NEWS: Cambria Freeman; Ebensburg, Cambria Cnty., PA; Feb 1908 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria -------------------------------------------------------------------- Cambria Freeman Ebensburg, Pa. Friday, 7 Feb 1908 Volume 42, Number 5 Local and Personal Charles Kelley of Altoona spent Monday in Ebensburg on business. Joseph G. Thomas of Cambria Township paid THE FREEMAN office a pleasant call. Miss Katie Venatley of the Bender Hotel spent from Saturday till Tuesday with her parents at Patton. Editor Miller of the Barnesboro STAR was in Ebensburg Wednesday and paid THE FREEMAN a pleasant visit. John Makin of Altoona visited his mother, Mrs. Harry Makin in the West ward from Wednesday until Thursday. Mrs. A. J. Bender, wife of landlord Bender of the Bender Hotel, has been quite ill for several days with a bad cold. Ex-Sheriff Joseph A. Gray of Spangler spent Wednesday in Ebensburg on business and while here dropped in to pay his compliments to THE FREEMAN. Joseph Rainey, a well known business man of Lilly, and Mrs. Bernard McDermitt and Mrs. McDermitt's sister, Miss Eger, visited the court house on business on Wednesday. D. R. Miller, a prominent citizen of Portage, was in Ebensburg on business Wednesday. Mr. Miller has recently purchased a store business in Summerhill and will move his family to that place in the near future. Miss Susan Gallaher, formerly of Allegheny Township, now of Beaver Falls, recently suffered a paralytic stroke and as she is far advanced in years - she being about 70 years of age - little hope of her recovery is entertained. Harvey Tibbott, who was injured in the blaze in his drug store Tuesday, is getting along as well as could be expected. At the time fears were expressed that he possibly suffered internal injuries by the flames, but this is not the case. Ex-Judge A. V. Barker of this place is not expected home from his winter trip to the Bahama Islands until about March 10. The Judge has been in the West Indies for about a month and writes that he has never enjoyed life as well as he is doing now. He has made several of these winter trips of late years. His daughter, Miss Helen, accompanied him on the present pleasant outing. Pensions for All Widows of Soldiers Those interested have been notified that the House has, with but one dissenting vote, passed a general widows' pension bill, granting a flat pension of $12 a month to the widows of all honorably discharged soldiers of the United States who have not heretofore received the benefits of the pension law. It proves an increase of $4 a month for those who have received $8 a month under the act of June 27, 1890. The law expressly waives the limitation of property holdings. The bill involves the expenditure of more than $12,000,000 annually. Bartender Loses a Leg in Accident Taken to the Johnstown Hospital and Mangled Limb was Amputated Joseph Kessler, employed by Philip Haftmann as a bartender at the Merchant's Hotel in South Fork, slipped and fell under the Johnstown Accommodation as it was leaving the South Fork station Wednesday evening, had his leg so badly mangled that amputation of the member was found necessary after he had been taken to the Memorial Hospital for treatment. Mr. Kessler and his companion, Chas. Turner, started across the Pennsylvania tracks at the South Fork station just as the accommodation train pulled up to the platform. The train was late and the stop consequently a short one as there were few passengers to let off or take on. Just as the train started, Mr. Turner succeeded in reaching one of the steps but Mr. Kessler slipped with his left leg on the rail and the member was badly crushed. A brakeman on the train saw the accident and pulled the bell rope just in time to save Mr. Turner from being ground to pieces. The injured man was placed on the same train and taken to the Johnstown hospital by the Messrs. Charles Turner, Michael Hughes, George Bacon, and William Moore. Mr. Kessler, who is middle-aged, is a widower, his wife having died a few months ago. He formerly ran a hotel in the Seventh ward of Johnstown. Several sisters are employed at the Vendrome Hotel at Market and Washington streets, that city. The Kessler family formerly resided at Cokeville, Westmoreland County, across the Conemaugh river from Blairsville. Fire in Tibbott's Drug Store What might have resulted in a disastrous conflagration in Ebensburg had it not been promptly extinguished by the use of chemicals occurred in Harvey Tibbott's drug store on High street on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Tibbott was handling a large bottle of alcohol in the prescription room which exploded by reason of the expansion of the liquid which, scattering around an oil stove, instantly ignited, burning Mr. Tibbott's hands and face considerably and setting fire to the place. The fire alarm was sounded but before the fire company had time to get to the place, the fire had been extinguished. Mr. Tibbott's injuries are more serous than they were at first thought to