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 V > Part 3
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densation which forms one of the distinctive features of his writings. It enabled him to proceed with directness right to his conclusion, and to make everything point to it from the very first sentence to the last. No repetition occurs. We see each idea but once, and need not count on seeing even the shadow of it more than once. Having always something to do ahead, the pen spent no more time on the thought in hand than was necessary to complete it. He knew pre- cisely where he was to end before beginning, and he avoided all the difficulties of those writers who begin to write when they begin to think, and sometimes before it, and who produce works resembling, for the most part, the patch-work emblazoned on the best beds of German house- keepers, and giving evidence not to be mistaken of the exact places at which they have been joined. . The most casttal reader of Judge Gibson's opinions must have observed how seldom he professes to give any history of the decided cases, from the creation of the world, from the reign of Richard I, or from the assumption of the reins of justice by Chief Justice McKean; and how invariably he put his decision upon some leading principle of the law, referring but to a few cases for the purpose of illustration, or to show their exception to the general rule, and how all this is done with the ease and skill which betokens the hand of a master. .
In the matter of settling the law of Pennsylvania on the subject of riots. Justice Gibson rendered to his State, so often disturbed by riots in his time. his supreme act of service. Chief Justice Black succeeded Gibson, after the latter's death on May 3, 1853; he delivered the eulogy of Gibson. in the Supreme Court, and greater tribute could hardly be paid to a great man than was then paid to the deceased. The following is extracted from the eulogy :
At the time of his death, he had been longer in office than any contemporaneous judge in the world; and in some points of character he had not his equal on the earth. Such vigor, clearness and precision of thought were never before united with the same felicity of diction. Brougham has sketched Lord Stowell justly enough as the greatest judicial writer that Eng- land could boast of, for force and beauty of style. He selects a sentence and calls on the reader to admire the remarkable elegance of its structure. I believe that Judge Gibson never wrote an opinion in his life from which a passage might not be taken, stronger, as well as more grace- ful in its turn of expression, than this which is selected with so much care by a most zealous friend, from all of Lord Stowell's.
Truly, the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas was adorned by a great jurist when John Bannister Gibson was its president judge.
Thomas Burnside succeeded Gibson in the Eleventh District, being its president judge from June 28, 1816, to July 6. 1818. In that year, by Act of February 25 (1818. P. L. 107). Bradford, Tioga, and Susquehanna counties were taken out of the Eleventh District to create the Thirteenth, leaving Luzerne, Pike and Wayne counties to constitute the Eleventh. Judge Burn- side passed to the Fourth and later to the Seventh Judicial District, from which he was elevated to an associate justiceship of the Supreme Court in 1845.
Judge Burnside was born in Ireland, and had many of the pleasing char- acteristics which enable men of that nationality to become popular with their acquaintances. Bedford, in his "Early Recollections," says of Judge Burnside that "he was so homely that he had to rise from his bed every night at mid- night to rest his face." Moreover, he was "notably careless in his dress." Still, he was popular with both men and women, and his creditable judicial record brought him into general esteem. Nevertheless, he was not able to live on cordial terms with his brother-in-law, Judge Huston. It was only when Burnside was stricken by sickness, and the end seemed near, that his wife and her sister were able to bring their husbands together. At Judge Burnside's deathbed, or at least so it seemed, the conversation, as stated by Bedford. began with what was almost a confession by the stricken man.
"Judge Huston, I have been a very bad man," gasped Burnside, "a very wicked man : I swear some and drink too much, and altogether am a very wicked man."
Judge Huston was quick to respond, answering with marked promptness : "Judge Burnside, you say truly that you have been a very bad man and a very wicked man." He got no farther. He had too readily assented to Judge Burnside's confessed declaration. The latter raised himself from the pillow.
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doubled his first, and shaking it in the face of Judge Huston, with emphasis exclaimed : "You are a damned old liar, and I will live to fight you yet." He was as good as his word.
