More About Franklin Johnson...

Franklin Johnson, as I mentioned in the Wolf Family post, was an african-american servant who lived in the household, age 16 in 1860. Until recently that's all I knew of him. However, a ceremony held late this Fall to honor the local troops of the US Colored Troops mentioned Franklin, and I recently was able to find a bit more out about him through Bellefonte Secrets, a local newsletter:

It had been a devastating four years. Over 620,000 soldiers had been killed – 10% of all Northern males aged 20-45 years and 30% of all Southern males aged 18-40 years. President Abraham Lincoln almost saw the un-uniting of the United States of America. Helping his Union cause was Bellefonte’s own Andrew Gregg Curtin, now Governor of Pennsylvania, who not only advised Lincoln, but also provided a large portion of trained Union soldiers....

Being thankful for the war’s end, the Federal army held a “Grand Review” of its troops in Washington, DC. In celebrating its victory over the Confederacy, the U.S. War Department did not invite the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) to participate. Two hundred thousand African-American soldiers were ignored. These black soldiers were established by General Order 143 on May 22, 1863 and over 10,000 (11 regiments) of them were trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in Chelten Hills. About 18,000 African-Americans served in the U.S. Navy as well. This meant that 10% of Union forces were colored soldiers and 15% of the Navy were as well. What an insult not to have invited these patriots to the “Grand Review.” These USCT soldiers were also gypped out of their pay as they received only $10.00 a month, plus a clothing allowance of $3.50. It wasn’t until June 15, 1864 that Congress would grant pay for all black soldiers equal to their white counterparts. In fact, many did not receive service and disability pensions until the early 1900s.

Sixteen African-American soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor and General James Blunt, leading the battle against the Confederate forces under General Douglas Cooper, said after the July 17, 1863 battle: “I never saw such fighting as was done by the Negro regiment...The question that Negroes will fight is settled; besides they make better solders in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command.” On September 29, 1864, the 6th USCT were fighting in
the Battle of Chapin’s Farm near Petersburg, VA where 367 entered the battle and 210 were killed or missing. One third of the USCT lost their lives in fighting for the Union. Now the remaining USCT’s were not invited to the Nation’s Capital for the “Grand Review.”

This was just too much for the citizens and leading blacks of Harrisburg. They would stage their own “Grand Review” and it would consist only of USCT veterans. Thus, on Tuesday, November 14, 1865 nearly 7,000 blacks from 25 states marched before the State Capital in Harrisburg and in front of former Secretary of War Senator Simon Cameron’s house. Senator Cameron spoke: “I cannot let this opportunity pass without thanking the African soldiers for the compliment they have paid me, but more than all to thank them for the great service which they have been to their country in the terrible rebellion. Like all other men, you have your destinies in your own hands, and if you continue to conduct yourselves hereafter as your have in the struggle, you will have all the rights you ask for, all the rights that belong to human beings.” After hearing orator William Howard Day and prayers by Rev. John Walker Jackson, Harrisburg’s “Grand Review” ended with a grand ball honoring these USCT veterans.

Conservation to find, repair and restore the grave sites of USCT soldiers is underway and was commemorated at a "Grand Review" on November 14, 2010. In Bellefonte’s Union Cemetery are buried approximately nine USCT members: William Green, Moses Jackson, Franklin Johnson, Moses Johnston/Johnson, Edward Mills, Lewis Mills, Thomas Taylor, Jacob Williams, and Wilson Williams.

However, only five of these graves are marked. Franklin Johnson's is not among them -- Penn State's research was necessary to identifying his final location.

The Wolf Family, 1850 to 1886

Theresa and William Wolf owned the house from 1850 to 1886, though records indicate that they didn't always live in it.



The Wolf family is one of those that shaped the history of Bellefonte, both through their work and their legacy. William S. Wolf may have been born in Bellefonte, but he is now buried in the Union cemetery and worked as a tinsmith in the borough for 30 or 40 years. His life appears ordinary, but well-documented, and indicates a man who was a very active citizen. In addition to his work as a tinsmith, newspapers of the time note his involvement on juries and committees, as well as his pitching in during a fire to attempt to save the Brockerhoff Hotel.



The census indicates a long progression of tenants, which are instructive even as statistics.

The 1870 census notes the following residents:

• France/is Boal, a 48 year-old woman, was the head of the household. Her occupation is listed as “Bonnet Manufacturer.”



