John Pitcairn, who became President of The Anti-Vaccination League of
America when it was organized in Philadelphia, on October 21, 1908,
was one of America’s foremost men of affairs. He was born on January
10, 1841, at Johnstone near Paisley in Scotland. In 1846 his parents
removed to the United States and settled in Allegheny City, now a part
of Pittsburgh; and there he received an elementary education in the
public schools. At the age of fourteen he began his business career
in the office of the Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, at
Altoona. In subsequent years he became Assistant to the Superintendent
of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, and Assistant to
the Superintendent of the Philadelphia Division of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. On February 22, 1861, he had charge of the train that
conveyed Abraham Lincoln from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, on the way
to the Presidential inaugural at Washington; and when the Confederates
invaded Pennsylvania before the Battle of Antietam he and his brother,
Robert Pitcairn, were sent by Colonel Thomas A. Scott, then Assistant
Secretary of War, to Chambersburg, to take charge of the train service
for the Government. He afterward became Assistant Superintendent of
the Middle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Superintendent of
the Middle Division of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad. He built the
Imperial Refinery at Oil City; and while associated with H. L. Taylor
& Company, then the largest producers of oil in America, was engaged
in the production, refining and pipe line transportation of oil. He
was also a member of the firm of Vandergrift, Pitcairn & Company, and,
with Mr. Vandergrift, built and controlled the first pipe line for the
utilization of natural gas for manufacturing purposes and controlled
the Natural Gas Company, Limited. In 1883, Mr. Pitcairn, in association
with Captain John B. Ford and others, organized the Pittsburgh Plate
Glass Company, of the Board of Directors of which he was the Chairman
until 1897, when he purchased the interests of the Fords and became
the President of the Company; this office he resigned in 1905, again
becoming Chairman of the Board. The capital was originally $600,000;
this was increased at various times until it reached $2,750,000; later
it became $10,000,000 and finally, $22,750,000, all representing
real values. Mr. Pitcairn was also President of the C. H. Wheeler
Manufacturing Company, the Loyal Hanna Coal and Coke Company, and the
Pittsburgh Valve and Fittings Company, and a Director of the Central
National Bank of Philadelphia, the Columbia Chemical Company, the
Michigan Chemical Company, the Natural Gas Company of West Virginia,
and the Owosso Sugar Company. In these important business connections
and in many other fields of successful enterprise, he remained
unremittingly active until the autumn of 1915, when he suffered an
attack of pneumonia, from the after effects of which he died, at his
residence, “Cairnwood,” Bryn Athyn, Pa., on July 22, 1916.
During the last ten years of his life, Mr. Pitcairn was to a great
extent the guiding spirit of the anti-vaccination movement in America.
It would be impossible to chronicle his activities in its behalf
without writing a voluminous history. In 1908 Mr. Pitcairn made
possible by his liberality a National Anti-Vaccination Conference,
which held its sessions in Griffith Hall, Philadelphia, on October
19, 20 and 21 of that year, and which led to the organization of The
Anti-Vaccination League of America. To _The Ladies’ Home Journal_ for
May, 1910, he contributed an article on “The Fallacy of Vaccination,”
which has reached several million readers. On December 1, 1911, he
was appointed by Governor Tener a member of the Pennsylvania State
Vaccination Commission, and in this capacity on March 12, 1913,
he rendered his report, which is a clear, scholarly and readable
contribution to the literature of anti-vaccination.
Mr. Pitcairn’s personal attributes were the natural products of his
Scotch ancestry, his vigorous constitution, and his training in the
school of experience, matured by close association with many of
the most eminent minds of his time, extensive travels, and broad
culture. He had an innate love of freedom, and hatred of injustice and
oppression; and these high qualities of his character were enlivened by
a keen sense of humor and deepened by positive religious convictions.
As a practical man, his faculties of perception were clear, his
deductions were accurate, his judgment of values was correct, and he
was constant in the pursuit of his purposes. But above all, he was
a man of independence in thought, of moral courage in action, and
magnetic and winning in his personality, so that it has been well said
of him, as Sir Walter Scott said of Roderick,
“_One blast upon his bugle horn
Were worth a thousand men._”
The office of The Anti-Vaccination League of America is at 1420
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Mr. Porter F. Cope, Secretary; Mr.
C. Oscar Beasley, Vice-President.
The office of The National Anti-Vaccination League, London, is at
25 Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, S. W. Miss L. Loat,
Secretary.
PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT
TO ABOLISH COMPULSORY
VACCINATION
PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT
EXPOSING AND ILLUSTRATING HORRORS
OF VACCINATION
_By_ CHAS. M. HIGGINS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
1920