David Scott succeeded Burnside in 1818, as president judge of the Eleventh District. He had served in like capacity in the Twelfth District, and was of good professional repute. Judge Scott was born in Connecticut, but had grown to manhood in Bradford County. Of his law studentship not much is recorded ; indeed, he may be said to have been "a self-made lawyer." Of great force of intellect, Scott was aided by a pugnacious temperament which carried him on when his professional gait was unsteady. As a judge, he was "honest and upright, but rather overbearing and of an irascible temper." However, it is recorded that he "presided with great ability" for twenty years. Deafness caused him to resign from the president judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas of the Luzerne County District on March 17, 1838.
One court incident of Judge Scott's period in Wilkes-Barre is given in Colonel Wright's "Historical Sketches of Plymouth." It appears that Colonel George P. Ransom, a worthy veteran of the Revolution, was before the court. charged with assaulting a young man. The old soldier, undefended, pleaded guilty of felling "the impudent young sprig" who had spoken disparagingly of General Washington. Judge Scott presided, and his associates were Mathias Hollenback and Jesse Fell. Judge Scott interrupted the hearing, remarking as he arose: "This is a case which I choose to leave to my associates, as they are old soldiers and can fully appreciate the circumstances." Then he departed.
Judge Hollenback asked Colonel Ransom where he was on such a date. The answer was: "In my father's company in Washington's army." "And where on the 3d of July, 1778?" "With Captain Spaulding on my way to Wyoming." "And where the following summer?" "With General Sullivan in the lake country flogging the Indians." "And where the next fall and winter?" "A prisoner on the St. Lawrence." "Ah!" said Judge Hollenback, "all that is true enough, Colonel Ransom, and did you knock the fellow down?" "I did so and would do it again under like provocation." "What was the provocation ?" "The rascal abused the name of General Washington." The judge replied : "Colonel Ransom, the judgment of the court is that you pay a fine of one cent and that the prosecutor pay the costs." This sentence, adds Attorney Bed- ford, "can still be read on the old pages of Quarter Sessions Docket No. I, in the archives of the Luzerne County Courthouse."
The successor of Judge Scott was William Jessup, who had been a member of the Susquehanna County Bar for eighteen years. Born at Southampton, Long Island, educated at Yale, William Jessup (1797-1863) entered the law office of Almon H. Read, Esq., at Montrose, in 1818. For the remainder of his life, Montrose was his home. He had served in several county offices in Sus- quehanna County before being appointed, in 1838, to the seat vacated by Judge Scott. The Eleventh Judicial District centered at Wilkes-Barre, and the presi- dent judge of that district usually made Wilkes-Barre his place of residence. It was somewhat difficult for Judge Jessup, living at Montrose, to properly attend to his judicial duties in the Eleventh District, and it was not long before an arrangement was made whereby the convenience of the president judges of the Eleventh and Thirteenth districts-Jessup and Conyngham, respectively- was met. John N. Conyngham, who had resided in Wilkes-Barre for almost twenty years, and had been a member of the Luzerne County Bar for as long, was appointed President Judge of the Thirteenth District (Susquehanna and adjoining counties), in 1839, found it just as inconvenient to attend to his judicial duties in Susquehanna as Jessup did his own in Luzerne. So, in 1840 (Act of April 13, 1840, P. L. 319), Luzerne County was transferred to Conyng- ham's judicial district, the Thirteenth, and Susquehanna County was trans- ferred to Jessup's district, the Eleventh. Thus it was possible for the Luzerne
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judge, Conyngham, to function from his own town, Wilkes-Barre, and for the Susquehanna jurist, Jessup, to center his own activities in his own county- town, Montrose. The arrangement was continued until 1849, when Conyng- ham's commission, as President Judge of the Thirteenth District, expired. Jessup's commission had also expired, and although he was reappointed, Conyngham was not, another reorganization of judicial districts in 1849 (Act of April 5, 1849, P. L. 367) restoring Luzerne County to the Eleventh District. The reorganization of the Eleventh District, however, brought into it, also, Jessup's home county, Susquehanna. So Judge Jessup continued to preside over the Court of Common Pleas of the Eleventh District until 1851, when, by virtue of a constitutional amendment that made the judiciary elective, his offi- cial term expired. Judge Jessup did not seek election to the Court of Common Pleas ; he aspired to a Supreme Court seat, but was unsuccessful. So, in 1852, he returned to law practice, going to greater opportunities and wider repute as a corporation counsel in New York City. However, he retained his resi- dence in Montrose, and there died in 1868, in his seventy-second year. One of Judge Jessup's "most brilliant forensic triumphs was his defence of the Rev. Albert Barnes, the leader of the New School Movement in the Presbyterian Church, who was charged with heresy and tried before the General Assembly of the Church." His style at the bar "was perspicuous, pleasing, and strongly impressive." As a judge, "he was remarkable for clearness and readiness upon any subject within the range of his profession, and for a prompt and proper dispatch of business." Judge Jessup's activities were not confined wholly to the Bench and Bar ; at one time he was president of the Lackawanna Railroad Company ; in 1856, he delivered an address before the New York State Agri- cultural Society ; and during the next four years was among the eastern lead- ers of the political movement which established the Republican party and placed Lincoln in power in the years of the Nation's greatest need. Judge Jessup, with Colonel Swain and Judge Swan, of Ohio, was appointed to visit Washington in May, 1861, and present to Lincoln the views of the "Nine War Governors," who had met at Cleveland and had resolved to give Lincoln their full support and cooperation. So, although Judge Jessup was out of judicial harness long before his usefulness had waned, he found other ways of con- tinuing in worthy public service.
