John Scott Horner: a biograph

ical sketch

By Edward Huntington Merrell, D. D.1

In the early years of our nation's history Dr. Gustavus Brown was a celebrated physician, and became surgeon-general of the Revolutionary army. This fact is of interest in the present connection, for the reason that he was the patron and educational guide of Dr. Gustavus Brown Horner, the father of the subject of the present sketch. The acquaintance of the two men had this beginning: Surgeon-General Brown was, by the special order of General Washington, inspecting the Maryland troops and enrolling the names of the able-bodied men, when he discovered the youth Gustavus Brown Horner, and recognized him as his nephew. He took this nephew from the ranks, educated him in his marquee, or surgeon's tent, and made him an associate and assistant during the entire Revolutionary War. Thus, enlisting as a patriot soldier at the age of seventeen, young Horner soon achieved success in the medical profession, and in 1778 received from the continental congress a commission as surgeon's mate. Connected with the army in the North, he was for a time stationed at Valley Forge. During an illness of the Marquis Lafayette, the general was placed under his especial care.

Soon after the close of the war (1783), Horner emigrated to Virginia and settled at Fauquier Court House (now Warrenton), where he married Frances Harrison Scott, a daughter of Captain James Scott, a Revolutionary officer. Scott had

clothed and armed his company at his own expense, and served gallantly in the regiment commanded by Col. Thomas Marshall, father of the famous chief justice. Among the eight children born to Dr. Gustavus Brown Horner and Frances Harrison Scott, John Scott Horner was the third son. At the age of ten he was sent to a private boarding school conducted by the Rev. William Williamson, near Middleburg, Loudoun County, Virginia. Here the youth learned many wholesome lessons, for Mr. Williamson was a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman with considerable local celebrity as a man of learning, and a master of rigid discipline in morals, manners, and even diet. By the death of his father young Horner's school education was interrupted; but in 1817 he entered Washington College, Pennsylvania, and two years later was graduated with good standing from that institution. He immediately began the study of law with the Hon. Thomas L. Moore, of Warrenton, Virginia; was admitted to the bar in due course, and until 1835 continued practice with profit and success in the counties of Fauquier, Loudoun, and Rappahannock. He achieved a wide reputation, especially as an advocate and criminal lawyer, and in October, 1834, was married to Harriet L. Watson, daughter of James Watson, of Washington, D. C.

Horner's public life began in September, 1835, when without personal solicitation he received a commission from President Andrew Jackson as secretary and acting governor of the territory of Michigan. The territory had at that time not been very definitely bounded, and extended practically from the city of Detroit, the seat of its government, to the Rocky Mountains. The office of governor involved many difficulties, the settlement of pending questions requiring a delicate sense, skill, and courage in their handling. It is noteworthy that

1 A. M. Soule, "Southern and Western Boundaries of Michigan," in Michigan Political Science Association Publications, ii, No. 2, p. 4, map; also Thwaites, "Boundaries of Wisconsin," Wis. Hist. Colls., xi, pp. 457-460.

President Jackson selected Governor Horner as a man after his own mind, to meet the peculiar responsibilities of the situation.

In particular, the boundary dispute between the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan was then at its most acrimonious stage. Troops of the two parties were in the field, and a serious crisis was hourly expected. In briefest statement, this dispute arose as follows: the act by which the territory of Michigan was organized described its southern boundary as a line running due east and west through the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. But the constitution. of Ohio gave to that state, as its northern boundary, a line from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan to the northernmost point of Maumee Bay. Should the Ohio line be accepted, Michigan's territory would be reduced. The case was complicated by the accepted boundary lines of Indiana and Illinois, the details of which it is needless here to describe.'

The part enacted by Governor Horner at this crisis is both interesting and important. His aim was to persuade the contesting parties to delay action and allow the differences to be settled by congress, and in this he succeeded. The conditions at the time were primitive, and the border life rough and aggressive. Threatened by mobs, unaccompanied by military escort, he made his way to the scene of strife, addressed and disbanded the troops, and from them obtained definite action binding them to abide by the action of the congress at its approaching session. This was a bold and successful stroke of administration, and for these services he received the approbation of General Jackson and his cabinet, and a vote of thanks from the state of Ohio.

As giving the shades of local and temporary coloring to this transaction, I quote at length an article published in the Wheeling (Va.) Gazette, under date of February 27, 1836:

We were a little startled two or three weeks ago on observing in the

1 Soule, op. cit., pp. 15-37.