many a chairman, clerical or lay brother, in introducing john chambers to an always delighted audience, referred to his "big irish heart," and indeed he had in him all the winning and fascinating elements which make the jolly irishman. he was emotional, clear-brained, rich in personal magnetism, and in general a "good fellow". he had in him also those traits which characterize the strong, clean, god-fearing and man-loving puritan, whose career so often illustrates the highest type of manhood. of superb and commanding figure, six feet high, and the most imposing individual known in the chambers clan, he had an open illuminated face, and eyes that penetrated one's inmost nature. he was skilled in the handshake or shoulder pat, that warmed one's entire being into personal loyalty and were inspirations to friendship for the man and his master. his face made you believe in the immortality of the soul. to these physical traits may be added an absolutely fearless mien and a flashing eye, that made his enemies fear him, even when they most hated his ways and words. with leonine countenance and majestic presence, was a tongue that beat the blarney stone, and yet was made, under god, a unerring instrument in winning souls. some one has written of "the pastor as praiser". john chambers by praising a boy made him a hero. often a word from him came as paul's clarion call, "stand fast".
in brief, john chambers possessed in person, bearing, and characteristics, the noble heritages of that scottish race which settled in north ireland, and which has shown itself, especially in america, one of the most distinctive of stocks,[8] rich in mental initiative and nervous energy, with power of manifold adaptation and persistency. in america the scotch-irish have certainly influenced, with power second to that of no other strain or nationality, the making of the american republic.
the people of north ireland were noted for their calvinism, which in practice is only another word for an inextinguishable love of freedom and democracy. their faith fruited in free schools, popular education, family worship, familiarity with the bible, hatred of priest-craft, romanism, and british cruelty and oppression. in their christianity, some jewish notions in survival were perhaps put on a level with the teachings of jesus, and their passionate devotion to sabbath-keeping seemed sometimes to run into idolatry. they were not at all disinclined to controversy, and many of them were rather fond of a bit of a fight. among the less sanctified, religion of a certain narrow sort and the contents of the whiskey bottle were very much in demand.
naturally the british government with its aristocracy and political church, its absentee-landlordism and its corrupt parliament—which in the eighteenth century represented land rather than people—had much trouble with this insular people of many virtues and some glaring defects. the more oppressive measures of the first half and middle of the eighteenth century sent tens of thousands of emigrants to america, where they settled, especially in new hampshire, the carolinas, and western pennsylvania. only too glad to take up arms against the british, they furnished from their ranks for the continental army and patriot partisan bodies, probably a larger proportion of soldiers than those of any other nationality among the colonists.[1] many thousands of the "yankees" of new england were irishmen. in north carolina they were the regulators whom[9] "bloody billy" tryon slaughtered. in sullivan's expedition of 1779, one of the most important campaigns of the revolution, four of the five generals, and possibly a majority of the rank and file, were born in ireland, or were of irish stock. at the banquet held in the forest, on the chemung river on the site of elmira, n. y., on saturday september 25, 1779, in the pavilion of greenery, one of the thirteen toasts drunk was this,—"may ireland merit a stripe in the american standard."[2]
[1] see romance of american colonization. boston, 1898, p. 272.
[2] see the pathfinders of the revolution. boston, 1900, p. 296.
the general dissatisfaction in ireland, not only among the catholics who suffered from oppressive penal statutes, but also among the protestants, broke out in 1798 into a rebellion fomented by the numerous secret societies then in the island. to read this page of history brings us to the parentage and birth of john chambers, who sprung not from "illiterate" folk, as some have ignorantly imagined, but from intelligent and educated as well as patriotic parentage and ancestry.
william chambers, the father of our american john, was born in 1768 of fairly well-to-do parents, and had a good education. one of his ancestors was an officer in the british navy. when about twenty-seven years of age, he married a miss smythe, or smith, who was traditionally descended from robert the bruce, being one of a family which has furnished a long succession of presbyterian ministers in scotland, ireland, and the united states. their first son and eldest child, they named james. their second son, john, is the subject of our biography. john chambers was born on september 19, 1797 in stewartstown, tyrone county, ireland.
there are four towns of this name in the united states, settled probably by irishmen, and the original place in ireland, in 1880, contained 931 souls.
