BIO: John Blair LINN, Centre County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja and Marlene Ford Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/ _______________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898. _______________________________________________ COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 49-51 HON. JOHN BLAIR LINN, of Bellefonte, is one of Centre county's many men who have been called to positions of honor and trust in the public affairs of the State, which, together with his connection with works on local history and genealogy of Pennsylvania families, has given him a large acquaintance and a reputation not confined to the State. William Linn, his great-great-grandfather, emigrated from the North of Ireland, in 1732, and settled in Chester county, Penn. According to family tradition, his wife died in Ireland, and he brought with him an only son, William. They remained in Chester county but a few years, when, following the tide of emigration, they settled upon the frontier of the Purchase of October, 1736, near what is now known as Roxbury, in Franklin county. The names of William Linn, Sr., and William Linn., Jr., appear on the assessment list of Lurgan township, Cumberland county, for the year 1751, one year after the erection of Cumberland county (1750). Here the ancestor died, having nearly reached the one hundredth year of his age. His father fought on the side of "the Orange" at Boyne, July 1, 1690, and was said to have been in Capt. Hugh Wilson's company, the first Irish officer who crossed the river. William Linn, Jr., born in 1722 in Ireland, was an officer in Middle Spring Church. In June, 1755, he was in Philadelphia with his wagon, and with his team was pressed into the service to haul supplies to Gen. Braddock's army, and was present at the noted defeat. He died April 16, 1812, and is buried in the graveyard attached to Middle Spring Church. He was twice married; his first wife the one from whom our subject descended, was Susanna Trimble, who died, according to tradition, in Shippensburg, in November, 1755, where in consequence of an Indian raid the frontier inhabitants had gathered. The children by this union were William and John. The former, William (3) was born in Lurgan township February 27, 1752; graduated at Princeton, N.J., class of 1772; studied theology under Rev. Robert Cooper, D.D.; appointed chaplain of 5th and 6th Penn. Battalions February 15, 1776; pastor at Big Springs (now Newville), Cumberland county, until 1784; president of Washington College, Md., 1784-1785; pastor of Collegiate Dutch Church, N.Y., 1786-1808; the first chaplain of the House of Representatives, U.S., May 1, 1789. His published works are "Sermons, Historical and Characteristical," N.Y., 1791; "Signs of the Times," N.Y. 1794; "A Funeral Eulogy on Gen. Washington, delivered February 22, 1800, before the New York Society of Cincinnati;" "Sermon on the Death of Alexander Hamilton," etc. Shortly before his death Dr. Linn was elected president of Union College, Schenectady, but was never inaugurated. He died in Albany, N.Y., January 8, 1808. Dr. Linn married (first) January 10, 1774, Rebecca Blair, daughter of Rev. John Blair, vice-president of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, 1767-1768. John Linn, the other son of William Linn (2) by the first marriage, was born in Lurgan township, April 2, 1754. He came from Lurgan to Buffalo Valley (now Union county), Penn., in 1775; on November 7, 1780 he married Ann Fleming, born September 6, 1761, daughter of John and Ann Fleming, of Cumberland county. Their children were: Susanna married William Thompson; Ann married Andrew McBeth; William married Jane Morrow; John married Mary F. Chamberlin; Margaret married Joseph McCalmont; James F.: and Jemima (died unmarried). The parents of these children died, the father on March 18, 1809, and the mother on September 4, 1841. James F. Linn, next to the youngest child of John Linn, was born December 6, 1802. He worked on the farm at his mother's until 1818. Later he attended school at Milton, and in 1823 began reading law under the direction of James Merrill. He was admitted to the Bar in 1826 and began the practice of his profession at Lewisburg, which place he made his residence throughout life. Beside the profession of law, he was practical surveyer and very fond of it, which went well with his legal profession in matters of settlements of estates and in the land law trials. He made copies of all surveys, and preserved a copy of every one he made; the copies were in a book, and the others were all filed away separately into townships and counties, and all were indexed in a pass- book, so that a stranger could turn to them and understand. There are over six hundred, and they are a complete history of the early transfers, and many titles would be explicable without them. He also preserved a memorandum of every business transaction in which he was engaged. The little slips of paper on which the calculations and memorandums of the transactions happened to be made, were all gathered up and put away with the case. He kept a common pleas docket, copied precisely from the prothonotary's docket, in which there was no entry except what was to be found there, collection docket, a brief book, issue lits; in fine, from 1826 to the day he did his last, there is in his office a history of his business. He was an accurate and careful lawyer. He was learned in his profession, and withal, in the early part of his life carried with it his reading of poetry and history; in later life he was much devoted to theology. He was a Democrat, along with the old Democrats of Jefferson, Jackson, and Martin VanBuren, became an Abolitionist, voted for Birney, and lived to see the day when his favorite themes-Temperance and Abolition