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The Life And Public Services Of James G. Blaine
The Life And Public Services Of James G Blaine Author:Russell H. Conwell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The Blaine Family.—Warriors in Scotland.—Commissary General under Washington.—Important post.—Ephraini Blaine.—James Blaine.—Ephraim L. Blaine.—E... more »migration to Brownsville.—The Gillespie family.—Neal Gillespie.—Neal Gillespie, Jr.—Maria Gillespie.—Marriage of Maria and Ephraim L.—Their home. Among the brave adherents of the Scottish Prince Charlie on that fatal day, of which Campbell wrote, saying: "A field of the dead rushes red on my sight, The clans of Culloden all scattered in flight," was one humble soldier named Blaine. The derivation of the name indicates that he was a Highlander, having his home at or near Loch Lomond. The clan color was red and black or red and blue plaid. But of his personal history nothing can now be traced. It would not be difficult to conjecture from the traditions and what few established facts are at hand, the mountaineer's story by the clan to which he must have belonged, and by the cause which as a soldier he espoused. But it is as unsafe for a writer of history to conjecture in matters of pedigree as it is to be guided by political prejudices or partisan estimation. It is enough for all philosophical purposes to the student of genealogy or heredity to have four generations before him, as we do in this case. The English emigrants who first came to Pennsylvania under its Quaker population were followed by a large detachment of Scotch and Scotch-Irish, who came to the colonies after the "affairs" of 1715 and 1745. Knowing their sterling character and their fighting qualities, the Proprietary Governors, Governors of Pennsylvania, both William and Richard, place them on the Western frontier to guard the non-combatant Quakers against the incursions of the Indians. Among the earliest settlers in the Cumberland Valley, about...« less