• George O. Boal, 17



• Nellie W. Boal, 13



• Lucy Burnside, 10, “At Home”



• Ann Owens, a 20 year-old domestic servant from Wales
  

Lucy Burnside and Frances Boal were sisters, and the daughters of Judge Thomas Burnside. Thomas Burnside, born in Ireland, had many accomplishments:

In 1811 he was elected to the State Senate, and was an active supporter of Governor Simon Snyder in all the war measures of 1812. In 1815 he was elected to
Congress, and served during the memorable session of 1816. In the summer of the
same year he was appointed by Governor Snyder president judge of the Luzerne
district. He resigned this position in 1818, and resumed practice at Bellefonte.
In 1823 he was again elected to the State Senate, of which body he was chosen
Speaker. In 1826, before his senatorial term had expired, he was appointed
president judge of the Fourth Judicial District (Centre, etc.), which office he
held until 1841, when he was appointed president judge of the Seventh Judicial
District (Bucks and Montgomery). On the 1st of January, 1845, he was
commissioned as one of the justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, an
office which he filled with honor up to the time of his death.By his second
wife, Ellen Winters, he also had children, now residing in Bellefonte,-Miss Lucy
Burnside, Thomas Burnside, and Mrs. Frances Boal. Mrs. Ellen W. Burnside died in
Bellefonte, June 3, 1859, aged seventy-three years, eight months, and seventeen
days. Source: History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania; John
Blair Linn; Philadelphia; Louis H. Everts; 1883

The 1860 federal census notes the following as occupants:

• Daniel Welsh, a 44 year-old contractor, was the head of the household. Welsh may have emigrated from Ireland -- an investigation into susipisious voting practices in which his son was questioned included testimony that he and Jane became citizens.



• His wife, Jane E., was 30



• William G. Welsh, a Justice of the Peace, was 73



• Jane M. Harris was 27



• Eliza L. Welsh, 23



• Louisa Welsh, 20



• Catherine Gofney, 21, is a servant, from “Konemara, Ireland” (Connemara) – probably actually Catherine Gaffney Meagher, who died in 1918 in Michigan.



• Franklin Johnson is a 16 year-old African-american.

The 1850 federal census indicates the following as occupants:

• Felix Mullin, a 45-year old male, whose occupation was listed as “Manager” and who was born in Ireland.



• Eliza Mullin, a 44 year-old female, also born in Ireland.



• John Mullin, an 18 year-old male who is listed as a student of medicine.



• Frances Mullin, an 11 year-old female.



• Margaret McGlarity, an 19 year-old female.

So...when was this house built?

This is a great question. And the answer is: I really don't know.

However, as we get into the Wolf era, it's important to note that I bought what was supposedly a house contructed in 1885. Certainly the house showing in the historical photo from the turn of the century looks like my house, and the easement that is on record in 1906 indicates that whatever was there had roughly the same dimensions, which is to say dimensions placing the Burrows Street side way too close to the neighboring house. So it's definitely at least ca. 1900. And the style, which is a sort of Italianate/Eastlake/stick/Queen Anne/late victorian polyglot, suggests that it is of roughly the 1880s or 1890s.

However, it wouldn't be unusual to see a house modified and decorated which was actually constructed earlier, and there's a lot of evidence suggesting that the house is actually older.

That evidence is:

• The development pattern of Bellefonte, in which Allegheny Street developed all the way to the site of the current elementary school during the Civil War antebellum period.


• Sanborn maps and other historical maps -- which indicate a double structure on my property in the 1850s and 1870s. These same maps indicate some additions -- the rear staircases and side porch and commercial area -- over the years.


• The deed research, when coupled with the census. The deeds continue to be transferred and legible back to 1823. The census indicates residents on that lot back to 1820.


• The relatively good records of the Civil War era -- Bellefonte at the time had four competing newspapers. So if there was a structure on the property before 1847 and it burned down or was otherwise replaced before 1880 or so, we'd probably know.

So...I don't know when the house was constructed. but I'm definitely assuming that it's pre-1885.

Hastings and Spangler, 1886 to 1896

In 1896, Daniel and Jennie Hastings sold the house to J.L. Spangler and J.H. Sands. There's a surfeit of information about Hastings and Spangler, and I will attempt to keep it brief.



Hastings was, among other things, a Civil War general, a natural-disaster hero, and Governor of Pennsylvania. J.L. Spangler was his law partner. Together they mounted a number of initiatives, including starting the Blue Baker Coal Company that was a crucial part of Johnstown's early growth. In fact, an unincorporated area in Cambria County bears Spangler's name in his honor.



Spangler and Hastings probably never lived in my house, though Hastings owned my house, then sold it to the father of Mrs. Lane about the same time that he bought the Lanes' home and expanded it into more or less the house that we see today as the Hastings mansion. Presumably renters that I've been unable to identify thus far lived in the house instead.

