USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume IV > Part 6
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With its officers likewise elected in 1812, Bradford County began to func- tion as an entity on January 18, 1813. Bradford required a slice of 1,162 square miles of the empire of Luzerne to satisfy its stated boundaries. For the purpose of giving the new counties recognition in the higher State courts, Tioga, Susque- hanna, Wayne and Luzerne counties became the Eleventh Judicial District. John Bannister Gibson, was appointed the first President Judge of the neir District .*
*Of the many Judges who have been connected with the various Courts of Law in Pennsylvania, from the beginning of the Commonwealth up to the present time, JOHN BANNISTER GIBSON was undoubtedly the one whose reputation overshadows all others. "His great intellectual superiority gives him a prominence among men of his class which it is not likely will be attained by anybody else for years to come."
John Bannister Gibson was born November 8th, 1780, in Shearman's Valley, Cumberland (now Perry) County, Pennsylvania. His ancestry on the side of his father, originally Scotch and then Irish, passed generally under the name of Scotch-Irish. In Scotland the family name was Gilbertson.
His father was Col. George Gibson, a gallant soldier of the Revolution, who, having commanded with success a regiment of the Virginia Line during the contest with Great Britain, fell, covered with wounds at the memorable defeat of St. Clair by the Indians, on the Miami, in 1791. He had been County Lieutenant of Cumberland County in 1785 and 1786. He was celebrated as a humorist and as a wit. Though without any single positive vice, he never could advance his fortune except in the army, for which he was peculiarly fitted. He was a man of genius, but possessed no husiness talents whatever.
General Gibson was a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention in 1790, subsequently an Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, and later, Secretary of the Territory of Indiana. He died April 10, 1822.
John B. Gibson's mother was .Inn, daughter of Francis West, a substantial freeholder, descended from the Irish branch of the Delaware family, probably before it was ennobled. His maternal grandmother was a Wynne. Owen W'ynne, the head of the family, was the first commoner in Ireland, and refused a peerage. Through the Wynnes the Wests were connected with the Coles of Enniskellen. Another connection of the family was the famous Colonel Barre, the associate of John Wilkes in his politics and his vices.
Ann Wl'est was born at Clover Ilill, near Sligo, in 1744, and came with the family to this country about 1755. She was a well educated woman. She died on the 9th of February, 1809.
The subject of this sketch, who was the youngest of four sons, was born among the mountains of Cumberland. Fox hunting, fishing, gunning, swimming, wrestling, and boxing with the natives of his age, were his exereises and amuse- ments as a boy. llis mother directed his reading, and put into his hands such books as were proper for him. His
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father's collection of from one to two hundred volumes (among them Burke's "Annual Register") he read so often that years afterward he could almost repeat pages of them.
At the age of fifteen, he was placed at school in the preparatory department connected with Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In due time he was admitted as a student in the collegiate department. lle did not, however. raduate, but left college in 1800, and immediately began study of law in Carlisle, in the office of a relative, the Hon. Thomas Duncan, LL. D., with whom he afterwards occupied a seat on the Bench of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
He was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland County March 8, 1803, and immediately opened an office in Carlisle. Shortly afterwards, at the instance of a Mr. Wilkins, he decided to remove to Beaver, on the Ohio River. By hard scuffling he succeeded in purchasing a small horse, or cob, and having taken leave of his fond mother and friends, he set out with scanty purse and saddle-bags and an empty green bag, not, like Dr. Syntax, in search of the picturesque. but like a poor lawyer in search of a brief and of professional adventures.
Mr. Gibson sojourned in Beaver only about two years, and then went to Hagerstown, Maryland, from whenee. very shortly afterwards, he returned to Carlisle, and resumed there the practice of his profession.
