In September, 1862, just after the battle of Antietam, which stopped Lee’s invasion of the north, eleven Governors met at Altoona. They adopted an address to President Lincoln, warmly commending his Emancipation Proclamation. The Governors then went to Washington, presented the address, and asked Lincoln to keep on hand in the various states a reserve army of 100,000, and pledged “Loyal and cordial support, hereafter as heretofore.” It gave Lincoln renewed courage for his heavy task. In 1866, his health was such that his life was despaired of and in November his physicians ordered him to Cuba to recuperate. President Johnson offered him a foreign post but he again declined to leave his executive duties in the state and completed his term. In 1867 he was a strong candidate for the United States Senate and a year later received a large vote for vice president in the Republican Convention which nominated General Grant for President. Soon after Grant became President, he nominated former Governor Curtin for Minister to Russia, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate. Before embarking for his new post of duty Governor Curtin was the recipient of a marked evidence of devotion. The Councils of Philadelphia unanimously invited him to a public reception in Independence Hall and in addition, the leading citizens, without distinction of party, united in giving him a banquet at the Academy of Music, that has seldom been equalled for elegance and every manifestation of popular affection and applause. He sailed June, 1869, and in the discharge of his diplomatic duties proved himself one of the most popular representatives ever sent abroad by our nation. He was again supported for the vice presidential nomination in 1872. Governor Curtin died October 7, 1894, in fullness of years, and Bellefonte mourned as it had never done before, and there was given to the great War Governor the biggest soldier’s funeral that the Bald Eagle Valley ever saw. ---------- Simon Girty, Outlaw and Renegade, Born January 16, 1744 Much of the ride along the Susquehanna trail on the western side of the Susquehanna River is at the base of majestic hills along the old Pennsylvania Canal bed, and more beautiful scenery it is not possible to find anywhere. Especially is this true as the motorist nears the quaint town of Liverpool. A few miles before reaching this place there is a gap in the mountains long known as Girty’s Gap, named in memory of one of the most despised outlaws in the provincial history of Pennsylvania. The rocks on the face of the precipitous hills at this point have formed an almost perfect Indian head; indeed, it seems to be smiling down upon the thousands who pause to view this wonderful natural likeness of the primitive American race.