After Judge Conyngham had completed his term as president judge of the Thirteenth District in 1849, he entered the political arena. He sat in the State House of Representatives in 1850. He was one of the most active advocates of the constitutional amendment which would make the judiciary elective. With the ratification of the amendment, Judge Conyngham decided to seek the favor of the electors of the Eleventh Judicial District. In due course, he was elected to the president judgeship vacated by Judge Jessup; in fact, there was no opposition to his election in the autumn of 1851. Ten years later, Conyngham was reelected. He served for almost the full further term of ten years. How- ever, in 1870, he announced his intention to resign. Judge Conyngham's end was tragic. "While on his way to Texas, on February 23, 1871, for the pur- pose of bringing home his dying son, he was run over by a train, and both legs were crushed below the knees, from which injury he died within two hours after the accident." He was then, however, well nigh at the end of his normal life-span, being seventy-two years old. His name is perpetuated in many ways in Luzerne County, where he was esteemed as a jurist and citizen. For more than fifty years, he had been part of Wilkes-Barre life, not an unim- portant nor inconspicuous part one would imagine, reading the testimony of Attorney George R. Bedford, who had enjoyed close intimacy with Judge Conyngham. Mr. Bedford states that the judge "was a man of striking appearance-tall, erect, of large stature and dignified bearing and looked every inch a judge. . . . . When Judge Conyngham walked from his home to the
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courthouse all whom he met on his way showed becoming deference." The judge "had a very tender heart." "It is recalled that, when passing sentence upon James Cadden, convicted of murder in the first degree and executed in March, 1849, Judge Conyngham showed much more emotion than the prisoner himself, the tears coursing down his cheeks as he pronounced the sentence of the law." When the news of Judge Conyngham's tragic death reached Wilkes-Barre, "a hush fell on the whole town. The community was stirred and shocked as never before by the death of any citizen."
The Eleventh Judicial District underwent its last reorganization in 1856 when, by Act of April 22d (P. L. 530), the last two of the counties grouped for judicial purposes with Luzerne were transferred to other districts, leaving Luzerne alone to constitute the Eleventh. However, Luzerne County was developing rapidly, and the court calendar soon became more than Judge Conynghamn could handle. So, in 1864, by Act of June 27th (P. L. 1329), an additional law judge was provided for the Eleventh District. Henry Martin Hoyt was appointed.
Judge Hoyt served until the end of 1867 .. He was a native of Kingston, Luzerne County, born June 8, 1830. After graduation from Williams College, in 1849, he studied law in the office of George W. Woodward. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar of Luzerne County. The Civil War interrupted his pro- fessional work, but after some military service Lieutenant-Colonel Hoyt resumed law practice, and in 1864 was appointed to the Common Pleas bench. Edmund L. Dana was elected additional law judge in October, 1867, and Judge Hoyt, therefore, resumed law practice. He also took very active part in political affairs. In 1875, Judge Hoyt was chairman of the State Republican Committee. Three years later he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. He served until 1883. Thus it is seen that this native son of Luzerne had advanced far in professional and public life. He died on December 1, 1892.
