Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-03-24
"HONEST" JOHN STROHM.
Sketch Of an Ex-COD:ress,nan from Lane
ter County.

ter County.
W. U. Hensel in Forney's Progress.
John Strohm Won his so6riquet when it
was not the cheap trick OF the demagoguc
to wear it, nor the offering Of the parasite
to bestow it The people who knew him
gave him the appellation-they who were
his neishbo:s, his constituents, aud who
upheld the ladder on the runss Of which
he steadily mounted from one public trust
to another. He never shamed them, nor
any place to which they called him.
His advancement to the representation
Of this great county i'll the nations
highest popular representative body WIS
gradual and msrited, and it was without
that self seekin. element which is the
bane OF our later clay political promotion.
He was measured by the JetfersOnian tests
of capacity and honesty and he met them.
His retirement was rs honorable rs had
been his promotion, and il lis service rs u
rural justice of the peace for nearly a
quarter of u century has not been as dis
tinguished as his position of congressman
contemporary with Lincoln, Douglas,
Webster. Clay, Calhoun, Winthrop and
Jefferson Davis-he has brought to that
Office Il faithfulnesS and honesty which
might be pattern for modern legislators
and q standard Tor all officials.
The township of Lancaster county which
is hOnOred with tho name OF Robert Full
ton, who was born within its limits, has
been cut oil from Little Britain. and it was
in this part Of the county that John StrOhm
was born, on October IL. 1893. His grand
father came from Wurtember.,, and died
ON the voyage, leaving his widow and two
small boys and 4 daughter to settle in
Strasburg. this county. One of these
boys. whcn he grew to manhood, married
the daughter of Rev. John Herr, OF the
Mennonite church, and the aunt of that
John Herr who became fornder Of tho
New Mennonites. The parties to this
union were the parents of John StrOhm.
In the original settlement of Lancaster
county, the ScOtch-Irish mostly took the
southern part. lyin. below the Mine hills.
They saw in its lightly wooded area easy
clearin.s, and IL soil that could be worked
with facility. The more prudent and far
sighted Germans knew that the soil which
nOurished heavy timber was the land for
good crops and would require less enrich
ment. The Germans took the limestone
lands, which had in themselves those clc-
ments Of fertilization that the
CLOVER eDders' had to supply. first
by quarrying AMI haui.n; limestone from
Quarryvi!le to t,leir farms and there burn
ing it, and afterwards by hauling tho lime
itself burned ut Quarryville. This village,
now the terminus of the Reading railroad
system in this section, lies Just at the foot
Of the Mine Ridge on the south !; it marks
the lowest drift of the limestone, and is
the head of that valley which, further
east, brOadens into the Chester Valley.
and was the routc through which ran u
branch Of the Underground Railway in
ante 6ellum days made notable by the
event OF "the Christians riot
John Strohm's father bought Woods
Mill," near Peach Bottom (now Fulton
township) and removed thither from
Strasburg. He. was one of the first Ger
mans to settle SO far down. He sold it
and removed back to the neghbOrhOOd in
which John Strohm now resides, when the
subject of this sketch was twelve years
old. Since then vast changes have taken
place in both sections Of Lancaster county,
and their distinctive differences are grad
ualfy becoming Obliteratcd. But
they were for many years notable,
and it remains today very percept-
ible, th.G two widely different and strong
ly markell elements Of citizenship occupied
different sections Of this cOuniry.aaG grew
up side by side. improving and developing
with little manifestation Of assimilation
for many years. The family names, the
social customs, the agricultural methods
and Tie religions of tho two great divisions
of this county for many years marked their
native differences. Even in the lower end
there We're sharply defined lines drawn
between the Scotch Irish Prcsbyterians
and the Quakels; willie the upper end
Il I,l l,.t
sive Lutherans and Reformed, who during
the Revolution were patriots, and peace
loving sectS, whose unwarlike dis
position made them to bc regarded
as Royalists during the RevO-
luton, and prosecuted as Tories
after its close. Gradually these differ
ences have become less marked. Strongly
distinguished types of them still remain,
but intermarriayes, intercommerce and
the alienation of lands, have sOftened
down the Old antagnnisms. The tendency
is for the Germans to move southwark,
and those who 90 nOw, go to stay. The in
creasing population OF the towns, with
which tine county is now so tIickly set, is
mixed and mixing.
Their" WAS no German school, Of course,
nor any school in which German was
taught in the extrerc lower end Of the
county when John StrOhm was lad, and
SO his father, dcsirOus that he should
know the language of his ancestors, i'm
1900 sent him to Quarryvillc, to board
with his uncle Wilmer, and go to 4 German
school in that ncishbOrhoOd. The school
houses were built by the neighbOrs then,
and the teacher boarded around" John
StrOhm attended school until he was six
teen years q! age. !atterly only going in
winter, and assisting; his father OH the
nineteen years OF age, 1T the old Mt. Holly
school-house, mile northeast of Quar-
ryville, and hail thirty or forty scholars.
Later. he taught school in Lampeter, and
in 1921 went to farming in that vicinity.
His intelligence, uprightness Of character,
and active participation in all matters of
public cooeern, made him a man Of mark,
and he was chosen to tho Legislature on
the Anti Masonic ticket in 1881. He went
to Harrisburg OF the first Tuesday of De-
cembcr and after one term of service was
twice reelected.
Nowadays. when Masonry, in all it's
later phases, fourishes SO extensively in
this community, and secret societies
many Of them imitatOrs OF the MasOns-
are so strong here that the totality of their
membership almost Outnumbers the adult
male population, it is hard to realize that
the wave OF anti Masonic excitement ever
reached tho high water mark in Lancaster
county which the veraciOus local chrOnicler
assigns to it, The declining Federalists
eagerly embraced the prevailing popular
fanaticism to revive their collapsed party.
The rnraI DODulatiOn of this cOunty So