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Valley Spirit: July 27, 1870 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper compares John Cessna and William M'Lellan, both of whom left one party for another. Cessna left the Democrats for the Republicans while M'Lellan left the Republicans for the Democrats. The editors argue that Cessna acted out of love for power, but M'Lellan acted out of principle.

North Ward Delegate Meeting
(Column 01)

Summary: The Democratic Delegate meeting for the North Ward will be held Saturday at the Washington Hotel.

South Ward Delegate Meeting
(Column 01)

Summary: The Democratic delegate meeting for the South Ward will be held on Saturday at the Hotel of Samuel R. Boyd.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Columbus Lodge No. 76, International Order of Odd Fellows, will hold a picnic at Brown's Mill. The Cumberland Valley Railroad is issuing excursion tickets.

Over Come by the Heat
(Column 01)

Summary: George J. Mason, Messenger of the National Bank, suffered a case of sun stroke in the intense heat. He is not seriously ill. The temperature reached 100 degrees on Monday.
(Names in announcement: George J. Mason)

Franklin County
(Column 01)

Summary: Praises the great agricultural wealth of Franklin County but calls on businessmen to exploit the vast mineral wealth of the county too, especially iron and coal.

Full Text of Article:

On account of the productiveness of her soil, Franklin always has ranked among the wealthy counties of Pennsylvania. It is to agriculture almost exclusively that she owes her rank. Of manufactories she has but few, and of the vast quantity of valuable ore now known to exist within her limits, very little use has heretofore been made. From present indications, however, the day can not be very far distant when Franklin will take her place among the leading iron-making counties of the State. Recent explorations have shown that iron ore of the best quality abounds not only along the foot of the South mountain and the Tuscarora, but also in the heart of the valley, at no great distance from Chambersburg.

This town ought to become a great iron-manufacturing point. No better sites for Furnaces can be found anywhere than on the west side of the Conocochengue, from the bridge at King street down to the "turnhole." The waste water of the Falling Spring would suffice to supply a large number of establishments. Nothing that can be hoped for here would do half as much for us as would the erection of extensive Iron Works in our midst. Add this source of prosperity to our agricultural resources, and Franklin would soon excel any county of her size in the State for wealth.

Could not something be done to induce men of capital in other parts of the State to erect Iron Works here? It would "pay" our business men and property owners to raise a purse and purchase a site and present it to any Company in Philadelphia, Reading, Lancaster, or other place possessed of capital and skill, who would build a Furnace on it. To our water and our ore we have reason to believe there will soon be added cheap coal, through an extension of the Southern Pennsylvania Railroad westward from Loudon to Broad Top. Will not some of our active citizens "lay their heads together" and see whether something can not be done to secure the erection of Iron Works at this place?

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The United Brethren will hold a meeting at Carrick Furnace near Fannettsburg on September 3rd. The Rev. Z. A. Colestock will preside.
(Names in announcement: Rev. Z. A. Colestock)

Appointed Viewer
(Column 02)

Summary: Col. William Dixon will replace W. S. Amberson as assessor of damage claims along the line of the Southern Pennsylvania Railroad. The other viewers are also listed.
(Names in announcement: Col. William Dixon, W. S. Amberson, Benjamin Snively, Adam B. Wingert, William Bossert, James C. Austin, W. W. Britton, Joseph Gilmore)

The Balloon Ascension
(Column 02)

Summary: John A. Light successfully ascended in a hot-air balloon from the Diamond in Chambersburg last Saturday afternoon. "The concourse of spectators was very large. We have seldom seen so many of our country people in town at any one time." Mr. Light landed safely about two miles from Strasburg.
(Names in announcement: John A. Light)

Cemetery for Colored People
(Column 02)

Summary: Supports the efforts to allot land for a new cemetery for local blacks. In a departure from its usual treatment of blacks, the editor calls the black men entrusted with the money and land intelligent and respected.
(Names in announcement: T. B. Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, Henry Monks, Ceaser Ball, Asken Hall)

Full Text of Article:

The colored people of Chambersburg have for some time past experienced considerable inconvenience from the want of a suitable place to bury their dead. The small graveyards attached to their churches have long since been full to overflowing, and they have been excluded from Cedar Grove Cemetery and other burial places of the whites. Through the benevolence of T. B. Kennedy, Esq., and of Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. M'Lellan, this want of the colored people is now about to be supplied. Mr. Kennedy has donated to them a piece of land containing about one acre, and Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. M'Lellan have rendered them some much-needed assistance and counsel in relation to the laying out and management of a Cemetery upon it. The land donated adjoins the old Fair Grounds on the western side of town, a short distance beyond the borough limits. It lies near the turnpike, with which it communicates by a street just laid out, and is an elevated and handsome piece of ground, admirably adapted to the purpose for which it has been set apart. It is the intention of Mr. Kennedy to deed the land to five Trustees, all colored men, three of whom have already been selected, via: Henry Monks, Ceaser Ball and Asken Hall. The two others have not yet been selected. Those above named are among the most intelligent and most respectable of our colored residents, and we do not doubt that they will execute the important trust confided to them faithfully and well.

