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William Packer; Pennsylvania 1858-1860
Like the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, William Fisher Packer came from Quaker ancestry. He was a descendant of one of the first emigrants to West Jersey, under the auspices of Penn.
He was the last of the old Democratic regime to serve in the statehouse. For 48 of the 52 years
before the Civil War the Democratic party had controlled Harrisburg.
This second son of James and Charity Packer was born on April 2, 1807, in Howard Township, Centre County. When he was only seven his father died, leaving five small children. The boys of the family were left to care for the family. When Packer was only 13 he became an apprentice at the Sunbury Public Inquirer. The smelt of printers ink enticed him to Bellefonte. Here he spent the remainder of his apprenticeship with Henry Petriken at the Bellefonte Patriot. A stint in the office of the Pennsylvania Intelligencer followed as a journeyman printer. He tried the law in the office of Joseph B. Anthony in Williamsport but never applied for admission to the bar.
It was the purchase of an interest in the Lycoming Gazette of Williamsport in 1827 and control two years later, until 1836, that brought him into the public eye and, eventually, the opportunity to draw upon his political exposure in Bellefonte.
In 1829 he had married Mary W. Vanderbelt, daughter of Peter W. Vanderbelt, and granddaughter of Michael Ross, who once owned all the land on which Williamsport is built.
His editorials were bold. So were his speeches, particularly when he spoke for the completion of the West Branch Canal which linked this section of Pennsylvania with Philadelphia. His efforts resulted in his appointment as canal commissioner in 1839 and auditor general in 1842.
After losing an election for state senator in 1835, he sold the Gazette the following year and bought the Keystone in Harrisburg, which he kept for five years until he finally gave up his newspaper career. In 1847 he won his bid for the House of Representatives.
After defeating Andrew G. Curtin for a Senate seat in 1849, he served only one term and became president of the Susquehanna Railroad Company.
His term as governor came on the eve of the Civil War. During Packer's term Col. Edwin L. Drake struck oil at Titusville in 1859; the Farmers High School (Penn State University), as well as Millersville State, the first normal school, were opened; the Penal Code, the basis of Pennsylvania criminal law, was made law in 1860.
Packer retired from public life after his term as governor, owing to ill health. He died in Williamsport on Sept. 27, 1870.
The home, in which he was born, stood until 1966 north of Howard, between Bald Eagle Creek and the new Rt. 220. Typical of its era, it was a large two story with fireplaces in almost every room. James Packer of Chester County, grandfather of Packer, had purchased it in 1769. It stood in the taking area for Blanchard dam and was razed when the causeway to Howard was built.
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