James Moore Laird and Sarah Boyd Fullwood
Husband James Moore Laird 1 2
Born: 13 Dec 1837 - Murrysville, Westmoreland Co, PA 1 2 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: John Moore Laird, Esq. (1802-1887) 1 3 4 5 Mother: Rebecca Moore ( -1875) 1 3 5
Marriage: 13 Apr 1865 - Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA 6
Wife Sarah Boyd Fullwood 6 7
Born: 5 Oct 1836 7 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: Gen. David Fullwood ( -1852) 6 8 Mother: Eliza [Unk] ( - ) 8
Children
1 F Margaret Fullwood "Maggie" Laird 6 8 9
Born: 9 Oct 1866 - Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA 6 8 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: William J. Coshey ( - ) 6 10
2 M John Francis Laird 6 8
Born: 18 Dec 1867 - Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA 6 8 Christened: Died: Buried:
General Notes: Husband - James Moore Laird
He was educated in the common schools and in the printing office, where he has spent his life. He and his brother were editors and proprietors of the Argus, a weekly democratic paper, which was one of the most widely-known and quoted journals in the state. He was an uncompromising democrat, a fearless and forcible writer and a man of much ability and practical experience. He, with others, organized the “Arthur St. Clair Guards,” known as Co. I, tenth reg., N. G. P., and was elected captain December 31, 1878, which position he held more than four years, when he was elected major of the tenth reg., N. G. P. He held that position until the captaincy of Co. I became vacant, when he resigned to accept his former position, that of captain of his old command, in which capacity he remained until June 10, 1888, when he resigned. He was also orderly sergeant of Co. C, in the fifty-fourth reg., Vol. militia (in the U. S. service), which went out in July, 1863, to repel or capture “Morgan, the confederate raider.” The capture of this noted guerilla chieftain was effected while raiding through Ohio, and is a part of the history of the great Rebellion.
In April, 1850, he came to Greensburg, Westmoreland County, PA, with his parents, brother and sister. His father had purchased outright the good will and necessary appliances of the Pennsylvania “Argus” from Messrs. Turney and Hacke (in which paper he was one of the principal stockholders) on January 1, 1850. James Moore Laird and his brother, F. V. B. Laird, became infatuated with the printer's art and thoroughly mastered that profession in all its branches and details-in that day a very simple acquirement. However, the brothers kept pace with the progress of improvement, and in their day were regarded as amongst the most skilled of the followers of the “art preservative.” William, the youngest of the trio, also became a skilled compositor when of sufficient age, but died November 22, 1876.
James Moore Laird and Francis Van Buren Laird, because of their infatuation for the printing business, spent their whole lives, beginning as printers' “devils,” in the atmosphere and amid the, to them, allurements of the printing office. They attended school at Murrysville until the ages, respectively, of thirteen and ten years, when their father removed to Greensburg. Both attended the common schools there, working in the printing office mornings and evenings. Later James Moore Laird attended school in which the higher branches were taught. After that he essayed the study of law under the tutorship of his uncle, Senator Harrison Perry Laird. He was then about eighteen years of age, a time in one's life when that particular study possessed but little fascination. Finding he could not buckle down to the tasks assigned him by his preceptor, a man of stern and exacting disposition, he abandoned further attempt in this direction, which he always afterward regretted, and devoted thereafter his whole attention to acquiring a thorough knowledge of the printing business. Later he became foreman of his father's officer and was afterwards “promoted” to the position of local editor. In his father's declining years much of the editorial work also devolved upon him, and at his father's death, he assumed charge of both the local and editorial work.