be. The two middle fingers of his right hand having been seriously lacerated by the bursting bottle, the alcohol left on his hand taking fire from the flames of burning vapor, seriously burning that member and at the same time, the flames burned his face and nostrils quite seriously. Fortunately, however, he did not inhale any of the fire. The Recent Blizzard The blizzard that struck the Allegheny Mountains on Wednesday evening of last week was one of the most severe that has been known in recent years, the thermometer dropping in several places in the county from 10 to 15 degrees below zero and the snow that fell from Saturday morning until Monday evening blockaded the public highways in many localities in the county especially on Tunnelhill where it is said the drifts were seven feet. The funeral of Mrs. Lincoln Roberts, which was set for Sunday afternoon in Lloyd's cemetery had to be postponed until Monday after Roadmaster Jack Jones of Cambria Township had a force of men and six teams opening the road South of town to the Summerhill Township line on Monday forenoon and roadmaster F. H. Leahey doubtless had to perform a like service in Summerhill Township so that the funeral could take place on Monday afternoon. Rev. J. Twyson Jones of the Congregational Church, Ebensburg, who held services at the home of the deceased, says that it was one of the two roughest days that he has ever been called upon to perform a similar duty during his pastorate in Ebensburg. Last night Joseph Bengele of Gallitzin phoned that the snow had drifted up to the second story windows on Tunnelhill. A Bastardly Outrage County Detective J. L. Berkebile on Monday night brought to jail in this place one Harry McGonigle of Lilly, charged with committing on the person of Miss Sweeney, better known as Aunt Sally - an aged and respected resident of Lilly who lives in a small house on her own property on the south bank of Bare Rock Run near Fletcher's Opera House on Saturday evening about 9 o'clock. Miss Sweeney, who lives alone notwithstanding the importunities of her friends to make their home with them had left her house for a few minutes to get a bucket of coal and in her absence, young McGonigle, it is alleged, entered her home and when she returned, she was assaulted by the young man and thrown to the floor and choked into insensibility when the hellish crime was perpetrated. On Monday F. C. George, nephew of the unfortunate lady came to Ebensburg and made an information against him and the same evening Detective Berkebile and officer Logan of the State Constabulary at Portage arrested Harry McGonigle and his brother, who were taken before Miss Sweeney who recognized Harry McGonigle as her assailant, notwithstanding his persistent denial to the contrary. Letters Lately Issued Estate of H. F. Shank, late of Adams Township. Will probated and letters testamentary issued to Lydia Shank. Estate of Bennett E. Weakland, late of Carroll Township. Letters of administration issued to Rebecca Weakland. Negro Lodged in Jail H. T. Nugent of the State Constabulary of Portage was in Ebensburg today and brought to jail William Friday, colored, for cutting another colored man named Thomas Clark. The two men got into an altercation yesterday at the shaft near Portage about money matters when Friday drew a knife and cut Clark several times in the shoulder, inflicting severe but not necessarily fatal wounds. In default of $500 bail, Squire Flinn of Portage committed Friday to jail to await trial at March term of court. Doings of 50 Years Ago! Through the courtesy of M. D. Kittell, Esq., we are enabled to present to our readers extracts from THE MOUNTAINEER, a paper that was started in Ebensburg on February 4, 1858, by certain opponents of the Administration of President Buchanan on account of the attitude of the Administration relative to the admission of Kansas as a state in the Union and in support of the views of the Hon. Stephen A. Douglass, of Illinois, subsequently in 1860 the true Democratic candidate for President, John C. Breckenridge, Vice President under Buchanan and an avowed pro-slavery Democrat; Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, the Republican candidate and Bell, the Union candidate. THE DEMOCRAT AND SENTINEL – a merger of THE DEMOCRAT and the MOUNTAIN SENTINEL which latter paper had been started in Ebensburg in 1852 by Richard White of Hemlock, now Lilly – then under control of White was a pronounced administration paper, hence the necessity for the calling into existence of THE MOUNTAINEER, the third paper of that name that had a habitation in Ebensburg, the first having been established about the beginning of the year 1837 by William B. Conway, who as a friend of liberty, a writer and poet, never had a superior in Pennsylvania as his editorial writing and his poems especially his "The Bribed Legislator" will amply prove. Conway was appointed Secretary to the territorial governor of Iowa in the beginning of 1838 and his MOUNTAINEER suspended. At the fall election in 1838 