Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle; the Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, New Jersey to the east. Pennsylvania is the 33rd-largest state by area, the 6th-most populous state according to the most recent official U. S. Census count in 2010, it is the 9th-most densely populated of the 50 states. Pennsylvania's two most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh; the state capital and its 10th largest city is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of waterfront along the Delaware Estuary; the state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden.
It was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12, 1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the state's largest city of Philadelphia. During the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washington's headquarters during the bitter winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west. Of a total 46,055 square miles, 44,817 square miles are land, 490 square miles are inland waters, 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie, it is the 33rd-largest state in the United States. Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Of the original Thirteen Colonies, Pennsylvania is the only state that does not border the Atlantic Ocean; the boundaries of the state are the Mason–Dixon line to the south, the Twelve-Mile Circle on the Pennsylvania-Delaware border, the Delaware River to the east, 80° 31' W to the west and the 42° N to the north, with the exception of a short segment on the western end, where a triangle extends north to Lake Erie.
Cities include Philadelphia, Reading and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown and Easton in the central east. The northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest. State College serves the central region while Williamsport serves the commonwealth's north-central region as does Chambersburg the south-central region, with York and the state capital Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River in the east-central region of the Commonwealth and Altoona and Johnstown in the west-central region; the state has five geographical regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Erie Plain. New York Ontario Maryland Delaware West Virginia New Jersey Ohio Pennsylvania's diverse topography produces a variety of climates, though the entire state experiences cold winters and humid summers. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the southeastern corner, has a humid continental climate.
The southern portion of the state has a humid subtropical climate. The largest city, has some characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware and Maryland to the south. Summers are hot and humid. Moving toward the mountainous interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increases, snowfall amounts are greater. Western areas of the state locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the entire state receives plentiful precipitation throughout the year; the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, such as 30 recorded tornadoes in 2011; as of 1600, the tribes living in Pennsylvania were the Algonquian Lenape, the Iroquoian Susquehannock & Petun and the Siouan Monongahela Culture, who may have been the same as a little known tribe called the Calicua, or Cali. Other tribes who entered the region during the colonial era were the Trockwae, Saponi, Nanticoke, Conoy Piscataway, Iroquois Confederacy—possibly among others.
Other tribes, like the Erie, may have once held some land in Pennsylvania, but no longer did so by the year 1600. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their colonial lands in America; the Dutch were the first to take possession. By June 3, 1631, the Dutch had begun settling the Delmarva Peninsula by establishing the Zwaanendael Colony on the site of present-day Lewes, Delaware. In 1638, Sweden established the New Sweden Colony, in the region of Fort Christina, on the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. New Sweden claimed and, for the most part, controlled the lower Delaware River region (parts of present-day Delaware, New Jersey, Pe
Ulster American Folk Park
The Ulster American Folk Park is an open-air museum just outside Omagh, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. With more than 30 exhibit buildings to explore, the museum tells the story of three centuries of Irish emigration. Using costumed guides and displays of traditional crafts, the museum focuses on those who left Ulster for America in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; the museum is part of National Museums Northern Ireland. Within the museum there are original buildings with connections to local families; the park was developed around the Mellon House, the birthplace of Irish-American banker and lawyer Thomas Mellon, founding father of the Mellon banking dynasty. This house and its outbuildings remain in their original location. Visitors can taste samples of traditional Irish and pioneer American foods including freshly baked soda bread and pumpkin pie all made on the hearths and griddles of the exhibit buildings; the museum includes agricultural displays and an array of farm animals. The park is open throughout the year, excluding some public holidays.
The demonstrations that take place showcase the day-to-day tasks and skills of those who lived in the era such as blacksmithing, candle-dipping, spinning and open hearth cooking. The museum runs a lively programme of exhibitions that connect to their collections; the museum has hosted many international exhibitions in recent years including Fighting Irishmen from the Irish Arts Center in New York which showcased the influence of Irish emigrants in the sport of boxing, Warriors of the Plains from the British Museum, which explored Native North American Indians. Special events mark the culture of both the New World and the Old World, such as U. S. Independence Day, Easter and of course Saint Patrick's Day; the melting pot of emigrant music is celebrated with a three-day Bluegrass Music Festival every September. The museum's visitor centre houses a cafe and shop as well as the permanent exhibition Emigrants that introduces the story of emigration from Ireland to America, before visitors embark on their journey around the outdoor museum and along the emigrant trail.
