U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Gallaher, John S. (1796-1877) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aler's History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia by F. Vernon Aler, 1888 Printed for the Author by The Mail Publishing Company, Hagerstown, MD. CHAPTER VIII. Historical Pen Sketches of the Early Residents of Berkeley County by the late Hon. Chas. James Faulkner. Pages 116-123, JOHN S. GALLAHER Was born in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Va., December 1st, 1796. His only school education was obtained between the ages of five and twelve, in the old stone school house in the north-eastern portion of the town, under the tuition of "an excellent Irish gentleman of the olden time," Capt. Jas. Maxwell, long the County Surveyor. On the fourth day of April, 1809, he entered the printing office of Mr. John Alburtis, editor of the Berkeley and Jefferson Intelligencer, afterwards the Martinsburg Gazette. After an apprenticeship of five years, Mr. G. worked a few weeks in Baltimore, principally upon Nile's Register. In August, 1814, being in Charlestown, in charge of the Farmer's Repository, while its editor, Capt. Richard Williams, was in the military service at Norfolk, Mr. G. joined the volunteer rifle company of Capt. George W. Humphrey's, and served a month. In the course of this service the company had part in the sharp conflict at the White House Bluff, on the Potomac, in which Com. Porter undertook, with a few small field pieces and some riflemen, to stop the British vessels then descending the river, ladened with flour and other stores captured at Alexandria. On the conclusion of his military service, Mr. G. worked about a year in the office of the National Intelligencer, the model newspaper conducted by those well known gentlemen, Messrs. Gales and Seaton. In May, 1821, Mr. Gallaher, with his younger brother, Robert, (who died in August following, after only four days' sickness, of a malignant fever then prevailing,) commenced the publication of the Harper's Ferry Free Press, now the Virginia Free Press — a paper which acquired great popularity. Mr. G. also published for four years, a literary paper called The Ladies' Garland. In 1827 he purchased the Farmer's Repository, at Charlestown, and merged it with the Free Press, now published by his brother, H. N. Gallaher, and his nephew, W. W. B. Gallaher. In the spring of 1830, Mr. Gallaher was elected a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, with the veteran Daniel Morgan as his colleague. The amended Constitution of 1829 being adopted, this election of delegates was set aside, and in October, 1830, John S. Gallaher and Edward Lucas were chosen. In this first session under the new Constitution, much of the legal talent of the Old Commonwealth was in requisition, and it was deemed no light honor to be a colleague of such men as Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Richard Morris, Thomas Marshall, Jas. M. Mason, James McDowell, etc. Mr. Gallaher was re-elected for four successive terms, with slight opposition, except in 1833, when, having given a "State's Right's Vote" (in the nullification era), which displeased some of his ultra Whig supporters, a spirited canvass ensued, but he was re- elected by an increased majority. In the spring of 1835 he declined further legislative service, and removed to Richmond to take chief management of the Richmond Compiler, which he held for nineteen months. At the close of his term, the elder Governor Floyd, in 1832, appointed Charles James Faulkner, of Berkeley, John S. Gallaher, of Jefferson, and John B. D. Smith, of Frederick, Commissioners to settle, in conjunction with a like number from Maryland, the boundary line between the two States, but Maryland did not appoint Commissioners, and nothing was done. Mr. Faulkner has since had the matter in charge under a new appointment, and has made much progress in the collection of interesting data. In January, 1837, Mr. Gallaher purchased a third interest in the Richmond Whig, and for three years was associated with those eminent journalists, John Hampden Pleasants and Alexander Moseley. In 1840 he sold his interest in the Whig to his partners, and published for nine months a popular campaign paper — the Yoeman, in support of Harrison and Tyler. In the contest of that year the Whigs came within 1,400 votes of carrying the State. In the autumn of 1841 Mr. Gallaher returned to Jefferson, in connection with his favorite Free Press, and in the spring of 1842 was again elected to the House of Delegates, and served two sessions. In 1844 he was nominated for the Senate by a Whig convention, and was elected in the then Democratic district