Source:Fleming-abner-lacock-2
George T. Fleming. "Abner Lacock, a Beaver pioneer: Lacock, a man of keen mentality, became good speaker and accomplished writer—was a patriot and firm supporter of President Madison in War of 1812—some account of his children and grandchildren: Biography of noted Pennsylvanian concluded; Gen. Lacock's activities in the construction of Pennsylvania canals—his services as member of the canal commission of the state; other positions of trust and honor." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Jan. 11, 1925, sec. 5, [p. 2]. Newspapers.com 86162995.
GEN. LACOCK'S brief biography in last Sunday's paper ended with the accounts of his legislative and congressional careers. His subsequent services in public life, it was stated would receive mention in a future story. Opportunity is presented today.
James M. Swank, whose wife was a grand-daughter of Gen. Lacock was given as the authority for much of the biographical matter presented in last week's article. There was also some extracts from and some reliance upon the most excellent biography written by Frank Willing Leach, that appeared in the Philadelphia North American, June 28, 1914. This sketch is the eleventh in a series of biography pertaining to the United States senators from Pennsylvania up to that date. Recourse today for the data presented will be had to the same authorities as last week.
Mr. Swank attests that soon after Gen. Lacock's term in the United States Senate terminated, he entered with all the energy of his earnest nature into the scheme for uniting the waters of the Delaware and Ohio rivers, by a line of canals and railroads, to be built by the State of Pennsylvania. He was one of the first and one of the most insistent in urging the construction of these great internal improvements. Canals and railroads were live topics in Pennsylvania, in the newspapers of those years, in political campaigns and in the halls of the Legislature. More than six years elapsed before anything definite took place. Gen. Lacock's successor had served a full term in the Senate by that date. This was Walter Lowrie and not Jonathan Roberts as stated last week. It is true that Roberts was the twelfth senator from Pennsylvania but he succeeded Michael Leib, who was the tenth senator, and Lowrie the thirteenth, therefore Senator Roberts was Abner Lacock's colleague in the Senate. So much for historical accuracy.
April 11, 1825, five commissioners were appointed by the governor to make a complete survey for the contemplated improvements by the state of Pennsylvania. These five were Abner Lacock, John Sergeant, William Darlington, David Scott and Robert M. Patterson. Their commissions were signed by Gov. J. Andrew Shulze; Lacock's was dated May 16, 1825. It was not until February 25, 1826, that the General Assembly authorized commencement of the work on the canal. An appropriation of $30,000 was made for the purpose. Gen. Lacock, as a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners, was appointed by the board to supervise the construction of the Western division of the canal, that is to say, that extending from Pittsburgh to Johnstown. It is to be remembered that the canal entered Pittsburgh on a long aqueduct, that crossed the Allegheny River at what is now Eleventh street.
The canal followed the west shore of the Allegheny as far as Freeport, where is [sic] crossed the river again to the north side of Kiskiminetas, following that river, and the Conemaugh to Johnstown. It was mainly under Gen. Lacock's direction that this extremely difficult portion of the canal was built. The first canal boat built, or run, west of the Allegheny Mountains was named, "General Abner Lacock." It was a freight and passenger packet and was built at Apollo, Armstrong county, Pa. by Philip Dally, under the auspices of Patrick Leonard of Pittsburgh. With the completion of the canal in 1829, Gen. Lacock's services as canal commissioner, terminated. He was elected several times to the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, serving until 1836. It will be remembered that he had been a member of that body as early as 1801, having been the first representative sent from Beaver county.
In 1836 Gen. Lacock was again appointed a canal commissioner. This time to survey and construct the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, generally known as the "cross-cut canal," connecting the Erie Division of the Pennsylvania Canal with the Portsmouth and Ohio Canal, which extended from the Ohio River at Portsmouth to Cleveland. In the performance of his duties as commissioner in this work, Gen. Lacock contracted the illness which proved his last. It was a long and painful illness. He was aged 65 years and 9 months.
Gen. Lacock was offered many public positions other than those mentioned. In 1820, immediately after the expiration of his senatorial term at Washington, he was appointed by the United States government one of the commissioners to survey and lay out a "national road from Wheeling to the Mississippi River." This was the extension of the National Pike from Washington to Wheeling via Cumberland, Uniontown, Brownsville and Washington, Pa. Mr. Swank could not find any record of Gen. Lacock having ever accepted this appointment. Thomas B. Searight in his history of the "Old Pike" makes no mention of it.
In November, 1825, William H. Crawford, who was then secretary of the United States Treasury under President John Quincy Adams, appointed Gen. Lacock, examiner of the land offices for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. This duty Gen. Lacock performed that fall, and during the winter of 1825–26. In 1836 he was appointed superintendent of the Green River Slackwater Improvement Company of Kentucky, but he did not accept the appointment.