Free parking is available on site. The entrance section includes a restaurant, a visitors' information centre and the Centre for Migration Studies; the CMS has an attached library and offers, in conjunction with the University of Ulster and Queen's University of Belfast and undergraduate courses, as well as tailored and shorter courses. The specialist research library contains some 10,000 volumes, over 50 periodicals, audio-visual material, a collection of primary source documents, searchable on computer; the centre is open to visitors during basic office hours, closed during public holidays. The Old World region includes whole streets of original houses, an original printing press, a bank, an old police barracks, the old Castletown National School, two churches. Central to this region is the boyhood home of Thomas Mellon and founder of the Pittsburgh banking dynasty; some of the two-up, two-down houses in one of the reconstructed streets in the park were transported, in their entirety, from Sandy Row, off the Donegall Road in Belfast, other buildings have been transported from elsewhere in the province.
Linking the Old and New World sections of the park is the Ship and Dockside gallery, which includes the Brig Union, a full-size replica of an immigrant sailing ship. The historic atmosphere continues in the New World area, which features a recreated old American street with a tinsmith display and the original interior of a Virginia general store. Beyond the street, the frontier journey begins with a stop at the 1720s Fulton stone house, painstakingly dismantled in Lancaster County and rebuilt here. Other original frontier houses in the park include an Appalachian log house from Washington county, the 1830 West Virginia home of Richard McCallister, removed from Cabell county, a, soon to be opened, brick plantation house built by Francis Rogan in the early 19th century near Nashville, Tennessee. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Ulster Museum Ulster Scots people National Museums Northern Ireland Media related to Ulster American Folk Park at Wikimedia Commons Centre for Migration Studies Ulster American Folk Park - official site
Mellon Financial
Mellon Financial Corporation was one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth individual asset management, including the Dreyfus family of mutual funds. On December 4, 2006 it announced a merger agreement with Bank of New York, to form The Bank of New York Mellon. After regulatory and shareholder approval, the banks completed the merger on July 2, 2007. Mellon was founded in 1869 by Thomas Mellon and his sons Andrew W. Mellon and Richard B. Mellon, as T. Mellon & Sons' Bank. In 1902, the institution became Mellon National Bank. Mellon Bank was an important force in the mass production revolution in the United States in the Midwest; the Mellon family using the bank as a proxy had direct involvement with founding the modern aluminium, consumer electronics and financial industries. Alcoa, Gulf Oil and Rockwell, all were directly founded and managed by the bank. U. S. Steel, General Motors and ExxonMobil were born and nurtured by Mellon.
In 1920 Andrew left his leadership post of the bank to become the longest serving U. S. Treasury Secretary in history. In 1929, Richard founded Mellbank Corporation. In 1946, Mellon National and the Union Trust Company merged to form Mellon National Bank and Trust Company. A reorganization in 1972 brought about a name change to Mellon Bank, N. A. and the formation of a holding company, Mellon National Corporation. In 1983, Mellon bought Girard Bank of Philadelphia and Central Counties Bank of State College, Pennsylvania; the next year, Mellon National Corporation became Mellon Bank Corporation, purchased Northwest Pennsylvania Corporation of Oil City, Pennsylvania. In 1986, Mellon bought Commonwealth National Financial of Pennsylvania, it is reported that Mellon operated the 2nd largest financial computing system in the world. In 1991, Mellon bought United Penn Bank of Pennsylvania; the next year, Mellon bought 54 branch offices of Philadelphia-based Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, whose parent company had become insolvent.
Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, was the first savings bank in the United States, founded in 1819. In 1993, Mellon bought The Boston Company from American Express and AFCO Credit Corporation from The Continental Corporation; the next year, Mellon merged with the Dreyfus Corporation, bringing its mutual funds under its umbrella. 1998 saw Mellon's purchase of United Bankshares, Inc. of Miami, 1st Business Bank of Los Angeles, Founders Asset Management. In 1999, Martin G. McGuinn became chairman and chief executive officer of Mellon Bank Corporation. Mellon Bank Corporation became Mellon Financial Corporation. Two years it sold its retail banking operations to Citizens Financial Group. In 2004, Mellon announced it would purchase Safeco Trust Company from Seattle-based Safeco Corporation; the same year, it purchased outstanding shares in London-based Pareto Partners and offered them floor space in Mellon Financial Centre. In 2006, Mellon announced its plans to merge with Bank of New York. Talks began when Tom Renyi approached Robert Kelly about a possible amalgamation between the Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation.