Mr. Bedford describes Judge Hoyt as "big bodied and big brained," a man "of attractive personality," a man who intellectually "ranked with the best minds of his generation." Indeed, many people looked upon Judge Hoyt, when Chief Executive, as "the brainiest Governor in the history of the Com- monwealth." While Governor, Judge Hoyt prepared and read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania a paper entitled "A Brief of Title in the Seventeen Townships-A Syllabus of the Controvesy Between Connecticut and Pennsylvania." This paper "firmly established . the Governor's standing as a lawyer."
Judge Edmund L. Dana, elected for ten years, in place of Judge Hoyt, began his term as additional law judge on January 1, 1868. The difference between the additional judge and the associate judges was that the former was required to be "learned in the law," whereas the latter had always been lay judges. Before the termination of Judge Dana's term, however, a consti- tutional change in the judiciary article had provided that all counties having 40,000 inhabitants or more should be made a separate judicial district, having one judge "learned in the law"; also that as the judicial business of the respec- tive judicial districts expanded, the Legislature could authorize the election of an additional judge, or increase the number of additional law judges, drawing these, however, only from the bar membership. When the Constitution of 1874 went into effect, Luzerne County was entitled to two additional law judges. President Judge Harding and Additional Judge Dana were in com- mission at that time, and on the first Monday of January, 1875, John Handley was also elected, to serve for a term of ten years, as additional law judge. Two years later, at the expiration of the term of Judge Dana, William H. Stanton was elected in Dana's place.
Judge Dana was, says Bedford, "generally considered the most scholarly member of the bar." His legal and judicial opinions "were expressed in model
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English." He was often engrossed in his Greek testament, and was an eager student of classical literature. He is also of no mean record as a soldier. During the Mexican War, he was with Major-General Winfield Scott, at the head of a company of the Wyoming Artillerists. During the Civil War, he was colonel of the 143d Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and com- manded a brigade at Gettysburg. For distinguished gallantry in action. Dana was brevetted a brigadier-general.
Judge Garrick M. Harding, who had been appointed in July. 1870, to serve the eighteen months left of Judge Conyngham's second term as president judge, was also a native son of Luzerne. Born at Exeter, on July 12, 1830. Harding had been educated at the Franklin Academy in Susquehanna County and at Madison Academy at Waverly (Lackawanna County), before entering Dickinson College. He read law in the office of Henry M. Fuller at Wilkes- Barre and became a member of the Luzerne County Bar in 1850. In 1858. he was district attorney. For some years after the Civil War, Harding was in law partnership with Henry W. Palmer, who eventually became Attorney- General of Pennsylvania. The partnership ended when Harding was com- missioned as president-judge in 1870. Judge Harding had to seek election to succeed himself in 1871, and his opponent was a very eminent Wilkes-Barre citizen, one who had gone very much farther than himself in the judiciary. No less eminent a jurist than ex-Chief-Justice George W. Woodward was his opponent. Nevertheless, the people of Luzerne County returned Judge Hard- ing, and on January 1, 1872, he began a full term of ten years as president judge. He did not, however, complete his term, for in 1879 he resigned to resume practice. Judge Harding died May 19, 1904. He had been a law part- ner of Hon. Henry M. Fuller for many years. After retiring from the bench, he had resumed practice, but seems to have given little time to it. He became an ardent sportsman in later years; indeed, one eminent lawyer, Franklin B. Gowen, said of the ex-judge: "Harding is one of those lawyers who fish and hunt for a living and practice law for fun."
