Surnames: Gallatin, Allegre, Nicholson
Albert Gallatin, a distinguished statesman of the United States and one of the illustrious citizens of Fayette county, was a native of Switzerland and a resident of Springhill township. He was born at Geneva, Switzerland, January 29, 1761, and was baptized on the 7th of February following by the name of Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin.In 1755 his father Jean Gallatin married Sophie Albertine Rolaz due Rose of Rolle. They had two children: Albert Gallatin and a daughter who died young. Albert Gallatin was graduated in May, 1779, from the University of Geneva first of his class in mathematics, natural philosophy and Latin
translation. He declined the commission of lieutenant colonel in a German command and emigrated to America, and landed at Cape Ann, Massachusetts, July 14, 1780.In November of the same year he served his adopted country as commandant of a small fort at Machias, Maine; afterward he taught the French language at Harvard University; soon removed to Richmond, Virginia, where he acted as interpreter for a commercial house. At Richmond he became
acquainted with many eminent Virginians, and acting upon their advice purchased lands in the Valley of the Monongahela, became the proprietor of "Friendship Hill" and a resident of Springhill township, Fayette county, Penna.In 1786 he purchased land and in 1789 located here as resident. He named the small village of New Geneva in remembrance of his trans Atlantic birthplace, and was largely engaged in the manufacture of glass.
In 1780 he was a member of the convention to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania, and served two terms as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly. In 1793 he was elected to the Senate of the United States, but by a strict party vote was excluded on the ground of constitutional ineligibility as he had not been naturalized a citizen of the United States for nine years.
He became somewhat involved in the "Whiskey Insurrection," but full acquitted himself of all intention to oppose the enforcement of the laws. From 1795 to 1800 he served as a member of Congress where he was recognized as the republican leader and regarded as a logical debator and
sound statesman.May 14, 1801, President Jefferson appointed him secretary of the treasury. He successfully managed the financial affairs of the nation during Jefferson's administration, and under Madison's until 1813 when he resigned to accept service under his adopted country as minister to European courts.
In 1813 he was sent to St Petersburg as one of the envoys to negotiate with Great Britain under the mediation of the Czar, and later was one of the commissioners who negotiated a treat of peace with England in 1814 at Ghent. From 1816 to 1823 he was resident minister at the court of France, and during this period was employed successfully on important missions to Great Britain and the Netherlands. In diplomatic services he never lacked in skill and judgment and was always successful in protecting the rights of America. President Madison offered him the secretaryship of State; Monroe offered him the navy department, but Gallatin refused them both.
In 1824 he refused the second highest office within the gift of the American people by declining the nomination of vice president of the United States offered him by the democratic party. In 1824 he returned to "Friendship Hill" and there received and entertained his warm friend, the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1826 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to England. His mission to the Court of St James was successful, and was the close of his long, arduous and successful political career. It was also the termination of his thirty three years of residence in Fayette county.
In 1828 he became a resident of New York City, became president of a bank, assisted in founding the New York Historical Society, the American Ethnological Society, and a few days before his death was elected one of the first members of the Smithsonian Institute. His long and eventful
life came to a close at Astoria, Long Island, on August 12, 1849, at the age of over eighty eight years.May 14, 1789, Albert Gallatin was united in marriage to Sophia Allegre, a beautiful young Italian lady of Richmond, Virginia. The marriage was consummated much against the wishes of the bride's mother. Gallatin returned to Friendship Hill immediately after his marriage, and three weeks later the spirit of his young bride fled from its tenement of clay.
He was remarried November 11, 1793, to Miss Hannah Nicholson, daughter of Commodore James Nicholson, United States Navy. This marriage allied Gallatin with some of the first families of the land. Eighteen members of the Nicholson family had served as officers in the United States Navy.
He made the first move in Pennsylvania (1792) toward establishing normal schools by his bill to locate an academy in each county for the training of teachers. His financial views were conservative and safe, and the United States enjoyed prosperity under their enforcement for twelve years. The Hamiltonian doctrine was that the United States should be a strong government, ready and able to maintain its dignity abroad and its authority at home by arms. Gallatin maintained that its dignity would
protect itself if its resources were carefully used for self-development, while its domestic authority should rest only on consent. Which of these views is correct is still a subject of political agitation and debate.