L. W. STOCKTON.
Mr. Stockton’s second wife was Katharine Stockton, his first cousin. She is still living, making her home with her son-in-law, Gen. Leiper, of Philadelphia. By his second marriage Mr. Stockton had four children, as follows: Katharine, Richard C., Elias Boudinot and Henrietta Maria. Of these all are dead but Henrietta Maria. She is the wife of Gen. Leiper, with whom her mother lives, as before stated, in Philadelphia.
It is related as an incident in the early career of Mr. Stockton that he had a race with a horse and buggy against a locomotive, between the Relay House and Baltimore, in which he came out ahead. The horse he drove on that occasion was a favorite gray. He had a pair of “Winflower” mares, which he drove frequently from Uniontown to Wheeling between breakfast and tea time, tarrying two or three hours at mid-day in Washington. At the watering places he ordered a little whisky to be added to the water given these spirited and fleet animals, and they became so accustomed to it that, it is said, they refused to drink unless the water contained the stimulating element. He would also drive from Uniontown to Cumberland in a day, stopping at the stations to transact business, and from Cumberland to Hagerstown, sixty-six miles, was an ordinary day’s drive for him. His private carriage was a long open vehicle which he called “The Flying Dutchman.” Hanson Willison, who has a vivid recollection of Mr. Stockton and his lively trips over the road, says that the names of his sorrel mares (the “Winflowers”) were “Bet” and “Sal,” and that they once ran off. On that occasion Mr. Stockton was accompanied by his wife and a sister. Miss Stockton was much alarmed, and pulling the coat-tail of her brother cried out piteously, “Hold on, brother William, hold on, or we’ll all be killed!” But Mr. Stockton heeded not the cries of his sister, and having no fear of horses, soon regained control of the runaways without sustaining loss or injury.
Mr. Stockton died at Uniontown on April 25th, 1844, at “Ben Lomond,” the name he gave his residence, now the property of the widow and heirs of the late Judge Gilmore. A few years ago the remains of Mr. Stockton were removed from the old Methodist burying ground in Uniontown, under direction of his loving daughters, Mrs. Wishart and Mrs. Dr. McKennan, and deposited in the beautiful cemetery at Washington, Pa.
Mr. Stockton was of Episcopalian lineage, and active in establishing the services of the church in Uniontown. He brought out Bishop Stone, of Maryland, to baptize his daughter Rebecca, now Mrs. Wishart. He was a vestryman, and besides contributing liberally in money to support the church, donated to the parish of Uniontown the lot on which the new stone edifice of St. Peter’s now stands.
James Reeside, the second son of Edward Reeside and his wife, Janet Alexander, was born near Paisley, Renfrew, Scotland, and was brought, when an infant, to Baltimore county, Md., in 1789, where he was raised. His parents being in humble circumstances, toil was his first estate. Poor in book learning and in earthly goods, he possessed genius, energy, executive ability, and an ambition that fitted him to be a leader of men. Before the war of 1812 he was a wagoner, hauling merchandise from Baltimore and Philadelphia to Pittsburg and west to Zanesville and Columbus, Ohio. His promptness and sagacity soon enabled him to own his own teams, which were employed in hauling artillery to Canada. Commissioned a forage master under Gen. Winfield Scott, at Lundy’s Lane, his Scottish blood prompted him to seize a musket, as a volunteer, from which hard fought battle he carried honorable scars. On his return he settled at Hagerstown, Md., where, in 1816, he married Mary, the daughter of John Weis, a soldier of the Revolutionary war. Abandoning wagoning, he ran a stage line, in 1816 to 1818, from Hagerstown via Greencastle and Mercersburg to McConnellstown, there connecting with the stage line then in operation from Chambersburg to Pittsburg by Bedford, Somerset, and Mt. Pleasant. In 1818, in connection with Stockton & Stokes, of Baltimore; Joseph Boyd, of Hagerstown; Kincaid, Beck & Evans, of Uniontown; George Dawson, of Brownsville; Stephen Hill, of Hillsboro; and Simms & Pemberton, of Wheeling, he put on the first regular stage line, carrying the mail, between Baltimore and Wheeling, before the construction of the turnpikes between Hagerstown and Cumberland. This division of the route being from Hancock to Frostburg, he removed to Cumberland, where, in conjunction with his stage line, he kept the “McKinley Tavern,” at the corner of Baltimore and Mechanics streets, afterward kept by Jacob Fechtig, James Stoddard, John Edwards, and others, and now known as the “Elberon.” In 1820 he quit tavern keeping, and confined himself to mail contracting and the stage business. In 1827 John McLean, Postmaster General, afterward one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, prevailed on him to take the mail contract between Philadelphia and New York, and he moved from Cumberland to Philadelphia. In the first year he reduced the time for transporting the mail between the two cities from twenty-three to sixteen hours, and soon thereafter to twelve hours. He soon became the owner of most of the lines running out of Philadelphia and New York, and the largest mail contractor in the United States. He employed in this service more than one thousand horses and four hundred men. The wagoner soon became the “Land Admiral,” a title given him by the press in recognition of his energy and ability.
JAMES REESIDE.
The Postoffice Department at that time having to rely on its own resources, and under Major W. T. Barry, then Postmaster-General, the service had so increased in thinly settled sections it became deeply in debt. Mr. Reeside raised, on his personal responsibility, large sums of money to relieve it. His efforts were appreciated, and he was the esteemed friend of Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and other distinguished men, without regard to politics, although he was a pronounced Democrat. Of massive frame, six feet five inches in height, yet spare in flesh, clear cut features, sparkling, clear blue-gray eyes, fair complexion, with dark, sandy, curly hair, he was a true Highlander in appearance, genial in disposition, with quick and ready wit. Fond of song and story, kind, yet strict, with all in his employment, and generous to a fault, no words can more appropriately describe him than those of his favorite poet and countryman, Robert Burns: