USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people; Volume II > Part 14
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Alfred Driver Alfred Tyson Henry M. Fussell
13, 1876
.. 6, 1880
21, 1880
Edward W. Magill John B. Booth Samuel S. Corning Benjamin H. Lehman
27, 1880
I, 1886
March 6, 1878
494
DELAWARE COUNTY
Eugene S. Daley Benj. C. Potts D. Stuart Robinson
Samuel L. Clayton
February 13, 1888
William I. Schaffer
13. 1888
H. J. Makiver
April 5. 1897 June 7. 1897
William C. Lees Frank Marion Cody 7. 1898
July 6. 1897
September 20, 1897
March 7. 1897
7, 1897
June 6, 1898 September 19, 1898 19, 1898
E. G. Hamersley
November 3, 1890
November 3, 1890
10, 1890
5, 1898
January 12, 1891 March 23, 1891 May 5, 1891
July 6, 1891
George B. Harvey J. M. (3) Broomall Joshua C. Taylor
John McConaghy Harry Schalcher Isaac D. Yocum
April 7, 1900 November 12, 1900
April 2, 1900 January 8, 1901
W. A. Shoemaker William B. Harvey John C. Hinkson
March 6, 1893
Thomas S. Williams
January 14, 1901
Henry V. Massey Morton J. Paul
.. 19, 1893 = 19. 1893
J. R. Robinson
March II, 1902 April 14, 1902
C. Y. Audenreid George T. Butler
July 3, 1893
March 25, 1902
George K. Cross
October 9. 1893
June 16, 1902
Conrad C. Wilfred T. Speer Dickson George Vaux, Jr. 4. 1893
January 3, 1894
March 5. 1894
John A. Poulson
30, 1902
May 7, 1894
Wm. B. Northam 30, 1902
. . 30. 1902
Louis S. Hough Louis T. Finnegan 17, 1894 Albert D. MacDade 17, 1894
December 3. 1894
George W. Carr
7. 1004
February 4. 1895
Charles F. Da Costa 7. 1004
March 5, 1895 1, 25, 1895
A. Culver Boyd .. 28. 1004 28. 1904 September 19. 1904
May 6, 1895 June 3. 1895
March 2, 1896
September 18. 1905
Edwin A. Howell = 9. 1896
John R. Valentine
2. 1896
Boyd C. Barrington
27, 1905
Robert Oglesby
March 20, 1906
Robert J. Williams T. L. Vanderslice Milton C. Work W'm. H. Ridley Edward P. Bliss Charles I. Cronin C. D. M. Broomall J Russell Hayes C. Percy Wilcox S. H. Kirkpatrick Josiah Smith
September 21, 1891 June 7, 1892
September 26, 1892
October 12, 1892
December 22, 1892 ., 22, 1892
Stephen E. Taylor
B. Frank Fenton
December 30, 1901
June 19, 1893
Henry W. Jones
20, 1901
James B. Robertson John De HI. White J. B. Hannum. Jr. Edward J. Mingey Frances Anne Keay Frank S. Morris Wm. Taylor
December 2, 1902
,, 4, 1002
,, 29. 1902
Henry Ashton Little James Henry Scott Francis G Taylor
September 3. 1894
Theo. J. Grayson A. S. Longbottom Joseph Ifill Brinton March 7, 1904 July 20, 1903
John Booth Miller Morton A. Cooper Samuel W. Mifflin J. De H. Ledward Ernest LeRoy Green Matthew Randall
October 4, 1905
November 15. 1905
Walter Washabaugh May 4. 1896
John S. Freeman 4. 1896
Charles D. White
Albert J. Williams Jesse M. Johnson
September 21, 1896 December 7, 1896 March 1. 1897
Wm. C. Alexander 2, 1897
William L. Delahunt March 5, 1888 J. Hazleton Mirkil April 2, 1888 A. J. Wilkinson James W. Mercur March 25, 1889 Frank B. Rhodes Charles Palmer April 7. 1890 May 5, 1890 5, 1890 Joseph M. Dohan Frank R. Savidge Isaac Elwell
December 2, 1889
Edwin P. Hannum William B. Knowles D. M. Johnson, Jr. Frank G. Perrin Charles B. Galloway James H. Osborne
Eleanor J. Wilson Carolus E. Hough Frederick T. Pusey Isaac E. Johnson Cypriana Andrade F. F. Eastlack, Jr. May 1, 1899 K. Montgomery 1, 1899 March 6, 1899 June 26, 1899
December 5, 1898
5, 1898
5, 1898
December 4, 1897
May 1, 1893
December 4, 1893 = 4. 1893