of Jefferson, Frederick and Clarke, by a majority of 62 votes, in opposition to John Bruce, a gentleman of ability and scholarly attainments — his predecessor, Robert Y. Conrad, an eminent lawyer, having declined a re-election. This district, the same year, gave Mr. Polk a majority of one in the Presidential election. In connection with Mr. Gallaher's career as a State Senator, it may not be out of place to mention, that near the close of President Tyler's term, in a conversation on the subject of the annexation of Texas, so confident was the President of the success of that measure, and of the consequent war with Mexico, that he offered Mr. G. a command in the army. This compliment was respectfully declined, for two reasons; first, that his term of civil service had not expired, and secondly, that his military aspirations had been satisfied with the command of a well- drilled company of riflemen at Harper's Ferry. In 1848 Mr. Gallaher was again nominated for the Senate, and after an active canvass, was defeated by a majority of 22 votes, the principal opposition to him being on account of a school bill for the County of Jefferson, matured by him and carried through both Houses. Jefferson County having an area about 25 miles square, is particularly well adapted to an experiment with free schools; and the system, by the aid of the remarkable John Yates, a wealthy land holder, and the largest tax payer in the county, was successfully put into active operation, and resisted several attempts to repeal the act. Mr. Gallaher, in his retirement, had the proud satisfaction of seeing 27 schools, free for the poor, firmly established and successful until broken up by the disastrous four years' war, which also destroyed the labors of forty years of his life. On the 22nd of October 1849, Mr. Gallaher was appointed by President Taylor to succeed that eminent accountant Peter Hagner, as Third Auditor of the Treasury, who had held the position from its creation in 1817, a period of 32 years. Declining health was the cause of Mr. Hagner's retirement. Mr. Gallaher served as Auditor through President Taylor and Fillmore's terms, and was removed in April 1858, by President Pierce, to make room for Francis Burt, of South Carolina, a personal friend of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War. This change was made in opposition to the wishes of many prominent Democratic members of Congress, who were satisfied with the incumbent, and strongly protested against his removal. Being prevented by the exigencies of the war from returning to Virginia, as he desired to do, Mr. Gallaher, accepted a position in the office of the Quartermaster General, at Washington, which position he continued to hold until a few months before his death, when age and disease rendered him unable to discharge its duties. He died at his residence in the city of Washington on the 4th of February 1877, and his remains were conveyed to the Presbyterian church in Charlestown and interred in Edge Hill cemetery, in sight of his beloved hills, and beneath the soil of his native State. No one took a livelier interest in the "Berkeley Centennial Celebration" than Mr. Gallaher. It seemed to touch the innermost chords of his heart, and to wake up, in vivid coloring, all the reminiscences of his early life. He anxiously desired to be present at the ceremonies of the day, but circumstances put it out of his power. For a few weeks preceeding the celebration scarcely a day passed that the Chairman of the Committee on Correspondence did not receive some communication from him — referring in that kind and genial spirit, so characteristic of the man — to those old citizens of the county, whom he had known, loved and respected in his younger days. It is due to him and cannot fail to interest our readers to make some extracts from this correspondence. Washington, D. C., June 13, 1872. Hon. C. J. Faulkner, Chairman, Martinsburg, W. Va.: Dear Sir: I am proud of my native county and have had frequent occasions to refer to her honored history. It would be egotistical in me to recount the ordinary events of my school-boy days during my attendance under twelve years of age in Capt. James Maxwell's old school house, in the northeastern portion of Martinsburg, over the site of which the locomotive now plies its busy wheels. The teacher being an adept in mathematics, and County Surveyor, had a number of grown up young men as students. I recollect Tillitson Fryatt, Robert V. Snodgrass, Jacob Myers, Dennis McSherry and Lawrence Wilmer among these. Three of them I met, after a lapse of twenty years, in the legislature of Virginia. Among my earliest recollections of eminent public men I may cite a discussion at the old