[10]
william chambers was a hot-headed, impulsive man of great physical vigor, a superb horseman, and a leader in athletic sports. in early manhood he was powerfully influenced in his political opinions and action by the ideas exploited in both the american and the french revolutions. a fierce patriot, he became a follower of the famous wolf tone, and in their ups and downs on the wheel of politics, both master and disciple found themselves in prison within a few days of each other. william chambers by some means escaped, but was soon involved in trouble with the british authorities, and so engaged passage to america.
theobald wolf tone (1763-1798), orator and advocate of the freedom of ireland, was educated at trinity college, dublin. he wrote pamphlets exposing british misgovernment, joined protestants and catholics in political fraternity, and founded at belfast the first society of united irishmen, which william chambers promptly joined. it is believed that at this time the green flag of ireland was adopted, by uniting the orange and the blue. it is certain that at this time, green became the national color, although an emerald green standard was used in the sixteenth century.
one of these united irishmen was samuel brown wylie, who became the celebrated pastor, preacher, and doctor of divinity in philadelphia. he left ireland in 1797. in god's providence, exactly one century afterwards, the names of chambers and wylie were united in philadelphia in that of a memorial church.
wolf tone, as secretary of the roman catholic committee, had already entered into secret negotiations with france and had to fly to the united states in 1795. he was afterwards captured on one of the ships of the french squadron, which was to invade ireland.
the french having occupied holland, had had a great fleet built in the zuyder zee to co-operate with the united[11] irishmen, but at the battle of camperduin, off the coast of north holland, october 11th, 1797, the british admiral duncan destroyed the french and dutch fleet, and the high hopes of those who looked for irish independence were dashed to the ground. hundreds of them fled.
tried and sentenced to death, wolf tone committed suicide in his cell, november 19th, 1798. his son afterwards served in the armies of france and the united states and wrote the biography of his father. ever since 1797, the british navy has had a ship named "camperdown".
in scotland i have had the pleasure of visiting the duncan estate near dundee, and in holland of seeing camperduin and its vicinity, both of land and water.
the defeat of the french fleet and the imprisonment, trial, and sentence of their leader, wolf tone, drove the united irishmen into an insurrection of despair. at the battle of vinegar hill, in may, 1798, the revolt was crushed and the french general humbert surrendered. forthwith the british constables began their hunt for each one and all of the united irishmen to land them in prison.
william chambers was, as we have seen, arrested and thrown into prison at stewartstown. in some way he escaped and eluded those who were seeking him, until he made his way down to the ship, on which his family was leaving ireland for america. besides his wife with her little boys, james and john, the latter an infant of three months at the breast, were other emigrants on board. in the hold, there was a stock of cabbages and down among these vegetables the refugee father hid himself. the british officers came on board and searched the ship from stem to stern to find their man, but his wife had encouraged him to get so deeply under the material for sauerkraut, and had covered him up so well, that, unable to find him, they[12] imagined he must have fled elsewhere. it was not until the ship was well out at sea that william chambers rose up from among the cabbages and made himself visible. in later years, john chambers visited the stewartstown prison in which his father had been incarcerated.
in the slow ship they were knocked about on the wintry atlantic during a stormy voyage of fourteen weeks, but happily arrived in the delaware bay, just when the buds were bursting, and the landscape of spring time putting on its fresh mantle of green. after their sea weariness the peach-orchards of delaware must have looked as "fair as a garden of the lord."
the mayflower, which in 1620 bore the pilgrims to america, was bound for the same beautiful region, then vaguely called "virginia" but these people in 1799 were pilgrims bound to the forests of ohio, the first of the pilgrim states beyond the alleghenies.[3]
[3] see the pilgrims in their three homes, boston, 1898.
landing at newcastle, william chambers and his little family soon joined a great party of emigrants who were turning their faces westward. ohio was then, except for the river valleys and old maize lands of the indians, an almost unbroken forest. in those days, when there was neither canal, railway nor trolley, such roads as existed, traversed chiefly the long stretches of dark woods. they were made of corduroy, or logs laid crosswise, with a surface covering of earth. very few counties were as yet named or laid out in the buckeye state, for it was only five years after general anthony wayne's great victory at maumee rapids over the indians, and many of the red men were still in the land. frontier life was still very rough, both as respects material comfort and the relations of the settlers with the indians. the second stage of territorial life was entered upon in this[13] same year, 1799, and the state legislature had met for the first time in cincinnati.
slowly and painfully the caravan of home seekers made its way through pennsylvania over the great road through harrisburg and the juniata valley, hollidaysburg and pittsburg, where scotchmen and irishmen were still very numerous. thence floating down the ohio river, they reached the first county on the western side, which was later named after thomas jefferson, third president of the united states. the irish pioneer from stewartstown helped to lay out the original townships of the county, in which warren ridge was situated, often going ahead to blaze some trees along the future road. later, in 1799, he settled at smithfield, and ultimately at mount pleasant. it was to this last named place that the visits of john chambers, notably in 1843 and 1861, were made.