It was about this period of his professional career that a friend of his called upon him with the information that a fellow member of the bar had grossly and wantonly assailed Mr. Gibson's character. Whereupon Gibson, who was a man of herculean strength and lofty spirit, meeting the alleged slanderer soon after, publicly inflicted upon him severe personal chastisement. But what was his dismay to learn, shortly after, that his informant had made a mistake, and that another person was the calumniator. To add to his perplexity, a challenge was received frotu the victim of his hasty and misdirected severity. "This." said Gibson, "is a bad business, and it is difficult to mend it; but at least, having got into it. I will complete it. Ishall accept the challenge of course. I am bound to do so for my folly, if not my fault, but before I am shot I must perform an act of justice. Having now found out the real slanderer, I will flog him at once." This he accordingly did and upon the matter being explained to the challenger, and an ample apology made, a duel was avoided and the whole affair amicably adjusted through the friendly interference of Judge Duncan.
Mr. Gibson's political associations were, from the beginning of his career, with the old Democratic party. The critical condition of its affairs in 1810 called for the services of its ablest men, and he was in that year elected as the nominee of the Democratic party of Cumberland County, a member of the State House of Representatives. In 1811, he was elected for a second term.
While a member of the legislature, impeachment proceedings were begun against the lon. Thomas Cooper, M. D .. LL. D., President Judge of the 11th Judicial District (Luzerne County), and Mr. Gibson was appointed one of the com- mittee to consider the complaints made against the Judge. The committee reported the draft of an address to Governor Snyder for the removal of the Judge from his office. Against the address and the principles it advocated, Mr. Gibson placed on record a written protest, strong and positive. Out of ninety-five members of all parties, he was joined in his dissent by only four, one of whom was Thomas Graham, Esq., a member of the Bar of Luzerue County. The position taken by Mr. Gibson upon this occasion led to the intimacy which afterwards subsisted between himself and Judge Cooper; and upon the death of the latter. in 1839. Judge Gibson furnished a sketch of the life of his friend for publication in Vol. XIV. of the Encyclopedia Americana.
Mr. Gibson's second term as a legislator expired in the Summer of 1812, and from that time until his death, his public services were exclusively confined to the duties of a judicial office; with this exception, that in 1828 his name headed the Democratic State Electoral ticket, and he assisted in casting the vote of Pennsylvania in support of Andrew Jackson, for the Presidency.
In the Fall of 1812, Governor Snyder appointed him to the position only a little while before occupied by his learned . hut unfortunate friend Thomas Cooper-that of President Judge of the 11th Judicial District of Pennsylvania. com- posed of the counties of Luzerne, Tioga, Bradford and Susquehanna. He held his first Court in January, 1813, in Bradford County, and occupied the Bench for the first time in Luzerne County, July 26th, 1813.
In December, 1813, Judge Gibson purchased from George Chahoon for a $1400 house and lot (now No. 40) on North- ampton street, Wilkes-Barré, and to this new home he brought his wife, whom he had married but a short time before. She was Sarah W. Galbraith, daughter of Major Andrew Galbraith, who had been a gallant officer in the Revolutionary Army and had been taken prisoner on Long Island. He was a resident of Cumberland County, and his daughter was a lady of fine accomplishments and amiable disposition.
At that time Wilkes-Barre was a town of about one thousand inhabitants, and Luzerne County had a population of twenty thousand souls.
Judge Gibson came among the people of Wyoming while the prejudices of the State rested heavily upon this portion of Pennsylvania, because of the long and aggravated controversy that had existed between the Connecticut settlers and the Pennamites. His appointment was, therefore, most auspicious to the citizens of the Wyoming region, as placing their destinies in the hands of one whose views soared above any low or narrow-minded prejudice. He came among these people as a stranger, imbued with liberal sentiments. Conforming to their customs, which at that time were marked with some peculiarities, and sympathizing and harmonizing with them, he contributed much toward socializing Wyoming with other portions of Pennsylvania. He soon greatly endeared himself to his neighbors and to all who came in contact with him. His manners were remarkable for their simplicity, warmth, frankness, and generosity. There never was a man more free from affectation and pretension of every sort. His tempers were eminently social. and among all classes of society he was ever greeted as a welcome guest.