of Slavery-were triumphant. He was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, and with all his dignity and apparent austerity very friendly to all the amusements of life. His death occurred October 8, 1869. Mr. Linn married July 20, 1826, Margaret I. Wilson, daughter of Hugh Wilson (4) and Catherine Irvine, and their children were: Mary I, married Rev Henry Harbaugh, D.D.; Wilson I married Elizabeth Brown; John Blair is our subject; J. Merrill married Mary E. Billmeyer; Oliver D. died young; Anne C married Dr. John S. Angle; Laura S. was the first wife of Dr. John S. Angle. Hugh Wilson (4) was the great-grandson of Thomas Wilson, and was a native of Northampton county, Penn., born October 21, 1761; died on his farm near Lewisburg, Penn., October 9, 1845. He served a number of tours during the Revolution as a militiaman, under Col. Nicholas Kern, and removed to Buffalo Valley (now Union county), Penn., and kept store at Lewisburg, 1798-1804. He married February 17, 1790. Catherine Irvine, born November 16, 1758, died August 21, 1835, daughter of Capt. William Irvine, of the Revolution. Thomas Wilson, from whom Hugh is the fourth generation, was an officer in King William's army, among the first to cross the river Boyne, on horseback on the morning of July 1, 1690. He was specially rewarded, for his bravery; with a grand of land. He resided in County Cavan, Ireland, having an extensive bleach- green within a mile of Coote Hill, not far from the county town. His ancestors had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland. Thomas had one son Hugh, born in 1689, in County Cavan, Ireland; married Sarah Craig, in Ireland; emigrated to America and settled in the "Irish Settlement" as early as 1736. His home lay northwest of what is now known as Howertown, in Allen township, Northampton Co., Penn. His land comprises 730 acres. He erected a flouring-mill which was torn down as late as the spring of 1857. Upon the erection of Northampton county, in 1752, he was commissioned one of the justices of the peace for the county. His last commission as justice was issued March 15, 1766. His death occurred in the autumn of 1773, and his remains rest in the old graveyard at the settlement. John Blair Linn was born at Lewisburg, Penn., October 15, 1831, and inherited his inclination to genealogy and local history from his father, James F. Linn, whose memorandums and newspaper files were the sources from which much of whatever is valuable in the "Annals of Buffalo Valley" was derived. He was prepared for college at the Lewisburg Academy, under John Robinson, Esq., late of the Philadelphia Bar; entered Marshall College at Mercersburg, Penn., in May, 1846 (sophomore class), half advanced, where he graduated at the age of seventeen in the same class with the Hon. Charles A. Mayer, some years ago president judge of Clinton and Centre counties. He read law in his father's office, and was admitted to the Bar September 16, 1851. The years 1852 and 1853 he spent in Sullivan county, which had just been opened out, where he was elected district attorney. He returned to Union county in 1854, where he practiced his profession until his removal to Bellefonte, in April 1871. On April 10, 1873, he was appointed deputy secretary of the Commonwealth by the Hon. M.S. Quay, and May 15, 1878, upon the resignation of Mr. Quay, he was commissioned Secretary of the Commonwealth, in which incumbency he remained until after Gov. Hoyt was inaugurated, and then returned to Bellefonte. Mr. Linn and Dr. Egle were made editors of the Second Series of Pennsylvania Archives, the publication of which was recommended by Gov. Hartranft in his annual message, January 7, 1874, and they were issued in twelve volumes, under Mr. Quay's supervision. In 1879 Mr. Linn published the "Annals of Buffalo Valley," a local work embracing the history of Union county principally. It is a book of 620 pages, replete with interest, though largely local, and involved an immense amount of painstaking labor. While he was Secretary of the Commonwealth, there was published under his direction "Duke of York's laws, 1676-82; and Laws of the Province, 1682-1700." In 1882 he edited a "History of Centre and Clinton counties" in a handsome volume of nearly 700 pages, which has preserved all that is of value of "Men and things in these counties" in a readable and entertaining shape. Mr. Linn has not only inherited from his father his inclination to genealogy and local history, but also that same methodical and systematic manner of looking after his business affairs, and that same sense of right, justice and honor and Christian manhood-characteristic of his father-is posses by him. He is an exemplary citizen, known and beloved by all. His work in the line of history and genealogy has been one of labor and love-he being fond of research and investigation. He possesses that love of books, and a literary taste that has been characteristic of a distinguished ancestry. He is identified with the Presbyterian Church. Politically he is a Republican. During the war of the Rebellion he was a patriot, and served his country. Mr. Linn was twice married; (first) October 22, 1857 to Julia J. Pollock, born February 2, 1831, daughter of F. W. Pollock, of Milton, Penn., and their children were: Sarah P. G., born April 9, 1859; and Bessie W., born September 13, 1860. Was married (second) to Mary E.D. Wilson, daughter of Samuel Hunter and Mary Benner Wilson, and their children are: Mary H., born July 26, 1869, and Henry Sage, born January 18, 1873, at Bellefonte, Penn. The latter is a member of the Society of Cincinnati. He is associated in the office with his father under whom he is preparing himself for the profession of the law. A well- educated, bright, genial and affable young man, he surely has before him a promising future.