Among the eight children born to Dr. Gustavus Brown Horner and Frances Harrison Scott, John Scott Horner was the third son. At the age of ten he was sent to a private boarding school conducted by the Rev. William Williamson, near Middleburg, Loudoun County, Virginia. Here the youth learned many wholesome lessons, for Mr. Williamson was a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman with considerable local celebrity as a man of learning, and a master of rigid discipline in morals, manners, and even diet.71
By the death of his father young Horner's school education was interrupted; but in 1817 he entered Washington College, Pennsylvania, and two years later was graduated with good standing from that institution. He immediately began the study of law with the Hon. Thomas L. Moore, of Warrenton, Virginia; was admitted to the bar in due course, and until1835 continued practice with profit and success in the counties of Farquier, Loudoun, and Rappahannock. He achieved a wide reputation, especially as an advocate and criminal lawyer, and in October, 1834, was married to Harriet L. Watson, daughter of James Watson, of Washington, D. C.71
In particular, the boundary dispute between the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan was then at its most acrimonious stage. Troops of the two parties were in the field, and a serious crisis was hourly expected. In briefest statement, this dispute arose as follows: the act by which the territory of Michigan was organized described its southern boundary as a line running due east and west through the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. But the constitution of Ohio gave to that state, as its northern boundary, a line from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan to the northernmost point of Maumee Bay. Should the Ohio line be accepted, Michigan's territory would be reduced. The case was complicated by the accepted boundary lines of Indiana and Illinois, the details of which it is needless here to describe.(2)
The part enacted by Governor Horner at this crisis is both interesting and important. His aim was to persuade the contesting parties to delay action and allow the differences to be settled by congress, and in this he succeeded. The conditions at the time were primitive, and the border life rough and aggressive. Threatened by mobs, unaccompanied by military escort, he made his way to the scene of strife, addressed and disbanded the troops, and from them obtained definite action binding them to abide by the action of the congress at its approaching session. This was a bold and successful stroke of administration, and for these services he received the approbation of General Jackson and his cabinet, and a vote of thanks from the state of Ohio. |