In the hours of relaxation from the exercise of official duties and his law and literary reading, he took great pleasure in company with his friend. Jacob Cist, in visiting the different portions of the valley to note its geological structure particularly the extent and position of the anthracite coal deposits, then just beginning to emerge into importance; and also in visiting the remains of the old Indian fortifications and burial grounds. In one of these excursions to Plains Township they found a medal bearing on one side the impress of King George I., and the date 1714-the year in which he began his reign-and on the other side the likeness of an Indian Chief. This medal is now preserved in the collection of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-Barre.
Judge Breckenridge, one of the Associate Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, having died June 26th. 1816, on the very next day Governor Snyder appointed Judge Gibson to the vacant seat on the Supreme Bench, and in the Fall of 1816, the Judge removed with his family to Carlisle where he continued to make his home for the remainder of his life.
His departure from Wilkes-Barré was regarded with emotions of pleasure and regret. All were glad at the occur- rence of an event so propitions to him personally, and yet all were sorry to part with him both as a Judge and a citizen. His sojourn in the Wyoming Valley produced here deep and abiding impressions of respect for his commanding talent- and social virtues.
He delivered his first opinion in the Supreme Court in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Halloway (2 Sergeant & Rawle, 305), which decided that birth in Pennsylvania gave freedom to the child of a slave.
Chief Justice Tilghman having died April 30, 1827, on the 18th of the following month, Judge Gibson was ap- pointed by Governor Shulze to fill the vacancy. From that period, conscious of responsibilities and bearing in mind the high judicial standard established by his predecessors, he appeared to devote all his great powers to the fulfillment of the duties of his vocation.
When he first went on the Bench, he was scarcely prepared for his mission. Those who went with him and after him were as thoroughly furnished as they could be for the work they had to do, but, when his powers unfolded them- selves, all saw them so plainly that no man or set of men afterwards could pretend to be his equal without becoming ridiculous. Competition gave up the contest, and rivalry conceded to him an undisputed prominence. Most of hi- associates fairly earned a high character and are justly entitled to their share of distinction, and we detract nothing from them when we give his due to him.
"Ile, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent. Stood like a tower."
From 1816 to 1829, Judge Gibson was a member of the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College, and from 1824 to 1:29. President of the Board.
He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839. and subsequently the same degree was conferred upon him by Harvard University.
He was Vice Pre ident of the Pennsylvania Historical Society from 1825 to 1835.
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A noticeable effect of removing these territorial units from the jurisdiction of Luzerne was to be found in the census reports for the year 1830. The figures for the latter decennial report showed 20,027 for the dismembered county, a gain of only 11 per cent for the decade. But Bradford County is given 9,960 for its population in the same census and Susquehanna County 11,554, or a total of 41,541 for the original area, which latter figures constitute a real index of its rapid development.
Not content withi inroads made by these two counties upon its territory, Luzerne was to meet other emergencies of a like nature in legislative enactment of subsequent years. In fact it may well boast being the "Mother of Counties" of Pennsylvania. By an act of the legislature of April 4, 1842, Wyoming County was the next thus to be given existence at the expense of Luzerne. Henry Colt of Luzerne, George Mack of Columbia and John Boyle of Susquehanna Counties were named a Commission to mark the boundaries. A total of 403 square miles of the parent county were found to be contained in the boundaries subsequently
A short time after taking his seat on the Supreme Bench he was solicited by a committee from the Democratic party to suffer himself to be placed in nomination for the office of Governor of Pennsylvania, but he promptly declined the honor.
Judge Gibson was a man of large proportions-a giant both in physique and intellect. He was six feet and four inches in height, with a muscular, weil proportioned frame, indicative of strength and energy, and a countenance full of intellect, sprightliness, and benevolence. Until the day of his death, although his bearing was mild and unosten- tatious, so striking was his personal appearance that few persons to whom he was unknown could have passed him by in the street without remark. His body and his mind were both fashioned in the same mighty mould.
