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An Obituary Notice of James Macfarlane. By J. P.
Lesley.
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, December J., 1885.)
The Society has suffered, by the recent death of its member, Mr. James
Macfarlane, of Towanda, in Bradford county, Pa., the loss of a man of
distinguished abilities and sterling virtue, universally loved, respected and
confided in, a practical business man of the first rank, a lawyer of great
reputation, especially for his conduct of railway litigation, a judicious
geologist especially devoted to the subject of coal, the author of valuable
books in extensive circulation, and a citizen of the Commonwealth entrusted at
various times with the conduct of public affairs.
He was elected to membership in this Society, Jan. 19th, 1883, and regarded it
with genuine pleasure and pride, as the best recognition of his standing among
men of science and literature, not only in his native State, but in this and
foreign lands. But his busy life and literary works prevented him from making
communications to the Society, at its stated meetings, which he could not attend
on account of the distance from his home, the multiplicity of his engagements,
and his failing health.
He became a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
in 1880, and a fellow in 1882, and assisted at its meetings in Boston, Montreal,
Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Ann Arbor, the latter but a few weeks before his
death.
In 1872 Pennsylvania College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.
He was appointed by Governor Hartranft, in 1874, one of the ten Commissioners
for the Second Geological Survey, and was punctually present at all the
quarterly meetings of that board up to the present year, taking the most lively
interest in its proceedings, being an active member of its Publication
Committee, and answering readily to every call for business consultation and
official action in Harrisburg and Philadelphia around the year. In fact, he
completely identified himself with the Survey and thought nothing a trouble
which he could do to further its progress, or improve its operations. Its
success has been largely due to the devotion of his singular intelligence and
disinterested cooperation. His loss is felt severely in many places, but nowhere
more severely than in the circle of distinguished men appointed to accomplish
the will of the Legislature respecting the Geological Survey. His training in
general geology, and his rare acquaintance with the coal measures, his
experience in publishing his own scientific works, and his legal acumen,
combined to make his appointment to this official post a fortunate event, and to
make his sudden death a calamity. It may be said with truth that no other
citizen of the State can be found to exactly replace him.
Shortly before his death he occupied another most useful and responsible office,
that of Arbitrator for the general coal-trade centring at Buffalo in Western New
York. His choice for such a post itself sufficiently marks the character of the
man, and the distinguished consideration in which he was held by everybody, as a
man of honor intelligence and experience in affairs. He stood in the midst of
many rival interests, both of capital and labor, a referee and mediator, an
adjuster and a judge, armed with no powers but such as were voluntarily conceded
to him by all concerned for the general good: and it is needless to say with
what tact and skill, and integrity he fulfilled his difficult duties to the
general satisfaction. That he was a good citizen, a loving friend and devout
Christian will not explain it; for many a good man would fail to fill such a
place for want of other qualities which he possessed. Some men are born to rule;
others live to make themselves the servants of mankind, and he was one of these,
and died in the general public recognition of it; all honor be to his memory!
Middle Pennsylvania may be proud of its Scotch and Scotch-Irish settlement
blood; its Hendersons and Hamiltons, its Rosses apd Stewarts and Murrays, its
McAlisters, McKinleys, McCormicks, McCauleys and McFarlanes; strong wills, bold
hearts, long heads and stalwart bodies; great breeders of handsome and able
children; a capable race for thinking strongly and executing vigorously the
plans and purposes of men.
James Macfai||ne was of this fine stock. His face wore the aspect of intense
vitality; his forehead was high and massive; his voice was pitched low, and his
speech was decisive; he had no hesitations. One could divine at a glance why he
was an ardent Christian and why he was a powerful legal pleader. He lived the
life of a perpetual thinker, whose will was as urgently exercised as his reason
and his imagination; for he lived in the thick of the general battle of life.
Such men always come to the fore, and formulate events, and qualify the next
generation. They hold the plough by both handles, and deepen the furrow at every
tillage, turning up the subsoil sooner or later; doing all things thoroughly.
I speak of James Macfarlane warmly as a personal friend to whom I owe much; but
I may be permitted to say that I regard with a sentiment akin to veneration the
Scotch courage which could suffice to deliberately face and execute such an
enterprise as the description of all the Coal Regions of America, and follow it
with such another enterprise as his geological guide to the Railways of the
United States, he, a practising lawyer and practical coal operator, as if he
were a man of leisure. Such operations are only for tire world’s workers, born
and bred to much thought and many deeds.
His first home was in Gettysburg, where he was born, Sept. 2d, 1819, and
graduated at Pennsylvania College in 1837. That same year he joined the corps of
civil engineers on the line of the North Branch canal, with headquarters at
Towanda. After several years of this employment, he went to Carlisle, read law
with Judge Graham, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and settled to practise in
New Bloomfield, Perry county, for eight years, serving three years as District
Attorney. Here he married Mary Overton, daughter of the late Edward Overton, who
survives to lament his loss. In 1851 he returned to Bradford county to practice
law at Towanda, being in 1852 elected District Attorney of the county, until
1859. He then accepted the position of General Superintendent of the Barclay
Coal Company, which he relinquished, in 1865, to organize the Towanda Coal
Company, which afterwards passed under the control of the Erie Railroad. He then
became General Sales Agent of the Associated Blossburg Coal Company, with
offices at Rochester, Syracuse and Elmira. In 1880 he organized the Long Valley
Coal Company and developed its mines. In 1885 he was selected, as I have already
said, to be Arbitrator of the Bituminous Coal Combination at Buffalo. When the
combination was broken up, he returned to Towanda to work on a second and
enlarged edition of his Geologists’ Traveling Hand-book, or American Geological
Railroad Guide, when, without warning, he died of heart disease, Oct. 15th,
1885.
He leaves his work half done, about 200 pages being in type, and many pages of
MS. in a more or less finished state.
The Coal Fields of America is his most noted work and has had a large sale on
both sides of the Atlantic. This brought him a considerable practice as an
expert in coal operations. He wrote several geological articles for the American
Encyclopedia, and one on the Bituminous Coal Fields of Pennsylvania for Gray &
Walling’s Atlas. He wrote also for the Evangelical Review.
Coal Regions of
America
By James MacFarlane (Third Edition) (1875) (pdf)
The Pennsylvania
Canals
By James MacFarlane, Ph. D. (pdf) |
