The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-12-05

4 lawyer lie was PROBABLY second
to none in his day. His grea: fame
resta ed first on his speech made in
the Pennsylvania Legislature on
the public school question, when in
a single forensic effort he convinc-
ed the whole Of hostile legisla-
ture to his way of thinking.
He afterward served in Congress
ard had as he supposed retired to
private life. But again the call
comes and at the breaking
out Of the Civil War we find him
again in the Congressional harness
ard as Chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee putting through
an amount of work stupendOus be-
yond compare. Historians have call
ed him The Great Commoner.
Mr.. Stevens provided in his will
that he should be buried in an OBJ
scure cemetery in Pennsylvania,
fc. said he, 81 will not be buried
in any place where the humblest
citizen may not be laid to rest"
James Merrill died at the early
ag4 of 81, but history makes him
one of the greatest lawyers of his
day in the Keystone state. Three
sons and one daughter survived
him, in whom, in the days of the
Civil War, were upheld the best
traditions of long line of patrio-
| tie ancestors.
John Blanchard fitted for college
in his native town Of Peacham and
graduated from Dartmouth in 1872.
He went TO York, Pa, taught
school,, studied law and was admit
ted to the bar in 1915. In that
veal he moved to Bellefonte, Pa,
where he afterwards resided. He
became one of the great advocates
Of his day and was member of
the 29th and Both congresses. He
died very suddenly in Columbia,
Pa, in his sixty-frst year, while
enroute from Washington to his
home in Bellefonte.
Samuel Merrill, with brother
OF Thaddeus Stevens, went to In
diana and became one of the foun-
dera Of Indianapolis, State Treas
urer for 80 years and President of
the Indiana State Bank, which
during the panic of '38-40 was al
most the only hank that survived.
Although Mr.. Merrill made little
money he left his children the en-
during heritage Of an untarnished
name.
David Merrill, and David was
the son of Jesse, working on the
fam by day and studying by the
light of a pine knot by night, kept
abreast of others preparing for
college and was graduated from
Dartmouth College and Andover
Seminary. He went to Urbana,
Ohio. To a congregation of less
than a hundred on a rainy Sunday
in 1910 he preached what has since
become known as the COX Ser
mon" from the text Exodus 1929.
Previous to 1860 it is known that
over two and a half million copies
OF this sermon were published and
circulated. Since 1860 it has been
translated into every known
language. | have it on the auth
GRITTY of some of our greatest
scholars that the modern temper
ance movement dates from the
preaching of this sermon.
Betsy Merrill married Leonard
Johnson and became the mother of
one son and eight daughters, all of
whom and their children became
noted for their educational and al
truistic work.
Another man, although not born
in Peacham, but coming with his
parents about 1900, was Ephraim
Wesson Clark, graduate of Dart
mouth and Andover. He sailed to
Hawaii in 1927 or '28 and became 7
the linguist of the Mission. He
larded in Hawai- when the natives
were naked savages but after forty
years Of labor he was rewarded,
preaching to a congregation OF
2000 people in well appointed
stone church.
OF all the men who went out
from Peacham about this time
Mellen Chamberlain was probably
the most brilliant. Mr., Chamber
lain was drowned in the Danube
River on the Wrecking of steam
er, while returning to CONSTANT
nople from Vienna where he had
beer. on mission for Prof. S. +.
b. Morse, inventor Of the tele-
graph.
Peacham out of a population of
about nine hundred, sent to the
Civil War one hundred and TWEEN
ty-fve of the choicest of her youth,
forty-three of whom were left in
the pens or on the battlefields of
The South.
The story of William N. West
and Horace Rowe, survivors of An
rivals anything | have
ever read or heard and in my judg-
met should be printed in letters of
gold where every young man and
young women may read.
West and Rowe had been boys
together and terminates in their
army service. They were captur-
ed and taken to AndersOnville
where they remained for some
At length there came a
cal for a thousand prisoners to be
exchanged. At this time Rowe had
become so weakened that he could
npc stand alone. During the three