29, 1902
December 5. 1904
Alexander B. Geary J. Henry McIntyre Benjamin C. Fox George J. Parker William S. Ellis John F. McDonough William T. Brennan
October 10, 1887
November 9, 1887 December 19, 1887
December 17, 1888
June 2, 1890
495
DELAWARE COUNTY
Walter S. Mertz
September 17, 1906
James F. Casey
December 6, 1909
D. Reese Esrey
October 22, 1906
John J. Stetson 11, 1909 October 1, 1910
J. J. Pinkerton
March 17, 1908
John J. McCann
C. H. Pennypacker
" 31, 1908 Elwood J. Turner
December 10, 1910
F. A. Moorehead
June 1. 1908
Edwin S. Dixon W. F. McClenachan F. B. Calvert
September 30, 1908
February 27, 1909
December 9, 1911
Albert N. Garrett
27, 1909
Samuel P. Hansom
",
27, 1909
Howard W. Lutz
T. O. Haydock, Jr.
March 20, 1909
James L. Rankin
Albert E. Holl
"
20, 1909
E. E. West
" 10, 1913
EMINENT LAWYERS.
While the Delaware bar has always ranked among the best in the state, there are several members who have so far outranked their contemporaries as to be worthy of special mention. Among the earliest of these notables was William Graham, fifth of the group admitted on the first day of court. He was the only son of Judge Graham: was chief burgess of Chester in 1794, and commanded a troop of cavalry from Delaware county during the "Whiskey Insurrection." For many years prior to his death. December 19. 1821, he was unable to speak in public through loss of voice from exposure.
Thomas Brinton Dick was admitted January 9, 1790. He was an espec- ially strong character, and ranked as one of the ablest advocates of liis time. He lost his life in a blinding snow storm, April 21, 1811, while out shooting ducks from a skiff on the Delaware.
Robert Frazer, of Thornbury, was admitted July 30. 1792. He was the father of the plan to remove the county seat from Chester to Media, he pre- paring the petition to the legislature in 1820, praying for the removal to a more central location.
William Martin, although a native of Philadelphia, moved to Chester at an early age. He was both physician and lawyer, admitted April, 1796. He was chief burgess of Chester in 1789, and in April made the address of wel- come to Washington, who stopped there when on his way to New York to be inaugurated as the first president of the United States. Mr. Martin died Sep- tember 22, 1798, a victim of yellow fever.
Samuel Edwards, born in Chester township, March 12, 1785, died No- vember 25, 1850, admitted April 30, 1806. He was a member of the assembly in 1814 and 1816, and a member of the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Congresses. and with George C. and Samuel Leiper, Levi Reynolds and James Buchanan, was credited with the control of political affairs in Eastern Pennsylvania un- der Presidents Jackson and Van Buren administrations.
John Edwards, Junior, was born at the Black Horse Tavern. July 15. 1786, died October, 1846. He was admitted October 19, 1807: was deputy attorney general for the county in 1811 and in 1824; was of counsel for Well- ington for murder of Bonsall. He owned rolling mills, and was largely inter-
March 12, 1913 " 10, 1913
E. C. Bonniwell March 13, 1911 June 6, 1911 June 6, 1911 E. W. Chadwick Howard E. Hannum Harwell B. Dutton Walter R. White II, 1911
August 5, 1908
49G
DELAWARE COUNTY
ested in the iron business. He was elected to congress in 1838 and served two terms. He died in October, 1845, aged fifty-nine years.
Thomas Dixon Anderson, only son of Major and Judge William Ander- son, moved to Tennessee, where he became attorney general of that state. Later he was United States consul at Tunis and Tripoli for several years.
John Kerlin was the fourth president of the Bank of Delaware County. In 1824 he began four years service as state senator, and in 1828 was again elected for a like period. He died in Philadelphia, May 21, 1847, aged fifty- four years.
Isaac D. Barnard became clerk in the prothonotary's office when a boy of thirteen years, serving two years at Chester and a like period in the office of the prothonotary of Philadelphia county. He was a gallant officer of the war of 1812, captain of a company in the Fourteenth Regiment United States Cav- alry; he was promoted major for gallant conduct at Fort George, and at Plattsburg commanded the regiment, all his superior officers having fallen. He had a large practice, but gave up a great deal of his time to the public service. He was state senator in 1824-26; was appointed secretary of its common- wealth, and in the same year, 1826. was elected United States senator, serving until 1831, when he resigned, broken in health. He died February 18, 1834.
John K. Zeilin was deputy prothonotary and clerk of courts under Henry Myers. He read law with Edward Darlington, and seems to have been more prominent in military and public life than in the law. He held many offices, both state and federal, and was colonel of the Forty-seventh Regiment Penn- sylvania Militia, and offered his regiment for service in the Mexican war. He died in Philadelphia, August 6. 1876, in his seventy-third year.
Samuel Baldwin Thomas practiced in Philadelphia, but located in Media in 1857. He was deputy secretary of the commonwealth, and in 1863 was at the head of the military department of the state, ranking as colonel. After the war he was commissioner of the revenue board, and later commissioner in bankruptcy.
Edward Darlington in 1824 was deputy attorney general for Delaware county ; was elected by the Whigs to the Twenty-third Congress by the Anti- Masons, to the Twenty-fourth, and again by the Whigs to the Twenty-fifth. In 1851 he was elected district attorney, and was the first president of the Dela- ware County Bar Association. He died in Media, November 21, 1884, in his ninetieth year.
Abraham I.ewis Smith has been a notable figure for over fifty years. He was born in Upper Darby township, November 12, 1831, son of Dr. George and Mary (Lewis) Smith. He was graduated A. B. from the University of Pennsylvania, 1850, and received his A. M. in course; entered the law depart- ment of the University and was graduated LL.B., 1853, and admitted to the bar the same year. He has been in active practice over fifty years and has covered a wide range of practice. In his knowledge of the law of real estate, probably no member of the bar is his equal. From 1858 to 1883 he was secretary of the West Chester & Philadelphia Railroad Company ; was one of the founders
497
DELAWARE COUNTY
and the first president of the West End Trust Company, organized in 1891, and is still a member of the board of directors and of the finance committee. He has been president of the Delaware County Historical Society since its organ- ization : is a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Sons of the Revolution : Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, the Genealogical Society ; and the Delaware County Institute of Science. At the University of Pennsylvania he belonged to the Philomathean Society, later to the Phi Beta Kappa. No member of the bar is held in deeper respect, nor is there one more deserving. No one ever saw him show a trace of anger, and his presence at a trial insures confidence. He resides in Media. On October 15, 1903, the bar of Delaware county gave him a complimentary dinner and reception in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of his admission to that bar. Thirty-five members of the bar attended the dinner, which was given in the Flemish room of the Un- ion League at Philadelphia.
On May 26, 1906, George E. Darlington, another veteran, was tendered a picnic and reception at the club house of the Rose Tree Hunt, in Upper Provi- cence, the occasion being the fiftieth anniversary of his admission to the bar. Mr. Darlington was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, in August, 1832, and was educated in the public and private schools. He studied law under his father, Edward Darlington, in Media, and was admitted in 1856. He enlisted during the civil war, attaining a rank of first sergeant in actual service. In 1889 he was elected district attorney, and held many positions of honor and trust, both professional and practical. He has been a member of the Masonic order since 1864, and has filled well every position to which he has been called. For thirty years he was an enthusiastic fox hunter and rode with the hounds. In 1890 he toured Europe, and although now past eighty years has a well preserved body and continues in active practice.
