Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Horatio Pennock CONNELL
The very first utterance of Horatio P. Connell, of the next generation, took on a political slant. Wrote the proud father, George Connell, October 34 1840, to his father-in-law, Horatio Pennock, who then lived on Fifth Street above Vine, a conveyancer of the old school, "I hear it is over and a boy ! I named him a long time ago--'Horatio.' He is too late to vote as the polls closed two hours ago; besides, the doctor says he is hurrahing for 'Harrison "
Following in the footsteps of his father, Horatio P. Connell early displayed those qualities which make for success in public life, a charming personality, a capacious memory, a heart of gold, "to know him was to love him, to name him but to praise"; war veteran, school director, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, elected to the House of Representatives 1883, reelected 1885, 1887, 1889, where he exerted a wide influence, and was affectionately known as "the Silver-King."
As an illustration of his parliamentary skill, Mr. Connell had introduced two acts--An Act (House Bill No. 465) to constitute a battalion to be known as the Naval Battalion of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and also House Bill No. 819. making an appropriation for Nautical School ships (the origin of Training School-Ship Adams) at the Port of Philadelphia. In support of the former measure, he delivered a characteristic speech, original, patriotic, musically phrased and convincing. In part he said:
Mr. Speaker: The decline of the United States Navy has for years been the subject of scoffs and leers of the newspaper and Dress and as far as the vessels were concerned, quite justly; but with reference to the morale, the discipline, the undaunted valor of the officers and men, I maintain there has been no deterioration since the days when the name of John Paul Jones, Hull, Decatur, Stewart, Ferry Barrow, Lawrence, Preble and later Farragut, Foote, Porter, Winslow, Woorden and other gallant officers, shed an undying luster upon the fame of the American Navy. Recent events sustain my assertion that the American Navy is still composed of heroic men, dauntless in danger, enduring in extremity, uncomplaining in distress. The pen of Cooper or Marryat never described a scene where the climax of pathetic grandeur was reached in the display of dauntless courage, in the face of certain death, with so much heroism as exhibited by the officers and men of the "Vandalia," the "Trenton" and the "Nipsic," in the recent awful calamity in the harbor of Apia, Samoan Islands.
After every expedient known to good seamanship had proved futile to save the ship from certain destruction and having witnessed the complete destruction of the German "Corvette Olga," which before their eyes was picked up by a mountainous wave like a pigmy straw and smashed upon the cruel rocks like a cockle shell, disappearing from view immediately, not a vestige left to tell the tale. With this horrible fate staring them in the face, what sounds were heard from above, far above the roar of the tempest and the battling elements, the crash of colliding ships and the stupendous rush of waters? Not a shriek of dying despair nor the cry of nature for help, nor the wail of anguish usual upon such an awful calamity but Sir, the crew of the "Vandalia" go down to death giving three American cheers for their sister ship, the "Trenton," the band playing the Star Spangled Banner.
Mr. Speaker, I would like this Honorable House to suspend the rules of business long enough to give three cheers for the American Navy and to sing, "Let me like a sailor die," which I improvise for the occasion by paraphrasing the lines of the immortal Burns:
Clap in his cheek a half a gile
Say such is your Commander's will
And there's the foe
His only thought is how to kill
Two at a blow
No faint cold-hearted doubtings tease him
Death comes a bloody welcome gies him
And when he falls
The latest draught of breathing leaves him
In faint huzzas.
Upon the final vote, the yeas were 151 and the nays 1. Toward the close of the 80s, the political situation in Philadelphia was such that the old gods were passing from the scene: McManus, Leeds, Disston. As Keats sings in "Hyperion" :
Far from the healthy breath of morn
Far from the fiery noon and eve's one star
Sat grey-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone.
Old Father Time had entered the arena and conquered, as he always does. A new doctrine was being promulgated, the old leader must give way to those representatives closer to the people, to wit: to a blee of leaders from the several wards, something in the nature of the New England town meeting. This new alliance was looking about for available candidates and the popular member for the Twenty-sixth Legislative District of Philadelphia fitted the situation like a glove. In point of numbers, the friends of "Rash" Connell were legion and particularly the Fourth Estate furnished its quota, among whom were Charles Emery Smith, John Russell Young, James Rankin Young, George Knox McCain, Peter Bolger (father of the judge), Peter Hoban, Peter J. Hughes, "Jim" Campbell, the youthful Starr Richardson, still wielding a facile pen in the mayor's office when George Connell was acting mayor. At this conjuncture, Horatio P. Connell was brought out as a candidate for sheriff, was nominated after a spirited contest and elected sheriff in 1890 by one of the largest majorities up to that period.
After nearly half a century, if one would know something of the esteem and affection his friends had for "Rash Connell," a chat with George DeB. Myers, appointed by Sheriff Connell to the position he now holds in the sheriff's office, would be interesting. George is always more than willing to indulge in reminiscences of the old days in which he formed a great and abiding friendship, undiminished after fifty years.
About the time of the Civil War, B. R. Comegys, the then president of the Philadelphia National Bank, was the owner of a Colonial site known as Ashwood, situate on the county line between Philadelphia and Delaware County, through which Cobbs Creek, a clear and purling stream, running down into Darby Creek, in the neighborhood of what is now Sixty-fifth Street and Cobbs Creek Boulevard. This property was purchased by Horatio P. Connell and upon this site George Connell now resides and here was born Charles E. Connell, Mrs. Louis A. Bye
(Bessie Connell), Joseph R. Connell, Mrs. John D. Carlile (Emily Connell), George Connell, John Connell, Horatio P. Connell, Jr., and later and elsewhere, Mrs. George N. Geuting (Anne Connell). It was here, one summer afternoon, Horatio P. Connell, entertaining the members of the Caledonian Society, recited verse after verse of his favorite poet, "Bobbie" Burns, and so astonished and delighted were they that the society forthwith made him an honorary member, a rare honor enjoyed by very few at that time.
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