panionship of the many friends he made while he was for so many years engaged in active service in the schools of Pittsburg.
Mr. Morton came to Johnstown early in 1837, and the directors of Ebensburg not being able to find a teacher for the school which they desired to open, Moses Canan suggested that Mr. Morton apply for the position. The youth was afraid he could not stand the examination. However, after much urging, and armed with a letter from Mr. Canan to Johnston Moore, he started for Ebensburg early one morning in August. He rode an old canal horse, over the roughest of roads, scarcely more than a trail through the mountain wilderness. He presented his letter to Mr. Moore that evening, and the next evening appeared before the school board for examination with fear and trembling. The board, composed of six men, smoked and talked of everything except school matters, until at last one inquired if they had not better ask the young man some “literary questions” – silence and continued smoking. Then another member suggested that Michael Dan Magehan, being the literary member of the board, had better put the questions, whereupon Michael Dan bringing down his fist upon the table said emphatically, “What the devil shall I ask him? Put him to work.” So ended the much dreaded examination, and to work he went, and organized the first public school in that place, in the old Academy building, September, 1837. Mr. Morton received a salary of $25 a month and paid $2 a week for board. As there was only enough money in the treasury to pay a teacher for three months, at the end of that time the school was closed. Mr. Morton then proposed opening a subscription school, and inquired of Mr. Moore what charge he thought he ought to make. Mr. Moore, who wanted the school to be exclusive, because his children would attend it, told him to “ask a good, stiff price, one dollar a month for each pupil.” Mr. Morton did so, and to the surprise of both, enrolled sixty pupils. After two terms of this, the town treasury having been replenished, the public school was again opened for one term, pupils and teacher returning to it. The subscription school alternated with this for two years, when Mr. Morton accepted a more lucrative position in Somerset.
The office of county superintendent of schools was established in 1854, the late Judge Robert L. Johnston being the first incumbent. He resigned the following year, and was succeeded on October 6, by S. B. McCormick, of Johnstown, who was re-
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