Wilson College
(Column 02)

Summary: Wilson Female College will open on October 12th. The paper suggests that the school provide some means of conveyance for Chambersburg women who will attend the school but not board there. "We take it as certain that every parent sending a daughter to the institution would rather pay from $15 to $25 per year for the omnibus, than have his child risk and probably ruin her health by the over-exertion and exposure incident to walking out and in." The school year will cover winter and the rainy spring and fall seasons, and walking, even if it seems like a good idea, could prove disastrous. "Even in the weather best adapted to walking, when the sky is clear and the air is crisp, young ladies could not walk daily without the risk of injury, unless great care were taken. They would necessarily become somewhat heated, and the first impulse of most young people in that condition is to sit down in a cool draft of air, and the almost invariable result is a cold in the head, throat or lungs."

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: The people of Metal "have caught the fever for improving their residences in handsome style." Several citizens have recently added porticos and enclosed the grounds with fences. Capt. J. H. McAllen is doing the work.
(Names in announcement: J. S. Nimmon, J. F. McAllen, W. S. McAllen, Capt. J. H. McAllen)

Left Without Ceremony
(Column 03)

Summary: Two men registered by the names of J. Harrison and Charles Raymond left the Union Hotel without paying their bills. They were "gentlemanly in appearance and demeanor" and did not seem to lack money. They spent their evening playing billiards. No horses have been reported stolen, but Franklin citizens are warned to keep an eye out for the characters.
(Names in announcement: J. Harrison, Charles Raymond)

The County Convention
(Column 03)

Summary: Has some criticisms for some of the proceedings at the Democratic County Convention. Lists the offices up for election in the fall, with special attention given to the need to oust Cessna from Congress. Also disapproves of the way conferees are selected, urges everyone to work to nominate the best men for office and not from any personal preference or hatred.
(Names in announcement: George W. Skinner)

Full Text of Article:

Delegates are to be elected on Saturday evening next who will meet in convention on Thursday, the 4th proximo. These primary meetings should be well attended and great care should be taken to select intelligent and upright men as delegates. Men of good judgment are needed who will sacrifice all personal interests for the general good. Abuses have recently crept into our Conventions, the repetition of which ought to be prevented. Proper care has not been taken in the selection of candidates, so that in some cases men utterly incompetent have been nominated for important positions. This is true of both parties.

There are not many offices to be filled at the election next Fall. But a few of these are important. Perry and Franklin are to elect again two members of the Legislature. The main subject of legislative interest to our people is the Border Damage Bill. They do not intend to surrender their claim on the State government for payment, and they, of course, intend to elect men who will further their interests and press their claim with vigor. In the Democratic Convention there will, doubtless, be no difficulty in making the legislative nomination, as we understand it is conceded to Captain George W. Skinner who was untiring in his efforts in behalf of the border claim bill last Winter. He was an efficient representative, and the Convention will, we doubt not, cheerfully acknowledge his services by tendering him a unanimous re-nomination.

A Commissioner is to be chosen. This office has recently come to be a very important one. The business interests of the County have become so multiformed and varied as to require excellent business men as Commissioners. Such a man it is the duty of the Convention to nominate. He ought to be a man of ability and strict honesty. There are ugly rumors afloat, whether having any foundation in fact or not, in relation to the Commissioners' Office. The Democratic party owes it to itself and to the people to nominate a man who will be above all suspicion of being influenced by corrupt motives. The Convention should take good care not to weaken the ticket by an unwise selection for this office.

But, perhaps, the most important duty the Convention will have to perform is the selection of Congressional conferees. We are about to enter into a vigorous contest to defeat that little demagogue, John Cessna. We all desire to see that man nominated, whoever he may be, who can poll the largest number of votes against him. To secure the nomination of that man will be the aim of every good Democrat. The fight will be a fierce one. The Radicals have the negro vote. That vote will be neutralized by the dissatisfaction with and disgust at the fanaticism of the Radical party, on the part of conservative white men. Cessna's own tremendous unpopularity will tell wonderfully in favor of the Democratic candidate. How important, therefore, that our candidate should be a man of ability and personal popularity!

