BIO: P. Gray MEEK, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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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.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 24-25

P. GRAY MEEK, a citizen of Bellefonte, Centre county, and at present Surveyor of 
the Port at Philadelphia, has descended from a long line of ancestors, who were 
conspicuous in the early history of our country and of the State of 
Pennsylvania.
  The ancestral history of our subject appears in the sketch of Reuben H. Meek, 
his father.  For nearly forty years P. Gray Meek has edited and published the 
Watchman at Bellefonte, and been prominently identified with the public affairs 
of the Commonwealth.  He was born in Patton township, Centre county, Penn., July 
12, 1842.  His education was limited to that afforded by the common schools, and 
he began life as a school teacher at Lumber City, Clearfield county, in the 
winter of 1856-57.  The next year he was a clerk, then worked on a farm, and 
followed what he could find to do that would permit an honest living, until May, 
1861.  He then, though but a boy, became junior editor of the Democratic 
Watchman, then a four-page paper, six columns to the page, with a circulation of 
less than five hundred.  The paper had practically been abandoned by its owners 
on account of the bitter feeling that existed against Democratic journals, and 
young Meek found no easy task in satisfying his readers and keeping out of the 
clutches of the provost marshals.  His first articles attracted attention, and 
it was but a couple of months until the owners thought him too out-spoken and 
radical, and he was requested to resign his position.  He then returned to his 
father's farm, where he worked until July, 1862, when he managed to purchase a 
half interest in the paper, and assumed editorial control of it.  The paper 
itself, small and with a limited patronage; the most influential men of the 
party denouncing it as too radical and out-spoken; the merchants of the place 
refusing to give it their patronage; its youthful editor experienced the fact 
that he was on the unpopular side of public opinion, but believing himself right 
refused to allow these conditions to stifle his convictions, or change its 
policy, and gained a reputation for consistency and plainness of speech which 
eventually secured for his paper that success which has since attended it, and 
made his reputation as an editor.  Mr. Meek was not only a sententious but 
courageous writer, and during the Civil war the feeling toward him by those 
holding opposite views was exceedingly bitter and extreme, as was shown by the 
many arrests he was subjected to.  On one occasion he was arrested and taken 
before a justice of the peace in Bellefonte, charged with "high treason;" 
shortly after this a county grand jury presented him for publishing "improper 
political matter;" following these he was arrested on oath of provost marshals 
three different times, and taken before the United States Court at Pittsburg, 
for his out-spoken denunciation of the policy of the Republican administration.  
In all these cases, except the first, which was never heard of after being 
placed on the justice's docket, nolle prosses were entered by the courts.  In 
March, 1865, he was taken from his office, without notice and without any 
preferred charge, by a company of United States soldiers and incarcerated in the 
military prison at Harrisburg, from which he was released after taking an oath 
to return for trial when demanded, a requirement that was never enforced.
  His constituents never lost confidence in him, and in 1867, 1868, 1870, 1871, 
they elected him to the House of Representatives by large majorities.  While in 
the House he was instrumental in having an act requiring railroads to fence 
their lines in Centre county, or pay for the stock killed (known as the railroad 
fence law) and the lumberman's lien act passed, which added to his popularity 
with those classes of his section, as both of these measures have proven of 
material benefit to laboring men and farmers.  In 1872 he was secretary of the 
Democratic State Committee, and in 1873, 1875 and 1876, he had the indorsement 
of the county convention for State Senator.  He was defeated by ex-Gov. Curtin 
for the nomination for Congress in 1878 in Centre county, by two votes in the 
convention.  In 1882 he accepted the position of editorial secretary of the 
Democratic State Committee, and prepared the greater part of the documents for 
the campaign of 1882; and served as one of its secretaries, during the campaigns 
of 1883 and 1884.  He was elected chief clerk of the House of Representatives in 
January, 1883, and filled that position during the memorable regular and special 
sessions of that year.  As showing the manner in which he performed the duties 
of this position, we give, out of many of the same character, this single 
extract from one of the leading journals of the State:  "On Saturday last Mr. P. 
Gray Meek, chief clerk of the House of Representatives, completed the settlement 
of his ac-

[portrait]

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 25

counts, turned over to the Governor the remnant of the State's property in his 
charge, and left for his home.  In his departure he carried with him not only 
the consciousness of having discharged his duty with fidelity, but the respect 
alike of the members and citizens with whom his official duties brought him in 
contact.  During the protracted sessions in which Mr. Meek presided at the 
clerk's desk, covering a period of eleven months, he has been an intelligent and 
zealous champion of economy and reform.  He has been faithful to every 
obligation which the arduous duties of the office imposed."
  In 1890 Mr. Meek was elected to the Senate by a majority approximating 5,000.  
He was made a member of the committee on Appropriations, Banks, Insurance and 
Congressional Apportionment, and prepared the Congressional and Senatorial 
Apportionment bills presented and advocated by the Democrats.  His principal 
effort during this session was put forth to secure legislation taxing un-
naturalized persons for poor purposes.  At the session of 1893 he served on 
committees on Banks, Congressional Apportionment, Insurance, Legislative 
Apportionment, Public Printing and other committees, and again prepared the 
several Apportionment bills that his party presented and supported.  Before his 
term as senator expired he was (in February, 1894) appointed Surveyor of the 
Port at Philadelphia by President Cleveland, which position he continues to 
hold.  The following extracts from the press speak for themselves:
  "The well-rounded periods in the life of P. Gray Meek, the fighting editor of 
the Bellefonte Democratic Watchman, would fill a book and provide a good start 
for another one.  As legislator, senator and proprietor of the best known and 
thoroughly successful country weekly paper, his career has been one alternating 
storms and sunshine, for he is nothing if not aggressive, and his type of 
Democracy is founded on the ultra-Jacksonian standard, with a mixture of the 
Jeffersonian article.  To know Editor Meek is to know a clever and genial editor 
with an opinion and of sterling ability to back it up.  He has literally cut out 
his career from surroundings severely hostile in character, and whether in the 
right or wrong he has always had the courage of his convictions.
  "The Watchman, under the capable management of Senator Meek, has been a very 
creditable journal.  Its proprietor is a natural-born newspaper man, and a 
thorough believer in the principles of the Democratic party, and has been 
largely instrumental, in his career as a journalist, in keeping the party solid 
in party ranks.  His paper is regarded by the State newspaper fraternity as one 
of the best edited and finest printed weeklies in the Commonwealth.  It enjoys a 
large circulation throughout many of the different States of this country.  One 
of the finest and best-equipped job offices in Pennsylvania is connected with 
it, and the machinery of the entire plant is run by the water power from the 
springs, whose waters flow by the building.  Mr. Meek is assisted in the 
editorial work by his son, George R. Meek, who is a graduate of Pennsylvania 
State College, and a very able and forcible writer."
  In January, 1862, Mr. Meek was married to Miss Susan M., only daughter of 
George W. Meek, of Ferguson township, Centre county, and to them were born six 
children:  Rachel L., Mary Gray, Elizabeth Breckinridge, George R., Eloise and 
Winifred Barron.  The eldest daughter is associated with her father and brother 
in the conduct of the paper.  Elizabeth and Eloise are both graduates of the 
Bellefonte High School and of the Pennsylvania State College, as is also George 
R., the latter from the High School in 1886 and from the State College in 1890, 
and since 1893 he has been the managing editor of the Democratic Watchman.  The 
family adheres to the religious faith of their ancestors, that of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church.