New Britain herald., 1927-03-12
Last of Old Timers In Washington
 Likes Hurly Burly of Present Day
By JOHN J, DAILY

with the honor of having been stat4
 senator and federal judge down
 there in the Everglades. Aside from
 that, he had helped nightly in tho
 Convention that shaped the now
 state constitution.
 l General Grant started Purman Tn
 politics. He had seen service in the
 War between the States, buck
 private in the CnioA Army. Rising in
 the ranks. he became an officer. was
 sent to Washington, and did duty at the War Department where he came lin contact with the moving spirits
 Of the day. It was here he caught
 simpscs Of Lincoln. then comforting
 with his cabinet and commanding officers of the military forces. He remembers well the stirring days following Lincoln's assassination. for
 he was part and parcel of the drama being enacted in the nations capi- tal
 After the war. out of tho army
 Purman was sent south by the Post War President, General Grant, 10 holp in tho work of reconstruction He made his first trip to the sceue
 of his newer activities on train
 filled with confederate soldiers. loyai
 sons of q lost cause, returning to their homes, or what was left ot
 them. It then took 19 days to get from Washington 10 Jacksonville.
 a journey easily negotiated now in a
 day-and-a-half by train anl about
 eight hours by a"rorlane.
 Provide Iurl for Engines
 Tn those days" explains Mr. Pur-
 man, we had no such equipment as
 they have today. Every once in a
 while We had to get out and chop
 wood from forests along the road
 side, fuel to keep fires burning undet tho engines boiler"
 | So it came that . boy born in | sylvania-Wllliam Purman first saw the light Of day in Cedar County, i Pa, April II, 1Sio-became q Flori- dian. Coin gthere 10 help bring that ] lCommonwoall h out of tho wilderness. he fcll in love with a girl of th 1 lVcrgiades married and engaged in politics. Had fl moi been for his keen activities in an adopted state, l William Purman would urdoubtedl- have gone to the national congress long before the day he there mot such men as James A. Galiivan, James G. Blaine. and that gallant old coterie of the 70's. From hoyhood Purman had a flair for politics. He traces his in t3rest back to his 10th year when he first became acquainted with tho nam2 and fame of Zachary Taylor, then president of the United States | He became an ardent follower of the fortunes of Willard Fillmore an Franklin Pierce. and remembers well the inauguration Of James Buchln- an: also Of Abraham Lincoln, under whom he had to servc-first in th army and later in the Great Emauci p1tor's plan to reconstruct th" south, . though the plan was then out Of the hands of Lincoln.
 In 1868, three years after he hGl ! laid aside the uniform. Purman was | elected as member Of the Florida | constitutional convention, After tha'. | he was elected to the state senate, ! where he served four years. IIe f helped send mon to congress and, . when the material ran short. cam along himself.
 II was not Bill Purman's ambitio,.. however, to continue long in con- gress. He had hobby, such as he believes would bctit more young fcl |, lows of the present d1y. He wanted . 10 clear q farm. So when, on March | 3. 1878. h. laid aside his poiitiCa' toga, he left Washington and wen. Lack to his native state, Pennsy- vana, 10 purchase some acreage that was then lying around loose. It ! took him eight years to bring this farm from its pristine rudeness 10 cultivated state demanded hy civili- zation: to be producer Of foodstutts for mankind. And that" says MT Purman. lis the finost achieve mont in q mans lifc-to till the soil to provide food for his fellow man.
 Resided in New England
 His work done, back to Washing ton trooped "Bill'' Purman, to sci tie down and make tho national capital his home With the exception of few years spent in New Egg land. h" has resided here. kept an eye on his old colleagues and on n newer men who came to take their places.
 In 54 years, the political world has passed "lul" Purman by: but all during that time he has never lost interest in the work Of govern ment and has Kept q weather ty1 cooked on congress, watching the doings of the youngsters, as he calls them. They are that, to him. The speaker of the house, Hon. Nicholas .oneworth, was three year old babe. rollcking and rolling around in his fathers house Tn Cincinnati. when 'Bili' purman held forth in congress. The man who then occu- pied tho scat Nick" Longworth sits in today was James G. Blaine afterwards q candidate for the prosi- dencv. When Purman first came to W iSllii'- rtt, dS tl ihtlHD'L 'L lIl' house, Grover Cleveland was just ( getting his start. Ten years later he was elected mayor of Buffalo.
 There was some mighty men in I the t3rd congress of the United ( States It was the last congress over q which Blaine presided as speaker Of s he house. On the roster of that V , IS Benjamin F. Butler. of Massa- f husetts; Tom Platt, Of New York; s Samuel !. Randall of Pennsylvania. f ift"rwards speaker of the house: | $ .4ucius c. C. Lamar of Mississippi Sho, in after years, turned up as 2 | n nnnlhnr Of C,nNnlanl's cn hinnt Cnn- <