There has been, heretofore, an extraordinary looseness in the manner of selecting Congressional conferees. At one time the candidate has been allowed to make his selection. At another, the County Committee assumed the power to choose. But the most common way has been after the other business of the Convention was finished, when all was excitement and confusion and the delegates were getting nervously anxious to go home--for some one to rise with a written resolution, declaring that "Mr. --------, Mr. --------, and Mr. ---------- are hereby selected as conferees to meet the conferees from other counties,&c." The resolution passes without half the delegates knowing what it is. Such a proceeding is decidedly illogical

The selection of conferees is the most important business of the next County Convention. If the Convention should declare in favor of one of our own citizens, in our judgment, it should hither allow him to select his own conferees, or it should go into a ballot for conferees just as for other nominations.

The danger in allowing a resolution to pass in which three persons are named as conferees is that those three persons may be committed to some particular Congressional candidate from some other county, who might not be the choice of the people of this County, and in this way, conventions are ofttimes deceived. It is a sly way of accomplishing what designing leaders do not care to do openly. Such resolutions have more snakes in them than any other kind. They are often intended to defeat in the Conference the man in whose favor the Convention has declared.

By putting eight, ten or a dozen good men in nomination--men of integrity, intelligence and sound judgment--and selecting three from these by ballot, the Convention would have some assurance that the Franklin County Conferees would act for the best interests of the party, without reference to the grinding of any particular axes.

A good rule to govern delegates in the selection of conferees would be not to vote for any man who solicits votes for himself or has others to solicit them for him, for it is safe to infer that such a man is anxious to go into the Conference as "some other man's man." The delegates should act upon their own judgments, in a spirit of manly independence, and anxious only to secure the best nomination that can be made. We respectfully, but earnestly ask their attention to the correction of this loose mode of selecting Congressional conferees.

Animated as we are by a desire to promote the best interests and insure the success of the Democratic party, we have imperfectly thrown out these suggestions, trusting that our Democratic friends will consider them in the spirit in which they are offered.

Base Ball
(Column 04)

Summary: The Printers Nine of Chambersburg again faced the Antietam Club of Hagerstown in a game of baseball. Antietam won 35-30. The match was played in Chambersburg.
(Names in announcement: McCleary, Hoefner, Hutton, Fentiman, Kriechbaum, Brietsch, Flack, Henninger, Seibert)

Arrested and Committed
(Column 04)

Summary: Samuel Stokes was arrested in Mercersburg on charge of forgery and passing counterfeit money. John Smith of Montgomery made the charge. The accused was brought before Judge Hyssong. Mr. Smith paid a party at a distance and unwittingly included a forged $20 bill. Stokes stole the bill and attempted to use it at many locations in town. He also tried to get Daniel Hawbecker to make change for the bill. When Smith heard of this, he turned Stokes in. Stokes is also charged with forging a $50 bill on complaint of John Smith, Sr. Justice Hyssong held him at $1000 bail.
(Names in announcement: Samuel Stokes, John Smith, Daniel Hawbecker, Judge Hyssong, John SmithSr.)

Camp Meeting
(Column 04)

Summary: The United Brethren in Christ will hold a week-long camp meeting in Wilson's woods, two miles South of Orrstown. It will begin on August 18th. Chambersburg's ministers are expected to attend.

United Brethren Camp Meeting
(Column 04)

Summary: H. Small, C. Thompson, and L. A. Wickey announce that the Alto Dale Circuit and Chambersburg Station of the United Brethren will hold a camp meeting on the land of George Fetterhoff and S. Harnish located eight miles south-east of Chambersburg. "No huckstering will be permitted," but all others are invited to tent on the grounds.
(Names in announcement: H. Small, C. Thompson, L. A. Wickey)

Married
(Column 05)

Summary: George Hile of Franklin and Miss Catharine J. Weakly of Maryland were married on July 18th by the Rev. J. O. M. Butts.
(Names in announcement: George Hile, Catharine J. Weakly, Rev. J. O. M. Butts)

Died
(Column 05)

Summary: Maggie A. Rotz died in Chambersburg on July 19th. She was 8 years old.
(Names in announcement: Maggie A. Rotz)

Died
(Column 05)

Summary: Walter Smith, son of George W. and Elizabeth Smith, died at Cove Gap on July 7th. He was 1 year old.
(Names in announcement: Walter Smith, George W. Smith, Elizabeth Smith)