The $16.5 billion deal was announced in December 2006 and finalized on July 1, 2007, with Kelly as the Chief Executive Officer of the new company, Renyi as Executive Chairman. Per the deal, the new Board of Directors is composed of ten directors appointed by the Bank of New York, eight by Mellon; the merger was completed July 2007, as The Bank of New York Mellon. Headquartered in New York, it is the world's largest securities servicing firm and one of the world's top ten asset managing firms; the new venture launched its brand identity on October 1, 2007. These two companies, along with State Street, followed the same evolution. All were large diversified financial service providers in the corporate banking space in the regions they were located in; however competition in the corporate loans and retail banking businesses saw them jettison these operations in favor of what were believed to be more stable, fee based business: asset management and asset servicing. Mellon is a large provider of; these are checking accounts in specialized locations which are given early warning by the Federal Reserve as to what checks will be clearing them.
Companies can transfer the exact amount needed to pay those checks, while investing the unneeded money or using other funds to pay down debt. Robert E. Kelly February 13, 2006 – July 1, 2007 Martin G. McGuinn January 1, 1999 – February 13, 2006 Frank Cahouet April 13, 1987 – January 1, 1999 J. David Barnes March 1, 1981 – April 13, 1987 James H. Higgins August 1, 1974-March 1, 1981 John A. Mayer February 8, 1963 – August 1, 1974 Frank R. Denton 1946-February 8, 1963 www.bnymellon.com Mellon Financial Corporation.
Bar association
A bar association is a professional association of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction. In many Commonwealth jurisdictions, the bar association comprises lawyers who are qualified as barristers or advocates in particular, versus solicitors. Membership in bar associations may be mandatory or optional for practicing attorneys, depending on jurisdiction; the use of the term bar to mean "the whole body of lawyers, the legal profession" comes from English custom. In the early 16th century, a railing divided the hall in the Inns of Court, with students occupying the body of the hall and readers or benchers on the other side. Students who became lawyers crossed the symbolic physical barrier and were "admitted to the bar"; this was popularly assumed to mean the wooden railing marking off the area around the judge's seat in a courtroom, where prisoners stood for arraignment and where a barrister stood to plead. In modern courtrooms, a railing may still be in place to enclose the space, occupied by legal counsel as well as the criminal defendants and civil litigants who have business pending before the court.
In many Commonwealth jurisdictions, including in England and Wales, the "bar association" comprises lawyers who are qualified as barristers or advocates, while the "law society" comprises solicitors. These bodies are sometimes mutually exclusive, while in other jurisdictions, the "bar" may refer to the entire community of persons engaged in the practice of law. In Canada, one is called to the bar after undertaking a post-law-school training in a provincial law society program, undergoing an apprenticeship or taking articles. Legal communities are called provincial law societies, except for Nova Scotia, where it is called the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, Quebec, where it is called the Barreau du Quebec; the Canadian Bar Association is a professional association of barristers and avocats that serves the roles of advocates for the profession, provides continuing legal education and member benefits. It does not play a part in the regulation of the profession, however. In India under the legal framework set established under the Advocates Act, 1961, a law graduate is required to be enrolled with the Bar Council of India.
The process of enrollment is delegated by the Bar Council of India to the state Bar Councils wherein each state has a Bar Council of its own. Once enrolled with a State Bar Council, the law graduate is recognized as an Advocate provisionally for a period of two years, within which they must clear the All India Bar Examination conducted by the Bar Council of India. Once the advocate clears the AIBE test, they are entitled to appear and practice before any court of law in India. There is no formal requirement for further membership of any Bar Association. However, Advocates do become members of various local or national bar associations for reasons of recognition and facilities which these associations offer; some well-known Bar Associations in India include the Supreme Court Bar Association, Delhi High Court Bar Association, Bombay Bar Association, Delhi Bar Association, National Bar Association of India, All India Bar Association, etc. In Pakistan, a person becomes a licensee of a Provincial Bar Council after fulfilling certain requirements.