William Ward, a graduate of Girard College, read law with John M. Broomall ; he was admitted in 1859, and became his preceptor's partner ; later was with his son, W. B. Broomall, as Ward & Broomall. He was president of council and city solicitor of Chester : member of the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses, and a most able skillful lawyer. He died Feb- ruary 27, 1895.
Ward R. Bliss was the compiler of "A Digest of the Special Laws of Del- aware County," and very prominent politically. He was a member of the state legislature from 1888 to 1902, chairman of the committee on appropriations, and died while in office.
John B. Hinkson was a lawyer of the highest class. In 1893 he was elected mayor of Chester. On April 28, 1890, he was admitted to practice be- fore the supreme court of the United States, on motion of then Solicitor Gen- eral Taft, later President of the United States, 1909 to 1913. Mr. Hinkson died May 22, 1901.
The present bar, as composed, is an able body of lawyers that maintain the high standard always characteristic of the Delaware bar. Many of them are holding important positions in state and in nation, and all are men of high
33
498
DELAWARE COUNTY
character and praiseworthy ambition. Under the changed conditions, recogni- tion is not easily obtained and the fight for honors not easy to win, yet the ethics of the profession are rigidly observed, the older members honored and de- ferred to, the young members encouraged and helped. The Law Library Association was formed by members of the bar December 4, 1871, and May 30, 1872, incorporated with John M. Broomall as the first president and Charles D. Manley as the first secretary.
List of Deputy Attorneys General from the erection of Delaware county until the office was abolished by the act of May 1, 1850, which act also pro- vided that district attorneys, "learned in the law, should be elected in each county to serve a term of three years," is given below :
February session 1790
Thomas Ross
.April session
1815 W. 11. Darlington
August
1790
Joseph Thomas
January
1817 Henry G. Freeman
October : 1791
1705
William Sergeant
January
1821 Archibald T. Dick
January
1796
Thomas Ross
April
1821 Edward Darlington
January
1
1799
Richard Bache, Jr.
March
1836 John P. Griffith
January
18II
John Edwards
Edward Ingersoll
February .. November
1845 Robert Frazer
April
1813 Edward Ingersoll
1
1848 J. M. Broomall
January
1814 John Edwards
February
1850 Charles D. Manley
April
1814
Edward Ingersoll
May
1850 T. H. Speakman
January
1815 Robert H. Smith
List of District Attorneys and date of election from 1850. when the office was created, until the present date, 1913 :
Robert McCay, Junior, appointed to serve during the year 1850 to 1851.
1869 G.E.Darlington 1872 D. M. Johnson
1803 W. I. Schaffer
1851 Edward Darlington.
1854 Jesse Bishop, resigned and on No- vember 24, 1856, the court appointed Edward .A. Price to finish out the term.
1875 V. G. Robinson = 1878 1881 Jesse M. Baker 1884 Jesse M. Baker
1896 W. I. Schaffer 1899 Josiah Smith 1902 Josiah Smith 1905 A. D. MacDade 1908 A. D. MacDade
1857 Edw. A. Price 1863 F. M. Brooke
1887 J. B. Hannum
1911 J.B.Ilannum.Jr.
1860 John Hibberd 1866 C.D.M.Broomall
1890 J. B. Hannum
.+
1830 John Zeilin
October
1797
William Sergeant
August
1833 Robert E. Hannum
April
1799
Thomas Ross
October
1818 Samuel Rush
=
1839 P. Frazer Smith
1812 1813 Benj. Tilghman
1845 Joseph J. Lewis
THE NEW COURT HOUSE.
The new Court House in Media now rapidly approaching completion in- cludes the old building with its east and west wings with a frontage of 127 feet and a depth of 145 feet. To each side has been added another wing of 39 feet making the present total frontage 205 feet. The depth was not changed except at the main front entrance, which has been extended to make a more commodious lobby and a more imposing entrance. The added wings are in the form of a U, and meet the old building at front and rear, allowing a small court yard and giving ample light to both old and new offices. The height re-
499
DELAWARE COUNTY
mains unchanged, except that of the old wooden clock tower was torn down ; a new clock will be placed in the front of the building. The entire edifice, the old sections included, is of West Grove ( Pennsylvania) granite. with founda- tions of Georgia granite. Eight magnificent columns grace the entrance. The interior work-pilasters, columns, stairways, etc., are of various marbles- Italian and Tennessee predominating.