the draft of a new constitution was submitted to the people for adoption or rejection and as this proposed constitution was published in every county and as the State administration was then in the hands of the Anti-Masonic or "Whig Party" with "Uncle Joe Ritner" as governor, a paper under the auspices of that party was published in Ebensburg, the late Hon. John Fenlon doing most of the editorial work. It was simply a business proposition sustained by the money received for publishing the Constitution, which having been done and Governor Ritner having been defeated for re-election that year, THE MOUNTAINEER, - The Whig Mountaineer – died a natural death on the uncongenial political soil of Cambria County. THE MOUNTAINEER from which we propose for the coming few years to publish extracts from time to time – weekly if possible – was the second MOUNTAINEER to advocate Democratic principles in this county and the logical precursor of THE CAMBRIA FREEMAN. THE MOUNTAINEER was a four-page, six-column paper, 19 inches to the column. On the first page appears above the first column the names, P. S. Noon, Editor and Proprietor; D. C. Zahm, Publisher. Notwithstanding this avowal of responsibility, however, it is pretty generally understood that Philip Collins, Robert L. Johnston, Esq. and several other prominent Democrats of that time financed this journalistic venture. Philip S. Noon was one of the most brilliant and able lawyers that Cambria County ever produced while Mr. Zahm was a printer of mechanical skill and efficiency as his work, as seen in THE MOUNTAINEER will amply attest. After some time Zahm's name disappears and that of R. Litzinger take its place as publisher. From August 1860 until August 1861 John Lloyd published the paper, after which time it suspended publication, the election of Lincoln and the consequent elimination of the Breckenridge faction from the Democratic party having once more united the Democrats of Cambria County, having made necessity of two papers at the county seat unnecessary. The first page of the paper is almost exclusively occupied by the publication of a historical lecture entitled, "The Mountain County," delivered before The Ebensburg Literary Society, a short time previously by Robert L. Johnstown, Esq.; to write a synopsis of which for publication this week will not permit but which will be attended to hereafter. Suffice it to say that notwithstanding some errors in matters of historical facts from which no historian can claim exemption, the lecture was a most valuable and interesting contribution to the historical literature of the time in which it was delivered. On the second page of THE MOUNTAINEER we find the Salutatory and considerable editorial matter, the great issue of the day being the admission of Kansas as a State, whether a free state or a slave state was yet to be determined, the pro-slavery element having held a convention at Lecompton and framed a proposed constitution providing for the admission of the Territory as a slave state and the anti-slavery people having framed at Topeka another proposed constitution providing for its admission as a free state, subject of course to its ratification by the people of the Territory. This party was championed by Senator Stephen A. Douglass of Illinois, the William J. Bryan of that time whose views THE MOUNTAINEER most warmly and ably advocated against, the DEMOCRAT AND SENTINEL, the Buchanan-Breckenridge war began. SALUTATORY [first paragraph faded] THE MOUNTAINEER will be particularly devoted to the interest of the people of the MOUNTAIN COUNTY and we will publish all local items of importance and use all diligence in procuring them. As local news, we will publish the proceedings of all public meetings, of whatever party or denomination, also all original essays, lectures, etc. etc., reserving, however, the right to comment. Our columns will always be open for communications on all proper subjects but each one must be attended with the name of the person sending it. If not published, we will return it. In politics THE MOUNTAINEER will be emphatically Democratic. Reared in the party, it will require no effort to for us to submit to the rules of the organization. Under all honest circumstances we will strictly conform to the well and wisely established usage of supporting regular nominees and our Paper shall never be controlled by any clique or faction. "Principals not men" has always been the platform of Democracy and upon it we are willing to stand or fall. Each MOUNTAINEER will contain a synopsis of the Congressional and Legislative proceedings and of Foreign News for the preceding week. Occasionally an article on Agriculture, a select or original tale. In a word, it will contain everything which may be thought worthy of public interest and is a fit subject for publication. The first column of the third page of the paper was devoted to "Local and Personal" items and notices, many of which were of considerable length and laudatory to effusiveness. On this page also were