Blair County Newspaper Articles
News, obituaries, birth, marriage and death notices, by date.
Items from The Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa.,
Thursday, September 15, 1859
We have received from our young friend, James Ritchie, formerly of this place, now among the Rock Mountains, a copy of the Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter and Mountain City Herald, published at Mountain City, Jefferson, (the name given to the new Territory about to be organized by the Pike's Peakers.) It is about half the size of the Tribune, and is published at 10 cents a single copy, $2.50 a year at the office, or $3.00 if mailed to the States. Advertisements are inserted at the rate of 25 cents per line for first insertion, and 10 cents per line afterwards. Our advertisers would consider these prices pretty steep.
Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Thursday, September 15, 1859, page 2
LOCAL ITEMS.
DISTINGUISHED (?) VISITOR! - For a few days last week, the town topic of conversation, (humorous, among patriots; grave, among toadyists) was milord, the Hon. Mr. Berkley, a titled huntsman from England, who spent a day or two of rest at the "Logan House" preparatory to taking a great buffalo hunt in the West. - Toadyism, we are sorry - aye, ashamed - to say, was manifested in the visit of milord, by a good share of our citizens, especially on the morning of his departure. The desire to get a good sight of the "critter" was so great that many of our people even neglected their daily business, and gathered in a crowd greater than ever greeted the arrival of the many great and good Americans who have visited our place; merely to look upon the features of a master over white slaves in lord-cursed Britain. We despise such toadyism and will always deprecate it. We doubt much that a single man who visited the Logan House on Saturday morning, for the single purpose of seeing the English Lord, ever gave one cent toward the raising of the monument to the Father of our Country. We know that had each one present on this celebrated occasion contributed one cent to this laudable object, the contents of the box in the Post Office, for the last month, would have been much more than NINETY-NINE CENTS! Shame!
As to the Englishman, we saw him, accidentally, from our office window, and we do not recollect to have seen a better specimen of the cockney species in our life - dressed after the style of a hostler in our livery stables. - There was nothing attractive about him that we could discover; his countenance indicating about brains enough to write an English Book, entitled "American Manners and Customs," in which any amount of misrepresentations might be found. This is the man some of our people went to see, on Saturday morning. Well, our mighty Englishman is now in the far West, and we hope our western hunters will treat him to such a Buffalo Hunt as will indemnify him in the great amount of money (the sweat of better men's brows) which his trip must cost him.
From George B. Ayres new description Hand Book of the Pennsylvania Rail Road we copy the following notice of Altoona: -
Altoona, (Philadelphia 239 miles - Pittsburgh 117 miles,) the great centre of the road's operations, is one of those children of modem progress which have been "born into the world" along all the great railroads in the country - Some half dozen years ago, its site was marked only by a dilapidated log hut, whose "solitary" inhabitant was the precursor of the five thousand industrious citizens which the town now contains.
Marking, as this point does, an important change in the character of the road grades, East and West, and proving an essential locality for the Main Shops of the Company, it was obliged, from the force of circumstances, to become the important place it is now.
The office of the General Superintendent, Thomas A. Scott, Esq., - than whom there is no more able and efficient railroad officer in the country - is located here, and occupies the handsome building just in the rear of the hotel.
The mechanical operations at this place comprise machine and car- shops, iron and brass foundries, shops for blacksmiths, painters, trimmers, pattern-makers, tinners, and workers in sheet iron, departments for setting up locomotives, and for making boilers and iron bridges; together with a company store-room - from which the shops at other places are principally supplied - and the necessary offices to preserve the varied accounts. There are also two engine- houses, the larger of which is an extra building, able to accommodate twenty-six locomotives and tenders.
The immediate supervision of the machine-shop here is conducted by Lewis C. Brastow; car-shop, by C. R. Hostetter; paint shop, by Ralph Greenwood; and the Accounts, by B. F. Custer, chief clerk of Motive Power.
Much of the general carpentering of the road is prepared here.
To the great credit of the numerous employees of the road, we record the existence of the "Altoona Mechanics' Library and Reading Room Association," an organization aided by the Company, and which is in abounding prosperity.
A NARROW ESCAPE. - Const. Boyer, of this place, in company with
Miss
Dorcas Cox, attended the Port Matilda Camp-Meeting, last Sabbath, in a
buggy; and, in the afternoon, they started across the Ridge to attend
a meeting of the Quakers, near Stormstown; but, while going down the
Ridge, and when opposite a steep bank, the horse suddenly frightened
and jumped down the bank about twenty-five feet, breaking the buggy to
pieces, and entangling himself in the wreck so that he had to be
lifted off boy Boyer and Miss Cox, who fell under him, and, strange to
say, neither was badly hurt. Boyer had a leg somewhat bruised, and
Miss Cox an eye slightly injured. - Tyrone Star.
MILITARY. - On Saturday last, the Guards and Rifle Rangers were not [sic] on parade, both making a very credible appearance. We were pleased to observe quite a number of new members among the Guards. Capt. H. W. Snyder tendered his resignation as Captain of the Guards, which was accepted by the company. We understand that Maj. When is to take command of the company at the approaching encampment. We believe both the Guards and Rangers intend turning out strong in numbers at Camp Logan.
MISTAKE. - The Harrisburg Telegraph of Monday evening, locates Camp Logan at Altoona. - This is a mistake; it should have located it at Tyrone, where it is to open on Monday next, and a "high old time" generally is expected. We have no desire to rob our neighbors down the road of any visitors who might, through the notice of the Telegraph, be induced to visit the Encampment, and therefore make mention of the error in order that it may be corrected.
SELECT SCHOOL. - The Fall Term of Mrs. King's School will open on Tuesday, Sept. 20th. Expenses for Primary and Higher English, from $3 to $5.
Grecian Painting - $5
Water Colors - 2
Oriental Colors - 2
Drawing - 2
Embroidery of all kinds, each 1
No deductions made for absence unless the scholar is detained by protracted illness.
Altoona, September 13th, 1859.
MARRIED.
At the bride's home, near Orbisonia, Hunt. Co., on the 1st inst., by Rev. G. W. Shaffer, David Cree, Esq., of Birmingham, Hunt. Co., to Miss Lizzie Jordan.
On the 8th inst., by J. M. Cherry, Esq., Mr. John Bowman, of Bedford county, to Harriet Roach, of Blair county.
DIED.
In Tyrone, on the 2d inst., Francis Henry McClain, aged 5 months and 15 days.
CAUTION. - ALL PERSONS ARE hereby cautioned not to trust my wife or any of my family to any goods, merchandise, &c., on my account, unless a written order from me be presented, as I will pay no debts contracted by them without my consent. - HENRY LEHR, Altoona, Sept. 15, 1859.
Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Thursday, September 15, 1859, page 3