On the facade of the Court House is this inscription : "This Court House was built in 1850 and rebuilt in 1913. It is the sixth in this judicial district, in direct succession from the first Court House in Pennsylvania."
The above enumeration is deduced by counting the public house of Neeles Laerson, which was devoted to the sittings of the Court from 1668 to 1677, as the first. The judicial administration of Governor Printz at Tinicum was ear- lier, but this was conducted by him in the exercise of his general powers con- ferred on him by the crown of Sweden. It was thus exercised at Printz Hall where he resided, and was for the most part a personal administration rather than a court administration. Hence the Neeles Laerson house is counted the. first. It was situate at Upland, now Chester, between Edgmont Avenue and Chester Creek and between Second and First streets. The second Court House was the House of Defense, which stood within the lines of the subse- quently laid out Edgmont Avenue, nearly opposite the Neeles Laerson house. It was used from 1677 to 1684-5. The third Court House was adjoining and northwardly of the House of Defense. It was in use from 1684-5 to 1694. The fourth was on the west side of Edgmont Avenue, in the vicinity of the others, and was in use from 1694 to 1724. The fifth was the building yet standing and used as a City Hall, on the west side of Market street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, Chester. It was used as a Court House from 1724 to 1850. This makes the present Court House at Media the sixth. It has been in use since 1850.
MEDICAL HISTORY.
In preface to a chronicle of the physicians and medical societies of Dela- ware county, it is eminently fitting and proper that tribute be paid to the father of the physician of to-day, the country doctor. In direct contrast to our modern white-robed, hospital physician or surgeon, with his immense and scientific knowledge of every atom of the human organism, or opposed to the fashionable, businesslike city physician, making his calls in a handsome limou- sine, is the homely old-fashioned, simple-minded, great-hearted figure once so well known and loved in every country district. He was the forerunner of our present day healer, and yet his healing often went deeper than any remedy for physical ills, for often he was the family confidant and advisor, the haven to which they fled in time of trouble or distress. He filled an important posi- tion in every rural district-the local minister, schoolmaster, and he, forming a trio representing to the country folk the acme of learning and the heights of wisdom.
His medical service was more often than not, a labor of love, or else his payment was in the form of any article of value in the household. Office hours were unthought of, and a case of colic often called him from his bed in the middle of the night for a ride, perhaps through a driving storm, to the bedside of a painracked infant; while a crash of falling timber might take him from his noonday meal to the bloody task of amputating the leg of a work- man crushed by falling timber.
In mentioning our present day physicians and surgeons, to whom a human being is but a combination of nerves, tissues, muscles, bones, arteries and veins, let us not forget his predecessor, now unknown, who was the close friend of each of his patients, treating their bodily ills with large doses of ill-smelling compounds and sugar pills, the while he cheered them with helpful consoling and enlivening conversation, brightening the sick chamber with the very charm of his presence.
Probably the first physicians, or "barbers," as they were then called, in Delaware county, were brought over by Governor Printz. Their acquaintance with their art was in all likelihood very primitive, for frequent fevers and scourges visited the colony, causing many deaths, although much of this could be blamed upon the rigors of the climate and the undue exposure necessitated during the erection of homes. Another of the practices, which modern scien- tific investigation has proved a fallacy, which they indulged, and which prob- ably accounts for some of the inefficiency of their treatment was the extensive use of alcoholic beverages as medicine.
One of the earliest physicians in the county was Dr. Timon Stiddem, who came to this country at the same time as Governor Rising, landing at Fort Casimir, May 21. 1654, residing for a time at Upland. On December 18. 1663, he was appointed by Dr. Jacop to succeed the latter as doctor of the Dutch Company, but his appointment was objected to and he settled at Wil- mington, where Governor Lovelace granted him a tract of land upon which
501
DELAWARE COUNTY
much of the city now is built. It is stated by Professor Keen in his article, "Descendants of Joran Kyn," that the descendants of the doctor still pos- sessed the metal case, engraved with his name and title, in which he used to carry his surgical instruments when making calls in the Swedish Colony.