He must have a valid law degree LL. B from a recognized university by the Pakistan Bar council, must offer certain undertakings, pay the Provincial Bar Council fees. Furthermore, he shall join any bar association as a member. Tehsil bar associations work under the umbrella of District Bar Association, District Bar Association under Provincial Bar councils, such as the Punjab Bar Council and Sindh Bar Council. To become an advocate, one must first complete six months pupillage with a practising advocate of High Court, whom they must assist on at least ten cases during a six-month pupillage. Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions. —Benjamin N. Cardozo, In re Rouss, 221 N. Y. 81, 84 In the United States, admission to the bar is permission granted by a particular court system to a lawyer to practice law in that system. This is to be distinguished from membership in a bar association. In the United States, some states require membership in the state bar association for all attorneys, while others do not.
Although bar associations existed as unincorporated voluntary associations, nearly all bar associations have since been organized as corporations. Furthermore, membership in some of them is no longer voluntary, why some of them have omitted the word "association" and call themselves the "state bar" to indicate that they are the incorporated body that constitutes the entire admitted legal profession of a state; some states require membership in the state's bar association to practice law there. Such an organization is called a mandatory, integrated, or unified bar, is a type of government-granted monopoly, they exist at present in a slight majority of U. S. states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington State, West Virginia and Wyoming. The District of Columbia, the U. S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands have unified bars; the mandatory status of the Puerto Rico Bar Associati
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790. Although it had a tortuous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography written. Franklin's account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods at which he wrote them. There are actual breaks in the narrative between the first three parts, but Part Three's narrative continues into Part Four without an authorial break. In the "Introduction" of the 1916 publication of the Autobiography, editor F. W. Pine wrote that Franklin's biography provided the "most remarkable of all the remarkable histories of our self-made men" with Franklin as the greatest exemplar. Part One of the Autobiography is addressed to Franklin's son William, at that time Royal Governor of New Jersey. While in England at the estate of the Bishop of St Asaph in Twyford, now 65 years old, begins by saying that it may be agreeable to his son to know some of the incidents of his father's life.
He starts with some anecdotes of his grandfather, uncles and mother. He deals with his childhood, his fondness for reading, his service as an apprentice to his brother James Franklin, a Boston printer and the publisher of the New-England Courant. After improving his writing skills through study of the Spectator by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, he writes an anonymous paper and slips it under the door of the printing house by night. Not knowing its author and his friends praise the paper and it is published in the Courant, which encourages Ben to produce more essays which are published; when Ben reveals his authorship, James is angered, thinking the recognition of his papers will make Ben too vain. James and Ben have frequent disputes and Ben seeks for a way to escape from working under James. James gets in trouble with the colonial assembly, which jails him for a short time and forbids him to continue publishing his paper. James and his friends come up with the stratagem that the Courant should hereafter be published under the name of Benjamin Franklin, although James will still be in control.
James signs a discharge of Ben's apprenticeship papers but writes up new private indenture papers for Ben to sign which will secure Ben's service for the remainder of the agreed time. But when a fresh disagreement arises between the brothers, Ben chooses to leave James judging that James will not dare to produce the secret indenture papers. James does, make it impossible for Ben to get work anywhere else in Boston. Sneaking onto a ship without his father's or brother's knowledge, Ben heads for New York City, but the printer William Bradford is unable to employ him. By the time Ben reaches Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford has replaced his employee, but refers Ben to Samuel Keimer, another printer in the city, able to give him work; the Governor, Sir William Keith, takes notice of Franklin and offers to set him up in business for himself. On Keith's recommendation, Franklin goes to London for printing supplies, but when he arrives, he finds that Keith has not written the promised letter of recommendation for him, that "no one who knew him had the smallest Dependence on him".
Franklin finds work in London until an opportunity arises of returning to Philadelphia as an assistant to Thomas Denham, a Quaker merchant. Keimer soon comes to feel that Franklin's wages are too high and provokes a quarrel which causes the latter to quit. At this point a fellow employee, Hugh Meredith, suggests that Franklin and he set up a partnership to start a printing shop of their own, they establish their business, plan to start a newspaper, but when Keimer hears of this plan, he rushes out a paper of his own, the Pennsylvania Gazette. This publication limps along for three quarters of a year before Franklin buys the paper from Keimer and makes it "extremely profitable"; the partnership receives an appointment as printer for the Pennsylvania assembly. When Hugh Meredith's father experiences financial setbacks and cannot continue backing the partnership, two friends separately offer to lend Franklin the money he needs to stay in business. In 1730 he marries Deborah Read, after this, with the help of the Junto, he draws up proposals for Library Company of Philadelphia.