The Lanes, 1896 to 1948

The record on the Lane family is a complicated one, with several sales. Yet, for over 50 years the house was occupied by various members of the Lane family.

Patty and James Eldridge sold the house to William and Alta McClure in 1948.

Patty Eldridge was the sole heir of Elliott Eskridge Lane, and inherited the house at Lane's death in 1948. Elliott Lane bought the house at a public sale in 1942, when its value was thought to be about $6,500 -- Lane paid $5,000. At the time, it officially belonged to Elliott and several of his siblings, including Martha Lane/Pattie Lane Fay, Fred Lane, James B. Lane, and John H. Love. (Their parents, John Lane and Louisa Lane having presumably moved to what would eventually be Governor Hastings's mansion.)

The group had inherited the house in 1913, from J.H. Sands, when Sands died and the Pennsylvania orphans' court distributed it to the group. A notation in a historical text notes that J.H. Sands was also a relative -- his daughter was Mrs. John Lane.

The Lane family has an interesting connection to President James Buchanan, as well as some of the other movers and shakers of Pennsylvania history, such as Daniel Hastings. From Memories from Another Era: a complete collection of the articles written by Charles A. Mensch on his memories of growing up in Bellefonte, 1995:

“Living next to the Sieberts was the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Lane and their two sons, Fred and Elliott, and Mrs. Lane’s father, J.H. Sands, who had owned a bakery, later purchased by Joseph Ceader, in what was known as the Sands block on S. Allegheny Street (where the Fountain restaurant is now located). Mr. Lane was related to Harriet Lane, a niece of President James Buchanan, who served as the official hostess of the White House during her bachelor uncle’s administration. A bookcase, one of two which stood on each side of the fireplace in “Wheatland,” the President’s ancestral home and birthplace near Lancaster, was given by heirs of the Lane family to the Bellefonte Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The local chapter had it restored to its original beauty and presented it to the State and National DAR. The bookcase is now part of the completely restored shrine honoring the first and only native-born Pennsylvanian to become the nation’s chief executive.

Before the house came into the ownership of the Lanes, however, it was occupied by them. In 1896 the house was sold to J.L. Spangler and J. H. Sands by Daniel Hastings. However, the 1900 census makes it evident that the occupants of the home were the Lanes. At the time, they included:

• John N. Lane, a 48 year-old male


• Louisa S. Lane, a 40 year-old female


• Eskridge Lane, a 12 year-old male


• Fred Lane, a 15 year-old male

This situation is one of the fun things about the house -- since it is a double house, at various points it has been occupied by renters. Spangler, for example, probably never lived there, since records indicate that he lived elsewhere. More on him later.

The Casher, Barr, and McClure eras, 1948 to 2009

The most recent history of the house is a tad dull. Not only because sites like Ancestry.com and such concentrate on the further past, but because I'm choosing not to delve too deeply into people who are still alive or whose heirs are still alive.

First, let me thank them all for not modifying the house a lot. We can see the architectural history of the house pretty easily, and this is because the most egregious thing that's ever been done to it is that someone decided in the mid-60s to cover the interiors in wall board. So, who might that have been?

Most recently, I bought the house from Pat Casher, who still lives in Bellefonte. Someone during the Casher era or immediately preceding ran a travel agency from the commercial space -- the sign is still there! I only met Pat once, but he was very helpful, and told me that the house is a double house, but has also always, as far as he knows, been occupied by families. When he owned it, several relatives of his lived in the two sides.

Pat Casher bought it from Norma Barr, who was the widow of David J. Barr. I wasn't able to find any information on Norma, but David is an interesting case. He used the house's commercial space to run his physical therapy business up until his death in 1997. However, the local newspaper indicates that David was a mechanic at the Nuclide Corporation in 1964. At the same time, an attorney named J.A. Harris operated from the commercial space. Incidentally, we have a valuable historical resource in our carriage house tenant, who hasn't signed a lease since he signed one with Mrs. Barr sometime in the late 90s. He has also shared some information about how things in the house were arranged.

The Barrs bought the house From William and Alta McClure. They are absolute mysteries -- I wasn't able to find any information on their jobs or heritages.

House History, Ground Rules

I'm about to post the house's history. However, I wanted to lay out the rules so you kind readers can follow.

1. I will go from the present as far into the past as I can go.

2. I will tag all of these posts with "house history," so I can isolate the actual history.

3. I will set out any issues in their own posts, so I can isolate those, as well.

4. I will post, each post representing a new ownership period, every 3 days or so, until I run out of owners to post about.