It has been mentioned that Abner Lacock attained the title of general early in his public career, while serving as an officer in the Pennsylvania Militia. The title was conferred on him in 1807, when he was appointed to the command of the brigade composed of the militia from the counties of Beaver and Butler. He never had any other military experience. The title stuck to him throughout his life. He was seldom, if ever, referred to as Senator Lacock.
Naturally, having grown up on the frontier, Gen. Lacock had few advantages for obtaining an education. He had only what the poor schools of the era afforded, a few months each winter. He was, however, gifted with a bright intellect and had special talent that developed as opportunities afforded. While yet a young man he became expert as a surveyor. Later in life, meeting the requirements of a legislator, he became a good public speaker and a most accomplished writer. His letter to the Hon. David Scott, president of the Board of Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania, reviewing the report of James S. Stevenson, one of the board, and printed in pamphlet form in 1830, shows him to have been a master of the whole art of controversy. His library was one of the largest in Western Pennsylvania, and it was well selected. A large part of it was destroyed by a flood in the Ohio River in 1832.
It was stated in last week's story that Gen. Lacock was a member of the House of Representatives at Washington, serving through the Twelfth Congress, and that he was a staunch supporter of President Madison and spoke and voted in favor of the Declaration of War against Great Britain. A section of the centennial edition of the Washington (Pa.) Daily Reporter, issued on that occasion, August 15, 1908, turned up the other day, much the worse for the ravages of time. However, much of the issue of the Reporter could be read. The edition contained 40 pages and was filled with much interesting historical matter and is really a valuable relic. On page 7, at the bottom, under a facsimile page of the first copy of the Reporter, there is a brief paragraph which is headed:
"DECLARATION OF WAR.
"An Act.
"Declaring war between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America and their territories.
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, that WAR be and the same is hereby declared, to exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America and their territories; and that the President of the United States of America be and is hereby authorized to use the whole land and naval force of the United States commissions, or letters of marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels, goods and effects of the governments of the same United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the subjects thereof.
"HENRY CLAY,
"Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"WM. H. CRAWFORD,
President of the Senate, pro tempore.
"June 18, 1812.
"Approved,
"JAMES MADISON."
It may be remarked here that one of the best histories of the War of 1812 is that written by Judge Henry Marie Brackenridge of Pittsburgh, which ran through five large editions, and after being out of print for a number of years, the sixth edition was published in 1845. The opening chapters in this work are devoted to the causes of the war and the complete exposition of the fact that in the state of affairs there was no hope that the war clouds would pass harmlessly over the youthful nation known as the United States of America. It is to be noted that the first session of the Twelfth Congress was protracted to an unusual length and that the eyes of the American people were turned towards it in anxious expectation. The length of the session was unusual for one in those years. Longer sessions have been held within recent years. It is most pleasing to know that Gen. Lacock during these embarrassing and momentus [sic] times was a true patriot and stood valiantly by the President.
The mention of the loss of Gen. Lacock's library, four years prior to his death, presents evidence that he was a lover of books and a reader. Not only many of his books, but a large part of his collection of private papers were lost. This was at the time of the great flood in our rivers, in February, 1832. Many valuable autograph letters were saved and are now in the possession of Gen. Lacock's descendants, among them correspondence from Presidents Madison, Monroe and Jackson, Judge Henry Baldwin of the United States Supreme Court, whose home was in Pittsburgh; John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford, Charles J. Ingersoll and Governors Snyder, Findlay, Shulze and Wolf.
Seventy years after Gen. Lacock's term in the United States Senate expired Beaver county's second representative in that body entered upon his senatorial career. It is a curious coincidence that Senator Quay also was a book lover and a student of literature and he, too, was the possessor of one of the largest private libraries in Pennsylvania.
Of the three sons of Gen. Lacock only one, the eldest, Atlas Eddy Lacock, left issue. He was born February 20, 1794, and died August 15, 1845. Like his father, he was a surveyor and civil engineer and traveled over much of Western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, Michigan and Virginia in the practice of his profession. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, a member of Capt. Thomas Henry's company of the Pennsylvania Militia, which was included in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment, under Col. Robert Miller. This command was in service in 1814 in the Lake Erie area of warfare. Atlas Eddy Lacock was married in October, 1834, to Louise Lyon, daughter of James Lyon, a pioneer of Beavertown. Mrs. Lacock was born in 1810 and died December 22, 1889. The last surviving child of Atlas Eddy and Louise Lyon Lacock was Mrs. John Linnenbrink of Rochester, Beaver county, who was born February 19, 1846, and died April 3, 1914. Mr. Linnenbrink, a retired jeweler, is still a resident of Rochester, as are also his daughters. Maj. Abner Lacock, who was born in 1838, died October 29, 1875. He was a brother of Mrs. Linnenbrink.
