I ended up skipping last week, and as my Facebook followers may have seen, I blamed it on the holiday. That was only partly the reason. It had more to do with the fact that my beloved great-aunt Gene, the last surviving sibling of either of my maternal grandparents, was in her final days. A true patriot who loved her country, she was born on Memorial Day and died on the Fourth of July, one hundred years old (plus a few weeks) and feisty to the end. She was also a great reader and fond of history, so while she didn't read this blog, she enjoyed my book about Laury's Island and loved to hear about my adventures when I would be out doing research for my posts. I visited her often and I already miss her.
I would have liked to tell her about my little adventure from this past weekend, when I collected the marker of today's post. I was able to get three in all, but they were actually a side quest for a change, because I was in Montgomery County for a completely different reason. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I attended Kutztown University, and during that time I was a member of the (now defunct) Medieval & Renaissance Club. It's been several years since I had seen most of them, literal decades in some cases, but on Sunday there was an enormous reunion party and that was what lured me down that way. It was a truly extraordinary gathering, and in some respects it was as though no time had passed at all. There was a universal agreement that we can't let so much time pass again, and I think we'll be holding reunions a few times a year going forward. Thanks, everyone, I don't think I realized how much I had missed the club until you were all in front of me like that.
But before the party got started, I picked up this marker about one of our governors. The location mentioned on the marker is a bit of a mystery, though, which is interesting.
In 1854, John was named deputy sheriff of Montgomery County. He also in that year married Sallie Douglas Sebring; he was 24 and she was just 19. They had six children - Samuel, Ada, Wilson, Linn, Marion, and Annie. Sadly, Ada and Wilson both died as small children in 1862, while their father was away fighting in the American Civil War.
The war ended, but John's service didn't. When President Lincoln was assassinated, he was named the commanding officer of the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., and acted as special provost marshal during the trial of the accused conspirators. John Wilkes Booth, of course, was the one who actually shot Lincoln, but he had four allies in his dastardly plot. Lewis Powell and David Herold were supposed to kill William H. Seward, the Secretary of State; George Atzerodt was assigned to kill Vice-President Andrew Johnson; and Mary Surratt, who owned the boarding house that was frequented by the three men, was accused of having and not reporting knowledge of the plan. All four were found guilty, although Surratt's guilt remains heavily contested to this day, and John oversaw their deaths by hanging. It was noted that the prisoners thanked him for his kindness during their incarceration.
John returned to Pennsylvania and his family, and was appointed to the post of Auditor General in the administration of John W. Geary, the 16th governor. In 1872, with Geary's term ending, John ran for and was elected to the governorship himself. His term was filled with many important changes and improvements for the commonwealth; John was heavily in favor of education, bank regulation, voting rights for African-Americans, and the rights of working men. As governor, he reorganized the Pennsylvania Militia into a branch of the National Guard and oversaw the revision of the Pennsylvania constitution. In 1876, he assisted in celebrations of the country's 100th birthday, and made sure that Pennsylvania had a very prominent role in the festivities.
Although he was considered for his party's nomination for President in 1876, they instead selected his former comrade-in-arms, Rutherford B. Hayes. Instead, John was elected to a second term as governor, during which he had to deal with an economic depression and civil unrest following the industrial boom of the 1870s. This included the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the accusations against the Molly Maguires. The unrest in some places was so extreme that he sent the Pennsylvania National Guard to keep order and protect people. Once things had calmed down, he championed the recognition of labor unions and improved working conditions, so that nothing like that would happen again.
After his second term ended in 1879, John and Sallie returned to Norristown, theoretically to retire. That didn't really happen, because John agreed to take the job of U.S. Postmaster, as well as commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard. In 1886, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valorous conduct at the First Battle of Bull Run, when he refused to leave with the rest of his regiment.
John died on October 17, 1889, at the young age of 58. His cause of death is unrecorded. He was buried in the historic Montgomery Cemetery just outside of Norristown, in the same family plot as his father. His mother followed him the next year, and Sallie in 1914. The Pennsylvania National Guard later erected a marble obelisk over John's grave. He's since been given a number of other memorials - a statue of him on horseback stands by the Pennsylvania Capitol Building in Harrisburg, and he's remembered on monuments at some of the sites where he participated in Civil War battles. Streets, schools, and a dorm at Penn State have all been named in his honor.
Now, about the mystery I mentioned at the beginning. According to the wording of the historical marker, John's birthplace sits "to the right on the side road." I'm not entirely clear as to what side road is being referenced; the marker is positioned at the intersection of Cross and Sanatoga Roads. It may be referring to Cross Road, and if so, there is one single house which could theoretically be the house where John was born. The house in question does look like it could possibly be old enough for that, but it's hard to say for sure. According to a property map of 1848, John's father Samuel owned land in a slightly different area, a bit north of where the marker is situated, so it's possible that the marker was put in the wrong spot. It's also possible, as suggested at the Historical Marker Database, that John was born in someone else's house.
The truth is that we will probably never know for sure. History is like that sometimes. But at least the rest of John's life is much more accessible, and his impact on Pennsylvania and how much good he did for its people is undeniable.
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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