notices of the marriages of Peter Masterson of Johnstown to Ellen McCann of Ebensburg by the pastor of the then St. Patrick's – now the Holy Name - Catholic Church of Ebensburg, Rev. M. J. Mitchell; and also the marriage of John Howells and Anna Jones by Rev. Jones. The deaths of Evan Roberts, at the home of his son-in-law, David Davis in Ebensburg and of Patrick Ivory of Allegheny Township and a child named John Morgan of Jackson Township. The publication of the Auditors Settlement also appears on this page, from which it appears that the county treasurer was that year charged with the $22,506.31¼, state tax, $4,266.77 and of poor tax, $6,291.25. A. Little, Thomas McConnell and John Bearer were the county commissioners and Daniel Cobaugh, Edward Farren and Rees J. Lloyd, the county auditors. The poor house directors signing the statement were Edward Glass and David O'Hara. The expenses of the poor house at that settlement was given at $9,033.22 but of this amount there was paid as part payment for the building of the poor house, $4,704.60 and on the poor farm, $1013.57. This page also contained the cards of attorneys, of dissolution of partnership of Jacob Stahl and Cham Roberts and the card of Miss Aline McGuire, announcing a select school in the Academy building. Mrs. Maguire's maiden name was Roderigne, a sister of Dr. Aristides Roderigne, the physician of Father Gallitzin. She and her sister, Evaline, afterwards Mrs. R. L. Johnston, early in the fifties opened a select school for girls in Ebensburg in which French was taught as one of the Branches. Both were highly accomplished ladies. Dissolution The partnership heretofore existing between Jacob Stahl and C. Thomas Roberts, in the clock, watch and jewelry business, is this day dissolved by mutual consent. All persons knowing themselves indebted to the late firm, either by note or book account, are hereby notified to come forward and pay up before the first day of March, otherwise their accounts will be left in the hands of the proper officer. The business will still be carried on at the old stand by C. Thos. Roberts where the books are placed for collection. [Signed] Stahl & Roberts February 4, 1858 Mr. Roberts also publishes a notice of continuation of the business. A Card Mrs. Aline Maguire's Select School at the Ebensburg Academy is open for the admission of pupils in addition to the usual branches, French, and Music, with the use of the Piano will be taught. February 4, 1858 [next two paragraphs faded] The fourth page of the paper contains a lengthy poem entitled, "The Mother of the Gracchi;" a four column article entitled "Baldness in Statesmanship" from the DEMOCRATIC REVIEW; and an opinion of Chief Justice Taney; that gold and silver could never become the currency of the country so along as the notes of private banks or even of State banks were allowed to circulate as currency. The First Issue of THE FREEMAN Among many other newspapers of bygone days, M. D. Kittell, Esq., has preserved the first copy of The Cambria Freeman, Vol. I, Number 1, bearing date Thursday, January 31, 1867. It is a four page, 6-column paper and is a model of neatness and accuracy. The late Hon. Robert L. Johnston, a writer of considerable ability and a poet of marked distinction was the editor and Henry A. McPike, previously publisher of THE CRUSADER, a Catholic paper published at Summit, this county, in the early Fifties and afterwards of THE MOUNTAIN ECHO, Johnstown, was the publisher. Mr. McPike afterwards became editor and proprietor of the paper as well as publisher, subsequently selling out to J. G. Hasson, from whom it passed into the hands of the present management. On the editorial page is published the salutatory almost a column in length defining the policy of the new paper which was brought into existence to supply the want of a Democratic paper at the county seat made necessary by the suspension a couple of months previously of THE DEMOCRAT & SENTINEL, a merger of two newspapers as the name implies, the closing paragraph of which we quote as it is as true of THE CAMBRIA FREEMAN today as it ever was: "Truth shall be our pole star, far in the language of the poet. He is a FREEMAN whom the truth makes free And all are slaves beside And with this anchor, THE FREEMAN fearlessly launches forth on the sea of public opinion." After selling THE FREEMAN about the beginning of the year, 1884, Mr. McPike in company with several others, started the ALTOONA TIMES. He is now, or was lately, in the government printing office, Washington D. C. THE FREEMAN is now in its forty-second volume and the prospect for its future is highly encouraging. It is here to stay if an honest advocacy of Democratic principles and an earnest endeavor to give its readers all legitimate news shall be deemed worthy of support by its patrons, whose rights and those of all others it shall ever defend to the best of its ability. Former Altoona Official Dies Altoona, Pa., Feb. 6 -- E. B. Seedenburg, ex-chief of police of this city, is dead, age fifty- two.