Maj. Lacock enlisted in June, 1861, in Company F of the Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves, which was the Thirty-ninth Regiment of the Pennsylvania line during the Civil War. Of this company Matthew Stanley Quay, Abner Lacock's near neighbor, was first lieutenant. Lacock was made first sergeant of the company, promoted to second lieutenant August 1, 1862; to first lieutenant May 6, 1863, and to captain March 1, 1864. He was mustered out with his company at the expiration of their term of service, June 11, 1864. He participated with his command in all the engagements of the Army of the Potomac, in which the Pennsylvania Reserves took part. In 1865 Capt. Lacock was breveted major for gallantry during the war.
Gen. Lacock's second son was named Dryden. He was admitted as a cadet to the United States Military Academy and died there October 16, 1818, aged 16 years and 6 months.
Abner Pentland Lacock was the third and youngest son of Gen. Lacock and the last survivor of the family. He, too, was a civil engineer and surveyor. He occupied the old Lacock homestead until his death. He was never married.
Bathsheba, oldest child of Gen. Abner and Hannah Eddy Lacock, became the wife of Judge Ephraim Pentland of Pittsburgh. Judge Pentland was one of the most noted men in Pittsburgh, during his long career here as a newspaper publisher, lawyer and public official. July 24, 1805, Ephraim Pentland established a weekly newspaper, called the Commonwealth. This was published in a building in the West Diamond, opposite the southwest corner of the Court House in Diamond Square. This paper resulted from the dissension in the Republican party of that day in Pennsylvania and the hot politics of the times. Gov. McKean's second term was drawing to a close. He had disagreed for two years with the General Assembly because of its extreme radicalism. Simon Snyder was put forward as a candidate against McKean and Pentland's paper became Snyder's organ in Pittsburgh. The history of these stormy political times has been fully told in previous history stories of The Gazette Times series, especially in those pertaining to the Bates–Stewart duel, which were printed in The Gazette Times of Sunday, May 21, 1916, and September 21, 1919, and also in those pertaining to Senator James Ross that were printed December 27, 1914, and June 3, 1917, to which reference may be had in the files of the paper in the public libraries. Our Pittsburgh historian, Charles W. Dahlinger, in his book, "Pittsburgh, A Sketch of Its Early Social Life," has given a most excellent account of Ephraim Pentland's political career.
Pantlind [sic] was prothonotary of Allegheny county, serving from 1809 until 1821, when he was succeeded by Capt. James R. Butler, who had commanded the Pittsburgh Blues in the War of 1812. The incumbents of this office and other county offices were appointed by the governor in those years. Riddle's Directory of 1814 records Pentland as "Prothonotary, residence on the west side of Liberty street, opposite Fifth;" meaning Fifth avenue as we now know it. His office was at the Court House. In Harris' first directory of Pittsburgh, 1837, Ephraim Pentland, Esq., was still in public life, recorded by Harris as, "City Recorder and Attorney-at-Law, office in the Diamond; dwelling house, Second street, near Wood."
It is not expedient here to follow the female lines in the Lacock genealogy. One grandson of the old general, his namesake, Abner Lacock Pentland, was admitted to the bar of Allegheny county at Pittsburgh, October 22, 1835. For several years, until April 1, 1845, he served as prothonotary of the Supreme Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The name Pentland is familiar to The Gazette Times' employes and patrons, because The Gazette Times Building faces Gazette Square, which is really a part of Pentland street, that portion of old Fountain street, which is not being utilized by the railroads, or made part of the Bigelow boulevard.
Gen. Lacock was an extensive land owner, in all he owned 1,165 acres, which were patented in 1789. His last place of residence was on the Ohio River near Freedom, where he located in 1810. The original building was of logs, but was later added to, and weather-boarded. In this home he died April 12, 1837. Editor William Henry in the Western Argus, published in Beaver, in the issue of that paper, April 19, 1837, in the obituary of Gen. Lacock said: "The death of this truly eminent citizen will be sincerely deplored by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who were attached to him for his integrity and purity of heart, and respected him for his worth, as one, who from a humble station in life, by his own exertions and strong natural powers, raised himself to eminence and fame."
James M. Swank in his sketch of Gen. Lacock asks, "How few of the present generation of Pennsylvanians know that this man, who did so much to honor our state and advance its welfare, ever lived within its border—so evanescent is fame!"
The Gazette Times, in last week's and today's stories has endeavored to renew Gen. Lacock's fame.
