896 AUTHENTIC HISTOEY 



of Newcastle. For a while, they maintained, ostensibly, vinion of action; but, at length, 

 the "Old Side" men withdrew from the Synod, on account of dissatisfaction in respect 

 to certain cases of discipline, and formed themselves into a separate Presbytery. They, 

 however, finally returned, and were scattered, with their own consent, in Donegal, 

 Newcastle, and Second Philadelphia Presbyteries. 



Mr. Elder joined the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, May 19, 1768. In the for- 

 mation of the General Assembly, he became a member of the Presbytery of Carlisle. 

 He died in the year 1792, at the- age of eighty-six; having been a minister of the Gospel 

 sixty years, and the minister of the Congregations in Paxton and Derry, fifty-six. 



Mr. Elder was married, about the year 1740, to IMary, daughter of Joshua Baker, 

 who Avas armourer under King George the Second; and, by this marriage, he had four 

 children — two sons and two daughters. After her death, he was married to Mary, 

 daughter of Thomas Simpson, and sister of General Michael Simpson, of Revolution- 

 ary memory, who was a Captain under General Montgomery, at Quebec. By his sec- 

 ond marriage he had eleven children. The last of the whole number (fifteen) died in 

 April, 1853, at Harrisburg, in his eighty-seventh year. 



Franklin, "Walter, was born in the city of New York in February, 1773. His 

 father having during his minority removed to Philadelphia, he there studied law, and 

 was admitted to the bar in April, 1794. He was appointed Attorney General of Penn- 

 sylvania in January, 1809, which ofiflce he held until January, 1811, when he was 

 appointed President Judge of the Courts of Common Pleas of the second judicial 

 district of Pennsylvania, which then comprised the counties of Lancaster, York and 

 Daujihin, to which were afterwards* added Cumberland and Lebanon. He continued 

 in this office till his death, which took place in February, 1888. He was distinguished 

 for his eminent integrity and his superior attainments as a jvirist, for the clearness of 

 his conception and the strength and vigor of his mind. His dignity of manner and 

 uniform coi'rectness of deportment sprang from religious principle, and he was em- 

 phatically, in the highest sense, a Christian gentleman. (By Hon. T. E. Franklin.) 



Fulton, Robert, was born in Little Britain, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 

 1765. At a suitable age he was api^renticed to a jeweller in Lancaster, where he acci- 

 dentally caught a taste for painting — in the cidtivation and practice of which he was 

 subsequently qiiite successful. His passion for the art induced him to relinquish his 

 trade and make a voyage to London, where he was cordially received by Benjamin 

 West, then President of the Royal Academy, and with whom he maintained a constant 

 friendship till death separated them. In painting, Fulton's success did not equal his 

 expectations; and he therefore gradually withdrew his attention from it, and devoted 

 it to the Mechanic Arts. As early as 1793 we find that he had conceived the project of 

 propelling vessels by the power of steam; as he addressed a series of letters at that 

 time to Earl Stanhope, on that subject, and on the more general one of Internal Im- 

 provement; these letters were favorably received and duly acknowledged by Stanhope. 



During his residence in England the British Government granted him patents for 

 many useful inventions in the mechanic arts. He then crossed over to France and 

 spent several years at Paris, where he devoted himself to the study of several of the 

 modern languages, to philosophy, and the higher branches of mathematics. While in 

 Paris he lived on terms of great intimacy with Joel Barlow, the author of our national 

 poem, the Columbiad; and in 1797, in conjunction with Barlow, he made his first ex- 

 periment in submarine explosion. In 1806 he returned to this country, and prosecuted 

 at New York his investigations relating to steam navigation and submarine explosion. 

 A full explanation of the latter subject was published in 1810, under the title of "Tor- 

 pedo War." The country was then on the eve of the war with England; and in 1813 

 the government placed in his hands an appropriation for the steam ship, "Fulton the 

 First," which was built under his superintendence, and excited universal admiration 

 for its tremendous power as an engine of war. 