The next doctor to come to the colony was Surgeon Jan Oosting, who was succeeded by William Van Rosenberg. The latter was evidently busily en- gaged in the practice of his profession during the voyage to America, for up- on his arrival he presented a bill for a hogshead of French wine and one of brandy furnished to those sick of scurvy during the protracted voyage.
Governmental guidance and direction was early given to the practice of the healer's art in this statute, embodied in 1676 in the Duke of York's Book of Laws :
"That no Person or Persons whatsoever Employed about the Bed of Men, Women or Children, at any time for preservation of Life or Health as Chirurgions, Medicines, Physicians or others, presume to Exercise or put forth any Arte Contrary to the known approved Rules of Art in such mistery or Occupation, or Exercise any force, violence Cruelty upon, or to the Bodice of any whether Young or old; without, the advice and Counsell of the such as are skillful in the same Art (if such may be had) or at least of some of the wisest and gravest then present and Consent of the patient or patients, if they be Mentis Compotes: much less Contrary to such Advice and Consent upon such severe punishment as the nature. Of the fault may deserve, which Law nevertheless, is not intended to discourage any from all Lawful use of their skill but rather to encourage and direct them in the right use thereof, and to inhabit and restrain the presumptious arogancy of such as through Confidence of their own skill, or any sinister Respect dare bouldly attempt to Exercise any violence upon or toward the body of young or old, one or other, to the prejudice or hazard of the Life or Limb of man, woman or child."
In 1678-9, Dr. Thomas Spry is recorded as a witness in a case tried at Upland. Sluyters and Dankers, in their visit to Tinicum township in 1679, state that on that island was a Swede, Otto Ernest Cock by name, whom they mention as a "late medicus," showing that at some previous date he had been a practicing physician. The following remark, made by Gabriel Thomas, loses some of its truthfulness and hence some of its force in face of the num- ber of physicians who were in that locality prior to 1698: "Of lawyers and phy- sicians I shall say nothing, because this country is very peaceable and healthy. Long may it so continue, and never have occasion for the tongue of one nor the pen of the other, both equally destructive to men's estate and lives, besides, for- sooth, they hangmen like have a license to murder and make mischief."
Dr. John Goodsoun is recorded as being a practicing physician in Chester in 1681, holding the title "Chirurgeon to the Society of Free Traders," while in 1694 he was appointed deputy governor under William Markham, his commis- sion being signed by William Penn. Joseph Richards is also named as a physi- cian in Chester prior to 1700, as well as an extensive landowner.
Isaac Taylor, sheriff of Bucks county in 1693 and a surveyor of no mean ability, was according to Professor Keen "at the time of his death a resident of Tinicum Island, practicing the art of surgery," although this statement is Matly contradicted by Gilbert Cope, in his "History of Chester" who gives
502
DELAWARE COUNTY
Thornbury as the place where his death occurred. His son John followed the profession of his father, leaving his practice to enter business, erecting the Sarum Forge, on Chester creek.
Alexander Gandonett. a "Practioner in Physyck." made a unique petition on file in West Chester for a license for the sale of liquor. "Your Petitioner, by way of his Practice, is Obliged to Distill several sorts of Cordiall waters, and it being often Requested by several of the inhabitants of this County to sell the same by small measure your Petitioner Conceiving that the same be of absolute necessity by way of his Practice yet it may be Considered to be within the Aet of Assembly for selling liquor by small measure, prays your honours for the premises.". Nothing is known what action was finally taken upon his plan for the legalizing of his sale of "Cordiall waters," as it was labelled "Referred to further Consideration": but the doctor continued in practice in Chester, for 11 January, 1747, he presented a bill to the province for medicine and attend- ance upon the sick soldiers of Captain Shannon's company quartered there.
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