At this point Part One breaks off, with a memo in Franklin's writing noting that "The Affairs of the Revolution occasion'd the Interruption". The second part begins with two letters Franklin received in the early 1780s while in Paris, encouraging him to continue the Autobiography, of which both correspondents have read Part One. (Although Franklin does not say so, there had been a breach with his son William after the writing of Part One, since the fathe
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism is a part of the reformed tradition within Protestantism, which traces its origins to Britain Scotland. Presbyterian churches derive their name from the presbyterian form of church government, governed by representative assemblies of elders. A great number of Reformed churches are organized this way, but the word Presbyterian, when capitalized, is applied uniquely to churches that trace their roots to the Church of Scotland, as well as several English dissenter groups that formed during the English Civil War. Presbyterian theology emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures, the necessity of grace through faith in Christ. Presbyterian church government was ensured in Scotland by the Acts of Union in 1707, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain. In fact, most Presbyterians found in England can trace a Scottish connection, the Presbyterian denomination was taken to North America by Scots and Scots-Irish immigrants; the Presbyterian denominations in Scotland hold to the Reformed theology of John Calvin and his immediate successors, although there is a range of theological views within contemporary Presbyterianism.
Local congregations of churches which use presbyterian polity are governed by sessions made up of representatives of the congregation. The roots of Presbyterianism lie in the Reformation of the 16th century, the example of John Calvin's Republic of Geneva being influential. Most Reformed churches that trace their history back to Scotland are either presbyterian or congregationalist in government. In the twentieth century, some Presbyterians played an important role in the ecumenical movement, including the World Council of Churches. Many Presbyterian denominations have found ways of working together with other Reformed denominations and Christians of other traditions in the World Communion of Reformed Churches; some Presbyterian churches have entered into unions with other churches, such as Congregationalists, Lutherans and Methodists. Presbyterians in the United States came from Scottish immigrants, Scotch-Irish immigrants, from New England Yankee communities, Congregational but changed because of an agreed-upon Plan of Union of 1801 for frontier areas.
Along with Episcopalians, Presbyterians tend to be wealthier and better educated than most other religious groups in United States, are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business and politics. Presbyterian tradition that of the Church of Scotland, traces its early roots to the Church founded by Saint Columba, through the 6th century Hiberno-Scottish mission. Tracing their apostolic origin to Saint John, the Culdees practiced Christian monasticism, a key feature of Celtic Christianity in the region, with a presbyter exercising "authority within the institution, while the different monastic institutions were independent of one another." The Church in Scotland kept the Christian feast of Easter at a date different from the See of Rome and its monks used a unique style of tonsure. The Synod of Whitby in 664, ended these distinctives as it ruled "that Easter would be celebrated according to the Roman date, not the Celtic date." Although Roman influence came to dominate the Church in Scotland, certain Celtic influences remained in the Scottish Church, such as "the singing of metrical psalms, many of them set to old Celtic Christianity Scottish traditional and folk tunes", which became a "distinctive part of Scottish Presbyterian worship".
Presbyterian history is part of the history of Christianity, but the beginning of Presbyterianism as a distinct movement occurred during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. As the Catholic Church resisted the reformers, several different theological movements splintered from the Church and bore different denominations. Presbyterianism was influenced by the French theologian John Calvin, credited with the development of Reformed theology, the work of John Knox, a Scotsman and a Roman Catholic Priest, who studied with Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, he brought back Reformed teachings to Scotland. The Presbyterian church traces its ancestry back to England and Scotland. In August 1560 the Parliament of Scotland adopted the Scots Confession as the creed of the Scottish Kingdom. In December 1560, the First Book of Discipline was published, outlining important doctrinal issues but establishing regulations for church government, including the creation of ten ecclesiastical districts with appointed superintendents which became known as presbyteries.
In time, the Scots Confession would be supplanted by the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, which were formulated by the Westminster Assembly between 1643 and 1649. Presbyterians distinguish themselves from other denominations by doctrine, institutional organization and worship; the origins of the Presbyterian churches are in Calvinism. Many branches of Presbyterianism are remnants of previous splits from larger groups; some of the splits have been due to doctrinal controversy, while some have been caused by disagreement concerning the degree to which those ordained to church office should be required to agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith, which serves as an important confessional document – second only to the Bible, yet directing particularities in the standardization and translation of the Bible – in Presbyterian churches. Presbyteria
