As I began researching the life of James Pollock, a native of Milton, Northumberland County, and the thirteenth Governor of Pennsylvania, I became more impressed with his impact on the state and the nation.

Pollock was born in Milton on September 11^th, 1810. His parents, William and Sarah Wilson Pollock, were natives of Chester County. Their ancestors came to America from Ireland.

Historian, writer, and politician Frederic A. Godcharles provided a descriptive account of Pollock’s background, in his Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania.

“The young Pollock had Joseph B. Anthony as his first teacher. Anthony would later become a senator, congressman and president judge. Also impacting his education was Reverend Dr. David Kirkpatrick, who was principal of the then famous Milton Academy. There, Pollock was the associate of Andrew G. Curtin and other lads who afterward became celebrated in the history of our State and Nation.

After graduating with honors at Princeton with the class of 1831, James Pollock studied law at Milton with Samuel Hepburn, whose daughter he afterward married. Soon after he was admitted to practice; in 1836 he was appointed deputy attorney general for Northumberland County, and that appointment was coincident with his advent into the political field, where he became an ardent Whig, and as such was elected to Congress, serving in the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses.”

As a freshman congressman, Pollock boarded in the same rooming house as another new congressman, Abraham Lincoln (who would later become the 16th President of the United States), and they soon developed a mutual respect and longstanding friendship.

Pollock was an early supporter of Samuel Morse and his idea for a telegraph and was instrumental in getting the United States Congress to appropriate a small amount to help build the first line. He was present in the room when the first message, "What hath God wrought" was received, ushering in a new age of telecommunication.

Pollock was also the first in Congress to advocate the construction of a railroad across the continent, connecting newly acquired California with the east. In a speech in 1848 he said, "At the risk of being considered insane, I will venture the prediction that, in less than twenty-five years from this evening, a railroad will be completed and in operation between New York and San Francisco, California." The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, four years inside the limit fixed by Mr. Pollock. [1]

Returning to the biographical sketch written by Godcharles, “(On)January 15, 1851, Mr. Pollock was commissioned president judge of the district embracing the counties of Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, Lycoming, and Sullivan, succeeding Hon. Joseph B.  Anthony, his old schoolteacher.

 In 1854 Judge Pollock became a candidate of the Whig party for the office of Governor. He was opposed by Governor William Bigler, the Democratic standard bearer, who was seeking reelection. In his campaign, the strength of the Native American or Know Nothing party was given the candidacy of Judge Pollock, and he was elected over Governor Bigler.

 During Governor Pollock's administration, the State Canal System was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and the proceeds applied to the reduction of the State debt, which was reduced by about ten million dollars during his administration, in spite of the fact that the financial panic of 1857 occurred during this term.

 Governor Pollock convened the General Assembly in extraordinary session when an act was passed providing for the relief of debtors. Governor Pollock declined a renomination and when his term was concluded, and he was about to depart from Harrisburg for his Milton Academy home in Milton, both houses of the Legislature by unanimous vote adjourned, and headed by their respective speakers and officers, accompanied him in a body from his rooms to the depot.

 The day after President-elect Lincoln arrived in Washington, he called Governor Pollock to consult with him upon the grave problems then confronting him, and to ask his advice about the selection of certain members of his cabinet.

 In 186I, President Lincoln appointed ex-Governor Pollock Director of the Mint at Philadelphia. The motto, "In God We Trust," now stamped upon the gold and silver coins of the United States, was first suggested by Director Pollock. He believed that, as we claimed to be a Christian people, we should make suitable recognition of that fact on our coinage.

 In Mr. Pollock's report for 1862, he discussed the question of a recognition of the sovereignty of God and a declaration of our trust in Him on our coins. The proposition to introduce a motto upon our coins was favorably considered by Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, who said, in his report, that he did not doubt but that it would meet with approval by an intelligent public sentiment.

 A two-cent bronze piece was authorized to be coined by Congress, on April 22, 1864, and upon this was first stamped the motto, "In God We Trust." In his report for that year the Secretary expressed his approval, and strongly urged that the motto be extended to gold and silver coins. By the fifth section of the Act of Congress, March 3, 1865, the Director of the Mint was authorized to place the motto upon the gold and silver coins thereafter issued.

 The first troops raised in Northumberland County at the outbreak of the Civil War were called the "Pollock Guards," and they afterward became Company H of the famous Fifth Reserves, with John McCleery, of Milton, captain.

After Mr. Pollock served several terms as Director of the Mint, he was appointed, in 1879, Naval Officer of Philadelphia, and in 1886 he was made Federal Chief Supervisor of Elections.”

Mr. Pollock served as Vice President of the American Sunday School Union from 1855 until he died in 1890. In that role, he had the distinction of presiding over more mission business meetings than any man in the history of AMF other than the first president. Greatly respected by his fellow managers, it was recorded that 'he was always eager to do his Lord's business with earnestness and dispatch' and while conscious of the power of his masterful mind and loving heart, his fellow managers 'most appreciated his depth of consecration.'

Pollock co-founded Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen, in 1878 with notable fellow churchgoers John B. Stetson and John Wanamaker. What began as a simple cup of coffee and roll before church has grown to become the leading emergency shelter and largest indoor provider of meals in Philadelphia. [2]  https://www.phillyhouse.org/

Former Governor Pollock died April 19, 1890, at the home of his son-in-law, H. T. Harvey, of Lock Haven, and was buried in the cemetery at Milton in Northumberland County.” His wife Sarah, died on April 24, 1886, and is buried beside him.