|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
James Densmore |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| JAMES
DENSMORE, The eldest son of Joel Densmore, who was a somewhat
conspicuous mechanic of the county, was born February 3d, 1820, at Moscow,
Livingstone County, N. Y., and came, with his father’s family, into
Woodcock township, on Woodcock Creek, near Blooming Valley, on January
1st, 1836. From his seventh to his thirteenth year he had the advantages
of the common schools of the city of Rochester, N. Y., such as they then
were. During the winter of 1841-42, feeling the need of better advantages
of schooling, by advancing a portion of the wages himself, he prevailed on
the trustees of the so-called “Cowen District” to employ Mr. John R.
Donnelly, a former tutor of Allegheny College, to teach the district
school. It was an event in that town ship. Scholars sought admission from
the contiguous districts. The result was a crowded and most successful
school. The next winter, the winter of 1842-43, he attended Allegheny
College one session. These constitute the school advantages he enjoyed. In
1844 he entered as a student at law with Hiram L. Richmond, Esq., and was
admitted to the bar of the county April 18th, 1848, but he never practiced
the profession. In October of that year he went to Wisconsin, and there
drifted into political writing as a profession, and for fourteen years
following was engaged in conducting several weekly political newspapers.
In 1862 he returned to Crawford County, and in 1864 took up his residence
in Meadville. Politically, he was educated in the old so-called Democratic school, and voted with that party for the first seven years of his voting life. But early in life he became converted to the general doctrines of William Lloyd Garrison, and in 1848 he inaugurated the Free Soil Party in Crawford County. The county was then divided among Whigs and Democrats, and so unpopular was political anti-slavery that he failed to get any names to a call for a county convention, and was constrained to call it anonymously. But a small band was found to join him, among whom were Dr. Sargeant, Thomas S. Minniss, Henry C. Johnson, Ezek Jones, Benjamin David, Lewis Thickstun, and a few others. This was the beginning of the party in that county now known as the Republican. In July, 1854, at Madison, Wisconsin, he was a delegate to the convention which form ally organized the Republican party in that State. He has always been somewhat prominent as an independent radical, both in politics and religion. For the last dozen years he has been connected with the enterprise of developing the type-writer—a machine to write with types instead of the pen, and is now connected therewith. Directory of Crawford County, PA, 1879-80, pages
235-236. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
