick, and the remainder of the family in 1790, when he was six years old. The McCormicks came directly from Ireland to Larimer with a large colony of Scotch-Irish, the Griers, the Baxters, the Boyds, the Irwins, and others. They built a church on Matthew Osborn's land, and there are yet in the church-yard forty tombstones of McCormicks, although the church was torn down long ago. S. B. McCormick's mother, whose maiden name was Ann Campbell, the daughter of James Campbell, at one time a rich and prosperous Philadelphia merchant, was born in Philadelphia in 1786. The Campbells were also Scotch-Irish, James Campbell coming from the north of Ireland to this country before the Revolution. In course of time James Campbell, with his family, also moved to Western Pennsylvania, the Campbells finally settling in the Redstone settlement on the Monongahela river. We give these details partly to illustrate the prominence of the Scotch-Irish element in the early settlement of Western Pennsylvania. Andrew McCormick became the owner of a piece of land near Larimer Station. From the Larimer farm Mr. Mc- SAMUEL BELL McCORMICK. 125 Cormick's father moved to Murrysville, where the family resided for seven years. Thence Andrew McCormick moved to Warsaw, in Jefferson county, in 1835, and died there. S. B. McCormick was almost wholly self-educated. He was never a student at either a college or an academy. Gifted with an acute intellect, ambitious, and studious, he was not satisfied with the limited opportunities afforded by the subscription schools of his day and aspired to better things. He studied geometry with his oldest brother, Latin with a preacher named Marshall and with the Reverend W. W. Woodend, Greek with Thomas B. Keenan, and astronomy without any assistance except that which he first obtained from a "geography of the heavens." When Mr. McCormick was a young man land surveying was one of the learned professions; a surveyor of farms and roads was a person of consequence; so S. B. McCormick studied surveying with an expert surveyor in Brookville, Jefferson county, after the family had removed to that county. But prior to going to Jefferson county Mr. McCormick began in Westmoreland county his life work as a teacher. S. B. McCormick's father was an Associate Reformed Presbyterian, and having many religious books the son was posted in Bible history and theological questions. For a time, soon after he had commenced teaching, he was a member of Dr. David Kirkpatrick's Bible class at Poke Run Presbyterian church. In 1840 Mr. McCormick taught school near New Alexandria, Westmoreland county. One of his pupils was the present Judge A. D. McConnell, of Greensburg, who learned his A B C's at Mr. McCormick's knee. About 1844 Mr. McCormick began the study of law with Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns, of Greensburg, at one time a Whig member of Congress, and was admitted to the Westmoreland bar on September 3, 1846. On September 5, 1846, he was married to Eliza Kemp and moved to Ligonier, where he taught school, practiced law, and started a newspaper. In 1852, with his wife and two children, he moved to Johnstown and began his career as a Cambria county teacher. From that time until his removal to California in 1874 he taught school at Johnstown and Millville, except during a period 126 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. of five years when he served as superintendent of common schools for Cambria county. Mr. McCormick lives at Oakdale, Stanislaus county, California, where for many years he was a local magistrate, with the honorary title of judge. He taught school for two years at Oakdale. His son, Winfield Scott McCormick, had preceded him to Oakdale. Mr. McCormick's long career as a teacher in Johnstown was a most honorable one. Thoroughly understanding all the branches of study that were embraced in the sensible common-school course of those days he was very successful in leading his classes up the hill of science and in developing in hundreds of boys and girls who are now getting to be old men and women the ambition to do their best in the school-room and in the wider spheres which they were soon to enter. For several years he was superintendent of the Johnstown schools. He was also principal of the Millville schools for three or four years. He had a special liking for astronomy and often lectured upon this subject. In November, 1852, soon after his removal from Ligonier to Johnstown, and while teaching at the head of Main street, Mr. McCormick undertook the publication of a weekly Whig newspaper, The Cambrian, which he continued until about the close of the political campaign in the fall of 1853, when its publication was discontinued. The printing materials were owned by some of the leading Whigs of the town. The Cambria Tribune was established in December, 1853, immediately after Mr. McCormick's retirement. With a decided literary bent and possessed of considerable skill as a newspaper controversialist Mr. McCormick could not successfully teach school and edit a newspaper, either at Ligonier or Johnstown, nor could anybody. The common school system of Pennsylvania was not fully developed until 1854, on May 8 of which year an act of the General Assembly was approved by Governor William Bigler which established the office of county superintendent. The act took effect the same year. Robert L. Johnston was the first superintendent for Cambria county and Mr. McCormick was the second. I copy below from the official record a list of the persons who have held this office in Cambria county from 1854 to the present time. SAMUEL BELL McCORMICK. 127 Robert L. Johnston, elected; commissioned July 5, 1854; resigned in 1855; salary per annum, $400. S. B. McCormick, appointed; commissioned October 6, 1855; salary, $400. S. B. McCormick, elected for three years; commissioned June 3, 1857; salary, $800. Thomas A. Maguire, elected; commissioned July 17, 1860; salary, $800. James M. Swank, appointed; commissioned February 7, 1861; resigned in November, 1861; salary, $800. Wm. A. Scott, appointed; commissioned January 4, 1862; salary, $800; resigned to enter the Union army; killed at Fredericksburg. Henry Ely, appointed; commissioned August 13, 1862; salary, $800. J. Frank Condon, elected; commissioned June 1, 1863; salary, $800; J. Frank Condon, re-elected; commissioned June 4, 1866; salary, $1,000; resigned in 1867. T. J. Chapman, appointed; commissioned October 1, 1867. T. J. Chapman, elected; commissioned June 4, 1869; salary, $1,000. T. J. Chapman, re-elected; commissioned June 6, 1872; salary, $1,000. Hartman Berg, elected; commissioned June 7, 1875; salary, $1,000; re-elected; commissioned June, 1878. L. Strayer, elected; commissioned June, 1881; salary fixed by the number of schools, which varied the amount of salary each year, averaging about $1,100; re-elected June, 1884. W. J. Cramer, elected June, 1887; salary, $1,500. Superintendent Cramer died on January 23, 1888, and J. W. Leech was appointed and commissioned to fill the unexpired term. J. W. Leech was elected and commissioned June, 1890; salary, $1,500; re-elected June, 1893; salary, $1,700. T. L. Gibson, elected and commissioned June, 1896; salary, $1,700; re-elected June, 1899; salary, $1,700. It will be seen from the above record that Mr. McCormick served as county superintendent for five years. The services rendered by him in this office were important and valuable. Other superintendents have done good work, but he was virtually the pioneer in a position of great opportunities and of great responsibility. He was industrious, enthusiastic, tactful, and capable. It was his lot not only to popularize his own office and its authority but the common school system itself. To accomplish these results he visited every school district in the county and became personally acquainted with directors and taxpayers as well as teachers; 128 CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS. he visited the schools and made interesting speeches to the children; his oral examinations of applicants for teachers' certificates were always fair and were held in nearly every town and township in the county and in the presence of citizens and taxpayers. He thus demonstrated the usefulness of his office. He inspired others with his own enthusiasm. He encouraged the holding of school exhibitions in every school district and he personally attended most of them. These exhibitions, which usually took place in the spring of the year, joined to his personal participation in them, had a marvelous effect in creating and sustaining an interest in common schools in Cambria county. Taxes for their support were more freely paid, better methods of instruction were introduced, better teachers were employed, better school-houses were built, and a healthier tone pervaded all educational conditions. Mr. McCormick's term of office expired just as the mutterings of civil strife came up from the South, and there was subsequently much demoralization in the administration of the schools of Cambria county, as elsewhere, but this demoralization did not long continue. Mr. McCormick's good work was not lost. In a letter which I have recently received from Mr. McCormick he writes that he still does some literary work and that not long ago he contributed to a local newspaper a series of twelve articles on his favorite science of astronomy. Two children and several grandchildren are either with him or are not far away. A married daughter, Lenore, now lives in Germantown, Pennsylvania. _____________________________________________________________________________ Mr. McCormick died on May 1, 1903, at Oakdale, Stanislaus county, California, and was buried in the Union cemetery at that place. He was 85 years, 10 months, and 13 days old - a good old age.