Lackawanna County was erected in 1878, out of part of Luzerne County. At that time, the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas consisted of Gar- rick M. Harding, president judge; John Handley and William H. Stanton. additional judges. Act of April 17, 1878, providing for the division of, and the erection of a new county out of any county containing 150,000 inhabitants. stipulated that the judicial districts should remain, and that the judges of the existing court should organize the court of the new county. Under this act. Lackawanna County was erected, election being held on August 13, 1878, and final proclamation being made by the Governor on August 21, 1878. But some Scranton people were not yet satisfied. As there were more than 40,000 inhabitants in the new county, claim was at once made that it thereby became a separate judicial district. Governor Hardranft also thought so, and did not hesitate to make it so. Forthwith, he appointed Benjamin S. Bentley as President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County. Under this authority, Judge Bentley opened the court. The members of the Luzerne County Court made no attempt to interfere with this separation, but to test the constitutionality of the Governor's action, "an application was made to the Supreme Court for a mandamus against the former judges to organize the Lackawanna courts." The Supreme Court ruled against the Governor and Bentley, and ordered the judges of Luzerne County to organize the Lacka- wanna County Court. Judges Harding. Handley and Stanton, therefore, opened the courts of the new county on October 24, 1878. In February, 1879. Additional Law Judge Stanton resigned. He was succeeded, a month later, by Alfred Hand, who took office by appointment. Lackawanna County, how- ever, was not for much longer to rest contentedly in the Luzerne County
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Judicial District. The first attempt to separate it had been irregular, but, by the Constitution, the Governor might make a separate judicial district, in a county of 40,000 inhabitants or more, by merely issuing a proclamation to that effect. This done, the president judge of the old county could be directed to elect to which district he would be assigned. The additional law judges of the old district had no option ; they were to go to the new district, in case the president judge chose the old. Therefore, as Judge Harding elected to remain at the head of the Eleventh Judicial District, the other judges of that district -Handley and Hand-were transferred to the Forty-fifth District, which had been created to serve Lackawanna. So it happened that, on March 27, 1879, John Handley became President Judge of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County, with Alfred Hand as the additional law judge of that court, thus properly organizing the Forty-fifth Judicial District.
Luzerne County was thus left, temporarily, with only one Judge of Com- mon Pleas. Of course, its court work had been very considerably reduced. for a very active and growing part of Luzerne County had been lopped off to form Lackawanna. However, Judge Harding seems to have taken umbrage at what seemed to be the belittling of his judicial district. He announced that he would resign on December 31, 1879. Provision was therefore made for the election of a successor. Luzerne County might still have one additional law judge as well as a president judge. The former office was filled by the election of Charles E. Rice in the fall of 1879. He entered upon his office on January 4, 1880, and the next day was commissioned as president judge, for the full term of ten years. A few days later, Governor Hoyt appointed Stanley Wood- ward additional law judge, vice Rice, and in the fall of that year Woodward was confirmed for ten years by election. Judge Rice had been a member of the Wilkes-Barre Bar since 1870, and had done well as district attorney, to which office he had been elected in 1876. He was an able lawyer, graduate of Hamilton College and Albany Law School, and after fifteen years as President Judge of the Eleventh District, he was chosen, in 1895, to organize the Supe- rior Court of Pennsylvania, then created. He was its first president judge, and served as such, with great distinction, for twenty years, retiring in 1916.
Stanley Woodward, son of ex-Chief Justice George W. Woodward, was advanced from the minor judgeship to the dignity of President Judge of Com- mon Pleas of Luzerne County in 1895, when Judge Rice left the Eleventh Judicial District to organize the Superior Court. Stanley Woodward was born on August 29, 1833. He attended Wyoming Seminary, and progressed to Yale University, majoring in law at Yale Law School. After graduating in 1855, he returned to Wilkes-Barre, and entered the law office of his cousin, Warren J. Woodward, whose merit at the bar was eventually recognized by election to the bench of the Supreme Court. Stanley Woodward was admit- ted to the bar of Luzerne County in 1856, and came almost at once into a busy practice. During the Civil War, he was in military service, but later continued his law practice in Wilkes-Barre. As has been stated, his judicial career began in 1800. It did not end until the first day of the twentieth century. He was then quite willing to retire. Six years later, on March 29, 1906, he closed his eyes forever.
In passing, it might be well to spread here a few notes regarding the dis- tinguished record of Judge Woodward's father, George Washington Wood- ward. The latter was born March 26, 1809, in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, son of Judge Abishai Woodward. After he had been given a good academic education, George W. began to read law in the Wilkes-Barre office of Garrick Mallery. In 1830 Woodward was admitted to the bar of Luzerne County. In the next year young Woodward took over the whole practice of Mr. Mallery, who had been appointed President Judge of Common Pleas of the Fourth Judicial District. Mr. Woodward continued in extensive law practice in
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