He was a man of cultivated and elegant tastes, and had a natural love for art and literature, which was improved by more than ordinary cultivation. He possessed peculiar skill in drawing and sketching, and his taste also extended to painting, concerning which he was regarded as a competent critic. He could at any time sketch by a few dashes of his pen admirable likeness both of men and things. Many a dull speaker at the Bar, who was encouraged by the energy with which the Judge's pen inoved, might have found on his notes little more than a most excellent represen - tation of the speaker's face. Occasionally, on his forgetting to destroy such efforts, they were passed around the Bar to the amusement of all except the sketcher and the sketched.
In regard to his mental habits, Judge Gibson was a deep student, but not a close student; he worked most effect- ively, but he worked reluctantly. The concurrent testimony of all who knew him has been that he never wrote except when under the pressure of absolute necessity; but when he once brought the powers of his mind to a focus and took up the pen, like Sir Walter Scott, he wrote continuously and without erasure. When he once began to write an opinion he very rarely laid it aside until it was completed. This gave to his opinions a consistency and unity of con- ception otherwise difficult to have been obtained.
Judge Gibson was not great by accident or chance. He was a great man among great men-a great Judge among great Judges-primus inter pares. Chancellor Kent ranked him among the first jurists of the age, and Story has fur- nished him a character which posterity will never forget. In their respective commentaries the opinions of Judge Gibson are quoted oftener than those of any other man in the country.
His opinions are recognized everywhere as among the strongest, the clearest, the most learned, and the most im- portant to be found in any American Reports. They have made his name respected throughout the Union, and his death was lamented as that of one of the most brilliant lights of the American Bar. The great principles of law in Judge Gibson's reported opinions will live as long as anything of the science of the law survives. Higher praise no Judge need ask.
Judge Gibson breathed his last at his rooms in the United States Hotel on Chestnut street, near Third, Philadelphia, on the morning of the 3d of May, 1853, just as the State House clock, which for more than thirty-five years had sum- moned him to his judicial labors, struck the hour of two. The disease which caused his death was an affection of the stomach, which completely baffled the best medical treatment. His intellect remained unclouded to the last. Sur- rounded by his family and friends,
"like a shadow thrown Softly and sweetly from a passing cloud, Death fell upon him."
Upon the announcement of his death the several Courts in session in Philadelphia immediately adopted suitable measures to testify their high appreciation of his distinguished talents, and then adjourned. A meeting of the Phila- delphia Bar was held, over which Justice Grier, of the United States Circuit Court, presided; ffon. Geo. M. Dallas, being one of the Vice Presidents and Hon. Josiah Randall, a member of the Committee on Resolutions. It was resolved that the members of the Bar "will close their houses on the day of the funeral of Judge Gibson, in Carlisle, and will wear the usual badge of inourning for sixty days."
On May 4th, the remains of Judge Gibson were conveyed from Philadelphia to his late residence, in Carlisle, and on the next day the funeral occurred. Although the weather was very inclement, and the rain poured down in torrent, nevertheless a very large number of people attended to pay the last honors to the distinguished dead.
Subsequently there was erected over the grave of the honored dead a tall marble shaft, bearing upon one face "JOHN BANNISTER GIBSON, LL. D., for many years Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Born Nov. 8, 1780, died May 3, 1853." Upon an other face of the monument is the following inscription, from the pen of Judge Jeremiah S. Black :
"In the various knowledge which forms the perfect SCHOLAR, he had no superior. Independent, upright and able, he had all the high qualities of a great JUDGE. In the difficult science of Jurisprudence, He mastered every Department, Discussed almost every question, and Touched no subject which he did not adorn. He won in early manhood, And retained to the close of a long life, The affection of his Brethren on the Bench, The respect of the Bar. And the confidence of the people."
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fixed. Of small territorial consequence, but betokening the generous use to whieli the once remarkable area of luzerne was put by the legislature, a portion of Foster Township was, in the year 1856, annexed to Carbon County.
It was not until the year 1878 that Luzerne County was again troubled with the problem of dismemberment. Following a long continued agitation, emanating largely from residents of Seranton, a bill, known as the "New County Law", was introduced in the legislature on April 17, 1878, and passed in spite of strenuous objection on the part of the mother county. This act, ostensibly general in nature, affected only two counties of the Commonwealth, one of them being Luzerne.