He organized and was elected the captain of Company I, of the Tenth Regiment, Pennsylvania militia, on December 31, 1878, afterwards by legislative enactment raised to the distinction of the National Guard of Pennsylvania. He remained as its captain until October, 1882, when he was elected major of the regiment. In this capacity he served until John B. Keenan, his successor to the captaincy, retired from the service. His old command, finding itself without a competent leader, and no one being willing to accept the office, he resigned his commission as major and, following a unanimous election, again assumed command of his former company. This position he held until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in April, 1898, when his regiment was ordered by Governor Hastings to report for active service at Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania, eighteen miles northeast of Harrisburg. So rigid and exacting were the requirements of the medical department, however, that he was rejected because of his age, although he then not only seemed to be, but really was, in the full vigor of manhood. To be thus turned down after having served faithfully for twenty years in the service of his state, in which time he twice saw active service in the great industrial riots of 1891 and 1892-Morewood and Homestead-was to him the greatest humiliation of his life. Undaunted by such treatment, Captain Laird appealed to General Alger, then secretary of war, to have the decision of the medical department annulled, and through the kind offices of Representative Robbins, a member of congress from his district, his request was complied with. Soon thereafter, General Alger authorized Governor Hastings to commission him captain of the first military company to be organized for active service in the state. It so happened that the Third Battalion of the Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, was then being recruited. One company (M) was already partially recruited at Jeannette, and he was by Governor Hastings promptly commissioned and assigned as its commander. Completing the organization of Company M, he was ordered to report with his new command at historic Chickamauga Park, Georgia, and on July 18, 1898, he departed for that place with one hundred and six men, the full war complement. Here he began training his men in the rudiments of warfare. The First and Second Battalions of the Sixteenth Regiment had rendezvoused at Charleston, South Carolina, and while the Third Battalion was being recruited, these two battalions received orders to sail for Porto Rico. His battalion was on July 27 ordered to Newport News, Virginia, arriving there July 28. It remained there until August 17, when it was ordered to Middletown, near Harrisburg. The Third Battalion was ordered on September 13, to join the First and Second Battalions in Porto Rico, and on September 14 it sailed on the transport “Obdam” from Brooklyn, New York, for that island, arriving at San Juan on September 21, after a tempestuous voyage. The Spanish forces in the forts at San Juan, having ignored the protocol between the United States and Spain, the ship was forbidden to land. The captain of the vessel then changed its course, and on the following day, the harbor of Ponce was entered. The troops disembarked without opposition on Sunday, September 25, the city being then under the authority of the United States with General Miles in command. The Second and Third Battalions, decimated by death from disease and casualties in battle, were ordered on October 11 to join the First Battalion at Ponce, and on that night the entire Sixteenth Regiment sailed for the United States on the steamer “Minnewaska,” landing at Jersey City October 18. Two months later the regiment was mustered out of service. Upon the return of the Tenth Regiment from the Philippines, Captain Laird was restored to his former position as captain of Company I, and ordered to reorganize the company for service in the national guard, which he did. His commission having expired in July, 1900, he declined a re-election, after almost twenty-two years of continuous service.
Captain Laird's first military experience was during the civil war. When the state was threatened with invasion by the Confederate army in June, 1863, he enlisted in Company C, Fifty-fourth Regiment, uniformed militia, and was appointed to the position of what was then known as orderly sergeant. With his company he was sworn into the United States service in camp near Wilkinsburg. Because, however, of a threatened invasion from another quarter by General John Morgan, known as Guerrilla Morgan, the Fifty-fourth was held in camp for that emergency instead of being hurried forward to participate in the battle of Gettysburg. With other state troops the Fifty-fourth checked the progress of the guerrilla chieftain, and his command near Salineville, Ohio, on Sunday, July 16. He then changed his course, only to encounter Shackleford's Michigan cavalry which, after a sharp engagement, compelled the surrender of the entire outfit. The regiment then returned to its camp, and all immediate danger having passed, it was mustered out of service as an organization.
Mr. Laird then resumed his place in the office of the “Argus,” where he remained until April, 1864, when he entered the job office of William G. Johnston & Company, Pittsburg, the better to qualify himself for that branch of his business. He accepted a position in the recorder's office at Wirt court house, West Virginia, in February, 1865, which position he held for several months, when the bottom fell out of the oil business and he returned to Pennsylvania. While at Wirt court house, the town was captured by a band of guerrillas under command of a Confederate lieutenant by the name of Pomeroy. All the county officials, himself among them, were taken prisoners and confined in a hotel. He and David Flemming, an attorney, were threatened with death, the former because of his having instructed a company of home guards in military tactics, and the latter for having, as Pomeroy alleged, given the inhabitants of the town warning of the presence of the Confederates whom he met while up in the mountains leasing oil territory, and of which fact they had sworn him to secrecy. Mr. Flemming proved his innocence of the accusation, and upon the intervention of some Confederate sympathizers, both he and Laird were released under parole, having first been robbed of what money and valuables they had in their possession. [HWC 1906 II, 459]
1 Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890.), Pg 120.
2 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 457.
3 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 393.
4 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 297.
5 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 458.
6 Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890.), Pg 121.
7 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 461.
8 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 462.
9 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 806.
10
Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 805.
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