Court House in Martinsburg between Alfred H. Powell, Federalist, and Henry St. George Tucker, Republican, for the position of State Senator. It was a rich, intellectual treat to me, a discussion between two courteous and polished gentlemen, strongly impressed, on my youthful memory as a model of forensic eloquence. Both these gentlemen were afterward eminent members of the national House of Representatives. My memory naturally carries me back to the era in which prominent men of Berkeley were in the vigor of life and usefulness, such as Col. Elisha Boyd, Judge Philip C. Pendleton, Col. William Gregory, Maj. Andrew Waggoner, Maj. Jas. Faulkner, Capt. Rob't Wilson, Capt. James Mason and others, who were in military service in the war of 1812. Among the regular army officers of 1812 who went to the northern frontier from Berkeley, I remember Capt. Lewis B. Willis, Capt. Hiram Henshaw, Lieuts. John Strother and David Hunter, the latter of whom was killed in Canada. I cannot omit a reference to an early friend who kindly stimulated my ambition when struggling with adverse fortune — I mean the late John R. Cooke, eminent at the bar, and in the Constitutional Convention of Virginia — a gentleman in every sense of the term, "with a heart open to melting charity." Nor do I forget my apprentice days on the old Martinsburg Gazette, published by John Alburtis, one of the most even-tempered gentlemen I ever knew, and who, like my old teacher, Capt. Maxwell, seemed ever gratified at my success. Well do I remember the venerable Edward Beeson — Beeson's mill, Beeson's orchard, (from which urchins like myself, of tender years, often were supplied with fruit) and Beeson's meadow, on Tuscarora Creek, upon which an Indian tribe of that name had frequent sanguinary battles with other tribes. The tradition on this subject is sustained by the frequent finding of arrow heads and various implements of Indian warfare. Other objects of interest abound. This recital may not be worth the time to read it, but the very suggestion of one's birth-place awakens memories of hills and valleys, teeming fields and gushing fountains, such as old Berkeley is blessed with most abundantly. It would be interesting to ascertain how many now survive who trod those hills and valleys and laved in those waters, Just one hundred rears ago ! Yours truly, John S. Gallaher. In another letter of the following day he mentions: "Ephraim Gaither, the dignified and gentlemanly proprietor of the Globe Hotel; Philip Nadenbousch, long a magistrate, whose sons worthily represent the name; Col. George Porterfield, also a popular magistrate and the Chesterfield of the County Court; Charles D. Stewart, for over fifty years the faithful deputy sheriff of the county; Rev. William Riddle, the preacher and teacher; Michael McKewan, Luke Pentiney, Alexander Cooper, Thomas C. Smith, Dr. Erasmus Stribling, Dr. J. S. Harrison, Jacob Hamme, Geo. Doll, Geo. Wolff, Adam Young, Wm. Somerville, the well remembered postmaster; Conrad Roush, Anthony S. Chambers, James P. Erskine, Jacob Poisal, John H. Blondell, W. Long, Ezekiel Showers, John Stewart, Conrad Hogmire, Daniel Burkhart, John Matthews — but my pen must stop; columns would not suffice to make up the record of my old friends and acquaintances." John S. Gallaher was a man of strong and vigorous intellect, disciplined and improved to the highest point of which it was susceptible. His judgment was sound, practical and discriminating; his temper mild, just and generous; his habits those of constant and assiduous labor. Free from his business employments he delighted in history and Belles Letters, and his taste in literature was refined and chaste. He was patriotic and public spirited, and liberal in all his views of national and State policy. He was a careful and correct, bat not dashing and flowing writer. He had none of the qualities of a public speaker, yet he always had at command such a fund of practical good sense, and was so familiar with the recognized maxims of human life that a few short, pithy sentences from him from the stump reached their mark more effectually than more accomplished oratory, and his sayings were remembered and treasured up by his audience. He was kind, grateful, charitable and whole-souled, and was universally esteemed for his integrity and for his merits and attainments as a self-made man. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Tombstone in Edge Hill Cemetery, Charles Town, Jefferson County, WV John S. Gallaher born Dec 1, 1796 died Feb 1, 1877 ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Berkeley County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/berkeley/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------