Complying with provisions of the measure, a petition signed by over 1,000 residents of the Scranton district was presented at Harrisburg, asking that a county, to be called Lackawanna, be set off from Luzerne.
On May 14th, David Summers of Susquehanna, William Griffiths of Brad- ford and Richard H. Sanders of Philadelphia County were appointed Commis- sioners to establish boundary lines and make report of population.
Following necessary surveys, these Commissioners reported favorably on the project, on June 28th, whereupon Governor Hartranft issued a proclamation ordering an election to be held August 13th, upon the question of a new county. Under provisions of the act, only residents of districts to become part of the proposed new county were permitted to vote for or against its erection. As a consequence there were 9615 votes recorded in favor of the project and only 1986 against the proposal. On August 21, 1878, the Governor issued a procla- mation declaring that "from thenceforth the County of Lackawanna shall be and is established with all the rights, powers and privileges of other counties of the Commonwealth." During the week following, he commissioned the first set of officers for the new county. Lackawanna comprises 424 square miles within its boundaries, leaving but 926 square miles to Luzerne as a residue of its once vast estate.
Questions of roads, bridges and ferries were to engage the attention of pub- lie officials as well as of publie spirited men of the community in order to meet exigencies due to the development of new county seats and new population centers which had begun to spring up in response to the rapidly growing pop- ulation statistics of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre was fully alive to the need of improved transportation facilities then, even more than it has seemed to be in later decades of its history.
Scarcely had the Borough of Wilkes-Barré been formally set in motion before its council undertook to regulate the single ferry which at that time, as had been the case for many years, crossed the Susquehanna from the Kingston side at the foot of Northampton street. The former town government had attempted some form of regulation of this important link between the east and west banks of the stream and, at times, the revenue arising from its lease had been de- voted to odds and ends of community projects. One of the first subscriptions to the erection of "Old Ship Zion," was the rental revenue of this ferry house for the year 1803.
Regulations of the ferry, passed in the form of an ordinance by the council, June 10, 1806, not only provided for the means of disposing of the ferry franchise
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on an annual basis, but attempted to enforce a prompt and more convenient service for the public in its provisions.
The ordinance reads as follows:
"WHEREAS, the law incorporating the Borough of Wilkesbarre passed the 17th of March, 1806, has vested in the corporation of said borough the exclusive right of keeping, maintaining and letting a Ferry over the Susquehanna opposite the said Borough AND WHEREAS, it is neces- sary for the public advantage that the said ferry should be kept under suitable regulations, Therefore
"SECT. 1. Be it enacted by the town Council of the Borough of Wilkesbarre, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same. That a ferry shall be kept over the Susquehanna river from Northampton street to the publie road on the opposite side of said river.
"SECT. 2. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said ferry shall be rented, let or leased out immediately, and annually hereafter from the first Monday of April in every year to the highest and best bidder, and that the person or persons renting or leasing the said ferry shall enter into bonds with ample security, for the payment of the rent quarterly, and for faithful observance of all the regulations legally made with regard to the said ferry.
"SECT. 3. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That good and sufficient boats of every necessary description shall be furnished and kept in perfect repair by the lessee of the ferry aforesaid at his own expense suitable for the conveyance across the said river of single persons, horses, cattle, sleighs, sleds, wagons, and other carriages, and that a striet and prompt attention shall be paid to the duties of said ferry so that no person wishing to eross shall experience unnecessary delay. And if any foot person or persons wishing to eross at the said ferry shall be delayed unnecessarily the lessee of the ferry shall be liable to a fine of twelve and a half cents for every ten minutes each person is so detained.
"SECT. 4. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the regular hours for at- tending the ferry shall be from half an hour after sun rise to one hour after sun set, and that none of the fines in the preceeding section can be incurred except within the time in this section men- tioned as the regular hours for attending the ferry.
"SECT. 5. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the passing of this aet no person, except the lessee of the ferry or his agent shall transport any person across the river Susquehanna opposite this Borough for any emolument, under penalty of two dollars for every such offense."
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