The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-07-05

OF inc last OF the great political ba-
rons.
MS CAREER.
Simon Cameron, Jne grandfather of
General Cameron and first Of the fam
lily to settle in Pennsylvania, came to
America about the year 1740 and
found home in Donegal township
Lancaster county. lie was a Scoth-
man aud Presbyterian and he found
occupation in tilling the land, which
then belonged to the little Presbyter-
ian Church still standing at that
place. His life was hard, but probab.
ly not so hard 10 his new home as it
had been in old Scotland, and little is
known OF his family. His eldest son
was Charlie, the father OF Simon, and
he had al least Que other son, who
subsequently became a well.tn do
farmer, for of him young simon bor-
rowed the money to make his start in
business. Charles Cameron became a
tailor and lived in Maytown, few
miles distant aud near the Susquehan-
ma river, and there, on March g, 1893,
Simon Cameron, his youngest son, was
born.
! In 1907, when Simon was lad of
| eight, Charles Cameron removed his
family to Sunbury, the journey being
made by boat, slowly ami with great
d tiiculty, aud there, after a couple of
years struggle with increasing adver-
sity, the family separated and the chill
dren began to shift for themselves.
Simon went to live with DIR. 5rahl, a
physician of Sunbury, who seems to
have treated the boy with great kind
ness and who desired him to enter the
medical profession.
In 1915 he sought situation as
printers apprentice IN the office of the
Gazette, a weekly Democratic news
paper then published at Northumber-
land by Andrew Kennedy, aud when
released from his agreement by the
sale of the establishment two years af-
ter, went to Harrisburg and took sim
liar place in the Office of the Pe'nSW
0aRia RepudlicGn, owned and edited
by ames Peacock.
In 1921 he went down to Doyles
town, and by keen plan, formed a
combination of the DOyleStoaon Dem
ocrdt aud Bucks County Messenger,
and the firm known as Ca eron &
Mitiiin continued the paper in toe name
Of Democrat, the young man who was
scarcely out of his apprentcesl ip be-
coming ostensibly the senior proprietor
of what was then, and has always since
been, one of the most important Demo
cratic papers of the State.
But this venture was soon at an end.
The Bucks county Democracy was har-
monized and Simon longed for wider
| field. Within the year he sold out at
a net profit of about a hundred dollars
and with that as MS sole capital went
TO Washington and took a case in the
office of the National L1telAgencer.
He worked assiduously during the win
ter of 1912 and probably acquired
some valuable ideas as to the profits of
publ C printing contracts, for IN the
spring he returned to Harrisburg, Dor
70 Jed S400 of his uncle, bought an in
terest in the Republican from his form
er employer, James Peacock, changed
the name to the IteWgencer and
probably under the inspiration of Ing
ham, vigorously supported Calhoun for
the Presidency. 1t was here that Cam
eron first attained the realization of his
ideal system for the conduct of practi-
cal politics. Through his personal in
fuence and the power of his paper he
secured the appointment of Sta'e Prin-
ter, an office which. though less re-
markable then for extravaganza and
peculation than at the present time,
was still sufficiently remunerative to
enable the careful printer in three years
TO accumulate enough ready money to
justify him in undertaking important
construction contracts on the Pennsyl-
vania Canal, then just chartered.
AS a CONTRA CToR.
The printing business was soon apan-
doned for the more lucrative canal CON
tracts, and for many years the great
system OF internal improvements, which
cost the State over S40,000,000 had no
more earuts st and consistent advocate
than Simon Came on, and thtre was no
more frequent or successful bidder for
desirable contra Ia than he. Up and
down the Susquchanna, up the Juniata
and on the western division he had his
men at work.
The feasibility of steam railways had
just been practically proved aud the
country was on tire threshold of the era
of railway development. General Cam
eron saw, with the sagacity of clear,
practical mind, that railroads in 1881
were as Indispensable to the develop.
ment of the resources of the State as
canals had been a decade before, and
he recognized that the pecuniary ad-
vantages to be gained in the coustruc-
tion and subsequent operation of the
roads were far greater than could ever
accrue from the canals.
Simon Cameron at once began an
energetic advocacy of railroad commu-
nication between Philadelphia and the
middle aud western part of the State.
He organized and was largely interest,
ed in the construction OF the railroad
between Harrisburg aud Lancaster, of
the Lebanon Valley Road, and of the
road between Harrisburg aud Sunb1ry,
afterWard consolidated as the Northern
Central, with the road from Harrisburg
10 Baltimore, the control of which Gen.
Cameron by shrewd operations wrested
from Baltimore capitalists and held as
Pennsylvania enterprise.
PRACTICAL POLITICS.
He took an active part in the Presi-
dental contest of 1920, and all subse-
qu-nt contests until he handed over his
power 10 his son. He was one of the
chief promoters Of the Baltimore Con-
teulion of May, lS32-the first Nation
al Convention ever held by any politi. |
cal Farty-which put in formal nomi-
nation party candidates for the offices
OF both President and Vice President,
and practically abrogated the tradition,
al functions OF our cumbrous electoral
machine. From that day until after
the third term struggle of 1880 there