Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-04-07
JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE.
A Sketch Of his Career.

CONGRESS-.
Written by james King, late Surgeon General
Of Pennsylvania.
Prominence in a public career al
ways leads to erroneous statements in
regard to a mans early life. 1t is our
purpose to give a brief sketch of Sena-
tor Blaine in the vicinity of his birth
place in the midst of his friends and
relatives
James Gillespie Blaine was born on
the 3lst of January, 1880, at the In
dian Hill Farm, Washington county,
Pennsylvania, opposite the town OF
Brownsville. The old stone house
where he first saw light is still stand
ing. and is now included within the
limits of West Brownsville, though at
time of his birth it was simply the
mansion house on the Gillespie farm.
The house was built by Mr.. Blaine's
oreat-grandfather the elder Neal Gil
lespie' in l77S, on what was then the
frontier of civilization. The late james
L. Bowman, of Brownsville, accurate
in the local history of the valley, said
il was the first stone house ever built
on the western side of the Mononga-
hela river.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA ANCESTRY.
Mr.. Blaine came into public life, II
not by law of heredity, yet by a
strong association in his immediate
family. His great grandfather, Col.
Fnbraim Blaine. of Carlisle, Cumber-
and county, Pa, was Commlssary
General of the Revolutionary army
from l17S till the close of the struggle
in 1888. Hon. Frederick Watts, OF
Carlisle. in a recent sketch, thus speaks
of Colonel Blaine's services as Com
missarv General:
"In this great field of patriotic duty
Col. Blaine won a splendid reputation.
Through himself and his immediate
friends he was able at different times,
when the Continental treasury was
empty, to advance large sums of money
toward purchasing supplies for the
army; and during the terrible winter
at Valley Forge Washington attributed
the preservation OF his troops from alb
solute starvation to the heroic and self
sacrificing efforts of Colonel Blame
The high esteem in which Colonel
Blaine was held by Washington and
his great compatriot leaders IN the
Revolution is attested by numerous
letters from them, official and unofficial,
still in possession of Colonel Blaine's
descendants in this State. 1t is yet
one of the pleasing local traditions OF
Carlisle that in 1893, when the whisky
insurrection arose in the western coun-
ties, President Washington, accom-
panied by his Secretaries of the Treas
urv and War Departments, Hamilton
and Knox, on their way to the scene
of the trouble, halted for many days at
Niddlesex as the guests OF Colonel
Blaine, and while there heard of the
dispersion of the insurgents and re-
turned to Philadelphia. Their visit
was the occasion Of most lavish hos
pitaity and an old-fashioned merry
making, and was long remembered with
pleasure by the generation OF Carlisle
residents who have just passed away" "
Mr.. Blaine's grandfather, for whom
he is named, intended originally to
enter upon professional and political
career, but a somewhat prolonged resi-
dence in Europe after he had completed
his studies diverted him, as 1t has SO
many young Americans, from follow
ing his first and better ambition He
returned to his home in 1898, bringing
with him, as special bearer OF dis
patches, celebrated treaty with a
foreign Government, since become his.
toric, and afterward led chiefly the life
of a private gentleman Mr.. Blaine s
father was born and reared in Carlisle,
and after an extended tour in Europe,
South America and the West Indies,
returned to spend the greater portion
of his life in the adjoining county OF
Washington, where he died before his
son was fully grown. He came west
about 1918, having the largest landed
possession of any man OF his age IN
western Pennsylvania, owning an es.
tate which, had it been preserved,
would have amounted to-day to many
millions. As a single item in that
estate, it may interest the present gen
Grafton of Pittsburghers to recall that
in 1925 Mr.. Ephraim l.. Blaine (the
Senator's father) decided to the Econo,
mites the splendid tract Of land on
which their town with all its improve
ments and all its wealth now stands
receiving S25, 900 for a property whose
value to-day, even if unimproved,
would be princely fortune. There
were also timber tracts on the Allie
ghenv and coal tracts on the MonOn-
gahela, at that day of no special value,
which now represent large fortunes in
the hands of those lucky enough to
hold them. Very near the large tracts
owned by his father and grandfather,
Senator Blaine is now the posscssor OF
one of the most valuable coal properties
in the Monongahela valley. In area
it is but fraction of that which he
might have hoped to inherit but in
value it is manifoldly greater than the
whole landed estate of his father fifty
years ago.
1t is not matter of much interest
in political annals, but there are some
still living who remember that Mr..
Blaine's father and grandfather were
especially and widely noted as gentle
men of great elegance Of manner and
of culture. Both had travelled in for
eipn lands i'm the early days when
travelling abroad was rare, both were
highly educated, and both had great
deal of that aristocracy Of bearing and
pride of family from which the Senator
is robustIy and cheerfully free.
INTELLECTUAL TRAINING.
Special pains were taken by Mr..
Blaine's father to give his son thor
ough intellectual training He was
under the best tutorage in his earliest
years, and at the age Of eleven was
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